A Week's Worth

Last Saturday, Isaac took Annette to see Beauty and the Beast 3D. They 'double dated' with Chris and Ruthie. How blessed is she to have such a cool Dad?!? Very.

That night we went to the Woman of the Year event downtown. Isaac's company had a table there, so we got to enjoy a date night and visit with some friends.

On Sunday night, Isaac and I cooked dinner at my parent's house. It was a great deal for us. My parents and sisters entertained the kids while Isaac grilled and I roasted. Cooking is much easier than toddler-duty in my recent opinion.

Another night we had some friends over for pizza. We picked up a couple of those take-n-bake style pizzas from the newish  Pizza Cafe place over by the McDonald's playplace. It was so good-- so good we were all eating seconds and thirds. Maybe even fourths.

During our days this past week, we spent hours playing with puzzles, lacing activities, drawing, dress up clothes, books, and all kinds of toys that encourage learning and play. All on this hard tile floor. I keep debating on whether I want to spend a chunk of money on a rug. It would be nicer on our knees and rears, but might make cleaning the floors more of a pain. Plus, I don't know what type to get. It would have to be extremely durable, yet semi-soft at the same time.

I like these pictures because they truly capture our typical day lately. Annette has changed clothes about 3 times already. And really thinks her outfit matches and looks great. I don't let her leave the house like this. Okay... I do sometimes. To Kroger or on a visit to grandma's. It's just not worth the battle every single outing.

Notice all that maker-messy-goodness? Evidence of a growing mind : )

Charlie is in that crazy-fast learning phase right now. He's putting all kinds of words together to make sentences. He can identify several shapes and can complete many puzzles on his own. He knows what the letter H says too. All before the ripe age of 2 : )

One last thing to document from this past week. Annette has been tough to parent lately, so, instead of documenting the many battles we have had this week, I am choosing to remember a couple of the non-troublesome things she did.

Lately, she has been my name tag helper. She knows who gets which one and is very proud of this well learned skill.

She has also learned to 'read' some labels around the house. Glad that Isaac doesn't mind that our house looks a little more like a pre-school every day.

And that's a week's worth.

Watching the Wedding Video

The other day, we were about to head home from my mom's house. Annette does not like leaving her Granny or Rah-Rah's house, so I usually think of a good fun reason why it will be fun to get home.

Examples: Daddy will be home! We can make supper together! You can finish those cheetos (you can see why she likes her grandparent's houses:) in the car!

This time I thought.... I'll look in my mom's video closet for a new DVD to watch in our car on the way home. That should get Annette excited about our very familiar 30 minute drive home. As I was looking through the huge dusty stacks of VHS tapes and the smaller stack of DVD's , I realized that many of us don't have that many DVD's anymore. At least not cartoon ones. (We can thank OnDemand, Apple TV, redbox, and Netflix for that.) And too bad my car doesn't do VHS tapes b/c there were plenty of options there.

Among Forces of Nature and Air Force One, I found a DVD labeled "Morgan and Isaac Wedding". Hmmm. I bet Annette would like this I thought.

Sure enough, I popped that thing in the car DVD player and Annette was glued. Listening to it play in the backseat was weird for me. I hadn't watched it since our first anniversary 4 years ago. I forgot about so many of the details from the wedding. Things I liked, and things I would SO do differently if I had the ceremony or reception to do over again. But Annette wasn't as critical as me. She loved every second of it. I guess it would be kind of magical to watch your parents get married. At age 3 anyways, when you are super into princesses and fairy tales.

Here are the sweet things Annette said while watching (for the first time) Mommy and Daddy getting married on video.  Answers/my responses at the bottom of post...


What is that thing on your head, Mommy?*
Y'all forgot to blow out the other candle!*
I am happy you are the wife, Mommy.
I am gonna get married when I'm a mommy.
What is that x on daddy's back?*
Why are you feeding Daddy the cake... he isn't a baby!
Daddy is helping the little boys and girls dance.
Why does Cha Cha (aunt rachael) have on pretty earrings?
What are they throwing at you?*
Where are yall going in that car?*
I want a bride dress!!!
I want to marry Daddy:)


Priceless moment for sure. I had to document her sayings so I could hang on to this precious little moment.

Annette would choose to watch that video over and over again.  I, on the other hand, am sick of listening to my own voice and thinking about every detail of that big day.  So we negotiated to rotate it in with the other faves... Letter Factory and Caillou. Be jealous of our car rides:) Ha!

my little dreamer

*veil, unity candle, suspenders, rose petals, the Peabody

LowKey is oKie doKie

We have had a fairly low key start to the new year. And that is more than okie dokie with me.

Instead of having our usual schedule full of outings, we have had a lot more 'in'-ings the last week or two.

Proud of herself for writing her name on her new magnadoodle. 

Painting on our back patio. Barefoot. And in whatever clothes that were on top of the piles of laundry covering my floors. I JUST now got caught up on all our laundry since the holidays. And nope, I have not even taken one ornament off of our tree yet. I mean, why complete boring tasks like fold clothes or sort ornaments when there is important painting to be done. : )

 However, I must get that tree down soon. It's my goal for Sunday. There. I put it in writing, so maybe I'll hold myself to it.

She won't take her dancing stuff off for more than a couple of hours. 

Their new favorite outdoor toys. Dollar tree shovels and rakes that were in their stockings. 

It is WONDERFUL watching them become little friends. They can play together without me having to play referee as often (meaning every 2 minutes or so compared to every 2 seconds or so). Can't imagine how nice it will be to have these built-in-playmates a year from now. Hopefully even less refereeing. 

New day. Same tutu.

Making our T book from magazine pictures. 

I see a table.

I see a telephone.

I see a tiara.

I see a tutu.

See more of our homemade books towards the bottom of this earlier post. She learns so much while making them.

Poor thing. Annette's makeover victim.

She put eye shadow in Charlie's ear, I later discovered. He didn't even care. He is one SWEET, easy going boy.

Two peas in a pod.

Or two peas in a box....

L. O. V. E. 

THEM.