A Little Sisterly Love...

Brynn has been so sweet to Emory.  Out of the blue she will just say "Em-o-ree's just the best big tis-ter!"  (I have to remind her that SHE'S the big sister and Emory's the LITTLE sister.)  Then she says "oh yeah, Emory's the best wittle "tis-ter".  And she will say "I wuv you Em-o-ree!"

I took these pictures the other day when we were working on changing over her bed...she was in a lovey mood!

GOSH WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?  LOOK AT HER!  Doesn't she look SO BIG?

LOVE Emory's face in this one..."seriously Brynn...can you get off me?"  "Not again..."

"Want me to tickle you Emory?"

I hope they love each other SO MUCH as they continue to get older.  I know it's only going to get more and more fun watching them interact and play together (and of course I'll probably want to rip my hair out at times over their fighting, too! HA!)  I JUST LOVE THESE GIRLS SO MUCH!

Bye-Bye Crib...

Some pretty exciting changes have been taking place around here...we finally decided it was time to change Brynn's crib into a "big girl" bed!!  Her crib converts to a toddler day-bed so we had been talking it up and she was SO EXCITED!  We waited this long because she's always done so well at staying in her crib, but figured since she's almost 3 we should probably do it.  HA!

  
She was helping Daddy with the tools...it was too funny!

AFTER...WOW!  Actually, I guess I never took a picture, but we bought a little bed-rail that goes across the front so she can't just roll out.  It provides a pretty good barrier, so it almost feels like she's still inside the bed, but she can still get in and out all by herself.

"Hummmmm....this could be cool!

Emory was really excited for Brynn...HAHA!

Like I said, it has a pretty big bed rail over the front where there is still room for her to get out by herself
but it's not as open as this picture.  

She has done so well!  With her almost being 3, we weren't really worried that she was going to have any problems, but it's nice that things have gone as smooth as they have.  We told her that when she wakes up she has to wait in her bed until we come get her, OR give her permission to get up.  (We can see her on the video monitor and so since it has that "talk" feature, we can say "okay Brynn you can get out of bed now."  She will get this huge smile on her face and crawl out of her bed, open her door, and come out. It's pretty cute!  And of course she thinks she is BIG STUFF getting to crawl out of bed all by herself!  WAY TO GO BIG GIRL BRYNN!

January iPhone Pics

I haven't done a very good job of taking pictures on our good camera lately...things have just been busy and fun, so iPhone pictures will have to do.

The weather here is CRAZY.  For three or four days it's like an arctic tundra (which has meant lots of great progress on our house...NOT!) but then randomly we will have a day where it is like 57 degrees.  And 57 degrees really feels like 75 when it's been 4 the last couple of days.  So we've taken the girls on a couple of walks and we have had the BEST time!  When I'm by myself I just put Emory in the carrier and then take a little stroller in case Brynn gets tired.  But of course at the beginning she wants to run and run!

Is this not the funniest picture?  We all look SO WEIRD!

She got some new tennis shoes and she's all about "being in a race."




Speaking of the cold...I went in Brynn's room the other day and found this...she must be cold?? HA!


She is the best little helper at "school."  She loves to help me do all the morning jobs.  She looks quite the part, huh?



The other night we were celebrating Pamaw's birthday and Brynn had to potty.  The girls seemed like they were in there for quite a while and so when Ryan went to check, this is what he found.  NO WORDS!


We made some homemade "boot socks" out of an old pair of pink tights...



And speaking of work, here is a project I've been working on.  I'm slowly but surely getting a handle on all of the resources and things available for our preschool.  Last week I decided I was going to organize all the books in our entire preschool "suite."  That turned into a little bit bigger job than I bargained for...here are some of the books I started organizing...


Several hours later it was looking a little more manageable...I still have to put labels on all of them and divide them up for all the preschool rooms, but it feels so good to get things organized!


I LOVE living so close to my grandparents.  We only live about 30 minutes away, and it's so fun to take the girls to visit Granny and Pawpaw for a couple of hours.  Last Friday we decided to pay them a little visit after naptime.  We have the BEST time visiting and playing and the girls get lots of snuggles and attention.  Even though my Grandma lives 30 minutes from a Wal-Mart, she always manages to have delicious snacks and treats on hand all the time.  I don't know how she does it.  We had Rotel dip and she even made cookies for Brynn!


