Turkey day is upon us

One week from today we will be (Lord willin) deep in Copiah County, Mississippi gathered together with 75+ of Jon’s family (my family too!) waiting to dig into some Turkey and all the deliciousness that comes along with this great American holiday!! I’ve always loved going out to the country for holiday’s as it is just a wonderful place to go. I like being out in the middle of nowhere for a few days. And the older James and Audrey get, the more excited they are every year to go to the country too which makes my heart glad that they are growing up in a family with such wonderful traditions. We head out Monday morning bright and early for New Orleans to spend a few days before heading to Mississippi. Can’t wait!!

In other news, today was the twins Thanksgiving day “party” at school and they got to wear their turkey shirts that they made last week and I got to make a dessert. Audrey and I had a great time picking out what we wanted to make, I love that girl and I love the fact that she likes to look at food with me on Pinterest!!

These little acorns were pretty easy to make. Simple ingredients but it was rather aggravating trying to get the donut holes out of the icing with them breaking apart. I let James and Audrey stick the pretzels in the top because, as much as I hate to admit it sometimes, I am a bit of a control freak in the kitchen. They enjoyed getting to help make them and were ever so excited to carry their contribution into school this morning and show them off to their teachers!! Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!

My Grace is graceful

Audrey’s ballet class had parent observation day last Monday (yes, a week late) and Jon, James and I went. Because of her late birthday she is still in Creative Movement so I was a little concerned she might be bored this year but after witnessing first hand what she is doing this year, I know she is not.

The Artistic Director of SGB is her teacher this year and where as last year there were only 4 other little girls in her class this year there are 12, I think. SGB moved to another location and I can no longer watch her thru the glass doors :( so I had no idea what they were doing and was really excited to get to watch.

To me, it’s much more involved than last year. I like that. And so does Audrey. She’s not shy and she participates so well and interacts with the other girls so good. Made my heart happy!!

Ms. Allison told us she was doing excellent. I tend to agree :)

Her class is on Monday’s from 4 to 4:45. It’s a bit of a hassle to pick her up from school in time to get her dressed and her hair up and make it to the studio by 4, but it is so worth it. James and Olivia and I usually go to Walgreens or the grocery during that time because I can’t watch her and the waiting room usually gets so crowded it’s stressful to contain Olivia in those surroundings. James enjoys the time with out Audrey I believe even though he always wants to get her a little treat when he gets one!!
#ilovemykids

Oh, Peach! Oh, James!!

Last night at the supper table there was some conversation going about eating our veggies to grow up strong and healthy and James interjected that he would eat his veggies to grow but not grow up and leave me. He will stay with me forever. Really, he said that. So all of you remind him of that when he “falls in love” and wants to “grow up” and leave me!!

Any way, during that time Audrey interjected with “I don’t want to have surgery on my belly. It will hurt too much.” That statement threw me for such I loop, I really had no idea what she meant by it so I asked her. She says “Because when I grow up and have a baby I will have to have surgery on my belly to get it out.” Oh. My.

Talk about speechless for a few seconds. It was definitely NOT the time to explain all that to her so I told her it would be soooo worth it if she gets to have 2 little girls and a little boy like I do.

Later, as I was putting them to bed, she said it again. Completely out of the blue this time. Bless her heart, it’s apparently weighing on her mind. She’s only 5 for crying out loud!! I told her again that it would be so worth it and she’d forget the pain when she saw the beautiful face of her children staring back at her. Then I said “But Audrey, you are only 5 years old and the only things you need to worry about and think about right now is what you are going to wear to school tomorrow, who you will play with on the playground, what kind of snacks you want to eat and whether or not you are being a kind, obedient little girl.” She smiled and kissed me and hugged my neck good night.

Her brother then said “What kind of snacks are we gonna get to eat?” Oh lawd!!!

A little update

I haven’t posted lately about Olivia and the child she is becoming. She such a joy to all who are around her (when she is not screaming). She puts a smile on her mama and daddy’s face and makes her brother and sister laugh constantly. She wants to be in the middle of everything that’s going on around her and thinks she is just as big as the kids she plays with. It’s so cute to watch her in action.

Her attitude has gotten a little bigger lately too. She has no problem popping someone in the face that doesn’t do things her way or give her what she wants in the moment. We are currently trying to tame that and she’s catching on pretty well for the most part. She also doesn’t think twice about pinching someone in the face either. Especially if she is upset and said person gets in her face. She’s a little like her mama with the personal space issues!! (Just ask Jon about my personal space issues!) The other morning she pinched her finger in a drawer and was squalling real tears. Audrey, being the sweet caring soul she is, tried to comfort her and got in her face with it and Olivia hauled back and pinched the mess out of her cheek. Poor Audrey just couldn’t understand what that was about.

Her vocabulary and communication skills are also getting bigger. She can say go, wow, no no, bear, moo, bankie (for blankie) and ball in addition to all of our names. She nods her head yes when you ask her a question and 3 out of 5 times she gets it right. For example, if I ask her if she has poo poo she will nod yes and she rarely gets it wrong. For as long as I can remember we have been teaching her to say please by bringing her shoulder up to her ear and lately she does it with out me asking when she wants something. I must admit that that gesture makes it difficult to deny her what ever she is asking for!

She still loves animals (especially dogs and cats) and lately she is obsessed with teddy bears even more than before. We were walking by Build-A-Bear yesterday and she went nuts when she saw the Christmas bears in the window. I’m thinking Santa will be bringing her one :)

She loves to read books and watch Mickey Mouse. She even makes two sounds that sorta sound like Mickey Mouse when she wants to watch it. Her favorite things to eat are grapes, cheese, raisins, strawberries and broccoli. But I found out that I have to limit her intake of raisins :)

She is a champion sleeper at night time even though this time change has her waking up between 5:30 and 6:00 every morning. She has 3 blankies that my mom made out very thin material. 2 are a rosebud pattern and 1 is another small flower pattern and she is attached at the hip to them. Sometimes she has all 3 in her bed and she must have one to sleep with. She squishes them up in a ball under her chin and pats them. She drags them around the house and outside with her and sometimes she will drape it over her shoulder. They really help calm her down when she is upset. You tell her to go find her blankie because it’s night night time and she runs off to find one.

**I’m sure there are things that I’ve left out because she does new stuff every day but this is the gist of it!