Valentine's Dinner

MOPS held it's 2nd annual dinner/ dance/ fundraiser this month. It was a lot of work but resulted in a great profit for MOPS. Tom and I were able to attend and even got dance or two in as well! I'm proud of our MOPS team for all their hard work and passion that went into a great evening!

The artist

Here are Sophie's 2 masterpieces, and the artist posing proudly.


Sunset created at art camp last August.



Penguin created at home this month.

Our Little Star

Oh how we love Max...

It's so fun to see Max grow and start to interact with the girls! They are enamored with her, especially Sadie! If she finds out that Max is coming for a visit...that's all we talk about until we see Max! So cute! Here are a few shots of the cousins over the last month. Max, we love you! Sophie is reading to Max, she looks interested...more so than Sadie! Then we played ball with Max, rolling the ball on the floor. So fun to see them playing!

It's 2011...so many photos to share!

Well, the Christmas rush is through and I'm still recovering! It was a good season for my little business, I was busy up until the week of Christmas fulfilling orders.
I'm just now recovering from all the activity and feeling like blogging again :)

I'll post some recent pics and videos of the girls. It's been really snowy, icy and cold so lots of indoor play these days! The first batch of photos on this post are all taken by my aunt Phyllis, a.k.a "Mimi." We've loved having not one but 2 visits from her this January!!! She came through town on her way to Egypt and Israel. We are so blessed to have her home in the US safely! She is a doting great aunt to my girls and such a sweet soul! I love her so. She reminds me so much of my sweet grandmother, more all the time! Enjoy these shots she took yesterday!
xoxo

Go Hope

Boo!

Scary thing is...it's November. How did that happen? I have been really busy the last 2 weeks gearing up for the holiday season with Life Prints. Just sent the intial email out now, so I'm feeling ok to "waste" some time blogging.

Have to write down a bit of wisdom passed on from my mom yesterday. I asked her how her day was, her reply was "good, I got everything on my list done today." I was shocked, stunned, jealous. I said to her, "Wow. How does that feel? I want to live vicariously through you for a moment." She said, "Well, it helps to keep your list very small." Hmmm. There's food for thought. Maybe I would berate myself a little less if my list was a little smaller. Maybe I could feel somewhat accomplished, at least SOME of the time! Well, it's good to have a goal! Smaller lists!

Lots of fun things this past month, the most recent being Halloween. Sophie was Ariel this year. The first year she's been something so easy. We borrowed a costume from her good friend Sarah and we were done. Excellent! Sadie was a different, but funny story. Several weeks ago she was walking with a yard stick, like a cane and she said "I'm an old lady!" We thought that was really funny, and she then did too. We said, "You can be an old lady for Halloween!" And that was that. She was COMMITTED to the idea from then on. Anytime anyone asked her what she was going to be for Halloween, she replyed "Old LAAA-DY! She thinks that old ladies are funny, not sure why or how this happened. But it can be funny and somewhat embarassing at times, too. I'm teaching her that we don't point and laugh at old ladies, while calling them "old lady." Although...she's right, they usually are very, old ladies. The mind of a 2 year old, so literal.

Trick or treating was fun, a little colder than several past years, but a great night. Sophie ran the whole time with Kyle from across the street and the rest of us just tried to keep up. Sadie was pretty scared of all the hoopla downtown, but she did enjoy all the candy gathering :)

Sophie had a fun class party the next morning, dressing up and a parade in school. The class mom that hosted the party set the party bar way, way too high. Incredible.

My cuties!

It's fall! Sadie has her "go bucks" outfit on and Sophie is wearing her cute new sweater dress from Gram and Grampa. She loves it! Sadie has turned a corner in the last week and is FINALLY smiling for the camera again! We've gone through a 6+ month stretch of "no" when the camera comes out...don't know what changed but it's great to capture that grin again!
We're soaking up all the fall fun and loving it! The leaves are just starting to turn here and the world looks so beautiful! God has painted the earth in golds, reds, yellows and deep browns. It's breath-taking! Savor it today!

