Kinsley . . . not crying

I knew Meme wouldn't want to see all the sad pictures in the dresses, so here is one for you mom!:)

What does your family value?

So I have had several ask me, "How do you get good pictures of both girls?" So I thought I would include this typical shot. Mom, don't worry - I did get a couple of good ones of the girls . . . separately. However, I believe this will be a favorite!

Thanks for the dresses Meme!

So over it. . .

Looking at "Ms. Nancy's" lights across the street. Ella loves to leave her blinds open to watch them as she goes to sleep. Every year, we bake Ms. Nancy something special to thank her for her holiday displays. She seriously has the best Halloween and Christmas decorations in the neighborhood. Lucky for us, they are right outside Ella's window.

Kinsley likes to do just about anything Ella does. . .

Checking out the gingerbread house display at the Galt House. I just love Ella's hand on Kinsley's back.

Kinsley has a new trick - Point a camera at her, tell her to say cheese, and this is what you get!:)

Ella at playgroup making edible trees. Thanks Amanda!

What does your family value?

Ok, so this isn't one of those "rhetorical questions" that I am write in hopes you ponder and think about for awhile. I mean it - what does your family truly value? Never thought about it? Me neither until not too long ago. A book I was reading or speaker I heard or something - sorry to whomever I cannot give credit! Anyway, SOMEONE said that your family should have a few key values and every member should know what those values are. It made sense. One of my favorite Bible verses says, "Where your heart is, there your treasure will be also." To me, the two sort of tie together. So Ronnie and I talked about it. We came up with a few (in no particular order) - faith, family, serving others (kindness), education (at this age, reading), and another one is living a slow pace of life where we can enjoy each day. I don't want to wake up one day and realize the girls are now teenagers and the early years just flew by without us realizing time was passing so quick. So these are our values - so what? Well, in our house that means we prioritize

Faith (prayer, reading the Bible, teaching the stories, church, incorporating teachable moments to introduce the girls to who God is on their level)

Family (eat dinner together as much as possible, date nights with the girls individually, spend time together as a family in the evenings, try to do things for fun every so often on Monday Fundays)

Serving others (somewhat self explanatory, but we also incorporate what it means to be a good friend to others, and serve together as a family the 2nd Saturday of each month) However, I just started reading The Same Kind of Different As Me and it is somewhat making me think we have a lot of work to do in this area as far as building relationships with others.

Education (surprise surprise coming from a teacher, but this is something I want our girls to value. I believe education opens doors and the earlier we can instill a passion and love for learning, the better.)

Slow pace of life (This may sound strange, I know. I know some great parents who are so tied up in classes and activities for the kids that they feel overwhelmed 100% of the time. It is a hard decision, I know. Do you expose your kids to great opportunities to find what they love and enjoy? Sounds like a great choice. Or do you slow down and work hard to say no to great things in order to have free time? Another option. For us, we have chosen to try to prioritize down time into our schedule. It is amazing how that seems to be hard work sometimes! Ella loves to stay home, though, and have "jammie days", so that seems to be the better option for our family. Plus, it is on those days that I have special treasured memories that I know I will never forget. A wise friend once said to me, "Hurried people can't love." This is an extreme comment, but one that I feel is really true for me and one that I think about often. So for us, we value slowing down our schedule.)

Don't read any of these and think that we must believe anyone who doesn't do the same isn't doing something right or that any of these are the "best". Instead, they are ones we have chosen to best meet the needs of our family right now. So, I ask, what are yours? It is an interesting question to think about, at least. You probably already have them in place, just without thinking about it. Probably they were put into place years ago when you were younger - I know that is the case for most of ours.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours if I don't have another chance (or let's be honest, any cute photos) to post before the big day!!

What does your family value?

Some Holiday Fun

The girls by the tree - Amazing . . . both smiling!

Ella's gingerbread house creation.

Ella and Kinsley getting ready for the last day of school / Christmas play at PDO. Look closely - one isn't as happy as the other about the upcoming events.

A new favorite game - stuff as much into her mouth as possible then try to manage to eat it all without spitting anything out. She is usually pretty successful.

Cooking decorating at Adrienne's Bakery.

A pastry chef in the making . . .

Ella's Christmas program at Parent's Day out. (She in in the back on the left)

Feeling a little overwhelmed by the crowd.

