The Prima Ballerina

Mary Evelyne has been taking ballet/tap class one night a week with other 3-4 year olds at Marietta First Methodist where she goes to pre-school. She had a Christmas Party/Mini-recital last Tuesday and mom, dad, Mama, and lil sis all came to watch.



Lots of Mary E's favorite friends are in her class, including :

Tasha,

Schuyler (on the left),

Mary Cobb,

and her second cousin Georgeanne.

(Group Hug)

It is pretty hilarious to see all those little gals running around in circles before class starts and wondering how the teachers ever get them to focus. But as you will see in the video, they do a good job of keeping the girls engaged and having fun.

Every time Mary Evelyne would hear Silent Night over the last few weeks, she would reveal little bits and pieces of her Christmas dance. We were so happy to finally see the full performance and those precious little ballerinas did not disappoint.




But the best part of the whole night was after the performance and the gift exchange when the teachers let the girls go get some snacks and go talk to their family and friends. They turned the music back on while all that was going on and when Silent Night started playing Mary Evelyne went out and did a completely unprompted solo performance. I'm thinking our little ballerina will be playing Clara in the Nutcracker before too long:

Birthday Cake and Bouncing Zebras

Maggie Beth turned 1 on Nov. 29, and a couple of days later we celebrated at our house with family and friends. The biggest hits of the day as far as Maggie B was concerned were 1) her own little birthday cake, 2) the bouncy zebra. Both feature prominently in the video (one caveat, something on my computer is making the videos really choppy when I upload them, sorry for the annoyance). Enjoy:

Trick or Treat (a little late)

It's only 11 days 'til Christmas and we're just now posting stuff from Halloween. That's pretty sad.





Maggie Beth couldn't really eat any candy, but, as you can see, that didn't stop her from being the cutest Mickey Mouse you've ever seen in your life.

Cinderella, meanwhile, could not locate one of her glass slippers (she must have lost it on the palace steps) so we had to use some old ones that didn't fit her very well. This caused some problems later, including Mary E not being able to spin very well with her buddy Zoe and not wanting to get out of the wagon to walk up to the houses because her feet hurt. After a few houses we decided she was going to end up with zero candy or blistered feet unless she switched to something more comfortable. So for most of the night, our Cinderella was actually sporting pink Crocs.

As you will see in the video, Maggie B would go into a trance everytime her Mickey costume got pulled over her ears, but we were able to fix that and she had a pretty fun night. Cinderella got lots of candy (especially her favorite, "Reece" cups) and most importantly, she got to see three of her best buddies, Zoe, Schuyler and Tasha (who you will see running and screaming down the street with Mary Evelyne at the end of the clip).

Nightly Escapades

Yes, you get two blogs tonight....

Mary Evelyne has a nightly ritual. We tuck her in and crack her door and tell her not to leave her room (unless she has to go potty) or we will have to shut her door. Seems pretty straight forward, but she always comes up with one or two "valid" reasons to come out before the final straw. Sometimes we have left an item (shoes, phone, etc.) in her room, which is unacceptable for her. Sometimes she needs a water.

Most nights though she has something she just HAS to tell us. These urgent messages are always hilarious.

Tonight she comes wandering into our room with a small hair rubberband in her hand. She says, "Mommie, this rubberband just hopped onto my water bottle." I said, "Oh it, did? It just hopped on there all by itself?" She said, "Yes, it did" as she began to crack a smile. That put me over the edge and I started laughing and she started laughing and all of my parental strictness for the night went out the door. I'm still waiting for her to walk back out, although so far she is quiet.

A bonus nighttime nugget from Daniel: Last night Daniel did her stories. She told him that her heart was beating. He said "Oh, it is?" She said, "Yes, I think it is little baby Jesus trying to get out."

Fall School Pictures

I'm sure it's highly illegal to publish these, but we just wanted those of you who live far away to be able to see them. And surely we're paying enough for them to justify blogging about them. I must congratulate Daniel on getting the girls to preschool dressed alike with their hair somewhat done and in one piece. I had court that morning, so he did most of the work that morning. He normally doesn't allow much orange in the household, but I convinced him it was more of a "burnt sienna" and that it went with the fall background. I think the photographers underestimated Maggie Beth's "stature" and kept putting her in Mary Evelyne's lap. They must not have realized MB only weighs about 8 lbs less than ME. It was a miracle everyone was not crying.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Rarely do the girls slow down enough at the same time to just "be", but this past Saturday morning they sat together for a few minutes and watched the Disney Channel.

