Our 1st NWA Thanksgiving

This year was the first year in 12 years that I haven't traveled to either Houston on Little Rock for Thanksgiving. While we did miss spending time with the extended family it was so great not to have to take a road trip for a major holiday. We had a great time at home and I actually cooked an entire Thanksgiving meal.

 

Wednesday night we picked up the girls from school and took them to the Bentonville square to see the lights and the ice skating rink. We ate at Tusk and Trotter and then let them run around the water for a while. The outdoor ice skating is so much fun and feels so Christmassy. The girls loved it all.

 

 

This picture cracks me up. If you look behind Neal you can see a copper pig on the window sill. Reese decided to get out of her seat and walk over to the pig. She had her napkin and began wiping the pigs bottom and yelling to us that it had a poop. We told her to get back in her seat but of course she didn't listen and Neal had to go and get her as she was yelling about the pigs poop. Funnier now that it is over than in the moment.

Thursday morning Neal ran in the Sheepdog Turkey Trot with Chelsea and our neighbor Kyle. Reese, Ella and I did the family walk with some of our other neighbors. This is a photo of Reese holding Katie's hand and walking with her and Connor. She had so much fun walking with the big kids.

 

Neal and Reese once we got home from the Turkey trot.

 

My first Thanksgiving meal. Neal smoked a turkey which was amazing. I made dressing, gravy, rolls, mashed potatoes, peas, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole and we had canned cranberry sauce (because I don't really like cranberry sauce anyways). Chelsea made layered salad. It was all really good.

 

I also made a pecan pie and my friends sweet mom brought us a delicious chocolate pie.

 

Reese has an aversion to pants lately and I gave up and decided I didn't care if she wore pants to our dinner. This is Neal and Reese toasting.

 

 

Ella loved the chocolate pie.

 

I went shopping on Thursday night and Friday morning. Below is when I arrived home after being out in stores since 4. If you look close you will see that my cardigan was on inside out...that is the result of getting dressed at 4 a.m. The girls were so happy to see me, it made me so happy.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week and have SOOOO much to be thankful for!

Reese's 1st dental appointment

This morning we took Reese for her 1^st dental appointment. She did such a great job! The dental office was amazing. If you have children and are looking for a dentist I would definitely recommend Northwest Arkansas Pediatric, we saw Dr. Rhodes. They have televisions above each chair so that you can see it when you lay on the table. They play the Disney Channel or Nickelodeon or sometimes a movie. They had sinks that were just Reese’s height to use to brush her teeth. The hygienist clearly had dealt with many 2 year olds and couldn’t have been any better with her. They had a whole little kid waiting area with games and tv and books and other fun things. They had a contest going in one of the front rooms (they do a different contest every month) where you trace your hand and make a turkey out of it and write all of the things that you are thankful for. On the back you put your name and number and they will draw at the end of the month for a gift card. It was a really cute exercise to do with Reese- she said she is thankful for baby Ella, cheese, Reagan, Lyla and purple…makes me laugh.  It was a fun land and we worried that it would be hard to get her to leave.

They were able to clean her teeth, floss her teeth, take x-rays and poke around on all of her teeth with no hesitation from Reese whatsoever. We were so proud of her and so impressed with the dentist, the staff and the amenities. I even gave her a sucker once we got in the car for her great behavior :/, Neal told me I get parent of the year for giving her a sucker as a reward for being good at the dentist.

The photos are a bit out of order but I tried to capture each step.

The fun kid waiting area.

The dentist looking at her teeth.

X-ray time.

A picture with Dr. Rhodes.

Watching some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Brushing at a Reese sized sink.

Letting her feel the suction and water sprayer on her hand first.

She was such a cooperative little patient.

She even let her floss her teeth.

Her cute Thanksgiving hand turkey.

Having fun in the kid's waiting area.

