Did your Christmas wish come true?

Jolie's did...

She is a huge fan of the new Dora Links doll. She'll be happy to show you how to change her eye color, necklace color, etc. I'm not sure about sharing my laptop with my 5 year old :)

Santa around town

We've seen Santa every where but the mall :) Here is Jolie at Christmas at ULM & the Coca Cola museum in town sitting in the big guy's lap. She has consistently reported that she wants "the Dora dolly that hooks up to the computer." May all her Christmas wishes come true!

Please note: Sarah is not featured here because she was NOT going near Santa :)

A star is born

Jolie sang her first solo at church tonight. She stole the show. (Excuse the blurriness at the beginning of this video.)

Beginning of Advent

I grew up in a church that celebrated the Christmas Advent season with an Advent wreath & candles. It is a tradition that I want my girls to experience so we got it started tonight. You light a candle the four Sundays before Christmas & Christmas Eve. We used a book that a friend gave me that worked great for preschoolers. We read a modern day story, the story of the angel coming to Mary & Joseph & then learned one of God's names - Emmanuel - God with us. The book has activity sheets that Jolie loved & Sarah put her mark on. They loved lighting the candle & are looking forward to the day when we light ALL five. Hopefully this tradition will help us to anticipate the birth of Christ all month long.

Here are some pictures from tonight.

Interview with Sarah

It's been fun watching Sarah's little personality bloom. She talks all the time & is amazingly easy to understand. I conducted a little interview with her tonight that I thought you'd enjoy.

Thanksgiving Feast

Jolie's MDO class had a Thanksgiving Feast & they invited parents to come. We got to watch them sing a few songs & eat lunch with them. She - as expected - sang the loudest & with the most enthusiasm. Here she is in action:

Jolie & her friends Saywer, Hannah & Kinley. Don't you love how she is holding Sawyer's face?

Trick or Treating in style

I attempted to post this on Monday, but my pictures wouldn't upload. Sorry you had to wait...We joined some friends in their neighborhood & went trick or treating for the first time this year. We loaded up the Barbie Jeep & the Beatty kids drove their John Deere Gator around the neighborhood. It was quite a sight. Jolie had a blast & Sarah loved every minute of it too. She did a great job keeping up with the big kids.

My favorite fairies.

Indiana Jones & a black cat.

Ridin' in style

Playhouse Disney Live!

We took the girls to Playhouse Disney Live this afternoon & they both LOVED it! The girls called their Gran on our way home & Jolie told her "it was the best part of her year." Silly girl.

Disney knows how to make a dime. They sold popcorn & candy with a hat so the price was nice & steep, but we are now the proud owners of two new Disney hats :)

Jolie dancing...

Halloween Preview

The girls wore their Halloween costumes to a costume-themed birthday party a couple of weeks ago & I've just neglected to post this picture. Aren't these the two cutest fairies you've ever seen?

Louisiana Tech, I love thee

We had a brief, but good visit with some good friends from college this past weekend in Ruston. Special thanks to Mandy for sharing these on Facebook.

Family

We went to Shreveport to see family a few weekends ago & I captured this cute picture of Jolie & her cousin Abby. They had a great time playing!

Sarah is in LOVE with Great Aunt Sarah's dog Maddie. Can you tell?

BCM Survival

Every year we start off the school year with an event for incoming freshmen called "Survival." This year we had a safari theme. A friend took this photo for us & I just recently got it. Enjoy!

Growing up

I asked Jolie to go clean the playroom the other day & she came back & reported that she'd made her own bed. She did a great job. She really is growing up. She was not as eager to help with the playroom :) I took pictures of her bed. Here is her hardwork:

She didn't miss any details :)

Beauty shop

Jolie & Sarah have been playing beauty shop lately. They take turns being the customer & the "hair cutter." They've been busy giving pretend haircuts & makeovers (aka: painting each other's faces as Jolie would say :) It is SO much fun to listen to them interact & pretend together. Jolie has an amazing imagination & I'm so glad she is training Sarah. Here is Jolie the stylist & Sarah the customer:

More paint

The day after Sarah's party we mixed up some more sidewalk paint for Sarah's enjoyment. Here she is painting her feet. We went directly to the bathtub!

Party Time!

It's hard to believe, but today is Sarah's 2nd birthday! We celebrated with some sweet friends this morning & had a great time. I made some homemade sidewalk paint & it was hit! The birthday girl really liked it :) Here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

1st day of "school"

The girls started another year of Mother's Day Out today. They were so excited & had a great day. Sarah was sacked out on her mat when I went to pick them up. Here are our first day of "school" pictures:

A little bit of lately

I snap pictures with my phone pretty regularly & took several this week that I thought were worth sharing.

Sarah in the car during her weekend as an only child (Jolie was at her Gran's house).

Our picnic in the backyard on Monday. The weather is fantastic this week!

We finally removed the saftey screw from the Barbie Jeep & it now goes a sweet 5 miles an hour. Jolie is LOVING it! She been making the most of our 2.5 acres & has been crusing in the front yard, back yard & the back lot!

Sarah's favorite outfit

Sarah loves her birthday suit. I'm having a hard time keeping clothes on this little girl. She is such a little wild woman! Here she is in her birthday suit + a diaper (which she takes off regularly).

In total denial

If you know anything about my potty woes with Jolie you know that she waited until she was almost 38 months before she used the potty for the very first time! So needless to say, when Sarah started taking off her own clothes & diaper & sitting on the potty & actually tee teeing last week I could NOT believe my eyes! She has used the pottty at least once (usually more) all by herself with little to no assistance from me for an entire week. Sometimes I don't even know it is happening until she's finished & runs in saying, "I tee tee, Mommy, I tee tee!" Did I mention she hasn't even had her 2nd birthday yet? I'm not pushing her since she seems to have herself on a pretty good potty plan. Who knows what will happen, but I'm in total denial that she could possibly be potty training herself! She uses both the big & little potty, but here she is in action on the little potty:Such a big girl!