Jenna's 4th Birthday

We can hardly believe Jenna is 4! She was thrilled to have her friends over for preschool that day, and go on a treasure hunt with them. One little girl brought a green pancake in her lunch being that it was also St. Patrick's day.... another friend brought clover cookies. That night she had another friend come over to enjoy cake and ice cream. Family showered her with love and gifts earlier... including Jenna's first pet from Aunt Kate..... a fish named "Fishy".
Jenna saw the barbie cake online and immediately lit up... she wanted that cake so I attempted it, and she helped decorate:)
Morgan and Jenna are becoming such good friends... they have their little fights, but when they are getting along they play so well and giggle like the little girls they are.
Here's the smile I love on this little girl... red popsicle stains and all.

What's Your Tradition?

Does anyone NOT make heart-shaped sugar cookies around Valentines' Day? This actually might be my first year making them. As you can see, the girls loved it. Jenna, our daughter with all the opinions, wanted pink, purple and yellow frosting.

Santa and Snow

Jenna was happy to see Santa this year. Morgan would wave to Santa and repeat his name over and over from a distance, but as we got close to him she became very uneasy.
We received a surprise snowfall a few days after Christmas. While Justin spent an hour and a half getting home from work, the girls and I enjoyed sledding down the driveway. They loved it! This was the one day all year I was happy we had a sloped driveway.
Little miss Jenna was thrilled to take charge of the sled.

December memories...

I had a good laugh when I realized Jenna's sticker was tempting me to gift her away.... hmmm, who would I give her to and how long before they return her? I do love my Jenna, it's just been one of those trying months of parenthood. Has anyone else dragged a child out of "dollar tree" while she screamed "I don't want my presents from Santa... I want my presents from the STORE!" Guess I wore out the "let's ask Santa" answer.
Jenna dictated her first letter to Santa. We are off to meet Santa today.
Morgan smiling for the camera but avoiding the flash. She is 18 months old and has started going to nursery at church. Whereas she didn't smile the entire time she was there, she did not cry either.
Morgan came downstairs after her nap with this hair-do.
Jenna and I created our family plus her two friends out of play-do.

Preschool!

Jenna started preschool this week with three of her friends from the neighborhood/church. The moms are rotating having it at our homes. As you can see she was so excited for her first day, although she was admittedly a little confused as to the purpose of preschool.

Me: Jenna, here we are at preschool!

Jenna: Why?

Me: So you can learn new things, like letters and numbers, and spend time with your friends.

Jenna: Why?

Me: Because I thought you would enjoy it.

Jenna: Why?

(walking up to the door, distractions...)

Me: Be good and have fun. I'll be back to pick you up in a little bit.
The next day as I was dishing out the McDonald's lunch - which I'm not ashamed to admit because, c'mon, most of us have fed our kids the stuff, and besides, I got the APPLE DIPPERS, which made it o.k. - Jenna proved her new skills by saying " 'A' is for 'Apple'... I did that at preschool." Yes! Hooray for preschool!!

This is how we play...

I question whether I am being a good mother when my girls play like this... do we not get out enough? Do I not take them swimming enough? Is the air conditioning on too high??? When I ask Jenna why she dresses up in winter clothes in the middle of summer, her reply - as to every question - is " 'cause I just want to". Morgan's response is harder to figure out because she is only 15 months old. If she could speak in clear sentences, I guess she would say "because Jenna did"... although the swimsuit was actually Morgan's idea. Really, though, I'm not that worried about my kids silly behavior, in fact I love seeing the imaginative play they come up with. Justin and I would agree we are so blessed to have these girls in our lives. I feel extra blessed to be the one with them most of the time... thank you "daddy" for going to work and "buying money" for our family so I get to be home. Yes, Justin, Jenna thinks you go to work to "buy money".

Sieze the day...

...a couple weeks ago we had an 80-degree day and went for it... we pulled that cheap plastic pool out of garage storage and the girls were happy.  Of course Mommy was then happy too.

I love that my kids appreciate the simple things in life... how much longer do I have before they are begging for bigger swimming pools, water parks, etc.?
Oh joy... can you tell we literally came out from hibernation this day?
Morgan is starting to walk and we noticed she says a mumbled form of her sister's name now!  Jenna looks out for her sister and yells at me if she gets near the stairs.  She saw Morgan take a tumble down a few stairs so she gets very concerned and tells her:  "No go down the stairs, Morgan!  You're gonna fall!"