In the No-vember

Jingle Bells, Jingles Bells, Jingle all... oh wait... it's only November, sorry. I get excited. So, November! What have we done in November!? Well it's not even Thanksgiving and we've already had so much excitement! The first week of November one of my greatest and dearest friends, Katie, came to stay with us for 5 days. I haven't seen her in 3 years. In that time we've both had a baby and Kate, who's a fighter!, has battled cancer and won. So it was definitely a celebration visit.
Here we are before going to a UT basketball game -



Gwyneth and Mallory also went their FIRST birthday slumber party. They were SO excited! They packed up their sleeping bags and pillows and went over to Jillian's for some Hawaiian themed fun. They made lei's and did the limbo and watched the Pink Panther II. Which... I now realize, is not Hawaiian themed, but they still enjoyed it.

Then Gwyneth and I had a Girl's Day, just the two of us.

It was her choice, so we went to Build-A-Bear and created the newest edition to our family, "Sunshine." She's a pink Unicorn and she whinnies like a horse when you squeeze her toe. Both of us placed a wish on a heart and placed it inside Sunshine before they sewed her up. Then we gave her a bath, named her and purchased her. Then it was a mall lunch at Chick-Fil-A and then to Clair's to spend Gwyn's allowance. She bought a very cute necklace with a puppy dog on it. It was a great day!
Gwyn took a picture of her in the car


When we got home Mallory announced that she wanted her ears pierced! We had gone to a game-night the day before and there was a little buzz about our friends' daughter, Bronwyn's ear rings, and I think that did it for Mallory. So we went to Walmart because we were told they do both ears at the same time! This sounded like a great idea at the time. She picked out gold and red hearts for her studs. She did a great job for the actual moment of piercing; made narry a peep. And when we walked out of the store... well if you could walk with your ears sticking out, Mallory did it.

We later discovered that one of the hearts was low and on the outside instead of right in the center of her lobe and we made a group decision to have it redone. So Tuesday we went back to the store, removed the one ear ring and put in a new one... only this time she did peep. A big one. But they're even now, and we don't have to worry about it being all askew and giving her problems with heavier ear rings when she's older.
I think Gwyneth might have considered getting her own done (she said "maybe when I'm 14") after the first piercing because Mallory took it so well, but after the second piercing, it might just be clip-ons for life for that one.

As for miss Shawna, well she's a walker! She hasn't quite mastered the art of it and still tumbles quite a bit, but she has come to the point where she chooses to be on her feet when she wants to get around and THAT is a big deal.

Walker Texas Ranger

The picture's from my phone, so it's not great, but you get the idea!

Also, Lindsay, Dale and I ran in the Buddy's Race Against Cancer, which was a lot of fun. It was a great feeling to take part in a race that fights against a disease that has affected all of our lives in one way or another and we ran in memory of some and in celebration of others. It was amazing.
Here I am almost at the finish

All of us together at the end


On a much sadder note, we lost a dear member of our family. Jub Jub the Hamster passed away. His life with us was short, but I have a feeling that it was as joyous a time for him as it was for us. We held a small, informal ceremony at the top of the hill. We said a few words, a prayer and buried our friend. Gwyneth took a moment by herself to say her own prayer for Jub. He is with Girlie up in Heaven now and he was buried next to Girlie's memorial rock and soon, he will have his own rock.
Jub Jub, you will be missed my furry little friend.


On a much lighter note, we will be driving up to Loren's and Scott's for Thanksgiving. We can't wait to meet little Owen and take LOTS of pictures!!! So until then, Happy Thanksgiving family and friends. We are so thankful to share our lives with each and every one of you.


And here's a little present for reading to the end - This is a video of Shawna in the car listening to (I THINK) Mariah Carey. She loves to say uh-oh and will sing any song that has that phrase in it. See if you can hear her over her sisters... Check out the rhythm! She gets that from her mom.

OCTOBER!!

October came and went so fast I barely had time to overdo it with the Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks! There were three birthdays, a jewelry party, a wedding, a Halloween party, two visits to the pumpkin patch AND tricks or treats... which means a trip to Imagination Station for Costume Creation. It was a busy time to say the least!

One of my dearest friends, Angie, announced she was getting married on October 24th, which just happened to be the same weekend as Shawna's 1st birthday. Knowing that she'd be devastated if I wasn't there (okay, okay - probably more like, I'd be devastated if I missed it) we decided to travel to Austin for the big day. Gwyneth had school and benchmark testing that week and Neal couldn't take off work, so Mallory, Shawna and I packed up and headed to Gramma and Pop Pop's for 5 days. We had so much fun! Mallory and Shawna were GREAT on the plane! Just GREAT. Friday we had a birthday party for Shawna. Mike and Samantha came over with cousin Chris and we ate Macaroni Grill and Shawna had her birthday cupcake (the pumpkin, of course!) Even though I tried to run interference on the cupcake fiasco, it was still a mess!! You can see I was really enjoying the fact that Gramma and Pop Pop didn't have a high chair! Chris brought along his Halloween costume, too! Mallory was not too sure about it... I took Mallory outside with the flashlight and we took a scary picture of our own! Then Mallory and Mike gambled... for money while Chris kept showing Mallory magic tricks that involved a quarter. By the end of the night Mallory had padded her college fund nicely, and Mike and Chris were broke! Suckers!!
Shawna had a great party! Then it was pumpkin patch time. Our first trip to the pumpkin patch was so much fun! We found a church with a wonderful selection of pumpkins laid out everywhere. Shawna had so much fun playing in them while Mallory ran around.Saturday was the day of the wedding. I took my dad along as my date and we had much fun. We didn't take too many pictures and the ones we did get didn't turn out all that super, but we did manage to weasel our way into sitting at the family table. We had a wonderful time with Troy and Angie's parents and the Pastor that married them. We have no shame. Here we are at the wedding
Here was an attempt at getting a picture of my favorite moment of the party where Troy played the guitar and he, Angie and TJ sang "Anyone Else But You" from the Juno soundtrack. It brought tears - really a great moment.Sunday it was back home! We had such a wonderful time in Texas that when we got packed up and out the door we realized at the airport, much to my horror, that we had left the diaper bag at the house!!! My dad pulled a Mario Andretti to get back to the house. He had 40 minutes to get there and back in time - it was IMPOSSIBLE. As the plane was pulling away from the gate a very nice flight attendant started shoving something under my legs saying, "I think this belongs to you." I almost had a heart attack. I later learned that my mom was bouncing around the airport like OJ Simpson in a Hertz commercial. My folks are amazing. So I didn't have to fly all day with no bottles, snacks or diapers! Phew!

At home in Knoxville we had another trip to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. Another fun, fun day!!

When it was time for trick or treating, we were ready! Shawna was an 80's punk rocker
Mallory was Ariel from Little Mermaid (sort of) And Gwyneth was the awesomest costume ever - the Macaroni and Cheese box! Complete with Nutritional Info on the side... and it was accurate! Here is Shawna getting her first (and only) trick or treat candy. It rained pretty good that night, so the candy collection was limited and the kids all ended the night looking like wet rats, but they had fun. Of course they all have coughs and mild temps now, too.

In case you were wondering what Neal and I were for my Halloween birthday party, we were Mother Nature and Father Time