Well Done, Dallas!

I am bursting with pride for my city.

First, the amazing Klyde Warren Park opened.

This urban park is topnotch with around-the-clock activities like free yoga in the park...

 ...and a lending library for books and board games.

The kids area is super fun with a tree house.

And watch out for that scary spider up in Charlotte's web...

Even the big kids couldn't resist having a ball on the artificial turf hills:

My brother and sister came to town for Christmas!

We were so glad Holly could come join our family for a few days before Christmas.

Add an Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and an Apple Store on the perimeter and I swear the city feels like Chicago.

We especially loved the proximity to the McKinney Avenue trolley.  Palmer LOVED his "choo choo ride".

On the heels of the Klyde Warren Park opening, the eagerly-awaited Perot Museum of Nature and Science opened its doors.

I was planning to wait on buying a membership until I previewed the exhibits first.  I wasn't in the lobby for two minutes before I decided that we just had to have a family annual membership.  I want to bring everyone back to show this place off!

Palmer and his sweet friend Scarlett loved exploring the children's museum.

The two kiddos were quite busy with all of the climbing, water-playing, phone calls they had to make, grocery shopping, etc...

 

 Us mommas know how to get our hard hats on and get to work!

 Palmer kept saying, "Hi bear! Hi bear!"

 By the end, Scarlett and Palmer decided that pushing each other in the stroller was massive fun.  I think that was our cue to leave!

Thank you, Dallas.  What great additions to the city.

-Bethany

Wordless Wednesday

-Bethany

Santa Fail

Santa had three strikes this year.

Remember sweet Palmer last year gazing lovingly up at Santa?

Well, Palmer wised up in the last twelve months and wants very little to do with Santa this year.

We went to the mall very early in the season and experienced no wait and made a last-minute decision to meet Santa.

No such luck.

What about that dear downtown Neimans Santa from last year?

Nope.  Hate him this year.

And Santa's third strike?  My dad moonlights as a Santa and was the featured white beard at Palmer's playgroup party.  Palmer had no clue the man in the red suit was Grampi and couldn't get away fast enough.

You know what Palmer DOES like?  Candy.

 Lots and lots of candy.

 
-Bethany

Wordless Wednesday

-Bethany

Christmas Jammies

We were so tickled to be a part of such a fun Christmas pajama photo shoot.  Palmer fell asleep in the car on the way and woke up a tad cranky.  We were worried the shoot might be a disaster, but smiles magically appeared when a gorgeous gingerbread cookie made its way into Palmer's hand:

A very talented friend of mine donated her photography studio time and all of the proceeds from the Christmas pj shoot went to help a family's journey as they work to adopt a child in Ethiopia.  We met the family's first daughter at the shoot and she couldn't be more precious.

If you are interested in helping this family, check out their Etsy shop to help bring their second child home.

Okay, one more set of photos for the road.  I just love these gems.

-Bethany

'Tis The Season

We are in full blown Christmas mode around here.  My sister remarked that I haven't been blogging much lately.  I quickly told her my lag is due to spending the time between 8:30pm and 10pm in a Christmas frenzy of decorating the house, wrapping presents, making teacher gifts, stuffing Christmas cards, etc.  You get it.  We all understand it's that time of the year.

 I had to get creative with the Christmas tree this year.  "Mommy's" Christmas tree is newly elevated thanks to a wash tub and ornaments are tastefully lacking at the bottom where little hands can reach.

And if those little hands get too interested in "Mommy's" tree, they are quickly scooted to "Palmer's tree".

 

Although I must say Palmer has more of an affinity to violently remove the felt tree ornaments than to carefully reassemble the tree...

Once again, we rounded up our creative friends to help do our gingerbread house.

I love Rick's face in this photo:

Palmer understands the basics:  you mostly eat candy...

 ...and then go to bed and turn it over to the professionals...

And what holiday season isn't complete without some Christmas light watching?  We rented a horse-drawn carriage to see the sights.  It wasn't exactly hot chocolate drinking weather, but we pretended like it was cold anyway.

The sweet Burrus family joined us along with the Stoltz'.

Whew.  Two more weeks of this fun!  I'm looking forward to my brother and sister coming home soon!

-Bethany