Happy Thanksgiving!!

A few photos from our last week with my parents, brother, and sister.  We’re so thankful for such a great visit with them.

The Mommy Getaway

Since Aaron has been traveling a lot this fall, he promised me a girls’ getaway.  I cashed it in this weekend with a sorority reunion in Vegas-baby!  Ahhhhhhh, Vegas!

This entire idea was a gamble.  I love/hate Vegas, we’re trying not to spend a lot of $$ right now, and I haven’t seen most of my sorority sisters in 10+ years.  Let’s also face it:  8-girls + 3-nights + booze + 2 bathrooms = a recipe for disaster.  However, I ended up having a GREAT time and really enjoyed seeing these women again.

  

  

I do believe we spent most of the weekend on either the shuttle bus (we stayed at a timeshare in S. Vegas) or walking and walking and walking the strip.  We ate yummy Vegas food, people watched, and celebrated 11-11-11 together!  Four of us even did a club crawl through Coyote Ugly and Studio 54 – probably my only opportunities to ever go in there!  There was minimal drama, only one tattoo, and even some $$ from the slots. 

  

I frequently long for my 20’s.  I’d love to go back and relive my college years again – I loved my sorority and my school and my friends.  But maybe my 30’s isn’t such a bad place after all:  I can revive long-lost friendships and enjoy the company of united friends without the craziness and drama.  I can relish the rare evening out and the opportunity to dance without feeling the need to over-indulge.  And at the end of it all, I can always go home to my sweet family.

The coconut dress

We just received another bag of hand-me-down clothes from our friend McKenna Bein this week. Ever time E looks through them it's like Christmas morning early. I'm not sure if she just loves the clothes or if she loves that McKenna touched them (E's a big fan of McKenna).

Overheard from the living room:
"oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh! This is sooooo cute"
"I love it. Mommy I love these new pants".
And my new personal favorite: "Mommy, look! It's a coconut dress!"




I'm pretty sure she meant polka-dot.

A Girl … and her Cat

As I sit at the computer, Felix the cat is sitting on my lap, marking my skirt and nuzzling my hands.  He’s a sweet little companion who’s growing like a weed!  He’s also a little demon incarnate – hell bent on attacking our ankles and catching dust bunnies loudly under the bed at midnight.  He’s also Elayna’s new best friend.

Since we adopted Felix over 6-weeks ago now, he and Elayna are nearly inseparable.  She’ll call for him when she gets home from school, he prances at the opportunity to wake her in the morning, and I frequently have to take him away so she can concentrate on supper/rest-time/bathing or whatever activity she’s actually suppose to be doing.  She loves him even through the rough play and the scratches.

   

And while its still up for debate whether Aaron and I love him, he is a sweet little addition to the house.  We’re happy to have a crazy kitten in the house again but also looking forward to when the kitten teeth fall out…

Halloween

I do believe I have the cutest Ariel mermaid ever…

  

Aaron and E also carved her first ever pumpkin.  She is very proud of it and even made me light it this morning for posterity.

       

She was VERY excited about Halloween this year – barely touching her pizza and running to the door every time an early trick-or-treater would arrive.  As we were setting our chairs outside in the driveway, she’d run to the sidewalk and scream ‘Trick or Treat!’ to any potential visitor.  She loved handing out candy, she loved the attention she got in her red wig, and she loved being devilishly scared.  She even enjoyed trick-or-treating to our closer neighbors although she like handing out candy more.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!