Wordless Wednesday

The Mommy & The Doctor

We just hung around the house on a rainy, windy, yucky day today. We did some crafts and the girls played and played and played. Cora spent the majority of her time playing with a little Christmas baby doll that we have and after a while it finally came to this:

Which led Leyna to draw this:

She said it's a doctor with scissors getting ready to cut Cora's baby's cord. What? Wow... And it's a really good drawing! (but mostly I LOVE that she looks like she still has chubby baby cheeks in this picture)
We sure love our artistic, creative, intelligent little Leyna. She had a bit of a rough day with not listening and following rules today. We had a little talk before bed about how we'll ALWAYS love her and she'll always, ALWAYS be our baby girl - no matter what. And even when she's really old I'll still be her Mommy. She wanted to know :)

 I'll think I'll go upstairs and kiss her on her cheek about 10 more times now...

Dancing and Funny Stuff

I admit it, I didn't take any pictures until late this evening when I realized I hadn't taken any pictures. Oops! Once in a while I make it through the whole day without having my evening blog post in the back of my mind. Today was one of those days. There was just too much to think about! School, menu planning, grocery shopping, "Cyber Monday" shopping, checking and rechecking Christmas lists, and so on and so forth. Anyway, at the dinner table Cora started saying some pretty hilarious stuff and I was thinking, as I often do, "That's blog material!" Here's what she said:
Cora to Daddy: You're Uncle Doug
Daddy: Why do I have to be Uncle Doug?
Cora: Because he's CUTE!!!

Tonight during dinner Leyna was asking what pork was made out of and I reluctantly told her it comes from pigs. She said, "oh" but she was glad it wasn't really made of REAL pigs. Umm... I just let that one go. Anyway, then she asked Cora if she ate pigs and Cora said no. Giraffes? No. Well what DO you eat Cora? "I eat dogs!" For some reason we all just about died laughing. FYI - she also eats cats. Yikes!

Okay I can't remember anything else she said at dinner but she had us all cracking up the whole way through the meal. I will add one last thing that she says a lot lately and it's "It's not funny." She's dead serious when she says it. She's all about getting the laughs when she wants them but when she doesn't? "It's NOT funny." One day she was so mad and adamant that "it" wasn't funny that I made up a little song to change the sour moment. The song is now a sensation and we all sing it all the time. I know you won't know the tune but maybe I can get it on video sometime soon. Here are the super creative lyrics ;)

"It's not funny, no no no. It's not funny, no no no! It's not funny, NO NO NO! Don't even think about laughing. at. me." Catchy isn't it?

And right now I'm listening to a very restless Cora sing herself awake (she wouldn't want to sing herself to sleep!). She's currently singing her new favorite, "Away in a Manger." It's SOOOO stinking cute...
"Da stars in da sky look down where he way, da wittle woord Jesus asweep on da hay..."

And since we have to have a picture, here are the girls dancing to "Go Tell it on the Mountain" by Bobby Darin. Always a Christmas favorite!

Christmas Card Outtakes, Round 1

And so it begins. My quest to take the perfect picture for our Christmas cards. If I remember correctly it usually takes about four sessions before we have enough good photos to work with. Or until I give up!
Out of the over 50 pictures taken this morning before church, I don't think there were any that were card-worthy. There were a few cute ones however so I'll memorialize them here :)

Can we tell who the goofball in the family is?

Trimming the Tree

Today we decorated our Christmas tree and most of the rest of the house. The girls had fun checking out all of the ornaments and other decorations that seem so new and exciting since last year. Leyna was especially into being involved in the unwrapping and placement of each and every item. And now that the stockings are hung we have two monumental tasks ahead of us. One is keeping everything safe from curious fingers and in one piece. (We had two ornament casualties today already.) The second is keeping everyone sane and in one piece. Christmas seems like it's about a hundred years away to the girls right now and we're going to have to keep them pretty busy and entertained if we want them to make it the next 28 days, 3 hours, and 19 minutes. Oh my goodness!!! It sure feels like it's right around the corner to me! I really need to get busy. But seriously, I hope we can all live in the moment and enjoy every bit of this special season so it will be a super warm and magical one for our two little princess elves :)

Between holidays

That's the kind of day today was. We just hung around the house all morning, packed up the fall decorations, set up the Christmas tree, and ate a few leftovers. We finally headed out this afternoon found out that that weather was gorgeous! We had a nice diner out with two exceptionally well-behaved little girls (though I did have to take them potty 4 times during the the course of dinner!). Afterward we walked around downtown amongst the pretty Christmas lights, went to a fancy toy store, and capped off the trip with yummy cupcakes from a new bakery.

