House update

Well it's over half way complete, and Adam and I are still happily married. I just wanted to report that good news to ya. Really though, we (mostly Adam) enjoy this sort of thing. It makes me sad for people who are so miserable when building a house. It's just a house. Yes, it's the biggest investment of our lives, but still? It's fun. It's exciting. It will be over soon. (I can partly say all that because Jesus smiled on me when he allowed Adam and I to get together. We see eye to eye on a lot of stuff including, but not limited to, paint color and flooring. Which is really good considering I'm partnered up to him FOR LIFE.) 

The outside is almost done. The top won't stay yellow. It was getting dark, so these possibly aren't the best pictures.

Adam and Uncle G worked till 11:00 last night finishing the fire place and getting the mantle in place so the rock guys can start laying rock on it. It goes without saying that Uncle G has got a real nice Christmas gift coming his way for all the dedication he is showing to our house. 

So let me tell you about the guy who is finishing our sheet rock. He and his wife pulled their little camper right on up to the house, hooked her up, and have been living here for a week. Part of me understands this line of thinking- saving gas and all that. Then part of me....is concerned because there is not a real bathing area in said camper. And I will leave it at that.

Christmas pictures

Lets reminisce, please. I made this picture of Reese when she was a little over a year old, and it is one of my favorites. 

I got a little sad when it hit me that I couldn't make Elynn's in the same place. I mean, I guess I could but I doubt our renters would appreciate me barging in requesting to make a picture of my practically naked baby in the floor.

These will forever sit out during the holidays so I can stare at them and cry about how quickly they grow up. 

 

And just because her face makes me want to squeeze her...

The Polar Express

Friday night we had tickets to board the Polar Express at 5:00 for our trip to the North Pole. Santa sent new pajamas Friday morning. It was a dream come true for Reese. She would live in her pajamas if we would let her. (And here is Exhibit B concerning Reese and the faces she makes in pictures right now. )

In case you haven't been introduced, allow me- here is Bunny, Tiger, and Puppy. They travel with us everywhere we go. Bunny has been with us for over 2 years now, and Tiger has been with us a while, but Puppy joined in a few months ago. I am TERRIFIED that we are going to leave one of them somewhere. Adam had to drive to Delta at 9:00 one night to get Bunny after Reese left her at Aunt Heather's. Before we got to the Polar Express she asked, "Can my babies go wif us?" Adam told her she could take one. She replied, "Awww. But the others will miss everything." And what kind of parents would we be to deny her and her babies the experience of the Polar Express? So here they are...

We splurged and bought the package that included a visit with Santa, hot chocolate, a snack, and a "premium gift". Elynn was not so sure about the big man. She kept a close eye on him. Reese told him, "I want a washing machine, a car wif a wurkin' wadio, and cwazy sand." He said, "A washing machine? That's a unique request." Poor Santa. He probably thought we needed a real washing machine. It's actually a little pretend one, and it is C-U-T-E!

It lasted a little over an hour. The girls had a really good time, but Elynn gets a little cranky when it gets close to bedtime. 

While I'm thinking about it here are a few Reese-isms that I want to document:

Reese was in the floor playing and Elynn reached up and jerked Reese's hair. When she pulled her hair Reese said to me, "you're not babbyyysitttting!" As though Elynn only pulls hair when I'm not being a good babysitter. 

Elynn started crying one night while I was laying down with Reese. Reese had just fallen asleep so she was a little groggy. She said, "her's is cwyin' cause her's is cutting a cooth." 

Reese requested Cinnamon Toast Crunch to eat "I want Crunch ups."

Reese told her daddy, "We got you a Cwistmas pwesent. It's black, but it's not a gun. It goes on your feet."  After I TOLD her in my most threatening voice, "DO NOT TELL YOUR DADDY." Apparently I'm not as scary as I thought I was. 

Thanksgiving 2014

This is a year of change for my family. At the beginning of the year, my Nanny moved from the house she has lived in my whole life to an apartment closer to town. Due to a lack of space at her new place, we gathered at my Auntie Kay's house (which sounds very similar to our friend Anna Kate and causes a lot of confusion with Reese). 

