Gymnastics Awards

At the end of each gymnastics session, they have a small awards ceremony for the girls. Each of my girls won a ribbon and a bracelet. They had a few seconds to stand up on the stage and hear their teachers talk about their strengths in class. When asked their favorite part of gymnastics, Reagan said bars and Addison said trampoline.

Poor Gracyn doesn't have an activity just yet, because I can't fit anything for her in our schedule. Both older girls go to afternoon school, so she is napping during that time, and I can't find anything in the morning that has an activity for all of them at once. So, for now, she sits in the bleachers with me and munches on popcorn. Hopefully, once we get moved and settled, we can find something for her.

We love Miss Jill

She loves popcorn
Addison's teacher said she was dependable and a great listener

Ta-Da

Hula-Hoop Crazy

Gracyn snuck down to try it

Reagan's Christmas Party

Reagan's 3-year old class celebrated Christmas a few days ago. Tommy and I got to go and watch her sing a few songs and visit her friends. She did a great job singing. She knew all the words and wasn't at all shy. We love her school and are going to miss it terrible. I pray we a Christian preschool in Ohio that we love just as much.

Ice Skating

The girls have been begging, for quite some time to go ice skating. We made our first attempt last weekend, but it was freezing. Much to their disappointment, we bailed at the last minute. Thankfully the early part of the week brought some beautiful 60 degree days. We surprised them by picking Addison up at the bus on Tuesday afternoon and heading to the rink. They had a blast and picked it up surprisingly well. I already bought some Groupon passes for a few more trips back. We had a great time!

Just before they headed on to the ice.

Such a cute little spectator.

Clinging to the rails.

Daddy helping Reagan. She was a handful. She would skate along pretty well for a few minutes, and then her feet would just suddenly go crazy, kicking and flailing everywhere!

They have these big construction cones for the kids to balance on and push around.

Gracyn and I were the smart ones, who hit the ice in our tennis shoes!

Addison really started to get the hang of it, she could go a short distance on her own.

Brave Daddy.

And, she crashed into the rail! The picture doesn't do it justice, but that is the biggest fat lip I have EVER seen. Bloody teeth, bloody lips and no tears. Her eyes got a little red as we checked her out, but she mostly just begged to get going again.

Cuteness.

This is a fancy as it gets, especially considering he wears a size 15 shoe and he is crammed into 13's....the biggest they had.

Gracyn loved getting a ride on this little bucket. I pulled her all over the rink like this. She figured out how to twist her waist and make the bucket wiggle!

Can't wait to go back! Maybe I will brave skates next time.

Christmas Party

Sunday night we had a Christmas party with our home bible study group. The kids drew names and exchanged gifts and the parents did a white elephant gift card exchange. We ate lots of yummy appetizers and desserts. We had a great time celebrating the season with everyone.

Present Time!

Gracyn tried out all of Gabriella's baby things. She was quite the ham for pictures that night.

Julie, Sammy, Kylee, Addison and Reagan having dinner.

Gracyn ate her dinner in the Bumbo.

Gracyn got this musical sea horse, which she calls, "Sea Neigh-Neigh".

More Presents!

She really did try EVERY baby toy.

Joe and Wendy

Brian and Dawn

Sarah and Ryan

Tommy and I

The Mommies

The Daddies

Tired, jammied kiddos ready to go. Our girls were sound asleep as soon as we got in the car.

Gracyn's Neigh-Neigh

On our last trip to Texas, Gracyn fell in love with the horses and has been a little horse crazy ever since! Saturday Christmas packages arrived from Pappy's house. The big girls got cameras that they love. They have been snapping away pictures since they arrived. Gracyn got an American Girl horse that she is head-over-heels in love with.

Peeking in the box. At this point, the sisters have a better idea of what is in there.

Now she knows.

Love at first sight. She calls it Tony....the name of the horse they ride at my Dad's.

Stepping away from her sisters. Claiming her prize.

She carries it all day and sleeps with it at night.

Love.

