Singing in Church

Audrey's preschool class sang at church this weekend. She did a great job and was so excited! See the link below. On Friday, I was able to volunteer in her class for the day. It's always a treat to observe her and her friends, how they play, what she enjoys doing in class, who she hangs out with. A four year old only tells you a sliver of what goes on at school. She was proud to have me there and wanted to sit in my lap during circle time and hold my hand when we walked to the playzone for gym time. She asked me to go with her to the bathroom and admitted she was always a little scared to go at preschool because she is nervous about the loud potty. She hates flushing potties everywhere! She wanted me to read her a book and soon my lap was full of kids. They rehearsed their songs for church, so I got a preview. It was a great day!

Shepherd's Flock Preschool Sings at Church

Saving Money and Playing Nice

Welcome 2015! One of my goals is to document this beautiful life a little more frequently. So here goes!

This week, Sophie left me a note in my bed for the first time. She has a goal of purchasing an American Girl doll and she has been diligently saving her money from allowance, extra chores, gifts, etc. for several months. She wants to make and sell paper airplanes and paper boats. She found the directions for the paper boats in a library book and can get about halfway through the directions before she needs my help. She currently has about 20 airplanes and boats if anyone would like to buy one. She has priced them at $1 each or 100 for $1. She may need a class in business.

"Mom, Look under the book 'cause there is something for you to do but there is something under this paper."

Audrey has made a new friend at preschool, Emerson, who lives in our neighborhood. Her mom and I finally realized we could set up playdate exchanges so now we swap out Monday mornings. This Monday, Emerson came to our house and the girls played and had lunch, then I took them both to preschool and then Emerson's mom picked them up. They have a blast and the moms get alternating breaks. Win-win! Audrey loves playing with Emerson but still gets upset when a friend plays with her favorite toys or plays with her toys in a different way. She will get mad and then go to her room to be alone. So we are still working on being a good friend and being kind to a guest. At 4.5 y/o, that's still a little tricky.

We enjoyed a pillow fight this week, which is always fun. Audrey attacks over and over and Sophie stays along the edge and jumps in occasionally when my back is turned. Here we are post-pillow-fight taking a break. Good stuff!

Hurry Up Spring

We are nearly through our second winter in MN. It's early March and we are on the cusp of Spring. Yesterday, we hit 49 days of below 0 Fahrenheit days so Spring can't come fast enough. When it's reasonable, meaning at least 10F, we are outside playing in one of our two snow forts out front or sledding down the hill in the backyard. Audrey never wants to go outside but then always loves it once she does. You can plainly see how much fun she's having!

We also recently celebrated Sophie's 5th birthday (really? already?). She requested a vanilla cake with flowers. I have never been good at icing a cake - they always turn out lumpy looking and just plain ugly. But I can pipe cupcakes, so I transferred that technique to the cake. Turned out pretty well for my first attempt. She had a blast with friends at her sledding party and we were thankful the weather was warm enough to spend an hour outside playing in the snow.

Singing HBD to herself! Love this girl!

Sweet Moments

Today is sugar cookie day at the Cotnoir house! I'm bravely mixing, rolling, cutting, baking, icing, and decorating sugar cookies with 2 toddlers. Crazy but fun. This morning, we baked and rolled out our cookies. The girls were covered in flour (I forgot to put aprons on them) and the floor was a mess. Audrey kept getting mad and throwing the dough on the floor. I was trying to remain calm, but my type-A, perfectionistic personality was making my blood pressure soar. Deep breaths. Sophie did really well cutting out shapes. I suppose all that play-dough time has really paid off.

While the girls napped, I iced the cookies in white. I also prepped the icing in baggies for them to mix up to make different colors. Here are a few snapshots of our day.

Cutting out our cookies...

Waiting for them to cool. Looking good so far!
Iced and ready to mix our colors and decorate! The snowman on the left sacrificed himself for the cooks.

Sophie loved decorating and having some special time with Mommy while Audrey slept. She was so focused!

The final product and one proud little girl!

A Snapshot

So little time…I’m trying to learn more about photography and get out of auto. I need more time, or to be a better steward of my 24 hours, and make room for study and practice. I have been practicing more with the girls and Sophie is a good sport about it. I’m not good at all indoors yet (darn low light!) but am improving with outdoor shots. I am hoping Santa will be kind and bring me a sweet 50mm f/1.8 lens. That would be a nice incentive to get better quickly!