This was a few weeks ago, but look at that face.  

Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday. It's not about gifts or any of that. It's just about getting together with those you love the most....and eating dressing. Really, it's all about the dressing.

It's also about my girls having on cute, matching outfits and the joy that abounds when I try to get a decent picture of them together. It is always very pleasant.

 Reese. God love her. She is going through this stage of making the strangest faces when I tell her to smile. It pains me. Let me tell you what else pains me. My sister. I ask her to take our picture. So we are smiling and telling the girls to "look at Aunt Heather"...I check the phone and instead of making pictures that woman had recorded 3 videos of us smiling like dummies. (She about ruined the moment when we unveiled the pink balloons at Elynn's gender reveal by causing every picture to be blurry. I told her then that she was fired, but that had slipped my mind last week.) I should have known when I asked her to take the picture and she replied with, "but I ain't got my glasses on" that I needed to round up another photographer.  

 The kid table that is quickly turning into the teenager table. Sniff, sniff.

While I was busy teaching the kids a few things about yard ball, Reese was sitting on the sideline being a little mommy. 

 There were no injuries reported during the game, but my legs are still a little sore. Some of the kids resorted to violence in order to stop touchdown passes.

 Exhibit A concerning the faces Reese makes. I have somewhere around 13 others similar to this on my phone.

 

Sniff. Sniff. I could almost swear that it was just yesterday that I was changing the diapers of these 2 big kids. I will never forget the time I was keeping them both when Clay was a little over 3 and Jolie was a few months old. While I was trying to buckle Jolie into her bounce seat, Clay pulled a plastic bowl of pineapples (which originally came in a can- cause I was Suzy homemaker like that) off of a shelf in the refrigerator onto his face and in his eyes. That was my very first experience with child-like pandemonium. He FREAKED out when the pineapple juice got in his eyes. Which, of course, that was prior to the time that, while under my supervision, he drove his 4-wheeler through the barbed wire fence. I shiver at the thought of what could have happened that day. We rushed him to the emergency room, and a few years later he had to have some reconstructive surgery to make the scars smaller, but that doesn't make me feel guilty. Not at all. They taught me a lot about little people, and I love them like they are mine. (If their mother had had any sense in her head, she would have refused to let them stay with me.)

 This girl ate her weight in cucumbers! (But she gags when I give her mashed potatoes. I don't even pretend to understand.)

 Reese is loving her to death in this picture. This is the norm, and I'm worried about how mean Elynn is going to be because of all of it.

We left Auntie Kay's and went for round 2 at Adam's Granny's house where Reese found her other favorite people waiting to play. 

Some random things...

1. Our house was almost at a dead stand still last week. Our contractors are done and the rest of the work will be subbed out. Today the heat/air guys are starting. Once that is complete, the sheet rock guy will start. That means I have about a month to panic myself over paint colors. 

When the spray foam insulation was put in Reese declared, "There is exhalations everywhere!"

 This is the play room/ my sewing room. Which I haven't had that machine out in so long it probably has rust on the needle, but I've got big plans once all of this is organized.

 2. I took these 2 to their first ever trip to Christmas Village Friday. One of them needed her glasses and the other one needed a walker. It's like I'm the babysitter for the retirement home.

 3. I walked away from Christmas village with this for my dining room...

 And this for over my bath tub...

 They are both a gray color. I immediately had buyers remorse, but then the smoke cleared in my brain and I have never been so excited about lights.

4. Saturday wasn't good for baby sis. She face planted the coffee table. Blood was gushing, and everybody knows I am not who you want with you in a moment of crisis. While Elynn was doing the kind of crying where no sound comes out, Reese was trying to console her by pushing Gerber Puffs in her mouth. I was breathing deep in a paper bag and trying to remember Adam's cell number so I could at least have somebody on the phone to panic with.

A few hours later (just long enough for her lip to stop bleeding) we went up to the new house to check on Adam. Just after this picture was taken, Elynn fell on the platform Reese is standing on, busted her lip open again, and scraped the skin off of her chin. I will not be surprised if my friends at DHR come for a home visit. And won't that be embarrassing? I am in contact with them on a regular basis with my new job, plus the Intake Officer is our pastor's wife. MOTHER OF THE YEAR, y'all.

