Game Day

What a fun day! Today was our first family trip for game day in Starkville! We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather - 60s, perfectly cool, the sun was shining, the wind not blowing too much and everyone was ready for some football! We started the day with a trip to the Lodge and then stopped for some Shipley's donuts. Then we walked from our hotel to the tailgate - this is like a 30 minute hike! We set up our tailgate at our usual spot with the Thomases and crew and had a great day listening to the cowbells ring. The girls were SO well behaved. They had a great time watching some boys next to us throw the football and lots of people stopped to talk to us because the girls are so cute. They especially loved watching everyone ring their cowbells at the Florida Gators while they rode by on their way to the stadium. It was a great family day! I packed the girls up right before the game since it was a night game and we went back to the hotel while Taylor went to the game. The girls are sleeping off the excitement while I watch the disappointing loss on TV. Oh well, there's always next year, right?

Family photo...aren't those mums amazing?

My little bulldogs
MM crawled away while Kennedy was flirting with strangers

Tailgating is fun!

We love Starkville!

Jonathan thinks our girls are the best (and they are)!

Angelia made us pumpkin cookies

Chillin'

Angelia and MM

Too much excitement

The Jesus Book by Stephen Elkins and Illustrated by Claudine Gevry

The Jesus Book is a children's book that explains the Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How of Jesus's life. The Jesus Book introduces kids to the life, teaching, wonder, and amazing love of Jesus. The focus of the book is on Christ's life while here on Earth. I love how it presents Jesus as a man, a friend, and a Savior. One of the most popular children questions is "Why"? There is a whole section in this book dedicated to the "Why" questions children ask about Jesus. I also love that all of the questions also contain a reference to scripture in their answer. All of our answers should come from scripture!

The layout of this book is simplified and thorough. It is illustrated beautifully, especially with detailed maps that young children can understand. The book show the specific places where Jesus spent his days on Earth and allows children to retrace his footsteps. The "When" section of this book is also unique by answering questions about when key events happened in correlation to each other. There is a timeline that lays out the order of history for children to understand when things happened in Jesus's life.

The book is also accompanied by a wonderful CD that has some of my all time favorites. It is a glorious blend of great hymns such as Blessed Assurance along with popular kids songs from my past such as Deep and Wide. Some songs you just want to make sure are implanted in your kid's life and this CD covers a good bit of them.

Overall, this is a fantastic book in presenting Jesus to young children. I look forward to sharing it with my children in the years to come!

On the Move

Staycation Part 2

Fall means fair! The second part of the week we decided to take the girls to the fair. We got a break from the rain, but it was HOT so we didn't last too long. The girls got to smell the smells and take in some of the lights while we got to eat some fried goodness.

Sweet sisters looking out the window

Who left these babies at the fair?

Seriously, what does one do with a stuffed banana?

Taylor and his dream car...'76 Corvette

Chillin' out in the AC

Family Reunion

This Sunday we had a Conerly family reunion in Columbia, MS. It was cold for October but still nice to be outside. Kennedy even got a little sunburn! It was nice to meet more family and get to visit with everyone.

Playing int he playpen!

Bright eyes! (pic credit from Sara...I'm seriously coveting her camera!)

Lanie, MM, Taylor, Kennedy, and Pop Lanie and MM

Papaw Conerly and the girls

Lydia and Uncle David

Kennedy is on her way to walking!

Hey cousin Landry!

3 Stooges (Lydia, Kennedy, and MM in the background)

MM loves playing ball!

Staycation Part 1

Taylor and I are off work for the week just to spend a little time with the family. We decided to stay close to home and just enjoy some Jackson activities and the comforts of home for the week. Saturday we spent the day in watching what else, college football! Our friends Josh and Kristen were in town from Nashville and Dana needed to escape the house so we all watched State beat themselves against GA Tech. It was great to visit with friends! Wasn't long ago that nights like that would have been an all-nighter of Karaoke Revolution!

Sunday we had brunch at Julep...yum! Then we browsed through Belk and then home for our Sunday afternoon naps and NFL. I got seriously killed in fantasy football this week.

