Dancing through December

Here we are on a very cold day in Houston and sweet Mia had her first dance recital...really a dance "demo" to show the parents where their hard earned money is going to....Our little ballerina was so cute!  First they did a ballet portion....

Then after a quick costume change it was onto tap...

Overall it went great.  Not surprisingly Mia was talking through the whole thing - following directions here and there but really just laughing through the entire recital and so excited to have family there watching her moves.

And speaking of moves - our little Morgan is now officially crawling.  She can most certainly get where she wants but hasn't yet started moving at a speed where we can't catch her - THANK GOD!  I know that day will come soon!  

On the road again

We (Mat, the girls, Grandmom Paula and Ben) hit Dallas last weekend to visit Mat's cousins, Drew/Christy, their darling new baby Velvie, and of course Aunt Terri/Uncle Bill.  It was so funny to see Morgan and Velvie together.  Morgan's 2 months older and when you put them together they just kind of stare at each other.   Morgan also kept wanting to grab Velive and I think if I could have heard her thoughts Morgan would have been saying, "I want to put your hand in my mouth, ok maybe just a finger, anything?!"  EVERYTHING goes into her mouth these days...she's even gotten a little munch out of mom's arm and that isn't so much fun for me!  

Here's just a really cute shot of the girls.  Mia sure loves her little sister and Morgan is just fine as long as Mia's around....and not messing with her too much :)

Halloween high

We're still recovering from our Halloween high!  Since Halloween here's what our day has been like...mommy, can i have some candy?  no, not until later.  few minutes pass.  mommy, now can i have some candy? no! not until after we eat...breakfast, du-oh!  should have said lunch...heck, really should have said dinner then we wouldn't have to go through that little scenario every 10 minutes!  mia had a blast!  this year she rocked the "trick-o-treating" thing.  we went with some neighbors and she was the first one to the door each time.  sweet morgan just chilled in the stroller and enjoyed the nice evening air.  now on to thanksgiving and christmas...so much fun to come!

daddy and his girls.  

mia taking a break.

mia enjoying her first piece of her loot.  funny enough - a tootsie pop was also the first/only candy she had on her first trick or treating trip when she was 18 months. 

Good times in Oct.

Last weekend was just about perfect.  We watched UT take a win over OU - hook em!!!!!  Mat was a good sport, as always and of course we continued our tradition of having the girls where the colors of whichever team won the previous year.  So although they were dressed in OU - Mia was still chanting Go Horns Go...along with boomer sooner which she just learned this year. 

Then we were off to a halloween festival for some games and pumpkin picking.  Mia had a blast with the games and of course she worked very hard at finding the perfect pumpkin.  Morgan was a sport and happily went along for the ride...even having her own turn looking at the sea of orange pumpkins.

Sweet sisters

How great to have a sister!  Morgan has started watching Mia wherever she goes and no one can make Morgan laugh more than her big sister....very cute!  Fortunately, Mia tries to be the big helper more often than not.  She's a great big sis...i'm sure the days of bickering and fighting will come but for now they're just the cutest together!

Oh and we've been having such fun watching Morgan get more curious about the world around her.  She tried out her excer-saucer the other day and LOVED it...for about 15 minutes that is and then she was ready to get out!  And after that she just decided to show off her best toothless grin with daddy. 

Lots of family fun and great memories

We just got back from the Thompson family reunion in the Hill Country and we had so much fun we were all completely worn out when we got home.  Mia had soooo many cousins to run around with and she's finally old enough to be able to go off and play with the big kids without having us to be right there with her.  I remember doing that with my cousins and man oh man the fun we had.  It was a great way to spend the labor day weekend and Mat's 33rd birthday. 

And of course Morgan was passed from cousin to cousin, aunts to uncles and she was just happy as could be...her usual smiley self. 

