More Christmas Fun!!

Last week McKenna and I met Katie and Caleb and our friends Sarah and Abby at the mall for some more Christmas fun!! Even though they can be crowded at times I love all of the decorations and the Christmas feeling that is at the mall. There is also one mall close to us that is usually not as crowded as most so that makes it even better! Katie and I tried to dress up McKenna and Caleb to get some good Christmas pictures of the two. We did manage to get some, but boy is it hard to get an almost 3 year old and an almost one year old to sit still, smile, and look towards the camera all at the same time! Were we ever tired at the end! Thankfully most of those that we have given pictures too have been very appreciative and thankful of our efforts at least!!
We also did the whole Santa thing again! It amazes me how much McKenna loves Santa and is not in the least bit shy around him. Poor Abby wouldn't even get within 10 feet of him without going into hysterics! Caleb sat there for just a minute but then he wanted out! Not McKenna, I think that she would have sat there all day if we had let her. She loved telling Santa what she wanted for Christmas! While waiting for Santa there are these fun snow globes that you wait in with "snow" falling that the kids loved playing in. However their nice outfits were filled with snow afterwards but they atleast had fun and that is all that matters! Here are some of the pictures we got that day!

McKenna loves her friend Abby!

Both girls just love Caleb and taking care of him! He loves them too!

Two precious kiddos....most people think they look more like brother and sister than cousins!!

My sweet McKenna! Isn't she just beautiful?!?!

Another cute one of the two cutest kids!

Our little snow angel....she loved playing in all of the "snow"!

Caleb had just as much fun!! Too bad we won't have real snow for Christmas! They would love it!

Caleb is probably wondering why McKenna likes this guy so much. She was just smiling and talking away!

Look at that pitiful face. Poor little guy! He was ready to be done with Santa!

I hope that everyone is having a very Merry Christmas and I will try and post Christmas eve and Christmas Day pictures soon!!!

McKenna's Christmas Performace!

Two weeks ago McKennas little mothers day out had their Christmas performance! This was McKennas first time to be on stage in front of an audience and she did great! She actually LOVED all of the attention! I really think we may have a future in show business with this one. Todd and I are pretty reserved and even on the shy side at times but not McKenna! She had been practicing her songs all months and she actually even knew all of the songs that the 3's and 4's did too. She loves her Christmas songs! Everyday after school she would tell me about practicing on the stage and sing her songs for me! They were to wear their fanciest Christmas dress so she wore this beautiful dress that Mammy, McKenna's great-grandmother, got her and she felt like a princess. When I put it on her she said "I'm so beautiful!" (She's not vain by any means!!!)
At the performance she smiled and sang her songs. The little girl next to her just stood there with her arms crossed and that really bothered McKenna. She kept looking at her and I think she might have even been saying something to her! After the songs were over the two classes all walked off the stage and as they did they were supposed to say their name in the microphone. Some of the kids wouldn't say anything at all and the teacher had to say their name and most of them just said "I'm ______" Not McKenna.....she got to the microphone and said "Merry Christmas my name is McKenna!!!!" Everyone gave a little laugh and clapped for her! It was just too cute! I did video it so maybe if I can figure out someday how to get video onto this thing I will try and put it on or atleast email it out to whoever wants it! For now here are some pictures from the night!

She is ready to perform!

Singing her songs!

Probably telling her friend that she needs to be singing!

Singing "Yes Jesus loves me!"

She loved her turn at the mic!

Poor Toby!!

Since McKenna is an only child she has turned to Toby for her "built in playmate." She has him come into her tent with her, she brings him plates of play food and has picnics with him and he is a great movie watching buddy. These cold morning we have spent many hours all snuggled on the couch together and Toby is right there with us too. She loves Toby so much and calls him her buddy! Well this is the sight I saw this morning. I was up getting ready and when I came down stairs this is what I saw......

She said that she was sharing her stickers with Toby.....what a sweet girl....and what a good dog too, to put up with a two year old decorating him with stickers!! I think he had about 6 on him before I finally had to tell McKenna that Toby had enough stickers!

A Day full of Christmas Fun!

This weekend we took a day off from the craziness of moving and house stuff to spend the day with McKenna and do some fun Christmas stuff!! We went to Northpark which is probably the best Dallas mall to go to during Christmas! They have so many wonderful things to do and they have the very best Santa!! Since they have the best it is a good wait to see him. We got there at 11:30 and got number 126. We didn't end up seeing him until 5:00. As we waited for our number to come up we went to storytime with Santa and he told some great stories to the kids. We also watched Scrooge and saw the Childrens Puppet Show. We also went to hear my good friend Carol Bullman read her newly published Childrens book, The Christmas House. She was reading it and signing books at Bookmarks in Northpark. Her book is so cute and such a wonderful Christmas story. Check out her website at http://www.carolbullman.com/
We had a great time walking around the mall too and just enjoying all of the wonderful Christmas decorations. That night we came back to my parents house and decorated their Christmas tree. Since we won't be moving into our new home until close to Christmas we really won't be able to do all of the Christmas decorating this year. That has really made me sad especially for McKenna. I love Christmas and decorating for it and want McKenna to have the wonderful experiences and memories I had with Christmas traditions. So we helped out with my parents tree and let McKenna decorate that! We had a great night of ordering pizza and all decorating the tree. It was so much fun! McKenna loved it and had one little area where she hung all of her ornaments! It was also fun watching her try and put the angel on top of the tree too!! Here are some pictures from our fun day!!

