Santa Came!

I was very excited for this Christmas!  We were home!!!  at our new home!!!  Amelia is now 3 and I just knew she would be just too excited.  I guess we will get some excitement in 2 more years.  Anna Claire went straight for her toys.  Especially the shopping cart.  Santa knew what he was doing when he picked that one out for her!

Checking out AC goodies

Amelia was most fond of her pillow pet.  It took a while to convince her to look at her other stuff.

And she is off for some shopping!

We're big fans of the monkey hat at this house!

Our little "Sophia" checking out her new owl hat.

I think I actually unloaded AC's stocking for her.

After a busy day of playing, it was time to relax in front of the tv.  Anna Claire was a little messy at dinner and Amelia has to be just like Anna Claire.

 

Santa brought me a knew camera for Christmas this year!  Yay!  Now once I learn how to use it, I will hopefully have some great photos to share with you!

Merry Christmas with the family!

We had a lot of fun celebrating Christmas this weekend.  I am terrible and didn't take many pictures.  We started out our Saturday morning with brunch at Jackson's on the Square.  They were doing a benefit for a girl with a vascular malformation.  We loved our brunch.  I have been wanting their beignets ever since I knew they made them.  I finally had a reason to get them.  They don't usually serve brunch.  We then headed to Drew's family in middle Tennessee for Christmas.  We had a lot of fun.  It was a small gathering this year.  The girls were the only little ones there so they were very spoiled.  We headed home in some crazy weather!  There were tornado warnings all around us.  I was very glad to make it home!  Sunday, they announced our membership at Bartlett Woods Church of Christ.  It feels good to actually be a part of a church again and not just a visitor!  That evening we went to my parents for dinner.  The girls had a blast playing with their cousins!

This horse was given to my parents by one of their church members.  It was a huge hit!

Nothing better then jumping on your aunt and your cousin!

Hard work

Poor Anna Claire has given up her morning nap on some mornings.  I try to serve lunch a little bit early, but she still struggles.  This is usually how she finishes her lunch.  

zoo lights

I was very excited to take the girls to zoo lights.  The problem with night time outdoor activities in December is that it is very cold!  But, we had a good time anyway.  We had some friends come meet us.  We enjoyed a magic show by Mr. Nick.  Then ended the night at Chick fil a.  You can't complain about that!  

I love Christmas lights!  It was so pretty walking through the courtyard with all the snowflake lights hanging.

We were bundled up good!

Breakfast with Santa

Our church does a breakfast with Santa every year to help raise money for agape.  It was delayed a week due to the ice.  Daddy had planned a guys hunting weekend, so it was just us girls having breakfast with Santa.  I really wanted to just stay home, but I am really glad we went because it was a lot of fun!  

Amelia got some pretty sparkly nails

Such a big girl sitting there getting her face painted

The final product.  I could just stare at that sweet face all day!

Amelia and her friend Maggie Lynn.  I couldn't get either of them to look at the camera at the same time.  They had matching butterflies.

They made up their own rules to the bean bag toss game.

Amelia did really well with Santa this year.  Anna Claire, not so much.  It made for a really good picture though!  Maybe I will scan it in here sometime!

Partying with my big girl

Amelia is officially 3!  She definitely encompasses all the qualities of a 3 year old that I was told to expect.  But, today is birthday party day.  I had big plans of throwing a party with friends and renting a bounce house because wouldn't that just be so much fun.  Thank goodness that I am a procrastinator this year.  20 degrees and ice does not equal a fun bounce house party.  We still had fun.  I decided to just keep it small and just family again this year.  We went to the local Mexican restaurant, Pericos.  We were the only ones there.  We then came home for cake and presents.  Amelia was in heaven.  Next year I will be better at planning a little earlier! 

 

Excited for rice and beans!

 

She wanted a pink cake.  It was yummy!

A fun game of fishing with her cousins

The girls were in heaven!  Anna Claire thought it was her special day too

Snow Day

What do you do on a yucky, cold, icy day.  You make Christmas cookies of course!  The girls loved the cookies, and daddy was overjoyed to help with the decorating!

Anna Claire preferred eating to decorating.

