Friday, November 29, 2013

Just For Fun

Julie just told me about the wonder that is the Blogger app, so I'm trying this for the first time on my phone. 

I've tried to do posts on my phone before, but it was through the regular internet and I could never figure out how to insert pictures.

These are pictures from our lunch date with Daddy at Piedmont Park last week. We ate Chick-fil-A, let the girls run around, and enjoyed the beautiful weather! If this post turns out well, I may never post from my computer again! 
 

Thanksgiving 2013

So many things to be thankful for this year!
 
We got to enjoy an entire week up in Ohio for Thanksgiving! It's been awhile since we got to come up for such a long time, and we got to have an early Christmas together, too!
 
In no particular order...
 

Steve got a new machete for Christmas! He's going to become a lot more hardcore about yardwork now! 


Continuing the tradition of visiting Kraynack's, a large floral shop that has a "Santa Lane" with a bunch of different Christmas scenes set up and decorated. There was a Christmas Vacation scene with Clark and Cousin Eddie, a White Christmas scene with the movie playing, a few Christian-themed scenes with angels and carols, and a bunch of different woodland creatures.


Bella's Christmas ornament for this year! She got so many horses this year!

 
Playing with Grandpa and the train
 
 
Playing games with Grandma!
 
 
 Little Squirt bein' silly!
 
 
Evelyn's "2nd Christmas" ornament
 

Wrestling on Grandma's floor

 
Steve, Matt, Craig, and Dad - on their way to shoot some guns like manly menfolk!
 
We are so thankful for our extended family and the chance to spend some extra time with our cousins! We got some time with Great-Grandma Ferguson, too, which was great because we don't get to see her as much!


So Much Fun In The SNOW!

We've been in Ohio all week for Thanksgiving and it snowed! At first, there was just a little bit on the ground, but we ended up getting a bunch (at least for Georgians!) and we had a great time playing and sledding!
 

I had my scarf wrapped around me as many times as it would go!


Trying to catch snowflakes on her tongue!


Evelyn didn't like standing in the snow, so we carried her most of the time.


Bella loved it and we had so much fun playing with her! Sledding, snow ball fights, she wanted to do it all!


Evelyn tasting her first snowflakes! She didn't know what to think about all of the cold!

 
Grandma and Evelyn!
 


Making snow angels! We didn't have snow pants or good boots, but we made it work and it was worth the cold!


Sledding with Daddy!


Playing the first day while the snow was still coming down.


Steve and I took a turn down the hill together!


I love this picture, because it's going to be the one we always tell Evelyn about when she gets older! She did NOT want to be put down in the snow, and she DEFINITELY didn't want to be pushed down the hill!


Snowball fight with Daddy and her cousin, Maddie!


Showing off our gloves with Mama! I totally get credit for teaching Bella to eat snow!

 
Sledding down the hill on her own! She had a blast!


She was non-stop the entire time we were outside! We had to drag her inside each time we started to feel a little frostbite!

 
The girls playing together.
 
There are more Thanksgiving pictures coming, but I had to make our snow pictures its own post - we just loved it and got so excited! We three Southern girls couldn't get enough!


Saturday, November 23, 2013

Bella's Brain and Evelyn's Words

I haven't been very motivated to update the blog lately. I've been struggling with a cold for almost three weeks now and Steve just signed us up for Netflix video streaming, so we've been enjoying hibernation mode. With the weather turning colder, we're doing lots of snuggling and watching old seasons of TV shows.
 
With so many holiday events coming up, though, I need to get back on the blogging horse!
 
I'm starting with a couple of stories about the girls that have been in my head...
 
I love the way Bella's brain works! I love her thought process and how she asks questions and tries to figure things out in her head. The little human asks questions all day long! We do our best to answer with the real answer instead of just the "kid" answer, so that we won't contradict ourselves or have to go back and change her thought process later. (Except for the Disney princesses...in our world, those are 100% real. Santa can be fake; but don't mess with Sleeping Beauty and Belle.)
 
