halle and Kiera

this week was sooo nice, the weather was perfect, one of very few reasons why I like the south......between 65-75 everyday. we went to the park for a picnic every single day and stayed for at least 2 1/2 -3 hours. it was so relaxing. We have also been going up to the playground in our neighborhood. there are some older kids that play up there, and are sooo nice to the girls.... the girls love to play with them.

last weekend on our mini trip to Helen, GA we went to babyland, birthplace of the cabbage patch. we saw a "doctor" (scrubs and everything) , stand under a giant magical tree, aka "Mrs. Cabbage" and deliver a cabbage patch doll out of a head of cabbage.....this birth was complete with a ultrasound, IV, and tongs to measure dialation....the entire ground surronding the tree was full of cabbage heads with baby heads poking out.....i loved cabbage dolls as a child so i was loving it....the girls liked it, but were a little disturbed. ever since we got home, at least once a day, kiki has to bring up the whole weird/creepy experience. she says, "mommy, what did that doctor do to the tree?....what did he do???"....another funny thing is that when they "come out" the doctor shows off the butt, signed by xiever whatever, the founder of the dolls and then turns the doll around to show the outtie belly button....which i said, "kiki, that looks just like your button" (identicle)...so everyday kiki has to say, "mommy, my belly button looks just like a cabbage patch".

today at mcdonalds kiki said to some random older boy, "are you nice?"...he said, yeah. so she said, "ok, then come play with us"

at the skating rink some kid was blocking halle and kiera so they couldn't pass.....it takes a lot for halle to pick up on kids not being nice, she doesn't care , so she doesn't notice. but kiki is more sensitive and if someone even has an unfriendly tone in their voice towards kiki or halle, kiki will growl in their face, "you stop it". so, finally this boy, reached his skate out and ran over kiki's shoe.....kiki kicked him right in the shin. i acted like i didn't see, because i was glad she did it. then she glared at him and kicked her legs out in the air, like "i'm warning you" kicks. kiki has no fear of anyone...halle knows better and picked her up from behind and carried her off. they crack me up how they look out for each other.

teaching halle and kiera the gospel can be funny...sometimes they are right with me and other times their heads are in another place. the other day i was teaching them the easter story. kiki was right with me and when i showed her the picture of Jesus on the cross , with Mary kneeling at His feet. she said, "his mommy is crying, she so sad".....halle on the other hand was not with me....i said, "on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead. what do you think about that, Halle?" halle said, "Rose?.....i haven't gotten a rose since daddy took me to see the nutcracker"......she makes me laugh......

the girls have gotten very freindly lately to everyone they meet. i think they make each other more confident.....at every store, every person we pass on our walk, every child at the playground...they have to introduce themselves. "i'm halle, whats your name" i'm halle mae and i'm 4 years old, my birthday is oct. 19th" and kiki is a little echo, "what your name?" i'm kiki. i'm kiki lynn. i wuv ariel. i had an ariel birthday party." .....sometimes they will not stop and i have to tell them to say good bye to give the random stranger a break. they are totally in love with themselves and think the whole world is too and is hanging on their every word....of course, me and tom are in love with them and do hang on their every word so it just encourages them. the other day they said hi to a shy boy and he just looked at his mom and said, why are they talking to me. halle (and of course her echo, kiki) said, "because we're freindly!!!"

yestarday kiki came home from nursery at church. she loves nursery, but said, "there was a mean boy in nursery"...who, i asked. "i dont' know"...so i went through everyone's name, was it____. kiki would say, "no, he was nice"....was it _____. "no , he was nice"......i gave up...about an hour later i finally thought of the name of the new kid. was it _____. kiki's eye's lit up. "yeah, mommy, ____ is mean. he was doing this" and then she swung punches in the air.

Halle performing at cherry blossom festival!

Untitled from Lori Garrett on Vimeo.

halle is on the far left. open to full screen to see better!!

Halle's "Style" and my birthday!

DSC09566, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

this is a typical outfit halle will pick out for herself. her and kiera insist on picking out their own clothes (and have since they were a year old)....i like it because i say go in your rooms and get dressed...it takes them a while to pull it together and then halle comes out soooo proud of what she calls her "style"...."do you like my style today, mom?" i say i love it and take a picture, there are almost always leggings involved and on this day there are two pairs of leggings!