It was our first cool night, so they were both wearing their footies. Yes, they look a little rough, but don't judge a girl first thing in the morning.

Now if only we could start this Saturday morning cartoon thing around 8am instead of about 6:30am. Maggie B had been up a while, so she was ready for some cereal bar after a few minutes.

She can sit up at the counter with us now in her booster seat. She loves eating her finger foods now and loves dropping half of it on the floor for us to pick up.

Delightful Dedication

(Confession: my wonderful wife wrote this entry about Maggie Beth's dedication nearly a month ago (Aug. 20) and I have just now (Sept. 17) uploaded the pictures from that Sunday to post with it. I would like to have some good excuse besides "we were busy" but there really isn't one. Thanks for being patient.)

Our little Maggie Beth was dedicated on Sunday. We hated to wait until she was almost 9 months to do it (not to mention having outgrown both mine and Daniel's old Christening outfits), but we wanted Stonebridge to be in their new building. She was precious and we were really blessed by our family and church family that were there.

Daniel spoke a word over her (partly inspired by a post on Annie Downs' blog) from Zephaniah: "The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." Maggie Beth truly is a delight.

Daniel also felt like the Lord was saying that even though she may be expected to follow her big sister, that she will be a follower of the Lord and that, like Andrew, she will lead by following. The congregation also spoke out words for her that included: joy, faith, confidence in Christ, daughter of Christ. This was the first baby dedication for Stonebridge and we are so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful body of Christ.

What I Learned this Summer

Well, it's August already, and school is fast approaching, so Mary Evelyne is ready for a little show and tell about what she learned this summer:

Mary E and the Minnows

Things got started with a splash in June, when Mary Evelyne began swim lessons at the Cobb Aquatic Center. She was in the "Minnows" class with kids who aren't new to the pool and are ok to put their heads under water, but just need some fun exercises to help them learn the basics of swimming. She was probably the youngest in her class, but by far the most courageous and eager to try whatever the teacher was asking of them. You can't tell it from the video, but after just 6 classes she can now jump in from the side of the pool and swim with her head under water for 5 or 6 feet to the steps. And she doesn't want help, so don't ask her.

Future Gym Dawg in Training

In July it was time for gymnastics class. She had a fun group for this class, too, and really hammed it up with her buddies in between the various stations. You can see a couple of her good friends from that class on the video, one named Sarah Grace (in the pink leotard) and another one named Dorshini (sp?)(the little Indian girl).

I have to brag for a second on Cobb County, because both classes were offered through the County Parks and Rec Department and they were a fun, low-stress, affordable means to introduce her to these new activities. She and her cousin Hannah - who is down from Maryland for the summer - both took gymnastics classses through the County and had a great time (even though Hannah was in a more serious class of 6-7 year olds).

After each class, Mary Evelyne would be rewarded with a trip to the nearby Dunkin' Donuts/Baskin Robins. And every week, when presented with the choice of ice cream or donut, she always chose the sprinkle donut. Maybe that's what gave her the energy for the final performance on the video, shot last night after her final gymnastics lesson.

We hope you enjoy this peek into Mary Evelyne's summer, and keep an eye out for a video update on what Maggie Beth learned this summer, as well as some more "Deep Thoughts from Mary Evelyne." Enjoy:

Another heartbeat

Well, today we officially saw the third heartbeat to join our family. We are expecting #3 on March 22, 2008 (my birthday). AHHHH! How did that happen? Maggie Beth is just barely 8 months old, so we weren't planning this so soon, but we are thrilled. I think today made it sink in a little for us. Please pray for us as I have never known exhaustion such as this, with two little ones running and crawling around. Daniel has been amazing, doing basically everything around the house, including getting me ginger ale with just the right amount of ice and other weird things I have requested. We'll keep you posted!

