A Trophy

Dear Abigail,

Today at gymnastics you received a trophy for being there over a year. Kate and I were there to watch you receive your award and we were ever so proud. However, I am pretty sure you were even prouder!!!!

Love you little monkey!

Testing and Dickens

Dear Abigail,

We had another great week of Christmas activities, along with some other 'activities'! Tuesday morning we met Aunt Steph (no, no Christopher yet...) and Ellie and Miss EP and Baby Grant at the library for story time. You did fantastic, sitting right in front, and participating in the exercises and songs. You did get mad at Ellie at one point because you told her you were coming over to her house and she said no you weren't. You came running up to me saying "Ellie said I'm not coming over to her house!!!" Ellie didn't know, but it's becoming a trend that when Ellie tells you something other than what you want to hear, you get VERY upset... We 'rented' a couple books and then we all went to Mellow Mushroom and ate yummy pizza. Ellie told you you didn't like carrots and you got very upset, again. We keep telling you it doesn't matter what Ellie says, but apparently you need her approval on all things :) After pizza, we did indeed go over to Ellie's house. Mommy let Aunt Steph run a few errands while Aunt Steph let Mommy and you kiddos destroy her home. Yeah, you think I'm kidding, right. You girls were your typical selves, but then it got quiet about the time I was feeding Kate. I could hear china 'clinging' together, so I assumed you were playing with the tea set. After a bit, I knew I had to check on y'all. To know one's surprise, you two were up to more than just pretend tea parties. You were transporting water from Ellie's bathroom to the playroom in any possible cup, teapot, random container you could find. And tried stuffing every one of them in the play kitchen oven and microwave. When I went to pull them out both of you jumped down my throat that I was ruining dinner. Yeah, that's the least of your worries. To say the least, water was everywhere and we had a lot of water to empty. There were also a few butterflies that WERE on the ceiling that were now scattered around the floor. Hmmmm... Apparently someone (or some two) climbed on TOP of the kitchen and pulled those out of the ceiling.... Thankfully, it was snack time so I knew exactly what you were doing, and then Aunt Steph came home! You two are something else. And this is only the beginning. It only gets better - just wait.

Thursday we went to gymnastics and you had some new gear to show off! Actually, Mommy thought it was your awards day, but it's next week, but you still looked cute in your new gear!! You were pretty pumped about wearing it too...

But not about me making you sit still so I could get a decent shot...

We went to gymnastics, ran a few errands afterwards, and headed home to make some candy for your teachers!

You and I do not work well together when it comes to baking/making sweets. Only because we both eat the goods CONSTANTLY!! And then we look at each other and laugh because we're both stuffing it in our mouth saying "Last one"!! Nonetheless, we have fun. And I'm pretty sure your sister did too :)

And somehow in the mist of us cooking all afternoon, I forgot to set anything out for dinner, so when Daddy got home from work we packed up and went to the nearest restaurant, which happened to be LongHorn Steakhouse. Now, this is so not the typical place Daddy and I would pick, but it's right beside out new temporary home, so we figured we'd give it a try. Believe it or not, and this is after we paid the tip, but our waiter guy told us you were one of the most well behaved kids he's seen in there. I had to document it. He also was super nice and brought you a smoothie, on the house! Oh, and you got to meet Mommy's favorite Accounting professor - probably any type of professor. As we were walking out, he held the door open for you and said "Well, isn't that a cute outfit." (talking about yours). About that time, I looked up and said "Dr. Towsend???". And it was. And he remembered me. And that's why he's my favorite.

You got a special surprise on Friday because Mimi picked you up from school!! That night we went to Mexican with Ellie and her folks and while I'd like to think it was uneventful, that's never the case for us. I looked up and your milk was spilling all over the place. After trying to clean you, the table and the carpet up a bit, I asked why did you bite your cup (it was a styrofoam cup) and you said "I just was taking a bite of my pretend taco." Oh, okay, got it. Next time, please wait for the real taco.

Saturday we grabbed lunch and headed to downtown Franklin for The Dicken's Christmas festival. It was a wee bit chilly, to say the least, but we were able to walk around and warm up a little.

And then we saw Santa... Your thoughts on him had clearly changed from last week...
You did not want anything to do with him. You also didn't want anything to do with Scrooge, but we insisted Pic-pic take his picture with his best friend :)

And of course, since Mimi was in town AND we were in downtown Franklin, there was no question that we'd be stopping by Cece's, despite the subzero temperatures. Now, seems all sweet and stuff right - wrong. We walk in, all excited to get ice cream, and guess who opens the door for us...

