A Very Pre-K Christmas

Monday night Shelby had her Christmas program at school.  It was so cute to see her sing with her class.  She was a little nervous and played with her hair nearly the whole time.









Then today they had their party.  I was very glad it was during my "lunch break" and I could go see Shelby with her friends.  It's always funny to see how your kids act in different environments, but mostly Shelby was the same as she is at home - silly, curious, and mostly polite.

Birthday Girl

This weekend we took a quick trip down to my sister, Jordan's, house in Beaumont.  Mom and Dad came in from Utah, and Brianne, Brian, and Claire came from Louisiana and we had a 1/3 McGrath Family reunion.  I hate that we couldn't be there longer.  We always have fun when we are together!

All weekend long Joey was attached to my sister, Brianne.  We laugh because we are only 19 months apart, and all through high school people (including Jeremy) thought we were twins.  We both worked at Service Merchandise, and would be on registers next to each other, and people would do double takes all the time.  I think Joey kept getting confused.  She even called Brianne "mama" a couple times.  Actually, that worked out perfectly for us because it allowed us a chance to sneak off to our good friends', Mike and Jenny's, for a a couple hours.  It was great to be able to see them and play with baby Leia!

The cousins all had so much fun together.  They exchanged Christmas gifts, made foam gingerbread houses, and pretty much lived in dress-ups all weekend.  And of course, no visit with Grandma and Grandpa is complete without shavy-gravies and wrestling with Grandpa!

Also, today is Mom's birthday.  So glad we could spend time with this crazy lady on her special day!  Love you, Mom!

Heheheheee...Sorry, I know it's blurry, but I included it just for you, Mom!



Busy

It seems we have been pretty busy lately.  Between work, church, preschool, gymnastics, Holiday activities, scouts, sickness, traveling, chores...well, you get the idea.  Tonight I am staying up late doing laundry and packing so we can take a quick trip down to Beaumont for the weekend.  But before we go down I wanted to 1) actually make dinner tonight because it seems we have been eating out way too often lately, and 2) do another quick Christmas craft.

I'm not sure where I saw these- probably Pinterest.  I was planning on making meatloaf and mashed potatoes tonight and then I remembered this.  It really doesn't take any more effort to make this than it does regular meatloaf, and these are so much cuter!  Shelby came down and said, "We're having cupcakes?!".  I think they were a success.

For the craft, I wanted to get started on making some ornaments.  I cannot think of anything to get Jeremy's grandparents for Christmas.  They are literally the last people I need gifts for.  I finally decided that since they really don't need anything from any stores, we'd go the homemade route.  So tonight we cut out and baked the ornaments, and we'll paint, wrap, and mail them when we get back.  I think they will turn out cute!

Don't mind the half-wet half-dry hair. 

Yes, Jeremy wears his wedding ring on his middle finger.  We both need our rings re-sized.  Notice the Fleur-de-lis ornaments.  WHO DAT!

 

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Hattiesburg again this year.  As much of a pain it is to drive 18 hours in the car with the girls it is really nice to spend Thanksgiving with family (especially when you get to eat Papaw's fried turkey!).

Thursday was a fun day with lots of family and food.  It was so nice outside so all the kids got to get their energy out playing wiffle ball and with play-doh on the patio. 

I do not participate in any Black Friday shopping unless it is online, so Friday, as well as Saturday, were pretty relaxed days.  We just stayed at Papaw's house and visited with him and let the kids play.  I am so thankful we were able to spend that time with Papaw.  I loved seeing Shelby and Joey just randomly walk up to Papaw and give him a hug, or just crawl up in his lap and snuggle.

We left EARLY this morning, which I am also thankful for.  We got back early this afternoon so we had time to clean up, let the kids run around and get energy out, and just re-group for the coming week.  I love this time of year. Lots of activities going on, but all so fun!

