Our Best One Yet

 We spent Christmas Eve at my parent's house.  Alexa chose her outfit and Elizabeth's.  I just loved the way she looked that night.  We had a delicious ham dinner and then opened gifts by the fire.

 Alexa with her Poh Poh.  You can see that our weather was beautiful.

 Alexa and PaPa.

 I love the look on both of their faces.  Sort of cheeky.

 I was having a bad hair day this night.  I thought we were supposed to be at their house at 5:00 and instead I got a phone call at 4:00 saying "Where are you guys?"  Oops..we rushed to head over, hence the dorky hairdo.

 This photo makes me laugh because it looks nothing like any of us.  The Chief has some weird silly grin on his face, Alexa looks 20 pounds heavier, and I have some sort of deer in the headlights look.  My dad was taking the photo ( big mistake) and I think the 46 flashes coming at us had us all acting strange.  All 46 photos had our heads cut off, so my mom had to take over on this one.

 Alexa opening her riding outfit for Elizabeth from American Girl.  She really loved it.

 Christmas morning.  Here are two of her favorite gifts.  The horse in the background is for Elizabeth to ride and she got the bed from American Girl. I was really happy with how beautiful it was.  Alexa put it next to her own bed.

Her other favorite gift was her scooter. This was a last minute decision on my part.  I found it at Target on clearance and thought great!  Turns out it was missing the tassels and front plate but Alexa never noticed.  She is getting better every day on it and seems to really enjoy it.

We had a wonderful Christmas weekend. I really think it was our best one yet. 

~Tis the season...

 In our town they have a snow morning with Santa.  Alexa's school goes every year before school starts and enjoys the festivities.

 We are convinced this is the REAL Santa. ; )

 Alexa enjoying hot cocoa with one of her friends.

 This is how we roll after a long day of Christmas shopping.

 On the last day of school before break.

We are really enjoying getting ready for Christmas this year and have been really busy with parties, shopping, wrapping, and baking.  On Tuesday we are going to the Nutcracker Ballet again.  Hope everyone is enjoying the season!

Fairy Friends

Here is Alexa with her best friend Claudia.  Cluadia came over today to play and the weather was gorgeous .  They found two of Alexa's summer dresses and adorned them with wings.  They truly are the best of friends.  This year they are at different schools and after they kept asking for each other we connected again and now make it a point to get them together at least once a month.  Kindred spirits. : )

Love

World's Fastest Snowball Fight

The other morning we got snow!  Not the normal occurrence here in AZ.  About once a winter we do get this nice surprise living here in the high desert but it was really early this year and we were not expecting it.  When we saw it coming down, we bundled up, though still in our pj's, and ran outside.  Alexa and the Chief had a quick snowball fight with the smallest snowballs possible, and the dogs danced a little jig to join in the fun!  Thirty minutes later it was melted and the sun was shining again!

The Thanksgiving Sleepover

We started a new tradition this year.  On the night after Thanksgiving Alexa and I will do a sleepover in her bedroom.  The plan was a movie and to stay up late.  We even hung some pink X-mas lights for the occasion.  We chose the movie, A Christmas Story because neither of us had seen it and we had won it in a raffle a couple of years ago so we thought we would give it a try. You can see the box on the bedside table.  We hated it...I am pretty strict about what Alexa watches and this was not on the list but I thought, okay she is getting older so we'll just see how it goes.  Swear words galore, meanness, just awful.  It's funny because Alexa does not even know any bad words so every time they would say one I would sort of gasp a little and she would say "what mom?"  Thank goodness for her innocence.  So after 98 long minutes, Alexa was pretty sleepy at the late hour of 8:20 so she fell asleep.  The deal was I would sleep in her bed all night which normally is okay with me as her bed is super comfy.  But once the post nasal drip coughing started every 15 seconds from my little one, I was wide awake and wondering how I was going to fulfill that promise.  I snuck out to the couch but a few hours later, she awoke and realized I was not in the bed.  Needless to say it was a long night...but fun anyway.  Here we are all snuggled up with Tika ready for the movie.

The Chief says he will start a tradition with her for the night after Christmas.  Wonder what their night will be like?

We are thankful.....

 We are thankful that our paths have been chosen by God to be a family.  We live, learn and laugh together always remembering how truly blessed we are to have each other.

 We are thankful for the sunshine that lights up our days just about every day here in our beautiful home.

 We are thankful to raise this amazing child who teaches us everyday that we really aren't as smart as we thought we were. ; )

 We are thankful for our pets, those who have just joined our family and those we have lost.  They teach us so many things about caring, patience, silliness and responsibility.

 We are thankful for the beauty that surrounds us.  Everyday we find the wonder in the sunrise, mountains and landscape, never forgetting how blessed we are.

 We are thankful for our health, even though we have known struggles, we continue to go forward with a positive spirit.

 We are thankful to share and enjoy good food with each other.  I am thankful my daughter will eat anything I put on the table ( with gusto) and The Chief has embraced gluten free cooking.  It's a blessing to have eager mouths to feed when you love to cook! ; )

We are thankful for our family.  We are blessed to have my parents so close by and active in Alexa's life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Musical

Here are some photos of today.  Alexa had a little Thanksgiving musical at school.  She did not want to wear her Thanksgiving dress and chose this one which we have gotten tons of wear out of.  I'll take some photos tomorrow of her in her smocked dress.  I have realized that if I wait to edit my photos, they will never get on the blog so here they are unedited.  Alexa wanted her hair to be down today and curled like the girls on "Dancing with the Stars".  I'm not used to even seeing her much with her hair down.  Almost every single day it is up in some style and off her face. She insists on keeping her long hair which is fine with me as long as it is not hanging in her face all the time.  We are looking forward to tomorrow. We have so much to be thankful for!

~My New Business~

Stella and Dot

Independent Stylist

I am so excited to launch my new business as a Stella and Dot Independent Stylist.  If you have not yet heard of this amazing jewelry line, then you are in for a surprise.  Stella and Dot is a new exciting company that sells celebrity coveted, on-trend, irresistible jewelry at in-home trunk shows.

I have been feeling the urge to go "back to work" for a few months and really wasn't sure what I wanted to do.  I enjoyed a successful career as a teacher before becoming a full time mother and really enjoyed it.  I attended a trunk show that a friend was having and absolutely fell in love with this jewelry. I placed an order that day and kept perusing the website.  I was hooked.  Soon after, I decided that this was an opportunity to set my own hours and do something fun and make money.  Plus, wearing all this amazing jewelry every day is a added bonus! 

If you love jewelry, take a peek at my website at www.stelladot.com/suekroger.  I know you will fall in love with it too!!

My Halloween Honey!

Oh, how I love my little honey!  We are gearing up for Halloween around here, decorating pumpkins, wearing festive outfits, and lining up our weekend activities.  First we'll have a Pumpkin Fest at school with games and Trunk or Treat, then it's into town the next day for some good ole' Western Ghoulish fun, then off to Trick or Treat on the big day.  This will be Alexa's first time Trick or Treating at night as we have always had our neighborhood/Fire dept. party on Halloween. She is really excited for all the fun!!  We are too!

Halloween's a Hoot!

What a hoot!  It's Tika's first Halloween and she's a Big Horned Sheep!!