Monday Morning Story Hour

I can't say enough how much Makenzie and Presley enjoy Story Hour each week. They love getting to be with their friends, hearing good stories, and making fun things. Mrs. Jean is so great with the kids, and she always has fun things planned for them! If you have children under five and stay at home, join us for Story Hour each Monday at 10:30 at the Sturgis Public Library.

They made litte sunshines today. They each traced their hands and cut them out to make the rays that glued onto the sunshine faces that they colored.

Emma, Presley, Ella, Makenzie, and Hillaree holding their little sunshines.

Presley showing hers off...she wanted lots of little rays so we had to have lots of little handprints!

After they finished with their sunshine craft, they decided to play while the adults cleaned up. Yep, you guessed it! Ring Around the Rosie....

...We all fall down! They were so cute! They kept doing this over and over until finally we told them it was time to go. They play so well together!

Micky Mouse Clubhouse Live and Chucky Cheese

Annual Girl's Day Out With Mimi!!!

I'm apologizing in advance for the pictures...my camera has had it, and for some reason it's putting little lines in my pictures. Time for a new one.

Anyway, Saturday us girls hit the road for Tupelo to see Micky Mouse Clubhouse Live and then have dinner at Chucky Cheese. Makenzie and Presley had a blast as usual; especially with Mimi spoiling them all day!

Thanks Mimi for such a fun day!!!

Audrey, Katie, Presley, and Makenzie

Makenzie with her Handy Manny toy Mimi bought her

Playing games at Chucky Cheese

Presley counting her tokens at Chucky Cheese

Mimi and Presley at Chucky Cheese

Funny Moments

We've been so busy the last few days, and while I have a minute I thought I'd share some of the things we've been doing (and saying!) so far this week.

Makenzie is learning to write her letters! She actually asked me last week when I was going to teach her how to write! I think my mouth dropped open, and I stuttered, "Well, honey, if you want to learn I'll show you." She's been able to recognize her letters for a long time now, but has never wanted to learn to write them until now. Needless to say, while on a trip to Wal-mart yesterday I picked up one of those trace-the-letter books for her to start playing around with. She loves it! She learned A-C today, and when I told her that was enough for today, she actually got mad at me because she wanted to learn them all! Oh boy, this child has way too much of her Mommy in her!

As for Presley, she is now fully potty-trained (yay!), and is doing such a good job with it..even sleeping in big girl panties! She's also been saying the funniest things lately. She's started copying things that Makenzie or I say, and we get so tickled at her. Yesterday while I was driving down the road Makenzie said, "Look Mommy! There are some cows!" I acknowledged the cows and pointed out that there were horses in the pasture too. Presley pipes up with "How strange!", and I almost wrecked from laughing so hard. Where did she come up with that?

Ahh...never a dull moment around here! I just love watching my girls learn new things, and I love hearing the funny things they say!

Never A Dull Moment....

Makenzie and Presley went camping with my parents this week (from Wed. till Friday), and I missed them sooo much while they were gone even though I enjoyed the time to myself and time with Wayne very much. When the girls got home Friday afternoon, I realized Makenzie acted like she didn't feel well. They were both asleep when they got here, and Makenzie slept until after 4! If you know anything about Makenzie, you know she's at an age where she thinks she doesn't need naps anymore, and when she does happen to take a nap, she only sleeps for about an hour at the longest. When she finally woke up, she was whiny and asking for water so I felt her forehead, and she was burning up. I took her temp (102) and gave her motrin only to have her start getting sick about 30 minutes later. She continued to be sick and run a temp for the rest of the night, and I couldn' t help but think just great we have the stomach virus again...

The next day, she was still running the temp, but felt much better. By last night she was up playing with Presley. They were so cute I had to share pictures. They came into the living room dressed in their pajamas and "hats" with their "songbooks" and began to sing "Mary Had A Little Lamb". When the song was over Makenzie yelled, "Costume Change!" and they ran out of the room.

