New Year's Fun!

We rang in the new year with quite a bang! We took the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge in Cincinnati. It was
probably the most fun we could have possibly have had on a New Year's with them! They were quite wound up in the days leading up to it, so I wondered how tolerable the two hour trip over there would be, but I will say they were great. We borrowed my parents mini-van (which is soon to be mine!) which is definitely the way to travel with four kids. Meg enjoyed her DVD with headphones, although she commentated most of it to us all still and the boys texted with their new cell phone and listened to music.

When we go to our room, excitement erupted! We had a room called the Kids Kabin. It had a queen size bed for us and a sleeper sofa bed for Meg in the main room, plus a fire place and balcony (yes, they did go out there even though it was freezing!). Then there was a special "cabin" in the room that had bunk beds and another twin bed in it for the boys. It also had their own tv and Game Cube console in it. It was very spacious even for all of us. We hurried and changed into our swimsuits and headed down to the waterpark. Meg was a little leery at first of the waterslides so she and I started out in the kiddie pool with the little slides. When she had done those several times and was feeling good, I suggested we try one of the bigger slides together in a double tube. She was so sure about it, but I convinced her that there was no way she'd get hurt and that if she didn't like it, we'd spend the rest of our time in the kiddie pool on the kiddie slides. We climbed the 800+ steps (maybe I'm exaggerating just a little bit) for the first time and hopped into our tube. As we started heading down, she was quiet at first the, she let out a squeal of delight. By the time we hit the water at the end, she was already asking to head back up and try a different one. Bye, bye kiddie pool.....hello steps! We climbed those steps at least 30 times throughout the rest of that day and the next. She rode every slide they had, except the big water coaster one. We even had her convinced to do that one, but when we go to the top to get on she was just a tad too short and the guy wouldn't let her on. =( She was very proud to say she'd done all the ones that she could though! By the end of the second day, she was even going down some of them by herself!

On New Year's Eve day, we played for a while, then we all decided we were hungry. We headed back up to our "cabin" and dove into the snacks I'd packed and we ahead and preordered out pizza for later that night, since we figured the rest of the hotel guests would be ordering pizza too. The boys then headed back down to the pool to play while Miss Meg and I rested. It was a bit noisy, since the hotel provided noisemakers to all the kids upon arrival, but we did get a good our of sleep in, which kept us going until midnight! We then headed back to the waterpark for a few more turns on the waterslides, before we got ourselves ready for dinner and the lodge's big Snowball event.

The Snowball event was fun filled with clowns doing face painting, balloon artists, party hat decorating, a band with dancing and games, and a really cool magic show. We even saw a show in the lobby where it snowed at the end. Very cool! Meghan, Cody and I spent much of the night dancing away. We were right up front on the dance floor in front of them, so close actually, that the lead singer motioned for me once to come up on stage with him. I just shook my head no, those days are long gone buddy! HA! HA! Greg, Connor and Kyle took some breaks and went back to the room a little bit, but not the three of us....we are the party animals apparently! =) We did all make it to midnight, even the other three joined us for the big countdown and balloon drop. As soon as the countdown was over though, we made a beeline for our room and beds. Meghan was so funny because she's now convinced (and very excited) that she stayed up ALL NIGHT LONG! She wanted to know what she was supposed to do when we got back to the room since it was morning. I then explained that it was just very early morning, and she still had plenty of time to sleep and that she should sleep late.....but in typical Meg fashion, at just a few minutes for 8AM, I heard her visiting with the boys in their "cabin." We had no time to waste anyways, as we had to get back to the waterslides!

The kids all settled in the "grocery getter"

Decorating a New Year's hat (that I had to wear later because it covered up too much of her face painting!)

With our party favors making noise!

Getting ready to swim

Not sure the hat is quite my look

Alien balloons and face painting

As she was looking through the book, she told me she wanted something pink and girly. HA!

One of their favorite rides

Waiting for the balloons to drop

Dancing the night away!

