Phoenix Zoo Lights

Saturday night a pretty big group of us headed to the Phoenix Zoo for "Zoo Lights." I didn't get many pictures of the awesome displays, but I had a lot of fun playing with the night settings on my camera!

Molly had a blast at Sting Ray Bay where she got to pet several sting rays. Her pig-tails and jacket sleeves were soaked and I know if I hadn't kept an eye on her she would have been in the pool with the rays. I think she might be my diving-buddy one of these days!

Jeremi and Devon

Molly and her new best friend, Devon. They had a blast pretending to be Jedis together!

This is the only picture where Molly and Devon weren't trying to battle Sara aka "Darth Bunny"

Family Birthday Party

Saturday we celebrated the December birthdays in my family with a party for my Uncle Bud, cousin Trenda and Molly.

Molly and Uncle Bud licking icing off the cake decorations

Molly and Hunter... notcie the Yoda card and Star Wars wrapping paper?

Molly & Her Nana

It only makes sense that Trenda would get multiple copies of the Jon & Kate Plus Eight book!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family in Arizona. We had a yummy meal, spent lots of time hanging out with family and the best part... we got to meet baby Pierce for the first time!

Just a fraction of the 30 people at my aunt and uncle's for Thanksgiving

My Aunt JoAnn & Uncle Bud

My cousins, Jeremi & Mandy

Game-time craziness...
I lost my team a point and got yelled at for taking this picture, but it was so worth it!

Molly & her cousins, Sara & Hunter

And Baby Makes Three!

Patrick admiring his nephew

Pierce and Grandma Laura

Happiest Place on Earth!

Molly & I are now at my cousin's house in Arizona... last Wednesday we left Houston at 9am, flew into Phoenix and after only a few hours on the ground, hopped into a car with my two cousins and headed to DISNEYLAND! When we got to the hotel in Anaheim, we told them it was Molly's birthday trip and her first Disney visit, so they upgraded us to a 2 bedroom suite!!

We spent 3 days at the park and had an awesome time. We started the first day with breakfast with Minnie and friends which was so much fun. Molly LOVED meeting and hugging all the characters and getting their autographs!

Our first day Katie played hookie from work at met us at the park! We are so glad she is part of our Disney memories! Molly also got to participate in Jedi training (who knew Star Wars existed at Disneyland!?!?) which I think was her favorite part of the trip. A group of about 25 kids was chosen from the audience to learn some light saber tricks, then each one had a one-on-one battle with Darth Vader. Not what you'd expect a 3 year-old girl to take part in, is it?

Here are just a few pictures from the trip (mainly for Daddy - he won't get to see the rest of the pictures until he arrives in Arizona tomorrow!)

Front Yard Fun

Molly and I had fun in the front yard today... we chased a beautiful butterfly (which we called our Julsie butterfly, Molly said Julia sent her to us from heaven), played with sticks, took our traditional picture on the mailbox (I don't know why I've started this) and found a praying mantis, which of course Daddy caught so we could take him to school for other kids to see!

Skating with Peggy Fleming!

My friend, Jamie, works at a PR firm and invited Molly to try out for a photo shoot for one of her clients. Molly's pictures were submitted and she was picked as one of 3 girls to skate with Peggy Fleming!

Molly said Ms. Peggy was really nice and she was relieved that she didn't ask her to do any tricks. Molly had been worried about that.

Molly did a great job although she had a hard time with the rental skates (Peggy even said the skate blades were awful) but it all worked out well since Ms. Peggy helped Molly skate and I ended up getting some cute pictures of them together. Not sure if any of Molly's pictures will be used in the ad campaign, but it doesn't matter! Molly got a chance to skate with an Olympic gold medalist!! I hope when she gets older she'll realize how cool today was!

Molly and me skating after the photo shoot... Molly told me, "Mommy, you glide like Ms. Peggy." Not sure how Peggy would feel about that comment, but I thought it was pretty cool!

Molly on Ice!

A friend of mine made Molly a very interesting offer that we couldn't pass up, (more to come on that later) the only catch is Molly needs to be able to ice skate!! So this morning after gymnastics Molly and I headed to the local ice rink where Molly had a 30 minute private lesson. I really wasn't sure Molly would like skating, but she LOVED it. She smiled the entire time, whether she was wobbling on her skates, falling on her hiney or slamming into the wall. She was in heaven and thought it was just about the most fun thing she's ever done.

Looks like I'm on my way to being "that mom" who has her kid overloaded with lessons and activities!