Pre-K Thanksgiving Feast

Today was Shelby's Thanksgiving feast at school.  It was so cute to see Shelby with her friends.  They sang a cute song for the parents and then we got to sit with the kids and feast on some yummy food.  The funniest part of the whole thing was when one of the dads saw Shelby's shirt (it had her name on it), and he said to his wife, "Oh that's Shelby!  That's Jorrin's girlfriend!".  I laughed so hard.  I told Jorrin's parents how we have been teasing Shelby that Jorrin is her boyfriend (because she talks about him all the time) and how she gets so embarrassed about it.  Turns out he talks about her all the time too.  In fact, his mom is the room parent and she came over to show me a picture she took of the two of them...holding hands.  It is actually pretty cute, but what?!  I had a talk with her later this afternoon and I told her it was ok to like boys (at which point she threw her arms around me and said, "Thanks, Mom!") but that she shouldn't kiss them yet.  She said, "I know.  But when I'm married I can."  I don't want to scold her and tease her about it to the point that she doesn't want to be friends with any boys, so I'll just let it go.  Besides, they won't be at the same school next year.

Jorrin is the kid with the glasses in the left corner.

Shelby looks like she's wearing falsies.  I think she is batting her eyes at Jorrin. :)

3EB

When Jeremy and I were seniors in high school we got tickets to see Third Eye Blind.  Sadly, just before the concert we were informed it had been cancelled.  It was such a bummer.  We were really looking forward to it.

Fast forward 11 years...Jeremy found out 3EB would be playing at the Festival at the Switchyard in Carrollton...and it would be free.  Sweet!  A friend of ours was kind enough to come and watch tv while the girls slept so we could sneak out and go to the show.  We met up with one of Jeremy's (old) coworkers (who saved us a pretty good spot up near the front of the stage) and had a great time.  Well worth the 11 year wait!

As a side note, as we were driving home from the concert there was an earthquake.  I think it was like a 5.6 or something- the epicenter was about 45 mile ENE of OKC.  Of course we didn't feel anything because we were driving, but our friend who was sitting for us said it felt like someone was violently shaking the couch.  Obviously everyone was fine, and there was no damage (that we know of- I am still convinced our house was built on a sinkhole and will collapse any day now), but I am really bothered by the fact that we weren't with the girls when it happened.  What if it had been worse?  I am so paranoid anyway about leaving them, and then that kind of just confirmed my fears.  Ahhh!  Maybe I am still slightly traumatized by watching the crazy mom trying to get home to her kids woman trying to drive her car over the huge hole in the Bay Bridge after the '89 earthquake over and over and over again.

Halloween Wrap

I guess it's about time to wrap up October.  Earlier in the month we had some friends over for a little Halloween fun.  The kids painted pumpkins, painted googly-eyed glow-in-the-dark bats, had mummy dogs, and played dress up.  So fun to have good friends with kids that love to play together. 

Yeah, I look terrible.  I was super busy with work all day, then rushed around like a mad woman doing last minute clean-up and dinner prep, so no time for hair or makeup.  Just had to put that disclaimer in there.

Joey loves Jaz!



Boots!  He's my bestest little bud in nursery.

 Halloween night was pretty low key.  We met up with some of our friends from the neighborhood and went trick-or-treating.  Joey was just way too slow and was holding up all of the bigger kids, so after one street I dropped her back off to Jeremy and she helped him pass out candy to the invaders.  (Ummm...I say invaders because we literally had kids invading our house.  Jeremy was sitting on the couch.  There was no knock, no doorbell...nothing.  All of a sudden these kids just opened our door and started running in yelling, "Trick or treat!".  What the heck?!) 

I LOVE Joey's tail.

I look so much like my brother in this pic.  I love Joey's face and Shelby's red Ariel hair.

The funny thing about Shelby's costume: when Jeremy got her dressed for the ward trunk or treat he totally had the bottom layer of the skirt tucked in (on accident) so only the tulle showed.  I commented and said, "Good thing we planned on her wearing her leotard under that, there's no skirt!".  That should have clued me in to check it but I was in a rush that night.  When I got her dressed Halloween night I realized what happened.  Much more modest this time!

Also, I need to make another disclaimer.  I did not take any of these pictures.  Luckily enough, Julie, one of my good friends who lives just down the street from me, just happens to be a photographer.  I totally stole all of these pictures from her.  You know I am terrible with a camera (despite how much I would love to be able to take a decent picture).  So thank you, Julie, for documenting all of our October!