Piper's birthday

So...Piper's birthday is the day after Christmas. (Yeah, you all feel sorry for her now, but did you send her a card or wish her a happy birthday??? I thought not! haha -to anyone who did acknowledge her birthday, please disregard the smarmy comment. We love and appreciate you very much.)

We had a quiet celebration this year, full of what Piper loves most. I think it was a great day for everyone.

She opened presents

She enjoyed watching the snow

She enjoyed her favorite dinner of Quesadillas and, of course, cupcakes

"two"

And a new birthday tradition of a slumber party in the living room.

Long ride home

So, we had a 8 hour trip home from Arkansas that went amazingly well (despite Piper throwing up twice). The girls really entertained themselves quite well.

Here are a few conversations that took place:

1) Set-up: Brenna had used the word disgusting earlier in the day, but obviously didn't quite have a grasp of the meaning, so...

Me: "Brenna, do you know what disgusting means?"
B: "No."
Me: "It is like gross or yucky, but worse...you know, REALLY gross."
B: "You mean, like when my nose starts to run and I stick my tongue out to catch it?"
Me: "Yup, you got it."

2) Set-up: Brenna loves to sing. She makes up songs all the time. This time she made a current song and made it her own.

"Come into my heart, come into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Come in today...I color with my feet...(indistinguishable words couldn't be heard over the howling parents after that line.)

Picture of the Year

Christmas update...

We, like so many others, had a wonderful Christmas that included WAY too many presents for everyone. We feel very blessed to have such wonderful friends and family who love us so much.

We spent Christmas day together, just the 4 of us. None of us even brushed our teeth. How is that for a leisurely day!!! We opened presents, ate a great brunch, played with presents, took naps, ate a traditional dinner, played with presents and went to bed!

On Friday evening we headed to Arkansas to spend some time with Josh's family. We stayed in a hotel Friday night, which the girls LOVED. And I would like to just throw out here that I don't know how so many of you "bed share" with your children!!!! They take up WAY more space than I do! And I don't sleep so well with feet in my face.

Anyway, we got on the road for our short 1 1/2 hour road trip to the Grandparents and about 30 minutes into it, Piper threw up. All of her breakfast. No details to follow! It was a one time event and she was happy after. We had a wonderful visit with the entire family over the course of three days. They are a great group of people to be associated with. We had a family picture taken of the whole clan.




Great Grandpa and Great Grandma Bailey

Our Christmas card....

Here is the Christmas card we sent out this year. I thought I would post it here for those who "didn't make the cut". Too be honest, there weren't many who did get this card...they were expensive! But something this cute has to be! I ordered these from Vista print (maybe if I give them a plug they won't sue me for copyright infringement - cuz I KNOW they read my blog page too!!!)

Happy Holidays!!

Sweet Brenna

I love this little blurry picture of Brenna.

Hanging at the shop

While being at the shop, we do a lot of playing and horsing around. I hope to attach a clip of the girls dancing to a little Dora "CD" player. Brenna wanted to take some pictures today, so here you can see the budding artist at work. Watch out, Anita, she might give you a run for your money! :)

Tee Hee Hee....

Thank you John Wilguess for this brilliant idea!! Hope it works.

She is persistant

(double click to enlarge)

And so it begins.

(double click on to enlarge)

No journaling necessary

(that is a sucker in her hands)
(and that ugly couch is in the playroom at the shop-NOT my house)
(ok maybe a little journaling is necessary)

Do me a favor, please...

While visiting my folks, it became obvious to us that so many more people read this blog than I ever knew. My intended audience has always been the grandparents, but I know friends read it as well.

I obviously don't mind who reads it, but am curious. After catching up on all my new posts, please leave me a comment on this entry, even if you think I already know you read it. If I don't know you personally, let me know how you found me.

I think this will be interesting to see the network that led you to us. Thanks in advance for participating in this little experiment.

Sarah

One of Five updates (I'm a bad mom!)

Just some cute pictures of the girls playing together...kind of.

Rockets!

Brenna decided she wanted to make rockets of the these boxes. The rocket action didn't work so well, but they had a blast anyway!





