Pictures from Feb-March

Tooth #2 came out. Gran pulled it. And Isaiah only screamed a little bit:)

Aunt Ginny sent the girls matching dresses. How cute are they!

Dr Seuss Day at school!

Alyssa feels like a princess in the dress-up dress Papaw Neal brought.

We LOVED having cousin Carter visit!

Alyssa with her basketball trophy!

Isaiah at basketball with one of his #1 fans.

Go Colts!

"WORD"

Ballerina in training.

Ella's expanding vocabulary

Some recent things out of Ella's mouth:

"Mommy, my milk is disgusting"

"My big girl bed is SOOOOOOO comfortable"

"THAT MAKES ME SO ANGRY!!!!!!!"

"My feet are very chilly"

She has just been cracking us up lately with the things that are coming out of her mouth. With the dreaded 3's ahead of us (yes, 3's are MUCH worse than 2's) you never know what we have in store for us!

What we did on our snow day

Gran got Alyssa a video camera for Christmas and so we played with it today on her snow day. The girl likes to perform. Enjoy!

The toothless wonder

Isaiah lost his first tooth this weekend. Tim did the trick where you tie the string around the doorknob and slam the door. He wasn't scared at all and it worked on the first try. So, now, Alyssa and Isaiah both lost their first teeth that way. The tooth fairy brought 4 quarters, which Isaiah immediately announced (at 5:45 am) that he was taking to his preschool to put in the Haiti relief fund. A generous soul! I will say that this milestone makes me a little sad! Time is really flying by!

Dancing Feet

Alyssa had her first dance recital this Saturday. It was "God With Us" and was originally scheduled for Dec. 19, but got snowed out and rescheduled for this past weekend. It was an amazing show and she did SO great. For those of us who know her well, she has always been a performer. She let her true self show during her part of the performance and did really great. We were very proud of her. Below are some pictures.

Her flowers from her daddy after her performance.

Alyssa's jazz class backstage.

Alyssa and her buddy Riley backstage.

Beautiful!

The Havina Gila girl.

Holiday Time

Tim's Poker Face on New Year's at Ashley and Aaron's house. It was a great time!

Ashley reading to Carter, Ella and Isabel.

Alyssa jamming to the Karoake machine.

I got friends in "LOW" places.

Nick (Ashley's son) and Isabel (Shannon's daughter) singing probably some Lady GaGa.

The Neals 2009

Isaiah has 2 loose teeth! The tooth fairy should be visiting soon.

Christmas morning. I love Alyssa's reaction in this one!

Alyssa got sponge rollers from Grandma. Ella wanted some too.

Our visit with Grandma was snow-filled in Johnson City.

Snow, Snow, Snow

We had about 7 inches of snow fall this weekend in JC. Our neighbor said it is the most snow since 1998! We are no strangers to snow, but learned that southerners freak out when there is snow fall and they do not know how to drive AT ALL in the snow! But, we have had a great time playing in it. We took the kids sledding and EVERYONE loved it! The scenery was beautiful!




The view from the top of the sledding hill!

Alyssa and Isaiah walking back up the hill!

Daddy and his kiddos ready to go down the hill!

Mommy and Ella.

Johnson City Happenings

Alyssa was in the Christmas Parade with the cheerleaders.

Alyssa's first basketball game. Hilarious!

The decorated tree!

Special Delivery!

A native American celebrating Thanksgiving!

A few pics

The trampoline is awesome! They really love it!

With their pumpkins. Notice their attire. We LOVE Tennessee weather.

The boys jamming together.

Beautiful

So, you all know that Alyssa LOVES, LOVES, LOVES makeup and dressing up and being fashionable and cool. I wish I could say that she gets some of the "coolness" from me, but you all know that isn't true:) Tim and I know she loves these things and although we don't share the same passions, we try to encourage her interests. Having said that, we also want to make sure that she isn't buying too much into what our world, mainly our media, promotes as beautiful. It is a hard line to walk with a little girl, and we continue to struggle with the balance of it. Anyhow, this week while I was sick, Tim downloaded a song and a video that he showed to her. He watched the video with her and we both discussed with her what the song and the video meant. She is beautiful just the way she is! She got it!

So, tonight as I was tucking her into bed, I saw a paper on the floor (of course it was on the floor) with some of her handwriting on it. Here is some of what it said:

"Litil grle tteun one the tage that you have dune I wish you see bute is so butfole. BudFole is so Budfole your so budfol the you that you are you dot have to pute on mace-up to mace you budfol. Your budfol just the way you are. "

Below is the words to the song "More Beautiful You" by Johnny Diaz. I hope Alyssa and Ella always know that they are beautiful the way that God made them!

More Beautiful You
Little girl fourteen flipping through a magazine
Says she wants to look that way
But her hair isn’t straight her body isn’t fake
And she’s always felt overweight

Well little girl fourteen I wish that you could see
That beauty is within your heart
And you were made with such care your skin your body and your hair
Are perfect just the way they are

There could never be a more beautiful you
Don’t buy the lies disguises and hoops they make you jump through
You were made to fill a purpose that only you could do
So there could never be a more beautiful you

Little girl twenty-one the things that you’ve already done
Anything to get ahead
And you say you’ve got a man but he’s got another plan
Only wants what you will do instead
Well little girl twenty-one you never thought that this would come
You starve yourself to play the part
But I can promise you there’s a man whose love is true
And he’ll treat you like the jewel you are

So turn around you’re not too far
To back away be who you are
To change your path go another way
It’s not too late you can be saved
If you feel depressed with past regrets
The shameful nights hope to forget
Can disappear they can all be washed away
By the one who’s strong can right your wrongs
Can rid your fears dry all your tears
And change the way you look at this big world
He will take your dark distorted view
And with His light He will show you truth
And again you’ll see through the eyes of a little girl

Halloween and the Zoo

The whole gang. We trick or treated with the neighbors.

Hannah Montana, the witch and Optimus Prime.

Carving our pumpkin.

At the zoo.

In front of the elephants.

A visit from friends and a very bubbly bath

We had a visit this weekend from great friends of ours. They brought 3 or their 4 girls and the kids had a blast. Here are a couple pics. Also, Ella and Isaiah had a crazy bubbly bath the other night and just thought the pictures were funny.


Optimus Prime, Princess Audrey and Princess Clara putting on a show.

The other twins - Alyssa and Emmaline

Bubble girl.

Notice all the bubbles on the floor too from Isaiah getting out and looking at himself in the mirror. Good times.