Kroger

Going to the grocery store used to be so easy. Make a list, get what you need, buy a few treats along the way, stop and browse at items if you want. Not so much any more. Mary Evelyne and I went to Kroger this afternoon, in the middle of a summer storm at that. We didn't have much to get and they do have cookies and "car" buggies after all, so I thought it would be fine.

Well, once her pink frosted cookie was gone, she was ready to get out. She had her legs hanging out the side of the "car" and they kept hitting stuff on the aisle. She knocked one of her "crocs" with about a thousand "jibbitz" off (if you don't know what those are you must not have kids) and I let her get out of her car to retrieve it. That was a mistake because she had learned her key to freedom and continued to do it. So, finally I had to do the unthinkable....strap her in to her car.

That seemed to be working pretty well for another 5 minutes or so. We were more than 1/2 way finished when the inevitable "I have to go potty" moment arrived. I have never personally used the "potty" in Kroger, so it took us a little bit to locate it (all the way in the back between deli meat and milk) and I panicked that our newly potty-trained daughter might give that little car more than it bargained for. We found the potty, parked our buggy outside, ran in and ran back out. Uneventful other than the automatic flush toilet that scared the heck out of Mary Evelyne as she was in midstream.

Now I have to convince her to get back in the car, so I give her some groceries to "keep" for me in the passenger seat.

A few more minutes, we are almost finished, just finding the last few things, when over the loudspeaker I hear "If you are the owner of a red Dodge Caravan, your doors are open". The guy in the aisle with us says, "oh man, and it is raining too". Yep, you guessed it. I am the owner of a red Dodge Caravan and I know it is quite likely that my doors are in fact open. As I nonchalantly make my way to the front of Kroger, not wanting anyone to know it is my van that is open to the public for looting, I am silently questioning whether that was the best decision to announce over the loudspeaker to a grocery store full of who knows what that a car is completely wide open. I guess the damage could already have been done by then anyway, if anybody wanted a frog floatie, a sippy cup, The Fox and the Hound DVD, or a 4 day old iced coffee that wasn't so iced anymore. This Kroger is THE place to grocery shop in Marietta and I don't want to be seen making this manuveur, so I leave Mary Evelyne trapped in her "car" a few feet away, walk to the exit and hit my door buttons that close the car doors.

I think I pulled it off, but I'll never know. Of course on my way out, I see an old friend. I wondered if she made the connection when she saw me load up in my red Dodge Caravan and pull away.

Next time I'll send Daniel.

Margaret Elizabeth

With all of Mary Evelyne's funny quotes, cute friends, and many talents it is often hard for her little sister to grab the spotlight from her. But make no mistake, Maggie Beth is a never-ending source of joy and entertainment in our house.



The girl hardly stops smiling, from the morning when she squeals with delight at her sister when she comes in to see her in her crib, all they way to bedtime when she laughs at Daddy's funny faces before her bath.



Maggie Beth looks more like her Mommie than her big sister, but she has her Daddy's blue eyes, and the same chubby thighs I had as a baby. She is seven months now and she's busy everyday rolling, grabbing, tummy crawling, bouncing in her bouncer, napping, eating sweet peas and sweet potatoes, making funny faces, and making her Mom, Dad and Big Sis smile.




I figured since Mary E has had her chance to make you smile with her two videos on this blog, it's about time I post one of Maggie B. So without further ado, here's Maggie Beth in her her You Tube debut:

Family Photo

Sad to say, but this is our first family photo since Maggie Beth was born in November. Now if we could just get everyone to look at the camera at the same time.

Friends

This past week has been a week to hang out with friends....Mary Evelyne's friends that is. She gets rather bored during the summer without some other 3 year old stimulation. The best part is that all of her friends are also in love with Maggie Beth (yet another plus of being the second child...see post below) so everybody benefits when we have these precious girls around. Here are some pics and some stories....

Tasha

This precious friend calls Mary Evelyne White something that sounds like "May Evyn Wipe". The funny thing is she calls her by her entire name almost every time. Tasha normally pretty much lets Mary Evelyne boss her around, but when Mary Evelyne got tired of singing (on the laundry baskets to Christmas music with spoon as microphones) before Tasha did, Tasha stood her ground and just kept on singing.

