Santa Claus Dress

This is Emily and me when we were either 2 years and 10 months or 3 years and 10 months.  Mom can't quite remember and its so hard to tell!  The important part is that Mom made these Santa Claus dresses for us!  She used a coloring book for the template of her Santa applique!  She is such a talented seamstress and made us so many fun and beautiful clothes!  I wish I had every thing she made.  

We were pretty cute too!  :)  

But not the creepy Santa with his glasses that turned dark in too much light...

Emily (L), Eleanor (R)

I am honestly not 100% sure who is who in each picture.  

I think its Emily on the left and Eleanor on the right?

I love our tall socks.  So sweet!

Emily (L), Eleanor (R)

And here is "Ninnie Girl" as she calls herself these days!  

We all call her Ninnie Girl too and I love it.  I hope it lasts forever :)

She was just shy of 2 years and 5 months old when she wore it.  

I love this face - I see it a lot! 

She is so silly and so long legged too!

She is talking so much too!  A few of my favorite phrases are:

"What you talking bout Mommy?"

"Where is _____ house / school / church, etc?" 

She knows where everything is these days and can usually tell us.

"What's dat?"

"One more sip toffee"  aka "coffee" She says almost all of her "c" words with a "t" and I love it!

"T'ome Mommy" aka "C'mon"

"I always do dat"  First time telling some little lies.  Uh oh.

"I was looking for you"

And I am sure there are so many more that I am not thinking of right now.  I will have to get her talking on video to record her sweet little voice and pronunciations.

She is so smart and amazes us daily at what she knows, picks up on, remembers, and communicates to us!  She still loves her baby and her play kitchen and Doc - especially dressing up like Doc as much as possible!  And, she tells us "No call Ninnie Girl, call Doc!"

And she is still so full of love for each person in her family!  

We talk about every member of our families almost daily and pray for them each every night!

She loves school and we talk often about her friends and "new teachers!"

She also tells us of one little boy in class who "Aiden is bad.  He no listen to Mrs. Lori.  Have to go to timeout."  

She also loves Thursdays at the church with the ladies in the nursery and her sweet friends!

She loves to sing and has started to learn and sing the lyrics of songs herself!

Her favorite is "Jesus Loves Me!"  She sings it all through the house all day long!

She likes to make us laugh!  After a few big reactions to saying "Bye, y'all" like I do, she says it at just the right moment when we are leaving friends or family to make us all laugh!  It works every time!

And sometimes she is so big and so with it, that she just seems like one of us.  On the one hand, I can't stand for her not to be my baby, but on the other hand with each new day and each new word or ability, I am so thankful that she is growing up and developing into such a sweet and healthy big girl!  She is just so much fun!

We love you so much Ninnie Girl!!!!

Happy Halloween!

We had another great Halloween!! I love it so much!  

Back in August or September, Annie and I decided that she would be Doc McStuffins!  She loves the TV show on Disney, Jr. and I think it is so sweet!  Doc is a little girl whose Mommy is a real doctor.  Doc is a doctor to her toys and stuffed animals.  Her stethoscope makes the animals and toys come alive whenever she is around.  They are diagnosed with things like "eyes-wide-open-itis!"  Annie understood completely that she was going to dress up like Doc.  

The costume took a while to come together.  I scoured the Internet for the purple striped top, leggings, and pink sparkle shoes.  I ordered the doctor's coat off of Etsy, and I bought the Doc kit including the stethoscope from Target.  And, I bought a purple satin headband and covered it in purple glitter.  My Mom made the pink felt flower for the headband and the adorable pink felt skirt!  I think it turned out great!!  And Annie loved it so much!  

We had a wonderful pre-Halloween season and I love how much we get to celebrate each holiday now that we get to celebrate via Annie!  Our play group had a cookie decorating party!  Annie loved decorating and eating the cookies!  She kept starting a new cookie and saying "I decorate another cookie!!"  She was also forcing me to eat them even though I don't like sugar cookies!

All the play group friends at the cookie decorating party!

We also went to a Fall Festival at Annie's school complete with pizza, hot chocolate, a mini-carousel ride, and lots of bouncy houses and slides!!  It was SO much fun!  

Annie, Mommy, Jane Darby (the skunk), and her mom, Katie 

We  hear a lot about sweet Jane Darby from Annie!

She had fun on the mini carousel ride.

She was wired from all of the people and things going on!

This was Annie's first time in a bouncy and she loved it even despite it being crowded and at times getting stepped on by other kiddos!  This one also had stairs that she loved to climb up and slide down the slide.  She did it on her tummy like the other kids.

And they had this HUGE inflatable double slide.  I was sincerely excited to go with Annie and it was great!  Eventually Annie even slid down by herself!  That was kind of scary to watch, but she mostly enjoyed it.

Now, on to Halloween night!

