It's a Wonderful Life...Christmas Day 2009

Santa brought snow with him! Finally, a white Christmas...just

what Alivia had asked for! I'm worse than a kid. I was up at 3:30. I laid on the couch waiting for one of the girls to wake up. Around 6:30 I heard some little feet running down the hall. I already had the tree lit up, so when Aleigh came flying through, she stopped to look. I was laying on the couch watching her. When I sat up, she saw me, and ran over to give me a hug. Then she said she had to wake up her sister. When she woke Alivia up, Alivia sat up in bed and said "It's Christmas morning!" and ran to our bedroom to wake up Shawn.

The girls have really enjoyed all of their presents...a new kitchen playset with all kinds of accessories, Tag readers, Text and Learn phones, movies, CDs, a karaoke machine, remote control cars, and new baby dolls with all kinds of accessories. Of course, we can't forget their Twinkle Toes shoes!

'Twas the night before Christmas 2009

We traveled to Russellville for Christmas Eve, and had a delicious lunch with Mimi, Papa, Mary, Katie, Stephanie, Brian, Nana, Joe, and Courtney. Mimi went all out! Turkey, ham, dressing, corn, peas, potoatoes and gravy, rolls, and all kinds of desserts. Yummy! After lunch, we opened presents. Alivia got a dancing Dora doll and dominoes. Aleigh got a SpongeBob doll and laptop.

We left a little earlier than we would have liked due to the possible winter storm. As we all know, when the weathermen in Arkansas predict something, the opposite usually happens. Not this time!! We left at about 3:30 and the temperature dropped 12 degrees on the hour drive home (from 55 to 43 degrees)!

After getting back home, we got on the computer so the girls could check NORAD and see where Santa was delivering presents. He was getting close so we had supper, and Daddy got out "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" to read to the girls for their bedtime story. Alivia started asking to go to bed at 6:15, but we managed to keep her up until 7:15! She kept saying "He's getting closer, he's getting closer! I have to be asleep when he gets here!" She was out by 7:45 when Grannie called to tell her to look outside...record time! Aleigh was asleep by 8:15, which is very good for her, too.

Then to our wondering eyes appeared.....

Pre-Christmas stuff

Alivia is doing amazing at pre-school. She has been taking speech therapy after being diagnosed with a moderate speech delay. It sounds bad, but basically she was saying things like fumb, instead of thumb, or using the "w" sound for "l" and "r", and she had a slight lisp. She started therapy at the pre-school (through the Van Buren school district) in October, and she has improved so much! Her teacher sent a note home last week saying how great she is doing! The teacher performed other testing on her along with her speech tests, and she found that Alivia was ahead of her age group on just about everything else. We are hoping that her speech therapy will be finished before she starts Kindergarten. We give a two thumbs up to that!

Shawn is making good grades, too. He is almost finished with his first semester back to college, and it looks like he will have two A's and one B! He has already enrolled for next semester, and he will be taking four classes. We are very proud of him!

We are all so excited about Christmas this year! I will be off for four days around Christmas, and I am so happy! We have the tree up and decorated, and Shawn and Aleigh put up a lot of pretty lights around the house. I'm not quite finished Christmas shopping, but Alivia reminded us of something very important the other day. She said, "Christmas isn't about presents. It's a celebration! It's Jesus' birthday!".

Halloween 2009

Meet the two Dorothys!

One of the movies that we watched over and over this past year was "The Wizard of Oz". The girls were constantly skipping around the house singing "we're off to see the Wizard!". When I saw the Dorothy costumes, I knew the girls would love them. As luck would have it, Target had the perfect sparkling red "ruby slippers". Of course, the one in Ft. Smith only had Aleigh's size, but I did find some for Alivia in Fayetteville (near where I work).

We painted pumpkins instead of carving them this year. It was so much better because the girls could be creative without us having to worry about knives and other sharp items. Messy, yes, but we put the pumpkins on old carpet scraps! Great idea, Daddy! While I was taking pictures of the girls in their costumes, I asked them to stand by the door so I could get their dresses and shoes in the picture. The result...

Alivia went running to the door and when she got in front of it, turned and said "look scared of

the Wicked Witch, Aleigh!"

We always go trick-or-treating early so we can get back home to hand out candy. I think the girls like giving out the candy more than getting it! We cranked up the jukebox and proped the front door open. It didn't take long for the candy to disappear. Alivia and Aleigh wanted to keep handing out candy until I told them that the only candy we had left was what they had collected. They decided to stop! Alivia is dancing in the second picture below.

Wild Things!

We took the girls to Wild Things Farm in Pocola, OK today. They loved it! We rode on the hay ride, found our way through the corn maze, looked at all of the pumpkins, and learned how to milk a cow...well, a wooden one anyways.

Alivia loved the corn maze! She is a maze expert. Aleigh liked seeing the horses and sheep while we were on the hay ride.

Pre-school!

Alivia is loving pre-school! This picture was taken on her first day. She is doing a great job. She has learned about vowels and consonants (yes, she told me what consonants were!). She knows colors, shapes, numbers, and letters (of course, she knew most of them before school). She is learning how to spell and read. It's amazing to see how much she has learned already! She loves her teacher and the assistants that come in the afternoon. We are so happy that she's enjoying school, and that she likes to go. I was really worried that she wouldn't like it after a few days, but she always wants to go.

