gymnastics

I signed the girls up for gymnastics last week.  We had our trial day, and it was so much fun!  Luckily the girls have class at the same time, especially since I have to assist Anna Claire.  It was nice because I didn't get a lot of one on one time with Anna Claire.  They were really excited about going back the next week.  I am a terrible mother and did not get a single picture of their first day of gymnastics.  It was a crazy morning though and I was just hoping to actually make it on time!

Anna Claire wanted to "fix" her hair herself.  I wish I took a picture before this one.  She had double headbands and looked like a true 80's child.  As much as this girl loves to wear headbands, and they way that she wears them, she definitely missed her decade!

Working on our donkey kicks

Gymnastics is exhausting!  Have to stop and take a little break!

A quick blurry shot of Amelia while I have my phone out.  

Today was our third week of gymnastics.  I was so proud of Anna Claire.  She has made so much progress in 3 weeks.  Last week, I was having to hold her up for everything.  I was even thinking that I may have made a mistake by starting her so early, but this week she needed very little assistance.  Amelia loves gymnastics, but I don't think it will be her calling.  She wants to be a ballerina so bad.  Maybe next year she can try that out and see what she thinks.  I think gymnastics is good for building their strength.  She's enjoying it, and she does a great job.  I must brag a little on her too.  Our trial day, they were suppose to both be in the same class.  3 year olds have to test to move to the next class.  But, since she is almost 4 they went ahead and moved her up.  I was so glad because that seemed like a lot of work for me having to assist the both of them.  But, Amelia did so good listening and following directions.  I know she was new and once she warms up she will probably not be so good at following directions, but that day all the other kids were kind of in their own world but Amelia was paying attention and following instructions.  I know she will someday be the teacher's pet, and I am ok with that!

bed time routines

Drew and I have the routine of him putting Anna Claire to bed and I put Amelia to bed.  I always read Amelia a story, we say prayers, and then I pat her back before leaving her room.  Well, a few months ago Drew and I changed it up and got a chance to put Anna Claire to bed.  She's not much for getting back patted, so I wanted to come up with our own little routine.  So, we read a story, and I wanted to rock her for a minute.  She is my last baby, and I need all the rocking like a baby I can get before I can't get anymore.  Well, she isn't my child that likes to rock, so in order to convince her to let me hold her like a baby I asked her if she wanted to sing a song, so we sang several songs together before going to bed.  When I put her to bed again, she just looked at me and said song.  She wanted me to hold her like a baby and sing a song with her.  Melted my heart!  So, now our night time routine is read her a story or both girls a story together, Anna Claire and I sing a song together, then kisses good night and getting in bed, then off to Amelia's room for patting her back and kisses.  I love our little night time routine!

CMOM

The girls and I headed out today to meet our friends Misty and Keylee to explore the Children's museum of Memphis.  I have always wanted to take them, but have always been so reluctant because I know it is a virus' playground.  But, I went toting a package of wet ones and a lot of prayers.  We had a great time.  I had no idea what to expect, but it was really neat.  You could literally spend an entire day there.

Amelia in the pilot seat of the Fedex airplane.  

Flying the prop plane.  Anna Claire wanted nothing to do with it.

She did have a lot of fun grocery shopping and scanning all of her items.  Thank you to Misty for helping us get them all back in their place!

You can't tell, but they are in a firetruck.  Had to show them what granddaddy use to do.

This picture is really hard to see but Amelia and Keylee's faces are at the bottom of the screen.  It was so cute them performing on the stage.  Amelia loves seeing herself on the tv.  I'm thinking Anna Claire is up there too, but I'm not sure where.  

I don't know that we will be going back to the CMOM for a while.  We will go back once it gets warm again for sure though.  they are building a new outdoor play area and it looks so much fun!

Happy Halloween!

