I wonder what will happen?

Last week Lyla decided to figure out for herself what a lightbulb felt like after being on for a while! We put the girls to bed on Thursday night and went downstairs to watch CSI. Lyla turned her lamp on to look at books in her bed, which she wasn't supposed to do. She came downstairs, very calmly, after about 20 minutes. We were in the middle of CSI so I made her wait a minute to talk to me because I was trying to hear what they were saying. Finally, she just stuck her hand in my face without saying a word. There was a big blister on the palm of her hand! She wasn't crying or anything! She said she wanted to see if the light was hot. I asked her what she figured out and she said, "it's hot". I asked her what she'll do next time and she said she won't touch it next time. We soaked it in cold water, but Bactine to take the sting away, put neosporin on it and wrapped it really good so she wouldn't move it while sleeping and make it hurt. She called it her cast. That girl always has to figure it out for herself!

The Count Down is On

Grace's birthday is next Saturday, the 24th. We are marking the days off of the calendar one by one. She keeps telling me she wishes it was tomorrow. I keep telling her that if she wants a party then she shouldn't wish that because I'm not ready to throw a party tomorrow.

At first we were going to do a "pancakes, pajamas and pedicures" party for a few of her little girl friends. I even found a foot massager thing at Goodwill for $4. We were going to give foot massages and then paint toenails. That is what the first picture is. Lyla kept trying to put her face in the water and sit in it. I have since taken it back to Goodwill. It was fun but that thing is huge and we just don't have a closet to store it in. Good thing I only spent $4 on it.

Then we decided to have a dress-up tea party instead. She's inviting 5 little friends to her tea party. I've been searching Goodwill and other places like that for dainty little teacups and teapots. I've also found a lot of hats and purses for them to use for dressing up. The pictures above are of Grace and Reesi testing out some of my finds. The girls will arrive and proceed to the dress-up area where they will pick out a dress, hat, purse, shoes and maybe a little make-up. Then they'll have a fancy tea party. I even have a friend making a tea party cake for me. She is an amazing cake baker that can create anything you can image with cake batter. She has a blog at www.icethiscakes.blogspot.com. If you live in the area you should really consider using her for your next party. She's trying to grow her business and has even been voted Best Cake Baker by the Nashville Scene. Anyway, she's going to make individual cupcakes that look like teacups for the tea party and then the big cake will look like a teapot that we will use for the family birthday party the next day. I'm having trouble finding fancy teacups that aren't too expensive and are fancy enough. I found a lot at a local antique store but they were really expensive. I'm going out again tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have some luck.

I'm sure I will have a ton of pictures after all of the partying in a couple of weeks!

Grace and Lyla in 2008

These are just some things I want to remember about Grace and Lyla from 2008.

Grace:

• Loves to be fancy
• Loves to wear dresses and skirts only
• Wants to please me at all times
• Thinks of others before herself, most of the time
• Worries about too many grown up things
• Loves her hair short
• Loves to watch Berenstain Bears, My Little Pony, Scooby Doo
• Every night at bedtime she says the same thing to me: "Sweet dreams, sweet, sweet, dreams. I don't know how much I love you because I love you so much and I love you."
• Loves to draw and color and create things
• Played soccer for the first time
• Loves kindergarten and thinks her teacher, Mrs. Heim, is the best teacher in the world
• Is very intuitive about the people around her
• She's a perfectionist
• She's friendly and watches out for the underdog in her classroom at school
• Loves to play with her stuffed animals and Littlest Pet Shop toys
  

Lyla

• Loves to run "superfast"
• Learned to ride without training wheels this year at 3 1/2 years old
• Is very coordinated and has excellent balance
• Has become very attached to me this year
• Loves all things "boy"...cars, Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Lightning McQueen, pirates, racetracks, soccer, blue, etc.
• Only wants to wear jeans and tennis shoes with a t-shirt that is not pink
• I can hardly get her to wear a dress to church anymore
• Is wearing "boy" tennis shoes from Stride Rite now, at least they're not Spiderman shoes
• Has an iron will and lots of fiery spirit in her
• She's going to be our rebel for sure
• She's the reason we don't have a 3rd child (ha ha ha)
• She's super sweet
• She has beautiful blue eyes and the sweetest face ever
• Every night at bedtime she says the same thing to me...."You're my best mommy in the whole world." And then she expects me to say "And you're my best Lyla in the whole world."
• She must give a kiss and a hug when we separate at any time.
• She gives great hugs....tight around the neck and heart felt!

