Happy Birthday, Pappy!

Today is Pappy's birthday. We had planned to go out for dinner, but the weather sort of changed our plans! We did talk to him on the phone a couple of times today though, and Brynna sang Happy Birthday to him. :) Here are pictures from his birthday last year, with the cake Braylee made for him.
Friday was Pajama Day at daycare. The girls were so excited about it! On my way to pick up the girls, I was talking to my dad on the phone and told him we could meet him for dinner...until I remembered the girls were in their jammies! We decided we better go home for dinner instead! ;)
Saturday night before the ballgame, Braylee tried her first drumstick. What kid doesn't like ice cream, right? Well, Braylee has just learned to like ice cream in the last 6 months or so and Brynna still isn't a big fan. She thought it was pretty cool that it came "put together." Brynna's hair is really getting long! I snapped this picture at the Buggy Bowl, which we lost. :(

Baby Brent fell asleep watching the game...so sweet!

I was just telling Jenn at the ballgame about how Braylee and Brynna always want to sleep together, but they end up talking too much and I have to separate them. But, they must have been extra tired after the game because I found Brynna asleep in Braylee's bed! :) Awww! Brynna ended up going to her own bedroom around 2am, but it was still sweet to see them snuggled together.
Yesterday, I had an orthodontist appointment in the morning. It was some of the worst pain I have ever experienced...thankfully, it wasn't prolonged. They were taking out my expander (yeah!!), but it proved to be a little harder than they expected. At one point, I told her, "I'd rather have a baby than do this!" Of course then all of the girls in the office started laughing, but I was sweating b/c it hurt so bad! ;) Ok, so maybe I have a low pain tolerance ??? but I have been through some pretty rough stuff before and this was seriously painful! The roof of my mouth "looks angry" (as the orthodontist said) from where the expander was embedded slightly...fun, huh? I don't even know what all they did to me, but I was in miserable pain the rest of the day. :( The good news for those who haven't seen me lately though is that the gap is almost completely gone! Woohoo!

Brynna looked awfully cute following her daddy out to the mailbox this evening. As short as her legs are, I think it was a little hard for her to walk in!
Brynna has a new trick! She can spell her name! :) It's so sweet. I've been trying to catch it on video for the last week, but well, we all know she has a stubborn streak in her! She is sooo close to being able to sing the ABCs correctly too, but still, it's quite impressive to hear even with a few mistakes thrown in! She has the cutest little voice! (Ok, I'm done with my proud mommy moment now.)

Our pastor and his wife, who also happen to be good friends of ours too, will be welcoming their new little boy tomorrow! Please be praying for an easy labor, a healthy baby, and also for a safe trip to the hospital in the morning. They brought Abby home in 22 in. of snow, so this should be easy for them! ;)

Fun in the Snow

Being the insomniac that I am, I was super excited when I saw the blanket of snow outside at 3am Monday. I had picked up some hot cocoa at the store on Sunday just in case. I'm not really a big fan of hot cocoa (especially after I burnt my tongue drinking it in NYC as I solemnly tried to warm up after seeing Ground Zero in the bitter cold...and while a stabbing occurred in the bathroom as we tried to enjoy a cinnamon roll in the cozy little coffee shop...), but I thought the girls might enjoy it. Brynna took one look at it and pushed it away, but Braylee loved it. She must have said, "Hmm, this is sooo good!" about 12 times. :)


Today, after we left the library, we picked up Gabe for a play date at our house. He was such a good little boy. When Mandi came to pick him up, he had to show the girls how to rock Ella in her seat. :)

Tracee #2

This is for my family...Does Brynna look like Tracee in this picture or what?! I didn't notice it until I received the prints in the mail yesterday. When I was flipping through them, I immediately said, "Oh my goodness, that's Tracee!" So, I cropped the picture some so you can see her better. It reminds me of that picture of Tracee in the rocking chair with the little white sandals, remember which picture I'm talking about? I'll have to see how old she was then...

Burr, it's cold!

Last Friday, Abby and Emma came over for some play time with the girls. Emma and Brynna LOVE their bear blankies, as you can see in the pictures.
Sunday, we had dinner at Gramma & Pappy's. Gramma's birthday was the 3rd and Pappy's is the 27th, so we took them a cookie cake. I don't know what we'd do without our Gramma & Pappy! The girls were thankful for another chance to hold Ella.At dance class the last couple of weeks, Miss Brittany has been measuring the girls so she can order their recital costumes. Brynna doesn't miss much at dance, and when I found her measuring Braylee one morning this week, she said, "We at dance class!" :)Monday, Braylee got an A for her oral hygiene at the dentist's office, just a 6-mo. cleaning. We spent the afternoon with Mamaw and Aunt Trista, which of course included a trip to the Mexican restaurant. My girls love chips with salsa and cheese almost as much as I do.

Tuesday, it was cold and blustery as we headed to the library! Burr! And it just keeps getting colder. I'm ready for spring already!

