Accessorizing

A couple weeks ago, my friend Tara over at CasaGrove blogged about her daughter (who is a few months younger than Sara Kate) being a fan of accessorizing. Well, Sunday night Sara Kate decided to dive right into some girly accessorizing fun. While playing in her room, she pulled a bow off her bow holder, brought it to me, wanted me to put it in her hair (sans head band, of course), then she would run to the living room to show daddy. She would then pull it out, run back and hand it to me, and the cycle would start over. We did this over and over and over again. Then she decided to do some major accessorizing with several bows. Chris was in her room by this point, and she was cracking us up! He grabbed his camera and got a few snaps. These pictures speak for themselves and completely explain the reason for our laughter! Silly girl!

Check out that sweet mullet...or I should say, look how long her hair is getting!! :-)

Needless to say, I look forward to the day when I can fix her hair with big bows and pony tails and pig tails, but for now I'll settle for helping her "accessorize" however she sees fit. :-)

WOOO PIG SOOIE!!

There is a BIG GAME about to happen!! Our #3 Razorbacks are getting ready to take on the #1 ranked LSU Tigers and we can't wait to see the outcome!!! The Michaels family is shouting out a BIG ole GOOOOOOOOOO HOGS!!!!!!!!!!

Sara Kate had so much fun running around the yard a little bit ago. She even called the Hogs! However, my camera crapped out so no picture. But one of these days we'll get that on picture/video!

Gran and Pop even got in on the photo action!

Of course, we really hope our team can pull out the BIG win, but it would especially be nice if the Hogs could pull out the win for their fellow fallen Hog. Last Sunday, less than 24 hours after beating MSU, tight end Garrett Uekman was found dead in his dorm room. He had an unknown heart condition. How devastating for the Razorback Nation, especially his team mates who were with him on a daily basis. Today one of his buddies will be wearing his number, #88, and one of his other team mates gave a great quote earlier in the week.

Isn't that an amazing thought? RIP Garrett, and GOOOOOOOOO HOGS!!!!!!!!! WOOO PIG SOOIE!!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving from the Michaels family! Unfortunately, we never got a picture of the 3 of us today (very sad about that), but here are the ladies of the Michaels family wishing everyone in blog-land a very Happy Turkey Day!

I'll be honest and say that I had a hard time deciding exactly which of Sara Kate's adorable little fall outfits she would wear for the last time today, but I decided on this little appliqued dress. I think it was mis-sized so I don't think we'll get 2 years use out of it like her pumpkin smocked dress or the pillow case dress her Meme made her last year that she wore this fall. It was like she posed against the wall when I put her there....and she had some crazy hair today.

Sweet little face! She was walking toward my mom and mom snapped her camera.

We spent the day at Chris' parents with his parents, his sister and her family, his grandfather, and my parents. We missed my brother but we look forward to seeing him and Holly at Christmas. It was a great day of being all together. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family and I'm so lucky that Chris' family accepted me and my family long ago. We all get along wonderfully and I feel that is such a blessing. Here are some pictures from our day.

I haven't had any pictures of The Giant Man Baby, also known as Hayden, on the blog lately but here he is! He's 20 lbs at almost 8 months, he's crawling around in an army crawl, he's got this funny dark strip of hair on top of his head that makes an awesome mohawk, and he's just adorable. Oh, and he makes the same funny face all the time. Cracks me up. Sara Kate did pretty good around him today (she tends to not be a fan of younger babies/friends). She was even sweet to him at times. She better be nice to him because he will be bigger than her before we know it!

What's up Home Boy!?!

Sweet hugs! This looks forced but she was actually hugging my neck.

Lunch was around 3 and it was delicious. We had the whole spread. Mom and I made the famous Kauffman Family dressing, a corn casserole (that was a new recipe I found and turned out I wasn't crazy about it), some fruit salad, deviled eggs, and we brought a delicious Red Velvet Cheesecake (we didn't make it...bought it from Sam's but when I saw it in the holiday catalog I couldn't resist!! And it's to die for!!!). Other items on the table were turkey, green bean casserole, potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, and rolls. Chris got fancy pictures of the food but they're on his camera and haven't been uploaded.

Sara Kate was enthralled by the turkey carving.

