Fabulous fall funtivities

Now that the holiday season has begun, let's do a wrap up of October and November.  The year is flying by and I'm so excited that Christmas is around the corner.  It is my FAVORITE time of year.  I could just have Christmas all the time — I love everything about it!!!
      So what did Fall bring us this year? A hurricane that brought us cooler weather and lots of rain, and lots of sickness! I'm going to have to say that October beat November in the fun memory activities.
     In October we got to pick pumpkins, bake goodies, stay inside for a 3 day storm watch and have school and church canceled. We also started Solana in gymnastics 2 days a week and soccer 2 days a week! She loves them both! And even though gymnastics comes more naturally to her, she still really enjoys soccer so far.  Plus I love how busy the mornings are with fun activities.
    November has been a rough one. First we lost the election! And at the same time that they were announcing that Obama had one Ohio, Solana started throwing up everywhere! (And Adam was at an intramural football game, that they lost!)  Oh it was a depressing night for sure!  After the flu, she ended up having a cough and cold that lasted weeks, that turned into an ear infection (her first one) and Adam had to take her over to urgent care after he dropped me off at work, where she cried and fell asleep on the exam room bed.
   I on the other hand had been the day before to urgent care for my soon to be bronchitis.  Let's just have a round of antibiotics for everyone! November was a hot mess for sure.  Good thing we are finally getting better, and Thanksgiving was relaxing and enjoyable.  Now Adam starts finals and then in 3 weeks we are off to Utah for a fabulous 3 week vacation!!

Here are the the highlights!

Halloween:

Waiting for the donut eating contest to begin.  He might have won it.  (Clarification: Adam says he did win it.)

All dressed up for the halloween party.  Adam went as an occupy wall street protester and I went as the top 1 percent.  We thought the irony was pretty funny. 

 For the halloween party at the church, she wanted to dress as Angelina ballerina.  She even brought her stuffed mouse (it was mine as a kid) and she had so much fun.  Of course my favorite thing about the costume is the mouse ears.  I stayed up so late one night making these things (after driving all over town trying to find something) It was my first halloween craft. Gotta start small right?

This face just cracks me up, I have no idea if this is her new smile, but I had to make her laugh so she would stop smiling like that. She is one silly girl. 

This one is much better. 

Her favorite costume of course was Ming Ming the duckling from the Wonder Pets show.  For like 6 or more months we really thought she thought she was Ming Ming.  I would call her name and she would correct me and say, "No I'm Ming Ming!" as a response to everything. 

Here is my daughter's role model in case you don't know Ming Ming. lol

Out trick or treating with friends—she is obviously very proud of her candy.

She finally got to go trick or candy with her best friend Abigail.  They ran around holding hands all night.  It was pretty darn cute!

November: 

What do you do when your not feeling well? Make some cookies.  Lately Solana has been asking for cookies, when I tell her we don't have any, she simply says "Well...make some, Mommy."

Usually she requests chocolate, but I have no desire for chocolate, so sugar cookies it was, and she was so great about helping me bake them.  She even sneezed on the dough to claim which ones were hers.  

I love that when she finds my phone, she either goes to the Netflix app or takes photos.  I didn't even know she had taken this one.  Just another paint project.....my new desk!

This one is her best yet.  I think she was actually trying to take of a picture of her shoe, but I figured in case she had good aim I better make it count.  She actually got me in there, and it was not blurry! 

 

Thanksgiving day was so great and relaxing, but last minute I decided to make a table arrangement that required some leaves and sticks. So Solana was very excited for the task of finding such great things.  

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

The Long Awaited Shower!

It finally happened! Brooke and Daniel are having a baby girl.  Due to arrive 12-12-12! This little girl has been LONG awaited (6 plus years of so), so of course we needed to throw her the best shower possible!! As soon as we found out it was a girl, Brittany and I started planning early, and it's a good thing we did, because I don't believe we could have thrown this together quickly.  Brittany decided to buy stock in Etsy and take over that department while I attacked Pinterest for ideas.  It was a fail proof plan. We had a couple of hiccups, like neither one of us living in Utah while trying to plan it there, but my mom and sisters were great about helping out.  

The shower was a great success.  Brooke had a great turnout of family and friends, and the food, desserts, and gifts were all fabulous.  We just wanted Brooke to feel like it was the most special day for her and her baby—some things are worth waiting for, and this little one will be no exception.  

Dessert anyone?! 

We were pretty in love with this table, it just screamed indulge me! 

Brittany painted the sign! She is so creative, and she put together these great thank you gifts for the guests, lotion and soaps in these ever so adorable fabric bags. 

The party crew before the shower.  Carol and Alec came out from Irvine, and Brittany and Addie came from San Diego. The rest of the family already lives in Utah and they were able to help in a huge way.  I flew out SOLO for the weekend and had a blast.  I have not flown solo since having Solana (so, 2.5 years). 

The tables were my favorite, they were decked out with pink and peach linens, and we used gold chargers and gold silverware.  I loved the color combo!

The fireplace was perfect for the gift area, and it was very chilly that morning, so it also came in handy.

 

Aren't these parasols gorgeous?! Brittany ordered them in white and then she spray painted them in all different shades of the shower and then stenciled them. They were perfect for our centerpiece display.

Mmmmm....The Sweet Tooth Fairy in Utah did an incredible job on the desserts. I highly suggest it. 

Brooke was the first guest to arrive, and she was pretty excited about it all.  

Grandma to be of Brooke's first baby. 

These two could have not been any cuter together, and it made me miss Solana so much, she would have had so much fun with them.  But we are taking a family trip to Utah at Christmas, so she will get to see her cousins then. 

          Beautiful cousins Calyn and McKenna.                 Love me my Hunter and Alina, they were on                                   

                                                                                       our set up crew and saved us getting it all ready. 

                       

Lovin' that food table. 

Brittany, Mom, Brooke and I.  Are we growing up or what? Britt turns 30 this year! I can't believe how fast time is flying.

          Good thing we had Addie to sample                       These two could be sisters and they aren't 

              the cupcakes, she approved!                                even related by blood, just marriage. Love 

                                                                                                        those auburn girls. 

Brooke got some fabulous gifts.  She said to me "All my gifts were great, I don't even need to return anything!" Now that is one great gift all in itself. 

Yay we pulled it off! Adam had suggested we go into the party planning business, but Britt and I both said nay, its too stressful! Especially when it's family and you want it to be perfect for them. 

But whoever has a shower next (not me!) we are going to just have it catered and hire a party planner! lol

Row Your Boat

We have been trying a new thing this semester, instead of failing on going out on regular date nights each week (like we did last year), we decided to do every other week, and the week that we are not on a date, we do a fun family activity.  So since the weather finally cooled off a bit, we decided to head down the road a whole 5 minutes from our house and take some boats out on the lake. Waller Mill Park is great because you can rent either a kayak or paddle boat or row boat for 5 bucks.  So we picked a row boat since we had Solana with us, and even though we had no idea what we were doing in the beginning, we loved it once we got the hang of it.  I really shouldn't claim that I did anything in this process, since Adam was the one sweating while rowing, and even Solana helped him more than I did, so I really was the lazy one along for the ride. (But I did take photos.) We had a blast for an hour, and the time limit was perfect because Miss Wiggly-Pants was getting bored in the boat and was becoming more interested in playing in the water.