The Shiner.

Madeline started her birthday week by getting a nice shiner.

She was playing with her big sister and took a fall. Her head met the corner of Isabelle's bed. :( I knew she was hurt by the sound of her cry and it completely broke my heart!! The picture above was taken this morning. Thankfully, it looks so much better! It's still dark but a lot of the swelling has gone down. She hasn't been complaining of it hurting at all this evening. I'm so thankful for God's hand of protection! You can see from the picture how close that corner was to getting her eye. 

I haven't been using my camera much this week. This post might be short & sweet :)

I've been trying for a few months to try and get Isabelle to stop sucking her thumb. Unsuccessfully. We're going at it again, full force. I'm asking for your prayers. For her, that God would give her the strength and courage. That he would give her comfort when she's wanting to put her thumb in her mouth. I'm praying that He would help her to fall asleep quickly so that she isn't thinking about her thumb.

I'm also asking for prayers for me. For patience. Wisdom. I'm praying that I would be encouraging, & not become frustrated when she has a hard time- 5 nights in a row....

I know she can do this. She is just so attached to that silly thumb! I can't really make fun of her though, she gets it honest... I was much older when I finally stopped.

Please pray for her, us. I appreciate it :)

Other than that, we haven't had too much going on. The girls went to school on Monday. Madeline's teacher said she had the best day ever! (yay!!) I love that she is doing so well at school!

Today, we started our day with a play date at Chick-fil-a with a couple of our favorite friends. After nap time, Isabelle went to ballet, which she still loves! She told me again that she loves ballet & wont say that she doesn't like it anymore. :) She showed me a few of the things they did tonight in class. Usually, she says she can't remember what she learned. I was so happy to see her excited about the things she is learning in class! After ballet, we had some friends over to our house. The Wood girls & Barnhill girls came over to eat & play. & play dress up, of course :) I really wish I would've taken a few pictures of the girls tonight! Jared is working a lot of late nights these next few weeks so we wont be seeing much of him. It was so nice to have friends over for the evening. I enjoyed their company so much. I'm thankful that God gives us our friends! 

She's almost 2

Really?
Madeline is almost 2 years old?
I honestly can't believe it's here. It doesn't seems real. She's growing too fast.
They both are.

My precious baby girl. Sweet. Funny, some would say hilarious. A little fiesty, I call it hot-headed. She's a strong-willed little girl and loves her big sister with all her heart. She's pretty big fans of Mommy & Daddy, too. :) She loves to sing songs about Jesus. She loves to hear stories about how much God loves her. Her favorite color is red. An episode of Dora, Max & Ruby or Bubble Guppies will completely stop her in her tracks for 25 minutes solid. She dances when she hears music, claps her hands to the beat.

I could go on & on about her ways. She is a special girl & I'm so very thankful that God chose us as her family. She keeps us on our toes & always has us laughing. I love her, exactly the way she is. The way God made her. Perfect in His sight.

This next week, we will be celebrating her birthday. All week long. :) The big day is March 1st and we'll be closing out the week with a little party on Saturday.

My Little Ballerina

In January, Isabelle started a ballet class.

At first, she was not excited. She cried when I dropped her off. She held onto me so tightly that when the teacher tried to pull her away, I moved right along with her. She told me she didn't want to do it anymore. She didn't like it.

But when I would pick her up from class, she was fine. And excited that she learned something new. Also excited that she has some kind of treat for working hard in class, like a lollipop or sticker. Once she got a hot pink stamp on her hand and refused to wash her hands.

One day, I sat her down and talked about how important it was that she learned to handle things like a big girl. To make decisions all on her own, without me telling her what to do. There were a few other things we discussed, but walking into ballet like a big girl was definitely at the top of our list. She is a sensitive, tender-hearted little girl - just like I was. I hated trying new things, I cried when my Daddy would drop me off. I was so shy! I recognize some of the emotions she feels from when I was younger. And I'm also aware that all little kids go through these stages. They just don't want to leave Mommy & Daddy. As much as I want to cling onto my baby girl, I have to let her grow up and teach her to be excited about that. She told me one night, "Mommy, I don't want to grow any bigger. I like being a baby!"

