Hairtastic

Around here things have been a little bit hairtastic (I totally made that word up).  We have been waiting for Raleigh's hair to grow.  I just want to be able to do something with it instead of the side swept bow.  We have watched in envy as many of her friends sport their cute ponytails and pig tails.  Yesterday we tried putting her hair up for the first time in a long time.  She wasn't a big fan until she could put two bows in her hair....then she suddenly became a model.  We have definitely entered the phase of the "dog ears."  Yippee!!!  We are so pumped.

This is the look of "what do you need Mommy?"

Her model face.  Ha!

Donuts with Dads

Recently at school, Raleigh had a special event....Donuts with Dads!!  Having donuts with her favorite person in the world was the perfect start to her day.  They had a great time.  The kids and teachers were supposed to wear ties as a tribute to their dads.  Our fashionista decided that she wanted nothing to do with the tie.  It wasn't cute.  Even with the sparkly shoes and sparkly headband we wanted nothing to do with the tie.

If you look close you can barely see her tie.  Something totally worth being upset over.  That girl!!! 

Christmas in Houston

After all of our Christmas festivities were completed in Dallas, we headed to Houston to see my side of the family.  It was insane (for lack of better words)!!!  We had so much fun seeing our family, especially the great grandparents.  Raleigh had the best time hanging out with Ellie and Mason and holding cute baby Mollie (just one time).  This was the first Christmas at Mimi and Pop's new house, luckily no one fell in the pool or got their head stuck in the stairwell, so it was a success!!  Since moving to Dallas, we don't get a chance to see my side of the family as much, so this was much needed family time.  Raleigh can't wait to see everyone again.

Raleigh opening presents in her pj's.

 So excited to get her own grocery cart with groceries!!

 The newest addition to the family (Matthew and Carrie's).  Meet Mollie Sue.  It looks as though she is loving Aunt NaNa's signature lovie gift.

 We had to immediately read one of her new books from Mimi and Pop.

 Aunt NaNa and J.B. got a quick hug for the Mickey Mouse movie....who looks like they need a nap in this picture??

So excited about her shape puzzle!!  Her new favorite shape is the triangle.  Some days, we will only eat food that is in the shape of triangles.

 Mimi opening presents and multitasking....yes, that is a sleeping baby on her lap!!

 The girls opening their big presents together....

 The boys enjoyed playing with one of Mason's presents.  Ha!!

The girls eating breakfast together at their table.  There was a little dispute over who got what color chair, but after we got over that, it was all smiles!! 

Raleigh and Mason "just hanging out." 

Raleigh somehow convinced everyone to push her around in "Ruby" the red car....even her great grandfather papaw!!

Merry Christmas!!

I know this seems a little bit odd at this time of the year to say, but Merry Christmas!!!  I know Christmas and the New Year season have come and gone, and you have yet to see pictures of our family.  I would apologize, but it seems if you read our blog, you have gotten used to our delayed updates.  I do want to apologize that we didn't send out Christmas cards this year.  It honestly made me so sad.  We moved at the beginning of December, and with all of the Christmas craziness, it just didn't happen.  Amidst all of the  parties and boxes (we are just now finishing unpacking), we had a wonderful Christmas.  Sadly, we didn't have time to get our tree up (you know that I am an all or nothing kind of girl), but fortunately Raleigh didn't seem to mind.  The girl was totally focused on her presents!  Ha!

Raleigh opening her "less exciting" presents...clothes.

Sparkly shoes....a little bit more exciting.

She loved playing with her Elefun game (you can see the post of the video of her screaming).  We haven't quite got the concept of her catching the butterflies yet, but she loves to wave her net and scream!!!

She played aka screamed so hard playing her new favorite game, that she need a rest.  Ha!!