So, Halloween was extremely ridiculously cold this year.  We really weren't quit prepared for it.  Our neighborhood had a chili cookout, hayride, train ride, and trick or treating.  Luckily one neighbor offered to host in their garage, so we all huddled up near the garage.  We did have a lot of fun with our neighbors.  We do have really good neighbors here.  My parents were at my sisters house, so we headed over there after the girls finished trick or treating in our neighborhood.  We were freezing by the time we got there, so my mom and I just walked the girls around my sister's cove while Drew and dad stayed at the house to help hand out candy.  My sister and her family were still trick or treating.  The girls mostly handed out candy at my sister's house and they had a blast.  I think they liked giving the candy out more than they liked getting the candy

Elsa is so strong!

All the kiddo's.  A hot dog, the world's strongest man, Elsa and Abbey.  A really cute bunch!

We did all the girls to eat like 2 pieces of candy before bed, but that is it.  Mommy and daddy did raid their bags too.  We have enough candy in our house right now to make it till next Halloween!

Fall Harvest Party

Our church has a yearly harvest party.  This was our first year to go because last year it fell on the same weekend as our family hayride.  The girls were so excited to get some candy.  It's really cute.  They have games, food, a costume contest, big bouncy houses, and of course trunk or treat.

Amelia just had to be Elsa.  I think she makes a really cute Elsa and Anna Claire just loves Abby Cadabby.  It did take some bribing to get that costume on her though!

The girls with their pumpkins that "they" decorated.  Amelia did help, but Anna Claire had more important things to get into!

The photo booth.  Didn't turn out so cute.  The girls really weren't tall enough.

She was pretty good at throwing the darts.  She didn't "win" a prize but they all do right!  Especially at a church event.

AC didn't know what to think of all the people.  She was happier just observing everything going on.

I don't get a lot of shots of me and the girls.  Drew is doing better at thinking of it though!

We had a lot of fun at our harvest party.  The girls will not even need to get any candy on actual Halloween.  They didn't win the costume contest.  Hard to compete when there are 5 Elsa's.  I think they were the cutest little Elsa and Abbey there though!

Yay for fall!

Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year!  It has been a crazy month, so I haven't been able to do a lot of outdoor decoration, but I finally got a chance.  It may be a little late, but I had a lot of fun anyway.  Drew is out of town for the day working on his duck blind, so it is a Saturday morning of just me and the girls.  We went to the local nursery and checked out the flowers.  And then went to get a pumpkin.  I decided we would just get them at Kroger this year because paying $10 for a pumpkin just seems crazy to me.  But, Kroger was completely out!  So, I last minute, not actually wanting to drive to wolfchase, remembered the little nursery on the Arlington square usually has pumpkins.  They had a bunch!  All sizes and reasonably priced!  Yay, and I got to take a really cute picture of the girls.  So, score one for me!

Have to wear our orange to pick out pumpkins right!

We got all of our flowers planted and our pumpkins decorated, and then down for our nap before our fall harvest party tonight.  

zoo and pumpkin patch fun!

It was a beautiful Saturday, so we decided to take full advantage!  We headed straight for the zoo.  Since they do zoo boo, there were tons of cute Halloween decorations everywhere!  

Having fun checking out the animals in the farm

There are so many great places for photo ops in the farm area

Not a lot of mommy daughter pics, and this was the best we could get with Anna Claire.  She really didn't want to have to stop and take a picture with mommy.  

We really focused on seeing parts of the zoo we usually don't go to.  It's too much for the girls to see all of the zoo in one day, so we usually make all of the main areas, but I do like to every now and then check out the parts of the zoo we usually miss.

After the zoo, we headed home for naps, and then up to meet our friends at the pumpkin patch.  We went back to priddy farms this year.  It is really becoming popular.  It was crowded!  But, we still had a really good time.

The girls love all the playground toys they have to climb on.

Such a cute idea for a train.  This was Anna Claire's first year to ride.  I was nervous about her jumping out, but she loved it and did not want to get out!

The girls on the hayride headed to get their pumpkin

Amelia was determined to get the biggest pumpkin, and I think she succeeded

Anna Claire got a really cute little pumpkin, but it took a while for her to decide

It took a lot of work, and she took a few kids out on the way up, but Anna Claire finally made to the top of the slide, and I think it was worth all the hard work to get there.