That's right, Santa Claus. And no, you did NOT want to sit in his lap, stand near him, even look at him. And of course, he sat right there in Cece's the whole time we were there. He got up at one point and scared you to death, but Mimi assured you he was just going to get him some ice cream of his own. We left and headed to run a few errands to pass some time and stopped by the local toy store. Well heck, guess who was there. Yeah, Santa. We saw him as we were parking, so I ran in real quick and politely asked him to please ignore the 3 year old who was about to walk in, in her Mimi's arms with her face hidden. He cooperated rather nicely, if I do say so myself. We had a little shopping to do in there so any time he saw you he'd turn the other way. You can always count on that Santa. By the time we left there, we were spent and could not handle any more Santas, so we headed home, and not shortly after, to bed!

Sunday Mimi and Pic-pic left early and you and Mommy headed out to a birthday party for Sanjana (from school) at Pump it Up. You had tons of fun and even shouted out "This is so much fun!!!" You burned lots and lots of energy and just in time because you fueled back up on pizza and birthday cake!

After the birthday party, we headed over to Ellie's house to let the 2 of you play, more importantly, let you play in somewhere other than the tiny duplex we are currently living in. Again, a later story on that... So off to Ellie's we went. She was supposed to be napping, but when we walked up the stairs she was hiding behind the door! She was ready for her Abby to get there! So off the 2 of you went to play. Aunt Steph and I were in the media room playing with Kate while the dad's were downstairs. Aunt Steph made a couple comments about how quiet you 2 were and I'd agree with her and I even thought/said, Lord I hope they are not into that water again. Well, no worries. Not water - nope. Instead it was paint. Lots of it. I walked in Ellie's bathroom and the 2 of you were on the counter COVERED in paint. You both had painted your hands, like took paint and put it all over your hands. And apparently decided to wash them because said paint was all over the sink and faucet. Oh, and the wall, and the door. i hollered down to Aunt Steph that I may be awhile and to just stay put and keep an eye on Kate. Well, all that did was trigger her to come straight to the bedroom. I was almost positive that was going to set her in to labor. And I hadn't even gone into the playroom yet. Oh the playroom - where you got the paint. You two decided the blue colored walls needed a little red paint on them. And apparently some pink chalk. Y'all painted all over the wall. And painted the carpet. And painted random pieces of food. Oh, and Ellie's Simba -apparently you needed to paint his toes. We freaked - all of us. BUT, after A LOT of scrubbing, a lot of carpet cleaner, a magic eraser, and lots and lots of soap and water, we think we got it all up. And Mommy and Aunt Steph were kicked off 'watching the girls' duty. BUT... shortly there after, Mommy and Aunt Steph were downstairs while the Dads were upstairs 'keeping an eye on you girls'. Daddy yells down "Hey, we need you up here, they're in the shower." I actually said "Whatever. I'm not coming up there." and his response was "I'm not kidding, get up here now." Yeah, so you and Ellie decided to take a shower. Both of you stripped down, minus your shirt because it buttoned in the back and you couldn't figure it out, and decided to take a shower in Ellie's bathroom, water and all. Yep, soaking wet, all your clothes. Ellie slipped and bumped her head, you had to wear a size smaller clothes, and we were done with y'all!!! UGH you girls!!!!! We thought it was odd the 2 of you weren't arguing over who's turn it was to hold Simba!!! After a long day, we headed home and headed to bed.

Monday was a normal day at school, and then today (Tuesday), you were home with Kate and me. We ran a few errands this morning, got your hair cut, and headed back home to make more candy/sweets for the holidays!

Yes, you are tugging her ear... And here's your precious new haircut...

And Kate needed a hair cut since you got one.

You loved styling her hair but I had to put a stop to it because you were getting mad at her for not looking down. You cut and styled Mommy's hair, too, while I was trying to type up this particular blog, but were gone for a few to many minutes. This is what I found...

Yes, you got into my mascara. But what's so 'funny' or maybe 'ironic', is that about an hour or so after THAT, I was cooking dinner and noticed you were awfully quiet. I came into the living room to see you with the big, black permanent marker behind the couch. One glance back there and I knew we lost our rental deposit.

At first glance, not too bad, nothing a magic eraser won't take away, right...

Oh no, on the couch, that isn't ours, that is included in the furnished place we're renting...

