Hello December 2011!

I found this AWESOME Shrinky Dink Christmas Tree set so on Sunday, Daniel and I worked on it for his room... I loved Shrinky Dinks as a little girl so this was SO fun for me too:)

Sweet Katelyn playing!

We hosted a Christmas party at our house on Tuesday night.. don't know where those pics went:(

Wednesday... Daniel started Tae Kwan Do... we started off doing private lessons with Master Shin!
What is really cool is I work out with a girl that I had no idea was Master Shin's fiancee... they got married at the end of December!
Brendon and I also decided to do a little "staycation" at a place way up North of Scottsdale... we had SO much fun! We just went up to relax... one night we found this little whole in the wall joint that they have filmed Western movies at... they had live music and a whole bunch of line dancing!
However, it was terrible timing on my part as I totally forgot Daniel's Christmas party was on Thursday night... these are his friends from when they were newborns! The moms all said that my parents could bring him or drop him off and they would watch him but I had this feeling that I needed to be there... so, I drove back to take him to his annual Christmas party:)

As always, there is lots of great food and one of the mom's brought frames for all the kids to decorate then had printed out a group picture to put in it... sooo cute!!!

Then I drove back to finish our "staycation!"

Post Thanksgiving

Sunday... after Thanksgiving was our Christmas Family Pictures with Jill... I will post them soon as they are on the CD still...I guess I never downloaded them on my computer..

This week, Rachel came into town... this is Sara Grace's sister so she hung out with us some this week when she wasn't working.

We also hosted pre-school at our house....

Yes, Katelyn joins us for pre-school when it is at our house and she does GREAT!

Tuesday night, we also had craft night at Andrea's house... we decorated wood blocks... it was fun but I am quickly coming to realize that "crafting" is not one of my strengths:) However, I enjoy "crafting" as a social event... LOL!

Paris came over... I got my hair done... we had a big Volunteer celebration at church AND on Saturday night... well, we made memories... LOL!

Many of you know that I have been a part of BNI group for over 4 years now... for the past two years, a guy in our group has an AMAZING home in downtown Phoenix... only a couple of blocks away from the main route for the big Phoenix Light Parade... so, he always hosts quite the Christmas Party for our Business Networking Group and our families. He reserves a huge section... like front row for the parade and when the parade starts, we walk from his house to our special reserved section... except this year, it started pouring rain, lightning, thunder, etc!!! However, I was determined that the kids would love this parade and since we were there and had the best seats ever, we were going to make it happen... so, we trekked from Gary's house to the parade... totally braved the weather.... it was crazy... it was fun... it was memorable!!! LOL! Let's just say there are absolutely no pictures... when you have an umbrella in one hand, hot chocolate, a blanket, a stroller, etc in your other hand... and it is pouring rain, you just don't have a spare hand for the camera!!! Did I mention that right before the parade started that Daniel decided he had to the bathroom??? My amazing husband walked in the freezing cold rain back to the house then back to our seats.... oh there were so many stories from this night!!!

TBall Spring 2012

Well, HELLO everyone!

Where have I been? All my spare time has been spent working in our business! Let's put it like this... we doubled our business last year and we have already done 1/3 of the business we have done last year to this point... actually it is higher than a 1/3! I am tired just writing that!!!!

Anyway, one of the mom's on Daniel's TBall team is a professional photographer and she will be photographing every game and sends us the gallery with the updated pictures every week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How awesome is that??????????????

Time to Insert "Kelle!"

Yes, I read another blog post from one of my "Mom" inspirations... Kelle Hampton! It was funny because Brendon and I are completely OBSESSED with the DISC Personality Profile test... it has completely helped us on how to understand people, relate to people and communicate with people based on their personality. So, we discuss our children's personalities a lot... obviously they are still little and developing but it is fairly evident who they are... I have known it since they were in my belly! These two were completely different in the womb... multiple times I would say Katelyn was a CRAZY WOMAN doing gymnastics in my stomach and Daniel just seemed like he was "flowing and moving freely, peacefully" in the belly... Daniel took his time coming out in labor.... Katelyn flew out during labor.... barely had her in the hospital! I think she was aiming to make the morning news... you know "baby born in the car on the highway to the hospital" story!

So... I found Kelle's post AMAZING! http://www.kellehampton.com/2012/02/lead-and-follow.html

If you know Brendon and I, then you know we are both LEADERS... strong LEADERS!

So, this is what Kelle said...

Later, when we were alone, Brett returned to the subject. "I don't want to tell the kids they have to be leaders," he said. "The world can't be full of just leaders, you know."

"So what, you want to tell them to be followers?" I asked, snarling at the preposterous suggestion.

"I want to tell the kids to be themselves," he confidently answered.

And for a second, everything about parenting made perfect sense.

I've always hated Right/Wrong Parenting where things are black and white and parents make blanket statements about how things should be done. Parenting, like so many other things in life, is gray. There is no one right way to raise your child. And yet, I've had this black and white idea of leader vs. follower in my mind--Don't be a follower. Do be a leader. And teach your kids to do the same.

But I love the truth that falls perfectly into the gray middle--teach your kids to be themselves.

It's true. We can't all be leaders, all the time. But we can help our children be themselves and, by doing so, discover ways in which they can both lead and effectively follow.

But following is important too, and we all have ways in which we both lead and follow.

The older the girls get, I find I am continually reconstructing my parenting views--my own views--as I take on more responsibility of being a role model for my girls. I think about what I say more, how I act, what I teach my kids, and sometimes that involves changing my perspective.

