Fashionista

Clothes are so important to Lizzie and so are colors! Today she had to change panties because the ones she had on were not as beautiful with her blue leo!

As far as this picture goes - I don't even have an attempt to explain what Lizzie was playing in her room that night. All I know is that I went in to check on her and this is what I found. Lizzie was soundly sleeping in her bed.

How they've grown...

I found these old pictures while going through old files on my computer!

KNEE

This week Anna Claire is learning about the letter "K." At night she likes to talk about words that start with her letter of the week. Last night I told her that knee starts with a "K." She said ,"you mean this knee? No way, Mommy. It starts with a 'n'." She is still in utter disbelief today and insists that it starts with a "N."

Favorite Words

You know how funny it is when little kids start learning to talk. Their mispronunciations are so cute! Lizzie use to say "tiffue" for tissue. Fork is a really fun one to hear. I remember Russ and my brother-in-law asking Anna Claire how to say fork at restaurants - so funny! "Fowler" for flower...
Now that my girls are older I don't hear as many as I use to but my favorite is the way Lizzie still says crayon - "craowns!"
Another favorite is that both my girls call their throats "drains." Like "Mommy, my drain hurts." So hysterical!!!

Anna Claire's 1st Wedding

Saturday night Anna Claire and I went to her first wedding! Lizzie was suppose to go but instead she stayed home with her daddy and they had a date at Chick-Fila. Our entire family was invited but Russ says "No" to most every wedding - they are not his thing.
The wedding was at 6pm in a town about one hour from our house. Anna Claire was very excited/nervous/scared about going. She thought maybe the music would be too loud... Over all she was great! We arrived early so she had time to examine everything, everyone and read the hymnal. While they seated the mothers she started clapping because "Canon in D" plays on her glow worm! She clapped again when a duet was sung of "In Christ Alone." "Mommy, we have that song in our car." The male singer had a nice but loud and harsh voice, I think his calling is more AC/DC as opposed to "In Christ Alone." At one point Anna Claire said, "Someone is screaming instead of singing." I wonder how many times she has been told those words???
She sat quietly through the ceremony because I gave her a peppermint.
I must take a moment and comment on the bride. Her father died in June 2005 and she chose to walk down the aisle alone! Everyone there must have welled-up with emotion, like me, as she walked alone in her own wedding. As someone who lost her dad about a year after my own wedding it was very touching.
Back to the star of the show ... Anna Claire asked me if it was Jeana's birthday since she got to wear such a big dress. And she was disappointed that the groom was already at the front of the church - she thought he ought to be her prince that comes and gets her. So interesting to see things through the eyes of a child!
The highlight of the evening was wedding cake and the marshmallows dipped in chocolate. Unfortunately these two thing were the extent of her supper that night.
Another funny comment she made ... I told her that we had come to my cousins wedding at that same church and Anna Claire was in my tummy at that wedding (I was 32 weeks pregnant). She was so excited and said, "O good! I was being carried around. Did I like it in there?"

Bubbly Party

We had a tea party this afternoon except we substituted bubbly (or Caffeine Free Diet Coke) for tea. The girls dressed up as Minnie and Alice and we had a delightful time! For our crumpets we served graham crackers, caramel rice cakes, banana slices, and a Reese's Easter egg. The girls LOVED it!

Comparisons start so young!!!

This morning Lizzie was so excited to get to wear her spring/summer twirly dress. She put it on and danced around so happy!!! Then we dressed Anna Claire in a cute outfit and Lizzie dropped to the floor crying because she was "not beautiful enough!"

I remember thinking other girls had on a cuter outfit than me but I didn't realize it starts in preschool!!!

Lord Fluffy

Anna Claire loves "GiGi, God's Little Princess." GiGi has a cat named Lord Fluffy so today Anna Claire pretended Russ was Lord Fluffy. He had a collar and had to do what she said. He said at first he was crawling until the hardwood floors got the better of his knees. Next she put the "collar" in the back of his belt and led him around the house. Such a sweet daddy!

Buddy the Elf stikes again!

Who can sleep when your room needs
to be trashed??? Last night Russ and
I went to check on Lizzie on our way
to bed and this is what we found! It

was 1130pm. She had emptied out all her clothes and had changed into

her "beautiful" strawberry skirt. The only reason her pajama shirt is

still on is because Russ had told her earlier to leave it on.

I am sure you are wondering how we handled this ... well we woke her up and made her put everything away then Russ had a "training moment" with her! We left her room and she started crying. I went back in thinking she was going to say "I'm so sorry!" Of course she didn't! She said, "But I'm scared of the dark."

Shopping

Tonight we bravely went to the Galleria in search of a few specific things. As we were walking past some clothes in a department store Lizzie said, "I like this polka-dot boobie thing" as she was feeling it. She was talking about a training bra. Poor Russ...

Another funny thing Anna Claire said the other morning ... While I was putting on make-up she busted into our bathroom and said, "Mommy, can you give us inspiration to get cow?" I tried hard not to laugh at her inappropriate use of the word but seriously, inspiration??? Russ and I laughed and laughed after she left the bathroom.

Lizzie's first wedding dress!

Lizzie and Anna Claire were playing wedding and Lizzie's dress is a little unconventional!

Best I could tell Anna Claire was the wedding coordinator. Lots of directions were being given by her, like, don't walk over there come over here and hold your dress like this... She is genetically blessed with the ability to impart her idea to others and she has the follow-through to make sure it is done her way!

K-5 here she comes!

Anna Claire is officially registered for kindergarten! Yeah!!

Ballet vs Ballea

Anna Claire is learning to read! She does great sounding out words. Today she asked me how to spell "ballet" and when I told her she said I couldn't be right. Her reasoning is very logical - there is no "t" sound at the end of the word. I went into a long explanation about the word being french etc... Knowing I had not convinced her I called my sister the English major. I will let her handle the inconsistencies of the English language because there are LOTS of them! Anna Claire offered this suggestion for the accurate spelling "ballea."

Good to be Home!

Over the weekend I went to the beach with my friends from Sunday school. We had a blast! Russ and the girls had lots of fun. Anna Claire was in charge - she told me she would take care of Russ and Lizzie. I had no worries while I was away!

Winter Wonderland!

We don't often have snow in Alabama but today we had LOTS (at least for us)! We had so much fun playing in the snow! Snowballs - snow creatures - snowball fights - an unsuccessful attempt to sled on the lid of Rubbermaid containers (we couldn't find our non-nutritive cereal varnish). So much fun! It started snowing in the middle of the night and continued until about 11 this morning. We had about 3-4 inches and even tonight still have a few patches of snow. We thoroughly enjoyed the snow!!!

February 28th

This date officially commemorates Poodle Day Holiday! Saturday morning I decided was the day to finally make Lizzie wear her precious poodle dress. They were so adorable! I hope everyone LOVES the shoes!

Gymnastics Routines

We went to the Alabama/Auburn gymnastics meet on Friday night and had a great time. They loved to watch the "big girls" perform. Lizzie even tried a few moves in the aisle. She was a great show for the rows behind us. Anna Claire was disappointed that Auburn didn't win. I decided to wait until she's older to explain that Auburn has NEVER beaten Alabama in gymnastics. The videos are their versions of the floor routines.