Yes, that is Lawrence Welk my girls are watching from their rockets.
Are you telling me YOUR family doesn't drop everything for LW on Saturday night???

Go Diego Go!

We were given two tickets to see Go Diege Go Live. (Thank you, Pat!!!) Brenna and Daddy had a wonderful time. They even got to go backstage and meet Diego and the Bo Bo Brothers (they are the monkeys that stole Jaguar's growl in the play). She was "a little shy" meeting Diego, as you can see, but loved the play. She is still talking about it.

More of the time with my parents...

Not far from my parents house is a great little pond filled with ducks year around. I'm sure at one time these ducks were wild, but now they are rather domesticated and really like the bread they receive all day long from visitors.




This one is pretty fearless. It actually ate out of my dad's hand at one point. Piper loved them!

Fun with Damma & Dampa

I am embarrassed by how overdue this update is. I've had the pictures, but haven't taken the time to update.

In early November, we went to see my parents. We all had a wonderful time. Here are some pictures of our trip.

Halloween

We had four Trick or Treat festivities before Halloween even arrived. I see this as a common theme on friends blogs. We went to Storybook Forest, which I highly recommend. It is great for the ages of my kids. We participated in the Trunk or Treat at MRCC, Trick or Treat at OC and finally SSS Fall Festival. We decided to forgo the actual day of T or T. No one seemed to notice or care.

If you don't remember our experience last year, you won't fully appreciate our experience this year. Back in the summer, Brenna decided she wanted to Ariel (The Little Mermaid) for Halloween when she was four. I held off a long time to begin the costume; a little gun shy from previous years. Brenna held true to her request so after a long discussion about the fact that if I make an Ariel costume she WILL wear it, we headed to the fabric store. I could draw this out, but the short of it is that Brenna loved her Ariel costume and wore it with pride (as long as it had a shirt under it - it apparently was scratchy. I often think that with satin (insert eyeroll here)). And Piper was fine being whatever it took to get candy, which this year was Flounder, Ariel's trusty sidekick.

I took pictures of the SSS Festival, but wasn't around for the OC part. Below is a picture a friend took for us that night. Piper was in a mood that day and it wasn't worth the effort to get her in costume. Like I said, she was happy with whatever got her candy. This is the only picture of them together. And isn't Daddy cute!!

School pictures...

Brenna was so proud to have her hands on the table. I guess that is a sign of growing up for her.

Piper kept ripping her pigtails out this day. Usually she leaves them alone. She must have known it was picture day.

Ain't motherhood grand...

There are no pictures for this, you will just have to use your imagination...which really can't be much worse than reality anyway.

Piper is sick. If you have a weak stomach skip this paragraph because I am telling the entire nasty story. Yesterday afternoon we were having a lovely day at the shop. Around 3:30, Piper crawled up in my lap for what I thought was some cuddle time. (I should have known better since she is not our cuddler.) After a few sweet moments, Piper coughed..and puked down my back. There was no mess anywhere expect on the entire back side of my shirt. Piper looked pale, but seemed okay. I called the shop a few doors down, briefly explained the situation and asked if they had any shirts in XL for really cheap. She told me I could come in and look on their bargain rack. So, I got our good neighbor Mark to watch the girls and shop while I went shopping. The cheapest shirt they had, which was 1/2 price, was $40. I don't spend $40 on a special occasion shirt, let alone an emergency-my-kid-just-puked-on-me-shirt. So I saw they has some "Edmond" shirts, so I got one of those. Don't love it, but it worked in a pinch, but was still $18.00. For a T-shirt. Who does that on a regular basis? Anyway, I digress....I headed back to the shop and see that Piper is back to usual happy self. For a bit. Not too much later, she crawls back up in my lap and I know I am in trouble. I immediately start shutting the shop down. As we were heading out the door, Piper does a little cough and as I say "Uh-oh", she throws up again on my new shirt, face and IN MY MOUTH. And continues to throw up. This time she and I are both covered in vomit, as well as the carpet. And while this is going on Brenna is yelling "That is naaasty!!!" repeatedly. Thankfully Mark swept Brenna away so I could tend to Piper and the mess that was growing. Elaine shows up with a bucket of water and bleach to start cleaning carpet and damp paper towels for Piper and me. It was the moment that I was cleaning Pipers hands - because she was nearing freak-out about her dirty fingers- and i saw the vomit dripping off my glasses that I knew I had just won the inevitable one-up-game on motherhood vomit stories. I stripped Piper to her diaper and loaded up. We drove with the windows down most of the way. At one point, Brenna asked me to roll the window because the wind was blowing her hair. After a few minutes, she asked me to roll them back down because it stunk. No kidding.

