She's got the look!

Ok. This is hilarious! The other day the girls and I were at a playground with some friends. We just happened to run into an aquaintance and her daughter too. The kids were playing and the moms were talking. All was right with the world. One of the moms asked me where the girls got there hair cut. I told her (my girls DO have cute hair cuts). Then she asked me if that's where Gracie got her hair cut too. I told her Gracie hasn't had a hair cut yet. She acted shocked. I was thinking she's only one. It's really not that big of a deal that she hasn't had a hair cut yet. Then she said "I just can't believe it! She has the cutest little hair do! It's like the one all the kids are wearing these days!"
HA! Now, you know I think my Gracie is ADORABLE and more BUT Gracie has crazy baby hair. CUTE crazy baby hair but crazy baby hair nonetheless! HILARIOUS!
Please excuse the Oreo covered face...I was trying to get a good "hair" pic!

Really?

Today the girls and I were talking about birthdays. Annie has been to a slew of birthday parties lately so I guess they were on the brain.
Annie: Mom, I know who's birthday is next.
Me: You do?
Annie: Yep! Yours!
Me: You're right! Do you know how old I'll be? (note to self: never ask your children this question!!! They do not know and the answer will only make you feel BAD!)
Annie: 90
Me: WHAT?!?!?!
Annie: 70
Me: WHAT?!?!?!
Annie: I really don't know, mom. How old?
Me: 30, Annie. 30!

Does she really think I'm that old? When she looks at me does she see an OLD lady? Maybe I should get a walker or something! Wait, the girls would probably like that-they think they're about as much fun as a jungle gym!
Really Annie, Really?!??!

And the Oscar goes to...

my sweet Annie T. I don't know where this girl gets it but boy, does she have a flair for the dramatic! We've actually had a pretty uneventful week around here but today we had an incident.
I took the girls to McDonalds to play today with Valerie and Ari. We had been invited on Monday but Annie T. had a little trouble with her listening ears-mainly that they were not wokring or she was not wearing them-so we had to go home without playing. So, since we have had a pretty good couple of days since then, I decided that today we could grab a quick lunch and play on the indoor playground (the fact that it was 30 something degrees and raining might have influenced my decision a little). The girls had a great time....we met Ari and Annie saw a school friend and even Emma had a friend to play with. AND we were warm! (I am so tired of this wet, cold, yucky weather I could just scream!!!) Our incident didn't occur until we were walking out the door-and no, it's not what you think...the girls were actually really good about leaving. BUT as we were walking to the car (I am carrying Gracie, holding Emma's hand and Annie is holding onto my pocket) Annie T. slipped and scraped her knee. :( Now, I'm not trying to discount her pain...I know that a scraped knee HURTS!!! I have done it recently enough to remember. BUT Annie went into full on meltdown mode. All the way to the car. While I buckled the little girls in. While I started the car. The WHOLE drive home. As we were walking into the house. While I was putting the band aid on. I think you get the picture! Annie was totally losing it! She was screaming and yelling and just altogether losing her mind. My favorite comment from the melee was "I just can't take it anymore!" I was starting to think we needed to make a beeline for the emergency room or something. Usually my girls calm down relatively quickly (at least by the 2nd time I suggest cutting "it"-whatever the injury is-off). Again, I was REALLY starting to get worried. Right up until Annie looked at me with a sly little grin as I was putting on her band aid and asked if she could have a bowl of ice cream. By the time she was settled at the table the tears had stopped and the injury was miraculously healed! :)

This is the cause of all the drama.

