Visions of Sugar Plums....

Visiting with Santa

Once again, it was time to visit the Bass Pro Shops for Finley's free picture with Santa Claus.  She did much better this year, there was no smiling, but there wasn't any crying either.  Let's hope Santa listens and brings Finley a shopping cart, train and baby doll.  Let's take a look back at last year's visit...she sure has grown!

Santa's Happy Helper

Finley has been a super trooper in all the shopping I have been doing lately.  I snapped this picture after a visit to Costco, in which Finley sampled: biscuits, vegetable soup, chocolate cookies, mozzerella sticks, hummus, fudge and tilapia.  No wonder she is smiling.

Santa's House

I got a gingerbread house kit after seeing Sarah's adorable gingerbread house.  I think more icing ended up on Finley and I than on the gingerbread house itself.  We didn't really follow the directions very well, there was up to 4 hours of waiting in between the drying phases.  We gave it a solid 15 minutes and went to town.  Finley had a great time decorating the house and only suck one or two candies.  She did enjoy licking her fingers whenever even a tiny bit of icing got on them.  Finley calls our gingerbread house, "Santa's House."

Playing with Daddy's New Presents

Clifton has gotten two awesome presents from work, an ipad and a Flip Mino HD Camera.  The real beneficiary of his new toys: Miss Finley.  She loves playing different games on the ipad, especially the color match game.  I can only imagine what technology she will have when she starts school.  So, look for more videos of Finley in the future, now that I have a video camera that can fit in my pocket!

Check out Finley's New Ticker

Finley is all set for her second trip to DisneyWorld!  But it will be her first trip with her Daddy.  She is so excited.  She has been very attached to bear friend recently and really wants to take him to Minnie's House in Toon Town.  Toon Town is closing on February 10th, so we will make it just in time for one last visit to Finley's favorite house, thank goodness! At the gym this morning, her caretaker Stacey made her a Minnie crown.  Everytime Finley is at the gym, she and Stacey color a picture of Minnie Mouse together.  She is certainly Minnie obsessed.

Max's Christmas Show

Max's school had a Christmas program starring all the kids in his Mother's Day Out.  Even the littlest ones were part of the show.  Finley and I went to go watch Max.  Max was a lion, but wasn't so keen on wearing his costume.  All the kids were rewarded with cookies and juice boxes after the show.  With that kind of reception, Finley will be attending all of Max's future shows.  Who am I kidding, this is Max, she would be there even if there weren't any cookies or juice boxes.

Happy Birthday, Wyatt!

Wyatt's 2nd birthday party was yesterday, so of course we were at his house to celebrate with him.  Finley has been excited for this party all week.  The party was a trian theme and Wyatt's mom had made the most amazing train cake, complete with edible rocks.  The kids loved it!  Finley picked all the candy off the cake and ate every piece.  They had a bounce house in their backyard and Finley had so much fun jumping with all the kids.   Happy birthday, Wyatt!

Santa Visits Playgroup

Waiting for Santa

Well hello Samantha

It's Santa~ let's all follow him

Jahan loved Santa, Elise was scared of him and Brielle was a little curious...Santa looked just like Daddy!

Izzy thought Santa was pretty darn fantastic.

Finley was excited to see Santa, she wasn't scared at all

And she got a candy cane

All the girls loved their candy canes

What a fun time!

Max wasn't thinking Santa was so fun

Cookie decorating time~





Sandbox time, Brielle's backyard is a toddler's dream.

Max may not like Santa, but he sure loved the chickens

More fun chickens, toddler wonderland

And a tennis court for running

And being toted around

We Love You Uncle Larry!

Finley is named after Steve Finley, a former Baltimore Oriole and a former Houston Astro.  My love of baseball began at a very young age, my Uncle Larry would take me to Baltimore Orioles games at Memorial Stadium and I was hooked.  I absolutely loved the game.  And I loved my Uncle Larry for sharing it with me.  When Camden Yards opened, he had amazing season tickets and we spent many a summer night enjoying a game together.  We flew to Cleveland for an afternoon to watch the Indians play, back when Southwest had $29 fares.  He went wit hme to Memphis to see the Houston Cougars play in the Liberty Bowl.  My love of sports is entirely because of him.  This past summer, Finley got to meet him during our visit to Atlanta.  We all took in a Gwinnett Braves game together, Finley looks so little in the pictures.  I feel happiness in my heart that she got to meet my Uncle Larry and complete sadness to hear that he passed away today.  I am so very happy they got to watch a baseball game together.  If it weren't for Uncle Larry, Finley wouldn't be named Finley.  I wouldn't love baseball the way I do.  And I am so sad that she will not get to spend more time with him.   I am devastated to lose him in our life.  We all love him so very much and will miss him terribly.

"Give that fan...a contract"  "Thank youuuuuuuu"

No Dance Class

But Finley is still such a pretty ballerina!  Her dance school is closed for a month due to some building work they are having done. She has been asking to wear her new ballerina dress ever since I bought it and it was finally a warm enough day here for her to wear it. So instead of tuts and ballet shoes, we spent the morning at Michael's, Berings and Costco. Luckily, the samples at Costco make Finley just love it. She especially like the orange slices, but she kept trying to eat the peel. Silly goose.

She loved the pink chair at Berings, they also had a matching couch.  She couldn't get enough of it!  They are just her size and in her most favorite color.  Berings is such a fun store, Finley was enjoying the dollhouse that was taller than she is!  She was captivated by the fireplaces, I don't think she quite understood what they were.

Still Waiting on that Big Girl Ducati

Finley had fun this past weekend racing motorcycles with Clifton.  She had all her Little People set up around the track to watch the big race.  It was super cute to see her set everything up so intently.  Hasn't she changed a ton in a year and a half?  She loves the Ducati race track even more now that she can actually play with it, instead of just watching the mototrcycles whiz around.

Finley has decided to play hide and seek with all her Little People princesses.  She asks for them and tells me where they are, but they are never where she says they are.  We were playing with them on Monday morning with her Little People circus, but that is the last time I saw them.  If anyone sees pink princess, blue princess or blue prince, please let me know.  I have checked all the regular hiding spots.

Making Santa Claus

Finley is so excited to see Santa Claus.  Let's hope it stays that way when she actually meets him.  I hope she isn't crying this year, like she was last year.  We plan to visit him again at the Bass Pro Shops, since the photo is free.  Today, Finley and I got a little crafty and made a Santa with cotton balls, a paper plate and some construction paper.  She was really proud of her Santa Claus and she even gave him a kiss!

Still loving Chick-fil-a

Max's mom watched Finley this week while I visited with the kids I am pen pals with at Braeburn Elementary. Finley had dance class in the morning, so she got treated to Chick-fil-a for lunch since there wasn't time to head home in between ballet and my meeting. She gobbled all six nuggets right up, but she wasn't interested in trying one of my waffle fries.

The only problem with our Chick-fil-a lunch is the price, for my meal and Finley's it was $10. Maybe next time we are in a bind, we will stop in at Thai Cottage. Finley loves the soup there and the lunch special is half the price. Did anyone buy the Cows of Reality TV Chick-fil-a calendar? Are the coupons worth it?