Last week in a glance

Caleigh got caught with her mouth full ;)

Heidi broke into Caleigh's room


for Lori, Caleigh's most prized pocession!

Heidi decided she wanted to wear a headband (or 2)

like the big girls.

Mimi Vicki told me you can never wear too much jewelry ;-)

Zoe Anna got her nails did.

PURPLE!!!

All dressed up in mommy's dresses (shirts) for the

big game.

SNOW!

Yesterday we actually had the tiniest bit of snow here. The girls were thrilled!!

Baby it's cold!!

It has been ridiculously cold here this past week and we are all going a little stir crazy being couped up in the house. I am so, so ready for spring to get here. Everyone is so much happier when we can get out and go to the park or go for a walk or even go shopping, which we aren't even getting out to do right now. Zoe Anna asked if we could go jump on the trampoline today and I told her no, it's way to cold out. She told me we could just put on a jacket and gave me this look as if to say "man are grown ups ignorant. thank goodness i'm here to clue them in" ha!!

We did venture out this afternoon to see The Princess and The Frog (which I highly recommend taking the kiddos to see. Great movie!!). I thought this would be a good thing to do to get out and we could still be warm. Boy was I wrong! Caleigh, Zoe and I arrive at the theater all excited and then they inform us that there isn't any heat. So we decide to go in and see how bad it really is and if we think we can stand it. The girls decide it isn't really that bad so we stay, which I'm glad we did but we were all frozen by the end of the movie. Thank goodness Zoe Anna sat in my lap and kept me a little warmer or I might not have made it. Kids are so much more resilient when it comes to the cold...me, not so much. Zoe Anna did wear her gloves and toboggan through most of the movie and was complaining a little towards the end. We survived and really enjoyed getting out ~ Yay!! I think we'll stay in for a little while now. Well, at least until we go watch Caleigh in the spelling bee Friday ~ wish her luck!!!

Zoe LeAnna

I meant to post this a long time ago, but never got around to it. I guess it's because Zoe is such a unique, complex little girl... it's just hard to sum her up, especially in one little post, but I will do the best I can.

Zoe Anna is definately full of personality, to say the least. This can be so, so wonderful and also at other times not so wonderful! I have without a doubt met my match. So many times her response to something just completely throws me off guard. So much so that I don't have a clue what to do or say back to her. For instance, the other day I told her for the umpteenth time to pick up her toys and if she didn't do it this time I would just throw them away. Now, I'm a firm believer in mean what you say and say what you mean so I fully intended to do it. This is where she throws me a curve... "Ok mommy, I want you to throw my toys away". Well, as you can guess that is not how I expected things to go. She knows exactly what she is doing. She knows that I don't really want to throw away the toys. She knows that I really want her to pick them up. She is teaching me that I have to learn new ways to work with her.

Before Christmas she had spent the day with Nanna. As they were on their way home, she decided to get a little attitude. Well... big attitude. Anyway, Nanna reminded her that she needed to be a good little girl because Santa was watching her to which Zoe replied "No he's not!! Santa's at the mall!!" Nanna gave her some explanation as to how he was still watching her even though he was at the mall. Zoe thought about this for a few minutes, then in her sweet little voice told Nanna "you know I was just kidding with you!".

I could tell a million stories about that little girl. She surprises me everyday one way or another. Good and bad. She acts like such a little grown up at times. I don't mean in a responsible grown up way, I mean in a dramatic grown up way. I'm sure some things she picks up from me, but there are things that she says and does that I absolutely cannot figure out how she would even begin to know anything about. It amazes me. She just turned 3 in December, but she acts more like a 4 or 5 year old. She has always seemed a lot older than she really is. I always thought it was just because she's big for her age, but it really is so much more than that. I honestly cannot put into words what it is about her. Those who know her though know exactly what I am talking about.

Zoe Anna is also such a loving, sweet little girl. She loves her sisters more than anything. I love watching her with Heidi and the way she talks to her. They are only 20 months apart but Zoe acts like a little mama to her. Sometimes Heidi will be crying and Zoe will say "it's ok baby. I'm right here" or " it's ok baby. don't cry. I will take care of you" and she does take care of her. She will get her a blankie or paci or if she can't help she will tell me in a very matter of fact voice what I need to do for Heidi. Tonight when I was getting them to sleep, Heidi did something funny and Zoe looked at me and said "awww, she's soooo cute" and just giggled.

She adores Caleigh too. She wants so badly to be big like Caleigh and to dress like her and hang out with her and her friends and do what they do. She can't understand why sometimes they don't want her to hang out with them and it hurts her feelings so, so bad. Or she could just be manipulating me again... who knows;).

I could go on and on but I won't. Hopefully I will be a better blogger and stay on top of things... wish me luck!!!