A funny little conversation

This morning we had some pretty yucky thunderstorms at our house. My girls are sometimes a little afraid by bad weather (I don't blame them-I'm a little bit of a weather weenie myself) but this morning I didn't hear a peep. I figured they must have slept through it all but when I walked into to wake the big girls, they were already awake. Our morning conversation went something like this:
Me: Good Morning girls!
A&E Good Morning Mom!
A: Mom, did you hear all that thunder?
E: Is it gone?
Me: I did hear it. It was pretty loud wasn't it?
A&E: Yep.
E: and kinda scary.
A: But we don't have to be afraid of the thunder because God is taking care of us.
Me: That's right!
A: We don't have to be afraid of strangers either.
***Kinda a jump in the conversation but I can roll with it!***
Me: Well, we don't have to be AFRAID but we do have to be CAREFUL.
A: Especially strangers who want to take us.
Me: Well, we have to be really careful around strangers who want to take us. Mommy and Daddy would be SO SAD if somebody took one of you. That's why you always have to stay right with Mommy and Daddy when we go places.
A: Like Target? Or Chick Fil A?
Me: Yep. Girls, do you know what you should do if a stranger ever tries to take you?
A: Say LET ME GO!
Me: That's good but let me tell you something even better. If someone besides mommy or daddy ever try to take you away you need to yell as loud as you can "YOU ARE NOT MY MOMMY!"
***Just an aside, my little brothers used to take Tae Kwan Do when they were little. Now, neither of them turned into Karate Kids BUT I remember my mom alwyas saying how smart it was that their teacher taught them what to do if a stranger ever tried to grab them. So, thanks Rick Hall TKD for this really good tip.***
A: Or I could say YOU ARE NOT MY DADDY!
Me: yep!
E: Or YOU ARE NOT MY BO!
Me: Yep!
A: Or YOU OR NOT MY GLEIGH!
At this point Annie proceeded to name (and yell YOU ARE NOT my...) every relative we have....Uncle Matthew, Uncle Daniel, Grandmother, Aunt Jane, Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Matt, Aunt Becca and even Nanny. Emma on the other hand just kept yelling "YOU ARE NOT MY BO! over and over and over!! Hilarious! Think that girl's got a soft spot for her Granddaddy? I sure do!

MAD!

That's the word of the day around this house! We've all been a little grouchy around here today but this girl takes the cake!






What could make my sweet Gracie SO mad!! I mean screaming and yelling mad! I'll tell you...it was me. Her mom! I wouldn't share my lunch with her. Now, before YOU start yelling about how mean and selfish and all of those other adjectives I am, let me say a little in my defense. Gracie had already had her lunch...lots of it. And a good lunch (noodles, bread and even an Oreo cookie for dessert). AND I was eating buffalo chicken-it would have burned her mouth slap up...it almost did mine! SO really I was protecting her! But boy, did that make her one mad little girl! Oh well, some days a good fit makes everything better. Literally less than 10 minutes after all of that carrying on, my girl was fast asleep! Maybe she'll wake up in a better mood! A mom can hope cant she?

The RING....

