our "art center"

I love our back room.  It's kinda an extra room with no purpose.  It sits off the living room (sharing a double sided fireplace) and connects to our dining room.  The room is filled with windows and has amazing wooden slat ceilings.  It has beautiful sconces on the walls and the light in there is so comforting.  And....Essie has turned it into the "art center".  We have just put some shelves and couch in there for the time being...slowly Essie has taken it over.  She loves to go in there to read books or do her "art."

Chuck E. Cheese

Monday we were off work and school so we drove down to Jonesboro.  We met Sarah, Matthew, and Cooper for lunch at our favorite place.  The kiddos exchanged Christmas gifts and then we went to Chuck E. Cheese so Essie could play.  She had the BEST time! 

Three and a Half

Essie,
I just cannot believe you are 3 and a half...that in 6 months you will be 4!  I just cannot get enough of you these days!  You are beyond fun.  Here is what is going on with you right now:

• You are still obsessed with Disney Princesses.  You say that Rapunzel and Ariel are your favorites.
• You also love anything on Disney Junior...especially Doc McStuffins and Jake & the Neverland Pirates.
• You love my IPAD and Netflix...we have to limit your time on it or you will spend an entire day just watching it!
• You write your first and last name now, and you can identify most letters & can count to 30 at least.
• You can tell the funniest stories.  You have a funny sense of humor and leave us cracking up.
• You have a best friend, Camryn and you teachers tell me that yall fight like sisters at school.  
• You make up songs and often combine many different songs to make something new.
• You are very loving and you tell us that we "are your best friends" and that you love us so much!
• You want your hair to grow out all the way to your bootie.
• You are a picky eater right now...your favorites are McDonalds cheeseburgers, cupcakes, and sausage.  
• You are starting to want us to tell you stories about when you were little.
• You want a sibling so badly.  
• We love you so much!

Play date, Birthday, & closet

We had a huge first at our house this past week.  Essie had a playdate scheduled with her BFF Camryn from school.  That day is snowed like crazy out of nowhere and we were afraid we were going to have to cancel but we thankfully didn't have to.  The girls were so relieved.  I picked them both up, we stopped for Sonic drinks, and headed home.  Within a few minutes both girls had stripped down and put on Essie's pajamas.  They played for the longest time and had so much fun.  After a little while, we took the girls to Chick FilA for dinner and they played there forever!  Essie cannot wait for her next playdate now!

 Yesterday was Peepaw's birthday.  We had a little celebration for him at YaYa's house in Little Rock.  We ate spaghetti and Essie loved getting to see her little cousin Bryce.

Today we worked all day on our master closet.  It was horrendous.  Travis' side was beyond horrible and I cannot remember the last time I saw the floor on his side of the closet EVER!  We worked all day and got rid of half of our clothes.  It feels so good now to walk in there and not feel stressed! 

Doc McEssie

Essie earned this super cute, sparkly doctor kit for sleeping in her bed....yes....again.  She could NOT wait to start playing with it immediately.  She set up a clinic in her bedroom and saw every single one of her princesses this morning.  She played so hard that she fell fast asleep in her room mid-play!

Jumpzone & the end of break

Our Christmas break came to a close t..I went back to work and Essie back to school.Essie woke up so happy last Monday morning that we went to McDonalds so she could eat some sausage.  She thought she was top dog getting to go IN to eat first thing this morning! :)

  We ended up having a lot of fun last week once I started feeling well again.  Thursday, we went to the Jumpzone.  It took E awhile to warm up to it but soon she was climbing, jumping, and playing like a maniac.  She made some new friends to play with.  I was blown away with her social skills..she wasn't shy about approaching other kids to ask them their name or if they wanted to play.  I  was so proud of my girlie.  Afterwards we went to McDonalds for a girl's lunch. 

Friday we drove down to Little Rock so Essie could visit daddy at work and see the calendar she made him for Christmas.  She wanted to make sure it was hanging up like he said it would be.  We went to lunch with daddy and went to the Wonderplace to play awhile.  Once he got off work, we met at YaYa's and E decided she wanted to have a sleepover with her YaYa.  So we ran to Target to get some pjs and Travis and I had a late anniversary dinner at the Flying Fish...so yummy!  When we went back to LR to pick her up on Saturday, we went to visit the Museum of Discovery again.   She was so excited to show me everything!

Museum of Discovery

Shortly after Christmas I started running fever and feeling pretty awful.  I spend the majority of that week laying around and doing absolutely nothing.  I was too sick on our anniversary to celebrate and pretty much wasted all the time Travis had taken off being sick.  I was so disappointed and felt so guilty that I sent them off one day to use one of our fabulous Christmas gifts...passes to the Museum of Discovery.  So Essie and Travis met YaYa and Peepaw there for a day of fun.  She had a blast and I cannot wait for her to take me there to show me all about it! :)