All Dressed Up

Grace loves to get dressed up! This is a picture of her in her Easter attire on Saturday. She just couldn't wait to wear it. I think she wore her dress about 5 times before Easter ever arrived. Papoo (my dad) is posing with her. She was so proud of all her dressy things. It was hard to convince her that she shouldn't ride her bike, play with the new dog, and swing with her clean, Easter clothes and shoes on. She would wear this every day if she could.

Meet Sophie!

This is Sophie! My mom and dad came to visit last weekend and brought their new puppy, a golden retriever. The girls were so excited to pet and hold a puppy. As you can see from the pictures above, G tried to force Sophie to be her baby. Sophie was a good sport by sitting in the doll bed and riding in the doll stroller for a little while.

Playing for Mommy

I caught L in her dress-up clothes playing the piano and singing "Jesus Loves the Little Children". She was so cute trying to remember the words. I wish I could remember exactly how she was singing it b/c it made me laugh. (I couldn't laugh in front of her though. That always makes her mad.) After all of the fits and fussing, it's a good thing they're so cute!

A nice surprise

Our new yard is somewhat landscaped but wasn't very neat if you know what I mean. The grass is full of weeds too. We knew we were getting a lot of work when we moved to this house, as far as the yard goes. But, when spring started getting close I was pleasantly surprised when some pretty flowers started to bloom! We have 3 Bradford Pear trees which have beautiful flowers for a little while in the spring. Then hyacinth flowers popped up and I think I saw a tulip blooming today when we got home! Tulips are my favorite. The girls want to pick every flower as soon as it blooms though. They're so pretty.

Friendly Neighbors

Our new house is in a large subdivision that is full of young families our age. We got especially lucky with our house. There are three families right next door with little girls the same age as G and L. The little girl in the picture is one of them. She is in the first grade so G thinks she's the coolest. She spent most of one day during spring break at our house playing. I got more done in that one day then I did the entire week! They played dress-up, put on a show at the piano for me, played outside, and a lot more. The neighbors have been so friendly and welcoming here. The girls never want to come inside and they always want to be playing with someone.

Our favorite drink

This is G and L's favorite drink right now. It has to be hot though. They don't want just plain old chocolate milk. They won't accept any other kind of hot chocolate either. I was given a coffee mug and some "gourmet" hot chocolate at preschool one day so I fixed that for them that afternoon and they wouldn't even drink it! It was soooooo much better than their Ovaltine too. This is what they ask for in the morning when they get up and especially in the afternoon while watching Clifford. Just a little tidbit of our life these days.

A very messy day

After the easter eggs were done the girls ran off to play while I cleaned up the big mess. After a little while I realized I hadn't heard from them in a while. I found them in the backyard playing in the mud, in dresses of course. When I asked what they were doing they said, "Look Mom, we're throwing poop balls at each other." They thought it was so funny. Why couldn't it have simply been mud balls? What are they so fascinated with the words pee pee, poop, poo poo, etc.? We have started putting a bar of soap in their mouths when they carry on like this. I don't think it has made a big enough impression though. I think I might try what my friend, Kelly, suggested. She said she makes her child clean the toilet when she uses potty words. Maybe I'll try that next time. So, even though they were pretending it was something totally gross, I still had to capture it in pictures.....

Easter Eggs

During spring break we dyed easter eggs. The girls loved it. They love anything that is messy and creative. I could barely keep up with them though. It amazed me how fast they got all of the eggs done and were ready to dump the dye into the sink. I barely had a chance to snap pictures b/c I was trying to help each of them at the same time. Lyla wanted to know "Can I dye me?" She wanted to put her hands in the dye and use the ink wands to draw all over herself. She did get quite a bit on herself but not as much as she wanted. Have you ever heard of those people that cover themselves in paint and use their entire body to paint with? Lyla and Grace would LOVE to do that!

A weekend of firsts!

After the spring program at preschool I took Grace and Lyla to Hunters Bend Elementary for a little open house for upcoming kindergarten families. Grace was very excited. It was nice. They took us on a tour of the building, showed us the playgrounds, and even took us on a bus ride around the parking lot. Grace and Lyla really like the bus. Grace told me on the way there that she was excited about kindergarten but she was going to be nervous. "I know it will be ok, but I'm still going to be nervous, because it's ok to be nervous about new things, but I know it will be ok, but I'll still be a little nervous." It's so interesting to hear them process things out loud. Bless her little heart.

