Hokie Hokie Hokie High...

It's that time of year again! Mommy and Daddy signed me up for the Hokie Kid's Club again this year (as she did the little sister, so she wouldn't be jealous), and today was the autograph session with the football team. It was hilarious to say the least. You might remember me throwing my ball to all the players to have them sign it last year... would you believe I did nearly the same thing with my lunch pail. Mine is the one on the right there... the real one is on the left... I touched it... so awesome.The boys were lovely... as usual. Sweet sweet David Wilson.
Quarterback Logan Thomas.
Jayron Hosley.The always open... Danny Coale.
JUJU!Blake DeChristopher... one hairy dude.Emma Grace even played with the Hokie Bird a bit!
The loot. Emma Grace's football.This year Reese had the lunch pail to get signed.
She also had a mini helmet for some choice players. Logan Thomas the QB, David Wilson God, Jayron Hosley, and Danny Coale... because he's awesome.So much fun!

Happy Birthday Houston Rocker!

Happy 3rd Birthday to Houston!
Houston's Mommy and Daddy have really lovely property that they've had Houston's parties on since he's been having parties, and it's BEAUTIFUL! Mommy loves all the trees and nature... it makes for some really nice photos. (Note to grandparents... if there are photos you like, you can click on them in the posts, right click once they are enlarged and save them!)Okay back to the party... there was tons of yummy food, tons of running around like crazy people, tons of presents to open, and some SUPER yummy cake. :)There was even a large tarp intended to be turned into a giant slip and slide. The kids were having so much fun running around on just the tarp without the suds and bubbles that we decided not to ruin a good thing. :)Thank you Bears for another lovely afternoon!

Fires, and Earthquakes, and Hurricanes... OH MY!

Rachel here. Virginia has had a rough ride the last few months. 4 months ago our area was hit HARD by tornadoes... which landed my girls and I under the stairs skyping with Bryan who was out of town. There have been fires burning in the Great Dismal Swamp. Last Tuesday our entire area was shaken by an earthquake... COMPLETELY shocking... it was nutso. And now today, while I hung out in the mountains, my entire family hunkered down in Tidewater to ride out Irene. So far all are safe and preparing for the surge. This what was we saw all day:... big, thick, crazy clouds... and it's just now starting to get pretty windy out. Mother Nature may have a few up and coming tricks up her sleeve, and frankly... I'm not amused. :)

Potty Training... the Next Generation...

Hello people! Emma Grace here. I'm proud to announce Baby is potty training! She's doing a great job too. Baby is very good at letting me know when she has to potty, I run to Mommy so she can help take her undies off, and then we run run run to the potty. What a good girl!I'm doing fantastically as well. I'm doing all my shenanigans on the potty and haven't had an accident all week! I've been dry during nap times since before I started training, but Mommy still makes me wear a pull up JUST IN CASE. My bedtime pull up is also almost always dry in the morning as well. SO EXCITING! :)

OY VEY

Rachel here. I've been having an awful time getting my photos to load to Blogger the last couple of days. It's a shame too because I have some adorable photos of the girls... Reese is a ballerina y'all! :) I'm continuing to write posts but not publish them. Once Blogger decides to get it's shenanigans straight, I can upload and publish, so the the dates may be strange. Until then... let's hope the areas that were already devastated by our earthquake, from earlier in the week, avoid even more damage from hurricane Irene... Mother Nature sure has been intriguing lately. :-/

Comparison

Rachel here. We haven't done a good comparison in a while... here are the girls during their 2 year birthday months. They are looking more and more unalike to me. :(And for poos and giggles... here is Emma Grace during Reese's 2 year birthday month. WHAT?!

Just dance...

OMG ladies and gentlemen... I'm a ballerina. In hopes of keeping me normal, unvain (is that a word?), and in hopes I would have a healthy body image, Mommy and Daddy attempted to coax me to play soccer. I'm under the impression soccer is for boys and refuse. Instead I begged and begged and begged Mommy and Daddy to let me be a ballerina. Mommy is attempting to keep her wits about her and has decided to go with the flow, and she does admit that I look so cute she could eat me up in one little gulp. See...The two of them are continuing to attempt to talk me into playing soccer in the spring... something about me being well rounded... whatevs.

Oh and here is the baby sister... well, because she's a complete mess... in an adorable mess kind of way. Happy Thursday all!

No rhyme or reason...

