A Rockin' New Year's Eve

We went to Meredith, Lindsey, and Katie's house for a New Year's Eve party tonight.  I honestly believe their Mom (Kathy) could possibly be the coolest Mom in the world.

Kathy decided to have a New Year's Eve party for the 5-and-under crowd, complete with food, drinks, New Year hats, confetti strings, and balloons falling from the ceiling.  She set up their television to stream video of the 2010 ball dropping in Paris so the kids could get the full effect of New Year's Eve without having to keep everyone up until midnight.

What a cool idea!!  With creative friends like these, who needs to come up with ideas of their own?!?

Balloons fell from the ceiling when the ball dropped!

Pigtail Princess

I put Campbell's hair in pigtails this morning, just like I used to do with Cassidy.  She looked even more adorable than usual.   How is that even possible?!?

A Series of Mommy and Cassidy Days

Campbell has been in school this week, but Cassidy doesn't go back until Monday.  That means one thing - lots of Mommy and Cassidy Days!

We've kept busy these last few days doing all kind of fun things.  Check out these pictures of a few of the fun things we've done...

On the bouncer at the mall...

Eating breakfast at Chik-Fil-A

Getting her royal nails painted at the salon

Lunch at Pizza Hut

She was quite the super shopper these last few days.  There has been a MAJOR sale at Gymboree and she trekked to two malls with me to check out the goods, in addition to making the rounds at countless other stores.  Such a trooper!

An Auntie's Love

Only an Auntie can give hugs like a mother, keep secrets like a sister, and share love like a friend.
~ Spanish Proverb
 
Campbell has spent the last two Sunday afternoons with Auntie Shauna.  They've done all kinds of fun things, and even went to Auntie's church.  Apparently, Campbell has an affinity for the Pentacostal Church.  Auntie said the congregation was shouting, and at first Campbell was just looking at them.  After a few minutes she started clapping and bouncing with them!
 
Campbell is so lucky to have Auntie Shauna in her life... Auntie could have spent her last two Sunday afternoons doing any number of things, and yet she chose to spend her time with Campbell.  What a priceless gift!
 

Auntie got Campbell a baby for Christmas...

...and Campbell decided to show the baby some love with a big bite on the head.

Auntie also got Campbell a dog and a swimming Dora for Christmas

This is what love looks like.

Thanks, Uncle Matt and Aunt Nita!!

Uncle Matt and Aunt Nita sent the girlz the most wonderful Christmas gifts!  Campbell got a TAG Junior, a Dora book for the Tag Junior, and some Hello Kitty gear.  She went crazy when she saw the Dora book.  Absolutely CRAZY.

Cassidy got some new Tag books for her Tag Reader, some Hello Kitty gear, and a Hello Kitty Fortune Cookie kit!!  She and I already have a date to make fortune cookies this week.

Such perfect gifts!  Godparents have a certain knack for picking out just the right things.

Christmas at Mama and Papa's

Christmas at Mama and Papa's house was fantastic again this year.  It was awesome to see everybody, and the girlz got tons of attention and love.  It was a GREAT day!

Cassidy in her new Hello Kitty hat from Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky

Maggie helping Campbell open her gifts

Papa feeding Campbell some applesauce

Campbell playing Dora games on Papa's computer

Merry Christmas

Santa remembered us!  Sadly, I forgot to get a picture of the living room before the girlz descended on it.  They were so excited to see the big piles of gifts, and the Escalade was a huge hit!

Cassidy and her new dancing June

Campbell checking out her new books

The girlz headed down the street in their new ride

And here's a video of them driving the car for the first time.  The longer they drove around, the better Cassidy got at watching where she was going.

Darby left the girlz a really sweet poem (which I cannot take credit for - a Mommy on the bargain board wrote this).  We're sure gonna miss that elf!

Dear Cassidy and Campbell,

My time with you this Christmas has come to an end.
It's been fun making magic and seeing you again!

You've taken such good care of me, I hate to say goodbye...
But Santa needs me back at the North Pole and now I'll tell you why.

Today we're having a party to celebrate Jesus' birth!
You see this Christmas giving started with Him first.

God gave us the greatest gift that first Christmas day,
When He gave the world His Son to show us the way.

So while I've had fun playing and making mischief the whole night through,
the true purpose of my visit is to remind you that JESUS LOVES YOU!

Merry Christmas and I'll see you next year!

Love,
Darby

Christmas Eve!

I can't believe today is Christmas Eve!  It seems like this month has gone by so fast.

Darby brought one last gift to the girlz this morning - Tinkerbell Pez dispensers.  We're going to be so sad to see Darby go.

Midway though the day, Cassidy and I took our gifts to Mama and Papa's in preparation for tomorrow.  Aunt Jean had sent a stool for Campbell, just like Cassidy's!  Cassidy's stool is used every day at our house, and Campbell was SO EXCITED to have a stool of her own.

Nana Jill and Poppie Bill gave the girlz coordinating Christmas dresses, and they wore them to church tonight.  They looked adorable, of course.  I tried to get a cute picture of them together, and the one shot that came out wasn't full length.  So here's a full length of Campbell...

And a full length of Cassidy...

And a super-cute sister picture!

