Look what I can do!

Christmas Greetings

The fabulous light display behind Larry & Alice's house

Ella Bean

Miss Ella in the late afternoon light.

Big Wolfpack Victory

Larry and cheerleader Lauren celebrate another NC State touchdown at the local sports bar. Larry was a little concerned that we wouldn't be able to find the game but luckily it was covered by ESPN pay per view. I found a place that would have it on and told Alice and Larry I had good news and bad news. The good news was that a sports bar at the mall would be showing the game. The bad news was that it was the same mall where Alice had her accident!

We were the first ones in the door to see the 11:00 kickoff. And everyone made it home safely!

Julia at the Apple Store

Miss Julia handed out plenty of smiles to all the customers!

Exhausted

Lauren was wiped out after her long day. Going on a fancy trip downtown can really take it out of you.

It also appears that sleeping 15 hours during the day took a lot out of White Kitty.

Lauren Goes to a Play

Lauren's kindergarten class went to the Majestic Theater in Dallas to see a play. To celebrate the occasion Lauren dressed up for the occasion as any young lady would do. She had wanted to wear her Stars and Stripes dress but a cold snap had come through so she had to settle for her brown dress.

The class went to see a Flat Stanley play. They learned that Stanley was flattened by his falling bulletin board. And there was some joke about Stanley's brother and a lightsaber. That's about all we could understand about the experience!

Giggle Again!

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Giggle 1

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Miss Wood visits

Miss Holly Wood graced us with her presence today. Lot's of sunglasses at night, lot's of 'tude.

Bike Ride

On Sunday we went for a nice long bike ride.  Suzanne had recently been to Highland Village on Lake Lewisville for the first time checking out homes with Chimene and Dave, so we decided to check the area out up close.  Miss Carole watched the babies for us.

During part of our trip we left the common suburb neighborhoods and headed out into some less developed towns.  One of the roads we headed down had a nice long driveway and plenty of share, and had these two folks just sitting out enjoying the sunshine.

Much of the ride was driving down some nice bike and walking paths built along a high-power line access way.  On the way back we saw a roadrunner right off the path.  We pointed it out to Lauren, but I don't think she was all that impressed to see a road runner because she hasn't really ever seen the Roadrunner & Wile E. Coyote.  Kids these days!  We watched those cartoons so much as kids that our elementary school voted the Roadrunner as our mascot!  And we were in Vermont!

The first week we came to Texas we saw a couple roadrunners during our first drive out in the country.  Now 8 years later we see another one!

Passed this elementary school.   After Wikipedia'ing it we learned that there are many schools across the US named for Christa McAuliffe.  She was not from this area.

After the ride was done we drove over to Life's a Beach for lunch.  Our first time there, it has a sandy beach out back and lots of seating inside and out.  Not too much to do in the sand other than get sandy.  But the food and drinks were good!

The King with his Lisa Maries

After working a long day at the office, Elvis came home to spend Halloween with his girls. Lisa Marie (in daddy's arms) was all dressed up for her first Halloween. The older Lisa Marie was relaxing after being SuperGirl all day at school and was about to re-cape for the night.

(photo by Priscilla)

Visit from SuperGirl

We had a pleasant visit from SuperGirl on Halloween. We were setting up to hand out candy to the neighborhood kids when she dropped by. She wasn't interested in filling up on candy (at that time). Turns out that SuperGirl fuels up on pizza before going out to save the world ... or collect candy. We saw the power of a pizza diet later, after the trick-or-treating was done, when SuperGirl ran the whole neighborhood with her pals the Tingue fairies, Mike the Pirate, and Divya the Devil.

First Halloween

The girls were split up for most of Halloween. We brought them out to carouse with the neighbors and have their meal, the rest of the night they were apart. Miss Ella went trick or treating with Mommy and Lauren, and Miss Julia stayed handing out candy with Elvis, Miss Judy and the rest of the neighbors.

Giggling Girls

Sorry for the dark video!

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ-KZEcz5cQ

Julia sitting up ...

Lauren samples the wares

Lauren enjoyed the pumpkin house

Cutie Pie

Miss Ella enjoys a fall day

Visit to the pumpkin patch

Each year the Mahaney gets bigger, and each year the Pumpkin Patch gets bigger. More rides, more kids games, bigger mazes, bigger crowds. And this year there was barbeque. Miss Lauren got a big 'ole turkey leg, and Mom & Dad had barbeque sandwiches.

White Kitty watching the girls now

We put White Kitty in charge of Ella and Julia and went out to the movies. White Kitty sure does keep a close eye on them!

Tricks and Treats

Miss Lauren went to her school for tricks and treats on Friday night. A good way to see all of her class mates and other kids from the neighborhood, and to get candy as well!















Lauren with her teacher.












Lauren with her friend Divya.

Back to see the babies

Nana Pat and Grandpa Bill had a busy week watching the angels. We got back a little late but otherwise in great shape, and the girls welcomed us with big smiles.

A couple days later the girls went in for their 6 month checkups. Miss Julia is now 17 lbs and off the charts for a preemie! Miss Ella is keeping up and is now 14 lbs herself!

Leaving Disney

A great week came to a close with a visit to Epcot. Got some great pizza sandwiches in France!

Fun in the Sun

The first order of business was getting in the "Gagoon". After about 45 minutes it was time to get some lunch.

A cheeseburger did the trick, and we were lucky enough to witness a truly shocking, funny, and gross event happen to a family at the table over. Let's just say it involved two sisters, some melting ice cream, and bird poop. You'll have to ask to hear the rest.

Next it was off to the slides. Lauren (showing her "Ariel" style hair above) rode the kiddie slide for about an hour. Then we graduated to the big kid rides.

Hitting the beach

Lauren and Pops hit "Typhoon Gagoon" on our last day for some water fun. Lauren looked fabulous from the get-go.

Magic

You gotta hand it to Disney, they know how to put on a show. Not just movies, but nearly every part of the experience at the parks just works. The canned parades are just that, canned music with choreographed moves and lip-synching, but it still works because the themes come through and the actors sell it. (One of the sly foxes really surprised Lauren during a parade by running up to her pretty aggressively - but wouldn't that be something a sly fox does?) The background scenery is perfectly arranged and manicured, which is kind of amazing considering that so many people trample through the park each day without trampling the flowers. And surprisingly even though the park is packed to the gills with people the waits for the rides really isn't that bad. I think Disney manages to bring an entire extended family of 15 people in a lot of cases where only half the people go on the rides. The grandparents, infants, and parents watching the infants either can't or do not want to ride!

The only real negative thing I would say about the parks is finding a place to sit down and eat. Now if you can plan your dinner 4 months ahead of time it isn't an issue. But if you can't make your reservations that far in advance or would like some flexibility in where you go to eat then you might not be able to find anywhere to eat.

Musbeard? Beardstache?

The other highlight of dinner was seeing the longest and most-pressed mustache we've ever seen. Though if you look close you can see there is definitely beard brought in to provide volume.

A dinner with Characters

There was a very nice dinner where Lauren got to meet the 4 horsemen of the Hundred Acre Woods: Winnie, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore. Miss Lauren was psyched to get autographs from all of them.