Reagan's nighttime adventures

Last night of course, Reagan didn’t go to sleep when we put her to bed. She was talking so I figured she was reading books like she normally does. I gave her a little time then go in there to get her to lay down. She has crawled under her bed, gotten out the box where I had some bottles in it and was sitting in front of the wipe box very methodically shoving wipes one at a time down inside the bottles and replacing the lids after she had crammed them full.  She had done 5 bottles like this! They were so tight it looked like they were full of milk. I didn’t have the camera to take a picture of her, but I took a pic of the bottles.  She’s too much! It was funny though, I put her back in her bed and still when we went to sleep at 10:15 she was not out yet because I always turn the lights all off except for night lights when we go to sleep…she yells, Too Dark! So I had to leave the light on last night. Since they’re normally asleep, they don’t care by that time so it cracked us up!

Bass Pro Santa

Wednesday December 8, we went to Bass Pro Santaland to see Santa and all the Christmas stuff they have.  The girls were more interested in the fish! Though the Santa line wasn't long, neither of them wanted to see him so we just looked at the other stuff and drove the remote control trucks.  We did write letters to Santa and they got to mail them in the mailbox, then Santa sent me an e-mail for them, thanking them for their letter.

Reagan learning to potty

We are starting potty training with Reagan, December 7 she went on the potty for the first time, then again on the 16th, since then she has not wanted to try too much, she says it's too hard. But got super excited when she went and said "that wasn't so hard!" This whole blog started with Payton potty training and a picture of her, so here's Reagan's turn, she'll hate me someday, but hopefully she'll see how stinking cute she is too :)

Reagan's big girl bed

Look! I can touch my toes to my forehead!

Sunday December 12, we took the side off Reagan's bed so she can climb in and out herself. She has been doing fine sleeping in the bed, we've only found her sleeping on the floor once, but it takes her forever to actually get to sleep!  She pulls the rocking chair up to the side, sits in it and spreads out books all over her bed and reads. Or she throws things over the gate in the doorway into the hall.  She opens and closes the door, until finally around 9:00-9:30 she's asleep.

Thanksgiving sweet potatoes

This year Reagan wanted to help make something. She was so cute because normally she's occupied with something else and doesn't have the patience to stand and help measure or bake anything.  When I was making the sweet potatoes, she climbed up next to me and wanted to help so she squished them all up and helped dump all the ingredients together, she was so proud of herself and it was fun to bake something with her too.

Cheeburger Cheeburger

Traditional Cheeburger Cheeburger birthday pics

Payton is 5!

Arial Castle Birthday Cake

Opening presents

with Reagan and her friend Keriana before busting the pinata

playing in the Barbie pool

I cannot believe my Payton is 5! She was so excited for her birthday this year and was counting down even before Halloween.  Being at preschool with the other kids, she knew about different toys and asked for a pillow pet for her birthday, she has slept with "Elizabeth" the unicorn almost every night since.  Our friends Paul and Becky gave her a Fancy Nancy who now has her own canopy bed, just like Nancy in the book.  She has played and created and glued with all her new art supplies, and worn all combinations of her new clothes and play shoes.  Yesterday I helped her with the bead art, counting out the colors and putting them on to make Ariel. She had a great day and is such a big girl!

Pinata making

showing off the mess she made

Reagan helped too

notice the bench and deck, huge mess!

Payton wanted a pinata for her birthday.  Without candy they are at least $20 so Tung had the idea to make one.  I'm always up for a project, so we did. We used 2 balloons and mixed together flour and water and made paper mache.  It was a lot of fun, I knew it would be messy but had no idea it would be so bad.  It took 3 washes and a good soak to get all the paper mache out of their clothes!  They weren't big pinata's but they worked, it's a great way to re-purpose the Halloween candy when your birthday is near Halloween!

Reagan the wild woman

showing off her skirt I made for her and holding her snacks for the car

Reagan gets wilder by the day.  Man I love that girl, but she blows my mind!  A few days ago she was being so silly and I was going to say "Reagan you are a mess!"  I said "Reagan, you are a...and then she says Mess! I know Mommy!
She drinks the bath water, sloshes her hands around in the ranch dressing intended to be used to dip the pizza crust in.  Smears it into her hair after she sloshes them around.  Absolutely would not nap this afternoon and kept yelling "Mommy, come get me, I'm awake!"
I was holding her when we came in the house from the garage this afternoon, Tung had opened the fridge to get something out and I didn't pay attention to how close I was to the door, I turned around with her and banged her head against the door, so now she has a nice bruise almost in the middle of her forehead. :(  Poor girl, as much damage as she does to herself (she's had more scratches in 2 1/2 years than Payton has had in 5) I had to add something to it.
She has more energy than even she knows what to do with, but I couldn't love her more!

