Happy Thanksgiving

We had such a fun Thanksgiving! Brett's parents, sister and grandmother were here and my parents and Sarah, Taylor and Carter were here. We missed you Mary!! We ate A LOT and the kids had lots of fun!! I have SO much to be Thankful for, but most of all, I am so thankful for my 2 precious little girls and my fabulous husband!! They make me happier than I ever could have imagined!!

Friday we went to Highland Park Village for their Christmas festival. It was kind-of a flop...until they started blaring 'Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree' and all the kids got on the "dance floor" and started dancing. Hannah wasn't into it, but Alice Anne went out there so fast and started doing her thing! She is so funny to watch dance...she sticks her tongue out and has the cutest little moves! Alice Anne finally got Hannah out there to dance with her!!

How sweet is this...Alice Anne just hugging on her big sister.

Sweet Cousins!
Hannah had fun decorating her Christmas tree in the play room!

The girls left yesterday morning to go to Waco. Brett and I are leaving tomorrow for Costa Rica and I can't wait!! It was so hard telling them bye and of course, I cried.

Poor little Hannah is having a hard time in Waco and is really home sick. It makes me feel awful, but my dad keeps telling me that it's good for her. It's just so hard because they don't understand when you leave them...

What's Been Goin' On?

I've been an awful blogger lately! Not because we've been busy and I haven't had time, I just really haven't had anything to blog about. We are really enjoying the cooler weather! The girls love it outside, so that's where we spend most of our time.

Hannah wanted me to "build" her a pile of leaves. I kept asking her if that was enough and her response was always, "no, it needs to be bigger!"

Practicing Kickball

Alice Anne is loving being a walker! She really thinks she's so big and is having fun playing with the big girls!! On the other hand, she is also having fun making me guess what kind of mood she's going to be in each day. Monday, she had me in tears by 9:00a.m. She woke up and decided that she was not going to be sweet to anyone that day and she made sure to stick to her plan, which included hitting, screaming, throwing anything that was given to her and throwing herself on the floor! What in the world is this all about?? She was a little better on Tuesday and a little better on Wednesday and then Thursday, she was pretty much back to her sweet self. I can't see or feel any teeth, so I can't use that as an excuse. I've really been beating myself up about it all week. Is she doing this for attention? Am I not giving her enough one-on-one attention? I have lived and breathed trying to give both girls my undivided attention this week, hoping that maybe I can find some answers to her acting out. Please, somebody tell me that this is a phase that all 1 year olds go through. Brett reminded me that Hannah did some of the same thing when she was Alice Anne's age. Maybe I just make myself forget the bad. For now, I have the sweet girl back...hope she stays here for a while!

I am so excited about the holidays and Hannah is too! She goes through every one's name that will be at her house for Thanksgiving multiple times a day. She loves looking through recipes with me and helping me decide what she wants to cook for Thanksgiving and she's already started asking me when Santa will be here. I think she'll be really into Christmas this year! Grey's Anatomy last night got me so ready for Christmas, I got up this morning and pulled my Christmas CDs out!! I'm doing everything I can to not pull out my tree this weekend...

Last week we went to the American Girl Store with Molly. Molly brought her Samantha doll to have her hair fixed and the girls loved getting to pick out Samantha's hair style and watch her get in her beauty parlor chair.

While Samantha got her hair done, we headed upstairs for a very pink lunch! The girls were in heaven with their mac 'n cheese, pink lemonade and pink milkshakes!!

Playing with Alice Anne...

Ashley and I tried to get Hannah and Molly to pose for us in front of the red wall, but they were more interested in dancing with Samantha...

...but look who did pose for us!

I bought this big pack of kids shampoo at Costco and it has one pomegranate, one coconut, one mango and one strawberry. Hannah loves picking which one she's going to use each night. The other night Brett asked her if she liked eating coconut, pomegranate, mangoes and strawberries. She said she had never eaten a coconut or pomegranate. So after bath, daddy took Hannah to the store and they got a coconut and a pomegranate. They had so much fun sawing the coconut open, but Hannah spit the coconut milk out really fast and wasn't a fan of the pomegranate either. I gave Alice Anne some of pomegranate for breakfast the next morning and she loved it!!!

