Happy Holidays from the Ladwigs

Click here for a holiday greeting!!

Congratulations Mr & Mrs Erwin

The stars at night, are big and bright...

{clap, clap, clap}... Deep in the heart of Texas!!!

Okay, sorry for the delay getting this post up. Yesterday was a day of recovery! It is a lot of work taking two girls on an airplane ride by yourself! ... especially with delays that leave you in the Austin airport for 5 hours!! But that is all besides the point...

We had a fabulous trip! In fact, it took me a day to decide which of the 276 pictures I was going to post! That's right, I took 276 pictures in the 4.5 days we were there!

We arrived Tuesday night late... so just went to bed. Wednesday we woke up early, greeted by the sun, and decided to so swimming! There was a beautiful stone pool and hot tub. In the afternoon we went to the Vineyard to help Agatha decorate for the reception. For supper Teresa and Emily asked us out... not knowing what adventure they were in for!

Thanksgiving Day woke us up with a chill! IT WAS 40's!!!! As Jessie said, "This is not the Texas weather I was promised!" We watched the big Macy's Day parade and helped get everything ready. Patty hosted the big dinner. It was very yummy and fun meeting all of Agatha and Jeremy's family and friends. Later that night Jessie, Becky, and I were looking at ads. Again, Jessie had a quote that made us laugh to tears..... "These are not sales... they are meerly reasonable prices!"

Friday was the big day! (and still 40 degrees!!!) It was FREEZING in our sleeveless dresses!! But none the less the wedding was perfect! Agatha was beautiful, Hallie and Levi did great jobs and we all had a FUN day and night.

Before I start the pictures I just want to highlight a few good times in Texas....

*Hallie and Levi found 5 lizards while we were there... and Becky and Jessie were able to catch one in a jar for them.
*A dog came to visit with his ball everyday (helped Hallie not miss Bentley so much)
*Jeremy's hidden talent is balloon animals!! (and the kids loved it!)
*Speaking of talent... Agatha and Jeremy have really talented friends! They had about 10 friends perform at the reception... they were sooooo good!
*We saw some deer in town by the gas station-- I'm still new at my camera!
*Hallie took about 25 pictures of Christmas decorations at the Chicago airport... definitely ready for the holidays!

**The first song you are listening to is Agatha & Jeremy's, and the second is the song Hallie & Levi were singing on the trip**

Okay, that is a lot of typing... on with the pictures!!

Stay tuned for videos...

Christmas is in the air....

Today the girls and I made a quick stop over at the Festival of Trees. (since we are going to miss it on Thanksgiving this year) Hallie had fun making crafts, while Reese enjoyed a sucker. Hallie filled Santa in on her wishes, while Reese wanted NOTHING to do with him. Finally, we all enjoyed the trees and doors and gingerbread village. (oh, and the trains! and the talking tree and finally the GIANT stuffed animal tree) Fun time!! (I made the pictures small, since I have a lot-- just click on them to enlarge)

(can you find Hallie??)

Soccer Star

Hallie's first day of soccer was fun. She is on the red team... of course when we show up she announces she doesn't want to be on the red team-- she wants a yellow t-shirt. :) Okay, that's my daughter!! --only cares about the t-shirt!

She has her first game on December 1st.

Reese can't wait to get out there... in the meantime she loves watching the kids play!

"I want flat hair"

Yesterday Hallie was riding in the back seat singing Frosty the Snowman when our conversation turned to this...

"Mama... turn down the radio"

"What Hallie?"

"I want to go get my haircut"

"You got your haircut last night"

"This time I don't want it crazy, I want it flat like my friends"

So, when we got home we tried out the straightener. Here are the results...

It still had some curl to it, but boy did it look different! No worries, Grandmas... when she woke up this morning all the curls were back!

The calm before the storm...

Okay, maybe not calm... but nothing exciting-- just a lot of things to finish up. I just wanted to post and say hi for the week. I am getting all kinds of projects done for the store and Paula Sands Live (to be on Tuesday). Of course I am busy getting Agatha's wedding gift made (did you think I would plan ahead and have that done?)

We are getting all ready to head down to Austin, Texas for Agatha's wedding next week. Can't wait for the fun week!! I will have lots of pictures to share!

Of course this weekend is jammed packed... Hallie has her first day of soccer on Saturday! She is very excited. Also, Saturday I am teaching the last date of "Count Down to Christmas" advent calendar. There are 2 more spots {as of this afternoon} call Scrapaganza 563-391-0099 to reserve your spot. Sorry, I can't post a picture.... it was chosen to be in a magazine online in December's issue. I will post more on that when it comes out :) Yipee!!

Of course I have to include a picture in my post... here is Reese, on the phone!-- I think she is texting {IDK my BFF, Jill}

Have a great week and weekend! {only 5 weeks 'til Christmas!!}

Pickle Party

This has been a scrappin' weekend with Rusty Pickle. Friday, Lance, the owner of Rusty Pickle came to town to teach two classes for Scrapaganza. Lolly was a great table partner :) It was a fun time & we learned a lot from him! He is funny, laid back, and a great teacher. Can't wait to get my Christmas Album kit! Thanks Lance!

