It starts with screw

So we have been wrapping Christmas gifts and putting them under the tree over the past couple nights. The first thing we wrapped were the packages of dark chocolate covered cherries for my dad. My sister left them here after Thanksgiving and I'm ashamed to say that there are only three boxes left. I'm not admitting to how many we started off with.

Next we wrapped a pack of new screwdrivers for Bo. EC was SO excited! She desperately wanted to tell him what was in the package (even though he already knew), but I told her we aren't supposed to tell people what they are getting. Of course Bo started teasing her by "trying to guess" what is in the package.

"Is it a beautiful princess dress?"

"Is it a new lawn mower?"

Finally he wore her down and she said, "I'll give you a hint, daddy. It starts with screw!"

I can't even type that without laughing!

I hope her little innocence bring a smile to your day!

Fashonista?

EC picked out their outfits today :)

She even found both of them a red bow. Not bad, I thought! Although, everyone asked if we were taking Christmas pictures today. I don't think they look too dressed up. Is it too early to wear Christmas clothes?

Our Little Traveler

Meant to post this a while back, but it took a while to get the pictures for it....oops!

Last week Grandma asked EC if she wanted to go to Blakely with her for the weekend. She had mentioned this on our last trip to Blakely, but my girls can be little home bodies so I didn't think anything of it. We even made plans for family pictures Friday night and to host bible study on Sunday. EC had been talking about hosting her friends all week long.

Well, Grandma posted the question and when I asked EC she was all excited to go. Afraid she would back out at the last minute, I started asking questions.
Me: "You know mommy and daddy aren't going right?"
EC: "Well, can AB go?"
Me: "Well, let's ask her. AB do you want to go to Blakely with Grandma and sissy?"
AB: "NO!"
Me:"Sissy isn't going either. Plus she hasn't been sleeping well since we took her pacifier away, she needs to stay home. You know you will have to miss your friends on Sunday too, right?"
EC: "That's okay! I have to go to Pop and Gran's church with Grandma. I need to go to my class!"

There was absolutely no hesitation with that girl! Then I remembered family pictures.

Me: "Oh EC, but we have pictures on Friday. You have to be in the pictures!"
EC: (tears welling up in her eye) "but" (full fledged tears streaming) "I really want to go with Grandma!"
A quick glance at Bo, then I said, "Ok, I'll try to reschedule."

She was determined to go on this trip to Blakely by herself. This continued until Friday morning when she peaked her eyes open and started asking me about packing even though she was still half asleep. I was still half asleep, so I told her to get started and I would check out her packing job after breakfast. When I opened her bag, I found a toothbrush, a sleeping shirt, (daddy's) Chapstick, and 20 pairs of painties...you know, the essentials. Mommy helped a little after that :)


Grandma picked EC up right at lunch and they stopped at CFA Dwarf House on the way down to Blakely. Heaven!

Here are some pictures of EC "unpacking" at Pop and Gran's after they arrived. Please keep in mind that we do not usually "unpack" when we visit.

Notice a reduced number of panties on the right.

They took a trip on Saturday to "CBS" and to the Methodist Church Clothes closet on Saturday. EC had to pick up a baby for AB.

Then they went to play at her favorite place, the "park" at the Methodist Church!

She seemed to love every minute with Grandma! She didn't call home AT ALL. Grandma called once and EC decided to talk to us, very briefly. I think it hurt Bo much more than it did me :) I know she loves me! But all he could think about is what it would be like when she goes off to college. I'm not going to worry about that right now! Yay for a successful trip without mom and dad! Now to convince AB to start sleeping through the night again, so we can send her off too. Yep, she is without a pacifier, but still hasn't learned how to go back to sleep without. I'm convinced, pacifiers are evil ;)

Shopping is tough

I'm convinced the worst part of shopping for your friends as a four year old is that you find so many new things you want for yourself. Well, maybe this is a problem at any age ;) but it was particularly tough for EC today!

We got a last minute invite to a party and still had one Christmas gift to get for a friend, so we headed to Target. I needed to pick up a gift card and then we our way back to the toys. After looking at everything and much debate, SHE settled on a couple of toys for her friends. I can have absolutely no input into gifts for her friends, except letting her know if it is in the budget and I must say she is getting very good at reading prices on her own.

Riley's birthday gift because "Sleeping Beauty Barbie is her favorite." Apparently, duh mom!

Ann Marie's gift because "She loves Minnie Mouse and games."

The problem is, she has now decided that Minnie Mouse Bingo needs to be on her Christmas Wish List along with this: (Available only at Target as far as I can tell. I check everything again Amazon before purchasing, because it is quick and easy with the Amazon app.)