Silly girls

My silly girls have kept me on my toes this week. :) Monday, I was typing an email to Krista when Brynna came to me with pasty hands and a messy shirt. My first thought was that she must have a mixture of butt cream and powder on her. I followed her to the kitchen to find white footprints on the floor. When I asked her what she was doing, she said, "I make pancakes!" Sure enough, she had dumped some instant mix into a dish and was needing help to finish! So, we had pancakes for dinner instead of the meatloaf I had planned.

Tuesday morning, we were getting ready for story time at the library. While I was fixing my hair, I turned around to see the girls had completely dressed themselves, minus socks. (I should note though that Brynna's pants were on backwards and her shoes were on the wrong feet!) So, I congratulated the girls on getting dressed and told them to find some socks...cream ones. I say, "Not white ones, cream ones. Ok, Braylee?" She nods and then as they walk off down the hall, I hear Braylee tell Brynna, "Cream ones are the ones with sugar on the white." Of course! :) What else would I expect out of my cupcake-and-candy girl!

While at the library, we heard stories and sang songs about snow, including the book The Snowy Day. They painted tracks with white paint to mimic the tracks the little boy in the story makes in the snow. Conveniently, God placed a nice blanket of snow on our deck during the night. The next morning, the girls ran out to make tracks and prints in the new snow...barefoot! Burr!! When their tracks were covered over a few hours later, Braylee attempted to sneak out for another round, but I caught her that time!

After enjoying popcorn and watching High School Musical together Tuesday night, Braylee showed me a handful of popcorn kernels. She said, "Mom, if we plant these, we'll have a popcorn tree!!" I called Papaw to tell him Braylee needed a refresher course on seedcorn! :)

Miss Brynna is now wearing panties during naptime too! In a few more months, I will be able to stop buying diapers for a couple of years!

Just have to add one more...tonight while we were doing our little devotional with the girls, we were talking about God's wonderful creation. I asked Braylee what her favorite creation is. She said, "Mommy & Daddy." When I asked Brynna..."Pink!" This Pinkalicious girl loves her pink!! :) (Brynna received the book for Christmas, very cute!)

Happy New Year!

We celebrated New Year's Eve at our house. There are a few couples we have celebrated New Year's with pretty much as long as we have all been dating. It's fun to look back at pictures and see how much things have changed over the last 11 years!! We are so thankful for these forever friends, and we know our little ones will enjoy growing up together too. A few of us decided we might want to try an "adult only" party next year though...it's hard to enjoy our games or conversation with all of the kid noise in the background. I know we played several rounds of our game with at least one of the mommies being MIA at some point. Regardless of the chaos, we filled our bellies with yummy snacks and chatted the evening away. I couldn't believe how quickly midnight rolled around!

Belated Birthday cake for Daddy

The Big Girls...

and the little girls. :)

Braylee had a sleepover at Sydney's the night before New Year's. Tim and Krista were filling us in on some of their conversations. They are like two 14 year olds in little 4 year old bodies. They are the best of buddies and seem to always be planning their next sleepover or play date.

Christmas 2008

This is going to be a long one...so grab a comfy blanket and settle in.

As always, we were extremely blessed this Christmas...but not only with gifts. God has blessed us with large, happy families and wonderful friends.

Christmas Crafts
Tuesday, Abbie and Max came over for lunch and craft time. In the past, we have always bought gifts for each other and the kids. We decided this year, it would be more fun to spend quality time together and let the kids make cookies...but then I decided a craft would be fun too. So, the kids first made snowmen that held a little heart saying, "Jesus loves you snow much!" Then we let them make reindeer out of their handprints and footprint. Max decided he didn't want to get in the messy paint though!

Abbie helped Brynna with her snowman.

Braylee & Max
Their finished reindeer.

Christmas Eve at Mamaw & Papaw's
Wednesday, we celebrated Christmas at my parents' house. I think I've mentioned it before, but my mom totally outdoes herself at Christmas! :) Drives my dad crazy, but we all enjoy it! We nibbled on the enormous amount of goodies she prepared and opened gifts together. It's been a tradition my entire life for our grandparents and my uncle Tom (dad's brother) to join us, so it was a pretty full house. Braylee and Brynna spent a lot of time playing upstairs with our old toys...makes you wonder why we keep buying new, huh?! :) I can't even begin to list all of the fabulous gifts we have received this past week, but I'm sure you'll see some of them in the pictures. After gifts, we filled our bellies with a traditional holiday meal and then played Pictionary. As bedtime was closing in, we headed home to get ready for Santa!

Egnew Grandkids- Emilee-12, Ely-9, Braylee-4, and Brynna-2

Braylee with Granny & Pa
The girls with Grammy.
The girls gave Aunt Trista a photo book.
My girls with my sisters.

Christmas Eve
Once we arrived home, the girls put the last sticker on their Advent Calendar and changed into their Christmas jammies. They were so fired up! It was easy to snap some fun pictures of them in front of the tree. We also sat out cookies and milk for Santa and left him a note. Brynna was instructing Leila not to eat Santa's cookies. She kept saying, "No, no, Leila. These cookies are for Santa." When the girls were singing Happy Birthday to Jesus, I noticed Brynna went into prayer-mode! ;) Surprisingly, they went to bed pretty easily!

Putting on the final Advent sticker.

