Christmas at the McAlister's

As a child, every Christmas my Mom decorated the house inside and out with lavish christmas trees, animated figures, and singing Santas!  I know thats not what Christmas is all about, but through the eyes of a child, all those decorations smeared from wall to wall made Christmas feel that much more special.

Now, as an adult, I want to give Brenna those same happy memories.  So, like every year before this, we pulled out all the decorations and got to work.  This year was even more enjoyable, since Brenna played a much bigger part.  She "helped" so much that what is normally a 2-day job, turned into 3.  But that's ok, she had so much fun this year putting up the Christmas tree, decorating it, and hanging the stockings.  She took a particular liking to my collection of Christmas bells (which she kept calling cow bells!).  Here's a few pictures of the start of our McAlister Christmas.

Brenna's First Game of Bowling

Brenna recently took notice of the game of bowling after a very interesting episode of Curious George.  After several requests, we decided it was time to hit the lanes.  Several things surprised me about our trip to the bowling alley.

#1  They had bowling shoes small enough to fit Brenna
#2  Even the bowling alley is on the hi-tech wagon with bowling bumpers that pop in and out of the gutters for the appropriate bowler.
#3  Niether Jacob or Marcus were as good as they had proclaimed (ok, maybe that one didn't surprise me)
#4  Up unitl the last 3 frames of the 1st game, Brenna actually beat Uncle Marcus, he just got lucky at the end.

Here's a few pictures from our game.

The Holidays Are Here!

Well, we've been busy!  With visitors and shopping and Christmas decorating!  So there's been little time for pictures.  But we did manage to sneak in one very important one!

Grand Parkway Baptist Church Fun on the Farm!

Every year our church hosts a "Fun on the Farm" day just for our preschoolers.  One of our members has a beautiful home and farm in Fulsher, where they let the kids run wild in the wide open, literally!  They have fishing, wagon rides, hay rides, swings, crafts, food, and fun!  As usually, Brenna had a great time and enjoyed the company of her Sunday School friends.  Here's a few pictures from the day.

The Things Kids Say.......

Today I broke down and made my twice annual visit to Merle Norman.  I only go after I'm wiping the last drop of my foundation out of the container lid and cautiously using the broken pieces of rouge in my compact.  It's always a last ditch effort.

I hate going to Merle Norman for a couple of reasons:

Halloween

We'll this year was different than previous years!  It was alot more fun!  This was the first year Brenna picked what she wanted to be.  And the winner was Minnie Mouse!  Nobody was surprised given her recent Mickey Mouse Clubhouse devotion.  This year we did more of the traditional halloween activities, with a visit to the pumpkin patches and pumpkin painting.  Brenna understood all about Trick-or-Treating and was excited all day.  In her words she wanted to "Fill my treat bag all the way up to the top!"  So just before dark, we rounded up the troops and hit the street!  Our kids ran from house to house knocking on doors, ringing door bells, and happily letting themselves into all the neighbors house to help themselves to their Candy Buckets, sometimes more than once!

After we made our rounds, we retreated back to the house, where Brenna would run the door at every knock yelling "Trick-A-Treaters Mama!  Trick-A-Treaters!"  And then she would dump hand-fulls of candy treats in their bags!  All our "Big Kid" friends stopped by after dark for candy and to visit.

Brenna had a great night and thanks to a couple of carefully selected candy treats washed down with a juice box, it also turned into a late night.  She was too excited to sleep.  She wanted to talking about all the trick-a-treaters she see saw, Buzz Light Year, Woody, and Cody the neighbors dog that was dressed up like a cow!  Her eyes finally closed and I'm sure she dreamed of candy corn and painted pumpkins.

Pumpkin Painting

Instead of pumpkin carving, we decided to do something alittle less messy and more "little hands" friendly, pumpkin painting!  Brenna got together with her friends next door and they decorated pumpkins.

Dewberry Farms

We got together with a couple of friends and went with our church to Dewberry Farm.  Dewberry is a working farm that's created something like an amusement park country style!  Complete with pig races, rudder duck floats, petting zoo, jack-o-lantern forrest, hay rides, pumpkin picking, a tractor train, hay bail jumping, and much, much, more.  This was our first trip and I didn't really know what to expect.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Our kids had a great time!  There was plenty to do and even though we spent all day there, we still didn't get to everything.  The farm is open to the public only on the weekends, and then it opens to private groups and school field trips on the week day.  Our driver on the hay ride told us they move about 1,100 people though each weekday and 16,000 on the weekends!  Fortunately, we went during the weekday and had low crowds and great weather.  Here's the shots for the day!