Sunday Sillies

I haven't done a Sunday sillies in a while, mostly because Sunday's tend to be a little bit wild around here!!  I know I am going to regret it later if I don't continue this, because some of the things that our sweet girl does and says are priceless!!  Here are a couple:

• One night we were eating dinner and we were asking Raleigh about her next birthday and what she wanted.  Very seriously she told us she wanted a party where KeKoo (the name she gave Clint's brother) would wear a bunny suit and hold a big star!?!  What???  If you ask her today, she is still set on that idea...I'm not really sure what we are going to do with that?
• There are many mornings when I wake Raleigh up that she will refuse to answer to her name because, "I am not that person today, but guess."  Awesome.  I then have to guess which person she has chosen to be.  Once we establish who she is for the day, that then reflects on how our hair is fixed, what outfit we wear, etc...   Most of the time she is Rapunzel or Cinderella, one time she was Bob the tomato, which made things interesting! 
• She is still telling people that she is having a baby sister, but it's name is Thad!
• She has an odd love for closing doors....there have been many times that I have been shut in a door way, closed inside the pantry, and even locked out of the house once.  Just a word of caution: don't stand in a doorway in our house!
• We are still getting over our fear of the doctor (we are still a little bit scarred from our hospital visit when we were really young...I'm telling you her memory is pretty amazing) so the times that she has gone to the doctor with me for baby Thad have been interesting.  Lately though, she has started instructing the doctor on how to do his job and then encourages him when he does his job to her standards.  Hopefully she won't feel the need to help with the delivery soon!

What do you think?

Do you think that we might have trouble adjusting in about 10 days???  Hopefully this little princess is going to be OK with someone else being in this seat!!  If not, thankfully grandparents will be here to help ease the us through the rough patch!!

 Trying so had to fit into her old seat.

A smile...thinking we have found some success.

The dinosaur glare

There are many times in our house that we get "stuck" on certain things.  Pigs, Cinderella, Mickey Mouse, Tangled, and singing certain songs are just a few things we tend to love over and over.  Lately, one of our favorite books is "How do dinosaurs eat their food?"  Raleigh thinks it is just great.  So, we read it over and over and over (I know many of you can relate).  The other day we were cooking and Raleigh looked at me with a funny look on her face.  I asked her what and why she was making that face, and her response was priceless.  She stated, "Mom, I am glaring like a dinosaur."  It took us a while to put all of the pieces together, but this is the face she was making:

This is the picture she was referring to:

It is pretty close if you ask me!!  It took us a while to stop laughing so hard, but we thought it was pretty funny.  It definitely has made it easier to correct her when she makes a weird face at a stranger or anyone else.  This girl is always keeping us on our toes and guessing!!

Easter Pictures- Take 2

Finally!!!!  When this past Easter came around, we never got a chance to get good pictures of Raleigh in her Easter dress.  Well, finally this week she and I went out and took some pics.  For some reason she was feeling the need to wear her "queen,"  which is on of her tiara's.  The "queen" wearing just spurred her on to wear other head gear...she is such a ham!!  We had fun and got a few good pics.  Here are some from our day....

 First we took pictures inside...love those beautiful blue eyes!!

Then we moved outside.  Her curly hair has been worth the LONG wait for it to grow in! 

I think this is her bubble guppies dance??? 

This is the most I could get her to be serious. 

Then we had to bust out the "queen." 

This picture is my favorite!!  I made it bigger and in black and white and it is beautiful!!  Up close you can see how long Ra's eyelashes are :) 

Then for some reason we had to break out the monkey hat.... 

Our beautiful, silly, wonderful girl!!!

Thad's Room

It is official folks!!!  We are done with Thad's room.  Clint says that he will never do this again (which is usually what he says after we finish one of my projects).  I love it!!  We still have a few finishing touches, but I personally think it looks "manly" enough without having to be a UFC cage (yes, that was what Clint wanted to do originally).  I have to admit it was pretty tough having to change my mindset from all things sparkly and ruffly to the rough and tough boy world.

 After we measured everything out, we decided to hand paint all of the diamonds instead of tape them all and try to get a clean edge.  Clint did the white and I did the blue...he looks really happy doesn't he? Ha!!

 Here is a picture of the wall complete!!  We used white bedding with a blue stripe that I attached.  Raleigh has been reading all of his books and playing with his toys lately.

 Here is another angle...there was really no way to hide the camera monitor.

 A different angle...I painted his name on little canvases in a "manly" print

 Some of his decorations on a bookshelf...I forgot to take a picture of that.  The cubed shelf has black boxes on it for storage.

The Lake

At the beginning of August, Clint took off a little bit, so that our family could spend some time together.  By the end of the summer this becomes a coveted thing because it seems that we are all never in the same place at the same time for months!  As crazy as it may seem, when choosing a place to go, we make the selection based on cell phone reception.  That's right...cell phone reception.  Basically, if Clint can't get phone reception, it is a little bit easier to press the pause button on life for a moment.  So, we went out to the lake for a couple of days.  So fun!!  We relaxed, ate, slept, fed catfish, watched movies, and had so much fun.

 Daddy and Raleigh sitting on the dock getting ready to feed the fish.

 Watching the giant catfish snack on their breakfast!!

 Ready to rock and roll!!!  Lately we have been smiling so big our eyes tend to shut!  Ha!

