Thanksgiving 2014

We went down to Fort Smith for Thanksgiving, as usual.  We had lunch at Jami's house and dinner at Memaw and Papaw's house.

After lunch at Jami's house, we all went outside for pictures

 Ma brought Marlee's bike over to Jami's and she had a ball riding it around the driveway.

Lou bird had a ball outside, too...just running all over the place and following the basketball while the big boys played.

 Laynie's hands were really cold, so the three of us went inside to watch Frozen.  Laynie actually sat on my lap and watched the entire movie! 

 After lunch at Jami's house, we went over to Memaw and Papaw's house for dinner.  Marlee had a really good time with Josie, as always, and Laynie and Hayes stared each other down a lot.  We were very thankful that Memaw Polly was able to join us.

   We are so very blessed to have such wonderful families.  I thank God every night for all of my blessings.

Busy Bees

Holy cow, Christmas is hard as a Mom!!  Between buying all the gifts, wrapping them (which I haven't done yet), school closings, Santa, train ride, travelling (to Bernie and to Fort Smith), the elf on the shelf (which I am not very good at remembering!), sick kiddos, and just having a 3 year old and a 1 year old, I have absolutely NO time!!  I am so far behind on my blogging that I am going to just give you in a nutshell what we are up to most days.

Marlee spends most of her days in dress up clothes.  She literally strips as soon as we walk in the door and puts one of her dresses on.  I usually don't even dress her on the weekend because it is pointless.

 Laynie has really started enjoying watching whatever Marlee is watching on TV.  Frozen is her favorite.  She actually sat on my lap and watch the entire movie on Thanksgiving Day.

Sometimes I will walk by the living room and she is watching TV like this.  So funny!

 Here they are watching a show before school.  That is about the only way I can get a good picture of both of them when they are still. 

We go to the mall or to Chick fil A about once a week to play after school (since it is too cold to go to the park).

 Both of the girls LOVE apples and they LOVE to eat them whole.  Neither one will eat it if I cut it up.  It cracks me up!

 Marlee loves to sing with her new kareoke machine and is still such a little bookworm.  She loves to read her books to me.  Her favorite book is her mini Bible.

Laynie loves to twirl and march. ;)

Both girls were so excited to look at the Christmas lights on our front porch.  Laynie looked for a second and then saw the opportunity to run!

 Laynie had an appointment with the ENT.  She checked out fine and passed her hearing test, so he said we don't need to worry about tubes unless she has many more ear infections.  She has a double ear infection right now. :(  Here she is in the waiting room.  She thought she was so big.

Laynie still doesn't talk much, but we know she can talk because she does once in a while.  She just doesn't ever repeat anything for us!!  She says hi, bye, night-night (ni-ni), book (booh), Dada, Momma (only when she is cranky pants), banana (nana).  She loves to take things from one spot and put them in another spot.  For example, she takes all the diapers from the drawer in the bathroom and puts them in the bathtub and then takes the all from the bathtub and puts them back in the drawer.  She is very focused during these activities and does not like to be interrupted.  Laynie is a little instigator that tries to get a rise out of her big sister.

Besides dressing up, singing, and reading, Marlee also loves to paint and color.  She draws us pictures all the time and tells us what she drew.  She drew a fish the other day.  Maybe I'm crazy, but I kind of see it!  I'm not real sure why it is uploading sidways, but she said all of the lines to the left were its tails. ;)

Marlee is such a people pleaser and has such a big heart.  She gets so upset if she does wrong and gets so concerned when others are hurt.  When Laynie is cryng in the car, she will say "It's okay, Laynie.  We are almost home."  It just melts my heart.

Love these two with all that I have!!

Marlee's Birthday

We decided to do Marlee's Birthday at Jim and Margaret's house this year so we could do pony rides and a hay ride.  We had her party in mid-November because we thought the weather would be nicer.  We were so wrong.  It SNOWED on November 16th!!  And you know what is crazy?  The weather was absolutely beautiful the weekend of her actual Birthday, of course.  We played games in the barn and made the best of it and Marlee didn't notice the cold. ;)

Here she is walking into the barn

And then she spotted the pony!

 
 
 
Little sister had to ride the pony, too.

Here she is playing games

  
 The girls had to sing Frozen songs on the new karaoke machine, of course.

 
 
 Laynie spent most of her time trying to escape from the barn.

 I don't have many pictures of her opening presents or eating cake because Laynie was over the cold.  But, here are a few.

 
 We ended the party by making some yummy s'mores.

 

 We didn't get a video of us singing Happy Birthday at the party, but we do have a video of us singing on her actual Birthday.

And she loved the singing Elsa doll we got her. :)

 I CANNOT believe my baby girl is 3!!!  I love her more and more each day and I absolutely love the conversation we can have now.  She is so sweet and innocent and has such a big imagination.  She is such a sweet gift from God.