Dog

Caroline and I were driving home from Mayfield last Sunday and she was happily entertaining herself in the backseat with her magna-doodle. She said, "Look, Mommy! I drew a dog!" I glanced back and had to pull the car over to take a picture. Wow...

Grizzlies

Caroline and I gave Kevin tickets to a Grizzlies game for Christmas. She loved going downtown and picking out 3 tee-shirts for us to wear. I can't even describe her excitement when we all put them on last Friday night. We had so much fun. It was a great gift idea. The best part is getting to experience things like big ballgames through Caroline. She had a blast. I think her favorite part was getting to use her "outside voice" inside!

Big Christmas

We had a great Christmas break. Santa stopped by our house in Memphis early. He knew we were going on a trip and brought Caroline a suitcase of her own. Smart Santa... We started in Mayfield and then headed down to Paris on Christmas Day. Caroline really got into the whole Christmas season this year. Santa brought some baby doll things, which are proving to be a big hit. Other favorite things were a doll house, Dora dress-up clothes, books, games, and a dance cam. It was so much fun watching her get so excited over every gift.

I made the girls' Christmas dresses. The pattern was really easy and I'm hoping I'll have time to make Caroline another for the spring. I kept the dresses away from the red and green theme so they can wear them through the spring and into summer. They really remind me of something Shirley Temple would wear -- especially Caroline's. I got the hem a little bit short. Very cute.

And, as usual, I wish I had taken more photos. My New Year's Resolution, perhaps?

More fun

We've had some more December fun! Caroline loves helping me in the kitchen. I love finding little tasks for her to do. She takes her job very seriously!

My friend Bryn and I took the girls down to the Peabody hotel to see the ducks march. It was so fun to see how excited the girls got when the ducks got off the elevator. Then we watched some older kids from our church play Christmas songs on their violins. It was a beautiful morning and we girls loved every second.

We went to Zoo Lights again this year with a group of friends. It was cold, but we still had a great time. I think everyone's favorite part was the quick train ride through the petting zoo.

We want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas! We pray that your hearts and homes will be filled with the joy and peace and hope that can only come from our Savior - the Christ child. He was born for each of us - what an incredible gift from God!

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
-Isaiah 9:6

Christmas village

We were invited to go to a Christmas village with some friends. It was great fun for the girls, but way too crowded and over-stimulating for the adults! The sacrifices we make for our small ones... Everyone's favorite part was the snow pit. It was madness in there. And I don't know what the snow was made out of, but it was almost impossible to get out of Caroline's hair! I'm still finding snow. I had good intentions of taking lots of pictures. But the kids were moving way too fast to stand still for a photo!

Fireside

Caroline got to have her bedtime story by the fire tonight. She loved it!

The past couple of weeks

So we hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year and I took no pictures the day of. I did remember to get some photos of my floral arrangements the next day. I really enjoyed decorating and being hostess for a day. I told Kevin I may not be the greatest housekeeper, but I can set a nice table!

A couple of table decor tips:

• Pick an easy "theme". Mine was lime green and brown. I love lime green and brown was the perfect fall contrasting color. Then I just looked for lime green and brown things - flowers, napkins, placemats, etc.
  
• Use scrapbook paper for your placemats. It's cheap, easy, customizable, and disposable. Think of all the options for birthdays and other holidays...
• Fresh citrus can freshen up and fill in any floral arrangement. I used little key limes cut in half. Lemons and oranges work well, too. You can either leave the fruit whole or cut it in half. Get some wooden picks from Michael's or Hobby Lobby. (Some picks also have wires on them so you can wire the fruit into your holiday wreath.) Jab the pointed end into your fruit and the other end into your arrangement or wreath. It will look pretty for about a week.

Just call me Martha!

Since Thanksgiving, we've been decorating (slowly) and gearing up for Christmas! We've got several fun things lined up. I just have to remember to take lots of pictures!

Ring around the rosie

Caroline and her friend Maddie love this game.

Still around

I don't know why I've neglected the blog. I haven't been taking as many pictures as I'd like. Sad... Sometimes I feel like we just go all the time. I'm glad this week will give us some time to relax and stay home. Relaxing is pretty high-up on my "to-do" list this week!