Monday we had a marathon shopping trip around Jackson and the girls were awesome. Natural born shoppers! Kennedy did not fuss once and I'm not exaggerating. She LOVES people watching in the mall. MM was only fussy when she got tired but eventually gave it up and went to sleep in the stroller. Then she caught her second wind. Now we should be all set for fall and I can retire some items from my closet that have been there WAY too long.

Tuesday we visited with Mammaw Sue, Pappaw Don, and Uncle Tim. They were a little shy at first but warmed right up and eventually wanted to explore. After that it was flu shots...yuck! So home to sleep and recoop.

Mammaw Sue and the girls Pappaw Don and the girls Mammaw Sue and MM

Today was Taylor's birthday! We met Lanie for lunch at Keifer's...which was supposed to be Walker's but they only have 1 highchair. Huh? I guess kids are a rareity for them. Oh well...always love Keifer's. After that we headed to the Jackson Zoo. A weekday in the fall so it was totally empty and we really got to enjoy ourselves. The girls had a great time! Kennedy waved at all of the animals and Ooohed at them. She was in awe! MM had her furrowed brow and studied all the animals. She wasn't so quick to be so friendly. In the end, she did warm up and wave at the elephants. The favorites by far were the lemurs. Have you seen those things jump and fly? I want to be one for a day. It was a great family day! Why do we have to work again? Isn't this what life is all about?

Showing out at Lanie's office

Taylor, Kennedy and Little Bear
Me, MM, and the fun lemurs

Family pic by the elephants

MM studing the flamingos

Kennedy studying them, too!

10 Months Old

Time flies when you're having fun! These past 10 months really have flown by. Here are some fun facts about the girls at 10 months old.

- Kennedy is SO close to walking. She will walk just by barely touching her finger to your hand - but the minute you let go she sticks her butt out and sits down. It's only a matter of days before she gets confident enough to take off! She took a few steps for Lanie the other night!

MM is close to walking, too. She likes to stick her belly WAY out to walk, though, and it's throwing her balance off. She certainly won't be too far behind, she's very coordinated.

- Kennedy loves to use MM as a stepping stool or balancing post, whatever you want to call it. She grabs her by the collar and just tugs and pulls her all around. It makes MM so mad!

- Kennedy has 4 teeth and MM has 2. They are adding puffs, Cheerios, and pinches of bread and such off the table to their dietary repertoire. They do pretty well except for the ocassional gag.

- MM has a fetish for carpet or dog hair. Seriously, my time is spent trying to beat her to any little pile of fur before she stuffs it in her mouth. And believe me - the fur is quite plentiful at my house! Everything goes into her mouth - she even ate a bug at my parent's one day! Thank goodness we got Jack shaved today. Hopefully that will cut down for a while. ha!

- MM also has a thing for stuffing satin in her mouth. It's hilarious! I guess the cool satin feels good on her gums, but when she's tired she will stuff a satin blanket so far into her mouth she gags herself. She will fall asleep with a big bite of blanket hanging from those cute pouty lips.

- The girls can say Ma-Ma, Da-Da, Uh-Oh, Pop or Papa, Nana, and something very similar to Kitty Cat. They are obsessed with the Kitty Cat! They scream and point at her every time she walks through the room. Lanie is a hard one but they're working on it!

- Kennedy likes dramatic faces. Be it the scrunchy nose or the "O My!" face...she's always entertaining us.

- MM gets a droopy eye like her Daddy when she gets tired.

- Kennedy gets the most hilarious bed-head and MM's hair grows straight out on the sides. I get a lot of laughs at their hard-to-tame hair.

- Kennedy is a major swiper. Whatever MM picks up to play with, Kennedy heads straight for it and snatches it right out of her hand. She has no remorse. MM is smart and will find something else to play with to lure Kennedy and then she gets her original toy back :) She is learning to snatch back, though, but right now Kennedy's too strong for her. I foresee a lot of "MOM! She's got my (fill in the blank) lasting me through the next 18 years.

- The girls LOVE to roll, kick and catch the ball. They giggle and squeal and think they are hot stuff when they play ball.

- We took the girls to get their flu shots on Tuesday. We weighed them and Kennedy weighed 19 lbs 8 oz and MM weighed 16 lbs. Such big girls! I can't believe how much they are looking like little girls instead of babies these days. Like I said, time flies when you're having fun!