I took this short little video interviewing Annie about Halloween!  To translate, she says that today is "tricky tricky" aka trick-or-treating!  I need to do more videos to capture her little voice, accent, and adorableness!

We snapped a lot of pictures before going next door to Char Char's house.  

We bribed her with "emmy emmy's" aka M&M's to take lots of pictures this year!  

Mom suggested that I use pipe cleaners in her braids to make them stick out! 

I love they way they look and they held up all night with hair spray!

She was so excited to "match Goc!" 

Love her little pose!

It is a tradition for Aunt Emmie to come over on Halloween and Annie knows it!  She invited her long before Halloween to come over since she knows she has been with us each year!! 

I love this one of Annie looking up at Emmie!

I love these two pictures of Annie and me so much! 

I love the genuine expressions and happiness that they captured!
We are in love!

And one with Daddy too!  Unfortunately, her picture taking patience was wearing off. 

Jennifer invited us along with some of her friends from her work who have children about the same age to eat chili and then go trick-or-treating together!   It was so much fun to be with friends!

Charlotte was a pink fairy!

Where is the candy?!

This is the first house we came to for trick-or-treating!  We explained to Annie what to do and she walked right up all by herself with almost no hesitation!  She did not ever say "trick-or-treat" but she did eventually start saying "thank-you!"

This house and the man answering the door was a little too scary.  I can't blame her!

Daddy and Doc!  

She got so into it and as soon as she left one house she would say "go next house!"  

Sweet friends and neighbors!

Such a big girl going to each door all by herself!

Annie loved trick-or-treating and the candy so much! She was opening candy as we walked!  She was so into it and did not want to stop!  We only stopped trick-or-treating by convincing her to go back to Charlotte's house and not back to Annie's house!  We enjoyed yummy chili, but Annie did not eat anything but candy all night!  She was wired and did not go to bed until after 10pm!

The next morning she woke up and said she wanted to go "tricky tricky" again and also went straight back to her pumpkin for more candy!  I am so glad that she loved it so much and had so much fun!!  She has also enjoyed dressing up like Doc several times such Halloween!  

We can't wait to do it again next year!!

Old Baker Farm Pumpkin Patch

Saturday morning, Brad, Annie, and I joined our favorite neighbors and some of their friends at the Old Baker Farm Pumpkin Patch!  The morning started off rainy and overcast, but the rain did not last long and the clouds eventually gave way to a little sun!

Annie wore her Carhartt overalls and I LOVE them!  

They remind me of what I used to wear as a toddler too!  Plus, they just looked so cute and adorable on her!

There were several pedal tractors for the children to ride.  Annie was not quite tall enough to reach the pedals but she enjoyed sitting on them and being pushed around.  

Charlotte, her friend Caleb, and Annie

Annie and Char Char being silly!

I love this one so much!  

And yes, Annie is SO tall these days.  I think she must have grown again.  I just cannot believe it and cannot believe how tall she is.  She is also looking extra tall because after being sick for two almost back-to-back illnesses with the crud and then croup, she hardly ate and lost a lot of weight.  I think she lots between 4 and 6 lbs. I think being so skinny is making her look older and taller. 

They had a small barn with chickens and a few other animals including two baby calfs.  

Annie enjoyed seeing all the animals!  

This picture reminds me so much of a picture from last year's visit to the pumpkin patch.

Wow - I cannot believe how similar these pictures are now that I pulled up the one from last year!  I also cannot believe how much Annie has changed in just a year.  She really doesn't look like a baby at all anymore.  She is so much taller and has so much more hair.  So, so sad.  

All 5 kiddos!  

I think this was a very successful picture since they are all looking in the general direction of the camera! 

If you look closely, Annie is cutting her eyes big time in the picture and she also has a unsure look on her face.  She couldn't keep her eyes off of the big and loud tractors that were pulling all the people on hayrides.  We were in line to get on!

A family shot on the hayride to the pumpkin patch!

Daddy's little punkin and a big ol' pumpkin that Mama picked out!  

I got the biggest one I could find and Brad was not thrilled about having to take it and our other one all the way back to the car!

Jennifer, whose name Annie can now say and Char Char!  

Annie loved this horsey swing!  

I love this one of her leaning on the fence talking to the horse! 

I hope she grows up loving horses (and the idea of being a cowgirl) like I do!

There was a big truck full of cotton that she enjoyed jumping in!

Annie and Patrick off course in the corn maze!  

It was way more fun to run in the corn instead of just through the corn maze!

Charlotte tickling Annie!

Good-bye hugs!

Brad and Annie shared a bar-b-que sandwich at the end of the afternoon!  Annie liked it a lot :)

And then a little game of hide-and-seek in the corn maze to end the fun day!

We had so much fun and enjoyed going on a little family adventure!  

I think the pumpkin patch is becoming a family tradition since we all love it!