I was the parent helper in Abby's Starfish class today. She was so excited and kept asking me when we could leave for school. Mckenzie was not so excited because she didn't get to come with today. Scott was home and wanted to spend a little time with Mckenzie. It was a great time. I just love being in the classroom with Abby. I get to see another side of her and it makes me appreciate her even more. She is so eager to learn and loves to answer questions (doesn't always get them right) and she loves to help her little friends. When Abby's teacher asked what month it was, Abby answered "It's October, no it's November." Well this one little boy started criticizing her for saying the wrong month. Abby looked so sad and I felt bad for her. I was thankful I could be there for her. I hope my kids never act like that. Class was fun, but over too quickly. Abby headed off to her lunch bunch and I headed home. Mckenzie and Scott had a good time playing and Scott reported that Mckenzie got her colors right today! I am so happy for her. After Abby finished school, Scott and I took the girls to get haircuts. Abby jumped right in the little red car to get her haircut and sat quietly the whole time. Mckenzie was a little shy and I was worried she wasn't going to sit in the chair without a fit, but a couple of fruit snacks and me standing right next to her helped us get through the quick cut. We ran a couple of errands before heading home.

I think an appropriate title for this is "DEER CAUGHT IN HEADLIGHTS!"

BTW, I am so proud of Mckenzie. She woke up one time last night to use the potty and then woke up dry again this morning! I hope this is a trend that continues and I never have to buy diapers again!                                



All I have to say is that sleeping in that king bed was like heaven! We both just love it and when Abby came over this morning, there was plenty of room for her to snuggle in with us for a little bit. Scott was home all day because he was sitting alert for work. I love having him home during the week. Mckenzie's dresser was delivered today. It looks great in her room! Scott and the girls went to pick up the new headboard and rails for our bed. Much cheaper to pick it up since we have the truck and it wasn't too heavy to haul upstairs. Scott even had time to get the bed put together and new curtain rods up. The rods the owners left were uneven and falling down made the room look like garbage. It is nice to see the curtains hanging evenly now. The whole room feels like an oasis to me now. I am very happy with it! The girls had so much fun playing in the boxes the furniture came in. One box was their house and one was school. Mckenzie was playing the mom and Abby was playing the child. It always amuses when when they play that way because Abby is constantly telling Mckenzie how to be the mommy and Mckenzie is always sending Abby to time out! Mckenzie found a permanent marker today, but luckily, she managed to keep it on her paper and on her fingers. I took a chance and threw the cushion covers for the couch into the washing machine today. I'm not sure I was supposed to do that, but after milk got spilled on the cushion, I had little choice. Either I washed the cushion and ruined it or left it and had to deal with the smell of old milk. I lucked out and after washing all the covers, the couch looks almost new again. I am so happy for that! The girls had gymnastics this evening and Scott came along since he was home. He went out on the floor with Mckenzie and I got to sit back and watch the girls. It was a lot of fun and I had the chance to see how much Abby has learned. Mckenzie is a hoot with her panties sticking out of her leotard and shouting 'hey mom' a few times during her lesson. We went to dinner tonight and it was really good until Abby just turned and started crying that she wanted to go home. It was so strange. She was sitting there having a good time and then she was crying. Not sure what that was all about. Happened a couple of other times today too. Is that normal behavior for an almost 5 year old? Guess I will have to read up on that. They are both in bed for the night. Mckenzie is in big girl panties again. Let's hope I don't have to change the sheets in the middle of the night!

Mismatched shoes again today!

Another Monday. They seem to come around all too often! Abby asked me to pick out her clothes today and her only complaint was my choice of shoes. I guess her decision to wear one silver sparkly shoe and one black sparkly shoe was a much better choice for her than my idea of matching shoes! So she went to school in mismatched shoes. I was surprised how many of the other moms noticed her shoes. One mom even worried that it was mismatch day and her daughter wasn't dressed for it! After dropping Abby off, Mckenzie and I came back home to await the arrival of our new king bed. After seeing how heavy the bed was, I am so glad that we paid for delivery instead of picking it up ourselves! After I got it set up, Mckenzie and I laid down to check it out. The bed must be super comfortable because Mckenzie was fast asleep within minutes and slept for over an hour! It was the perfect day for a nap too. The wind was howling and it was cold out there. Abby had a great day at school and was so excited to show me the bat cave she made. It was so cute how she described how she made it and how it took so long to do it. Apparently the kids started working on it last week and finished it today. She was so proud of her work. She even showed Scott the workings of it when he got home from work.

