November (Lily 4, Clara 23 months)

November proved to be a very full month for the McFalls family. Along with the usual craziness we  got an offer on our old house, celebrated Thanksgiving and moved into our new house.

Lily's November update:
Lily loves playing with Clara and is constantly trying to initiate a game of chase throughout the house. She had her four year check up and did great until we put her on the table to give her shots and she screamed "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME??!!". I think she's almost forgiven me to for the shots. She likes living in the new house and I think she will like it even more when it's spring and summer time and we get to go for walks and meet more of our neighbors.

Loves:
-Baby Margaret (from Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood)

-waffles

-sweet potatoes

-new house

-whipped cream

-Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

-Christmas lights

-Mulan

Hates:
-no internet and cable because of the move

What Lily's been saying:
-"I'm thankful that all my cousins are thankful....for me."

-"I know all about husbands"
-"Mommy.....him's a little handsome because him's covered in fir." 

Favorite books:

-Fancy Nancy and Olivia books

Clara's May update:

Clara is right on the threshold of the terrible twos. Just like when she was younger when Clara starts to throw a tantrum she wants a hug but then remembers that she is mad a me and pushes me away. She still loves baby dolls and running around after Lily.

Loves:
-The song house at pooh corner  

-The book "If You Give a Pig a Pancake"

-Little blue truck books

-phones

-"Ho Ho"

-the new house

-smokey

-elmo

Hates:
-Loud noises

What Clara's been saying:

-"Cryin'......CRYIN'!!" (Clara's baby dolls are ALWAYS crying)

-"Tat.....Pet" (Cat....pet)
- "Gunnis" "Actililly" (Goodness and Actually)

Favorite books:

Early in the month my mom and I took the girls to participate in the UT homecoming walk "Little Vol Walk". I would highly recommend it for other alumni. We were able to join in to the end of the homecoming parade, the took busses over to the baseball stadium (that has a playground) where the cheerleaders, dance team and Smokey did crafts, drew with sidewalk chalk and played on the playground with them. Unfortunately it ended early due to rain but they girls has a lot of fun.

 I love how big Clara is smiling.

We found VFL Josh Dobbs

We did a lot of tailgating in November and, as usual, the weather went from comfortable to cold.

the oldest cousin with the youngest

The girls are always so excited to see the band.

For the rest of the day Clara would tell me "Band....too loud"

Here comes trouble.

The next day we drove down to Dayton, TN to visit Andy's oldest brother's family to celebrate Lily and our niece's birthdays.

The girls LOVE their cousin's doll house.

They played with it almost the whole time.

Clara and Hunter share space on Mamaw's lap

Nana took Lily to see a Daniel Tiger Show. Lily LOVED it and cried when it was over.

ice cream treat with Nana

She wanted to get a present for Clara who was home with Mommy

Speaking of Clara....we went for a chilly, and very slow walk around the neighborhood.

Clara is now using Lily's balance bike and hasn't perfected moving farther than 3 feet per hour.

The next morning when Clara woke up Lily gave her the Daniel Tiger doll that she got for her.

I'm not sure.....I think Clara liked it.

The next weekend we went out to my parent's house because we were having another open house at ours. The girls really missed CJ and loved getting to see him. He tried to climb in the car when we went to leave.

Clara attempts to force feed CJ a pretend cookie.

On the way home we visited with GG

And then we stopped for dinner at a local pizza place.

Clara was thrilled to be not sitting in a high chair.

Thanksgiving morning we had planned to eat breakfast then drive out to my parent's house for Thanksgiving dinner. We got a little side tracked when a wasp decided to crawl up the leg of Lily's PJs and sting her 7 times. Luckily we were able to get meds into her in time to reduce any swelling and pain but she did fall asleep on the way out to their house.

She made a full recovery for Thanksgiving dinner. Her favorite was the sweet potato casserole. She's very excited that we'll have it again at Christmas.

Playing with their second cousin Kim

The day after Thanksgiving the girls stayed at my parent's house and we (movers) moved into our new house. We tailgated the next day for the last game of the season. Of course the girls found the cheerleaders again and watched the band.  

Things got a little crazy while waiting for the band

what a good dog.

The Sunday after we moved into our new house we were invited to a neighborhood Christmas party. We met a lot of our new neighbors and the girls has so much fun.

Lily made an angle ornament.....or maybe it's an alien.

The owners of the house had a dog that Clara found. His hair was covering his eye and Lily whispered to me "mommy where are his eyes".

Other pictures from this month:

Clara learns to play the violin

look who surprised me at the dentist

"I'm hiding I'm hiding and no one knows where"

cold playtime at the park

we got an offer on our house so CJ could come home!!

October (Lily 4, Clara 22 months)

For our family October started off as a busy month and then, because we felt like we didn't have enough to do, we decided to put an offer on a house (which was accepted) and then panic because we didn't have our house ready at all to go on the market. We had not planned for it to happen but within a week we had house under contract and our house on the market. We have since had an open house and a few showings but no offers yet.

Lily's October update:
Lily is so much fun and a complete handful all at the same time. She turned 4 this month but for several days before her birthday she was requesting extra treats, books before bed etc because "it's my birthday". I'm excited for Lily not to be a "Threenager" anymore....do 4 year olds have a nickname? For Lily it might be "feisty 4". She loves to watch new movies and continues to be fully invested in them and they break her heart at the end. She loves to color and draw and I love the titles of her latest creations from school (Crazy lady crazy hair might still be my favorite). It's such a wonderful insight into her point of view.