This was taken before school one morning. I was trying to get her to model the new jumper I made for her. (I can't wait to show you the Christmas dresses!) But she just wanted to cheese with Mommy. Oh, goodness. I love this girl so.


Here's Caroline at a friend's birthday party a few weeks ago. It was a cowboy/cowgirl party. Caroline loved wearing her boots and having braids in her hair. The hosts had a trailer with hay hooked up to a lawnmower for hayrides. Caroline went on every hayride John gave. She loved it.

Sneak peek

Everything is perfect, beautiful, and right on track with G2! We are halfway there! We didn't get a good profile, which was a little disappointing. And we didn't find out the gender (by choice). Kevin promises he didn't look! Now I guess I need to pull Caroline's ultrasound pics out and see how they compare.

Trick or treat

Caroline was really into Halloween this year. She had a costume party at school on Wednesday and got more candy than she did trick-or-treating tonight. We did some fun crafts here at home to celebrate. We carved pumpkins and even painted two little ones. I planned a spooky meal - mummy dogs, witch fingers, cobwebs, and ghost cakes. I was pretty pleased with myself over the silly meal plan. She had a great time saying, "Trick or treat! Happy Halloween!" at all the neighbors' houses. And then our little kitty helped hand out candy to the other kids.

I'm not sure how many trick-or-treaters we had this year. We always get a ton. Kevin got 1200 pieces of candy and gave out all of it - mostly two pieces at a time. I think he was a little more generous toward the end of the night.

Overall, it was such a fun Halloween for all three of us!

Little helper

Caroline helped me make pumpkin bread. Then she kindly offered to do the dishes.

Itsy bitsy

Are you sick of the singing yet? I might find an agent and see if we can cut an album.

More singing

I never tire of hearing her sing. Good thing she does it a lot these days!

Lazy daisy crazy

Here is Caroline's fall dress - finally finished! Hooray! I started working on it back in July, but then that pesky first trimester hit and I could hardly muster up enough energy to make dinner, let alone smock. When fall arrived, I kicked it into high-gear to get it done. I finished it last night, just in time for church today. I am very proud of the sunflower dress. Here's a little math problem for you: there are 32 sunflowers on the dress. Each sunflower is made up of 10 lazy daisy stitches. That equals 320 lazy daisies. Yikes.

This is the back of the dress. This is one of my favorite dress patterns because of the back.

Yes, it was a very sad morning for some reason. She was not going to smile at all.


I think she'll wear it to church every Sunday until Advent!

Punkin patch

We took Caroline to a real pumpkin patch this year. It was so much fun and the pumpkins were very reasonably priced (much more so than at the "patches" in town). She loved looking for little ones just for her. But my favorite thing has to be that she says "punkin"!

Overheard

Kevin was playing with Caroline while she was in the bath. Caroline said, "Daddy! I'm trying to do some serious work here!"

What a goof! I wish playing in the bath were my serious work!

Big girl bed

St. Louis

We had a really great time last weekend in St. Louis with Kevin's sister, Emily. We did Grant's Farm Saturday morning. Then Aunt Emmy took Caroline to Build-a-Bear, where Caroline built a tiger. Apparently once the stuffing was in, Caroline immediately wanted to do a bear. Saturday night we had a wonderful meal on The Hill with Emily's boyfriend and his parents. I don't remember the restaurant, but the food was really good. Sunday, we took Caroline to the zoo, which was just as neat as I remembered. It's a huge zoo, so we'll have to go back to take in all the areas we didn't get to.

My camera battery died the minute we arrived, so all these photos are courtesy of Emily. Thanks, Em!

Creativity

Caroline woke up one morning and her first order of business was building a nest. She kept talking about eggs and baby birds and nests. So we helped her fashion a nest out of blankies and gave her an Easter egg. She was so happy with her little nest. She played in it all day. I'm amazed at the workings of her little brain. We've never really talked about baby birds being in eggs. I'm guessing it's something she got from Word World. Regardless, I hope I am doing my best to foster her young, creative spirit. (And she had said egg started with "E" 2 seconds before I took the video - stage fright!)


Remember when Caroline liked a nest of a different variety?