Christmas Eve and Day

The girls helped decorate cookies for Santa before bed time and we wrote Santa a short note on the plate we placed them on. There was a lot of excitement and a little sadness. Elizabeth knew that Arnie (our elf) would be gone in the morning..

As expected Santa made a stop at our house that night. He ate a few bites of the cookies (leaving a heart behind, do you see it?) and drank a little eggnog. He left the girls their Santa 'n Me plate complete with the addition of his hand print. The reindeer ate the reindeer food we left out for them in the bowls we made at the Santa 'n me event at Art Space Studio. Arnie (our elf) returned home to the North Pole until next December. It was a busy night. The empty tree became buried behind a pile of packages.

When the girls woke up Christmas morning the first thing they did was checked to see if the reindeer had ate the food they left out. Then they checked to see if Santa ate the cookies they had left for him. Elizabeth declared that Santa didn't eat all of the cookies (could she have them?) or drink all of his eggnog. Then Elizabeth went running to see if maybe, just maybe, Arnie had decided to stay. Much to her dismay he was gone. They finally checked out what Santa had left under the tree. I don't think they were too sure about where to even begin.

The girls had a great time with all of the gifts. Katherine still has not quite figured out opening gifts yet. I think that Dennis and I ended up opening most of hers. She just wanted to play with the items after they were opened. I'm sure that next year will be a completely different story. They spent most of they day playing with the new toys that they received. It was a lot of fun. You can find additional pictures here.

Dennis' parents joined us for a little video conferencing a little later in the morning. The girls enjoyed seeing them. We'd hoped to catch up with other family via video conferencing a little later on, but didn't get that opportunity. Hopefully, we'll coordinate that better next year.

It's Snowing!

Okay, not really.....I do wish it were though. I've been wishing, praying and dreaming of snow since the weather here turned bitter cold early this fall. I thought for sure that would mean the Carolina's would certainly be getting snow. Thus far the cold hasn't meant that at all. We've even had days back up in the upper 70's. I know there are a few of you out there that think that would be nice about now and I'd gladly trade you if I could have some white fluffy form of water.

You might wonder why I specifically mentioned it as a form of H2O. Well, it seems that my girls have wonderful creative imaginations. A couple of weeks ago, I heard Elizabeth hollering, "It's snowing! It's snowing!" Like the silly person I am, I looked out the window. After all it was only 74 degrees that day when we'd mailed Christmas packages. I went into the family room to find Elizabeth and Katherine sitting in a pile of shredded white tissue paper. Elizabeth was tossing it up towards the ceiling and calling it snow. They giggled and laughed and made a few snow angels before I asked them to help me clean it up. They tracked a trail of it from the family room to the trash can in the kitchen. God answered my selfish little prayer, just not exactly how I'd imagine He might. It was a lot of fun. I certainly can say it snowed in our family room this year and we had fun playing in the snow.

Preschool Christmas Program

Elizabeth has been so excited about this year's preschool Christmas program. She has been practicing her songs. I couldn't quite figure out when she sang Happy Birthday to Poppa Royal why she sang "Happy Happy Birthday" in the middle of the song, but I now know why. That's how they sang Happy Birthday to Jesus in their Christmas program.

She did such a wonderful job. It was night and day from last year. Last year she spent much of the time on stage trying to hide behind the child next to her and eventually ended up sitting on Mrs. Amy's lap. This year she was completely into singing and the arm movements. She's growing into such a big girl right before our eyes. It has been absolutely amazing to see the transformation of her.

I had expected that one of us would be walking in the lobby with Katherine, but she was completely mesmerized by the kids on stage. She sat happily on my lap rocking out and clapping with the songs. I'm certain that she'll be quite the ham next year when she gets her first opportunity to be on stage. She loves to sing and dance.

You can find additional pictures and another video clip here.

Happy Holidays!

This is the first year that our Holiday letter will be online! If you've been following our blog all year some of the highlights here might sound familiar.

This year has flown by for us. It's hard to believe that we've now been in North Carolina for 6 years. This fall has been especially cold so we are hoping to see a good snow at some point. We (okay, I) definitely miss the snow! I'm certain my neigbhors think I'm crazy to volunteer to shovel their driveways if and when it snows.

Elizabeth (now 4 1/2 years-old) is in preschool 3 days a week at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church(GSUMC). She loves going to school. Her favorite part of the week is show-and-tell. It is so hard for her to actually put her item in the box at the beginning of the day. She wants to tell everyone about it first thing. I've been amazed at how she loves to work on her writing homework. She's still going to speech therapy twice a week, but she's making good progress. Elizabeth is still our little tomboy. She loves cars and planes....and boys! I never knew the boy craziness started so young. I suppose I should have known better about that, too. I can hardly believe that she will be starting kindergarden next year. When drive by the new school being built down the street, Elizabeth proudly declares, "That's MY new school!" It will be the school that she attends next year.

Katherine is growing up way to fast. I can hardly believe that her second birthday is just around the corner. She's been talking non stop for as long as we can remember. She is a complete girly girl. She loves to play Mommy to her babies and little puppy dog. It's the cutest thing to see her tuck her puppy under her arm at night time. She also loves to take him everywhere. She stuffs him into a little purse and slides the purse onto her arm. She is completely ready to start school and some days it's hard to get her to leave Elizabeth's classroom. She'll go to preschool at Good Shepherd 3 days a week next fall. Elizabeth really enjoys terrorizing her and I don't think that Elizabeth has realized yet that she's going to get her paybacks one day.

