Archive for November, 2011

A trip to the Smokies

Posted in Family visits, Leah, Molly, Trip on November 30th, 2011 by jen – 2 Comments

We headed to Gatlinburg, TN to gather with the Batson extended family for Thanksgiving. We arrived on G'mom's birthday, so we had to celebrate. Here G'mom is receiving her fantastic birthday hat Aunt 'Chelle made for her.

Happy birthday G'Mom

The morning of Thanksgiving we hiked up a mountain to see a waterfall (and burn some calories before the feast!).

Hiking up the mountain

Posing with the waterfall

Molly got a lot of extra time with G'mom and Grampa since we allowed her to have "special" days with no naps.

Fun with Candy Land

The girls are still not fond of big or active dogs, but Max is neither of these. Max enjoyed sitting quietly on Dot's lap, and Leah thought that made him the perfect dog to pet.

Petting Max

The house we rented had a pool table, which was lots of fun for adult and child alike.

Pool fun

The Batson clan (well, almost all of us).

The Batson family

Cherub Choir for Thanksgiving

Posted in Molly, Video on November 20th, 2011 by c-had – 2 Comments

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It's the Sunday before Thanksgiving and that means it's time for some more singing from Molly and the Cherub Choir (with me accompanying on guitar again).

A sweet way to make everyone smile

Posted in Leah, Molly on November 6th, 2011 by jen – 1 Comment

The girls raked in a lot of candy at Halloween, but we didn't keep it all. We decided to keep a bit, and donate the rest to send to soldiers overseas. The girls picked out 15 pieces of candy each to keep for themselves.

Choosing candy

Our new dentist's office participates in the Halloween Candy Buy Back program and was collecting candy to send off. Here the girls are presenting their stash.

Candy donation

Every time we talked about sending candy to the soldiers, Molly would call them knights instead. I thought this was adorable. The dentist's office had cards for the girls to color to send with the candy, so of course Molly and Leah thought it was appropriate to put a castle on the card (it was going to the knights, after all).

Cards for the knights

Because they donated more than 1 pound of candy each, the dentist's office rewarded them with a silver dollar, a new toothbrush and a few Halloween trinkets including these glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth. This is Molly being scary.

Scary teeth

Our Halloween festivities

Posted in Celebrations, Leah, Molly on November 2nd, 2011 by jen – Be the first to comment

Molly's class gave a show for the parents during their Halloween party, including a costume parade.

Costume parade

Grams made the girls these Halloween dresses. Leah wasn't sure about hers, but Molly wore hers 4 days in a row after receiving it.

Halloween dresses

This is what happens when Molly gives Daddy bunny ears behind the camera.

Hilarious

On Halloween, our first stop was to trick-or-treat at Grams and Pop's house.

First Trick-or-treat stop

Molly is dressed as a princess (Cinderella to be precise) and Leah is a pea. So, we had The Princess and the Pea.

The princess and the pea

I made Leah's costume. Unfortunately, Leah repeated "I don't yike it" over and over while crying when we tried to put it on. Eventually, we talked her into donning it by emphasizing that it would lead to candy.

A little pea

Grams and Pop are known for giving out full-size candy bars, and Leah picked a Kit Kat bar. She loved getting it, and kept carrying it around exclaiming "It's my Kit Kat" to us. After starting in a bad mood, the Kit Kat was what turned her mood around.

My Kit Kat

Girls and grands

We then headed to Keira and Maya's house to do some trick-or-treating with them and Simon and Matilda. Here are all the kids ready to go.

Trick or treaters

Molly's now an expert trick-or-treater, so she managed pretty much on her own.

Expert

Trick-or-treating

Leah needed a little help, but did great and lasted the whole time (though she did dump her candy in Daddy's backpack half way through to lighten the load).

A little help

Lined up and waiting.

Lined up

Despite usually saying I don't do it, Mommy is capable of carrying on shoulders. Leah is clearly enjoying the ride and her animal crackers snack.

Shoulders

The pea costume was stuffed well, which meant Leah sometimes lost the bottom part of her face in it.

You're missing your chin

After we got back, Matilda played calmly with a tea cup.

Calm play

I'm sure that's what all the kids are doing, right…

maybe not. The older kids were pretty wound up (as you might expect).

Wild and crazy