Tanner the Pooping Dog Causes Problems

I couldn't resist a quick post on this....I was fixing Meg's dinner tonight. She came into the kitched with a panic stricken look on her face. Here's our conversation:

Meg: Mommy, I accidentally had a piece of Tanner's poop (remember the pooping dog?) in my mouth, and it accidentally went down my throat! (The dog's "poop" is about the size of a Tic-Tac, so I wasn't concerned)

Me: Accidentally? You mean you put in your mouth and you swallowed it?

Meg: tears and sobbing start....very loud sobbing I might add!

Me: It will be fine, you will just poop out Tanner's poop.

Meg: *With a look of horror on her face* What?

Me: Yes, you will poop it out. (I gave a brieft description of digestion, then)

Meg: Ooooh.

Me: Time to eat dinner.

Meg: *saying nothing, I notice her lips are locked tight*

Me: What are you doing?

Meg: *says nothing, shakes her head*

Me: Meg? What are you doing?

Meg: Mmm! Mmm!

Me: Open your mouth.

Meg: *finally opens mouth* I don't want to though, what if that poop comes back out?

Me: *trying to hold back laughter* It won't, remember, it will come out when you go potty tomorrow?

Meg: Ooooooh.

She goes with her Dad tomorrow. I did give him a heads up that there could be some real drama in the bathroom when she has to go #2! I'm sure she won't forget about this ordeal. HA HA!

Gift Review

As every other year has been since Meg has been alive, the amount of "stuff" she receieved for Christmas was overwhelming. I must admit I even feel somewhat ashamed, as no child needs this much "stuff," nor could they ever play with it all. I will say she is, at least, very appreciative and excited about it all, so for that I'm proud of her. She definitely isn't one of those kids who just expects this "stuff" and I sure don't buy toys other times just because. It doesn't mean that she's not one of those kids at Wal-Mart begging me mercilessly all through the aisles, but I don't give in....I stand my ground!!! :) (That's why you read in the post from last night that I was being soooo nice last night!) Anyways, here's a small recap of some of her Christmas "stuff."

Puppy Knows Your Name (from Grandpa Moore) A puppy that you hook up to the computer so that is says your name and it knows it's own name after being programmed. It sings, tells you when it wants to be fed, brushed, and petted. It even grows, which we witnessed last night. I even think this toy is kinda cool and will admit to playing with it when she's not around! HA!

Meghan and Snowball


Bride Dress Up Clothes (from Mamaw and Papaw) The whole ensemble of bridal wear....dresss with train (or dragger as Meg calls it), veil, wedding ring w/ rock, shoes, garter belt, purse and handkerchief. She also got a Bridal Barbie from Greg's mom (Grammy) that coordinates and she's also pretty excited about. I'm hoping all this bridal stuff doesn't inspire more "my mommy's getting married" stories that she makes up and tells to random people!

Bitty Baby Twins (from Santa...aka Mommy) Why Santa gets credit for all the exciting stuff, I'm still not sure of....doesn't seem fair to me, but I play along as everyone tells me I"m supposed to as a parent! She loves these dolls though. She got matching jammies for herself and a matching dress from Aunt Lisa that she's already had on and worn at least 5 times. Every time I turn around in the house, she's changed clothes into the dress, so she can match and we spend at least an extra 10 minutes before bed now changing TWO dolls into their jammies and getting them ready for bed.



From Christmas Eve she got a Bratz doll, which as soon as she opened it, she yelled out at the top of her lungs, "My mommy doesn't like Bratz dolls!!!!" ***Mommy hides face*** A giant floor puzzle that was lots of fun to put together, and a Fancy Nancy tea party book. It goes along very well with a tea party set that Santa brought her. A tea party set that Santa found clearanced out on disney.com earlier in the summer and got very, very cheap, I might add!! :) She also got the Libby Lu hair piece that you see her wearing in some of the pics. While wearing it around on Christmas Eve night, she get saying "I'm a hot girl!" and "Totally awesome!" Wow.....I'm soooo not ready for that kind of stuff!