This summer's fun included a visit from Mary & Royal. We headed to Topsail Beach for a great time. Katherine was absolutely fearless when it came to the water. Dennis brother, Tim, had two weeks leave from Iraq and we got to visit with their family as well. It was great to see everyone. Nandy, our Nanday Conure, passed away this summer. That was not an easy thing to explain to the girls. Elizabeth still mentions him every once in a while. Both of the girls loved going to the pool this year. Elizabeth suprised us by starting to swim. We'll most likely sign her up for lessons next summer. Katherine and I made a trip to Chicago to visit with family. My Dad and his family drove out to Chicago from California and we spent a lot of time sight seeing together. It was great to see so many family members. The kids missed seeing Elizabeth, but had a lot of fun with Katherine. It was a summer filled with family/friends, and wonderful memories. (Summer Blogs)

My Mom came out this fall and we did plenty of running around. We went on Elizabeth's school field trip to Black's Peaches and Farm (pumpkin patch), where we tried to stay dry, and attended one of Elizabeth's friends birthday party at the Bank of America stadium (where the Carolina Panthers play). Elizabeth is all about football! I was baptized at GSUMC while she was here. That has been something that I've been wanting to do for some time now. The girls really enjoyed her visit. We've had plenty of fun with the season change. The girls have really enjoyed watching the leaves turn colors and fall. We learned that Mary (Dennis' Mom) was diagnosed with breast cancer. They caught it early and we are very thankful for that. Dennis made a trip back to Oregon to surprise his Mom. It has been a very busy fall (Fall Blogs).

This year we started ,what I hope will be, a new Holiday tradition. We took the girls to ride the Polar Express ride on Great Smokey Mountains Railroad (We believe Blog). The only thing missing was snow. The girls had a great time even though they only napped for an hour on the drive up to Bryson City.

I've included links to various photo albums that go with the events I've hightlighted in this update. There may be a few blog entries to go along with them, too. We hope that all is well with all of you and your family during this Christmas season. You are all are near in our thoughts and prayers. May the spirit of this beautiful and blessed season be with you now and throughout the new year.

Love,
Dennis, Marla, Elizabeth & Katherine

Elf On The Shelf Arrives

To all of those who may not be familiar with the Elf on the Shelf see this link.

Elizabeth named our Elf Arnie last year. She wasn't into him last year until after he was gone. She looked for him and asked about him nonstop for several months. We have a little mail box just inside of her bedroom door and I told her if she was really good, maybe Arnie would send her a letter from the North Pole. She was good and was completely tickled to receive several short letters from Arnie. He told her how much he missed her.

So, this year she was so excited about his return to our house. Every morning she runs downstairs to see if she can find him. On a few occasions I (we) have forgotten to move him and that was very upsetting to her. I've told her that he told me that he likes that spot or more recently that because I was up late getting packages ready to mail he didn't get a chance to visit the North Pole that night. She seemed fine with those explanations, but a little disappointed that he was so easy to find.

Katherine hasn't quite figured out Arnies role in the Christmas season yet. She does squeal with delight and chase after Elizabeth searching for him and calling his name, but doesn't talk about him much more than that. I'm certain that she'll be more excited about him next year.

Recently, we went to a friends house and they have an elf named T that comes to visit. Tyler was considering touching him and Elizabeth was great at standing in front of him and telling him that he's not suppose to touch him, as she hollered for us. That was followed by a reminder from Tyler's Mommy that the reason why we can't touch him is because he'll lose his magic. It was neat to see that Elizabeth's been paying attention and was so concerned about her friends elf.

I've been trying to remember to snap a picture of the various places where Arnie has hung out this year, so we can revisit his stay long after he's gone home to the North Pole (Link to pictures).

Thanksgiving Luncheon

Elizabeth had her Thanksgiving Luncheon at school on November 19th. It was just the 4 year-old classes. Katherine was so excited. She was one crazy girl. She ran all over the multi-purpose room while we were setting up. Then when the 4's classes started coming in she stopped and looked for familiar faces. The kids were adorable in their little Pilgrim hats and Indian head bands. We sat down and waited to say grace. By the time it was time to eat, Katherine was so excited that everyone was there she couldn't sit still. I think I spent the majority of the time chasing after her. Finally, one of Elizabeth's teachers held on to her so that I could eat more than two bites. We had fun sitting with our friends from other classes.

Santa and Me Time

We signed the girls up for the Santa and Me story time at Art Space Studio (local paint your own pottery place). We were meeting up with a few friends there. Most importantly, Griffyn, our neighbor and Elizabeth's favorite friend on the planet. The kids had hot chocolate and cookies followed by a story read by the owner, Hillary. Then she explained that they would be putting their hand prints on a plate that would then be boxed up and shipped to the north pole for Santa to put his hand print next to theirs. He would deliver each child's plate when he delivered their gifts on Christmas Eve.
The kids also painted reindeer food bowls or them to place reindeer food (oatmeal & glitter) in and sprinkle in their yards so that the reindeer could find their houses. The girls were both tickled to paint and hang out with a great group of kids. Dennis and I helped with painting. The polk-a-dots were my doing.
Elizabeth and Griffyn didn't want to say good-bye at the end of the event. They wanted us to all go out to dinner together, but that didn't happen. They tried their best to convince us. I'm excited for the girls to see their Santa and Me plate Christmas morning.

