Family Get Together #1

I always enjoy getting together with my aunts and cousins from my mom's side. We always have great food and lots of fun. This year was no exception, except I had such a busy morning. Mom and Dad had girls while I dropped Bob off at work, and I went to Z Salon and Spa for some much needed relaxation. After my appointment was over I headed back to get Bob and then on to Joan's.

Ellie and Danielle

My Cousin Carrie and Aunt Nette

Christmas Party

Mom and Janet have been going to Ellie's parties at preschool. But for her Christmas party, Ellie ask if I could go. So I took off half day, so I could spend some time with my special girl at preschool.

Let me first say that I have never been so glad that I was a high school teacher than today. First off, it was raining. Every day that I have taken E to school, it has rained. So I dropped her off, then ran to Target to get a few things and kill some time before I had to get back for the party. When I got back they were not quite ready, the kids were running around in the gym. As soon as I came into the school I started to get stressed. The chaos and uncertainity of everything that surrounds little kids is so foreign to me. It took me a while to settle down :) Then the real fun began, each parent had to sit at a station and help the kids to what ever activity was there. It was not too bad, but I constantly had to remind myself they were preschoolers, not high school students.

I was so glad to be heading back to school--I am so grateful to those teachers who teach the younger students everyday--I am also thankful that God called me to a much older bunch.

Here is Ellie and Dakota at my station

First Christmas Program

Tonight was Ellie's first Christmas program in preschool. It was such a busy day for me. I started off with work of course, then I had high school Wizard of Oz auditions for the spring play. I knew that would take a while, so I asked Mom if she would get Ellie ready-because her program was at Silver Creek MS at 6:30. We wanted to make sure we got their early to get a good seat.

Ellie and her teacher Ms. Jill and Mrs. Latham

Love this-can not remember what song they were singing

E and her best friend Dakota

The entire program only last about 12 minutes. But it was worth seeing her smiling face.

Pancakes

Today we went to a pancake breakfast at Beef O' Brady's sponsored by Ellie's preschool. Here is the only picture I got. Maddie crying because she could see Santa in the distance. She will not have anything to do with Santa.

Dr Appt

Today I took the girls to the doctor for their annual check up. Ellie finally broke the 30 lb mark and weighted 32 lbs and was 38.5 inches tall. Madelyn weighted 17.8 lbs and is 27 inches tall.

When comparing the two girls-Ellie was .5 lbs lighter and exactly the same height. Both girls are nearly the same in comparison at 1 year. However, Ellie has really long legs and Maddie has a bigger torso. I am not sure how much we are going to luck out with Ellie's clothes from past for Maddie.

Charlestown Square

Tonight it was quite warm-I am loving this winter weather so far. We took the girls to the square to look at the light show. Ellie loves Christmas lights. Maddie was not so impressed.

Ellie was so excited to tell Santa what she wanted.

Happy Birthday Maddie

My baby is 1. My how this year has flown by. But in other ways it was a long one. Maddie is so much different than Ellie. Here are a few memories I want to hang on to in regards to Madelyn.

* She is moody. She can go from happy baby, and then she will snap-watch out.
* She is a pro at crawling. She is also very sneaky. She has no interest in walking-why would she?
* She is my little eater. She will eat, then eat, and then eat again. She will eat anything but broccoli (smart kid).
* She is in size 2 Diapers and 9 months clothes (however we may be transitioning to 12 months soon)
* She pays no attention to the Christmas tree, however, we thought she would be awful
* She loves to go to my bookshelf or cabinets to pull everything out of them. Here favorite place is the pantry because she can get her favorite foods to bring to us to feed her.
* She has an ever expanding vocabulary. She can say Dada, Momma, Clo Clo (too cute), Ellie, Momaw, Papaw to name a few.
*She still sleeps so well and bed time is often 8 pm and at the lastest 9. She just wants to be put into bed-forget all that holding stuff.

I am so excited to see how my baby girl continues to grow.