of fire? of death? of much beauty yet also much frustration?!?!? I don't know about you but I'm pretty attached to my engagement ring. It's a pretty special thing to me! A few weeks ago I bent a prong on it so it has been residing in it's box in my sock drawer for awhile. I didn't really know where to take it here in town so I decided I would take it to my grandmother's jeweler in Gadsden. She's had a lot more jewelry buying experience than I have and she really trusts this guy so I figured I would give him a try. She called ahead and told him I was coming to drop my ring off and he promised to be there when I arrived. He was. He took a quick look at my ring and told me it would be no big deal to fix and would cost between $45 and $75. Score! I told him to fix it and let me know when it was ready to resume it's rightful place on my left ring finger! On Monday morning I got a call from the jeweler. I'm thinking this has got to be good news-my ring is ready to come home!! :) Boy, was I WRONG!! He told me that I had cracked my diamond. Yep, that's right cracked my diamond. I didn't even think that was possible but apparantly it is. AND apparantly because my diamond is a princess cut and has more cuts than a traditional round diamond it has more opportunity to crack. BOO! He gave me some options-replacing it (for an exorbitant amount of money) or sending it to NYC to be recut (still an expensive option but MUCH more reasonable than replacing it). He couldn't even fix the prong for fear that it might further crack the diamond. YIKES!!!
This day was not off to a very good start AND it only went downhill from there!! When I got the call, I was in TJ MAXX returning something I had bought the day before. After finishing my phone call and my TJ business I started to gather my things and looked for my keys only to find that I didn't have them!! Oh yeah, you guessed it-they were locked in my car. AWESOME! But wait, it gets even better. Right about the time we got to the car and noticed that my keys were locked inside Emma T. threw up. Yep, threw up! YUCK!!!
By this point I am pretty much beside myself. I walked into Walmart to buy Emma some pedialyte and juice and to try to collect my thoughts. I called my mom, near tears by now, and she called Marianne to come and rescue the girls and me. Too bad my keys to Grandmother's house were also in my car with the carseats and the rest of the necessaties for traveling with children. Thankfully my dad remembered that I have AAA and called to remind me. Marianne and I took the girls to look at the animals in the pet store and then loaded up in her car to wait for the locksmith. While we were waiting we decided to drive (just across the parking lot) to Arby's to get the girls a milkshake. As we were leaving Arby's the locksmith called.
LS: Mrs. Thompson?
Me: Yes?
LS: I unlocked your car but the alarm is going off?
Me: What?
LS: Yeah. And I don't see any keys on the front seat.
Me: Then that's not my car!
How hilarious! He had unlocked the wrong car! By now Marianne and I were nearly in tears from laughing so hard. It could only have been better if the owner of the other car had come out screaming and yelling!
Finally, the locksmith got my car opened and the girls and I headed back to Grandmother's to rest! I think we ALL took a nap that afternoon! Thankfully Emma T. recovered pretty quickly since we had to come home on Tuesday. What a miserable trip that would have been to have one throwing up in the car for 3 1/2 hours! Not fun-I've done that too! Wow, the joys of being a parent! Good thing you don't know there will be days like this before they get here...you might be tempted to send them back! :)

Tis the Season

the Lenten season that is. Like most Baptists I don't know all of the details of the season but I am interested. And I have been learning (a little). The church we've been going to in Macon has been participating in some of the Catholic traditions surrounding the season. Last week they had a service to burn the palm branches that would be used for tonight's Ash Wednesday service (the palm leaves are the ones that the children carry in on Palm Sunday the year before. They're dried and stored; typically until Fat Tuesday when the branches are burned before a traditional pancake dinner-that's one tradition I could get on board with!) I have never been to a either of these services before so I have really enjoyed learning a little more about the meaning behind the services and the season.
Another Lenten tradition I'm sort of familiar with is the idea of giving up something for Lent. Now, don't judge my theology (I haven't discussed this with my seminary trained sweetie so this is no reflection of him or his understanding of the season...just my own personal take on things) but from what I can tell the purpose of giving something up is to better understand the sacrifice involved with Easter. The sacrifice made by both the Father and the Son and the idea that by denying ourselves some kind of earthly pleasure we are making ourselves more attuned to and more in line with God's desires for our lives. Well, I don't really have anything meaningful to give up (and I know, I know, I don't HAVE to). I mean I could be one of those people who give up something like chocolate, or cokes, or tv but all of those seem to be kind of shallow and silly (not to mention a little self serving). So I thought instead maybe I would really make a point to ADD something during the next 40 days. I don't know, maybe this is a silly idea. I mean I already have a quiet time (at least I try to) and I already do Bible Studies and go to church and pray for my children BUT I'm just thinking maybe I could really commit to doing something (kinda sacrificial in that it will be time consuming) just for God and me. So when I happened upon this tonight I knew this was the thing for me to do.
Like I said, I already pray for my kids (what mom doesn't) but when I saw this about praying scripture over my kids at specific times during the day I just felt like I really needed to do this. The premise is that you pray for your kids at seven different times throughout the day:
when they wake up
when they are getting dressed
while they are eating
when they leave the house
while they are taking a bath
when they are going to bed
while they are sleeping
At each of these seven times throughout the day, I am committing to pray scripture over each of my girls by name (I have 3 of them-see I told you this would be time consuming)!!! I don't know that this is exactly what most people would consider sacrificial or even appropriate for this particular season BUT I figure it will be adding an additional 21 prayers to my day. What could be wrong about that. I firmly believe that a life spent in prayer is a life well lived AND that if we (I) am spending this much time in prayer each day I am going to become more and more aligned with God's will for me and my family!
Who knows...I love my brothers like they were my own I may just start praying over them as well! I do believe that if we all spent as much time in prayer as we do worrying, or gossiping or chit chatting idly our world would be in much better shape!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Josh and I are not big fans of Valentine's Day. I mean I like the red and pink combo and the paper hearts and flowers but I'm not so sure about the ONE day to celebrate love. I'm more of a love you all year long kind of girl! BUT with three little ones no holiday goes unnoticed or unrewarded at our house. This year the girls-well the big ones at least-had some very specific valentine requests! AND for once this momma hit the nail on the head or to use a more valentinesy expression-Cupid's arrows were right on target!
Check out the girls with their much desired Valentine loot!


