December 2012

The momentum we came out of November with just increased in December.  I do not remember a time when we have been this busy!  But it was all so much fun!
At Madeline's school, the 2nd graders do a Christmas play every year.  Their music teacher, Mrs. Vickers, had them do tryouts for the speaking roles.  Here is Madeline rehearsing with Nathan and I playing the other roles:)  She took memorizing her lines so seriously and did a great job!

She earned the roll of Penguin #13.  She had 5 lines to memorize and I had to create a simple costume.

The play was so cute.  They sang quite a few songs, did some dancing, and were very funny!

Madeline said all of her lines on cue and perfectly, so all of that hard work paid off!

Afterward, the school choir performed some Christmas music.  Here is a quick snippet of one of their cute songs about Santa's Reindeer:

We are so thankful to be at a school with such an amazing Music teacher.  She works so hard and offers such great opportunities for her students to explore their performing talents!

Two days later, Madeline had the opportunity to be on her dance studio's Christmas Parade float.  Our small town makes a big deal out of parades and this year was no different:)  People literally park their cars in parking lots the day before just to make sure they have a good spot to watch!
The float had a Grinch theme and was so cute.  Some of the girls dressed as ballerinas and some were little Who boys and girls.

The weather was a little cool, but not too bad and Madeline had the best time waving and playing with her friends on the float.  I know it is something she will not forget:)

I decided to start a tradition for Madeline this year.  I planned a Cookie decorating party for her and 5 of her friends.  I have a great love of decorating cookies and wanted to share that with them!

You can't have fun decorating without some good snacks and drinks.  I tried to balance out all of that sweetness with some salty cheese and Chex mix:)  Also, milk is a must with chocolate as an option!

All ready for decorating!

Lots of Christmas shapes to choose from!

Plenty of sprinkles to go around!

Here are some of the finished products.  They all did such a good job and had so much fun.  I can't wait to do it again next year!

Hope Landing, Will's therapy center, had a Christmas festival one weekend.  Sadly, it was so hot that day that we couldn't wear cute Christmas clothes but still had fun.  We went on a ride in a horse pulled carriage, made reindeer food, and visited with Santa.  I hate that I forgot my nice camera, once again, and had to make do with my phone.

I also did some baking and cookie decorating for teacher gifts this year.  It was the first time I had done any decorating since having Mallory and it was fun to do again!

We got the dogs an early Christmas gift, another dog bed so that they would each have their own.  I guess they are just used to cuddling together all of the time because they just keep squeezing in the new bed together:)

Madeline had a huge milestone as a Catholic.  She participated in her second Sacrament, First Confession.  Here she is just before, looking nervous:)  She did well and said it was so much easier than she thought it would be.  I was so proud of how well she prepared and took the time to acknowledge her sins and the importance of confessing them.  Her next step will be First Communion after Easter!

She also had her first piano recital.  She was asked to memorize, Away in a Manger.  Here she is practicing just before.  Mallory got really into it and decided to sing along:)  She did the same at the actual performance too!  Madeline handled it like a pro.  It did make her pause but then she just kept playing.  I'm so proud of the progress she has made in her first 6 months of lessons!

This little one started sitting unassisted right before Christmas!  She is so proud of herself:)

Sorry this was so long and random!  Next up will be Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!  I guess I didn't quite make my goal of being all caught up before 2013 but I'm still trying:)

November 2012

November 2012 was a busy and fun month!

A friend of ours loaned us her jumper for Mallory and she loves it!  I love that her head control is so good now and she loves being able to play with the toys and see what her big brother and sister are doing:)

Both kids came home with turkeys to decorate.  We decided Madeline was old enough to do it all on her own.  She went a little crazy with the glitter and the paper was very heavy when she was done:)  I'm not sure I will ever get all of the glitter dust off of our floors!

Will was told to create a disguise and thought a chef would be fun since he loves to pretend to cook.  Nathan, Will, and I all worked together and created this:)  It was a lot of fun!

Mallory started laughing!   Madeline and Will make it their mission to find ways to make her laugh all of the time:)

Nana came from Spokane and visited us for 6 days.  It was so fun to spend time with her and we stayed busy.  She loved picking out Mallory's clothes everyday:)

When we took my mom to Little Rock to fly home, we made a visit to see Lucy.  These cousins are growing so fast!

After watching my brother and Lindsey do so well with cloth diapers, we decided to give it a try.

What is this thing?

I like it!  It's so soft!

