1.29.2010
Aunt Christi in town
Christi came to visit us for a few days last week. It was really good to see her and spend some time together! I know the girls loved having her here... and Christi, I don't think I told you, but when Esther realized you were gone and not coming back, she said she wanted to "fwy on the hairpwane too!"
1.27.2010
G.G. and Papa's visit
GG and Papa came down over MLK weekend to celebrate Arden's birthday. They met the girls and I up at the pediatrician on Friday to help out with A and C's well check ups-thank you!! They also kept the girls several times over the weekend so that Woody and I could go to a leader training at church and we even caught a movie one night! (It's been at least 2 years since we've gone to the movies, so this was really a treat!) The girls enjoyed getting some extra time with Papa and GG and were ready to go home with them on Monday!
1.26.2010
Christmas in Statesboro
I think I said in an earlier post that we spent the days leading up to Christmas with my family. We celebrated my Daddy's birthday and had Christmas with my Mama's side of the family that night as well. Christmas Eve we all went to the family service at church, which is geared towards kids...Harrison was a shepherd in the nativity! Christmas day Jenni and Curt had us over for their annual brunch...and before heading back home, we opened more presents and then enjoyed Christmas dinner back at Mama and Daddy's (aka GG and Papa). We had a great time with everyone!
Papa and his grandkids
opening gifts with Aunt Martha, Uncle Ricky, John and his fiance, Michelle
Chloe LOVES her gloworm!
Michelle and Chloe
gotta love this face!
and I had to include this pic of Woody and Uncle Ricky, die hard Gamecock fan...
after the Christmas Eve service at church...
cousins
Aunt Jenni and Chloe
Christmas morning at GG and Papa's
opening presents from GG and Papa-A and E got sleeping bags which they absolutely love...
opening fun personalized chairs from Aunt Jenni and Uncle Curt
1.23.2010
Christmas pics
Here's the beginning of a few pictures from Christmas...better late than never I guess. :)
sisters!
opening stockings
the girls got a set of the American Girl Bitty twins from Nonie and Dagan
Arden taking a look at Chloe's bell from Gram
1.16.2010
meet Arden, our 4 year old!
Passionate about life. Energetic. Inquisitive. Loves to sing, dance and run. Enjoys playing dress up and being mommy to her dolls and any child smaller than her!
Our Arden turned 4 last Sunday! She is so excited to be four and says to everyone we see now, "I'm four!" as she holds up 4 fingers. I'm still having a hard time believing that she's four. It seems like just yesterday she was quietly toddling around and now she's a silly, giggly preschooler! She's so much fun and I love to hear her thoughts on life... as I'm writing this, she's telling me that she's talking to God. :) You really never know what she's going to say!
We had planned to take a day trip to Orlando for her birthday, but considering the high here was 37 and not much warmer in Orlando, we postponed the outing! (This is the first birthday Arden's had that it actually felt like January. Even in B'ham, it always seemed to be an unusual 70 degrees.) Instead, we stayed warm at home and had pizza, hot chocolate, a movie and cupcakes!
And I can't go without mentioning that Arden had her well check up yesterday and it's the FIRST time she has made it through any doctor's appt. without crying! She smiled, even laughed at times, through the whole thing including getting a shot! She just smiled and said, "look at my bandaid!"
One of the best big sisters around...
We're so thankful for our happy Arden and look forward to a another year of seeing the Lord move in amazing ways in her life!
1.08.2010
playing catch up
Happy new year everyone!
I'll confess that the thought of going through all our Christmas pictures at this point is overwhelming, so for now I'll just say that we really enjoyed our time with family and friends. We spent the days leading up to Christmas with my family, celebrating my Daddy's 65th birthday and then Jesus' birthday and came home Christmas night. Hopefully I'll post some pics soon of our time with everyone.
I would like though, to share some memorable moments that I don't want to forget. I've got one for each girl...
