December 2011

I love Christmas, I love everything about it, with the exception of Keith's busy work schedule and the crazies out shopping, okay well almost everything.  I love the lights and the cool brisk air that somehow finds its way into our our small town.  I love the family togetherness and gathering with friends, I even love the hustle bustle just a little.  I love the smell of pine and cinnamon. I love the traditions and all the magical things that come along with Christmas.

We celebrated the magic of the season in many ways.  We went to the local tree lighting in our Town Center, we drove out to college station with some friends to take a hay ride and look at lots of beautiful Christmas lights...millions of them, we went with our family on a local excursion to look at all the beautifully lite houses in the neighborhood, we went to Uncle E's for Christmas Eve, Spent Christmas morning at our house (wanted to make sure Santa could find us) and to Uncle Jon and Aunt Sandi's for Christmas day.  Good Times! 

 Celebrating at the tree lighting.

Clay, Ryder & Ahli at

(really could have cropped this kids head out of the pic...hahaha)

Building a fire to stay warm!!  Burrr it was really chilly this night...just the way I like it!

The Galayni's

My baby catching "fake" snowflakes on her tongue.  She wanted it to snow so bad.

Dancing in the snow.

Christmas Eve....

 My baby got a hippopotamus for Christmas... 

Christmas Day... Santa brought her everything she asked for and more.  She got a Play Doh Pizza Maker and a Press Dough Cookie Maker.. Daddy got her the scooter and I think it was her favorite.

 The Cousins.  I can't believe how grown up these two are.  It just blows my mind to think that Ashley will soon be off to college and Tyler is right behind her.  So proud of them both!!  I love that they love my baby soooo very much and they are both so good with her. 

The BIG 4.0!!

Lordy! Lordy...Yes, I am 4.0!!!

CHEERS!!!

I can not believe that I just turned 40. I remember when 40 was soooo old. Feels like yesterday that I was celebrating my 30th birthday. Where does the time go? I am definitely not complaining about turning 40- in fact I am very grateful to be turning 40 and to be celebrating another year of l.i.f.e!!! It is so appropriate that my 40th fell on Thanks-giving because I truly have so very much to be thankful for!  BRING IT!!

My sweet baby girl helped me to make a wish and blow out the candle on my birthday cake.  All my wishes have come true and one of them was sitting right there on my lap.  I am one lucky momma!

Thank you so much to all my friends and family that sent me wonderful birthday wishes.  A special thanks to all the were able to come out to PF Changs to help us celebrate too.  We had a wonderful time and I felt very special!!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving was pretty exciting this year.  Not only was it my big 4-0 but I also got to meet a few new family members that traveled to Houston from Mexico.  Keith had not seen his cousins in several years and this of course was their first time meeting me as well as Ahliana.  Keith was proud to show off introduce his girls.

Keith was the eldest son this year so the responsibility of carving the turkey feel on him.  Not a job he particularly wanted but did nonetheless.  I should mention that he did a fabulous job and the turkey was delicious (thank you Randall's for the pre.cooked.turkey)

Ahliana was definitely the life of the party.  The.center.of.attention.  She was wonderful and very well behaved.  Felt a little bad that she was the only child there but she was well entertained and everyone made special time for her.  Prior to eating Papa said grace, then he turned if over to his big sister, then to Ahli.  Ahli's grace:  I am thankful for Jesus, and my mom, and my dad, and all my friends.  Such simple words that she spoke to a table of 20+ people yet they put a tear in my eye.  I was so proud and so touched by these simple few words.

Much needed five minute rest after lots of food and lots of play.

Halloween 2011

Halloween was very busy for us and I love it.  We had a Fall Festival at Ahli's school, a small Halloween party at the house with her school friends, which I had lots of help in hosting from 3 other fabulous mommas, and then of course we had Halloween night.  For two of these festivities Ahliana was Little Red Riding Hood and an adorable one if I do say so myself. Then we had to change it up for Halloween.  She decided that she was tired of being Red and wanted to be Snow White.  Thanks to one of our dear friends who handed down several dress up dresses we were able to fulfill this last minute wish. Again she was the most adorable Snow White of the night.

