Hmm.

I'm beginning to think Grover's a bad influence.

The Letter Y!

There's just nothing like watching Sesame Street in your pajamas, sans bottoms, with a banana and bed head.

Mei tei rules again!

I'm thrilled to be able to carry Cora around in the mei tei now. Before now I only had her in the moby wrap in front of me. But now, she's big enough to put on my back, which means I can get more done around the house. Yay!

Jibjabby Cousins

Eeooch, Aunt Rachel, Ra Ra (she goes by many names) created a jibjab video of the cousins.  IT IS HILARIOUS.  We're too cheap to pay for the outrageous cost to buy the silly video, so here's the link to Rachel's blog post and to the jibjab video directly.  Enjoy!

Stockings are hung

Our first Christmas as four in our first home! This deserved a special treat: New Stockings! To tell whose was whose, I had these wooden tags painted with each of our initials. I LOVE how they turned out.

Wha?

How can this be comfortable?

The Night Before Christmas

This is THE BEST book. Granny got it for Elayna's 1st Christmas. Its ginormous pop ups are totally engaging, even for a 28 year old Mama. Seriously, especially if you have kids, you need this book. ISBN 0689838999

Elayna don't take off your shoes.

But... as usual the shoes are gone by the time we get where we're going. Gotta love her.

Squanto sleeps

She's getting better and better at sleeping in her crib, specifically for naps. Except for today. Today was bad. But I have hope for tomorrow. She's perfecting thumb-sucking. So that makes it a little easier, when she wants to cooperate. (I definitely see my own bull-headedness in her already.) It won't be long before we give her a pinky. Or maybe we should find her some purples since Elayna uses pinkies?

Wild at Heart

Wild at Heart is a book for every person to read, man or woman. It addresses three desires within the heart of men: A battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a need to rescue the "damsel in distress." The author writes in an easy-to-read manner and even reflects upon his own life and those he has counseled. Having also raised three boys, Eldredge has much to offer in this book.

After reading Wild at Heart women will have a better understanding their men and men will better understand who God has intended them to be. Most would say this book is for young men, but I think it would be a great read for all ages.

I encourage you to also read Captivating, a female counterpart to Wild at Heart, written by John Eldredge with help from his wife, Stasi.

Verizon Dance Off

It doesn't matter where Elayna is or what she's doing, when this commercial comes on, she runs into the living room and starts to dance her little booty off.  She gets so excited and I'm just gonna have to catch it on video for you to really enjoy.

This girl loves to dance.  LOVES to dance.  During song night with our congregation, she gets up and starts clapping and dancing in the middle of our little group.  (Um, we definitely didn't teach her that. Hahaha.)

My Mohican

These pictures are awwwful, but I thought they'd give you a pretty good idea of what kind of hair this girl has-- when it's not pulled together in a bow for public outings.  (Who am I kidding, it's hardly ever pulled back.  Let people think what they want.)  I oughta just put some gel in there and let it spike.  You'd love that, wouldn't you Renee?

Day One, Day One!

"God made light when there was none,
Day one, day one,
God made light when there was none."

This is now Elayna's favorite song to sing.  She tries to go through all the lyrics but can't remember them.  And of course I can't either without sneaking a peek at google.  She's obsessed with turning lights on and off and telling me about light and dark and how God made light.

When I realized what she was doing by flickering all the light switches in the house, I started playing along and asked "Who made the light?"  And she replied, "Debbie."  Debbie is her Bible class teacher.

"Yes, Ms. Debbie turns the light on and off in your classroom.  Who makes light?"
"Dod."  YAY!  I'm so happy with how much she's learning and sharing.  I know I may be a little biased, but I think she's the smartest little girl out there!

Elayna's also pointing out all the colors she sees.  Ev-ry-where. She currently knows: blue, purple, green, red, orange, yellow, pink, brown, and black.  My favorite is her "blue sky."  She exclaims how the sky is blue each  time she sees it.  I'm talking it's as if she's seen the sky for the first time ever and it's blue.  But sometimes it's a "pink sky."  And she gets just as excited at a pink sky too.  So she's already been introduced to "sky blue pink."  (You would've had to been in our high school french class to get that one.)

