Down or Up?

Lily is so excited that tomorrow is December 1.  Last year, we started a new tradition.  We hang an advent stocking, and each morning, the girls pull out a little piece of paper that tells them something fun we are going to do together that day.  We were talking about this on the way to school this morning because we saw a store with lights on all around it.  It reminded Lily of our trip to Callaway Gardens which made us start talking about our December stocking fun.  I asked Lily "Are you so excited that we start our Christmas countdown tomorrow?"  Lily paused for a minute and then said "Mommy, it's not a countdown.  It would be a countdown if we started at 24 and went to 1, but we start at 1 and count up to 24.  It's a Christmas countup."  I wasn't sure how to argue that wonderful 5-year-old logic, so I agreed.  So, let the countup begin!

Three Year Old Mia

I can't believe Mia is three years old now!  This little girl brightens our day every single day.  She is absolutely precious, and we feel so blessed to have her as our daughter.  Over the last year, her speech has taken off.  Dr. White even commented today on how verbal Mia is.  Of course, she doesn't say everything perfectly yet, and there are a couple of things I love to hear her say and can't bear to correct her:

• "Blanana" for banana
• "Pakin' Hook" for Captain Hooks
• "Maked" for naked (she loves to take her clothes off at night and say "I'm maked!")
• "Free" for three (as in, "I'm free" when asked how old she is)

She had her well visit check-up today, and it went pretty well.  She is 32.4 pounds (65th percentile) and 3 feet tall (25th percentile).  Her blood pressure is 94 over 60 which is in the normal range.  I asked Dr. White about her hearing.  I have been concerned for a couple of weeks now.  When we visited the ENT a few months ago, they took out Mia's tubes, and she has seemed fine.  However, recently she has been turning the volume of her toys up and saying she can't hear things like the tv or radio.  I also know she had a little cold last week which could add to the fluid level.  Dr. White noted her right ear had a large amount of non-infected fluid in it, and her left ear seemed pretty normal.  It's something to watch for a few weeks to determine if we need to take her back to the ENT.  We'll see what happens with this.

A few things to note about Mia at this fun age.  She loves pirates.  She likes to watch Jake and the Neverland Pirates on Disney, and she likes to pretend that we are pirates.  When you ask what a pirate says, she crooks her arm, bring it in front of her and says "Arrr, matey."  She loves telling knock-knock jokes.  This is her favorite: "Knock, knock.  Who's there? Me.  Me who?  You know me!"  Mia laughs more than any child I have seen; she is such a happy little girl.  She is really enjoying books now which I love.  She is getting into Search and Find books which is fun.  Her favorite Bible story is David and Goliath.  She rarely walks anywhere; she prefers running.  She loves the scooter we gave her for her birthday.  She also likes to lay down on the ground in Lily's scooter path, a la old timey bandits with the damsel on the railroad track.  She loves to climb as high as possible on playgrounds and climbing walls.  The girl is fearless!  She is pretty athletic; she loves to catch, throw, roll and kick balls.  She loves to paint and attempt art projects.  Mia is a great eater.  Her favorite foods include spinach ravioli with a wild mushroom sauce (at Figo), a vegetarian burrito from Moes, bananas, raspberries, kiwi, strawberries, grapes and tomatoes ("matoes!").

Mia is such an amazing, smart, sweet and beautiful little girl.  We are so proud of her, and we love her more than we ever could have imagined!  I can't wait to see what this third year offers!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving.  What a wonderful day set aside to remember all the many, many blessings we have.  This picture shows two of my most favorite blessings:

Thursday morning, we watched the Macy's parade together; what a fun tradition!  We paused it for a few minutes to make a Thanksgiving dessert: Rice Krispie Turkeys.  They didn't look quite as nice as the recipe picture, but they were gobbled up that afternoon.

After making a couple of other dishes and watching the parade, we all got ready and headed over to Sid and Elaine's house.  A lot of my dad's family gets together there each year, and we have a blast together.  Luckily, it was a beautiful day so the kids were able to play outside; a lot of the kids were running around barefoot!  Both girls loved playing on their swings and running around on their tennis court playing soccer, basketball, riding bikes and doing just about anything but playing tennis.  Their favorite part though was definitely going down the kid zip line that Sid and Elaine have; they loved it!  Mia was the first one to try it out, and then all the kids played for a long time on it; talk about fun for them!  Of course, we also enjoyed an amazingly delicious meal, and we had fun with a lot of family.  Again, what a wonderful day!

The girls didn't take naps during the day because they were having too much fun, so about 15 minutes after getting home, this is how we found Mia in the living room.

 A few other miscellaneous Thanksgiving things...

Lily made this cute placemat at school.  Her class had a Thanksgiving feast the Tuesday before, and they used these.  Lily loved telling me how she painted her hand to make the turkey.  They also made a little turkey napkin ring which was pretty cute.  Mrs. Worrell made a tree, and each child attached a leaf that said what he or she is thankful for.  Lily put "my food."

Liz helped the girls make these adorable turkey crafts at home one day.

