Belle

Ever since Christmas, Annie has been absolutely smitten with the new princess, "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast. Well, neither of my girls had ever seen that movie, so we decided to watch it today. Annie's choice. : ) Leia Rose had been avoiding it for years, afraid of the Beast. And at the beginning when the Beast is "grumpy," she kept yelling, "I hate this movie! This is my LEAST favorite movie of all!" But by the end, she said, "I love this movie! This movies is right after Cinderella and Robin Hood, and definitely before Snow White!" (The witch in Snow White still freaks her out.)

Gosh, I just LOVE this picture of Leia, even though it makes me so sad. I took this at the part when the Beast "dies" at the end of the movie, and before he turns back into the prince. Oh, Leia Rose was SO distressed that such a good character was ending (she thought). And I couldn't deny the similarity to my first viewing of ET when I was 10. I just couldn't stop crying at the end, . . . and I remember quite vividly Dad saying, "It means you're growing up."

Did you notice that Annie was dressed like Belle all day, courtesy of Santa? : ) Here she is running to get her Belle skirt back after a diaper change.

And reaching for her Belle block book in her new princess set. (Another Christmas favorite.)

Horsey

Even with all of the new Christmas toys lying around, Annie always returns to her beloved horsey (as a gift from Oma and Papa to Leia ages ago). Annie has recently really gotten into the galloping while pressing the little sound mechanism on the horse's ear. (You can she that she has also been enjoying the doll high chair from when I was young as well. Annie likes to give the babies "food." : )

Two Phones!?!

Bath Paints

Aunt Cassie gave Leia Rose and Annie some REALLY cool bath paints for Christmas, so the girls were hankering to try them out. Leia Rose REALLY got into it!

BUT, . . . Annie wouldn't do anything but watch. And when we tried to have her paint, even a little bit, crying ensued! ; )

(The rule behind these paints, by the way, is as follows: the painter washes the walls before exiting. Worked like a charm.)

New Friends, New Park

God has blessed me this year with a new friend for our family!!! This is Maureen Retzbach who has a wonderful husband and five girls! Alexis, who is Leia's age, is also in Leia's Immaculata class. I can't tell you how much it meant to me to have Maureen, even with ALL she has to do and how busy she is, offer to help me in any way that she could during our move, during the tragedy regarding Karin, and during the Christmas season. I will look forward to getting to know her even better within the coming year. What a treasure!

Here are Leia, Alexis, and the twins on our newest find in Horse Shoe: Etowah Park!

First Treehouse Picnic

Then the girls and I had our first "treehouse picnic." It was a beautiful day!!! (But, note to self, NEVER wear slip-on shoes to try to get to that treehouse again. It was rough going!)

A Hike with Grandma

Grandma came to visit after our trip to Newberry. This was mostly to bring Leia Rose and Annie back after a special day with her grandparents (so that Mamma could try and desperately catch up on everything, including her first 440 page blog-book). That afternoon we all took a hike on the trail that Leia, Annie, and I blazed a while back. It was FUN! (And Grandma would probably say, "It was STEEP!" Ha! ; )
Leia Rose was more excited to show Grandma our blue trail-blazing marks on the trees than she was about looking at nature! : )

Leia as a Flying Heart

A Big Piece

Just thought I'd mention that Annie has ceased to want her fruit (especially) cut up into little pieces. This is after she observed Leia Rose always getting a big piece, mind you. So now Annie always says, "Big piece!" when it's fruit time.

Annie's Birth Narrative

Again, I have been meaning to post about this for quite some time, but I just didn't have a corresponding picture, so I kept forgetting. . . .

Anyway, it's SUCH an important post, because it wasn't long ago when I asked Annie about her birth. And, let me tell you, it was SO interesting what she had to say!!! The first thing she said was, "Like a slide!" This almost blew me out of my chair right there. When pressed further she said it was "dark" and that "an-mals there." I don't know WHAT to make of that latter comment because it means that she saw animals while she was being born (Ha!), but as for the former, I find it really interesting that "dark" was the same exact word that Leia Rose used to describe it when SHE was almost 2. We ended our conversation with a rousing viewing of Annie's water birth at the birth center. The labor part was boring for Annie to watch, but once I fast-forwarded to her actual birth, Annie had a REAL perception that it was really HER coming out of there! Welcome to the world, Annie! I love you!

Quinten, Leia's "Boyfriend"

I have been meaning to write a post about this for AGES, but I thought I would wait until I had a picture of them both together. Anyway, one day a month or so ago, Leia Rose flippantly mentioned that she had a boyfriend. (What!?!) I was expecting her to say it was either Kevin, Colin, Trevor, or Logan (who are the usual fellas that are in the running for marriage ; ) BUT on that day she said it was Quinten from immaculata.

Well, that's fine with me. ; ) Quinten is an incredibly well-behaved little boy who is always dressed in dapper clothes. I did notice that whenever I would attend an Immaculata assembly that Quinten could always be seen sitting next to Leia Rose, leaning over continually to tell her something, and cowering with fear as Leia Rose tried to smack him for doing so. Ha!

One day after school when I was on foot to get Leia Rose, Quinten was standing there about to get into his car. He looked at me for a second (obviously wondering if he should say this), and then screamed, "Leia! You're my girlfriend, Leia! . . . . I'm gonna MARRY you Leia!!!" And as he did this Quinten did this little muscle man stance, just like Hans and Franz used to do. Ha! Then he fled to his car! It was the first time I had laughed in MONTHS. And I was laughing REALLY hard! Ironically, Quinten's mother looked PETRIFIED. Ha!