Anyway, after the open house, I left for a girls weekend in Atlanta. I met my three college roommates for a girls weekend. It was so nice to be able to sleep through the night uninterupted! I think that is what I was most excited about. Eric took the girls to his parents' house for the weekend. I packed the girls' suitcase for him but didn't put the diapers in the suitcase. Lyla is potty trained but still wore diapers at night. Well, at about 9pm Friday night he called me asking where the diapers were. I told him they were left on the kitchen counter for him to take. They weren't in the suitcase though! Well, Lyla has been in panties at night since that Friday night! Eric takes her to the potty when we go to bed at 11pm (or so) and then she can make it the rest of the night! Exciting! For the first time in 5 years we are diaper free in our household!!!!!! Wow, it's weird....does that mean it's time for another? Eric says yes....Jenny says no!

The next first that happened that weekend was that Grace started riding her bike without training wheels!!! When I pulled into the driveway Sunday afternoon she was speeding by! Eric said she asked him to take the wheels off and then she just took off. We tried this last fall but it didn't work out so well. We have a home video of that weekend. ha ha Below is a picture of Grace riding like a big girl!!! She can really fly. Lyla gets so mad b/c her little bike just won't go that fast. I feel so sorry for her. She wants to be big so bad.

Kickin' Back

When we saw Lyla sitting like this to watch "cooby dooby" (her favorite right now), I just had to capture it with the camera. How could that position be comfortable? Notice how Lyla is in jeans, with a brown belt, feet on the table, arms behind her head and Grace is in tap shoes, a skirt, legs crossed, arms crossed. The drastic contrast continues to amaze me. I don't think it's that Lyla doesn't like girly things, it is honestly that she just wants to rebel. Whatever Grace says, she says the opposite. It cracks me up.

These are pictures of the preschool Spring Program. The kids all wear t-shirts with the preschool logo on them. Each class has a different color. Grace is a girly-girl. She wears dresses about 99% of the time. She was not happy about wearing a plain old t-shirt at all! I finally made her accept it by putting it on top of a ruffly dress.

I just love this next picture. Grace and Addie are so into the songs but they just have to catch a quick smile at each other while everyone is clapping. It was so cute!

I don't know how much Lyla was into the whole performing for an audience thing. She doesn't look to happy about it in the pics above. The whole program was cute though. The parents of the kids at preschool just love this stuff.

These are just more pictures of Grace's Pre-K egg hunt. There were too many cute ones.

"Did you get the gold egg?" "No, did you?"

This was just a cute picture that I wanted to include. Grace is wearing her "real" glasses and a winter hat I got for $2 on clearance at Target.

Wow, it's been too long since I've updated this. Everytime something happens I picture the blog in my mind and know what needs to be written. Anyway, I'm going to try to catch up and hit the high points of the past few weeks. Easter was one of the big events lately. The pictures below are of the preschool Easter egg hunts. The girls had fun but the best part is the candy, of course. My philosophy has been to just let them eat as much as they want so it will be gone sooner!


This was the Pre-K hunt. It is a pretty big "party" in the Pre-K year. It is at someone's house and they have the hunt and games and lunch. Grace was not very happy at the hunt b/c they had 4 "special" eggs hidden and whoever found those eggs got a wrapped gift from the Easter bunny. She was not a very gracious loser. The next picture is of the sack race. The girls loved this! Thank goodness they gave medals to ALL participants! Grace is with her best bud Addie, of course. We're going to miss Addie in kindergarten next year!

Sweet Sisters

Last weekend, or sometime last week, Grace and Lyla slept together all night long. This doesn't usually happen b/c they won't be still and calm enough to actually go to sleep when they're in the same room. But on this night Grace was actually already asleep and Lyla was having trouble falling asleep. She was wanting someone to sleep with her. I suggested she sleep with Grace and luckily she was pleased with that option. I put her in bed with an already sleeping Grace and Lyla went right to sleep. So sweet.

This is Lyla looking at the snow first thing in the morning.

Our new house...in the snow
Grace's snow angel....Lyla not knowing what to do with the snow stuck to her gloves...
Grace and cousin Reesi making their snow princess...

Grace proudly showing off their beautiful snow princess, complete with pink furry crown.

Grace loved the snow. Lyla didn't last too long. She was ready for hot chocolate, their favorite drink right now, after only about 15 minutes outside. That was fine with me. I'm not to found of the freezing cold either. Luckily, Eric was there to stay out with Grace and Reesi and snap the pics of the princess. They enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the princess was history by dinner time.