The Belfs

Baylor Homecoming

2011-11-08T19:13:00.005-06:00

Daddy went hunting this weekend and we headed to Waco for Baylor Homecoming. The girls LOVED the parade Saturday morning and had so much fun tailgating before the football game...so much fun, we didn't make it into the game.

Hannah thought that she was the coolest thing on earth when she got to walk over to the Kappa room with cousin Linda and watch her do her pledge songs!

Is this the cutest baby you've seen or what? He's the sweetest little thing, too!

She LOVES Baby Henry!!!

This picture kills me it is so sweet! They were having the cutest conversations as they walked!

Sic 'em Bears!

I mean, he would not take those glasses off!!!

Sweet sisters!!

Trick-or-Treat

2011-11-01T12:58:00.004-05:00

We had such a fun Halloween!! Both of the girls got to wear their costumes to school and at the end of the day I went and helped with Hannah's Halloween party. We had a major sugar overload, came home and tried to calm down a little bit before Daddy came home and we headed out for some more sugar!!

Both girls were Tinkerbell this year and they were very excited when it got dark outside and their tutus lit up! After a long day at school with all of their gear on, they opted to not wear their tights or tinkerbell shoes out to trick-or-treat in, so, these 2 Tinkerbells went out bare legged with crocs on!

My Baby Turns 3!!!

2011-09-20T14:29:00.001-05:00

I'm a little late, but I couldn't not post about my sweet little baby's 3rd birthday! Alice Anne turned 3 years old on August 4. I have had a really, really hard time coming to the realization that my little baby is 3 years old! She reminds me of it day after day, and loves telling me that she's my "big girl baby!" She has really grown up this past year and she has a personality of her own! She knows what she wants, and she wants it her way, and she isn't going to give up until she gets it. She is my snuggler, my hugger, and my kisser! If I'm ever having a bad day, all I have to do it ask Alice Anne to give me a hug, and my day is always better. Ask anyone that she is close to, and they will comment on Alice Anne's hugs...they will light up any one's day because they are so genuine!

She is definitely my "hard" child! If I have any grey hairs, she's given me 99.9% of them. She will get in a funk every few weeks, and every time it hits, I know that I'm in for a long few days. Then out of nowhere, she'll turn it around, and her sweet little self returns. I try not to worry about it much, because all of her teachers at school, church and ballet have nothing but sweet, sweet, words to say about her, and to a mommy, how they act when I'm not around, is what matters the most! Brett and I have gotten some good laughs when he will tell the girls that if they are extra sweet, he'll bring them some candy when he comes home from work. If Alice Anne is in one of her moods, she'll look at Brett as serious as can be and say in her deep little voice, "I don't want your candy!!"

She is 100% opposite from Hannah, and I love that they both have their own personality. She ADORES her big sister, and does nothing more than try to be Exactly. Like. Her!!! At this point in her life, she's not my studious one. She would rather be running, or wrestling, or playing pretend with her baby dolls, than coloring or doing quiet learning activities. This is all new to me, since Hannah would prefer to sit at the table and learn all day long! If I'll have an athlete out of the 2, I think she'll be my little athlete, although she is very cautious! She has no desire to ride her tricycle, even though Brett and I have tried and tried, and she is perfectly content sitting on the steps at the swimming pool with her swim ring on. Again, she does everything on HER time!

My favorite thing to do with Alice Anne is our little bedtime routine. Every night after we sing songs and say her prayers, she gives me a big kiss, followed by eskimo kisses, butterfly kisses, "head kisses" (where we bonk heads and she is far from gentle--so much so, I've had a bruise on my forehead before), and then she gives me the biggest hug and always says, "tighter, mommy!!" That sweet little phrase will never get old!!

She is the best little eater!! She LOVES most any vegetable and fruit, and she will eat sushi and sashimi like it's going out of style! She loves school, church and ballet! She is the funniest little 3 year old you'll ever meet and she makes us laugh all the time!! For the longest time, she was referred to as "Bally," and we still call her that sometimes, but every time we do, she says very firm and loud, "My name is NOT Bally...I Alice Anne!" She has completely given up her naps, which is the main reason my blog is so far behind!! She has the sweetest little soul and she makes our family brighter day after day! We love you more than you'll ever know Alice Anne!!

I have no idea how she knew what they were, but she requested "funfetti cupcakes" at the grocery store, to have for her birthday breakfast. I LOVE this little smile!

She insisted on a Chuck E. Cheese party!!

She LOVES pizza...even at Chuck E. Cheese!

Sweet Sisters checking out the necklace Chuckie gave her

Spring Break 2011

2011-04-14T12:34:00.007-05:00

To say we've been on the go lately, would be an understatement. I feel like we haven't had a breather in weeks. We've been packing, unpacking, packing, unpacking and then packing again, but we've really had a lot of fun! We had a great Spring Break week. The first part of the week, we spent a lot of time working on our garden. This year, we planted every herb possible, plus blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, jalapenos (hot and mild), green peppers, banana peppers, zucchini, okra, and 3 tomato plants. We already have a bunch of tomatoes and the girls can't wait until they're ready to eat! Hannah and Alice Anne got to spend 10 days in Waco. The first few days, they were at Granny's house with Gigi, and then they went over to Jammy and Papa's for several days. While they were in Waco, Brett and I headed to Bora Bora! It was AMAZING, to say the least! It was absolutely gorgeous and the most relaxing vacation we've been on in a LONG time! We really had the best time!

The girls have been a handful lately. Alice Anne pretty much tests her limits with Brett and me every day. This is all new to us, because Hannah just never really went through that phase. I'm having to get really creative in finding ways to motivate her to obey us and to be nice to her sister! Hannah loves to be the bossy big sister, so that's another daily battle. I'm starting to think that Hannah might have gotten some of her daddy's negotiating skills, which could be a great thing, but I'm not liking them so much right now. If I answer one of her questions the way she didn't want it answered, or if I ask her to do something that she doesn't want to do, she tests those negotiating skills out...and I'm not a big fan! We're working on this one, too.

Alice Anne surprises me all the time with her smart little brain that she likes to hide from us. She loves to pretend like she can't do anything or doesn't know anything...well, because she likes to be babied. But she's gotten not-so-good at hiding it lately, and Brett and I are stunned at some of the smart things that come out of her mouth. Hannah is MORE than ready to read and I know she will thrive in pre-k next year!! I hear this 1,984,287,345 times a day..."mommy, what does _ _ _ _ _ _ spell?" or, "How do you spell ________?" And then she spells it back to herself. I love it (well, most of the time) and love to see her little brain at work.

I haven't gotten any Waco pictures from the grandparents yet, but I'll post them when I do. For now, here are a few pictures of the girls and their garden.

And a few pictures of our Bora Bora trip

One of the only pics we took together on the whole trip

The resort where we stayed

My fisherman fishing off the dock of our bungalow. He was seriously in heaven!!

One of his many catches!

1st Time...

2011-02-28T19:21:00.003-06:00

The girl's firsts are always hard for me, and the older they've gotten, the more I've learned not to take them for granted.

One of the saddest days for me lately was when my baby woke up one day and told me she didn't want her crib anymore, that she wanted a big girl bed like Hannah. She and daddy tried really hard to talk me into a bunk bed, but I just couldn't be that cool mom that allowed that, so we found another bed that made her happy, and she couldn't get it fast enough! Taking that crib apart was so hard for me. I cried taking it apart, I cried putting her new bed together and I realllllly cried tucking her into that BIG girl bed!!! She was so proud, and I was so proud of her, but she really wasn't a baby anymore. I told her that I was keeping her glider in her room as long as she lived under this roof, because she's the best cuddler and she lets me rock her all night long!! I love that!!!

Alice Anne also got her 1st haircut today!! Hannah went 1st and she watched Hannah very intensely and then when it was her turn, she freaked out!! She did NOT want to get into that chair. We bribed her with a lollipop, and that made everything better!

Hannah got her 1st "manicure" last week. She's been dying to go to the "special nail place" for the longest time and she got to go as a reward for getting a straight line every day last week. I've never seen her work so hard on her responsibilities!!! She was SO proud and of course we were so proud of all her hard work!!! She deserved it for sure!

We had LOTS of snow days in February and although we all complained of cabin fever, we really did have a good time. Jammy was here the 2nd week of snow, so I got some much needed relief!! I'm not much fun outside when it's snowing. I last about 2 seconds and then I get too cold and have to go inside, but daddy knows how to have fun out there!!! Hannah and daddy have SO much fun playing in the snow together! Alice Anne takes after me, and she's my hot cocoa partner. We could sit at the window and watch them for hours!

I LOVE this video. The snow was starting to melt, but they got a short little sleigh ride on our street and then they loaded up in the golf cart and headed to shadier streets and to the park with "snow hills!" We couldn't convince Alice Anne to ride, but Hannah had enough fun for everyone!

I had to post this picture because our family golf cart rides crack me up!! This is what our weekends usually look like. We have several trips to the park with all 4 of us plus both dogs and Hannah's bike all load up on the golf cart!! So much fun and I hope these are the pictures that the girls will always remember of their childhood!!

Dallas or Antarctica?!?!

2011-02-03T14:06:00.002-06:00

It is Beyond COLD here!! We have been locked in our house for 3 days in a row and it's supposed to snow again tonight. Our driveway is a solid 2" ice skating rink and Hannah has had a blast practicing her ice skating skills out there. I would have taken a picture, but it's too cold for me to step outside. We're not used to this and we don't know what to do when it hits us! We're all getting cabin fever and starting to get on each other's nerves, but for the most part, the girls have been great locked in the house! Mommy on the other hand...well, I'm running out of ideas to keep these girls busy! We've done everything, including having a birthday party for each one of our babies and a birthday party for Wally and Ariel!!! I refuse to bake anymore, because I'm so bored I'm eating every single thing we bake, we've read every book we own at least 20 times, we've gone "swimming" in the bathtub, we've played every game and done every learning activity I know to do, we've cleaned our house until there's nothing left to clean, we've organized closets, colored and painted 2,000 pictures, had hot cocoa and popcorn parties in our "dining room chair tent," and played so much playdo that it's almost all dried out! What in the world is left to do? I wouldn't survive the arctics for a day!!!

Ice, Ice, Go Away...Come Again Another Day

They're all bundled up to play outside
Alice Anne did NOT want to come in!!
Baking for the 100th time. No more baking...we're all out of flour and sugar!

Sweet sisters reading books to each other

In case you didn't notice, we've been in our pj's for 3 days, too!!!

Christmas 2010

2011-01-20T13:14:00.004-06:00

I can't believe that Christmas has been over for a month and I'm just now posting. Not acceptable...I am going to try really hard to get better. Honestly, we have been so busy and the girls are at a really fun age, that I haven't wanted to take myself away from them! I can't believe how fast they are growing up and I'm having a hard time with it, but we'll save that for another post!

We had a lot of fun this year! The girls favorite thing to do was go look at Christmas lights and go look at the nativity scene in the yard around the corner from our house. We literally had to drive by it every time we left the house and every time we came home.

We had a great Christmas! The anticipation was almost too much for both of them, but Hannah especially. They were in love with Suzy, our Elf on the Shelf, and she worked miracles! All I had to do to get them to do anything was to just glance over at Suzy and it was done! They have been very concerned about her and what she has been doing since Christmas. They want to know if she can come visit soon, etc.

We spent Christmas Eve with Gigi, Grandpop and Bekah. We went to the family church service, and the girls loved singing all the Christmas Carols. We came home for chili and tamales and then the girls got to each open 2 presents. Hannah was almost in tears when she went to bed because she was so worried that the adults were still up and Santa wasn't going to stop if the lights were on.

Santa was good to the girls! They are OBSESSED with everything princess, and Santa must have known, but nearly everything that he brought was princess. The main thing they requested were 18" princess dolls. Hannah wanted Ariel, Sleeping Beauty and Tinkerbell, and Alice Anne wanted Snow White. They got ALL the princesses and their accessories! They were so excited to go down stairs Christmas morning to see what Santa left. Gigi slept in Hannah's room with her, to keep her from coming down at the crack of dawn. I love nothing more than to see the look on little kids faces on Christmas morning. I just remember the magical feeling I felt when I was little!

Late Christmas morning we left for Waco, where Jammy, Papa, Aunt Mary, Carter, Aunt Sarah and Uncle Taylor were waiting for us. The kids wanted to open the rest of their gifts immediately and then we had another big Christmas meal. It was our first holiday meal with an "adult table" and a "kids table," and Hannah was very proud to be the "babysitter" during dinner.

When we got to Waco, Alice Anne was so hot! My poor baby spend the rest of Christmas and 4 days after, in my lap. She was SO sick and it was so sad, but mommy had no complaints of non-stop cuddling!

Daddy was off of work for 2 weeks over the holidays and it was SO much fun being lazy every morning, shopping, eating out a lot and watching Hannah and Brett ice skate several times! They both got pretty good at it!

I'm really upset with myself that I didn't get more pictures. I took a total of 12 pictures the whole weekend :(

Coming downstairs

All of the goodies that Santa left

Alice Anne was SO excited about her new chapstick!

One of Hannah's favorite presents...this bouncy ball. She literally hops around the house now instead of walking! It's so funny!

A Couple of Stories

2011-01-05T20:34:00.003-06:00

I haven't even downloaded Christmas pictures yet, and that's on my to-do list for this week, but I had to write a couple of things down first, because I always want to remember these sweet things that my babies say.

Last night as I was tucking Hannah in bed, she looked up at me and asked me when she was going to start putting herself to bed. Shocked, since she loves for us to put her to bed, I asked her if she wanted to start putting herself to bed. She said, "No, I want you to put me to bed forever. Even when I'm big like you, and when I'm married to daddy, will you still live with me and put me to bed? I might live in another house, but I want you to always live with me forever and ever!" My response, "Of course, I'll live with you as long as you want me to live with you!"

Yesterday Hannah went for her 4 year check-up. She was really excited about the visit and we couldn't get there fast enough. She was even frustrated with me when I had to stop on the way there to get gas. I was so proud of her...she was so brave and opened right up to Dr. Moore, talking his ear off. She was above the 95% for height and 85% for weight. She was even excited to get a shot, because she knew she was going to get a pretty bandaid...poor little thing didn't know she was going to get 6!!!! Her eyes got bigger than I've ever seen them when she saw the nurse walk in with all the syringes. Poor thing was so brave! She shed some pretty big tears and I think I shed a few too. But one of the saddest things was Alice Anne, after watching all of that. She missed a shot at her 2 year check-up, and she was going to get it while we were there. She was pretty excited about the bandaid, too, until after seeing what poor Hannah went through. When Hannah hopped down from the table, Alice Anne looked at me and said over and over, "Mommy, I don't want a bandaid, I don't want a bandaid!!" SO SAD!!!

Happy 4th Birthday Hannah!

2010-12-22T19:22:00.005-06:00

I would be lying if I said that I was writing this post with dry eyes. To say that I have had an extremely hard time accepting that Hannah is turning 4, would be an understatement. I don't know why, but for some reason, 4 just seems so big! Maybe it's because Hannah actually "gets it" this year, and knows that she's getting big, and she has been so excited about it. Or, maybe it's because she planned her birthday for 312 days, but, whatever it is, this mama isn't handling it very well. Every time she talked about it, I told her that I was sad that she was getting so big and that she wasn't a baby anymore and every time, she would give me the sweetest hug and tell me, "but mommy, I'll always be your baby...even when I'm 100!!!" That describes our sweet little Hannah perfectly. She always takes every one's feelings into consideration, and she always wants to make others feel good.

It seems like just yesterday that she was born! We were eating dinner Monday night and I just happened to look up at the clock at 7:11...the exact time that Hannah was born 4 years ago. I teared up a bit, gave Hannah a big kiss, and told her how happy she made her daddy and me 4 years ago that very moment. We talked about how we couldn't imagine our family without her. She had fun asking us questions about when she was born and she always laughs when we tell her how she cried non-stop for months and months!! And now she's four!! She's not a crying little baby anymore, she's not even a toddler anymore, she's my preschooler that is asking me how many days until she gets to go to "the big school!" If only we could freeze time!!!

