Santa came early!

Santa came early this year! Last weekend we got to go see Santa at a breakfast for him in our neighborhood. We weren't surprised that Anna was happy to see him & Mae wasn't so thrilled. Later, he came to our house to visit with the girls & get Anna's Santa letter. This time she told him she wanted a pink bunny (at least the size of the animal is decreasing... in her letter she asked for a real pony and at school she wanted "a puppy that mommy would take care of" - she's honest about that part).

Then this week, the girls' Nana got to come & stay for several days. Their gift to the girls this year was going in with us on a trampoline. Since we wanted her to get to witness the excitement, Tom & I braved the frostbite and put it up on Thursday. They could not love it more! We've been out on it as much as possible - even if it means putting on 3 layers. Thank you Nana & Pappy!

In the last picture, Daddy is getting a little help from Maelyn on his latest project - a swingset for the girls (Anna calls it her park). He has made great progress on it in one week - despite Anna's comment when she saw the instructional video. She asked, "Daddy, do you think you'll be done with my park before we all have to go to heaven?" What little faith in her handy daddy! He just happened to find a kit on sale this month, it's not a Christmas gift. However, we may have set the bar a little high this year with two huge toys in one month - and Christmas isn't even here yet!

Let there be LIGHT!

I don't know how you guys hang lights at your house, but here's how we do it at the Dayton's....
1. Call for estimate to hang lights, say no thanks to the big $$.
2. Shop at 4 stores to find white lights.
3. Determine that husband can't climb onto roof with 8 ft ladder, borrow neighbor's.
4. Watch terrified as husband slides around on tin roof in 30 mile per hr winds.
5. Thank God when huge extension ladder blows to the ground 3 times and misses children.
6. Listen to husband growl & grumble as he tries different shoes, walking barefoot, & pouring water on roof to get better footing.
7. Go to the store again for more plastic light clips & another extension cord.
8. Get called while gone that gale force winds have blown half the lights on the driveway & shattered them.
9. Hold breath some more while husband reinstalls lights, taping each light clip to the roof (we will never get them down).
10. Cheer loudly when lights come on after 6 hours of work!
11. Cry when lights go off 5 minutes later & it's too dark outside to figure out why.
12. Cheer husband on the next day as he replaces fuses & reroutes cords.
13. Sing the halleluiah chorus when they come back on. They work! No broken limbs! What a brave Daddy!

Can you spot Tom in this picture?

Only 24 days to go!

Christmas is my favorite time of year! We've already started celebrating... the tree went up the weekend after Thanksgiving, in the study this year so that our little climber will have limited access. It was so fun getting to decorate in the new house, we feel so blessed to be celebrating here this year. We have lots of fun Christmas traditions that we've started with the girls that I love, but this year I really wanted to have our family focus on our Savior's birth as well. Some girlfriends & I made 25 ornaments that chronicle Christ's lineage to go along with a children's Bible study each night of advent. We got to open the first one tonight, a globe to represent creation. The girls were most excited about reading the Bible story by candle light (I haven't found the advent candles yet, but this little dinky candle inspired lots of oohs, ahs, & giggling by Mae). I'm so excited about having some sweet time each night learning more about Jesus with them! We also got so many great ideas from a precious lady from our church who came and spoke on keeping Christmas Christ-centered. She was inspiring... she did awesome advent activities with her kids every night in December, but we are hoping to pick our four favorites to do on each of our Friday night family nights this month. I'm going on & on, did I mention that I love Christmas!?

Opening our first advent ornament...

Mae inched closer & closer until her nose was just about on fire!

yelling, "Merry Christmas!" at the Adolphus parade today...

Sweet snuggles!

She's smiling because it's great fun to pull all the ornaments off faster than Mommy can hang them!

Do you believe it?

I had to join the bandwagon out of curiousity... and was a little surprised! I would have guessed Mae looked more like me (maybe just the blue eyes), and that Anna would have gotten a lot more "Daddy points". We always hear that they are both little Toms, so I guess I should be shocked that they had some of me in them at all!

Do you believe it? continued!

Sister's Turn

Because taking turns is what we are trying to work on at our house, I'll be fair too and now post sister's turn in the spotlight. Anna had her Fall Program at Circle of Friends this past week at school. We are so blessed by her being there... she loves her class, friends, & precious teachers. We are so happy with her time there and thank the Lord for providing such a fun, safe place for her to spend two days each week.

Last years program was a trip... her first year in a MDO program was a bit of a flop - she just stood frozen the entire time. My bright idea last year was to offer a little "bribe" if she participated & sang. I had no idea how effective that would be! She was the biggest ham ever, cracking me & everyone else up. If I was a more savy blogger I would definately post that clip, but I'm not that clever. This year again I told her that I would have a surprise for her if she would smile & sing, and we finally discovered the happy medium. She smiled sweetly the whole time & did all the songs & motions. She earned her mini bag of M&M's & a trip to Jamba Juice with me the next day!

The thing with Anna is that you never know what to expect. She always surprises me & keeps me guessing by how she may act in different situations or what may come out of her little mind & mouth. I am horrible at writing down funny things she's said over the years (part of the reason I wanted to start blogging), but here a few that I can think of from recent days...

