december '14

december.  

'amuse bouche and appetizers'

our tree was an interactive art piece this year - for a couple of weeks after it went up, the girls would take off all of the ornaments they could reach, present them to me as a gift, and I'd thank them and ask them to decorate the tree.  I didn't get quite organized enough to keep up with our advent activities this go-'round, so I decided to just go with it.  we bought yarn to use on our presents, and Magz enjoyed periodically cutting strips and adding it to the tree decorations.

zoo trip with friends

please note miss sam's legs behind the cheetah

cousin E turned 3!

school elf

we'll have more legit photos taken someday, I'm sure, but I wanted to snap some to give family for christmas. these aren't bad for our nearby park and my iPhone.

this place was a revelation.

christmas recital

we both earned a treat before the holiday

connected on our way to hico.

one of my favorite memories of this year. the granddaughters put on a Flower Show.

this little light of mine...

father abraham!

admiring the Flower Show in an orderly fashion.

more songs

distribution of flowers, eventually culminating in a Taylor Swift dance party.

back in htown, with baby E

happy birthday, baby Jesus!

with sweet baby K. where are all of my other photos of houston xmas?!

mgb's xmas present to me... a space-age coffee maker. it makes delicious coffee.

my coffee maker is so sleek, it made the rest of my kitchen look like a mess.  so, I embarked on Operation De-Clutter.  this is... um... ongoing.

our girls got such great gifts this year - they've loved playing with everything.

their room is in transition from a baby/toddler room to a bigger-girl room.  here's us saying goodbye to the sweet curtains Mama and Grammy made (I'd already donated the red Ikea rug Daddy and I picked out for baby Magz, so it didn't make the commemorative photo).

Magz chose the rug straight out (because purple is her love language), and picked the curtains from choices I gave her.  we're going to convert the crib to a full-size bed and see how sharing goes.

happy new year!

nov '14

November.  a good month, and a month that broke the camel's back in a way.  in and amongst the good, I got sick and lost my voice for a week and got fed up enough with panic and anxiety that I asked for medication.

mgb's first day of work at his new gig!

we have many dance shows on our dance floor.  you might notice that magz is talking into the microphone of her hand.  daddy and ru are over there in the dark on the couch, in the audience.  it should be said that miss ru cannot be kept off the stage anymore, which is difficult for big sister and her need to control the dance show.  alas, she's learning the lesson that you can't control other people's dancing.

this is how Ru felt about elementary magnet tours.  maybe I'll write more about that sometime.

I got to storytell with children as a part of the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra debut of an original work entitled 'Jabberwocky'.  This was such a treat.

it really was a magical, haunting piece.

cold weather decided to spring up

cousin love

a bowed elephant

and then the weather turned again.

I'm so very glad they like each other.

the community thanksgiving service was so good, and how cool to be in a room with so many different flavors of belief.

our study ended.  the best part was being with these women (and those not pictured!).

november is just our month to get sick.

I took bitties with me to work one day.

I was on the fence about the parade this year with so much sickness, but we were all stir crazy so out we went (daddy was working the parade).

then we went to ihop for whipped cream with a side of pancakes, which the girls were certain was the best breakfast ever.  we went to grammy and opa's later in the day for real food, and were thankful.  due to germiness, we decided to blow kisses at baby katherine this go-round.

thanksgiving at the ranch with cousins, where we blew kisses at baby seth.

introducing the young ladies to the greatness that is A&E's Pride and Prejudice.