Random Thoughts

Anna has had some pretty good nights lately, and I'm done worrying about jinxing myself, because her sleeping patterns are SO random, I don't think anything I do can affect them at all anymore. Last night she was only up once. The night before it was twice. Earlier this week it was 4 times, though, so I'm not sure that we actually have a trend going. We had a playdate yesterday, and she proved, once again, that she will not sleep anywhere but her own crib, little stinker.

Adele is terribly adorable right now. She is so excited for Christmas. I've been trying to keep CHRIST in Christmas this year with her (well, we have since her first Christmas, really...thanks to her little people nativity set from Aunt Dee Dee) and I planned out some daily activities and crafts to help with the Christmas spirit around here. (Maybe I just miss teaching...it was kind of fun writing "lesson plans" for the month.) She seems to have inherited her Daddy's ability to sniff out any and all presents/surprises before they are given (and even purchased in some instances), because she is SURE that she wants a doll house for Christmas, as well as a Clubhouse for the back yard, and surprise, surprise, both gifts are already purchased. One is in our garage, and the other is at Bapa Gropp's house, currently "under construction". I can't wait to see the look on her face when she gets to open her presents.

Adele's favorite word right now is "even." She begins every sentence with it. It's pretty cute. I don't know where she got it from, but I wanted to document it before she stops. Another cute "language" thing she is doing right now is using the word "anything" instead of "nothing" (and "any" for "no") She also uses "something" all the time. As in, "Mom, I need something." but won't tell us what. Or, she'll say, "I need anything" when she needs nothing.

Several weeks ago on a morning before school, we took Anna for her 6-month check up. While we were at the doctor's office, Adele got her flu shot. Now, every time we drive to school Adele asks repeatedly if she is going to get a shot. Poor thing! I hope I haven't scarred her for life!

Speaking of asking repeatedly, yesterday on our way home from our playdate, Adele asked a million times for a piece of gum (yes, I'm a bad mom and let her chew gum...). Finally I turned around (at a red light...) and told her that if she asked again for gum before we got into the house, I would throw the gum away when we did get home. She got the message. No more asking for gum until the second she crossed the threshold into the garage door. Smartie pants.

Okay, I think that is about all for now.

"Even my face have anything on it?"


Anna couldn't let her sister be the only one with food all over her face:

Pictures as Promised

In no particular order, pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend:

Screaming to warm up?

Waiting for the lighted parade to begin...brrr!

Adele with her "snowball":

The "Polar Express"-this float was pretty cool. I didn't think to take a picture of the "train" from the front until it was too late...I ran about 2 blocks "ahead" of the float to try and capture it after it passed us, but had no luck.

"Oreo" came at the start of the parade...Adele was thrilled! I'd attempt to spell the word she says when trying to pronounce "oreo" but I don't think there are enough vowels on my keyboard...

A Very Serious decorator:

Sleepy Anna:

Rolling cookie dough with Dee Dee:

More Frosting:

Choosing cookie cutters with Dee Dee:

Here is Adele reading with Uncle Michael's mom, Carol:

Doing puzzles with Bapa:

Making pull-aparts for breakfast on Friday:

Good Morning, Miss Adele!

This picture makes me think that Anna and Adele need some cousins, STAT!

Happy, happy, happy!

Thanksgiving, 2010

(finally...)
(hey, at least it's still November...for a few hours...)

Last Wednesday, we headed up to Portage, WI for a "locavore" Thanksgiving, hosted by Aunt Dee Dee and Uncle Michael. We traveled half way on Wednesday night, spending the night in a hotel (Adele had a "countdown turkey" that she would take feathers off of each day counting down the days until we got to go "to the hotel and then Dee Dee's"...it was pretty exciting!). Interestingly enough, Aunt Jenny had an event in the same area as our hotel (outside Chicago) and ended up staying just a floor above us. We woke up early (some earlier than others, ahem, Anna...4:45...AM....!!!!) and caravaned up to Dee Dee's house on Thursday.

We arrived at Dee Dee's much earlier than she had anticipated (I blame Anna...) so we ended up with several hours to chit chat and help out in the kitchen before the big, locally grown meal. You can read all about the food at Dee Dee's blog if you're interested. For all intents and purposes, it was an excellent meal. (As it would have been if it had come from Kroger...or California...or in cans (well, maybe not the turkey), in my humble, not the least bit "foodie" opinion...) I don't exactly buy into the whole "locavore" movement, but, hey, it works for Dee Dee. (And just because I'm not a locavore doesn't mean that I don't want to have a garden of some kind with my girls some day....I think gardening is a PERFECT activity for little hands...but don't tell Daddy, especially since he's not exactly what you'd call a "vegetable eater." My "problem" with it is more in the practicality rather than the philosophy of it all...)