Notice the picture at the top represents how they are. Grace is leaning in toward the camera because I want to take her picture and she wants to please me. Lyla is rolling under the tree after being asked to sit up about 5 times and refuses to look at the camera. How can two siblings be so different? I don't know, but I do know that God blessed us with two wonderful girls and another year to spend with them.

A little Christmas story

During this Christmas season I wanted to try to get the girls to think about others a little bit. They are so focused on themselves and what they want for Christmas. I thought buying presents for two children from an angel tree would be a good lesson for them. After church one Sunday, while Eric was at the habitat house, I started to tell them we were going to go shopping for presents for some little kids who didn't have as many things as they did. I tried to explain that God has given us a lot of nice things but not everybody in the world are as blessed as we are. Some children don't get many presents for Christmas so we can help a little kid have a good Christmas by buying them some gifts. I couldn't even get my "lesson" out before they started asking if they were going to get something at Target too. Lyla even tried to argue with me about whether or not some kids don't have many toys. After several minutes of this "pleasant" conversation I gave up. Maybe they're not old enough to grasp this concept yet. Maybe they have to do something more concrete. Maybe buying things for an unseen person is too abstract for them. Maybe next year.

About a week later, I was putting Grace to bed. Grace is a deep thinker and really works things over and over in her mind. Well, she had evidently been thinking about our conversation. During this same time, she had been trying to work through in her mind about how Santa and his elves are real. So, that night, here is part of our conversation.....

Grace: Mom, I've been thinking lately.
Me: Oh yeah? What are you thinking about tonight?
G: You know how you said some kids don't have very many toys at Christmas and they need us to buy some toys for them?
Me: Yes...
G: Well, does Santa bring our toys to us on Christmas morning?
Me: Yes...(I can see where this is going)
G: Well, if Santa brings our toys to us, then why wouldn't he bring the same number of toys to all the kids in the world? Why would he only bring a few to some kids and lots of toys to us?
Me: Well........uh.........that's a good question Grace!

I never really answered her question. That girl is too smart for me to keep up with!

Christmas with Grandma and Papaw Gardner

After being at my parents' house for a few hours we were off again to the Gardner house. The girls dove right into their presents when we got there. They both got new pajamas, Hannah Montana for Grace and Lightning McQueen for Lyla. Grace also opened some make-up and a Leapfrog reading system. Lyla got a remote control Lightning McQueen car, a Lightning McQueen camping chair and a Lightning McQueen racetrack. The racetrack was a big hit with everyone, even Grace.

Eric and his siblings went together to give his parents a gift card to Lowe's for paint along with Eric's promise to paint their downstairs for them.

After opening presents there we were off again to the next stop. We went to the extended Gardner family in Owensboro. The girls were given more gifts but they really enjoyed playing with their little cousin, Brianna. They carried her around all night being her "babysitters". They had a blast.

Brianna turned two this week, so she's really a little old for them to carry her around. Grace wouldn't take no for an answer though.

Christmas with Mimi and Papoo

After opening presents Christmas morning at home we headed to Indiana immediately. When we got there Julie and Mom were in full Food Network mode. Tragically, at lunch time we realized the turkey wasn't done. Julie was very stressed out, but we tried to save the morning by letting the girls open their presents before eating. Unfortunately, Julie missed all the girls opening their presents due to the turkey crisis. She was quite upset. In the end the turkey was delicious. The girls and Papoo built their traditional present tower, and the girls loved all of their presents. We finished the evening playing dominoes after the girls were asleep, which was way too late.

This is a picture of Reesi's makeup. She got a vanity table with make-up from Santa that morning. Isn't she fancy?!

Lyla got a big pirate ship! She loved it. You can even make the cannons fire.

Look at those blue eyes in this picture!

Poor Julie and Jason are the in the background slaving away on our lunch. Thanks guys!!!

Dad always tries to get Mom something nice for Christmas. This year he bought her a pretty gold necklace.

Christmas Morning

Everything went pretty smooth Christmas morning. I got up really early and got ready before the girls woke up. I wanted to be ready to go after present time. I actually woke them up at 7am! Here are some pictures. I didn't really get great pictures.

I wanted the girls to get baby dolls for Christmas. Lyla insisted her doll had to be a boy! So, I found a boy doll and she was excited to see it! Eric wanted the girls to get jerseys for Christmas because he likes to play football with them. They always want to wear his jerseys when they play so we thought they like to have one of their own that actually fits. Lyla was excited about hers and wore it that day. When Grace opened her jersey she said, "I AM NOT wearing this thing unless I'm going to a football game!".

We did get everything opened, batteries put in, paper in trashbags, breakfast eaten, bags to the van and we were on the road by 9:08am! Whew!