Thanksgiving in Tulsa!

This year, we headed out to Tulsa for our annual family reunion with Erika's family and it marked Caroline's first experience on the plane and luckily, she was great - no aisle pacing was necessary! But best of all, it was wonderful to see everyone and we had a chance to meet the newest addition to the family; little Marin is the sweet little girl to Kristin and Dirac! The long weekend was spent with family combined with lots of good shopping, delicious meals, and good laughs!

On the plane with the girls..just about to take off!

All the cousins with their GIRLS!

Little Caroline with her mommmy

Cousin Cory with his niece Marin.

Ella is all smiles when she's with her cousin Anne-Perry.

The whole gang....as good as it's gonna get!

Thanksgiving Day...Ella does not look amused one bit!

Ella Goes to the Dentist!

We started prepping Ella for the trip to the dentist several weeks before her visit and even had her accompany Erika for her last visit, too. Given her resistance and apparent lack of enthusiasm, we decided to drop the whole dentist thing until we were one day away from her first teeth cleaning. Despite her obstinate attitude however, she was absolutely perfect during the entire visit. Of course the dentist and dental hygienist were absolutely wonderful and did a great job with Ella!

Looking a little glum and not at all excited about this dental visit...

Doing great!

Teeth are clean and look good!

Just a typical day...

After looking through some of the random pictures that were taken, they seemed worthy of a blog post as they sure do sum up some of the typical days Erika experience's at the house!

Having fun with a toy basket!

Look at me, Mommy!

Hmmm, turn around for a minute and she's into something! Apparently, something caught Caroline's eye on the console but a failed attempt to reach it left her stuck! Erika had ran upstairs to grab something only to come downstairs to find Caroline in quite an unhappy predicament!

Someone is sleepy! On the way home from a birthday party.

Halloween with the Black Halloween Cat and the Duck, take IV

Now that Ella is in school, there's been even more opportunities to celebrate Halloween and get into the spooky spirit! Her preschool, LANK, hosted an amazing Halloween party for all the families and not only were the decoration completely impressive, but the games, crafts, and activities were all to be applauded. Erika volunteered some time at the face painting/tatoo table and later in the party, Tim was in charge of hooking the fishing line with treats for the children who threw their line into the water (ie: behind a big painted wave board that Tim sat behind and hooked their line with candy and other treats). For the adults, it was nice to meet some of the parents and see Ella interact with some of her classmates.

On Halloween, the neighborhood organized a Costume Parade with three other adjoining neighborhoods for a combined get together of over 50 children, all dressed and ready to celebrate the candy day! Afterwards, we all met at the local playground for a post-parade party complete with candy (of course!), food, drinks, and pinetas. After an hour break to eat some dinner, the neighborhood was back out again for trick-or-treating. We were really proud of Ella this year; she was very assertive and not her typical shy self. In fact, she felt totally comfortable approaching the doors with us from the sidewalk and pronouncing "trick-or-treat" and "thank-you!" Caroline also did great, wearing the duck costume that we never would have thought would have gotten so much use! For it's fourth year in a row, the duck made it's appearance and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that Caroline wore the hat teh entire time. Looking ever so adorable, she got her first tastes of Halloween candy and even though didn't quite make the entire neighborhood rounds, she found it quite rewarding to sit with Tim on our porch to hand out candy to the children!

Outside LANK at the Halloween party; our two girls

Helping Daddy hook the lines with goodies!

Little Miss Showoff!

Erika with her girls although one isn't so happy to be sitting still!

Could they look more alike?

Ah, so cute! Getting ready for the parade!

Taking a pose during the parade, Erika and Lee with all the kids!

C & E getting pulled in the wagon

E & C at the party; Caroline is thinking "give me back that candy!"

Tim the Clown with Caroline

Little sad duck, but so sweet looking!

Erika's parents came by the party for a visit!

With our cat and duck


Getting ready to go out and trick-or-treat; both are pretty excited!


Trick-or-treating!



Taking a candy pit-stop in between houses. Phew, trick-or-treating is alot of work!