January 29, 2011

We've been on a high terror alert from this little one today. Being sick (even if its just a little sick) and being tired are a wicked combination! I have to take pictures like this to remind myself sometimes of how sweet she really is. As we close in on turning 4, I'm really getting scared. She's opinionated, stubborn and knows how to express it! This is making terrible two's and three's seem like a walk in the park.

January 28, 2011

What a difference a few hours makes!! We had a clipper system move through this morning leaving us with a very heavy dusting of snow. The meteorologists predicted lots of sunshine for the afternoon with rising temperatures and that quickly melted the fresh snow. About the only thing left late this evening was on the moutains.

January 27, 2011

Oh yummy goodness!! My friend in Florida sent us these oranges, tangelos and grapefruit. They look beautiful but they taste even better. Kaitlyn normally won't eat citrus but she declared the honeybells to be delicious!

January 26, 2011

Another snowy day. I took this as an opportunity to play with some of my camera settings. None of these turned out that great but I am still learning how to operate my new camera so I settled for them. The snow was a bit disappointing too. The forecasted 1-4 inches was really more like a heavy dusting. Boo!

January 25, 2011

This is wonderful dress. That is how she has always referred to it. I have no clue why. My sister bought this for her in the spring of 2008, I believe. It is a 2T. My child is nearly 4. As you can see, the dress still fits. And she looks for every possible opportunity to wear it. During the summer, that's not a big deal but it is in the dead of winter and we have the winds, the temps and the snow to prove it! But that doesn't phase her--its wonderful dress and it has to be worn. I'll be honest--I would have never bought this dress. The collective colors don't appeal to me. The style is cute but I would have opted for something a little less busy or in a solid color. But Kaitlyn adores this dress and I've come to love it as well. I just hope she's not wearing it when she's ten.

January 24, 2011

She was so sleepy that she fell asleep on the couch before she could even lay down.

January 23, 2011

Dressed and ready for church! And check out the ruby red slippers! I just couldn't walk away from those shoes when I saw them. I had no clue at the time what she'd wear them with but I knew we had to have them.

January 22, 2011

Snuggling, plotting, playing, talking . . . whatever these two are up to it is usually trouble. I managed to catch them snuggling together before Kaitlyn woke up this morning and then again while I was fixing breakfast. You can see by the middle picture that Kaitlyn was telling Madison to look at the camera and actually moving her head towards me.

January 21, 2011

I love watching my girl dance. She was really focused tonight and did a great job jumping the boxes.

January 20, 2011

We went to a basketball game last night at Roanoke College. They recently chose a mascot, a hawk named Rooney. Rooney surfs through the stands, shaking hands, giving high fives and hanging out with the spectators. Kaitlyn was terrified of him last year. This year is no different. Once she spots him in the crowd she obsesses about where he is and how close he's getting to her. I took her up to him last night and she gave him a high five but she never really let go of my neck. He gave her a stuffed Rooney which she gladly accepted and even enjoyed playing with once we were back to our seats and the big Rooney "duck" (which is what she calls him) was gone. She even slept with her stuffed Rooney last night and it was the first thing she reached for when she woke up. I think she likes the little stuffed one better because she's bigger than it is and she can control his movements.

January 19, 2011

This was the sky at 8:15 am. The sun was determined to shine through this and finally won!

January 18, 2011

We woke up to a little bit of snow this morning.

The fields that surround us are usually pretty yucky looking in the winter with the brown grass and the barren trees. The snow makes it all so beautiful and really highlights the trees that normally don't catch my attention.

January 17, 2011

Hubby surprised me with the Zumba game on Friday night. He didn't give it to me until after a meal at Cracker Barrel. I must have still been high on hash brown casserole because I immediately loaded it up and proceeded to embarrass myself. Thankfully the blinds were down and the witnesses can be bribed with pancakes. LOL Actually, I did better than I would have guessed but I have a lot to learn. I line-danced in college but that's been a couple of years ago and I was in a lot less pain back then. I'm hoping that as I get the moves down that the exercise will help with my back pain but even if it doesn't, the game is still a lot of fun. I just hope I looked as sexy in my sweat pants as I pretended I did.