... as in this post has no rhyme or reason to it at all... but since I'm not on facebook anymore, I feel the need to share meaningless things here. Awesome. Rachel here by the way. We've been up to a whole lot of nothing these days, and it sure is nice. By a whole lot of nothing I mean... playing outside, playing with playdoh, painting, taking extra long baths, and watching "Chockie Facky" (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) like it's going out of style. It's been nice to not have to get in the car... really nice. Things have been getting done around the homestead as well... slow and steady. Yesterday I was cleaning out the videos/dvds for the 300th time and decided to see what some of the little tapes (i.e. from the camcorder) were. One of them was tons of footage of baby Reese staring up at me, trying to sit up, and some from her first birthday. I have quite a bit of footage of the girls now from my Kodak, but I hadn't picked it up in a while. I got some funny footage of Emma Grace working on her flashcards with while sitting on the potty. Wouldn't you know I can't get the driver from the camera working on the computer?! Bastards of America! Yeah I just said that. It was the best 4.5 minutes you'd ever spend watching a video that's for sure. Until I can figure out that mess, I'll share some photos from the past week.

IF I were still on facebook, this would be my new profile picture because seriously... could you die right now? Emma Grace is being so cooperative when it comes to photos right now. "Emma Grace can I take you're picture?" "Sure Mommy." I take the picture. "Now me see Mommy! Mommy!" Instant gratification is this girl's motto for sure.
Editor's note... this helmet is nowhere near actually on this child's head. Let's hope this means her brain is extra absorbent... in a good way.Recent mornings routine... wake up, demand pancakes and syrup, go potty, get into undies, eat breakfast for 3.5 seconds, play dress up (hence this ensemble), eat for 2.5 more seconds, demand one of the following "Chockie Facky," "Itty Poppins," or "Chee Bang Bang." This morning... "Tangled"... Reese is Rapunzel because of her "long beautiful hair", Emma Grace is Tinkerbell wearing rain boots... what story doesn't need a fairy, and I'm Mother Gothel... probably because I haven't showered or brushed my teeth. And just in case this post was starting to make too much sense... we have critters. First... I found this praying mantis while pulling weeds the other day. Can you see him? He's brown with green eyes. And yes, I pulled weeds... I may never do it again, since we're on the subject, because now I have an itchy mess on my wrist covered in ointment (isn't that one of the most disgusting words?) and a Barbie band aid. And then we have Billy Murray... our latest resident groundhog. Would it kill the little guy to go eat the weeds? I mean seriously!Up and coming highlights... Reese has her "open house" for dance class Saturday AND preschool starts in 11 days! :)

PT update...

Rachel here. Our little Emma Grace is about 90% potty trained. :) She wears underpants now all day except for nap time and bedtime, and she uses the potty when she has to... on her own terms. We've run errands with her in her underpants (we do find ourselves asking her like every 5 minutes if she has to go though... just in case), and she wore them all day at Jackson's birthday party... nevermind her pulling them down in the middle of the animal show. :) She has an occasional accident... poop... due to stalling and then it being too late to make it to the potty. That'll come. Nonetheless we're so proud of our little Emma Grace!

Dino-mite!

Emma Grace here... I know right?! HELLO WORLD! :) I've been invited here to blog today about my lover Jackson. I love him. He's amazing. And did I mention I'm willing to push my sister down and pull her hair in order to prove my love to sweet Jack? I love him. He's 4 now. I love 4 year olds. Swoon. Oh wait... I better get to the point before they don't allow me to guest blog here anymore. ;)

We traveled to Maryland this weekend to help celebrate Jackson's (SWOON!) birthday, and we definitely did it in style. His mommy and daddy threw him a dinosaur party at their local nature center. It was awesome... there wasn't a detail left undone. Mere can throw a party... for reals. It's a constant inspiration to Mommy. Mommy may have finally decided to buy some super cute downloads, for Reese's Jessie cowgirl party in October, from Etsy... because seriously people... Jackson's (SWOON!) were cute! But more on those later... here are some of the yummy goodies we took part in...Check these out! Mere cut squeezed oranges in half and filled them with blue jello. Once they were solidified, she sliced them... so cute!Bug nets filled with goodies for our favors.Here starts the pdf downloads from Etsy Meredith found... so unbelievably cute! She had some really sweet banners as well.Look at our adorable party hats!
Party shenanigans.After some eating and running around, we gathered in a room to get some hands on time with various creatures. We got to touch turtles, bearded dragons, snakes, and hissing cockroaches... we also got to examine (but not touch) a tarantula. It was awesome!Time for cupcakes!
There was also a bit of time after cake to explore the nature center...... and pose for a group picture!Thanks Jackson for inviting us... we love visiting!!!! :)