gone country

ellis has gone country! we went to mississippi the day before thanksgiving...just for the night. my mom's brother lives there and all of her family (she has 9 brothers and sisters) celebrates there every other year. i left the tiny devil at home...i am not willing to sit in a car with him for 5 hours...two days in a row :) anyways...ellis was introduced to hunting...they shot a deer within 30 minutes of our arrival. ellis was fascinated...she wasn't even bothered when the lab she became bff's with began licking all of the blood off bambi. actually, this deer could have been bambi's baby it was so small :)ellis with maddie...ellis LOVED this dog

she got to play w/ lots of cousins and even give one a bath and bottle!

we were home by 3 pm on thanksgiving...just in time for brandon to pull one turkey off the smoker and another out of the fryer...YUM!

beckett wasn't mad at me for leaving him...he probably never noticed with all of the football on tv. he loved his thanksgiving feast while ellis had a plate with a single roll on it...she "doesn't like feasts".

both families celebrated together at our house...so nice that everyone gets along :) we watched the horns beat A&M...barely! the rest of the weekend was spent decorating for christmas...i am totally finished and december isn't even here yet!

mini me

i am sitting here waiting for the kids to wake up :) beckett is off to school today while the girls will be having a fun time @ the galleria...pink butter here we come!!! i wanted to post a quick picture that my mom found of me...beckett and i could literally be twins!!! i used what i like to call the ghetto scan to get the picture on my computer...took a picture of it with my camera :) sorry for the terrible quality but hopefully you will get the idea...twins i tell you!

thanksgiving feast at school

ellis went to school today looking like this:
and came home as the cutest little indian you've ever seen :)

bebe and ellis have big plans to be a pilgrim and indian on turkey day...here is a little flashback from last year...my mom has always dressed as a pilgrim on thanksgiving day!!!

as you can see, the shirt is getting 2 years of wear :) and you better believe beckett will be sporting it nexy year!!

beckett's turn

brandon decided he wanted to take his boy to the texas game last weekend. beckett is SERIOUSLY obsessed with football...especially texas football. i mean...we are undefeated :) when he wakes up in the morning, he goes to the tv and asks not for cartoons, but for FOOTBALL! this works out perfect for me on the weekends...the tiny devil spends lots of time watching the games w/ brandon...while the girls go shopping :)

and i probably shouldn't write this on here but i am going to anyways...go ahead and judge :) brandon let him have a sip of his tecate the other day. we were totally expecting bitter beer face. we were so wrong. this is WORD FOR WORD what beckett said, "beer. like it. more." he also love doing "cheers"...knocking his glass against yours :)

but back to the game...let's go take care of business...we're texas

beckett is just one of the guys...

beckett and bo :)
the huge texas flag...

i can make noise...no problem

won't take his eyes off the game...

taking it very seriously... after the game...eating his first hamburger...throwing what appears to be a gang sign...

bo catches him many hours later playing in the washer pits like they are his personal sandbox...

i am so busted...but i could care less. do you see his hands?

close up...

he is such a BOY!

ellis & etiquette

this is a picture of ellis and the rest of her ballet class practicing table manners :)  i had no idea that manners were a part of the ballet curriculum but it can't hurt right??  when not learning manners, they are furiously practicing for their winter recital.  stay tuned...it is sure to be another disaster :)

we caved!!!

and there you have it :) we are so weak...we just couldn't NOT find out...as much as i do love the idea. we are OVER THE MOON excited of course. i totally knew it was a girl too!! i wore pink to my reveal appt. w/ ellis, blue w/ beckett, and pink today. as weird as it sounds, i just "knew" with all 3...mother's intuition??? when i told ellis it was a girl, she said "yeah, i already knew that mommy...but i'm so exciting that i want her to come today". ellis has also known since day 1 that she was a she :)

i obviously don't have a sister so i am thrilled that ellis will get to experience that fun...she gets the best of both worlds...a brother and a sister. i also know i am SO lucky to have a boy and a girl...a second girl is just icing on the cake. another bonus is that i don't have to feel as guilty about the investment i have made in ellis' wardrobe. yay for hand-me-downs!!!

