Evie and Nora's Christmas Surprise

For Christmas this year, we decided to get creative - and join forces with our parents - to give the girls a really wonderful gift - a new playroom! My parents bought the girls a play table and chairs. Grandma Loretta gave them an easel, and Mark and I did the manual labor. We painted an entire wall with chalkboard paint, hung their art projects from a red and white polka dot ribbon and even repainted and recovered a child-size rocking chair someone gave us. Isn't it cute?! All the hard work - and generosity of their grandparents - certainly paid off! The girls love their new playroom!

Even Nora can sit at the table, and today - for the first time ever - Evie shared with her little sister! Now Nora didn't actually need or want the marker cap, but still ... baby steps!! Anyways, we're really excited about their new room and have plans for cute curtains next (Great Yiayia, hope you're up for some sewing!) Thank you to everyone who pitched in to give the girls a truly lovely Christmas - and a gift they will use for years to come!

Merry Christmas!

I only have a minute, so here are a few pics from the holiday festivities ... more to come soon. Thank you to everyone who made this Christmas so special - Nora's first, Evie's second and, for Mark and me, our seventh! We love you!

Giving Thanks

We celebrated Thanksgiving this year with 23 family members - 5 under the age of 6 - at my parents' house in Nixa. While it was at times chaotic, it was a truly incredible weekend, and we took advantage, taking lots of great pictures! Here are a few of my favorites.

First, we have the "great-grandchildren" - from 5 months to 5 years-old. Love the girls' matching jammies!

Evie donned her "cookie taster" apron to help Aunt Melina finish off the green-bean casserole, a job she took very seriously.

And here's Evie eating Thanksgiving dinner with Daddy and Nora. Check our her Indian hat and feathers - we all made and wore either Indian (Native American for the PC) or Pilgrim hats to mark the occasion!

Even Nora had a hat!

Also part of the family fun - hanging out in Yiayia and Papou's bed for movie time! Evie decided to borrow Yiayia's reading glasses to see the movie better.

And here are the girl cousins all watching a movie and sharing popcorn. Nora only made it a few minutes before someone shoved her aside to reach the popcorn!!

Finally, to end the weekend, we threw a surprise party for Yiayia's (my mom's) 50th birthday. Here's everyone at Lola's.

And here's an adorable picture of Nora and her Great Yiayia at the party! Happy birthday Mom, and happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Thanks for all the great memories made last weekend. Until next year ...

Sisters, smooches and (for once) smiles!

Nothing too exciting going on around here, just trying to work with Evie on expressing her emotions in positive ways (i.e: no hitting!) working with Nora on her own issues - hair loss! But here's a cute picture of Evie and Nora in their matching Christmas pj's - morning kisses (typically followed by a morning meltdown on Evie's part at least) are everyday occurrences these days.
Evie did cooperate for a new haircut though. Check out the before and after pics - what a big difference! Not only do we see a smile - we also see her beautiful blue eyes! And isn't that braid adorable ... now if I only I could replicate at home!

This week we'll be heading to Nixa for Thanksgiving and then coming home to decorate our own Christmas tree. I can't wait (or maybe I can!) to see Evie's reaction to all the Christmas decorations, lights, ornaments, etc. You can bet we'll have some drama - there are three girls in this family, after all : )

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!

The Cowie Cowgirls (and boy!) hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween! We sure did!
Evie had fun playing in the leaves and meeting new friends at our neighbors' annual pumpkin carving party.

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No luck getting Evie to smile for pictures with Mommy and Nora ...

Or with Yiayia and Papou ...

But she sure loved those cupcakes!!

Dressing up is so much fun!

What is that I hear? Could it be? A delivery at the front door?!! Yippee!! Thanks to Reen and Scott, our cousins in California, Evie and Nora spent the afternoon as fierce jungle cats. OK, Evie was fierce and sassy as always. (I swear she has claws!) And Nora pretty much purred her way through the day. Typical! What a wonderful surprise - thank you again! We will be sure to wear these to one of our many Halloween parties this weekend. Tomorrow morning is Evie's Halloween costume parade at school. Bring on the boots and hat - this cowgirl is ready for the rodeo. Yee-haw!

One more thing - I counted the rolls on Nora's thighs today during her bath. 4 on each leg! Seriously! OK, I better delete this before she's old enough to read :)

Finally - sunshine!

The sun finally came out on Sunday, and Evie was feeling better so we headed to the pumpkin patch at Deanna Rose. Everyone close to me knows how much I look forward to these types of family outings, and my expectations were exceeded this year with a beautiful day and (mostly) happy babies. I love this picture of Evie and Nora on a hay barrel. Evie touching Nora's fingers, loving her little sister. What you don't see is how she pushed her away a mere second later. Ahh, sisterly love.
And check out Evie with her cowgirl hat and boots - totally worth the ridiculous amount of money I spent on them as she wears them every day if she can!

As I mentioned above, Evie has been sick, so we spent three extremely long, cold days stuck inside, cleaning up snot (me) and playing with whatever we could think of (Evie). Here's Evie (and Nora watching in awe) finger painting in what's supposed to be our "formal living room" - HA!

And love this - Evie playing dress up and checking herself out in the mirror. I love how she mixes her winter hat, 1st birthday tutu and cowboy boots. Aunt Melina would be proud!

MIZ!

We may live in Kansas now, but our girls are sure to be MU Tiger fans! Here they are last week in adorable gear courtesy of Miss Lauren Martin and family. Thanks again Lauren! I think the girls look alike in this picture ... and Nora is definitely gaining on Evie. Won't be long before they're sharing clothes!

