Ch-ch-ch-changes....

The first weekend in March, we flew to Houston.  Random, right?  It was Paige's first flight:

We drove to Nashville the night before and caught a direct flight, so it was only 2 hours.  She did pretty well, but much longer and it probably would have gotten bad!  Having her own seat helped.  Olivia was VERY excited, the last time she flew was when we moved here from Denver.  Funny what she remembered, though.  She asked if we would get peanuts on this flight, ha!

When we landed in Houston, it was 80 degrees.  80 degrees on March 1st!  Unfortunately, it didn't last long, as an ice storm hit the next night and it got down to 28.  Just our luck!  We did some fun things:

Visited the Rainforest Cafe:

Olivia asked to climb a rock wall in the outlet mall.  We let her try and she did great!  Especially considering she was wearing Crocs:

We visited Jump Street (an indoor trampoline park):

And convinced Daddy to ride the mechanical bull (hey, we were in Texas!):

We were in Houston to check out the area, as Michael had a job offer there.  The area west of Houston is really nice.  It is also really big and really far from our family.  

So, we were happy that he got a job offer in Nashville!  

Which means we are moving (again)!  The house is on the market and we went to Nashville last weekend to find Michael an apartment, since he starts the end of this month.  The girls and I will join him when school is out.  Hopefully!  The house needs to sell first.

We did manage to hit the indoor pool at our hotel in Nashville:

That picture was taken mid-cry for Paige.  She was ready to go!  She has also finally decided walking is the way to go:

Thank goodness!  More to come as we get ready to move!

Spirit Week!

Olivia's school had Spirit Week and she really got into dressing up for the different days!  She dressed up like Minnie Mouse for character day (no picture of that one!).  Tuesday was spirit day, so she wore her RCA shirt.

Then there was Wacky Wednesday:

Thursday was Twin Day and she and her BFF, Lexi, just so happened to have the same outfit:

Friday was decade day.  We went with the 80's:

Silly girl.  So thankful she enjoys school!

Paige is still halfway walking.  As in, she'll take several steps, then decide crawling is much faster.  I ordered her some squeaky shoes, hoping it would encourage her.  This is what happened:

She figured out how to make them squeak when she crawls.  Sigh.  I'm ready for this baby to walk!

Snow day, take 2

We got hit with the "big" snowstorm (along with the majority of the eastern half of the country)!  It was very pretty, until our power went out.  We were without power around 17 hours, which wasn't too bad, considering some people in our county are still without it.  Luckily, we have a fireplace downstairs, so were able to keep warm.  Daddy and Olivia were very excited to go sledding:

Paige and I watched, since she doesn't have correct clothing for being in the snow:

I grabbed a bowl of snow, so Paige could play:

She mostly enjoyed eating it:

Our neighbors got out their tractor and scooped up a bunch of snow to make a huge snowman:

Olivia was on a 2 hour delay for school today, which means she was only there for 3 hours.  So, Paige and I decided to go along and help with her Valentine party.  I posed the girls before we left:

And, I can't help it- Paige at 14 months:

Olivia at 18 months:

Cuties!  Happy Valentine's Day!

School pictures and the Olympics!

Lots of video's ahead!  Olivia had school pictures this week:

Our friend from church that took our family pictures made them, so I'm sure they'll be great!  I love this one she took for us:

Her gymnastics had a Winter Olympics last Saturday.  It was really cute!  She insisted on wearing her red, white, and blue leotard:

They divided into 4 groups and we got to follow them around to each event.  Paige was a handful, as usual.  Olivia's group finished the bars and were waiting to move to the beam when Paige decided she needed to get to the bars:

Michael let her get in the pit during the beam routines.  See her head sticking up?

Olivia on the beam (her least favorite):

And her floor routine:

She was so proud of her trophy:

And if anyone wants to see her events, I videoed all of them.  Ha!  They're about a minute each.

Vault:

Bars:

Beam:

Floor:

It was a fun day!

This little nugget:

can walk, but just doesn't want to.  And yes, her hair is crazy.  Sometimes it looks really curly and sometimes it's just wavy, but it is always crazy.  I try to put the top half in a ponytail most days.  I don't know what to do with it!  I was folding laundry a few days ago when I watched (in disbelief) as she stood up and walked about 12 steps unassisted.  She hasn't done it again.  She can crawl like a mad woman, though!

My argument for her being able to walk is in this video:

Really, Paige?  You can stand up and dance, but not walk?  Mommy's not falling for that anymore...I know it's a ploy to get carried everywhere (and it works!).

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!