Tickled Pink!

First of all, I snapped this picture of Logan while she was sleeping the other day. She had dressed herself up for bed. She really is SUCH a princess!

Next, I wanted to let everyone know that I've re-launched my clothing/bow website! I know, I feel like I do this once a year, but I've taken down my etsy site and am only doing bows/clothes through this website and my facebook page. This way I don't have to pay the added cost of listing on etsy and giving them any kickback when I sell things. So--head over to www.tickledpinkhairbows.com and check it out! Bookmark it, share it with friends, place some orders. Just kidding, you really don't have to place orders. Also, would you do me a favor? If you have a facebook page, would you LIKE the business facebook page? It just gives it more credibility with outside buyers if there are a good amount of people who like it. Thanks!!

Preschool In Review: Weeks 5-9

We've moved away from the letter/number/color routine and have started doing different themed units every week that incorporate everything. It's been a fun change and we're both really enjoying it. Our first theme was Veggie Tales because it's a new favorite in our home. She colored each of the vegetables in their proper colors and then we labeled the colors, stapled them together and put them in the book. She colored veggies with different numerical values, counted them, labeled each page with the correct number. She spelled out her name that week and we made fun letter cards that she has in a pocket in the book and can pull out and put it in order. Just to give you a taste of what she's doing in her units. :) We've done a Handy Manny unit and part of a princess unit and tomorrow we'll start Ballerinas.

I've tried to be really intentional about our playtimes, too. I found these fantastic colored counting blocks in the dollar section at Target and we use them for so many different things.

I picked up three packs and I put a letter of the alphabet on each one (upper and lower case).

She plays match the upper to the lower case.We play "find me letter......" with them. She sorts them into color piles. She counts them. We put letters together to make words (well, I put the words together and she identifies the letters once together). She stacks them and lines them up in color patterns. They've been great. Well worth the $3.

Logan continues to impress me with how much she's learning! She knows the letters by sight. She knows about 1/3 of the sounds in the alphabet and can recognize when they are used in words (example: when eating popcorn she said "p-p-p popcorn starts with P!"). She knows how to count to 20 and recognizes numbers 1-10 (usually). She knows most of her shapes (circle, star, heart, diamond, rectangle, square, triangle). She knows all of the colors. She can sort colors into groups (great for laundry). She can tell stories by looking at pictures. She's just a little smart cookie and it's so much fun to watch my own little one learn!

Lazy Sundays (and some 2 year old conversations)

I've actually been meaning to post these pictures all week! I took them last Sunday when the weather was cooler and we were playing outside after Mike got home from work.

L: No, Brody, you're not old enough to play with the volleyballs yet. Grow a little.

I think Brody looks so much like my dad in this next picture, from the shape of his face to the squinting of his eyes! It's so fun to be able to pick features out and pinpoint what family member they came from.

Some more Loganisms and quotes:

Logan calls commercials amarshmallows. I thought for a long time she WAS saying marshmallow but then one day she was watching something and an advertisement came on and she sighed heavily and said, "ugh. not another amarshmallow."

Last night I was reading a Clifford story to the kids and Logan stopped me and said, "I don't need a Clifford. I have a Brody." I guess he does drool, play fetch and do things on command right now...I can kind of see the similarity.

I was cleaning a bathroom yesterday and was getting tired and stopped and put my hand to my head. Logan came in and said, "I'm going to handle it, honey. Don't worry."

I snuggled Logan before her nap a few days ago and she hugged me tight and said, "Oh mommy! Please stay here with me forever!"

Logan's new phrase of the moment is "you're the best!" She'll point her finger at you and say, "Mommy you are THE BEST."

Logan's favorite game of the moment? Hide and go peek-a-boo. We keep trying to tell her she's talking about two different games but she insists this one exists.

Speaking of hide and seek....Logan really needs to learn the rules. She tells you to count, then tells you to come find her then pops out of hiding and yells, "HERE I AM!"

I love, love, love having a 2 year old. She's so sweet and views the world with such innocent and unsuspecting eyes. It really makes me see "faith like a child" in a completely different light and I am so thankful to get to see it in this new and exciting way.

Happy Birthday Olivia!

Today we headed over to Hillridge Farm to celebrate Olivia's 3rd birthday! Olivia is one of Logan's good friends here in town. We are in a small group with her parents so they see each other quite often.

It was rainy this morning so we threw on raincoats and were very thankful for our ergo so we could keep Brody close and dry!

They've moved the pumpkin patch so now you have to pay to go in and get pictures...we're hoping to find another one in town free or cheaper so we can get some good fall pictures, but if not, here's our pumpkin patch picture this year!