 

Luckily the ice wasn't as bad as they predicted, but I enjoyed my extra day at home with my girls!

ok mam

I know that the more she has conversations, the funnier she will become.  I promise to not blog it all, but this was too funny so I wanted to remember it.  The other day we were playing restaurant I guess.  I was the guest and she was serving me.  It's funny how she sees things because she way over used the word mam, so I guess that is how she sees interaction.  But, she brings me my food and says, how is your food mam, do you want something else mam, ok mam do you want coffee mam, and so on, well after she brought some more food and says do you like it mam, ok mam, I have to go teetee mam, I'll be right back mam.  and she took off.  Never had that experience at a restaurant before.  It was hilarious to me. 

Happy Birthday Amelia!

Amelia is 3 years old today.  She is growing up so fast, and seems to already have the personality of a teenager!  We had a lot fun today for her birthday.  She enjoyed all the birthday calls that she got.  We met Aunt Sharon at story time.  I was excited to have a little help when they decided to lose their minds, but they are actually really good the entire time we were at Barnes and Noble.  There were no break downs.  I was slightly disappointed since I actually had extra help!  This afternoon her friend Keylee came over to play.  Luckily, the weather is still nice so they had a lot of fun playing on their playset.  This evening, we took her to Cracker Barrel for dinner, which is her favorite, and then went to Starry Nights at Shelby Farms.  Luckily, AC slept through the whole starry nights or it might have been a little more difficult.  But, Amelia loved it!  It was so worth going during the week.  There was no wait to get in and we could go as fast or slow as we wanted.

The birthday girl having a good time jumping on her new big girl bed.

Nothing better than blackberry jelly!

Isn't this how everyone uses their fork!  Crazy girl!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year!  It is so nice to finally live back home close to family.  We spent the day with my family at my grandparents house.  We then headed to Drew's parents house for the night.  It is really convenient that they live so close to each other. 

My family is a bit red neck.  Everyone brought their guns so they could have a little target practice after filling up on turkey.

It was a little more tame at the in laws house.  This picture is hard to see, but Amelia was chasing Lucy around the backyard.

 

I stopped in Jackson, TN on my home and did a little black Friday shopping.  And that night we went and bought our tree and a few Christmas presents.  I am so excited for Christmas this year!

our future olympian

Anna Claire loves to jump.  She looks like she is landing during a tumbling routine. 

Birthday party fun

I am not sure if I have mentioned our new church we are visiting on here yet, but we love our new church!  Everyone is so nice, and we made friends really fast.  The best thing is, they have children that are our kids age!  We had a first church birthday party today.  The little girl is 4 days older than Amelia.  They are so cute together and I really think they will grow up to be best friends.

It was a breakfast party and the girls were suppose to wear their pajamas, but I was bad momma and sent them dressed for the day.  But, Maggie Lynn is the birthday girl sitting next to Amelia.

This is how Anna Claire entertained herself during story time.  She and her friend Blake Leigh went up and down the stairs which is not something she usually gets to do alone

She loved this scooter

Story time is usually one of Amelia's favorite things, but running around on the stage seemed to be a little more fun at the time.  She weaseled her way into get some one on one story time from one of the aunts.

Anna Claire dancing

Since mommy and sister didn't get to go on date night, we had some fun of our own.  I caught Anna Claire breaking out some of her best dance moves!

Daddy/daughter date night

Drew and Amelia were suppose to be going on a daddy/daughter date night to the zoo tonight.  Unfortunately it started raining about 30 minutes before they were suppose to leave.  Amelia already knew about the event, so she would have been heartbroken had they not done something!  So, they went to dinner.  Drew offered to take Anna Claire, but she and I stayed home and spent some mommy/daughter time together.

Being silly.

Ready to have a good time!

Making my day better!

I love my new job.  But, as I said earlier, I don't like the hours.  It wouldn't be so bad except I have to do afternoon clinic in Desoto everyday.  Desoto is no where near Arlington!  But, the one thing that makes it so worth the crazy drive is getting home and the pure joy and excitement that my girls have when I walk through the door!  Tonight, Anna Claire saw me and she was trying to knock Amelia and Drew over to get to me.  Unfortunately for her, she is the smallest, and daddy couldn't see her, so she got tripped, which allowed Amelia to get to me first.  But, it made my heart so happy to see that sweet little trying her hardest to get to me and give me a welcome home hug. 

Feeding the ducks

Since we took the girls to the zoo on Saturday, we decided to take them, along with Lucy, to feed the ducks on Sunday.  There were a ton of ducks and they were really hungry, so the girls had a lot of fun feeding them!