Giant Pet Floor Puzzle

Fancy Nancy glasses

The Bratz doll (that Mommy doesn't like!) HA! HA!

She also got the portable DVD player (a pink one, of course) which will be great to take on our camping trips, and Greg got her a gift that could earn him a good percentage of her royalties someday if she becomes famous.....a radio that has a microphone attached to it! She's obsessed with this gift. We bought CD's for it last night, as I already posted about, and she's spent a great deal of time in there already singing and dancing away. The videos I took capture just a little bit of her performances!

There are a few other things, jewelry box from Grammy, Leapster game, Jasmine princess dolly, some clothes, Gabriella dress up outfit, necklace and new blanket from Grandpa, new pink Carhartt barn coat, a couple of new books, and I'm sure some other things that have slipped my mind.

There's a hole in her pocket!

Meg got some money for Christmas from Grandpa. Last night after we dropped the boys off and had dinner we went by Wal-Mart so she could spend a little of it. We had talked and decided that she was going to purchase a CD for her new radio with microphone to sing along with, a carrying case for her portable DVD player and maybe a new DVD if she had enough money left. Fortunately for her, the economy isn't so great, so Wal-Mart had some good mark-downs. CD's that were normally $14 a piece were marked down to $9, so she got a Hannah Montana one and the new High School Musical 3 CD. We also found a DVD carrying case for $20, when I was expecting it to be around $40, so she was able to purchase a Bratz DVD. As we were walking out of Wal-Mart I soon realized, she didn't quite understand the whole I'm spending my own money concept when she said, "Wow Mommy, you're being reeeeeeeallly nice tonight! Thank you!!!" Greg and I both got a good laugh out of that one!

Merry Christmas

Wow! What a day it's been! Miss Thing was totally zonked out by the time she got home tonight. She crashed in bed shortly after we changed her new Bitty Twins into their jammies and she got her matching nightgown on. She did make the cutest comment when she said, "Geez, now I have two babies and kitty to have in my bed!" That ratty old kitty she insists on sleeping with every night is not going anywhere!!! She got quite a load of stuff today which means we have a very busy day tomorrow getting every put away and sorting through some old things that can be given away to Goodwill. We're definitely looking forward to some relaxing time at home now that the holiday rush is over. I'll post some pics too as soon as the madness settles down. I'm sure there will be a nice long nap tomorrow for Meg in which I could get pics uploaded, that is if I don't choose to nap with her!! Ha!

Time off!

We are loving our time off of school! We've had a busy two days so far and Meg is anxiously awaiting Santa's arrival. We spent yesterday running errands and helping out Greg's mom who's not been feeling too weel. Today Meghan got a little play time in with Claire and Kate while I cleaned at Grandpa's, then we came home for some Mommy and Meg play time. We spent the afternoon playing "barn" as Meg called it. This consists of setting up all of her farm equipment (me putting together the hundreds of pieces of fences to create a separate pasture for all the different animals), then moving the animals to and from the vet for various ailments. Today we had a sick horse, a lamb that wouldn't nurse and a cow with a broken leg. Her imagination cracks me up. I do get in trouble when we play though because the Yoder's (the little Amish people that came with it) get a little wild sometimes. ***You know those crazy Amish!** LOL

We've also managed to make some Christmas cookies and decorate them to take for family Christmas Eve festivities tomorrow night. She loves decorating, but I'm not sure which has more decoration, my kitchen floor or the cookies? :) Oh well...she's having fun!

I do have sad news to report. One of our bunnies has died. I went to switch the water container this morning as I've been doing since it's been so cold and only one came out of the little bunny bathroom area to greet me. I had a terrible feeling and knew something had to be wrong as they have become very friendly when I go to feed and water them each day. When I opened up the little door to check on him, he was all stretched out and gone. :( I haven't had the heart to break the news to Meg yet. I know she'll be crushed, as it's Belle, the white one with red eyes that was her favorite that died. Boo hoo hoo.

