The Caramel Pecan Pie -- Holy of Holies!

My PopPop is a fan of the pecan pie. He says that he's eaten hundreds of pecan pies. And my Mommy isn't usually good at making pies. But this is the prettiest pie I've ever seen. Mommy was so proud that she baked it. And it tasted better than it looked!

We want ponies for Christmas

My Dad says that these are Chinese horse statues, but I don't believe him.
If we ask very hard, maybe Santa will bring them home for Christmas!

I might be a little big for this one. Think Santa can get a bigger one down the chimney?

And this one is perfect for me -- lots of room to grow into it. 

Oh please please Santa, can we have ponies for Christmas?

I want to be a rhino!

Just before Christmas we went to the zoo in a place called Waco. It was amazing! I got so excited that I wanted to become a rhino! So I tried to climb the fence until my Daddy caught me and put a stop to it.

When you're a very small girl, there's something appealing about being a rhino. After all, they're big and strong and very very scary. Since I have an older sister, I need all those traits in order to survive.

Maybe I'll take up kung fu instead.

A Leafy Day

My Daddy likes to rake. He's had to rake the front yard three times this year.
And so we have a huge pile of leaves to jump through, take naps in, and play with. Check us out!

Christmas Cupcakes...or something more?

After visiting Santa, we decided to do Christmas cupcakes. My little sister brought Mommy a special tree shaped cupcake set, so we started out making tree cupcakes.

We worked together very well stirring and baking and decorating.

But the cupcakes were a special surprise for her -- they were for her birthday. 

She turned two and we had a wonderful party!

Such an exciting Birthday!

I'm turning two! Look at all these presents!

For some reason I think I look like Nanny in this picture.

And the best present of all, a purple guitar from my sister!

Our Christmas House

I love Christmas, and this year we have a special surprise for Santa -- TWO CHRISTMAS TREES -- one for me, and one for my little sister! How special is that? And look, the stockings are hung by the chimney with care, we have nutcrackers and snowmen and candles, this is going to be the best Christmas ever!

Please Santa!

Every year, Santa and his helpers come to our neighborhood to make sure that all boys and girls can pass their wishes along to the North Pole.

But I was a little worried. You see, I've been pretty naughty this year, and I'm not sure that Santa is going to bring me ANY presents at all. So you can see that I'm concerned and having a serious talk with Santa.

But my sister isn't worried at all. I don't understand it. She's been AT LEAST as naughty as I have, but there she is, sitting with him, eating a cookie, not a care in the world. Does she think cuteness counts with Santa?

I bet she gets coal.

Holiday Ho Ho Hodown

One of the girl's favorite shows is The Busicut Brothers. It kind of reminds me of Hee Haw with more music. The best part about the show is that it is filmed in north Austin and they have various events throughout the year and are wonderful about interacting with the kids at the events. Cha Cha gets so excited when she sees Rusty and Burford.

Another character on the show is a puppet named Tiny Scarecrow. At the hodown, Tiny read a poem and then some of the kids got to ask questions. Charlotte was the first kid picked to ask a question and she had the best question of the night. She asked him what does he get in his stocking. Tiny said he got more stuffing! All the kids were laughing and Charlotte loved that he talked to her.

The Outtakes

As every parent knows, getting one picture to use for a Christmas card is next to impossible. We must have taken 150 pictures to get one we could use. Here are some of my favorite outtakes from the afternoon.

"look at the camera....or the rocks....or blow your nose"


"hug your sister, not a choke hold"


"say cheese"


"go stand by the longhorn...or pick up dirt"
"

Deck the Halls

The day after Thanksgiving it was time to trim the trees and get ready for Santa to come to town. Charlotte and Jane were a big help decorating the trees. It was a lot of fun this year to watch them.

LIghting of the Christmas Tree

We took the kids out to the Domain a few weeks back and met up with Prince Thomas. The kids had a great night; so did us parents.

Cha Cha Cheerleader

Tonight at Jake's football game Charlotte got to go down on the field and cheer with the "charmleaders" as she calls them.  She had a wonderful time and was so excited.  Uncle Russ even told her good job over the loud speaker as he announced the game!

a day at the park

It is finally cooling off here and it was a great day to go fly a kite. The girls were really excited to fly the kite, until they saw the playground at the park and they were off to play.

Jane was totally fearless. She went down all the big slides and loved every minute of it.

Cheesey Complications

Tonight Jane wanted to put the parmesan cheese on her dinner by herself. I think she got so excited she tried to reach into the container and get the cheese out with her fingers rather than shake it out. Then she got very mad that her fingers got stuck.


A little soap and water and her fingers slid right out...problem solved.