I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged! I was tagged by Robin to share Eight Things About Me. Here are my replies:

8 Favorite TV Shows
Survivor
Greys Anatomy
The Mentalist
Private Practice
NCIS
Chuck
24 (Robin it started last week (Nov 23!)
My Own Worst Enemy

8 Things I Look Forward To Christmas!
Peaceful nights after the girls are in bed
A clean house
Christmas Music
Lots of snow to play in (a good blizzard with a couple of feet would be nice)
Opportunities to give to others less fortunate
Wrapping
Snuggles
Watching the girls take in the magic of the Holiday

8 Things on My Wish List
SNOW, SNOW, and more SNOW
A new TV Console Table
Music
The touch ups in my kitchen to be magically done
Endless motivation to get back in shape
Family to live closer
No sibling drama (what is it with big kids tormenting their younger siblings?)
The time to finish a couple of books

8 Things I Did Yesterday
Cooked Thanksgiving Dinner
Made a trip to Dunkin' Donuts for box of Munchkins (YUMMY! I think Elizabeth ate 1/2 the box)
Drank almost an entire bottle of wine (It was a really good bottle of wine)
Washed dishes (with some help. Thank you, Dennis!)
Enjoyed family time
Ate too much
Watched football
Spent some time being Thankful

8 Favorite Restaurants
Salsarita’s
Pollo Inka (Peruvian Restaurant in CA)
Johnny B's
Just Fresh (Yummy turkey burgers and baked sweet potato fries)
Captain Steve's
Steele Creek Cafe
Wahoo's Fish Taco's (another CA Restaurant - Can you guess what they serve?)
China Town

8 People to Tag
I am supposed to tag eight bloggers here, but I can only come up with three bloggers I know well enough to pester to update their blogs (hint, hint). Copy what's here and do the same on your blog if you can. I totally understand if you don't want to join in, but let me know if you do!
Debbie (the only other person I know well enough out here besides Robin, Stacey, & Kim D.)

Rules, Rules here are the rules: 1.Post the rules on your blog.2.Answer all 8 of the six items listed.3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog or emailing.

Seeing Blue

After two years of having a blue test square painted on my kitchen wall it has disappeared. All of the walls are now blue. There's still some touching up to do, but this will give you the general idea.

You can see a few other pictures here.

We Believe

This weekend we made a trip to the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad in Bryson City, NC. We were headed there to ride the Polar Express! Elizabeth was very excited about it. It's one of her favorite holiday movies.

It was a long 3 1/2 hour drive. We headed out shortly after picking Elizabeth up from preschool. We'd expected that the girls would fall asleep and get a good nap in on the way up there. Haha! Of course, that didn't happen. They only napped for about an hour each. That is not that big of a deal for Elizabeth, but it is a huge deal for Katherine. We knew we could potentially have our hands full with her.

We arrived to find a good amount of people waiting and all of the kids dressed in their pajamas. We brought the girls Christmas pajamas to change into once we got our tickets. The kids received golden tickets as a souvenir. We had about 20 minutes before it was time to board and Katherine wanted to run in any direction that she possibly could.

Surprisingly, it was actually a pretty mild night as far as the weather went. We certainly didn't need the winter hats and gloves that we brought. There were even people on the train the opened their windows (a little annoying for those of us with small kids). Katherine immediately wanted her window open and I thought for certain we were going to see her throw a huge fit. We found something else to distract her and she was fine.

When the train started moving, Elizabeth snuggled in close to Dennis. I don't think she was too sure about it. Katherine didn't notice at first, but then she finally sat down and started rocking out to movement of the train. She thought it was pretty neat.

Then the fun began. First the girls golden tickets were punched. Then we were served hot chocolate. Neither one of the girls were too into that. They did love their snack which was Santa shaped chocolate covered marshmallow. They both ate about half of that. After that they listened to part of the Polar Express book being read. That was followed by a stop at the North Pole to pick up Santa. As we approached the North Pole there were a line of homes all decorated with lights for the Holiday and a lit up Santa's sleigh and reindeer. Both girls had their faces plastered to the windows looking at the lights.

We sang Christmas Carols until Santa arrived to our train car. Everyone was required to sing unless you wanted to do a solo. YIKES! You bet we all sang! Santa finally arrived about half way through the Twelve Days of Christmas (which I'm more familiar with the Elmo version that Elizabeth's had me singing for the last couple of weeks).

Elizabeth was excited to see Santa. He brought each of the girls a bell and posed for a picture with them. Katherine was not to sure about him, but we were able to snap a quick shot before she squirmed away from him. He asked them what they wanted for Christmas. Elizabeth's answer was no surprise. She wants a kitty cat. Santa explained that he can't take a real kitty cat on his sleigh because they don't like to fly so he'd have to leave that one up to Mommy and Daddy. Katherine didn't offer anything up, but Santa guessed that she'd like a new dolly. She nodded. They both told Santa, "Thank you and bye-bye!" It was cute.

We continued to sing almost all the way back to the train station. Then we tucked the girls into their carseats and put in the polar express movie for the ride home. They both nodded of about a half hour into the trip home. It was a lot of fun.

