Waiting for Santa

I was hoping we could make our annual trip to Walmart to see Santa this weekend, but Tim and Anna Kate were out of town geocaching. (I will make a post on that hopefully tonight. It was a pretty special trip for Anna Kate.) Anyway, we will see Santa this coming weekend. Not only do the girls enjoy visiting with Santa, but I enjoy snapping a few pictures. Walmart lets you do that. I was wanting a Santa picture to finish up a few photo gift projects. Instead I snapped this picture this morning before we left for school and work. I thought it turned out cute and is a pretty good substitute for a Santa picture for my gift projects which are now ordered! That's 4 more gifts checked off my list. All our gifts are either already wrapped and under the tree or have been ordered and are on their way. I am so glad to be finished!!!

Let's Decorate!

When we got home from Thanksgiving stuff yesterday, we decorated our house for Christmas. We got the tree and all other inside decorations up. The girls and I wrapped all the presents Wednesday, so we were able to get those under the tree. Maybe we will get our few outside stuff up tomorrow. "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." And I love it!

Thankful for Family

God has blessed me in so many ways, and one of my favorite blessings is my family. Below are some pictures we took (the family one with a tripod) a couple of weekends ago at the Riverwalk. Such a pretty place in the fall, but we were disappointed to find so much graffiti on the old bridge. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving!

An Award and an Indian

Anna Kate got an Honorable Mention ribbon for her Reading Fair storyboard. We are proud of you Anna Kate.

Emma's class made stone soup and dressed like Indians yesterday. Isn't she a cute Indian?

Storyboard

Anna Kate turned in her Reading Fair storyboard today. The book is titled "Karen's Turkey Day," so Anna Kate used a turkey for the theme for her storyboard. I think she did a great job!

Boxes

The girls had fun shopping for items to fill our Christmas shoeboxes Saturday afternoon. We delivered them to church this morning.

Mission Madness

Anna Kate and a bunch of her friends from church went to Mission Madness, a GA event held each year at a church in our area. She had so much fun making crafts and learning about missions.

Ready for Turkey Trot

There are all kinds of fun things going on this month at both school and church. One thing the girls are looking forward to is the Turkey Trot next Monday. They had to turn in their money and can good yesterday, so I thought I would snap their picture with this turkey at school.

First AR Book

Emma was so excited to bring home her first AR book. Her teacher even gave her a "Book Buddy" bag to keep her book in. The directions were that a parent is supposed to read the book to the child three times before returning it to school for her to take a comprehension test. Instead of me reading it, she was able to read almost every word herself. We are so proud of her!

More Pictures

You are not going to believe this, but Emma actually wanted to take more Christmas card pictures today. This afternoon I had a Christmas photo shoot scheduled for a friend of mine. She wanted some family pictures for her Christmas card. After how badly things went yesterday, I told the girls they really needed to stay home with Tim so I could do a good job. They both begged to go. I jokingly told Emma that if they went they would have to take more pictures. She quickly said she wanted to take more. I don't know whether they were bluffing me or not, but I made the deal with them. I won't say that Emma did as good for me as she could have, but she certainly did better than yesterday. However, I was talked into letting her take my picture again and blogging it. See below. Not the best subject in the world, but Emma takes a pretty good picture. I hope I don't have to have my picture taken everytime I want to take her picture. Anyway, I am burned out on picture-taking after two full afternoons of it, but I am pleased with the results for both my girls' pictures and my friends' pictures. Can't wait to post some in December.

Anything for a Picture

We had plans all week for me to take the girls' Christmas portraits for our Christmas card. Or at least those were my plans. Emma, however, had different plans. Oh, she led me to believe we were going to do the pictures. They got all fixed up and we drove to the Lake as planned. I toted all of our stuff (a bench, a chair, and all my camera equipment) to the designed spot. But things went seriously downhill from there. She didn't want to sit up and didn't want to look at the camera. She even told me that she forgot how to smile. I was just about ready to scream when I remembered one very important word. No, not please. I had already used that one multiple times. I am not too old to beg. The word is bribery. First I bribed them with supper tonight at Mi Hacinda (their favorite restaurant). I was about ready to bribe her with money when she asked me if she could take my picture. It was bad enough that I had to hand over my very expensive camera with a brand new, very expansive lens to a five-year-old, but it got worse. She didn't just want a quick smile picture. I had to make a goofy face for the picture. And not just one, but multiple pictures. I also had to promise to post one on my blog. See below. Anyway, she did finally cooperate some, and after over an hour, I was able to get a few good shots. I will post them closer to Christmas. Yes, I guess I will do just about anything for them for a good shot.

Devoted Geocacher

Yes, my man loves geocaching. He even climbed a tree to find one.

Emma's Turkey

Emma had to decorate a turkey for her homework project this week. She used Cheerios for the body and leaves for the feathers. I thought it turned out cute!

Random Pictures

Here are some random pictures taken today.
Emma had fun playing dress up. I think she looks like a little angel. So sweet!

I have been meaning to take Anna Kate's fast pitch softball picture for weeks now, but the weather and our schedule didn't cooperate until today. She and I were wanting to do something a little different, and we both were pleased with the results.

On our way back to church this evening, we decided to take a couple more shots in a hay field. It was wet, but we were able to snap a couple good ones to add to the other ones from a week or so ago.

Oh, how I love sister hug pictures!

When we got home, this is what we found. Tim had lit a candle in our pumpkin we carved yesterday.

Halloween/Fall Festival

We had the best time with Halloween this year. The girls loved getting all dressed up, and they had a blast at our church's fall festival.
Here are our Disney Channel divas: Emma as Hannah Montana and Anna Kate as Alex Russo from Wizards of Waverly Place.

Of course, Anna Kate, excuse me, Alex Russo, had to have a magic wand.

And no Hannah Montana outfit could be complete without a microphone.

They loved striking poses like true divas.

They ditched the wigs for the fall festival so they could just have fun. Here's a fun shot Tim took of me and the girls.

They loved playing all the games and getting tons of candy and prizes.

Emma loved the pony ride. She also did jumpers, but I didn't take pictures of that.

My two Disney Channel divas were joined by one more Disney Channel diva -- our niece Abby dressed as Mitchie Torres from Camp Rock.

Then they were joined by two more cousins -- Natalie as Tinkerbell and Philip as Curious George. We were so sorry we didn't see their other cousin Hunter. I know he was the cutest dinosaur ever!