That's what family's for!

A little late, but I had to share. I got a call at school on Tuesday around 10:45AM from the babysitter. Her first words were, "Meghan's fine." She's already figured me out, the mom who freaks out when she gets called at work! HA! Her daughter had pink eye. No problem, I said, I'll call my mom. I'm so thankful to have retired parents now who can help out in emergencies like this, right? Not always.... I called Mom, Dad answers they are taking care of my sick niece that day. Ooops! Strike that idea. Ok...no problem, it's almost lunch time, have building substitute cover my room after lunch. Strike that idea. No subs available. Aaaack. Now panic. I thought for a moment and remembered my family just a few seconds away from school. The Parker's! Diana was first to answer. Fortunately she wasn't working, so she went and picked up Meghan. It turned out to be Meg's lucky day. Here's why:

Meg hadn't had lunch yet. Where'd they go? Chicago's of course, since Diana owns it! Meg had her own personal cheese pizza and was even able to help herself to the buffet for chocolate pizza and cinnamon rounds. I should mention this is one of Meg's favorite places to eat too! After a few errands to run, they also had to go to Wal-Mart. Meg came home with a new My Little Pony Baby Doll. This toy has not left her side. We took it shoe shopping with us yesterday, we make a special bed for it every night, she really thought it should go into the mall with her today to see Santa too but I did talk her out of that one, and she carries it around on her back in it's backpack practically every second we are home. She loves this thing! I guess you could say Meghan wasn't too disappointed that the babysitter's daughter had pink-eye.

What an "ice" time!

Meg got an early break this week. She got Wednesday and Thursday off of preschool to begin her holiday break. School's been cancelled for the past two days due to ice. I must admit, I've been hoping for some delays myself (which would still result in preschool being cancelled for her), but I definitely haven't wanted the WHOLE day off, because those have to be made up later. Two days to make up is even worse, but oh well, we've had the days, so we've enjoyed them!

On Wednesday, we were relatively lazy in the morning, then we finally got motivated to go out and get some errands done. The great thing about living in town is that the roads are perfect! :) She got some much needed new tennis shoes, then she got to go to the babysitter's to play for a short time while I went to the hospital to help out Greg, since he had to take his mother there earlier in the day and she ended up being admitted. We rounded out the evening with a haircut, or I should say trim. Meg refuses to get an actual hair cut. Her goal is to have hair as long as Rapunzel's, so cutting it defeats that goal. The ratty ends, however, need a trim periodically, so I insist on taking her to Great Clips every so often for a trim. It's all about the way I word things. Yes, she's smart, but I'm clever!

Today, I was shocked with the cancellation call. Again, we took our time with breakfast, played Barbies for a while and even counted all the change in her piggy bank. I ended up rolling up nearly $80 in change, and yes, that is A LOT of change to roll! We finally got ready and headed to the mall, via clear, unicy major roadways to finish up some Christmas shopping and see Santa, with letter in hand. There was virtually no line for Santa today! Thanks Dr. Gellert (G-C Superintendent)! Meg gave him a big hug, crawled up in his lap, translated her letter to him, and also told him about the American Girl doll she wants. He knew all about American Girl dolls so they had a nice conversation about which one he should bring her. (Bitty Twins, which he is bringing were not mentioned, so I hope there's not great disappointment next week!) She also thanked him for the letter that he sent her. She put her letter in his mailbox, we paid our $17, yes, that's not a typo, $17, for a 5x7 photo of him and her together and off we went!

Spelling Surprises/Game Time

Lately Meg has surprised me with her spelling talents, and this morning during breakfast I had future visions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. She announced "Mommy! Guess what? I can spell cup!" An easy C-V-C word, so I asked her to go. Here's how it played out:

Meg: K?

Me: No, what other letter makes that sound?

Meg: C!

Me: Right, what's next?

Meg: Putting her head down on the table-I hear her making the short u sound over and over, when finally she pops her head up and says U!