I want to write everything I feel about our kids on each of their birthdays, so I can always remember, but I really don't know where to start on this one. Both of our girls are so much more than Brett and I could have ever dreamed of in our children, yet they are both so different in their own way. Hannah is the most loving and compassionate child I have ever met. She has never met a stranger and she is one that everyone wants to be friends with. She makes the old people smile at the grocery store and makes the crying baby laugh at the park without even trying to. She is such a sensitive child and her cuddles can make any one's day brighter! She is SO curious...sometimes a little too much, and will WEAR YOU OUT with her 1,000 questions an hour!!! She won't accept "I don't know" for an answer, so you better be on your toes when you're around her. She loves to help out, and is very willing to do whatever it is that you ask of her. She still LIVES her day by her Responsibility Chart. Her 8 responsibilities are, "Obey, Be Nice, Share, Tell The Truth, Help Out, No Whining, Use Your Manners, and Stay In Your Bed All Night :)" She will do whatever it takes to make sure she gets a "straight line" every day!

Brett and I can honestly say that we couldn't be prouder of the little girl that we have raised thus far, and we are so excited to see how much more joy she will bring us in the years to come!!

Hannah is the best big sister we could have ever asked for! She absolutely adores her little sister and they play together like angels! They tell each other every day that they are best friends, and as a mommy that grew up with 2 sisters, it melts my heart! I see their friendship growing closer all the time and I pray that God will always protect that special bond that they have!

Her favorite colors are red, orange and pink, and her daily routine revolves around those colors. The panties she picks, the dress, the shoes, the toys, everything that has red, orange and pink are her favorite...and it can become VERY annoying at times!!!

She LOVES school and she loves learning new things!! She has known all her numbers and letters for a while now and can count to well over 100. She can count by 10's and is working on counting by 5's. She can do simple addition and subtraction. She can write all of her letters and can independently write "Hannah Leigh Belf, Alice Anne, Mommy, Daddy, Jammy, Papa, Gigi, Wally, car, stop, go," and many other words. She wants to know what every word on a building, billboard, etc. spells. Her favorite activity by far is coloring. She can color for hours...as long as she has a red, orange and pink crayon!!! Her favorite princess is Ariel and her favorite games are Hide-and-Seek, I Spy and Chase! She still loves ballet and started gymnastics this year.

She is a great eater!! She'll try just about anything and LOVES salad! I told her that she could pick any birthday dinner that she wanted, that we could eat at home or go eat somewhere and she said that she wanted to eat chicken caesar salad and macaroni and cheese at home--DONE!! She wanted pancakes, fried eggs and blueberries for her birthday breakfast.

Hannah and Milam had a fabulous 4th Birthday party together...Breakfast With Santa!! Hannah talked about it for months and could not believe that the REAL Santa was coming to eat Breakfast with them at her house!!! We have a lot to live up to next year!!!

Greeting Santa at the Door

How sweet is this!!

Santa Reading "The Night Before Christmas"

Sweet Sisters

Blowing out their candles

Her party wouldn't be complete without her dear friend Molly!!

Happy 4th Birthday Hannah!!! We love you all the way to the moon and back!!!!

Girls Weekend

2010-12-11T19:14:00.006-06:00

Someone asked me today if I was a "hunter widow" and that's exactly what I have been lately!! Brett loves hunting and during hunting season, the girls and I get in a lot of good girl time! We have had such a fun and busy weekend! They are both at the perfect age and are so much fun to do things with!

Alice Anne seems to have grown-up all of a sudden and she is my little doll! Honestly, I can't get enough of her! I'm really, really sad that she is such a big girl now and no longer a baby at all! I can't even talk about it with out tearing up! The other day, I told our "Elf On The Shelf" (aka Suzy), how good Alice Anne was doing at using her manners. Ever since then, Alice Anne has ended every single sentence in "ma'am." It is so funny! "May I please have some water ma'am?" "I need to go to the bathroom ma'am" I love it! Hannah keeps telling her that she doesn't need to say that and Alice Anne just laughs.

Hannah is really into the Christmas Story this year and wants to talk about baby Jesus all the time. She asks me questions all day long about baby Jesus and half of them I don't even know how to answer, and when I do answer it, it leads into 100 other questions that I don't know how to answer.

Hannah asked me today what Santa was going to bring me for Christmas. I told her that Santa only brings presents for kids. She got such a sad look on her face and asked me if that made me sad. I told her that I would get some present from other people. She said, "mommy, what do you want daddy to get you? I'll tell him and I'll make sure you get it. I don't want you to be sad on Christmas." My tender hearted little one!

We've had so much fun looking at Christmas lights this year. Of course the girls love all the really tacky light displays and they've begged us to get a blow-up snowman to put in the front yard, but there is just no way!!

I wasn't going to do breakfast with Santa this year because Santa is coming to Hannah's birthday party, but Hannah has talked about us going to eat breakfast with Santa last year so much lately and kept asking me if Alice Anne could go with us this year, that I went ahead and did it. She obviously loved it and I want that to be something that they'll remember doing with me every Christmas. I'm so glad we went...they had a blast!!! Alice Anne tried to act shy and pretend like she didn't like Santa, but the second he left, she begged for him to come back! When we got in the car she said, "I give Santa big hug at Hannah's party and I tell him I sorry. I really want a Snow White doll! I sweet!" She obviously thought about it after he left and is a little worried that he won't bring her presents if she doesn't give him a hug. Hannah literally talked Santa's ear off and luckily he went right along with everything that she said about him coming to her house for her party. The girl can talk!! We were waiting in line at the grocery today and the old lady behind us simply said, "looks like you have 2 good helpers." That's all Hannah needed her to say to initiate the conversation. By the time we had paid, the poor lady knew everything Hannah had helped me with the past 3 days, Hannah's full name, birthday, all her friends names and their birthdays, what kind of parties they had all had, what she was going to have at her party and on her real birthday, what she wants for Christmas, how many dogs she has and how old they are, what kind of party she wants to have when she turns 5, 6 and 7, what we were going to do the rest of the day, and a bunch of other stuff the poor little old lady did not care to know! It's so funny, but sometimes a little embarrassing!

We went to a live nativity after baths the other night. They had costumes there and the girls got to dress-up like Mary and Joseph. Of course Hannah was Mary and she told Alice Anne to be Joseph. Alice Anne insisted that she was NOT a boy! Hannah was so funny when we left. She said, "mommy, you know we weren't the real Mary and Joseph. It was just pretend. Could have fooled me!

They couldn't get enough of Baby Jesus

Hannah and her new BFF

Alice Anne doing a pretend pout!

Another thing that I LOVE doing with the girls at Christmas...making chocolate covered pretzels and they love it too!

Roasting marshmallows and making smores!

Bundled up in mommy and daddy's bed to watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

My Little Angels

2010-11-29T19:10:00.004-06:00

This story was so sweet I had to write it down...

This afternoon the girls and I were putting some Christmas decorations up and Hannah went and sat down on the couch. I could tell she was thinking really hard about something. She sat there for a few minutes and then walked over to me and teared up. She said with the sweetest, most concerned voice, "Mommy, what can I do if I miss you so much when you go to heaven?" Shocked, I said, "Honey, mommy's not going to heaven." She said, "Yes you are. Everyone goes to heaven someday. But I'm going to miss you when you go and I'm going to always be sad." I was doing everything I could to not let my tears show, so as I kissed her head over and over, I assured her that I would not go to heaven for a long, long time and that I was going to stay right here and be her mommy. She said, "Mommy, when you go to heaven, I want to go with you..."

Talk about melting a mommy's heart!!!

My sweet little family on Thanksgiving

Halloween 2010

2010-11-11T13:30:00.002-06:00

We had another fabulous Halloween this year. The girls were really into it and the day couldn't come fast enough. Hannah went back and forth on what she wanted to dress-up as, and finally settled on Ariel. Alice Anne wanted to be Snow White...until she saw Hannah in her mermaid costume and then of course she had to be Ariel too!

Our sweet friends Will and Hank hosted their annual Halloween Party on Swiss Ave. The girls got in lots of play time and then we headed out to the decked-out street for trick-or-treating. It was SO crowded and after about 5 houses, the girls had had enough. So we came home and hopped on the golf cart to visit a few houses on our street.

The 2 Belf Mermaids and the cutest Tinkerbell

Look how cute these kids are! They've all been best of friends since they were newborns and they still love playing together!

These 2 took off and were ready to get some candy...

Alice Anne couldn't keep up, so she grabbed Samuel's hand...

...they got completely run over on the sidewalk, so she hopped on her favorite boy's shoulders!

This picture cracks me up!!! She was trying to be "Spooky!"

A rare pic of the 2 of us

Hannah was so excited to go to our old house. She said she didn't have to knock because she used to live there. We had to explain that one to her...

The discussion has already started between them about what they're going to be next year. So far, Hannah is going to be a Fairy and Alice Anne is going to be Snow White. We'll see...

Fall Fun

2010-10-26T13:25:00.006-05:00

I LOVE fall...it's my favorite season by far! I love the weather, I love all the festivals, the State Fair, Halloween...I just love everything about it! This year we've had so much fun with the girls. They're both at the perfect age for all of the activities and they can not wait until Halloween!!!

Their favorite part about the fair...the cotton candy!

Making a Haunted House. They were a lot more serious about this than I expected. I expected Alice Anne to sit there and eat the candy the entire time...regardless of what I said, and Hannah to sit there and beg me to let her eat the candy the whole time, but neither one of those happened. They LOVED decorating it...and then they each got to eat 2 pieces afterwards!!!

Decorating their "Crazy Pumpkins"

The finished products! Hannah wanted a ponytail on hers and Alice Anne wanted pigtails on hers!

This picture makes me laugh. Our favorite thing to do around here is to dress-up like princesses, turn some music on and dance. As they were dancing, Alice Anne fell down. Hannah ran over to her and started screaming very dramatically, "The glass slipper, the glass slipper!! It broke!!!" Alice Anne looked at her like she was crazy and said, "It didn't break...it's right here!" Hannah got real serious and started explaining to her that she was pretending and said, "Alice Anne, when I pretend, you have to pretend with me, because I'm the big sister. If I say the glass slipper broke, you say OK." So, of course, just like everything else, Alice Anne went along with it. It was hilarious to hear the conversation!!!

We played "Beauty Parlor" with all our babies. They looked through the American Girl catalog and picked out how they wanted each doll's hair fixed. We even brought Sarah and Mary's American Girl dolls home to give them a makeover!

Hannah started gymnastics this fall and is loving every second of it! We're so impressed with her gymnastics class and she's really learning a lot! Her sweet little friend Lucy is in her class and it's just the 2 of them, so they get their teacher's undivided attention. She loves dance, too, and when I ask her if she likes gymnastics or ballet better, she says that she can't decide :)

Hannah is getting too big too fast!!! She is counting the days until she turns 4...and we've been counting EVERY SINGLE DAY for 250 something days!!! In her mind, a LOOOOT is going to change when she's 4 years old!

Alice Anne is such a mess and seriously cracks me up all day long! She is so funny...and SUCH a little toot at the same time! She does NOT like being the only one in her class at school that wears panties and she makes sure that I know it by asking for a diaper everyday after school. When I tell her that she's a big girl and doesn't need a diaper, she simply spreads her legs out and pees all over the floor. Strong willed child?? Seriously...this happens twice a week at the same time every Monday and Wednesday afternoon!!! I keep thinking that if I ignore it, clean it up and act like nothing ever happened, she'll stop doing it...but it hasn't stopped yet ;) She always hugs me after I clean it up and makes up for it. I swear, she gives THE BEST hugs ever!!! They will never get old!!! And she loves to give them out, which I love!

My sweet little toot!

Zombie

2010-10-08T09:30:00.005-05:00

I have never been one that does good on little sleep. I need a good 7-8 hours of sleep at night to be happy. It's been a while since I've had babies that are up all night, and I've tried to put those days behind me. I don't know what was going on last night, but I think someone was playing a not so funny joke on me.

Here's how my night went:

11:30 p.m.-Guess I had too much caffeine, and I was having a hard time winding down

12:30 a.m.-Trying to sleep, but I had a husband and 2 dogs that were snoring louder than ever

1:00 a.m.-Earplugs helped a little and I think I dozed off

2:15 a.m.-Alice Anne starts crying...I go up there and she's upset that she dropped her blankie

3:00 a.m.-I finally go back to sleep

3:23 a.m.-Hannah is at the side of my bed tapping on my back. Says her boo boo hurts. I give her some Motrin and take her back upstairs

3:55 a.m.-I'm still awake and Hannah comes BACK downstairs and says, "It's taking too long." Don't know what was taking too long, but trying to be patient, I take her back upstairs.

4:20 a.m.-I think I've just dozed off and Hannah is at the side of my bed AGAIN! I'm losing my patience and I tell her to go back upstairs.

4:33 a.m.-Brett says that since he's awake, he's going to go ahead and go to the office, so he gets in the shower.

4:50 a.m.-Brett can't find heartburn medicine. I get up and turn all the lights on to find it.

4:54 a.m.-Brett leaves

4:55 a.m.-Brett comes back inside. He can't find his keys. I get up again and help him find his keys.

5:08 a.m.-Hannah is back downstairs. I tell her to go back up and don't come back down until it's "wake-up time"

5:30 a.m.-I'm worried that Brett got mugged walking into the office at such crazy hours so I call to make sure he's OK.

5:58 a.m.-Last time I looked at the clock. I think I finally went to sleep!!

6:37 a.m.-I hear, "Good Morning, Mommy!!" It's Hannah!!!!

7:00 a.m.-Guess I better get up and start my day...

What in the world!!! Wish I was a napper...

On a sweeter note, we took the girls to the Botanical Gardens in Ft. Worth last weekend. It was beautiful!!!

Sleepy Baby!

Drill Sergeant

2010-09-28T20:31:00.002-05:00

The girls went from my parents house, to Brett's parent's house, to a weekend alone with daddy, to Disneyland and the beach, and back home where Carter came to visit and then we started school...all in less than 3 weeks. To say they have been "off," would be an understatement. So I have spent the last week being a Drill Sergeant and trying to whip everyone back into shape. It hasn't been fun, but it was definitely needed. I think we're all getting back to normal. The girls have both been awesome the last 2 days. Today they were both so lovey and came and gave me so many unsolicited "I love you mommy!" hugs. Love days like that. Guess it's so true that kids really do like structure and discipline...

My sweet little Hannah has had a hard few days. She fell really hard at the restaurant on Friday night and a high chair fell on top of her. It was scary!!! That's where the forehead bruise and black eyes came from. Yesterday she fell HARD while she was running up to the ice cream store and then last night she busted it again out on the driveway. I hugged her and told her that she has had a hard time lately. Today she told me about 20 times, "Mommy, I'm just having a hard time!" Poor thing!

If you're wondering why there have been so many Hannah pics and not many Alice Anne pics lately it's because Alice Anne runs as fast as she can the second she sees me pull out the camera...and Hannah poses and tells me to take her picture all day long!!!

DISNEY!!!!

2010-09-23T13:37:00.020-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, we took the girls to California for a fun end of summer trip! We went to Disneyland and played at the beach. I took SO many pictures, I'm going to do 2 post...one for Disney and one for the beach.

The girls were literally in heaven at Disney. They were up at 4:15a.m. ready to "go see the princesses!" That was all they talked about for weeks before we went and they were not disappointed! Brett and I had the best time just watching their faces and seeing how excited they were. I was afraid that they might be a little too young, but they were at perfect ages and they really thought that the princesses were the "real thing!"

The second we pulled up, they both asked where Ariel was (their absolute favorite princess), so we headed straight to the princesses castle. They were just about to start a "Royal Ball," and one of the princesses helpers came and took the girls hands and led them down to the "Ball." Their faces were priceless!!! They got to dance with the princesses helpers and then they were front and center as 3 of the princesses came out on stage.

Waiting for them to come out...

She was in disbelief...this is how she stood as all the princesses were coming out! This is really funny. Alice Anne was potty trained the week before our trip. She only had one accident on the whole trip and it was as soon as we walked into Disneyland. She was so excited she literally wet her pants!