Tasha just turned three and had a princess party of her own. Unlike Mary Evelyne's mother, Tasha's mother, our dear Ms. Crystal, made (yes, made) princess skirts for all the little girls to wear. Mary Evelyne was right by Tasha's side the entire time. She made sure to tell her she loved her about 10 times during the party.

Schuyler

This brings us to Schuyler (pronounced Skyler), another dear friend. I guess you would say that Tasha, Schuyler and Mary Evelyne are the Three Musketeers. Schuyler (Mary Evelyne calls her Skye for short) also attended Tasha's party. As you can see, she has about 2 rings on each finger. This really impaired her ability to eat, play, etc. at the party, but she never took the rings off.

Skye and her little sister Zoe celebrated their birthdays the next day (yes, Mary E's social calendar was full last weekend). Mary Evelyne had fun, but I think Maggie B was the real hit.

The little girl she is sitting with is Nyriah (Tasha's niece) who is actually about 7 months older, but looks the same size. I have a big girl (Skye and her mom lovingly call her "Big Mama"). Little Zoe (Skye's sister) can't say Maggie B, so she calls her "Biggie B".

So, this weekend was a little more relaxed, but Mary Evelyne still needed her "friend" fix. We took Tasha to Riverstone's playgroup on Friday (too many kids to take pics - including our other Zoe "Miss Laura's Zoe", that handsome HenHen and our bud Charlie).

Saturday we took Schuyler to story time at the library.

This was one of the funniest experiences I can remember in a long time. The little girl to the left tried to sit next to Skye during one story. Mary E was not having that, so she forcefully wedged herself between this girl and Schuyler.

The stories were centered around the 4th of July and America (a little over their heads) and at one point the story referred to something about pee-wee baseball. Well, Mary Evelyne and Schuyler thought the word "pee-wee" was hilarious and they started laughing hysterically when really that part of the story was not suppossed to be funny. A few minutes later the story talked about getting hot-dogs at the "Knights of Columbus" booth. Mary Evelyne says loudly "My Mama and Pops live in Columbus." Everyone looks at us strangely, except Skye who again laughs hysterically, which makes Mary E also laugh hysterically. Then, during the next book, Schuyler lets out a loud burp. The funny thing is that apparently, this phased neither of them. They didn't laugh or even acknowledge it, but just kept listening intently. The next part of "story time" was actually a projection movie. They both kept asking loudly "Why is the movie on the wall?" and watched more of the fascinating projector than they did of the movie.

Craft time was hilarious. We made these 4th of July headbands, but they both thought they were Indians and kept running around patting their mouths with their hands and making those Indian noises.

Finally, on our way out, we had to spend about 10 minutes at the water fountains, also a novelty for preschoolers. What a way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday.

I am telling you, these girls (plus some other dear ones) make up our world right now and we love it. It seems everywhere we look there are sisters to love our sisters. Girls just wanna have fun and we are having it!

These Are the Days

This song describes how I feel about my life these days, soaking it all in....

These are days you’ll remember

Never before and never since, I promise

Will the whole world be warm as this

And as you feel it,

You’ll know it’s true

That you are blessed and lucky

It’s true that you

Are touched by something

That will grow and bloom in you

These are days that you’ll remember

When May is rushing over you

With desire to be part of the miracles

You see in every hour

You’ll know it’s true

That you are blessed and lucky

It’s true that you are touched

By something that will grow and bloom in you

These are the days you might fill

With laughter until you break

These days you might feel

A shaft of light

Make its way across your face

And when you do

Then you’ll know how it was meant to be

See the signs and know their meaning

It's true

Then you’ll know how it was meant to be

Hear the signs and know they’re speaking

To you, to you

Who's Ya Daddy?

This is a day late and a dollar short (like most of my attempted undertakings these days) but I wanted to take a few minutes and honor my babies' Daddy with this post.

Daniel became a Dad at the age of 25. This is the young man who, while we were dating in college, told me that he would not even consider marriage until he had finished law school. So, three happy years of marriage later, at the beginning of OUR (not his) second year of law school, two pink lines changed our lives forever. I knew he was excited when he skipped the UGA v. Clemson game to go home and tell our parents (well, our moms actually knew already because we had to call them for help in deciphering the pregnancy test - seems law school students can see everything two ways). Daniel truly did 50% of everything involving Mary Evelyne because he had no choice. We both had to go to class, both had to pass, and both had to sleep at some point. Other moms we knew (which weren't many) laughed that he knew all of Mary Evelyne's outfits including the names of the brands, the best way to clip baby nails, and how to clean the breast pump parts. Now that is hands on.