Me: Very good.

Meg: Putting her head down again, but then coming back up and saying, what's the word again?

Me: Cup, would you like it used in a sentence?

Meg: No, putting her head back down and sounding out each sound, then finally telling me P! C-U-P spells cup!

Me: You're right!

She also announced to me a few days ago that she can spell "door." Now this is a new word, that came out of the blue, so I had no idea where she'd learned this. I asked her how and she proudly said D-O-O-R! When I asked where she learned it, she told me it was on the light in the car. Yep...she's right. It's there. Good observation Meg.

As for game time, it was quite rainy and windy today so we played a few games today. We started off playing Don't Break the Ice. The first two times she went first and lost. (Being competitive like I am, I don't just let her win) :) Then she wanted me to go first. Good strategy, but by a strange fluke, she still lost and was not very happy. Tears started flowing, she laid face first on the floor and cried. I asked her if she lost a basketball game if she was going to do the same thing. That's when she told me she wasn't going to play basketball. Hmmm...we'll see! I gave her my best pep talk and she agreed to play again, with a little more strategy. This time she won (and for real I might add!) Atta girl! We also split two games of Candy Land and gave up on a never ending game of Chutes and Ladders. All in all, a fun day!

Friday Night Fun

Greg went to a birthday party tonight for a little bit, so it's just the kiddos and me! I decided to have some messy fun with them. We made oobleck and silly putty. They had fun making a big mess, and did a pretty good job of keeping it on the table so clean up wasn't too bad. I did have to create an assmebly line of sorts to clean all of them up, but it worked!

A Dream Come True!

The day finally arrived that Miss Meg had been waiting for....Girls Night Out, as she started calling it. Our trip to Disney on Ice with Mamaw, Aunt Lisa, Claire and Kate was last night. We'd been counting down the days for quite some time now. She was so excited all day! Beth said that she told her she couldn't eat much for lunch because we were going out for a special dinner and for snack she only took a small package of fruit snacks. She usually has a pretty "hefty snack" (Marcia and Libby, she sooooo has our genes! HA!) then has another snack when we get home, but yesterday she only ate the fruit snacks.

We go to the Spaghetti Factory with what we thought would be plenty of time, but we did have to wait a while. There were about 10,000 high school aged choir kids there. Maybe not that many, but Lisa and I were amazed at their outfits. We commented several times that our daughters WILL NOT leave the house looking like that someday. I'm sure Mother will love watching us eat our words someday. Ahhhh....anyways! Once we finally got seated, we had an amazing waiter who got us in and out so we didn't miss a second of the show. Meg told us that it was "the best meal I've EVER eaten!" She, Claire and Kate shared lasagna and ate a lot of Lisa's fettucini too, and of course, her favorite bread and butter!

She was totally amazed by the show. She sat in awe and would yet out as the sets were changing what was coming up next if she knew it. There was also many times that she was singing along, but her favorite part, of course, had something to do with the princesses. She thought Ariel was just beautiful! At the intermission, (or what should be called "empty your wallet for sugar time") we dropped a whopping $30 for three bags of cotton candy. Don't get me wrong, I realize sugar is pricey these days, but good heavens! I could practically invest in an entire sugar cane field for that amount. I forgot though, it wasn't just spun sugar, it also included a cheesy plastic crown with Mickey Mouse ears....now that made it worth at least another $5! HA! Oh well.....the girls were happy and having fun, right? Oh....and they were spending the night at Mamaw and Papaw's so who cares if they were all jacked up on sugar???

Posing before dinner

Why yes, they are always this sweet and loving to one another! HA HA!