Along with Halloween parties and  trick or treating we also made a couple of stops at pumpkin patches to get face painting done and take lots of pictures and do some crafts.  I really love October because it is truly the beginning of Fall for us.  Although it has been 80 degrees for the last few days, we did have a couple of cool brisk days that we have been able to enjoy and I am patiently awaiting the next cool front.  We finally went this last weekend to pick up Fall/Winter clothing for Ahliana so now I really am ready.  We have already lite up the outdoor fire pit and we have roasted marshmallows...we have even had hot chocolate.  I am ready for some more...so Mother Nature... Bring.it!

The Letter Opener

The other day as I was sitting in our study (If that is what you call the room that collects all the stuff we don't want seen around the rest of the house that just happens to have the computer.) and Ahliana handed me a letter opener.  She asked my what it was and I told her that it was, a letter opener, and went back about my business.  I was uploading pictures to the computer and just happy she was occupied enough to let me.  She asked me for a piece of paper so I gave her one and a highlighter to write with.  The next thing I know she is handing me the letter opener and asking me to open it... I asked "open what" and she pointed to the "A" that she wrote on the paper.  She wanted me to open the letter... how flipping cute is that.  I love this child more then words can express but it is the little stuff like this that just makes me want to take her into my arms and just hug, kiss and giggle with her until she makes me stop.  I am one lucky mamma and I would not change it for the world!

Voila Catty is a Butterfly!

It really is an amazing transformation (which I guess should not surprise me...birth in any nature is a pretty amazing thing, right).  The first picture that you will see is not of our gorgeous butterfly but of the cocoon that Catty once lived in.  You can see where he broke free (a little foreshadowing) and the cocoon that once was a beautiful green and appeared to be thick in nature now looks paper thin and clear.

May I have a drum roll please.... Let me officially introducing Catty the Butterfly!!!

I took a picture prior to releasing him because I was worried that he would fly away and I would miss him all together.

She was so excited to be releasing her butterfly. She was very sweet and gently placed it on the milkweed.  Of course right after she let him go she wanted him back on the stick so she could carry him around like a prize.  She told all her friends and the director of her school that we were going home to release her butterfly.  When Mike, the director, asked what kind of butterfly she looked at him proudly and said "a Monarch butterfly".  She is growning up way to fast.

The milkweed plant.  Of course I picked a yellow one.

I had a hard time getting a good picture of Catty with his wings open...do you see the two black dots that are symetrical toward the bottom of the wings?  Those are the indication that he is a male Monarch.  You can also tell by looking at the cocoon...but I am NOT that good.

Catty Update

Right after I wrote my last post, Catty cocooned (turned into a chrysalis).  Or as Ahliana has learned from her Little Einsteins show..Catty is getting a wardrobe change (how cute is that), it is really undergoing metamorphosis.  The Cocoon is really beautiful.  It starts off emerald green with gold glitter in it. 

Before they cocoon they attach themselves to a part of the container so they can "hang".  They will make a silk button and attach to it hanging upside down forming a "J".  At this time the caterpillar goes through it's last molting process (shedding of the skin).  The only thing left in the container that resembles the caterpillar is the molting (exuvia) of it's head...and in Catty's case the head stayed connected to the top of the cocoon and then fell off about a week later....I knew Catty was special.

This is a picture of Catty and his little friend before he cocooned ...



Ahliana is so proud of her caterpillars.

  

Look you can see Catty changing his wardrobe.  Can you see the butterfly in there?  Cool!!

I have to admit that I have become a little obsessed with caterpillar raising.  At one point we had Catty in a cocoon and six other caterpillars.  No, really look below.  One caterpillar was too small to keep in this container so I had to keep it in a separate smaller one (and I wonder why my hubs thinks I am a little nuts).  I read that only about two to five caterpillars that hatch form many hundreds of eggs makes it to adulthood...so I thought I would help out, you know become a butterfly foster parent so to speak.  The way I see it, the milkweed only attracts butterflies twice a year (Spring/Fall) so really it's not like we will have them year round and it is educational for Ahli.  Plus it is really a cool experience watching a caterpillar molt... I am hoping to catch the cocooning process and the end when the butterfly breaks free of the cocoon, spreads it's wings to dry and just waits to be let free....amazing I tell you, amazing!  

They start out so little and fragile.  When they are small like this I would not dare let Ahliana touch them.  I actually caught her petting the one she was holding when she was wearing the orange outfit above....oops.

Then they get big and they eat you out of milkweed leaves.

Stay tuned.  Catty has emerged.  Is our butterfly a he, as I suspected, or a she?  I should post the follow up either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.