They returned a few minutes later dressed like this, and this time they sang, "Jesus Loves Me". Makenzie continued to sing as Presley danced. They are too funny!

They've been doing this a lot lately. I love how they get books and pretend they're hymnals! The first time they did this, Makenzie came in dressed from head to toe (with the same "hat" on I might add) and a mermaid wand she got at Disney on Ice that she said was her guitar. When I asked what she was doing she said, "I'm a rockstar!" How on Earth does she even know what a rockstar is? Hannah Montana, maybe? Oh goodness.... To my relief, the next time they played this, she was singing church songs from her "hymnal". Phew!!!


Makenzie is feeling better today. We're still working on keeping her temp down, but she hasn't been sick since Friday night. She must be fighting off some kind of virus, but luckily no one else has gotten it so far. Please pray Makenzie gets well soon and the rest of us remain healthy and well.

Story Hour at the Library

The girls and I go to Story Hour at the library each Monday. Mrs. Jean reads them stories and then they do a craft. The girls get to spend time with friends and get out of the house for a little while. Today, they made these handkerchief dolls. They were so easy to make! You just take a square piece of fabric and fold it into a triangle. Put a small ball of cotton in the middle and then tie with string to make the head. Tie knots in the corners on each side to make arms & you're done! Mrs. Jean always comes up with the cutest little crafts! I should have taken pictures of the CUTE bird feeders they made out of an orange a couple of weeks ago. I'll try to remember to take pics from now on!

Playdate At Our House

We had friends over for brunch and a playdate this morning, and Makenzie and Presley were so excited! They played so good together and were having so much fun that the adults could barely have a conversation!

Ella and Makenzie dancing...the girls grabbed dress-up clothes and purses and Carter called them princesses..lol.
Makenzie, Ella, and Emma

The whole gang...Presley, Emma, Camille, Carter, Makenzie, and Ella.
We had a great time everybody! Hope we can do it again soon!

Cooking With Mommy

My girls love cooking with Mommy! They beg to help me with every little thing so we've spent a lot of time together in the kitchen lately. They wanted pancakes this time and of course they wanted to do everything by themselves!

They each took turns measuring out the ingredients and stirring. Then they took turns flipping the pancakes and putting the butter on them.

I have to tell this because Wayne and I find it so ironic. Wayne and I like different types of syrup on our pancakes. I guess we both like the syrup we grew up eating so we've bought two different kinds of syrup since we got married. When the girls were old enough to have opinions, we asked each of them which kind of syrup they wanted. Both bottles were side by side on the counter, and Makenzie picked the syrup I eat (Blackburn's) and Presley picked the syrup Wayne eats (Log Cabin). They've eaten their pancakes this way ever since.

I also noticed later on that for some reason Presley started refusing to eat salad. Makenzie has always eaten ranch dressing on hers (like me) so I'd always put ranch on Presley's as well. After we found out they liked different syrup on their pancakes, I decided to try putting Thousand Island on Presley's salad (like Wayne) just to see if she would eat it. Wouldn't you know, she ate every bite of it! How crazy is that? Presley also loves squash, ocra, and fried green tomatoes (like Wayne) and Makenzie doesn't care much for them (like me).

I am really beginning to enjoy my time at home. I NEVER thought I would say that, but after being home for a couple of months now I'm loving it. It's still hard some days especially when it seems like all I ever do is clean up mess after mess, Makenzie refuses to take a nap and acts terrible for the rest of the day, or when they've just been fussing and fighting all day and I feel like I've been run over by a truck! But then there are days where we play tea party, have picnics, read books together, go to the library, have playdates, the list goes on and on, and I think to myself how lucky I am that I have a wonderful husband who provides for us in such a way that allows me to stay at home. Knowing that I can stay at home with my girls if I choose to has to be one of the greatest blessings God has given me. I am ashamed to say that I have stubbornly rejected the very thought of being at home, but God has shown me lately that I can make a difference in my own home just as well as I can in a classroom. I do hope to teach one day, but for now, I am right where I'm supposed to be, and I couldn't be happier.