About a week before Christmas we were blessed with a visit from our dear friends, the Stuarts. The kids had an absolute blast playing together, making cookies, and working those DS's. Us adults had a blast too visiting, laughing, catching up, and playing games. We learned that night that us girls are a little better with words than the men! :) Just kidding.

That same weekend, the girls had a gymnastics meet for the first time ever. They did really good. I think it's healthy for them to perform in front of a crowd, and this was an excellent opportunity to show off all they've been learning. Everyone was a winner and got a trophy at the end of the meet.

Christmas Season

The girls were in another concert for the church and then they had a reception after the service with cupcakes and cokes. They had a great time. Here's Anna with two of her church buddies. As you can see, they are very happy (or high on sugar). :)

Jason's grandparents got to come watch.

And so did his mom and Chuck.
The girls and I got to go watch a Christmas play about a mouse decorating a Christmas tree. It was really nice to have a girls' day out like that.
Here are the girls posing for me. I was trying to get a Christmas picture for our Christmas cards. I thought this one turned out really cute.
We all went downtown to watch a Christmas parade. It was FREEZING that night, and the wind was really blowing. But the girls loved it, nonetheless. They got to see Santa, plus get candy. That's a win-win situation every single time for them!

Jason and I snuck some kisses from those sweet baby girls while we waited for the parade. Plus, they enjoyed taking pictures with the "real" camera.

Megan had Grandparent's Day at school, and my mom was able to come visit her school with her. She was so excited.

Then we headed to Oklahoma to visit my family for Thanksgiving. Here are my grandparents.

My parents.
My cousins.
My brother and his wife and Myrah.

Then we headed to Russellville to celebrate Thanksgiving there. Here are the girls with Jacy and Nana making gingerbread houses.

Halloween

For Halloween this year, Megan dressed as Ariel and Anna was a sweet cowgirl (but she refused to wear the hat). We had the girls across the street come over and help make goodies for our neighborhood Halloween party (after we trick-or-treated).

Here are the treats we made...

Plus, we had jack-o-lantern pizza.

Here are the girls ready to head out trick-or-treating. This blow-up mansion was at our next-door neighbors' house. All the kids loved it. *A note to my mom and Aunt Sharon -- you can click on the picture and it will get larger so you can see the girls better in their costumes. For some reason, we didn't get a close up of them this year.

They couldn't wait to get home, dump out their bags, and see all their goodies!!!

The girls and I also went to this Indian Village around Halloween time to search for arrowheads. It was very educational, and lots of fun. They're excited to go back.

Next came sweet Anna's 5th birthday. Hard to believe. She had a houseful of girls over to celebrate. If we had a "theme" it would have been butterflies. But mostly she just chose games/activities she wanted to do. And most of them seemed like carnival-like games. We had face painting, a scavenger hunt, a treasure hunt, pin the antennas on the butterfly, fishing for candy, and a hayride.

Here they are all gathered in Jason's truck for the hay ride. And although you can't see it, there really is hay in there. :)
Here are all the girls lined up fishing for candy.
And they all got butterflies painted on their faces. It was a very fun party.

Anna has been so blessed to be involved with a play group from our church. About once a month we all get together. This one of the fall play dates. Yet another pumpkin patch and hayride..

This is one of her sweet friends, Avery.

What would a hayride be without throwing some hay?

Well, I certainly have a WHOLE lot of catching up to do with pictures. So, in the next week or so my plan is to briefly update the blog. We've had a whole lot going on since the last post, including a brand new niece, a trip to Disney World, Halloween, and many others ... pictures to come.

We'll start off with a quick recap of our fall activities. Anna and Megan started dance. It's Anna's first year, and she has loved every minute of it. They're both in gymnastics too.

Megan was old enough this year to participate in the fall parade dance float. She really enjoyed it. Plus, Anna got to gather all the candy as we watched the parade.

Megan also got to be a tiny cheerleader this year after going to a "cheer camp" at her school. The rain came in slow and steady that night, but it didn't dampen her excitement or fun.

Then came the school fall carnival including face painting (which I got to do), rock wall climbing, fishing for candy, hay rides, and too many other fun things to write all about. It was lots of fun.

And, of course, we had to go to the Arkansas State Fair. The girls love going and riding the rides and checking out all the animals in the petting zoo. The past two years we've taken Megan out of school for half a day to go to the fair, then we take her to lunch before taking her back to school. It's just a special day for the girls and us too.

Both girls are in choir at our church. They've had two or three performances so far this year. It's been a good experience for them to perform in front of the congregation. And they've enjoyed all the fun that goes along with being in a choir. Megan and I got to go to the Monticello Baptist Children's Home during the Christmas break with her choir group. The children from our church distributed gifts to the kids at the home, sang their songs, played games with them, and had refreshments. It was a blessed time of sharing and ministering. I was so glad we got the opportunity to go.

We were able to go to a pumpkin patch right down the road from our house this year. That was so nice. They had a hay ride and everything.

Both girls played softball this fall. Anna had a difficult time when she felt like she made mistakes, but it was so good for her to learn how to cope with the situations and keep going instead of "shutting down." She was a trooper, and grew to love it. Her and Megan are both ready to play again this coming fall. They got to be on the same team, so that was great.