Tennessee football game photos

So I finally uploaded our pictures for the Tennessee/Florida game.  We had a lot of fun that weekend, and I look forward to taking the girls again some day.  Many years from now!

Riding the bus to the stadium

Me and my girls!  We were in a white section.  I had already bought their outfits before we knew of the checkerboard plan, but I think the white jackets worked good enough!

This was 45 minutes before kick off.  I hate that I don't have a photo of the checkerboard stadium.  It was actually very cool, and I am surprised that they were actually able to pull it off!

In front of my second home for 2 years.  I have hopes for these girls someday following in mommy's footsteps, but I have no expectations.  As of right now, Amelia wants to be a teacher.  I think that's pretty admirable

Love these two girls!

Go Vols!

Several months ago, Drew's brother, Matt, asked us if we would like to make the trip to Knoxville to see the vols play.  My schedule at work is wonderful because it makes weekend trips very easy to plan.  So, this is the weekend we chose to head to Knoxville.  Most people would say we were crazy for taking to little girls, one that is very hyperactive, to a football game at Neyland stadium, and maybe we were.  

We headed up on Thursday and met Drew's old boss and his wife for dinner.  They were kind enough to give us 4 tickets and a parking pass for the game.  We planned on going to Dollywood on Friday, but there were crazy storms headed through, so we went shopping and met a friend for lunch at Calhouns on the river.  Afterwards, we went and fed the ducks on the riverwalk.  The girls had a blast.  We think took a nostalgic drive through Knoxville.  We really have a lot of good memories from that city.  That evening we met friends for dinner.  We were able to meet their twins for the first time, and the girls loved having someone their age to play with.  We went to a park close by after dinner and let them run around.  It allowed us some time to just chat and catch up.

Then today was game day.  The day we had been looking forward to since our vacation.  I had really been building it up to the girls.  I figured the more excited they were about going to the game, then the more likely they would be to behave at the game.  We worked on our cheers, practiced with our pom poms.  The girls thought it was oh so exciting.  They loved riding the bus from the ag campus, the excitement of all the fans, and listening to the band walking around playing for all the tailgaters.  Waiting for the game to start was a bit frustrating and needed a lot of extra effort, but once the band started, and the players ran through the T, the girls were hooked.  It was so much fun cheering with them and teaching them all the chants and songs that are the traditions of the game.  But, for anyone that has ever been to a game at Neyland stadium knows, it is really tight in there.  They really made their seating for anorexic women.  You are packed in like sardines.  We had 4 adults and the 2 girls sitting in our laps in the 4 seats.  Plus, we were in the middle of the row.  So, getting out for a quick let the girls run around, wasn't happening.  Plus, as much excitement as the loud noise creates for us, it was a little too much for little ears.  Plus, with a 12:00 start time, and no lunch, and this is the normal nap time, we decided that the first half of the game was enough for us.  So, even though, there was some stress, and we probably were crazy for taking them to the game, I am really glad we did it.  It was fun sharing that with them.  Showing them the nursing building and taking them around campus.  

Destin Part 2!

This is mostly the beach part of our vacation.  The first part was taken with the fancy camera.  These were taken with the, ok if it gets sand on it camera.

First day, getting ready to go to the beach.  We were really excited!

Floating in the water

Anna Claire was a huge fan of the beach this year.  She still loved her beach chair and snacks, but she did at least venture away a few times.

Amelia asked to be buried in the sand

I think she liked it.

A little predinner family pic

The girls loved sitting on the balcony

Amelia and her friend for the week.

Jackson shared his chair with Amelia

Our last day, we rented bikes and rode out to seaside.  We found this among the little shops there. 

Eating lunch at seaside at one of the food trucks.  It was good, but overpriced in my opinion.

Good to the very last drop!

Overall, we had a really great trip.  We had a lot of fun with our friends.  We only had 1 day of rain, which Angie and I took advantage to do a full day of shopping.  We ate a lot of good food, and completely wore ourselves out!  We came home exhausted and to 60 degree temps.  It is now officially fall, and now that we have had our beach trip, I am ok with that!  Bring on the pumpkins!