Thanksgiving 2009

What a difference a year makes! Last Thanksgiving I was as big as a house and miserable. I must have looked miserable, too, because I remember my sisters pampering me with pedicures and I still got mad at them because they kept telling me I wasn't going to make it much longer. They were right! I had the girls the Tuesday after Thanksgiving last year. This Thanksgiving was MUCH more enjoyable. I could even enjoy my dinner without heartburn! I will say that this year was much more exhausting, though. Wow it's hard to keep your eyes in all directions as these little girls crawl and walk everywhere.

We started off the day with lunch at the Conerly's (Taylor's grandparents). The girls had SO much fun playing with their cousins. Poor little sweet Lydia survived the tornado of my children - they're so used to pushing and pulling on each other that it's a shock to only children. Addison had a great time entertaining the girls and Landry was trying to figure out how all of his toys got to Mammaw's :)

After lunch we headed to my parent's (Nana and Papa's) for dinner. Jonna was marching in the McDonald's parade in Chicago and the Germanys were with, well, the other Germanys, so it was a smaller crowd than usual but still great. We did get a special visit from cousins Randy, Freddy and Bettie, and Aunt Wilma - can't believe I didn't snap a single pic of them! We had an exciting dinner - MM barfed at the table after choking on cranberry sauce while the noise from the Ball Choo Choo played in the background but it was all good. We enjoyed our day with family and that's all that matters!

Conerly great-grandchildren (Colby, Lydia, Landry, MM, Kennedy, and Addison) Kennedy and Pop

Nellie holding baby Colby and Mommy Chanci

How sweet is little Landry's face??

Come play, MM!

I don't think Kennedy sat down all day...
Leaves!

I love that K's hand is resting on MM's knee...

Aunt Shera and Uncle Mike holding MM

Sweet Sisters

My big girl (ps...that's my old toy! it's definitely survived the years)

We capped off the night with a swing

Me Want Cookie

Finally we had a weekend at home and we are in full swing getting ready for the girl's first birthday. We're having a milk and cookie party so we started today making cookies to freeze for the party. Sugar cookies are a family tradition in my family so we used Nana's recipe to make a double batch for everyone to decorate at the party. yum! I let the girls taste cookie dough for the first time, which is a favorite of mine, and play in the dough. Not quite sure what MM didn't like about the cookie making process, but she wasn't a fan. She'd rather observe. Kennedy had a blast getting messy, though!

first things first, MM's top 2 teeth!

Ooohh...cookie dough!

MM's breakdown

Me want cookie!

Haha - can't get enough. The two-handed shovel.

Only Daddy makes it better

Having fun in the mess

Mommy and girls

Goodnight kiss!

Fun with the Germanys

While I have been teaching at Tougaloo this semester, the girls have been spending time with DitDee, Todd, and Tanner. They have SO much fun! They are absolutely worn out when they get home from all the entertainment. DitDee is so creative and always has fun things to do. Check out their first ever craft project here.

What's That?

We have been quite busy since I last posted. The girls spent the weekend with Lanie, Pop and Ms. Ann while we went to Starkville to watch the Dawgs play. Lanie has the magic touch because as soon as we dropped them off it seemed like she called to tell us that MM was walking! I didn't even think she was really close, but sure enough she was so brave and will let go between things now and take quite a few steps. Go girl! The girls really enjoyed their stay and we always enjoy Starkville. We returned on Sunday and enjoyed a lazy Sunday with girls. They are finally kicking their colds and were in the BEST moods on Sunday.

I am dedicating this post to their favorite question, "What's that?". It's the first thing they say when they wake up and probably the last thing they ask before they close their eyes. They are so curious and they're doing amazing at repeating your reply. MM wants to know who is in every picture she sees. "Who's that?", she says. They are saying sock, "Rock, rock", duck, Jack, two, thank you, bottle, ball, etc. It amazes me how they are really connecting words with objects.

The other big news is that we have more teeth! MM finally cut her top two teeth! Her little scrunchy nose grin looks so precious now with 4 little teeth clamped together. Kennedy also cut more top teeth. I promise to get some pics. I had to take a work trip to DC on Monday and just returned so I'm lacking on the pics. I'm sure we'll make up for it this weekend. Can't wait to have a weekend at home to enjoy with the girls!

Merry Christmas to me!

I got my Christmas present early this year! Taylor gave me a new camera (a Canon Rebel) so that I would have it for the girls' 1st birthday and the holidays. I love it! The pictures are amazing! Today we had a little photo shoot for fun and here are some of my favorites. I will say it's quite hard to pose two curious little girls AND snap a picture before they move! But, I look forward to practicing a lot and playing dress up with the girls. Thanks, honey! What a great gift! Now invest in Hobby Lobby because we'll be buying lots of frames!

Sick and Tired

Well, we almost made it to the girls' first birthday without being sick. Almost! This past week MM started waking up in the middle of the night and we assumed it was teething. Then she started losing her appetite and was noticably clingy which is SO not her personality. Finally on Thursday she started running a low grade fever and pulling at her ear. Our pediatrician was out on Friday, so I took MM to Dr. Weiland and she said that MM's left ear has an infection. Taylor and I, Lanie, and Nana have all recently passed around a sinus infection that gave us all the same symptoms - a nasty cough, low fever, and nasty sinus. So, I figure it's just finally made its way to the girls. I thought Kennedy had escaped unscathed, but yesterday she started running a fever, too. Needless to say, I have no cute pictures to post of the weekend. We've been pretty much camped out in the house all weekend in our PJs doing lots of rocking, kissing, and regular partaking of medicine. Taylor did tackle painting the kitchen for me, though, and I did get to escape to Mistletoe for a little on Saturday. Have I mentioned lately what an awesome husband he is? I love, love, love the kitchen color and can't wait to paint some more (or assist Taylor, rather!). It was nice to get out and peruse the boutiques at Mistletoe even though I didn't walk away with much. Pretty low key weekend. Hopefully the girls will be back on top in time for pictures with Jeanelle this week for Christmas cards!

Update: Took the girls back to the doctor this morning. MM has the croup and got a decadron shot. Kennedy has an upper respiratory infection and got an antibiotic. Poor little babies! Hopefully we're on the road to recovery now.

Fall Festival

This has been a fun and busy weekend for everyone. I never realized how much goes on during Halloween until I had kids. It seems like everyone is going to a million festivals, field trips, parties and more. The girls are still too young to really enjoy much of it, but we still stayed pretty busy. I was in charge of our church's fall festival on Friday night. We had a bouncy house, games, candy, and lots of fun! The girls came for a little while but left with Lanie early so they could still make bedtime. They spent the night at Lanie and Pop's since we didn't leave until it was over and so we could sleep off all the hard work the next morning. That was SO needed and awesome. Yesterday we grocery shopped and caught up on football. Go State! Another SEC win! The girls dressed up as cheerleaders and welcomed our trick-or-treaters. I think they were confused why people were continuously knocking on our door. Today was church and a little afternoon shopping, followed by, you guessed it, more football! We did work in 2 photo shoots today - one after church and one in our fall outfits.

We've also been working on adding more table food in the girl's diets. This weekend they ate smashed up carrots, a cinnamon roll, and mashed potatoes! Now we need to work on breaking their new habit - spitting! They are both seeing how far they can push us when they're eating - they like to spit their food at us! It is SO hard to keep a straight face and tell them No!