Today, the kids decorated their pumpkins. Bella has been begging to carve her pumpkin for the past week, but I was putting off the dreaded mess. Well, today I came across the greatest thing ever! It was a decorating kit for you pumpkin, "Potato Head Style". The kit came with assorted face parts and you just stick them right into the pumpkin...genius. No mess!! They turned out so cute! Here are the kids posing with their pumpkins.

Please excuse Bella's hair, this was after school and sometimes it's just not worth the fight. She's been fighting me over the bows. She says she can't wait to be a teenager, because then she doesn't have to wear bows. The adorable bows she leaves the house with in the morning seem to be "lost" everyday when I pick her up from school. She's underestimating me...I'll just buy more.

Marshall was so proud and excited to be a part of a big kid activity. I think he yelled "pu-kin" about 500 times.

St. Monica Autumnfest

This weekend was Bella's Autumnfest at her school. We took the kids and Honey & P-Pa for an day of fun. Bella had a blast. She met up with a few of her friends from her class and they had a great time together. Here she is eating a corn dog and posing near our family contribution to St. Monica... St. Monica Water.

Here are Bella, Mrs. Arraj (her sweet sweet teacher), Jenna & Claire. The girls all got matching butterfly face paint.

Lauren, Jenna & Bella were so excited to see each other. They were like sorority girls, jumping up and down and squealing at the sight of one another. Their poor teachers, I can't imagine this all day at school.

Bella & Jenna

Meredith & Marshall

Fire Marshall

My parents came for a visit this weekend and the kids were so excited. Of course, they come with gifts. They brought Marshall a firetruck that has lights/sounds/movement and a fireman's hat. He was in Heaven!!! He played with the firetruck (with the hat on) for hours.

He even wore it while watching TV later in the evening, holding it with two hands for security.
Here are Marshall and P-Pa reading a book.

Cheetah Girls!!!

Last Monday night I took Bella to the Cheetah Girls concert. We had SO MUCH FUN!!! The following pictures are horrible. I apologize. I only had my camera phone (which isn't that great) and I was jumping around like a little girl, and a steady shot was out of the question.
So this was a total last minute thing. I bought the tickets the night before the concert, but they were good seats (center, floor, in front of the sound booth). Well they turned out to be spectacular seats. In the middle of the show they secretly turned the sound booth into a stage and the Cheetah Girls were within 3 feet of our seats. I was going crazy!! Bella was in shock!! Then when they finished performing there, they walked down the aisle and we were face-to-face with them. I am so scared to think of what those poor girls saw when I was screaming like a crazy teenager at them. It was so fun!!!

Here is Bella before the concert. She was so cute. They had music playing and she was shaking her shoulders in her seat. So I told her it was OK to stand up and dance at a concert. She immediately jumped at the opportunity, she was getting down. (I've got to post some dancing videos, they are hilarious!)Then she sits down and tells me "OK, so I guess everyone knows I'm a good dancer now!" I lost it, she is so funny!

Flower Girl

Bella was a flower girl in a wedding recently. I was a little nervous for her, I thought she might get a little scared in front of everyone or simply refuse to do it. I had to think hard and explain her duties so she could best understand. I told her there was another flower girl (adorable little Alex), but she was really young. So Bella was kind of the "boss" of the flower girls. Oh, and there was a big Polly Pocket toy waiting at the reception.
This was perfect. She was so calm and ready. She held the little girl's hand all the way down the aisle. We had some friends that were sitting in the back and overheard Bella talking to the little flower girl under her breath, and it went something like this..."You've got to throw the flowers! Don't be lazy!" Wow what direction! She's ALL business! I'm a little scared of my 4 year old daughter.
Here she is sporting the "Cool" flower girl look.

Fort Worth Zoo

Last weekend we took an impromptu trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. We really love that zoo, but haven't been in a while. We knew Marshall would love it. He loves animals and can make most of their sounds (party tricks!). Bella always enjoys it too. Lizzie joined us and it was great to hang out with her. Since she has moved to Fort Worth we never see her. BOO HOO!

Here's our little family feeding birds.



Marshall was so cute, when he would see the animals he would clap, point, wave and say "Hi" to them.


Bella was really excited to see the giraffes.


And both kids conked out on the way home.

My Little Dancer

Bella started dance again last weekend. We have moved to a new dance studio and I'm really looking forward to it. She loves dance (whether she wants to or not ;) ) and she was really excited to start it up again.

Recently, we have been having "dance parties" at our house and they are very ENTERTAINING! One of my first posts has an example of the kind of dancing Bella exhibits. She really puts it out there, to put it mildly! I haven't caught one on film yet, but I'll have to soon. Basically, she requests her favorite "pop hits" from the music section of ON DEMAND and Bella and Marshall break it down in the living room. It's hysterical! Actually, Marshall is a pretty good break-dancer for a 1 year old.