Dog Gone Cute

We took Annistyn trick-or-treating in mom's neighborhood last night. Here she is going to Mimi's door.





We had to put a shirt under her costume because it was a little chilly. She would NOT let me paint her nose, so she had to be a noseless puppy dog.

We pulled her in the wagon through the neighborhood.




She had a lot of fun! She would say, "Treat!" at the doors and she was sure to tell them "thank you". She is very very mannerly and always says thank-you to everyone for everything. If you don't say "you're welcome" she will tell you until you say it.

She wore her pretty pumpkin bishop to church this morning. She wanted to take her "puuhhse" (purse) to church so I couldn't get her to put it down for the pictures.
Pick and choose your battles...





We were talking about church, so she started singing the Bible song to me. She was singing at the top of her lungs!



She love to sing. And count... she counts everything... I know, it's kind of strange. Since she has learned her letters, she points out every letter she sees every where we go. She has done the same thing since she started counting. Coat hangers are her favorite thing to count. She goes in our closet and you'll hear her in there... "one...twoooo...teeee....fuhhh....fiiii...." One day I heard her saying, "twoo..twooo...twooo...twoo..." and I looked and she had grouped them in sets of two... She must have gotten that from Michael because I do not like math! Ha!

Hope you had a spooktacular Halloween! :)

The Draft

This has been a draft for 4 days, waiting for me to find time to finish it! Our life is complete chaos!!! I have so much more I wanted to add- but I'm going to finish up quickly and post so that it doesn't sit in draft mode for another 4 days!

Tonight, as I have had one you-know-what of a day.... I just have to say- motherhood is such a humbling experience. With that being said- I cannot share the details of our horrific week (with the finale being tonight) without completely grossing most of you out. I will tell you that it involved a stomach virus that has been lingering around our family for a week now, a trip to Huddle House that ended abruptly, 4 Halloween hand towels that thank goodness were in my car from our party last weekend, and some Wal-Mart bags. Needless to say, that order ended up being to-go and we finally got to eat our waffles 45 minutes and two baths later. Gotta love it.

Now to the part that was in draft mode...

Whew! Can you say whirlwind?!? I have felt like I have been living in one for the last month. I cannot remember a time that I have ever been this busy!!! With Christmas quickly approaching, I have swamped with orders and I am still getting them in a lot quicker than I am getting them out. I am IN NEED of a large work room that doesn't include a grandfather clock, cherry table, and china cabinet like my current one (i.e. my dining room!)

This is going to be THE longest post ever because I have some major catching up to do.
My poor baby never even got an 18-month post and she is already quickly approaching 20 months!!!

Just to fill you in- she weighed 21 lbs. 15 ounces at her 18 month check up. I can't remember exactly- it was around the 20th percentile. She is 33 inches tall (75% percentile)

She is one WILD woman!!!! There is some serious fire in that girl's eyes. LOOK OUT WORLD! She is headed your way!

She has a stool now and everytime I take a picture she wants to stand on the stool and pose.





She also likes to stand on the stool and sing and dance. Especially the "Elmo song". Michael and I laughed at her for about 30 minutes one night as she serenaded us from the stool.

She tells everything "Hey"... (the moon...the tree...the flowers... just whatever comes her way) Her favorite foods are cheese, pi-pa (pizza), and she really likes french fries, cupcakes, and ham. I know... super healthy choices... we are the parents of the year for good eating habits at our house. Brookeanne... I know you are cringing!!! :) She is really picky and honestly doesn't eat very much. "Fishies" are her favorite snack.

She climbs everything....EVERYTHING. She has awesome balance and I have found her standing on top of things and wondered how in the world she got up there.

She loves to play with "me-mack" (make-up) courtesy of her Aunt Shelley. I had to clean out some old powder cases and give her some brushes to use. Of course, when she can't find hers, she just goes to my drawer and gets my $10 blush brush out to use.

She is obsessed with Dora, much to my dismay. She knows her alphabet letters (by recall- not just by recognition) and knows what sounds a lot of them make. She counts to five.

She is a MESS! She talks A LOT and repeats EVERYTHING and talks in sentences. She is really into possessive forms of words now- like "Mommy's car", "Daddy's drawer", "Finley's food"....