as for the tiny monster...he will probably think the world is ending come march 30th-ish. maybe he will surprise me...but i just don't think he will be thrilled w/ this new tiny person taking any attention away from him. he is so super spoiled...i need to start neglecting him a little i suppose :)

and of course...MOST importantly...little miss is just perfect in the health department...always a relief to hear that news...

boys can be fun to dress too...

i have loved these macalister suede boots from jcrew since way before i even had a boy...i would sometimes peruse the boy section of crewcuts just for fun after looking for great deals for ellis :) anyways...there are two problems...1) these cute boots are a ridiculous $90...and 2) they don't come small enough for him (for this fall). here is the fun part...i was @ janie and jack the other day and saw boots that resembled the macalisters...on sale for $24...a steal!!! i got them for this year and for next year. I LOVE THEM. and the CUTEST part about the boots from jcrew is that you can order fun colored laces. so i did. in orange and aqua. $4 each. for his knock-off macalisters :)

the real thing...

i mean seriously...how cute are these? boy stuff is fun too :)

p.s.- we find out monday if i will get to use all of beckett's hand-me-downs or if there will be another explosion of pink come spring...we are actually thinking about just having them write it down for us and sealing it...for us to open when we can't take the suspense anymore!

good news...

the pumkin dress still fits!! i love it when i can get more than one season out of a super cute outfit...

especially when she can really only wear it one, maybe 2 months of the year. with orange pumkins and pink squirrels, oct & nov are really her only options :)

halloween wrap up- part III

the halloween parade at school :) all of the classes come and parade around "the big room" in their costumes. moms, dads, and grandparents are there. you would have thought they were graduating from college :) ellis decided she wanted to be a UT cheerleader for school...i guess the monster thing isn't cool w/out her partner in crime...

clearly, someone told ellis to keep her hands behind her back and smile. she NEVER broke smile. i literally have 50 pictures that look the same. she would be so great in pageants!!!

w/ her friend ariel :)

and w/ her buddy bat man...

cute picture but she looks slightly possessed...i hate it when that happens!

treats for her class halloween party. yes, i guess i do have too much time on my hands :)

happy halloween!!! oh- and for the actual night, they went as a UT cheerleader and football player. this made perfect sense because we were watching the game after trick or treating. thank god for DVR or brandon probably would have passed on going out with the kids :) ellis of course loved it and sprinted from house to house w/ ainsley. they had to dump their bags more than once to make more room. i was surprised to find that beckett LOVED it too. he would go to the door (by himself), say "tricktreat", get candy, say "tankooo", and come back down running...saying "open". i happily obliged. it was really really cute. i was also surprised to NOT find candy puke all over his crib sunday morning. yay beckett!

halloween wrap up- part II

halloween playgroup is always SO much fun. the playgroup started when ellis was just 9 months old...and we have met every tuesday afternoon since then :) we love, love, love it. 27 kids were in attendence!! it can get crazy when everyone shows up...but on a normal week there are probably half that number.

it started with around 12 kids and they almost all have siblings now. only one of us has 3 already...so i am the second one who is crazy enough to try managing 3. yikes.

i didn't get too many pictures...too busy drinking my mimosa...oops...did i just say that outloud?
these 2 were pretty cute..a tiger and the ringmaster :)
beckett kept his costume on the whole time...well, until i felt really sorry for him towards the end...he was sweating buckets!

the blue stuff you see everywhere was slime for them to play with!

happy & cute monster...
sad...but still cute monster...

halloween wrap up- part 1

the fall festival in our neighborhood was the weekend before halloween.  it is always so much fun...chili cook-off, costume contests, pony rides, hay rides, face painting...all of the usual suspects.  i had made the genius decision to volunteer @ the event...working the chopped beef/hot dog station :)  it was lots of fun...got to see tons of people.  the genius part of the volunteering was that brandon got to take the kids around for all of the "fun" while i "worked"!!!  he said he had the time of his life (not so much)...oh, and he was also on picture duty so i apologize for the bad photos :)

here is the scene from my station...i think they said there were 1500 people that went...

ellis on the pony ride...loving it of course.  she said she wants a real pony for christmas.  she also wants a tv in her room for christmas and her own bathroom "because it's not fair that mommy has them in her room".  poor thing.

somebody else wasn't feeling the love for the ponies :)

and me...being a good neighbor :)

mmm...sno-cone and cheetos...quite a combo

that's all he got folks!