Happy Birthday Mema

On Saturday we had a surprise 60th birthday party for Steve's Mom in Corpus.  She knew her family was coming in to celebrate but had no idea that some of her friends were going to show up too.  We had lots of fun celebrating her and making memories together! 

Grandpa, Aunt Donna, and Uncle Jerome came in Friday afternoon and stayed with us then we all headed down to Corpus for the party on Saturday.   On the way down, we stopped at the wind farm and were able to pull right up to one of the HUGE windmills.  Grandpa had a lot of fun checking out the windmill.  It was really hard to get a shot of him and the whole windmill together since they are so HUGE!  What a neat experience for all of us!

Sydnee and Grand-Papa cookin up some breakfast!

Aunt Donna, Uncle Jerome, and Grand-Papa with Sydnee



The birthday girl!
(Papa, Mema, Grandpa, Aunt Donna, Uncle Jerome, & Makayla ran in to be in the pic too!)



Grand-Papa with the Grandkids and Great Grandkids
(Josh, Steph, and Makayla, Grandpa, Michelle, Steve, and Sydnee)

Grandpa with wind farm in background

Grandpa had to check it out

Looking up from the bottom

Panoramic shot of wind farm

Panoramic shot of birthday party

Lots of yummy food!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  In Everything Give Thanks!  We are so thankful to God for our precious family, our health, our wonderful friends, Steve's job, our move to San Antonio in a few weeks, and God's constant provisions and blessings for our family. 

We spent Thanksgiving Day in Corpus with Mema, Papa, Stephanie, Josh, and Makayla.  Sydnee and Makayla were so cute playing together.  While we were there, we also celebrated an early Christmas since we won't be together this year.  Here are a few cute pics we got that day.

"Hi Ki-ka" (That's what Sydnee says to Makayla)

Helping Papa open his Christmas present.

Makayla giving Sydnee her present.

Sydnee opening her present.

The girls had a blast playing with these bowls.  They made for fun hats!

Macee's Princess Party

Macee turned 3 and to celebrate she had a princess party!  Sydnee and I traveled to Austin for the day to celebrate with Macee and her friends and family.  All the girls dressed up like princesses and they were so cute together (unfortunately, I did not get a picture of all the girls at her party).  Here are a few pictures that were taken that day. 

Sydnee at home before leaving for Austin. 
She was so excited to go as you can tell by the cheesy smile!

Macee the princess got a new bike for her birthday and she rode it like a champ!

Haylie and Sydnee played so cute together.

Macee helping the guys assemble her new doll house!

Max wanted a ride too!

Trick-or-Treating

Steve was working on Halloween night and instead of sitting at the house while truck-loads (literally) of people (not just kids...teens and adults too) were dropped off in our neighborhood to get FREE candy, the McDaniel's invited Sydnee and me to go to their GATED neighborhood and hang out with them where just the neighborhood kids roam.   So, we did and Dean insisted that we take Sydnee to a few neighbors to get some candy.  (I really think he just wanted to go check it all out and needed a kid to take as an excuse.) There were so many parents that dressed up to hand out candy to the kids...it was really cute.

You would've thought Sydnee had gone trick-or-treating before because she acted like she knew exactly what to do...walk up to peoples houses, take candy, walk away eating it, make a big sticky mess, and grab Mommy's hair while giving her a big hug!

It was hilarious to watch her eat a Tootsie Pop. She didn't let go of that thing till I took it away when it was just a soggy stick. Here are a few pictures of her that night.

Digging for her favorite candy!

Walking down the street while sucking on her tootsie pop!

Trick-or-Treat!

Big leaves=Big fall fun!

Ya-Ba Da-Ba-Dooooo!



Sydnee as Pebbles!



Isaiah as Bam Bam!



We had a lot of fun at Parkway's Fall Fest this year.  Sydnee dressed up as Pebbles and her friend, Isaiah dressed up as Bam-Bam!  I made their costumes and I think they turned out great and the kids looked super cute.  I really tried to get a picture of them together, but it was quite a challenge since all they wanted to do was run in opposite directions. 

Our small group was in charge of the soda ring toss booth this year so we worked the Fall Festival the entire time and Steve and I took turns watching Sydnee run around everywhere.  Some of the highlights for her included riding a tricycle, jumping in the moon bounce, sliding down the BIG inflatable slide, dancing to music, playing on the playground before the festival started, going swimming (well at least attempting too until Mommy caught her as her foot went in) in the ice water pool that held drinks for our game, stealing other kids balloons, eating a corn dog and some Smarties, and just running free! 



Although it was a long day, we all had fun!  Now, what to dress up as next year???

"Hi Hay-di"

Sydnee loves saying "HI" to everyone and everything. It's so cute to hear her sweet little voice say "Hi ____" when we are walking into a store or playing at the park. Sydnee was able to play with her cousin, Haylie, for a few days when Steve was out of town. She tries really hard to say her name and it sounds something like "Hay-di".   We took the girls to a pumpkin patch, the park, and the zoo.  Here are a few pics of them playing together.

Rocking together (Sydnee calls it "swi"= swinging)

Playing a duet on the piano

Pumpkin Patch

Haylie Loved Swinging at the Park

Sydnee showing off her tongue

Brushing the goats at the petting zoo

Sydnee and a goat in a stare down.

Caught You Red Handed!

Sydnee's already stealing Daddy's money!  Let's go shopping lil girl!

She found Daddy's wallet laying on the side table and thought it would be a fun "toy" to play with!

BIG Slide = BIG Fun!

This past weekend we took Sydnee to a few local parks to play on the playgrounds. She LOVED it! We walked her right up to the little slide and she immediately saw the BIG slide and ran right over to it. Steve followed her up the stairs and helped her get on the slide and she slid down to me. I think she has a little bit of her Daddy in her because she has NO FEAR! This has now become one of our new favorite outings that we do several times a week. One day it will be nice to have our own playground in the back yard, but for now, this will do!

(For some reason, she was grinding her teeth the whole time so that's why she's making funny faces in these pics...new teeth on the way I guess!)

New Favorite Play Spot

One of Sydnee's new favorite spots to play in is the shelving area on our kitchen island. When she became mobile, we took the stuff off the shelves, then when she could walk, she liked to try and take out the shelves, so we removed them. Now it's just an empty space that she likes to sit in and play. She really likes to collect toys and store them in here then sit with them. She also enjoys "hiding" here and popping out to play "peek-a-boo"!