Anna wasn't exactly a fan of sleeping in her pack-and-play, wanted to rise way way, WAY before the sun, and then stay up even later than the grown-ups, but she did take a few cat naps in the sling. Big sister, Adele was absolutely in LOVE with being in the kitchen with Dee Dee, and it was VERY nice to have her occupied while I walked/bounced/swayed/willed her baby sister to sleep! All the cooking seemed to do well for Adele because she slept fine on her princess air mattress (well, she did fall asleep in "our" bed with Daddy, but transferred easily to the air mattress as soon as she was asleep). It just goes to show that I should never think that I have the girls figured out-I thought for sure that Adele would be the one with problems sleeping "on the road" but it was Anna this time. Go figure.

I took surprisingly few pictures (probably because there were a billion OTHER cameras flashing constantly throughout the whole weekend...) so I don't have many to post, but the highlight of the trip was the lighted santa parade on Friday night (well, that and the Pizza Hut Dee Dee allowed into her house for our benefit...kidding.) It was dark and VERY cold, so we left Anna home with Daddy and Bapa (which worked out well since she was actually sleeping in the pack-and-play when it was time to go...) while Memaw, Dee Dee and I took a very bundled Adele to the parade. We didn't tell her that Santa was coming in case it was too cold or she was too fidgety/bored, etc. She's so in love with "decorations" right now that it probably wouldn't have mattered if Santa hadn't been there. Some highlights were an "Oreo", a "Polar Express" "train" and a snowball made of "real" (well, really, "fake" snow from a nearby ski hill) snow (which I brought back to Dee Dee's house in my pocket). And who could forget all those candy canes and tootsie rolls thrown at our feet! It was neat to watch Adele's eyes light up when Santa went by.

I know I'm missing lots and lots about the weekend, and I promise a separate pictures post later (I'm working on getting pictures from Memaw) but I'm worn out, and if I don't post this now, I'll probably ramble on incoherently for several more pages, and I won't actually get this posted while its still November...

They Might Be...

Buechners afterall...

(Alternately titled, "See this, Mom, she DOES look like Jenny!")

For no real reason tonight, I was looking in a file called "misc. pictures" on my desktop. I happened to open this one, again, who knows why, because it was called "scan004" or something *real* exciting like that. BUT, I'm glad I did, because it just may prove that the girls have SOME of my genetic make up. Or something.

Check this out. I'm the one in blue. Aunt Jenny is in yellow (of course, if you've known me for a while, that's not a surprise.) Don't worry about Aunt Katie for this one...



That smile on my five-year-old face...I've seen that before. Recently. In fact, I see it about a thousand times a day...on my spunky two-year-old's precious face:


And those dark, awe-filled, wondering eyes on Jenny...yup, I see those too...on the sweetest baby in the world.

And just for the record, I loved that pumpkin. So much so that every Halloween since I have looked for an absurdly tall pumpkin so that I could re-create *that* one in my mind...the one that I'm almost positive my Grandpa Dunn helped me pick out.

Okay, that's all for now. Just wanted to share my findings. No maternity test needed. Sorry Maury.

Beauty and the Beast Cast Party

On Saturday, we took our little princesses to a party with the Beauty and the Beast cast. Adele had an absolute blast! I guess it IS pretty hard to go wrong with cookie decorating, face painting, and up close and personal visits with *real* princesses...especially when there's a costume contest involved!


Cookie decorating:


And eating:

Mrs. Potts and Lumiere:

Chip:

Argh! A sideways picture of our princess meeting "THE" princess:

Story time:

Face painting:

(not exactly the "rose" she asked for, but it made her happy!)

This is my favorite part. It was like birds landing on a telephone wire. There were all of these little princesses scampering around. It started out with a group of 2 or 3 girls on one side, and Adele with her "friend" on the other side. Slowly, more and more princesses came to sit down, and they would all slide around, making space. As soon as Daddy shot this picture, they started getting up one at a time, and after a minute, they were all gone.

Learning a dance (supposedly) from the show

She was SO cute learning the dance. She would watch so intently and try to do all of the moves. Sometimes she got distracted with just watching the characters, but Mommy thinks its time to sign her up for her own dance class!!!!

Side By Side

Stay tuned...

Daddy has some editing to do, but I just couldn't keep this cuteness to myself!


Adele:















Anna: