Thanksgiving day we headed to my Aunt and Uncle's house to gather for the Jarvis family lunch. Bryan and Tressia were ready for us with a big lunch, my favorite M&M cookies, a craft table and much more. We had a great time visiting everyone and getting caught up. And, we got to meet Baby Brylee, the newest member of the family.

This was my attempt at a Christmas card....if you get this picture in the mail, you will know that we never got anything better! If I could just photoshop a pic together, I could probably get all 5 of us looking and smiling!

I was getting a picture of the cousins, but Pappy snuck in there with his grandkids!

Here is the newest generation of cousins. You can barely see the little peanut, but Addison has Brylee in her arms. It was taking this picture, because the tradition was always an annual picture of the first set of cousins. Now we are growing up with kids of our own.

This girl in in her element here. Can you tell how much she loves babies?

Look at those sweet baby blues. And, look closer, you can see that she has a wad of paper in her mouth! Caught red-handed!

Addison and Tressia making Christmas wreaths at the craft table.

This is why we don't have a Wii. It would just be a really expensive play telephone!

Great-Grandma Jarvis with Gracyn.

Later in the day we moved on to celebrate with Tommy's family. His cousins Matt and Shelley hosted at their house and we had a great time. They have a pool, which I heard one of the boys jumped in, early in the day, a tree house and a trampoline. Best of all they have 16 year old Abigail, who my children were totally taken with. They loved her even before they knew she had American Girl dolls. Once she showed them that, they were glued to her side! Tommy and I got to visit and catch up with everyone, while she played with the girls.

No matter how many times I took this shot, they weren't all going to look!

I wish our backyard was big enough for a trampoline....I love it!!!

Great-Grandma Swanner with Gracyn.

Abigail playing dolls with the girls.

What a great day we had with family and friends. We have so much to be thankful for!!!

Grandma and Pampa's House

Two of our days in Texas were spent at Tommy's parents house in Temple. The girls had fun visiting with them and playing with their dog. If you guesses, from my previous post, that Reagan ate the berry, then you were right! Turns out, one berry from a tree outside is not toxic, it will just burn your mouth REALLY bad. I don't think she will be sampling from nature anytime in the near future.

Poor Grandma had to go to work one of the days we were there, but she has a park near her office, so we picked up lunch and met her there to play.

Our second day there, Uncle Steve and Aunt Dannea arrived to visit and celebrate an early Christmas with the girls. They got Addison a keyboard with a microphone and Reagan a pink guitar. The instruments were a huge hit....and also VERY LOUD!!! The girls love them and have had a great time playing
Did I mention that Addison has a very unique sense of style right now, and that she enjoys layering all sorts of things to create her outfits. The picture below is a good example!

Reagan was ready for bed. They stayed up really late, so they could visit everyone. She was trying to hang in there, but she just didn't have any energy left.

American Girl

We couldn't make a trip to Dallas without visiting the American Girl store at the Galleria. We surprised the girls and didn't tell them where we were going. As soon as we pulled up, Addison recognized the sign and began going crazy! She was so excited to be there. They took their Bitty Babies in with them and each girl got to pick a new outfit for her doll. After that, we went to visit Santa and watched the ice-skaters.

Funny, somehow by the end of the day, Reagan's poor baby had no clothes on and Addison's doll was wearing both of the new outfits along with a few other things. More is better for Miss Addison right now and I guess she is in to layering! I don't know how she can even fit all of it on her doll at the same time! She would do this with her own clothes as well, if I would let her.

Pappy's House

We spent our first day in Texas just playing at my Dad and Deb's house. The girls love running around the barns, riding horses and playing outside. We left only for a quick trip to meet the extended Jarvis family at Babe's Chicken House for some serious Texas comfort food.

Here is Reagan in her Dorothy dress, snuggling "Toto". My parents little dog looks just like Dorothy's dog, so Reagan spent most of her time here dressed up and playing with him. Here is Reagan early in the morning, when she announced that she was ready to go to the barn. She has her boots on, as well as carrots for the horses, but I think she may be missing something.

There is Gracyn checking out her Pappy. I think she threw up on him, just after I took this!
Addison riding Tony.

Reagan having her turn.

These girls make a good team. Addison led Reagan around while she rode.

Toto even rode with Dorothy.

This was Gracyn's first time to notice the horses. She got really excited and loved seeing them.

Once they finish riding, they head off to play in the dirt.

Which means, this little one gets her turn.

Happy Thanksgiving!

