All Princess

December 1st, Princess, the Elf, made her reappearance at the Laws house to watch over Carli for Santa.  This year, Princess brought back her book and made us a simple breakfast of chocolate muffins and strawberry Santa hats.   Carli was excited to have her back.

 

 

Over the course of the weeks leading up to Christmas, Carli was careful not to touch her, but came close several times.  Most mornings, Princess sat in very normal places, the mantle, the top of a lamp...but sometimes, she was a little more adventurous:

 

 

 

special paper for Carli to write her letter to Santa

must have gotten hungry?

 

 

One morning, Carli found a letter with magical seeds from Princess.  They told her to plant them and something would grow from the seeds overnight.

 

The next morning, Carli found magical reindeer cookies had grown.

 



She tried to help wrap presents

She made a birthday card for Jesus on Christmas Eve.

When we got home from Grandma and PawPaw's, it was time to get milk and cookies ready for Santa and to tell Princess goodbye until next year.  Carli was finally able to touch  her since Princess would be riding on the sleigh back to the North Pole.  It took a few minutes for Carli to believe she could finally touch her.  Then she hugged her, gave her several kisses and told her she loved her.  She didn't want to leave her to go to bed, but finally did.

 

 

 

Princess, we will miss you at the Laws house!  Hurry back next year!

Carli's Preschool Performance

I was so proud of my girl today.  Not only did she sing all the songs with her friends, but she actually did the motions too.  Now if she will just look at the audience when she is singing.

 

Joy to the World

A is for Angels...

...who sang in skies so bright.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Another Thanksgiving is in the books.  Carli really seemed to have a lot of fun this year.

Last Friday was the feast at preschool.  Carli was so excited when I showed up to eat lunch with her.  She had to show me everything in her room.  She also had to have her picture taken with her best friend, Merry.  Of course, Carli ate nothing at lunch.  Too excited, maybe?

Jacob photo bombed the picture.  Not sure how the girls felt about that.

This is the Church, Here is the steeple...

Her turkey, pink of course

lunch buddies
 

 Thanksgiving at home was a little different than we expected.  It was to be at our house this year since PawPaw at surgery a few weeks ago.  Then, Austin's schedule was changed and he had to work during lunch.  Then Grandma's pneumonia came back and she had to go back into the hospital.  None were able to come for lunch.   With just us and Poppie and a 13 pound turkey, there were plenty of leftovers!  After lunch, Poppie "read" to Carli from a coloring book.  It was a good day.



Carli's art gallery of artwork from school



reading with Poppie



After we all had a nap, it was time to decorate the tree.  While she was asleep, Joe and I assembled the tree in the living room.  When she awoke, she was mesmerized by the lights.  She had  so much fun putting the ornaments on the tree that she even forgot about cartoons for the evening!

She looks so grown up in this picture.

 

Notice all of Carli's ornaments are crammed together.  Love it!

 

Setting up the Nativity.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween this year with Carli was so much fun!  The weeks before, they talked about it in preschool quite a bit.  I was busy working on her costume.  She talks about Snow White so much that I thought this would be the perfect costume.  I searched all over trying to find the pattern, but finally ended up buying it off E-Bay.  As I worked on it, I showed her my progress.  She was so excited.  When it was ready, she couldn't wait to try it on.

Joe took her for a trial run with Grandma and PawPaw.  She was so happy to show it to them.   Then it was finally October 31st.

 

After dinner, Carli got dressed and it was time for pictures.  She loves to have her picture made.  Then we loaded up the car and headed to Poppie's house.  All the way over, she kept saying "trick or treat".  But when we got to his house, she was so shy and wouldn't say anything.  She even hid her face in her pumpkin.

 

 

 

Next we headed to Aunt Cheryl's.  Carli wouldn't really talk there.  I had to trick HER so I could get a picture of her with Cheryl by telling her that I was taking candy from her bucket.  That got a smile out of her. 

 

 

We headed to Aunt Nancy's next.  The skeleton on the wall of "Nana's" house danced whenever someone moved.  Carli thought this was the funniest thing.  She kept running up to it so it would dance.

Finally, we headed back into our neighborhood to hit a few houses.  By this time, Carli had no trouble saying "trick or treat" when she got to the doors.  She had so much fun.  Her biggest trouble came at home when she as told she could only have one piece to eat.  The decision was so hard...

 

Joe was worried that he would have trouble getting her into bed, but Carli fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Can't wait to see what next year brings...

Weekend with Mickey

From Mickey's journal:

 

What a great weekend to go visit Carli and her family!  When Daddy picked us up, we headed over to Mommy’s school.  There I got to see butterflies that had just emerged from their cocoons.  They were so pretty!  Then we went to the book fair at her school.  Carli bought several books to read to me.  I even found a book about me.

Arriving at Mommy's school

seeing the butterflies

"Look a book about me!"

On Saturday, we headed to Clemmons to help GG celebrate her birthday.  We ate at a Chinese restaurant.  Carli even tried something new honeydew melon.  Then we went to GG’s house for cake…”mmm.”  Saturday night, Daddy and Carli went to a choir party at a barn complete with a hayride, pumpkin carving and a fire.  I forgot my warm clothes so I stayed home and helped Mommy work on Carli’s Halloween costume.

Ike, GiGi, Carli, and me

Carli and PaPa Thad

Sunday morning, I went to church with everyone.  I played with the 3-4-5 year olds in Sunday School and then went to big church.  After church, we went for Mexican.  Carli fed me chips.  Finally, we went home for a nap.  I sure was glad because I was tired after all that running around!