"Arden and the Christmas man"
This first moment happened over Thanksgiving. We were in the mall with my mama and sister and her girls. Arden and Esther saw the whole Santa display from behind...they saw the "snow" and decorations and were so excited. They wanted to play in the snow, etc. and were oblivious to Santa. **Side note-We do not make a big deal over Santa. He really hasn't been an issue until this year. We really try to put our whole focus on the birth of Jesus. This year we also taught the girls about St. Nicolas and tried to put a lot of emphasis on giving.** So with that said, the girls were walking around the display and Arden made eye contact with Santa and he waved to her. She turned to me and with the most excited voice she has, said, "Look Mama, It's the Christmas man!! He's going to play in the snow!" (Okay, so I know some of you are gasping right now and thinking what horrible parents we are because our 3 year old didn't know who Santa was!! I honestly thought she at least knew his name!) I about died laughing, but was trying hard to conceal it. I think Santa gave me a look like, how dare you? So I explained who he was to her and don't worry, for those out there concerned...Arden now knows Santa's name and it didn't take long for her to figure out what he's all about.
This first moment happened over Thanksgiving. We were in the mall with my mama and sister and her girls. Arden and Esther saw the whole Santa display from behind...they saw the "snow" and decorations and were so excited. They wanted to play in the snow, etc. and were oblivious to Santa. **Side note-We do not make a big deal over Santa. He really hasn't been an issue until this year. We really try to put our whole focus on the birth of Jesus. This year we also taught the girls about St. Nicolas and tried to put a lot of emphasis on giving.** So with that said, the girls were walking around the display and Arden made eye contact with Santa and he waved to her. She turned to me and with the most excited voice she has, said, "Look Mama, It's the Christmas man!! He's going to play in the snow!" (Okay, so I know some of you are gasping right now and thinking what horrible parents we are because our 3 year old didn't know who Santa was!! I honestly thought she at least knew his name!) I about died laughing, but was trying hard to conceal it. I think Santa gave me a look like, how dare you? So I explained who he was to her and don't worry, for those out there concerned...Arden now knows Santa's name and it didn't take long for her to figure out what he's all about.
"Gumdrops for Esther"
The girl has a sweet tooth. Anytime something with sugar is in sight, you can bet that Esther will try her best to get at whatever it is and take a bite! She proved this many times over Christmas. One such occasion was an ordinary day at home while I was preparing lunch. We had the gingerbread house on the table as a centerpiece and Esther was in her seat talking to me about the gumdrops. I would look her way every minute or so and could tell she was trying to get a gumdrop off the house. Being that the house was a week or so old, all the candy was well fastened with icing and so she was having a hard time getting one off. Not to mention that she was trying to get it off without me realizing what she was doing! A few minutes went by that I had not looked her way and I realized that she was no longer saying things like, "I like gumdrops." When I looked her way, she was leaning across the table with her mouth directly on the roof of the gingerbread house trying to suck off a gumdrop! She gave me a huge smile, with her mouth still on the gumdrop, and I just cracked up. The best part was when it was time to say the blessing for lunch. Esther started singing "God our Father," but made it her own by singing, "God our Father, we thank you, we thank you, for gumdrops, for gumdrops. Amen!"
"Chloe's 1st Christmas"
Chloe's Christmas was special because it was her first Christmas. Her story is all about the Lord providing. Following tradition, I wanted to get her a baby's 1st Christmas ornament. Well, I'm a bad mommy because I waited until right before Christmas to look for one. I tried a couple of Hallmark stores that were all sold out and tried some other places to no avail. Determined to get her an ornament from 2009, I searched on google to try and find her one. I found a couple of places that had a few of the Hallmark ornaments, but instead of $12, they were $30 or $50 in some cases! I found some other baby ornaments online, but they always ended up being sold out. While looking for an ornament, I was also on the hunt for a mobile for Chloe. We were given the Tiny Love Symphony in motion-farmyard mobile as a gift when we had Arden. We loved this mobile, Arden LOVED it, as well as Esther. So when we got it out for Chloe to use, we were VERY sad to find out that a very small, but very important piece had broken and therefore the mobile could not be used! It seems we're not the only ones who love this mobile...it's nearly impossible to find (Walmart and BabiesRUs do carry it for $40, but it's always out of stock), so impossible that we found it for up to $170 on Amazon. (I tried to do a link to show you, but couldn't get it to work for some reason.) Really?? Even used ones are going for up to $70. It's ridiculous. Still determined to find this exact mobile, I called around to consignment shops, etc. Up until this week, Chloe still didn't have an ornament and I really wasn't looking anymore and she still didn't have a mobile. Then I was checking Frugal Coupon Living's website and there was a post about DaySpring having a Christmas clearance sale. I hadn't thought to check them, so I immediately went to their website and found the sweetest baby's 1st Christmas ornament in stock and on clearance for $5.49! And to top it off, FCL had a code available so that I got free shipping! On that same day, I decided to call a local consignment shop that I hadn't tried yet for the mobile. They had 3 mobiles and one was "colorful." I bundled the girls up and we headed to the island, just hoping this colorful mobile was the one I'd been searching for. We walked in and I spotted it right off, the very same farm yard, symphony in motion mobile!!! I was super excited and could hardly contain myself to ask the lady how much she wanted for it. Turns out, everything was 50% off and I got it for $5. 57!!! Okay, I know this is all pretty frivolous, but I am praising God for His kindness and provision. Chloe didn't need an ornament or this particular mobile, as there are many other good ones out there, but He chose to give these "good gifts" to us. What a great God we serve!
