Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday GG! We hope you had a wonderful day!

Randomness

• Ellie got her 18mo shots and her second flu shot the other day. Apparently those are pretty painful shots because the next day she kept grabbing her leg and saying "ouch". Funny story though. Emmie showed Ellie her bandaids and so after that Ellie because OBSESSED. She would randomly point to them and say "bandaids" and keep saying it until you acknowledged them. When Paul got home she ran across the house, lifted up her dress and poudly pointed out her bandaids. HILARIOUS!
• Today was one of those CRAZY days. We got up this morning and Ellie had My Gym so we dropped Emmie off at Jackson's and then we went to My Gym. We picked Emmie up and went and picked up Chick-fil-A so I could get my free sandwich, came home and ate, I broke a tooth (whole other story), put the girls down for naps, called a local dentist (I still go to one in Greenville but fortunately my friend Carissa had given me her dentist's name and number a while back so I called them), took a short nap, got the girls up, went to Publix (who of course didn't have Cuties...the only specifically requested item on my grocery list this week) and then came back home and unloaded groceries and took Franklin on a walk. After the walk we came home and I finished getting dinner ready (so I glad I had chosen to go the crockpot route this morning!). We ate very quickly and headed back to My Gym to drop Emmie off for her makeup class since she missed last week. Ellie and I ran over to Bilo to get the Cuties and then ran home and Ellie got a bath and then we went and picked up Emmie and came back home and I threw everybody in bed. CRAZY. DAY!
• When I was growing up we had family prayer time at the breakfast table and my dad thought it was funny to pray for my mom as "she drives around". She would always say she did more than just drive. Today I felt like I just drove around....I can't imagine what it's like to have teenagers that have to be shuffled from one thing to another!
• Today the girls had PB&J for breakfast. Emmie kept wanting one yesterday but I had fixed us a pizza for lunch and I had also fixed dinner for us so no PB&J. She started in on it again this morning. Apparently the bowl of cheerios wasn't enough as they'd both already downed one bowl. So I fixed them both one (because what you give one you have to give to the other) and they very happily ate their PB&J.
• All Ellie did while Emmie was at My Gym tonight was whine about wanting Emmie. Seriously. Then only word out of her mouth from 6:15-7:15 was "Emmie". She was not wanting to go put on her jacket when it was time for pickup but as soon as I told her we were going to get Emmie she was at the door. Let me tell you, we were BOTH glad to see Emmie.
• I can sign Emmie up for preschool next week. I'm debating how early I need to get there. I'm really hoping not to have to play the waiting list game!
• It's scary to hear your words come out of your toddlers mouth. Today Ellie was protesting something and Emmie looked at her and very firmly said "I'm not playing that game today Ellie".  It was a little scary. Emmie's already turning into her mother.
• We're going to Disney World this fall and I've started planning our trip since you can do dining reservations 6 months out. I am soooooo excited about our trip. I know the girls are just going to love all the princess stuff. We are doing lots of character dining events so I know the girls will love that...as long as Ellie's not totally freaked out by it!

Little Miss Style

Ellie is a pretty laid back toddler. She doesn't really get upset about too much. But there is one thing you should know...Miss Ellie is all about style. If you mess with her style she gets quite upset. This is a whole new world for me because even now it's rare for Emmie to get too opinionated about what she wears. She might request a dress or pants but doesn't really care which dress or pants. Emmie will tell you she likes a particular dress or shirt but if you tell her she can't wear it that day she's generally ok with that. Like I've said before, my girls are complete opposites and it's been a bit of an adjustment having a little fashionista in my house!
Want to guarantee a temper tantrum? Try telling Ellie she can't wear the shoes she picked out. Little girl will lay down on the floor and let loose. Not.even.kidding. When I get her dressed I send her to pick out her shoes and then I pick out her outfit.

These pink books are some of Ellie's favorite shoes. I've gotten really good at putting together outifts that coordinate with pink boots.

Miss Ellie does things like insisting on wearing her ski jacket around the house for an hour even though she's sweating bullets and refuses to take it off even for a bath thus it becomes necessary to pry the jacket off of her sweaty little body while she screams about her coat.
Sometimes she insists on wearing her backpack around the house for extended periods of time and she will come and tell me every 30seconds that she's wearing her backpack.