Braylee says, "Where's the reindeer food?!" So dramatic. :)
Brynna tells Leila the cookies are for Santa.

Christmas Morning
Christmas morning arrived! Gramma had to work, so the girls called to wish her Merry Christmas. While on the phone, Brynna had to read Santa's letter to her...so cute! Once the grandparents, aunts, and uncles arrived, we began opening gifts. We started in the front room with stockings and gifts from Santa. I love how Braylee told Brynna that Santa only leaves gifts for kids, so mom and dad have to fill their own stockings. :) One of my favorite gifts was inside mine...season passes to Holiday World! After the girls opened their gifts from us, Mamaw and I made our big traditional Christmas breakfast while the others put together the gifts. Then we relaxed and played games.
Christmas Evening
Later that day, we went to the Swartzentruber Christmas (Alex's mom's side). Each year, someone in the family hosts since grandma's house isn't big enough for everybody. We are starting to outgrow others' homes too. This year, we celebrated in our church's fellowship hall. Instead of a regular gift exchange this year, the younger kids had a scavenger hunt to find a bag of goodies put together by Great Aunt Sue. Then, they put together a little penguin with a thermometer on it. :) The older kids and adults played Dirty Santa as usual, which is always fun.
Christmas at Gramma & Pappy's
The day after Christmas, I went ahead into the office to see OB patients...women are still having babies whether it's the holidays or not! :) Just ask Abby and Mandi! :) Then, we went to Alex's parents' house for lunch. After a scrumptious (as Pappy would say) meal, we headed down to the basement to open gifts. Gabe and the girls went first so the little ones could take naps. By this point in the week, Brynna was posing for every single thing it seemed! Gramma and Pappy got us a digital video camera!! We were excited since our old one is 6 years old...amazing how much technology changes in 6 years! While Brynna was cheering and dancing to the ABCs, I noticed something about how she does it...of course it's not perfect and she mumbles some letters, but I noticed she says "coo" instead of Q (something Braylee used to do) and says B again at the end instead of Z. She must think Bs are special. ;)
Christmas at Grammy & Gramps'
The next morning was somewhat stressful for me. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Mandi was in labor, but she wasn't progressing quickly. Our Clifford family Christmas was supposed to start at 1pm. I wanted desperately to be at the hospital when Ella entered the world, yet we really couldn't miss Christmas at Grammy and Gramps' either. We had family in from Maryland, South Carolina, and Texas...and it was the first time in FIVE years we would ALL be together! So, after talking to Andre' and Mandi, we decided to go to our family Christmas, while getting frequent updates on Mandi's progress. Braylee was especially happy to see her cousin Taryn. Taryn is only 4 months younger than Braylee, but since they live in Maryland, it had been quite awhile since they had seen each other!When we do all get together, the names can get confusing after awhile. We have Tarry, Tera, Taryn, and Terri Ann (what my grandparents call my mom...everyone else calls her Teresa), Lacey and Tracee, Brynne and Brynna, and Tom and Tomi. :) Besides all of this...it seems everyone's names start with either a B, T, or L!

Indiana weather for you...it snowed on Easter and was 70 degrees on Saturday?! Crazy, but the kids enjoyed spending a little time outside. Then we played games. My SIL Heather dominated the first round of Last Word (Fun game!), but then they had to leave. When we played the next time, my cousin Tomi won, but we weren't ready to be done. So, we moved her back to the start and kept playing. When we had to quit (time to leave for Baby Ella), Tomi was back in the lead again!!
Aunt Beth, Gramps, Grammy, my mom, and Uncle Tom

My mom's family.

The whole family!

God's perfect timing allowed things to work out quite well for us (although I'm sure Mandi wishes things would have went a little quicker!). We were able to spend the entire afternoon and early evening with my family and then be at the hospital just a few minutes after baby Ella arrived.

Baby Ella's Arrival
Our newest little niece has arrived!! Ella Nyah-Marie weighed 6-14 and was a short little 18 inches! She looks a lot like her big brother Gabe did when he was born and appears to be just as healthy as can be. Our girls couldn't wait to hold her! We watched the nurses clean her up and assess her while she was in the nursery and Mandi was still in recovery. By the time Mandi was moved to a regular room, it was getting late and the baby was nursing. So, after a quick peek at her preciousness, we headed home. Braylee's Sunday School teacher said the next morning that Braylee could barely sit still due to the anticipation of going to hold Baby Ella after church! :) I've been quite content with my little family of 4 for the past two years, but I must admit...seeing my girls hold Ella...makes me dream about them holding their very own little brother or sister. Not that it's going to change our "plans" (knowing God's plan is truly our plan), but it does make me excited to think about adding to our family again!
Our House Update
We received our preliminary house plans on the 22nd!! I probably spent at least two hours that evening analyzing all of the details...just to spend another couple of hours discussing them with friends the next day! It's very exciting, yet intimidating and daunting at the same time!

Other good news...As you might have noticed in the pictures, I either have a ridiculous smile or no smile at all since I dislike my gap-toothed look. Today, the orthodontist put on a "power chain" to start closing the gap! Woohoo! Pray for the pain though...not fun.