Snow :(

So almost IMMEDIATLY after my last post declaring a "dusting" the snow got so heavy that people couldn't get home and were abondoning cars.  Adam is stuck at his office over night and there is no way we can leave our house (by car anyway) due to the snow, ice, and now pile of cars blocking the road that slid while trying to get up the hill.  This is the fastest snow ever!  It happened so quickly!  It went from "oh it's sticking" to "we are trapped" in about 45 minutes.  The girls have had a blast playing in the snow and thankfully we are home and warm! 

When I told Caroline that daddy was stuck at work, she put on her rain boots and hat and said she was going to walk to his office to rescue him,  sweet girl!

Snow!

Its snowing in Birmingham today!  It's just a small dusting, but super cold! We stayed in this morning so we didn't have to get out in the cold.  When it finally started snowing, these girls were ready to get out in it.  

The Greatest Show on Earth

This weekend we took the girls to see the circus for the first time. To say they loved it was an understatement.  They sat in complete amazement for almost 2.5 hours.  AP had her paci and when the elephants came out she dropped her mouth open and her paci fell out.  It was so funny! C kept saying, "you HAVE to see this mommy!!"  AP loved the elephants and all the other animals. C loved everything.  Adam and I had a really fun time too. It's been so long since I have been to see the circus that I forgot how much fun it is!

C also had fun taking pictures with my phone...

Twenty One Months Old!!

Twenty one months old

January 20, 2014

In just three short months my baby will be TWO! Yikes!  She is at such a funny age right now and we are loving every second (well...maybe not EVERY second).  She speaks so well for her age.  Teachers, friends, strangers, doctors, and most people we have come across will comment on how clearly she speaks and how large her vocabulary is.  It's amazing.  She has so many more words than C did at this age.  She has a lot of funny expressions that we love.  She has been calling me Emily - which I don't love but Adam finds hysterical.  She tells everyone to "chill out" when it gets loud around here, which is often.  She asks Adam to "come and join us" each morning for breakfast.  She says "I'm a genius" at times - which is true.  She also makes funny faces on demand.  She does mad, sad, happy, sweet, and surprised.  It is so dang cute.

She has been a horrible sleeper for the past couple of months and so we will be trying to move her to a big girl bed soon.  Hopefully that helps, or else we will be going back to sleep training...which sounds miserable.

She loves to give us hugs and kisses.  She has such a sweet personality.  She especially loves Caroline.  On Fridays, AP stays home with me while C goes to school.  All day long she asks to go get Sissy.  It's precious.  They play so well together and I am so thankful.  She also loves her friends and will ask for them by name.  It's so nice to have friends with kids the same age that we get to watch grow up together.  

Her favorite things are art (stamps, paint, crayons, stickers, glitter, anything crafty), playing with the kitchen and food toys (the Melissa and Doug ice cream set and pizza set are the favs of the moment), anything outside, and baby dolls.  

I used to worry that Caroline's big personality would over shadow Ann Parker's milder one.  Boy was I wrong.  AP is really coming into her own and her personality is just as big.  She loves her time in the spotlight and making people laugh.  She is outgoing, friendly, and happy and just a joy to be around.

Happy 21 months sweet girl.  I am so proud of you.  You are such a wonderful girl and a perfect part of our family!

Conversations with Caroline

I love having conversations with Caroline.  About half of them don't make any sense, but they make me laugh.  Here are a couple from our morning together.

C: I have a boo-boo on my hand.

Me: oh no.  How did that happen?

C: I got it in the bathtub.  I was swimming but I wasn't.  I was sitting like this.  (Lays on her tummy on the floor)

Me:  I am so sorry! Good thing you were so brave!

C: yeah...but I love chocolate chip cookies.

Me: me too.

C: because we are best friends.

Me: we sure are.

C: let's sign. We are best friends.  We are best friends.  Not Ann Parker.

Me: Ann Parker is our best friend too.

C:  no she's not because she is too little and she can't have my ladybug plate.  Mommy, I got this boo boo on my hand (same one from one minute prior) because I tried to hit Ann Parker.

Me: I thought you got that in the bathtub.

C: good thing it isn't snowing today.  I don't have a snow blower.  I love chocolate chip cookies and toys and treats.  I will get some.  I have six 6 pennies.

Me:  ummmm...what?

C:I don't feel well today because I love painting today.

Me: painting doesn't make you feel bad.

C: oh I get it.  

She starts setting out her paints and I continue picking up, assuming the conversation is over.

C: I love painting today because of Baby Moses.

Conversation is totally over... Mommy doesn't know how to respond.

2013 in Review...

It's freezing today, literally freezing.  We woke up to 8 degree weather and while it has warmed up to 18 at the  moment, we still aren't leaving our warm house.  We couldn't even if we wanted to.  I decided today was a good day to make some soups.  Real soups, like my mom and grandma used to make.  Once I started, I realized that we couldn't leave the house...I have to let one of the soups simmer for almost 3 hours.  These better taste good...:)

I always like looking back at each year to see how far we've come.  It's also fun to imagine where we will be in one year from now.  2013 was a wonderful year for our family and I am sad to see it go, but I know that 2014 has lots of exciting things happening so I anxious to see the adventures of this year!!