You can see additional pictures here.

Trick-or-Treat

Halloween started off with a very interesting start. The picture above is what I was very shocked to see when I opened up the kitchen sink cabinet to get a bottle of glass cleaner. YIKES! (Yes, this is the actual spider. Yes, we spent quite some time taking pictures of it. Is you skin crawling yet?) I could tell it was dead right off so it didn't freak me out too much, but it was huge! I snapped a picture of it and sent it out to Dennis and my friends. A few folks thought that it might be a fake spider. I assure you it was not! Dennis and I spent a little time doing some Arachnid research and were able to determine by the number of and rows of eyes (3 rows with a total of 8 eyes) that it is a Wolf spider. They are actually venomous and if bitten you should seek medical attention. That is a little intimidating especially since we've now killed at least 3 more Wolf spiders of that size. I know it's not easy to really get a sense of how large it is from the picture. It's body is about 1 1/2 inches and probably a good 3 to 4 inches with it's legs extended. BIG!

We purchased our pumpkins early, but were late to get them decorated. The large pumpkin sat in our garage for too long and developed a bad spot on the back of it so we really couldn't carve it. All of us were sad about that. Elizabeth as usual wanted a cat on the pumpkin. I got the idea for the face from a very cute picture on a calendar. The girls painted their pumpkins and then I drew thew faces on them. Elizabeth's pumpkin cat face is, of course, the red one. I had fun drawing the faces on the pumpkins.

It was very chilly out, so we decided to head out around 6:30pm this year. I was surprised that it was still fairly light outside. We brought the umbrella stroller stacked with jackets, drinks, and snacks (also, just in case the little strawberry fairy decided she was done walking). Elizabeth got a great kick out of ringing the door bells and Katherine would have gladly invited herself into each house. Both loved saying "Trick-or-treat" and "Thank you!" Katherine would not hold her onto pink pumpkin for anything. After about the 3rd house she demanded to have her coat on. Our little black kitty cat had a blast! By the time we were half way down our street, Katherine was done and Elizabeth had been hitching a ride in the stroller for several houses, so we headed home. I think that next year they'll be begging us to walk the entire neighborhood.

This was the first year that we have not handed out candy. By the time we got home from our own trick-or-treating most of the kids in the neighborhood were done, too.

Leaves Here, Leaves There, Leaves Everywhere

It is finally Fall! Fall is one of my favorite times of year. The leaves really started to change while my Mom was here visiting. I wish I could say the same for the temperatures. It was in the low 70's for most of her visit. This week is quite different. We've officially had a few nights in the 30's and today's high is in the mid 50's. I'm so glad to finally have fall temperatures.

The girls have been having a blast with the leaves. We went for a walk yesterday and they loved the sound of the dried leaves crunching under their feet. The did a great job of playing follow the leader as they tried to step on all of the same leaves. Of course, giggling all the way! Elizabeth even pointed out that it was raining leaves.

Elizabeth and I collected a large variety of brilliantly colored leaves of all shapes and sizes. I initially thought we might try to put them on the sliding glass door, but realized that Katherine would probably love to crunch them up as they dried. Several weeks ago I found a package of fall colored silk leaves in the Target dollar bins, so I decided those would be the ones that we'd put up on the sliding glass door. It's a good thing that I didn't use real leaves because as I had expected, Katherine has pulled off every leaf that she can reach. Every afternoon, Elizabeth and I put some more up and when Katherine gets up from her nap she promptly removes a few. I think that they are having quite a good time with it.

Last year I had placed the leaves we collected into a large hurricane candle holder. They dried beautifully and maintained most of their brilliant colors. I kept moving them around to display the various beautiful colors throughout the season. Elizabeth helped me place many of the leaves we collected on our walk into the hurricane candle holder. She has asked to see the leaves several times since then.


I'm looking forward to a very chilly Halloween Trick-or-Treating adventure on Friday.

Taking the Plunge

Well, I finally did it! I was baptised at the 10:30am service on Sunday, October 12th, at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church (GSUMC). I was surprisingly more nervous that I had expected that I would be. There are approximately 500+ people per worship hour at our church. If I had to guess I'd say are probably more at the 10:30am service than the other two.

The series of sermons that we are currently in is titled Oddballs. Perfectly fitting for my baptism. I'm sure that I fit right in as an Oddball. ;) There were certainly many points in the message that I could relate to directly. You can check out that sermon here.

That morning Talbot had stopped me in the lobby to ask me if I was ready and to give me some idea of when during the worship hour we'd be doing my baptism. It went in one ear and out the other. I mistakenly told him that I was nervous (like he couldn't tell). I was suppose to be baptised after what song? YIKES! He then said it was an April song (meaning that April would be singing it) and I knew I could remember that. (She has an incredible voice!)

At the beginning of my baptism, in true Talbot fashion, he announced to the entire congregation that I had mentioned that I was nervous. GEE thanks Talbot. Although, it didn't make me any more nervous. At that time I was a little more focused in not falling face first into the portable baptismal pool. Funny that's the one embarrassing thing that I didn't dream about happening.