Here is a glimpse at our last couple of weeks! Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas FULL of fun memories and family traditions!

Cousins!

Silly pose!

I didn't grow up close to my cousins. Not because of any particular reason other than distance and proximity. That is probably why I absolutely love that Ella enjoys her cousins and always wants to spend time with them. So on Thanksgiving, we had some quality family/cousin time. Which, of course, always leads to a photo shoot. Meme was trying to get a picture for the Christmas card. I have to admit, it wasn't as difficult as most years. Would that just be that the kids are getting older, luck, or the bribery of the trip to the $ store???

I have to admit, my favorite is the silly pose - most life like!:)

Doing Something That Matters

I often think about if we do things that just pass time or if we do things that truly matter. This week, I believe we are in the second category with a few things. First, on Saturday morning, the whole family loaded up and headed to Kroger. We were the 10 to 11:30 time slot of Salvation Army bell ringers. I told Ronnie I can definitely see why people in sales use their children as "props". How can someone say know to a 4 year old and 1 year old bell ringer??? We had a great time together and talked about why we were doing it. I honestly think Kinsley was done after 30 minutes, and that was probably because that was the point we ran out of diaper bag snacks. Ella lasted until 10:45, then the boredom set in for her a little bit. We lasted through our shift, though, and enjoyed the time.

Then this morning, our 5 day food challenge began. Our church is in the middle of a "Hunger" series, talking about global poverty. For the next 5 days, Monday through Friday, our church is partaking in a food challenge. Plain oatmeal for breakfast, rice and beans and possibly a tortilla for lunch and dinner, and tap water only. That's it . . . So, I am one meal in and have decided I am not a fan of plain oatmeal! Ella says she is going to do it too, but maybe not exactly the same since she had Corn Pops and a banana for breakfast. But, what she has decided is no candy or cookies all week and no eating out. Not that either of those things happens a lot, but it was her own decision, so it gives us a talking point throughout the week. On a side note, I tried to say that something that she could do would be give up any snacks between meals for these 5 days. You would have thought I told her she would be drinking poison at her meals . . . That was a no go!:)

Traditions

I'm sure Ronnie has lots of traditions and memories of things he did growing up. But let's be honest - I am the one who writes on the blog, so usually when I say "traditions from growing up", I am referring to the Brown household!:)

So, I remember carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds and special Halloween treats! Ella absolutely loves crafty things, cooking in the kitchen, and any type of holiday activity, so we have been doing lots of that sort of stuff around our house these days. We made ghost cookies (nutter butters dipped in white chocolate with mini chip eyes), and ghost suckers for her playgroup friends. We made caramel corn (thanks to our dear friend Kendra's fantastic recipe), pumpkin cookies, and have visited the pumpkin patch a couple of times. The numerous pumpkin crafts adorning our fridge have turned our kitchen into an orange themed room!

So, when Ella mentioned earlier this week, "Don't forget mom. We still need to carve our pumpkin!", the comment exhausted me!!:) I thought maybe we could just let our little pumpkin ride through the holiday straight to Thanksgiving for a festive porch. No such luck with my little girl already engrained with the attachment to yearly traditions! So, this week, we carved pumpkins. When I say we, I really mean that I cut off the bottom, scooped out the insides, printed off the pattern (which ended up being way too difficult so we went with the old triangle face standard!), and eventually finished up Mr. and Mrs. Pumpkin when Ronnie and Ella watched a Halloween show on the couch. All this in the midst of roasting pumpkin seeds for probably no one in this house because I'm not sure any of us like them. But hey, it's tradition!!:)And to all the moms reading this blog, make sure you notice who is actually in the picture with the pumpkins. Ronnie and I laughed about how moms are so involved in the process, then always behind the camera!

So to my mother, thank you for passing along the attachment to yearly traditions to me, which I have passed along to Ella. It is a little bit of a love / hate relationship, but I am thankful that she loves the simple things. She makes everything fun. (And an apology for never realizing how much work those "simple traditions" could be!!!)

Our playgroup had a Halloween party this morning. Ella, the purple fairy princess, loves showing off her costume. Kinsley, the curious cat, not so much. . .