Snow White came down for a dance!

And there she is...Ariel!!! Hannah gave her the biggest hug and said, "I haven't seen you in SOOOO long!!"

And of course she got a big hug from Bally!

Cinderella!!!

Sleeping Beauty!!!

Princess Belle!!!

Princess Tiana!!

And the 2 Belf Princesses

They LOVED the parade, too, and getting to see Mickey, Minnie, "Gonald Guck" (as Alice Anne says) and all of Mickey's other friends!

They got to go out and walk in the parade and they thought they were so cool!!!

That was probably one of their best days yet...and to top it all of, there was a wedding right outside our window when we got back to the hotel. They stood there and watched the whole thing!!!

A cute little story. On the airplane on the way home, Hannah said she had a great idea!! She said that for her 4th Birthday Party, she wanted to get all of her friends and grandparents and get on the airplane and go to Disneyland and the beach. She said, "Everyone would think that was the coolest party ever!" Of course!!! Just what we need...a destination 4th Birthday Party!

Last Little Piece of "Baby"

2010-09-21T13:31:00.002-05:00

Those of you that know Hannah well, know how attached she is to her 3 pacis...VERY!!!! She only has them in her bed and can only have them when she's sleeping, but she loves those things so, so much!!! Brett and I have tried to not push her to get rid of them, but would just casually ask her every once in a while if she wanted to give them away. Every time it was mentioned, she would stress over it for days and seriously panic at the thought of not having them. The last time it was mentioned, she very firmly looked at me and told me not to ask her that again, because she was going to keep them until she was 100!!!!

Saturday when we were driving, we over heard Hannah telling Alice Anne that when she turned 4, she was going to give her swim ring away and never use it again. Brett asked her if she wanted to give her pacis away when she turned 4, too. She agreed to give 2 of them away, but said she was going to keep her favorite one forever. I asked her if she thought it would be fun to go to build-a-bear when she turned 4 and put her pacis inside a bear's tummy and sew it up. She said she wanted to do it, but she only wanted to put 2 inside. I told her that if she wanted to do it, that we had to put ALL of her pacis in there. I didn't press the issue, I just told her to think about it, and let me know if she thought it sounded like a good idea. Yesterday morning, Hannah told me she wanted to go to Build-A-Bear and sew her pacis up after school. I explained it to her and made sure that she knew what that meant...that the pacis would be inside the bears tummy and that she would be able to feel them, but she wouldn't be able to put them in her mouth anymore. She agreed, and said she would just put her bears hand in her mouth. So off we went to get our "paci bear."

Hannah proudly picked out her bear (aka: Hello Kitty) and gave her pacis one last kiss and then dropped them inside. I'd be lying if I said I didn't shed a tear or two when she told those pacis bye. Silly, I know, but to me, those pacis were the last little piece of "baby" that she had left in her.

Last night when I put her to bed, she gave Hello Kitty's tummy a kiss and told her pacis "night, night."

"Hi School...Summer's Over!!!"

2010-09-13T19:15:00.003-05:00

This is what Hannah SCREAMED as we drove up to school this morning!! Everyday this summer, we drove by the girl's school and they would say, "Hi School...We'll see you after summer!" This morning, Hannah was so excited to say, "Hi School...Summer's Over!!"

I have never seen 2 little girls so excited to go to school!! I honestly don't think they could sleep last night, they were so excited. Hannah was up at 6:09 this morning ready to go! I was a little sad to send my babies off, but we are all ready to get back into a routine.

This is Hannah's 3rd year at Good Shepherd and Alice Anne started last January. Brett and I couldn't be happier with their school and I think the saddest thing for me today was knowing that this will be Hannah's last year there...until she goes to the big kid school :(

Alice Anne was really excited that she got to go to school in big girl panties and her teachers said she did great! They went on and on about how sweet she is!! She was so proud to show me her picture that she made and she wanted to show me all of the toys in her room, too!

Hannah is in the oldest class there and her big excitement was that she got to take a big girl lunch box. She was SO excited about her princess lunch box that she picked out!! She was also so excited that she didn't have to have a rest time or nap time. Her teachers went on and on about how friendly she was and said, "this little girl has never met a stranger!" They also said that she was sooo smart!! They said she was the only one in the class that wanted to write her own name on her papers and that when they started singing the months of the year song, she proudly announced that she already knew all the months ;)

After school, we went and got ice cream and we were there forever because the girls sat there and told me every little detail about their day! You KNOW I loved that!!!!!!!

I tried to get a picture of them in front of the school and this is what they did. I thought it was cute anyway!
My sweet little baby!
My "Big Girl Baby" as she tells me when I tell her that she's my baby. She looks so big here!!!

August in a Nutshell

2010-08-31T13:28:00.006-05:00

We've had a crazy, busy month! We still have 2 weeks left until school starts and although I'm going to be a little sad, I think everyone around here will be glad to get into a routine.

Our biggest milestone of the month is that our house is officially diaper free!! I could not be happier, and Alice Anne is pretty proud of herself!! She picked up potty training so fast and it has been such a breeze!

The girls BOTH started dance class last week. Hannah was so excited to have Ms. Tricia again this year and she was excited that Alice Anne was going to have her old teacher Ms. Kali. They both LOVE dance and they really get into it! There's nothing cuter than a 2-year old and a 3-year old in ballet clothes!

The girls have been to Waco and Graham over the past couple of weeks. They had the best time and loved spending time with all of their grandparents! Brett and I had so much fun being kid-free, too! We've been on more dates the last couple of weeks than I think we've been on in the past 3 year combined! So Fun!!!

Our Little Baby Is 2

2010-08-10T13:41:00.011-05:00

Our sweet little baby girl is 2!! Two years old...where in the world has the time gone. I remember every part of the day she was born like it was yesterday and I don't want to her to grow up. She is every bit a 2-year old, but deep down, she wants to still be my little baby. She is the sweetest little thing I've ever laid my eyes on!! I could have never imagined that Brett and I could love 2 little girls so much, but she has brought so much joy and love into our lives the past 2 years.

We call her "Bally" and half of the time, she refers to herself as "Bally." I love it! She is THE FUNNIEST little girl!!! She cracks herself up all the time and can make anyone laugh! She really is hilarious!! I LOVE her laugh and love her little voice! She has such a sweet little deep voice with the cutest southern accent. Brett and I can't get enough of it! If we're out in public, she tells every single person "HI" when she walks past them. When we're around new people, she tries to act shy, but it never lasts long.

She is such a cuddle bug and we love it!! She can give the best hugs that last forever and Brett and I never get tired of them. My absolute favorite time of the day is her bedtime because she still wants me to rock her every night as if she were 6 months old. We sing 3 songs, say prayers and then she gives me the biggest hug, kiss, eskimo and butterfly kisses that you've ever seen. It never gets old and I love it!!! She adores her daddy and it melts my heart every time. Nothing makes her happier than seeing daddy's truck drive up the driveway. She can't get out the door fast enough to see him!

I can usually understand what she's saying and she amazes me every day with the things that she'll say. She loves to sing...loves it! She walks around the house singing, sings to herself in the car, and will sing in her bed. Her favorite songs are "Jesus" (aka: Jesus Loves Me), "Children" (aka Jesus Loves the Little Children), "ABCDE," "Twinkle, Twinkle," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," and "On The Good Ship Lollipop" (and I think if I have to hear this song one more time I'm going to die!!)

Our girl can eat!!! She loves to eat and will eat pretty much anything and everything you give her. The only 2 things I think she won't eat is broccoli and eggplant. Whenever Hannah doesn't want to eat something, she looks at her and says, "Hannah, it SOOOOO good" and puts her hands out to show her how good it is.

She still has all her baby fat and I love it. I could squeeze and kiss her thighs all day long!

She loves to read books, LOVES "cooking" food for everyone in her little kitchen and adores her babies. She could care less about tv and there are days when I try to get her to watch a little show, but she's simply not interested. Her absolute favorite things to play with Hannah are Hide & Seek, Red Rover, Red Rover (yes, they will play this forever with just 2 people), "Goody Night" (a game that she and Hannah made up where they pretend that they're asleep and then they wake each other up), and dress-up. She's starting to really enjoy coloring and is really good at holding a crayon.

I think she might be our athletic one, but we'll see. She's going to start dance class in a couple of weeks and I know she'll love it! She LOVES to dance and it is so funny to watch!

Her favorite thing in the whole world is her big sister. Alice Anne truly worships Hannah and she's happy doing whatever it is that she's doing...as long as Hannah's doing it with her. A couple of weeks ago I dropped Hannah off at a friends house while I took Alice Anne to the doctor. Alice Anne was devastated that Hannah wasn't with us. She asked me no less than 100 times where Hannah was and you would have thought they had been apart for weeks when we picked her up. We're so lucky that big sister worships and loves Alice Anne just as much!

She might be 2, but watch her with Hannah and all of her friends, and she thinks she's 3. Ask her how old she is and she'll laugh and say "3."

I could go on and on forever. She does so many things that I love and don't ever want to forget. I love our time together and love watching her learn and grow. Brett and I are so proud to be her parents and we love her more and more every day. Happy 2nd Birthday Sweet Baby Girl. We love you more than you'll ever know!!

Right before her party...giving Hannah one of her infamous hugs!How sweet is this picture

Of course she had to stick her finger in and taste it...

The party could have been over for all she cared after she discovered the giant lollipops...
...and the watermelon...

...AND the pixi sticks...

The girl was on a sugar high and couldn't stay away from the food table!

Until we bribed her with the pinata!
I mean!!! Our birthday girl was in Candy Heaven!!!
Daddy's little girl
Daddy's other little princess stopping to give daddy a kiss
My little baby! Seriously...is that not the cutest little bikini body you've ever seen!

These 2 are T-R-O-U-B-L-E!

She thinks Carter is hilarious!

I love these 2 pictures because you can really see her personality in them

OUCH!!!

2010-07-28T13:44:00.004-05:00

Hannah had her 1st bicycle accident last night and it was bad!! She fell going down the Grabham's driveway and landed face first. Poor thing...she has a huge busted lip and a swollen nose and upper lip. Hannah and I were both covered in blood! This is so sweet...when we were doing her responsibility chart last night and got to "No Whining" she said, "I whined a lot today when I fell off my bike." Sweet girl...that doesn't count!!!

She asked me this morning if it she could tell Stella that she didn't like her driveway :) I felt so bad for her going into camp this morning...she was really self conscious and embarrassed about it. I told her to tell people that she got a boo boo because she's so big and knows how to ride a big girl bike. She said she did just that!

Growing Up Too Fast

2010-07-26T20:53:00.003-05:00

Time just flies by and every time I turn around, our little girls are getting bigger and bigger. Hannah especially has really amazed me lately...she is just acting older and it makes me so proud, but at the same time, a little sad.

She has been begging us for a "big girl bicycle" for weeks. We told her that if she got a straight line every day for 2 weeks, she could go get one. I mean, I've never seen her try harder to get straight lines...and she did it!! So we all went out to get her big girl bicycle yesterday. She rode bikes around the store for over an hour, trying to decide which one she wanted, and she finally decided on "the one that went the fastest!" I was completely shocked that she didn't automatically pick the princess one!! She's really good at riding it. She rode bikes with Brett for an hour last night and she rode it all the way to the creek and back today (and it rained on us half of the way home). She asked me before bed tonight if I would let her ride her bike to the pool by herself tomorrow. Ummm, sorry honey...you're not that big!!

Alice Anne was excited to get Hannah's tricycle. Daddy lowered the seat for her and she's working on learning how to ride by herself. She calls it, "MY big biticle!" Hannah makes sure that Alice Anne knows that she is big and DOESN'T ride a tricycle anymore...so of course, Alice Anne doesn't either ;)

I ran inside to get my camera and when I came out Hannah was "posing" next to her bike for me.

She has the cutest little figure I've ever seen on a tricycle!!!

Hannah teaching Alice Anne how to push the pedals

The girl's favorite book to read together is Brook Shield's "Welcome To Your World Baby." It is so sweet! They both have it memorized and they truly think that the book is about the 2 of them. They read it together all the time and I just hide where they can't see me and watch them!

Hannah trying to stall before going to bed tonight. She saw my camera, posed, and told me to take her picture!

A Little Update

2010-07-16T14:03:00.009-05:00

I haven't written much about what's been going on in a while...simply because we've been up to a whole lot of nothing. We're really enjoying our summer and we spend as much time as possible at the pool. We're there pretty much every day for at least a couple of hours. Hannah is a little fish! She LOVES to swim and she's getting really good at it. Her latest trick is me throwing her way up in the air and she lands with a big splash!! She's getting pretty brave! Alice Anne is a bit more cautious in the water and is content playing on the steps or swimming in my arms, but she loves every second of it. We've pretty much out grown the "baby pool." Hannah doesn't want to have anything to do with it, therefore, Alice Anne doesn't either.

Other big news...Hannah is officially out of nighttime pull-ups!!! She's had a dry pull up every morning for 2-3 weeks, so she's graduated to panties at bedtime! Let me tell you...she thinks she is SO big, and she really is. She is so sweet and thoughtful it just kills me and she gets bigger and bigger every day! She amazes me daily with the things that she says or does! Last weekend Brett was coloring with the girls. I heard him ask her, "where did you learn to subtract?" She said, "My mommy." He asked me when I taught her to subtract and I told him we've added and subtracted with Cheerios some, but not much other than that. He told me to come look at her paper. She had done a whole subtraction page out of a workbook by herself that had problems like "6-3" and then gave you 2 answers to choose from. She did 10 problems and circled the right answer on every one!! We were pretty proud :)

Ever since she's been in a big girl bed, the rules were that she couldn't get out of bed until she called our name and we came and got her. That worked great, but now she's "allowed" to get out of bed and come downstairs by herself when she wakes up, and she loves it. I love it to...she comes down with the biggest smile on her face and says, "Good Morning Mommy and Daddy! I slept so good. How did you sleep?" So sweet!

All these pictures were taken on my iPhone, so they're not very good.

Have you ever seen so many silly bands?!?! The girl is obsessed!

Patiently waiting in the splash park for me to get get Alice Anne all sunscreened up!!

Alice Anne is getting bigger every day and is talking up a storm! Some of the things that come out of her mouth amaze me! She says some of the funniest things. I can usually understand what she's saying and she gets very frustrated when I can't, but Hannah can always interpret. Her latest is, "5 more minutes, mommy." Hmmmm, wonder who she learned that from!! I can't believe she'll be 2 in a couple of weeks (sniff, sniff)!! She's definitely my little toot! She gives me a run for my money and I never know what kind of mood she's going to wake up in. We had a pretty rough couple of weeks and I couldn't figure out what in the world was wrong with her. I was so exhausted at the end of everyday, and my only conclusion was that she was just "off." I couldn't find any other reason for her acting out. This past Monday, she woke up and was a completely different child...the sweetest little thing ever! That lasted a couple of days and then yesterday afternoon and today she's been a mess! Every day when Brett gets home, he asks the girls if they were good girls today. Hannah's response is always, "Yes sir. So far so good on a straight line!" Alice Anne's response is always, "Nopse!" (with a naughty little grin on her face)! Brett and I are really starting to believe in the whole birth order theory. She has her little fits down, and has really gotten good at manipulating me into giving her her paci. She totally knows what she's doing and she's pretty good at it!!! She has this little laugh that kills me!! It is the sweetest and funniest little laugh I've ever heard and she laughs at everything!

Alice Anne's big news is that she's gone tee tee on the little potty twice today...and poop once!!! She flat out refuses to go on it for me, but she'll do it for Hannah! I hear Hannah in there saying, "Yeah Alice Anne!! You did it, you did it!! Great job!" Guess I'll have my 3-year old potty training her :)

She looks so big on this little potty! Her little bottom barely fits on it :)

Eating watermelon at the pool and doing her sweet laugh!

And THIS is one of her fits!! We were at the pool and she tried the sidewalk, but it was too hot, so she climbed up in the chair and threw herself back as best she could. I mean...seriously?!?!

