Growing Up Too Fast

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

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

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

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

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

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...

...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!