~Lots and lots of miles driven....almost all with happy children.

~Early Christmas, present unwrapping fun!

~The American Girl Store

~Yummy, yummy Texas food.

~5 Grandparents.

~Countless aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

~A brand new baby cousin to hold.

~A date night at the movies for Mom and Dad.

~7 inches cut off Mommy's hair.

~Our first call to poison control when one of my children ate a berry from a bush. Can you guess which of my children did that?

~Slumber parties with my girls.

~Horseback riding.

~Shipley's doughnuts.

And much, much more!!!

Life, I want to Remember

Just a few random things going on around here.....things I want to remember...

~Twice recently Reagan has called me, "You stubborn old Mommy." She got this phrase from her sister, who will say that to a toy that she is frustrated with. Not sure it is really flattering, but it made me laugh.

~Reagan was standing at the door, shouting at the dog not to go out. When Maggie ran out anyway, Reagan put her hands on her hips and scolded her, "Maggie Ainslee Guess!". If you don't know, she is Reagan Ainslee Guess, and apparently, she has been called that a few times when she is in trouble!

~For the last few nights at bedtime, Reagan has put all her pacis on the table beside her bed. "I am Mulan, and Mulan doesn't need pacis." She says. Every night, I go in to check on her and all the pacis are back in her bed and in her mouth! I guess even talking about giving them up is progress???

~I think my baby has super-human powers. That girl can spot a Polly Pocket shoe, which is barely even visible to the naked-eye, from across the room, army crawl her way to it, and attempt to eat it in just a few mere seconds.

~A neighbor and I had a playdate this afternoon and then took our girls to Chick-Fil-A for dinner. It wasn't until the end of the meal that my friend asked if Reagan had the right boots. The answer was no, she had her friends boots, which are the same as hers, only 2 sizes bigger. Some things just get right by you when you have three!

~Before said Chick-Fil-A dinner I got my car "stuck" in the giant mound of ice that has collected at the end of my driveway. Tommy wasn't here to help, so I had to knock on my neighbor's door and have him come drive it out! No problem for him....I just still don't know what I am doing! Snow, maybe.....ice, not a chance.

~Again at the Chick-Fil-A dinner Reagan came bouncing happily out of the play area to tell me, "Sorry Mommy, I had poo-poo accident, sorry Mommy!".....Fun Times!

~A certain 4-year-old in the family has developed a recent interest in public restrooms. She makes it her mission to visit the restroom at least once in every establishment we enter. Reagan usually needs to go while we are out as well, and it is never at the same time. We went to lunch on Sunday and were at the restaurant for one hour. In that time, I made 4 trips to the potty!

~Ditto for another quick errand outing this week. 1 and 1/2 hours out of the house to Babies-R-Us, lunch and to drop Addison at school. We had a grand total of 5 bathroom trips between the bunch of us!

~I was in my room one morning, when I heard, over the baby monitor, the girls fighting. It only took a few seconds before Reagan was screaming, running my way and shouting for me. However, she quickly stopped. I heard Addison say, "Reagan, remember, Santa is going to put us on the naughty list!" Reagan replied, "Oh yeah!!!" and went right back to the baby's room where they then played happily! Fight forgotten.

Update on Trey

Thanks so much for prayers. It looks like a second test today, showed NO signs of what they thought was wrong with his heart just yesterday. According to today's cardiologist and today's test, he has NO heart problems. That is amazing for his family as yesterday his prognosis was certain death, and today there is hope.

They still are working for find out what is causing his breathing problems and find a solution. And, he still hasn't made any progress. But for today, he received good news.

I tried to copy Elfin's update directly from Facebook, but wasn't able to....I will try again soon, so you can see a more detailed update.

Prayers for Baby Trey

Friends, Baby Trey, needs your prayers. He is 7 months old and the son of my cousin Cliff and his wife Elfin. Trey is just a few days younger than Gracyn. But, he has spent almost all of his precious life in ICU at Children's Hospital in Dallas. I don't understand all the medical stuff, but he was born with a diaphragmatic hernia and some additional heart problems. He has had some surgeries, but just isn't getting better. As they talked with doctors today, they were told that his outlook wasn't good, and there wasn't much they could do for him. I can't even imagine being told that my baby might not make it. However, we know that God could heal him at any time.

