Wedding

Addie and Charlotte are getting married... to each other. Right now they are in the toy room singing, "We love each other! We love each other! We'll never be apart from each other. Oh, oh, oh, oh, we love each other."

Knowledge

The other day as I was unbuckling Addie from her carseat, she said to me, "Mom, I know more things than you do. I know more things than Dad does also."

I thought they were teenagers before they got this attitude, I didn't realize it started so early.

Happy Birthday, Sean!

Today the girls and I were baking a cake for Sean's birthday. They love to help me cook, especially when they get to crack eggs. I guess we don't do it often enough because today Addie told me: "Mom! I will hatch the eggs for you!"

When she cracked an egg all over the counter Charlotte got excited and said: "Yay, Addie! You hatched an egg!!"

A birthday interview with Addie.

How old are you today?
4

What will be the best thing about being 4?
I don't know... ummm... getting presents.

What was the most important thing you learned when you were three?
How to be a good girl, and not hit anyone.

Who is your best friend?
Morgan and Rebecca.

What is your favorite toy?
The things that are in my backpack.

What is your favorite thing to do?
Ummm... play with dominos. Hey, mom, can we play with dominos right now?

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A doctor.

What is your favorite thing to eat?
Brocolli

What makes you happy?
Hugs.

What's your favorite show?
Marley and Me... and my favorite game is dominos, I like to play dominos... that's what I'm going to do right now.

What is something that you're really good at?
Ummm, playing dominos.

Are you good at anything else?

Helping my sister find her things.

Happy Birthday, Adeline!

It is amazing to think that Adeline turned 4 today. On one hand, it seems like she was just a baby. On the other hand, it seems like she has been with us forever. She is turning into such a fun kid. Some of her favorite things to do right now are ride her bike, practice writing letters, play airport or tea-party, color and paint, swing on her tire swing, and go to Sunbeams on Sunday. I am astonished every day at how much she knows and at how curious she is about everything.

My planned garden

One of my goals this summer is to plant a garden. I know I won't have much time to dedicate to my garden since I'll be so busy with school, so it will won't be anything fancy. I'm hoping, though, for maybe just a few tomato and zucchini plants. Hey, if even one plant survives I'll be happy. We just have so much space out here and it seems like such a waste not to have a garden.

Addie loves the idea of a garden and was helping me the other day decide where we would plant the seeds. I asked her what we should grow in the garden. Her response?

"Well, I think we should grow some of those flowers that you blow."

"You mean those yellow flowers that turn into puff-balls?" I replied.

"Yes, that's what I mean. We should grow those."

I'm pretty sure that I can grow dandelions, so I am relieved that even if the garden turns out to be a flop Addie will be happy.

A Valentine's Day Picnic

Brush, brush, brush your teeth

Marley and Me

Grandma has been visiting for the last two days and the girls had a blast with her while I was at school. Yesterday Addie asked if they could watch her favorite show, "Marley and Me." Grandma replied that she wasn't sure if she knew where it was (we watch all of our shows and movies on the computer, and Marley is stored on the E drive). Addie knew where it was, though... "Just go to Marley dot com," she said.

A lunch conversation

Charlotte: I grow up. Then I be bigger, bigger, bigger.

Addie: No! You can't get too big, then your head will go through the ceiling!

Math

We recently got back from visiting grandparents in Montana and Colorado. As we were driving to the store yesterday Addie saw a McDonalds and exclaimed, "They have a million McDonalds!"

Sean: Who has a million McDonalds?

Addie: Colorado has a million McDonalds. Yeah! They have five!

8 hours in the car, 3 stitches for Charlotte, and Baby Jesus

This weekend was an eventful one for the Conaway family. On Saturday, we decided to take a trip to Burnet, Texas to visit Main Street Bethlehem. Every year a church in this town puts together a re-creation of Bethlehem. I had heard great things about this event and was excited to finally get a chance to experience it.

It was a four hour drive to Burnet. Both girls were very excited to see baby Jesus, though, so we passed part of the time by talking about the story of Jesus's birth. When it got dark, Addie looked up and saw stars. "Look!" she said, "There is the star to show where baby Jesus is!"

When we arrived we had to wait in line for another hour and a half before we got in. Finally, we walked through the gates and it almost seemed like we were transported into another world. The first thing we saw were campfires and people cooking their dinner. Charlotte wanted to climb out of her stroller to get a better look. As she was climbing out, the stroller began to collapse. I opened the stroller again, not realizing that Charlotte's was holding onto it. Charlotte started screaming. One of the men cooking dinner warned me, "You have to be careful with those donkeys, they really hurt when they kick." Both Sean and I thought that her leg was what got pinched. I picked her up and began examining her legs, both of them seemed fine so I started talking to her and trying to calm her down (I didn't want to ruin the spirit of the evening for the other guests). Then I noticed that her hands were COVERED in blood. And my coat was COVERED in blood.

The next few minutes are kind of a blur. One of the actors, who was a nurse, rushed over when she saw what was going on. She whisked Charlotte and I off to the bathroom to take a better look (Bethlehem was only lit by candles and lanterns). Even in the dim light I was pretty sure it was going to need stitches - but when we got to the bathroom and I got a better look, I almost passed out. Her finger was mangled, I'm amazed that she didn't loose the tip. Thankfully, this wonderful lady kept calm, took Charlotte from me, washed her up as best she could, and wrapped up her finger. Charlotte calmed down a bit, as long as I was putting pressure on her finger she would just whimper rather than scream. The nurse told us that Charlotte's finger would need stitches and gave us directions to the emergency room, which was just a few miles down the road.

Charlotte didn't want to go to the car, though, she wanted to see Baby Jesus. So the nurse led us back through Bethlehem and we took 5 minutes to look at Baby Jesus. I wish we had been able to see the whole thing, it really was amazing. Then we got in the care and headed off to the E.R.

Charlotte did really well in the E.R. Being such a small town, we got in very quickly and the doctor saw us right away. Right before the doctor started stitching up Charlotte's finger, somebody came in complaining of chest pain, so the doctor had to leave us to attend to the new patient. Both Charlotte and Addie fell asleep waiting for the doctor to come back. An hour later the doctor returned and put three stitches in Charlotte's finger. There was quite a bit of crying, but she did really well (especially when Sean started telling her that he would get her ice cream when she was done). Once her finger was bandaged up, Charlotte gave a half-smile and said, "my finger is all betters!"

We left the hospital at 11:30 p.m., long after Bethlehem had closed, and began our long drive back to Houston. We stopped to get gas before we left town. Sean got the girls an ice cream sandwich to share. When he gave Charlotte her ice cream she said, "Daddy, you make me so happy!" It was so cute.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), we forgot to bring our camera with us, so we didn't get any pictures of Bethlehem or Charlotte's finger. But here is a picture of her finger when we changed the bandage on Sunday. It looks 100 times better than it did the night before. I'm leaving a large space before the picture, don't look if you get queasy easily...

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