Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Hattiesburg again this year.  As much of a pain it is to drive 18 hours in the car with the girls it is really nice to spend Thanksgiving with family (especially when you get to eat Papaw's fried turkey!).

Thursday was a fun day with lots of family and food.  It was so nice outside so all the kids got to get their energy out playing wiffle ball and with play-doh on the patio. 

I do not participate in any Black Friday shopping unless it is online, so Friday, as well as Saturday, were pretty relaxed days.  We just stayed at Papaw's house and visited with him and let the kids play.  I am so thankful we were able to spend that time with Papaw.  I loved seeing Shelby and Joey just randomly walk up to Papaw and give him a hug, or just crawl up in his lap and snuggle.

We left EARLY this morning, which I am also thankful for.  We got back early this afternoon so we had time to clean up, let the kids run around and get energy out, and just re-group for the coming week.  I love this time of year. Lots of activities going on, but all so fun!

Pre-K Thanksgiving Feast

Today was Shelby's Thanksgiving feast at school.  It was so cute to see Shelby with her friends.  They sang a cute song for the parents and then we got to sit with the kids and feast on some yummy food.  The funniest part of the whole thing was when one of the dads saw Shelby's shirt (it had her name on it), and he said to his wife, "Oh that's Shelby!  That's Jorrin's girlfriend!".  I laughed so hard.  I told Jorrin's parents how we have been teasing Shelby that Jorrin is her boyfriend (because she talks about him all the time) and how she gets so embarrassed about it.  Turns out he talks about her all the time too.  In fact, his mom is the room parent and she came over to show me a picture she took of the two of them...holding hands.  It is actually pretty cute, but what?!  I had a talk with her later this afternoon and I told her it was ok to like boys (at which point she threw her arms around me and said, "Thanks, Mom!") but that she shouldn't kiss them yet.  She said, "I know.  But when I'm married I can."  I don't want to scold her and tease her about it to the point that she doesn't want to be friends with any boys, so I'll just let it go.  Besides, they won't be at the same school next year.

Jorrin is the kid with the glasses in the left corner.

Shelby looks like she's wearing falsies.  I think she is batting her eyes at Jorrin. :)

3EB

When Jeremy and I were seniors in high school we got tickets to see Third Eye Blind.  Sadly, just before the concert we were informed it had been cancelled.  It was such a bummer.  We were really looking forward to it.

Fast forward 11 years...Jeremy found out 3EB would be playing at the Festival at the Switchyard in Carrollton...and it would be free.  Sweet!  A friend of ours was kind enough to come and watch tv while the girls slept so we could sneak out and go to the show.  We met up with one of Jeremy's (old) coworkers (who saved us a pretty good spot up near the front of the stage) and had a great time.  Well worth the 11 year wait!

As a side note, as we were driving home from the concert there was an earthquake.  I think it was like a 5.6 or something- the epicenter was about 45 mile ENE of OKC.  Of course we didn't feel anything because we were driving, but our friend who was sitting for us said it felt like someone was violently shaking the couch.  Obviously everyone was fine, and there was no damage (that we know of- I am still convinced our house was built on a sinkhole and will collapse any day now), but I am really bothered by the fact that we weren't with the girls when it happened.  What if it had been worse?  I am so paranoid anyway about leaving them, and then that kind of just confirmed my fears.  Ahhh!  Maybe I am still slightly traumatized by watching the crazy mom trying to get home to her kids woman trying to drive her car over the huge hole in the Bay Bridge after the '89 earthquake over and over and over again.

Halloween Wrap

I guess it's about time to wrap up October.  Earlier in the month we had some friends over for a little Halloween fun.  The kids painted pumpkins, painted googly-eyed glow-in-the-dark bats, had mummy dogs, and played dress up.  So fun to have good friends with kids that love to play together. 

Yeah, I look terrible.  I was super busy with work all day, then rushed around like a mad woman doing last minute clean-up and dinner prep, so no time for hair or makeup.  Just had to put that disclaimer in there.

Joey loves Jaz!



Boots!  He's my bestest little bud in nursery.

 Halloween night was pretty low key.  We met up with some of our friends from the neighborhood and went trick-or-treating.  Joey was just way too slow and was holding up all of the bigger kids, so after one street I dropped her back off to Jeremy and she helped him pass out candy to the invaders.  (Ummm...I say invaders because we literally had kids invading our house.  Jeremy was sitting on the couch.  There was no knock, no doorbell...nothing.  All of a sudden these kids just opened our door and started running in yelling, "Trick or treat!".  What the heck?!) 

I LOVE Joey's tail.

I look so much like my brother in this pic.  I love Joey's face and Shelby's red Ariel hair.

The funny thing about Shelby's costume: when Jeremy got her dressed for the ward trunk or treat he totally had the bottom layer of the skirt tucked in (on accident) so only the tulle showed.  I commented and said, "Good thing we planned on her wearing her leotard under that, there's no skirt!".  That should have clued me in to check it but I was in a rush that night.  When I got her dressed Halloween night I realized what happened.  Much more modest this time!

Also, I need to make another disclaimer.  I did not take any of these pictures.  Luckily enough, Julie, one of my good friends who lives just down the street from me, just happens to be a photographer.  I totally stole all of these pictures from her.  You know I am terrible with a camera (despite how much I would love to be able to take a decent picture).  So thank you, Julie, for documenting all of our October!

Scooby Dooby Doo

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Jeremy is playing hooky from Scouts and is at the FC Dallas playoff game.  Joey didn't take a nap today and put herself to bed at 6:50.  Shelby was worn out from school and went right to sleep.  It's 7:28 pm and it's ME time (aka blog then clean the house). 

Shelby has been cracking me up lately.  She is such a sponge and absorbs everything she hears.  We are at the stage where you can no longer say things in front of her and not worry about it because she either won't know what you are talking about or she'll forget in five seconds.  No...this girl is smart- puts the pieces together.  And she has the memory of an elephant.  She will talk about random moments in time- things I had forgotten about, that happened a long time ago. 

The funniest things she has been talking about lately though are the things she learns at school.  I love to hear her singing the songs that they are learning.  Tonight at dinner she got up from her chair, stuck her booty in my face and said, "This muscle is the gluteus maximus."  Then she pointed to her stomach and said, "Your tummy muscles are your abs.  We learned it in Fit and Fun." 

I am also very proud of her learning.  She can write her name and knows all her letters and numbers.  They started Hooked on Phonics at school about 2 weeks ago and I feel like it has already made a difference.  I know they are only sounding out basic things like "at", "cat", "sat", but I think she has an increased awareness of the words and a desire to read.  Before she would just have us read a book to her and she would look at the pictures.  Today she wanted us to say a few words then have her repeat them.  We read the entire book that way.  It took forever but I didn't mind.  I hope she loves to read.  I have been buying a bunch of books with each book order at school.  It is so much better than buying toys.  Actually, I think I want to get a little bookshelf for Shelby's room to put all the non-Joey books (paperbacks).  Maybe when Shelby learns how to read she will want to spend hours on her bed just reading and reading.  Wouldn't that be nice?!

I was am also very proud of Joey.  She is learning more and more words every day, and almost knows how to count to ten.  I start off saying "one", then she says "two", I say "three, four", then she says "five", etc.  It's really cute.  So she might not count each number, but she knows there is an order and remembers which sound comes next. 

Anyway, just wanted to jot down some things about the girls that I wanted to remember.

Fun Fact...

...about me: I get physically ill when I am nervous.