Happy Fall!

My (now Dallasite) sister Natalie and I took the kids to the Dallas Arboretum this weekend on our annual fall-trek to this beautiful garden! I LOVE the Arboretum and am usually the last one of my party to get tired of being there - I would stay there all day if I could!

Enjoy our fall pictures!

PUMPKINS!

My big baby!

Visiting the awesome fairy-tale princess houses

Ready for home... Oliver behind the camera

Happy Birthday 4 year-old!!

Gabriella turned 4 years old on Saturday! What a big girl she is turning in to. She can buckle and unbuckle herself in her car seat, color like an adult, and can even read simple books. We are so proud of her! She still loves to go to school, do arts & crafts, and be a helper with Melia.

For her birthday party, she wanted to have a "pretty party" with princess decorations. She specifically requested that all the girls dress pretty and all of the boys dress handsome. To complete her "pretty" look, she wanted to wear her dress from when she was a flower girl in my sister's wedding and REALLY wanted to wear real makeup. When I announced to her that is was time to put on her makeup, she ran screaming into my room "I'm so EXCITED!"

Getting her makeup done by mom

We decorated princess hats at the party and had a princess cake

We even had a special guest appearance from Rapunzel herself!



Rapunzel told her story to all of the kids and then posed for pictures with most of the guests

One of the most handsome guests was her friend John from preschool!

My boy being silly with streamers (and refusing all handsome-ness)!

"Happy Birthday to you"

We love you Gabriella! You are a joy to us and we thank God that he blessed us with you as an exuberant, creative, beautiful, compassionate and loving member of our family!

Fun Times...

Favorite Game to play with Oliver right now: "Check you for tickle spots." The way this is played is we both lay on my bed and then I tell him that I need to check him for tickle spots. So I proceed to tickle his nose, forehead, and elbows - all duds. After that I THEN check his neck, side, and stomach and really get him giggling! He often asks me to play this with him and I happily oblige. It is such a sweet time with my boy.


Gabby loves to make faces for the camera right now. Here's one for an example. Some other recent favorite quotes of hers:

(almost daily) "Mom, all your clothes are beautiful."

"Mom let's color forever. No I mean for real. When we get tired we'll just rest on our chairs and then wake up and color!"


This costume from our toy box was a perfect find for Melia because she is really in to dogs right now! She loves to bark and gets very excited when she sees one. Some of her other words are:

Muh Muh - Mom
DaDa
Ell Ella Ella - Gabriella
ah va (or buh buh) - Oliver
ball
muh - more
up
out
buh buh - bubbles
bite
nana - banana
cah cah - cracker
baba - paci
babbit - rabbit (which we often see in our backyard in the evening. She LOVES that!)