An Open Forum

There have, of course, been several things that I could've blogged about within the past 5 or 6 months, and yet did not take the initiative. So today will be a photo montage because, let's face it, we all like to look at pictures rather than read my ramblings.

Halloween Night!! Emma was a ballerina, and Wes was a "Rockin' " Spider!!

We spent Halloween trick-or-treating with 4 other families and their kids. It was a blast! We loved being out in our own community. This a picture w/ Autumn and Josh. None of the big group pictures I took came out.
Emma and I went to see the Broadway version of "The Lion King" at Music Hall in Dallas on the 13th of October. We'd had our tickets for a whole year, and Emma had patiently waited. It was well worth the wait! We loved it! It is so neat to be able to share these kind of things with her, and to watch her light up with awe and feel inspired together.

Twin Day at school!
This is Wes' "Gang" of trouble makers! Thank goodness we have a backyard!!!!

The pumpkin patch at the Arboretum

I took Emma to the mall one night before Wesley's birthday so that she could buy him a present. As we walked around we passed by the Godiva store, and Emma nearly broke her neck looking back over her shoulder at the chocolates. I took her into the shop and the chocolatier let us sample a few pieces. She then asked Emma what her favorite kind of chocolate is, and Emma told her that it is chocolate with chocolate inside. We picked out 3 different truffles to take with us. As the shop-girl was packing them for us, Emma gazed in wonder at all the many chocolates surrounding her, and then looked at me and asked in an awe-struck voice, "Mom? How do they make chocolate?"

And just by chance, the Arboretum has an entire exhibit, that is running through December, all about the "Chocolate Tree"! We discovered where chocolate comes from, how it is made, and even got to sample some.

I've been taking Wesley to an hour long class on Tuesday mornings at the Rec Center. He gets to play, sing, dance, jump, climb, and play with a giant parachute! And we love his teacher, Mrs. Morales. We even had her oldest daughter babysit for us one evening. It was our first "real" babysitter. The kids loved her, and we will definitely have her over again. (That was the night of the infamous Oct 27th post!)
Wes turned 2 on October 7th!! We were at G & Papa's house for General Conference that Sunday, but between sessions we did a little celebrating. Wes wanted a Frog cake, and this was the best we could do:

Brittany and Emma made up party games and everything, with just a little help from G. They played pin-the-heart on Wesley, roll the pumpkin with your nose, and of course the spoon and potato race!

Emma decided that she wanted to cut her hair. She's been growing it out for almost 2 years so that she could have hair like Rapunzel, but she made the choice herself and Aunt Krista gave her a very cute new do!
We got Wes a Tee-ball set for his birthday, because we felt bad that he and Josh had to find creative ways to play, like this:

Oh yes, that is a football in a flower pot being hit with a shoe bat.

I thought that was pretty clever!

These are pictures from our end of summer, High School Musical 2 party!!

I just really liked this picture:

If it were up to Wes, we would be at the zoo everyday, and he would live with the Giraffes and Elephants.
We took family pictures while in Katy with Mark's family this summer. Apparently my children's eyes are very sun-sensitive. Who knew?
I really like Mark's smile in this one.

Here is the whole Don & Jeanette Phillips clan:
This was a big year for Emma. She turned 5 this summer, and we celebrated with every princess we know!

Mark stayed up all night before the party, painting our living room. It was our first party in our new home, and we did it in style. There was princess freeze dance, princess bingo, pin-the-crown on the life size Emma, and of course an all out princess treasure hunt. All the princessess arrived in full royal attire.

This one is just in here for the "cute" factor.

We went on our first annual trip to Blueberry Hills Farm with Molly and the Harris family. We had so much fun picking blueberries, and Wesley discovered that blueberries right off the bush are the best!!! There were so many more berries that made it into his mouth without even a chance of making it into his basket.

So, there it is. A slightly encompassing retrospective of the last 5 months. And for those requesting an "all about Tonia" blog, ask a question and I will answer, but I don't volunteer that information. You've got to be specific.