Sadie the Big Girl

What Sadie doesn't have in size, she makes up for in her spunk. Brandon and I will often comment that Sadie is two going on six. And that doesn't always mean it's a good thing. It often gets her into trouble.

Anyway, about three or four weeks ago Sadie decided she wanted to wear undies. I told her if she kept them dry, she could try. I had tried training her awhile back, and though she learned what to do on the toilet, she couldn't master the urge. Anyway, she wanted to wear those undies, and by golly, she caught on!  Day two I heard her say, "Mommy, I got to go potty!" and she did. The next day we accomplished the big #2 into the toilet. There was much hoopin' and hollerin' going on...mostly from me!

Since then she has done a pretty good job of staying dry. She does have more accidents then the other two did, but overall I am so pleased. She even stayed dry for the long trip we just took. I still have her wear diapers at night, and since we've been gone a lot, I have a pull up over her panties. Speaking of Pull-Ups, each girl had their own word for that.

Analise called them "tulips."

Maisie called them "blow pops."

 And Sadie first called them "blow ups."

As I look back at each of the girls' potty training experience I can only chuckle on how each of them was different, and also how I changed as well.

Analise started on the little potty chair and got an M&M each time she went.

Maisie started on the little seat on the big toilet and got a Smarty each time.

Sadie began directly on the regular sized toilet and got gum for when she went #2!  Gum! 

And that is the difference between child one and child three. Thankfully the end result is the same - no more diapers!  

Maisie's Program

I love preschool programs, so when it was time for Maisie's Christmas program, I couldn't wait. Maisie has loved to perform at home on a stage (usually the couch), so I was excited to see how she acted on a real stage in front of people. She was so excited, and I dressed her up in the same outfit that Analise had worn for her Christmas program. I noticed when I put on her skirt that it was a little big around the waist, but I wasn't too worried. That is until she sang her second song that required dancing and jumping around in a circle. I thought for sure her skirt was going to fall off!  It was so funny and nerve racking at the same time.

Maisie enjoyed it all. She knew the words and actions without trying to steal the show.

 We were blessed to have Grandma, Aunt S, daddy and our dear college girls, T and T, join us for the program. Maisie was thrilled to have them all there!

December Fun

A few weeks ago we did something different as a family, and it turned out to be lots of fun. Brandon's company now has a suite at the local arena. We used it on a Saturday afternoon to watch a hockey game. I admit, I'm not a hockey fan. But this was the way to do it! We had lots of room, a tv to watch if we got bored, and the best part was I was able to sit right below a  heater. Analise sat and watched the entire game. She loved it! While the players warmed up, she asked her Aunt, "Is that ice or a really slippery floor?"  She learned a lot that day.

Maisie got bored rather quickly, so I now know if I go again I need to take a bag of things for her to do.

After the hockey game was over, all six kids ate dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house and spent the night, sleeping by the tree. Brandon and I ate dinner with D and S and then went Christmas shopping. It was great to be with my man and accomplishing things!  We picked up Sadie at 10:00 and took her home to her own bed. It was fun having just her around on Sunday morning.

Hockey game

This season I did my fair share of baking, but I tried to keep it simple. I chose things that the girls could help me  with, and they loved it! We made pretzels with almond bark and M&Ms, and we made even more pretzels with Rolos  in the middle. MMM!  I also made my family's recipe of cinnamon twist coffeecake for teachers. I ended up making three batches!  Each time they baked, it smelled like Christmas morning. I also made the peanut butter cookies with the Hershey Kiss in the middle. I gave most of those away, but we had some to eat. That was another thing I liked about this year - we baked, shared most of it and kept a few for our family.  One of Brandon's favorite holiday cookie is gingerbread cookies...something I don't care for. I didn't get to making them this year, so I bought him gingerbread Pop tarts instead. :)
My little helpers!

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.