I spent most of the day shopping. I needed to find bedding for our new bed that is going to be delivered tomorrow as well as curtains to match and then grocery shopping to top it off. I am so thankful Scott stayed home with the girls so I could get the shopping done faster. I found most of what we needed. Scott and the girls ran to Lowe's while I was out to get some sandpaper so we can get to work on Mckenzie's bed. He also replaced the closet doors in Abby's room with purple beads. It looks so good and she really likes it. Now I don't have to worry the doors are going to fall onto one of the girls. We were all playing in the family room and Scott was tickling Mckenzie. Abby came over to snuggle with me so I started tickling her. She looked at me and said "Mom, you're not the tickler, you're the cuddler!" During story time tonight, Mckenzie kept saying "bird, one eye." over and over and then she went downstairs. When she came back upstairs, she had a color crayon and opened up her book to the page with a bird on it and started coloring another eye on the bird. I guess she wanted to see both eyes of the bird! Mckenzie refused to put a diaper on for bedtime tonight so I guess we are being forced into night time potty training. It has been a long time since she has had an accident so I guess it is time we started focusing on the nights. I just hope I don't have to change the sheets too many times tonight!

I could not get a photo of her with her eyes open today!

Today was a long day. We finally decided to go shopping for a new bed for us and a dresser for Mckenzie. We left the house around 11:30 and didn't get back until after 7pm. I didn't think buying a couple of pieces of furniture could be so tiring, but with two little girls in tow, it was. The girls were troopers though and behaved pretty good in the stores. We took the girls to Chick fil A for lunch and let them play for a little before continuing on the hunt for the perfect bed. Mckenzie was so tired and fell asleep in my arms. She didn't even wake up when I put her in her car seat! Abby had fun testing out the beds. We finally found everything we needed (at three different stores of course) and it will all be delivered this week! I am so excited to finally have a king sized bed. Maybe now it won't be so crowded when one of the little ones joins us in the middle of the night! I am also very excited to be making progress on Mckenzie's big girl room. Now that we have chosen a dresser, we can work on painting the bed we already have for her. It is a little sad that very shortly we will no longer have a need for baby furniture in this house :( I haven't decided if I want to store it or sell it.

I didn't fall asleep until after 2am (Laurie, I will have to send you the book I was reading) and Abby was up at the crack of dawn. We haven't given her allergy medicine for a few nights and I think it is starting to catch up with her. I was hoping allergy season was over, but I guess not. We dropped Abby off at school and headed to Bed, Bath, & Beyond. I decided we need a coat tree for the foyer as well as a basket to put the hats and mittens in. I found what I was looking for and I am hoping it will help keep us organized this winter. If only I had a whole room for all that stuff, life would be much easier. Guess it is one of those things to add to the list for our "forever" home. We are officially no longer property owners. We closed on our house in Florida this past week. I am sad that we no longer have it, but I am also relieved at not having to worry about a property so far away. The other day in school Abby's teacher asked her what she was thankful for and Abby said she was thankful for her house in Florida and her purple room there. Makes me so sad how attached she still is to that house :(  We also hit up Target (seriously, it is right next to BBB. there was no reason to not stop by). Halloween stuff was 75% off so I was able to get the girls a lot of dress up clothes for next to nothing. They are going to have so much fun with all their new costumes! We picked Abby up from school and headed back home for lunch and playtime. The girls played nicely together this afternoon which was really nice. I put the TV on so I could get the dishwasher cleaned out and reloaded and within a short amount of time, Mckenzie was nestled into the couch fast asleep. She didn't sleep long since Scott got off work early today. The girls found blankets that I had purchased as Christmas presents for them and asked so sweetly to play with them. So, I am not as far along on my shopping as I thought! I really need to get better about hiding the gifts I buy them. They also wanted to play dress up. I have to say Mckenzie makes a cute bee and Abby makes a cute cowgirl. Abby kept asking where her horse was and saying yee haw. Adorable! I just love my girls. One of my friends is taking photos of what she is thankful for during the month of November. I would have to say I am thankful for my sweet girls and their amazing father. I seriously couldn't be more blessed. There are always going to be 'things' I want in life, but when it comes right down to it, I have all I need. So for all of that, I am thankful. And where would we be without all of the rest of our family and our friends. Even though there are many miles between us, I am still thankful to have you all in our lives :)
We went out to dinner tonight. Neither Scott nor I felt like cooking so we took the easy way out. Tried a new restaurant and it was pretty good. The girls are hanging out watching a little Backyardigans before they head to bed. We are hoping that if we let them stay up a little later than normal, they will sleep in a little longer tomorrow morning;)



Abby's cowgirl outfit she wore to dinner.
Thankfully, the red bandana didn't make the cute!



