Here I go Mommy!

Letter B Cookies

It's letter B Week and yesterday we made letter B sugar cookies.

Butterflies, bears, bells, bunnies, boots and Bs

Life Lessons at the Texas State Fair 2010

I LOVE the State Fair. I love all fairs, but there is nothing like The Texas State Fair. I love the food (notice I said food first), I love the exhibits, I love the people watching, I love the flowers, the smells, the excitement in the air, walking the midway. Man, it reminds me of great days as a child.

Now that we are living in Ft. Worth I have really been counting the days until we went to the Fair.

We went on opening day, Sept. 24th, 2010.

Lessons learned at the State Fair...

Audrey loves farming.

She is a great little farmer.

She waters.

She plants.
She harvests.

Alaina just pretty much likes her Gia. But not the sun.

Alaina does not like the sun in her sweet little eyes.

Audrey is a great tractor driver.

And Alaina is along for the ride.

State Fair Corny Dogs just make life better.

You have to get some mustard on your face to fully enjoy the experience.

Laina thinks it's all kind of funny.

Maybe she is deliriously hot.

The best is going to the fair with family.

Oh, and french fries. Did I mention the food yet. We all enjoyed the food.

We have been talking to Audrey about Big Tex for a few days...preparing her.

You can see him from a long way off. Problem is, you can hear him too.So Audrey seems to not be fond of loud noises...any loud noises...or even the remote possibility that something might be loud. Big Tex WAS loud.

If you look carefully at the above picture you can see that Audrey's fingers are in her ears.

They stayed in her ears for much of the day.

Especially at the midway....not an enjoyable place for Audrey.

We thought she might enjoy a ride.

And we were wrong.

It's not fun to watch your baby going around and around calling her mama.

Not fun at all.

For anyone.

Laina did finally go to sleep though.

And as we left a family decision was made.

No more Texas State Fair until the girls are a little older.

At that point the corny dogs will be sweeter, the smells better, the sounds not so "loud."

Overall, just a better idea for all concerned.

Consider that our advice to all of you parents of babies who have not ventured out to the fair yet and are dreaming of how perfect it will be for your little family.

Lesson learned.

Proud Sweet Moment

Today Audrey and I made enchiladas together. She was standing on her stool across from me and we were both putting the tortillas in the dish. Out of nowhere, Audrey looked up at me and said "Mama, you're my best friend."

AW!!! That may be the sweetest thing I've ever heard.

"You're my best friend too Audrey."

The Grand Finale of Letter A Week...

Audrey and Mommy made an apple pie!

Audrey ate apples while Mommy cut them up. She poured in and mixed all of our dry ingredients and poured them over our apples. She dotted the pie with butter and she brushed on the egg whites.
This girl loves to cook just like her Mama.

Now bring on the letter B!

Prayer

Last night at dinner Troy asked Audrey if she wanted to pray. So she closed her eyes and said "all we like sheep have gone astray."

sweet girl. I love that she connected her Bible verse to praying. Isn't it neat how God begins to give them understanding?

49 must be a WHOLE lot!

Mommy: "Audrey, do you know how much I love you?"
Audrey: "49."
Mommy: "Absolutely, 49."
Audrey: "and 10, and 4 and 5 and 6."

Letter Aa Week

School has officially started in the Douglas household and we are so excited!

This is letter Aa week for Audrey! Yea!

We are doing all things letter Aa this week.

Audrey is pretty familiar with all of her uppercase letters so we are working on learning the lower case as well.

We started yesterday with her letter A Bible verse:

"All we like sheep have gone astray."

And we looked in our children's dictionary last night at lots of letter A words and pictures.

Today more fun began...

We are doing "key words" that start with letter A. The first word that Audrey picked was acorn. She loves to find acorns when we go out on a walk.
Letter A in sign language...

Letter A pancakes...

And an awkwardly shaped apple...

More letter A activities to come this week.

We are on our way to the library to pick up all of our letter A books.

But let us not forget Alaina. She tried some pancakes this morning too

(which she would not eat so we resorted to letter Y yogurt.)

Have a great week! Happy letter A!

My Nanny

Dear Audrey and Alaina,

Tonight we read a very special book for the first time.

This was Mommy's Nanny's book. Nanny was my grandmother (like Gia and Nana are your grandmothers.) Nanny is very very special to Mommy. There could be no better grandmother. I used to sleep with Nanny when I stayed with her at her house. It was very special. This was my very favorite book that Nanny read to me. Here are some of my favorite pages from the book...

As I look at these pages I can remember so clearly laying in bed with Nanny and her reading to me. Her house was so quiet, except for the big grandfather clock that you could always hear ticking. And I loved how Nanny's house smelled. Sleeping was so good at Nanny's house. Her bed was so comfy and she was such a sweet bed partner (although we could hear my Goody snoring in the other room!) :)
After Nanny would read me this book she would tell me the story of the little kitty who said "Meow meow I'm looking for a home." I told you that story for the first time tonight, Audrey. It is a very special story. I bet you will love it as much as I do and will ask me to tell it to you over and over again. And I will LOVE to. It makes me think about my Nanny. I wish you could have known Nanny. Audrey, you were named after her - Rose. You girls would have loved her so much and, oh, she would have loved you more than you can imagine. You would have been very special to her. It makes me sad that you won't know her. Life is missing something so special without her around. Something that can never be replaced. But I sure do plan to tell you all about her. I will tell you her stories, cook you her food (as best I can), show you her pictures. I bet your Aunt Sarah and Gia will have many special things to tell you about your Nanny too. And we will pray that some little pieces of Nanny will come through in both of you. How special that would be.

Firecracker

I believe we have a little firecracker on our hands.
She is a silly girl. She loves to play and laugh and just be silly.

Oh the fun that is ahead of us with these two girls!

Bay City Fun

We spent this past weekend in Bay City and so enjoyed the time with family.

We spent Saturday morning at the beach with Nana, Cylus and our girls. Troy and I loved to get out there. Audrey warmed up to it. It was Alaina's first time at the beach and she wasn't so much of a fan.

She did have her moments of enjoying time with Daddy in the water.

And time lovin on Nana.

The most fun was had when she got in the back of the car and played.

She had a blast back there.

Audrey had so much fun playing with her cousins.

She and Cylus enjoyed dancing together.

Alaina and Elijah got to know each other a little better.

And, of course, everyone had a blast playing with Cameron!

Thanks so much for the great weekend Douglas fam! We love you and look forward to next time!