Shelby Community Concert

This Saturday is our annual Community Christmas Concert. My friend Melanie started this concert three years ago, the first year Aaron and I lived in Shelby. There is an article all about it in this month's Ensign. Aaron's parents were here for the first concert. Eleanor was about a month old and we were blessing her the same weekend as the concert, so it worked out that Ma'am and Papa got to come and hear me sing too. I am excited for my song this year, it is so upbeat and fun to sing and also has some fantastic high notes. And it is a good thing that it is a fast tempo. With only 5 weeks to go in this pregnancy there is no way I could sing anything that required a lot of note holding.
Anyway, check out the article in the Ensign. Melanie has done great things here.

Two

Our sweet little Eleanor turned 2 on the 2nd. We didn't do a birthday cake for her this year. We already had so much candy and stuff from Halloween and I just didn't want to add a cake to my waistline too. :) So, instead we had birthday pancakes like we did for Penelope. Yep, the candles still melted in the pancakes even though I was sure they would be cool enough this time. Eleanor had a lot of fun blowing out the candles and opening gifts, but Penelope may have had even more fun watching.

And here is a random picture of Penelope doing her "crazy eyes" with the yucky teeth my friend LaDonna supplied us with. I love little Eleanor in the background, who was not quite able to get those teeth all of the way in her mouth. I love my girls.

First Snow

Wow, 3 new posts in one day. All the fun seems to happen in the same week.

We had a little snow fall last night, so I pulled out the winter clothes so Eleanor could have her first real snow experience. It was one of those beautiful snow falls where it sticks to the grass but not to the road and it is still warm enough outside to enjoy playing in the snow. Most of the time it is too cold here to find any enjoyment in being outside once winter really hits. There was lots of fun to be had this morning though. Eleanor was eating snow all morning and was loving it. . . until this mouthful.

Halloween Wreath

I had fun making this tulle Halloween wreath last night while the girls were sleeping. I sat in Aaron's big comfy chair, watched a chic flick and made a wreath. . . yes, Aaron is still in Georgia.
I tried to get a close-up but it doesn't really show what I wanted it to show. I put about 15 pieces of black sparkly tulle that is a little stiffer in the wreath at random places. It gives it a little pizazz. :)

Four!

Penelope is 4 now. I can't beleive it! She is such a big girl. We had a couple of different celebrations for her since Aaron was out of town for her actual birthday.

We had a little birthday party for Penelope to open family gifts on Sunday before Aaron left for Georgia. Aunt Penny's gift was, as always, a big hit, but Eleanor decided the baby lotion was hers and would not give it back to Penelope for a long time. We also had a little pancake celebration on Penelope's actual birthday. FYI: if you put candles into hot pancakes, wax will stay in the pancake. :) On Saturday we had a combined birthday party for Penelope and Kael (a friend of Penelope's). I decorated the garage, in true Grandma Cox style, and we had the party out there. This was an excellent place to have 20 or so little kids with candy and cupcakes. It also provided easy access to the backyard, where we had a costume parade and a ghost pinata. Good thing the weather was mild. I made homemade rootbeer with dry ice. Always a fun Halloween treat.

My cute cowgirl and garden gnome, all ready for the party. Penelope taking a whack at the ghost pinata. The pinata held up pretty good through all of the little kids but once cousins Nicolas and Alex got to it, it was all over.

The loot.