A backpack and jacket kind of morning.

Little girl loves for Emmie to dress them both up like princesses, especially if it involves a necklace.

She really was happy about the outfit...just not happy that Emmie took her toy away.

Sometimes Miss Priss gets tired with her own shoes so she gets me to take them off (she generally wears her shoes from the time she gets dressed in the morning until she gets her bath at night) and she tries on Emmie's shoes. And usually wears them around for a bit. Ellie loves having a big sister to share shoes with!

Wearing Emmie's shoes...she even managed to get them on the right feet!

I'm quite looking forward to seeing how this fashion awareness develops as she gets older!

Freedom!

I feel like I've been in a bit of a rut lately as far as the blog. I just can't seem to come up with anything to write about! I think part of the problem is that we've been stuck in the house all week pretty much just laying around.
Emmie woke up just fine on Tuesday morning and I went to get her dressed about 11 and she was burning up so I checked her temp and my child who never has a fever was 101. We ended up at the doctor's office the next morning because she had run fevers all day Tuesday and she tested negative for flu and rsv so the doctor said it was probably a virus. She was pretty pitiful most of the week. She was very sleepy and not too hungry and when she was running a fever she didn't want to be touched because she said it hurt. It made me so sad.  Fortunately the last time she had a fever was lunchtime yesterday so we can finally get out and about some...yay! I think by Thursday night the girls and I were all going stir crazy!

(We did manage to get out in the backyard a little bit for some fresh air each day but poor Emmie would tire out so quickly!)

You can look at her eyes and tell she doesn't feel good. Plus she actually held still and said "cheese" so I KNOW she didn't feel good...lol...normally she runs from the camera as soon as I pull it out!

Sweet Ellie Bellie...always so happy!

I am so glad that we will be back to our regular schedule this week and that we will have the FREEDOM to get out and about again! (I'm also very glad that none of the rest of us got the funk!)

Ski Trip 2013

We are settled in back home after being gone for about 5 days. I worked hard to keep myself and the girls well last week so that we could go visit my mom before we left to go to the mountains with Paul's family. I was so worried that someone would end up sick but vitamins and lots of water kept everyone healthy...yay! I know that when my mom has her transplant there will be an extended amount of time when we can't go visit my parents so I'm trying to fit in extra time now!
The girls and Franklin had fun with Gran and Grandaddy (or Boo Daddy as Ellie kept calling him on the way to Greenville...lol!).
Friday afternoon we headed up to Maggie Valley for a mountain weekend with the Edwards family. It snowed up there Thursday night so I was so excited to get up there and let Emmie see some snow! (Remember all she wanted from Santa was an Ariel doll and snow!) We had told Emmie that we were going to see snow so when we got in the car and I told her to take a nap she said she didn't want to go to sleep because she didn't want to miss the snow. I had to promise to wake her up when we got to the snow to get her to take a nap. Emmie was soooo cute when we woke her up to see the snow. She clasped her hands together and just smiled out the window. When we got to the cabin and she got to touch the snow she was even more excited and thne GG came out and helped her build a very, very tiny snowman. We also showed Emmie how to throw a snowball which was entertaining. Ellie was mostly oblivious to the excitement of snow. I think one of the great things about having kids is getting to experience the world through a child's eye and getting to see the pure joy a child finds in the simple things in life.

So happy!

Checking out the remnants of a snowball.

Throwing a snowball with Daddy.

Emmie with her minature snowman.

Our excitement on Friday was Blake getting his truck stuck in a ditch just down the hill from the house. He was doing a 3pt turn and went into a ditch (it was a narrow dirt road in the dark in his defense). The men went and did their manly pull the car out of the ditch with their bare hands thing and Emily came on up to the house (after a bit of waiting around).
Saturday we celebrated Gin-g's birthday at lunch with a yummy Publix cake and then the Emily, Emmie, and I took her to get a pedicure. This was Emmie's first mani/pedi and she had so much fun! I think she was really overwhelmed at first but you could tell she loved being one of the big girls and the girl who did Emmie's nails was FABULOUS and made Emmie feel so special! After pedicures we went to Belk (to look at shoes of course!) and at this point Emmie melted down...little girl needed a nap! All in all it was delightful Girl's Afternoon Out!

