I Heart Weekends!

And I heart the guy in the picture above because today he let me sleep until 9:00 a.m. (not sure when I've slept that late in the last 5 years), he took the girls outside to play while he worked in the yard so I could be somewhat productive, and the icing on the cake is that while I put Cate down for a nap he took Towns out to lunch. I can tell it's going to be a good day...or at least it's gotten off to a great start! It's sunny here for a change, which puts me in an even better mood! Happy weekend!!
Oh, and let me show you how crafty Bet & Towns are...

They made that out of felt to hang on the mantle...have I mentioned that we love any excuse to decorate?!

It's a Go!

Looks like it's officially time to show your support for sweet baby Harper! If you've read Kelly's blog, you know she's wild about several things...Harper (naturally!), pink, brown, lime green, monograms, and Ephesians 3:20! After lots of deliberation among the very loving women who made this idea a reality, we decided to combine all of the above for the 'pray for Harper' tees! You can go to my etsy site to purchase a t-shirt, and the Stamps have requested that the proceeds of every sale be split between the Ronald McDonald House in Tulsa (where Harper's parents have been staying) and the St. Francis NICU where Harper has received such amazing care. So many lives have been changed by this precious baby's story, and this is a great way to continue to spread the word! To place your order, click here! There are two colors to choose from...

Harper

I'm in tears as I type this...I just answered a message I received through my etsy site that I feel compelled to share with you. Melissa emailed me to ask if I'd create a prayer t-shirt to sell through my etsy site for anyone who wants to help a sweet baby girl named Harper (proceeds go to Harper's family). Harper was born January 16th, developed pneumonia, and is in critical condition at St. Francis hospital in Tulsa. Melissa gave me the link to Harper's mom's blog and after reading just one post, I knew this was something I needed to do. Harper's mom, Kelly, and her husband have prayed for a baby for two years and finally their prayers were answered with Harper! You can only imagine what they're going through right now...longing for a baby all this time...praying, waiting, anticipating. And now that she's here they can only admire her from a distance, touch her occasionally and whisper sweet somethings in her little ear. But as Kelly said in one of her posts....God's ways are not our ways.

To read Kelly's blog and see their little love bug, click here. I guarantee you won't be disappointed...she's the cutest! I'm sure they would appreciate all the prayers you could lift up on their behalf!

The More the Merrier!

Yesterday was a pretty fun day for us...we had a house full of little people! And when I say little people, I mean six kids 4 and under! I'd offered to pick two of Towns' friends up from Mother's Day Out because their moms had things they needed to do...and as we were at the church picking them up we added two more to the group just for fun! After yesterday I know full well that Towns is the hostess with the mostest. We fed everyone a picnic lunch in the living room floor and she didn't sit down to eat a bite until her friends and Cate had everything they needed. And after lunch, she cleaned up after every one of them while they were in her room playing! I love having her friends over, and it does me good to see how much she enjoys it too. We made Valentine's cookies and had a mock dancing class (I never escape the dancing teacher role) and had LOTS of play time! Loading all of them up in the car and taking them all home gave Towns the same feeling I so vividly remember from when I was young...there's nothing pretty about an afternoon of all out wild and craziness with your friends coming to an end! She shed a few tears and couldn't understand why they couldn't just stay forever. But never fear, she had something to look forward to last night...she rode with our friends Jeff, Amy and Hart to Winfield to watch Hart's sister cheer at a basketball game. Sometimes I think she might just trade me in for Amy, so I had no doubts that she'd have a great time! She came rolling in at 10:00 on a Friday night...we're going to have to have the curfew discussion a lot sooner than I thought! (Amy, I'm so kidding!) Last night Bethany joked that Towns had a better social life than she did! HA! I couldn't let this opportunity pass without a few pictures (surprise, surprise)...

Picnic lunch inside...

After lunch, Towns brought every plate to the kitchen like so...

Play time!

Time for Mrs. Tara's dance class (I had all of them but Hart in Princess Ballerina Camp over the summer, so they know what my class is all about)!
Here they're on my white line (just like the one at the dance studio) and ready to begin...

All that dancing had the munchkins hungry again, and after lots and lots of Valentine's cookies it was time to wrap up the play date...sad! We'll have to do it again soon!

****************************************************************************

Thursday afternoon before Jonathan got home from work the girls and I were in the mood to be outside since it was sunny and a tad bit warmer than it has been around here.

Cate got her baby in the stroller...

Towns grabbed her bike...

Bethany grabbed some potato chips...

And off we went!

We walked a few blocks over to Delano Park where there are the biggest and best trees ever to play hide-and-seek in! Cate was a little slow with the stroller and her sisters aren't the most patient people ever, so she ended up in the big stroller to make things a little quicker...something she wasn't overly thrilled about! Here she's ever so kindly voicing her disapproval...gotta love her though!

When we got there Bethany hid while we counted...Cate and Towns quickly picked up on how the game was supposed to go and LOVED it!
Towns counting...

Time to find Bet! Here they go...