For those who are concerned about Piper, she seems to be fine. She slept well last night. She woke me up at 5:30am and immediately wanted to eat. As of last report (Josh is with her this morning), she was holding down the crackers and water she was given at dawn.

And if anyone is interested in purchasing a turquoise blue XL shirt, I've got one available for the discounted price of $15. haha

T-ball finale

T-ball season has come to an end. And it is bitter sweet for us. Bitter for Brenna, sweet for Mom and Dad. haha

She loved it, and we loved watching her. However, some days, weeks, it was overwhelming to fit it all in. And we didn't even practice. I got my glimpse of jr. high and feel very, very tired.

Before the last game we have a pizza party for the team and all the players got a medal. This is Brenna's pride and joy right now. She wants to wear it everywhere. (I saw Troy wearing his at church and felt like a bad mom since I refused to let her!) I think she will remember t-ball for a long time.

Thanks, Coach Josh, for putting it all together and being so encouraging of our young team. You may have just laid the ground work for the next Babe Ruth! (And just for the record, I am well aware that will NOT be Brenna. I said she had fun, not that she was a natural! haha)



This picture says it all!

Dads & Donuts

Last week, while studying the letter "D" at Sonshine School, Brenna's class had "Dads and Donuts". I cannot explain how excited Brenna was about this, other than to say that she told me everyday for a week that "Dads and Donuts" was coming up and Daddy was supposed to take her to school.

I haven't heard much about it because Brenna has told me it is a secret, but I know they had fun. She sat at a table with Mr. Matt and Collin, and her friend, Raif.

Piper's first magic trick!

"Where is Piper's arm???" "There it is!!!!!" and again and again and again...

Scott and Mark from next door have been working on magic tricks for the girls. I think Piper is trying to return the favor.

The latest and greatest

Brenna posing for her t-ball trading card!

The Cubs

Brenna and school

Brenna is learning so much at school. Everyday she talks about her friends and what they are doing. She tells they have learned new songs, working on their alphabet, cutting, writing their names, and lots of other things. She fills me in on what Ralph did in chapel, who sat with whom for lunch, and who wasn't in class each day. She often saves some of her lunch until after school and "has it for a snack". One day last week she hardly ate anything and I asked her why. She told me she didn't have time. I asked her if she was playing around and didn't eat. Then she looks at me with very large serious eyes and says, with her hands out in exasperate, "No, they only gave us five minutes to eat!!! Can you believe that?" Ummm...No. We have great conversations about school.

And then I learn the most when Brenna doesn't know I am listening. She was playing "school" with her Little People and had all the students lined up reading. Then the teacher came barging in and said "You kids are being too loud. You woke me up from my nap!!!" Hmmmm....

I know my daughters imagination. So, Ms. Mandy and Ms. Jennifer, lets make an agreement. I won't believe all I hear about school, if you don't believe all you hear about home!!!

Back together

Josh and Brenna got back from San Antonio last night. All is well in our world. Brenna had a great time and talked about it rapid fire until she crashed in her bed. I heard about "Big Top", Sam's wholesale (apparently they ate lunch there one day), Uncle Ben's guitar, Chick-fil-a, sleeping in Beck's bed and Thomas the Train. When I asked about Briggs, she said "He doesn't do anything". And that was all she had to say about Briggs. haha

The first thing she said to me when I saw her at the airport was "Mama, what did you wear to church yesterday?" ???????...I can't even imagine what was going on in that little head of hers!!!

Sounds like it was a great trip for all of them.