Random Picture Walk

These pictures don't have much in common, but each provides a memory I want to remember.

The girls help fold clothes each week. They help with the load of towels and also with their own clothes. We have the routine down: Analise folds all jammies and helps put clothes away, Maisie folds/sorts the undies, and Sadie matches all the socks. Not only is it helpful, but we have fun together as well. We usually sing songs while we work. And hopefully it teaches them some responsibility as well.

Each year our downtown has a Christmas walk with lots to see and taste. We usually go with Grandma and cousins in the evening. However, this year Grandma was out of town, so we did it differently. Since it was almost 55 degrees, and our evening was full, we went at 4:00 instead. Aunt S. and two of the cousins joined us, and it was lots of fun! We took a hay rack ride pulled by pretty horses. Some years we don't do this because the line is so long; this year we didn't have to wait!  We also saw a live nativity, including two camels. We all loved them!  They ate right in front of us and gave us many laughs.

Sadie injured herself last weekend, and no one saw her do it. I have a hunch how she did it, but I will never know what really caused it. I know she came up from the basement with what looked like rug burns. She never cried. Once it scabbed, it was quite the sight!

Last Friday the girls and I had a movie night while eating pizza by Christmas tree light. It was a lots of fun despite the movie making Analise cry. 

Princess Sadie wearing a tiara.

The girls came up from the basement wearing these lovely outfits. Too cute not to take a picture. :)



Miss Maisie

Maisie was the star of the week this week for preschool. She was super excited that it was her turn. She was given a poster to fill out about herself, and then she shared it with the class. I had fun working on this with her. She's never done anything like this, so some answers I knew, and some answers surprised me. She knew where she lived. Yeah! Here she is holding her poster, and below are some close ups of her answers.



If you saw this in person, you would see that she made herself smiling.



Analise tried not to be offended with her hair. :)



I knew this blank would be interesting since we  have never talked about this before. So I asked her, "Maisie, when you get older and grown up, what do you want to be?" She answered, "A boy!" After I laughed, I suggested other ideas, and she agreed to them all. So when I mentioned this one, she wanted me to put that down.




This one was a no brainer.



We still have our little dwarf frogs that we got last year. Maisie makes it look like we have a tadpole. What's even more funny is when she told her class about this one, she couldn't remember what she drew so she told them we had two kittys!  Sorry dear, but we'll never have a cat.

Maisie helped me pick out the snacks this week for class. Since it was "G" week, the teacher in me had to get some snacks that began with that letter. We sent GoGurts and graham crackers, Golfish with cheese cut out in cute Christmas shapes, and on Thursday she took muffins that she and I had made along with apple slices.

Some things  I want to remember about Maisie at this age:  She is fascinated with princess things. At first this was  hard for me since I tend to be more anti-princess. However, after reading Dr. Dobson's book "Bringing up Girls," I realized the play of princess was okay if it is in the proper perspective. Whenever she sees a Disney princess in the store, she always says, "My favorite!" However, she has never watched a Disney princess movie and doesn't know who they are. So Maisie loves the concept, and with that I am ok. Just now she came out of room from rest time wearing her tiara and lots of bracelets.

Maisie talks a lot but still doesn't have the best pronunciation. She will let me correct her, and sometimes she can fix it; other times she can't. Her word for "turkey" sounds just like "cookie." Now she sings jingle bells, but it sounds like "Gingle bells."  Even her favorite princess is "frincess."

Maisie took her love of fruit to a new level the other day. She was chewing gum and eating a pear at the same time. Eww.

Last weekend she got a splinter in her finger, and when I took it out, she cried hard enough you would have thought I was cutting of her arm. I put a (you guessed it) princess band aid on it, and later Sadie asked her why she had a "bandaind" on it, and Maisie told her she'd had a porcupine.

While grocery shopping a few weeks ago, she was singing "Go tell it on the mountain..." at the top of her lungs. The good news it that the store was quiet. However, that meant the few people there could hear her. :)

She is enjoying Awana Cubbies, but she doesn't memorize like her older sister. And the patches don't mean much to her. I remember Analise would tell me right away when she had a new patch. Maisie will  leave them in her bag for me to discover myself.

Maisie sometimes needs some nudging from me to do something on her own that I know she capable of doing. One morning she stood in her room naked for 15 minutes because she wanted help getting dressed. She finally caught on that I wasn't going to help her. She gets dressed by herself on a regular basis!  Once she was dressed, she was so happy. So sometimes she gets so mad at me for making her do something, but once she does it she is thrilled at her accomplishment. I'm not sure what this will mean in the future.

Maisie will have conversations with herself or pretend friends. She talks and talks, and none of it makes sense. I get a kick out of it.

Maisie, we love you SO MUCH!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Analise didn't have school on Weds, so we slept in and hung out at home. Thursday morning I finished baking my pies while Brandon kept the girls out of the kitchen. Many times I let them help me bake, but not that day. My dinner responsibilities were bread and pies, so I made pumpkin muffins, rolls, a candy apple pie and a chocolate pie. We headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to meet up with the fam. Even the newlyweds were there!  We spent time taking family pictures before sitting down for the meal.

Maisie had a Thanksgiving feast at school, and she came home looking like this!

 Analise made pilgrim hats again this year. Maisie wore her Indian hat instead.

A family picture that turned out decent!

We enjoyed time at the table reflecting on something we're thankful for this past year, and encouraged one another as well.

We played some games, did a lot of talking and hung out most  of the day!

Friday morning was another slow morning. We finally got out and ran some errands. We brought the tree up from the basement, and this was the best year yet. All the lights worked, and some branches needed some fluffing, but that was it!  We watched the football game while enjoying time with S and D. After a soup supper, we put the ornaments up as a family. I pulled each ornament from the box, told the girls where and who it was from, and they hung it on the tree. Brandon then spread them out to make the tree more balanced. :) I love Christmas, and I love putting the tree together as a family. I didn't spend as much time putting all sorts of decorations up this year. It's simple, and that's the way it will be for the season.

Saturday morning Brandon went turkey hunting with a friend. He was home by 10:00....with a bird!  I went out and did some shopping in the afternoon, and that evening we celebrated my nephew's 9 birthday.

It was so nice having Brandon around for four days. Anytime with family is the best, and for that I am thankful!

Memories via pictures

Since I always seem to be behind on my blog, this will be short and sweet but full of memories for me.

Brandon takes time to snuggle with each girl at bedtime. It's a treasured and sacred time by all the girls!



One Saturday morning, I pulled out Analise's cookbook and let her make breakfast. She read the directions, and I simply helped her. Those easy cinnamon rolls were a hit!



One of my favorite ministries is Operation Christmas Child. My joy has spread to Analise, and this year she was the one telling Maisie all about it. So we went together and bought things for the boxes. Our prayer is for each girl that receives our boxes will come to know the Lord.

For a family night we made and frosted cupcakes. Even daddy helped!



Gobble gobble :)



One day over break, I got up a couple minutes after the girls. I walked into the living room and found them like this. I could only laugh.