Today I taught three Rusty Pickle classes at the store. It was a busy day, but fun to work with everyone!

While I was away....

The girls played with "JDubb" and Whitney. Evidently they were doing somersaults and making artwork!

New Link

Incase you couldn't get the other one for Paula Sands to work try this:

go: http://www.kwqc.com/Global/category.asp?C=7943&nav=menu83_6

Then on the left side down just a bit you can click on November 6th.

Paula Sands Live

Hello All! Today on Paula Sands Live Kelly took a bunch of my stuff on to show. You can watch the show here. You will have to fast forward a bit to get to Scrapaganza's segment. I made the wine glasses, napkin rings, tray, mini book, "Harvest" & the advent calendar. Hope you can use some of the ideas! (if you do, I'd love to see them!)

Okay, one more...

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Couldn't Resist-- thanks Christi

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Trick or Wiggles????

Yes, can you believe it??? Someone was passing out FREE tickets to the Wiggles on trick or treat night. Penny's kids got them and weren't going to use them, so asked us if we wanted them!! SURE!! So, I went and picked them up... not really knowing what we were getting ourselves into (thinking these tickets were going to be in the nosebleed section) we went down to the I-Wireless Center Box Office to get our tickets. She asked, Where do you want to sit?? I asked what my choices were... "well, we have four in the front row right here... or four in the 4th row right here, if you want floor seats!!" SCORE!! Front row!! So we snatched them up. As we went to eat lunch I thought of our neighbors, the Wagners. So I called and invited them. Hallie & Reese got to dance right up front by the stage! All the excitement wore Reese out :) Thanks Penny!!

More Customers!!!

Wednesday. 10.31

Hallie and Reese LOVED handing out the goodies to Trick or Treaters. Hallie took it VERY seriously. I thought we would go down our block trick or treating and Ryan could hand out the stuff.... OH NO!! Hallie went to two houses, running back to ours each time because we had "Customers"!! And in fact, when we set off to go to "Nellie's" (that is actually the neighbor-dog) she told Ryan "If any customers come tell them to wait, I'll be right back!" Guess she is going to be in retail when she grows up!!

Reese on the other hand was just having a blast tossing the play-dough out onto the sidewalk!

Wednesday night was also the BIG Davenport Parade. It was too cold to take Reese, so Ryan stayed home with her, Belle changed to Uniqua and we were off to meet up with the Garners and enjoy the night. {packed with plenty of blankets and hot cocoa}

The parade lasted about an hour and a half, was freezing cold, but the perfect ending to a fun October and Halloween!

Oops... out of order

I forgot to mention Hallie's Halloween party at preschool on Tuesday. They all got to dress up... is everyone anxiously waiting for the results??? ... and Hallie was.... envelope, please.... Belle ;) She was going to be Cinderella, we had it all laid out and at the very last minute switched to Belle. Their class got to do a parade, make a craft (taught by yours truely), play games, eat a CUTE snack, read a fun book, and have a dance party!

Also, forgot, Monday afternoon Hallie and I made a mad dash to the pumpkin patch to get a few pumpkins to carve. They were "sold out" but Hallie found a cat to pet... imagine that. So we went to HyVee and got some. We got one carved that night... Cinderella. (ya know, like what Hallie was supposed to be for Halloween!!)

Celebrating with the Garners

Tuesday was Trick or Treating on the Iowa side. The Garners invited us over to trick or treat with them and have dinner after with their neighbors. Their neighborhood really gets into it! It was a beautiful night out, so most of the neighbors were sitting in the driveways waiting. There were TONS of kids! Garner Farms is the best neighborhood!! (funny huh??? Craig and Kim Garner live in a neighborhood named Garner Farms... heck, they even live on Garner Drive!!!... hehehe, makes me laugh everytime! I want to live in Ladwig Farms on Ladwig Drive!!) But seriously, the neighbors are so nice there and everyone is just.... so neighborly!Here is Hallie and Ella handing out candy... this job had to get passed on quickly, since they were SCOOPING hand fulls into the trick or treaters' bags!! They thought it was great!

First Annual Ladwig Halloween Party

Monday morning we had our "First Annual Halloween Party" :) We invited the neighborhood girls and Miss Ella to come over (with the moms of course) for a "spooky lunch, craft, games and goodies. This was also a great time for the girls to see each other in their costumes. Thanks for coming girls!

This picture isn't fabulous, but heck... they are all in it!!From Left: Hallie- Belle, Jess- Tinkerbell, Elli- Cinderella, Lia- Nemo, Ella- was Tinkerbell, changed to one of Hallies--now Sleeping Beauty, and Reese- witch

Here is Miss Reese "flying" on her broom...

... and that was Monday.

Sunday...

Okay, so Sunday was another fun day. "Snow White" (yes, that is costume number three!!) and zebra and I went and picked Grandma Carmel up from the airport and then went Trick or Treating at the South Park Mall (in Moline, IL) It had a lot more activities for the kids and stuff than North Park. There was a train, crafts, balloon guys and of course trick or treating. I accidentally left my camera in the car, so all of the pictures are on my mom's camera. I will post a picture (or two) later of the girls in these costumes when I get them from her. Stay tuned for more...