Now the Uh-Oh!!

I ran out of space. (read post below first) Ok, now for the "best" or in my opinion the worst detail. Olivia cut her own hair. We knew it was coming. She is obsessed with scissors. She has access to several pairs of "kiddie" scissors and she loves to cut and style her barbies!! She cut about 3 inches off...leaving about 3 inches...just at her right temple. When she did it, she ran into the kitchen and said "Look Daddy. I changed my hair." I'll say. We have a professional appointment in two days!

Food, Fashion, Athletics and an Uh-Oh!!!!

So much to tell!! First, let's talk about how we've started our 2010.
We began with a big New Year's Day breakfast at home. This is one of our favorite family activities. Mom made homemade pancakes. Dad cooked bacon and eggs. Yum!! Then all the girls too a turn using one of Faith's favorite Christmas gifts...The Big Top Cupcake. (Straight from "As Seen on TV). I'm not sure which phase is More fun...creating it, cooking it, or decorating it. Side note: we never even ate one bite of the finished product!!
























Next, mommy has been busy too. Trying to turn over a new leaf by cooking more often and making different stuff. So here are two experiments. First, pork tenderloin with leeks (thank you Meghan Sewell who also gave me a lesson on how to do it in her kitchen), mashed potatoes and corn










And of course a dessert: Black Bottom Banana Bars. I think I ate them all!!






The rest of this post is about Olivia. Or as we like to say "Oh-livia." I'll save the "best" for last. Let's begin with the tripod. Have you seen her do it? It's hilarious. She just starting throwing this dance move one day and it stuck. Brad named it "The Tripod" and no it's her signature move. I finally caught it on camera so we can embarrass her as a teenager.




Now Olivia's fashion. She is SO opinionated about what she wears - from head to toe. It was about 32 degrees one day and she walked out of her closet in this springtime outfit, determined that this was her ensemble for the day. I just let her go for it (which I would have NEVER done with Faith) and put a fleece zip up over her so she wouldn't be cold. Love the black socks too!!

Vistit to Grandmother's and A Special Dress

Oops - forgot this one. On Thanksgiving weekend we went to see Grandmother in Abilene. Here are some pictures of the weekend.













And a final dazzling photo! It's SOOOOO Olivia!!!

Christmas 2009

We had so much fun during Christmas this year!! Too much to share in a blog - but here are a few highlights. First, Christmas morning Santa brought the girls several goodies. Faith scored BIG with an ipod Touch, a Little Pet Shop Dog and several accessories for them both. Olivia got her long-requested Mermaid doll~!!! Yeah


















We went to Granny and Aunt Liz's and got too many gifts. Then we had lunch and promptly left to drive to Amarillo. That's where we found snow, and hung out with all our cousins!!

A Double B-Day Party

Since both girls have November birthday parties...we decided to do their party together. We settled on "The Jumping Party" a place in Midland that has huge inflatable jumpers. We had about 30 kids and so much fun. Plus it's super easy. The staff does everything for you!!

Both Girls Perform!!

Faith had her annual Christmas performance where she was fantastic during a tap dance. She did have a very quick tumble to the ground. She was a little upset but Brad never even saw her fall...so she recovered very well. In this picture, the girls are dressed alike!! But on;y Faith performed. Meanwhile, Olivia had her FIRST performance at the annual Christmas program at Aladdin's Castle. She was so funny I literally had tears rolling down my face. She wore a fluffy tutu and waved and smiled and flirted with the audience the whole time. We have video of both when you get a minute.

Hamsters...no guinea pigs

UGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
What was I thinking. I told Faith she could have something special as a reward for making straight A's on her report card. When she asked for a hamster I said yes. Why? I don't know. I'm crazy. So I did a little research and discovered that hamsters are not ideal for young children but guinea pigs are better. Then, when we got to Petsmart the salesman said,"If you get two guinea pigs they play together and they're not as much work." GULLIBLE!! I fell for it and before I knew it we had spent $200 and had a cage bug enough for a small cow. Faith was interested for about 2 hours, then didn't even want to go in her room to check on them. I cleaned the cage twice and determined...the guinea pigs must go. Brad found a woman at his office who wanted to give her nephew a pet for Christmas so we said good-bye and classified our 10 day - very expensive - experience as "stupid tax." P.S. Brad was NOT happy with me. All this went down on the SAME DAY we finally got new carpet after our dogs destroyed our original carpet!!

Halloween - I Know It's Late

Ok, I know it's very late to be posting Halloween pictures - but what can I say. I've been busy. Here's the short version. Faith was Cleopatra (she's studying Egypt in her GT classes) and Olivia was a pink Batgirl (her on;y requirement was that the costume be pink!!). Granny, Papa, and Lizzy came over to trick-or-treat with us - and much to our surprise - they were in costume too!! The girls did our block then had way too much fun answering the door to hand out candy!!