So far, we really like them.  We spent about $100 but that should cover us to potty training, way less than the cost of disposable diapers for that long!

The kids had American Education Week and were asked to dress up for career day.  Madeline was a Vet and Will was a Contractor.

Mallory started eating baby food!  She does so well with it and likes everything so far!

Will got ready for Thanksgiving by making a few crafts in Kindergarten.  He was so proud of everything he made!

The weather was unseasonably warm so we spent some time playing outside while the kids were on break from school.  We tried out the umbrella stroller and Mallory loved it:)

We went to see Nathan's family in Conway for Thanksgiving and had a good time seeing everyone.  She may not have eaten turkey, but this little one needed a nap.  Nathan grew a moustache this month in honor of  "Movember" to raise awareness of prostate cancer.

My sweet kids posing for a Thanksgiving picture.  I really need to be better about using my good camera because the phone pictures are not that good!

We stopped by to see Lucy again on the way home.  They did some tummy time together this time:)

We were finally able to get a picture of all 5 of my parents' grandkids!

Mallory turned 5 months old!  We no longer need the Boppy pillow to prop her!  Such a big girl:)

Nana ordered Madeline a bunch of books from the school book order when she was visiting.  Madeline finally got them in and was so proud of her stash:)  I love that books are always what she wants!

Halloween 2012

The kids were very excited about Halloween this year.  I had said I was not buying costumes this year because we have so many dress up clothes already.  We just created costumes from what we already have.  The Tuesday before Halloween, we went to a Halloween party at Hope Landing (Will's therapy center).  We made Will a pirate costume (Nathan actually painted the skull and crossbones himself) which actually won a costume contest at a birthday party the weekend before!  Madeline used several different costume pieces to create a rock star costume, and Mallory just wore a cute Halloween outfit my mom had bought her.  I thought we did a pretty good job and the party was so much fun for everyone!

On Wednesday, we normally go to "church school".  They hosted a trunk or treat with carnival games inside.  Mallory and Will wore the same outfits and Madeline decided to be a sock hop girl this time, using another dress up outfit.  She looked so cute!

Eating dinner with our church friends!

Having another baby has made me very nostalgic:)  So, I thought I would show our old Halloween pictures:)

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Hopefully Mallory will be standing well enough to join this picture by next year:)

October 2012

Now for a rundown of our October:)
We spent a lot of time at the soccer fields watching Will play games.  I was so proud of him because he has some sensory issues that cause him to be super sensitive to the feel of weeds and grass on his legs.  He used to cry if we even came near an overgrown area, but he managed to overcome that to play soccer!  This was his first year and I'm not sure if he really understands much of the game at all:)  He mainly ran with the pack and had a very short attention span with watching the ball:)  He had a few good performances at goalie though.  He never scored a goal but came close a couple of times.  It was a good social/teamwork experience for him and we will let him try again next year to see if he can learn more about paying attention, helping your teammates, and strategy.  He was always so excited to go to his games and had great coaches!

October is the annual "Read for the Record" event at their school.  Schools across the nation gather at the same time and read the same book to set a record!  They had to wear their red school shirts and posed so sweetly for me that morning:)

Mallory has rolled over a few times from the time she was 5 weeks old but really starting getting good at it during this month.  I hope this video actually uploads correctly!

Madeline finally lost her other front tooth.  So, now she knows just what she wants for Christmas:)

I was in charge of the October meeting for Madeline's Campfire Girls group.  We went to a local, fancy restaurant where the owner did etiquette lessons.  It was so fun, informative, and cute.  She used chocolate milk as the soup course:)

Mallory tried our her highchair with some toys.  She liked sitting higher and being able to see more.

October also means Red Ribbon Week.  They have a fun theme each day.  This was neon day because they are too bright to do drugs:)

They also had a mismatch day (I think it was not being mixed up with drugs).  This is what we came up with for Madeline.  Will had his trip to the pumpkin patch that day and had to wear a school shirt.

Mallory turned 4 months old!  She had a great checkup and her next round of shots:(  She weighed 13 lbs and was 25 inches.

Will's class celebrated the 50th day of school by having a 1950s themed day.  Here is Will's greaser outfit.  He was so cute!

Nana caught a good sale at Crazy 8's and sent Madeline a box of fun new clothes.  This was her favorite outfit.  I'm glad my mom loves shopping for my kids.  It is such a blessing to us!  Only Nana would buy her pink, suede boots:)

Next up. . . Halloween!