Disney Princess Day!

 Do you remember how Nana is awesome? 

Yeah, she likes to take Lexi to things. 

I am terrified to take Lexi to things because she would behave horribly for me. 

For Nana, however, she is perfect. 

A perfect Princess on this day. 

Nana took Lexi and my sister's daughter, Chloe, to the Disney Princess show last Friday afternoon. 

She is brave.

 Oh yeah - they dressed for the occasion.

 Aunt Alyssa came along for the fun. 

If you know her, this does not surprise you. 

Lexi and Chloe think she IS a Disney Princess 

(Lex called her Cinderella for the first 6 months 

she and Scott were dating), 

so it was totally fitting!

 Chloe got scared 36 seconds into the show and refused to go back in after the Evil Queen from Snow White scared the daylights out of her. Lexi stayed in and loved every twirling, singing, sparkly second of it. 

our little Princess

naptastic

 Good morning, sunshine! 

This is Alexis after her nap today:

I swear this shot isn't staged. 

she really wears all this to take a nap.

when we are home for nap time, she insists on wearing a nightgown;

and since it's light out in the afternoon, 

the eye cover is a must - she needs "the dark in her eyes."

the slippers are a new addition, courtesy of Nana.

The raggedy bear is her "baby" who has been her favorite since she was old enough to grasp. 

She cannot sleep without it.

When I Grow Up

Mom: Lexi, what do you think you want to be when you grow up?

Lexi: I not know.

Mom: Really? You can't think of anything you want to be?

Lexi: Well . . . . maybe a princess. Or a ballerina. Or maybe a fairy!

That's what you get when you ask a 3 1/2 year old about her life plan. Good luck to you, my dearest! You are certainly going to need it to accomplish all of those things!

 THIS is the face you get when you ask a 3 1/2 year old to show her "picture day face."

Future Princess/Ballerina/Fairy

And this is Emma:

you haven't seen her in a while because she is too busy getting into EVERYTHING for me to get out my camera. 

Everything, I tell you! 

Everything! 

But she's still so cute - you can't be mad at her. 

Emma is going to be a doctor when she grows up. 

Because doctors get stethoscopes.

And apparently those are delicious to chew on.

disclaimer: 
I am completely aware that Emma's sleeper is not so cute.
But she has grown out of all her other ones and this one fits her.
and it was on clearance.
and I'm a sucker for a clearance rack.
Clearly.

I've COTTON Idea

Do you remember that scene in Cinderella where the mice are discussing how Cinderella never has any time? 

"Every time she gets a minute, 

That's the time when they begin it . . .

Cinderelly, Cinderelly, CINDERELLA!"

Yeah, well, that's the scene that plays through my head most days. I have two sweet, adorable, precious, wouldn't-trade-em-for-anything-in-the-world little girls. 

But they occupy a LOT of time. Throw in an attention starved dog. And a husband who's been putting in 12 hour days at work for almost 2 months. 

RESULT: One tired momma.

HOWEVER, when we got an opportunity to go down to Dallas to see the Wildcats play in the Cotton Bowl, I knew it would be a great time to get away. 

A chance to let Grandma spend some quality time with her baby girls.

A chance to rest from dishes, cooking, laundry, etc. 

A chance to talk to my husband without being interrupted.

A chance to SLEEP!

We left on Thursday night around 6:30 p.m. 

And ya, I know what you are thinking: 

Those idiots left at 6:30 PM? 

Don't they always talk about how Emma is up all night and Lexi has the energy of The Hyper Hypo? 

Idiots!

Well, we were extremely tired, but we haven't had a chance to talk to each other since . . . Emma was born . . .8 months ago . . . 

Oh Dear. 

We talked the whole way down to Dallas. 

6 1/2 hours without a radio. 

It was so nice. 

We tailgated for almost 7 hours with my family and the cool kids next to us with an LSU tent (at least it was purple). 

Cowboy Stadium is insane. 

Insanely Awesome. 

 

The game was . . . intense. 

I have invested a lot in this particular group of guys.

I watched every game. I read articles. 

I have yelled at televisions for these guys. 

And they played hard, but twas not to be a victory. 

We still had a great time. EMAW. GO CATS.

Because that's how it is

 Since the majority of Christmas weekend was spent being sick, we've spent most of our break taking it easy. This is perfectly fine with me - I NEVER get to do this! 

We have had lots of pajama days. 

The girls have gotten to play with their toys and eat and sleep on regular schedules. 

I think this is what normal is supposed to be. 

I have loved every precious second of it. 

and they have taken simultaneous naps 
every day

for two hours each

bliss

So since nothing too monumental has occurred, I have just a few photos of our lazy week to share:

Emma thinks she is a big girl now and decided to start pulling up on everything! She is 7 1/2 months old and it terrifies me how quickly she progressed from crawling to standing. terrifies. 

 and now, Emma will attempt a graceful dismount . . .

not too bad (no worries - Lexi's foot didn't connect with her - she assured me she was just trying to help her sister get down) . . .

