Marissa's First Movie

This is brought to you by the letter M...

Marissa's first Movie was the Muppets

After a full day of inside play we decided to take the kids to the dollar showing of the Muppets.  Nate continues to go into zombie mode with any screen time.  He loves seeing things on the "big screen", so he did great.  This was a good starter for Marissa, there were several songs she danced and clapped along to.  She was restless a few times and walked back and forth between Mommy and Daddy but did really well overall.  The show started at 6:30 so we knew we would be pushing our luck; this was the final outcome: 

$4.00 well spent!

Anything Goes...

If you ever want to come to a place where anything goes, come on over. 

You never know what you may find at our house.

Sometimes you will find kids playing with dogs...other times you will find kids pretending to be dogs.  See "Alfie" eating his breakfast off the floor!

On any given day you will be sure to see Elmo in some shape or form:  toys, books, pajamas, dresses, pajamas-under-dresses.  And if you don't, well, we will call just about anything with big eyes "Elmo" right now. 

 You may see kids catching themselves in nets...

You may see cowgirls...

Or you may even see kids pretending to be toys.  You will also see that anything Bubba does, Sissy wants too!  Both kids are property of Andy, from Toy Story in the pics below.

This is a true glimpse into life at the Yancys.  These silly, entertaining, little humans sure make the world a much more fun place to live! 

Saying "I Love You"

He's such a ham!  His imagination continues to delight me. I was cracking up at him tonight!

If you know our animals, you'd think he is pretty spot on!

Demanding Girl

Although Marissa sleeps through the night most of the time she has those occasional up-crying moments at random hours.  This morning she was up at 4:00am so I went to check in on her.  She was standing up in her crib and the second she saw me she started demanding "uppease" - it is her one word for "up please".  So I picked her up in hopes of rocking her back to sleep.  As soon as I sat down she began asking for "muck, muck" (milk) so I informed her that it was not time for milk, but time for night-night.  She then began asking for "nana", which is still her general word for food.  Again, I told her it is night-night time and patted her until she calmed down.  She began breathing in that heavy, even pattern, and this silly Mom thought she had beaten the child at her own game...then she suddenly arched her back and yelled "Bye-Bye Night-Night, Nana EAT".  

YIKES!!!  And I did as the Diva wanted.  She wins.  After all, it was practically her first sentence - or first command.  Silly girl.

Our Memorable Valentine's Day Morning

This was most certainly a memorable Valentine's Day for the Yancy Clan.  I received a big surprise, had a scavenger hunt, and participated in a bubble bath all before 7:30 this morning!  Sounds romantic and amazing doesn't it?  Well, I did marry a pretty incredible guy!

However, this was not really centered around me as much as it was Marissa.  My Valentines Day started off by not sleeping in the wee hours of the morning and therefore hitting snooze several times before rolling out of bed in a most zombie-like state.  After showering and getting ready I found myself, darting upstairs at 6:30 (which by the way is sleeping in for her) to pick up a kiddo yelling "Poop, Poop" instead of "Good Morning, Mommy"...nice surprise.  Huh?  And trust me, it was a doozie! 

Then the aforementioned scavenger hunt began.  Marissa started saying/crying/screaming "MIMO".  Now this means a variety of things in the world of Marissa:  Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, or Elmo.  So I frantically began searching the room for anything that even remotely resembled one of these beloved characters, from pajamas to stickers to stuffed animals....nothing satisfied the "MIMO" request.  I ran downstairs and had 3 Minnie Mouse stuffed animals, 2 Mickey Mouse stuffed animals, one plastic Elmo and Elmo pajamas...and still heard the shrieking cry of "MIMO".  Nothing was satisfactory.  So I threw my rather unhappy child in her highchair and proceeded to feed her breakfast.  At this point I would like to say I had heart-shaped pancakes, fresh fruit with heart sprinkles, etc....but it was a simple (but lovely) banana and some milk.  She finally settled down enough to eat....and shortly thereafter gave it all back, hitting the dog with her vomit in the process. 

Thus the bubble bath! 

And as I said I did indeed marry a pretty incredible guy.  He took care of the dog, high chair, floor, woke up Bubba, got him fed and dressed, started a load of laundry, and got everything gathered for the day without complaining.

How lucky can a girl be? 

Hope your Valentine's Day was memorable as well!

Indoor Shenanigans

The kids started going a bit stir crazy since it was too cool to spend much time outside this weekend; Marissa was standing at the windows repeatedly crying "wee" (which is Marissa talk for "swing"),  so I brought the little playground indoors.    The kids had a blast climbing, sliding, and swinging.  I wish I would have thought of this sooner!

Then we headed up to Texas Children's Hospital to visit our friend Addi.  If you recall, I asked you to join us in praying for her a while back.  She had a defibrillator put in on Jan 20th, as they wait for her heart transplant.  She had some fluid build up on her lung and was readmitted on the 31st.  Thankfully it now looks like things are under control and they were able to go back home today!  However, last night we took the kids up to see her for the first time (in the hospital).  Nathaniel quickly got into shenanigans by crawling under the crib.  The girls soon followed and it became the cool place to hang out (her parents may kill us later for this discovery!).   

We are so thankful that Addi is home, and pray that she will remain home and healthy until they get the call that a heart is available for her.  Please keep praying for our precious friends, they still have a long journey ahead of them. 

Successful Trip to Midland

After travelling to Midland by myself with the kids last weekend, I have concluded that there is no greater compliment that can be said to a parent than "Wow.  Your kids are so well behaved!".  Seriously, part of me was dreading this trip knowing I had a 3 year old and 1 year old to lug through the airport and to entertain throughout the flight by myself, during our typical melt-down, evening time....but the kids were PERFECT.  Nate was such an amazing little helper and totally listened and followed my every request while being an awesome big brother and doing his best to entertain Marissa.  I could not have been more proud of these two....and to hear someone else say it (on each flight) really made my heart burst at the seams! 

Here they are holding hands before the first take off! 

 Oh yea and I gotta give props to the chicken nuggets for helping keep them occupied as well!

After the landing I decided to wait and be the last one off so others would not get stopped up behind me as I struggled with the stroller, diaper bag, toy bag etc.  Marissa stood on her chair waving and personally telling each passenger "Bye-Bye".  It was pretty adorable, if I do say so myself!

We arrived in Midland and Nathaniel had clearly made up his mind that we were going to Gigi and Big Daddys and then going to Craigers house.  So we did just that.  The cousins were glad to see each other and we successfully got them all down for the evening. 

Well, at least until about 1:30 AM, when Marissa and Dawson both woke up.  Then they proceeded to have their own little party, cracking themselves up by saying "No" to each other until about 3:30.  Although it was a bit frusturating, they were having so much fun it was hard to be mad!

They seemed to develop a bond on this trip after their wee hour reunion!

The boys stayed busy building robots, playing on the top bunk and singing!

The most fun all the cousins had together happened to be playing on the riding toys in the garage!

The kids got lots of snuggle time in with our family, whom we love so much!

And as a special bonus (and the main reason we went up for the weekend) they got to spend time with their great-grandparents!  I love that they get to know each other despite the thousands of miles that seperate us.

Marissa really seemed to be fond of Great-Grandma, especially when playing hand games with her.

Here's the whole crew (minus Ted)!

Also this weekend was the superbowl.  Madonna did the half time show at the game this year...Marissa did the half time show at our house.  The best video I shot with my phone but here's a little taste of true entertainment from my camera!

I am thankful for every part of this weekend.  Successful flights, a close family, and fun memories.

Not to mention coming home to our bathrooms painted by my incredible hubby!