Then she started telling me that she really needed to get AB a Christmas gift, because she "loves [her] little sister". And she picked out this baby. AB proceeded to kiss it for the rest of the time we were in the store. 

And after she picked out a gift for AB she said, "I think AB would really like to get me a Christmas gift too. She told me with her head." So EC picked this out for herself.

And this is why I'm not a big fan of toy stores or shopping with EC. She is getting too smart and I'm just not ready for this!

Baby Lane!

We put up a little announcement on facebook tonight, so I had to share it here too!

You know it was impossible to get a picture with both of them looking at the camera, so looking at each other is the next best thing right?! Here are some outtakes!

A close up of the shirts...kind of.

AB was being a little pistol this day, but luckily her big sis can make anything fun!

Reading adventures

I'm so proud of my big girl today! Well, I'm proud of her every day, but I'm extra impressed at the moment. My sweet girl learned all of her letters and all of their sounds by the time she was 18 months old. She loves to learn and we had about two hours in the car every day to practice them - thank you Atlanta traffic!

Since she turned 3 and a half, I have sat down with her a handful of times to try sounding out words. She would sound them out, but just hasn't been super interested. Then she would start guessing instead of reading, so I got frustrated that she wasn't really trying and just stopped. Life is too short to be frustrated with my precious little ones. Plus, technically other kids don't learn to read until kindergarten, so why rush right?

I thought she was ready and felt like she was bored with other things, so we tried again. But the same thing happened, she started guessing and I decided I wasn't going to push it. Well, today she asked to get down the Leap Frog game from Laura. I obliged and told her we had to do it together because I didn't want to her to accidentally tear one of the cards. So little sister napped and we worked on three letter words. I am so proud because she did a FANTASTIC job! She read over half of the cards in the stack before getting tired!

Here is a short video of her working on "ix" words. This was the last card and I'll admit we were both a little tired, but I didn't think to record her before this one! And I accidentally cut it off when I got excited, but it is still cute!

I'm hoping this is the start of her learning to read and not just a fluke! After she learned "at" words, we read Pat the Cat. She was so excited to be able to read almost half the words. I think she will be really excited when she can read by herself and doesn't have to wait on mommy to finish _____ to be able to read to her. We will hopefully always do our after lunch and before bed reading times, but seeing her read by herself is going to be so incredible!

Halloween with four

We had a fun Halloween day yesterday! It started with story time at B&N! This girl loves to go for the baby watching as much as she does the stories and activities!

Don't they look like angels? Of course they are always this good... not!  ;) Usually AB is yelling, "baby!" until she has given each baby at story time an equal amount of attention :)

We had a little surprise from our neighbors after story time. Halloween cookies! We are quite lucky to live down the street from a baker!

Trick or Treat was so much different this year! It was fun, but so much more busy. Eric did get a walking cast put on yesterday, so that made it a bit easier for Scott and Amelia. He was cute learning how to balance on his new cast and boot. I'm sure Scott's back was hurting by the end of the night, but Eric seemed to have fun!

Check out those muscles :)

These little girls were very cute as ladybugs.

Cheese!

Sweet little hands...

and feet!

I'm so glad we had the extra costume for AB this year, because it was a cold night and the ladybug costume was very warm. 

And we had to add a tshirt under my little princess's costume :)

Oh that hair!
What made Halloween so interesting for us this year is the ENORMOUS sweet tooth my one year old has! After the first house, I found her eating her candy bars through the paper, yikes! I made the mistake of unwrapping a piece and giving it to her, so I could take the one with the wrapper out of her mouth. After that the candy eating did not stop. She had almost nothing in her bucket when we returned home. Seriously. Here are the two little ones at the start of the evening, a little timid.

Big sister showed them the way!

Look at that handful of candy! Hard to believe that little pumpkin bucket was nearly empty at the end of the night and we lived to tell the tale!

Puppy petting is nearly as fun as trick or treating!

Eden was definitely our little social bug of the evening! She loved saying "bye" and calling the pumpkins "honk honks". This is really funny because Eden speak so well and very clear (and she is only 18 mths old!) But she will not call a pumpkin a pumpkin. She has decided they are "honk honks" and that is it. One house had a string of pumpkin lanterns and she felt the need to stop at each one to say "hey honk honk!" She was super cute! AB on the other hand, she just wanted the candy in her mouth :) "Open peas!"

The night wouldn't be complete without a little post trick or treating craziness on the front porch (note, AB was still eating candy).

The token pictures with mom and dad!

 

And a cute pumpkin! Happy Fall!