I won't always have the answers, but I do love the simplistic truth that lies in that one statement--be yourself. Letting that principle guide my parenting makes it seem so much easier. Whether my children are leaders, followers, extroverts, introverts, artists, scholars, sensitive listeners or strong influencers--I don't need to worry so much about how to make them that way. I simply need to encourage my girls to be true to themselves. To never apologize for expressing how different or alike they are to someone else.

There will be times in both my kids' lives when they will have opportunities to step up as leaders. And there will be necessary occasions when they will need to follow. Through all of it, I hope they will be themselves. Because we showed them how.

I will both encourage leaders and guide followers, but for now? They're still little. They walk on my feet and hold my hands. Baby steps for both of us.

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving 2011 was at my parent's home with Aaron and Leigh Anne, my parents, my brother and our clan.... sooo thankful for my family! My sister and Christopher alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas between Arizona and Georgia with Christopher's family... so they will be joining us for Christmas this year!

"Daniel, Smile for mommy!"

"Okay, not a silly smile... "

The Princess...

So, my mom is an an amazing Grandma... so much so that Katelyn prefers her over me any day or any time.... ALWAYS! Katelyn screams, cries and everything else when my mom leaves, etc. As soon as she sees my mom she twists herself out of my arms and runs to Grandma and throws herself at her... it is very funny! She loves my dad but just to give a hug to and say Hi then she wants Grandma and she will get really mad at whoever is trying to hold her back!

My mom has lots of picture frames on her fireplace and this is one of Katelyn's favorite places in their whole house... she pulls herself on to one of these ottomons and she names every person in the picture... some people really puzzle her because she has no idea who they are or she sees some family pictures that are before her time here on earth and she wants to know where she is:) She is also confused by Daniel's baby pictures:) Daniel just now understands why he is not in our wedding pictures... that has bothered him FOREVER!

Above is her "posing" again:)

When this girl is tired... it is sippy cup, silky and thumb!

The next day... BLACK FRIDAY... has to be one of my favorite days of the entire year! It is the day we decorate for Christmas... this has been a tradition in my house forever and I love it! If you know me, I LOVE traditions so "Black Friday" shopping sounds fun because I love a bargain but it would totally cramp my tradition! I totally wouldn't have enough time or energy to work on getting our house festive! A few years ago, Brendon read me a blog about someone whose wife has a storage unit for their Christmas decorations alone and hires a team of decorators the weekend after Thanksgiving to help her decorate for Christmas... at the time he read it to me, it sounded excessive and crazy.... for some reason, I thought about that blog post a lot this year and kept thinking that doesn't sounds so crazy after all! I kind of think I like that idea... LOL!
So, these were my two precious kiddos in their Santa hats helping me decorate... although it looks like they were taking a lunch break:)

Sometimes we have special nights with Daniel where we put Katelyn to bed and let him stay up with us and do something special... this night he wanted me to make him Hot Chocolate in his special cup (the mug Brendon had growing up as a child) and play Candyland... in his Christmas jammies!

Parent's 35th Wedding Anniversary and Park

We hosted a very small dinner at our home for my parent's 35th wedding anniversary...

Very informal (Chili Dinner), quaint (just the staff), intimate... fun...

Katelyn had her booster flu shot:( The girl hates shots... meaning she cries. Daniel doesn't cry... he hasn't cried in a very long time for a shot... thankfully they love THE amazing Dr. Jones! Come to think of it... he doesn't give the shots so maybe that is why they love him so much:)

Then we played with bubbles... I found these bubble wands in the Target Dollar Bin and thought that would be a fun Fall afternoon activity!

This is Katelyn's smile/ pose when you tell her to smile and look at you so you can take her picture... LOL!

Wednesday we had a park play date with my friends Kattia and Leah and their kiddos!
I know I have said it before, but this girl is FEARLESS! She has completely mastered the playground... until yesterday when she decided that she would climb to the top of the largest slide at the entire, HUGE playground we were at and go head first down... smash her face into the wood chips and get a huge bloody nose... ughhh:( Again, my two kiddos are completely opposite... Daniel has never had a bloody nose to date... you can barely bump Katelyn's nose and she gets a bloody nose... totally freaked me out at first!

Partay!

The weekend after I got back from South Florida was full of parties! Saturday was Sasha's 1st Birthday at Little Gym. We actually let Daniel spend the evening with my parents so we could take Katelyn alone to this birthday party. With a second child, there is always older brother around so we thought this would be a great opportunity to just spend with her:)

So, Sasha's parents and I went to the same college although we never knew each other there... probably because I was getting my undergrad degree and they were getting their Masters... now her daddy is finishing up his doctorate! We think she has some really awesome parents:)

Jumping fun!

I love Katelyn's outfit and she gets so many compliments on it... my sister got it in Ireland when she was there! My sister and her husband are going to Italy for 3 weeks in April so I wonder what goodies we will get from there... hehehe!

Please notice that Katelyn picked out a Big Bird hat because at this time, she was obsessed with him... she had a book that had Big Bird in it and she would take the book and kiss the book over and over because she loved Big Bird SO much... NOW, it is the one and only Elmo! How does this red monster win the heart of almost every toddler in America!

Check out this fabulous cake!

Don't worry about Daniel because he had one to go to on Sunday! It was at the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park for his friend Kai!

Daniel and Kai have known each other since newborns... we met at a breastfeeding support group! LOL! I am sure these boys will love hearing that story when they are older!

Sunday was also my parents 35th wedding anniversary... we had a party at our house on Monday night... pics coming soon!