A couple of weeks ago we got to spend some time at Granny's house in Waco. I've been meaning to post pictures. The girls had so much fun playing at Granny's house. Hannah and Granny could have played Old Maid for hours!!

Silly Hannah...this is what I got when I told her to smile!!

And here are a few pictures from our picnic at the park earlier this week.

Hannah kept telling me she was doing her exercises like Papa...

This cracks me up...what is this face??

They played this peek-a-boo game forever and were laughing hysterically!

Peek-a-boo!!

Swinging...their favorite thing to do!!

Hannah Tidbits

Make my heart melt!!! Tonight I put Hannah to bed and when I closed her door she called out to me. I opened the door and she said, "Mommy, I love you! You're my best friend!!" Seriously?? What could make a mom any happier? I hope she always sees me as her best friend!!

Hannah has a Responsibility Chart that she takes VERY seriously! I love it and had no idea when I got it that she would be so into it. She seriously thinks about it all day long. She is constantly saying, "mommy, am I helping out...am I being nice?" etc. We've been doing it for several weeks and she's always so good, but it seems like she always has a day or two every week where she doesn't get a "straight line" as she calls it when she gets a circle for every responsibility. So, Sunday, daddy told Hannah that if she got a straight line every single day this week, he'd take her to the toy store and get her a big water gun. You would have thought daddy offered her a million dollars. She has been so motivated to get this big water gun and has lived and breathed her responsibilities this week. She's doing so good and only has 2 days to go!!! Oh...her treat each day for getting a "straight line" or doing all of her responsibilities is ONE orange tic-tac and she gets SO excited about that tiny little tic-tac!! Her responsibilities are: get dressed; put toys away; be nice; get ready for bed; share; no whining and help out.

Hannah and daddy have these imaginary pets that they talk about and tell stories about and go to the park with. It's really so cute!! Their names are Cozy (their kitty), Pedro (Wally's friend) and Flopsy (their bunny rabbit that lives in Hannah's garden). This week at school they have been learning about their family. Yesterday the teacher asked them a bunch of questions and wrote down their answers and then they made a picture of their family. One of the questions was how many pets do you have and what are their names. Hannah answered 3 pets named Wally, Pedro and Cozy. I saw this and laughed so hard. I told her teacher the story and she laughed and said Hannah was SO serious about it and told her all about all of her pets. She had no idea that 2 of them were pretend. When we got home from school, I asked Hannah about her picture. She told me all about it and said, "I didn't tell my teacher about Flopsy because she just asked how many cats or dogs we had and Flopsy's a bunny." Daddy couldn't stop laughing when he came home and saw the picture of her family that included their imaginary pets :)

Sweet sisters have had so much fun together this week! Hannah has been "reading" to her baby sister and she's very serious about it and Alice Anne actually sits there and listens to it. I have to hide in the other room (and secretly watch them) so I don't distract them. It's so cute!!!

In this picture Hannah is reading a book to Alice Anne about shapes. She showed her each shape and told her what shape it was and then would say, "Alice Anne, can you say Crescent? Good Girl!" She's such a good little mommy!

And this is where we've been ALL WEEK LONG...on the swings in the backyard! The girls could swing all day long! Alice Anne gets so giddy and giggles the entire time with her sweet little high-pitched laugh!

Guess Who Started Walking...

Just like I predicted, Alice Anne was right on the same track as her big sister. She got out of the bathtub Thursday night and took off walking into the other room. She woke up Friday and forgot that she could walk, but Saturday she took off again. She's pretty proud of herself and has the biggest grin on her face when she's walking!


Now Hannah has a built-in "Ring Around A Rosie" partner! They love doing this together and it always ends in them tackling each other and laughing hysterically!!

It starts so innocent...

And ends up like this...

then like this...

then full blown wrestling...

We went for Alice Anne's 15 month check-up this morning. She's a healthy little baby and is perfect in every way! Here are her stats: 27 lbs. 14 oz (above 95%); 33.5" long (above 95%) and 18.5" head circumference (80%). He's not concerned one single bit about how big she is. He said she's right in line with her height. He said she's as tall as the average 24 month old!!!

