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.

Alivia's first gymnastics meet

Alivia had her first gymnastics meet today. It was really cute! I didn't know they were actually going to score their skills. The meet was for 3 and 4 year old students. They performed skills on the floor, vault, bars, beam, and trampoline. She scored 10's on all three of the skills she had to perform on both the beam and trampoline! Overall, Alivia received six 9's and nine 10's! I'm really proud of how well she has done.

Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving with the family. We went to my grandma's house for lunch, and then to my sister's house for dinner. The girls had a good time. They helped pick pecans at my grandma's, and had fun playing with their almost 1 year old cousin, Aidan, at my sister's. Here is a pic of Aidan, my mom, and Aleigh.




Aleigh had her 18 month check-up on the 18th. She was almost 34 inches and weighed almost 24 lbs. Still tall and skinny.

Alivia is enjoying her gymnastics classes. She's missed a couple of times because she had cold that just wouldn't go away. She will be having her first meet this month. It should be cute to see the 3 and 4 year olds show off their moves.



The girls had their Christmas pictures taken the other day. They were so cute! As usual, Alivia was a ham, and Aleigh was Miss Serious (but we did get at least one smile out of her)! We will be mailing them out soon!

We put up the Christmas tree this weekend. Alivia is so excited, and Aleigh just loves all of the lights and decorations.

Halloween!

Pirates!!







The girls had a great time Trick or Treating. Aleigh thought she was just as big as Alivia. We went all over the neighborhood. Alivia was so proud of her candy. After each house, she would run back to show us the candy in her pumpkin. On the other hand, Aleigh kept taking the candy out of her pumpkin and throwing it on the ground.

Random stuff

Everything is great here. We are all adjusting to me working part time. I work 2 days a week and one weekend a month. I'm still working at the same hospital in Van Buren. I've decided against trying to work for Wal-Mart. They drove me crazy!



I've really enjoyed being at home more with the girls. I'm trying to teach Alivia how to write her letters and numbers. She's great at recognizing her numbers, and has already learned some basic addition! Aleigh is doing great with feeding herself, and she has even started potty training. I'm so excited considering the fact that Alivia just got potty trained, and we were beginning to think that it was never going to happen! Aleigh still doesn't talk very much, but she knows several signs and has invented some of her own to let us know what she wants (lip gloss is my favorite!). I think her favorite word is "go" because she always wants to be on the go!





In her spare time, Alivia has been campaigning for John McCain and Sarah Palin. We know that it's looking bleak, but she keeps trying (and so do we)!

Today, Alivia, Aleigh, and I went to Flame Gymnastics and enrolled Alivia in a "Tiny Tots" gymnastics class. She will go for an hour each week (on Mondays) starting on November 3rd. She will really love being around other kids her age. She is so excited!

Alivia is also getting excited about Halloween and Christmas. She already wants every toy she sees on TV. The girls are both going to be pirates for Halloween. I had to talk Alivia into letting Aleigh dress up as a pirate, too. Alivia wanted her to be a pumpkin again.