Playing catch up

WARNING: Longest blog post ever. Be prepared to stay a while if you want to make it to the end.

It's been a crazy few weeks. We've had a lot going on, but it's been fun! I guess I should start with Thanksgiving. Payton had a Thanksgiving lunch at school. She was so excited to sing her fun songs... until that day. Let's just say that she wasn't fond of the Indian attire. She refused to sing, wave, or smile until it came off. She was insistent that girls were not Indians. I guess we need to watch Pocahontas?? After they sang their songs she asked if she could take it off to eat and then she was just fine. Go figure! Anyways, I was able to sneak away to go see her, I only wish she would have participated more.

 We had Thanksgiving at Bamama's house and it was wonderful! We are so thankful that she was able to host and that she is feeling fairly good.

Of course Harper enjoyed a Thanksgiving feast. I'm not sure Payton ate a single thing there. Maybe a tiny piece of turkey. 

We had Thanksgiving with Jonathan's family on Friday. Of course the kids had fun!

By the way, who doesn't live Publix? Our girls think it is fabulous because they have these fun carts. It's the little things in life I tell ya.

Payton was recognized at chapel in November for displaying the fruit of the spirit for the month: kindness. That sure does make a momma and daddy proud! I have always said that above all, I hope that our children have a kind heart. What a sweet moment.

Kisses to sister through the gate at the playground before she left.

Since after Thanksgiving we have been in full Christmas spirit. Jingles the Elf came back to visit us, Payton has loved taking the number off of her advent calendar each day, and we have been finding any fun family event possible to attend. Even Harper likes to giggle and point to Jingles saying "Jing!" The following weekend mom and I took the kids to Monkey Park to ride the Reindeer Express, play, and explore.

 

The next morning we got to watch the Opelika Christmas Parade. Both girls loved it!

I say this all the time, but these sisters are SO sweet to one another. This December weather has been a little crazy. It was nearly 75 degrees on this day. We were sweating in our long sleeves and sweatshirts.

That Sunday we get a Christmas tree and decorated. Both of the girls loved helping place the ornaments on the tree. Just like last year, we had a very concentrated area with ornaments front and center. Love it!

 

We celebrated this little man's 1st birthday! It's crazy to think that he is already one.

 

The first week in December Payton had a Winter Spectacular at gymnastics. It was a very informal event where we could go in the gym and let her show off her skills. She was such a big girl and loved receiving her ribbons!

This past Friday we went to Christmas in a Railroad Town in downtown Opelika. We had such a great time, and were so excited to have family join us! We did manage a Santa picture. Harper was crying, but that was inevitable. Payton acted like such a big girl and told Santa that she just wanted a baby doll because she already has so many toys. After Santa she wanted to ride the ponies, and as you can see by her face, she absolutely loved it. When we left we rode through the Victorian front porches and both girls were in awe of all of the decorations.

Last Saturday night we went to the Malone's for some Christmas fun! The big girls made gingerbread houses and the little girls (or maybe just Abby) had gingerbread men. Payton and Ava were such big girls with the houses and were very meticulous where they put their candies. Payton was so proud of her finished product.

Don't you love their clips? As you can tell these girls had so much fun together. Harper and Abby liked hanging out together also! It's an easy fit since both sets of girls are close in age. Thank you so much for having us over Malone family!

Harper just wanted to eat skittles, puffs, and a little pizza. She wouldn't even touch the icing.

I'm impressed if you are still reading. I'm still not caught up, but I am MUCH closer than I was before this post.

Sisters

These sisters like to take care of babies together, play hair dresser, and big sister likes to show little sister what she should ask for from Santa while shopping in Sam's. These moments are priceless.

Autumn Nights

We headed to autumn nights Friday evening. We met some fun friends to see the cheerleaders, Aubie, and the band. The girls had a blast and we got a good view of everything. Even though Aubie tried several times to play with them, they weren't quite ready to interact. It was much more fun to watch him from far away.

Date Night

Jonathan got to take his girl out for a date night last night. Payton. You didn't think it was me did you? We have long forgotten what a date night entails. He ended up with two tickets to the game. Since we had somewhere to go Friday night, I wasn't crazy about leaving them for another night. We decided to ask Payton if she wanted to go instead and she quickly said yes! The tickets were in the Beckwith Club so the availability of all the ice cream, popcorn, and sprite may or may not have swayed her decision. We quickly got her dressed and they were on their way. Jonathan said she was the life of the party up there cheering, dancing and yelling "war eagle!" They even came home with a box of goodies from the sweet ladies. They sent her home with the tiger balloon center piece, the huge mylar tiger balloon (for her sister), shakers, a to go plate, etc. I think they both had a blast! In the fourth quarter they walked all the way around to see Nana and Pop. I guess it's a good thing she was oblivious to the fact that the game was atrocious! Harper and I enjoyed some good quality time together also. After running some errands, we came home and read books without any interruptions. That's impossible to do when sister is around. After her bedtime I graded papers and did my best not to pay attention to the game. All in all, I think everyone had a great night and we were reminded how important it is to spend time with each child individually.

Halloween Festivities

Payton had Trunk-or-Treat at her school that morning. With the help of a lot of family, they pulled off a princess trunk and did a great job if I might add. I didn't sneak away from work since Payton had plenty of people there to be with her, but I think they all had a blast. Thank you so much to everyone who helped put it together!

See what I mean? Payton had plenty of people to make her feel special. On top of that, Lyndsey, Breckyn and Dwayne were also there and I didn't have a picture of them. Major props to Dwayne for the pumpkin painting!

We continued our Halloween tradition of eating chili dogs at Vicki and Grady's and trick-or-teating in their neighborhood. This is the best picture I could get of the two girls together. 

All ready to go! FYI-The orange on her face is from a stamp that morning.

The big kids. Yes, we had three Cinderella's. Totally not planned, but they loved it! It was decided that Payton would be Cinderella after our visit to Disney in May when she got the dress. Harper was a little lady bug after Nana found this precious outfit on sale last year. I thought  it was very fitting since we call her our Harper Bug all the time.

This is how the little ones chose to partake in the festivities. That is a glow stick in Harper's mouth, don't judge- I promise we kept checking to make sure that it wasn't punctured and leaking in her mouth.

Call us terrible...but when we tried to get Harper out to go to a door she didn't seem interested at all. In fact she turned around and tried to get back in her stroller. She was perfectly content watching all the craziness around her, she just wasn't so interested at all to go to a door. Therefore, we let her stay put. A happy baby means a happy mommy and daddy. I'm sure she'll be more into next year.

We hit about 10 houses and decided they had plenty of candy. We made our way back to Grady and Vicki's to bust the pinata.

Harper thought climbing the steps and climbing up on the chair was much more exciting than trick-or-treating.

Taking a swing at the pinata.

Harper loves having Colton to play with. She's not used to someone more her size.

Afterwards we made our last stop at Trippi and Lisa's and Payton helped herself to hand fulls of candy with the permission of Trippi :)