Rain, rain go away. And take the cold along with ya! Today was cold and wet all day long with a little wind every now and then. I didn't have plans to go anywhere today so we just lounged around in our pj's until after lunch. The girls did a million and two art projects and Abby did a little homework as well. Throw in a puzzle or two, a fort, a movie, and playing with baby dolls to round out the day. Don't forget running in circles and chasing after the dog! I know the girls have a lot of toys to play with, but by the end of the day, we were running out of things to do. I gave the girls a bath a little earlier tonight because I thought they needed a little extra time to calm down before bed. They were running around like crazy just to burn a little energy. Scott got home from work pretty late, but made it in time for story time with the girls. They were so excited to see him and gave him big hugs and said they missed him. Really, he was only gone for the day. I can't imagine the reunion when he comes back after his deployment! Mckenzie actually went to bed without a fuss tonight. I am so happy!

Mckenzie asked for a picture while she was petting the dog.

Today was picture day at Abby's school. Abby didn't give me a hard time about getting dressed in the outfit I asked her to wear. Many times if I suggest an outfit for her to wear, she goes in the opposite direction. I had Mckenzie's picture taken as well. I think they will be cute pictures. Mckenzie wasn't too sure about the photographer and she was very shy at first. Abby was just happy because the photographer let her have her photo taken first since she was the oldest. I know most times I let Mckenzie go first just because she is the youngest and doesn't understand, but it was a nice reminder that I may need to switch that up every now and then. Mckenzie and I ran a couple of errands while Abby was in class and then we hung out at home. Mckenzie ended up napping on me again, but only for about thirty minutes. She was in a much better mood when I woke her and Scott didn't have too much trouble getting her to sleep. So that may be the magic number as we transition to no nap. We played outside in the front yard after Abby got home from school. The girls played restaurant and the name of their place was "Candy Catmeat". Doesn't sound the most appetizing. I had a meeting for Abby's school tonight and Scott stayed home with the girls. It was surprisingly short so I went out with one of the other moms. It was a nice evening.

A very quiet day around here. The house got cleaned, we ran to the post office and out to lunch. The girls were excited to play at the McDonald's play area. Me, not so much as it is an outdoor play area and it was cold out there today. The girls didn't seem to notice. We veged around the house this afternoon and Mckenzie ended up falling asleep while I was holding her. I am hoping that she isn't up until 10 again tonight. So far, she is staying in her room. We had gymnastics tonight and both girls had fun. Mckenzie was a bit feisty until I let her have her pacifier and then she was very cooperative. While we were eating dinner tonight, Scott told Mckenzie to use her spoon to eat her soup. Mckenzie looked right at him and said "No, use fingers!" Very opinionated that little one. No pictures again today.

Another Monday means another school day. I forgot to have Abby do her homework again so we will have to bring it on Wednesday. I hope I am better at getting her work done once she starts Kindergarten! Before we left the house, I was picking up a few things around the house and Abby asked "Is the housekeepers coming today?" I promise I do clean even when they aren't coming to the house, although, I don't usually do it before we leave the house in the morning. Mckenzie and I played around the house this morning. I tried to work on her colors and letters, but she just didn't seem all that interested. The kid counted to eleven the other day, but ask her what color something is and half the time she gets it wrong! I took the girls to the park after picking Abby up from school. They were both so excited to go play and ran straight to the swings. We came back home and I decided to call XM radio again today. Scott has been trying to transfer our service since we got our car and had not been successful. Finally today after 33 minutes on the phone with a couple of different people, I managed to get service to our car. It was ridiculous and I am usually not angry with customer service people, but the first lady who worked in the activation department told me she couldn't help me and she ended up activating the service under the previous owner's name. She then told me I would need to talk to someone in the cancellation department because she couldn't cancel the service! HELLO! Luckily, the guy I talked to understood what I wanted to do and activated the service under our name. I was so close to cancelling all together, but I really enjoy XM radio, especially when we travel. Mckenzie is having difficulty falling asleep tonight. I thought she needed a nap this afternoon and she went to sleep right away when I put her down. But I was mistaken as the little bugger has been out of her room more times than I care to count since we put her down. I hope she settles down soon.