4th of July

2010-07-09T19:45:00.004-05:00

We had the best 4th of July! The Grandys had us out to their lake house and the kids (and adults) were in heaven all weekend! It was so relaxing, all the kids got along great, and the weather couldn't have been better! The Gerhausers came too, and Hannah and Ella were perfect playmates! They attempted to have their 1st "sleepover" that Hannah has been dreaming about for months, but I had to break-up the fun around 11:30 after 2 straight hours of giggling.

Saturday morning the kids were up bright and early, so we went on an early morning boat ride. We stopped to let the dads fish for a little bit and Alice Anne decided to take a little dip in the water. Yep, she fell overboard!! Morgan didn't miss a beat...she jumped in after her before any of us could even blink! It gave us all a big scare, but luckily, Alice Anne's life jacket was a good one! Hopefully it taught the girls a good lesson about how important those life jackets are!!

Alice Anne in her wet pajamas and Hannah happy that her sister is OK!

This is what she was doing when she fell in!

Fishing on the dock with daddy

Down by the pool, they have a great little beach by the man made lake. I've talked before about how Alice Anne freaks out when she gets dirty, and the sand was no exception. Her face was priceless when she stepped in the sand for the 1st time. She sat down, realized she was sitting in it, tried to pick her legs up and then froze!! We all got a really good laugh out of it!! It took her a while to be ok with the sand, and then she loved it!!

This picture says it all!!

Alice Anne and Bo had the best time digging in the sand

We called Brett and Richie Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum all weekend. I think the 2 of them had more fun than anyone!! They did a lot of this...
and this...(and a lot of other stuff not suitable for this blog ;)
Alice Anne LOVES her watermelon and she had fun teaching Ryan how to eat it!!

Having a little downtime with Leapfrog games and iphone games!!

Alice Anne wanted to hang with the big girls all weekend!! Yes, she truly thinks she's 3!!

I promise you...this sweet little face is up to no good!!!

Trying to get these babies clean! Yes, my little terror is filling that water bottle up as fast as she can and dumping it in her sisters face...over and over and over again!

Thank you Grandys for a fabulous weekend!!!

Swim Lessons

2010-07-08T14:19:00.004-05:00

I'm so behind on blogging. Hannah completely stopped napping about 4 weeks ago and any free time that I had was thrown out the window. All those lost naps have really caught up with her in the whining department, so this week I put my foot down and she's taken great naps the past 2 days. Fingers crossed that this is the new norm!!

Hannah finished up her swim lessons a couple of weeks ago and she did an awesome job! I was amazed at how much she improved and how comfortable she now is in the water. She's jumping off the side of the pool and swimming to the steps. She loves the monkey walk, tummy and back float, and she's got her "paddle and kick" down! She jumped off the diving board at swimming lessons, but I haven't been able to get her to do it at our pool yet. We're so proud of her!!!

I LOVED her teachers...Mrs. Jessica and Ms. Hannah

Mommy Heartaches

2010-06-18T19:56:00.003-05:00

We've been out at the pool every afternoon this week. I love it!! It's the only thing we can do outside in this heat, and the girls don't want to be inside, so we're at the pool. I love every part of it except I am starting to realize how mean little girls can be. I mean little girls that aren't even in kindergarten!! It seems like there are a million 5-year old girls at the pool. Well, I found out this week that 5 year olds don't like playing with 3 year olds. Maybe I'm a little too sensitive, but my heart has been broken so many times this week.

First it started on Tuesday with a little girl named Kennedy. Hannah and Kennedy played so well together at the pool for over an hour. Hannah even went and got a popsicle for Kennedy when she got one. Hannah was having so much fun...until Kennedy asked Hannah how old she was. Hannah proudly said, "I'm 3, how old are you?" Kennedy's response was, "I'm 5. If you're 3, I can't play with you. I can't play with 3 and 4 year olds. I can only play with big kids" Hannah is so sweet and innocently asked her why. Her response was, "because 3 year olds are babies." I think I took it much harder than Hannah. I told little Kennedy that that wasn't nice and told Hannah that we would go find someone else to play with. Poor little Hannah asked me the rest of the day why Kennedy didn't want to play with her anymore.

Yesterday we were at the pool and when it was time to leave, I told Hannah to gather up all her toys. There were some kids playing with some of her toys, so I told her to politely tell them that she was leaving and ask them if she could have her toys back. She did just that...in the sweetest little voice, politely asked for her toys. There was one MOM that had one of Hannah's buckets and balls. Hannah did just as she was asked and sweetly asked for them and explained that she was leaving. The mom's response was, "It looks like you have PLENTY of toys already! I don't think you need anymore" I marched over there and explained to her that I sent Hannah over there to gather up her toys. I mean seriously, a MOM? She should be ashamed of herself!!! What happened to "thank you for letting us play with your toys?!?!"

Then today...Alice Anne didn't want to play and Hannah wanted a friend to play with. She is so brave...much braver than I was at her age. She saw a little girl with pink goggles on that was on the total opposite side of the pool and she asked me if she could swim over there to her. It took her several minutes to make it over there, but she made it and she asked the little girl if she wanted to play with her. The little girl's response, "how old are you?" I'm thinking...are you kidding me? "Hannah innocently answers, "3." The little girl said, "no" and swam off. Hannah cracked me up. As the little girl was swimming off, Hannah said, "Hey, pink goggles girl, why don't you want to play with me? Pink goggles girl, lets play!" No response. I told Hannah that we could find someone else to play with. We swam back to the steps and there was another little girl that Hannah saw. She sweetly asked her if she wanted to play and the girl said, "no, I already have a friend to play with." Hannah said, "but you can play with me too." I don't remember exactly what the girl said, but it wasn't nice and I had had enough of all these mean girls, so I jumped in and told her that she needed to talk nicer. Well, her mom overheard me and came over and made her apologize to Hannah and told me thank you for stepping in. She said, "I don't know what it is with these 5 year old girls, but a mean streak hits them and they are so nasty." Thank you!! I'm glad I'm not the only one that sees it. Surely my little angels won't be like that, right?? I certainly hope not!!

Sweet little Hannah asked me when we got in the car today why no one wanted to play with her. Holding back tears, I just said that they were all playing with their brothers and sisters and that sometimes little girls aren't very nice, but we have to teach them how to be nice. What else do you say to an innocent little girl. She looked over at Alice Anne and said, "Alice Anne, will you play with me next time?"

Just the beginning of many mommy heartaches!

Cuddle Bug

2010-06-11T19:59:00.005-05:00

I really think that even the little ones can sense when mommy's about to lose it.

It was a LONG day and a really long afternoon! Hannah didn't nap, and...lets just say...she hasn't gotten a straight line one single day this week, which is very rare for her!

Brett left for a fishing trip tonight, I got the girls down and as soon as I walked downstairs, Alice Anne started crying. She never cries out after I put her down, so of course I ran up to see what was wrong. I opened the door and she stopped crying, looked at me, smiled and said, "more rock you." She knows how to melt my heart! I scooped her up and we rocked and rocked. Her head was buried in my chest and she clenched my hand ever so tightly as I stroked her hair. She stared in my eyes for the longest time as I sang to her and then her eyes closed. I continued to rock her for several minutes and I thought she was asleep until she opened her eyes, looked into my eyes, took her paci out and said, "I ruve you mama!" She put her paci back in, closed her eyes and she was out. It was perfect! What a fabulous ending to a never-ending day! I continued to rock her and I could have stayed there forever!! She knew that her mama needed that and she wanted to see me smile! Oh how I love that girl!! These are the moments I want to remember forever!

They got to wear their VBS t-shirts today and they have been so excited to wear them all week long!

If you've ever seen Alice Anne do "her dance," you'll laugh at this picture. She spins around in a circle and looks out the corner of her eye the whole time. It is the funniest thing you've ever seen!!

We had such a fun week at Vacation Bible School this week! Lane and I taught in Hannah and Milam's class and Molly and Wilson were in our class, too. It was so much fun!!! I love their little group of friends so much! I'm not sure who had more fun...Hannah or Alice Anne. They both LOVED it! We got to see Alice Anne in music and drama everyday. I honestly think Alice Anne thinks she's 3. It is the cutest thing I've ever seen. Hannah and Molly would stand up at the front and dance in music everyday and Alice Anne was right beside them "trying" to do all the hand motions. So cute!!!

When The Girls Are Away...

2010-06-02T17:49:00.010-05:00

...a lot happens around here that's out of the norm!

1) I can do 2 loads of laundry, make the bed, empty the dishwasher, go to the grocery store, Costco, the cleaners and the bank...all by 11:00 a.m.

2) I can have a fresh manicure and pedicure that lasts more than one day!

3) ALL the laundry in the house is clean, folded and put away at all times

4) Both dogs get 2 baths in 4 days

5) Brett and I get to take our time eating dinner at nice restaurants...before 5:00!

6) All of the toys in the house are put away, organized and put in the proper place

7) When I crave Starbucks at 2:30 in the afternoon, I hop in my car and go get one

8) I don't hear "mommy..." 500 times a day.

9) My purse is as light as a feather!

10) The dogs search the house wondering where their little buddies are and wondering when they're going to come home and drop food on the floor for them!

11) The house is quiet...too quiet! Brett and I wouldn't know what to do with ourselves if this was the norm!

The girls went to Graham this week and they had a blast! It was a nice little break for us, but I'm glad we have our 2 little munchkins back. Our lives wouldn't be complete without constant noise, messes and chaos!

School's Out For Summer!

2010-05-28T13:18:00.005-05:00

We've been singing the song "School's Out For Summer..." for the past week! Wed. night when they sang the song on American Idol, Hannah stood up and started dancing! And, by the way, I am SO excited that Lee WON!!!
So, school's out and we've had a good first week of summer! We spent pretty much every second of it outside!

This blue pool was the best $10 ever spent!!!

My kitchen is spotless, because we've eaten as many meals and snacks as possible outside.
I had a great idea to let the girls do finger paint yesterday. Ummmm, it was pretty much the biggest mess I've ever seen!!!

We met some friends at the zoo one day and Hannah and Molly got a camel ride...and the camel's name was Jewel! We couldn't have asked for a better name for these 2 princesses!

Dance Recital

2010-05-24T13:17:00.006-05:00

We have practiced for this recital for MONTHS!!! Hannah has been so excited for her recital and has literally shown anyone and everyone that will watch her her dance routine. Alice Anne knew every move and could have been up on stage doing it with her if they would have let her :) The day did not disappoint and they performed the theme song from Princess and the Frog.
Saturday was spent at rehearsal and Hannah begged us to not make her go to bed Saturday night, thinking that if she didn't go to bed, recital time would be here sooner. She did so good and was really into the dance. We could only video the rehearsal, but I think the real performance was her best one yet!! They had the recital at the Majestic Theater downtown and they really put on a good show! Hannah was especially excited that Gigi and Grandpop got to come for her big day! I'm going to steal Dawn's video of the rehearsal that she posted on YouTube. You can view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tXOMGtWl7o
Hannah's on the far left in the video.

Hannah and Mary Aldon

Hugs and Flowers from Daddy! He was so proud of his little girl!

Alice Anne LOVED watching all the dancers!

"Make-Up Day"

2010-05-17T19:46:00.003-05:00

Last Tuesday, Alice Anne had a make-up day at school, for a day that they had to cancel her class the week before. Hannah was so confused when I told her that Alice Anne was going to have a make-up day at school. She wanted to know why she wasn't wearing make-up to school and then when we picked her up, she wanted to know why she didn't have any make-up on. Funny girl!!
Hannah and I rarely get to have a "mommy and me" day, so I was excited to let her decide what she wanted to do on our day. I gave her several options of things we could do and of course she picked "dress-up and tea party." I found the cutest little place and it really was everything that a 3-year old little girl could dream of! It was a frilly little girls shop that had a tea room in the back with walls FULL of dress-up clothes. We walked back there and I thought she was going to start drooling...she was in heaven! Pink walls filled with dress-up clothes, make-up and cupcakes...what more could she ask for!!! We had so much fun together we lost track of time...we were there for almost 3 hours! I will remember that fun day for a LONG time and I hope she will too!!!

She couldn't get enough make-up on her face!!

What Month Is It Anyway?

2010-05-10T20:29:00.009-05:00

Where in the world has time gone? Is it really the middle of May? I'm still stuck in March and am having a hard time believing that next week is the last week of school for the year! Does that mean that my babies are a year older?...sniff...sniff!!! I lost track of time (imagine that) and forgot that bluebonnets aren't around forever, but I managed to find a small patch of bluebonnets last Monday, so at least I could snap a couple of pictures of the girls in them...

We had a fun and relaxing Mother's Day and did what I've been waiting ALL YEAR to do (not!!)...yep...I got to go to the carnival! Hannah has been eyeing the carnival across from Target forever and begging us to take her, and of course it was right up Brett's ally, so he gave in really fast!! It wasn't that bad, but it was pretty gross and I had to hide myself and the girls from the nasty carnies, squirt germ-x in every one's hands every 2 seconds, but Hannah had a ball and Alice Anne has never clinged so hard to my hip. She literally would not put her feet on the ground. She did not know what to think. Every time Hannah was on a ride, she repeated over and over in the sweetest, most terrified voice, "Hannah off now!" Hannah rode on her first actual roller coaster that I think I would have even been scared of, but she got off of it laughing. She did admit that it was really fast and pretty scary, but she still laughed...a girl after her daddy's own heart!! The carnival reminded me of going to Abilene to stay with my grandparents when I was little. Daddymoore used to always take us to the carnival and we would get wrist bands so we could ride as many rides as we wanted. We would stay until it closed and ride rides until we were literally throwing up. I told Hannah that Daddymoore would have had so much fun taking her to the carnival!

Our skeptical little girl...

Our daring little girl...
Me and My Girls!!

Weekend before last, the girls went to Waco and had a blast!!! Hannah's bag was packed and by the backdoor by 8:30 in the morning (and she "packed" Alice Anne's, too)...we weren't leaving until 4:00 that afternoon-made for a LONG day and I'm sure I heard, "when are we going to Waco" at LEAST 500 times!

Perfect Kite Weather

2010-04-29T13:07:00.003-05:00

It has been WINDY here!!! Not good for our allergies, but perfect for flying a kite! Last weekend we took the girls to Benton and Kristin's lake for a little fishing and kite flying. The girls loved it and they thought it was hilarious when the kite would come crashing down.

I think Hannah looks so old in this picture :(
Watching the kite way up in the sky
Bally got all tangled up in the kite string!

We also had a major tragedy last weekend. Let me preface it by saying this...Hannah is VERY into her baby dolls and there are 2 that she is especially attached to (Baby Molly and Baby Kristin). I really think that she thinks they are real babies sometimes. She's very serious about taking care of them and being a good mommy. When she goes to school, she always asks me to take care of them when she's gone and always asks me when I pick her up if her babies cried, if I fed them, etc.

Saturday night she went to put her babies to bed and she couldn't find them...anywhere! We tore the house apart looking for them. Searched both cars, searched golf carts, called every place that we had been the last 3 days (even though she said she had them Saturday morning), called friends we had been with, searched the front and backyard...they were gone! It drove me crazy that I couldn't figure out where they were and Hannah was devastated...seriously, crying so hard, worried that they were lost and that whoever found them wouldn't know that they had to hold their hand when they crossed the street, etc. For 3 days, that's all we heard about...her lost babies...literally ALL. DAY. LONG!!!

Yesterday morning I got the girls up and I was changing Alice Anne's diaper. Hannah was standing next to me talking away and literally mid-sentence, she stopped, gasped, and said, "MOMMY!!! I know where my babies are!! I'll be right back!" She ran in the playroom and a few seconds later I heard her screaming like she had won the lottery or something! She ran back into Alice Anne's room with both Molly and Kristin! Of course I was so excited, too, and I asked her where she found them. She laughed and said, "I forgot that I put them down for a nap in the chimney of my playhouse." Yes, she climbed up on the back of her chair and put them in the chimney so the wouldn't be disturbed. Never would have thought to look in the chimney for babies! So relieved those babies are back!!

Giving Baby Molly a big hug!

The girls got a little playhouse last weekend. They LOVE it! We're planning on spending lots of time in it now that the weather is so nice!

