Christmas Pageant

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Caleb's family in Beaumont-all 19 of us. Since Christy and family were in Texas from Georgia we also did a Christmas celebration too including a Nativity pageant. Gloria was a sheep, Lydia an angel. I was an innkeeper (assigned by Nathanael, who totally got into it, which was fun) and Caleb was a wiseman. There were lots of shepherds running around not wearing their costumes, but we met our goal of getting through it without any tears! McKenzie was the narrator angel and we sang (the first verse) of five Christmas carols. A wonderful time was had by all!

Shutterfly Christmas Cards!

I have used Shutterfly.com off and on for a long time now. I have ordered prints, and photobooks from them and have always been happy. I was really excited when I found out that Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

There are many choices of designs for their cards and they also can hold several pictures (when you just can’t chose your favorite)

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/cards-stationery/good-blessings-religious-christmas-5x7-folded-card

This is the card I am going to use this Christmas. I think a Christmas card should have a nativity scene on it and I love the reminder that every good gift comes from what happened that first Christmas.

http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

Shutterfly also has calendars, though I have not ordered one yet, several friends have and I love looking through their years in pictures. Maybe 2011 will be the year for the Harrises!

Shutterfly has awesome deals of photos gifts and photo things for yourself. Go visit Shutterfly to get some great ideas for this year’s Christmas card for your family!

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

Houston Visit

Finally catching up on all the wonderful things we've been up to recently, including a trip to Houston. Caleb had a science teacher conference and we stayed with friends (he went to HS with C and they both went to A&M, now have a son and the next time we see them they'll have a new baby). The weather was wonderful and we just hung out with the kiddos. Gloria and Rush found a commonality of enjoying hugs. Lydia taught him how to play tag and enjoyed having a kid she could 'push' without him crying(Gloria and Rush's naps were staggered so we spent a lot of time just in the backyard with whoever was awake)! One morning was story time at Barnes & Nobles, the next day we went to the park with ducks!! and a playground. Lydia could have stayed there forever. The other part of the gang of four came to play games one evening, then a birthday party for one year old Addy. Nick was out of town so Kellaura had to stand in for the obligatory four guy photo :) Then we headed to my aunt & uncles for dinner before heading back to Austin. We caught a bit of the Aggie game vs Baylor and the girls got to see us yell at a tv for football in the first time in their lives. Lydia said it hurt her ears and Gloria was really startled!

Birthday Blast

The birthday girl inside the dino bones!

Juanita, Lydia, Rachel, Avery and Abby with their personalized cakes (Lydia's was Snow White)
In Lydia's Sunday school class there are five girls whose birthdays are in Oct and Nov. Last fall we spent five weekends going to all the parties. This year we decided to do a HUGE one for all the girls together. Planning it was interesting because we all have different ideas but it turned out AMAZING!! A group of about 30 kids and 30 adults came to the Austin Science and Nature Center. We had the party room for cake, brunch and singing Happy Birthday as well as a personalized coloring book for the day. Then two different groups got to learn some about dinosaurs and make a volcano in the Dino Dig Pit. The rest of the time they got to dig for bones in the sand, look at small and large animals and explore the center. Everyone had a wonderful time.
All the friends and family in the party room, and Nana sharing her cake with Gloria
Seeing how to do the volcano at the Dino Pit.

Sister fun in the small animal room-their favorite!

Pig tales and Princesses

Lydia got a set of Disney princesses for her birthday from my conversational English friend from Taiwan, it is very loved.
Sometimes the girls request something cute be done to their hair and actually leave it in for a while!

Halloween 2010

My parents came again to help us hand out candy (and because Mom loves trick-or-treaters)
The family!
Lydia giving candy to another Snow White. My dad, the girls and I went down the street to Heather & James' getting candy, hearing scary noises and seeing our friends, then back home to do a little more candy and into bed.
We went to a neighborhood festival in the afternoon (while Gloria was sleeping) and Lydia got a flower painted, jumped in the bouncy house, drank her first Sprite out of a can and got to talk into a microphone during the costume contest!

One more pumpkin patch

The Sunday before Halloween we just had to go to one more patch. This was another Methodist church in town. We explored the pumpkins, had a picnic and got to learn about money and choices-Lydia picked one big one instead of lots of little one.

After two pictures, Gloria sat down and said, "I'm all finished smiling." Poor girl we've tortured her this month!!

Then we went home and carved them, the fairy tale pumpkin was really hard to cut through but it last until the next week, the orange one melted away in the fall heat! I wanted to get a photo of Gloria still but the sun was too shiny for them to look or smile!

October Misc

We had a wonderful and busy October, besides pumpkin patches and normal life, we went to Del Valle's Homecoming football game and stayed for a quarter, it was right after a volleyball game that Caleb was working the concession so we saw that game too. There was also a festival with Ballet Folklorico dancing and lots of snacks so the girls had a great time.
Then we spent a weekend at my parents and Caleb got another deer with his bow and arrow.
Halloween Sunday at church


Loving all of the baby dolls. They both know all their names!

Friendship and More

Dress up day from around the world at Friendship International and fortunately it was while Gloria fits into the traditional Omani outfit!
Us with Glynis and Nita in UAE clothes.