Mickey and Minnie arrive

Those smiles are worth $30 bucks, aren't they? :)

Holiday Preparations

Meg got her letter from Santa this week. She was so excited, but also had many questions. How does he know my address? How does he know the boys' names? Can we really put a carrot on the roof for Ruldolph? And they go on and on and on.... I really feel like she's way too intuitive to buy into this whole Santa thing for too many years. We did already have the talk about how she doesn't need to be scared on Christmas Eve night. To refresh memories (or fill you in, if necessary) she was TERRIFIED last year to go to bed that night. She just couldn't get over the fact that some fat, strange looking guy could zip down our chimney and come into our house. If you think about it, it makes sense, at least to a preschooler. Could any weirdo do this, anytime? Anyways, I've already started talking it up this year so we don't have near the drama this year that there was last year. There was a point in time that I thought she would stay awake all night and then I really had no idea what I was gonna do. That darn Dr. Spock never put that in his dumb parenting guide! HA!



She sat down at the table to write her letter back to Santa. For those that know Meghan personaly, she has many, many words to share. Her writing will be the same, I think. **Wonder where she gets that????** I just loved her all of her ideas, but it would have taken the next two weeks to write them all, so I helped her condense them. Here is her letter (the translation follows):

Dear Santa,

How are the reindeers? I want a Puppy Knows Your Name.

**She wanted to ask how Mrs. Claus was, and to tell the reindeers to watch out so that Greg won't shoot them. She also wanted to include everything on the list that she and Greg made a few weeks ago. That's where I stepped in and helped her condense!**

Thursday is our special girl night with Mamaw, Aunt Lisa, Claire and Kate. We're headed to the Spaghetti Factory and Disney on Ice. We're definitely looking forward to a fun-filled night! I'll be sure to post and update!

All Grown Up

Meg had quite the outfit today. She had a new skirt to wear, so when she was finished dressing I asked her if she wanted to wear her brown shoes or her black shoes. She took my hand and told me to come with her to her shoe closet. **I knew she had something else in mind right then!** She asked if she could wear her boots with the skirt. I made a rule when she got those silly boots that she could ONLY wear them with jeans (because I didn't want her wearing them with sweatpants, which I could sooooo see happening), so she proceeded to tell me that the skirt was blue, kinda like blue jeans. I really couldn't argue and it was 6:30 AM, not worth the battle. She looked way too grown up though!

One quick funny to share too. Grandpa came over on Monday night for dinner. Afterwards, we were all told that we had to play a new game that was "LOTS OF FUN!" It was something about hiding a bone from a puppy that she loves to play at the sitter's. Greg, Grandpa and I all had to sit around in a circle passing around a stuffed animal chanting something while she hid under a blanket. She was having a blast and cracking up, but then all of a sudden she popped up from under the blanket and yells out, "Hang on and don't move, I gotta poop!" She surely didn't want the fun to end just because nature called. HA HA!

Hibernation

Meg ate like a little pig tonight. She just kept eating and eating. When I asked her why she was so hungry, here was her response. "Well Mommy, I'm getting ready to hibernate like a bear, so I have to eat a bunch of food. I'll sleep and sleep and when I wake up I"ll be really hungry." HA! It is really cold out today and going to bed for a couple of months sounds like a pretty good idea! I'd like to wake up just in time for Spring Break. :)

American Idol

Meg loves singing. We now carry around a microphone in the car with us so she can sing along into her microphone. It doesn't really do anything, except make her feel more famous. HA! Taylor Swift is probably her favorite CD and I must admit that I am relieved at the fact that she will now listen to some "real" music. We still listen to kid's songs, her Jesus music CD and the one that is fairy tale stories occasionally, but at least there is some variety with adult music now. :) We had to wait on Greg the other night for few minutes, so I recorded her with my phone. Not the best images, but you get the idea! Here she is singing her heart out along with Taylor.....

Fit for a Princess!

