It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Last year was the first year we celebrated Christmas just the four of us.  It was a different experience for me being that it was the first Christmas I have ever spent away from my family in Wyoming.  But while it was hard it was also so fun and so special to get to start new traditions with Madeline and Ella.  One of those traditions was to start early and put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.  So here is a little video of our day yesterday!  I had to use a lower quality for some reason so some of it isn't as clear as it should be - sorry.  Hope you enjoy!

"That Was Awesome, Let's Do It Again!"

This last Thursday morning we spent the morning at the big hill at Renaissance Park on the Riverfront in downtown Chattanooga.  We had seen other people's pictures and heard others' stories about how much fun they had doing this so we decided to give it a try ourselves!  There was no one else there so we had the whole hill to ourselves and had an absolute blast!   And despite the look of sheer terror on Maddie's face in the majority of these pictures she had the best time of all.  Everytime she got to the bottom of the hill we would hear, "Oh yea!  That was awesome, let's do that again!"  Enjoy the movie and as always please forgive my extreme lack of editting skills - I'm trying my best to get better!

Family Pictures

About a week and a half ago we got to have our family pictures taken by the amazing Rich Smith.  We had so much fun!  The last time we got pictures taken we went to a studio and got a few good pictures but Brett and I left feeling exhausted and frustrated by the lack of participation from the younger members of our family, and I'm willing to say they didn't leave feeling all that great either except for the fact that it was finally over.  

Our experience with Rich was as different as it could be!  We spent the afternoon at the amazing Chickamauga Battlefield where the fall colors were exquisite!  Rich does such a great job of making sure the lighting and composition are great but still creating an environment that is natural and fun and playful.  I left that day not feeling like we had just had family pictures but like we had spent an afternoon of quality family time!  It created such a positive mood amongst us that continued into the rest of our evening where we went out for dinner as a family and continued to just love on each other.  Thank you Rich for helping to not just create this memory but for documenting it so beautifully!  

Here are a few of my favorites but to see the whole slideshow click here:wheatcroft-family_01 or go to his website Rich Smith Photography and click on our picture at the right - and check out some of his other stuff while you're there!  The recent wedding pictures he did are phenomenal!   

God is so Good!

I just couldn't let this fall go by without posting some sort of documentation of the amazing colors we have down here in Chattanooga.  It seems everyday I look out and see this amazing landscape painted by our Almighty, Awesome God.  These pictures are of Lookout Mountain this past Saturday.  There was this beautiful fog that just sat on top of the mountain all morning and this is the view that we got to enjoy as we were doing some work at our new church site.  What a view we get to have from this amazing new place God has given us to worship with our church family!

Costumes and Puzzles

While we don't do the Halloween thing we definitely love the day after when all the costumes go on sale because we get to restock our costume closet!  The girls love to play dress-up, it often seems they are in a constant state of make believe - I love it!  Especially now that I have made the transition from step-mother to queen!  Anyway, here's a little slideshow of them modeling their new costumes: 

A couple of weeks ago Brett came home and wanted to go for a jog.  Being the good husband he is, he wanted to take at least one of the girls off my hands so Maddie got to go with daddy to the park to ride her bike while daddy ran.  Meanwhile, Ella and I went on a little date of our own.  We first headed to the mall to play for a little while and then took a walk through the toy store.   While there we found this amazing puzzle and I can honestly say it is the best $2.72 I have ever spent!  The girls will do this puzzle over and over and over again.  If I had to I would say that they probably do it at least 3-4 times a day.  It's a cool foam kind of puzzle so it stays together really well and they can move it around and if we wanted to we could hang it on the wall.  And of course being a proud momma (who is a math teacher and knows that puzzles are a great way to foster early math skills) I must brag that it is a 98-piece puzzle intended for children 5 and older.  Anyway, here they are in action:

This One's For You Aunt Anna!

Well there hasn't been much to report here in the Wheatcroft household but after a call from my little sister to give my husband a hard time about the Wyoming Cowboys beating the Tennessee Vols 13-7 (go pokes - I've had "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" stuck in my head all afternoon) she mentioned that she needed a blog fix.  So since I aim to please, I decided I would feed her addiction and try to find some pictures to put up to tide her over until we get our pictures from the family photo shoot we had today with Rich Smith (it was amazing)!  

I'll start with the Fall Festival we went to last Friday.  The girls thought it was so great to get to have their faces drawn on.  Madeline knew immediately she wanted a butterfly.

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Originally Ella wanted a lion but when the lady said she wasn't sure how to do a lion Ella refused to budge and decided to go play in the bounce house - she was not willing to negotiate.  But it wasn't much later when she decided that she could settle for a kitty cat - I will say she is the cutest little kitty cat I've ever seen, too bad you can't see the sparkles on her nose - she thought that was the coolest ever!

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And you can't go wrong with pictures of them sleeping - I love going in to kiss them good night when I get home from work because they're so peaceful and sweet but I never quite know what I'm going to find.  Madeline has been going thru a stage where she wants her Barbie (Erica) to sleep next to her, along with Woofy (the doggish cat) who I believe has gone missing:

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The night I took that picture of Maddie, Ella was still awake and wanted her picture taken too, I tried to convince her it would be too bright for her eyes but she insisted:

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Note to self: you know you might have brought too many toys and books into bed with you when you're hanging off the side of the bed:

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It's amazing how we'll leave her with 3 books and her doll and yet somehow she ends up in that situation.  The floor is super squeaky so as far as we know she doesn't get out of bed to get them - maybe she has "go-go-gadget arms" or she has mad stealth skills.  They both sound like perfectly viable explanations to me!  Anyway, stay tuned Aunt Anna for the leopard pictures, couldn't get those done today but hopefully this will sustain you through the night and I'll try to get that done tomorrow afternoon.  Love you!

The Cake Has Been Eaten so Ella is Officially Three!

Yesterday was Ella's third birthday and in the time leading up to her big day when I would ask her what she wanted all she would say is to go to the river park and have a pink princess cake.  So the park part was no big deal but being that I haven't decorated a cake, besides putting frosting on it and shaking some sprinkles on top, since I was in 4-H at the age of 10 I was feeling a bit nervous about living up to the great princess cake my mom made for Madeline's birthday in April.  Saturday afternoon and evening were dedicated to the cake, making sure I gave myself plenty of time to start over if needed, but I will admit I felt a great sense of pride when I finished it and then saw Ella's face when she saw it for the first time and said "Oh, it's beautiful"  - she loved it and that was all I needed to get past my over critical nature!

Another highlight from Ella's day was that she got to go to the big girl class at church.  It was a big motivator for her in getting potty trained knowing that she wouldn't be able to go to that class until she was 3 and potty trained so she was so excited to get to go to her new class yesterday.

After church and a little nap it was off to the park for an afternoon of celebrating with friends and family.  Here is a little slide show of our day including when we ate the cake since, according to Madeline (not sure where she got this idea), that is when Ella turned 3 - when she ate the cake!