Louisiana Visit.... Molly's 4th Birthday Part 1!

For Molly's Spring Break, we took a trip to visit Kyle's Grandparents in Winnfield, Louisiana. To say they were eagerly anticipating us is a HUGE understatement! We truly had the best time! I feel so lucky to have married into such a great and close family- everyone in Winnfield is so wonderful and loving and kind.. I could go on and on! We got a lot of good play time in their big backyard, lots of shopping (and modeling!) done at The Youth Shop, lots of special time with family and more than a few trips to Sonic for a sweet treat! One funny story is that Molly was singing at a restauarant (anyone who know Molly well knows she is ALWAYS singing and making up songs!) and two fellow diners enjoyed the "show" so much they bought our supper! We got such a kick out of that! Molly got to have a pre- birthday Bash there and it was so fun! I had to pick from a ton of photos, but I narrowed it down to these:

Molly and her cousin Jackson. She LOVES him and he is so kind to her!

Enjoying swinging in the sunshine with Grandmother

Molly took advantage of the beautiful and big backyard

Practicing the piano..

Molly and Grandmother

Molly and Grandad

LOVE this photo!

Baby Dear Love!

At her Party at Fox's Pizza.... later in the evening some kids were being rowdy on this horse and Molly walked over with her hands on her hips to tell them they were being unsafe and were showing bad manners! Ha!

Jackson and Hunter! Molly insisted they sit right next to her. I have never met boys this age who were so polite, kind and sweet.

Thinking of a good wish...

Molly was thrilled with all of her gifts! She made out like a bandit!

We miss you, Winnfield!

Worst Blogger Award goes to....ME!

I know it has been well over a month since my last post- my apologies to the loyal 4 people who read this blog:) I am COMMITTING to doing better in April... I know it means a lot to our families to see lots of Molly photos! I have been so so busy hat it is very easy to forget to update. We have been traveling, sick, and I have once again WAY overcommitted myself on committees- but I will do better.... okay, MOM?!?

This will be a very random assortment of photos!

We celebrated Fat Tuesday with the Belfs at Mimi and Poppys house. Hannah and Alice Anne love going over there so it was a fun chance to all get together. I was NERVOUS to make Jambalaya for native New Orleanians... but it came out yummy! Maybe next year I will get brave and make a King Cake from scratch!

Mardis Gras Girls!

We traveled to The Woodlands to celebrate Kate and Mary's fifth B-day and had a BLAST at their art themed party. Molly just adores those girls so we got some good cousin time in! The trip turned out to be super eventful as our transmission blew, we sold the car in Houston, battled with the Title, etc! Stress! But we have a new car we love, so it all worked out!

February brought a BUNCH of snow!

This pup loves to pounce in the snow!

January

For the most part, January has been a yucky month. VERY VERY cold and we have all had colds! We are doing our best to have fun despite the conditions:)

Molly cheers for the LSU Tigers in the Cotton Bowl!

A great way to pass a boring, cold day: Hold a Birthday Party for Baby Dear!

Helping her Baby blow out her candle

The Birthday Girl

Molly has started to tolerate Topsy, and even plays with him a little:)

This past week Molly finally rode her bike!!! She has had ZERO interest in it until recently. The weather gave us a heavenly break this weekend so it was a great time to ride bikes!

Very proud of her new skill

My favorite picture in a very long time. Love a child's joyfulness!

Christmas 2010

We had a truly wonderful Christmas and entire Christmas season. I thought last year was a special Christmas, but this year was just amazing. Molly was SOOO into it. No matter how we counted down the days until Christmas, Molly couldn't help "When is Christmas?" at least 20 times a day! Our Elf on the Shelf, Ya YA came to visit our house again and every morning the first thing Molly did was hunt for him. Ya Ya was named last year after her friend Alexandra's grandmother, who is Greek and called Ya Ya. Needless to say, Molly loves her:) She also got her own tree this year, which she decorated herself... and all the ornaments were in one area of the tree, so it had a nice slant to it due to the weight of the ornaments! We baked up a storm this year and gave personalized cookies as gifts to classmates and teachers. Baking is a fave activity of ours so we had a bunch of fun with that. We visited the best Santa in the world at Northpark again and Molly requested a dollhouse and a Jessie doll form Toy Story 3.