THE PARTY

Today was party day. We do so much building up to the party, and to add on a holiday weekend, one would think we were crazy. It was a lot of preparations, but definitely worth it for our girls. I love our annual birthday bashes because we get to see all of our family and friends together in one place. Such a special occasion for both our girls. We are so blessed to have such wonderful, supportive family and friends. God is so good to use. Thanks to everyone for making this a special 1st Birthday for Maddie and 4th Birthday for Ellie, we love each and everyone of you.

Laura and Emmy came over to give the girls their gifts early because they would not be able to make it the birthday party. It was a nice surprise for Ellie, she loves Laura's girls.

My birthday girls

Joe and Amy

Ellie and Big Minnie

We all tried to show Ellie how to use her hula hoop. Sadly, we all failed :)

Amy

Joe

Memaw

Aunt Shannon

Besties

Maddie's cake that Maranda made for her

Love the cupcakes

Meghan and Eme

Maddie is not a huge fan of cake, but she at least tried it

E and her Rapunzel doll from Maddie :)

Maddie loves her babies

Uncle Herman and Aunt Linda could not come until later. Here is E with Uncle Herman as we are cleaning up.

Shopping

Bob and I got up about 5:00 to head out shopping. I was so shocked. It took me a while to convince myself to go into Target, it is always so crazy and the lines are long. But Bob dropped me off their while he went to Home Depot. There was hardly no one in Target. I walked right in, was able to shop, and had my pick of what line I wanted to go to (without a wait). It was like this in every store I went into. I am glad all the stores opened at midnight this year, because the crowd was gone-and I still got everything I wanted. Also a lot of the items that had sold out earlier were being restocked when we were going into the stores.

One of the items I picked up was ornament picture frame crafts for Ellie. We try to give a thank you card and a craft from Ellie every year to everyone who comes to her birthday party. Here she is putting them all together.

Also in the background is my new tree. I do not have a lot of space (or space I am willing to give up for a Christmas tree) so I wanted a more slender tree. It is only up and not decorated yet. I have no desire to get any of my decorations out or wrap my presents. Sad, I know.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving, as in those past, has proved to be another hectic day. Both dinners were at the same time. We went to Nanny's first. She has not been feeling well and just got out of the hospital on Tuesday. She really did more than she should have. I was glad that we got there early so I could help her finish up some of the cooking and preparation.

After we had a nice dinner, I stayed around long enough to clean up the dishes, then it was time to head to Bob and Janets. I was stuff, as were the girls, so not ready to eat quite yet. But we stayed for a while and the hunger always comes back. Both meals were really yummy.

Now it is time to get into bed, so we can get up to go shopping in the morning.

Together

Ellie loves to read her stories on the iPad. She is sharing one of her new ones with Maddie. This was so precious, my two girls reading together.

Alone

We love Sundays. We got up and went to church. I love coming to pick Maddie up from the nursery. She is always "talking" to some other baby-it is too cute. After church we made our regular Sams trip, but added a few items for the birthday party this weekend.

I was doing laundry and cleaning up when I heard a lot of laughter coming from the toy room. The girls had took my papasan apart and was using the base as a jungle gym. Oh man, it is amazing what happens when you leave them alone, if even for a few minutes.

Little Maddie was having a blast

Lazy Saturday

After we had our pictures taken at Mr Foto's, we came home to enjoy a beautiful Saturday doing nothing. The girls really enjoy staying home and playing with their toys.

Sickness

Ellie has never really been a sick child. She has maybe only thrown up a handful of times, but the last few weeks she has been having some major car sickness. At first I was concerned with my driving, because it was just me, but then she was getting sick after riding in Bob's Jeep. Today Mom called and said that she had to keep Ellie home from school. When she got E to school this morning, Ellie had to get sick, luckily she held it in until Mom got her out. I will definitely be asking the doctor aobut this soon.

Pop's Release

I think I mentioned a while back that we like a good wine. My husband's favorite wine is Pop's Reserve from Huber's. Meghan invited us to the release party tonight at Huber's. We got a free chili dinner and got to sample the wine. I am not a fan of Pop's, but Bob was so excited. It was nice to spend adult time with Meg. I love our girls, but sometimes it is nice to have grown-up conversations.