Cate really got a kick out of being the seeker...

We found B way up in a tree! Wish this wasn't so blurry...it was such a cute picture!

After the younger two saw how much fun it was to hide, they had to follow suit of course! This is Towns once I found where she was hiding...she thought it was hilarious!

And here's Cate in her hiding spot...she thought we couldn't see her!

Now everyone had to hide together...

Good times! Have I mentioned that I LOVE these girls?! I do, I do, I do!!
The ride home was a little rough, though. Here's what I pushed for as long as I possibly could...

B decided she was too tired to walk home...she's as big of a mess as the baby girls! :)
I drive Bet crazy because with everything we do I'm always trying to teach her something. I see it as using every opportunity that presents itself to learn something. She sees it as me talking way too much and filling her ears full of uselessness! If trying to help the girls better themselves is a bad thing, then I'm guilty! Anyway, on the way home I taught Towns a thing or two...

She learned to spell s-t-o-p from the letters painted on the road!
Now that I think about it, I can't take full credit for this next one and I probably shouldn't be quite so proud seeing as how this could land her with a broken arm or something...

She's riding her bike with no hands...I live with a house full of dare devils with NO fear! I don't think I really fit in in that respect, but it sure makes life a little more interesting!

Dedication

Yesterday morning I (so rudely, if you asked her) interrupted Cate playing Mommy to her doll to get her to eat breakfast. It was the cutest thing ever because she was trying to be so attentive to her baby, but she was also pretty determined to get that yogurt to her mouth too! I tried to get her to lay her doll on the counter so she wouldn't have to eat with only one hand, but she obviously wasn't all about that plan...

She trying SO hard...

Now she's got it...kind of! :)

That's dedication, my friends!

Can I continue the Bethany Brag Fest from Monday? This is day three (count 'em...one, two, THREE) that she's kept her bedroom and bathroom spotless and made up her bed in the mornings! Can't remember exactly how many days in a row you have to do something before it becomes a habit, but we're well on our way! :)

I've been meaning to do a super special blog post about the newest member of the Verdigets fam...Miss Blair Elizabeth Verdigets to be exact...but it seems that Jenn beat me to it and hers is probably cuter than mine would have been! So check out the sweet little priss here. Welcome to the world, Blair! We're SO glad you're finally here!
Congrats Tara and Felix!

Play Day!

We love a day at home with NOTHING to do! I had every intention for us all to be unanimously lazy today...but it hasn't exactly gone that way! I've got two very playful little ladies on my hands who want non-stop action! We started at early thirty this morning with a road trip to the beach. Towns was determined to try to fit Cate in her doll's car seat and when that didn't really work, we came up with this...

Cate was cooperative for a full three minutes...cue the temper!

(Towns has on a leotard with her fleece..she's not in the front seat driving bottomless!)
After the road trip, I reluctantly pulled out the moon sand. That's one of those things that's fun while it lasts, but the clean-up is not the greatest!

By this time it's started snowing outside...oh, the excitement...until I attempted to take the girls outside to play in it and Towns started crying that it was messing up her hair. She's such a girl!

So it was back inside and time for bubbles...blurry pics, but fun times!


Once the bubbles got old, Cate was in the mood for climbing all over her mama...she's such a wild child! Towns took over the photography role...see her little finger here? Love it!


We played for a little while longer before our indoor picnic...



Towns dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood and filled her picnic basket full of snacks...

My grandmother made the Little Red Riding Hood costume for me for Halloween when I was four...so fun that the girls are playing in it now!

During the picnic, Cate learned how to put gummie Lifesavers (shout out, roommate...those remind me of you!) on her fingers for decoration...she was absolutely amazed at herself!

After snack time, we had a full on dance party! Can't think of a better way to spend a day off...it would only have been better if Bet had been here!

On a completely different note, I think I'm a little OCD (I'm only halfway exaggerating) and it's beginning to rub off on the girls. The other day Towns came up to me and said 'I have a GREAT game' and when I asked her what it was I had to try really, really hard to hold my laughter in. Her great game was taking everything out of her dresser, laying it all out, folding it back up, and then 'orgarizing' (you might call it organizing) it when we put it back in the drawers. I persuaded her to play babies with me instead, but the girl does thrive on packing and organizing. The girls spent the weekend in Selma with their grandparents, and Towns being the traveler she is, was ready to pack it all up and go again the minute we got home from picking them up. There's not a day that goes by that she's not getting her bags out and packing for a pretend trip...

And there's a bag for everything...a bag for shirts, a bag for pants, a bag for shoes, a bag for bathing suits (despite the frigid weather), etc. I could go on and on!
She folds everything so neatly and puts it in its place...

She's so meticulous about it. I should have known she would be like this since she's been folding towels (upon her request) perfectly for me since age 2. It's insanity!

See the smile on her face...she's in heaven!

Not only has Towns been bitten by the neat freak bug, Bethany has joined in too! Look at what she did this morning without anyone asking her...