Christmas Eve was fun because Molly's cousins Kate and Mary were here and they played and played and played. I don't think Molly talked to us much that entire day, she was so consumed with her cousins! We enjoyed the Childrens service at Church with the Belfs and family. After that, we were at Mimis house for their annual party which was fun. Santa visited again, allowing the kids one last chance to plead their cases:) Molly was SO excited to go to bed that night and was so stressed that we were still up- Santa might pass us by since we were up! The next morning, we did stockings at our house and opened the gifts between the 3 of us before heading over to the Hickeys for the BIG BIG Christmas morning! Molly got the dollhouse of her dreams and her Barbies and Princesses didn't waste time moving in:) We got so many wonderful gifts- we are so loved and blessed! The question has been asked several times already "How long do we have to wait for Christmas?"!!! Luckily her fave Holiday, Valentines Day is right around the corner to pacify her!

Reading The Grinch- she memorized that long old book!

Molly and Santa

Santa on Christmas Eve... Molly did express some concern over his "dark eyebrows"!

Sweet cousins

My wonderful family

You know Molly was thrilled at the chance to have her babies visit with Santa.

Proud Mother. Baby Dear got a sister from us on Christmas Eve, and she named her Kelly.

This year we has a S'mores station at the Christmas eve party- so fun!

Molly and her dollhouse on Christmas morning!

Papa refurbished Kyle's old bike for Molly. She still cannot pedal her trike, so this will have to wait a (long!) while... but it was such a loving gift!

Really, how cute is this?!?

We are so thankful for such a special Christmas, for our wonderful families, and of course for the best gift of all- a loving, forgiving and awesome Saviour!

Big Catch Up!

I just have not been in the photo/blogging mood lately! To say I have bitten off more than I can chew this year is a HUGE understatement! I am still working on my time management skills:)

We had a fun November. We celebrated Papa's 80th Birthday with family and friends and headed to Kansas for Thanksgiving.

Molly continues to grow and change. I feel like she is getting really old and big lately. She still LOVES her friends with all her heart. They are so very dear to her. She is still loving school and I think she would love to go everyday.... we'll be there soon enough! She is VERY into art still- that remains her favorite activity. She is also very determined about writing and reading. Each and every day before her quiet time she asks me how to write a sentence and then spends her hour in her room at her little desk writing. She has gotten good! For my Birthday she wrote me a card that said I love You, Mommy all on her own. Best gift EVER. She also wants to know how to spell everything and what everything says. I think she will really enjoy reading when she is older.

Sweetest girls I know! How blessed we are to have Kate and Mary in our family!

Papa's 80th B-Day party... note that Molly's eyes are fixed on that cake!

My pumpkin. The day she gets too big to be held and snuggled will be a sad, sad day for me.

Ninny and Molls working hard on a story

Molly was SO into pumpkin pie this year! She just insisted we have it, even though none of us are big fans of it!

My brother continues to be a very devoted uncle. So proud of him.

I even hunted with Kylie!

Molly reading How The Grinch Stole Christmas. She has it memorized.... the whole thing!

Halloween 2010

After a lot of debate and soul searching... Molly opted to be Tinkerbell for Halloween! She recently saw Peter Pan for the first time and she is NOW obsessed with all things Peter Pan, so Tinkerbell was a great pick. About a month ago, Milam also told her she looked "as beautiful as Tinkerbell when she ran"... so I know that didn't hurt, either! I had a lot of fun making her costume this year- I hope to continue to do that in the future. Molly has a great Halloween this year, but I think she enjoyed the fun surrounding the Holiday more than the actual Trick-or-Treating. She was scared by the dark and all the scary costumes! We did about 5 houses and she was satisfied with that!

Molly's class Halloween party. ALL of the boys were super heroes this year!

Molly and her dear friend, Alexandra as Minnie Mouse. These 2 are already panicking about being in different classes next year! They were in class together last year, as well as this year... and they do ballet and art together!

At Will and Hanks Halloween bash before Trick or Treating. AA and Hannah could not have been cuter!

Joined at the hip, as usual!

RARE shot of friends!

All of our precious kids about to venture out and get some candy. I adore these children!

I thought this back view was so cute!

Molly is already talking about next Halloween's costume. She has it narrowed down to about 25 choices:)