A Dickens of a Christmas

This past weekend in Franklin they have a festival (one of many during the year) called a Dickens of a Christmas. They have people dressed as characters from the Christmas Carol walking around, crafts, food, and horse drawn carriage rides. It was pretty neat to go see. This year it was a bit muggy and rainy out. Michael and Avery came over and went with us. There was also this bell choir that plays Christmas songs and Vail and Avery danced along to some of the songs. Then it was time for lunch, Chinese of course because that is what you think of when you say Christmas. After lunch Michael and Avery went home and the girls went down for naps. It was a pretty good Saturday.




Helping out the violin player.


The ghost of Christmas past.


Scrooge "Bah humbug"


Father Christmas


Watching the bell choir.

PUMP IT UP!

Do we dare go up!


WEEEEEEE!




Jumping




Vail sliding by herself!


Today the girls and I got together with some of the other wives of men who work for Dave Ramsey. One girl had the idea to go to this place called Pump it Up. I am sure most of you have heard of these places. They have several of those inflatables you can go inside of and jump in them. Well they had reserved the place so it was only our group playing at that time. There were probably eight other girls and everyone had at least two kids. It was a good time to get to know these girls better. It was so much fun. At first I didn't think Vail was going to like it very much but she warmed up to it pretty quickly. Matthew came over for the first 30 minutes and held Katy while I went on some of the things with Vail. This place was directly behind his work so he just walked over. We went down this huge slide a couple of times and every time we got off Vail would say "oh no, are you ok?" I think she would ask that because it would catch her tummy every time we went down. There was another "room" that Vail got in and would just hop around in it like a bunny. She is so funny. She would climb to the top of this platform and say "Mommy I made it." Then she would slide back down. I am also proud to say she was wearing panties the entire time we were gone and we had no accidents. She is getting to be such a big girl. I am also proud to say that by the end of our time Vail walked up the stairs (to the medium slide) and went down all by herself. I am pretty sure she wasn't really thinking about what she was doing. Katy didn't really get to do much. There was one jumpy thing with no one in it so I got in and laid Katy down and made her bounce a bit. Anyway, I know they have several of these places around Nashville and they are pretty cheap. It was $7 for Vail and grown-ups and under 2 are free. I highly recommend it. SO MUCH FUN.

Ice Hockey with Dave Ramsey

This past Friday Dave had an employee get together. He rented out two sheets of ice at the local ice rink and there was skating on one and hockey on the other. It was a lot of fun. They actually make ice skates in Vail's size. They were so cute. She put them on and Matthew put his on and out on the ice they went. It was pretty cute watching Vail slide around. She lasted one length of the rink and then wanted to have Matthew carry her. She had more fun "riding" along with Daddy then doing it herself. After some dinner we went and watched Matthew play some hockey. He says he has a new respect for "real" hockey players. Apparently there were quite a few spills before we made it in to watch. Then a pretty major spill resulting in a sore shoulder which caused Matthew to turn in his hockey stick and take a few more laps around the skating side with Vail. He popped some Tylenol and iced his shoulder down later that night. We had a lot of fun. Sorry the pictures aren't very good. The camera is still a bit funny after its dip in the ocean. Kristi came down this weekend to visit with Ken and stayed here with us. It was good to see the little of her we did:) Ahh.... young love.

Yesterday we went and had dinner with Michael, Christy, and Avery to celebrate Michael's 29 + 2 birthday. He picked Macaroni Grill. It was good to get to spend some time with them and talk. It is weird how we live in the same town and still don't see each other as often as we would like. It is also weird that my big brother is 31. Stop growing up!!! Also that my other big brother will be turning 30 in a week. Seriously quit growing up!!!

This is the table Grandmother got Vail for her birthday. Vail loves it. She will sit at it and do puzzles, play with play dough, read books, or just stare at her fish. Which is exactly what Katy is doing. It is nice to have the fish on a level where Vail can actually see it. As most of you probably know Vail loves fish. By love I mean LOOVVEE. So, she likes being able to watch it whenever she wants.

Photo teaser

Ken, a good friend and kristi's boyfriend, came over and took pictures of the girls today. This is just a teaser for you. We are going to pick out some favorites and Ken is going to fix them for us. There are a lot of pics for us to choose from. He really did a great job.


Here is Vail wearing Gram's shoes we found under our couch. She pretty much walked around in them all night long. So much fun.

Potty Training 101

Always Always let your child sit naked on the potty while eating dinner and watching Toy Story.