I just knew that Sara Kate would eat a little of everything because there was nothing on the table that she shouldn't like. Boy was I wrong!! She ate a roll, mashed potatoes, and a little turkey. That's it. My child did not eat the famous family dressing!!! It was a little peppery so we will blame that, but she WILL be trying it again at Christmas! :-)

After dinner, football was watched by most, and Sara Kate and Hannah had a ball together. I'm so glad Sara Kate has cousins close by and close in age. I know they will love having each other as they grow up.

And these girls love their Meme! Sara Kate kept signing 'more' and pointing to Meme and to the trampoline asking her to come jump with them. So sweet.

Then Meme started bouncing Sara Kate on this ball, and she LOVED it!!! When it was Hannah's turn, she got so upset. But Hannah was sweet and bounced on the trampoline so Sara Kate could keep bouncing on the ball. She would get bounced, Meme would stop, Sara Kate would sign 'more,' point to the ball, sign 'please,' and she would bounce again.

Then it was dress up time! I love this girl and she seriously cracks me up!

Chris even played dress up with the Hello Kitty rings. Love it.

Hannah decided that everyone had to wear the hat and glasses. Sara Kate wasn't having it and Hayden is too young to care what we do to him, ha!!

Ok, now these next pictures are too funny not to share. Hannah wanted me to wear the hat and she wanted to take my picture...the picture series was absolutely hilarious.

Then she wanted to take my camera and take everyone's picture. We were laughing so hard at her. I supervised but pretty much did it all by herself. Not bad for a 3 and a half year old.

Overall, we had a great Thanksgiving and a great day with our families. Sara Kate was EXHAUSTED by the time we got home. She was exhausted hours ago since she didn't take a nap and she played so hard at Meme & Poppa's. Thanks Bob & Sharon for hosting us all. Maybe one day I'll be brave enough to host, including making a turkey, but that would require much more room in my house so maybe we can get out of it for a few more years, ha! :-) Happy Thanksgiving and bring on the Christmas season!!

Music Videos

I wanted to post a couple of funny videos that I took today of Sara Kate today. I've said it several times before, but the girl loves music. If there is a song on a tv show or movie, she will sit and watch it, she loves to make the music play on any of her toys that have music on them, if she's mad about something we can start singing a song and she gets distracted and can forget what she's mad about, she loves to go to her daddy at church on the piano, she loves to bang on the piano here and home with her daddy...get the picture? Right now we are big into singing 'Head Shoulders Knees and Toes,' 'The Itsy Bitsy Spider,' 'If You're Happy and You Know It,' and the 'ABC's.' After her nap today, Chris was singing to her and she was dancing around and this is what I caught on video. The quality isn't good because it was pretty dark and I was at a bad angle but it was really cute since she was doing the motions and everything.

Because it was so cute, I thought to myself, lets try and capture this again! So I turned on the light in her room (which is a mess right now so please excuse that!), got at a better angle to record, got Chris to sing again (which he didn't want me to record him singing and my comment was 'you're a choir director!' He didn't realize I was recording the first time...love ya babe!), and this is what happened. Not at all what was in my head (that seems to happen alot). But we definitely got a good laugh from our silly girl!!!

In other weekend events, Chris and I had a lovely date night Friday night. Big thanks to Meme & Poppa for keeping Sara Kate over night at their house!!

Saturday we went to pick up our girl and this is how we found her...how cute are these! I know I posted another picture of her hair like this recently, but it's just too cute for me not to share again. Now if her hair would only grow more on the sides and on top... :-)

Love this girl!

Saturday afternoon we watched a great Razorback game (even though the Hogs beat my alma mater MSU, I was rooting for the Hogs because of the possible national implications...BCS #3!!! Go Hogs!!!!) and went down town to the lighting of the Lights of the Ozarks on the square. We missed the parade and the actual lighting, but we walked around and even ran into Sara Kate's little 'boyfriend' from school (his mom calls Sara Kate his girlfriend...they're buddies...and they did briefly hold hands...so cute.). The pictures from Saturday night are on Chris' camera and haven't been uploaded up so I'll share some of those later. It was packed so we didn't stay long. Sara Kate was tired and I think it was another one of those 'sensory overload' events but she did great. Plus I'm sure we'll go back there for more pictures in December. Today was a busy day at church with decorating the sanctuary for Christmas since next week is the first Sunday in Advent. We've been hanging out at home getting a few things done this afternoon/evening and getting ready for a short work week, yay!! Chris has a short inservice Monday and Tuesday and is off on Wednesday. I am working Monday through Wednesday and my parents will be here Wednesday evening...wa-hoo!!
Happy Thanksgiving Week!!