Preschool here I come

Mia started her first day of preschool on Wednesday, Aug. 20.  She's going to First Baptist Academy and she'll go on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8 to 3, which is the longest she's ever been in school.  Last year, she went to a cute little Montessori school in the heights two days a week from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. She seemed to enjoy her first day of her new school, particularly her new uniform.  Oddly, she was excited at the thought of having a "nap" time at school.  She actually kept giggling about it and saying, "why will i sleep there - how silly."  Her good pal Quinn is in her same class.  Quinn is the little girl who shared a nanny with Mia for her first two years...then they went to the Montessori school together and now they're at First Baptist. What a trip they are together!  Those poor teachers have no idea how much chaos our sweet girls can cause :)

Just L-I-V-I-N'

That's what the girls have been doing this summer - just livin'.  Here are some recent favorite shots.  I mean seriously, can I go back to being a kid b/c they know how to have some serious fun....like spending a good hour building a castle out of cups. 

or getting SO excited to be in the tub....

or monkeying around at the zoo...

or hanging out with your sister!

Fun on the Frio

A couple of weeks ago we headed to the Texas Hill Country for the Mir family's annual vacation on the Frio River in Concan, TX.  We had a beautiful house this year which had an amazing deck that looked over the river and the hill country. 

Since I had my hands full I didn't take many pix when we were actually on the river, my mom took care of those, so all the pics here are from the deck.  Here's Mat and Mia enjoying smores!  YUMMMMMMMMMMM!!!! 

And of course since we were out of the city - there were trillions of stars out each night and Mia loved star gazing with Popo and Buela.  It's so relaxing out there - such a great time, as usual!

Look what I can do!

When Morgan was 3 months she started being able to roll over to her side - I knew then that it was only a matter of time before she made it all the way over.  

And right before she turned 4 months, - she did it!  Lord help us, it won't be long before she's crawling after her big sister.  

Learning to love the mall

We hit the Woodlands mall last weekend and the girls are starting to appreciate how much fun shopping can be even at such an early age.  Mia was thrilled to go shoe shopping, which is really no big surprise since one of her first words was shoes.  She was in heaven picking out some cute pink shoes, riding on the carousel and spending time with grandmom Paula.  As for Morgan - she seems just thrilled to be hanging with the girls for the day! 

Tribute to Sam

On our way up to Oklahoma we were able to go by Sampa's grave in Okmulgee, Oklahoma.  We hadn't been there since last October and of course it was really hard going - but we were able to see his beautiful headstone with shots of him doing one of the things he loved best - tennis! Paula did an amazing job designing it and we all know Sampa would have loved it.  Lord we miss him dearly.  

Fireworks, family and many firsts

Talk about a fun fourth of July!  We packed up the Thompson family roadster and hit the road to head north to Oklahoma.  No one was looking forward to the 10 hour or so drive but once we got there it was well worth it!  We went to spend time with great granddad and grandmom Wagner (Mat's grandparents) and other family.    

We stayed with Mat's cousins on their beautiful 40 acres near a town called Grove.  Man did Mia have a blast!  She rode on a tractor for the first time and thought it was the coolest!  And of course since we were in the country we were able to shoot off as many fireworks as we liked!  Mia also got to set up fireworks with her daddy's help for the first time.  She thought they were pretty but wanted to stay far away from them - particularly the ones that made a lot of noise!  Surprisingly Morgan slept through the whole thing!  Man - what fun we had!!!! 

Oh Lord!

We told Mia to go get ready to go swim and here's what she came out wearing. Needless to say Mat and I took one look at her and thought, Oh Lord please let this not be foreshadowing for a future career!!!!!!!!!!!!

Morgan had her first dip in the pool today and she looked oh-so-chic in her swimsuit Kristin/David got her....a girl's gotta look good no matter what age!

Look! Morgan loves dress up!

We're always asked, "So, how's Mia liking Morgan?"  Well, Mia LOVES her!  So much so that she has started including Morgan in her dress up fun - poor girl!

We celebrated Tia Marcie's birthday last weekend...I won't say which one ;)  Of course Mia HAD to sit right on Marcie's lap as she opened all the presents.  Mia is quite the good present opener (or so she believes) so these days if it's someone's birthday and Mia's there...the birthday person will get LOTS of help.

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We're back!

Ok! I know it's been FOREVER but come on! things have been a little hectic.  As we're settling into our new routine of juggling the needs of our two little crazies, I promise to try and keep this thing somewhat up to date mostly b/c it may be the only chance for me to come up for air and let you know how we're all doing.  The summer got off to a great start with a weekend at the lake with so many great friends (thx again Kim!) and already lots of time poolside working on our tans...really we're mostly answering Mia's demands to play with her and watch her kick-kick-kick but hey at least we're in the pool! So here are some pics.  Hope you enjoy!