It went a lot quicker than I had imagined. Two simple questions and a dunk. I think I chose to wear clothes that soaked up as much of the water as possible. They were certainly heavy (for those of you who know my inspirational side, I'm sure you can imagine that I have some deeper thoughts about this statement). I was very, very, very, glad that I had tied the drawstring on my pants tightly. That would have been quite a finish to my baptism. The one thing that I was certain would happen did. I exited out the back of the stage without my shoes. Thankfully, Rebecca (one of the other Pastors at GSUMC) was right behind me and grabbed them for me.

I had shared with many of my close friends that I was going to be baptised. There, of course, were other friends that I've made at church that had no idea. I still get a few congratulations here and there. I guess it never occurred to me that an adult baptism was such a big deal, but I'm finding out from people that they think it is huge. I've been Christian for a while now, but just not done the formal public declaration of my faith. There was no instant transformation for me once I'd been baptised. The Lord has been working in my life for some time now.

We didn't do anything special after Church. Dennis needed to get home to pack and head to the airport. My Mom, Elizabeth, Katherine, and I attended a Panther's Football party at good friends house later that afternoon. Dawn was very excited for me and made sure to have a small cake to celebrate my baptism and card. It turned out to be a very nice afternoon.

Meeting Sir Purr

On Saturday, October 11th, we helped Elizabeth's friend, Matteo celebrate his 4th birthday at Bank of America Stadium. It was a lot of fun. We started out with a tour of the facilities for the adults. It was hard to keep all of those kids interested as we got all of the nitty gritty details about the stadium and the Panthers. It was actually pretty interesting.

We got to sit in seats down along the field as various things were pointed out to us. They have put in new HD big screens since Dennis and I had been there for a game. Then we crammed (we were packed in there like sardines) a lot of people into a elevator. We got to go into an executive suite the same size as the Panther's owners. Very nice with a great view of the field. Then we got to see where all of the TV broadcast are set up at and where all of the writers hang out. We swung by a nice lounge area before heading down to wait for Sir Purr's (the mascot) arrival.

The kids had a blast waiting for him. They finally got to run around like crazy kids. When he arrived the kids were thrilled. Katherine was in love at first sight. She could hardly wait her turn to get her picture taken. I'm certain she was the 2nd kid (after the birthday boy) to get her picture taken with him. We had a hard time keeping her out of everyone else's pictures. Elizabeth was very patient and waited her turn.

The kids were thrilled to get to play a little catch with Sir Purr. Elizabeth kept lining up on the line like she was playing football. That's my girl! Do you think she watches too much football? She kept asking when we were going to get to go and watch the game.

Elizabeth got a Panther paw print temporary tattoo air brushed on her arm. She was so proud of it. It was cute to watch the kids get them because the air brush tickled. She was very sad when it finally washed off.

While we were eating pizza we learned that players were arriving to take the buses to the airport for their game the next day. The buses were parked just below the area where the party was located. All of the Dad's and a few Mom's camped out watching hoping to catch glimpse of any of the players. We did get to see one player arrive. I'd tell you who it was if I was a Panther fan, but I'm not at all.

It was a very cool birthday party! I think that both of the girls were sound asleep before we pulled out of the parking lot. There are additional pictures in our Fall Pictures.

Black's Peaches & Farm

The day after my Mom arrived our week picked up the pace. The very next morning we head out for Elizabeth's first field trip of the year. We went to Black's Peaches and Farm. The field trip started out with us following someone who wasn't sure where they were going. The GPS in our car kept telling us to turn right here......and the leader kept on going straight. It turned out that this was a common mistake that a lotof folks make when heading out there. We just took the scenic route and there's nothing wrong with that. The kids could care less and the farm pretty much only had GSUMC preschool there so it really wasn't that big of deal.

Rain was in the forecast and we all hoped that it would hold off. It was drizzling a little when we first arrived but stopped shortly after we arrived. Elizabeth was the line leader for the week and had fun being in front.

First, the kids were able to take dry erase markers and draw faces on pumpkins on the wall of a barn. Then they gathered for a quick group picture before being able to jump on the hay trampoline. The trampoline was basically a large pile of compacted hay held up by a wall of hay bales. The kids thought it was a lot of fun. Several of the siblings (Katherine included) joined in on the fun.

Then they got to pet and feed some common farm animals. Katherine didn't have the patience to wait her turn to feed the horse. Elizabeth and Grandma stayed back with the class while Katherine and I moved on. Katherine loved the cow and giggled like crazy when it licked her hand. I think everyone liked the goats who were very friendly. Both Elizabeth and Katherine (as well as most of the class) was sad that the chickens wouldn't come closer.

From there we headed to play in the hay playground. It consisted of several large pyramids built out of hay bales. The kids climbed up them and then would jump off. Elizabeth played for a little while and then sat with Grandma for a while. Katherine was the crazy kid who followed the big kids up the pyramids and proceeded to jump off. Thankfully I was there to catch her. The pyramids were easily as tall as me so that's a pretty big jump for such a little girl. Crazy fearless kid!

Next we headed for a talk about corn. We timed that perfectly. Just as everyone sat down it began to pour. I felt awful for the folks that were on the hay ride. I'm certain they were soaked. By the time the demonstration was over the rain had stopped.

We headed for the tractor and trailer for the hay ride. The bales of hay were fully saturated by the down pour. Some folks were smart and sat on their coats. Not me.....I walked around with a lovely wet butt the rest of the field trip. I'm surprised that my Mom didn't snap a picture of that. The kids loved the ride and it took us through some woods, down a hill into some mud, past and old vine covered storage building, and through the corn field.

