Pierced Ears and a Snow Day

One of Olivia's good friends at school has pierced ears.  She has contemplated piercing her ears for a few months.  On her 5th birthday, I told her to just let me know when she's ready.  She always claimed to be scared of it hurting, but decided to go for it this week!  We headed to the mall when I picked her up from school Monday.  She was a little nervous:

She picked out Hello Kitty earrings and there were 2 women there to pierce both ears at once:

No tears!  She did great and is so proud of her earrings.  She's even been good about letting me clean them.

She was so excited to go to school the next day!  The weather showed snow in the forecast, but we had heard that before this winter and nothing happened.  However, at 10:30 a.m. it started snowing pretty heavily.  Her school let out at 12:00 and it was a little slick when I went to get her.  By the time we made it back to our road, the van was sliding all over the place!  Then we saw this:

A firetruck had been called out to check out a possible smoke sighting and got stuck on our road.  Ha!  Not that we could have made it up that hill.  A salt truck came and salted enough to get the fire truck out and we hitched a ride with our neighbors up the hill.
Olivia was very excited about the snow.  We waited another hour and then headed out to play:

Bodine was acting like a puppy!  The neighbors came out to sled on an old election sign and Bodine decided he should jump on with them at the end (yes, I realize I sound like a goober, but it's too funny not to share):

Paige liked the snow, but didn't last long.  She doesn't have a snowsuit like Olivia and I!

Funny how life has changed.  This would be any other day in Denver, but it was a big deal around here.  School was out for 2 days and we've played every game we own (at least twice):

Paige got this little horse for her birthday and Olivia has been taking her on spins:

Our church has an overflow room that is basically a "cry room" for those of us that have very attached babies.  It's right beside the sanctuary and has a TV:

Paige got really into a song last week:

Silly girl!

A nice start to 2014

Dollywood didn't close until the first week of January this year, so we decided to squeeze in one more trip.  Guess who was big enough to ride some kiddie rides?
A little unsure at first:

Then she decided she LOVED it:

Honestly, I was surprised.  She is SO attached to me right now, I didn't think she would get on without me.  I did get to ride one with her:

Olivia was tall enough (42") to ride some of the "big" little kid rides (does that even make sense?).  There are 2 rides in the kiddie section she hasn't been tall enough to ride until now, so she was pumped.

Daddy even got to go with us and we met Mamaw, Papaw, and Taylor there.  It was fun!

Hard to believe Paige is already 13 months old!  Here's her 52 week picture from last month:

Still not walking and still incredibly attached to Mommy.  Ha!  She has started standing up by herself and she is SO proud of herself:

She is a little lovebug, but she is high maintenance.  If she is not being held, she cries.  If we don't give her what she wants (like the knife used to cut her grapes), she screams and cries.  I am working one night a week while Michael keeps the girls.  We face-timed last Thursday and this is the picture I got:

Poor Daddy.  She loves Daddy, so I don't think she cries the entire time I'm gone!  I'm only mentioning this, so I can remember that it's not always sunshine and rainbows here.  The main issue with Paige's high maintenance is there is another baby in our house:

She's still my baby, too.  And she remembers her life before Paige was here.  We have found a few of these notes lying around:

That's "Mom" and "Paige" written in a heart and "Olivia" with an X over it.  Talk about breaking your heart.  For 4.5 years, she was the center of our world and it's a tough transition.  I'm sure she's tired of us telling her that Paige will get easier soon (ha!).  We are sure to cover her with love and kisses when these notes show up.
And it helps that Paige adores her:

Love this picture:

Paige's favorite thing to do while I'm cooking is clean out the cabinets:

Stinker.  Have a good week!