Maybe a Little Too Much Christmas Cheer?

Carolyn worked really hard on an art project of hers tonight for an hour and a half! And she’s still not done with it ….we agreed that I would leave all of her crayons, stickers, paper, etc. out over night so she could pick right back up from where she left off. When I walked over to see what she was working on, she told me it was a surprise…she was making me a book for Christmas! That’s my little girl…prepping for Christmas in Sept :) (Maybe this is bad?) Anyways, I feel so special that her little book for me is taking her so long to make…I’m not allowed to look at it until Christmas so I took these pictures and left her alone :) Carolyn now has a “Christmas Binder” where she is going to store all of her Christmas gifts she makes for people....
(And don't worry, even though we're a little obsessive about Christmas over here, we don't overlook the other holidays! Carolyn picked out what she wanted to be for Halloween and we got the costume last weekend (for $1! The Thrift Store by my apt. has a "Half Off" Sale every Saturday:) I got her little costume and cute dresses for her - each costing $1 - $2..yahoo! I love getting a great deal :)

Furthermore, we are also prepping for Thanksgiving right now by recording things we are thankful for on a regular basis....so, yeah, we aren't forgetting the other holidays :)

Anyways, on to a new topic :) Carolyn is such a sweety. After we read Family Scriptures, Carolyn likes have her personal study time to "read" the scriptures. I love hearing the stories she tells of Jesus (and of being nice, how to be happy, etc.) while she has the scriptures open! It truly strengthens my testimony every night to hear her sweet stories and testimony of Jesus.

And this is sweet Angela and me participating in one of Angela's FAVORITE things: brushing her teeth!! Whenever I want to distract Angela from something or make her happy, I say, "Brush teeth?" and she goes running to the bathroom.

Little Miss Creativity

I love how Carolyn has always been so creative. With her, everything comes to life. She loves making everything and anything become a “person” and then having the objects she created talk to each other. Her fingers, pencils, paper, rocks, food – you name it, it comes to life! She is always creating little stories with objects.

Here is Carolyn playing with pieces of felt. The blue piece is a princess and the red is a prince; they are escaping from an evil queen (a black piece of felt).

Kissy Monster

What's more adorable than having your one-year-old obsessed with giving out kisses?

To let you know that she wants a kiss, Angela will start puckering her lips and kissing the air over and over again until she gets a kiss. She is doing this all of the time. Really? Can my kids get any cuter? :)

...And here is our little Kissy Monster in the tub:

Thanks Grandpa, Grandma, and Nana!

All last week, Nana (Andrew's mom) was here visiting! Because we were so busy, I didn't get any pictures :( But, we had a lot of fun with her!

This morning, we got a lovely package from my parents. One thing they sent the girls was a 3D wooden alligator puzzle! Carolyn was so excited! She wasn't quite patient enough for us to finish it - she wanted to pull it all apart before the gator was finished :) I don't blame her, however, they do take some time to put together! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

My mom also sent me the Gospel Art Picture Kit! I've been wanting this for a long time! It has A TON of gospel art pictures - we will get sooo much use out of that for FHE, callings, preschool, etc. YAHOO!

I already posted about this on my preschool blog, but Carolyn is so excited about her books she makes that I had to post it here (she had me take a picture of her reading every page in one of her books). She is really motivated right now to learn how to read. She really wants to be able to read the signs at the zoo (the ones that tell you the animal names and information about them). Most times we go to the zoo, Carolyn will bring a book along with her so she can practice reading in between seeing the animals so she can work up to reading the signs.

Look at our little Angela's hand reading, too :) She's so cute. The other day we were out for a walk and whenever a car would pass us, she'd stop whatever she was doing and wave at the car. After the car would pass us, she'd blow kisses to the car. She's such a sweety. She blows kisses a lot of times when we are leaving a store, the park, etc....everything and everyone gets her sweet little kisses! Which, by the way, she's getting pretty good at kissing for real. She used to just open her mouth and move it in when we'd ask for a kiss (which was adorable), but now she's getting good at puckering when she kisses us. We love both our little girlies.

