Our girls.

(the pictures in this post were taken by my super talented sister-in-law, Heather! Thanks so much, Aunt Heather!! )

Marissa.

Miss Marissa Kate....these days she is so sweet, so kind, very helpful, sometimes frustrating, very talkative, very much the first-born with her bossiness, and very independent. She is almost 4 and there are days that Russell and I will just look at each other in amazement over how big she is, over the funny and sometimes odd things she says, but mainly just in amazement at how quickly the time has flown by. Everyone said it would, but I guess you don't realize how quickly until you are in the middle of it all, living it day by day. Anyway....here are some fun things about our Marissa Kate....

*she is obsessed with her birthday party. Anytime she sees something she wants (and we won't get it for her), she will say "I think I will get one of those for my "birthdayparty" (she says it like it's one word). She probably says this at least 5 times a day. I hope she doesn't remember all the things she has seen, otherwise she is in for a very disappointing 4th birthday.

*you absolutely must give her at least one hug and kiss before you walk out of the door and Lord help you if you don't....there have been times I have been driving off with my windows up and I hear this faint scream only to see Marissa on the front porch screaming.her.head.off. for me to come and give her a kiss and hug. This is serious business folks. Never leave without the kiss and hug.

*applesauce is still her favorite food. she would eat it all day, everyday if we would let her!

*she is finally paci-free!!! (a whole post on that is coming up...)

*she will put her hand on my belly and ask if the baby is moving:) it's so sweet and last night as we were getting ready for bed, she patted my belly and said, "night,night baby." :)

*as far as her favorite activities of the moment...it really depends on her mood. there are times (like yesterday) when she will sit at the dining table and color/paint/do a puzzle for a solid hour. Other times...she is a wild woman, running around outside in the sprinklers, riding her bike, hitting her tee-ball, playing tennis, digging in the dirt, etc. It just depends. :)




*she is becoming much more independent these days...she will get out of bed in the morning or after naps, take her pull up off, put on her big girl panties, pick out her (first) outfit for the day (she changes her clothes a lot...i have no idea where she gets that from ;) ), and gets dressed all by herself. I love to see what she comes up with each day to wear, she is very good at mixing and matching:)...I was telling my mom the other day that she will get stuck on an outfit or piece of clothing and wear it for a week straight and mom said that's exactly how I was...which was funny because after mom said that, I can actually remember for my 2nd grade school picture, going home the day before and asking mom to wash the shirt I wore that day so I could wear it for my pictures the next day....it was white with shoulder pads and I wore it with a red bedazzled bandana. What can I say...it was West Texas in the '90's. LOL. Oh man, I loved that outfit:)

*she loves to help me cook! espcially the stirring part...she will measure, pour and stir all day long! she likes to go outside and "cook" with the dirt...and then will add flower petals as "sprinkles" :) Which is probably why our flower bushes in the front are bare right now....She also likes to watch the food network with me, ask me what their making and if it sounds yummy to her, asks if we can make it too :)

*she loves,loves,loves her little sister. and her little sister loves her right back. they pretty much do everything together during the day...Marissa is usually coming up with some fun game or silly song that they both will play or sing. Now, don't let me fool you into thinking it's all happy all the time around here...at least 3 times a day....one sister is making the other one very angry. Usually over a toy...if I had a dollar for every time I heard "that's mine!!" we could have 2 of everything...however, I'm sure they would still fight over the one. For the most part...as you can see...these two have a blast together:)

*lastly, Marissa is very helpful. I am certain that once baby boy gets here, I will have a little mommy ready and willing to help in whatever way she can:) These days, she helps me fold the laundry, sweep the floors, or pick up the toys in the playroom. For the most part, if I ask her to help me....she is there :)


Allie

*Our sweet, silly, little miss center of attention!! Allie is 2 1/2 now and she keeps us laughing all day long. She will say "mommy, daddy, watch 'dis" and then proceed to do whatever her little mind has come up with to make us all laugh :) Now, anytime she meets someone new, she does her "silly face", puts one finger in each side of her mouth and pulls them out as far as she can and sticks out her tongue. Ohhh, Allie.

*she still stays "Hold you! Hold you!" when she wants you to pick her up.

*she calls Marissa "tee-too", which is just so cute and I kinda hope she never stops!

*her hair is completely out of control 90% of the time. I will brush it in the morning, but it just really doesn't matter. It has a mind of it's own and will go where it pleases. It's a good thing she is so cute :)

*she is also big into the hugs and kisses before we leave. She will say "Hug!" and put her arms out really big to give you a hug and then "Kiss!" and poke her bottom lip out to give you a kiss. It's so sweet.

*These days, her favorite thing to do is probably watch a movie...the first words out of her mouth every morning are, "milk, bar, pick." She wants her cup of milk, her granola bar, and she wants to pick a movie out of the movie case. Every.single.morning.


*Of course, we don't watch movies all day long, espcially now that the weather is nice, so next to movie watching, her favorite things are playing with her train set that Nana and Pops got her, riding her plasma car, finding something to eat :), or pushing her baby doll in the stroller. She likes to do what Marissa is doing, but she is also pretty good at wondering off and finding something to do on her own.

*she is a daddy's girl 100%. I know she loves me and there are times that she wants me, but for the most part, she wants Daddy. It's so funny, because there will be times those two are sitting beside each other while we are eating or doing something and I will just be amazed because I feel like I'm looking at the same person. She looks like a little carbon copy of him and there are so many things that she does that remind me of Russell. She is his little mini-me. He rocks her every night before he puts her to bed and after "milk, bar, pick" she wants to know where her Daddy is every morning.

*she can now sing her abc's and count to 10. I will try to get that on video soon!


