A Day at the Galleria

Daddy was back to work today and we decided we had to go the mall and find Santa. We invited MawMaw, Nanny, Aunt Kat and another family friend and off to the mall we went in a mini van. We were a sight to see but all-in-all it was a great trip and we accomplished all we set out to do, and then some!

First, Santa was going on break for 1 1/2 hours when we arrived so we made our way to Build a Bear (K2's first experience) and the girls had a great time making "Katie" and "Hollie". Here they are getting stuffed:




Here they are jumping around to prepare the animals' hearts:


And, lastly, bathing them and cleaning them all up:


Then, we shopped a little bit and made our way to Chick-fil-A for lunch - guess who was there? the Cow!


Next it was time for Santa's return so we waited our turn in line and finally got to sit on his lap and tell him our wishes (remembered a few we forgot to mention but I promised we could write him a 'follow up letter') and snap a couple of pictures:




Then, K1 remembers seeing a man at a kiosk who was "curling" little girls' hair - so we went there and got some curls:




Lastly, we couldn't leave the Galleria without a ride on the reindeer carousel -




It was a great day and we are continuing to enjoy our extended Holiday weekend and feeling completely blessed to have our health and our family to share such sweet memories with - hope you are doing the same!

Decorating for Christmas

Today has been a great day - although it's always fun to spend time with family it was sweet to get up today and have no where to go - we have not left the house all day. We did some much needed clean up and after the Iron Bowl (ala vs auburn game) we started decorating for Christmas.

The girls' MawMaw made them these awesome "Ornament Boxes" and they rock. Each girl has her own box and that is where she keeps her Christmas ornaments and "nick nacks". They had SO much fun decorating the tree with their very own ornaments.



Of course, little one puckered out and couldn't stay up to watch all of the excitement while Daddy stayed in his recliner watching the movie, Elf.


We made these wonderful brownies during all of the fun and had a great evening kicking off our Holiday Season.


As for the outside of our house, several years ago Heath and I came upon a man on the side of the road selling yard decorations and I HAD to have these angels (little did I know that one day we'd have 3 angels of our own). We've had them several years and the halos and words needed some touch up this year so K1, K2 and I painted them - it turned out pretty good for the three of us!



So, (other than the two bushes that have grown so large they're taking over our house) we think it's a pretty good start for the Calvert Abode!

Hope your Holiday Season is off to a great start!

It's Been Awhile!

It's been a few weeks since our last update so I thought I'd quickly recap. K3 turned 10 months old and has started taking a few steps on her own:


K2 was able to make a grand return to the sport of soccer (she broke her arm after the 2nd practice but due to the many rain delays the season went longer than expected and she actually got to play in 3 games, she was very excited - check her out, #3)




It was cold at the soccer field but the family enjoyed watching:



K1 had her annual cheerleading competition and her squad came in 2nd place - they were beat by a squad that did a tribute to Michael Jackson and all the girls wore a glove on one hand - it was definitely creative and a crowd pleaser.

Heath and I got away to Nashville for a night last week and enjoyed our trip to the CMA Awards. It was a different experience for us and was really neat to be part of a live TV production and in the same "house" with so many famous entertainers. It was neat to see Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood but my favorites were George Strait and Martina McBride doing a tribute to Barbara Mandrell. I think I'll always have a liken' for Barbara Mandrell, Dolly Parton, Ronnie Milsap and Kenny Rogers. Speaking of Kenny, do you remember that song "Lucille"? I think I was literally in my 20's before I realized that he wasn't saying "four hundred children and a crop in the field". Too funny!

Have a great night!

Boo!!

Well, after much pondering the girls decided what they wanted to be for Halloween - K1 immediately knew she wanted to be a Genie and K2 (after we couldn't find a monkey costume) decided to be a bride, but not before she dressed up like Tinkerbell for her school party.



K3, at mommy's selection, was a banana
and Mommy just reached to the darkest, deepest corner of my closet and pulled out some old black leather pants and threw on some other black stuff (including the hat). I asked Heath what I looked like, hoping my costume would bear some sort of a character; unfortunately, his reply was "a dork". But, as usual, the girls pulled through and appreciated my lame attempt to dress up - K2 decided I looked like "a driver". I'm not sure what that means but I'll take it over a dork any day, ha!




I didn't get out of the house without surprising K2 by wearing my wedding dress so we could be "bride's together" for a picture - she loved it (it happened very quickly as I wasn't able to "suck it in" for very long). We had a fabulous night, the neighborhood is always filled with hundreds of kids and our girls idea of trick-or-treating is just as much about giving out candy as it is about receiving it themselves!




Hope you had a great time - Happy November!