Notice Anything New??

This brave little girl decided it was time to get her ears pierced yesterday.  I really didn't think she'd go through with it.  I made sure she knew it was ok to change her mind.  I've heard the story a million times of how I got in that chair and chickened out 3 or so times before I finally went through with it.  Nope.  Not this one.  She just needed a little peep talk from her mamma and she was good to go.  

 

Here she is bracing herself...

 

When it was over she sat there like a deer in headlights for a moment.  This is her "disbelief in the fact that her ears are now pierced" face.  I don't think she thought the piercing process was already over with.  I told her with tear-filled eyes that she had pierced ears.  That bewildered face slowly melted into a super excited face.  

 

After the piercing we perused the earring displays imagining all the possibilities in store for her cute little ears after 6 weeks of wearing her starter studs.  

 

She immediately called her daddy and Ammie (Grandma was with us).  Ammie was with her cousins and Evangeline couldn't wait for them to find out.  She kept saying, "I can't believe I have pierced ears!"

 

She was so excited about the "Notice Anything New" sticker they gave her at the earring place that I was instructed to put it in a safe spot so she can wear it to school on Monday.  

 

As we were getting ready for church this morning she said to me, "Mom, now I've done all the things big kids do...I've lost a tooth and got my ears pierced."  Sniffle sniffle...

 

I also want to note that when they gave her the choice of earrings to use for her first pair she picked out little gold crosses.  However, they were a little too big and the lady recommended smaller ones for her first pair.  She went with the blue rhinestone daisies.  Blue is currently her favorite color.  Mom and I were touched by the fact that out of all the options her first choice were the gold crosses.  She's precious.  

Ballers, Bottles, Bathtubs and Brownies

Evangeline was playing in the little bit of snow we got one night last week.  She came in for a carrot while I was nursing Jed.  A little later she came in to warm up.  The night went along and I forgot to ask her what the carrot was for.  I found her little snowman mound the next day and got a chuckle out of it.  It was even funnier a few days later when the snow had melted and all that was left were the eyes and carrot nose.  

 

Another Disney On Ice with Papa, Karen and the cousins= one pooped out little girl. 

Well, I was checking out a setting on my camera one day and snapped this picture.  I decided to include it because it captures such a part of my life right now.  I spend what seems like (and is) a very large part of my day washing and boiling pump and bottle parts, preparing the parts each morning before school, making it to school only to discover I've forgotten something, left school only to discover I've forgotten parts or milk, finding various places all over the school to pump depending on indoor or outdoor recess....wow, to say this is a chore is an understatement.  The things we do for our children. 

 

This girl really got into the game last Friday!!!  We were all so shocked.  Usually Evangeline does nothing but look cute, just a'skipping around on the court piggy tails flapping in the breeze, but Friday...who was that girl??!!  She was playing some serious defense!  We were SO proud of her!!  She was stealing the ball like crazy and guarding all over the place...offense, defense...she didn't care...guarding, guarding, guarding!  In the car on the way home she said that she really liked stealing the ball, that it was fun. 

 

Here's the official basketball pictures.  What a fun season!

 

Oh my goodness!!!  Can't get enough of this chub in the tub!!!

 

We made some delish, from scratch brownies last week.  Well worth the effort.  Good thing I gave most of them away or I would have been in some serious trouble! 

 

Evangeline is always cracking me up with her vocabulary.  The other day we discovered at bath time that we were out of shampoo.  We had to borrow Kyle's.  Evangeline wanted to see what it smelled like.  She took a whiff and said, "yuck!  I'm into things that smell delightful".  



A Big Girl and a Baby

I love how Jed stretches after I'm done feeding him in the middle of the night.  I lift him up to put him on my shoulder and he sticks his little bottom out, raises his knees up, arches his back, sticks his arms up over his head and makes an adorable little old man face, then he plops him self against me and cozies up in my neck.  Oh, how I love this.  He is already starting to do it less and less, but last night he did it and I already caught myself saying, "oh yeah, I forgot about this and how much I love it".  I thought I better write it down before it flits out of my memory as fast as babies grow out of the newborn phase....

Evangeline was Star Student at school this past week.  She thoroughly enjoyed her special week.  She talked about it a lot.  Here's the graphic organizer I found in her backpack she had written about herself. 

After several weeks of anticipation her rocks came out of the Rock Tumbler last weekend.  She received this gift from Papa and Karen the week before Christmas and the gemstone blend she started with have been tumbling ever since.  After 4 different grits, they were done, finally.  It was exciting.  She made piles of her favorites.  She made piles according to color and type.  She looked in her rock book and identified what she had.  The girl loves rocks. 

 

The rock on the right is a Tiger's Eye rock before taking many turns in the tumbler.  The rock on the left is one of the finished products.  

 

Brrr...it's been cold outisde.  

 

But we've been staying cozy....



We've been doing a little cleaning.  I can't believe how many outfits Jed has already outgrown.    Here are a few pictures of little Jed's room.  

 

And then there's E.B.'s room...I love the wall above Evangeline's bed.  She's always decorating it according to the season.  

 

Evangeline's always loved Beatrix Potter and insists on keeping this book opened to this page on her hat boxes at all times.  It's been here in this very spot for probably a year now.  

Don't you dare set this baby down.  He. Will. Get.  Grumpy.  We can't take a sad Jed though.  We scoop him up right away.  It's just too much.

 

Danielle Burress has been watching Jed on Wednesday's.  She sends me pictures and videos on my lunch break.  I love it!  Here are two that she sent me last week.  She mentioned how she loves his look of concentration and how he was hiccupping, but it didn't interfere with all of his babbling.  

 

Me and my friend, Molly Richardson, took our girls to see a Russian ballet company perform Swan Lake at EIU over Martin Luther King weekend.  It was an awesome production.  The girls had a great time.  Evangeline wants to start dance classes again.  Her face during the show was priceless.  She was FULL of questions about what was going on.  Each time I take her to a show or production of some kind I enjoy watching her face more than the actual show.  It's a gift to watch a child experience the world. 

 

This was in her backpack the next day.  

 

Evangeline was disappointed that we were out of her cereal the other day.  I told her that her options were either Grape Nuts or oatmeal.  She was not too thrilled.  Then I told her that we could make some Swedish pancakes.  She said, in a relived voice, "the clouds have lifted!".  She has a real flare for the dramatics.