Halloween 2014

Well my girls went out as Elsa and Anna - big shocker for everyone out there.  They were perfectly set for this combo tonight. Reagan is the oldest and a blonde. Maddy is the younger one and a brunette. Perfect. They walked around together.

They were both super excited. Jim and Papa took them around. Maddy and Papa apparently were running from house to house. Jim stuck with Reagan. Maddy made it all the way down the street and back and called it a night. She was done. She walked in the house, found Mimi and called it quits. Wow

Reagan wanted to keep going. She and Jim took off while the rest of us handed out candy and watched some Halloween spooky shows. Reagan made it almost 90 minutes before she decided she was cold enough. I was pretty impressed. She actually came inside and said "I want to go back out when I get warm". I just smiled. She had enough candy and it was time to settle down.

Both of them were tuckered out from the full day. It was a successful fun time, as always.

Picnic in the basement

We've had family in town for a little while now. We all decided to stay home tonight and play at our house with our new toys. We bundled up and came home about 6 pm. We ordered pizza and had a picnic in the basement and watched "wipeout".  

The girls played with all of their stuff. Maddy played with her new toys, Reagan played with her Princess Castle and her cash register. She and Maddy eventually climbed under the fort and hung out with Furbie for a while.

Reagan is getting the hang of the cash register and how it works. Now we need to find the directions so we can play some of the games for her to do.  Maddy played one of Reagan's new strategy games - it was cute to watch her play with it. She and Reagan also played with the basketball hoop. It was way too cute to see them play together.

We let them stay up until almost 11pm. Wow. But we've stayed up all week. Needless to say, I'm tired. But it will be nice to sleep in.

Happy Leap Year 2012!

Such a rare day. I noticed it this morning when signing the papers at the doctor's office. Wow. I have to do something cool today.


Oh yea, stay home with my daughter. Chicken Pox!

Happy Halloween

I hope everyone had a safe and happy (and of course, candy-filled) Halloween.

My Cinderella

Tonight, Reagan's school had their Fall Festival. Reagan was so excited to dress up like Cinderella. She had her hair done, her Cinderella dress shoes and her beautiful dress on. I was actually able to take a few pictures. Jim took her over to the school and walked her around to the various rooms. They had different arts and crafts and, of course, handed out a share of candy and little toys.

She came home and was so excited. I love seeing her glow.

Mother's Day 2011

Today was a much different Mother's Day that I was used to. My mom and dad decided to visit my brother's family in Mobile, so I was without my own mom today. I was slightly jealous my brother got to hang with her, but happy that he was able to spend the day with her. It's a rare thing. I do get to see her all the time - literally.

Anyway, because Maddy and I were both a little icky, we stayed home from church. That threw me off. Jim and the girls gave me my presents. Loved them. I got a mother's ring and a nice bracelet from them. Very nice. :)

Then we packed up and went to visit Jim's mom in Indiana. We took lunch in and hung out for a few hours. Reagan was rambunctious and crazy as normal. She played well actually. Maddy slept a bit and played a bit. Eventually she got cranky and I realized that she was starting another fever (ugh). We got home about 6:00 pm and unloaded the kids and the car. Maddy was definitely warm and Reagan was done for the day and testing our kindness to say the least.

By 8:00 pm, I was done. I told Jim I had to get out of the house. Reagan was driving us nuts by being... Reagan. She was just so defiant all evening. That with a sick baby was pushing my limits. Ahhh. Bedtime was nice. Jim tried to put her down and he got frustrated as well. I walked in and handed him the baby and kicked us out of Reagan's room. She was naked. I said "good night".

Jim was amazed I think that I would just leave her like that. She was not listening and we were at capacity and were starting to yell. Bad combo. So I gave us all some breathing room. I eventually went back up to put her in bed. She had calmed down by then and become agreeable. Nice.

Jim went up to UDF to get me some ice cream. Thank you Jim. I needed something to soothe my nerves. It was a nice day. But I'm tired.