Yes, that's Emma with the much sought after "Dora Phone". If you remember, at Christmas Emma was desperate for a Dora phone. It was really the only thing she wanted. She was convinced that Santa would be bringing her one. However, even though I searched high and low I couldn't find a Dora phone and came to the conclusion that there really was no such thing! Imagine my surprise when I was casually wandering the aisles at Target and happened upon the much desired and quite elusive DORA PHONE!!! Emma was one happy camper!



And oh yes, in case you are confused, that is a kids pink snuggie with the matching slipper socks! OH YEAH! Annie T. was estatic! After she got it she told me that she was SO excited that they had not had "S" week at school because now she could take her SNUGGIE for show and tell that week! Watch out First Presbeterian Day School-the Thompsons are breaking out the SNUGGIE! I'm not quite sure if they're ready for us and our snuggies! But boy is Annie ready to show it off!




Oh sweet Gracie in her pink high top Converse tennis shoes! Too cute. She hasn't been much of a shoe wearer-I so love little bare toes-so she wasn't too sure what to think about those big girl shoes! But oh man, she looked adorable!

Even this Valentine's day Scrooge had to admit this one turned out pretty darn good! :)

Bo for President?

This weekend, the girls and I were on our way to Gadsden when we passed one of those great big blow up Uncle Sams. We had a cute little conversation about who the President is and what he does.
Annie: Look mom! I see a President.
Me: Yeah. That guy does look like a president. Do you know what a president is?
Annie: Someone who wears red and white pants?
Me: No silly. A president is the leader...
Annie: Oh yeah, of the United States of America. Our president is President Obama. (Unfortunately she's right on this one!)
Me: Yep.
Emmma: No he's not!! My president is Bo!!
Annie: No Emma, Bo is not the President!
Emma: Yes he is! Bo is my president because he looks like the president!

I just let those girls settle that between themselves! They are so cute when they are both so sure of themselves-the fact that they were both restrained (in carseats) and unable to reach each other to inflict harm was just the icing on the cake!!

Snow Day!!!

Today we had a snow day! School was canceled and we thought we would be enjoying a nice relaxing no snow day before heading to Alabama tomorrow. We started our day at the library. Let me just tell you that taking three kids under four to the library is quite a feat! We followed our library trip with a quick stop at publix to pick up the stuff to make a homemade pizza for lunch (silly us, we didn't pick up milk or bread or any of that snow stuff because we didn't think there would be any snow. we have enough to get by anyway). Publix was a madhouse-I bet the grocery store loves a snowy forcast!
When we got home we got to work on our lunch! We thought we'd make something a little different in honor of Valentine's day! We sure had fun putting this together!

After chowing down on our yummy heart pizza, we settled in for a quiet afternoon of reading and working around the house. The girls actually all fell asleep! AND when they woke up we had a yard full of SNOW! They were SO excited! We bundled up and headed out to play in the snow! Annie and Emma put on lots of layers and their rain boots-we don't have lots of snow attire since we've never really lived anywhere that gets snow-and Gracie put on her Uncle Daniel's snowsuit (her pink girly one is too small)! After building a snowgirl (Annie did it all by herself) and having a snowball fight, we decide we'd had enough snow for awhile! I think we'll spend the rest of the afternoon inside trying to get warm and enjoying our hot chocolate!


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Just for fun this is last year's snow day picture! See how they've grown! :)