January:

Caroline finally joined the Potty Club!!  What a wonderful way to bring in the new year!  Ann Parker was 8 months old (turned 9 months in January) and was starting to get into everything.

February:

February was still pretty cold, so we did lots of fun indoor activites - like Airwalk!!  We had a lovely Valentine's Day.  The girls got some sweet gifts and Adam and I got to go to a delicious dinner just the two of us.

March:

It started to get warm so we took advantage and spent plenty of time outdoors.  Caroline's school had spring break, and we spent the week having lots of play dates with our friends.

April:

Ann Parker turned ONE!!  We celebrated with a "bee-utiful" birthday party!

May:

Caroline turned THREE!!  We spent her actual birthday playing with her favorite friend, Sydney.  She had a fun park party the week before.  Adam and I got to sneak away to Renyold's Plantation for a weekend.

June:

We spent a lot of time outside playing and soaking up the summer!  Ann Parker still took long naps each afternoon so Caroline and I got lots of quality time, which we usually spent sitting outside eating ice cream.

July:

July was a fun month!  We celebrated the 4th of July, went to the lake with friends, and watched the birth of the new prince. They even wore London shirts to share their excitement!!
 

August:

Adam turned 30 and I threw a surprise party for him.  We celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary.  Caroline started taking ballet and soccer.

September:

Caroline and Ann Parker both started school.  Caroline also started choir and had her first soccer game.  I turned 29!

October:

Caroline had soccer games almost every weekend, which we loved going to watch.  We went to the pumpkin patch and were lucky enough to have Mimi and Papa join us.  Both girls had their Halloween parties at school and we had a great time trick or treating and participating in all the fun Halloween activities!

November:

Both girls had their Thanksgiving programs at school.  We drove to Jackson, MS to spend Thanksgiving with my sister.  We took the girls to see Disney on Ice, which they loved.  Adam had a big trial in Washington, DC and we missed him terribly!  The girls and I went to the Veteran's Day Parade and cheered on our Vet's!

December:

I had a crazy idea to do a Christmas activity every day.  While fun for the kids, it turned me into a crazy person because I felt that I had to get things done.  Not my finest month...  We had a wonderful Christmas and saw many of our friends and wonderful families.  We ate, laughed, made memories, and spent time together and a good time was had by all!

Wow!  What a year!!  I am so excited to see what wonderful things will happen in 2014!  Stay tuned...

I love me too

Here's another post on the funny things my girls say and do that no one else probably finds amusing except for me...

When you tell Ann Parker "I love you" she has been responding with "I love me too!"

If you aren't doing something that Caroline likes! she will tell you that "you are out of control."

Ann Parker will always say yes to the question "do you want 20% more cash back?"  We were trying to see if she could be the baby from the commercial one day when ALL she said was no.  Are you hungry? No. Are you thirsty? No. Are you tired? No. Do you want your baby doll? No. Do you want a show? No.  Do you want 20% more cash back? YES! It was so funny so we made her keep doing it.  She will say no to everything except that one question, which she says yes to.  Looks like she won't be in that commercial any time soon.

Caroline will tell me that she can't eat lunch or dinner because it will make her tummy hurt, but cookies will always make her feel better!

I buy these little individual cheese snacks.  Ann Parker will only eat them if you give it to her with the plastic wrapper still on.  She bites through the plastic and then scoots the little piece out.  If you try to give it to her unwrapped, she will freak out.  Seriously.

If you ask AP what a horse says, she responds with "giddy up."

Caroline has such a wild imagination!  One day she asked where daddy was.  I told her he was at work and her response... "Sighhhhhh.  Daddy's work is a magical cage of mystery."

Caroline loves to tell me "when I was a little girl" stories.  If you ask her when she was a little girl, she says last year but most of the stories are from 10 minutes earlier or the day before at the farthest.

That's all I can think of right now, nut funny things happen every day so I will be back with more!

Caroline Grace, 3 Years 7 Months

I had meant to do a 3 1/2 year update...but life got in the way so 3 years 7 months will have to do.  It's hard to believe that my little Caroline is closer to FOUR than three - didn't I just have her??  Time certainly has flown by.  I am constantly amazed by this little girl.  She is pretty fluent so new words aren't popping up as quickly as they used to - she knows them all by now!  She does say some funny things:

When I say it's dinner time/bed time/pick up time/etc. she replies with, "ummmm....I can't do that right now" or "I'm not so sure about that."

When she's excited about something, she will jump around and do this cute little dance and say "oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah!!!"

She reverses the vowels in safe keeping and often asks to hold things for "seef kaping."