And she even cleaned up after herself after dinner last night! Just had to brag a sec! You're the best, Bet-Bet!!!

It's Time!!!!

The hot mama in the yellow dress is about to bring sweet Baby Blair into the world at any minute now!!! Say a prayer for Tara for a safe and speedy delivery...

We love you already, Blair! Can't wait to meet you!!!

Christmas & More...LOTS More!

Think it's about time to do away with the Christmas owl? I do. Maybe I'll work on replacing him really soon. In place of the monstrosity of a Christmas post I was working on, this is what I've got...a recap of our Christmas vacation! Three glorious weeks of absolutely nothing to do but enjoy each other and all of our down time!

Our Christmas was pretty fantastic...we had a very large time, which calls for a very large story to go along with all the pictures! Unfortunately, I don't have a large amount of free time!! So click here and you'll get our Christmas in pictures (and a few captions)!

Christmas Eve was one of those days where we had to keep busy to try to make the time go by quickly. It didn't really work...the kids were overcome with excitement and were begging to get a jump start on Christmas! So to keep them occupied we did a little baking to celebrate the birthday of Someone super special...Jesus! Can't think of a better reason to make cupcakes!

Click the picture below to see more...

After the cupcake baking session, Towns conned me into letting her change into a more appropriate outfit for the celebration. You know, naturally a tutu and a 'liptard' make everything a little more fancy!

Cate didn't make a wardrobe change, but the two of them did manage to run laps around the living room and act like monkeys until they both collapsed. At that point I'd have let them do anything they wanted if it meant running off some energy and getting in the bed early!

But all the running didn't work...they weren't about to close their eyes and go to sleep! Way too much excitement for that...so we all made a Target run for a few last minute Christmas treats!

B was in Wetumpka for the first few days of her Christmas break, and we picked her up on Christmas day and headed to Selma to do Christmas with J's side of the family. We gave B her present while we were there...

And this is all we've seen of her ever since! I'm kidding! Well, kind of...

{Towns took this one}

Christmas night we had McClendon family pictures made at a church in Marion which was a sight! While everyone was trying to get in position for the big picture I caught Towns dancing a jig and singing a little Hannah Montana at the pulpit...

The girls and their cousin Keaton...

After the pics, it was present time with Granny 'Clendon and a house full of family! Fun times!

We also celebrated Christmas with both of my parents' side of the family...maybe I'll get to that in another post??

In other news, Cate's been pretty entertaining lately. She's developed a fascination with the fridge and loves to sit in it, climb up in it and take a few things out, arrange them all on the floor, climb back in and reorganize them again in the fridge, you know...all the normal stuff a 1 year old likes to do!

When she's not busy sporting her super cool furry boots...

she loves hiding in the pillows on our bed...as long as her face is hidden she thinks we can't see her!

She's also really into her baby dolls these days. Yesterday I taught her how to feed a baby with a bottle which she thought was the most innovative idea ever! She gave me this look like 'why didn't I think of that?'....so funny!

Taking these pictures reminded me of the day Towns learned to feed her baby a bottle...I think the first time I ever got it on camera for the both of them they were standing in almost the same spot. Not something anyone else would notice other than yours truly, the sentimental mother! The ones with the blue baby above are of Cate, the ones with the orange baby below are of Towns...

When it's not raining (which is a rarity these days), we love to be outside....be it at Bridge Street or the hills....we're easy to please!

When we're shopping around, Towns likes to snooze in the stroller while Cate pushes...

Our trip to Bridge Street last week was rather monumental. Bethany donned the wool overcoat also owned by Miley Cyrus (of course we had to take a quick snapshot in the Juicy dressing room)!

Any maybe even more monumental than that...B made her first real Juicy purchase...make that the second, but the first time was just socks so does that count? I promise we're really teaching her to stay grounded and level-headed, but you can't blame a girl for having good taste! :)

B might be a serious shopper, but she's also rather crafty with her sisters. Earlier this week my friend Amy and her son Hart (Towns' best buddy) came over, and while the grown-ups enjoyed lunch (thanks Amy....it was delish!) B entertained the kiddos by helping them make icing-dipped animal crackers with sprinkles! All her idea, I might add. She transformed the kitchen into the work area and even had stations for dipping, sprinkles, and drying! So creative! The kids threw on their aprons and got to work...when icing and sprinkles is involved, they're game!

Cate showing off her apron...

Hart and Towns...

Last weekend, Towns helped her friend Anna Bekah celebrate her 4th birthday...bet you can't guess the party theme!

As if all the pink tulle didn't give it away...


J's been at home a lot over the break which we've all loved...these girls are slighly smitten with their Daddy!

That pretty much sums up our Christmas break...I'm so sad it's all over with! I think I was deliriously happy having everyone home with nothing to do but play and relax together. I l-o-v-e seeing my girls in action...it puts a smile on my face like no other!

Here are a few of the younger two on their way to school this morning...if only I could get B in a lady bug shirt for a group shot...not getting my hopes up on that one!