 This girl is so brave with her dad by her side.  She loved driving "her" jet ski in lots of circles.

 What cute lake bums!!

 Mommy and Raleigh...check out that cute pregnancy bathing suit, I know you are jealous!!

 Of course we had to do some baking...testing the batter is a must!

 What cute little helping hands!!

 Raleigh's choice for cookies...dinosaurs, bunnies, snowmen, and circles of course!!

 We painted our nails also!!  Raleigh girl picked out everyone's color for their nails.

 Keeping a careful watch on the progress.

 So pretty!

 It was also a must for us to take in the scenery...with a little bit of coloring!

Hebrews 4:16

Sweet Raleigh,
One of the things that we have always prayed over you even before you were born was that you would have a contagious personality.  That you would be kind, loving, humble, but most of all confident.  I know that may seem odd, but as we watch all the "big girls" (that mommy and daddy get to help at church) struggle with confidence in who they are and who their God is, we pray that you would have so much confidence that it is contagious!!  Confidence in who God has created you to be and who your God is.  We have been blessed to watch your personality grow along with your beauty.  Even though you are only 2, your desire to love others and love God's word is amazing.

"Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need." Hebrews 4:16

We love you,
Mommy and Daddy



 

Potty Training

I think it might be official....we are potty trained!!  I have been so proud of Raleigh and how well she has done.  We started the second week in August and are to the point now where she hasn't had an accident for a couple of weeks.  We tried a three day method that several of our friends recommended...let me just tell you it is not for the faint of heart.  I felt like all I said for days over and over was, "Raleigh, how are your panties?  Just let mommy know when you need to go potty, ok?"  Just typing those sentences makes me feel a little bit crazy!!  The first couple of days were super tough, but after making it through those couple of days, we were pretty much potty trained except for the occasional accident and our strong willed nature.  Then we had to go places...which threw an interesting spin on things.  Raleigh was very nervous to tell anyone besides us that she had to go potty, so it made church and school a little bit crazy.  It seems though that this past week we have turned the final corner on going potty in public places, telling people without being asked, and not being afraid to do a little more than tee tee in the potty.  We are so thankful that she is completely in big girl panties (even at night time and naps) and we will only have to pay for diapers for one kiddo.  We are also hugely thankful for the incentive of purple slushes from sonic and watermelon slices, without which our princess would not be potty trained.  Way to go Raleigh!!

 So happy to be in "big girl panties"!!!

For our first day without any accidents, Raleigh requested, "the biggest purple slush that sonic makes."  Wish granted sweet girl!!!

We also found that sometimes when you potty in heels, it just helps.  Ha!!

First Day of School

A couple of weeks ago we started "school" in our house.  We absolutely love it!!!  It is only two days a week, which works well with everything else going on in our world.  This has been the best thing for both of us.  For Raleigh, it allows her a chance to be with kids her age without me and learn a ton.  This has been wonderful for our sweet little thing that truly believes all of our high school students are her peers.  For me, it gives me a chance to teach children, which is something I have missed on occasion since deciding to stay home with Raleigh.  Raleigh seems to be adjusting well with her new classroom, buddies and teachers (she is not a big fan of change).   Her teachers have been wonderful to love on her and manage her sassiness all at the same time.  We truly are blessed so far with our school experience this year (minus having to pack a lunch). 

 A bad first day of school???  I laugh at the thought of that craziness.

 A picture with her favorite person..Daddy, of course!!

What a cutie!!!  How in the world did she get so big??

Butterflies

Last spring for school, I ordered butterflies so that we could watch the whole metamorphosis process.  Somehow the butterflies I ordered got sent to Mexico!!  Seriously....it happened.   All that to say, by the time the butterflies got to us, school was out, but it gave us a chance to watch them at our house.  It was so much fun!!

Here are our little friends inside their cacoons

This is the interesting contraption that we used to grow our butterflies!!

One of our four cute little butterflies!!

Daddy giving assistance to timid Raleigh.

So excited to watch her butterflies fly to their new home.

Helping the butterflies "go home!"

Tap dancing queen

The other night while I was getting school lunches together, Raleigh was entertaining herself and others by tap dancing to some of her barnyard music that is on the refrigerator.  The girl has some serious rhythm!!  Ha!  She thought she was being quite silly, but I am pretty impressed that she was able to do that in high heels...way better than I could ever do!!

A few of her favorite things

I have gotten a little behind in updating...imagine that!!  Ha!  Our summer and spring were super busy, but we have had so much fun with the little things.  Lately our busy girl has been into lots of things.  Some of the things that she enjoys on a regular basis are:

I love making popcorn in my special popcorn maker. I get really excited when I see the popcorn moving and jumping...screaming is usually involved!

One of my favorite things to do lately is dance with my daddy.  I love to twirl like a princess around and around and around!!!

Taking baths is still one of my all time favorites!!  I love to walk around and show everyone the towel that I have chosen to dry off with, most of the time acting like that particular animal! 

I love making noise!!  I have several sets of drums and instruments in my playroom, but I love getting to play with my homemade set the best!!

 I love to cook with mommy!!!  We try to make a special treat once a week that I can help cook with.  One of my specialities is cookies and sweet tea.  I love to sit on the counter and help make dinner or whatever mommy and daddy are fixing.