Easter Sunday fun

We had a great Easter. It was our first year with Jordan sharing the holiday with our family. We had Papa Thomas and Wanda down on Saturday for dinner. Then we had Mimi and Papa up for dinner on Sunday after church. The kids played and ate way too much candy. All in all, it was a wonderful day. Happy Easter everyone.

Christmas Eve

We had a pretty lazy day. We've been prepping for the holidays for two weeks. Everything we did this year was last minute, so we are still working on wrapping presents this morning.

Maddy has been patient with me. I usually spend a ton of time with her on the floor. I haven't done much of that in the last few days because of all we have to do. I can tell too. Whenever I get her on the floor or interact with her, she completely lights up. Guilt!

So tonight, we are going to Papaw Carman's house for dinner and fun. I expect all the normal stuff. It will be good to see the family. I hope all goes well.

Christmas season 2010

We put up our tree last night with the help of the two older girls. Actually, both trees. We put the big one in the basement this year. We decided to have a cozy Christmas instead of putting the tree in the main area. I like it much better. The girls did a good job putting the ornaments on. They, of course, argued about where to put ornaments. I thought it was funny. :)

We also took Reagan to her first Christmas program at the church. It was about 90 minutes of singing. She didn't pay any attention. She played on the iPod the entire time. Ooops. At least she was good.

Thankgiving and First Snow

We had a great Thanksgiving today. Aunt Wanda and Papa Thomas came down to visit and share in some food. We found out the hard way that it takes days to thaw a frozen turkey. Whoops. Jim had to do the "quick thaw" method in the sink last night to get the turkey ready to cook. It wasn't that big of a deal. We are both up until at least midnight between baby and video games (you figure out who was doing what). :)

I tried a couple new recipes - sour cream and chive potatoes and a cranberry dressing. Hmmm. The potatoes turned out okay. I personally would not make them again. The cranberry sauce was really good. It actually had an entire orange (including the rind) ground up in the mix. The green bean casserole never tasted so good.

Maddy was held the entire time - Wanda held her for the first 30 minutes she was here. She did that until her arms got tired. Then once she woke up and ate, Papa held her until they left. Reagan showed Papa the entire upstairs - including showing off her bedroom.

We had a really nice time visiting with the family. It was a true treat to have them here in our home.

Mother's Day 2010

Mother's Day was a nice day. I'm surprised. It was the first day "for me" that was actually nice in a while. I was surprised. We got up and had a decent breakfast. I was actually able to take a shower and didn't have to get Reagan up. Jim got me a nice present from the family. Church was nice. We got to hang out with my mom after church and Jim's mom in the evening. All in all, it was nice normal day without a lot of chaos. Ahhhh!

New Years!

It's January 1st - that means a few things to me. 1) I made it through another year and Christmas season. 2) My daughter is 2years old which makes me wonder where time goes. and 3) I'm going to be 40 this year. Whoops.

Our Family Christmas

When Reagan got up this morning, I took her out and showed her the tree with all the presents from Santa. She flipped. We turned on the lights and she immediately started trying to figure out which one was hers. So cute. She'd asked and I'd tell. When she got to one of hers, she wanted to open it right then.

Unfortunately, Jim was not quite ready so I had her carry a present downstairs to Daddy to let him know she was ready. After about three presents, she was done. I got something cool for my mac and keyboard hook up. I'm excited. I gave Jim the PS3 headset and Reagan got some toys. She gave up opening the presents after three and left the other one unopened. We can't wait til she opens that - it's a medical kit for kids. :) he heee

So at this point today, Jim, Reagan and I are nesting in the basement. Reagan is frolicking about - just having a ball. She's even gotten to speak with Jordan today. We were happy about that - she LOVES her big sister.

Oh well - on to nap time and I am going to play on my keyboard. :)

What an awesome Christmas so far!

So sweet

Tonight, we went up to Papa Carman's house to celebrate Christmas. We had a really nice time. We all ate a good dinner and opened presents soon after. Rhonda also was able to hang out with us for a while which was nice since we never see her. She's quite a treat to be around. I love her sense of humor.

Rhonda got Reagan an awesome music box kit with a drum. Reagan LOVED it. She banged on that thing FOREVER. And boy was it loud. Hmmm. She even had Gama and Papa on the floor with her playing a tune. And yes, I got pics.