New Albany Classic

A little behind on my blog entries! We went to the NA Classic and had a great day with Grammy on the rides! Sophie went on a real, big kid ride with Mommy and we had FUN! We also saw Alex, Emmy and Max and Alex joined us for the big swings, too. Such a fun day!
Here are a few good photos to remember!

Hocking Hills

Dad, Alex and I had a perfect morning the day of the race. The weather was absolutely perfect, blue skies and sun, crisp and cool to start. Our drive and time running together was so enjoyable (even if 90% of it seems to be uphill) - it was a great memory to do it together! Maybe a new family tradition in the making!
The girls, Tom and Mom joined us after the race for a picnic and a great hike. We found a new trail, it was beautiful and not crowded. The regular trails were as croweded as we have ever seen them! But, that didn't take away from an awesome family day!

Sophie's birthday

It was a sun up to sun down and beyond birthday extravaganza on the 14th for Sophie's special day! She started the day with a floor full of pink balloons to surprise her and greet her into life as a 6 year old! Both girls had fun "wading" around the room of pink balloons in their jammies.


We all went to the Village Coffee for a pre-school breakfast. Sophie had a great big frosted cinnamon roll to start her day off right! (sorry Mrs. Schneider if she was on a sugar high for Kindergarten!)

Immediately after K, I picked her up and we went to the zoo with our friends Connor and Brooke, and mommy, Liz. Perfect day, perfect weather! What fun! The polar bears were awesome! I they entertained us the whole time. They were climbing and jumping, playing with sticks and coming right up to the glass. So fun! The kids got to ride the Carousel and see lots of other animals too.


That night we went out to dinner as a family to celebrate and ended the evening with Grammy and Papa at home for cupcakes and presents...what an exhausting, marathon of a birthday! She definitely felt celebrated :)

Birthday luncheon

Sophie's birthday is tomorrow...the big 6! In honor of her special day we had her 3 preschool buddies over for lunch, Ella, Holly and Addie. The 4 of them haven't been together since VBS in June and they had a wonderful time coloring, eating and playing together!
The lunch was a Hello Kitty theme, here are a few shots. Sophie and I made HK coloring books and tied them together with string. Their goodie cups had stickers, stamps and several other fun HK things to play with.
The moms sat inside with Sadie and Grady, Ella's little brother, and enjoyed a nice lunch, too! It was a beautiful day, low 80s and lots of sunshine! What fun memories! Happy Birthday my sweet six year old girl. I love you so!

First Day of Kindergarten

Here's our big girl on her first day of school! She was so excited leading up to this...a little nervous when the day actually arrived. She was a mixture of emotions about this new adventure, equal parts thrilled to be so big, and terrified to venture into this new big, unknown school. Our whole family walked down to school together, even Daddy made time to go! We walked her in to her teacher and said a goodbye and she became a little teary. I tried to make a swift exit, to not prolong her sad goodbye and as we were leaving her friend Ella said "hello" to her from across the hall. That brought a big smile to her face. They aren't in the same class, but they did get to play together on the playground later that day too. That was the highlight of her day she said. She said the talked on the swings, but it was really noisy so they had to shout :) She seemed confident, happy and said I didn't need to worry about her at school. She was going to be fine! Whew.

Sadie's BIG girl room

On vacation Sadie slept in a big girl bed at the cottage, the same way her big sister made the leap 3 years ago. She did very well, sleeping through the night, and when we returned home she said, "no cribby, big girl bed." So, there was no turning back. We had 2 good nights under our belt at home and made the leap to rearrange her room and disassemble the beloved cribby. I am going to miss having a little one in a crib. It marks an end of an era at the Cotts house. Kind of sad. But, what fun our little people are today!
Here are a before and 2 after shots of her room!

Glen Lake Photos

A digital scrapbook by Smilebox

Glen Lake Days

We are having a fantastic time at the lake this year! The girls have been loving the water and playing in the sand. We've been very content to stick close by the cottage and just wander out to the lake the lake outside our door each day.