*Marissa is still my translator when it comes to Miss Allie. There are times I have no idea what she is saying, so I ask Marissa and she knows almost every single time:)

*she absolutely does not like to get spankings. And it's usually not worth it to give her one, because oh.my.goodness. She will have a meltdown like you wouldn't believe if you barely spank her on her leg. Most of the time, threatening to spank is all it takes.


*if you tell her you love her, she will say "i wuv ew too." it's so sweet:) One of my favorite moments of the day is right before naptime...Marissa will say, "I love you, Allie!" and Allie says, "wuv ew too tee-too" It makes me smile just to think about it!

It's a..................

BOY!!!!!!!!

We found out a couple weeks ago and are just so, so, so excited!! Russell will finally have someone on his team in the Nichols' house:) (besides his dog, Texas...) We went to do the ultrasound and I was so anxious/nervous/excited that day...it was all I could think about. So, we get into the room and she starts the process and I look at the screen and think,"hmmm....I don't remember seeing that with the first two...." And the ultrasound tech says..."There it is!!!" And I remember saying,"What?!? There what is?! What is it?!" She kind of laughed and said, "It's a BOY!!!!" I immediately burst into tears and Russell just didn't stop smiling for the entire day! We both just feel so very blessed and are so excited to meet our little man! :) Everything with the pregnancy is still going great and I am feeling soooo much better now that the 2nd trimester has kicked in!! The belly is definitely growing and I have just started to feel him kick very lightly....what a sweet, sweet feeling:) I bought him his first couple of outfits the other day and the first decoration for his nursery...trying to get in the "blue" mindset...it's not so easy after almost 4 years of pink, ruffles and princesses:) Speaking of princesses, the girls are very excited! Well, Marissa is...Allie still doesn't know really what's going on. But Marissa went to the ultrasound with us and then told people she is going to have a "baby brudder" :) Please continue to pray for baby boy, his health and my pregnancy!!

Here's another picture from that day...he's looking at us :)

Easter Weekend!

We had a wonderful Easter weekend which started out with the annual ACC Easter egg hunt! The kids were off and running! Bryce is in front with Marissa not far behind!
Allie watching and learning as big sister finds some eggs.

These two are best buds.

I asked them to hold hands...Marissa got a little embarassed...I'm sure she was thinking, "ooohh, moooom."

Forget the eggs, Allie was all about hunting for driving range balls. And boy did she hit the jackpot!! SHe could barely carry her basket at the end!!

See....best buds. I love this picture:)

The kids are gone and Avery says "See ya later!"

Another sweet, sweet picture! Layne and I didn't plan the blue outfits, but it sure made for some cute pictures!! This is one of my favorites of the whole weekend!

The baby sisters helping each other out:)

Peek-a-boo!!

The family pic...wishing we would have had our sunglasses...it was bright!

Papa and NeeNee drove in from North Carolina to join the festivities!!

Our sweet girls:)

Bryce enjoying some much deserved candy after working hard to find those eggs!

Finally, time to slide!! They would have done this allllll day long!

One more time!

The next morning, we got all dressed up and headed to church. Papa and NeeNee with their babies...this is such a great picture!!

After the service, we tried to get a family picture...I didn't pick a very good location plus we were dealing with that bright sun again...but overall, not too bad:)

After lunch, naps and saying bye to Papa and NeeNee, it was time to see what was in our Easter Baskets from Pops and Nana! They got all sorts of goodies!! Thanks Pops and Nana!

Then, it was time to dye some eggs!!! Marissa was very excited about this and as you can see, was concentrating very hard!

Allie was being silly, but she had fun too!

Showing off the finished product!

Very proud of their work!

Look!! My little artists!!

It was such a beautiful weekend! We hope you and your family had as much fun as we did :) Happy Easter:)

Disney part 2.

The next day, instead of going to Disney...the girls and I went to the GCSAA trade show with Daddy! They were very excited because they got to ride on the big bus and Daddy even got them special John Deere necklace nametags! (unfortunately, I completely forgot to get a pic of the 4 of us with our name tags on....maybe next year.) Anyway, I did get a few of us on the way to the show. Marissa playing games on Mommy's phone....

Me with my sweet Allie:)

The next day....it was back to Disney!!! We got up early and got there right when they opened and headed straight to the Safari area! It was pretty chilly, bus aside from that...it was probably our favorite part of the whole week!! The girls loved it and we got to see a lot of really cool animals! Here we are ready to go!

We saw some giraffes....

And biiiiiggg rhinos....as well as lots of other animals, but I don't want to bore you with animal pictures...

A family shot in front of the safari house.

Our group shot....we had so much fun with the Neumann's and were so glad they were there with us!!

The kiddos showing off their yummy pretzels.

Train ride!

Posing with Jiminy Cricket...Allie was super excited as you can see...

The gorilla and the little monkeys :)

We then went to a little petting zoo....I honestly think Marissa would have stayed here and brushed this animal the whole day...she loved it!

Then at the end of the day the parade went down Main street!! This was so much fun! All the characters walked by, they had some really cool floats and the girls even got some high fives from some special people! :)

Allie showing some love to one of the chipmunks!

The girls waving at Minnie Mouse!

Marissa pointing to the star of the show.....

MICKEY!!!!

I love her little hand in this picture, waving hello to Mickey:)

That about sums up our Disney trip! Hope you enjoyed our pictures and videos! To finish up...here are a few more random videos from the week. (and again...if you can't see the video, just hit your "refresh" button and that should work...) Ok, the first part is the girls on the train with their Daddy, the second is Marissa on the carousel and lastly...a video that I took on our way home. Allie was getting restless, so I climbed in the back with them and did my best to make her laugh:) Enjoy!

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