December ~ Part 1

December is always a fun, special, and exhausting month for me. With Ansley's birthday and birthday party, Christmas parties, Breakfast with Santa, and traveling for the holidays, I am usually ready for January to get here. I love this month and think it will always be this way so I have to make the most of it.

The first weekend in December was "Christmas in Davidson" which we always enjoy going to. Ansley starts it off with singing at our church in the Christmas program. We then head out to check out the live Nativity and they even had an ice skating rink set up.

the lighting is so bad in the Sanctuary so you do not get the best quality pictures, but here are a couple.

Ansley also had a Christmas ballet program. It wasn't anything fancy but they allowed us to come into the studio and watch them perform for us. Ansley really is enjoying ballet this time around. It is a great place where they can really learn the techniques in a laid back setting.

Ansley did her back-bend, she has worked hard on this

look who else joined in on the fun

Our church had the annual Cookies with Santa the second weekend in December (this is something my moms group puts on for the members of our church). It was a huge success again this year. I thought our visit with Santa wasn't going to go good with Aly but she did great. We had bribe Ansley to sit on Santa's lap, she was hesitant this year for some reason. But she told him what she wanted so he knew exactly what to bring her Christmas morning :)

Aly didn't know what to think of Santa...

The same weekend we visited Santa, we also had Ansley's birthday party. It was a "Princess & Superhero" themed party. We had it at a local art gallery and the kids made capes, and decorated tiaras and masks. The kids all seemed like they had a great time. It was one of our smaller parties since it was somewhere else but I LOVED coming home to no mess. Having it somewhere else is definitely the way to go, or at least until we only have really small parties. Winter birthdays are hard since you can't do anything outside...

Cinderella is ready for her party!

Snow White is excited to go to the party too :)

the cupcakes came out really cute! I bought the fondant cupcake toppers from someone off of Etsy and just made the cupcakes (definitely the way to go)

all the kids signed a canvas for Ansley as a gift

lots of glitter, it was everywhere!

Ansley & Emma

all the Superheros & Princesses

time to blow out our candles!

CHEESE!!!

November

November flew by for us, we had a lot going on... We started the month off with going back to Athens for the homecoming game. This was the first game we took Ansley into and she loved everything about. We even took her to Snelling Dining hall beforehand to get some lunch. She thought it was the greatest place :) Aly stayed back with Mimi so we could actually enjoy the experience with Ansley (Thanks Mimi!). Ansley did really well at the game and lasted til right after half-time, she was then ready to go home and so was I. We were winning by a lot so we decided to walk back to Mimi & Pop's house. It was a great day and we were glad Ansley got to experience a football game.

before heading down to meet up with Nana & Pop Pop's tailgate

this sign was at Snelling, LOVE IT!

Ansley hanging out with Chugga

(this is UGA from Charlotte, his owners are head of the Charlotte Bulldawg club).

And here is Russ, Ansley said he looked very sad, and I agree!

This is one of my favorite pics from the day, we had just scored and Ansley was so excited!

Ansley was also in her first Christmas Parade with her ballet class from Dancin Kids. It definitely felt weird to be going to a Christmas parade in early November but she seemed to enjoy it.

the Christmas tree was lit at the end of the parade when Santa arrived :)

Ansley's class has a big Pow Wow for their Thanksgiving celebration. The kids had been working on everything for weeks and were super excited for the Pow Wow and for all of us to come. They got their faces painted (except for Ansley, NO SURPRISE) along with wearing their Indian (or as Ansley would say, Native America) attire. They did such a great job, I was so impressed. We ended the Pow Wow with a wonderful feast :)

Ansley a.k.a. "Playing Hippo" (Native American name)

Ansley & Brandon (her best bud from class)

Ansley receiving her feather

playing their drums

The feast.. One of the mom's made this turkey filled with popcorn, it was so cute.

This year was the first time we stayed home for Thanksgiving and it was really nice to not travel and have my parents come here. We had a great day and the food was so good! We all sat at the dining room table and the girls loved the food. Ansley who has always been so picky decided she really liked honey baked ham :) (she is definitely my child, ha!). And Aly enjoyed having Nana feed her at the table, she of course ate everything we gave her :) ... Thank you Nana & Pop Pop for making the trip up here to be with us, we loved having you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

very proud of herself for eating the ham :)