The Razorback Weekend that ALMOST was NOT!!

We had a super fun filled Razorback weekend planned and our plans almost got majorly derailed!! First, let me share these pictures that I took of Sara Kate before I took her to school Friday morning. Spirit Friday's, love them!! She looked so adorable in her little Razorback dress and sweater. This dress is definitely one of my favorite purchases I've made for my little Hog fan. I got it online for a steal compared to some boutiques around here that sell the same dress!!

My super talented picture taking husband took these two pictures Friday afternoon when we stopped by the park on the way home. LOVE THEM!!!!!

Anyway, back to our Saturday. We had a nice relaxing morning around the house, we ran a couple errands, dropped Sara Kate off with her Meme, and Chris and I headed to our normal tailgate. Our friend Peter didn't come down this game so we had given his ticket to our friend Wade. We were also going to leave our tailgate early so we could head down the hill and meet up with my long time friend Kristen, who was in town from Conway for the game. I gave Wade his ticket, we got our jackets and blanket, I put my phone in one back pocket, and I put the tickets in my other back pocket. I do this EVERY game and have for the last couple years. Periodically on our walk to the stadium I check my pocket. We were walking down the street, I checked my pocket, and the tickets were there. We got almost to the bottom of the hill, I check my pocket and the tickets were GONE!!!!!! I FREAKED OUT!!!! I called Wade and had him check around the house and we turned around to retrace our steps. I knew we wouldn't find them because the wind was blowing like crazy, 20-30 mph. I figured the wind blew them out of my pocket or I got pick pocketed. I never felt anybody get in my back pocket but I suppose those guys can be slick. I was sooooo upset. It was our last home game, it was a sold out game, our team is ranked in the top 10, we were sending off an awesome group of Seniors, and we weren't going to get to go. We were almost back to the house and Wade called and said they had a solution. Of course, we never found the tickets when retracing our steps. Wade gave me his ticket back and our friends Richy and Joanna gave us one of their tickets because they were using Joanna's parents tickets. I felt terrible for Wade and felt like an Indian giver, but the nice guy that he is, he said he couldn't take it when I had just given it to him to start with. I was relieved we got to go but was still upset about the situation. On top of that, I missed getting to see my friend Kristen. The whole way to the stadium I kept saying, what if someone is in our seats because they just found our tickets or they had bought them off some one selling them. We went ahead to our seats instead of Richy and Joanna's and there was no one there and no one ever came with a ticket for our seats. Based on that, I guess the wind just blew them out of my pocket (it was seriously crazy wind!!). I took my little camera to this game instead of snapping pics on my phone and here are a few snapshots from our evening.

U of A

The Marching 'A'

Game Time!

Halftime!

Hogs Win!!!! 49-7!! Woooo Pig Sooie!!!

You can tell by my hair the wind was nuts! It wasn't that cold temperature wise, but the wind made it really cold up where we sit!!

Over all, we had a great day. Now you see why I called this post the Razorback weekend that almost was NOT!

I mentioned not getting to see my friend Kristen, but we lucked out were able to meet up for lunch after church!! Sooooo happy that worked out. Kristen and I have known each other since 6th grade. She took baton lessons and taught me enough to get through tryouts in the 7th grade...since my majorette years went on from there, I am really grateful she taught me enough to get through those first tryouts! :-) We were inseparable for years. She and her family moved to Conway when we were Juniors and over the years we have still managed to see each other every so often...in each others weddings, an ice storm that stranded us in Conway before Christmas, right after the birth of both of her daughters, at a football game last year, a game weekend this year, and hopefully again soon. Plus she got to meet Sara Kate today, yay!

Overall, I guess we've had a pretty good weekend. I'm very thankful for Joanna and Wade for the tickets, and I'm glad I got to see one of my oldest friends. The rest of my day will be quite boring...laundry, grocery shopping, picking up the house, blah, blah, blah. :-) Hope everyone has had a good weekend and has a good week!