Reese's 1st hair cut

Reese’s hair has really taken off and grown extremely fast over the past year. Neal has not wanted to get her hair cut. A few weeks ago I blew her hair dry so that we could run a quick errand one evening when it was really cold. This was the first time that I had blown it dry and doing so caused it to be much straighter than when it air dries. Being straight made it evident that a trim was needed to even things up, even Neal agreed.

We went to the cutest little hair salon for children in Fayetteville, a couple of weeks ago, while my mom was in town visiting. Reese chose to sit in the airplane to have her hair cut. She did such a good job. Her hair really doesn’t look much different, just a little more even in the back. She felt like such a big girl and loves to talk about how “amazing” her hair looks. I love this child!

is the cold over yet?

When Fall rolls around each year I am really excited about the cooler weather. I get excited about wearing sweaters, boots, making warm soups and being able to open the windows on nice days. I also look forward to the really cold and having a couple of good snows to play in. I have purchased the girls new snow wear each year for the past 2 years. The problem with this is that we have not gotten nearly enough snow to really play in the past 2 years. Reese’s 1^st winter I didn’t get her any snow wear since she was so little and we got over 2 feet of snow that year. Last year we got a dusting, just enough to sled for 10 minutes. This year we got enough to play in 2 different times but not nearly enough to sled and really not enough to merit the snow gear, but they wore it anyways. I got some pictures of the last snow…it wasn’t really enough to build a snowman but we built a baby snowman. I wouldn’t mind a good snow that we could play in, and I guess it is still possible, but I think I would rather warmer spring like weather to play outside in instead.

 

change

My poor sweet preschooler is not very keen on change. She is also very stubborn and when she doesn't want to do something she just isn't going to. Her school has a system where when teacher's are fewer (lunch hours or end of the day) they will send a couple of kiddos to the class above or below in order to keep the ratios at a good level. Reese has been asked to go with a couple of her friends to the studio above hers. She is completely opposed to doing this and will let her best friends go, but. she. will. not. go. Her teacher's stopped even trying months back, even though she is the oldest and it makes the most sense for her to go to the class above for an hour here or there, because she would throw such a fit.

A couple of weeks ago we were alerted that she and her best friend Reagan would be moving to studio 7 permanently. AND this promotion would be happening while Neal was traveling. I have been trying to talk about how much fun studio 7 is and all of the big girl activities that she would get to participate in. I have also been praying with her about it for the past few days. Every time I bring it up she just fusses about how much she doesn't want to do this.

This morning Reese came to my bed at 3:30 in the morning, upset about having to go to studio 7. She is too young to have anxiety about something like this that causes her not to be able to sleep! One of her biggest concerns was leaving her friend Carter. I told her again that it was going to be so much fun and that she would get a prize when she gets home for being brave and going to her new class. I said that Carter will come visit her in her new class and we would invite him to her birthday party too. I told her she could get in my bed and thought she would go right back to sleep. She would lay there quietly but when I would move to see if she was sleeping she would say "hi mommy". She would then lay still for a while and I would think she was asleep but then I would feel her rubbing or patting my back. She never went back to sleep!

When it was time for me to get ready I turned a show on for her and told her to lay in my bed and watch her show while I got ready, and try to go back to sleep. A few minutes later she came to the bathroom and said that her throat hurt and she couldn't "snore good" (this means that her nose is stopped up). I told her I would get her some medicine. I gave her some children's zyrtec and she got back in my bed. She then came back into the bathroom, a few minutes later, and said "I need the green bowl, I need to spit up". I gave her the bathroom trash can and she coughed and spit into it a few times and then went back to watching tv. When we went up to get Ella I excitedly told Ella that Reese got to go to the big girl class today and was going to get to play really fun games. Reese looked at us and said "no I am sick I can't go to school, I am staying home with you". She is also to young to be so smart and manipulative with this sort of thing!

She did great at drop off. She has a great teacher and I think she will love the class, once she comes to terms with the fact that it is happening whether she wants it to or not. I picked up some hello kitty cupcakes for her today as a reward for being so brave this morning...this made her day.

Sweetness

Reese has the most adorable but outrageous imagination. She keeps us laughing often and I love her even more for that. A few weeks ago I took her grocery shopping with me. She was really good while we were there so I let her have a prize. She chose a rubber ducky, purple of course.

While we were at the store I asked her if she'd named the duck. She had, his name was god, ha. When we got to the car she informed me that she changed his name and it was now Sweetness. Sweetness was a more appropriate name and it has stuck. She has been very clear that the purple duck is a boy.

She has cracked us up with some of the stuff she's come up with and how in love she is with this duck. While we were still at the grocery store she walked through produce and put the duck up to many of the vegetables and said he was having a snack. He has gone to school with her every day and slept with her each night and he goes everywhere we go. She says that he quacks at her at night and she has to tell him to be quiet and that it's time to sleep. Earlier this week when we got to school I got her out of the car and put her on the sidewalk while I got Ella. When Ella and I got to the sidewalk she told us that Sweetness had pooped on the sidewalk and that we needed to be careful not to step in it.