Aleigh seems a little lost sometimes without Alivia. She will ask where Alivia is and wants to go pick her up from pre-school. Aleigh has started calling her Alivia instead of just "sister". Aleigh has become quite the talker. She rattles on about all kinds of things. She loves to tell me about what is going to happen each day. For example, she will tell me each morning "Aleigh go to Granny and Pops, sister go to pre-school, Daddy go to college, Mommy go to work". Her new favorite word is "remember". She uses it all of the time!

End of Summer

Now with summer coming to an end, we are getting ready for school. Alivia starts preschool tomorrow and Shawn goes back to college next week. I'm getting used to my new job as Assistant Director of Pharmacy at Willow Creek Women's Hospital in Johnson (right outside of Fayetteville). I went back to work full-time in June, so that Shawn could focus on going to college full time and not have the pressure of working AND studying. We are still living in Van Buren, but will probably move to northwest Arkansas sometime next year. Right now, I'm making the drive every day. It takes about 45 minutes, but so far, it's not too bad. We will see how I feel about the drive when winter gets here!

With the end of summer comes.....football season!! We've been watching preseason football, and the girls are getting excited about watching the Razorbacks in a few weeks! We plan on taking Alivia with us when we attend the Ole Miss game in Mississippi in October. She really liked the Spring Game when Shawn took her earlier this year.

Go Hogs and Go Niners!!

Vacation 2009-New Orleans!

The day after Aleigh's birthday party, we packed up and drove to Memphis. We caught a train out of Memphis and rode all the way to New Orleans. It's a great way to travel with young children because they can walk all around the train, take a nap, or play. The girls really enjoyed it, especially since they weren't confined to a chair for the whole ride!

Shawn and I decided to take this trip in May to celebrate our 10th anniversary. Can you believe it?? Ten years!

While we were in New Orleans, we took the girls to the aquarium and the zoo. We also went on a carriage ride and ate at Emeril's NOLA resaurant. Great food!

On our last day in New Orleans, we had the lunch buffet at The Court of Two Sisters. Shawn and Aleigh had turtle soup and catfish roulade. That girl will eat anything! A jazz band was playing, so Alivia requested "When The Saints Go Marching In". That resulted in the last picture that was taken on our trip...the girls dancing together in the courtyard in their matching red outfits. So cute!

Alexandra's second birthday

We have had a busy summer, and I haven't been able to keep up with the blog! Bad mommy! I'm going to try to get everything up to date...starting with Aleigh's birthday party!

The party's theme was Yo Gabba Gabba with Foofah on the cake. Aleigh got a lot of cool presents and got to play with some of her friends, Garrett and Reed.

Easter 2009

We had a fun Easter weekend. Saturday was really busy. We had to color eggs, go to the Easter egg hunt at the hospital, and go to Grandma Garr's 90th birthday party.

The egg hunt at the hospital was great! They divided the lawn into three areas...one for the 2 and 3 year olds, another for 4 to 6 year olds, and the last for 7 to 10 year olds. I thought that was a wonderful idea because it kept the bigger kids from trampling the smaller ones, and everyone found plenty of eggs. We had a slight meltdown when Alivia spotted the golden prize egg (there was one in each area), but a little boy beat her to it. She was so upset! I just told her that it had a little more chocolate in it than the other eggs, and she had more of the other eggs than he did. That seemed to satisfy her!

At Grandma's birthday party, Alivia sang "Happy Birthday" to her. Grandma walked in and Alivia just started singing. Finally, everyone else joined in. It was so sweet. Grandma enjoyed her party, and it was nice to see so many people in the family come together. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera.


The Easter Bunny came to visit the girls on Sunday morning. They had lots of fun surprises and quickly found all of the eggs. It was very nasty outside...raining, windy, and cold. Since Shawn and I had both been sick, we decided not to go to church and risk getting the girls sick, too. We had a big breakfast, and then I made a ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and biscuits for Easter supper. I was happy that everyone enjoyed it!

Alivia's 4th Birthday Party!

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It was at Chuck E. Cheese. It was my mom's idea. I will do it ONE more time (for Aleigh's 4th birthday). I think it was approximately 100 degrees in that place, and they were making people leave due to capacity.



However....both girls had so much fun! Alivia loved her presents. I cannot believe that she is going to be 4 on the 11th! On Wednesday (her actual birthday), I am taking her to Western Arkansas Ballet to sign her up for ballet classes. She is really excited! We will have gymnastics on Mondays and ballet on Tuesdays.

Of course, I have to include a picture of Aleigh shakin' her bootie with the Chuck E. Cheese band.

Christmas

I know this is late, but the girls had a great Christmas. Aleigh was a bit sickly, but she really enjoyed her bouncy zebra. Alivia was completely satisfied after seeing her Cherry Blossom Market and lip gloss. I had to tell her she had more presents to open!


















I loved the matching pajamas that I found for the girls. They said "I'm Santa's best gift". Of course, they are really God's best gift to us.