Our Little Geniuses

We have always been so proud of our oldest daughter and how smart she is.  She recognized all of her letters by the time she was two.  She knew her address and phone numbers by the age of three.  She can tell you when her birthday is, as well as her sister's, mine, her dad's, her Granny's, her Pawpaw's, her Uncle Bill's, her cousin Parker's, and her Grandma's, just to name a few.  She can "read" (recite) quite a number of books that she loves to hear.  Just in the past couple of weeks she has learned to add and subtract and has already memorized a number of those Math facts, namely all the doubles up to 20......1+1, 2+2, 3+3.....all the way to 20+20.  Bill enjoys doing the Sudoku puzzles in the paper and has even had Lauren in his lap explaining how those work.  Bill really enjoys Math, so I'm hoping that sticks with Lauren. 

Well, Allison is not one to be left out in the family, so my brother took this picture of her over  Easter weekend while we were at my parent's house.  Allison is working the crossword puzzle from the daily paper.

I love these pictures of Allison.  I think her hair is absolutely beautiful in each one.  I think she had just finished her bath before they were taken.  Allison is just as smart as her sister.  She is enjoying learning to use sign language and finger spell her name.  One of her favorite names to finger spell is her friend Josiah's.

OK, if you are really wondering, Allison is not really working the crossword puzzle, but she was writing the letter "O" perfectly in each square.  Needless to say, we are very proud of both of our daughters.

 

Kindergarten Round-Up

Today I walked in to Brickey Elementary to register my baby for Kindergarten. The school place has always been such a comfortable and familiar setting for me as a teacher, but today, I felt like a total stranger in this school that I will be leaving my daughter at beginning in August. Thank goodness my friend Krissy came by to take us with her for registration, or I would have been totally lost. She showed Lauren and I around the school a little bit while we were there.
Filling out the Knox County School enrollment form was such a foreign thing for me as a parent. I have read so many of those enrollment forms for the children I have taught, and now I am the parent filling it out.
I was very impressed with the school. I think it will be a wonderful place for the girls. The classrooms looked beautiful and the school itself seemed very inviting despite it's large size. I look forward to getting to know the people at the school and becoming a part of this wonderful community we have become part of.

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend is always a special tradition for me because Bill went up to my parent's house for the first time seven years ago while we were dating. We have been able to go back each Easter since then. I enjoy spending that time with the family.
Here are a couple of pictures of the the girls playing outside at Mom and Dad's house Friday evening.
Allison jumping off the patio to Daddy

Lauren taking her turn jumping to Daddy

Here are the girls sleeping together in Mom and Dad's bed Friday night. It didn't last long. When Mom and Dad actually got in bed, Allison woke up and came in to the room where Bill and I were sleeping and kept us awake for a long time.

Saturday morning Mom and Dad took the girls to Warrior's Path State Park to play. They had a wonderful playground the girls enjoyed. I didn't get any pictures at the park because Bill and I actually shopped at Lowe's and Target while the grandparents played with the girls.
Saturday afternoon we colored Easter Eggs outside on the side walk.
Lauren with her pretty orange egg.

Lauren and Allison checking on their eggs.

Allison checking out her pink egg. Unfortunately she dropped several of her eggs on the side walk and cracked them.

Daddy put Allison to bed Saturday night and fell asleep with her.

Allison showing off her Easter dress on Sunday morning.

Sweet kisses

I love this picture of Lauren

Sweet sister hugs

More hugs

Bare feet in the grass. I was so glad the weather was so beautiful for Easter.

Outside picture with their Easter dresses

Hunting for Easter eggs

Allison looking for eggs

Lauren was so tired from the busy weekend that she fell asleep on the ride back to Knoxville. You know she is really tired when she falls asleep anytime other than bedtime.

Goodbye Morning Glory Place

This will be the last post from Morning Glory Place. The computer is getting packed up tonight and we'll be without Internet service until next week. But that's ok. We load up the truck tomorrow and head on over to Summertime Lane on Friday. It's still a little hard to believe. Tonight is the girls last night in this house. As Lauren says, we are a little sad to leave this house. This is the home I moved in to when I married my wonderful husband Bill. This is the home we brought both of our girls to after they were born. For those reasons, I will be a little sad to say goodbye to Morning Glory Place. We also have such sweet neighbors here. They are all older than we are, but they have been so kind to us and to our girls. We are moving to a neighborhood with more young families with kids, which will be nice for the girls, but I shall miss the visits with Mrs. Maxine, and Mrs. Betty, two elderly women who live on Morning Glory. I shall also miss the beautiful view of the mountains from the kitchen window here.
But it's time to move on to a new chapter in our lives. Just over a week after we move, we have Kindergarten Round-up to register Lauren for Kindergarten in August. I'm so thankful we are able to move and get Lauren in a very good school here in Knoxville. That was our motivation for moving at this time!
So on Friday we will say goodbye to Morning Glory Place and hello to Summertime Lane. I am so thankful we got another good street name. I always loved our address here and I think I'm going to love Summertime Lane just a well.

