Zoo Trip

I just got this email....

Sarah,

We decided to go on a zoo adventure today. Thought you'd like to see some pics. They both loved the apes, Piper hated all of the brass statues (wouldn't touch them), and we stopped for a while so Brenna could put on a tap dancing show. Hope you're having a good day!

Love,
Josh

Wow..

I occasionally find myself watching Brenna and I try to see how she morphed from her baby self to now. I look at the scrapbooks and baby pictures and I don't see my baby anymore. Until this moment...

Brenna, age 6 months(ish)

Brenna, age 4

Meow...

Brenna wanted to be a cat.
I think this is in responce to her overcoming her fear of the preview of the play "Cats" at the beginning of one of her favorite movies.
Side note: We were actually given tickets to see that very play when they were here last year. Brenna loved that preview so our ad rep gave us two tickets. Turns out Brenna was terrified of the stage and didn't remove her face from my chest long enough to even see a cat. We left during the second song. Since then she fast forwards through the preview. Just recently is she able to watch the entire preview, then is SO excited that she watched and was not afraid!! I am happy to see she is working through her fears.

Piper's 2 year old pictures...

Experiment

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!!