Creek

2010-04-18T11:57:00.006-05:00

We spent Friday afternoon down at the creek. Daddy always does the golf cart rides and I never drive it around, but when I asked the girls after nap what they wanted to do, they said they wanted to ride the golf cart to see the ducks at the creek. Hannah thought she was pretty big, because I acted like I didn't know how to drive the golf cart, so she showed me what to do...step by step. The ducks weren't there and Hannah was so concerned about where they were. She was convinced that they had gone to Jammy and Papa's creek. She was very serious about it and as soon as we got home she called Jammy and Papa and asked them to go look at their creek to see if her ducks were there. Saturday morning we woke up and the first thing she said was, "I need to call Jammy and Papa and see if they found my ducks!" The girl never forgets anything!!

I haven't had my camera out since Easter, so I took full advantage of the pretty day down at the creek...it was a perfect day for pictures...and you know I can't narrow them down, so there are a lot!

They LOVE the dandelions

This cracks me up and it perfectly describes Alice Anne's personality. She LOVES her big sister and wants to do everything that she does! Whatever Hannah does, Alice Anne's 2 steps behind her doing it too. Hannah found this big stick and said, "mommy, look at this big, huge stick!" It was probably 5 feet long!
Alice Anne looked down on the ground, picked up the first stick she saw and said in the proudest voice, "Mommy, rook, huge tick!" Her stick couldn't have been any bigger than her little finger, but in her eyes, it was 5 feet long and just as big as Hannah's!

I love these because it shows how happy and carefree they are! So excited to have found a flower to take home to daddy!
And little sister's right behind her!
Love this sweet smile!
And this sweet little face
Hannah has NO fear! I looked over and she was yelling, "Look at me...I'm a monkey!"

I LOVE these next 3 pictures! And the thing I love about them is that I didn't ask them to do this at all, this is just how they play! They're best friends!!

Easter Weekend

2010-04-08T14:08:00.004-05:00

We had such a fun Easter weekend with family and friends. Gigi, Grandpop and Aunt Bekah came on Friday to spend some time with us before they headed to Waco. Then Saturday morning we went to a fun Easter Egg Hunt at the Olson's house and then headed home and Jammy and Papa and the Starrs came. Aunt Mary, we missed you!! Hannah talked about all of her plans for Easter "when all of my grandparents are here" for weeks!!

Dying Easter Eggs with Aerial

Gigi, Grandpop, Aunt Bekah, and their girls. Alice Anne had had enough of the picture taking!!

This picture perfectly describes Hannah's Easter Egg hunting strategy...she ONLY got the pink, purple and orange eggs, or "pretty colors" as she calls them. She walked right past all the other eggs as if they weren't even there!!

After all the eggs had been hunted, everyone was running around playing, but Hannah was no where to be found. I finally found her far away from everyone else, under the gazebo, eating all her candy. She had no idea I was watching her and taking her picture.

Hannah had 2 big plans for Easter...to dress-up like a "beautiful princess" for everyone, and to play red rover. She slipped upstairs after nap on Saturday and when she came back down, this is what she had on!!! She was so proud of her outfit and she was ready for everyone to go outside and play red rover. I think the day lived up to her expectations :)

Carter running (after putting a flower on his head), when his name was called during red rover

This picture probably isn't funny to anyone but me and Sarah because we saw the pure panic on Alice Anne's face. She accidentally stepped into the middle of this pile of dirt and once she realized that she was standing in dirt, she completely froze and looked at us with the most terrified look on her face. She wouldn't move. After we got a good laugh in, Sarah had to go "rescue" her from the dirt.

I love this picture!! Sweet cousins trying to get a rolly polly

Family Pic after church

Jammy, Papa and their kiddos

The Easter Bunny came while they were napping and they couldn't get out there fast enough to hunt some more eggs!

Here she goes again!! We literally put ONE skittle or smarty in each egg, but we had 3 golden eggs, so we put real candy in those. This golden egg had a HUGE coke gummy in it. Hannah opened it up, realized that neither the egg or the candy inside it was a pretty color, closed it back up and put it back in the grass for someone else. Funny Girl!

Picking up the reject eggs :)

Those baskets get heavy pretty fast!

This was so funny! I have no idea how this egg got on her shoulder, but I felt like I was watching a slow motion movie. She tried for the longest time to figure out 1) what was on her shoulder and then 2) how to get that egg off her shoulder without putting the 2 eggs down that she was holding.

Counting ALL their eggs!

Meet Ariel

2010-03-29T20:08:00.004-05:00

Meet Ariel...the newest member of our family. Hannah had the honor of naming her and of course she's named after her favorite princess. She is the sweetest little thing, calm and such a cuddle bug. She doesn't really know what to think about all of the loud, constant activity around here. She was a little intimidated by Wally at first, but of course Wally was excited to have a 4-legged friend and I think they'll end up being big buds. Hannah and Alice Anne are obsessed with their little princess.

Funny Words From a 3 Year Old

2010-03-22T19:21:00.011-05:00

Hannah says some of the funniest things and I always wish later that I could remember what she said that made me laugh so hard. I've written a couple of things down the past few days that I thought were really cute.

After letting Wally out to go to the bathroom and watching him go, she said, Mommy, why does Wally's bottom look like that? I'm glad I don't have a dog bottom.

We were all going to the mall last weekend and Brett was driving. Hannah said, "can I drive home and daddy can sit in my car seat?" I told her she had to wait until she was older to drive. She said, "when I turn 4 can I drive?" I told her she had to be 16 and she said, "But I'm really good at driving my Winnie the Pooh car!"

Hannah always wants to put my bras on. She asked me the other day if we could go to the mall and get her a bra. I told her she didn't need one. She said, "when will I need one?" And I told her when she got a lot older. She said, "mommy, will you get me a bra for my birthday when I turn 4?"

While we were driving down the street one day she said, "Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a stop sign!" I said, "I thought you wanted to be a kitty cat." (Because she told me last week she wanted to be a kitty cat.) She said, "I'll just be a red kitty cat that looks like a stop sign."

I overheard her telling Alice Anne yesterday morning, "Sister, if you obey me all day, I'll pick you first for red rover." Alice Anne's reply, "OK!" I heard her telling Alice Anne several times throughout the day, "Remember to obey me, sister, so I'll pick you first." This is so funny to me, because the only people she plays red rover with are me and Alice Anne and she ALWAYS picks Alice Anne first.

"Mommy, why does Wally wear pigtails on his ears every day? Why doesn't he ever wear a ponytail or bow?" Guess she thinks his floppy ears are pigtails!!

While we were driving down the highway this morning, Hannah looked out her window and saw a convertible. Hysterically laughing, she said, "Look at that broken car! I can't believe that man is driving a broken car. He needs to get that fixed!"

Yesterday we were playing "school" and Hannah was the teacher. She told me to do something and I said just a second. She said, "Mommy, this is your warning or your not going to get your obeying circle." She looked at Alice Anne and said, "Sister, she's not obeying. We don't do that."

Funny girl! They both make me laugh all the time!!

Terrible picture, but this is how Hannah insisted on going to Dance Tuesday...all decked out with 3 necklaces, a bracelet, a ring and dangle earrings!! She was so proud as she walked into her class, like she was a beauty queen or something ;)

Daddy's Girls

2010-03-22T13:09:00.005-05:00

Daddy has this girl thing figured out...princesses, dress-up, fingernail polish, jewelry, and all the other things that go along with having a house full of girls. He's such a good daddy and the girls adore their time with them. This past weekend was cold and wet, so we spent a lot of time inside, except for Sunday morning when we woke up to 3" of snow!! The girls were beyond excited and they couldn't get out there fast enough. Last week, Brett told Hannah that if she got a straight line every day that week, he would take her ice skating. She worked really hard and did it, so we headed to the ice skating rink Friday night. She loved it!!

Hannah was intensely watching the skaters trying to figure out how to do it.

Alice Anne showing me how to ice skate

I LOVE this picture! This is how she is with Brett all the time!!

Brett and Hannah making bracelets

Hugs for daddy!

Skipping nap and watching 'Princess and the Frog'
This is what they do every morning...sit on the island and eat scrambled eggs and cheese.
Tickling Daddy

Spring Break Fun

2010-03-17T14:33:00.006-05:00

It has been absolutely gorgeous this week and we've spent every minute possible outside. The girls have had so much fun together and it's been a good week for Spring Break since we've all been wanting to sleep in after the time change.

I think this picture is so sweet!

Early morning ride in the golfcart

Decorating Easter Eggs

We've done a lot of work in our garden

The girls had so much fun playing in Will and Hank's backyard today!
I think this picture is hilarious!!

Spring Is Almost Here!

2010-03-12T15:08:00.004-06:00

I've been awful about blogging...and I really don't have anything to say, but thought I'd put some pictures of the girls on here. They are both SO into dressing-up and playing with their baby dolls and they've been playing so well together!

Our Spring Break is next week and we have no plans...ugh!! Hope it's pretty outside so it won't be a long week in the house!

Hannah is pretty proud of her busted lip...she's told everyone and anyone that will listen about it and she wanted me to take a picture of it :)

She's been working hard in her garden preparing it for spring

Hannah "delivering her baby"

Dr. Hannah checking her baby that was just born. She looked at me and said, "don't worry, she's a girl!"

Whatever big sister does, little sister does. So, Dr. Alice Anne is checking her baby, too.

Taking a break for a snack

She insists on climbing up the slides!

Alice Anne's first pedicure. She is so proud of it!! She walked around for 2 hours after we painted them saying, "rook...pepoo." And she did not want the pink like Hannah, she wanted mommy's color!

Early Morning Dance Party

2010-03-03T19:30:00.003-06:00

I really have nothing interesting to blog about...nothing! Our lives have been pretty boring and I haven't had my camera out in forever. But this morning the girls were up early, early and the first thing Hannah wanted to do was to dress-up like a princess and go to "The Royal Ball!" We dressed up and Hannah took it upon herself to put make-up all over her face, and they danced and danced. Hannah REALLY wanted to wear her princess shoes to school and she was not happy when I scrubbed her face to get the make-up off.

Trying to figure out what's packed for lunch

Have I said before how much I LOVE the girl's school? I love it!!! Their teachers are amazing and they make me feel so good every time I drop them off. Alice Anne literally can't get out of my arms and into Ms. Whitney's arms fast enough and once Ms. Whitney is holding her, Alice Anne gives her the biggest bear hug you've ever seen. Her teachers are truly so happy to see her every morning and that makes me feel so good! They literally go on and on every day about how Alice Anne is "the perfect child." Feels good to know that she doesn't throw those fits when I'm not around!!

Hannah LOVES her teachers, too! She can't wait for Mondays and Wednesdays to roll around and she tells me every little detail about the day after school. Her favorite part of the day is when she leaves music and Alice Anne is coming into music class. She said she sees her in the hall and gives her a big hug and kiss. Hannah's teachers say that it is the sweetest thing!! So wish I could be a fly on the wall for just one day...how fun would that be!!!

Definitely Sisters

2010-02-23T13:54:00.004-06:00

People have been telling me more and more lately that the girls look SO much alike! I even had someone ask me a couple of weeks ago if they were twins...seriously? We were at a restaurant and one was in a highchair and one in a booster...could he not see the age difference? What do you think?? I can't figure out how to put the pics side by side.

Alice Anne @ 18 1/2 months and Hannah @ 24 months.

Alice Anne Is 18 Months

2010-02-16T13:44:00.004-06:00

I'm a little behind on Alice Anne's 18 month post. She had her check-up last week and did great. Dr. Moore said she looked fabulous! She's growing like a weed and her vocabulary gets bigger and bigger every day. She's really started talking a lot the last week or two. Her favorite things to say right now are, "Mamma, rook" (look). She brings something to me about every 30 seconds and proudly tells me to look. She also loves it when I ask her to go get something or go do something...she proudly marches back over to me and says, "I didid" or "I godid" (I did it and I got it). I love listening to her talk!! I love hearing her call me. She says, "Moooooommy, R U?" She LOVES to give huge bear hugs and loves to say, "I Yu You." She knows all of her body parts, sounds that all the animals make, and LOVES playing in her shoe drawer. She could literally sit at her shoe drawer for 45 minutes and just try on all her shoes.
She has cut all of her molar teeth (painful for all of us) and she's working on 3 of her canine teeth right now (not AS painful, but we have definitely had some bad days)! When she's not cutting teeth, she is the sweetest, happiest little girl you'll ever meet. Also, when she's not cutting teeth, she ADORES Hannah!! I mean seriously adores her!!! She follows her around everywhere, does everything Hannah does and says everything Hannah says. They play so well together! Alice Anne also loves Hannah friends!! She gets so excited to see them and she truly thinks she is just as big as they are!
Her 2 "chores" are to put her clothes in the dirty clothes and to put her shoes in her shoe drawer when we get home. She LOVES doing these two things and is so proud of herself afterwards.
She's a great eater and will eat most anything. Unfortunately, big sister is rubbing off on her in the green vegetable department, but we're working on that.
She loves school and her teachers say she is the sweetest little angel...we couldn't agree more!!

Here are her 18 month stats:
Weight: 27.8 lbs (85%)
Height: 34" (above 95%)
Head: 18 3/4" (80%)

She LOVES wearing headbands and always walks in wearing random headbands!

Daddy Date Night

2010-02-15T15:16:00.002-06:00

Hannah and Mary Aldon had a special date with their daddy's Saturday night. Hannah was beyond excited when she came home with a red rose and a box of candy from her daddy. It was really sweet...they went to Royal Oaks and had a candle lit dinner. Hannah and daddy made up a "date night song" that they told me was a secret and I couldn't convince them to sing it to me. They're looking forward to taking Alice Anne along on their date next year...

Snow Day With Daddy

2010-02-13T18:24:00.009-06:00

The girls just thought the snow was fun on Thursday...until daddy got to stay home on Friday and show them how to really play in the snow!! They were both so excited to wake up Friday morning to more snow! We had nearly a foot of snow...unheard of around here, and Hannah took advantage of every minute of it! Hannah was ready to head outside the second she woke up. They took a golf cart ride around the neighborhood to scope out all the damage done to the trees and then they headed home to build a snowman. I've said it before, but Brett doesn't do anything halfway...and their snowman was no exception! They made a 6 foot tall princess snowman and Hannah named him "Snowman Beauty!"

Heading out to assess the damage

This is what they found...our street was a MESS! Trees were all over the street!

Alice Anne warmed-up to the snow a little bit. She thought the bags over her feet were pretty funny!!

"Ice Skating"

Showing Alice Anne how to eat snowballs

Getting started on the snowman

Super DADDY!!!

I think this is so funny...mommy's little 2 foot snowman next to daddy's giant snowman!
"Snowman Beauty" complete with a boa, princess wands for the arms, necklaces and a hat!

I think these next two pictures are hilarious! I took these pictures through the window. I was watching Hannah and I thought she was feeling sorry for our pathetic little snowman...my sensitive girl, right...

...so wrong! When I saw this, I realized she was digging for the lollipop that he had in his mouth, so she could put it in hers ;)

Enjoying the snow ice cream they made. We made 3 different flavors...vanilla, strawberry and raspberry! YUMMY!!!

Dallas Blizzard

2010-02-11T19:46:00.005-06:00

We woke up to snow this morning...lots of snow...and it hasn't stopped all day!! When I went upstairs to get Hannah up, I told her I had a surprise for her outside. I opened her shutters and the look of excitement on her face was priceless! Alice Anne was almost as amazed as Hannah. Hannah has been talking about how beautiful she thinks the snow is and Alice Anne has walked around all day pointing outside and saying, "Buful Snow...soooo buful!" So cute! They seriously could not WAIT to get out of their pj's and bundle up to play in the snow. It took us forever to get everyone bundled up and Alice Anne lasted all of about 4 minutes. She was not digging the coat, hat and mittens. So when she went down for her little morning "rest," Hannah and I headed back out to build a snowman. Hannah was really disappointed that daddy couldn't play in the snow with her, but I hope I did an ok job playing "daddy!"

I think this picture is so cute. I'm pretty sure Hannah's telling Alice Anne that they're going to make snowballs and throw them on mommy.

She couldn't have been any happier!!

