Christmas time is here!!!

Posing in their Christmas jumpers sent all the way from Mississippi........Thanks Grandmama and Granddaddy!!! We love them!!

Before Wyatt's office party.......

Rudy the Elf had been sneaking around our house since shortly after Thanksgiving.............

School is out.......shopping is mostly done........snow is on the ground.........and we are looking forward to a cozy white Christmas in Ohio this year. We will be missing our families but I promise lots of video and pictures!!!

More to come.........next week.

Halloween Pictures

Julia was Ariel for Halloween this year and Maggie used a hand me down costume of Julia's and she was an "autumn witch"

They had so much fun trick-or-treating for the 45 min they could stand the cold. They got candy and knocked on doors and then came home to hand out candy at the house. They loved it and Maggie still asks to see the Halloween stuff every time we go to the store...........and I explain every time that it is now Christmas and time for Christmas decorations........

Catch up

That's what I am doing..........playing catch up with the blog!! Here we are in mid October at the pumpkin patch. It was a GREAT day the trees were in peak color and it was beautiful. We selected pumpkins for carving and took a hay ride around the woods.

Here are some pictures from G and G's visit. On the way home from "Amish Country" we stopped at the longest covered bridge in Ohio. We were able to walk across and take some pictures. It was really neat. The Amish buggies use it.

Julia and Grandaddy

Grandmama, Julia, Me, and Maggie.

The Longest covered bridge in Ohio



I am pleased to announce that Maggie is potty trained!! Once we started in hard core it took about 5 days and she has been doing great!! This is a major accomplishment in the "mom" department (and if you have done it before then you know this) so I just had to make a note of it!!

Also over the past 2 weeks Julia has made major strides in her reading!! We are so proud of how well she has done. It almost happened over night!! It is crazy how fast she is growing up. She LOVES school and only goes part-time so I am just amazed at how much and how fast they are learning in kindergarten.

it's been a while.......

Maggie did start preschool this year and she is loving it!! Here she is adjusting wonderfully on her 1st day. Her teacher is named Miss Larae and she loves going twice a week.
Grandmama and Granddaddy came for a visit in October and we had a GREAT time with them. We visited "Amish country" and they also got to go up to Julia's school and eat lunch with her and see her classroom.

This year is flying by and I cannot believe it is already November!! We will be have a small family Thanksgiving here in chilly Ohio. The winter is here. It arrived last week and will be here until at least April. Ahh the joys of living up north.......6 months of winter. Sorry for the delays in updates. I will have more pictures soon. I have a lot to catch up on.

It happened..........

my baby grew up to 5 and a half right before my very eyes. WOW where did the time go?? These are the thoughts that have consumed this mom's brain for the past few weeks. It seems like we have been building up to this all summer. We have had lots of chats and talking about kindergarten at our house. So much so, Maggie talks as if she is also going "with sissy" to kindergarten. And even though Julia has only gone to school for 3 days total so far it is still hard for Maggie when she leaves (mainly because Wyatt has dropped her off the past 2 times and it is very painful for Daddy AND sissy to leave together without her). She has been here with me this week but after the Labor day break she will be going to preschool on Mon and Wed mornings after we drop Julia at her school.

Julia is LOVING school. I need to video her when she gets dismissed at the back of the school. She is considered at "walker" because our neighborhood is right next to the school. The playground has a path leading to the back end of our subdivision. The walkers are dismissed all together at the back of the playground. Maggie and I meet her there after school is out. Depending on the weather and time sometimes we walk and sometimes we drive. To see her running full speed across the grass all the way to us is priceless so I need to capture it on video. Wyatt and I took her together on the first day and stayed for a parent meeting/breakfast that lasted an hour. Then we left. Left her there with 19 other 5 year olds and 1 teacher ( who is great but I feel soo sorry for because she is about to pop out her 1st baby in a few weeks). It was just very overwhelming to wrap my mind around the fact that it is already time to do this......... There were lots of teary mamas and I was one but I hid it well........