So we had a chat. And we prayed that God would help Isabelle to be a big girl when she feels scared to walk into her ballet class, school class and Sunday School class. I pray for her, out loud, in our car as we're driving to these classes. She knows that Mommy is praying for her and believes that God is with her also.

And now, she walks into ballet by herself. I walk in the building with her and she goes to her room and finds a seat while she waits class to start. On Tuesday, they had parent observation night and I was able to watch her dance. I sat in the same room, on the floor. Not once did she run to me crying. And I honestly thought she'd be sitting in my lap the whole time! She looked at me and smiled. When she did something great, she turned back to make sure I was watching. I was so very proud of her! I absolutely loved getting to watch her in class and I'm so thankful that she was excited to show off some of her moves. :)

Grandma & Papa were able to come see Isabelle's class also! She was so excited to see them there! They loved on her after class and they were so encouraging!

She has a sweet friend in class with her, Skylar. I'm so thankful they have been able to be in this class together! They stuck close to each other during the entire class. Having Skylar in there has definitely helped Isabelle!

So, Isabelle loves ballet. She told me last night, "Mommy, I love ballet. I wont say that I don't like ballet anymore." :)

We also found out that their Spring Production is going to be TinkerBell!! Isabelle is so excited!! I kinda am too!! :)

Now that Valentine's Day is Over...

Valentine's Day may be one of my favorite holidays. The girls picked out a card, sweet candy, they drew pictures & even decorated a picture frame for their Valentine, Daddy.

Jared was so excited about making this day special for his girls. He had to work all day, so I loaded up the van and headed to Wilson. We planned to have a Valentine's Day lunch. The girls love visiting Daddy's work. They get to see all of his co-workers (they are so sweet to our girls!) & they love checking out his office. Which is filled with drawings, pictures & toys from the girls. While we were there, Daddy gave his special Valentine gifts to the girls. Brand new ECU Pirate shirts & Dora stickers along with some yummy candy! I loved that he took the time to give them something special, just from Daddy. He is such a wonderful Valentine :)

Now that Valentine's Day is over, it's back to every day life!

I'm pretty sure that this paint book is the best $3 I've ever spent. She painted every inch of that paper! I picked these up at Barnes & Noble (Love Love Love that place!). I also picked up some workbooks for Isabelle so we could work on her letters & numbers. Yesterday, our number was zero & our letter was "M" and she did such a great job with them! She wrote 0 very well, all on her own and she was very good at naming items that had the letter M. I also had such a fun time going through the lesson with her. I really enjoyed teaching her! She seemed very eager and excited to learn. I was so glad I had decided to do this with her. Homeschooling is something we are considering, very strongly. I still have a few years to decide, but it's a decision we're already taking seriously. Doing this 45 minute lesson with her was so encouraging!

We went on a play date today with some of our favorite friends! At one of our favorite places. :) Chick-fil-a in Winterville is, by far, our favorite place to go! Especially on a rainy day!

On a sad note, a very precious dog passed away yesterday. Milo. He belonged to my Mom & Step Dad. He was very old & very sick, we knew it was coming. But that doesn't make it any easier. He had a great life, lived longer than anyone ever expected him too. He was sweet & fiesty. I sure am going to miss him!

School Parties. So Much Fun :)

The girls celebrated Valentine's Day at school today! They had parties in their classrooms that were hosted by the moms of some of their friends. I volunteered, along with my sister-in-law, Tiffany, to help with the party for Madeline's class so I was able to spend a lot more time with her. Did I mention I got to make some super cute, peanut better & jelly -heart shaped- sandwiches? I had just recently bought my heart shaped cutters and I was so excited to do this!! Since the kids are so young in her class, there's not a lot of "partying" going on. Just some yummy snack time followed by a little play time.

Although, Madeline was quite the party animal today...

After snacking & hanging out with her friends, we headed down the hall to big sister's party. And that was a party! It was so crowded! They do have more students, so naturally more parents are there. And the kids are much older than Madeline's friends. They talk, to each other, to us. They talked to Madeline and bent over to be on her level. I'm pretty sure one of the little girls gave her an exam with the doctor kit. Not that she minded one bit, Madeline loves the attention! Isabelle gets a little nervious when things start getting loud so she stuck close to Mommy. We've also been sick all weekend and I have no doubt that she was still feeling tired. Since the party was so crazy (& really awesome. They even had a craft table! I really almost sat down to participate...) in Isabelle's class, I was only able to snap one photo. And man, was it a good one!