Later, when we were leaving, I asked Reagan if she loved Gama. She said "I love Gama and I love Papa too". Awwwwww

Thanksgiving Fun

Our Thanksgiving started off quite busy. Jim and I got up before the kids and started working on the appetizer for our dinner and getting a french toast breakfast together. I didn't feel like I even slowed down enough to eat - we had a lot to do by 10am.

Once we were all up and fed, we packed the car headed for the Grandma's house in Indiana. We got there about 11:30am and hung out all day. Reagan did really well. She played and played and played. She spent tons of time with Grandma's dogs. Jordan played games on my phone most of the time and Jim chatted with everyone (and played with the dogs too).

Reagan actually ate a full bowl of mac and cheese for the first time and even had a bite of clam dip. Yep - clam dip. I freaked out. Papa Thomas had Reagan on his lap and was feeding her mac and cheese when he just, out of the blue, took a spoonful of dip and popped it in her mouth. I put my hands over my face and said "that has clams in it!" Ohhhh. I had to breathe. She was fine. Of course. Papa didn't know not to do that... oh well. I've given her strawberries, so I guess I can't say anything :).

Anyway, she read books and played a lot with Papa. He even taught her how to do the wheelbarrow game - he picked up her feet and taught her how to walk with her hands. So darn cute.

Aunt Wanda gave her a music book that played some cool classical music. Every time Reagan would hit a button, she'd dance where she was the whole time that it played.

We left about 5pm and Reagan promptly fell asleep in the car. She was zonked! The thing that cracks me up now - she in bed and talking up a storm. No nap - extremely tired but talking. Hmmm.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

Happy Halloween

Tonight was Reagan's first Halloween. I dressed her up last year, but this year we walked around. She was a witch. Jordan was a devil. We took off about 6pm and went to go get the neighbor kid Lauren. We walked down the street to Mom & Dad's house - all was good. She was slow but happy to be outside and going to Mimi & Papa's house.

Once we left there it took us a bit to hit a good stride. We had to walk up a hill to get back into our neighborhood. Once we did, every house was mainly on a flat street and they were all handing out candy.

It was funny to watch the lightbulb go off in her head. She "tagged along" with the girls until about the fourth house. That's when you could see her go - Oh I get candy for saying "Trick or Treat" and being cute! Wow.

Once that hit, she RAN! She RAN from house to house - passing up Jordan and Lauren each time. She was over eager to get to a new house and then wanted to keep getting more and more candy from the bowls.

One of our neighbors actually let her pick all of what she wanted - she got five lollipops. Hmmm ONe of the last houses we went to, the husband was dressed up as a large ape. She stared at him for a long time. She waved and carried on with him as long as he was at a distance. Once he tried to come close to do "high five" and she started backing up like "oh no" and looking at mom. But distance was just fine. (I wish I had a picture). :)

All in all, we had a blast. We stopped at one hour, but I am sure she would have kept going if I would have let her. At the end of the night, we sat on the couch eating a "lollipop" and watched Dora Halloween. Yea!

Halloween party

Tonight we all took Reagan up to her school for their Halloween party. At first, she was a little tentative, but eventually warmed up to everyone. We put her in her witch costume and she pranced around in that all night.

The first room was her room - they had an art station set up. She stayed in there for 30 minutes coloring and gluing and coloring and gluing. Her teachers all said she could probably color all day and be happy. She's the one at the end of crafts that doesn't want to stop.

After that, we went across the hall to her old room where they had a bunch of dogs. Oh my! There were two great danes and several beagal mix puppies. Reagan had no fear at all. None. JOrdan was in heaven too - she was sticking close to one puppy in particular. She tried hard to convince us to get it, but my allergies won out. Reagan went right up to all the dogs and played, hugged and just had a great time.

THe last room for the evening was the cookie room. Uh oh. They had sugar cookies all ready to decorate. Of course, Reagan ate the icing... and then had a sugar melt down. So we left. We all had a great time. Reagan was adorable with Jordan by her side. (our little witch and devil)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day guys!

Happy Mother's Day everyone!