Tonight was the night of all nights for Miss Meghan....we attended a Princess Tea Party. It was marvelous. As soon as Halloween was over, we began counting down for this big event. It's been a big debate all week as to what she was going to wear, but we finally came to an agreement. It's rainy and cold so that was a bit of a factor. She did go wearing her crown so she was satisfied. :)

When we first got there we were greeted with a few beautiful princesses, Jasmine (who she was really hoping would be there), Aurora, and Belle. We had a chance to visit with some friends, watch a magician make a bunny out of a balloon, and then get a picture with a very pretty Cinderella, otherwise known as our friend Michelle. Then we ate (pigs in a blanket, chips, carrots, celery, grapes, pineapple, some finger sandwiches and cupcakes for dessert). Meg was the first to finish her plate at our table and probably would have gone back for seconds had we not been distracted for the next activity.....hair, makeup and nail time! She got all made up and just LOVED that part. She also got to listen to a story told by the fairy godmother. Since she just loves stories and listened so intently and answered all the fairy godmother's questioned, she received a pink feather boa as a prize. (Gee thanks fairy godmother, are you coming tomorrow to sweep up all the pink feathers littering my house!?!?!? **wink, wink**)

This night was the ultimate for her. She kept telling me on the way home that she "definitely looked like a girly, girl now, didn't she?" HA! I told her she definitely did. When asked what her favorite part was, it was definitely getting her hair and makeup done! It was fun watching her have such a good time tonight, even if I'm not the girliest girl there ever was. How I ended up with such a girly-girl, I still don't know??? :)

Getting reading to go....

With Cinderella at the castle
Here's Jasmine!

Check out the balloon bunny!

Ta-Da!

Enjoying the princess food!

Picking out lip gloss, decisions! decisions!!

Making me up!

Striking some poses, princess style!

Not quite ready to go home, so one more pic with them all bundled up with coat on!

Can You See Me

This is the first title of the first book Meg officially read tonight all by herself. Gotta admit I'm a proud mommy! :) I picked it up a few days ago at school off of the leveled reader shelf in our library. It's a level "B." We've advanced from level "AA" (pics only) and level "A" (just one word on the page that matched the picture) to level "B." It has a couple of repetitive sentences on each page and some picture clues. It's been laying around, but when she first looked at it she told me it was too hard and that she couldn't read it. I didn't mention it again, because there is no way to talk Meg into doing something. She has to decide when SHE is ready! Tonight before bed though, she "just wanted to try to do it by herself." I knew it was a stall tactic for bed, but I was up for the challenge! She figured out all the words on the cover and was pretty excited so she just kept going, she got a little tripped up by the word "under" but figured it out.

When she finished, she looked up at me with those big brown eyes and said, "Wow Mommy! I did that all by myself!" like she couldn't believe it. That just about made my heart melt to see her being so proud of herself for such a big accomplishment. It's amazing to think what a tremendous step this is for her and how much she has grown up in just four short years. Time really does fly!

The cold is here, but Meg is warm!

Check it out! My girl is NOT gonna be cold this winter. We are on day #3 or so of it being cold and she was insistent today on getting all bundled up like this:

The babysitter told me that her preschool teacher even said that she was insistent on gettting everything back on just a certain way before she left to go back outside for pick up.

Tanner the Pooping Dog

Meghan received some money (along with the gobs and gobs of candy) for Halloween. We went to Wal-Mart the other night and I let her take her $11 that she received with her to purchase a toy. She found a Barbie toy that she just had to have and it was actually within her budget. It's Tanner, the Pooping Dog. The Barbie doll, which she's also now infatuated with, came with a dog that you can shove "food" (little brown tic-tac like things) into his mouth, then when you raise his tail, he poops them out. It even came with poop-picker-upper. It's a magnetic stick them that picks them up. A perfect pet for our house! :) I find it hard to believe that Mattel makes a toy like this that they actually leave on the shelf, but I guess parents like me that let their kid buy it and actually think it's kinda funny are what keep them in business. Now, back to helping her pick up magnetic, non-stinky dog poo!

The Muffin Man

according to Meghan, he lives on "Dirty Lane" HA! She was watching a video last night and singing along with this song. When I told her the correct words, I was, as usual, wrong. It is "Dirty Lane" that the Muffin Man lives on. Whatever!?!? :)