Trail Ride

San Antonio is gearing up for the rodeo and so is the girls' school. Elle had the first of two trail rides today, complete with stick horses and Texas songs. Tomorrow Piper will join her.

To prepare for the trail ride this week, we needed to buy a new pair of boots for Elle and a cowboy (girl) hat for Piper. The store didn't have pink boots this time so we bought red, which I think will work out really well because Piper and Cannon will get to wear them. (See, I do save Carroll money!)

We originally found a pink hat for Piper, but boy did she toss that one down quickly when we saw the blue one! "I want the blue one Mommy because it's my favorite color." I remember Elle going through a blue phase. Too cute.


Yee-Haw y'all!

Hallelujah!

I have some praises...not your typical praises, but praises nonetheless.

Praise #1: I have finally found a good pair of jeans!! I have been searching since Elle was born--5 years ago! While I desire very much to be a cute, trendy mommy, I do not desire to wear skin tight jeans that allow my belly to hang out and my hiney crack to be exposed. (Think of the special underwear required to wear those kind of jeans!) At the same time, I don't want to wear "mom" jeans. I was ready to drop $300 if I had to. Thank you Lucky Brand Jeans!

Praise #2: Cannon slept through the night for the first time in his 6 1/2 months of life! He went down at 9:00 pm and I had to wake him up at 7:15 am. So, it can be done. Of course, as you suspected, he has not done it again since. In fact, he has been up more each night than before he slept through the night. Calgon, take me away!

Praise #3: The gym...ahhh, the gym! The one I love most after God, my husband and children. My sanity. I'm an avid worker outer, an athlete...hard core. It's always hard getting back to the gym after having a baby. Mostly because I worry about leaving my sweet, helpless child(ren) with those young, non experienced, not so observant nursery workers in the land of chaos. But there comes a time when mommy needs to be healthy and sane. Besides, it's just an hour and I'm in the room right next door or right in front of the nursery door. That's okay isn't it? Anyway, it's been a slow start, but I'm taking a class here and there and saving my pennies so I can hire my trainer again. Long live the gym!!

We're Making a Scene

Elle made us laugh yesterday. She was shouting "Daddy, we're making a scene!" Where she learned the word "scene," I don't know, but sure enough she and Piper were making a scene...a manger scene.

I love the detail Elle put into it--the Wise Men are carrying their gifts, Mary and Joseph are kneeling (triangles), the shepherd has his staff, and best of all, the angel is looking down.


Piper is just so cute...she loves to do what Elle does. Take a look at her picture.

Praise God for our wonderful children!!

Thumb Chaser

Cannon is now eating three meals a day. We started him on cereal at 4 months and have introduced all the fruits and some vegetables. So far, there is nothing he doesn't like. With each meal we've added, Cannon has made progress in his sleeping. Perhaps, one day, he'll sleep through the night. ;)

A funny thing Piper did when she began eating baby food was put her thumb in her mouth right after a bite of food. (Piper found her thumb at 2 months.) Cannon is following in her footsteps...he does the same thing! (Cannon found his thumb at 3 months.) It's really cute, but makes for a big mess.


On another note, we've had some cooler sunny weather. I snapped these shots on one of those beautiful days.

Can you say "over-committed"?

The week before Christmas ate my lunch!! It was filled with school functions--a board meeting and preparing for the Christmas parties (I'm the room coordinator for both classes); the girls had haircuts one afternoon; I had a doctor's appointment one morning; we took our Christmas picture another afternoon; the kids were beginning to get sick--we visited our pediatrician three times in four days; Elle had her winter ballet/tap recital; we squeezed in some last minute Christmas shopping; forget about wrapping gifts, laundry and packing for our Dase Family Christmas trip! No wonder it's two weeks later and I'm still trying to catch up!!



Once we made it to Sugar Land on Sunday things settled down a bit. All the cousins played as if no time had passed since we last got together. We had a wonderful Christmas with the Dase clan. The girls were excited about celebrating Baby Jesus' birthday and Santa was good to all of us.

The girls got new bikes from Carroll and me for Christmas. We gave them to the girls a couple of days early. Elle didn't even want to change out of her ballet clothes before taking a spin.

Cannon was a real trooper with all the comings and goings the last two weeks. Here he is enjoying a stroller ride yesterday.