to see Santa...

So today we made the trip to the mall to see Santa. "I want a baby doll, a kitty, and a dump truck!" she stated proudly before she even got on his lap. Santa looked at me wide-eyed. "A dump truck, huh?" She climbed up, smiled for the picture, hopped off his lap and said thank you as he handed her a peppermint sucker. Sometimes I am amazed at how she does new things like she has done them every day of her life... without any hesitation. It is probably the same reason she spends 10-15 minutes of every day with her nose in the corner. :) It would never occur to her to be nervous or scared. She just does it! We sat down on a bench about 5 minutes after we had seen him and she looked at me with utter concern.

"Mommy, we have to go back to see Santa!"

"Why?"

"I forgot to tell him I love him!"

Oh, Ava, don't grow up! Don't ever grow up!

end of the night...

These are my last two favorites. I won't bore you with any more of this gushy stuff!

being silly...

I love this man!

Oh, look, he loves me too... even with this ridiculous look on my face!

love this shot of Tierny!

and this one of Matt!

a night out...

So, it was Matt's 30th birthday and we unloaded the kids with grandparents and headed downtown for a night out. We went to St. Elmo where we ate shrimp cocktail (world famous, according to the sign) that burned the nose hairs right out of my nose. Still now, sitting here thinking about it, my eyes start to water. Fantastic steak and even better was the company! Matt and Tierny are our closest friends with whom we probably spend an unhealthy amount of time. I'm certain to people who don't know us (or even people who do), our relationship is strange. Despite this, we feel completely comfortable spending time together and acting like idiots. Probably because we have been friends since before we had kids, before bills piled up, before jobs changed, and as life has become more and more complicated. We know the good and the bad and we still manage to laugh together... sometimes hysterically! So, we took the cameras and got a few crazy shots and enjoyed every second of our child free evening.

last of halloween...

I see you! With ALL of my eyes!

The candy bowl is out and the sugar high begins...

After a few pieces of candy, both girls were wired! Jumping, dancing, singing, wrestling... they were all over the place! What a fun night!

more halloween...

Quincie the Spider... too cute!

Can't wait until we get home... must have candy now!

This was our first house and I had to go to the door to drag Ava out. The sweet old lady who answered the door was trying to hold her out with her legs. Ava apparently did not understand we stay outside the houses... she thought we were going in for a party. Too funny!

Woman with an axe in her head and blood dripping down her face... no biggie... she's got candy!

Am I a little behind...

YES! Okay, so here is Cinderella at Halloween. We are going to post quite a few tonight so I am going to start with October and work to... yes, I know, it's December. We'll get to the reasons for my tardiness as we get a little further along. But for not, let's start with Halloween. Huge success this year! I was a little leary about all of the scary stuff being too much for her this year - ha! She is not afraid of anything. We started out the evening with a trip to see Grandpa. We always have to play the piano when we visit so I got a few shots of Cinderella and Grandpa at the keyboard before we headed back for trick-or-treating.

Cheese!

Cinderella and the Snow Princess. I LOVE this photo because it is such a perfect example of the relationship of Emme and Ava. I have no idea what Emme was explaining to her, but I love Ava's wide-eyed, open-mouthed expression. Whatever Emme says... goes!