She's still a fabulous sleeper! 12-13 hours at night and two 1 1/2 to 2 hour naps every day. She only has 8 teeth (4 on top and 4 on bottom) but I think her bottom molars are about to cut through. She loves to eat and loves her milk! She's still my baby and wants to be cradled when she drinks her milk, which I am happy to do :) She loves her paci but we try to limit it to the bed and long car rides (unless she's having a rough day or some teeth that are cutting through). She has a pink bunny blankie that she loves and she will not go to sleep without it!!

She's a good talker, but like I've said before, will only talk when she wants to. Some of her words include: wago (wagon), ca (car), bubube (blueberry), bow (when she pulls her bow out, she hands it to me and says, "hee bow" or here bow), bebe (baby), nana (Hannah and banana), fffiii (fish), ho (hot), brrrr (cold), caca (cracker), cookie, apple, awa (water), wawa (Wally and water), babo (bravo), yeah (her favorite thing to say when she claps), pee boo (peek-a-boo), tee tee (what she says when she sees Hannah using the bathroom), shooo (shoe), fffff (flower), lee (leaf), sky, tee (tree), bir (bird), uh oh (her favorite saying now that she's walking and falls a lot), open, co (close), ni ni (night, night), dada wo (daddy's at work), ba ba ba (bath), no no no no no (what she says when it's time to get her diaper changed; ba (ball), emo (elmo), papi (paci), Gigi, Papa, and I'm sure there are more that I'm missing! She's so funny...half of the time when she talks, she whispers. Don't know what that's all about, but it's funny!

She still adores Hannah and they play together so well!! She gets so excited when we drop Hannah off at school because she knows it's her time with mommy, but she gets even more excited when we go pick Hannah up...she's ready to have her playmate back.

She's the best eater!! She loves fruit and beans and some vegetables. Bath time is her favorite time of the day. She has started really throwing a fit when it's time to get out, but all I have to do is show her her toothbrush and she's ok. She doesn't like for me to brush her teeth, but she loves sucking and chewing on her toothbrush. It's a battle brushing her teeth, but luckily I don't have many to brush.

She's definitely the sweetest little 15 month old that there is and we couldn't ask for anymore from her!! We love you sweet little Alice Anne...more than you'll ever know!!!

And a couple pictures of sweet big sister at 34 1/2 months...

A Glimpse Of My Parenting...

Hannah said 2 really funny things this morning that made me think...do I really say that?!?!

Alice Anne was admiring Hannah's picture that she had colored by tearing it up. Hannah saw what she was doing from across the room and started walking over to her saying, "No, no Alice Ann. A-T-R, No!!" I guess I say, "N-O, No" and Hannah was trying to spell it...funny!!

I was wiping Hannah's runny nose this morning for the 100th time and Hannah said in a very serious voice, "Mommy, you're not obeying me. I don't want to tell you again to stop wiping my nose!"

Funny Girl!!

Obsessed!!!

After a little one-year old stinker in our house decided to chunk my camera across the room, I was forced to get the camera I have been dying to get for a long time!! I think I'm obsessed...I LOVE IT!!!! I have literally been snapping away for 2 days! So, get ready to see lots of pics, because I am really going to have a hard time narrowing my pictures down now!

Some pics of our morning outside. It is absolutely gorgeous here and we have spent every single second outside this week. The girls can entertain themselves out there forever!

Looking at the leaf to see if it's a pretty one

Fertilizing her flowers

Inspecting another leaf's beauty

Look at this sassy little pose!!

Trying to get Alice Anne to chase her to get the painted pumpkin

Yesterday Alice Anne turned 15 months! She has been such a little stinker the past week, but yesterday afternoon she decided to change back to her old self and I'm loving it! She's not walking yet, but she's really, really close. Hannah started walking 4 days after her 15 month check-up and I'm guessing Alice Anne will be right with her sister on that one. She still doesn't talk much at all when other people are around...is she going to be my shy one?? But she talks when it's just us and home and when she wants to talk, she talks up a storm! This morning we went on a little walk and she was a little chatterbox! I can't remember everything she was saying, but here are some of the things she pointed out to me on our walk:

lee (leaf); tee (tree); sky; ca (car); fffff (flower); bir (bird); aco (acorn); tata do (Sasha dog: the Grabham's dog); nana ri (showing me that Hannah was riding her tricycle); no wa, no wa, no wa (no walk: what she said over and over when we came inside and she wanted to keep walking)