Then we had two mazes to go through. One was just a circle that ended in the middle. The next was a corn maze. The kids thought that it was a lot of fun. Katherine, who is skinning like Elizabeth, kept almost losing her pants and wanting to cut through the field where there was no trail. I ended up carrying her, much to her dismay.

We had lunch and then received mini pumpkins for the kids. On the way out the girls stopped off to pet the pigs. Katherine LOVED them while Elizabeth wasn't so sure about them at all. We headed into the farms store to pick up some produce before we headed home. It was a very fun day at the farm!

Budding Artist

Elizabeth has been very fond of kitty cats for as long as I can remember. When she was a baby a “meow” from Dennis and/or I would send her into nonstop giggling. She talks about wanting to get a kitty cat all of the time. That’s her reward for being out of pull-ups at night time and no more potty accidents. We visit the cats up for adoption at Petsmart every time we go there and she’s always heart-broken when we leave without one.

No surprise then that she’s taken to drawing kitty cats. I’ve always drawn cartoonish kitty cats for her (I’ll have to draw one and take a picture of it so there’s something for comparison). I was so surprised when she proudly (that’s putting it mildly) showed me her drawing. The picture is of the 2nd one she drew for me. Almost right after she showed me the first one she erased it and drew another and another. That’s the one bad thing about a magnadoodle.

Since she started drawing cats, she’s branched out to race cars, spiders, faces, and even a few simple landscapes. She asks to draw almost every single day. Now she's started writing letters and has a blast practicing writing her name. She has weekly homework from preschool where she has to practice the writing the letter of the week. Normally, that's the first thing she wants to do as soon as she gets home. It is so amazing to see her being so eager to learn and draw.

Halloween Costumes

This year was really tough because the character that Elizabeth wanted to be was very hard to find. She wanted to be Stephanie from Lazytown. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $40+ for a Halloween costume. Last year we tried to talk her into getting that costume and it was at Target. No such luck this year. Every time we asked her what she wanted to be instead of Stephanie she couldn't decide. So I decided for her.

Friends of ours are partners (or own not sure which) a couple of Halloween stores and since Katherine and I were going to be across the street for a doctors appointment (a whole different blog topic) so we stopped in to pick out costumes. Katherine had a blast running around and I was a little bummed that Elizabeth wasn't with us (she was in school). Although, I think she may have been a little scared.

There were so many choices and finding a costume that would fit is always tough with my petite little princesses. Elizabeth would have loved to be a race car driver or Lightening McQueen or Mater, but I really wanted her to be something more girly. We had just seen a cat in out back yard that morning so I felt pretty confident in my choice of a back cat costume. As you can see by the picture she LOVED it!

I'd hoped for a strawberry short cake or little red riding hood costume for Katherine, but the were all in Elizabeth's size and not in her size. So we decided on a little strawberry fairy costume. We tried it on her and she had a ball looking at herself in the mirror. I think she would have worn it the rest of the day.

I'm really looking forward to taking them out this year. I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun!

Kiddy Pool Fun

This weekend our weather was back into the 90's and it was humid. We decided it would be fun to blow up the kiddy pool and slide and let the girls cool off. They had an absolutely wonderful time. I'm certain that after nap time today they'll be asking for me to fill up the pool again. Unfortunately the weather is about to cool down over the next several days. I know that they are not going to handle the answer well at all.

Elizabeth had a blast climbing the slide and going down it on her belly face first! The more water in her face the better. Although, she wasn't so crazy about the grass clinging to her or littering the pool. She had a blast playing with the sand/water toys until she decided to jump into the pool and landed on one. She ended up with a nice little scrape on her knee and decided that toys in the pool were not such a good idea.

Katherine is not quite able to climb up the slide by herself. Her little feet just kept sliding right off. Elizabeth tried to help her, but kept knocking over the slide, so either one of us had to be there to help her up each time. Elizabeth made it a race to beat her sister back to the slide so she could slide two times in a row. Surprisingly, Katherine managed to keep her head above the water about 95% of the time and when she did go under she held her breath and quickly righted herself. She's one fearless, independent, and determined little girl!

When it was time to get out, Katherine was ready, but I think that Elizabeth could have lived in it. We will definitely be dragging it out if we get anymore warm days before Fall officially sets in here in the Carolinas.

We took quite a few pictures, click here to see them. Below is a video clip of the girls splishing and splashing in the pool.

Katherinisms

Katherine's been talking for a while, but I was laughing at the first one on this list this morning as she was handing me her page out of the coloring book.

"Herrio!" = Here you go!
"How-Uuuuu?" = How are you?
"Awnt juice" = I want any beverage
"How eww-ewwing? = How are you doing
"Uts at?" = What's that?
"u ewwing?" = what are you doing?
"I duno." (as she lifts her arms and shoulders) = I don't know
"Ezzibt" = Elizabeth
"Hoed me" or "Hoed bb" or "Hoed tis" = Hold me or Hold baby (her baby doll) or Hold this.
"I uv eww" = I love you
"tank eww" = Thank you
"I aunt olor" = I want to color.
"errs it go?" = Where's it at
"I tun, ease" = My turn, please"
"un on" = Turn on (TV, Wii, music, wii, toy....whatever she's pointing at)

Back to School

I can't believe preschool has started again. It seems like just yesterday was the beginning of summer. I actually welcome a more consistent routine. I've definitely become accustom to lazy summer mornings. This will be our 2nd week back to school, so I'm still trying to get us all up and out the door on time.