GG decided that she would stick her finger in the icing and lick it off so she let the girls do it too. Once Emmie got over the fact that she was really allowed to do that she enjoyed it!

Helping Ellie get some icing.

Then GG decided to put icing on everyone's noses! Emmie really wasn't sure about that!

We let Emily and Blake practice their cake cutting.

Waiting for pedicures.

She was fascinated by the bubbles. The people at the place were so sweet and got some pillows to put behind her so she could lean back.

The princess!

She thought it was so funny when they scrubbed her feet!

All the ladies getting getting pampered!

Saturday evening we did my favorite thing...skiing!! We did night skiing which is nice because it's not super crowded and people clear out by about 830 or 9 and the lines move really fast. The skiiers this year were Paul, Blake, and me. We went down the beginner slope a few times and then I headed over to the intermediate. After a few runs I talked Blake into going with me and experienced the funniest moment of the weekend. Blake had fallen and in the process of trying to get him back up our skiies got tangled and everytime I moved my ski to try to get us untangled it pushed Blake further into a split...I thought I was going to pee in my pants I was laughing so hard. Blake didn't nearly find it as funny as I did for some reason. ;)
Anyway, after that I couldn't talk Blake into going back up on the intermediate again so I skiied solo the rest of the time and Paul and Blake stayed on the lower slope. I actually worked up the courage to go on one of the higher intermediate slopes and I had a BLAST! I went down that slope a number of times and there were a number of icy patches that made it quite interesting but lots of fun and I was pretty proud of not falling.  When I was first going up to the slope there was this little kid zipping down the trail I was going to go down and I was determined the little 7 year old was not going to show me up!
This was how I felt on the slopes!

Saturday when we were going to get our nails done we some some people sledding down a hill on the side of the road so Sunday we took our sleds and all headed out to the hill. It was sooo much fun. Once I talked Ellie into going down in the sled she had a blast and she would say "wheeeeeeee" the whole way down and of course the faster the better for my wild child! Emmie went down once and fell off the sled at the end and then wouldn't sled again until I finally just pulled her onto my sled and went down the hill. After that she LOVED the sledding. The adults in the crowd figured out how to go down 4 together on the saucers on an icy patch. It was quite fun.

Emily and Emmie

Paul and Ellie.

Mommy and Ellie.

Emmie had a great time eating the snow.

Funny story: Ellie was so bundled up that she couldn't really stand up on her own. Once she stood up and then just tipped straight over on her face. Emily said when she picked her up Ellie didn't cry...just brushed the snow and dirt off her face and kept saying "yuck". After Ellie went down the hill with Emily one time she stood up and fell straight back...it was HILARIOUS! She was totally the kid from A Christmas Story.

Sunday afternoon Emily, Blake, Paul, and I went tubing. The tubing area was pretty much all slush thanks to 50 degree weather. However, because the track was a lot slower than usual they let us tie our tubes together and go down 4 at a time which was LOTS of fun. Emily about went over the divider wall one time and Blake about flipped out of his tube on our last run. We definitely had a lot of laughs!
After we got back to the house on Sunday we went to the Mast General Store. I found some Columbia jackets for Emmie for next winter on a great sale which made me quite excited...I love a good sale! We let the girls pick out some candy and they were so funny and so different in their selections. Ellie wanted it ALL. She pointed to everything and said "mine". I told Emmie she could pick out a few things and she got her big shopping basket and picked one sucker. Then she picked up a different sucker and put back the first one. I told her she could get both but she didn't want to. She ended up getting one sucker and then I picked out a few other things for her. It was super cute.

