Happy Birthday Skylar!

Skylar turned 3 in November! We had a fun party for her and she had a great time playing with her friends, eating cupcakes and opening presents!
She, of course, picked out her favorite "party" dress for the special occassion!

At this time in her life she is into a few different things. Ligloss, chapstick and lipstick round out the top three. So, naturally she has to be sure that her look is complete with an enormous amount of chapstick. The application process pretty much runs all day...

I am guessing she wished for more chapstick, lipgloss and lipstick...

The kids had lots of fun decorating their cupcakes! They had sprinkles, icing and m&ms to decorate with.

It was kind of one of those "one on the cupcake 2 in the mouth" situations with the m&ms.

The girls table had lots of fun with it!

And the princess added a few new dresses to her wardrobe which makes her very happy! She also got lots of new lipgloss, chapstick and lipstick...and gum. That rounds out her top four. She loves gum. But only for about 3 minutes. Then she spits it out and gets a new piece. Repeat steps 1-3. We go through a lot of gum around here!

November

We started out November with our wives trip. Always lots of fun and a nice time to get together with all of the other football wives and talk about, well, adult things. Our kids aren't with us and it is always fun to act like adults. Most of the time we end up acting like kids though.
They had these cool picnic tables that could swing on the FIU campus, so we sat there and visited with each other while we waited for game time. THis is one side of the table.

And this was the other side. Such a great group of women. I am so happy they are all in my life!

Morgan's class decorated shirts for their Thanksgiving feast at school. Happy Fall ya'll!

I, of course, had to make Skylar a shirt to wear for the Thanksgiving feast and spent WAY too long making it. But was pretty cute, so it was worth it. And maybe it will fit her again next year, so I won't have to make another one? Here's to hoping...but I'm not holding my breath.

October

Well, this is what happens when you are 3 months behind on blog posts. You have to cram a whole month into one post and do very little explaining. Sorry, but here are some of the pictures from our October adventures.

We visited the pumpkin patch with Morgan's classroom. Lots of fun! It was much warmer than it has been for us in the past, which was nice! We are usually bundled up in hats mittens, and our winter coats, so this was a nice change.

This year we were in shorts!!

Can't wait to compare her to next year and see how much she has grown!

Skylar too...

Bryan had a game on the 30th, so there was trick or treating for the kids through the tailgate area. The girls had lot of fun with all their friends dressing up and of course seeing Ace. Morgan was plenty warm in her costume! These costumes were great when we lived in the Rockies, but they are a little warm for the south. Tutu is so wonderful to make all these costumes-and she always does such a wonderful job!

We went to a Halloween party at the Athletic club that morning and got even MORE candy! Oh goody! The girls had fun!

And Morgan won 2nd place with her "Kung Fu Panda" costume!

Outer Banks Trip Part 1-Beach Babes

We had such a wonderful time in North Carolina with Ryan and his family and Derek and the Applewhites. It was really spectacular and definately somewhere we would love to go again. We discovered that the girls are not only mountain, arctic, and swamp girls, but they are quite naturally beach babes as well. We wished Bryan was there to join in the fun, but this gives us an excuse to return!

We did so much while we there-we took a tour of the Currituck Sound Lighthouse, we took a wild horse tour, we had many many hours of beach time, and did lots and lots of relaxing. These are just a few pictures of the girls...I will have to make this a 2 (or 3) part series to get all these pictures uploaded...

Morgan was having the time of her life digging in the sand

Skylar and Morgan knee deep in it

Our Little Mermaid

Uncle Derek playing in the sand with Stella, Skylar and Morgan

Morgan and Uncle Derek taking Ace for his beach walk

Skylar watering...the beach

Morgan loving the waves of the ocean

SISTERS!!

Anytime, anywhere-it's naptime!

Mud girl-she got the biggest kick out of covering herself with mud.

Some of our Colorado Trip

We had the best 2 1/2 weeks ever! The girls had a blast, I had a blast and I hope everyone we saw enjoyed our company too. It was a long trip, but we had so much fun the time just flew by!!
We headed up to Red Rocks one Saturday for an awesome burnin' workout with Jumpin' Joe! Whew! What a fun time and the best landscape anyone could ask for! Perfect!

After 2 hours of extreme fitness in the foothills of Colorado we still had smiles on our faces...

We spent a few days at Grandma and Papa's house and the girls LOVED riding Hugs! Skylar was ready to saddle up and ride this time. Last time she was a little more hesitant, but there was no stopping this cowgirl! She could have done this all day if Papa would have let her!

Morgan loved it too! Hugs is such a sweet horse and Cowboy Dick and Papa were so nice to let the girls ride. They haven't stopped talking about it yet and they can't wait to go back and get back up on that horse!

The girls are anxious to do their "chores." Chores were fun to them. Morgan and Skylar went out every morning and helped Papa feed the horses their hay and grain. We skipped cleaning the stalls this summer, but maybe next summer we will get them a pair of boots and let 'em loose in there to really get their hands dirty. Until then, Skylar will put on her best dress and lipstick for the occassion...

We headed up to Greeley one Saturday for the UNC alumni match. All of my former teammates were there and some of us met up early at a local park to meet all the kiddos and enjoy a little slower pace before the festivities began. What an amazing day it was! It was so much fun meeting all the kiddos, playing at the park, getting to know the husbands a little more and just all-in-all catching up on life with my girls. It was truly heartwarming and fun!

Jessica, Kelly, Teale, Me, Cara and Kara soaking in some love!

All of the alumnus after the game. What a fun experience! I hope I get to do this again some day!

The best ending to the day is that we all managed to WALK out of the gym on our own free will. No one was injured-not even our egos. We played great and had even more fun!

One of our last nights in Colorado we spent at Coors Field watching the Rockies beat the Braves 5-4. It was fun to go watch my Rockies in action and the girls loved it too!

San Antonio

The girls were so excited to see the Shamu show! I am not sure they knew just how big these orcas are! They loved the show and took home their own Shamu stuffed animals. I was like a giddy little girl waiting for the show myself! I wanted to be a marinebiologist when I grew up...

waiting for the show to start

Morgan LOVED feeding the dolphins and touching their noses. She even fed the dolphin a fish!

Skylar would not touch the dead fish, but enjoyed watching the dolphins eat them.

The Applewhite homestead is located in La Vernia, TX just outside of San Antonio. We made a special trip out to see the remains of it and so we could take a picture with the girls at the historical family landmark.

Bryan and the girls at the Applewhite Homestead.

4 generations

Bryan's mother and grandmother are in town visiting for Morgan's birthday and Mother's Day, so we took the opportunity to get a few pictures of the generations-you just can't pass up an opportunity like that. Here are three generations.

And four generations! Isn't that amazing!? WOW! More amazing is the fact that both of my children are smiling at the camera...at the same time. Yes, I did tie their hands behind their backs and tell them their feet were next, but hey, whatever it takes to get a good photo-sign me up!

Four generations of women-truly a Mother's Day gift! See, it can't hurt that bad...they are still smiling.And the Louisiana Applewhite's on a beautiful Louisiana Saturday Night! See what happens when you untie them-they lose sight of the goal...and the camera. Lesson learned.