Good thing we could only stay for a couple of hours because I think they were WORN OUT by the time we left.  HA!  Thanks for letting us visit, Granny and Pawpaw!


Brynn has some old "craft" stuff in her room.  I walked in the other day and she was "putting a mustache" on Emory!  CRACK ME UP!  These are really the smiley faces that go on some pumpkin crafts we did back in October.  HILARIOUS!


Life is flying by and there is never a dull moment with these two!

Brynn...the Budding Photographer

The other night when we took Emory's 4-month pictures, Brynn really wanted to help.  We decided to let her take some once we were done...and it was a HOOT!  She looked like a natural with the camera...and even had Emory laughing and smiling!
Here are the pictures she took...crack me up!  She would get SO EXCITED each time she took a picture and she would say "let's look at it guys!"

Not too shabby...

This might not be her best work of art...

Yikes...thanks for the close-up Brynn.  Notice we all had to pretty much lay on the floor
because she couldn't hold the camera up very high!  HA!

WHOA DADDY!

She did pretty good didn't she?  And then after all the camera fun, it was time for her to hop in the bath!

Family Friend's "Christmas in January"

 A couple of Saturdays ago we had our annual "Family Friend Christmas".  We decided to have it in January this year, because December is so busy and there are several people who have to travel.  Mrs. Lisa figured that if we had it in January then most people might be able to come.

These are family friends we've had since I was a little girl.  Our families (Pingel's, Curtis's, Zinn's, Jones's, and then Hildebrand's and Underwoods) did A LOT together, including vacations and our annual New Year's Eve parties, and have been through thick and thin.  What started as our parents raising their kids together has turned into US (their kids) raising kids together.  We are so blessed by these friendships!

Mrs. Lisa always hosts and always has a special theme.  This year we talked about "being present" and enjoying the present season of life God has given.  We always have pretty much the same menu, and one of the funniest parts of the get-together is the annual picture.  I wish I could find some from ten years ago...man, how times have changed.

Getting ready for the picture takes a lot of planning...

Way to go Mark...embrace the CRAZY!

I present to you...the 2014 GROUP PICTURE!  Sadly, my mom was sick and couldn't make it.  My sister and Curt couldn't come from Nashville, and Holly and David and baby Libby were all sick.  Other than that we were all there.

Pingel clan - Dale (mom was sick), Whitney, Ryan, Brynn, and Emory
Curtis clan - Bill and Lisa, Mark, Emily, Wyatt, and Sloane, and Pete, Erin, Zetta, and baby girl due in Mar., and Billy
Zinn clan - Kelly and Jared, Camden and Paxton
Jones clan - Mike and Sheila, Chris and Melissa and Annabell, and David and Holly's little girl Shelby
Hildebrand clan - David and Susie, Erin and Tray and Frankie and Colton
Underwood clan - Sonny and Cindy, Julie and Addie (her hubby couldn't make it)
WHEW!  We are going to need a conference center to host this thing pretty soon!

Thanks to a timer we captured this priceless pic...HAHA!

Mrs. Lisa gave a little talk about living in the present...

Yes, we got on to my Dad for being on his phone during the "be in the present" talk.  He was
evidently sending my mom a video of Mrs. Lisa talking so I guess he doesn't get in
too much trouble!   HA!

Then all the kiddos had fun playing together while we got to visit and eat.

Mr. Dave and Mrs. Susie were getting some cuddle time with Sloane and Emory.

 Brynn is at the age where we can just let her go downstairs and play with pretty minimal supervision...THANK YOU LORD!  We kept checking on them every once in awhile, but we were eating and we were like "are we really getting to just sit and eat while she plays?"  AMAZING!  I wish I would have taken a picture of the kids table...but since we made the kids plates first, by the time we went through the line and started eating they were pretty much done and ready to go play.

Brynn and Camden played downstairs FOREVER and had such a good time together.  We kept peeking on them and watching...it was so cute!  We finally came downstairs and asked them what they were playing.  Evidently Brynn was the mommy and Camden was the Daddy....oh boy!

Then they pointed to Billy who was watching TV in the recliner and said "and he's the grandpa!"  HAHA!

We LOVE our friends so much!  It's such a blessing to have friendships that go back so long they feel like family.  LOVE YOU GUYS!