The girls had fun together on a hayride:

And Logan loved the Hello Kitty cupcakes:

A lot.

Then we headed off to the train and took a quick ride (how crystal clear are his eyes?!):

And capped off the day with this crazy slide.

Yes, our fearless girl did go down. Over, and over, and over again.

I have a feeling we've entered the season of life where birthday parties are the norm.

Fun New Toy!

Logan had a BIG day yesterday! We loaded up in the car and I told her we were on our way to get her a big surprise. She was so excited the whole car ride there (which ended up taking 35 minutes because of traffic) and was slightly disappointed when I popped out of the car, grabbed her new toy and stuck it in the trunk before she saw it. This meant she had to wait another 25 minutes to get home before she actually laid eyes on it. I think it was worth the wait, though!

Logan's legs have gotten just a little too long for her push toys and she has started to scuff ALL of her shoes by dragging them when she's riding. So, Mike and I decided it was time to upgrade to a tricycle and started scouring craigslist for a good one.

And I'm so glad we did, because this bike is just perfect for Logan! It's pink and purple and has lots of sparkle and is adorned with princesses. She's loves it. And we loved the price. We paid less than 1/3 of what it cost new, and the previous owner kept it in pristine condition.

It rained last night so we couldn't ride it this morning because of the large amounts of puddles and mud, but she's just itching for her daddy to get home this afternoon so she can go out and ride some more. We're so excited for our big girl!

6 Months!!!

Happy 6 months to my sweet, sweet Brody! Can you believe it's been half a year?! I can't!

Brody is SUCH a charmer! He'll smile at anyone for any reason. Even Logan, when she's screaming and throwing a fit, can pull a huge smile from Brody. Not sure how she'll feel about that in a few years...

And yes, he does smile all the time. That's why there aren't many pictures without him smiling. He is seriously always happy. It's incredible. You can wake up in a bad mood, go in to get him out of bed and you just can't stay in the bad mood.

He looks like a little chub sometimes, but don't let that fool you! He weighed in at 17lbs even, is 26 inches long and has a big head. :) A cute big head, though! He's in the 50% for weight, 80% for his head circumference (told you) and is in the 25% for height.

He still is sleeping through the night. I put him to bed between 6:30-7 most nights and he'll wake up once before 10 and then quickly goes back down until 7am. We are so, so thankful for a good sleeper.

He is so snuggly. That 10p wake up? Usually just wants a few minutes of snuggling and then happily falls back to sleep. Melts my heart.

He's just slipping into his 6-9 month clothing.

We've sadly had to retire the small cloth diapers. He's moved into the one size diapers. We are so thankful for those and that we don't have to continue to buy diapers!

Big boy mastered sitting up just before his 6 month mark. He got tired of laying down and just went for it when I sat him down. It took a few days but he no longer wobbles and can actually get onto all fours from the sitting position and then get back up into it. Strong, strong boy.

He loves to give sweet kisses, which actually feel more like you've got a blow fish suctioned to your face (I've never felt that and cringe at the thought, but it's what I picture it'd be like). He also gives great "hugs."

He has started to try and reach for people he wants to hold him. While he can't quite get his arms out to reach, he leans his whole body into wherever he wants to go and tries to get his hands and arms to follow his body.

He is SO close to crawling, it's scary! His motivation? Anything Logan DOESN'T want him to have. If she makes any mention or motion to keep him away from something, he goes for it. He does know how to scoot his little booty and can move a bit that way, but he's recently been falling onto all fours and trying to get to things that way. Time to double check our baby proofing! I actually have a feeling he's going to get into a LOT more than Logan ever did.

Brody continues to adore his big sister. He gets so giddy when she gets down on the floor with him to play. They sit for hours in the morning together playing, singing, "talking" and enjoying each other.

We've heard a lot of babbling this month! A lot of it sounds like "a bababababababa" with the occasional "mamamamamama" in there. I know he'll probably say "dada" first and mean it, but I like to think maybe somewhere deep inside they know that babbling mama means they've said my name first. I know I'm just lying to myself, but it's ok.

They seem so sweet and innocent in so many of their pictures, but this one really shows the true meaning of being a big sister. Brody is just biding his time before he can get even, I'm sure. He has that look in his eye, doesn't he?

And lastly, this month we started solids, again! Don't worry, I threw the oatmeal cereal out and WILL NOT be trying it with any subsequent children. We started with some peaches and sweet potatoes (I'm doing homemade stuff again) and he's also tried bananas, apples and mango. So far he's loved all of it and we haven't seen any tummy issues. He gets about a tablespoon at breakfast and a tablespoon at dinner and then nurses the rest of the day. We'll throw in a third meal in the next week or two and see how he handles it!