 5. This girl right here loves to carry around a purse. It is precious and makes me SO happy to have little girls. (Remind me I said that when they are 13 and the drama is causing me to need nerve pills.)

 6. The only thing better than 1 little girl is 2 little girls.

 7. Let me introduce you to Adam's cousins Carlie and Hagan, and their moma Kim (who was our wedding coordinator). They told me at the family reunion a few weeks ago that if I ever thought nobody was reading the blog I could rest assured that they were loyal readers. So here is a shout out to them.

 8. This girl. *Sigh.* 2 weeks ago Adam and Adrianne came over to watch the Auburn/ Ole Miss game. Reese got tired and got in Adam's lap.
Adam:  "Why don't you close your eyes and go to sleep."
Reese: "Cause Adrianne has been here for a long, long time."
Adam got on to her because RUDE! She was embarrassed and fell asleep just like this.

Meanwhile, Elynn harassed, I mean played with Knox. 

 

 9. Last night Reese wanted us to "pause it back" which means rewind the DVR, but what she really means is forward it through the commercials. Adam and I are always telling her about the "old days" and how we grew up in a time of cartoons only being on TV on Saturday morning and we had to suffer through all the commercials. The commercials were when you either A.) went to the bathroom or B.) decided that whatever toy being advertised HAD to go on your Santa list. Anyway we were watching live TV last night but we couldn't make her understand that we can't forward live TV. So she said, in her most annoyed voice, "If somebody doesn't pause it back I'm gonna...(silence while she thinks of her retaliation...) scratch the window!" I stopped breathing I was laughing so hard. Scratch the window? Oh the horror of it all.

Little Bo Peep and her Lost Sheep

As though there was any doubt, Reese requested to be Elsa. After her party I had taken about all of Elsa that I could stand. I started talking up Little Bo Peep and her sheep. Because Reese loves that baby sister so much, it didn't take much to convince her. 

 The Lost Sheep was okay as long as she didn't have to wear the hat, but the hat was the cutest part! We tried to give her a cracker to make her happy (really, as much as she loves to eat, we should have made her a little piggy), but then she started all the crying and I was afraid she was going to get choked.

 Then. Just as she had calmed down a little, Reese accidentally knocked her in the head with her Bo Peep staff and she started all over again.

When we got to town to do our trick or treating, Reese decided she didn't want to carry her staff. Of course, Adam started making threats that, I'm not gonna carry this thing for you all night", but like the good daddy he is he helped her out. 

 We gave Elynn her first sucker and didn't hear another sound out of that little Lost Sheep.

Here she is loving that sucker. It was so cute how she was doing her little mouth while she ate it. 

And here is Reese telling on her daddy for eating all of her candy. 

Elynn's Pumpkin Patch Party

I can't promise this will be the only pumpkin patch party this kid will have in her lifetime. Until she is old enough to want something else, chances are good pumpkins are going to be involved because HELLO!!?? Pumpkins are the best! Which is exactly why a week prior to the party Adam and I were pushing around 2 buggies in Walmart filled to the max with 22 pumpkins. 

She was a lot happier about it being her birthday than she appears in most of these pictures. She gets all emotional when she gets tired and people besides her momma and daddy hold her. 

Knox was really unsure about Adam. He gave him a very uncertain look anytime he got close.

My friend LaRae made the sign.

All of the little children got to pick a pumpkin and paint it.

Really, is there any other way to eat your first cake beside having your little piggies up in the action?

Having a big sis means you don't get to open your own presents.

This picture makes me squeal with happiness. Eeeeekkk! That little face! 

Here she is with her great grands. My granddad is 89

And my grandmother is 85. Clearly there is some longevity in my family that I hope I inherited. Seriously though if these children don't start sleeping better I will never see my 80s. I am likely to fall over from sheer exhaustion sometime much sooner...like this weekend.

The weather was perfect for her party (and reminded me very much of our wedding day- which is my favorite day of all time). Speaking of- we had an anniversary Monday. Maybe I will get to post about at some point before we celebrate our 8th year.