One Week from Tonight

One week from tonight we should have our little girls tucked in their beds in their new rooms! I'm not sure if they will be sleeping as soundly as they are tonight, but they will be in their new rooms. It's hard to believe it's almost here. Seems like we have been waiting forever!!!

Tomorrow we are going to tackle packing up the garage and getting things out of the attic. Bill is taking the playset apart and loading it up on a trailer tomorrow and loading up the outside patio furniture and grills. I'm going to pack some more of our dishes, pots and pans, towels, and other things I've been putting off until the last week. Each box I pack just gets me closer to my new home!!

Our sweet friends April and David are keeping the girls tomorrow so we can get a lot accomplished. Thanks you guys for helping out.

Today was one of the few nice days we have had this year and the girls and I spent the morning at the park. Then we went to Old Navy and bought new flip-flops to celebrate the warm weather. I love Old Navy flip-flops, 2 pair for $5. You just can't beat that. With all the excitement of the park and buying flip-flops and eating dinner with Uncle Bill, I think Lauren's favorite thing about the day was getting to wear a short sleeved shirt outside! I love that girl and her simplicity! The littlest things make her happy! I want to be more like her. Love you Lauren!

Here are a couple of pictures from the day.

Sweet sisters riding on the blue whale

Lauren on the playground

Allison sliding

Lauren swinging

The girls sitting on the Pirate's Ladder in our back yard

Saturdays

There are so many wonderful things to love about Saturday!! I remember back when I had a job outside the home, I loved sleeping in on Saturdays! As much as I loved sleeping in on those lazy Saturdays, I love my little girls more, and so I can live without the extra sleep! Now one of my favorite things about Saturday is Bill cooking pancakes and either sausage or bacon for breakfast. The girls and I love Daddy's pancakes and it is an extra special tradition we have enjoyed for quite some time now. It's just not a Saturday without starting off with our pancakes.
The girls love Saturdays (and Sundays) because those are the days Daddy is home in the mornings. Since he leaves for the gym and work before 5:00 a.m. every other morning, Lauren and Allison don't get to see Daddy until supper time. I love how excited they are to come in our room on Saturday morning and jump in bed with us.
Another nice thing about Saturday is that Bill usually takes the girls for a while so I can have some time to myself to do things. He loves to take them to the park. We are ready for warm weather so they can do that more often.
Saturdays are also the day my brother comes to visit us. The girls love to have Uncle Bill come over to play with them. He gives them his undivided attention and plays anything they want to play!! He's the best uncle. Those little girls are so blessed to have such a fun uncle!
This particular Saturday was fun because we bought a new refrigerator and a new washer and dryer for our new house!!!!
Two weeks from today we will wake up in the new house for the first time on a Saturday! What a great day to wake up in a new house!!!

Four, Three, Two, One......

Four nights with Allison (and Mommy) being awake for hours coughing
Three days of being stranded at the house (except for a visit to the doctor and pharmacy)
Two little girls with horrible coughs, fever, and ear infections
Equals One frazzled, stir crazy Mommy!!!!

I guess I should not complain. Considering how cold and snowy it has been this winter, we have been blessed to have a relatively healthy season. When I took the girls to the doctor Monday, the nurse said to me, "Allison looks like she has the flu." Fortunately she did not have the flu, just a very mild ear infection developing with her nasty cold. Poor Lauren's ear infection was pretty bad the nurse said. Lauren's cough sounds so bad even today. Allison finally slept last night all the way through until 4:45 am when Bill got up. She did go back to sleep after I gave her another dose of Triaminic. Both girls still had fevers this morning, but when I took their temperatures at lunch time, they were both back to normal. I've been giving Tylenol and Motrin round the clock for ear pain and fever. I had to make a chart to keep up with the times I was giving all the pain relievers and cold medicine.....and antibiotic because I could not keep it straight!!

Fevers came back in the late afternoon. Guess we will spend another day at home!!

On a happy note only 17 more days until moving day!!!!