Santa

Saturday afternoon, we had an invitation from our realtors, to come meet Santa at their office. We made plans to meet some friends for lunch, visit Santa, and then head over to a nearby ice skating rink, for a first skating experience. We had to bail on the skating, because it was freezing outside! But, Santa was fun for the girls.

Gracyn's first visit with Santa, was last month in Texas. She sat in his lap, looked right at him and ripped his hat off! She has talked about it since, always saying, "Santa Hat!!!" and laughing. She was a little surprised with this Santa....he had no hat. That kept her out of trouble, I guess.

20 Month Favorites

~Gracyn calls orange juice "Ernie". Don't know why. Every morning I fill cups for her and Reagan. She then points to each cup and says, "Mine Ernie, right. Rea-Rea Ernie, right." She will then drink her entire cup in just a few minutes and tell me, "More, Ernie!".

~We left Maggie the Lab at my parent's house in Texas, while we are working on the moving process. They will put her on a plane to Ohio once we get settled there. In the meantime, Gracyn misses her terribly. She says daily, "Mannie-Dog Pappy's house.". She also tells us about Pappy's "Neigh-neighs" and all their carrots and apples and about their fishy who she always says is "Night Night".

~Making sure we have our steady dose of girl drama around here, she cries daily, usually for about 5 minutes over having her finger nicked by Pappy's horse. Hank the horse just barely grazed her finger with his teeth, while she was feeding him a carrot (2 weeks ago). She didn't shed a tear at the time, but tells us everyday since that "Neigh-niegh, bite, finger (funger), band-aid!". She will get upset about it and just cry and cry until we can distract her with something.

~Anytime she is about to do something she shouldn't and we see her and tell her no, she will stop the behavior, smile ever so sweetly and say, "Hi Mommy!".

~She loves baby dolls and her plastic horses, which she calls by name according to the one's they look like at Pappy's house.

~She still has the endearing habit of saying the same thing over and over AND OVER again, until she gets the response she is looking for.

~She loves to sing favs include I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee and Pat-A-Cake. She sings different songs, but she always intertwines every song with the words from I Had a Little Turtle. She also yodels like Jesse in Toy Story 3. She learned that from Reagan.

~If I tell her no about something, she goes and asks Addison.

~She loves fish and Elmo.

~She is just as cute as can be and growing up way to quickly!!!

Thanksgiving Day

Our Thanksgiving day started off a little rough with what should have been a 2 hour drive back into the Dallas area from Tommy's parents. Unfortunately, due to a train de-railing the night before, the freeway into Dallas had been shut down. We sat in traffic forever and then were forced onto another freeway and had no idea where we were. A grand total of 4 hours later, we arrived at my aunt and uncles house. I promise you if we hadn't left some of our stuff at my dad's we probably would have just changed the destination in the GPS and came all the way back to Denver! Fortunately after we arrived, our drive was quickly forgotten and we had a great day eating tons of food, playing Wii, doing crafts and visiting with family.

Addison, Brylee and Ashton playing with dinosaurs. Reagan had a blast with Ashton. They were very serious about their game. Ashton is a living miracle, many of you Texas bible study girls prayed for him several years ago. He had cancer in his leg as a baby and had to have his leg amputated. He is cancer free and a healthy 4 year old now. He has a prosthetic leg, but he is not a fan and can't be convinced to wear it very often. No need though, he gets around just as fast as any other kid without it.

Sweet Austin playing with Gracyn.
Reagan helping Brylee ride her new horse.

My girls and Pappy.

Sweet cousins in unplanned, matching Gymboree outfits. How cute is that?

After spending the afternoon with my family, we headed to Tommy's aunts house. There we ate more food, watched the Cowboy game, played with cousins and had a great time catching up with everyone. I took no pictures there, or for the last few days of our trip. I think maybe 9 days of travel, unpacking and repacking for 4 different locations and keeping up with the girls had us too busy and tired for picture taking. We are thankful for a great trip, for safe travels, for our family and for God's love and provisions.