Cracking herself up as she sings a song she made-up about Mr. Snowman!

Snowman #1

After naps we headed back out...I was hoping Alice Anne might like it a little more, but this time she was not ok with snow getting on her shoes! She kept saying, "NO snow soes!" Poor little thing. So, we got Stella over to play in the snow with Hannah. Alice Anne was perfectly happy inside with me, watching them out the window.

What a pathetic little face!

She seriously couldn't get enough snowballs!

Snowman #2

His face slowly disappeared as Alice Anne ate the candy off ;)

What a FUN Day!!

2010-02-10T20:14:00.008-06:00

Yesterday we woke up and hit the ground running! I felt like I didn't have a chance to breathe all day! The girls had so much fun that Alice Anne decided to just nap for 30 minutes and scream loud enough to wake her sister up so that they could go have some more fun!

We ate a quick breakfast, ran some errands and went to dance class. After dance class, we went straight to the American Girl store to have a special lunch for Mary Aldon's birthday. There's no running into American Girl for lunch...you have to stop and look at every single doll and accessory while you're there, so it took a while! We attempted to come home and take a quick nap, but weren't very successful. I think the girls were too excited about their big Valentine's Party at Molly's house! Molly and Ashley hosted the cutest Valentine's party for our play group! All the kids brought Valentine's for each other and I have literally never seen Hannah so excited! Ashley had little mailboxes for each kid and they all got to put their valentine's in them. You would have thought Hannah's had a million dollars in it. She could hardly wait to see what was in her box!!

Thank you Dawn, for such a fun lunch and Ashley, for a fabulous party!!

The fun continued today with a Valentine's Party at school and then playing over at Daisey's house. The girls are going to be pretty disappointed tomorrow when all we get to do is go visit Dr. Moore's office for Alice Anne's check-up.

Hannah was begging me to get this doll for her! Her name is "Julie" and she says she wants it because Julie is Jammy's name! We don't always dress like this...we just came from dance ;)

The 3 girls drinking some YUMMY pink lemonade!

Hannah LOVES this place!

All the kiddos digging into their cupcakes at the party

She was in HEAVEN eating an entire cupcake!!

Getting a sneak peek at her loot!

...and another peek

Alice Anne is so funny when she's around the big kids! I think she truly thinks she's as big as they are!

Cousins!!

2010-02-08T09:58:00.003-06:00

Thank you Taylor for having something every night last week!! Sarah and Carter didn't want to be by themselves every night, so they came to Dallas to play...and we had so much fun! The girls adore their cousin and they all played together so well! It was a much needed break after our string of sicknesses around here! Carter always has to put up with a lot of girlie play, but doesn't seem to mind too much. I think a jewelry box full of necklaces is going to be the next gift he gets from the Belf girls...he loved it...Sorry, Taylor ;)

Chasing each other up the stairs!

Apparently if you have a boy, you have to play outside even if it's -20 degrees! Carter didn't bring a hat, so he got the fluffy pink hat!

Carter is so funny! He calls Alice Anne "AA." We don't call her that, so I have no idea where he came up with it. He calls Hannah "Haya," me "Aunt Mmmmm" and Brett's is the funniest..."Uncle Be" but he says it like he's a 100 year old man on his death bed. I die laughing every time I hear him call Uncle Be!! Sweet Boy!!

Still My Little Baby

2010-01-30T19:31:00.003-06:00

Let me just start out by saying it is still the sick house around here. I mean...I don't know what is going on, but I feel like we've been either cutting teeth or sick since Christmas. Hannah was up most of the night last night with a stomach bug and Alice Anne is still pitiful! We've all just been laying on the couch with electric blankets all day! I'm so ready for pretty weather and well kids. Today was the first time I left the house since Wed. afternoon and I only got to leave today to go get the girls some medicine!

I thought this picture was so cute!! Alice Anne was hysterically crying this morning and nothing would calm her down. Since I've been home bound for so long, I've been de-cluttering and listing stuff on Craigslist. One of the things I listed was an old baby swing, so I had it out for someone to come get. Literally nothing would settle her down, so I tried putting her in the swing. I was afraid that my big baby might break it, but she didn't and it calmed her down instantly. It was the funniest thing...it was like she was 4 months old again! She just sat in the swing while I sang to her for about 15 minutes. When I took her out, she freaked out again, so back in the swing she went...maybe I should re-think selling this thing :)

Is this not the most pitiful little sick face you've ever seen?? She had this dazed look all day.

Another Day Inside...and...Sick AGAIN!

2010-01-28T13:42:00.004-06:00

It's cold, rainy and yucky here again! We've spent the whole day inside and I think everyone was ready for a change right before nap time when both girls just lost it (after a little hair pulling incident)! Hannah and Alice Anne went for their H1N1 and Flu boosters yesterday after school and after we got home, Alice Anne went down hill really fast! She had a little cough and runny nose, but nothing major and wasn't acting like she felt bad when I picked her up from school, but that shot must have done her in because she went from nothing, to bad, to worse really fast. She didn't sleep well last night, took a good morning nap this morning, and is down again right now. Poor thing! I'm wondering if the shots did it to her???

Hannah was excited to have a little one-on-one time with mommy this morning. Since Alice Anne has pretty much cut out her morning nap, we don't get that much and I think she misses it...and I miss it, too! We made rice krispie treats, which are her absolute favorite! She saw the pastel colored marshmallows at the store the other day and wanted to get them. I asked her what color she thought our treats would be after we mixed all the colors together and she guessed purple. She was highly disappointed when they turned brown!! She wanted to know where all her "pretty colors" went :) She absolutely loves to bake and cook!!

Hannah's been working really hard on writing her name. Her fine motor skills aren't very good, so I've been trying to work with her a lot on it. I think it's partly my fault b/c I am such a neat freak, I didn't want her having crayons a lot when she was little because I didn't want her to color all over everything.

The picture she drew of a man

Doing some writing exercises

She really LOVES to learn! We played the cheerio adding and subtracting game this morning and she had the best time!

My dad has been working in Dallas this week and is staying with us. We've all enjoyed having him around and the girls have had the best time playing with Papa. I wish my mom could have come with him...maybe next time!

Teeth

2010-01-21T15:21:00.003-06:00

I've halfway decided that Alice Anne's issues lately have been her teeth. I kept thinking that she couldn't be that uncomfortable for that long just because she was cutting some teeth, but I've talked to a couple of friends that have told me that when their little one was cutting several teeth at a time, they turned into a completely different child for 2-3 weeks and were mean, mean, mean. This describes how Alice Anne's been for 2 weeks. This week has been MUCH better than last week, but she still gets a little cranky sometimes. She still has 3 or 4 teeth that aren't all the way through yet, so we have a ways to go, but I think there's light at the end of the tunnel! Regardless of her teething issues, she is still such a sweet little girl and so loving. She gives the BEST hugs and will hug you forever!! I beg her for hugs all day long!!

One of her favorite toys...the magnadoodle

Sweet sisters! I didn't even put them up to this.

Silly Hannah!!

Dance

2010-01-15T14:12:00.006-06:00

I haven't had much to post about this week-unless I want to post about how fussy and grumpy Alice Anne has been-and I really don't want to do that. I'll just say that every second of my time this week has been spent trying to find an excuse to why she has been screaming all day long, every day. I can't use "teething" as an excuse forever--although she is cutting a bunch of teeth, but it can't be that bad! Please, Please, Please say a prayer that her old personality will come back REAL soon, because I don't have much patience left in me!!!! Brett's been out of town this week and of course and as soon as he walked in the door yesterday, she was a perfect angel, so I doubt he believes a word I've been saying about her :)

On the other hand, Hannah has had a fabulous week! At dance on Tuesday, her teacher pulled me aside and said that she wanted Hannah to try the 3-4 yr old class instead of the 2-3 yr old class. She said she thought Hannah was ready for it and needed a challenge. That was the best thing that happened to her all week! She has literally been dancing around the house all week long and has showed me all of her new moves that she learned in her new class. The most exciting part is that she got some new tap shoes, since now she'll be doing tap and ballet. She LOVES the shoes and thinks it's pretty cool that she has to bring a dance bag to her class with her shoes in it.

Mommy, There's A Baby In Your Tummy

2010-01-11T09:26:00.004-06:00

OK, I must have really put on the lbs. over the holidays because my 3-year old is insisting that there's a baby in my tummy! She asks me at least once a day when my baby is coming out! A few weeks ago when daddy had been out of town for 7 days, we went to pick him up at the airport and the first thing she said to him when he got in the car was, "Daddy, Mommy has a baby in her tummy!" The look on his face was priceless and I couldn't stop laughing. It took me a long time to get him to believe me over his 3-year old daughter! Last night we were all playing and Hannah said, "Daddy, go get in the car. It's time to take mommy to the hospital. We're going to have a baby." She brought a baby over to me and put it under my shirt and then went and got her dr. kit. She was in make-believe world and said, "OK, we're at the hospital and Dr. Hannah is going to check you." She proceeded to look in my ears and as she did, she said, "I see your baby in there!" This went on for a long time...it was so funny! She delivered a perfectly healthy baby and said her name was "Pedro!!!" She has this book that we got when I was pregnant with Alice Anne that is very detailed about everything that goes into a pregnancy and a baby being born. We read it every. single. day. After our "hospital run" was over, she said, "Mommy, I really want a baby at our house!" I told her that she had a baby sister and she had lots of dolls that she can play house with. She told me that she wanted a real baby. I told her that real babies are a lot of work and if we had a tiny little baby here that mommy and daddy wouldn't be able to hold her and Alice Anne as much. Her response..."That's OK, I'll hold the baby while you hold me!" Smart little cookie. I asked her when I was going to hold Alice Anne and she said, "you can hold Alice Anne when you put her to bed." Funny little girl! I hope she understands that there aren't any babies coming to live in our house anytime soon!!

We've been living in the sick house for the past week! I took the girls to the dr. last Tuesday because they both weren't eating and were complaining of a sore throat. No strep, but as the week progressed, Hannah got a fever and then Alice Anne. They're both at school today and I'm going to try to get some things done since we literally haven't left the house in 5 days!!! Alice Anne is cutting 7 teeth and it is WEARING ME OUT!!!!

A couple other cute things that I have to write down so I'll remember them. We have a constant battle with Hannah to eat her vegetables. She flat out won't touch them. Ice Cream is her absolute favorite treat and she loves going to I Heart Yogurt. So, we told her at dinner a couple of weeks ago that whoever ate their asparagus would get to go to I Heart Yogurt and get some ice cream. It didn't phase her. Alice Anne ate her asparagus as fast as she could. Hannah didn't touch hers. We told her that we were all going to get ice cream and we really wanted her to be able to get some, too. Her response..."I'll just watch you eat yours." Are you serious?? So, we didn't argue with her. We thought that she'd be upset when we got there and she had to watch everyone else eat their ice cream and maybe she'd remember it next time and eat her vegetables. We all got ice cream and she sat there in front of us and seemed completely unfazed as she watched us eat ours. As we left, I was trying to get her a little upset that she didn't get ice cream and I said, "Maybe next time you'll eat your vegetables and you can get ice cream, too." She said, "No, mommy. I won't eat my vegetables. I'm just going to watch you eat your ice cream until I'm 4!!" Seriously??? She totally outsmarted us! She outsmarted us again on Saturday. I was looking for my watch. I set it in the exact same place every single day and it wasn't there. I literally searched for my watch for 2 hours. I looked in every trashcan, every drawer, every piece of clothing, every laundry basket, every toy box...everywhere! Brett and Hannah were gone and I was almost in tears because I didn't want to have to tell Brett that I had lost my expensive watch that he gave me. When they got home, I asked Hannah if she had seem my watch. She always knows where things are when I lose them. I told her that if she found my watch, I would give her 5 princess pez candies...I was desperate!! These are her absolute favorite candies and she will do anything for just 1. Her response to me, "Sorry mom, I don't know where your watch is. You can eat my princess pez candies!!" Ugh!!! Yes, I found my watch and you'll never guess where it was. Hannah has "given" Alice Anne one of her purses, and Alice Anne is obsessed with it. She carries it all over the house and then hides it when she's not carrying it. I had already gone through all of Hannah's purses and jewelry boxes and it wasn't in there, but I never thought of looking for it in Alice Anne's purse. I found the purse under about 50 babies in the baby pack-n-play and there were 2 things in her purse...my watch and my lipstick that I thought was completely lost, so I replaced it last week!!

Hannah has started calling us "Mom" and "Dad." I hate it...it means she's all grown up and not a baby anymore!! I tried correcting her for about a week by saying "mommy" when she would say mom, but I guess she's just grown up now! When she first started saying it, we told her that if she called us mom and dad then we were going to call her "Scott." That didn't work because she thought it was hilarious when we called her Scott.

Alice Anne loves school, but she's picked up 2 new words that I can't stand! She came home saying "NO" and "MINE." Everything is, "No, mine!!" I absolutely hate mine! Hannah did the same thing when she started school. I guess she'll grow out of it in time, just like Hannah.

I haven't taken any cute pictures because we've just been home in our jammies forever. But here are a couple of pics of the girls playing with Hannah's new playdoh sets that Carter gave her for her birthday. We have spent hours making playdoh ice cream and waffles, eggs and bacon! A lifesaver during the 20 degree weather!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-07T10:16:00.005-06:00

Happy New Year to everyone! We had a low key, but fabulous start to the New Year! Brett had the whole week off of work last week and we had so much fun together as a family. It seems like every time Brett has time off of work we're on vacation or out of town, so it was fun to just have our daddy at home for a week and just get to play. The girls absolutely LOVED every second with their daddy and daddy loved his time with them, too. Daddy's not big on "schedules," so we were on no schedule at all and it seemed like naps were optional most days he was home. The girls didn't mind at all, but mommy's paying for it this week!! The cold weather didn't keep them away from the park, either! We had a couple of fun field trips. We went to Cabela's in Ft. Worth one day, which if you have kids that like animals, they will love Cabela's! They have a ton of life-size bears, elephants, zebra's, tigers, monkeys, etc. that the kids loved!!! We also took the girls to eat at The Magic Time Machine, and Hannah was in heaven! The food was not spectacular, to say the least, but it was well worth it when our waitress, Aerial waited on us. Snow White was waiting tables right next to us and Hannah could hardly concentrate on her food, she was so excited!!!

This was taken before Christmas, but I think it's so cute! Brett took the girls on a golf cart ride every night after he got home, to look at Christmas lights. It was FREEZING outside, but they bundled up and loved their light tours. Brett said, "Who needs horse carriages when you have your daddy driving a golf cart" :)

I love this picture of Alice Anne. Black beans are her favorite!

She is obsessed with her shoes! She will entertain herself forever going through all of her shoes in her shoe drawer!

And they can both entertain themselves with this jewelry box that has a million necklaces and bracelets in it!

Alice Anne LOVES her babies! She rotates babies in the swing all day long!

It is freezing outside today, so we enjoyed some hot cocoa by the fire this morning. Hannah was so excited about the marshmallows!

Alice Anne dancing around at the Dallas Museum of Arts on New Years Eve. We went to the "Noon Years Eve Ball" for the kids to ring in the New Year!!

My Baby Is Off to School

2010-01-04T14:30:00.005-06:00

Today was a big day for Alice Anne...her 1st day of "school"! She did great and her teachers said she loved it and they also commented that she was such a sweet little girl!! When I dropped her off this morning, she marched right in and started playing. I stood there and watched her through the window for a few minutes and after about 3 or 4 minutes she looked up and realized that I was gone and started crying! Poor little thing...it made me want to cry, too, but I knew she'd get over it fast, which she did, and she had fun playing and meeting new friends the rest of the day.

Now, what in the world am I going to do with 10 hours to myself every week!! I got more done today then I think I got done all year last year! I'm sure I'll figure something out to occupy my time ;)

My little school girl! She looks SO old in this picture!

Hannah loved showing Alice Anne how to use her nap mat and she was a good teacher because Alice Anne's teachers said that she put herself right to sleep on it...

Hannah was the proud big sister and was so excited to tell everyone in her class that her "baby sister was right down the hall."

