Santa - First Attempt

The other day I was on facebook and found a picture from the day that Annie and Elizabeth Magee first met -- November 21, 2011 -- at an Ole Miss game.  I texted Cathy and said we had to take the girls for ice cream for their "anniversary" -- they thought it was a great idea!

This morning we decided to go see Santa.  We talked about it for the last two days and our neighbors were there at the same time as us.....waiting for Santa was fun......

Seeing Santa was not so fun.  In the first 10 seconds Santa said, "I think this is going to be a family picture." He was right.

Maybe between now and Christmas we will try again......

Living the Life!

We've been trying to get a Christmas card picture.  This picture isn't it....but I REALLY wanted it to be --- it so captures who they are right now.   Elizabeth Magee the little mama, Poppy the laid back content one, and Mary Thorne.....who really needs me to hold her every minute of every day....and standing four feet away by the camera is to far away!

These two.  They got in trouble at school yesterday.  When I went to pick them up there was an Accident Report and the director.  Apparently, they were fighting in the corner and were not making a sound but literally scratching each other's faces.  The teacher determined that Mary Thorne was the "victim" because she was scratched up the most....and they were mad at each other all day.  Then this morning, I found them asleep like this.  Mary Thorne determined that Poppy's day will not start without her!

Look at all that in the baby bed!  Poppy insists on taking 10 animals to bed...and that blanket you see in the corner...it's the baby doll Blanket that Poppy made for Elizabeth Magee's baby bed.  But it has dogs on it and Poppy loves it.  I think we are going to ring in the New Year with big girl beds so trying to capture each of these sweet moments in the crib!

My Kinda Weekend

 We had a low key weekend at home.  It was kinda perfect.  We needed it after all our travels to Mississippi the last two months.  How cute is our sweet neighbor, Olivia?  We all love her...I'm glad my girls have such a sweet girl to look up to on our street.  She went home on Friday with a few my Readers Digest books -- including Christy.  We talk Little House on the Prairie and I can't get enough of those conversations!

Mary Thorne has discovered kissing.  She loves it.  She kisses everyone but this special kiss was just for daddy.

Oliver can still old all three.  I can't.  I can barely make it up the stairs with two these days.

It was FINALLY Halloween!

Our ACTUAL (and final) Halloween was so fun.  I love that we are developing our own family traditions here....we celebrated just as we have the past two years - walk down to the Crestline Village Parade and then head to the Stuermann's house for kid dinner and trick or treating.  They literally have hundreds of trick or treaters.  We had not one -- and we live right around the corner...I'm not complaining....I'll gladly donate candy :) The weather turned from the high 80s earlier in the week to the 40s on Halloween......never know what you will get in October in Birmingham!

Poppy was not happy before the parade.  She did not want to be a chicken.  She wanted to be the cow but EM got up from her nap first and had already claimed the cow.  Note to self for next year --- 3 matching costumes!

 Elizabeth Magee wore this costume TWO years ago....and it still fits.  It's an 18 month.  REALLY????

I'm so glad I captured this expression of Mary Thorne.  This expression is the one she gets on her face when I've escaped her for a few minutes, and then she sees me, and she makes a beeline to get me to pick her up.  This is the sweet, determined to be held every single second, face I see all day everyday!

After trick-or-treating we put everyone in the car and headed to Senatobia.  Net watched the girls while Oliver and I escaped for a few hours to Oxford.  We didn't win but it was a fun (and very cold) day!

If you didn't know Net when I was little this picture doesn't say a lot but she is letting the girls put honey on their own toast.  That would have NEVER happened when I was little.  I think she spoon feed me on the counter till I was 7.  Poppy and Biscuit dropped by to visit and left goodies for the girls.  Mary Thorne thought that Santa had come when she woke up and saw her new tutu!  This sweet child loves a tutu.....

These two.  They actually fit in the babydoll stroller....they love to play with each other and are loving doing the same thing at the same time.....we are starting potty training! Wish us luck!