Thanksgiving, with much giving thanks!

Pie. What is Thanksgiving without pie? In our case, each adult kid made one: I made this Dutch apple pie, Phil made a pumpkin pie with streusel topping, and Jonathan made a chocolate pecan pie.

 

 Dickens on Main! Finally a festival where Naomi wanted to do the rides. She rode in the barrel train and on a pony ("I had a pony!!" for any Seinfeld fans out there). Very cute to see her enjoying Boerne.

 

Hayride time!

 

 Who is most excited?

Oh, the sites you'll see on Nana and Papaw's 'farm.'

Digging into her musical roots.

 

Time to bond on the porch in the freezing cold night air with good conversation to keep them warm.

 

Joined by Packa and Geemaw for Thanksgiving lunch.

 

How do you get a 3 year old, 1 year old, and < than 1 to smile for a camera? Well, you don't. After 78 attempts, this is one of the best. We did manage to get the cousins' children to sit still, however, with a remote control each.

Surveying the land together.

Cascarone time! (For any who may not know - cascarones are emptied, and presumably cleaned, egg shells that are filled with colorful confetti).  Good times.

Had we attempted to do a Christmas card, the picture would have probably come from this series.  Happy New Years everyone!

Icemageddon of North Texas, 2013

 So, here in Texas, we don't typically have a whole lot of use for these. So, you can't blame Naomi for coming out with a mitten on her foot. It does look almost like a sock.

When I imagined putting up the Christmas tree in 2013, it did not include these two little elves. 

 But having them around did add a certain sense of adventure, enthusiasm, and se ne said quoi.

 Thanks to Naomi's help, we ended up with several of these which is really adorable, and who cares about ornament crowding, really?

That was Tuesday. The mitten on the foot was Monday.  

 Then this happened to us: ice, ice, and more ice.  

It was gorgeous, but super cold and really not that great for snow angels or snowmen, sadly.

 These two Texas didn't really know how to feel about this. We did learn about the need for mittens here, but sadly we couldn't find the pair, so the kids walked around with socks on their hands for warmth.  Classy, I know.

 We ventured out on the first night of ice for fun sliding, sucking on icicles broken off cars (didn't catch that one until it was too late), and sliding down our driveway on recycling bin lids.

After the first night when we had another hard freeze, we couldn't make it out our front door without slip-sliding, so we stayed inside and drank lots of Nutella hot chocolate instead for the next four days. Even church as cancelled.

Finally free from ice, we went to Phil's school to cheer on the volleyball girls. The kids dressed to impress in their CCA orange. 

 Looking forward to Christmas, the kids inspect Leif's new stocking…only one year without a stocking isn't too bad, right?

For some unknown reason - and I mean that as I do nothing remotely related to ballet, ever - Naomi has taken to dancing ballet. 

She considers herself so advanced, she also teaches a class of students, and here you can see she has set up a backyard show complete with seats for the audience. Her brother's head is barely visible in the front right.  Good show.

Naomi's birthday, part deux

 Naomi's birthday breakfast of choice: kolaches. In our family, there is an understood side item of donuts that goes along with this.

 This birthday was full of super-fun gifts from the fam and friends. Here are some favs: an owl backpack along with her owl N shirt.

 Lunch: Dutch french (?!) fries complete with paper sack, wooden spear fork, and Dutch mayonnaise.

 Next activity: merry-go-around.

 Naomi certainly a bigger fan than Leif. Perhaps you have to be three to understand.

 Another birthday request following Dutch macaroni and cheese for dinner: strawberry cupcakes.

 Really, Naomi only liked the ice cream. I don't think she had one bite of any cupcake. But she did blow out the candles twice.

The backpack pretty much goes everywhere - imaginary journeys (where we stay in the house), doctor's office, church. Here we are saying hi to the miniature horses that live a stone's throw from our old Colleyville house. 

The celebration pretty goes on all year round. As soon as Naomi's birthday was over, she wanted to know whose birthday was next. Well, Daddy's. But not until March. "Mommy, what do you want for your birthday?" This is usually employed as a stalling technique, so I don't have to really answer the question nine months in advance. Good times.

Fall in review

 

 Back in October, this is us getting the first taste of cooler weather.  What a relief!

We started to visit the ducks regularly, feeding them and helping them get that extra layer of fat in anticipation of the cold months with sparse food.

 It was sacrificial work, but someone had to do it...well, Naomi really did it on her own. Leif still was under the impression the bread was a snack for him.

 

Fall means football here in Texas. And we four finally made it to the a game towards the end of the season.  Leif may try for the coveted male cheerleader spot (ABSOLUTELY NOT), and Naomi enjoyed some quality time with her dear friend.

Naomi has gone outside to sew leaves together, wash them, jump in piles.  On the whole, Naomi has enjoyed a whole lot of outdoors time.

 Leif too...though for other reasons.

 Traumatic experience of the season: Leif's first haircut. 
Recovery: letting him brush his teeth. For a long time.

And this was fun for me: a work trip to Little Rock, Arkansas. Who knew AK was so nice! We had a great time. Nice to leave, really nice to come back home.

Naomi turns three and gets a...

bike with training wheels!!

Thank you, Nana and Papaw!  

More celebratory pictures to follow.

Happy Veterans' Day

Decided to make use of our flag pole.

Naomi was pretty excited to help me figure out the process.

 Then we took a picnic lunch to the "red rooftop park." Though really it was more of a study in static and sliding than eating.

 Leif was a great fan of exerting his independence from me and mimicking Naomi's moves.

Leif communicates

Like Naomi, Leif never took to signing anything to me (I only attempted done and more, figuring these were most essential to meal time enjoyment).  Thankfully, like Naomi, he has grasped the concept of communication rather quickly.  I love it!