Here's his post-eating, pre-cleaned face!

And here are his shots at all six months! I seriously, seriously can't believe he's already half a year old. Crazy.

Date Night

Today was a big day in our house! For the last week, Logan has gone all night without wetting her pull-ups! Last night we tried big girl panties and she kept them dry, too. I'd say we're officially night trained. So nice. To celebrate, we went and had breakfast at chick-fil-a. Seriously, where else would we go?

And tonight Logan had her first official date with daddy. They've gone out on their own a lot, but today was the first day that daddy asked her if she'd like to go on a date with him. She said yes, got all dressed up, asked to have her hair done up pretty and was SO excited when daddy came to "pick her up."

Logan and Mike have such a special bond. She is over the moon when he comes home from work or school and he really does a fabulous job of making her feel so special and so loved. I'm so glad she has such an incredible father who will make sure she knows how she should be treated so when she does start to look for qualities in a husband, she knows how high the bar is.

Can you see her fists clenched at her sides in the picture above? She does that when she is really, really excited.

Melt my heart.

As she was getting in the car, I told her I loved her and that I wanted to hear all about her date when she got home. She replied, "I'm going to have so much fun, mommy. I love you berry much, too." And all of the sudden I had a flash-forward 35 18 16 years in the future and definitely got a little teary eyed.

Best Buds

I love having two kiddos so close in age. I love even more that we're seeing the fruits of this so early on...the kids love to play together. Every morning we hang out in the living room with an armful of toys and I sit and catch up on e-mails or blogging while they play together.

Logan is so good with her little brother. She teaches him how to use toys, she'll "read" to him and she's gotten to be really good about running in as soon as he's done napping so she can calm him down and let him know I'm on the way.

Brody always looks for Logan when he's taken to a new room. If she's not there he patiently waits for her and gives her the biggest smiles when she comes in. I'm not sure how she'll feel once he becomes mobile and starts following her everywhere. She may never have peace again.

I pulled this toy out today and took the legs off so Brody could play with it on the ground. Logan seemed more interested for a while, though. Finally I convinced her to teach him how to use it and now he's sitting and is quite content pressing all of the buttons.

My sweet beauty.

And the little man.

Conversations With My Two Year Old

Sadly, the only game day picture I could get of Logan.

When we were in FL, Bill brought some cookies from France to share with everyone. Logan was walking around with one and Bill asked if she knew where they came from. She looked at him, incredulously, and said, "Yes, they come from publix." We need to work on getting those taste buds some culture.

Logan hopped on the scale the other night (we don't have one at home, so this was her first experience with one outside of the Dr.'s office) and said, "Clock says it's time for bed!" ...maybe we should pick one up.

While we were staying at the hotel, she became rather attached to the hotel soap. Naturally, we stashed all of the unopened ones in our suitcase (don't pretend like you don't do it, too). She knew we did this so we could take it home for her. One morning while we were there, she woke up, went and dug through the suitcase and couldn't find the soap. She ran back and forth around the hotel room like a chicken with it's head cut off until she stopped, dropped her arms to her sides, pouted her lip and said, "DEGONNIT! I can't find my soap."

Today, as we got ready to head out the door, I told Logan we could pause her TV show and she could finish it later. She got the "your so silly" look on her face and said, "Silly mommy, this is on for real. You can't pause live TV."

When we go to the deli, Logan will stand there and say, "I need a half a pound of this, a pound of this, a half pound of this and that's all." Which is funny, but it's topped when we go to the fabric store and she knows that we don't need pounds there, instead she says, "I need a yard of this, half yard of this, and two yards of that." Smart, observant, child.

Logan and I frequent Sonic. Ok, it's an addiction. Sometimes we go just so that I can get out of the house and preserve what little sanity I have left, Kai-Lan took the rest of it. We only go during happy hour or when I have the survey receipts that give me free drinks. Yesterday, I realized just how much we go when she hopped in her little car and said, "Yes, I need a very big slushy. I have a receipt for that. It's free."

Speaking of her little car.... It's been cool enough in the late afternoon/evening to leave the door open and let her wander in and out of the house (to the porch) so she's been "driving" a lot in her car. A few days ago she went out, got in her car, got back out and came right up to Mike and said... "I forgot, I need some money dad. I'm going to need to buy some things." To which we shook our heads and said, you're not sixteen yet. Try again in a few years.

Logan was walking out the door and I called, "see you later alligator!" She stopped, turned around and said, "I'm not an alligator. I'm Logan. Go Noles!" And walked out. That's my girl.