This was after Vail tipped Katy over. I think her exact words were "Oh Katy did you fall over?" Like she had nothing to do with it. So sneaky she is. Love those girlies so much.:)

6 months and growing

Katy had her 6 month appointment today. The doctor said she looks perfect (of course). She weighs almost 16lbs and is 26 inches long. He said she is average in everything. He then looks at her thighs and says "man those are some big thighs". If I am not mistaken that is something you should never say to a girl no matter how old she is. They are pretty cute though. Her tooth on the bottom is almost all the way in. I have yet to get that toothy grin caught on camera. Yesterday she had baby oatmeal for the first time. As you can see in the photos she does not appear to be enjoying it. I could not decide if she liked it or not because she kept eating it. Who knows? She is rolling all over the place. If there are toys around she is trying to get to them. Katy continues to be wonderful, sweet baby.



Here is Vail in her little tennis outfit. Thanks Aunt Nat! (Katy has a matching one). I could not get her to look at the camera to save my life. Even when I turned off her show. She can be very stubborn. She loves her little sister so much. She always wants to be right next to her. Sometimes too close. She likes kicking around the soccer ball and turning flips around the room. Matthew and I are seriously considering some sort of gymnastics. We know she would love it. We have started the potty training. Wish us luck.





I just love this picture and wanted everyone to see it. Katy and Vail both love their Daddy so much. He is such a fun loving Daddy to have too.

Back from Cali

Katy checking out the scenery outside the plane


Matthew and Micah at the USC game


Lounging in Uncle Micah and Aunt Nat's pool. Riding the sea horse


MMMMMM.... POPSICLES


Watch a show!!


Swinging in the hammock.



California was a blast. We spent some time in the uncle and aunt's pool, went to Disneyland, dipped our toes in the Pacific, toured the finer points of San Diego, and spent some more time in the pool. It was a fun relaxing week for all. The girls did pretty good on the 4 hour direct flight out to Cali, but the return flight was a bit more restless. We made it back to Nashville, and are very tired. We already miss Micah and Nat. We had so much fun with them. The girls love them so much. I am pretty sure we may see them again before Christmas. Right!? Micah blogged everyday while we were there, so if you want a day by day blog of the trip you can go see the Ensor family blog (to the left) for pics of the seashore and disney. Our camera got dipped into the ocean while Matthew was videoing Vail touching the water for the first time. Let's just say Davey Jones may have made an attempt to claim Vail for his own.:) We have the wave on camera. It is actually funny. Not really something to put on the blog though. No other major mishaps. Oh except for the time when Micah and Nat were playing with Vail and she was running towards them and apparently she dove and slide like a seal into their DVD shelf. Of course there was also when I went out of the sliding glass door and left it open so Vail could follow me. She must have thought I closed it because she held both hands up to lean on the door (like she was going to press her face on the glass) and fell straight forward onto the concrete. Good thing she only cried for like 2 seconds because I was laughing so hard tears were flowing. Anyhoo.. We had a blast. Wish we were still there. (except for making that flight home again)

"BREAKING" NEWS

Katy is currently getting her first tooth! She was chewing on my finger and I could feel her bottom left tooth breaking through the gum. I can not believe this. Vail got her first tooth when she was 7 months old. I looked in little Katy's mouth and I could see the top of her tooth and I thought what is going on here? You aren't supposed to have teeth yet. I know you want to see a picture but let's be realistic here. You probably won't get a picture of this tooth until she is one year old. We all know how hard it is to take pictures of your baby's teeth. Where is the time going?

Tails from Nashville

Katy will be five months old tomorrow. Seems a bit crazy she has been here for that long. She is such a sweet little girl. She is sitting up pretty good. She only falls over every now and then or when Vail pushes her. :) She loves her big sister. When Vail takes the time to slow down and talk to her, Katy smiles and laughs at her. It is so much fun to watch them interact together. Priceless. I know there will be many fights but I also know they will be great friends. Life is good. We got Katy a booster seat like Vail has and she has sat in it the past few nights while we were eating dinner. She has seemed to enjoy being up at the table with us and loves to smile at Vail across the table. It has been a lot of fun. Vail is going through what I prefer to call the "terribles". Some days I feel like all I do is get on to her. I wonder sometimes if it is like that for everyone or if I am doing something wrong. Those are hard days. We had a good time with the fam at mom's house. It was good for us all to get together. We don't seem to do that quite enough. Mom is in the last stages of packing up her house and moving across town. I know she is ready for that phase to be over and to feel settled again. Today we did some organizing in the garage. Sometimes the more we organize the more unorganized it seems out there. Why is that? I finally bought some of those teeny tiny ponytail holders and was able to get Vail's hair into pigtails. SHE LOVED IT!!! She was so cute looking at herself in the mirror and smiling and touching her hair. PRECIOUS! We are leaving for California in a couple of weeks to see Micah and Nat. We are very excited. It will be great to go out there and see them on their own turf. I know they are excited. We already have plans to go to Disney Land and the beach. Is it right that our 2 year old will have already been to both Disneys? Hope everyone is well.

Jen