Disney Princesses on ICE!

In early December we hit up Disney Princesses on Ice...and-it-was-UH-MAZING!
Sidney Kate really enjoyed seeing her favorite princesses and I believe I had a blast myself! It was amazing how the stories unfolded without you really paying much attention to the stage hands-they were constantly hitting you with new characters along with surprises left and right!
The stories we were told were: 1) Princess and the Frog 2) Cinderella and 3) Tangled. Wow wow was Tangled awesome-they even flew from Rapunzel's hair! And at the very end all of the Disney Princesses came out with their menfolk. Sidney Kate loved it, Mommy loved it and Daddy said that all his dreams came true because of it...hahaha!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Venables!(Now I have a new camera which means way more pictures than I can ever post...ahhh!) :)

No Tears!

Well, no tears were needed! The boys must have seen our sign and busted a big move! They shut out Carolina and it was the happiest I've seen our group in a long time. Great plays left and right and two girls that did great! ECV napped twice and SKV once. Games during naptime are tough but they were fabulous!

ALF

I love the Autumn Leaves Festival weekend! This year was a little more fun than years past.
This year Kevin and I ran the 5K on the Greenway! One of my college roomates, Liz, drove up from Greensboro to run with me. It was a great way to get together again. The race was 8:30 Saturday morning, still a little chilly but nothing horrible. We finished right under 30 minutes. It was the first 5K for all of us! Kevin ran in like 22 minutes...have mercy right?!

Here are the girls at the fall scene in front of the Municipal building-Mount Airy does such a great job of decorating!

Awww...

Uncle Marty and Lauren happened to be leaving as we arrived-perfect time for pictures!

Go Wolfpack!

Another State game under our belts. I believe this was our 2nd game of the season (you know us girls don't really remember those details like daddies do.)

Sidney Kate can't keep her hands off of Embree Claire-which is all fine and wonderful until we're trying to take pictures. She wants to face ECV and talk to her and get her to smile...

This look is one of annoyance that Mommy keeps asking her to look at the camera! :)

Girl shot before going in the game!
'
Cheese!!!

Lookin' a wee bit like Minnie Mouse with that bow. :)
I think this was the game that Embree Claire made it on the big screen...

Family of Wolfpack fans...lots of red going on-that should be the first color Embree Claire learns.

Her howl towel-a must for all games.

Do you see this? I feel like I have two thugs on my hands...hahaha!

"Who you callin' a thug?!"

Mabry Mill 2011

Every fall we venture to Mabry Mill for some pictures...I always love the pictures we get. I stress out every year...getting ready, picking outfits out, getting out the door-but we always get awesome pictures. We don't have a photographer take them, we just take Kevin's trusty tripod and let the camera do the work. Somehow everyone ends up looking at the camera, even without a crazy person jumping around behind it.
Here is an outtake...

We stop at the same spot on the way up and every year we always comment that we should stop at the place after this one-it has a cool rail fence and nice overlook. Maybe we'll remember next year.

Then comes the mill shots...we normally go in October but looking ahead Kevin realized that we would be busy most weekends...eh hem football. So we went in September. Turned out to be a rainy Saturday and it was PERFECT! Nearly no one was there so we took our time with pictures and didn't have to worry about folks in the background. September might be the new plan!
All this started with Sidney Kate, so naturally I wanted to remake all her first shots with ECV.
ECV at 5 months.

SKV at 5 1/2 months...ish
*I can see them looking more alike as ECV grows...and yes, I threw this one in there just to depress everyone - time as flown by!

SKV LOVES her little sister-loves!

Super hard to get ECV to look at us after the above shots...she was intriqued by the leaves, ground and...well, everything but us. :)

Hilarious! I should have a caption writing contest for this...feel free to leave a comment with your caption. :)

Awww...I know you're thinking it...awwww!

Thank you random passerby-you rock!

I haven't done anything to this picture but it looks like a 70s tinted shot. :)

SKV 18 months and 3 1/2 years...well almost 1/2

The end...till next year!

Embree Claire's 1st Football Game!

Wolfpack in the house!!! (We're not actually sure if they are in the house this year...have you seen them play?)
Keeping our first game tradition-we took a family picture before the first game. Embree Claire has the idea down...just look at the camera. :)

It was a super hot day but she was a great sport, took a brief nap during the tailgating part and an even shorter one during the game...one that I don't know counted.

Papa and Gran Mary with 2 out of 4 grans.

That's one happy baby!

Another duplicate shot...see SKV's first game shot below.
Embree Claire's 1st Game-2011

As much as I love the Peanut Shell at times-both games were just too hot for it to last too long.
Sidney Kate's 1st Game-2008

Look how much this child has grown in 3 years! But let's not talk about it...she cheered like she had a purpose! She was hollering "Let's go NC State Wolfpack" when everyone else was wondering why they even came to the game. She was really excited to be there. She had her Howl Towel flying and her Wolfpack fingers going. She's quite the trooper!

This is the look of "Can you believe they are playing like this?!"

Things got so bad she figured she'd just so to sleep...for like seconds! Maybe 10-15 minutes...she did great too! Smiled at everyone and played the content baby!

Embree Claire's First Shots

The outfit that Sidney Kate and Embree Claire wore home from the hospital is the same outfit I wore home from the hospital...30 years ago. :)
Here are some shots we took before checking out Monday.

The New Lil Venable Fam!

As with Sidney Kate, I made a puzzle for those in the waiting room to figure out the baby's name. We also put one in our neighbor's mailbox for them to figure out...Jackson was in 2nd grade when I was pregnant with Sidney Kate and I figured he, and his family, wouldn't mind another puzzle to figure out this little one's name. Pretty sure all the "E"s were making it tough for folks-but I think it was fun anyway. :)

Ta da!! Although Sidney Kate still calls her "Jetta" when people ask what her baby sister's name is. :)

Daddy's new little girl!

Daddy's girls. Since this picture Sidney Kate has determined that we are "Daddy's girls" and I'm the Queen, of course, she's the princess and Embree Claire is his angel.

The new Lil Venable Fam!