Thanks to my Momma and Dad who watched the girls so we could go.

Ariel

What this girl does not come up with...

She loves dress up, and this is the outfit the she put together. She says that she is Ariel from the Little Mermaid.

Birthday

Happy Birthday Princess

My big Princess is four years old today. She amazes me everyday. She and Eme woke up this morning about 7:30. They were hungry and talked Bob into making them pancakes. He made them in the shape of Micky Mouse :) Meg came over about Noon and the crying began. Both girls needed naps because of the late bedtime and early arise. After Meg left with Eme, I put the girls down to bed. When we all work up, I needed a nap too, we got ready and went out to Gattiland to celebrate E's birthday. We met up with Mom, Dad, Nick, and Tyler who wanted to go with us. I am sure Mom loves celebrating her birthday at Gattiland, but she never complains. We had a great time. Later that evening we went to visit with Papaw Jenkins to wish him a happy birthday as well.

MY ELLIE

* You are the sweetest, most kind hearted little girl
* You are wonderful with Maddie, and share (most of the time) you toys with her
* O'Charley's, McDonalds, and Texas Roadhouse are your favorite places to eat
* You are in size 4T-5T, although you would much rather not have clothes on
* Eme is your best friend, but you talk about Willow and Gabrielle (your boyfriend)
* Your favorite foods are bread and butter, milk, chicken nuggets, macoroni and cheese, and jelly sandwiches
* You are not a big fan of sweets, but when you do eat them you prefer Reese's or Hershey bars
* You love preschool and are starting to learn new things
* Getting you to bed is a challenge these days, but most of the time you are an easy riser.
* You still tell us everything you are doing before you do it (and I mean every little detail) but I am sure one day we will miss that.
* You are so facinated by Rapunzel and in love with Flynn Rider
* Dress-up is your favorite pasttime
* You love your Bible Jesus (Southeast Christian Church) and your class-you get excited everytime we pass it

Sleep Over

Ellie had her first sleep over tonight. Meg brought Eme over after work. Meg was convinced that she would be back over before the night ended to pick her up. Ellie was so excited, as was Eme. The girls normally have a cycle: 1 hour of fighting and bickering, 2 hours of never hearing them because they are off somewell playing so well together, and finally constant fighting because they are both so tired that they can no longer stand each other. But last night was great. They never once fought until it was time to go to bed. Then Eme wanted to push Ellie out of the bed. But once Bob got that settle they slept fine. It was so cute listening to them giggle and talk. It brought back memories of when I had sleepovers.

The next morning :)

Never Gets Easier

One of the hardest things about teaching is becoming close to the students over the years. You form connections, listen to their stories, watch them grow into adults (well some of them). At Scottsburg I taught two subject in multi-levels, so I would have some kids all four years. You really get to know those kids. Over the weekend I saw on Facebook that one of my students who graduated last year was killed in a single car accident. I did not have him in class last year, but everyday he would walk past my class during passing period and tell me good morning with a smile on his face.

I drove to Madison tonight to attend his viewing. It was hard seeing my past students/his friends so broken. But what made me more sad was his mother alone by his side to greet everyone coming in. Attending a viewing of a 19 year old is so different then that of an older person. There is always a void and the normal "he lived a good life," or "she accomplished so much in blank years," does not fit.

Please say a prayer for this family and his friends as they seek to find understanding in this time of trial.

My Dancer

Today at dance I got to sit in and watch E's rehearsal. It was so cute to watch all of them, and to see E's progress. She really enjoys dance, and I hope she stays involved. I now know that my hard earned dollars are going to a valid cause (I was worried about her not really getting anything out of it). I can't wait to see how she has improved in January.

Twelve Angry Complete

Tonight I wrapped up my first production at CHS, as the director. All in all things went well. It is not up to the level I had at Scottsburg, but I had been there for five years working with those kids. I have a lot of talent at CHS, and I cannot wait until the Spring. But I am glad that it is over for now. I need a break (and I am sure my husband needs one from watching the kids by himself so much). He has been an excellent daddy this last week. Also I want to thank my Mom for keeping the girls lots extra. She loves them so much and that shows.