First Day of School-Take 2!!

Thursday was Olivia's first day of preschool for the year. She had started telling me about two weeks ago out of the clear blue that she was ready for school to start back. What did this good Mama not tell her?? That she was certainly not the only one ready for school to start!!

Anyway, Thursday morning we headed off to school and she had a great day. She loved her new teacher, Ms. Nancy and she knew her other teacher Ms. Jenn from last year. Things have changed so much, there were no tears this year (okay, so the only tears were from me last year), and she just walked right in, grabbed her name off the board and washed her hands like an old pro! She's such a big girl!

Michael will kill me when he sees this picture...he kept telling me that I looked like a freak in pictures that morning. Hello?? Its called wet hair and no lipstick
Ana Blair was excited to see Sister off to school
I'm pretty sure she crawled straight to her room and starting rifling through her drawers!

And for those of you who remember my dress dilemma last year, aren't you excited to see the smocked school dress and bow made it for the first day this year??

Checking out herself, she was Pretty Pleased

And this is the super safe picture I took of her while we were driving down the road on the way home from school. Do you think she enjoyed her day??

Swimming Lessons, Part 2

Olivia has spent the last 8 days in her second session of swimming lessons with Ms. Mildred. After 8 days, the only thing I am thinking is, "Hallelujah!!" I am so glad that it is over! She did so good, but 8 days is a big commitment, for both of us! She wasn't super thrilled about me leaving her this time since last session was Mom and Me, but she warmed up after a while. She wanted me to take a picture of Ms. Mildred to send to Pabbie...(even though Pabbie was with us one day when we dropped her off!)

Nana came to Show and Tell on the last day!

Swimming on her back, all by herself!

Swimming across the deep end

Diving board, she would jump off and swim all the way to the other end of the pool

Slide

Olivia was glad when it was over and told Ms. Mildred she would see her next summer--not next week or tomorrow! She has decided that she wants to get her ears pierced as a reward for doing so well. I told her she had to talk to her Daddy about that one, so the jury is still out on that one. We're going back to the beach in September, so I told her we can't do it until we get back (Dr. Fogle said so--you'd be amazed as to how many situations that gets me out of!). Personally, I think her daddy is going to cave, but we'll see!

Ana Blair Goes to The Little Gym!

This may not seem like a very noteworthy occasion to most, but to me, it really was. It was so strange getting ready to go to the Little Gym with Ana Blair when last time I was there was with Olivia. We met the Dunavant's because of the Little Gym and I can only hope that Ana Blair makes some special friends there as well. It was hilarious to me to see the differences in the two (Olivia and Ana Blair). Ana Blair loved the equipment and would just cackle when she found something new to do. Olivia was a little more apprehensive. Ana Blair was completely oblivious to the fact that other kids were there and Olivia was completely enthralled by other children.

Too funny--to me, at least!

Big-Nastics

Olivia has always called her gymnastics class "Big-Nastics." Before she could say it correctly she called it that, and now that she can, she still calls it that. She has been in gymnastics with most of these girls since we started going to Premier and has some pretty cute friendships with some of them. But, this is the first time we've ever taken a group shot of everyone.

9 Month Pictures...A Little Late

Somehow between beach and moving, Ana Blair's 9 month picture session slipped to the bottom of my to do list...BUT! we finally made it there. There is again a sneak peak on the blog, and again, if anyone loves me, you will leave a comment because you know I can't get enough of those free portrait magnets!
www.memoriesportraits.com
Click on Enter Blog
Scroll down until you see Sweet Pea and comment, comment, comment!
The rest of the pics will be available to see on Thursday and I'll post the link and password then.
ThankS!

Quote of the Day

Olivia and my aunt Pattie (a.k.a. Pabbie) have always had a very special relationship. To be quite honest, anyone who has ever known Pattie has had a special relationship with her, but this one is SPECIAL. Olivia loves going to Pattie and Alvin's house for a few days here and there and becomes quite the little "farm baby." The last time she was headed down there to spend the night, Olivia and I had a little conversation that went something like this:

Olivia: Mommy, you need to have a talk with Pabbie.

Me: Okay, Olivia, what about?

Olivia: Well, Pabbie lets me do anything I want at her house. She lets me eat as many popsicles as I want and she doesn't make me go to bed until really late. Maybe you should talk to her about how we do things, I don't think she knows.

I almost fell down on the floor I was laughing so hard, then I realized I was in the bathroom at a Cracker Barrel and tried to contain myself. But she's right. Olivia definitely rules the roost when she is in Spring City. And I would never tell this to Olivia, but I love it!

So You Think You Can Dance?

This girl does...dance started back up for fall today and Olivia was thrilled! I don't know if its a good or bad thing, but Olivia definitely has at least one of her mommy's traits--she thrives on structure and schedules. Summertime is limbo for her. Growing up, I was the only freak kid who looked forward to the first days back to school because I got a new schedule and a new routine. My children have always lived on a schedule and Olivia is thrilled that dance is part of that routine. She, at least in her mind, is THE Dancing Queen.

Olivia's Room

One more room is completely finished! yay! This one wasn't too hard, since it basically stayed the same. But at least the walls are painted and there are things hanging on the walls!!

This Girl...

...is worn out!!

Mollie has completely exhausted herself over the past couple of weeks trying to break the new house in. Since this house is larger than our last, she has a lot more ground to cover in order to "secure the premises." So, every night around 7 when the girls have gone to bed, she retires to a far corner of the house and catches up on some missed zzzs.

There's No Place Like Home

We still have SO much unpacking to do before we really start to feel like we are "at home" in the new house, but here are a few pics of the entryway (which, by the way, is the only "room" in the house that is complete! This house is going to be a work in progress for quite a while!

10 Months...Can You Believe It??

Its hard to believe that 10 months have come and gone with this little pumpkin face in my life! Ana Blair has always been such a joy to our little family, but she has really grown into her own "person" over the past month. She has a temper, a sense of humor and best of all--tons and tons of love for those of us she's around all the time. She's crawling, pulling up and just today she started cruising!! She has 3 teeth (2 on bottom and 1 on top), and she LOVES food! What can I say, I guess she comes by that honest! She's very vocal, some of her newer words are thanks, sis (Olivia wants to be called sister, but she will definitely settle for sis for now!), yes or yeah and she says bye bye and kind of sort of waves.

We love our sweet baby girl, Ana Blair

These two love each other so much...example--Olivia HATES cheese. Ana Blair LOVES Gerber's Cheese puffs. Today Ana Blair thought it would be funny to feed it to Olivia and sweet Big Sister ate it!
This is what most photo attempts of Ana Blair turn out like, she is on the go!

Sweet girl, look how long her hair is getting...almost time for a trim!

Ana Blair must be happy in the new house too. She has (knock on wood) adjusted her wake up time from 6 to 7:30 since we've been here. HALLELUJAH!!