Our new neighbor is an Auburn fan. Auburn and my side of the family mix about as well as vinegar and oil. Logan knows this. Very well. The neighbor has an Auburn flag that flies from her car window and any time Logan sees it (and the poor girl just happens to be around when Logan does this), she exclaims, "ROLL TIDE!"

Silly Songs With Larry is a segment of most Veggie Tale episodes. It's their "commercial," if you will. One of Larry's silly songs is "Where is My Hairbrush." If you haven't heard it, you can listen HERE. After bathing herself more than clean at the hotel, I put Logan's soap up high so she couldn't scrub her skin anymore and she began to sing, "Oh where is my soap? Oh where is my soap? Oh where where where where where is my SOAP?"

Every. Single. Night. Logan sneaks into our room. Most nights she sleeps on a little mat we've got in there specifically so that she doesn't get in our bed. Some night she makes it in the bed without us noticing and then in the morning we wonder how in the world she got in between us without either one of us realizing it. We're tired. We have a 2 year old and a 6 month old. Anyway, our standing deal with her is that if she sleeps in her room for an entire night without coming in our room we'll take a trip to Krispy Kreme for a donut breakfast. Every morning, she wakes up, and after poking me in the eye balls to wake me up, she says, "Maybe someday I'll get a donut. But not today."

I'll finish with this picture. Maybe you can help me figure it out. Logan came home with this from Sunday School a few weeks ago. It said something along the lines of, "We obey Jesus because He loves us." What does this hat have to do with that? We're not Catholic. Nor are we members of the KKK. ???

I apologize that the picture is a bit blurry. I couldn't stop laughing.

Natalie

This last week was a very hard one for our family. My grandma passed in her sleep on August 24 and so we made the trek down to Ocala on Sunday morning to be with the family and celebrate her wonderful life. I was asked if I could speak at the memorial but felt like I'd never be able to make it through, so I bowed out. But I want to write what I would have said so that those of you that didn't get the chance to know her can get a sense of what a wonderful woman she was, and so that those of you who did know her can understand what she meant to me. I also want a record of this for my own kids and their kids.

My grandma was born in the 1930's. She was a child of the depression and could tell the most amazing stories about living through this hard time period in our history. When I asked if I could have the Molly doll as my first American Girl Doll I remember the look of excitement in grandma's face as she began to share countless stories of how she and the character had very similar childhood experiences. I remember reading through the book series with grandma and talking to her about her own stories. I remember being completely fascinated that her life reflected my favorite book character's life. It seemed like everything was a teachable moment to her and I learned some very valuable lessons from her.

My grandma and I shared the same love for learning and teaching. When I graduated from college and started my first day as a teacher, I remember thinking, I have this job because I never want to stop learning and I want the kids I teach to feel the same way. I think that this is how grandma felt. You could see her love for learning in the way she fully immersed herself in everything she took an interest to. After learning everything she could about a topic, she'd then impart her knowledge on anyone who was willing to listen...or anyone who had ears, really. :)

When I think about grandma the one song that always come's to mind is "Make A Joyful Noise," particularly the verse that resonates, "I will not be silent, I will not be quiet anymore." Because she wasn't silent. She was loud, and wonderful, and full of life and let everyone know it. She had a deep faith in our Creator and she wasn't silent about it. She spoke the truth and she wanted everyone to hear and know and experience who He is. She wasn't afraid and she didn't care what people thought, she just wanted to spread the joy of the good news. What a reception she must have had when she entered the gates of Heaven.

She will be sorely missed. She was loved by many and we feel the sting of loss her on Earth. It's made so much better, though, knowing where she is. Knowing that she isn't in pain anymore and that she'll never be in pain again. She's been called home and what a glorious celebration it will be when we reunite with her one day in Heaven.

Here is the family before the memorial service:

Carolyn, Logan and "Uncle Bill" (Carolyn actually has a picture with Bill from when she was just about Logan's age)

With Aunt Carolyn after the service:

The church was full of people who knew her and cared so much for her and for our family. It was such a blessing. It was particularly a blessing to see so many people who were able to travel. My cousin Peter flew in from NY, my mom's cousin Bill flew in from France, there was family there from Nebraska and California. She was so loved by so many!

Bill and Carolyn:

We loved to see Great Grandpa with Brody, it's such a blessing that my kids have gotten to spend time with their great-grandparents. What a joy it will be to show these pictures to them when they're older!

Just wish Logan was smiling in this next one and it'd be perfect:

I loved getting to spend time with my sister, I miss being around her all the time after having spent so much time together in the summer.

Sweet smiles:

So thankful that we got to go and spend time with the family. Grandma will be missed, but her legacy will live on and her great grandchildren will know what an amazing woman she was.