1st Snow of the Year

I have been meaning to post this for a while now. I am trying to catch up, so the next several entries will be from our December events. We had our first snow of the year on December 1st. Of course, we get excited here in North Texas if anything sticks to the ground since we rarely get anything but a miserable ice storm. The girls seemed excited at first to plod out in the snow, but their excitement was short-lived as they were both eager to get back into the house. Ashlyn was pretty much done when she ran to join up with her sister and fell to the ground. She refused to get up so I had to go rescue her from the soggy ground. I did manage to snap a few shots before the fun was over.

Bonfire Memorial Visit

I intended to include this blog much earlier, but time has gotten away from me. I can't believe it has been almost a month since I updated our blog. While we were down visiting my family for Thanksgiving, we took the girls to College Station to visit the campus, shop, and eat. Aaron and I had not been to the bonfire memorial so that was at the top of our "to do" list while we were there. It's hard to believe that is has been over 10 years since the bonfire collapse. I can still remember like it was yesterday hearing the news of the horrific tragedy. It was hard to hear then news then, but much more emotional being on campus and reading about the individuals who lost their lives that day. The details that went into building the memorial are amazing. I am glad we had the opportunity to visit the memorial and pay our respects to those most severely affected by the events of that day.

Pulling Hair

The girls think it is fun to jump on our bed and play hide-n-seek under the pillows. I stepped into the closet to put something away and Makenzie calmly stated, "Mom, Ashlyn pulled my hair." Since Makenzie wasn't screaming in pain, I finished what I was doing and then walked over to see what was going on. I am not sure which was more shocking....the calmness in Makenzie's voice when she told me what happened, or the clump of hair that she was holding in her hands. I was in complete shock at the amount of hair Ashlyn pulled from her sister's head. My belief that Makenzie is hard headed came to fruition when you see the picture I took. Now that Ashlyn has observed she gets a reaction out of Makenzie when she pulls her hair, she has since repeated the incident twice. Here's hoping she will start to understand after frequent visits to time-out. In the meantime, I have told Makenzie to keep her hair away from her sister....

Pre-Thanksgiving trip

We headed to Tomball to help celebrate my niece's 6th birthday the weekend before Thanksgiving. Madelyn's birthday party was held in the building where she has gymnastics. All of the attendees were given the opportunity to jump from the trampoline, high bars, and rope, into the foam pit. There were other activities planned, and given the size of the group, I was very impressed at how well the kids participated and behaved. I am waiting to get pictures from my sister so I can post Makenzie on the high bar and Madelyn swinging from the rope. Of course, my monkey of a child had no fear even though she has never been on the high bar before. I have to believe that both of my girls inherited their climbing genes from their daddy. I certainly don't like being up high, so I know they didn't get this from me!
Madelyn wanted to go out to eat at a restaurant in which whip cream is put on her face. So we ate dinner at a local restaurant in town to celebrate her actual birthdate. It's hard to believe that my niece is 6 and that she is in kindergarten. I can remember when Heather and JD brought her home from the hospital like it was yesterday. We love you Madelyn and are so glad we were able to celebrate your birthday with you!!

Ashlyn's clothing issues

Lately, Ashlyn has been pretty adamant about what she wants to wear (or doesn't want to wear). Not long after she wakes up, she wants me to take off her pajamas. This is followed by her taking off her diaper. If we don't quickly replace her diaper with a new one and put some pants over the diaper, she is quick to rip it off. She took her diaper off so many times Saturday-even managed to take off her pants by herself, that I had to resort to a onesie so my child could be clothed. At one point this weekend, Ashlyn removed her diaper, moved our potty training toilet over to the kennel, and proceeded to boost herself up onto the dog kennel. She was so proud of herself that she gave us the biggest grin and started bouncing up and down on top of the crate (yes, she is only 19 months old). Last week, she insisted on putting a pair of shorts over her jeans. I finally had to put them out of sight because she apparently thought I would let her out of the house dawning her new attire. I hope this is just a phase in which she is trying to exhibit some independence.............

Playdate with Trent

My good friend Tera let me keep her son Trent this morning while she went to the doctor. Trent and Ashlyn aren't even three weeks apart so I enjoyed watching them "play together." Trent had fun running from room to room checking out everything. He managed to find his way to Makenzie's room to push the buttons on her radio. Trent is quite a little dancer so anytime there was music on, he liked to show us his moves. He fits right in at our house since Ashlyn is quite a dancer too! Both Ashlyn and Trent enjoyed stacking blocks and knocking them over. I tried to get Trent to ride the rollercoaster (Ashlyn even volunteered to show him how it works), but he insisted on pushing the music button instead of sitting in the seat. I think somewhere down the road, Tera and Jeff will be purchasing a dog...Trent was very excited to see them! I captured some cute pictures of the two hanging out. Sorry about Trent's hair Tera......Ashlyn was a little obsessed with touching it!

Halloween '09

We took the girls to Hunter's Glen Baptist Church for a third year in a row for their Fall Festival. Aaron was in charge of costumes this year, and since he spent three weeks off and on in Austin, costumes were a last minute decision in our household. We ended up borrowing a giraffe costume for Makenzie and a Dumbo costume for Ashlyn. Aaron had some great ideas for the girls to go as pairs, so hopefully one of his ideas will come to fruition next year. Makenzie is the only one who really gets the costume concept anyway, so it was a quick and inexpensive way to go this year. We gave her the option of dressing like a princess, but she chose the giraffe instead. Perhaps she was tired of wearing the tiara that I pinned to her head for her school fall festival. Makenzie also wanted to go trick or treating this year so she and Ashlyn had the opportunity to go with Makenzie's friend Kylie once we got back home. Aaron went along while I handed out candy and he said the girls really had a good time. I think Makenzie really just enjoyed tagging along with her friend Kylie. Here are some pics from the day.