Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

The Holidays are upon us and our house is buzzing with excitement. Next week we leave for Disney to redeem our winnings! Mia is overwhelmed with excitement and so are we! Elf on the Shelf has been overseeing things and has made his reports to Santa. It looks like Mia may get some goodies this year!

Elf On The Shelf
'Freddy' as Mia affectionately name her elf will watch over our family and report back to Santa each night about who has been naughty or nice that day. By morning he's back but he's in a different place in the house for a daily hide-and-seek ritual that Mike and I have been enjoying so much! He seems to be very clever and has been hiding in the funniest places!

Happy Thanksgiving

this year we had a small family gathering at our home. On Monday, I took Mia with me to deliver items that we had collected for a local homeless family shelter we have in our area. Our office collected over 300 lbs. of non-perishable items and the back of my car was full to the top!

I made it a point to bring Mia with me this year, as we want her to understand that there are people who are not as fortunate as we are and that we should help whenever we can.

I was so proud of her, she carried items into the pantry area at the shelter and I explained to her that some people have no homes or jobs right now and that this food helps them.

The next morning she walks into my room with a box of crayons and says, " Mommy here, I want to give these crayons to kids to who don't have any"

below is Mia with her guitar which she brought to the nursing home when we

went to visit Abuelo and sang 'Happy Thanksgiving' to him.

Thanksgiving is always at my Mom and Dad's house and this is a picture of the table.

It looked soooo pretty!

Sleep Over!

last night Mia had her friend Cayla spend the day with us and she had her first sleep over. The girls had a good time. We met up with some of Mia's other friends at the Chili Cookoff and then headed to Steak N Shake for some yummy burgers and of course milkshakes! We enjoyed having Cayla for the day and night and can't wait for future sleepovers!

Camera Fun!

I have been taking more and more photos of Mia and to be quite honest with you, I LOVE my subject so much, it makes it fun! I put together a blog of my favorite shots which I am gathering to submit to be accepted by a stock photo agency who licenses and sells prints for you. In order to be an accepted artist, I have to put together a compilation of photos for them to check out and 'accept' me! All of those shots are raw and unedited. check it out...... wish me luck! It is has been a life long dream to do something that I enjoy SO much!

HaLloWeEn FuN!

Mia's school had a costume party this year and then we had a little

inpromptu party at our house on Halloween night! Mike and I decided to join in on the fun because the parents were going to dress up as well. If you see my picture below, my booty was courtesy of Mia's hello kitty pillow which she caught me stuffing into my pantyhose and was a little upset : 0 ))

Father Michael....hahaha

Grannie

Halloween

Tie-Dyethis year I volunteered to tie-dye Mia's class shirts. They were so much fun to do and I think they came out great! After dying them, I cut out felt cats and fabric glued them on. The kids loved them too!

Time Flies!
we still can't believe that our little Mia is growing up so fast! Mia just had her 4 year old check and she weighed in at 36lbs and 42.5 inches tall.
That puts her 60% for weight and 90% for height.

her favorite toys are leggos, Lite Brite, Leapfrog and her Barbie guitar. Her pre-school has started Spanish and she is singing nursery ryhmes now in Spanish. It is so cute! These pics were taken by me when we were playing around with my camera.

The Happiest Place on Earth last weekend we headed to Orlando and met up with some friends. Mia was soo upset that she missed Mt. Everest ride by about 1/2 to 1 inch. Maybe next time! She loves those roller coasters! Many fast rides you have to be 42" but the BIG ones are 44" or even 48". So maybe soon! Until now, she will just have to suffer with Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain for her thrills. Later this week she goes for her 4 year old check up and we get to see where she is on the charts. She most definitely is taller than most of her friends! By Chinese growth charts she is VERY tall!, the downside to that is that her jeans are always floods! Her waist is soo tiny and she is soo long.

We should all have that problem!