The ugliest doll in the world

A few months ago I bought Audrey a new book series called Frankly Frannie. Apparently there is some mention in the books about a character making sock dolls and selling them. So Audrey of course decided that she just had to make a sock doll. I didn't even know what a sock doll was, but the Frankly Frannie website was kind enough (insert sarcasm right here) as to post a link to a site that shows you how to make one. I took a peek at the site and begged her to just let me buy her a doll. Nope, she wanted to make one herself. Great. I told her we would try to make one, but not to get her hopes up too much. She and Sophie both ran to their room and grabbed a huge handful of socks. Not even cute socks, but stained up, grubby socks with lots of pilling on them. I cut the first piece just as the directions stated and told them to fill it with stuffing which they did and then I sewed it up. Hmm, not too hard I thought. Then came the arms. Again, I followed the directions to a T. That's odd I thought, why are the arms so out of proportion? Then came the legs. By this time the girls and I were about to cry we were laughing so hard at how dumb these 'dolls' looked. I didn't even bother with the hair or face at this point. I just told the girls to finish it up themselves. And they did. With creepy results.

 Yep, we've got some mad craft making skills in this house.

Keeping the tooth fairy busy

Yesterday morning when I sent the girls off to school I crossed my fingers that Audrey and Sophie would lose a tooth while they were gone. Yeah, go ahead call me a crappy mom. That's okay, I totally agree with you if you do. You see I hate dealing with loose teeth. It grosses me out big time and I always make my husband be the one to pull the teeth around here. The bad thing about that is is he's rarely home to do it. He works 13+ hours a day and when he gets home at night Audrey and Sophie are already asleep. Anyway, when they left yesterday morning they both had a tooth dangling and I just knew they would fall out during lunch. Nope, didn't happen. I thought surely it would fall out during dinner, but that didn't happen either. I knew at this point that I had to do something otherwise they would end up coming out during the night and they would swallow them in their sleep (trust me this happens. Kylie did it about 3 or 4 times when she was younger.) I took a tissue and wrapped it around my finger and told Audrey to bite down on it. She did and her tooth came right out. One down, one to go. I tried the same thing with Sophie. The little stinker bite down alright. She bite down on the wrong side of her mouth and nearly took my finger off! She ended up panicking and I told her we would deal with it in the morning and I sent her to bed. Around 9:00 my husband came in from work and I guess Sophie heard him. She jumped out of bed to show him her loose tooth and the next thing I knew she was showing me the tooth in her hand. Thank God!

By the way, she is wearing the same nighty Audrey wore when she lost her first tooth. It cracked me up when I was looking at the pictures and realized that.

After her tooth was pulled she went right to bed and fell asleep. The tooth fairy then sat down and composed a "so you've lost your first tooth letter" for Sophie and gathered up some money for the little snaggle tooth girls. Then the real fun began. Here's just a reminder of the kind of bed the girls share:

How lucky we are that the tooth fairy can fly right? I mean, I would sure hate to be the one to try to smuggle not one, but two teeth out from under those pillows way up there without waking up two little girls. I mean, call me crazy but that sounds like it might be a little hard to do. Luckily all went well and this morning I had two very excited little girls.


My lame attempt to get a picture of the snaggle tooth kids.

 I still can't  believe that not only did my youngest start kindergarten last week, but she lost her first tooth too. Hopefully now that she's got this milestone behind her she'll slow down a little and let me enjoy having her be little just a bit longer. Something tells me that's probably not going to happen though.

Happy Birthday Audrey!

Happy birthday Audrey Grace

1 year

 

 

2 years

3 years

4 years

5 years

6 years

7 years

Love you more than chocolate cake!

Wordless Wednesday

Toothless Wonder

Two teeth in one week!

Linking up with Angry Julie Monday!

A proud mommy moment

Last night Kylie and Audrey both received awards at their schools P.T.A. meeting. 

Audrey won citizen of the month for December. 

Kylie won a trophy for an essay she wrote. It was submitted to a county wide competition and won and now is going to state.

Obviously I did not get pictures of them receiving their awards. My craptacular camera chose last night to not work. Awesome. Luckily my husband was able to fix whatever was wrong with it when he got home so I was to snap some pictures of the girls this morning. 