I love Sleep

Sleep is something that always has been precious to me. I was one of those that would be in bed by 10:30 in college and it progressively got earlier since being out of college. I never truly understood the meaning of sleep deprivation until having children. Neither of my girls were good sleepers until around 9 months. Ella was a bit easier than Reese but she wasn’t sleeping through the night unilt 9 months. Reese didn’t sleep through the night until she was about 18 months. From 9 months on it was simply a matter of going into her room and replacing a pacifier, so it was really no big deal. After 18 months we had a newborn that hardly would sleep for longer than 3 hours at a time so Reese got ignored more at night, which ended up teaching her to self sooth. Sounds sad but I think it was for her own good.

Since 18 months though Reese has turned into a super star sleeper. She goes to bed around 8 and it is common that she will sleep in until 9 or sometimes 10 on the weekends, if only she did this before Ella when we could reap the benefits of sleeping in too. Ella would be up no later than 7 when Reese was sleeping in. It has been nice though because it gives us some one on one time with Ella in the early morning and by the time Reese is waking up it is time for Ella’s morning nap so we get an hour or two of one on one time with Reese as well.

However, Reese discovered that she can get out of her bed and open her door a week and a half ago. Reese has never even attempted to get out of her bed before. Two Saturdays ago at around 9 I thought I heard her calling me so I went and looked at the monitor and sure enough she was sitting up calling me. I went up to her room to get her and she said “Mom, I have been calling you and you not come”. So I told her that she is allowed to get out of her bed and open her door if she needs to or if she is ready to get up. Since she sleeps so well I didn’t think that this would be a problem. Well, she only napped for about an hour that afternoon before getting out of her bed, she woke up on Sunday morning at 7 and only napped for about an hour (she usually naps for 2-3 hours on the weekends) and each day she would get up earlier and earlier. By Friday she was yelling for me at the top of the stairs at 5:05 a.m. and she would be up for the day. She woke up one night yelling for us at 2:30, at which point we just put her in bed with us and slept miserably the remainder of the night. On a few occasions she woke up her sister by yelling for us at the top of the stairs. We. Had. To. Figure. This. Out. So, last Sunday I brought up Santa Clause and told her he would be coming with surprises soon but ONLY if she listens and obeys her parents AND if she stays in her bed at night unless she is scared or hurt. Since then she has stayed in her bed…until this morning. I heard her rustling around at around 5:45 this morning so I watched her in the monitor. She was searching for a pacifier but couldn’t find one in her bed so she got one off of her table. Then she was looking all around for Lyla (her lamb), she was peering over each side of her bed and then she found her in the pile of animals at the foot of her bed. She then laid back down. So I turned off the video and laid down myself. I waited a few minutes and then turned it back on…she was not in her bed and the room was illuminated. So I walked out of my room to the foot of the stairs and saw her standing in the landing with her light on. I brought her down to lay in bed with me.

I am praying hard that we get past this phase and that she again becomes a super star sleeper. Until then I am thankful that they are so loveable and cute because it erases most of my frustrations.

Also, last week I took Reese to the cutest nail salon that has little girl pedicure chairs. She LOVED it!

Halloween 2012

Yesterday was Halloween. We had an absolute ball this year. It was so much fun to have a child that is old enough to grasp what is going on, getting candy all day. She woke up and I told her all about the events of the day, which motivated her not to stall thougout the morning routine like she normally would.

 

She had a Halloween party at school. This is her and her bff Reagan. They have been in the same class since around 4 months old and have been basically inseperable. I love how much they love each other.

 

I brought the girls up to my office to trick or treat through the pods. Everyone decorates their pod halls and hands out candy. Reese loved it and got tons of candy but the below photo sums up how Ella felt about it. She only took a 30 minute nap at school. Luckily she fell asleep in the car right after this photo and I drove around for about 45 minutes to allow her to get a cat nap in so that she would be in a better mood for the evening.

 Reese as the cutest Minnie around.

 

Ella the ella-phant.

 

 

Crazy Aunt Chelsea as the Cat in the Hat.

 

The neighborhood was swarming with tons of kids. Ella only made it 30 minutes or so and then went up to bed. Reese had a blast trick or treating with the neighbors. She would run up to the doors and say "tricky treak". We all had a lot of fun and look forward to many fun Halloween's in the future. We WILL be doing family themed costumes next year.