I don't have it quite so good with Maggie Beth since I work part-time and Daniel works full time, but we have the "team" approach to parenting down to an art. Sometimes we make it through picking the girls up after work, cooking dinner, feeding everyone, cleaning up, bath time, bottles, stories, with less than 100 works spoken, but everyone playing their part, carrying out this not-so-seamless dance known as evenings in the White house. Middle of the night wakings and feedings have a system all their own, with unspoken, yet perfectly understood, rules about who gets up when and for how long.

These are things you don't think of looking for in a man when you are 20, eating at Weaver D's, hanging out at the Abbey pool, and riding around in your VW Cabrio telling your roommates how much you like it when it turns from winter to Spring because you like how your boyfriend's legs look in shorts. But, it is the hundreds of little things that I didn't know about Daniel until we had children that are most precious to me. Some of them I can't even put into words. Sometimes it's just a smile in the midst of our crazy days that says, "yes we are running around like crazy, so tired we could be asleep if given 3 minutes, a floor and a pillow, but I love you more than ever and I wouldn't have it any other way".

God knew that I would enjoy life so much more with Daniel by my side. He knew that our girls needed a man who loves Georgia football, the Civil War, Jesus Christ, head scratches, Disney princesses, family, and most of all, us. When we were dating, I always felt like I was the roller coaster and Daniel was just steady and easygoing. Now that there are 3 of us emotional girls, I think we are the teacups at Disney World (see below), spinning round and round, and Daniel is holding tightly to the little silver circle in the middle so we don't make ourselves sick!

Thanks for holding onto us Daddy! We love you!

Your girls.

P.S. Maggie Beth apologizes, but as of today, there are no photos in our possession of you and her. Oops! Poor second child.

Team blogging and Deep Thoughts from Mary E

So while I was still in the process of putting the finishing touches on this here blog, it was apparently partially hi-jacked by my wife, seeing as she added her own post and unilaterally published the whole thing earlier than I had planned.
But I have to say that our working together on this is absolutely fine by me. I never could manage a sustained effort on my earlier attempts at blogging about the girls, so I imagine a team effort will work better.

Katie has been quite fascinated lately by the network of blogs that is now up and running among our many friends and family, which give us new insight into their daily lives, and I guess that's what sparked her interest in contributing here.

However, in typical Katie fashion, her involvement immediately made this site a much more intellectual and thoughtful experiment. I am much more apt to try and produce a blog with some good visuals and a little witty banter, a la the first-rate material found on the J Train blog (hard for me to admit that I'd like to model my site after an Auburn man's blog, but he is kin after all, so I'll own up to it). Katie, on the other hand, is a much deeper thinker than yours truly. She sees the big picture a lot better than me and is far better at expressing herself. If I tried to post on her level we'd probably end up with something akin to Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey.

And speaking of Deep Thoughts, here's a new recurring feature that I'm sure you will enjoy, Deep Thoughts from Mary Evelyne (sorry if some of y'all have heard some of these, but they are well worth repeating):


- from this morning, as she drank a bottled water from my bedside table: "Mommie, am I drinking your germs or Daddy's?"

- also from this morning, in response to my query as to whether she had flushed the potty after her pee-pee (keep in mind we have told her not to flush the toilet when Mommie, Daddy, or Lil Sis are in the tub/shower): "No, I didn't flush the potty because it will make the Lee's Crossing Pool too hot."

-and again from this morning (as Mommie sighs after letting Nellie out for the 3rd time this morning): "Mommie, it's hard to take care of two girls and a doggie."

- but, by far, our favorite of her recent quotes comes from a recent Sunday lunch (not long after we'd discussed God being in her heart after the prayer): "This chocolate milk is yummy...(thirty seconds later)..."God is in my heart"...(another fifteen seconds)..."I think that when I drink this chocolate milk it rains on God and Jesus in my heart"...(a few more seconds)..."and They like chocolate milk... "

That last one is an instant classic in my book.