Oh wait, what? You wrote all over the glass table that sits behind the couch. Hmmmm. This isn't looking good.
And then I looked behind the couch.
Yes, that's an "A". A mighty good looking "A" I might add. But that's not what I was thinking when I first saw it. Nope, not what I was thinking at all. Or saying for that matter. I'm pretty sure you had never seen your Mommy so mad. You went straight to time out with a lot of yelling included. You knew you were in trouble because you just curled up in a ball and cried. I freaked and knew when your Daddy got home that he was going to freak too. Permanent marker. Black. On a white couch. That's not ours. UGH. Thank goodness (well, we'll see...) for Facebook. I was able to ask other parents of children who have no control over where they write how to get rid of it and after toothpaste, Off bug spray, hairspray, rubbing alcohol, Vodka, and a Magic eraser, we are STILL trying to get that "A" off the back of that couch. It's 10:27, and we've been at it since about 6, and, well, nothing is getting it off. We also had to open our windows because the fumes were getting to us! Anyway, I'm not mad - no, I am mad. I'm mad at you for getting the marker when we just talked about how that marker is not for you to play with, but I'm more mad at me for leaving that darn marker out. What was I thinking. I knew you wanted it, and that it would tempt you. Oh well, at the end of the day it's a couch. Although the deposit we're going to lose would totally buy us a new couch for our new house...

Girly, you are totally testing me and my patience lately. I cannot take my eyes off you for any period of time, but we're also crammed in this tiny place with nothing to do but get into all the bad things!! I love love love you, but Sunday cannot come soon enough (that's the day we leave for Mimi's!!!!). Love you baby girl. I really do. And that really was a good looking "A."

It's Christmas Time!!!!

Dear Abigail,

Guess what time of year it is???!!! That's right - Christmas!!!! We love some Christmas, you included. You are really getting into it this year. Last year you loved getting the presents, but this year you really get all the other fun stuff involved, like decorating and singing Christmas carols, and you LOVE you some Pinky, our elf, who every night magically flies to the North Pole to tell Santa what your behavior was for that day. You do NOT love it when I remind you that Pinky is watching, and listening, and will totally tell Santa when you are not a good listener... But overall, I'm pretty sure Pinky has been giving good reports. And I didn't even realized you knew so many Christmas carols. You are loving Jingle Bells, specifically the "HEY" part, which you are able to reach a whole new level of loudness :) And you love singing "My Two Front Teeth" but always ask "Why does he want his two front teeth for Christmas???". I tell you so he can eat carrots. You seem to accept that.

So, this past week, we got things fired up for the holiday season. Last Wednesday (after a VERY stressful move on Monday and Tuesday), we got all the decorations out that we had and got to work on our tree. Now, I know I haven't mentioned the move too much, or well, the details of it, and there is a reason (it's stresses Mommy out!), but you know we moved, and with that move came hardly any decorations (it's all in storage until we move in the new house). So, we were a little limited on our decorations this year - BUT, good news is we made the best of it. I got you and your sister in your matching Christmas pajamas, turned on some Christmas music, and we got to work!

You are starting to stick your tongue out a lot. I have let Pinky know about this, just in case she didn't see it...

You were being so silly with taking pictures that I had to show you how to smile. This is what I got in return...

I'm pretty sure I got what I asked for... So we got to work on our little tree and you helped hang up all the ornaments.

And about 10 minutes later, we were done!

I know it's not much, but all the ornaments on that tree had a special meaning. We started collecting ornaments from trips or just fun times we have over the year. Two beach trips and a trip to the aquarium included! So see, it may not be much, but it has meaning behind it! And doesn't your stocking look just perfect beside your sisters!!! So sweet...

We've been super busy with the short term move but managed to fit a play date with Jacob and Anna Porter. Thursday after your gymnastics we headed over to their house to get a little play time in. Anna is getting to be such a big girl now and loves her some baby Kate and you and Jacob, well, you played together, but you have a bad case of the tattles and let us know EVERY time Jacob did anything wrong! But you did some good playing time and Miss Kristin even set up a cookie decorating station! You and Jacob both went crazy on the sprinkles!!! So after lots of fun (and a huge mess in the kitchen for Miss Kristin to clean up) we headed to Memphis - yes,I know I said we were busy, but we had to get your little sister's 3 month pictures and a Christmas card picture with both of you. Fortunately Mr. Phil is really good and has a few more fancy skills with picture taking than your momma!!! We ate Mexican Saturday night with the entire family - like 17 of us (yes, insane) and then Saturday morning we headed back to town because our little town of Franklin had it's Christmas parade! We met Ellie and Aunt Steph and Miss Leigh and Ryan (Mr. Lee and Jake were somewhere further down because they had trouble parking and the parade started before they could get to us!!!). We got our typical spot beside CeCe's and got there in plenty of time to get our starbucks, like we do every year. You girlies looked so cute in your matching Christmas tree outfits and I came so close to getting a picture of the 2 of you smiling at the same time...

