A future career in photography?

Holly has been obsessed with the camera lately! She takes pictures of everything. We have a birdfeeder and I saw her waiting by the window the other day trying to take pictures of the birds as they came to eat. She sometimes turns the camera around and takes pictures of her eye. She often poses her stuffed animals and has a little photoshoot with them. Today she said she wanted to take a picture of Alyssa and I. Wow, maybe the practice is paying off. We were actually centered and we weren't cut off at the eyes or anything. I was impressed...good job Holly!

Turkey Day Pictures

One little Indian



Loving the Olives



David stayed for dinner

Life is Good

I have so many reasons to be thankful this year!! I have two beautiful little girls who are healthy, fun, beautiful, and loving! I have good health, a running vehicle, a roof over my head, and everything I really need. I have a wonderful family who generously loves and supports me! I have great friends who provide me with laughs and who are always there for me through the good and the bad. I live in a wonderful country that provides so much opportunity. I'm so blessed to have a knowledge of a loving Father in heaven who loves me tremendously, and a Savior who stands with open arms to offer me comfort, support, and mercy. Life is good! Happy Thanksgiving!

Birthday Surprise...

Grandma Wenk turned 71 this year and David decided to plan a big surprise for her. He knew that grandma would love a visit from Alyssa and Holly, so they boarded a plane and flew off to Louisana for a few days. The girls were bouncing off the walls the night before their flight. They had been on a plane a couple times before, but they didn't remember it, so they felt like this was their very first flight. David sent me a text when they took off and I could see the plane as it flew by. They took turns sitting by the window and were little angels almost the entire flight (so I'm told).



The girls had a wonderful time in Louisiana!! They got to see grandma and great grandma, uncle John, Joseph, and Jason (in timeout), and Elizabeth and her family drove over from the Dallas area too. She brought a big blowup toy for the girls to bounce in and they had fun putting on fake tatoos, playing with grandma's dog, going to feed the ducks at the park, and playing with their cousins. I got a much needed break too, so it was a win/win for everyone!!!

Green Eggs and Ham

The other day we read the book "Green Eggs and Ham," and we decided it would be fun to make some green eggs. The girls loved it! Over the next few days and weeks all the girls wanted for breakfast were colored eggs. One day we made green, red, orange, and blue eggs, and Alyssa and Holly ate them all up. After Alyssa finished hers, she got down off her stool, came over to me, and said she wanted to give me a hug. I knelt down and she gave me the most wonderful squeezy hug ever. I asked what the hug was for and she said, "you made me all the eggs I wanted, thank you!" She was showing me true appreciation for the colored eggs I had made her, it was super sweet!

Halloween...finally!

October was a lot of fun! The girls had been excited about Halloween for a long time. We started the process of choosing their costumes months ago. I let them look online and pick what they wanted to be. Their excitement was such, that they were asking me every day, "When is Halloween going to be here?" I decided to make a black and orange chain to help us count down the days. It didn't work so well! They both wanted to take off a link every day, and some days they would sneak the scissors and cut off multiple links, so our chain got shorter and shorter and Halloween was still a month away.

Alyssa and Holly made lots of fun Halloween projects in preschool throughout the month; bats, ghosts, and pumkin sugar cookies. Grandpa invited us to join him at his work Halloween party. We went with him to a pumkin patch and corn maze. Each of the girls got to pick a pumkin to carve. They enjoyed the hayride, walking through the rows of corn, the small train ride, the slides, and the hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls.

A few days later, James came over to help us carve the pumkins. He helped Holly make a frowny face on her small pumkin, and I helped Alyssa make a really happy pumkin face on her larger pumkin. They really liked putting candles inside the pumkins and turning off the lights to see them all lit up!

We had a special morning planned on Halloween day. We took the Frontrunner to the Discovery Gateway and met up with Holly's birthparents and other family members. It was fun to see Holly interact with them. She really enjoyed learning to climb the rock wall with Luke. She was bragging later, to grandma and grandpa, about what a good climber she is. During the afternoon the girls got their faces painted, made halloween masks, and we went to Costa Vida (their favorite restaurant) for lunch. We made it home in time for the tail end of our family halloween party.

Finally, it was time for trick or treating! We put on their costumes and drove out to David's house. The weather was surprisingly nice. I wanted to be able to get some good video footage, so we went out just before dark. The girls were a little timid when we got to the first door. We had talked about what they were supposed to say, but it took a few doors before they really got the hang of it. Uncle John was in town from Dallas, so he and a date came along too. I think the girls actually enjoy giving out candy to other kids more than they like trick or treating themselves, and they don't even eat the candy...I ended up eating all of it myself!

It was a very fun Halloween!!