January 16, 2011

I bought the girl some pretty pink cowboy boots from Target. When we were getting ready for church she asked to wear them. I put this pretty little Dora dress on her and the boots looked adorable with it.

January 15, 2011

All that remains.

This is snow left over from our Christmas Day snow storm. We've had a few dustings, even a heavier dusting or two but the Christmas snow iced over and never has completely melted. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be in the 40's and we're expecting rain early next week so I'm guessing this snow will soon be gone.

January 14, 2011

These are a few of my favorite things . . . . LOL

I was sitting here thinking about how much I love Barq's root beer. I just truly love it. And that prompted me to take a few photos of some of the other junk I love. Luckily I don't eat this stuff very often. I do drink at least one Coke a day and sometimes two. Sometimes I'll have a Coke and a root beer. I'm trying to cut back--some days I do great, some days not. I love all the candy and ice cream shown here too but I really limit my consumption. One of those things where if I eat it one day, then I just want more the next. The Baked Cheetos are a new obsession--they are soooooo good. Evil in a cheddar crunch, I tell ya.

I re-discovered ice cream last summer. I wasn't able to eat it for at least 9 years and now I can eat it again in small quantities. Kaitlyn had never really had much ice cream so when I started buying it, she quickly chose favorites. Chocolate chip cookie dough, chocolate peanut butter cup and cookies 'n cream rank as our top three, at least right now. That is subject to change (at least for her--those have always been my favorites) when the weather warms up and we can eat it again.

January 13, 2011

My dear baby girl is learning to write. She wrote this note for her Mamaw and Papaw. They are headed to New York and she wanted to write them a note before they left. We practiced her letters for awhile before we got this final draft down. She's doing such a good job and I can't wait until she starts writing little notes for me without being prompted.

January 12, 2011

This is looking out my back window. Pastures, trees, creeks . . . it is beautiful even on a cold, nasty day.

January 11, 2011

Meet Mommy Fish and Baby Fish.

She won these at the beach in November. We went to a church Trunk or Treat on Halloween and then spent the next few days tending these little creatures and finally transporting them 7 hours home. They have really grown and we enjoy watching their crazy antics. They dance and wiggle for us when it is time to eat. They chase each other a lot. And they jump and splash at the top of the water. They sure are fun and I'm glad they are thriving in our little tank.

January 10, 2011

Blackberry jelly. Makes a wonderful sandwich. Except she likes an open faced sandwich--don't fold the bread over and don't add a "top" to it. Be prepared to pull her hair back while she eats it and quickly (very quickly) wash her hands and face after she eats.

January 9, 2011

All dressed up and ready for church.

We were both excited for this morning to come--we finally found brown shoes to match the brown dress she got for Christmas. It made an adorable little outfit and one she was quite proud to show off.

January 8, 2011

Pancakes.

Daddy must be home today.

Most mornings Kaitlyn wakes up after her Daddy has left for work so she's always sure to ask if he's home before she places her "order" for breakfast.

Somewhere along the line, when I obviously wasn't paying attention, it became expected by everyone in the house that when Daddy is home, we eat pancakes for breakfast. This is fine if it is just Saturday and Sunday mornings but when he is on vacation and home for four or five (or more) days straight, I get tired of pancakes. Of course, even the dog gets a plain pancake which Kaitlyn feeds to her while making the dog do her tricks. The few times I've neglected to make her a pancake because I ran out of batter, it feels like she's giving me an evil glare all day. Now I just make a little bit more batter if it looks like I'm running low. Keeps the whole house happy that way.

January 7, 2011

They are the best of friends and the worst of enemies sometimes. But through it all, I know they love each other. I could take a picture similar to these almost every night because they almost always end up sleeping curled up together.

January 6, 2011

Pout, pout, pout. Obviously someone is NOT happy with Mommy right now. I never did figure out why she was pouting so it must not have been that big of a deal. It was kind of funny to see the extra stuff she took with her to occupy her time until I came looking for her.

January 5, 2011

We were on our way to the library for story hour. I snapped these pictures to show off her new outfit. She loves the ruffle on the shirt and the wild pattern on the pants.