Christmas 2009

2010-01-03T14:13:00.008-06:00

We had the best Christmas and I'm so sad that it's all over! I felt like we had a really short Christmas season this year, since we were gone the 1st week in December and then we had Hannah's birthday, but we enjoyed all of the Christmas fun that we were able to squeeze in. Hannah was totally into it this year and it made it so much fun! It's so fun to see the excitement of Christmas through the kids! Lots of pictures, but I had to include everything that made our Christmas so perfect...

Christmas Eve. day, it started snowing and the girls stood at the window and watched the snow fall forever!

We went to the Family Christmas Eve. Service at church and both girls really enjoyed it. Hannah was so excited to see Baby Jesus! We came home and ate tamales, decorated cookies for Santa and then Hannah wanted to dance to Christmas music.

Trying to get Wally to join in on the dance party!
Alice Anne was not into decorating the cookies. She wanted to see how fast she could shove them in her mouth and Hannah decided to eat all the sprinkles before Alice Anne got to them.
Hannah wrote her letter to Santa and put out her cookies and milk for him and an apple for the reindeer. She was so worried that Santa would be too loud and wake her up and she made me promise her that Santa wouldn't wake her up.
Santa must have been impressed with the girls this year because they raked it in! Hannah's big request was a dollhouse and Alice Anne got her own tricycle. Hannah was so funny...when we were leaving church on Christmas Eve, some people had their umbrellas and Hannah suddenly remembered that she forgot to tell Santa that she wanted an umbrella, so we made an emergency phone call to the elves and Santa worked some miracles and brought an umbrella for each girl. Hannah thought it was so cool that he pulled that off last minute!
How pretty is this...our backyard on Christmas morning. It's so white, you can barely even see Wally!

Waiting on the stairs to come down and see what Santa left

She was so proud of her very own tricycle!
Time for Alice Anne to take a nap, mommy to load the car, and Hannah and Daddy got to play in the snow
Not sure who had more fun...daddy or Hannah
Hannah eating her snowball
Then we headed to Waco
Sweet Cousins...
and sweet sisters!
Hannah's favorite thing to do at Jammy and Papa's is to look through photo albums, so Jammy made Hannah her very own photo album and loves looking through it!

Reading with Grandpop

Kisses for Granny
Kisses for mommy before bed after a long Christmas day!

Playing on the trampoline from Jammy and Papa

Hannah ADORES Carter!!

Happy Birthday to Our 3 Year Old Princess

2009-12-28T14:00:00.005-06:00

I have been awful about blogging lately!! With Christmas and Hannah's birthday, I have literally not had a spare minute to blog.

First, let me start by saying HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY to our sweet little Hannah!! I can not believe she is 3...it seems so old to me and I am sad because I don't want either one of my babies to grow up! My life is so full of love that I didn't even know I could have before she made me a mommy. She has made our lives so much fuller every single day. She is the most loving, sensitive, sweet, kind and generous little 3 year old that I know. Everyone always comments on what a sweet heart she has and we couldn't agree more. I have to tell a sweet little story that shows just how big her heart is. Monday after her birthday we were pulling into the CVS parking lot. There was a man and a little boy probably about 3 years old sitting in the grass by CVS and the man was holding a sign that said, "Need help for my son's Christmas." Hannah noticed them and asked me what they were doing. I told her that that little boy wasn't as lucky as she was and that he needed someone to give him some toys for Christmas. She instantly said, "Mommy, we need to go get him some toys." What a fabulous idea, I told her. Now, I thought this was the sweet part. I didn't know how it would go, but I thought it would mean more if she gave him some of HER toys from home that she had gotten for her birthday instead of going and just buying new toys. "Why don't we run home and get a toy that you got for your birthday and bring it to him," I told her. She instantly agreed and we went home and she picked out not 1, but 3 books that she had just gotten for her birthday and said that she thought he would like these. It brought tears to my eyes when I saw her proudly get out of the car and hand her new books to the little boy, as she said "Merry Christmas!" That is how big this little girls heart is and it makes me so proud!

She is so inquisitive and so eager to learn. If I say a word that she doesn't know, she wants to know what it means and she tries to use it in sentences the rest of the day. She is the best big sister I could have ever dreamed of!! She loves Alice Anne more than words can describe and, although we have our moments, she is so loving and kind to her and Alice Anne in return just adores her big sister!

She's very smart!! She knows and can recognize all of the letters of the alphabet and can tell you what letter a word starts with and loves sounding out words. She can count to 22. She is very particular and wants everything in its place at all times.

She truly wants to make Brett and I proud and doesn't want to disappoint us at all. If she knows she has done something wrong, she quickly asks us if we're sad and she says that she didn't mean to make us sad. So sweet!

She loves school and loves all of her friends! Her teachers are constantly telling me how sweet she is and how good she is with her classmates. Many days I'll go pick her up from school and her teachers will tell me that she was such a little cuddle bug that day! That's another thing that we love about her...she loves to cuddle and it's so much fun!! She loves dance class, too!

She went for her 3 year check-up last week and she was NOT a fan of the shots, but she still adores Dr. Moore and talks about him all the time. He was impressed with everything that she knew and she was proud of her circle and cross that she drew for him. She weighed 33.75 lbs (80%) and she was 38.5" tall (80%).

Hannah scored again and had a fabulous birthday party! She wanted a dress-up party, so we loaded up on dress-up attire and the kids (mostly the girls) had fun running around and playing in their princess dresses. Hannah was beyond excited and had her "favorite purple princess dress" that she wanted to wear, picked out for days!! She was so cute the night before her birthday. When I put her to bed she said, "Mommy, I don't know what to do tomorrow." I asked her what she meant and she said, "What am I going to do when I'm 3." I think she thought turning 3 was going to be a big life changing event!! Everything is already "...when I'm 4!" I really don't want that day to come!! The past 3 years have truly been amazing and we look forward to many more fun years to come!

Fun Day With Santa

2009-12-12T19:36:00.008-06:00

We had such a fun day full of Christmas fun!! It started early this morning when Hannah and I went to breakfast with Santa. Hannah has been talking about eating breakfast with Santa for days and she was not disappointed. She put her letter to Santa in her purse last night before bed and the 1st thing she did when she got up this morning was to go downstairs and make sure her letter was still there. She really couldn't wait to give it to him. She was so excited to talk to Santa, she didn't touch her breakfast until her visit was over. She was a little uneasy about Santa's helper at 1st, but as soon as she came over and started making her balloon flowers, she was just fine. Hannah had a special request that she make a baby flower for her to take home to her baby sister...so sweet!! Hannah was SO into Santa and couldn't take her eyes off of him. She asked him where Rudolph was, where his bed was, what he was going to do with her letter and just talked away. When he left our table she looked at me and said, "Mommy, I forgot to tell Santa what I want for Christmas." I told her that he would read her letter and know, but she was not satisfied, so she asked our waiter to ask Santa to come back over so she could tell him what she wanted. Santa came, and she told him just what she wanted...a dollhouse, a robe, and lots of other toys. She also threw in that her baby sister wanted a toy car (I'm not sure where that came from). I don't think her breakfast could have gone any better!!!

Waiting patiently to give her letter to Santa.

After breakfast we headed into the mall for story time with Santa. We got a front row seat and Hannah LOVED hearing Santa tell stories about Christmas Eve. We got a number to come back and see Santa this afternoon with Alice Anne and then went to the Angel Tree to pick an angel to sponsor. We went through all of the angels to find the right one. Hannah picked a 3 year old little girl that wanted a Nemo movie and a barbie. So, after naps, we went to the toy store and got the little girl's Christmas gifts to take back up to the mall. Can I just tell you that the mall was a MAD HOUSE this afternoon!!! I have never been to the mall around Christmas time by myself with both of the girls and I don't think I'll ever do it again. But, today it was worth it. Hannah was so proud to take the gifts to be dropped of for "my angel" as she called it, and then we got to see Santa and he made Hannah more excited than I've seen her in a long time. Hannah told him that it was almost her birthday and when she did, he pulled out a beautiful Christmas book that he said he'd been saving for a special little birthday girl. He told her that it was their secret and that she was the only little girl that was getting this special book. Her face was lit up from ear to ear. She was so proud!!! Alice Anne, on the other hand, was NOT a fan of Santa. She didn't freak out until I put her on his lap and then she lost it, so I shot a picture and then rescued her.

Hannah showing Santa how old she's going to be on her birthday

Wow, Santa!! Thank you!

Alice Anne taking a break on the bench before our visit with Santa.

Of course we visited the ducks and the turtles...our favorite thing to do at Northpark! Alice Anne was so funny, she just walked around screaming, "DU...QUACK QUACK!" Hannah kept saying, "Yes, Alice Anne, that's what a duck says!"

We went and ate Mexican Food and then drove around and looked at some Christmas lights before coming home. The girls were exhausted and are both in bed and I'm worn out!! Daddy will be home tomorrow night and we can't wait!!

You Just Have to Laugh About It...So You Don't Cry!!

2009-12-10T19:39:00.006-06:00

We had a big day planned today. We were going to head over to Northpark and go to a puppet show, go to the train exhibit and then have a fun lunch there...but our day didn't go quite as planned.

Here's how it started (DON'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH!):

I got up early so I could be dressed and ready before the girls woke up. When I heard Alice Anne, I went up to get her and there was blackberry and strawberry throw-up ALL over her and her bed. It had been there a while and the sweet little thing never made a peep. No big deal...I got her in the tub, and all cleaned up. She was having fun in the bath, so I let her play in there for a little bit. I was in the bathroom, but Hannah and I were talking and I wasn't really paying close attention to what she was doing. When I went over to get her out, there was diarrhea all in the tub! Sick!! Whatever, I'll throw her in the other bathtub and then clean this one up (along with the throw-up). She was in Hannah's bathroom. I get her out, wrap her up in a towel and carry her into her bathroom. On our way into the other bathroom, she tee tee'd ALL over me, herself, and the floor. That makes 3 things that I need to clean up. Let me wash her off really quick, get her dressed and then I'll get the floor, tub, bed and myself cleaned up. I threw a towel over the wet spot on the floor and threw the baby into the clean tub. Scrubbed and scrubbed and got her clean again and then dried her off. As she was walking the 2 steps from her bathroom into her room, yes...within a split second, there was diarrhea ALL over the floor!!! You have GOT to be kidding me!!! Seriously?!?!? Hannah made me laugh in the middle of all of this when she walked in right after Alice Anne had made a mess on the floor and said, "What IN the WORLD??"

I got it all cleaned up and the girls were very cooperative and stayed in the playroom while I cleaned both of their rooms and bathrooms up. Guess we're not going to be having our fun little outing today, so I went down stairs and put my pj's back on and had another cup of coffee. Fed the girls, washed dishes, washed blankies and lovies and it was time for Alice Anne's nap. I put Alice Anne down and came back downstairs to find Hannah on the potty with an ENTIRE ROLL of toilet paper that she had wiped with, in the toilet. This wasn't a roll that was half gone, it was a full ,new, double roll of toilet paper and she thought she needed the whole thing to wipe her little bottom!!! I run get a trash bag, pull what toilet paper I can out of the toilet and then start plunging away.

Whew...the rest of my day went good and despite all that happened, I really did have a good day...until dinner time when I opened up the refrigerator and a bottle of hot sauce fell out of the door and exploded ALL over the kitchen!! Literally, ALL over! The girls were sitting up at the bar and they thought it was hilarious that red sauce was flying all over the kitchen. I'm so glad that they were laughing so I could laugh with them instead of cry!!!

Brett, how many days until you come home?? We miss you terribly!!!

When they weren't pooping or throwing up today, you wouldn't have known they were sick. Hannah tells me all day long to turn Christmas music on so they can dance. This is what they do most of the day...Hannah danced with this mask up to her face today :)

Alice Anne really wanted to sit up at the bar today instead of in her high chair next to her sister at the bar. She thought she was pretty big!!!

Dear Santa...

2009-12-09T20:31:00.003-06:00

This afternoon, Hannah and I were doing a little craft project and making a little Santa Clause. Hannah was very intensely gluing Santa's beard on and all of a sudden she stopped and said, "MOMMY...we forgot to write a letter to Santa!" We have a Christmas book that we read, about letters to Santa and she took note. Luckily, I was prepared with Santa stationary and she dictated away. This is what it says,
"Dear Santa, I've been sweet and I try to get straight lines everyday. I've been a good girl. Happy Halloween and Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. I want a dollhouse and a rope (robe) and a lot of other toys like stickers and balls and books. I will come to the mall if my mommy or my daddy will take me. Love, Hannah"
She signed her own name by herself and was VERY proud of herself and asked me if I thought Santa would think she was SO smart!

Excited to put her letter out for Santa, but when we went to put it out for the mailman she changed her mind and said she wanted to take it to the mall and give it to him. So we'll be making a Santa trip to the mall pretty soon.

Hannah AND Alice Anne are obsessed with their Advent Village. They get to open the day's window every day after nap time and they get so excited for that 1 little sweet tart that they each get out of it! Hannah loves counting how many more days until Christmas Eve!

Hannah's other obsession...Baby Jesus! She loves pulling the dining room chair up to the nativity that I have set out and talking to Baby Jesus and Mary and Joseph. Yesterday she told me that she needed a paper towel. I asked her what she needed it for and she said that Baby Jesus was cold and she needed to cover him up and blankets were too big for him.

Alice Anne's current obsessions...Coloring and Cozy (our pretend kitty cat this looks so real it's creepy)!

She wants to color pictures all day long and she is very proud of her master pieces. If she's not coloring, she's carrying around one of her pictures saying, "Wow...peppy!" I always tell her, "Wow, it's so pretty!!"

Alice Anne has really been letting me read to her a lot the last couple of days. She has always let me read to her, but would only sit through 1...maybe 2 books at a time. While Hannah was at school today, we read for 45 minutes straight. She was such a good little listener and I think she would have let me read longer, but I needed a break. Before she settles down to read, though, she walks over, gets Cozy and positions him where she wants him next to her on the couch. Every once in a while she'll put him in her lap for a minute and then she'll set him back down next to her. She LOVES her pretend kitty, Cozy. The first thing she does every morning when we come downstairs is she goes straight to Cozy and gets right in his face and says, "HIII, Coey"
Sweet sisters...the last couple of afternoons after naps, the girls have climbed up in the glider on their own and Hannah reads books to Alice Anne. Hannah is very serious about story time!

It is FREEZING here and we haven't left the house much at all this week! We have a busy few days planned making lots of Christmas crafts and goodies and just staying inside and Hannah is SO excited about all of our projects that we have planned...

Costa Rica

2009-12-07T19:17:00.003-06:00

What a fabulous vacation Brett and I just had!! We had so much fun in Costa Rica and enjoyed the warm weather before coming home to the freezing cold! We missed the girls a ton, but the break was much needed!!

This is the house that we stayed in and it was incredible!! The little roof behind us is where the hammocks were on the roof of our house, over looking the ocean! It was so relaxing to just lay there and listen to the ocean.

Isn't this sunset beautiful?!?! Dorky, I know, but we went to this awesome place nearly every night and watched the sunset.

On the zip-line together in the middle of the jungle. This was a blast!!!

Brett the fisherman! He reeled in the fish while we were there!!

Now, after the day I've had today, I'm ready for another vacation!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T21:02:00.004-06:00

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?

2009-11-20T13:41:00.008-06:00

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

2009-11-12T20:25:00.004-06:00

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...

2009-11-10T10:25:00.005-06:00

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...

2009-11-06T13:38:00.003-06:00

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!!!

2009-11-05T13:55:00.008-06:00

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)

Ballerinas and Princesses

2009-11-02T14:15:00.005-06:00

I have never really gotten into Halloween, but this year was SO much fun! Hannah was old enough to really, really love it and I think her Halloween definitely lived up to her expectations. Lisa had a fabulous Halloween party Saturday afternoon and then we all headed down Swiss Ave. for trick-or-treating like I've never seen before. The houses were decorated so extravagantly and everyone went all out! Hannah and her little princess friends were in heaven! They loved going from door to door and they were so funny to watch as they just stood there saying "trick-or-treat" over and over trying to get more candy!! Hannah got to eat 2 pieces of candy that night and the next morning she woke up and went straight to "count" her candy and line it up. We caught her with a bright green mouth and just laughed as she told us her mouth was green because she was counting all of her green candy...little stinker!