*we work on not tattling on others often. After school recently she tried to tell me what a classmate had done that day and I interrupted with, "Anna, please just worry about yourself and we'll let so-and-so worry about theirself". A little later I asked again what she had done at school that day and she replied with a big sigh, "Mommy, why don't you just worry about yourself and I'll worry about myself." Guess I set myself up for that one.

*Anna is still a little nervous about the new play area at church (although thanks to Ms. Becky's bright idea of taking a flashlight down the big dark tunnel slide, she's doing better). She wanted to go up it with a friend recently and complained, "there are no friends to go in there and play with me. Kylee is already in class, Savannah isn't here tonight, and Dora is all the way in Mexico. What am I going to do?!"

*Anna dearly loves her sister and we haven't had many incidents of overt jealously. I guess it is simmering though. The other day Anna got a balloon at a birthday party and since we were in the car with Mae I told her she was going to have to share for a bit. After a long turn Anna wanted her balloon back but Mae wasn't ready to give it up. I said, "it's just really hard when there is only one balloon." She said back under her breath, "well then, I guess you should have just had one kid." STINKER.

*She is an awesome pray-er (I know, not a real word) already. You never know what she might ask or thank God for at any time of the day. Some recently... "please help Grammy to eat more carrots so she won't have to wear glasses anymore" (obviously we harp a little about eating her vegetables & why), & "please help cousin Dylan not be scared of the dust buster" (no idea where that one was from).

She is a precious, bright girl. I'm so thankful for every day that God has given us with her. I wish I had been better about writing down her funny sayings, but here is a start!

Sweet Mae

I know it's been a while since I've posted... we are already feeling the holiday business at our house. I couldn't resist sharing these sweet pics of Maelyn though - our little fall fairy. The costume was one of Anna's and has seen better days (it's been at a cousin's house), but despite the missing leaves Mae was precious in it. We didn't get it in time for our pumpkin patch trips this year, so we just did some shots in the front yard (that 85 degree November weather was good for something).

For those of you who don't get to spend time with Mae, I wanted to share some of the things that we just love about her right now.

*she's so quick to smile & laugh, especially at her sister

*she loves Anna fiercely, even though they squabble all day - Anna is the first person she wants to see when she gets up, and she doesn't want to go to bed without snuggling in Anna's bed first

*she is so cuddly, a dozen times a day she puts her head on our shoulders & says, "aaawwwww" (as in "ah, how sweet")

*she's a little monkey - she can climb anything, get into anything, & get on top of anything in no time flat (a few recent examples - she's climbed into the sink & given herself a bath, unrolled & tried to flush a whole roll of toilet paper into the potty, made a lovely table centerpiece of spilled yogurt & all the contents of the salt & pepper shakers, & she can push a kitchen chair all over the downstairs to get to anything I've put out of her reach - I think the Christmas tree will have to go in the study w/ closed doors this year)

*she's forgiving & loving - even on a day like today, when staying up way past naptime to pick up sister from school caused lots of disobedience (5 spankings - ah!) - she's still so loving & quick to say, "sowee mommy"

*her current favorite things: eating, dancing, babies, balls, being outside, & DADDY

*she's such a daddy's girl - she waits for him (often with tears) by the back door each day & just can't get enough daddy time

Anyway, there are so many more, but nap time is just about up! Thanks for letting me share!

Trick or Treat!

My girls are still on a sugar high! We had a great Halloween this year... and a little too much candy. We all had the discussion at fall fest - didn't your parents let you have unlimited candy on Halloween night growing up? I can't say that I let them go crazy, but they did have quite a few "samples" as we trick or treated. See Mae's tootsie roll? And I just took Anna to the dentist this week - maybe our next check up won't go so well. I'll probably let them eat quite a bit more before I'll claim that they ate it all (really I'll stash it away for movie candy for Tom & I - what a selfish Mommy).

This year Anna wanted to be a bunny with long ears. Not as easy as I thought. There aren't many bunny costumes in a 4T, and those we found had short ears. With a little help from my mom's dress up trunk we used a white jumper (we call it the Elvis suit) & added some pink faux fur to the tummy & ears. When Anna first saw them she said that they looked more like elephant ears, but they grew on her.

Poor Mae doesn't get a vote yet, so Mommy picked her costume. She's wearing one of the jack-a-lantern outfits that my brother's & I had as kids (I think this one was Josh's since he was the smallest).

We stopped by fall fest for hot dogs & to see friends (I love the picture of Anna & Kylee), then headed back to trick or treat in our neighborhood. We are so blessed to know all of our neighbors - most people on our street were out in the yard in lawn chairs, so it was more of a block party. Anna got to run around with one of her favorite friends from next door - Abby (the ballerina) - and they both had full buckets after just a few houses. We thought we could just pull Mae around in her wagon, but after she saw that sister was getting gobs of candy, she was hopping out before we came to a full stop at each house. Smart girl.