On another occasion, Leia Rose was on Quinten's "short list" for a playground playdate. When Leia arrived, Quinten rushed to her side and immediately asked her to go on "the bean." Well, from then on, the green tire swing at the laurel park playground has been the "green bean." For an hour or so, she and Quinten sat on that swing singing, "Get on the bean, get on the bean, the green green bean. It's the green, green bean," as they swung around at breakneck pace. Meanwhile, Quinten's mom (Jude) and I were talking about our children. Jude expressed a bit of nervousness about Quinten's romantic side. And just at that moment, I saw her start sprinting towards the other end of the playground, grab Quinten, and start speaking to him VERY sternly. Meanwhile, Leia Rose just calmly walked up to me and said, “You know what, Mamma? Quinten just kissed me on the lips!! And you know what? I actually liked it! . . . but it was a little bit wet.” Ha!

I'm not sure why I wasn't worried about this, but I wasn't. Not one bit. It was all totally innocent. Both Jude and I shelter our children pretty severely from shows with any kind of what I like to call "the high school dynamic." They are just busy learning about relationships, and trying to figure out their own. But I'm here, Leia Rose, whenever you want to ask me absolutely anything! : )

Loving Grandma & Grandpa

After Christmas in Newberry

Santa brought a Melody Express Train to Grandma's for the girls! Each little tile is a note, so the train plays songs as it runs. (I'll admit that Mamma had more fun with this than the girls. Ha!)

Grandma, Leia, & a Littlest Petshop Online Kitty!

And the coolest wind-up toy in the history of the world!!! Annie would come back to it again and again! And I can't forget to mention really cool necklaces, bath paints, and books from Uncle Alan & Aunt Cassie. (Someone was wearing their flower necklace at any point in time during the whole trip.) And, of course, no visit to Grandma's & Grandpa's would be complete without playing "Lion" on the upstairs of the sunroom! Double homeless woogies?!? We also went to see a GREAT drive-through Christmas light display. But the most fun of the trip?!? POPCORN!!! Note that the girls have one hand in one huge sack of butter popcorn and one hand in the big box of cheese popcorn! (Their two favorites!) Ha! And the girls and grandpa came up with a fun new game called "Corn Hog." Ha! They laughed themselves silly with this one! : )

Uncle Joe & Aunt Patsy gave the girls a game from the "Five Little Monkeys" book that deals with jumping on the bed, . . . and brushing your teeth (which is what the girls are pretending to do in the picture).

And Lucybelle had lots of fun with the girls leftover bows! (Playing with "kit" on the porch is another fun tradition when visiting Grandma & Grandpa.) And look at Leia's reaction to all of Daddy's Star Wars toys from when he was little!!!

It was a happy time, full of nostalgia. Thanks so much, Grandma & Grandpa!

Christmas Morning 2008

Leia LOVED her new tutu and her (very last-minute requested) Cinderella Baby Doll. It was a real surprise to find a REAL Polar Express train in the princess castle!!! The kitties opened their presents, too! : ) And Annie's most requested gift: A Princess Tea Set!!!

And on Christmas Eve, I took the girls out to choose gifts for each other. This is what Annie picked out for Leia Rose (because of the purple kitty). I'm SO glad I did this. The girls got more excited about choosing the gift for their sibling than even opening their own! Hooray for giving over receiving! And no matter what, Annie always wound up back at the "farm blocks." : )

And Daddy gave Leia Rose his set of Star Wars glasses to share! Daddy laughed SO hard at his set of "Stewie" boxers from Family Guy. And just like last year with the Tinkerbell outfit, the girls dressed like princesses the whole day! : ) Annie even got an elf-made set of "magic fans." A new one will appear when one breaks! (A GREAT quiet church toy!) A set of mini-princesses from Mamma! A Darth Vader christmas ornament from Oma!

A book all about Yukino & Leia Rose made by Mamma! The surprise of the morning? Annie LOVED this little pink princess phone. ; ) And Daddy loved his Young Indy, Volume 3. Another surprise of the morning: Leia Rose LOVED the Honeycomb Doll that was one of my most requested toys from the 80's. (And I'm convinced that it was because of the 80's clothes that she was so interesting to Leia!) Annie, however, was not as impressed with hers: my Effenbee Doll. Leia was so excited to give Annie the gift she picked out!

But no doubt, Annie's favorite toys were all of her Snow White toys from Oma! ("A Dopey Dare!!!"

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And Leia Rose and I had lots of fun finding flower fairies, courtesy of Oma as well. And even with all the kitties from Santa, the only one who got a hug was from Godmommy Laurie. Leia loved Laurie's socks as well! Another favorite that Leia Rose was waiting for was Mamma's toothfairy pillow from her childhood. (Leia promised to share with you, Annie.) : )

And this little doll named "Tamara" was PERFECT for Annie, from Mamma, with all of her snap on clothes!

Another favorite for both girls was the play-doh ice cream machine! Leia loved to do it with Daddy (a big tradition in our family), and Annie could always be found with one of the cups in her hand! : )

And after all of our presents were unwrapped, and a very impromptu visit from our neighbors, we ran outside to complete the request from Santa's letter and found that THE ELVES BUILT THE GIRLS A TREEHOUSE!!! So exciting!!!