Elizabeth is in the three day 4's program at our Church's preschool. I had the opportunity to introduce myself and Elizabeth to one of her teachers at of the Thrive Alive concerts. Elizabeth was not too shy with her and I was glad to see that. We talked quite a bit and I really like her. Dennis and I attended the meet the teacher night where we met the other teacher. She is also very nice. I think that both of them are a very good fit for Elizabeth.

The next day was the meet the teacher day for the kids. Elizabeth was a little nervous and asked me several times not to leave her. Katherine, who attended with us, made herself quite comfortable. I don't think that she would have noticed if I disappeared. Elizabeth finally sat down at her assigned spot and nicely shared her coloring project with Katherine. She met a few of her classmates. I was a little worried since we did not know anyone in her class. All of her classmates from last year are in different classes. By the end of the meet the teacher outing she gave both of her new teachers big hugs and told them she'd see them next week.

The first day of school I thought that she might be a little clingy. Once we hung up her bag and lunch and found her seat. She said once that she didn't want me to leave yet. Ms. Schueren came over with a name tag and asked her if it had her name on it. She nodded yes, turned gave me a hug and kiss. Once that name tag was on place she took off and started playing with her new friends. No tears and no clinging! She's becoming such a big girl and so independent.

Katherine, of course, had made herself at home and didn't want to leave. I'm sure by next year she'll be very ready to head off to preschool.

Summer Olympics 2008

The Olympics were a huge hit at our house this summer. We kicked it off with a great craft project that one of my friends shared. We made Olympic torches for them to wave during the opening ceremony. Although, I pretty much made them for them since I waited to the last minute. They had a blast watching as I frantically cut out and assembled them with tape. Yep, that's right, no glue used! I'm not completely sure that they really got what they were. Elizabeth kept holding hers up and blowing on the base of it like it was a horn. Of course, if Elizabeth did it, Katherine did it, too. I think Elizabeth also said that it was a funny looking ice cream cone. They didn't make it through (neither did Dennis & I) the entire opening ceremony, but I think that Elizabeth finally figured out what a torch is after talking about it a lot. You've got to love the inquisitive mind of a 4 year old.

We watch the Olympics every night until the last of the Olympic games. Elizabeth loved all of the swimming events and thought that the gymnastics were neat too. We watched quite a bit of the volleyball tournaments and track. We even watched few equestrian events (which only makes me miss riding more). The girls weren't too interested in any of those.

We have Mario Olympics for the Wii and Elizabeth wanted to play that a lot over the course of the Olympics. She loved the swimming, fencing, trampoline, skeet, and track events. No medals for her, but she had a blast with it and that's more important than winning.

Fourth of July

We had a very busy 4th of July. We spent the afternoon at a friend/neighbors lake house and had a blast. They had planned on serving BBQ and setting off fireworks, but both Elizabeth and Katherine had skipped their naps and were absolutely determined not to nap while we were there. They were both on the verge of melting down, so we headed home. As expected, both were sound asleep (Elizabeth snoring) before we could get to the highway. That made for a nice drive home.

The drive home was only about an hour and both girls were still very tired. It was dinner time, so I headed out to pick up takeout and Dennis dealt with two whining tired girls. I returned home to find them all napping in the recliner. I couldn't resist not taking a picture. Dennis was even able to get up with Katherine and Elizabeth continued to nap for another hour. The only reason that we were able to convince her to wake up and eat was that she was going to miss out on fireworks. That got her going.

We really over did the fireworks this year. Dennis and I each had our own carts while shopping for them. I don't think we'll be doing that next year. We weren't sure how the girls were going to be with the noise, but they were great! They loved the and stayed seated and watching the majority of the time. Both of the girls were still tired and we ended up not being able to set off all of the fireworks before they were both clearly ready for bed. Our neighbors down the street gladly took most of our remaining fireworks.

It was a great day for everyone (despite a little whining)!

Nature Trail Adventures and Fender Benders

This week as been quite a week for us. Tuesday set the tone for the week and certainly will be memorable for many reasons.

After seeing just how crazy the YMCA's Childwatch is in the summer, I opted to split my workout time between home and the YMCA. There was easily triple the amount of kids there. Tuesday I walked pushing the double stroller (quite a workout pushing it up the hill on the circle in our neighborhood) in almost 90 degree weather. After walking half of the neighborhood the girls and I were ready for some shade, so we headed for the nature trail.

I had forgotten how beautiful the far section of the trail can be as the trees provide a beautiful shaded tunnel with tiny dancing spots of sunlight breaking through here and there. In a non drought year there's usually a nice trickling sound of the creek that runs along the trail, too. Surprisingly Elizabeth and I were able to spot a nice size school of fish in the creek.


Elizabeth spotted red berries on some of the bushes and was instantly intrigued. When I told her that they were blackberries, she was ready to eat some right then. I explained that the red ones were not ripe yet, but the black ones were. She wanted to get out and help me pick a few. I had to talk to her about letting me make sure there were no snakes around before she could come over and pick the berries. She was completely fine with that as she shrieked at the mere thought of coming across a snake.