Nailed it.

Just a little bit of static . . . 

Santa thought glitter stickers made awesome stocking stuffers. 

Silly Santa . . . 

That's really all. 

While they've napped, I've gotten SUPER crafty - go check my Etsy shop to see all the newest stuff! 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MeganHolding

I'll Have A Flu Christmas

Since all has been so quiet on the Holding Blog front, I'm sure you are all so terribly curious as to what we've been up to! No, we didn't go on a fabulous vacation - we just all had the flu.

On Christmas.

It was horrible.

I might cry.

Again.

Friday started off well enough - The ENTIRE Dunaway family went to meet my brother and his wife at the airport. It was their first time home since their wedding in September and we have missed them like crazy. The little girls - Lexi and her cousin Chloe especially.

 Precious.

After this adorableness, we headed back to my parents to just hang out. The girls got to play dress up, Emma got to attack a new tree, and my nephew Trey was so disgusted by all of this girlishness he got to take a 3 hour nap.

 It was so much fun getting to hang out as a family of 12 (Holy cow! 12 people now???) and we left Friday night excited to do it all over again on Christmas Eve day.

But twas not to be.

Around 2 a.m Lexi and I both got sick. 

I could give details, but no one really wants that. 

Let's let the words STOMACH FLU suffice. 

gross.

By noon the next day, Lex was on the mend but ol' mom, here, took a little longer. I didn't get too long though because by that evening, Paul was feeling queasy. He took a turn Christmas morning and was down for the count by Sunday afternoon through Monday. He barely made it through opening presents. 

 We had an absurd amount of presents for the girls because we combined what is normally 3 different Christmases into one. 

absurd.

It took almost 2 hours to open presents because Lexi would want to play with what she had just opened. Normally we would have let her but Paul was really not looking too good at this point and we tried to rush her as much as you can rush a 3 1/2 year old.

a few highlights:

 puppy from Aunt Kelly

 the girls new soft sided wagon. 

Emma was pumped!

and the main event - all Lexi has wanted, all she has ever mentioned wanting for Christmas is a doll castle. 

Very specifically mind you, castle - not house.

She declared this close enough.

She hasn't come up from the basement yet.

Well done, Santa, well done.

 

Break It Down

 Can you tell I'm on Christmas Break? 

Three blog posts in 24 hours? 

That's crazy!

Well anyways, I am on break. And it IS lovely, thank you so much for asking! I got to sleep in until 6:30 today (yeah, I know it may not seem like sleeping in. But the alarm goes off at 4:50 on school days, so that extra 100 minutes is a very big deal). We spent our first day of break doing not much - and it rocked.

The next few days are going to be a blur of activity, so having a down day to kick it off feels wonderful.

Emma is crawling everywhere!

Everywhere, absolutely $%@#*ing everywhere - under the tree, under the desk, into the toy bin, up the stairs (!!!!), and into the laundry basket. 

I'd be upset with her, but she's too darn cute!

She's also an excellent eater. 

I'm sure you couldn't tell that by looking at her. 

Right, well, you can see - she's chunky. Now that she's crawling, we are hoping some of those rolls will roll right off her. 

We have also noticed that she likes to put everything in her mouth.

Everything, absolutely $%@#*ing everything - dog food, hair ribbons, toys, paper, and my ponytail when she can reach it. 

So I gave her some Puffs today (they dissolve about instantly, so her two teeth can totally handle them) so she could practice feeding herself something that was actually food.

She loved it.

She ate it all (not so shockingly).

I asked Lexi to give her a few more.

OK. Note to self: Lexi does not understand portion control.

And look who we found in our house: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer! They made this adorableness at preschool and she wouldn't let anyone wipe the paint off her nose all day. It was fine except she really likes to give Eskimo kisses, so a few people got Rudolph-ed on Tuesday. She made us call her Rudolph this whole night.

Chanute Roadtrip

We went to visit my dad's parents in Chanute on Sunday. This was Emma's first time to see Nanny and Grandpa. 

Lexi hasn't always been such a nice person in their presence. I present the following evidence:

 wouldn't let Nanny hold her - 12-27-08

 needs no caption - 6/2009

 the closest she would get to a picture with Nanny and Grandpa - 2/2010 

 Looking clearly please - 12/2010

But this visit, she made up for it. 

She was giving hugs and kisses and telling everyone all about everything - most of which was embarrassing.

And she loved playing with Nanny's electric organ - as have all the grand kids for the past 30 years, I might add. It's super fun!

It was great to see them - hopefully it won't be so long between visits next time!

Getting Our Picnic On

 Saturday morning, Lexi brought me a blanket and asked if I would spread it out for her on the floor. Being the wonderful, obliging mother I am - I agreed. 

I asked her what she was going to do. 

She replied:

"I'm going to get my picnic on!"

no joke.

true story.

for reals, yo!

My Lexi Lulu, age 3 1/2. She's a pretty cool kid.

 Roxy got her picnic on as well. Please notice and enjoy the placement of the cup and dish.