Tomorrow we're going to decorate this beauty... :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tonight I'm sitting here thinking "Wow. We really do have  A LOT to be thankful for." We are so blessed and we need to spend more time being thankful every day. 
As for today, it was full and fun. The girls zonked out on the ride home tonight and are all cozy and snug in their beds. I'm ready to do the same but first Mommy and Daddy are contemplating some leftovers for a bed time snack. Is it a bad idea to eat sauerkraut right before bed?
Here's a little synopsis of our day:

The parades were a big hit. Leyna loved all of the dancing and music and Cora was thrilled to see her favorite characters. When we got to the end of the Macy's parade and finally saw Santa, Leyna asked me if he was just a man in a costume :( This girl is going to be a tough sell. We need some "Miracle on 34th Street" magic.

The weather was pretty nice today and the girls had some fun playing in Pee Paw's leaves.

A little family portrait (unfortunately I had the camera on the wrong setting)

Leyna locked Cora in the dog crate and she didn't even care :)

Quite an impressive bird

Watching "Rudolph" with Pee Paw

Almost everyone. Aunt Marty and Cora didn't make it into the frame. (Cora was in the chair in the foreground but just too short to be caught on camera)

Leyna read about 7 books to Rudy

And we capped off the night with all the girls' favorite tunes on Pee Paw's iPod.

Cora singing "Cotton Fields" to Nana and Great Grandpa

Wordless Wednesday

A few facts...

1. Leyna LOVES to draw.

snowman

turkey

giraffe

2. Cora's hair is out of control!

3. You have no idea how endlessly entertaining Daddy's idea of a container of water and 2 straws can be.

4. Cora looked so comfy during her nap today. I want to be that comfy. Good night!

Puddle Jumping

I've been sitting here staring at the screen for quite some time and nothing creative is coming to mind. It was a slow and rainy day. We did the school thing, read library books, cleaned up from the weekend, worked on activity books, and stayed busy as always. I think the highlight of the day was probably our post-nap, pre-dinner walk/puddle jumping extravaganza. The girls have been dying to play outside so we put on our rain boots and went hunting for puddles. About halfway through our usual walk route Leyna was soaked from toes to tushy and we headed home for dry clothes and some warmth by the fire. It was a fun, and memorable, little adventure :)

An Early Thanksgiving Celebration

What a weekend! Are are all thoroughly worn out. So worn out that I was able to get the girls to bed almost 45 minutes early tonight! And I'm hoping to be tucked in soon myself.
Today we had family over for an early Thanksgiving feast and it was so nice to see everyone and hang out. We ate lots of delicious food, video chatted with Uncle Kris and Aunt Gretchen, met Uncle Doug and Teresa's new doggie Sterling, and otherwise enjoyed ourselves. It was a nice day!

The table with our Thankful Tree

The girls get to know Sterling

New dresses from Mee Maw

Leyna's favorite part of the meal was cracking the nuts we had on the table

Picture by Leyna :)

Just cute :)

While Mommy's away...

...the little girls will play!
I worked all day today and Daddy had some work to do on his car so the girls spent the day with Nana and Pee Paw. And Rudy of course. Here's a bit of what I found on the camera this evening...

Work was great but I missed my girlies. I'm so lucky that I didn't have to worry about them for one second though because I knew they were in good hands. They played, they ate yummy food, they dressed up, they fed Rudy treats, they went to the park... What a day! And even with all that fun they still seemed pretty darn happy to see me when I walked in the door :) I got lots of big hugs and "I love yous" throughout the rest of the evening. Now I'm exhausted and I have some recipes to prepare for tomorrow. Thanks Nana and Pee Paw!!!