Loves:
-Hercules and Meg

-new movies

-drawing/ coloring

Hates:
-sad movies (she watched "The Good Dinosaur" this month and cried at the end)

What Lily's been saying:
-Twister= "Blister"

-(looking in Clara's eyes with an otoscope) "Clara your eyes are just a little bit talented"

- "I can't clean up today I'm Maleficent.....Maleficent doesn't have any arms." 

Favorite books:

-Fancy Nancy and Olivia books

Clara's May update:

Clara continues to love having all her "people" in one place. Because we had to take the baby gate down at the bottom of the stairs Clara has gotten really good at climbing the stairs and coming down the stairs on her bottom. Most of the time she insists that we go down the stairs on our bottoms too ("MOMMY BOTTOM!") so it's not uncommon to see all 4 of us scooting down the stairs on our bottoms. She now loves to pretend to be a cat and is always crawling up to someone demanding "pet". I think she's going through dog withdrawals since while our house is on the market CJ is staying out with my parents.

Loves:
-being tickled...she says it's a "gug" (bug) 

-her Halloween costume

-talking on pretend phones

-copying Lily

Hates:
-Loud noises

What Clara's been saying:

-dragon= "gagon"

-Clara= "Rare-ra"

-muffin= "uffin"

Favorite books:
-anything about trucks, trains or cars

Early on in the month we visited my grandma for dinner one night. The girls love spending time with their extended family. We usually find someone random to do and that night was no exception. We found twister in the retirement community game room and taught Lily to play. The game was in pristine condition.... I can't understand why. I have since burned/ deleted all evidence of myself playing twister.

 Pumpkin Bar is yummy!!

Getting down on Henry's level

My mom's side of the family came into town for a visit (and a football game). The girls LOVE their (second) cousins. My cousins are at the age now where they will disappear into my parents basement/ tv room/ play room with Lily and Clara and play for hours. It's like a fantastic little vacation for mommy.  

 Memphis cousins playing at gymnastics

 Clara almost fell asleep on great aunt "De-Na"

Pop was flying the drone

This month taught me something about myself. I can't handle the girls painting. It always starts the same way. Lily begs me to put up the easel on the back porch so I pull it out, put down a plastic table cloth, put old t-shirts on the girls, put paint onto plates and find brushes. The girls start innocently painting with their paint brushes on their respective sides of the easel. 5-8 MINUTES LATER.... Lily is having a meltdown because Clara painted on her picture, the girls have ditched the brushes and are finger painting....which is more like full body painting. They switch back to brushes in order to paint their feet and leave paint foot (and hand) prints all over the deck, chairs, tables, siding and back door, at some point someone hugs the dog (mentally add wash dog to the to do list). Painting abruptly ends when either smokes starts coming out my ears and I vow to throw away all paints in this house or someone (Clara) rubs her eyes with her paint covered hands and starts screaming. So.......no more paint.   

initiate scream in 3.....2....1

A few days later we took the girls to the circus. I think it started later than it was supposed to and we ended up leaving at intermission but the girls had a blast. Afterwards Lily declared that she wanted to be a trapeze artist so she could fall into the net. Clara liked the clowns but did not like how loud it was. I'm a horrible audiologist mom....I didn't think to bring ear plugs. When we got up to leave at intermission Lily had a major meltdown because "we" wouldn't let her hug an elephant (never mind all the people who work at the circus who would have stopped her if we hadn't). We ended up bribing Lily with cotton candy so she would leave.

as soon at the announcer started Clara spent most of the time like this

the face of a girl who was just bribed with cotton candy

The Friday in November we took the girls to the Oaks Farm near Knoxville. I wish it was closer to our house because the girls LOVE going there but we're lucky if we make it once before Halloween. The Oaks Farm boasts slides, a sand box, swings, giant inflatables and the girls favorite a bin of corn kernels. They also have other things like a petting zoo which we tried to visit but when I put Clara down she walked out of the petting zoo area announcing "Rare-ra bounce" (Clara bounce) while walking over to the inflatables.....we never did get to pet anything. We then picked out pumpkins and drove out to my parents house in Maryville.   

big sister is ready to catch Clara

They would run straight at each other.

We spent the weekend with my parents in Maryville because we were having an open house on Saturday and Sunday. We also celebrated Lily's birthday with my side of the family and watched the Tennessee vs Kentucky game.

Clara loves her "GiGi"

Lily's birthday presents

Doc McStuffin's cake

My brother and sister-in-law's dog has identified the weakest link

On Sunday we had Lily's friends party at a bounce house place near our house. It was great not to have to plan games or any form of entertainment for the kids.

Lily's friend is really excited that Lily blew out

her candles....or she's excited for cake

Clara loves cake.....although it looks like she mauled a Smurf

After the party we came home and carved our pumpkins.

pumpkin discussion

The next night we went to "Ghoul at the School" at Karns High School. I love how many community events they have at the school (breakfast with Santa, a summer fair and trick-or-treating". Lily was not thrilled with a few of the costumes (a wizard and someone in a ghillie suit) and Clara spent most of the time running away from us while cackling.

This year both girls enjoyed trick-or-treating. Lily was only scared by a few of the costumes and Clara (again) spent most of her time trying to run away from us.  

Other pictures from this month:

play time with the neighborhood girls

Clara wants to ride the scooter but doesn't

get that she has to use her feet

banana pudding with Pop

"Clara your eyes are just a little bit talented"

Clara tipped over in a wagon at school

while packing up the kitchen I was taken captive by 2 pirates 

heard Clara making panicky sounds and

found her pointing to a lady bug outside

when big sister tried to help you ride a bike

mystery at McFalls Manner: who took the butter off

the counter and sampled it.