This family is under a great deal of stress. They live several hours from Dallas, so they are living in the Ronald McDonald house with their 3 older children. One parent is always at the hospital, while the other is taking care of Trey's siblings. Cliff hasn't worked in several months, because he needs to be with his family. They are depending on God for everything right now, and their faith is strong. Elfin wrote today, that she was willing to her baby go, if that was God's will, but I know her desire is to have him home and well. Please, please pray for all of them and for God to heal baby Trey.

I am so thankful to God for the health of my children, and I don't ever want to take that for granted. I am holding them just a little tighter today.

How About You....

....be the handsome prince and I'll be SnowWhite.

....you be Miss Mary and I'll be Landon.

.....you be Brenna and I'll be Ava.

.....you be the Father and I'll be Mulan.

.....you be the Good Witch and I'll be Dorothy.

Reagan is all about pretend these days. She has a vivid imagination and she is always somebody. She doesn't answer to Reagan when she is "in character" and she always has a role for everyone in the house. So much so, that Addison has recently started telling her, "I just want to be Addison". You won't often see Reagan at home, in regular clothes. She most always has a princess dress on. I love watching her play....especially when I get to be the Prince and dance with her.

PS....sometime about 3 weeks ago, she decided to be potty trained again, and we haven't had any accidents! She is doing a great job. I am so relieved.....didn't I mention something about Mommy getting a prize?

From Snow to Swim

We headed to the mountains this weekend for a little getaway. We went to Glenwood Springs, where there is an enormous, natural hot springs pool. It was a three hour trip, which made for great practice for our upcoming 12 hour drive to Texas. We have been traveling in Tommy's car....tight quarters, but the gas is paid for! They watched DVD's most of the way, and only asked if we were almost there 20 or 30 times.

When we arrived, we quickly changed into our swimsuits and headed for the pool. The weather was beautiful!!! It was 70 degrees and sunny, which is really nice here. The hot springs pool is kept at about 95 degrees and the water feels amazing on your skin. The downside is that it is full of sulphur, which is pretty stinky, and yucky if you get it in your mouth! Addison wasn't a fan!!! But the other two liked it! They have a therapy pool, as well, that is 105 degrees. We took turns taking Reagan....she is our hot water fan....and relaxing in that one.

That evening we headed into the little town to find some dinner, than we played all evening in the hotel. It was fun to be away together! I am always so thankful for those times.

7 Months

My Little Gracyn Girl was 7 Months old on the 30th!!! Sickness, Daddy's travel, sickness, snowstorms, Halloween and more sickness have me posting a bit late. Baby girl is tons of fun and we are having a blast watching her grow WAY TOO FAST. Here are some things about her at 7 months.

~ She is so close to crawling!!! She is up on all 4's, rocking back and forth, and on track to being my earliest crawler.

~She loves when we read to her.

~She loves to straddle me, while I am lying down, and bounce all over me like I am a horse!!!

~She says Dadadadadada all the time!

~She is not a big fan of babyfood, but she eats waffles, crackers, cheerios, puffs, bananas and any other "real" food we will let her try.

~She just got her two bottom teeth and I can see two on top just beneath the skin.

~She rolls all over the house!

~She loves riding in the front seat of the Joovy stroller. She starts kicking as soon as you put her in there. She will ride around the entire time, happily kicking the footrest. You can hear us coming from a mile away.

~She loves when we sing to her.

~She loves tags!

~She reaches for Mommy.

Hard to believe we are on the 2nd half of her first year. Now, I better get off here and go find a new home for all the Polly Pockets, Barbies, Little Pet Shops and all their tiny pieces before the crawling becomes official.

If You Have a Two Year Old

~You might find pacifiers in your potty.

~You might find her eating blueberry muffins in her baby sister's crib.

~You might find her hiding in the corner eating cookies, because she thinks if her back is to you, than you can't see her.

~You might find a bite out of the Styrofoam and glue igloo that your older child made at school, because the two-year old mistook if for marshmallows.

~You might laugh ALOT!!!!

~You might realize is is only 2:00 and wonder what else the day holds!!!

Trick or Treat

This was a first for me....and I have to say, it was pretty fun trick-or-treating in the snow. Especially since several neighbors had cute little Halloween snowmen in the front yards. And, also since it had warmed up and was a pretty nice night.

The girls did have to wear jackets, and they had to give up the fancy Halloween shoes for snow boots. But they didn't mind!!! Here they are ready to go. We almost didn't make it out the door, because they were having so much fun passing out candy to the kids who came to our door.

Gracyn traded her Cinderella dress for this warm, cozy bear.

The Little Mermaid, stopping to pose for the camera.

Dorothy collecting some goodies!