Random picture: My little ham! (She was saying "cheese")

Monday morning we headed out bright and early to go pick Franklin up in Greenville where he had been staying with Gran and Grandaddy. Franklin had a great time getting some good walks with Gran and some good naps and then getting to play chase with Grandaddy. My mom said Franklin slept next to her every night curled up into a little ball...he's such a snuggle bug! We made it back to Columbia around 1230 and I had managed to keep everyone awake on the way from Greenville to Columbia so they were all willing to take naps which meant Mama got a nice nap as well...yay!
So the big test during the trip was putting the girls in a room together. We tried it last year and ended up putting them in seperate rooms after about 2 hrs. but this year they did GREAT. Ellie had some trouble going to sleep but she usually does when she's away from home and Emmie slept fine through Ellie's fussiness. I was sooo glad they did well together (it meant Paul and I didn't have one of our noisy sleepers in our room!) and I think they enjoyed being together.

This is what happens when Daddy makes the beds...too cute!

Zoo

Last week we went to the zoo with Lindsay and Mason. Laura and Connor were supposed to come with us but Laura finally succumbed to the cold that has terrorized the men in her house so they couldn't make it.
We had a beautiful day...I love having 75 degree weather in January. Mason, Emmie, and Ellie had lots of fun running around in the fresh air and checking out all the animals. I didn't get too many pictures...I was busy chasing after my two wild girls!

We met at the zoo at 1 which is naptime. Fortunately the girls did great while we were at the zoo but they sure did conk out as soon as they hit the carseats!

18 Months!

 

I am 18 months old!

• I weigh 22.8lb (50th percentile) and am 31.25in (35th percentile). At my age Emmie was 26.4lb and 33in, my mommy was 32in and 21lb 10oz and my daddy was 32 1/2in and 21lb 10oz.
• At my 15mo appt the doctor was concerned about my lack of weight gain. I'm such a good patient that I gained THREE POUNDS in 3 months. (By the way, Emmie only gained 1.4lb between 15 and 18mo...I'm definitely going to be able to squish her soon at this rate.)
• I didn't have to get any shots at my appointment today. We're going to try to go see Gran sometime in the next week and so we're holding off on shots until after then. I've decided Gran is my best friend.

• I wear a size 12-18mo or 18-24mo in clothes, a size 5 shoe, and a size 5 diaper.
• I sleep 12-13hrs at night and take a 2-3hr nap after lunch. I take a really good nap if we're at home but if we have a super busy day I can manage just fine on a catnap in the car.
• I sleep with my yellow blanket and my baby. I REALLY love my yellow blanket and get upset if I don't have it in my crib.
• I refuse to wear a sleeper at night. Mommy thinks it's because I like to play with my belly button while I'm going to sleep and I can't do that if I have a sleeper on!
• I have 9 teeth. Four on the top, four on the bottom, and a molar on the top right. I have lots of teeth that are sooo close to popping through.
• I say a lot of words, still have my lisp, and am still working on making sentences but most of the time I can get my point across even if people can't understand me.
• I LOVE to be outside. Everytime Mommy opens the door to let Franklin out I try to escape!
• This month I celebrated my second Christmas. I had so much fun!

Santa thinks I'm a fairy princess!



Some of my Christmas presents...a doll from Uncle Ben and a Carolina tailgate chair from Uncle Blake and Aunt Emily.

I really enjoyed getting to hang out with my Uncle Giant on Christmas!

• I am SUPER easygoing. It is very rare that I get upset about anything. There is however one thing that I will pitch a temper tantrum about...SHOES! I get super upset if I have to wear shoes that I don't want to wear! Our getting dressed routine now starts with me picking out a pair of shoes and then Mommy picks out my outfit. My current favorite shoes are my pink cowgirl boots!

The infamous boots!

• I love, love, love my sister and we play together all the time.

• I love to dance!
• I am very sweet and loving and give great hugs.
• I love to play with my playgroup friends.
• I am a bit of a wild child. I'm always into something and I'm a big climber. I recently learned how to climb up on the kitchen chairs and how to climb into Mommy and Daddy's bed.
• Some foods I'm loving right now are salmon, asparagus, strawberries, multigrain cheerios, chicken, eggs, waffles, and hot dogs (among other things).
• This month I turned around in the carseat so I face forward now and I love it (plus my legs aren't squished anymore!).
• I got to play with Elizabeth this month and we had lots of fun!

• We went to Summerville this month and I had a blast hanging out with my family there.
•  I went to Edventure this month with Mommy and GG and Emmie. My favorite things were the wind tube and the slide!