We have been to the sand dunes and got one good photo of the 4 of us...kind of a miracle. Sadie is NOT into having her picture taken all of the sudden. She's a camera and starts whining "no picture!" Not sure why! I guess I've been the paparazzi lately??? Sadie was a little unsure about the dunes because it was fairly windy and blowing sand into our faces, as well as the super steep, sandy hills, so she required a ride up and down the hills...whew! That was a lot of work!!! Tom and I took turns and she was ok, but ready to go. Her sister on the other hand, could have stayed and explored all day.

The second morning we took a great hike in the woods for a couple of hours with the girls. We went to overlooks of Glen Lake and the big lake, too. Beautiful morning. On our hike we saw what looked to be a medium sized dog trotting up the trail towards us...until we realized "oh my, it's a cyote!" He turned and ran into the woods away from us, but then doubled back and trailed us for awhile but eventually left. We took turns carrying a VERY big stick after that. Pushing the stroller up those wooded trails, some sandy, is not getting easier with our heavy loads. Sophie did a good job of hiking most of the way up, so that helped a ton!

Yesterday Tom got to golf at the Bear in TC with his dad all day and we hung out at the cottage, a girls day :) Late in the day the wind died down enough to take a boat ride on Cheryl's new pontoon boat with the kids. Sophie got to drive and loved it! Sadie again, unsure about the new experience, but she was exhausted from not napping so she fell sound asleep...photos to come!!!

Rain today, so we'll see what we get into. A little shopping, maybe a playground if it stops raining...out for ice cream, just being together. Bliss.

Window in her mouth

Sophie finally lost the tooth that has been loose for months! Grammy pulled it out for her on Tuesday night at dinner. It was just hanging on, almost sideways. It didn't hurt her, but she was so scared! The big teeth underneath have pushed the baby teeth into the middle and now it looks like she lost 2 teeth because she has a gap on either side of the other lower front tooth :) She was so excited to have the tooth fairy come, too! Tooth fairy was pretty proud to remember her task that evening. She left a dollar bill and a silver dollar...because it was the first tooth. I've heard that subsequent teeth only fetch a dollar. Any day now that other lower tooth should be popping out...or getting pulled out! Then she'll have a great big window in her mouth!

Besties

Shoe fetish

Here Sadie is running around, sans skirt, in my fancy red shoes. Mom has a photo of me at about this age doing almost the same thing. Sadie loves shoes, especially big, girlie shoes. The more sparkly, shiny, high-heeled the better. The girl loves them! She also has a penchant for her sisters flip-flops, which she calls "hop-hops."

I'm hoping this isn't a sign of things to come...I may be spending a lot of time and money at DSW in the future ;D

Paper-mache and a 2 year old

Well, I saw a craft for making paper-mache bowls in one of our parenting magazines. It listed the craft as appropriate for 2+ and it was a no nap day for Sadie. I wanted something constructive to do with both girls, so we whipped up a batch of homemade paste (not that impressive, only flour and water) and began ripping up a bunch of tissue paper in preparation for making our project.
Sadie loves to paint. So applying the paste with a paint brush was initially going really well. Then that must have felt too slow to her because she decided to try her hands. That was fun, so was smearing it all over the table...but when her hair fell in her face and she brushed it back with her messy hand...well, that wasn't so fun. Mommy started sort of getting a little stressed about all the paste in the hair and telling her "don't touch your face or hair," so she then pasted her chin with tissue paper. I only wish I had a photo to show of this, but if I did my camera would be forever full of paper-mache paste...so you'll have to use your imagination.
Sophie meanwhile was working away, happy as a clam, but very meticulous and had to do it "just right" and was unwilling to touch the paste. If you've never done paper-mache you won't know that messy is part of the deal. You have to get it pretty much all over your hands to get the job done...so I did :)
In the end we were very happy with our cute little bowl. So happy that Sophie and I did one, without Sadie, the next day, too!