And she counts EVERYTHING.  The apples in our fruit basket.  Or the 1-2-3 "banans" hanging above the 1-2-3-4 apples.  (Diane, she's already bilingual!)

And Cora Lise.  Well, she cries a lot.  But now it's not an "I'm gonna die" cry every time she needs something.  We're starting to distinguish "diaper change" cries from "hungry" and "tired."  Thank goodness.  And boy does this girl smile.  I love being greeted with a gummy grin when I pick her up.  I'm kinda jealous because Ryan gets WAY more smiles than I do.  Even Elayna gets a lot of smiles.

Cora's following her sister's lead by trying to be the biggest baby out there.  At 2 1/2 months of age, she's already wearing some 9 month outfits.  I have strangers cooing over her and then asking, "Is she five... six months old?" Oh my my.  And don't get me started on her hair.  The girl really could be the last of the Mohicans with her permanent mohawk.  It will not stay down.  And now that her hair is thinning away in the back and on the sides, it's even more exaggerated.  Someone send me a feather.

Oh wow, this was supposed to be a real quick post.  But I love my girls and just had to share!  Enjoy the rest of your day!

Happy Sunday!

***EDIT***

I just noticed you can see their eye colors.  When you zoom in on the picture, you can totally see Elayna's green eyes and Cora's blue.  Here's the zoom image, but you'll have to click on the pic to zoom again to really see the blue.

***ORIGINAL***

Elayna was not thrilled I made her take this picture. She wanted to get to "Bible tass" ASAP.

Making Cracker Cookies

This was so much fun. I love how Elayna's old enough to participate. And even though she was getting peanut butter stuck in her mouth she kept eating every other cookie we made. (She loved them even more after they'd been dipped in chocolate. As you could imagine!)

Uh oh

Otto found Elayna's decorative creation. She explained to him that she made a mess. And while he went to tell Santa about the colorful mess Elayna put her crayons away.

Shutterfly Xmas

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Knock on wood.

She's always slept pretty well at night, but now she's sleeping the entire night. I'm talking from 8pm until 5am (8am today). MIGHT get up once sometime in between there. And I wake her up to feed her before I head to bed, so I guess that's twice, tops. Now if we can just get her to take naps as well as she sleeps at night I'll be absolutely beside myself! (Diane, did you notice Cora's in her crib? Every night now. No problems whatsoever. Yay!)

No Santa, No!

Elayna loves Otto the Elf but hates Santa Claus. When she wasn't screaming or crying, we managed to get a photo-- of her planning an escape route. And Cora, well, she's impartial for now. Happy holidays!

Family Fun Night

We forgot the stroller AND the moby wrap. No problem. God remembered to leave a shopping cart outside the mall entrance.

A Ton of 2's

Wow.  I still can't believe I have a two year old and a 2 month old.  (And you can add all those other 2's in there too.  Tons of two's.)

Eucerin

So this morning when I told Elayna to stay in her room while I got Cora ready, she took it upon herself to slather lotion ALL over. That would also be AFTER I told her to leave the Eucerin alone. This stuff isn't just a really thick hydrator. It's like whipped Vaseline. You can imagine how late we were for worship!

Little Dresses

One of the ministries I've helped out with (when it was still an itty bitty project) has blossomed into an international endeavor!  AND made NBC's Nightly News.  Congratulations to everyone who's helped make it possible!  I'm so proud to have been part of such an awesome work.  I'm hoping to involve the congregation we worship with here in Georgia.  It's first on my To Do list as soon as the new year starts.

Um

Cora's bumbo arrived today and Elayna's already claimed it for her Teddy bear. And instead of sitting in her chair she prefers the broken doll stroller. (Ignore the laundry waiting to be put up-- at least it's folded!)

Wheee!

Waiting very patiently...

... while I get us ready to go to the park.

OMGoodness

Parents Rescue Baby In Car During Carjacking?

What?!  This story is amazing.  Check it out.

(Thank you, Renee.  Now I am even more suspicious and paranoid.)  

Creepy!

She's sound asleep. With her eyes open!

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