When we were driving to Wal-Mart - most of our epic conversation happen in the car; driving must inspire her creative thinking - she suddenly told me, "Mama, I don't want you to cut my hair again. I want it long. Just like Mulan's."
 
Like Mulan, people. Not Rapunzel. Not Sleeping Beauty. She's associating long hair with the only Disney princess who cut her hair to look like a boy. She kills me! I love that Mulan cuts her hair to look like a man so she can enter the Chinese army, and she's the one who Bella aspires to be with long hair. It just makes me chuckle.
 
She also informed me recently that when she marries Shang (the hero in Mulan), she doesn't want to leave me. We're going to have to work on that when she's a little older. Right now, she's planning on marrying Shang and still living at home. Fingers crossed she'll change her mind when the time comes.
 
Our youngest little is starting to say more words. Or at least be able to repeat them. She can say "da-da" and "ca-ka" (cracker). She's been saying "jsshh" (juice) for awhile now, and "peez" (please). Steve and I are loving this stage! Her facial expressions are growing, too. It's a lot of fun!

Friday, November 1, 2013

"Ghouls" Just Want To Have Fun!

Every year for Halloween and pumpkin patches, Steve's mom sends cute outfits for the girls to wear! When we visited the actual pumpkin patch a week or so ago with Matt and Caroline, I forgot to put the girls in their special shirts.
 
Tonight we had plans to eat dinner on the Square, so it seemed like the perfect time to take advantage of the beautiful weather and take a few pictures.
 
They turned out so cute, and the girls cooperated perfectly!
 



 




Costumes And Dress-Up

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!! AAAAHHHHH!!!!
 
Since we didn't dress up as kids, I'm soaking up every chance we get to dress up with the girls and have a fun time together!
 
Confession: I totally used to be the girl who was "too cool for school" when it came to costume parties. I don't know why, but I was.
 
I have since discovered a love of dress-up deep inside my soul and there's no going back!
 

The girls and I dressed up and ready to go!


We just can't luck out lately with the girls smiling normally. Hoping for better luck when we do family pictures in November!

 
A side view of Bella's hair. Whitney totally made my day (and Bella's year!), and let us borrow a unicorn costume that they already had! I couldn't believe it! It made my life as a parent so much easier to work on Bella's top half and have the unicorn part guaranteed!
 
Bella wanted her hair to have purple coloring in it, but that "spray paint" always makes hair really crunchy, so instead of leaving her hair down like a horse's mane, I put it into topknots like a show horse. She was thrilled!


I was going to dress Evelyn like a cowgirl, but decided to go with Boo from Monsters Inc. instead. I found a pink shirt at Wal-Mart for $2.00; add some pigtails, and she was done! Easy and cute!

 
I knew I couldn't go trick-or-treating in our skeleton costumes (it was way too involved and last year, Steve and I made a little girl cry), so I came up with Rosie the Riveter instead. I didn't have to buy a thing and it was a blast! Any costume that gives me an excuse to wear bright, red lipstick is awesome!
 

Trick-or-treating with the Sapp kids...see what I mean about Evelyn and posing?


 
It was so cute to watch Evelyn walk up to the door with her basket held out and ask for candy!
 
 
All the kids, getting their goodies!
 
 
"Boo" reaching for some candy.


 Proving Daddy was along for the ride!


Our church was having a pumpkin fest, so we stopped by real quick to say hi. Cathy painted a purple dog on Bella's hand since her face was already covered with tattoos.


Cotton candy did a pretty good job of getting Bella revved up to play!


 Whit and I decided to take pictures of ourselves while the kids were playing games. 

 
As soon as Bella walked in the door, she threw herself on the ground and said, "Whew! I'm tired!" I figured that was a good sign for how much fun she had.
 

We had such a great time with the girls! I'm already thinking about what we can do next year!