It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

In order to start getting into the Christmas spirit we started small: we made our very first gingerbread house...and we put up our Christmas tree.

I put the house together and Landry decorated. We thought the house would be a nice suprise for Daddy.

Landry put each gumdrop on one by one. She put each little sprinkle on the windows too.

Tah-dah!

What next? Hhmmm...of course!

We need a Christmas tree.

The day we decide to get our tree it's raining. We had been putting it off and putting it off...we braved the rain. The tree stayed in the garage for a few hours and after being vigorously shaken Brad brought it inside. It needed a little trimming. Landry supervised.

Landry's new ornament for this year: a sparkly and hot pink ballerina.

She found the perfect place for it.

Almost finished.

Brad lifted Landry up to put the star on top.

We went to Holiday in the Park. We looked at all of the decorations, watched some shows and rode some rides. Having hot chocolate on the train ride made it feel like we were on the Polar Express.

Thanksgiving 2011

This year we were in MS for Thanksgiving. We stayed in Duncan and Southaven. Landry and Reed played superheros the whole time!

Landry had been in the car for 8 hours and Reed had been waiting just as long. They made Uncle Lynn get in on their play.

As it neared bedtime Landry and Reed watched a show on Brad's phone. They had to go to sleep to get energy for the next day.

The Dynamic Duo

Look at those superhero muscles!

Supergirl is off to find Ironman.

Supergirl and Ironman conquering the wilderness.

They needed a little time to relax and regain some villian fighting energy.

Erin and I told Reed and Landry how when we were little we pretended the magnolia tree was our fort. In an instant the tree became their batcave.

Hard at play.

Thanksgiving night we stayed with Skip in Southaven. The pretending didn't stop in Duncan. Skip and I showed Landry a basket seat.

Landry liked pretending Laylay was her horse.

I can't tell you how many pictures of Caroline, Erin and me (and Kelley when she got old enough) were taken on these steps. There were many laughs trying to get a picture of everyone looking at the camera at the same time.

We did get the picture!

Before heading back to Texas we stopped at Reed and Chase's for a little more superhero action. This time Chase played too.

We enjoyed spending time everyone and will see you in 3 weeks for Christmas!

The Art of Dressing Well

Landry has enjoyed dancing since she was able to wiggle without falling down. She dances in her room and in the living room. In this video she chose one of her favorite songs to sing and dance to and of course she had to dress up!

Texas State Fair 2011

We look forward to going to the state fair each year. This year we rode the train down and checked out some of the venues. We stayed long enough to see the bird show, go a couple of rides, look at the cars and watch the fireworks. We had a good time.

Landry watched everything go by on the way down.

Yay! We're almost to the fair.

The Texas ferris wheel is the largest one in North America.

Landry wanted to ride the "paddle" swans. It was more fun than I thought it would be.

She also enjoyed pretending to drive the cars.

She picked some good ones to drive.

The size of this car made us think of a wind-up toy.

A Texas shaped mattress-really?

It's the largest one. Does mean there are other Texas shaped mattresses out there? Hhhmmm...

The view from the top of the ferris wheel.

Family pic!

Downtown Dallas.

We look forward to next year's fair.

Cowboys 101

A few weeks ago a friend of mine invited me to with her and some other girls to Cowboys 101. What in the world is Cowboys 101? It's where you get to go to the stadium and learn little about football, sort of like an introductory class. I had a blast!

When we arrived we went down to field level to enjoy some drinks and heavy appertizers. I couldn't wait to go on the field.

Given that we live in Texas and have a child named Landry people assume it's for Tom Landry. If you're reading this you know our Landry is a family name.

One of the people that talked to us was an official NFL official. He talked and then we were able to ask questions if we had any. If you look closely at the ref's right wrist (left in the pic) you can see a black band with a loop hanging down. He asked us if we knew what that was for. We didn't know. Do you?

Unfortunately the Cowboys haven't seen much of this gesture this season. Did you know the width of the goal posts is 18 1/2 ft and the longest field goal is 64 ft? I didn't either :)

There's Pepsi! I wonder if Brad could get tickets through work? Hmmm...

After talking with a defense coordinator, the ref and an offensive coordinator we went into the guest locker room to chat with 2 of the cheerleaders.

Moving on...we talked with athletic trainer Greg Gaither. Then we went to the Cowboys' locker room!

In the locker room with Jon Kitna and

Stephen McGee. I feel like either of these 2 guys could do as well if not better (it wouldn't take much) than Romo has been doing this season.

As we were leaving I snapped one last picture of the field. Look how small the cheerleaders are and how big the screen is in comparison. It's really is a humongo screen.

Hopefully the Cowboys will have a better season next year. Wins and losses aside, it was still really cool to be on the field and walk around, go behind the scenes, in the locker room and meet 2 of the Dallas Cowboys.

Pumpkin Carving

The weekend after Landry's birthday we bought and carved our pumpkin for Halloween. Landry drew some faces on paper and Brad picked the one he could carve.

Yummy!

She asked if punpkin pies were made from pumpkin guts and we told her yes.

Reaching in for more.

Making sure all of the guts are out.

I think the excitement of cleaning out the pumpking wore off...

what do you think?

Thank goodness the pumpkin was so close to being emptied.

This is the last of the pumkin's insides.

Time to carve!

Landry did a great job supervising.

Tah-dah!

Landry was so excited to have a pumpkin to put outside by the front door.