This and that

Sorry to have been MIA, things are starting to get crazy around here with the holidays coming up. Here's a little taste of what's been going on around here..... 
Audrey came home from school the other day and calmly announced that her teacher has cancer. I kind of figured this out about two months ago, but I was trying to decide if I should say anything to her or not. I didn't want to scare her or have her act differently around her teacher, yet at the same time I wanted her to understand why she was missing school so often. Apparently I over thought things because she seemed to take it in stride. I'm not sure what kind she has, but it looks like it's in remission and she just finished up the last of her treatments. 
Kylie  had kind of a big week last week. On Tuesday she was in a Thanksgiving  program at school and she did fantastic. Before you think I'm bragging on her part in the program, I promise I'm not. This child has the worst anxiety you have ever seen. Usually when she has something like this we are both in tears by the end of the night. I'm crossing my fingers that she is finally starting to outgrow it somewhat. 
She also lost a tooth last week. She hasn't lost one in years and I was under the impression that she wasn't supposed to lose anymore until she was ten, but I guess I was wrong. The funny thing is that everyone always teases her about losing her teeth because when she says that she lost a tooth she means she really lost a tooth. As in she dropped it or swallowed it. She has probably only put about three teeth out of the eight (or is it nine?) she has lost under her pillow. When she was in kindergarten she would write the tooth fairy a letter explaining why she had no tooth and leave it under her pillow. Well guess what happened to this tooth? Yep, she was brushing her teeth and spit it out and it went down the drain. Luckily dad was home to save the day. 
And of course Sophie. I've been trying to really kick things into gear with her numbers and letters. For some reason we've been having a really tough time with her counting and that's been frustrating both of us. If anyone has any good suggestions I would love to hear them.
As for me I am one happy Mama. Yesterday my husband and I celebrated our eleventh year of marriage and Duke had their first basketball game. Could not ask for a better way to wrap up the weekend.

Mommy's got some more bragging to do!

Sorry guys, but mommy has got to brag on her kids some.
Yesterday Audrey brought home her AR folder and she had all 100's in it. I'm so excited because she wasn't doing so hot on her AR tests when school began and I know that she has been working really hard on her reading. She tends to compare herself to Kylie a lot and even though she is just as smart as Kylie she doesn't see it and gets down on herself a lot. Typical middle child behaviour I suppose. 
Kylie is also doing really well on her AR tests. She set a goal for herself at the beginning of the school year, she wants to make the 100 book club by Christmas. Currently she is at 81. I think she'll make it. She's testing on books in the upper fifth grade level (she's in third) so I was a bit worried about her getting in over her head, but she seems to be doing fine. She also won second place in a writing contest between the third, fourth and fifth grades. She's a little embarrassed because now her essay is being submitted for competition among the other schools in the county. She hates extra attention so this is killing her. 
Sophie? Well she had kind of a rough night last night so I'm going to have to dig deep here. Hmm..... oh she helped me make this cake yesterday and didn't even try to eat any of the chocolate. she's a huge chocoholic so that's saying a lot.

Don't laugh at my pitiful jack-o-lantern. Well okay, go ahead and laugh, I know it's kind of sad. I've been told that it tastes really, really good though. I wouldn't know because I've haven't had any since I'm trying to be good and all. Anyway, I'll quit bragging on my awesome kids now. I hope all of you have a fantastic day today!

Wordless Wednesday-Attitude

Linking up with Angry Julie Monday

A big milestone

Yesterday was a very big day in our house. Audrey and Sophie got their first real haircut. Now I'm sure some of you may be rolling your eyes and thinking "big deal, it's just a haircut", but not for us. I've been wanting to cut Audrey's hair for years, but no go.

I cut Sophie's almost two years ago so she has had an actual cut, but since then she hasn't wanted hers cut either.

I did trim a few inches off of Audrey's two years ago and she did not speak to me for days. And no, I am not exaggerating. She has been getting frustrated since school started back because she said people are constantly touching her hair. She has always been hyper-sensitive to touch (absolutely no kisses and only the occasional hug) so she declared it was time to say goodbye to the long hair. Not to be outdone Sophie decided she had to get hers cut too. Can you say competitive? So here we go....

 Anxiously awaiting that first cut.

 

 The first cut!

And approximately 18-20 inches later.......

And now it's Sophie's turn!

 The first cut.

And both girls after:

Unfortunately I did not get as many pictures of Sophie as I did Audrey because Kylie and Audrey were getting antsy at this point and I was having to constantly deal with them. So far I'm loving the new hair. Not having to deal with a mass of tangles this morning before school was a fantastic bonus too. Audrey actually woke up an hour early this morning for school because she was so excited for everyone to see her new 'do. Hopefully all the responses she receives will be positive ones and she'll want to keep her hair this length cause Mommy is liking it!

A memorable Independence day!

Yesterday morning something really special happened in our house.

My sweet little Audrey hit a milestone. Losing the first tooth. She has been worrying with this tooth for at least a month now and yesterday it finally fell out on it's own. She was so excited to finally lose a tooth and could not wait to put it under her pillow.

We just watched the Tooth Fairy movie a few weeks ago and I told her I wanted to stay up in case our tooth fairy looked like Duane Johnson. She said, "Mommy, what if the tooth fairy is like Santa and won't come if you're up?" So I had to go to bed and now will never know. Darn it. The tooth fairy did leave her some gold and fairy  dust under her pillow.

Don't you just love that early morning bed head?

And a letter of congratulations.

I think that she was probably more excited that the tooth fairy left her a letter than anything else. She said "Mom, guess what? The tooth fairy knows my name!" Now I just have to convince Sophie that no, she does not have a loose tooth and no, the tooth fairy won't be coming to see her for awhile still. Hopefully.