Getting Ready for Christmas

To help Tori count down the days until Christmas, we got her an advent Gingerbread House which she loved opening the doors and getting her little treats.  When it came time to decorate the tree, she put the tree topper on.  Then when Ashley came, they made a Gingerbread house together and baked cookies together too.  Tori sure loves when Ashley comes home to visit and so do we!

Charleston, SC

We have been talking about visiting Charleston, SC for a while now and we finally did.   We spent the weekend at our condo and did a day trip to Charleston.  We had a great day.  First we visited a outdoor weekend festival where Tori rode a horse, we had wonderful crepes for lunch and spent some time just browsing the different vendors.  We also took a carriage ride tour of Charleston where we saw many historic houses.  Then we visited the market square looking at the different vendor goods.  There were wonderful sea grass baskets that I loved, but where like baskets of gold due to how expensive they were.  Then we walked down to the waterfront area where the famous pineapple statue is housed and we could see Fort Sumter from a distance.  Tori had fun playing around near the fountains in the plaza area.

Visit with Santa

Tori visited Santa at Bass Pro at Concord Mills.  She asked Santa for a Barbie Guitar.

Photos Shoot with Nick in downtown Fayetteville

Nick and I had a fun time playing with my camera to take some pictures of him his senior year.  We went to the train station in downtown Fayetteville and the park near the Main Library.  We had a lot of fun and laughter.  Here are the more serious photos we took.  There were many funny ones too. 

Today is Dance Day

Tori is loving dance so far and she is more focused and trying to copy the dance moves from the teacher.   They have starting to practice their recital routine to Mambo #5.

There's A New Baby in the Family

My brother Mike and his wife Michelle just had a baby boy.  Micah now has a little brother named Maximus aka Max.  We are so excited to have a  new baby in the family!

Disney...Magic Kingdom

 

We met up with Ashley in the Charlotte Airport.  She came prepared with all kinds of treats for her little sister.  The first was a Mickey Chocolate sucker that Ashley made for Tori. 

This is Tori's first visit to Disney World, so we took her to Magic Kingdom first.  We were excited to see the Christmas decorations were up.  We have always been to Disney over Easter break so this was a nice change and so were the short wait in the lines.   First we headed to Mickey's Toon Time to meet the mouse.

We all can remember the first time we saw Cinderella's Castle.

 

Ashley was Tori's Disney's Ambassador the entire trip.  She waited with her in all the lines to see the characters and she told her all kinds of interesting details about Disney too.

  

 

Tori thought the 3D glasses in the Mickey Philharmonic show were funny as they struggled to stay on her little nose.

 

Tori was very timid with Tigger at Pooh, but after signing her autograph book she became more a little more comfortable with them...she started giving character hugs.

One highlight of the day was having dinner with the princesses at Cinderella's Castle.  This was a very nice dinner where the princesses each visited our table during the dinner.

Ariel is Tori's favorite princess.   Tori blew her a kiss and Ariel caught it right in front of her.  She talked about it for days.

Bell is Ashley's favorite princess.

Trick or Treat

Tori really enjoyed Halloween this year.  She was a bit nervous, but curious about the somewhat scary decorations on the neighborhood lawns.  Mike bought a new skeleton in a black cloak decoration when Tori was with us and she said, "You're not putting that in our car!"

She trick or treated with her friend Sophia from down the street.  They had a great time!

Pumpkin Carving