Pretend Time

irina pretending to feed her baby

yummy organic food im sure ;)

FREEBIRDS GRAND OPENING!

We went to the Grand Opening and had a great and delicious time! The line was out the door and wrapped around the building as we left, we just beat the rush!
PICS:
Outside w/ the Freebirds van! Sharing a burrito with her Datty, making a hat from our foil, hanging on the wall, and refusing to say "cheese" w/ mommy. pics might be out of order, sorry.

Casa Manana Show

Last week my FIL and I took a trip to Casa Manana to see "santa claus is coming to town". We got discounted tickets with our MOPS group from church and later found out that our neighborhood playgroup was also going. We actually sat in the same section in the rown next to eachother, it was fun sitting with all our friends. The show was just over an hour and Irina did GREAT! I was so proud of her for sitting, wathing and listening to the entire show. She especially loved the singing and dancing elfs that jumped around the stage. I told her that santa was a fun character to watch and that it was all pretend. We want her to to have a good time with the holidays but we are teaching her that more importantly its the day Christ was born. Daddy-O had fun holding Irina in his lap during the show, although she got fussy after we left, she wanted to see more. We were all very hungry afterwards and headed to Granny's (Irina's Great Grandmother) house for BBQ sandwiches. I only got these shots: the first was as they announced that no cameras were allowed during the show, the others are at the end and the last is of Irina & her Daddy-O.

WE REMEMBER 12 FALLEN AGGIES

10 years ago today Texas A&M University experienced an unexplainable loss, 12 students died in the bonfire collapse. I remember hearing the news my senior year in high school and asking "where is college station"?. Craig was there and lost his friend Chad Powell from Keller, TX; they were both in cross country. I see the video and continue to pray for the families no matter how much time has passed. We visit the bonfire memorial every time we go to college station, it no longer brings me to tears the way it used to; it makes me think about life and how fragile it is. Today our family remembers the families of:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I7yJWxq93U

more pics

Irina w/ her Datty

loving the country air and flowers

Last Day in NC

irina's last walk on the farm

pointing to the horses

Photos of Irina

these are some photos i took of irina around the farm. she is looking at Lady & Jesse in these
she loved it so much, she is just like her dad who enjoys camping and being outdoors.

making smores an open fire

yummy!

just like her datty

Craigs mom and stepdad have a huge farm with lots of land so we took advantage of it and had a mini bonfire with smores! Irina had a great time running around but seemed a bit scared of the fire, which is a good thing. We had a great time sitting outside in the cool weather. I loved looking into the sky and staring at the stars, its amazing how many more stars are are seen in the country skies.

THE DEPOT & LOWES

On Friday we went to visit some of Theresa's co-workers and friends. She works for the corporate office of LOWES as an accountant. Irina had a great time pretending to work with her grandmother.

chapel for weddings outside The Depot

a beautiful gazebo

craig & irina inside The Depot

it was so "earthy"

After Church on Sunday we went out to eat at The Depot, I wasnt sure about the name but I was sure the food was going to be Southern Style. To drive into the property the restaurant is on, you have to drive on this really old little bridge, the view was amazing. The entire place was gorgeous, I was later told that people reserve the gazebo and chapel for weddings. The food was delicious but I was even more impressed with the land around the restaurant.

North Carolina Trip

Last week Craig, Irina, Priscilla (my sis) and I went to NC to visit my MIL and FIL (step father in law but I love him no different). I was a bit worried about traveling with a toddler during flu season (both swine and seasonal) but we took some precautions prayed for the best. We decided to not buy Irina a seat on the plane and have her sit on our laps, we will have to pay for her when she turns two so we thought we would save the money now. Things worked out great because the row behind us was completely empty and they allowed us to set up her car seat free of charge. I am so proud of her, she was a terrific traveler! As we took off I gave her a dum-dum to keep her ears from popping, she watched her dvd and then fell asleep. We arrived in Charlotte and drove nearly 2 hours to my inlaws farm, the scenery was amazing. Over the next week we ate the best southern cooking, had shooting practice, kept up her horses, ate some more, made smores on a little bonfire, went shopping and SOO much more! We all had a great time! My inlaws gave me a horse a couple of years ago named Lady and they just gave one to Irina as well; his name is Lil' Man. He is smaller than most horses (14 hands tall, most are 16 hands tall) but he still seems huge to me! These are some out of order pics of us with the horses. Irina loves horses, I was very surprised because she is scared of most dogs. I will post more pics later. Irina did great flying back home, we had another free seat for her and she slept most of the way again.

fast asleep on the plane

watching a movie

she was scared at first
then fine after a few minutes!

feeding lady some yummy hay w/ tia pris

helping out on the farm!

mommy & irina after running around playing hide and seek

carrying hay to the horses to "feed up"

Halloween

Irina & Liam the Monkies, Bella the witch and Luke the Dinosaur!
Funkey Monkey Faces!
Irina & Liam

Here are a few pics from Halloween, I realize I'm a bit late on posting these.

Jeanine came over with Seth and Liam so we could go trick or treating in our neighborhood. We were some of the first ones out on the streets. We ran into lots of play group buddies and had a great time. We did not stay out long, I didnt want Irina to see all the scary faces and costumes that were out there. We are not big Halloween people but I thought it would be fun for short while. Irina got the hang of it after a couple of houses and was on a roll, a tootsie roll that is ;)