Because of Anna Claire's love of the water, I didn't let her get too far away from me, so she did more observing than she did feeding.

 



Family fun day

Yesterday was the first Saturday in a while that we have had no plans!  We decided we were going to do something fun with the girls.  It was either go to the zoo or go to the park and feed the ducks.  Amelia wanted to go to the zoo, so there we went!  It was cloudy and cool, so we almost had the place to ourselves.  We had a blast.  Since Drew was with me, and it was pretty empty, we let Anna Claire have a little freedom out of the stroller.  She was in heaven!

Anna Claire wanted to stand on the rail just like Amelia.

The orangutan has never been so active.  It was exciting watching him climb up the tree!

I put my gloves on AC and she was just running around like this.  She looked hilarious, but I think she loved it!

 

It was the polar bear's birthday yesterday.  They had a little extra exhibit inside their area.  They had a polar bear coat laid out so you could feel their fur.  It was neat.  It was a lot more rough than I would have expected.  The zoo is getting ready for Christmas season, so they already had a lot of their decorations up.  I am so excited and really starting to get Christmas fever.  I can't wait for Christmas this year!

 

We then went home to rest up and watch the Tennessee/Auburn game.  That night we went to my sisters house to celebrate my mom's birthday.  We had a great relaxing day!

New job new routine

So, I started a new job 2 weeks ago.  I love the job, don't love the hours!  I am working for a cardiologist, and even though I have an extensive background in cardiology it is completely different working in an office versus taking care of someone in the hospital.  So, I am in the training phase right now.  I am seeing patients, but he is following behind me on every patient.  Eventually I will be independent and at that point the hours should be a lot better!  So, we are just looking forward to that time, but right now we are just having to deal with what we have.  So, when I get home I am so excited to see my girls that I can't stand it!  I am determined that with the little time I get with them at night, that there will be no crying!  The girls love to dance, so we turn on the music channels and get to moving!  We have a blast at our nightly dance parties!

Hayride sweetness

The problem with me writing all my posts late is that I tend to forget the little things that I really wanted to include.  I was sitting relaxing today during nap time when I remembered the sweetest moment of our family hayride night.  Amelia is probably the sweetest little girl I know.  She is pretty shy right now and takes a minute to warm up, but once she does, she wants to talk with everyone.  I was running around chasing the girls all night.  My nana was sitting on the porch swing by the fire by herself when Amelia just took off and jumped up there beside her and started talking.  I wish I had a picture of the 2 of them swinging and talking.  My nana had the biggest smile on her face and didn't stop talking about it for the rest of the night.  She told her all about her sister Anna Claire.  She is such a funny little girl! 

Softening up

Anna Claire is not the most loving of my girls.  She really doesn't like a lot of affection at all.  Amelia on the other hand loves giving hugs, especially to Anna Claire.  I sometimes thinks she does it though just to get Anna Claire all worked up.  Well, this past week was especially difficult since Anna Claire is working on her molars.  It has been a nice break this weekend though.  Anna Claire has become the sweetest girl!  Today, after Anna Claire and I woke up Amelia from her nap, we were heading downstairs to get a snack.  I always hold Anna Claire's hand down the stairs for obvious reasons.  She's really good about stopping at the top of the stairs and holding her hand out to grab mine.  Well, today after she already had my hand, she looked at Amelia and held her hand up to hold her hand.  It was the sweetest thing ever!  So, the 3 of us walked hand and hand down the stairs.

Happy Halloween!

My little witch and little monster!

On our way to the neighborhood potluch

After trick or treating

They were headed to their last house here

AC after trick or treating

We had a blast this Halloween.  We love our neighborhood!  I love that our neighbors all love to hang out with each other.  We had a lot of fun hanging out pre-trick or treating.  Amelia enjoyed a hayride with all the neighborhood kids.  I made AC stay behind.  She should be big enough next year.  I went back home to hand out candy while Drew took them to get candy.  Good thing they are small and only went to a few house because I way over bought candy this year, and we have enough left over for next Halloween!  I loved handing out candy though.  I put on the Pandora Halloween station.  When the girls got back, AC had a blast dancing to the music while Amelia loved helping me hand out candy.  What we were worried would turn out to be a night ruined by storms actually turned into the perfect Halloween night.  I am already looking forward to next year!