priorities

What I should be doing...

...why it can wait!
I love my life!
Cash, it's going by too fast!

Dear Santa...please explain!

Will Ty be like this forever? His shirt says he can explain...but I dare to say that he can't!

I mean, really?!

See...he even made the same faces a few months ago at his preschool Thanksgiving blessing basket party.

He tried really hard for this shot with his buddies!

This is Ty's version of "sitting on his spot."

Niiiiiice.

Oh, and then there was the Christmas program at his school! Acting like he is asleep is another one in his bag of tricks!

Not sure about this one...

Oh no Ty... don't do it. Not on stage. Nooooooo!!!!!

He makes eyes with me and decides to do "it"!!!

Oh yes he did! My face was the color of his hat for sure!

Not finished yet, he goes for the evil-looking eye gouge!

..and then sticks out his tongue.

and then another eye gouge. A nice way to cap of the show.

So, do you think these same looks will come out for his senior pics, the day he graduates college, on his wedding day, or while taking his first pictures with his first born child?!

I sure hope so! :)

This is Ty. Full of life, loving life and loving to make others laugh!

My little "boogers"

They are all my favorites...

A few weeks ago my dear friend Quincie (and Lucy's labor/delivery nurse) took these pictures. I think they are my all time favorites, of my all time favorites!

There are some that are even better but I can't show you because they are Christmas card material! :)

Tennis, Bananas, Birthdays and Awards

Wow...so much has been going on here in the Bevins family! Ella is really enjoying her tennis lessons that she has been taking this Fall, and she is getting quite good at her forehand and backhand! We had a great Halloween night in our neighborhood. The weather was great which made for buckets and buckets of kids going door to door!
Oh yes. Feel free to laugh. My groom dressed up as a banana just like Mr. Ty! He was such a sport and wore the costume all day at work on Friday and then again all night while we trick-or-treated! It was pretty darn funny! :)

Ella thought it was so funny to pretend like she was eating Ty. I have too many pictures to count of her acting just like this! geez!

We started Ella's birthday blitz on Wednesday (the day before her birthday) by taking her to Incredible Pizza. The place was nearly empty which made for a fun time with all the games and rides!

Ella reluctantly wore her official party hat that she has worn each year on her big day since she turned one! I am not sure how many more years I will win this battle :( !

On Thursday morning Ella woke to find a new Birthday banner above her bed! I found this at the annual Holiday mart a month or so ago, and I couldn't wait to hang it! I suppose I will use it for each kid's Birthday and hang it their bedrooms or in the kitchen or on the mantle, oh the possibilities are limitless! I took doughnuts up to her class for her birthday celebration. I forgot to snap a picture of them, but the were really cute and spelled out "Happy Birthday Ella".

On Friday, I took Ella out of class early and told her that her big "surprise" was a girls day with lunch and a pedicure! Well, that was just the beginning! Later in the afternoon, my sister and my niece snuck over and put their bags in my already packed car and waited for me to surprise Ella! I brought Ella to the car blindfolded, and boy was she surprised to find Madelyn and Aunt Kathy in the car. She and Maddie then had a series of "clues" to find in the car in order to figure out where we were going! Well, they figured it out before we even were on the highway, and screamed with excitement! We were off to Dallas for an American Girl doll weekend! (sorry Todd... she didn't get a new car ;0)

We got to our super chic hotel and the girls felt like princesses! (can you tell that we usually stay at a Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn express, ha!) The girls seriously ran around the room in circles for 15 minutes. Our room was huge and no it wasn't a suite...just huge! We let the girls go swimming at 9:30 at night and I am pretty sure they told us that we were the coolest moms EVER!

Oh... the best part of this hotel is that we scored the room for $75/night! Whooohoo! Oh, and the other best part was that they ONLY had valet parking...it's the little things in life I suppose! he he

Kathy and I convinced the girls that sharing this giant couch was a great idea! The mom's got the beds :)

We hit the ground running early Saturday morning! We were all so excited! Maddie brought her doll Mia to the boutique to get her ears pierced, and Ella got to pick out her very own doll!

Ella spent the first 30 minutes walking in circles taking in all the wonderfulness! I am soooo glad we got there right when they opened because the girls were able to really take it all in before the store got absolutely packed!

Finally, a decision was reached! Emily... it is! Mainly because she looked like Ella of course!
After the big purchase, Ella stood in line to have her Emily's ear pierced.

After several hours of shopping it was time for lunch at the bistro! It was the cutest lunch ever!

Emily's lunch....

Ella's appetizer...

Another set of candles to blow out...

The day at the American girl doll store had to come to an end at some point. The girls were so giddy the rest of the day and the girls took their dolls everywhere with them!

As Ella's Birthday bash finally came to an end, I got a call from her teacher! Ella was going to receive a character award for the trait "responsibility". We were sure proud of her.

The kids and I, along with my parents attended an assembly last Friday to watch Ella get her surprise award.

Ella was shocked to see us when she walked into the gym!

Tonight we are heading back up to her school for a class play! She has been very secretive about what it will be about... but based on the red/white/blue she is supposed to wear, I am betting on a patriotic theme!

when your daddy is a dentist....

The other day Micah asked Ella if he could check out her baby tooth because her permanent tooth was already growing in behind the baby. She turns 7 this week and hadn't lost a tooth yet! I swear they are cemented in! She agreed to let him feel the baby tooth. In the blink of an eye, Micah pulled out her tooth (long root and all) and she didn't even know he had done it. It was only after he had her run to the kitchen and get tissue for the bleeding that she began to cry. She still thought he was trying to pull out the tooth, but it was really laying on the counter! :)

Man, I love me a gappy toothless smile... I have secretly been waiting for this day for a looooong time! In a matter of seconds, my baby-faced little girl suddenly looked years older. Sigh.

Ella is in for a big birthday surprise this week... I can't wait to share more!

OU/Texas, sweet faces, and miniature horses...

What a bummer! One of college football's biggest rivalry games was today, and it did not go OUr way. Boo. And double boo, our stud Heisman trophy winning quarterback got hurt AGAIN. Not good friends, not good. Cash and I had fun cheering on the Sooners though. Well, mainly I cheered. Cash just looked cute. He's good at that!

He can also look oh-so-serious!

So, this is kind of random, but isn't our maple just gorgeous right now? The trees around town are so beautiful right now. This picture was taken yesterday, one of the first and only days of sun and dry skies that we have had in weeks. I was seriously thinking about going to a tanning bed just to see some "sun".

This afternoon we took the bigger kids to a miniature horse farm here in town. My sister's in-laws had won a "day at the horse farm" at a charity auction earlier in the year. They were so kind to extend an invitation for us to join in the fun! Ella and Ty had a blast with the tiny horses! What a fun day!