catching up since vacation....

We had a nice Thanksgiving. Gracie was sick and spent most of the day in bed. I was heartbroken for her, she kept saying, "why do I have to have germs today, this day only happens once a year!" poor thing. Unfortunately, 2 weeks later she is just really getting over it now, that stomach bug was holing on to her with all it's might. I'm hopeful we've finally turned the corner now and can stay healthy for awhile!

For their Thanksgiving feast at school all the little girls were Pilgrims and all the boys were Indians....I suppose that will get
her teacher sued at some point, but I think it was pretty cute.

Annual stuffing making.....I think Maggie managed to ask dad at least 1000 questions, during the mixing of 3 batches :)

When we got home after Thanksgiving it was time to get the house ready for Christmas! Yah, I love all the lights and decorations.

Monday was a Snow Day, which is pretty rare around here. The girls had fun and are looking forward to the yard at our new house where they will have some great sledding hills.

Wednesday night was our Christmas Party at church. I think you can tell my cute little reindeer didn't feel very well, but they sure are adorable. Thankfully Maggie's stomach bug was much shorter lived.

Thursday night was Maggie's school Christmas program. Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Joyce were kind enough to make the trip. She was so excited to have them there. (and thankfully Aunt Bobbie thought to get her a pretty holiday outfit....mom was not on her A game this year!)

It's Panther basketball season again, lots of weekends spent cheering in the gym! You can see that Gracie is thrilled.

 Happy Hanukah!!

Sometime on Monday Clarence came. The girls had been talking about when and if he'd come so the were very excited (and a little relieved) that he made his annual appearance. I'm so grateful they still believe in all the magic.

CABO!

Once we finally had a good nights sleep, we had a great time in Cabo. We did a couple of things this trip we've never done before. We took the girls to swim with the dolphins, they we're both really excited. Maggie LOVED it and was pretty sure when we left that she wants to work there when she grows up and Gracie cried through most of if. The dolphins were in a marina cove and there were lots of fish swimming around, Gracie liked the dolphins but HATED the little fish swimming all over and her sensitive skin doesn't love the salt water, so all in all, it wasn't her favorite experience.

We also had the chance to take a sunset cruise on a beautiful yacht. We had a great time, on our way back in the ocean got pretty rocky. By the time we got off the boat Maggie wasn't feeling so good, we had to stop and let her "ralph" on our way back to the house. I think even with the sea sickness, she'd do it again, it was lots of fun and so pretty!

Probably among her favorite moments in her whole life :)

After all the crying the one thing Gracie really wanted to do was touch the dolphins
teeth. The trainer was so kind and worked really hard to get her to participate.

See you later Poseidon, I have a feeling we'll be back!

El Discovery!

yep, that's Gracie, bellied up to the bar.

 

The other thing that was different this trip is Gracie got to take lessons with Valente too! Maggie wasn't so sure how she felt about sharing, but it went really well. We let Maggie have one day all by herself but she was pretty agreeable to sharing the others with Gracie. He had Maggie loping (they call it cantering) through the hills and Gracie trotting in the arena. They learn SO much when they're there and the love between our kids and the family that runs the barn is obvious, they're very special people.

They've added a miniature donkey since last time we were there, Gracie thought she was so cute. She didn't
understand why we couldn't have one, she was smaller then Reagan.

sweaty sweaty little rider!

Not a bad homework view!

They were doing some work on the beach erosion, so we had a little different view then usual.

We had another first this trip....the life guard went in to rescue Maggie from a rip tide. I'm sure she'd
have been okay on her own, but she was definitely a little shaken and glad he was there so quickly.

 

Sister selfie (there were about 60 of these in a row on the camera)

 

Daddy and his golfers.

After all the fun we had Gracie said her favorite part was....

...riding the train at the Dallas airport.....seriously! I guess I should be happy she finds joy in the little things.

 

24 hours after being at the sunny beach, the girls were wearing snow pants, boots and gloves.... welcome home!