She called to all of the butterflies we saw trying to get them to land on her. "Here butterfly! Here butterfly! Come land on me, please!" No such luck. We talked about what the butterflies were doing. That started the whole set of questions for every single bug and pebble we saw. What is this doing and what is that doing and why? She's been into reading The Hungry Caterpillar book, so I took the butterfly opportunity to ask her a few questions. I asked her what the butterfly was before he was a butterfly. She proudly shouted, "A very, very hungry caterpillar!"

When we got home and I transferred the berries we picked into a bowl it was perfectly fitting for us to find a tiny caterpillar crawling on the berries. The little guy had to be only a couple of cm in length if that. Elizabeth was delighted! We let him go in the grass and she sent him off with a big, "Go eat, eat, eat you hungry little caterpillar so you can grow big and turn into a beautiful butterfly!" She was a little disappointed that he disappears so quickly in the blades of grass.

The girls continued to play outside while I started to make our lunch. They were having a blast. As I looked at the clock it hit me that I was forgetting something. I had forgotten Elizabeth's noon speech therapy appointment! Thankfully there was an opening at 1:00pm, so we started the rush to make the appointment.

While Elizabeth was a speech Katherine and I headed to The Peach Tree Stand to grab something for dinner and some fresh produce. As we were pulling out of the parking lot I hit an on coming car! It was a minor fender bender, but their vehicle definitely received the majority of the damage. Everyone was fine, but since it was my fault I felt awful about it! Thankfully, the Fort Mill police showed up fairly quickly and we were on the road again. Dennis did have to run from work to pick up Elizabeth from her speech appointment.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone with the insurance company. Surprisingly that was a pretty painless experience and my car was in the shop the next day. It was completely repaired and ready for pick up on Saturday! Talk about quick service!

We got a Wii!!!!

Since the month of June is filled with special occasions we decided to do one major group gift for Dennis' birthday, my birthday, and Father's Day. We bought a Wii! We have really enjoyed it. It arrived the same day that Tim, Ange, Joel, Ben, Alexis, Noelle, Royal, and Mary arrived from the Tennessee Mountains. It was nice to have folks around that already had a wii. Many thanks to Joel and Ben for walking us through a few of the games.

I've never been one for gaming consoles. I even swore to myself (much like many other parents have as well, I'm sure) that I'd never buy one for my kids, but the whole interactive piece of this gaming console is wonderful! We are clearly hooked on it!

A few nights ago I checked out the tennis game. It was actually somewhat of a workout and my shoulder was a little sore the next day. Of course, the more I've played it the more I've realized that I don't have to go through the full motion as if I were actually playing, but that's half the fun of it. The bad part is that in order to make your shots more realistic have to move the remotes in a manner that make it hard to swing as if you were really playing tennis. So it's not perfect. I imagine one day they'll get it all figured out. Dennis and I played tennis last night and I proudly beat him 3 times (as in 5 game matches)! Wooohoooo!!!! Again, not realistic! Thankfully he's a good sport, but I'm sure next time we play I may not be so lucky.

Another neat thing about it is that you can create your own mii (a character that resembles yourself (or not if you'd like)). Dennis created his and I created ones for myself, Elizabeth and Katherine. Katherine is more into watching us play and cheers occasionally. Elizabeth enjoys it almost as much as we do. She likes to watch and cheer us on when we bowl. "Nice Spare, Mommy!" "Nice Strike, Daddy!" "Awww, Nice try!" Very cute! She helps us race cows (yes, there's a game where you race cows and get points for taking out scarecrows), playing the fishing, and playing Olympic swimming.

Today before nap time we played the cow racing game with just her mii and she was tickled to see the mii resembling her riding the cow and chasing down the scarecrows. "Look, Mommy, I'm riding that cow! That's me!" as she giggled away! She was however, very disappointed that no one was racing with her.

I know there will be plenty of funny stories to share about our wii adventures in the future.

Cousins

On Friday, June 13th, Dennis brother, Tim, and his family arrived for a couple days visit. Dennis parents had driven up to meet them in the Tennessee mountains for a couple days of fun up there and then they all headed back here. When they arrived Elizabeth & Katherine were still napping. It was nice to get everyone settled in before they got up.

It's amazing how much the kids have all grown. They're far from the little kids I remember the last time we were all together. Joel(13) now looks eye to eye with Tim and I'm guessing he'll pass him up by the end of the year. Ben(12) pretty much looks me eye to eye. Alexis(10) and Noelle(8) are close to the same height and it won't be long before they look me eye to eye. Given that I'm only 5'2" so it's really isn't easy to pass me up or look me eye to eye. It just seems like yesterday the kids were Elizabeth's size. Time sure does fly by way to fast.

Elizabeth was the first to wake up from her nap. She played it super shy for about 15 minutes. She was fascinated with their dog, Lacey. She kids what their names were and then she'd repeat their name as if she was committing it to memory (who taught her that name remembering trick anyway?). By the time Katherine woke up Elizabeth had warmed up to everyone and was having a blast playing with her cousins.

Katherine, who is quite the social butterfly, didn't take nearly as long to warm up to anyone. She thought the girls were the best thing ever. I think the feeling was mutual. The girls loved helping out and playing with her.

It was so nice to have everyone together. We've been together a couple of times, but have not taken any pictures so it was very nice to have a new group picture. The last one we took was back in 1999 in Hawaii. Our family has grown by 3 since then.