The rest of that day was really quiet around the house and I watched the clock all day so I could go pick her up and hear all about her day. She had a blast. She loves school just like we knew she would. She is still getting used to the schedule since kindergarten is a part time program in our district. She goes on Mondays,Wednesdays, and every other Friday. The school, from what we have seem so far is GREAT!! I feel like she is in very capable hands. I have already been to 3 meetings and will be volunteering to help out up there when I can. I am hoping Maggie and I can go up there one day next week and eat lunch with her. Maggie gets out of school at noon and Julia does not eat lunch until 1pm (but they have morning snack). I would love to see her in action with all her new friends.

So next week I will have 6 hours of "free" time on my hands for the first time since Maggie was born. I need to start making a list.........

Summer Outings

We made it to the VERY last day of the fair this year!!! It was lots of fun!! The girls road some kiddie rides, saw, feed, and petted animals, and ate fair food!!

I braved the BIG slide with both girls...........it was a hike up all those stairs too and again Julia shocked us and went down it without a fight......but not without a push to get her started on her burlap sack.........
Here we are coming down....... (if you click on any of the pics they should become bigger and you can see us better especially on this slide picture from far away)

Feeding the goats.......we also saw a white curly haired baby camel, baby miniature horse, goats, deer, and a zebra......

These HUGE pumpkins were on display.....

Julia and Daddy rode the Ferris wheel (it surprised us all that Julia even got on this thing)

Riding in the bus headed to the Irish Festival......


Maggie did LOTS of sliding and bouncing.......

Julia and Daddy waited in a LONG line so she could try this trampoline bouncing attraction.......

We still have a few days left of summer next week and I hope to get some pics of the girls at the pool. Both girls have come a LONG way since the beginning of the summer as far as the water is concerned. Julia is swimming underwater, wearing goggles, doggie paddling, jumping off the side and just loving the water. She almost always makes a friend at the pool every time we go. Yesterday 3 different girls came up to her that she had played with at some point this summer and asked her to play.......(there are a few boys in the mix too). I am so glad that we decided to join the pool it has been a great summer. Maggie has gotten alot better in the water too. She is going under some on her own. She calls it swimming. She kicks, blows bubbles, ect... I can just tell she is alot more comfortable in the water then she was at the beginning of the summer.

We will be enjoying our last weekend of summer before school starts..........

Enjoy....

Summer Fun!!

This was the view from our deck one night last week!!
Our trip to Memphis was extra FUN this summer because Elizabeth, Jeremy, and Libby were living with Mimi and Pop for the summer!!!

we made a stop in Dundee, Ms to visit Jana and Julian.....

played in the sand pile at Mimi and Pop's

Elizabeth and I made this birthday cake for Libby's 2nd celebration.......

lamb feet, pig feet, and chicken feet slippers were worn my these cuties!!

maggie, mimi, and julia

We have also been spending ALOT of time at the pool. It has really been a fun summer and I am sad it is all ending next week.......1st day of Kindergarten in next Wed. Julia is sooo pumped up. She simple cannot wait!!

Sorry for the delay in updates......we have been on the go.........I have some more pics from our outings to the Irish Festival and the Ohio State Fair coming soon......

Happy Birthday Grandaddy!!

The girls are still talking about all the fun they had during their week with ya'll!!!

Miss ya'll and love ya'll!! Have a great weekend!!!

Vacation!!

We are back from our vacation!! We all had soo much fun this past week in Hattiesburg and Destin. The girls went on vacation to Grandmama and Granddaddy's house and Wyatt and I enjoyed an adult vacation with friends in Destin.

Julia was jumping off the side with out floaties by the time we got back.


Her newest trick "jumping over Daddy"

Moo hanging out on the steps

Julia discovered she could hold me in the water.

My baby is growing up......

Me and my girls!!

Our little jumper.

Sweet

I think she missed him....

dancing poolside

Dysin with the shark goggles on......what a cutie!!

After a week at G and G's house she LOVES swimming!!

A BIG thank you to G and G and all the rest of the family that helped out this past week while our girls were there. The girls had the time of their lives and did not want to leave!! Knowing that they were having a blast and being well taken care of made it easier to leave them and enjoy our trip. We had so much fun and can't thank you enough for keeping the girls!!

more pics to come......