Sand Fun

Some friends from church gave us a cute little sandbox last fall and we finally got sand for it sevearl weeks ago. It is now one of Brooke's favorite places to be. Unfortunately, she wants to eat it, but she does also play with it. Here are Kate and Carli "helping" Brooke have fun.

Kate decided she should bury her baby sister in the sand...Getting her out of the sand hill. I think a little got on her mouth and she was not liking it (it's only lately she wants to eat the nasty stuff).
"Is this fun, Mom?"

Say "Cheese" and maybe open your eyes next time.

Puddle Fun

A few weeks ago we had some pretty good rain go through our area. My girls love to go play in the puddles after a rainstorm. Most importantly--to them, anyway--they love to go hunt for worms. Yuck! Where did these girls come from? ;) I might as well have a bunch of boys...lol

Here are the girls worm huntingMegan find
Kate is proud of her really long one she found

These are the adorable boots on the feet of our adorable little neighbor girl who is just older than Brooke. Aren't they cute?!

Carli--what a face

Carli again--don't know what she was doing, dancing or something

Brooke had a BLAST in the puddles. She ended up soaking wet and still didn't want to go inside!

So behind

Well, I haven't posted for 3 weeks and I'm so behind! Brooke turned 1 and I have many pictures to share from that day, but first I've got our SNOW pictures ready to post.

We got 12" of snow on Thursday! That was the most snow we've ever gotten around here at one time. It just kept coming! It was so beautiful and such a fun thing to watch it all come down on our normall brown and green Texas landscape. The girls had a blast playing outside in it. Brandon is more like me--he'd rather stay inside and stay warm and dry. :)

The kids got out of school early Thursday and got to stay home Friday. It truly was a snow day! It's melting quickly, but it was fun while it lasted!

Our Texas snow boots

Brooke LOVED the snow!

Here she is sneaking outside

This was her amazed look when I first opened the door and let her see it all.

All smiles!

She enjoyed watching from the inside, too.

Carli enjoying the fluffy white stuff--yes, she is wearing a skirt (that's my girl!)

Beautiful snow princess!

Had to snap this one...

Kate's hunk of snow

Kate and her snowball

Megan had a blast

Megan making a snow angel

...and trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue

Christmas Eve Day

Christmas Eve day we did some last minute shopping and a little baking and some hanging out together. We also watched it do this:

SNOW!!!!! Kate was the first to venture out into this wintry mix and basked in it's coldness. :) She has no fear of weather. I opened the door to snap a couple pictures and that was it. The wind was blowing and blowing. By evening it almost looked like a blizzard! The snow was just blowing everywhere and it was so cold. I was glad we were staying home that evening. :)Megan loved it, too. We pulled out what winter gear we did have and they donned it well. Notice no gloves. Well, we remedied that a little while later at Target, but this is not something we are used to here in Texas! (We're supposed to get more tomorrow...what is going on here?) :)Carli wanted to follow her big sisters, but she realized that wasn't going to be so fun.Carli braved the cold for a few minutes, but Megan was having a ball.Then Carli decided she would rather watch the "fun" from here. Smart girl. ;)Her sisters continued their fun outside having a snow ball fight and making snow angels.Here is what we woke up to the next day. It was the first white Christmas around here since 1926!!!!! (at least according to a friend who posted that on Facebook)

Holiday Singing

With December comes parties and concerts and all kinds of fun events at school. Kate is a member of the vocal team at school and they had their holiday concert last week. I always love to hear the kids sing (especially mine--they love it and have very beautiful voices)!

Kate singingBrooke and Megan during the performance. Interesting the difference in the color of their eyes. We'll just have to wait and see if Brooke's change at all.The usual sucking of the thumb.Right after the performance. So cute!

Sunglasses

(4th post today--yeehaw!!!)

The girls got new sunglasses while we were on vacation and of course, they wanted their picture taken with them on. Kate insisted on including Lovie, my brother's dog, so she patiently put up with the attention. I got a kick out fo these pictures. Mostly Megan's face--watch it's progression. ;)

Gorgeous blue eyes!

Girls and their Dolls

Is there anything like the love a girl has for her doll? My Mom brought my girls these darling dolls for Christmas. Here is what happened when they opened them:

Here is what happens when the flash doesn't go off. It's kind of a cool effect with some brightening, though.
Here is what happens to Grandpa with a little too much excitement and no enough sleep after driving 18 hours...