Isabelle's class took on February as the month to decorate the bulletin board in the front lobby. I loved what she chose to have on her heart! Mrs. Anthony told me that the "birdie" is a toy that had a boo-boo. Isabelle asked her to please write it on her heart. And then double checked to make sure she really did. This made me laugh because she does the same thing at home! Rachel is her very best friend that she talks about all the time. They've been buddies since day 1 & it just warms my heart! I hope they're able to be friends for a long time. And Tucker is exactly who she said he is. Her best friend that's a boy. :)

After the sweet parties, we headed home to check out all the Valentine's that were overflowing!

There were tons of snacks & candy, stickers & tattoo's and even a juice box. Some moms got so creative! I felt bad for not going all out. In my defense, we've been sick all weekend. I totally forgot about their parties until Sunday afternoon. I was able to get some cute goody bags out with suckers, bubbles, little colorful notepads & Valentine cards. But what really matters is, the girls had a great time :) They loved their parties, I did too! They also loved all their goodies from their sweet classmates & friends! Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

"My Wuv You"

All children have cute ways of saying things. As they grow, we don't want them to grow out of their baby habbits.

Example. Isabelle never learned to say 'I' when she was speaking about herself. She always said 'my.' Every single time.

"My wuv you, Mommy!"

"Can my have some juice, Mommy?"

"Now my lay my down to sleep, my pray the Lord my soul to keep..."

This past week, overnight it seems.... She has started saying "I" instead of that sweet baby language. I told her that I loved her and she responded as though she had always said it this way, " I love you too!"

It took my breath away and I almost fell to the floor. Seriously!! She has slowly been growing out of all her sweet baby-ways. I'm just not ready for this.

As I called Jared to tell him of this heart breaking news, ( I know, I'm being a little dramatic, huh? ) tears swelled in my eyes. I started to realize that I don't even have her saying those sweet words on video. As he laughed at me for being so emotional about it, I realized that it's not too late to make that video. I mean, she had just started speaking the right way only a few days ago... I knew it was worth a shot. Even if I had to ask her to say it the way I wanted to hear it.

As I tuck her into bed that night, I try. The room is dark but I wasn't worried because I don't need the picture, I need that sweet voice.

I hit record. "Isabelle, I love you."

"I love you too."

"Isabelle, my love you."

"I love you too."

I break down and ask her to say it the way I want to hear it. The way I want to remember how she spoke at this precious age. I'm thankful that she loves me enough to just go with the flow. I finally get it recorded. Saved for the days I want to remember.

And my husband is laughing in the kitchen. I'm thankful that he loves me in all my craziness.

I can't figure out how to get this video playing on the page. You'll have to go to YouTube.com. Here's the link :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkuMeBdXZIo&sns=em

Great Wolf Lodge

We took a trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, VA this past weekend! If you've never heard of it, it's a hotel with an indoor water park. AMAZING!
The girls absolutely loved it! Isabelle even tried a few of the big slides. She decided that she didn't like them, but I was proud of her for trying :)
Madeline LOVED the slides that were her size!! She went up and down the toddler slides all day Sunday. Squealing every time! These were also Isabelle's favorite. She loved raising her hands as she went down and yelling, "Weee!!!"
We spent time with some great friends while we were there. It's always fun traveling with friends :) We spent Sunday night watching the Super Bowl in Doug & Laura's room. We took a short break & went up to hear the story time with Beth, Julia & Lily.
We stayed up late and woke up late on Monday. Madeline wasn't as excited about the water park. She stayed close to Mommy & Daddy and her favorite spot of the day was the kids hot tub. Isabelle tried a big slide with Daddy and had a melt down. You really go fast on those things!! She ended up staying pretty close to the toddler slides with her friends most of the day.Which was great because I was able to get my camera out and snap a few photos :)
There's a new album with all of our Great Wolf Lodge pictures! We had such a great time & can't wait to go again next year!

Click here to view these pictures larger