The church service tonight was terrific.  We went to the kid-friendly service at 6PM, and it was truly centered on the kids.  The prelude music was sung by a few of the kids, all of the children were invited to go up front to hear the Christmas story, the videos that were shown were in cartoon, and the bulletin cover was drawn by one of the kids.  They even served birthday cake for Jesus after the service, and the cake had the Veggie Tales nativity scene on top.  Our children are so blessed!

So now it's time to sit back and wait for Santa...

Darby Loves You

Darby got into the Play-Doh bucket this morning and left a message for the girlz.  I said "I Heart U".  What a sweet elf we have! 

Daddy and Cassidy Time

We took Campbell to the children's hospital this morning for surgery on her tear duct.  Unfortunantely, she got strep last week and is still somewhat snotty and congested. We got to the hospital as planned and went through all the red tape, but when the anesthesiologist saw her he said it was too risky to put her to sleep like that. She really wasn’t all that bad off, but he came to see her just after the nurse had been torturing her with the blood pressure cuff and pulse ox. She’d been freaking out and crying, which made the cough and snot far worse.

I'm the bad Mommy who was secretly hoping they'd go ahead and do the surgery today just so we could get it over with, but I do understand the risk they'd be taking and certainly didn't question their decision.  But inside, I was disappointed.

I still had to work the remainder of the day, so I holed up in the office once we had dropped Campbell off at school and picked Cassidy up from Mama and Papa's.  Cassidy and Daddy decided a trip to the Circle Store would be far more fun than watching me work, so off they went.

A few hours later, the pictures and texts started rolling in.  They were having a blast shopping, eating popcorn, and drinking slushies.  Cassidy even got to ride on the carousel and bounce on her beloved hydrolic bouncer!

Sergeant Sexy said the girl running the bouncer put the lift up as high as it would go, grabbed Cassidy's harness, and shot her toward the ceiling like a slingshot.  Cassidy thought this was EXCELLENT, and was laughing so loud that people walking through the mall were stopping to watch!

Elf on Some Christmas Tins

We found Darby camped out in the kitchen on our Christmas tins this morning.  Cassidy is sad that we're in Darby's last days for this year's visit!

Darby Loves Balloons

Darby seems to love balloons just as much as the girlz.  This morning, we found her holding the balloons from Lily's party.

Check out Campbell's boots.  She went shoe shopping with Auntie yesterday and came home sporting these adorable black boots!!!!  Auntie has such good taste!

Happy Birthday, Lily!

Lily is turning three, and we were invited to celebrate with her this afternoon.  What fun!!

Campbell spent the day with Auntie, and I took Cassidy to celebrate with Lily.  Sergeant Sexy stayed home and worked on putting the Escalade together.  He said it was surprisingly easy, and the house was back to normal by the time we got home.

The Gorgeous Birthday Girl!!!

Blowing out the candles

Opening her gifts

The BFFs

Elf On a Curtain Pull

I'm really not sure if a "curtain pull" is a real thing or not, but that's what I'm going to call it.  This morning we found Darby perched on the hook that holds the dining room curtains back.  It took the girlz a while to find her... they weren't expecting her to be in the dining room!

We have 4 days of Elf on the Shelf left, and I'm relieved.  We're running out of ideas!!

Christmas Play

Campbell came down with strep throat last Thursday, so she missed watching her sister in the Christmas Play at church tonight.  Since I've been to most of the practices, Sergeant Sexy took Cassidy to the play.  Mama and Papa came to watch Cassidy, too!

This song is my favorite because not only is it cute, but Cassidy has a special part - she's a cow.  It's hard to tell, but she's wearing a cow hat.  Cassidy is the one in the purple dress in the middle of the shot, and it's her angelic voice singing the "Moo-ooo" part of the song.

She's singing in church, just like Mommy and Daddy.  We are so blessed!

Rest In Peace, Whoever You Are

Cassidy hasn't noticed yet, but one of the water frogs died yesterday.  Since it was virtually impossible to tell them apart, I'm not sure if it was Marissa or Ms. Cherry that succumbed.

A while back, the tiny little snail that came with the ecosystem died.  We bought a new one, but couldn't find one nearly as small as the originial.  The second snail died as well, and one of the frog's feet got caught in the shell before we had a chance to scoop the snail out of the box.

Ever since then, I've noticed one of the frogs has had a hard time jumping.  At the same time, one of the frogs has gotten fat and the other has gotten thin and frail.

I think the frog must have hurt his foot when it got stuck in the snail shell and was no longer able to jump high enough to get the food.  I suspect he starved to death.  Unfortunantely, we don't know his name.

So rest in peace, whoever you are.  We'll miss you.

Fat Frog, Food Hog... don't you realize what you've done to your companion?!?

Teddy Bear Tea

Today was a day Cassidy has been looking forward to for weeks - Teddy Bear Tea with Gramma Kathy!!!

This is a holiday tradition she has truly come to love, and I love it too.  She wore her new dress and received compliments from everyone we saw (I'm seriously not exaggerating).  Cassidy got Gramma Kathy all to herself for an hour and a half, and I'm really not sure who enjoyed it more - Cassidy or Gramma.

What a great day!

My pretty girl

Listening to the Elf read a story