Liz helped Mia make this sweet little tree.  Mia was so proud of herself!

Such a sweet little cheerleader!  I am so thankful for this little one!

On Friday evening, Ryan and I put up our Christmas tree.  We love putting this up each year, so we can relive lots of fun memories as we pull out the ornaments we have acquired from our various trips.  What a fun evening.

I love to pull out this nativity set that Meme brought back from the Holy Land.  She brought one back for each of her five grandkids.  This hand-carved wood has a very nice, distinct smell to it; that smell makes me think of Christmas whenever I walk past it. It's beautiful, and I love it.

We both love this Hummel nativity set that Ryan's Grandmama gave him before she passed away a few years ago.  It's as lovely as Grandmama.

On Saturday morning, we went to The Optimist Club's pancake breakfast.  Delicious!  Afterwards, we stopped by the Dollar Store to let the girls pick up a new ornament, and then we came home to decorate their tree.  They had a blast!  They sorted all through their box of ornaments and picked out their favorites to hang.  Mia was partial to the little jingle bells while Lily found every one of the princess ornaments.  It was a fun time.  Here are several pictures of them getting the tree ready.

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving weekend as much as we did.  Now it's time to think about the upcoming Christmas season!

Family Pictures 2011

Last Wednesday, we went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to have our annual family photographs taken.  It was a little overcast, but it didn't rain a drop.  We practically had the place to ourselves which was nice too.  The gardens were beautiful, even if everything wasn't fully in bloom, and we were able to explore and enjoy a lot of it.  We all loved working with Drew, and we look forward to seeing her again next year!  She took well over 200 pictures, edited 60 of them and gave us a disk that has all the photos on them.  I feel like she did an excellent job of capturing the sweet and fun personalities of our precious girls.  It was very difficult, but here are my most favorite ones. 

An Expert

Lily checked out a book at the school library today that is about the ocean.  When Liz asked why she picked this book, Lily replied "So Mommy can be an expert on fishes because she needs to be an expert on something."  Very interesting...

Mia's Birthday Party

We couldn't wait to celebrate our sweet Mia's third birthday!

 We had Chick-fil-a deliver chicken nuggets and a fruit plate; those are two of Mia's favorite things to eat.  We also had animal crackers and potato chips.

 We decided on a zoo theme for the party.  Mia loves visiting the zoo, and since I like to refer to her as my little monkey, it seemed appropriate.

 Liz made this awesome zoo cage on one of the living room walls.  She colored and cut out all of these animals, then taped them and crepe paper to the wall.  She also put lots of the girls' Little People animals and stuffed animals around it.  It looks so cute!

 Both girls really liked the big elephant and zebra balloons on the craft table.

 Liz found these cute little foam animals that were easy for the kids to make; adults helped glue on the eyes on the sticks, but the kids were able to stick the animal pieces together.  This was a big hit.

 I found these cute little animal masks for the kids to color and wear.

 We also set out these pages for kids to color which many enjoyed.

 Great-Grandpa Hooks and Lois sent these beautiful flowers and balloons to the birthday girl; they were perfect to have on the counter next to the animal plates and napkins.  The bright colors matched just right!

 These were the cupcakes I made for my monkey.  When Mia saw them, she gasped and her eyes got so big; she was very excited about them which made me very happy!  She wanted one with blue eyes for her candles.

 I made the monkey cupcakes for the kids and then went a little more simple for the adults' cupcakes by using little zoo animals picks in them.

 A picture of me with my sweet little Mia.

 Our family of four before the party started.

 Mia and Daddy.

 Our silly girl couldn't wait for the party to start and her friends arrive!

 Lily wanted in on the silly action too!

 Our girls and the Shaffer girls had fun at the craft table for awhile.

 Mia was more than happy to have a picture made with one of her favorite people, my nephew, Zac.

 Our friend Avery wanted my dad to read a Bible story to her.

 Harrison had a lot of fun with Rocket and the computer.

 After playing for awhile and enjoying some yummy food, it was time for Mia's cupcakes.  She enjoyed hearing everyone sing Happy Birthday to You.  Later in the day, we could hear her in her room singing "happy birthday to me."

 Blowing out the candles with all her might.

 Enjoying her cupcake.

 After cupcakes, it was time to open presents.  Lily, Parker and Macey sat nearby so they could scope out all the goodies.

Mia was very excited to get this pirate dress-up doll from my parents.  She loves pirates!

 She loved digging into bags to see what she would pull out.

 Last Saturday, Lily was determined to pick out a present for Mia, so she and I went to Toys R Us.  We walked up and down each aisle until we came across this huge Princess coloring and activity set.  She just knew Mia would love it, and she was excited to help Mia open it.

 Mia did love it and was happy to give Lily a hug to say thank you.

 All the kids gathered around when Mia opened her gift from the Pacins - a Little People pirate boat set!

 Mia was super excited when she received our gift - a Minnie Mouse scooter.  She immediately took it on a ride and hasn't stopped!  She loves it!

We had such a fun time celebrating our sweet 3 year old!  Thank you to all our family and friends who made it so special!