Meet Mr. Wiggles the worm.  The best way to ride him you ask??  With 3D glasses of course!!!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

One of our family traditions is celebrating Jesus' birthday.  We bake cupcakes, sing "Happy Birthday," and open one birthday present (new pajamas).  We normally do this on Christmas Eve, but we were running a little behind, so we did it yesterday.  Raleigh was such a great helper.  We have a video of her singing and telling baby Jesus, "Happy day, Jesus!!"  As soon as we can get that uploaded we will.

Raleigh helping bake the cupcakes.

Miss Independent icing the cupcakes!

Choosing the right color sprinkles is a must!!!

Blowing out the candle.

Yum!!

Enjoying cupcakes with Daddy!!

Our tower of birthday cupcakes.

We scream for...Butterflies!!

One of Raleigh's presents was a game called "Elefun."  Honestly, we bought it because it would be one of the few toys that she would own that didn't make tons of noise! Ha!  The elephant blows butterflies out of its' trunk and you are supposed to catch them in your butterfly net.  Raleigh didn't get quite that far...at all.  Every time we would turn the elephant on she would say, "Here they come!!" referring to the butterflies.  She would scream, run around the room, drop her butterfly net and start fluttering her "wings" like a butterfly.  It was so funny.  After more than 30 minutes, she fell down on the floor with several butterfly nets on top of her (it is so exhausting chasing animals) and called it quits.  I have a feeling we will play another round of  elefun tomorrow!!  Here is a video of the famous butterfly catcher.

A turkey for Thanksgiving...or maybe a Halloween peacock?

 
This Halloween we needed Raleigh to be an animal from Noah's Ark (for school).  We went looking for costumes, and found several that would work.  There was the sweetest little giraffe costume that was sooo cute on her.  Our hopes of having a sweet giraffe for Halloween was quickly overturned when Raleigh girl set her eyes on the shiny, colorful peacock costume.  She was smitten!!  Until Halloween came, all she could do was talk about her peacock.  She even wanted to sleep with her costume. Ha!  We went and took some quick pictures of our precious peacock.

The precious peacock!!

Checking out that cool pumpkin.

Someone called her a chicken while we were there.  If that is the case, then she is a super cute turquoise sparkly chicken!!

If I can lift it, can we take it home??

Is there a difference between a jump and a hop?

In our world, you bet there is!!!  Allow me to explain...  if you are hopping, your feet do not come off of the ground.  Not at all....but, if you are jumping, you better believe that those feet are coming off of the ground.  If it is some good jumping, you might even scream and shout a little bit.  So funny to watch our little bunny jump!

Pink Flamingo Party

Recently the girls ministry had an event for 7th grade girls and their moms.  It was a chance for us to get to know the youngest and newest girls to the ministry and their mothers.  Plus, it is so fun!!  Everything is pink and decorated with pink flamingo's (great job Steph).  Raleigh and Clint came for a little bit.  Clint wore blue in protest, and of course RaRa looked cute.  I say the word cute, because that has become a very special word in our home lately.  Raleigh will refuse to wear anything if it is not "cute." Ha! Can you see the mess of a pretty princess that we have on our hands!!  Here are some precious pictures of RaRa:

RaRa played outside while all the girls and their moms arrived.

Check out that tutu!!! Precious!!

Flamingo's lined the sidewalk going to the front door.  Raleigh being the good host that she is, greeted every flamingo.

"Hey, how ya doing famingo?" is what she said to greet each one.

Pink Flamingo Fun!!

MUD WARS!!!

A couple of months ago, we had a big fight within the high school 380 students!!!  Not a real fight, but mud wars!!  If I had to sum it up in one word...GROSS!!!  With help from the fire department, everyone got muddy and clean (sort of).  It was so much fun!!  They do a different event like this every so often to give all high school a chance to be together (instead of their separate bible study groups) and have a lot of fun!!!

Some students got dirty...even if they didn't want to!!

Steph and some high school girls...pretty!!

Clint somehow managed to stay pretty clean!!

Some of the group after the mud

Thank you to the fire department for hosing off the kids!!