yestarday was my birthday. i decided for my birthday this year i wanted to go to the mountains on a weekend getaway, so thats what we are doing this weekend, tom took a day off to have a longer weekend and we are very excited!!........yestarday was still a fun day too.....me and the girls packed a picnic. it was almost 70 and we went to the park and relaxed and played. picnics are me and the girls favorite thing to do. then we came home and had naps. then we went to ballet, we went early so kiera could dance in the studio a little bit with halle before it started.
when we got home tom had a birthday surprise for us. he made dinner and pie. and had hid easter eggs and candy all over the house for the girls to find and boiled eggs so we could dye the eggs. it was a fun way to spend them evening, esp. since i am going to my mom's for easter this year and tom will miss spending it with us. the girls were so happy, they ate candy for dinner. then halle made me stand in the front of the room so they could sing happy birthday to me. and through out the day she had whispered in a few random people's ears that it was my birthday and they should wish me a happy birthday...so at the park, i had a few random people to celebrate my birthday with, haha....
we put the girls to bed and watched a movie and ate the rest of the pie!!! it was a great birthday , with more celebrating to come!!!

Craft shelf

DSC09568, originally uploaded by Our Little One.

this is my new craft shelf. its one of my proudest motherhood acheviements.....i'm always so disorganized and having to find tape or a bandaid is a scavenger hunt....being at lynn's house inspired me to organize. i now have bins and containers all over the house and i am soooo happy!! halle is thrilled and shows off my new organization to people when they come over. This craft shelf was my best idea.....it is in the laundry room, upstairs , next to the playroom where the girls have a little table. at least twice a day they are pulling out paper, markers, scrissors, sequence, whatever to do a craft. i plan a craft to do with them every morning for "preschool"....which is just a craft, books, stories and songs. then next to the table, i hung a string and got clothes pins for the girls to hang up their art. its been soooo fun. i can even get out some of my own projects to do while the girls are working on their stuff. i've actually started a baby book for kiera!!! and in all my cleaning up of junk drawers, i actually found her ultrasound pictures!!!

spring is here!

spring is here! Sunday it was in the 60s, we spent 3 hours up at our playground. Halle was so excited when i found a razor scooter at the goodwill and fisherprice rollerblades. she is pretty good on her scooter and thinks its cool because the older kids in the neighborhood all have them!

yestarday was 74! it was so sunny and warm and since its supposed to rain the rest of the week, we skipped the gym and went straight to the park! We stayed for 3 1/2 hours , brought a picnic lunch, in halle's picnic basket (halle even packed up a blanket to sit on). we had sooo much fun and even got a little sunburned! kiera was begging for nap! "i wanna go home and go sleep, i so tired!!"

quick post

yestarday 6 flags opened. we were counting down the days all week!!! we had sooo much fun!!!! halle was finally 42 inches and kiera was finally 36 inches, both critical height requirements. kiera got to go on her first rollercoaster. she was sooo scared, but loved it! halle got to go on her first adult rollercoasters. one of them was 8 stories tall, 50 mph and does three upside down loops....she laughed and smiled the whole way, i screamed my head off....we both LOVED it!! she had to do it again with tom. its going to be a FUN year!!!

right now the girls are reading a flap book together. halle is reading it just like me. "can you find the dog, kiki?" "can you say ___" "open this one"....i love when i hear her be sweet to kiki, especially when i'm not in the room.

yestarday they shared kiki's slinky the whole way to altanta...they each got to pick out something in the dollar section at target, halle picked slippers, kiki a slinky. i said kiki didnt' have to share because it was her toy that she picked. they passed it back and forth the whole way there and the whole way home without one word from me or a word of argument......i love when they love each other!

from the other room i saw halle wrap her arms around kiki from behind her and say in her ear, "you look so pretty today."

kiki was sick with a cold the past week. while we getting ready for bed halle said, "mommy, can we say a prayer and ask Heavenly Father to make her feel better?"

I was reading the scriptures to the girls...they never listen and roll around the floor giggling...but halle heard the word repent and stoped and said, mommy, whats the word mean? i said, when we make a wrong choice, we say were sorry to the person we upset and in our prayers we say sorry to Heavenly Father and then He forgives us. Halle said, "mommy, i want to repent".....i know she doesn't need to repent yet, but i let her think of a wrong choice she made and repent that night. Halle is so happy when she is being good! she makes me so happy.

Kiki quotes,
"mommy, i like you, your nice!"
climbing up the playground...."i can do this and i'm just a little one!"
me, "kiki, are you a big girl?".....kiki, "no, i'm a big baby" (i think by 2 they should want to be a big girl, but kiki is REALLY lovin' being the baby around here)
kiki's favorite phrase lately, is to say, "guess what?" to get your attention and then says something rediculous....usually a bunch of potty words grouped together. but to strangers, she says, "guess what? ....."i'm kiera" or "i'm 2" or "that's halle and i'm kiera"
kiki was calling to halle who was running ahead of us at the playground. when we caught up kiki says, "halle, when i call your name, you answer me!"....i wonder where she learned that phrase!