As for our latest news, Audrey is becoming more verbal each week. She attempts several new words and often I recognize it before she gets too upset with me. She loves to chase Cody and have him chase her for a treat. She loves the Bye Bye song from our visits to the Baby Gym (our nickname for My Gym). And she LOVES her milk still. We are in the process of kicking the milk-to-bed habit. Most nights are pretty good, but if she doesn’t eat well at dinnertime, there is a battle ahead!

For Sophie, she was very sad at preschool on Thursday because when they passed around the offering bucket in chapel, she did not have any coins to give. Bad mommy! So I will be more diligent about putting some money in her coin purse each week. During our prayers last night, I asked her what are some ways we can show God’s love to others and she said to sing Twinkle Twinkle because that’s what she sings to Audrey when she is cries. So thoughtful! She is also sleeping through the night now pretty consistently (Halleluiah!) and is not playing with poop. Life just gets better every day!

Anyway, here are some of my favorite photos this month.

After enjoying a PB&J.
Audrey's new hobby.
Sophie strung every card as a gift for Daddy after his big hunting trip.

Posing while Mommy plays with her camera.

Caught a sweet smile.

It's Fall Ya'll

To celebrate this amazing fall weather, the girls and I visited the Dallas Arboretum with some friends. They had a blast checking out all the pumpkins and cool pumpkin houses and arrangements. It was beautiful! I am trying to learn how to take better pictures with my camera, so this was a perfect opportunity to practice. I had a hard time getting shots of them because they were constantly running away from me and toward more pumpkins or looking down at the pumpkins. But I did get in a couple of cute ones (patience – the pics are at the end of my ramblings).

I’ve noticed that Sophie is becoming quiet the attentive big sister. I watched her share her yogurt with Audrey by feeding her like she’s a baby doll. Audrey just loves it! They play ‘chase’ quite a bit these days and giggle while they run after each other. Audrey has learned to say no and does so with her whole heart: “Nnnnnnoo!” It’s her new favorite word. And Sophie has decided it’s more fun to poop in the potty than play with it on the floor now that we’ve reintroduced the lollipop incentive. Thankful I found a Groupon for carpet cleaning! That’s the big update in our little world.

Me and my girls at the pumpkin patch!

For more photos, check out my Facebook link at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150354387609764.370738.822694763&type=1&l=8980464db7.

This and That

September just zipped right on by and I barely breathed. It was a crazy, busy month with Benoit’s tonsillectomy and recovery (still underway), his mom’s visit, and the start of Sophie’s school. I need a break already! But life is good and I’m a blessed woman. Here are a few things for which I’m thankful.

Sophie loves school and dove right back in. There is NO crying or whining when it’s time to go. She’s practically running in and I’m watching the other moms kiss and hug their kids while mine is apparently ready to be rid of me for a few hours. I’m very happy that she loves it and wants to be there to play and learn. She is getting so growny and the other day she colored a picture and then put in on the fridge for display. She also went on a ‘big kid’ playground this week shaped like a rocketship. There were older kids on it (and it was probably 30 feet high) but she went right to the top to play with them. An older girl, probably 6 y/o, tapped her on the arm for tag and she got upset. She slowly walked her way down nearly tripping on her bottom lip, I swear. It was so sweet and sad. I just hugged her and told her the girl was playing a game and then we went over to the smaller playground.

Audrey is getting rather chatty these days and while her words are not very clear, her meaning is. She signs ‘milk’ and ‘please’ while saying ‘peees’!!! So adorable. And she LOVES milk. She’s infatuated with it to the point that she doesn’t want to eat food. Just give the girl some milk and call it dinner, she doesn’t care. When we have snacktime (which she calls ‘nack time’), Sophie usually takes Audrey’s food because she’s not eating it and then announces, ‘Audrey share with me!’ I suppose that’s one way to teach sharing.

And here are some of our new Halloween decorations. It is October, after all!

A family portrait!

Playing in the sandbox and concentrating so hard. Sweet little memories.
Sophie is not big into dress up but rather enjoyed being a princess at a playdate.

My favorite people!

I ain't afraid of no ghost!

Spooky!