Ella's 4th Birthday!

http://animoto.com/play/S8LNHQHvTSqsU8mpd3Fx7g?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=one_click_share

So often I feel like this blog is just a private journal for myself! I have no idea who checks or reads it, but it is a great outlet for me! How is it possible that Ella is already 4? Last night, Ronnie made a "princess tent", equipped with multi-colored Christmas lights and about 1000 baby dolls and animals, in the living room for her. We stayed up and watched Annie, then tried to get her to sleep to be ready for her big day. At 11:40, she was still wide-eyed. I know she was so excited!

So I was a little surprised when I woke up this morning to gentle arm pokes. When I rolled over, she said, "Hi mom. I'm 4." So cute. We had birthday muffins, opened presents, then got ready for her party. I think it was a little overwhelming at first with so many friends there to help her celebrate. This was her first real friend party and we had almost 30 kids help us celebrate, which was so much fun! She quickly warmed up, had a great time jumping, playing, eating pizza and cake, and just being a silly 4 year old! All that energy wears off, though. So her and daddy are crashing in the princess tent.

We love you Ella so much. Thank you for all the laughter, joy, love, and amazing memories you have brought and continue to bring in our lives. We had no idea how incredible it would be to be parents and we know we hit the jackpot with you. Happy Birthday!!!

Halloween @ the Zoo

So, Sunday evening, off we went to the zoo with our Purple Fairy Princess and Kitty Cat. We are the type of family that could actually change costumes 2 minutes before walking out the door for Trick or Treating and be just fine. It seems as though we always have a couple of options! We aren't really the type of family to go purchase a major costume investment. It is more like, "Ella, here are some choices that we can pull together based on what we have - what do you pick??" So far, that has seemed to work well!

Ella had a lot of fun, although she wasn't real impressed with the places that passed out trading cards / books / tattoos / and crayons. She made me put those in Kinsley's bag so her "bag didn't get too full before the candy". For a trade, she took out Kinsley's candy. I think Kinsley lost out in that deal, but at least she is too little to really notice yet. That seems to work in Ella's favor.

My Town

I think anyone who is from a small town will understand my perspective in this post. There is a country song that is called "This is My Town". I don't know who sings it, and I don't even really love the song. However, it pops into my head every single time I pull off the Caneyville Exit off WKU parkway. Caneyville is my HOMEtown and I love it! I love going to visit, I love all the memories tied to it, and I love how it is so familiar and comfortable - like a HOMEtown should be.

All that being said, as much as I love it, and as often as we go visit (and we even lived there for 2 years!), Ella had never experienced the Caneyville Fair. That was a highlight for me growing up, so I was thrilled to have the opportunity to take the girls. I know, to some it is probably silly and not much of anything. But to me, the sentimental person that I am, I enjoyed every minute of seeing her enjoy it! Kinsley had fun, too, but give the girl a sucker and she would enjoy anywhere!

While we were there, Kinsley also took her first steps!!! She is growing and changing so fast. I am thankful I am able to be home and see the milestones and special moments!
We were also able to go visit my grandparents before we came back home. That is a long trip for the girls, but I am so thankful we were able to go and visit all my grandparents. It those types of things that later I know I know I would regret not doing when I had the chance.

Old Fashion Fun

Yesterday we went to the Pumpkin Patch. I don't mean one of those places where you look at the neat rows of perfect, clean, shiny pumpkins to pick what you take home to decorate your porch - the actual patch! Which is perfect because that is exactly what we were hoping for when we found the place! We took the girls to Gallrein Farms. There was a dog in the yard when we pulled up, which was the main thing they were interested in. That seems to be the new go to tag line for Kinsley - getting her in her car seat, getting her out, getting her to go to daddy from me, etc. "Kinsley, do you want to go look for doggies???"

Then on to the petting zoo. We have some true animal lovers in this house! I love animals, but I am way overshadowed by the other 3 members. Squeals, excitement, and fearless approach from both Kinsley, Ella, and Ronnie!:) Needless to say, the bag of carrots did not last long.

Then we went to get our wagon and take the LONG haul to the patch. Think of ALL the downpouring rain we have experienced here lately. Yes, that's right! Muddy pumpkin patch! The girls didn't mind, clothes and shoes (and our new pumpkins) will wash. We had a great time. I love finding these types of things to take the girls. I want them to experience a lot of different things, but most importantly, I want them to experience simple fun. We wrapped the day up with ice cream cones from McDonalds. Perfect!

On a side note, if anyone has ANY tips for getting 2 little girls to smile in the SAME picture, I would be interested!!!:)