Learning to Say Thanks

One of the things my parents instilled in me was the importance of making sure people know you appreciate them.  I work really hard at making sure my girls know the value of appreciation.  When my Grandma passed away, two sisters took it upon themselves to make sure that they made some food especially for Carli and Ava.  It was such a sweet gesture and we wanted to make sure that Carli and Ava understood the thoughtfulness that these girls showed them. 

I've found it is much easier to get the girls to "create" their own thank you notes.  It is a work of art to say the least but it gives them a lot of ownership in what they are doing.  First we cut out and painted some hearts and a rainbow. 

 

Carli pretty much knows the whole alphabet and can write all the letters in uppercase.  So I spelled out a simple thank you note and she worked hard at copying it over.  Her Daddy helped her not get confused about what letter she was on.  :)  If you look close, Carli has managed to fold her tongue over in concentration.  She can't do it on demand...as she told me:  Mom, it just happens!
 

 

Here are Carli's notes.  They basically say, "Thank you for the cookies (fruit salad). Love Carli."

Since Ava does not sit still long enough to do much other than write her name, I was pleased that she actually copied down, "Love" and then her name.  She sticks her tongue out in concentration too.  She wasn't cooperative in me catching that on camera though!

 Instead of mailing our thank yous, the girls took them to church on a Wednesday night and hand delivered them with an extra hug.  :)

Aunt Chelle's Baby Shower

September was a crazy month for our family.  In between celebrating the amazing life of service to the Lord that my precious Grandma led, we also were blessed to celebrate the soon to arrive baby girl of Andy and Michelle.  After church one Sunday, we headed out to Aunt Chelle's baby shower.  Keith was a trooper and drove his ladies, we were very appreciative!  My cousin Dionna met us all there too.  She roped her husband into driving her from Conroe, so Keith at least had some good company while we all oohed and aahed at all the little baby clothes!  :)

 

My two little princesses thought they were big girls the whole afternoon.  They even found a chair just their size to sit in.  :)

 

Michelle had a wonderful turn out to celebrate her baby girl.  Here is a picture of her with all her hostesses.

Both Carli and Ava took it very seriously that they needed to write their own names in the baby book.  I think they did a really good job.  I was especially proud that they did not take up the whole page or deem it necessary to draw baby girl a picture or two!

We got baby girl a lot of gently used clothes.  But the girls went through them all and picked out their favorites.  They even picked out what to wrap them in so Aunt Chelle could open a gift just from them!  They were pretty proud.  :)  We hope baby girl likes them! 

Carli just thought she HAD to take care of her cousin Weston.  There was a lot of loving going on amongst the present opening!  :)

Here is Aunt Chelle with the girls.  I was pretty pleased to get such a good picture of them all! 

After the shower, we decided to go get an ice cream with Cousin Weston and his Momma and Daddy.  To say that the girls LOVE their baby cousin would be an understatement!  :)

 

After ice cream, we all parted ways.  We decided to go home via Jacksonville so we could stop by church.  Turns out Carli and her Pa were kind of missing each other.  :)  After church we went out for a bite to eat.  Those two just picked and picked on each other.  After a long 10 days of sitting in the hospital and letting Grandma go, the laughter was welcomed music to our hearts.  Love the relationship these two have!  :)

 





A Week at Naggy & Pappy's: Reunited at Last!

Saturday morning could not come early enough!  We were up and on the road by 7 am.  We were meeting our crew at Uncle Kevin's house in Fort Worth.  This was our good morning picture Naggy sent us.  She was so worried about fixing their hair while they were with her, but I think she got the hang of it by the weeks end!

Can I just tell you how awesome the hugs and kisses we got were when we all made it to Ft. Worth?  It was one of the best ever!  The girls were super excited to get to give their Daddy and Uncle Kevin their cherry donuts!

 

And then we enjoyed some swimming in Uncle Kevin's pool before lunch.  Lots of smiles and laughter.  :)

Our hugs and lovin' continued through lunch.  The girls started off sitting by Naggy and Pappy but by the end of lunch they were all ours.  :)

We thought we would be spending all day in Fort Worth but by 2 pm the girls were asking to go home.  So we said our thanks, gave our love and headed home.  We weren't 5 minutes on the road and this is what it looked like in our back seat.  Naps at last!  I think that Naggy and Pappy slept all afternoon too.

