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!!!! :)

Bibbity Boppity Boo

Sunday afternoon Mommy took me to see a local rendition of "Cinderella" at Burress. It. Was. Awesome! We got there early enough to have front row center seats. It wasn't until the last 5 minutes when I started to realize it would soon be over, and time to go home, that I began to lose all self control. :)After the show, we were invited to get our photograph taken with Cinderella and Prince Christopher. After the fact, I became very concerned that Cinderella's hair was brown and not blonde like in the movie. Perhaps she just got her hair did?We were also allowed to get our photo taken with Fairy Godmother. She was a jolly good time, but I would have preferred to have my photo taken with the stepsisters... they were AWESOME. Hilarity doesn't even begin to describe these two... we're talking unibrow and all. Jolly good show... 4 thumbs up. :)

Chickity China... the Chinese Chicken...

It's been one week, since we began potty training... as of yesterday morning anyway. Rachel here. Emma Grace is a rock star. She's now wearing underpants (she takes them off and pulls them back on by herself) all day (except for nap/bed time)... and besides Steppin' Out/Sam's Club, we have yet to venture out into the wild world of the public. I imagine we'll be wearing Pull Ups out for a little bit longer before we commit to public underpants. I've quit pumping her full of liquids now that she can feel and understand the urge to go. One amazing thing to me is her ability to poop on the potty. I remember Reese being beyond traumatized when she needed to go. Obviously it all worked out... and this time without tears. :)Sunday EG had another day of no accidents! Yesterday she wore undies all day and had no accidents until about 7:15... right before bedtime... in the bathroom... right in front of her potty! Poor thing... missed it by seconds. Yay to seeing the light at the end of the Emma Grace diaper tunnel!On another note, I've deactivated my Facebook account... and it feels so good. I've had enough. Some people post the most ridiculous things... dramatic events of their love life... amongst other things. I used it so my family/friends could see pictures of the girls... especially my family. It was also a great way to keep up with old friends. I began by deleting all the people who were too dramatic, then went the people I was simply stalking, then those that actually weren't my friends (friends of friends), and then went people I don't interact with much. I was left with 69 people. It was awesome. But then there were more I wanted to delete but didn't want people's feelings to get hurt... how ridiculous... so then I just deactivated the whole thing. The people that I would love to hear from my have phone number or my email address... or they know about my blog, so I feel good about my decision. Truth is Bryan and I have very limited time together when it's just the two of us... it just made sense to get rid of the things that were taking my attention away from that small amount of precious time. I won't lie... it's very freeing! I've also quit looking at my horrible gossip sites. I'd rather pay more attention to the ridiculous things going on in my own house than in the thirty mile zone. The End. :)

Potty Training... DAY 6

Rachel here. Yesterday was another great day in the wonderful world of potty training. EG peed and pooped on the potty 4 times! I was a little worried about yesterday because we were out and about all day. She wore a pull up the entire time and highly enjoyed watching me run to snatch her up each time she said that she had to go. After peeing once at home before we left, she didn't go again until well after lunch time (she fell asleep in the car and went). She also went in her pull up on the way home from SAM's after telling us she needed to go and me thinking she was fibbing. Lesson learned. Once upon returning home though she racked up the extra stickers and had a small pee accident right before bed. Emma Grace even went pee on the potty at SAM'S Club (it was their free pass weekend... we don't have a membership, so we definitely took advantage)! Now if we can just get her to actually go on the potty the first time she tells us and not 5 times before she actually does. This was the situation when we were out to lunch yesterday. We must have visited the Rivermill potty (not a clean child friendly potty by any stretch of the imagination) 6 times... and she never went. Oy. On another note... yesterday we ventured down to Steppin' Out (a local annual crafty festival... loads of fun) to check out this year's merchandise. Each girl had $15 to spend... EG wanted nothing to do with any of it except a free balloon she got from the bank, and Reese picked this little number. Meet Hasher the new family puppy. Hasher is sometimes a boy, and sometimes a girl... mostly a girl. She walks and barks... so intriguing. And I won't lie... she might be a little cute... but just a little. Reese was very concerned yesterday that Hasher would be sleeping in the dark dank corner of her closet... so out came the hot glue gun, cardboard boxes, and scrapbooking paper to the rescue. It was worth it though because Hasher is already housebroken. :)

Potty Training... DAY 5

Rachel here. Today was amazing. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Emma Grace not only peed on the potty 3 times (once in time out!), but she also pooped on the potty twice. She did awesome! She's really enjoying doing her flashcard games while she's contemplating doing the deed. It's nice Mommy/Emma Grace bonding time. See that little sticker at the end there... yeah that one right there... she got that one because I didn't have to clean up a single potty mess today. Today was amazing.

On another note. Emma Grace has really bad hair. Really bad hair... bless her heart. ;)

Potty Training... Day 4

Rachel here. We'll start our potty training tale with the late hours of last night. Emma Grace woke up shortly after I went to bed... "poo poos Mommy!" I raced into her room... she had already gone. No biggie. We changed her diaper, gave her some meds (both girls have fevers), kissed her good night, and put her back to bed. She woke up 3-4 more times to tell me she had to go poo poos. While I love that EG feels the need to wake up and announce to the world of her potty endeavors, she's also learned to use it to her advantage and cry wolf. For example... if she doesn't like her dinner... "I go poo poos Mommy!" Or... when she is in timeout... "I go poo poos Mommy! Hurry!" It's getting old, but I'm trying to stick with her, and the potty now ventures into timeout with her. :) Since she peed last night, she woke up this morning dry... great start to the day.

I once again gave her plenty of milk and watered down juice. I can tell when she needs to go because she starts looking at her business and looking at me. After about two or three times of asking her if she had to go and her saying no, she began to pee a little. I immediately yelled "NOOOOO... HOLD IT!" (not meanly... just excitedly). She IMMEDIATELY stopped, I picked her up, and she finished on the potty... and boy was it a lot. Emma Grace also managed to poop on the potty all by herself. I was doing the dishes, and she came in and told me she had gone. So proud of her.

After nap time she woke up with a wet pull up, and didn't need to go potty again until right before bedtime. She went on the potty, we got her jammies on, I put her to bed, and about 5 minutes later... "poo poos Mommy!" I ran in there, and she had already gone pee in her diaper. We're getting there... slowly... but surely. :)On another note. I fixed the karaoke machine. It had been living in our garage for the last 6 years... having not been used since before we were married. One of the microphones was on the fritz, so I switched the two from their current outlets and voila. Reese rocked out hardcore, and then Emma Grace somehow broke it again. :-/ I can't get the cd portion to work at all... it may be finding a new home at the YMCA after all.On YET ANOTHER note... the apparent gunman situation on campus today gave me a real fright. Bryan called me from work (he happened to be working across the street from campus) and told me they were on lock down. The words lock down makes me shake... literally. I got immediately tense, locked all the doors, and attempted to prepare myself for the worst. I hate that, but it's something I can't help. Not much was found out in the end. Many police departments searched all of campus... top to bottom. They were on lock down for nearly 6 hours, and the "gunman" wasn't spotted. Hopefully a mountain was made out of a mole hill, and thankfully I'll be able to sleep tonight. It's a shame what the world has come to when you're not even safe in your homes... or in a classroom... or even a church for that matter. It just reminds me to continue to teach the girls kindness, love, and awareness... and hope for the best. Oy vey.