On Tuesday we went to a restaurant for dinner, Sweetness joined us. When we got home and had Ella down for bed we realized that we were not sure where the duck was. Neal and I took turns searching without Reese realizing. We came to the conclusion that he had been left at the restaurant. Neal headed to Walmart to get another one. Reese began asking for Sweetness while he was gone so I told her that we'd forgotten him at the restaurant and that daddy had gone to get him (I'm thankful for our low prices at Walmart, these ducks are only $0.97). She was so excited to see him when Neal got home with him. He also picked up a pink one for Ella. Reese named Ella's for her, her name is Squeakles. Love this funny girl!

Reese's hairdo below is how it gets done when I'm out of town (I was in Orlando for work this week).

Yo Gabba Live, round 2

My girls are huge Yo Gabba Gabba fans. If you have not seen this show below is a glimpse of the characters involved…scary I know. The show is really cute and teaches all kinds of good lessons- don’t bite your friends, eating healthy foods, a new dance on each episode, a cute story, a super music friend show on each episode, all about the tooth fairy and many other things. Each episode has a different D list celebrity on it to the dancey dance portion- Jack Black, Jan from the office, Tony Hawk and lots of others. It is a completely ridiculous show but the girls love it so Neal and I have learned to love it.

We have actually become groupies. We just attended our second live show. We took Reese to the live show when it went to Houston in December of 2011. Ella was only 2 months old at the time so she stayed with my mom. Reese absolutely loved it. So we decided to take both girls this year in Kansas City.

They both had a great time. Ella was not sure how she felt about it at first. When all of the characters came out she began crying but clapping while crying. I realized pretty quickly that she was really sleepy. She ended up falling asleep about 10 minutes in and slept for a good 40 minutes. When she woke up she danced and screamed and had a blast though. Reese enjoyed the whole show. Her best friend Reagan was with us but she didn’t sit with us. She sat pretty close and was chosen to go on the stage for the beat boxing portion. Reese was excited to see her up there but then got really upset because she wanted to be with Reagan.

We all stayed in a hotel that has an indoor water park, Reagan’s family stayed here too. We had a blast at the water park. It was fun to be swimming while looking out the window at a large amount of snow on the ground.

Before the show we took a trip to Target and bought lots of spring clothes for the girls, it was more fun for mommy than anyone esle. However, the girls had a great time on the baby doll aisle.

We all had a great time and are now looking forward to our next live event, a princess show on ice. Rapunzel, Paschal and Flint Rider will all be involved so Reese will be so excited. We will actually be sitting with Reagan for this one so Reese will be happy about that.

My cute little Valentine's

It is no secret that Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite days of the year. Presents are also one of my favorite things. I love the element of surprise, I love having something new and I love opening gifts…I can’t help it. When Neal and I were dating he did something that he called Valanakkah. This is 8 days of Valentine’s day with a gift every day. Once we got married Valanakkah died off. BUT…it came back this year and I couldn’t be more excited. He is such a good husband and father regardless of Valanakkah but he really is a great gift giver. The girls have gotten new balls, stickers, pencils, note pads, tattoos, candy and stuffed animals. Reese has had so much fun with it. We got the girls a cookie cake last night and we took it to Grayson’s house to share it with him. We sent Valentine's cards to school with the girls today. Ella's is a bit creepy but so funny that we had to send them. Tonight the plan was to take the girls to Chick fil a for a candlelit dinner and live music but Ella was so fussy that we decided it would be best for Neal to take Reese and I stay home with Ella. It worked out well because I got some really goo quality time in with Ella and Neal and Reese seemed to have had a great time together as well. Valentine’s day is really a lot of fun now that we have kids to celebrate love with.

Jitterbugs January 2013

Reese has been taking a dance class for the past 6 months called Jitterbugs. I love this program because they come to her school one day a week so she can do an activity like this without it interfering with our family time in the evenings. This is nice since we have such little time together on the weekdays. She absolutely loves Thursdays since she gets to go to Jitterbugs that day. She always comes home so excited to show us the dances that she is learning.

Saturday before last she had her big recital. We have been talking about it for weeks and she was so excited. The recital was a 1 and she normally naps between 11:30 and 2 on the weekends. So she was napless when we went to the recital, which did not help at all. She was reluctant to go with the rest of her class while the rest of us went to find seats but she complied. When the curtains opened and the song began the rest of her class began dancing and she froze. She stood on stage with one hand in her mouth looking at the rest of the kids and not dancing a step. She did wave and smile at us a couple of times. By the 3rd song she was sobbing and I had to go and get her. I laughed so hard that I was crying during the first song. While it would have been great if she had danced it will be such a funny memory that we will cherish. Below are some links to the videos that we got.

http://youtu.be/rIuz_DHsDuw

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