Cali's first......

HAIRCUT! It was last week when I realized she needed a trim as I was attempting to comb through many,many tangles in her hair. The ends of her hair were so fine and tangled easily in her curls. So, I called our great beautician and she hooked us up. At first Cali did not like it.




Once she was sitting up and saw herself in the mirror, all the tears dried up and she sat fine.


I even got a cheesy smile out of her.

Thank you Aunt Sherri for doing such a great job on all of our hair!! We love you.

Cali even felt so confident with her new hair cut that she thought she might look like Hannah Montana in this nifty wig!!

"Monika".....

This is what my 3 year old has been calling me lately. Yes it is my name, but so wierd to have her do it all the time. She'll say, "Monika, can you get me a snack?" or "Monika, I have to go potty!" It is cute but I keep correcting her and telling her I want her to call me mommy. Gotta love that girl!!!

christmas activity #2...

Last night we had our home group Christmas party. Rather than all of us make a dish, find a silly gift to exchange or steal, or do the same things we have always done, we did something very different this year. We all got sitters for our kids and headed to Las Colinas area to stay the night at my brother-in-laws hotel. We did a little shopping during the day with the Lathrops, went to the hotel to change, we all headed to a mexican restaurant called 7 Salsas, and then came back to the hotel for dessert, coffee, and games. We really had so much fun together. It was a nice relaxing night before all the hustle and bustle of Christmas. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends that we can do these kind of things together. ( Sidenote: Lance and I are almost completely finished with our Christmas shopping! Yea!!!!!)

Christmas in style...

This year we have made a pact with our best friends, Justin and Andrea, that we would do more Christmas activities together. It has begun. We have started it off with a Christmas concert. Tuesday night we went to see Michael W. Smith and the Dallas Symphony sing and play Christmas music. It was so much fun. We think we might start doing it every year now.

Here is our group that we went with.

Stay tuned for more activties with the Lathrops......

a fun party..

Last night we celebrated Cali's best friends 4th birthday. It was such a fun time. I didn't take pictures but thought I would blog about how creative her mommy is. It was a reindeer themed party. So, as we arrive, the house is all decked out in Christmas decor. Then Andrea had little reindeer hats for all the kids to wear. She also had 2 different crafts to make. Each kid made a candy cane reindeer and also a reindeer ornament. It was really cute seeing all the kids around the table with adults closely behind them. She even had all reindeer food. Cookies decorated as reindeer and also reindeer cupcakes. It was so much fun. I was impressed by her creativity. (Not that she has ever let me down at a party she has hosted!!!)

the love of my life....

Yesterday, Lance and I celebrated our 7th anniversary together. It is amazing how quickly the years seem to fly by. We decided to spend the whole day together. We had paid for an extra day at our sitters so the girls went there during the day. Our day looked like this:

We got up early and did a little jean shopping for Lance;

then watched the new James Bond movie with one of our couple friends;

next, we ran to the grocery store;

we picked up the girls and hung out with them for a little bit;

then, my brother's wonderful girlfriend, Brittany, came and stayed with the girls;

Lance and I headed to Texas de Brazil (a fancy restaurant with a great salad bar and lots of meat);

after totally stuffing ourselves, we headed to Northpart Mall to walk around;

we bought Lance a new wedding band (his first one had 2 places that were broken);

lastly, we grabbed cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory!!!

Our day was absolutely perfect!!

I must say every single year keeps getting better and better. We joke about how our first couple of years were pretty rough (more from Lance's end ;)!!!) We both knew to make it better we would have to change and really listen to eachother. God couldn't have placed a better man in my life. I am so thankful for the leader that he is, the father that he is, the friend that he is to me. So, this blog is for Lance and how great he is to me and our girls! I love you.

a chance to give.....

A friend of mine, Melissa, and I go to a MOPS group together. At our last meeting, they discussed everyone putting some things together for Operation Christmas Child. Basically, it is a Christian organization that takes Christmas presents to children in need as well as tell them about the love of Jesus. It really is a wonderful program that I know really ministers to these children in poverty. Melissa and I decided it would be a great thing to start doing with our girls each year. They are both 3 and we want them to learn how to be givers to others in need, especially this time of year. The other night, we took them to the store to pick out some things we could send to another little girl about their age.

The girls totally loved picking things out that they liked so we knew those were the perfect things to put in our box for our special girl. We picked out a baby and an outfit, crayons and a color book, a slinky, some of our favorite hard candy, gum, a tooth brush and tooth paste, a brush, some hair things, and a ball.

We know the girls had such a great time doing this together and we hope to continue to teach them about giving to others in need. We want them to know how rewarding it is. Melissa and I hope that as they get older this will be something that they do on their own initiative. Take some time this season and give to someone in need.