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:)

Rangers, Rockets and More

We've had a really fun couple of weeks. I LOVE the Fall, so I am so excited to finally be in the thick of October- most days feel pretty fall-ish, with a few hot Texas days thrown in! Molly has changed her mind so many times on her Halloween costume but I *think* she has finally settled on the Tooth Fairy. She is really into kids losing baby teeth, and she HATES that they are called baby teeth, but she is clearly a Big Girl and not a baby! So I have been working on creating a tooth fairy for her! We'll see if this one sticks!

Lucy and Annie came to play one afternoon and the girls had a Big time. They made lots of crafts, put on princess shows and were just plain cute!

Make your own tiaras!

Painting pumpkins- Annie was SO happy about this. She is a little pumpkin herself.

Goofy as anything

Proud Molly with her rocket. Kyle got this rocket a while ago "for Molly". Ha! He worked on this thing every chance he go for a week! Then Molly got to decorate it with stickers. They have shot it off a few times and Molly thinks it is pretty cool.

Molly and Mimi

Hannah, Molly and Alice Anne at the fair. They had so much fun! The big girls rode on some pretty wild rides! A few times we would bump that big ol' bow up to give her some inches so she could ride!

Cotton Candy was a hit!

Woo Hoo! On our way to see the Rangers play!

Molly and Mimi cheering for the Rangers!

M's fave part of the games- unlimited food in our suite! Pringles in particular...

The Rangers didn't pull this one out, but did on Tuesday sending us on and one step closer to the World Series- we are so excited! Molly loves going up to the games. She really loves meeting all the people up there. This last time, she had a pen and notebook and made her way to every single person on the suite to "interview" them. She would record them in her notebook for "research". Questions included: "what is your favorite type of house: regular or castle?", " What is your favorite type of dolphin: blue or sparkly?", "what is your favorite type of chair: regular or comfy?". She then ended by telling them she would draw them with another type of body... which would they prefer: Turtle body or mermaid body?!?! She is so funny. So bold and brave and confident!

Long Time No Post

Not sure where the last month went! Molly is full swing into school and is loving this year. She comes home with the funniest bits of knowledge. She was telling me all about the "gluteus maximus" that she learned about in Stretch and Grow in school- so funny. She has a very sweet class this year and gets to see a lot of her buddies who are in other classes out on the playground. Molly also is taking ballet/tap this year at Dancing Angels again this year. This is her first time for tap and so far she much prefers ballet! Much more "beautiful" to her! This year she started taking art classes at KidArt and it is SO awesome! Molly is WAY into art so this is so fun for her. Several of her sweet girlfriends are in class with her so that is always exciting for her. She has come home with the most amazing art! I truly think art will be "her thing".

Two sweet girls!

My pretty girl

This is one of the paintings she brought home! I think it looks so neat!

Wyoming!

We had the most AMAZING trip to Wyoming over Labor Day. It was one of my very favorite trips ever. My dear friend Julia ( a loyal blog reader... Hey, Julia!) got married at the ranch where she and the groom work. Julia and I were roomies at Kappa and some of my very favorite (and funniest and weirdest!) college memories involve her. We were so so so excited to be able to go up for her wedding!

Molly was a champ flyer again-it was a breeze. But, poor baby takes after me when i was a kid and gets carsick very easily. So the long, windy mountain roads were not good for her tummy:(

Julia's wedding festivities were so much fun! The setting could not have been more beautiful. Molly was just chomping because this was her 1st wedding. She loved Julia and "Prince" Adam. She still calls him Prince Adam... she associates weddings with Cinderella and Ariel! For the 1st 2 nights we stayed in Dubious, Wy. We all shared a room which Molly LOVEd and I hated- ha! I just wake to every little sound she makes. She was so sad to leave that room! The next 3 nights we stayed in Teton Village- right near Jackson Hole. It was a condo so M got her own room. It had 2 twin beds in it and now Molly wants 2 twin beds for slumber parties! It really was the best time- thanks for having us, Julia! We miss you already!

Molly loved the open spaces. She is such a city girl- she needs times like this!

Handsome hubby. Kyle loves outdoorsy things so this was right up his alley!

Molly and the beautiful bride!

Molly wasted no time tracking the Prince down and asking for a dance.

Look at the background!

Me and the Molls

Molly on Brownie, the horse

Do not adjust your monitors! Molly is wearing blue jeans. Kyle got these for her a few weeks ago to ride a 4 wheeler in at the deer camp. They are not for Dallas... but were perfectly adorable for the trip!

Getting ready to go fishing with Daddy

Look at the setting we got to fly fish in!

I took a stab at it. Too hard. Too quiet.

The gorgeous new hubby and wife!

You know mOlly needed her own photo session after watching Julia take some bridal portraits. The girl cannot wait to get married!

Our first night in Teton Village, we stumbled upon an awesome concert- JJ Gray and Mofro. It was so fun- kids, dogs, college kids, all ages hanging outside- so fun!

Kyle and Molly did the Alpine Slide- you take a ski lift to the top of a mountain and then get in a little luge-style car and ride down. I HATE chair lifts and was sick to my stomach until I saw they made it to the top. TRYING not to pass my

list of fears on to Molly!

Zooming down!

We rented a kid pack and had the best hike! You take a boat across a lake and then hike UP.

One of only a handful of family photos! So happy to have this. Molly's highlight of the hike was collected rocks for her collection Just what I needed hiking... heavy rocks in my bag!

It was OS hard to come back to Dallas' size, traffic and HUMIDITY after such a relaxing, peaceful trip! But- we are back in the routine now and doing great. We will definitely be going back to Wyoming- hopefully sooner rather than later!