As dress up is an obvious part of parenting two girls (and fun for Mommy too!), here are the girls in Halloween attire. It IS October after all - we want to get our money's worth :) Looking forward to posting pictures after the actual Halloween holiday, when our little cowgirls come riding into town!

Our Evie

While everyone else was quick to post photos of their smiling toddlers on the first day of school (mother's day out), I hesitated. Why you might ask? Well, now you know! Hello, no smiles here! Instead, Evie was crying - no, sobbing - as we left for school. Fortunately, the sobs subsided by the time we parked and she was waving and saying "hi" and "bye-bye" to everyone by the time we reached her classroom. But still, come on - can't you give your Mommy the photo op she was looking for? Guess not!

Here, though, Evie was much more obliging. I guess because she was in her element - covered in pudding and loving every minute. Nora couldn't even escape the pudding - I found traces on her jammies. Thanks big sister Evie!

Smiles for your Monday morning ...

Just wanted to share a few adorable pics of the girls from the past week or so. How can you not smile when you see this picture of the girls in their matching dresses? Nora is smiling all the time now and cooing too. Evie is making the rest of us smile with her constant chatter - every day is something new. Right now, she loves saying the names of colors, fruit and her ABC's!

Nora the Supermodel

Here's a sneak peak at Nora's newborn photos! Isn't she lovely?! She's also a bit of a chunk. Went to the doctor today for her 2-month visit and she's 12 lbs, 8 oz - 90th percentile! She's also 90th for length and head. Evie's in the 90th percentile now too for weight, but only 55th for length and (eek!) 95th for head! We should've guessed when we had to buy her a size 5 (as in for 5 year-olds!) helmet for the bike trailer! Despite the "cheeks and chins," our girls are growing up perfectly healthy and absolutely adorable! Look at that hair!! BTW, our photographer is Blaine Fisher. Check out his website and blog.

Our favorite month!

September is finally here! Nora is 2 months old and so, so cuddly and, yes, chubby! Cheeks and chins! Love it! Her next doctor's appointment is Sept. 14 so we'll post weight and length then. I'm guessing she's growing just fine, ha! She's also doing some great sleeping, waking up only once to eat in the middle of the night and then going back down until 8 or even 9 a.m.! That will probably change this very night ... spoke too soon!

Here, Evie is showing Nora how "cowgirl's gotta have a horse" is done right! My dad has been singing this song to Evie since Day 1 and Nora too, so we're thinking they may have to be cowgirls for Halloween. The search for costumes is on!
I'm trying to keep this quick as I'm working on everything Evie needs for school tomorrow. Yes, that's right, Miss Evelyn is starting mother's day out tomorrow - every Tuesday and Thursday from 9-1:30. I'm excited for her (and me!) but also nervous. I hope she makes friends and has fun and is nice to her teachers and gets help with her lunch if she needs it ... OK, enough from the neurotic mother. Here's Evie with her new backback, looking adorable! Once on, she won't take it off so I'm debating taking it to school tomorrow ... maybe just the lunch box. Now off to pick out her first day of school outfit! I'll post pics tomorrow after her first day!

Grandparents galore!

We were all lucky enough to have Grandma Loretta in town for an entire week! Both girls loved spending time with Grandma, who sang them songs (much better than Mommy can do!), gave them lots of hugs and fed them/all of us lots of sweets! Here's Grandma with the girls and Mark in his classroom one day for lunch. Evie had french fries hidden in all the desks! Surprise, second graders!!

Loretta also witnessed Evie's silly toddler quirks, including her new love for this tacky $1-aisle hat, her refusal to take off her bib after eating and her love for Noggin on TV. THANK YOU for the visit Grandma!!




The girls also spent some time with Yiayia and Papou at the lake, where Evie steered the boat and went swimming - no fear at all! Nora snoozed most of the day, and everyone had a great time!
One word. CHEEKS! Need I say more?!!

Finally, we wanted to share this picture of Evie "baking" brownies with Mommy. Of course, we made BOX brownies - come on, you know me better than that! - and licked the batter until guilt set in. A perfect way to spend the afternoon!

Fun with friends

Both our girls had playdates recently. Check out future soulmates Nora and Reece (could Ash and I really be in-laws?!) and best friends since birth (or before then - thank you, prenatal yoga!) Evie and Ellie. Great week!

It was actually my first flying solo with both girls and working - two freelance projects in fact! And, drum roll please, we survived!! More than that, we had a wonderful week. Maybe a fluk, but whatever, I'm going with it!

Also, Miss Nora had one of the first of many "first" - she rolled over from her tummy to her back and both Evie and I were there to witness it and cheer. Yah, as Evie says repeatedly throughout the day. Other words our first-born is babbling all day long - Mommy, of course, Daddy, NORA (this one is too precious!), yes, no, night-night, bye-bye, hi, Ralph, nose, eyes, ears, ugh-oh, whoa, ball, bag (this one is a new one as she's taken to carrying around a little purse) and book. I think that's it!

New play things ...

Evie now has two new things to play with - her new playhouse and her new sister!! Both bring hours of entertainment every day!! Which is great, since the poor thing is suffering from that hand, foot, mouth virus and the terrible tantrums of a toddler. Ick to both! Nora, on the other hand, is as sweet as ever ... and healthy too! We had her 1 month check-up, and she's 9 lbs., 11 oz., and 22 inches long - so a pound and 2 inches bigger! Perfect!