But that cute shirt got in the way!!!!! As expected, you needed to be held the entire parade. I knew it would happen as I watched the extremely large reindeer man lead the parade. Eventually my arm gave out (and your sister had to use the restroom, to put it nicely) so I handed you over to Daddy. He held you for a bit, but somehow convinced you to sit in the stroller beside Ellie! I was impressed, and I know Daddy's arm was relieved... I'm also pretty sure you and Ellie were getting mad about the lack of candy you were receiving. To the parade's defense, you 2 would NOT get out of your seats to go get any of that candy, so therefore, you did not get much at all...

And poor Ryan did not nap that day. Now that's not an issue for you, or really for Ellie either, but Ryan loves his nap time, and typically it's a pretty long one (Mommy and Aunt Steph are super envious!). Poor guy did not want to be at the parade and even asked to go home multiple times! But...soon enough the parade was over and after the parade, we headed over to Ryan's house to hang out for the rest of the afternoon/evening. You two played and played and played and destroyed both the upstairs and the downstairs, which we did clean the downstairs but now that I think about it, I don't think we straightened up the upstairs... sorry Miss Leigh :) We ate some pizza and decided the bed was the best place for both you and Ryan after that long day!

So, Sunday morning we got up and started getting VERY spifted up because we were going to see Santa Claus! Believe it or not, you were super excited about this. We talked and talked about how Sister would sit in his lap and you would stand beside him only. You made it very clear that there was no need for you to sit in his lap. But you were very eager to tell him what you wanted for Christmas and to talk to him about Pinky. We sang Christmas carols the whole way to see him and you were SO excited when you spotted him. We waited a little bit in line and then it was our turn. Of course, Daddy had to hold you, but, to our surprise, you did indeed stand right beside him!!!!

Now, it didn't last long at all, and I wasn't able to get a better picture, but when I went to get you sister from his arms I asked if you told him what you wanted for Christmas and Santa looked at me and said "Yes she did. She said she wanted Simba!" HA! I couldn't believe it. You did tell him what you wanted!!! I was so proud of you. No tears, and you even talked to him. You are getting to be such a big, brave girl. I sure hope you get that Simba for Christmas!! After visiting Santa, we ventured over to the carousel where you and Mommy took a little spin!

And then we headed over to Opryland Hotel where we walked all around and looked at the beautiful lights and decorations everywhere. It was so nice and we had such a good time. We had perfect timing, with coming on a Sunday when everyone was checking out, so we had no trouble wondering through the hotel with the double stroller or with letting you run on your own. We walked through shops and looked at the river...

and hugged huge horse things...
And just enjoyed being in this beautiful place with the four of us...

We headed to this sports bar place to eat lunch (so Daddy could at least watch some of the Titans game - yes, I'm nice like that) but when we got there I was a little concerned it wasn't a place for a 3 year old and a 2 month old. I also was pretty positive we took a traveling machine to Vegas! It was super nice with TVs everywhere and super swanky, but the hostess assured me it was fine for you, and when she handed me a coloring page and crayons, I knew we were safe. And it was Sunday and completely empty, so perfect!!! We had a lot of fun watching the game on all 300 TVs and you had fun tap dancing in the bathroom. See, you had your black shoes on, which you call your tap dancing shoes (I'm pretty sure from Elmo) and in the bathroom the whole wall was covered for what seemed like forever with mirrors, so you tapped and tapped and tapped your way down the bathroom. I just told Mimi that I didn't think dance would be your thing, but I may stand corrected!!! After we ate our lunch, you and I headed out to walk around while Daddy fed Kate (and watched a little more of the game, of course). We walked all around looking at all the hot air balloons and the crazy animals playing instruments while flying through the sky. Mommy even ran into someone she went to high school with! You were too involved in eating the candy cane one of the hotel peeps gave you. And some how you found mud to fall into. But after awhile, we were ready for a little dessert and low and behold, there was an ice cream place. You were POSITIVE you wanted chocolate - so, we got chocolate!

Soon enough we headed back to get Daddy and Kate and headed home. It was a beautiful and fun way to start our holiday season. Can't wait for the many, many more activities we'll do this year! Love you brave girl! Can't wait for Santa to come visit you either!!!