She is still doing ballet and choir and loves them both!  We won't be doing soccer this spring, but we may add gymnastics or art or something else fun.  She loves school and is thriving.  We got her fall evaluations back a few months ago and she had almost all the highest marks you can get, except in letter recognition.  We have worked on it (as well as some phonics and basic spelling) and she now knows all the letters (all uppercase and most of the lower case), can spell a few words, AND she can make most of the letter sounds and figure out a word that starts with that letter.  She can count to 40, probably higher but that's usually where she stops.  She knows about 15-20 of the states on a US map without us prompting her.  She is incredibly smart and I couldn't be more proud.

Finally, after 3.5 years, we have her sleeping at a good place.  She will go to bed when we tell her and she will stay in her bed and sleep all night.  Now, she doesn't even start getting tired until 8:00 so it's not until after that, but hopefully with a new earlier morning routine and once her activities and school start back that time will get earlier.  I am hoping for an 8:00 bedtime.

She is still not a great eater, usually only eating one good meal a day.  She loves pancakes and waffles, bacon, hot dogs, pizza, pickles, steak, all things that are sweet, most pasta (except macaroni and cheese), chips and cheese, tacos, fruit, broccoli, salami, and a few other things.  She HATES eggs.  She is wearing a size 9 or 10 shoe and wears anywhere from a 3T to 5T.  She needs 5T for length, but for waist size she can fit into 24 months!!  She is a super tall, super skinny little thing!  Maybe she will be a super model one day?  I would like to retire early so this may work out well...

She is a social butterfly and loves her friends.  Her favorite friends are: (I use this term loosely, these are just the friends that she asks to play with/asks about the most often...and it could be because I am friends with the parents in most cases) Sydney, Brooklyn, "other Caroline", Charlotte, Maggie, Jack, Sam, Raughley, "baby William", Chambers, Cohen, Rosemary, and AP (not our AP, a girl in her class).  She makes friends where ever she goes!

She loves Ann Parker and often plays mommy to her.  I hear her say things like "don't be scared," "it's okay," or "just hold my hand," all the time.  She is very protective of her sister when we are out in public.  When we go to Publix she always asks for two cookies so her sister can have one.  When we are home, just us, it's another story.  She doesn't always like to share her toys or me.  We are working on that...but it's a hard lesson to learn.

Her favorite things to watch on TV these days are Paw Patrol, Team Umizoomi, Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins, Super Why, with the occasional Mickey, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Henry Hugglemonster thrown in.  Her favorite movies to watch are any of the Tinkerbell movies.  We took her recently to see Frozen in the theaters and she LOVED it.  When we walked out she said, "THAT WAS AWESOME!!"  She also requested I call her Princess Onna and that I call Ann Parker Princess Elsa.

She is very sweet, always giving me hugs and kisses and telling me how much she loves me.  She is also our happy girl.  She is usually singing and dancing her way through life with a huge smile on her face.  I hope she is always this happy, but based on some of her mood swings I think the teenage years will be hard (kidding....not really...).

Here are some pictures from our recent mini session with Simple Color Photography.  I am still in disbelief that she is this big!!

Seriously, could she be more gorgeous????  The correct answer is no, she is the most beautiful three year old to walk this planet.

25 Days of Christmas: Day 25

Day 25: have a birthday party for Jesus

We had a wonderful day.  The girls and I sang happy birthday to Jesus and hung an ornament on the tree for him.

25 Days of Christmas: Day 24

Day 24:  go to Christmas Eve communion

We go to the candlelight communion each year.  It's so beautiful and such a nice, quiet way to begin all the festivities of the evening/ next day.

25 Days of Christmas: Days 22 and 23

Days 22 and 23 didn't go as planned....on the 22nd we were supposed to go see the Nutcracker and on the 23rd we were going to go to Zoolight Safari.  On the morning of the 22nd, C woke up and said she didn't feel well and AP had a runny nose.  I didn't want anyone to be sick for the big day, so we changed our plans.

Day 22: snuggle up and watch Christmas shows

We stayed in bed and watched shows on the iPad.  I hate when they don't feel well, but I love the hugs.

Day 23:  get a new car!

We celebrated Christmas with my family that day and Kiki (my sister) got the girls a Barbie mustang!  Move over Santa, Kiki is coming to town!  They were beyond excited.  They sure do love their Kiki...and so do I!

25 Days of Christmas: Days 20 and 21

 Day 20: Go to the North Pole

We took the girls to the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum to ride the train to the North Pole.  We got them dressed in their sweet matching jammies and drove to Calera.

Despite the strange faces, they were excited to get on the train.

We rode in the Frisco train car.

Once we got there, elves came into the train and visited with us and then Santa and Mrs. Claus came.  After that we were served chocolate milk and cookies before making the trek back to Calera.  AP was miserable the whole time.  She was tired and hungry and she also really didn't want to see anyone dressed up...  Notice her faces in the pics below, it's hysterical.

Day 21:  Make a gingerbread house.

My friend Robin hosted a girls gingerbread house party at her house.  She has two little girls as well.  It's so fun having so many friends who have only girls like me!

Robin's house looked amazing, as usual.  It was such a wonderful idea and so much fun!!