Christmas Card time!

I LOVE Christmas cards, so much so that I save every one that each of you send to me and have an album put together with each year's photos and cards. I love pulling the album out at Christmas each year to look through the past cards. But today was the last day of the 40% off on Christmas cards, hate to miss that kind of deal so we had to rush to put together the best pictures all in the same color scheme of course so the card has a flow to it. With Lyla's wild personality, it's hard to get that girl to stop for a photo! She is beautiful, yet her smile sometimes is SO big, she seems to squint her eyes almost shut making a photo shoot not so easy. Then Kate, who loves the camera, has a cold and you can see it in her eyes! Oh the pressures of the perfect card right? Well, this year, no professional shoot, but special thanks to Chrissy and Drew for taking a few fun family pictures, and thanks to our girls for freezing outside in their dresses so I could get a few extras to get this order in on time. Here's a sneak peek, I think squinted eyes, sick eyes, none of it matters. They are just cute all of the time.

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

My helpers

Not only did these girls help fold laundry and unload dishes today, they helped with every step of making dinner, and ATE stuffed peppers!

Technology upgrade

I changed from the android world to an iPhone, why did I not do this sooner? I can now post pics like this and post it all from my phone!

October is here, we love the fall!

Kate remembers EVERY detail of last year's visit to the pumpkin patch, and her first year when she was two. "Remember when I got my face painted?" (that was 2 years ago) "Remember when I went with Dylan to get pumpkins and we ate popcorn? Can we do that again?" "Can we go to the corn house?"
Yes, yes, and yes. Let's do it all again. We love it and we hope yesterday's visit is not our only one this month. This place is so much fun, loaded with things to do from a huge slide on potato sacks, a corn house that makes your skin silky smooth, a train ride, bouncy houses, swings, mazes, live goats, a hay ride to pick pumpkins and more.
We chose the coldest day yet this year, and we did get rained out at the end of our hay ride, but these three Kendziora girls had a great day.

 Lyla is still a bit small to get her head above the wheel! :) 

 That's Kate way ahead of Lyla and me peeking her head out 

 Loving their first hot chocolate. Warming their hands & their bellies! 

 The corn house- this is full of corn kernels. Makes your skin super soft, would love one of these at home (minus the worms they would attract).

 We are now wet and COLD! Bundling up in the wagon to get back to the car! 

Lyla & Annabel turning 2- Picnic Party

We decided to do a joint birthday with Debbie's little girl, Annabel, who is only 5 weeks older than Lyla. Yes, this means we have also been talking about Lyla's birthday for a full month, when she actually turns two this week. However, I learned a joint party is a wonderful way to go! Here are a few pictures from their picnic party at Pullen Park. My camera had a smudge on it, so they all have a little blur...oops.

This banner matched the invitations, hard to make out in the picture but it was really cute and festive! 

 Gift wagons. 

 Debbie packed these adorable sack lunches for all of the kids. 

 We had a row of 6 pictures from Lyla & Annabel's first year, again, a little blurry, but this was my favorite part to make it about the birthday girls. 

 Avery Jackson enjoying the park. 

 Poppy Jane Swindell on the other end of the see saw. 

 The Brewer girls, Lily is Lyla & Annabel's age. 

 The birthday girls and Kate enjoying their picnic lunch. 

Celebrating the REAL 4th Birthday

Having a party early, means the birthday celebration in this case, lasted two weeks. We celebrated at Kings Dominion again this year on the Monday of Labor day, and again, it was a blast. I am not sure if the girls had more fun, or if Mimi & Grand Dad did soaking in the attention of their granddaughters! 

 These two kind of like each other...can you tell? 

 I said, "thanks for driving 3 hours to come here with us today, Dad." He said, "I'd drive 10." Cute. Thanks guys. 

Happy 4th Birthday to Kate, our first child. Our intelligent, beautiful, smart, witty, funny, amazing little girl. You make us proud every day!