Rowdy Rowan

Rowan's new found freedom and love of most things edible has provided our family with some unique snapshots and stories we will hold onto and treasure until that first boy comes over to take her on a date.

For instance:

She was so proud of herself.  

Of course, now every time the dishwasher is open it's fair game.  Oh the price we pay for cute pictures!

Spaghetti O-no's!

Stoic.

 Yummy!

Look at how cute and messy I am at the same time!

 

Hey Hey!  

Come give me a hug!

 

 

January Zoo day

Our birthday weekend was made complete when we got to go to the Zoo on Sunday!  As I've mentioned before, we are Zoo sinners.  With a little bit of mist and some cool temperatures we had the zoo to ourselves that morning! 

First though, we decided to model some new dresses we got the day before at our birthday party from Mrs. Steffie and Mr. Rob!

Presenting Pose-able Peyton and Aunt Jemima!

 

What a mess these two are!

This one would have been so sweet without Grace's fake smile! ha!

 

The big sisters doing their job, making Rowan laugh.  I love this shot.

 

 

 Finally, we made it to the zoo and I got this super cute shot!

 

 I'm still loving my new camera - I was actually a good 100 feet away when I took this with my telephoto lens. 

An almost family shot.  I think Daddy is the only one looking at the camera!

As fans of child labor, we are so glad the girls are now four and can work a couple hours more each day.

 Our backs were really starting to hurt!  Thanks Peyton and Grace!

Jumping into year 4!

We have made it!  Year four and sassier than ever!  Also, cuter than ever...

While I generally speaking do not monogram (kids grow out of clothes WAY too fast and the younger kids never have the same name!) I thought this would be a great time to personalize on a day that they both share. 

Here are the birthday girls in all their glory!

 

 I had a good friend recommend the lady that did my shirts and she was great! I LOVED how they turned out and so did the girls!

Once again, 1 out of 2 smiles is something I am proud of!

We had our party at JUMP in Southaven.  It's an indoor bouncy place that is surprisingly clean and well run.  We had the 11am - 1pm slot.   Here are the invitations we sent out.  

 

Grace dove in, head first.  Literally.

 

Lucky for Mommy, their names were on their shirts for this event!

Here's Peyton!  So grown up.

 

So helpful!

 

The girls have a good friend at school who's party we went to in October at JUMP.  His mom had an awesome Toy Story cake made and had the AMAZING idea to have cupcakes for the kids and the cake part for the adults in attendance.  

 Genius!

 

BabyCakes Bake Shoppe in Olive Branch created this.  You can pick up her yummy cupcakes at Wimpy's on Goodman (awesome burger joint) or CityHall Cheesecake in Hernando!  Not only did it look great, but it tasted 10 times better!

Here are the birthday girls enjoying their cupcakes! 

Along with the ever so important cupcakes we had Uncrustables (PB&J), some fruit gummies and goldfish.  A well balanced meal for 4 year olds!

Then it was on to presents.  Luckily, master photographer-in-training and super friend, Steffie, captured the present opening shots while mom and dad were handing the gifts to the openers.

 

The girls got some awesome gifts - their friends from school know them well! 

Mom tried her hand at the favors which came out pretty well I think.

 

Then it was on to the house where family came over to unwind and to the girls delight, open more presents.  It was the second coming of Christmas.  Seriously, the girls are going to need a 12 step program in about a month because they won't be able to function without opening a multitude of presents for some reason.  The girls came away with some awesome pillow pets, ballet lessons, and a grill among a plethora of other great gifts.  Shockingly, no one got us an extra 1,000 square feet in our house for us to, you know, put all of these new great toys... I digress.

Mom and Dad's big present was, of course, the party but we also managed to get a couple things for them to enjoy.  One was the original Cinderella on DVD and the other was...

Wait for it... wait for it....

 

A trampoline!  

Yes, it took every ounce of Mommy and Daddy's being not to jump on this.  So far, we are remaining strong.

Rowan was surprised as well!

 

We had a great birthday weekend and even got to go to the Zoo on Sunday!  More to come...

New Haircut

With the girls refusing to put their hair up anymore, Maribeth was able to go much shorter than we had in the past... and I think it's adorable!

Short is maybe an understatement?

It's a miracle! Peyton gave me a half smile!

The light in the shot, which is framing Grace's face perfectly,  was of course on purpose. 

 

And here's a cute one of Rowan for good measure!

Who might possibly need a haircut in the near future!

Rowan at 10 months

Since we don't have another check up until 12 months I thought I'd use the 10 month mark to post an update.


Row-ster is a great baby and is most often super happy.  She loves to be around her sisters and the smile she now gets on her face when Mommy or Daddy walk in the room is priceless!  She has adopted a few fun new "activities" in her baby arsenal which include but are not limited to:

- Shrieking when she wants your attention.  Like Blair Witch shrieking.  I must say, it's effective which is probably why she's still doing it.  The words 'vicious cycle' come to mind right now.

- Eating.  While this should come as no surprise, Rowan has started eating basically anything that is put in front of her at daycare.  This includes sloppy joes, fish sticks (yuck! Mommy forgot to look at the schedule this day!), Mexican chili and chicken salad as of today.  When she gets home, we don't seem to be as successful but she does a great job eating her mandarin oranges, spaghetti, taco soup and Gerber wagon wheels among other things.


- Walking.  She took her first couple steps before falling into my arms (on purpose) today and if she's not doing that she is reaching for your hands to walk her around EVERYWHERE.  While my back isn't appreciating this super cute new skill she loves, it is cute when she searches for your hands when she's ready to go!


- She loves peekaboo and waving 'hi' and 'bye' and will even give kisses on demand about 80% of the time!

There's lots more but let's be honest, you want to see pictures... here are some of my favorite shots of her from Christmas break with my new camera!

The center shot is not so bad if I do say so myself!  Thank you Canon!

Cuteness all around!  I will say that middle picture looks nothing like her...even though it's, you know, her.

Karate Kids

The girls had their first karate belt promotion after starting the lessons through our daycare this past December. In one word, it was: awesome. Awesome to see what they had learned and awesome because little kids in over sized karate uniforms are super cute. To the pictures!

Daddy got made them take this picture before they left.

Awesome!


Here they are at the dojo.

I totally made up the "dojo" part - it's fun to say though!


Rowan was SO over this whole karate scene.

She had just been to the doctor and been diagnosed with a... wait for it... ear infection. 
No shocker there! By the time she is 2 she'll be the spokesbaby for the Center for Ear Infections in Babies and Toddlers Who Attend Daycare (CEFBTWAD for short).


Being focused is a big part of karate.

Peyton didn't get the "focused" memo apparently.

This is part of the stretching at the beginning.  

Who knew stretching could be so cute?



This is Grace doing a kicking exercise.

At least I think this is Grace...
(Give me a break - they ARE wearing the same thing!)


Look at that form!

I like this action shot.  I think that is Peyton in the foreground and Grace in the background.

I think....


Well look who woke up?
Here is a shot of part of the fan base that came out to support our little kickers.

Grandma, GiGi, Nana and Popa also came out to cheer on the girls!


Here is Grace during her belt ceremony with Ms. Adrienne.

A white belt with a yellow stripe complete with a 3 inch trophy and paper certificate!

That's how we roll in Mississippi.


Now it's Peyton's turn.

 
She decided to be chatty Cathy during this solemn ritual.  Great.


Armed and dangerous!

Now on to gymnastics!!!