I am running out of time- so to hit the other highlights over the past month:

Mimi turned 50 and we celebrated! :)




I have some more pictures that I want to post later.

Annistyn went to the fair last week! (Again.... pics later!)

In holiday news- Annistyn is going to be a tutu dalmation for Halloween. She LOVES wearing tutus and much to my surprise- she LOVES the ears on this!







We argued about what to wear to Wal-mart tonight because I asked her what she wanted to wear and she told me a tutu. So I was gettting out her orange tutu and she said, "No!" and grabbed the doggie tutu and barked. I didn't think "Mart" as she calls it was ready for a tutu dalmation.

We had an AWSOME Halloween party last weekend and I have some GREAT pictures to share. I will TRY to do that later- maybe this weekend! :)

Well- hopefully this will catch me up until I have time to post the fair and party pictures. :)

Overboard

Well.... Every season I promise I won't do it. But I always do....

We've been keeping USPS, UPS, and Fed-Ex pretty busy these last few weeks. Between shipments for my little home business (which on average is keeping me working an additional 40+ hours per week- but it's a blessing!) and Annistyn's new wardrobe for fall, we are getting several packages a day.



I just love shopping and I LOVE getting mail, so any time I can combine the two- it's even better! I already have gotten in a TON of new fall stuff. But tonight I was going through everything that's come in this week and I had to wonder...





Shipments from just this week... not including shoes... or bows...



How far is too far....? Do I have a problem??? Ha!

I feel that the answer MAY be yes. BUT just to clear things up- I only have 12 or 13 Christmas outfits (so far) as opposed to the 25 from last year. So... I think I am doing a little better...maybe...

But it sure does pay off when I see this sweet little girl in all of her adorable new outfits!



I've bought a lot of bubbles this year because they only go through 24 months and I know she won't be able to wear them after this year.

I took a few pictures of Finley Dog too. I'm working on updating our pictures throughout the house. I also want to finish photo books since I am a YEAR behind right now.







He is such a beautiful dog!

Well, besides unpacking new clothes, we have had a lot going on!

We took a trip last week up to our pecan orchard to take some pictures of Annistyn in her beautiful new outfit that was made by her Mimi.






Friday was Homecoming and Annistyn went to the parade. We also took her to the ballgame. I was a little nervous after last year's experience...

Remember our little 'tear'leader???



Well, she was all smiles Friday night! We added pants to her 3 month size bishop dress and she was able to wear it again this year! That was one of those EBay specials I stayed up really late to bid on. I LOVE that dress and you CANNOT find bulldog smocked dresses.



Wait, what is that??!



Yes! She is holding my baton. She LOVED the "ton" and I am going to order her one this week. They had the first ever alumni band and Thursday night I got a call about being an alumni majorette. We met for about 15 min. on Friday before the game and twirled on the field during halftime with the band. Good thing twirling is like riding a bike!!!! I was a little rusty, but I was SO glad that I got to twirl again. Being on that field for the first time in 7 years brought back SO many memories. I have a completely separate post relating to that, but I'll save it for later.
I also got to twirl beside my sister- which was really special to me!

We even stayed long enough to take a bulldog picture this year!




Saturday was another busy day! We took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch!!!



This year, we brought Annistyn's wagon to pull her around in. She was ready for pumpkin picking fun in her new pumpkin romper and matching hairbow. The polka shoes came in Friday, but were too small... :( She had to wear her new Keds instead.


It was warm- but not too hot. I wish it had been cooler, but there was not a big crowd at all. It turned out to be a really good day to be there.

We visited the animals. Annistyn pet the cow.



They had 2 baby goats running around. You could get the bottles and feed them. This little boy had the bottle and Annistyn wanted it. So she put on the charm. She walked up to him, patted him, smiled, and batted her eyes....



Works like magic (and she KNOWS it- that's the scary part!!!)






We played on the blow up stuff! I was SOOOO excited because I got to play too!






Annistyn said, "Weee!" all the way down the slide. She had so much fun in the blow up maze and bounce house too!!!

We rode the cow train.





Then we went over to the patch to pick out our pumpkins!










We played on the hay...




And in the corn...





It was truly a WONDERFUL day. It also ended well as Alabama won big over Florida. :)

Just for fun.... let's compare last year's trip and this years....





Our little pumpkin is growing up WAY too fast!!!