McKenna had such a fun day!!

McKenna loves dogs and had so much fun seeing the dogs at the SPCA!

All of these kids were sliding down this area and McKenna just had to try! This was one of the highlights or her day!! The little things that make kids happy......so Wonderful!!!

Enjoying Storytime with Santa!

Waiting her turn to see Santa!


Telling Santa what she wants for Christmas!

McKenna and Santa!

Carol signing her books!

Art project she made at the bookstore!

Hanging the ornament she made at school!

She carefully hung the ornaments!

Putting the angel on top of the tree!

McKenna had one spot that she liked to hang her ornaments!

London!!

A few weeks ago Todd I and were able to go on a wonderful trip to London! Todd's company sent him there for a week long class at the London School of Business. This class was supposed to be in September during my birthday so I was going to go with him for a Happy Birthday/Happy Anniversary trip but the class got moved back. Thankfully I was still able to go on the rescheduled time. With the traveling Todd has had to do the past year he had built up some frequent flyer miles so we were able to get my ticket that way. We also stayed at Todd's bosses house! It was fun getting to live like a Londoner for a few days and not just a traveler in a hotel!! We went a few days before his class started so that we would have the weekend to do some touristy things! We went to London 8 years ago for our honeymoon and did alot of the city things but this time we took a couple of the bus tours and went out to the country part. One day we went to Oxford, The Cotswolds, Anne Hathaway's home and Stratford on Avon. Oxford was great and we got a tour of Christ Church were parts of Harry Potter was filmed (todd really liked this!) We also got a tour of William Shakespeare's birth home. The next day we went to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath. That was the better of the two tours even though the first one was good too. Windsor was wonderful!! The Queen was even there! (we didn't get to see her though!!! We just knew that because her personal flag was flying) Stonehenge was also good and fun to see. Bath was also such a great place. We just wished that we had of had more time to spend at each of these places! We also did some fun city things again too. A cruise on the River Thames, Harrods, other shopping, a London Musical, and lots of other fun London things! I didn't take as many pictures as I did in Disney but we did take a few! Here are some of them!!

Big Ben and Houses of Parliament

The Tower Bridge

Christ Church (where Harry Potter was filmed)

More Christ Church (does this hall look familiar to you Harry Potter fans??)

More Harry Potter

That little sign says "McKenna Room" Too bad we couldn't go up there and see it!

William Shakespeare boyhood home

Windsor Castle

The queen is in! (that is what that flag tells us)

Stonehenge!

A Roman Bath

Londons version of Time Square!


Awesome Toy store! 9 floors of just toys! McKenna would have been in heaven!


Sound of Music was great!! (even Todd thought it was one of the best he has seen!)

McKenna's First Dentist Appointment!

Last week McKenna had her first dentist appointment!! She did SOOOOO good! I was so proud of her. I was a little nervous just because you hear horror stories about kids and the dentist but McKenna thankfully isn't one of those stories. It probably helped a little that our dentist is my uncle and he has such a great staff. Ms. Denise was her hygienist! She is so good!! I remember going to see Ms. Denise many times when I was little and just loved her! (she started cleaning teeth when she was 10!!!!!) McKenna loved Ms Denise too! She sat there so good and let her poke at her teeth and let her clean them. She even let her do the water sprayer and vacuum thingy!! When Dr. Brad came in she did just as good! She opened her mouth really wide and let him look at her teeth and count them! She told him that she had 10 teeth!! She had such a good report too! He told her that she had great teeth and that everything looked great!!! So in 6 month months we will go back for another cleaning and check! They said they may try x-rays next time since she did so good!!

She did so good!!

Ms. Denise gave her a pair of gloves to wear!

Getting those teeth cleaned!

The water sprayer!

Picking out her "Princess" toothbrush! She picked Sleeping Beauty!

Showing Dr. Brad her teeth!


What a great patient!

Picking out her toys!

Mckenna and Ms. Denise!

A cute little Minnie!

Well part of me thought about not even posting this b/c I am so far behind but I am hopefully someday going to use my blog to help me catch up on my scrapbook so I better post a little about Halloween!!! So.....over a month ago we had a great Halloween!! McKenna was so excited to be Minnie!! Especially since she was still so exited about Disney World!! McKenna's little friend Abby had a Halloween party so we all went to that. We started the night trick or treating at Mimi and Grandads with Caleb and then Katie, Josh and Caleb went with us to the party for a little while!!! McKenna caught on VERY quickly to the whole trick or treating thing!! She knew that houses with lights on meant candy!!! She would go up to each house and hold her little bag out and say "trick or treat!" It was so cute. And she was also very good about saying "Thank you" too!!! After that night we had to monitor the candy or she would have had all of the candy at once!!! She was also very good at sharing her stash with all of us too!!! Here are a few pictures from the night!!

What a cute little Minnie!

What a sweet face!

So fun Trick or Treating!

Trick or Treat!

Look at all the candy!!