I would say the girls first week away from home was a great success.    I hope that Naggy and Pappy had as much fun as the girls did.  A whole month later, we are still hearing stories from the girls about their week with Naggy and Pappy.  We are blessed with great kids and awesome parents who love their grandkids so much. 

A Week at Naggy & Pappy's: TGIF!

It's Friday!!  Tomorrow, tomorrow, I'll see my babies tomorrow!  I think I sang that song all day long!  :)  I was a little excited and anxious to see my girls again. 

Friday morning the girls opened two more gifts.  The first was a note/request from their Daddy.  He has a slight obsession with Donut Stop in Amarillo.  He swears they have the best donuts EVER.  He particularly loves the cherry donuts.  So he sent some containers and asked the girls to PLEASE bring him a donut on Saturday morning.

 

It turns out Carli LOVED the donuts just like her Daddy.  Ava on the other hand was not a big fan.

 

For lunch, the girls used their other gift:  $10 in quarters.  They went to Mr. Ghatti's and had a blast getting to actually play the games.  We usually let them run around and pretend to play but we rarely spend the money on the games.  But hey, they were at Naggy and Pappy's...it was an occasion to celebrate!  :)

 

Their cousin Jake came over and went to Mr. Ghatti's with them.  They LOVE cousin Jake and were so excited he came to play with them!

 

After Pappy got off work, they packed up and headed out.  We were all meeting in Fort Worth on Saturday morning and Naggy and Pappy decided to get part of their long drive out of the way.  Can you tell the girls had not napped all week?

They stopped and had dinner at Taco Bueno, one of the girls favorites.  I missed Naggy's message asking what they usually at there.  By the time I responded, and asked what did they end up eating the respond I got was:  Apparently everything you put in front of them.  :)  Yeah, they love Taco Bueno!

Meanwhile at home, Keith and I finished up our mini projects and took a sleeping pill so we could sleep that night.  :)  We were a little excited to get our kids back in the morning!

Here is the playroom, nice and clean and organized.  We got rid of a lot of toys that they never played with.  The ones I despised but they still played with I took to my office so they could still play with them but I could only be mad at the toy once a week.  :)  Compromise.

This was one of Keith's projects:  Jewelry organizer.  This is literally less than a third of the jewelry they had.  I got rid of the other two-thirds!  They have done a really good job putting the jewelry up every since they got home from their trek to Amarillo.  I was pleased this project worked out so well.

Our other project while the girls were gone was to try to update their bathroom.  The shower curtain and bathmats I had bought were a bust, so we still don't have those.  The major stuff is done though and were are pleased with how it turned out.  I painted all the trim work and the bathroom door dark brown to match the vanity.  Keith made the girls a new princess towel rack and put it at a level where they could hang their own towels up.

 I am not completely sold on this idea of the baskets holding towels.  It's growing on me.  I think a shower curtain would help a lot.  :)  And Uncle Tone helped us out by making these cute signs to hang beside the sink.

And my brown door.  It took a long time to paint that door - I am pretty proud of it.  Keith also added crown molding, that we painted brown, to this bathroom as well.  It looks awesome!

And that's pretty much what we did on top of working our day jobs while we were childless.  We got a lot done and the girls had a lot of fun but we were SO ready to get our kids back!

A Week of Naggy & Pappy's: Thursday

Thursday was suppose to a relaxing, restful day in Amarillo.  But I think the girls kept things interesting.  The gift they opened this morning included a note from the puppy dogs and a gift card to go eat and play at Chick-fil-a.

 

Mean while on the home front, chaos seemed to be the order of the day as the play room purging continued...it was a lot of stuff!

Apparently the girls really enjoyed their lunch date with Pappy at Chick-fil-a.  Naggy was a good sport and after painting their nails, she joined in the fun and painted her nails to match.  :)

I asked later that day if today was the magic day for naps, but got a response, "Apparently not.  Too much to do!"  I think Naggy's house was officially taken over for the week!

Later that evening we got a picture of Pappy and Ava on a tractor with the caption:  Future farmer headed home for bacon and waffles!  And apparently I am not nearly as cool as Naggy now b/c we don't put sprinkles on or in our waffles.  :)

 

Another day closer to getting our girls home!  They were having a blast but we sure were missing them!