July - October update

So here I am again, 5 months behind. A record, I know. I'm giong to try and tell my updates through pictures rather than rambling on for pages and pages...as you know I'm keen on doing. For some reason I can't move these pictures around so they're not in the proper order but I will do the best I can...

Tinsley's First Birthday! We had a great party in our backyard with everything covered in lavender. Anne made an awesome cake for her.

Tatum's 3rd Birthday. We had this paty in our backyard too. It was a carnival theme. Nobody knew I was doing it...but I dressed up like a clown which I thought was really fun. Anne made this cake too...she's getting good at baking these things...

Sea World take 2. Growing up my Aunt Sarah always went to 6 Flags, Seasame Place and all those fun theme parks. I invited her to drive down from Emory and go to Sea World with me, Tatum and Mom in hopes of rekindling the days or yesteryear. We had a GREAT time...Tatum was a trooper and went almost all day without tiring out. I think her favorite thing was feeding the dolphins and gettign to pet them. We saw Shamu (which makes me tear up, I don't know why), we saw penguins, played in the water park and did all kind of fun things. It was really cool of Sarah to come all the way down and go with us. It was a great day.

Melrose! The newest addition to the Shiflet Family. For my 35th birthday Annie surprised me and tood me to LA. We had lunch at my favorite place which had the lobster ravoili that I crave. We had dinner at Phillipe and went rollerblading in Santa Monica/Venice. It was PERFECT. We spent a few hours shopping and passed by a rescue dog store and little Melrose was in the window. I caught Anne at a weak moment and she couldn't seem to say no. We scooped her up and brought her to Texas. She and Lulu really have fun playing together and I think she's going to make a great addition to our home.

For Halloween Tatum was Little Bo Peep and Tinsley was her little sheep. She was so freakin' cute! Look at those cheeks...

Knowing us, surely you understand that we go through a LOT of costumes surrounding Halloween. I love it.

Tatum helped Papa make some cookies. She liked rolling out the dough but I think her favorite thing was icing them. She literally put 1/4 of a can of icing on one cookie.

Tinsley also had a bit of a sugar tooth...here she just finished devouring a browine. Speaking of "tooth"...Tinsley's 2 upper and 2 lower teeth have come in. Annie calles them her "chicklets"...her teeth are so cute...she looks like a beaver.

My own personal Rugby team.

What's October without a trip to the Tarrytown Methodist Church pumpkin patch? Tinsley was really hamming it up for the camera. She gets that from her Mom.

Sadly, I think we only took the boat out one time this year. It was a PERFECT day and we ran up to Ski Shores for a hamburger.

Tinsley and Ane outside Tatum's Ballet class.

TInsley's first birthday! I love this pic of her surrounded by all her goodies.

We've really been working on getting Tinsley to walk. She loves her little alligator walker and runs with that thing from one end of the room to the other. She's now 14 months old and I think it's just a matter of days before she takes her first step. She's standing up on her own and just shows all the signs that she's about ot take that giant leap.

First day of school. I was working with Tinsley on going up and down the stairs and she tood a tumble and bumped her head on the tile floor. So...she went to her first day with a bruise on her forehead. Momma wasn't happy with me.

My favorite thing..."rain time." I love getting both the girls in the shower and letting them run all around and play. Tatum loves her "silly soap" and sprays it everywhere. TOnight for the first time I sprayed some of the foam soap on the glass wall where Anne was on the other side...Tinsley walked up and would wipe it of the glass and rub it on her belly. It was so cute to watch.

Bahamas! We took the girls to Atlantis hotel...Nettie joined us. We had a great time playing on the beach, building sand castles and splashing around in the pool. The girls couldn'' have been more sweet. And it was a huge help having Nettie there to give me and Annie some time to go have fun on our own. I hope we can make that trip a yearly thing...it's such a great place for both kids and parents.

Tinsley put on my clown wig. She looks like my great grand mother, Granny Jenny.

Tatum's Birthday. Papa bought her her first car! She calls it her tractor. If this isn't the look of pure happiness, I don't know what is.

One of the girls favorite past times. They LOVE taking everything out of the pantry and spreadign it from one end of the kitchen to the other. This is pretty much an activity reserved for when Mama is gone and they're on Dad's watch. THey know they can get away with murder if it's up to just me.

Just some random cutie pie pics...

Coppertone Girl!

Tatum is working Tinsley out...putting her through a grueling training course of how to walk. You can see that it's really a lot of work on Tatum.

Naked Cowgirl. Love the shoes.

Our first day with Melrose.

Halloween at Austin Country Club. The Roman Family.

This is Tatum with her silly soap. Nettie is a little less frugal with it than I am...I think she used the entire can of it on her here. She looks like Santa.