Easter 2010

Happy Easter!!

Alivia and Aleigh enjoyed their Easter Sunday. The Easter Bunny left them lots of surprises in their Easter baskets. They found all of the eggs that he hid in the house, then we went to a field by our house to hide the eggs again. Surprisingly, I got more pics of Aleigh than Alivia. Usually Alivia hogs the spotlight, but I guess she wasn't in the mood for pictures today.

Alivia is 5!

Needless to say, Alivia was very excited about turning five. She wanted to go to a restaurant for her birthday dinner on Thursday, her actual birthday. She chose The Lighthouse. It's a more up-scale seafood place that is right on the river. No McDonald's for our girl! We all enjoyed the nice dinner together. Before we left for the restaurant, we gave Alivia her "big" birthday surprise....a princess bicycle!

Alivia's birthday party was on the following Saturday. Her theme was Yo Gabba Gabba, which I thought she was too old for, but that's what Aleigh had for her 2nd birthday, so Alivia had to do that, too.

Granny and Pops got her the pearl necklace that she wanted, and we got her a jewelry box to keep it in. She also received some pretty clothes, Zhu Zhu Pets with a playhouse, a Tag reader with books, movies, a puzzle, and lots of other surprises!

Happy birthday to Alivia!

Fun in the Snow

Another fun snow day! I haven't seen this much snow since I was a kid! I was supposed to work on Friday, but one of the other pharmacists volunteered to spend the night and work by herself so I wouldn't have to worry about driving. So, I had a three day snow weekend!

We thought the sleet and freezing rain would start Thursday night, but we stayed above freezing until about noon on Friday. School wasn't cancelled Friday morning, but Shawn's professor had cancelled his 10:00 class because he lives in Fayetteville and didn't want to drive because the weather was really bad up there. Shawn went to his 11:00 class, but the sleet started and UAFS closed at 1:00. The sleet lasted for about an hour and then started mixing with snow....then all snow for hours!!

We got up this morning, had breakfast, bundled up, and went outside to play! Alivia made snow angels and instigated a snowball fight. Aleigh seemed almost scared of the snow. She would walk out into it and then call for me to come pick her up and take her to another spot.

We built "Bob" the snowman and gathered clean snow for snow ice cream. Note to self: less sugar in the ice cream next time!! It was my first attempt, and it was good...just VERY sweet.

Favorite Alivia quotes and other funny things

Aleigh and I picked Alivia up early from pre-school the other day to surprise her with a girls day out to lunch. When I asked her where she wanted to go, she asked if Red Lobster was open. I told her it was and she said that's where she wanted to go. While we were driving, she tells me, "Mommy, when I'm 32, I'm going to like to eat fish".

When asking Alivia about where she would like to eat, she usually names 3 places: The Lighthouse Inn (and upscale seafood reastaurant), Red Lobster, or "Old McJakins". Old McJakins is what she calls Big Jakes, a family owned restaurant down the street from us that serves home style food. I don't know how she came up with that name, but it cracks me up every time she asks to go there!

Overheard from the backseat while driving home one evening...Alivia to Aleigh: "Aleigh, if you don't share, God will magically spank you".

Shawn and I were watching some old Saturday Night Live re-runs. One of the actors called one of the actresses a stupid b****. Of course, Alivia happened to walk by at the same time. She stopped and turned to look at us with a shocked expression on her face and says "Mommy, that man just said a bad word! He said stupid!". Needless to say, we will now watch SNL after she's in bed.

While patting me on the back, Alivia counted to 14. She said, "Mommy, I patted you on the back 14 times because that's how old you are". Yep, I guess you guys didn't know I had her at the young age of 10.

Aleigh says some funny things, too, but right now it's more about how she says things than what she says. She surprises me with new words everyday. My favorite is when she told me that she did something and it was "an accident. I didn't do it on purpose". So cute!

Aleigh has also developed quite the taste for different foods. I was chopping a yellow bell pepper for stir-fry last weekend. I turned around after putting my knife in the sink to find Aleigh grabbing a piece of the pepper off of the cutting board saying "what is it?". Before I could stop her, she was eating it! She loved it and proceeded to eat two more pieces. She loves sushi, peas, shrimp, carrots, sardines, spinach, salad, and even broccoli. She loves to dip food into anything. For example, dipping lettuce in mashed potatoes and gravy, and garlic cheese biscuits into ketchup. One of her favorite lunches is liver cheese "ginswiches". That's what she calls a sandwich!



Alivia looking like Jennifer Aniston.



















Aleigh doing acrobatics on New Year's Eve.

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!".