60 miles & 60 blisters

Thanks to many prayers, our team finished all 60 miles this weekend! It was a memorable, moving, very painful three days... I am thrilled that I did it, and even more thrilled to be done! Especially after seeing so many walkers who wore survivor shirts, and so many others who were walking in honor of a family member who didn't make it, I am so thankful that God allowed me to be a part of such an awesome event!

That said, my feet will never forgive me for this walk! We fretted and worried over how we would feel sleeping on the ground in a sea of tents, but even with the cold night time temps & sore bodies (and a little help from Ambien CR for me),we rested. Since we trained without problems, we didn't think much about how our feet would hold up. I guess it's good that I didn't know ahead of time that I would want to kiss those medics for repeatedly lancing my blisters (who knew that I would look forward to that), and that I would say prayers thanking the Lord for the inventor of second skin. By the last couple of miles each day (or the last 5 on day 2 which was 21.5 LONG ones) my feet felt like they were on fire. I kept trying to remind myself what I read on a poster the first day, "blisters don't need chemo!". My poor team mates had to put up with me talking constantly because if someone wasn't telling a story, I tried to fill in the silence... I couldn't stand thinking about my feet & desperately tried to distract myself. I couldn't have asked for better women to walk with. We were all hurting, several with injured knees & feet, and all managed to talk ourselves out of climbing on the buses that would take you back to camp if you needed to quit for the day.

There were lots of highlights... awesome support from family & the community, thousands of people cheering us along the route, lots of sweet kids passing out candy & stickers, inspiring posters, some PG-13 outfits & slogans (some of the funniest - "saving second base" & "my right boob thanks you!"), always cheerful & helpful volunteer crews, hot & decent food, amazing fellow walkers - one with a walking cast, two marines who walked with full packs, a woman in a wheelchair.

A couple of my favorite memories - Lesley's college roommate, a one year survivor,surprised her by flying in with her whole family... Lesley's kids & her roommates'entire family shocked us all on the third day, cheering us on when we really needed it. Also, at closing ceremonies they had all of the survivors walk in last... and all the walkers held up one of their walking shoes in support & tribute. Lots of tears.

I have to say too that my sweet husband was such an awesome support, he listened to all the good & bad in many phone calls from pit stops & camp. I had asked him not to bring the girls to a cheering station because I thought Mae would get really upset about seeing me for a few minutes & then me taking off... on the last day I changed my mind and decided that I really needed to see all of their sweet faces to finish. He packed up both girls & drove an hour to Dallas to give me hug & let me kiss Anna & Mae for about 2 minutes before walking on (if I stayed any longer I may have climbed in the van with them!).

Thank you all so much for praying for us - that's what got us through! Thanks too for all of your finacial support -the 2,400 walkers in the DFW 3 day raised over 6.5 million dollars. We pray for a cure before another mom, sister, wife, grandmother, or daughter is lost. A million blisters would be worth that.

Oil Ranch

The girls & I made the trip to College Station this weekend to enjoy a fall weekend with my parents... the highlight of the trip - Oil Ranch! God blessed us with wonderful weather & great company - we got to meet Jenny, my college roommate, & her two kiddos there. Zeke is almost 4 & Kaelyn is 8 months - it was so fun to get to hang out with them & watch Anna and Zeke play together. Jenny is an awesome friend and it was such a blessing to spend time with her. Oil Ranch is like a pumpkin patch on steroids - there are pumpkins of course, but also horse back riding, hay rides to feed cows, a petting zoo, rides, a miniature train, and more.

Trying to pose for a group picture was a lost cause!

I'm still new to blogging & have no idea how to turn this cute picture!

Mae entertaining Kaelyn

Petting the turkey was all fun until he gobbled, then Zeke screamed bloody murder! It was hilarious!

I think I see expensive horse back riding lessons in our future, Anna already has a passion for riding & could have done this the whole time.

Fall Fun

I guess I'll just jump in & start somewhere! We've been enjoying the almost fall like weather for the past week. We made a "scary-crow" on the front porch (Anna called them that her first fall & was terrified of them until this year, Mae on the other hand calls him "Daddy" and sits in his lap every chance she gets). We also made a trip to the Flower Mound pumpkin patch. The girls loved seeing their favorite characters, riding the barrel train & hayride, and running amuck in general.

In the first pic, Anna is standing by her favorite princess - Ariel. Next, you can see Mae with her "monkey tail" on. She's so quick that we have to keep lots of tabs on her! In the pic of Mae kissing Minnie, she kept calling, "Oh Toodles" from MM Clubhouse - so cute! You can see Anna's bow in the window picture, that was before she lost it in the haybale maze. I had to crawl around on all fours looking for it, and we both ended up with a million chigger bites. Avoid the mazes!

Clueless!

Ok, so I'm clueless when it comes to computers. My sweet husband has to help me do anything more complicated than checking email or surfing the web. This is the main reason why I haven't become a blogger. Only in the last month or so did I even realize that almost everyone I know blogs, and since then I've had so much fun getting to know my close friends better & meeting some new ones whose faces I recognized from church. I fear that this won't be cute or even remotely figured out for some time - whenever I disappear into the study my kids find me in two seconds flat... Maelyn begins emptying the desk drawers & Anna begs to play a kid's computer game. Oh well, I'm going to give it a try!