It was so pretty Halloween day that this is how we spent our entire day...

All ready for the party!

Excited to see Pirate Milam

Sweet Princesses!

Ava, Hannah, Alice Anne, Molly, Hank, Will and Milam

The 3 Princesses just kept standing there hoping for more candy!!

Alice Anne and Samuel were literally eating through the paper to get to the candy!

Halloween Fun

2009-10-29T13:23:00.006-05:00

I love this time of year...there are so many fun things to do and the weather is getting cooler! Hannah has woken up every morning this week yelling, "Happy Halloween!!!" She wants to know if it's Halloween yet. She got to wear her Halloween costume to dance class on Tuesday, so she thought it was Halloween. Wednesday, she took Halloween cookies to her class at school and she thought it was Halloween and then today we carved our pumpkin and she asked if it was Halloween. I'm not really sure what she's expecting on Halloween, but I hope she's not disappointed...

Hannah didn't want to touch the "yucky part of the pumpkin," but she was very bossy about what shapes she wanted me to cut out for her jack-o-lantern's face.

She LOVED drying the pumpkin seeds with the hairdryer so we could season and roast them and she ate almost every single one...she loved them!

When I told her to brush the oil on the seeds she laughed harder than I've seen her laugh in a long time! She thought it was hilarious that I wanted her to "paint" the seeds.

We painted a couple of pumpkins

And we made pumpkin and bat rice krispie treats
These are the cookies we made for Hannah's class at school. Sweet little girl was SO excited to pass out her cookies to all of her friends and the first thing she told me when I picked her up from school was that her teachers passed the cookies out and not her.

She carried the box of cookies around the house for about 30 minutes before we left. It really doesn't take much to get her excited!!!
Hannah wanted to practice "playing Halloween"...whatever that means, so we played Halloween dress-up for about 2 hours. BUT...she said we couldn't put on their real Halloween costume because it wasn't Halloween yet.
Alice Anne trying to walk and then she tripped on her long princess dress.

Baylor Homecoming

2009-10-28T14:40:00.005-05:00

We haven't been to Baylor Homecoming in years! We decided to go this year and take the girls to the parade and the football game. It did not disappoint! They both loved the parade, but Hannah especially was in heaven! She loved the floats and you would have thought she had never seen candy before...she LOVED it!!

Holding her purse open , begging for candy

She thought all of the Homecoming Nominees were "Princesses." When she saw this she said, "Mommy, Cinderella's here!!!"

Jammy and her girls

Hannah was very proud of how full her purse was with candy. We emptied it out before we got there and it was full to the max when we left. She was so funny...she only wanted the candy with the pretty colors. She was more than willing to give the chocolate and tootsie rolls away to other children because they weren't "pretty"
Friday night at Ninfa's
Sweet cousins worn out after the game

Granny and her girls

Alice Anne and Carter loving on each other
We all borrowed Baylor shirts from Carter and collected acorns all afternoon. Hannah is so funny...last time Alice Anne wore Carter's blue pajamas, Hannah said, "who is that." When she saw Alice Anne in a t-shirt she said, "is that Carter or Alice Anne?"

These 2 loved being on the chair together...or more like Alice Anne LOVED being on the chair with Carter. Don't know if Carter was too happy about it, but he didn't have a choice :)

Fun with Ava

2009-10-22T19:01:00.004-05:00

The rain interrupted our plans once again!! We planned on picking Ava up this morning and heading to the pumpkin patch. Hannah was so excited about going to see the pumpkins with Ava, so I had to come up with a new plan that would get them just as excited. We headed to Valley View Mall. I know...it's soooo sketchy, but no one is ever there and they have a carousel and train that can't be near as nasty as any of the others because I've never seen a soul on it! The girls LOVED it!! They had just as much fun in the car playing with Alice Anne. They thought it was the funniest game to call her "Allyson." They'd yell "Allyson" and die laughing and Alice Anne just laughed right along with them! After we rode all the rides we headed to Chick-fil-a. Hannah and Ava were so cute running around holding hands. I bet I had 5 people ask me if they were twins. I guess because they're the same size...because they don't look a thing alike!!

Funny Girls

2009-10-21T14:34:00.003-05:00

The girls have spent hours playing in their "tent" this week!! Alice Anne plays hide-and-seek and Hannah thinks it's a secret hiding place. I think this might become a permanent fixture in my dining room!!

I love her smile in this pic!

This might not look as funny as it is, but here's the story...

Hannah has these funny looking rubber teeth that she puts in her mouth and makes everyone laugh. Alice Anne keeps getting those teeth and hanging them out of her mouth and then will come stick her head in your face thinking she's the funniest thing. It's so funny!!

Monday, Hannah helped me cook dinner for 4 different families. We took dinner to a friend that just had a baby, a friend that's on bed rest, Granny Phyla and Mickey and our neighbor down the street. The lady down the street is an older lady that doesn't have any family around and she is always so happy to see the girls. So, I told Hannah that we would take dinner to her once a week. I think my little girl that has a heart of gold wants us to become meals on wheels. She told me everyone that she wants to take dinner to next week...and her list is LONG! She said, "mommy, they are so happy when we bring them food because they were hungry when we got there. We need to take them some more food!" Guess we better get to cooking!! How do you tell a little girl that we can't take someone food??

State Fair...WHAT An Adventure

2009-10-17T19:35:00.006-05:00

All week, we've planned on going to the State Fair on today. We didn't get to go last year and we really wanted to make it this year. We realized yesterday that it was Texas/OU weekend at the fair, and it would be a madhouse there...lets just scratch the fair idea. Ummmm, no, not when you have a 2 year old that remembers everything and she is so excited about going she said she dreamed about going to the "carnival" last night! We heard that it wasn't that crowded during the game, so we figured we'd go around 11:30, after Alice Anne's nap. Parking would be a nightmare, so we decided to ride the Dart Train. The girls would love it and we wouldn't have to mess with finding a parking place. Sounded like a good idea...we'd just hop on the train with wagon in tote, and hop out right at the fair, right? SO Wrong! Everyone else in Dallas, Austin and Oklahoma had the same great idea that we had! Literally the train was so packed we could barely breathe...when we found a train that had room on it for us at all!! It literally took over an hour to get there because the train kept stopping for no apparent reason. The girls were squirming and ready to get off and I was so paranoid about the girls touching anything in that nasty train, I kept squirting hand sanitizer on them every 2 minutes. We finally made it and the part about it not being crowded during the game was such a myth, too. It was SO crowded!!!

But, really once we were there we had a blast! We forgot about what an ordeal it was getting there and we just played and had fun. I think Hannah would have stayed forever if we would have let her. The girl has no fear!!! She wanted to ride every single ride she saw and she didn't do ANY of the dinky little kid rides, she did the real rides! Daddy was so excited that he had a roller coaster partner. I didn't protest much, because I didn't think she would be allowed on those FAST, scary rides, but she was...and she loved them! I just turned my head and tried to not watch how fast and jerky the rides really were!

We were there forever and the girls did awesome! Especially sweet Alice Anne that didn't get to do much. She was such a sport riding around in the wagon watching big sister and daddy ride those crazy rides. She just watched and giggled the whole time. Didn't whine once...she just smiled right through her nap time. The paci was a lifesaver, though!!

Brett and I were exhausted around 3:30 and we were ready to go. We started heading out...yes, JUST as the game let out!! Seriously?!?!? We just looked at each other and laughed. We felt so stuck! We thought about getting a taxi to take us to our car at the train station, but what about the girls...we didn't have car seats. Then we thought about Brett taking a taxi and getting the car to come get us, but we probably never would have found him, so we decided to just battle the crowd and try to get on the train. It was literally shoulder to shoulder walking to the exit and all the drunks were tripping over the wagon, etc. We saw the line for the train and it was probably 200 miles long Are you kidding me?? We went out the exit not knowing what to do and a lifesaver policeman saw us and let us in the front of the Dart line and we hopped right on. It was really funny...when we were standing there waiting for the train he told everyone to "line up behind the red wagon!!" LOVED IT!!! Brett and I were trying to hide our faces because we didn't want everyone getting mad at the people with the red wagon. We were the 1st ones on the train and it only took us about 20 minutes to get to our car. It was packed to the max, but we had seats this time and everyone was SO nice!!

We made it home around 5:00, threw the girls in the tub and scrubbed them harder than we've ever scrubbed before, fed them and Alice Anne was OUT by 6:15 and Hannah was right behind her at 6:45. We had 2 worn out girls that had so much fun at the fair! What an fun adventure!!!

Fletcher's Corn dogs...YUM!! Our little chunky Alice Anne wouldn't have anything to do with them...what in the world?

She preferred goldfish!

This was the only "kid ride" that Hannah rode.

Roller coaster #1...this was FAST!

Alice Anne's 1 ride that she got to ride...the Carousel

The Mega Super Slide!! Hannah LOVED IT!!

Roller coaster #2...this thing was SO FAST I was sure Hannah was going to come off of it throwing up...

...but this was her face when she got off!!

Sweet Girl!

She really wanted to ride the bumper cars. She stood there saying, "ca, ca, ca"

This is what we looked like when we left...bows are nowhere to be found, cotton candy is stuck on our fingers and I'm getting screamed at by 2 little voices and given some really dirty looks for putting more sanitizer in their hands!!

Finally...Park Weather!

2009-10-16T21:11:00.004-05:00

We saw the sun today for the first time in weeks!! Hannah even noticed that it had been a while. She said, "mommy, the sun came back!" We met a couple of friends at the park for a picnic and they all had a really good time.

Hannah threw a fit when it was time to go, like I've never seen from her before. Literally crying while hanging on to the bars with both her arms and legs and she would not let go. We had quite a talk about that when we got in the car and she brought it back up at bedtime tonight. Said, "mommy, next time we go to the park I won't cry. Can we go back?" I guess our "talk" sunk in. Lets hope so!!

Sweet Anna Kate and Alice Anne

I had to get her out of this swing...I literally thought she was going to fall asleep in it!

What a sweet little pumpkin!!

Riding Around

2009-10-15T14:25:00.003-05:00

Hannah loves, loves, loves riding her tricycle! It didn't rain today for the first time in I don't know how long, so she got in a lot of riding time. She's getting better and better at it. She used to need a lot of assistance, but today she said she didn't need help, that she could do it all by herself...and she went pretty far!

When we can't go outside and ride around, this is what the girls love to do...

Alice Anne walks behind this car while Hannah rides it. They love it and Alice Anne giggles the whole time...until Hannah decides to go really fast or to back up!!

Is it just me, or do they both look so big in these pictures?!?!?!

God Bless YO Mama

2009-10-14T09:24:00.002-05:00

So, I have to write this down because I laughed so hard this morning it made my stomach hurt!

We were leaving the house to go to school this morning and Hortencia was here. Every time we leave, Hortencia gives the girls a kiss and tells them, "God Bless You Mama!" I guess 'mama' means sugar/sweetie in Spanish. She said it this morning as we left and Hannah replied, "God Bless YO Mama!" The way she said it was so funny and I started dying laughing. Of course that got her going and she shouted, "God Bless YO Mama" to every single car we drove past on the way to school and then both Hannah and Alice Anne would crack up after she said it. I literally could not stop laughing!! When I dropped her off at her class, I gave her a kiss and told her to have a good day. She was half-way into the room and she looked at me and said, "God Bless YO Mama." Her teachers started laughing and I just had to walk away. It probably doesn't sound as funny as you're reading this, but it was hilarious!!!

Girls Trip to NYC

2009-10-13T13:46:00.004-05:00

Meredith, Lane and I got back late Sunday night from a fabulous trip to NYC! We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves...we were able to stay up as late as we wanted because we could sleep as late as we wanted; we shopped non-stop for 2 1/2 days and just strolled around NY without having to pass out snacks in strollers to keep babies happy; we ate fabulous dinners and got to sit and chat as long as we wanted without having to worry about a baby crying or needing to go home to go to bed; we got to see Jude Law in Hamlet and although it was long and really extra long when you can't sit still and there's a mean old lady behind you that won't let you play on your phone, it was nice to just sit without any distractions; and we had lots of good girl talk!!

While I was gone, Gigi, Grandpop and Daddy held down the fort with our 2 little princesses. The girls had a blast and Hannah hasn't stopped talking about everything they played. I was so excited to get them up Monday morning and they both about jumped out of their bed to give me hugs! Hannah is old enough to understand that I'll be back in a couple of days, but I always wonder what is going through little Alice Anne's head when I just disappear one day. She literally hasn't taken her eyes off of me since I've been home. Love those girls!

Brett was by himself with the girls on Sunday and he took them to a princess birthday party at chuck e cheese. I would have paid to have been a fly on the wall when daddy was dressing up his princesses!! I so wish he had taken a picture of them, but since I don't have a picture this is what Alice Anne wore: a size 6 month (yes, she wears 18-24 mo) white halter top that probably barely covered her chest, Hannah's tinkerbell skirt that is LONG, 1 yellow princess shoe and 1 blue princess shoe (because he said he couldn't find 2 of the same one) and one of Hannah's BIG pink bows in her hair!! He said he held her the whole time so that he could hold the skirt on her because it was so big it kept falling off!! Way to go, Daddy...you did good!!! Who would have guessed 10 years ago that Brett would be dressing his little girls up and taking them to a princess party...but he absolutely loves it and is the best little girl daddy we could have ever asked for! He wouldn't have wanted it any other way!

Pumpkin Time

2009-10-05T14:31:00.004-05:00

The boys went hunting this weekend so Sarah and Carter came to visit. It was absolutely gorgeous on Friday, so we met our play group at the Arboretum. Their pumpkin patch is always amazing!!! The kids had so much fun and Hannah and Molly were absolutely the cutest things I've ever seen!! They always have fun together, but they had a blast this time!!

Our attempt at pics of the cousins.

I promise you Hannah was thinking, "Please hurry so I can get back to Molly..."

Carter loved climbing on all these pumpkins!

Alice Anne, Carter and Samuel

We never get any group shots of our play group. We're missing Katy and Kelly in this one...

We Miss You Dada!!!

2009-09-30T19:42:00.005-05:00

We have had such a boring week this week, I haven't had anything to post about. The only thing going on around here is that we're missing our daddy...terribly!!! He was gone Wed-Friday last week and then had to leave again Sunday night. He'll be home Friday, but only to grab his hunting gear and then he's headed on his hunting trip until Sunday. We'll be so glad to have him home!!

We got our pumpkins last weekend and Hannah did NOT forget that we had some in the tree last year. She said she wanted daddy to put 28 in the tree. She didn't get 28, but she got some in the tree and she gets SO excited every time we drive up and she sees the pumpkins in the tree...

Doesn't Alice Anne look so old in this picture!! She was SO proud of her pigtails!! They were my little helpers this afternoon while I planted flowers. OH...Alice Anne has taken a couple of steps this week! When I say a couple, I literally mean just a couple. And, it's only on her terms. If I try to get her to walk to me she sits down real fast! But she wants to hold one of my hands and walk all over the place. Hannah didn't walk until 15 months, and I'm thinking Alice Anne will probably be the same...

Bath time is still their absolute favorite part of the day. They have so much fun in the bath tub and they could play in there forever!!! Alice Anne was so cute tonight...she chased Hannah around the tub for about 10 minutes trying to give her kisses. They were both dying laughing. Alice Anne was laughing so hard she could hardly get the kisses out of her mouth!!!

Hannah has created what she calls her "jobs." It is the funniest thing and she is more than serious about her jobs. She WILL NOT get out of the tub until her job is complete and it usually takes about 15-20 minutes...ugh!!! This is what her job consists of...lining up all of the letters: there are a few fish that go at the front of the line and then every night she does blue, then green, then purple, yellow and orange. Then she fills all 3 cups up with freezing cold water (because she says the fish don't like hot or warm water) and she puts 3 fish in the cups that match their color. It's so funny because she takes it so seriously!!! Don't try to talk to her while she's working because she can't talk...she has to copentate (concentrate). Funny girl!!