"Put me in my bed"

Reagan for a while has not wanted me to read to her at night, she wants Daddy to, occasionally she'll let me but not often.  I thought I was going to get to read and sing to her tonight but it took some convincing from Daddy to let me.  While I'm singing Stuck Like Glue by her request the timer goes off for the cupcakes that are baking and I have to go get them, so I put her in her crib, then come back for her.  She requests the ABC's so after I sing those, she takes out her Yi-yo and says "put me in my bed" evidently she had started reading her Elmo book while I was gone and it was more important to be put back in her bed to read it, than have me sing to her :(

Payton's Teeth

Payton insists that one of her bottom teeth is loose already.  It doesn't really seem too wiggly, maybe a little, but the dentist said that it was fine when she went back in October.  But the other night after she had eaten some of her Halloween candy before bed, her Daddy says to her "You better come brush your teeth or they're going to lose them all!" She says "Daddy, I'm not trying to lose them all, just one!"

Halloween

This year for Halloween I made both of the girls costumes. Payton wanted to be Fancy Nancy from Bonjour Butterfly so I made the shirt and we had the leggings to go with it and she found her fancy shoes, crown and all the accessories to go with it.  Reagan wanted to be a cupcake so I found some ideas online and turned her into a cupcake with fleece and felt.  They both looked so cute.
We carved our pumpkins the weekend before Halloween and it was SO very warm this year that was a bad idea, by the Wed. before they were flat on the front porch, they'd even been in the shade but it was just too hot and they rotted very quickly, I didn't even get a picture of them.  Oh well, lesson learned!

Fall Weekend

I love this one of Payton all upside down

She is just way too cute.

Um, wow. They look alike!

Maybe one of my favorite pictures ever, she's so cute.

trying to push Mommy on the swing while she drinks some water.

So proud of herself that she can pump her legs and swing high all by herself now.

Payton had a soccer game on Saturday morning and scored her first goal! She was so proud of herself!  Well technically it was her second goal, but it was the first one going in the right direction!  Afterwards we drove to Charlottesville to Carter Mountain Orchard, not so much to get apples but just to be outside and see the view, it's so very pretty up there.  We picked a few apples, and more importantly ate apple cider donuts and caramel apple cookies. We brought home Bodo's bagels too, so good!

Today we went to the park and carved pumpkins, I forgot to take a picture of the pumpkins before it got dark but Payton wanted a mermaid, Payton picked Mickey Mouse for Reagan since she couldn't decide, Tung carved the Buffalo Bill's logo in his and I put music notes in mine.  Both girls actually pulled most of their seeds out.  Then we made homemade Johnny Dee sandwiches just like at Macado's, though not the real thing, they were pretty darn good for homemade!

Pumpkin Patch

Payton riding with her friend Kenson on the bus

Excited to get back on the bus after lunch

eating cookies with her friend Jonathan

with Kenson

running to the tree in the clearing to wear them out so they would nap well once they got back to school

Last Wednesday I went with Payton on her first field trip to the Pumpkin Patch.  It was a nice day and I had so much fun going with all the kids.  They all liked riding on the bus probably more than picking out a pumpkin.  They ate a picnic lunch there also, so the parents that went helped serve the lunch.  There were 5 parents out of 20 kids that went.  The kids were so cute picking out their pumpkin, they had bags with all their names on them so they could keep track of who's pumpkin was whose.

while waiting for the other class to get there, Miss Ann walked them around the Christmas trees and they felt the different kinds, prickly, soft...they had a hard time staying in line

This line is a little better :)

So big!

All of a sudden Payton is getting so big!  Friday she said her tooth hurt and turns out it is a little wiggly, so her first tooth is a little loose.  Yesterday she shows us how she knows how to tie her tap shoes.  I've showed her some how to tie, but didn't think it was enough yet for her to know how to do it herself, but she said she has watched her pre-school teacher Miss Ann tie too, and now all of a sudden can do it herself.  Tonight she rode her bicycle all the way down the road and back, normally she's too tired and we end up having to push the bike back while she walks, but tonight she rode it the whole way.  She's getting too big!  But I love watching her learn so much and talk to us about what she knows.

Payton reading to Reagan

Love her hair!

I love this one, they were so cute sitting together

Payton read books to Reagan tonight before we went to sleep, so I played with the settings on my camera and took some pictures

Preschool picnic

Eating dessert with her friend Thomas and his sister Elizabeth

Reagan eating a cupcake

Reagan looking like she's having the time of her life...haha, she SO wants to be a big kid!

Tonight was the picnic at Payton's school.  It was a lot of fun to see her run around with all her friends.  The funny thing is a lot of them were boys, they'd all run after her yelling Payton come back!  She knows EVERYONE!  The little 2 and 3 year olds, everyone her age, she was even telling us who's parents belonged to who.  She is definitely a little socialite and it was so much fun to see her with everyone.