The girl has a sweet tooth. Anytime something with sugar is in sight, you can bet that Esther will try her best to get at whatever it is and take a bite! She proved this many times over Christmas. One such occasion was an ordinary day at home while I was preparing lunch. We had the gingerbread house on the table as a centerpiece and Esther was in her seat talking to me about the gumdrops. I would look her way every minute or so and could tell she was trying to get a gumdrop off the house. Being that the house was a week or so old, all the candy was well fastened with icing and so she was having a hard time getting one off. Not to mention that she was trying to get it off without me realizing what she was doing! A few minutes went by that I had not looked her way and I realized that she was no longer saying things like, "I like gumdrops." When I looked her way, she was leaning across the table with her mouth directly on the roof of the gingerbread house trying to suck off a gumdrop! She gave me a huge smile, with her mouth still on the gumdrop, and I just cracked up. The best part was when it was time to say the blessing for lunch. Esther started singing "God our Father," but made it her own by singing, "God our Father, we thank you, we thank you, for gumdrops, for gumdrops. Amen!"
"Chloe's 1st Christmas"
Chloe's Christmas was special because it was her first Christmas. Her story is all about the Lord providing. Following tradition, I wanted to get her a baby's 1st Christmas ornament. Well, I'm a bad mommy because I waited until right before Christmas to look for one. I tried a couple of Hallmark stores that were all sold out and tried some other places to no avail. Determined to get her an ornament from 2009, I searched on google to try and find her one. I found a couple of places that had a few of the Hallmark ornaments, but instead of $12, they were $30 or $50 in some cases! I found some other baby ornaments online, but they always ended up being sold out. While looking for an ornament, I was also on the hunt for a mobile for Chloe. We were given the Tiny Love Symphony in motion-farmyard mobile as a gift when we had Arden. We loved this mobile, Arden LOVED it, as well as Esther. So when we got it out for Chloe to use, we were VERY sad to find out that a very small, but very important piece had broken and therefore the mobile could not be used! It seems we're not the only ones who love this mobile...it's nearly impossible to find (Walmart and BabiesRUs do carry it for $40, but it's always out of stock), so impossible that we found it for up to $170 on Amazon. (I tried to do a link to show you, but couldn't get it to work for some reason.) Really?? Even used ones are going for up to $70. It's ridiculous. Still determined to find this exact mobile, I called around to consignment shops, etc. Up until this week, Chloe still didn't have an ornament and I really wasn't looking anymore and she still didn't have a mobile. Then I was checking Frugal Coupon Living's website and there was a post about DaySpring having a Christmas clearance sale. I hadn't thought to check them, so I immediately went to their website and found the sweetest baby's 1st Christmas ornament in stock and on clearance for $5.49! And to top it off, FCL had a code available so that I got free shipping! On that same day, I decided to call a local consignment shop that I hadn't tried yet for the mobile. They had 3 mobiles and one was "colorful." I bundled the girls up and we headed to the island, just hoping this colorful mobile was the one I'd been searching for. We walked in and I spotted it right off, the very same farm yard, symphony in motion mobile!!! I was super excited and could hardly contain myself to ask the lady how much she wanted for it. Turns out, everything was 50% off and I got it for $5. 57!!! Okay, I know this is all pretty frivolous, but I am praising God for His kindness and provision. Chloe didn't need an ornament or this particular mobile, as there are many other good ones out there, but He chose to give these "good gifts" to us. What a great God we serve!
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