Carolyisms

This is a conversation Daddy and Carolyn had on Saturday while we all walked into Costco for some family shopping:

Daddy: “I want to be like Mommy.”

Carolyn: “You want to be like me, too?”

Daddy: “Yes!”

Carolyn: “To be like me, you dance and sing.”

Carolyn couldn’t have put it better than that.

She still insists to always wear a dress or a skirt so that she has the ability to dance all of the time with a flowing bottom. She dances in the grocery store, at the park, at church while we are singing in Sacrament meeting, on the walk from our apartment to the car when we are leaving somewhere…everywhere. She just can’t get enough of it.

She also loves to sing. All of the time. And very loudly. It was a given to me that people above and below our apt. could hear Carolyn’s tunes all day, but I was shocked when I spoke with the girl that lives ACROSS from our apt. and learned that she could hear her sing! Our apartments are not connected AT ALL! Our neighbor is very nice about it; she just told me that she loves listening to Carolyn’s songs in the morning while eating breakfast (another reason why we go to the park first thing in the morning - so we don't wake up the neighbors :). Hopefully this gives you an idea of how loud Carolyn loves to belt out her songs. And she belts all of the time. I was at the zoo with a friend of mine on Friday; she said, “Carolyn’s singing is like her cow bell. It’s easy to keep track of her.” Very true. It’s not hard to keep track where Carolyn is - just follow the singing.

I love Sacrament meetings with Carolyn. If she isn’t dancing to the hymns being sung, she is sitting down with the hymn book open (pointing to random words in the book) and belting out whatever words she can think of. Luckily, our ward sings pretty loud so only the people ahead of us get a good smile out of Carolyn’s singing.

Anyways, I could go on forever about this. Long story short: If you want to be like Carolyn, sing and dance.

Preschool with Mommy

So, I was starting to make a post about what we've been up to in preschool this week and realized that there were just too many pictures! I decided that I should just start a seperate blog for my prechool ideas with Carolyn and Angela. The purpose of the blog is mostly so I can remember things I do with them for in the future. But, if you would like to take a look - that'd be lovely :) It's nothing too fancy, but it's fun :)

http://www.preschoolwithmommy.blogspot.com/

15 Months and Too Cute to Be True :)

Angela is such a little sweetheart. Here are a few fun facts about our little Angel:

1. Angela loves to read! She will follow me around with books and then climb up on my lap for some good reading :) Her favorite book is From Head to Toe by Eric Carle. She loves pounding her hands on her chest like a gorilla....
2. ...which brings me to my next point, she loves animals! Her favorite is a dog and she has absolutely no fear of petting any dog!
3. She loves her sister, Carolyn. She wants to play everything with her :)
4. She is a great sleeper! She takes great naps (1.5-3 hour naps! wow!) and great at night (she even can usually sleep through Carolyn waking up at night (if she wet the bed or has to use the bathroom)).
5. She loves going outside! She usually is up between 6 and 7 AM and starts bringing everyone their shoes soon after to head outside. Once we get outside and she hits the ground out there, she runs like she's been waiting her whole life to be out there.
6. She's really into playing with balls. The other day the bathroom door was opened (oopps!), so she ran in there and threw a little beach ball in the toilet! Score! Maybe our future basketball player?
7. She's been off the bottle for a few month now (YAY! That one was a tough one with our sweet Carolyn) and is such a good eater. Probably from watching Carolyn, she loves her fruits and vegetables...and most anything else I give her!
8. She looooves dolls! She brings her little doll around with her all day long. She loves patting her doll, feeding her the doll bottle, dressing her, putting her in her high chair, etc.
9. She loooooves snuggles!! YAY! She also loves being tickled! A lot of times she will lye down and snuggle with me and then put both of her arms up (like a mummy holding both arms out) and wait for me to tickle both of her arms! And she just loves it. And I, of course, can't get enough of it either :)
10. She gets in really giggly moods! IT'S SO FUNNY AND ADORABLE! Everything will make her laugh when she's in one of those "moods." CUTE!
11. We love our Angela! What a sweetie-pie!