My Holiday Rant

The first few weeks of December is always so busy for Jay and I. Between his choir concerts and my voice recitals our poor girls are with the babysitter more than us. Well this year has been the worst of all years. All together we have had about 12 concerts and recitals in two weeks! Kaelyn (my almost 4 year old) has reverted back to pooping in her panties and having pee pee accidents, my kids are not listening to anything I am saying and there is more arguing than playing between them. Happy holidays at the Dougherty house!

I love Christmas and the chance I have to celebrate it with music, but this is ridiculous and I cannot wait to be able to see my family. After tonight Jay will be done with his performances and then I will only have a recital next Friday so I am hoping that our schedule will slow down so we can spend more time with our beautiful daughters and focus on family (and my house, but we won't go there)!! AND have a date night with my husband - which I haven't had since the beginning of November because our Friday and Saturday nights have been jammed with something or the other. Oh and I have not started shopping yet!

Sorry to my readers for complaining, but I needed to write this down to remember it for next year and hopefully find a solution! Maybe Grandma can come to live with us next year for the first three weeks in December. What do you think Grandma? Oh man I love my kids! I hate to see them like this!

Three Little Mommies

The other day I caught my girls playing babies on my bed. Brooklyn is a baby fanatic (sleeps with a baby doll, pushes her babies in stroller all day, etc.) and when it comes to real babies Brooklyn can't help, but mother them. The older girls however, aren't huge on playing with dolls. It was cute to hear them mother the dolls and talk about when they are real mommies.

Oh and the video at the end is of the girls having fun during one family night. It was so much fun to watch them.

Halloween 2011

We had a wonderful Halloween this year! Here are some random pictures from the festivities we participated in!

Fishing for a treat at the ward trunk or treat

I love Jay's mullet! A sister in our ward came over to our table and wanted to know if he was my brother or cousin. Didn't even recognize him.After trunk or treat eating their stash.

Maddy sporting her new face paint at the school carnival

Kaelyn, the pretty ballerina wanted a pretty flower on her face

Brooklyn was the cutest skunk! People we didn't even know were asking us if they could take her picture! She was darling!

Madelyn and I at her school Halloween Party and Parade.

Madelyn with some class friends at her school party.

Madelyn in her school costume parade.

Snow, Snow and more Snow!

Just a few days ago we were celebrating Fall and now it is snowing! I love the seasons, but snow in October? Really? And it is coming down. Jay said that it was due to snow for 18 hours straight! I don't know who was more excited this morning. Me anticipating the girls reaction when they saw snow outside or the girls when they actually saw snow outside? It was a fun EARLY morning (hence the pictures are in the dark).

Today we aren't going anywhere (Maddy already has the day off). We will probably go out a few times to play, but staying home and enjoying the snow sounds so relaxing!

Here are some pictures and a short video of our morning in the snow. Our cat Eddy has never seen snow so his reaction to it is on this little video as well. He went right out and came right back in and is now hibernating on our couch. We love our cat!Maddy looking cold.

Kaelyn smiling big.

The Girls having a snow ball fight.

The view from my kitchen window

Brooklyn all bundled up! I think she looks so big in this picture!

First thing the girls did was eat the snow. Here's Kaelyn eating away!

Yummy Madelyn!

Our Visit to the Pumpkin Patch!

Thanks to some good friends of ours we can now say we have been to a REAL pumpkin patch. Yesterday we went to a local pumpkin patch where you can go and cut your own pumpkin off the vine. They had field after field of pumpkins!! As you entered the farm they handed you a knife and instructions and then we drove around until we found a good spot. Did I mention there were a lot of people? A LOT! There were so many cars in line and driving around the farm that I felt like we were in the Field of Dreams movie.

After we found some pumpkins we then drove over to an area where they had free activities for the kids to do and farm animals to pet. The girls loved it and so did we. We decided that we are definitely doing this again next years.

Brooklyn LOVES Babies!

Brooklyn loves babies! Anytime she sees one she will run to it and then proceed to talk to it in a high pitched, sweet talk while touching the babies hands and face. Usually this happens at the library during story time or at church so I try to stop her from touching the baby too much. However, Brooke has a cousin who is only 2 1/2 months old and when we go to visit her (they live about 20 minutes away) I am a little more relaxed. Here is a video of Brooke loving baby Corrine this past weekend. What a good mommy she is! Sorry Julie for the slight abuse to Corrine at the end :)

I Just Love Fall!

I just love fall!! I love waking up every morning and look at the leaves on the trees across the street changing colors. I love how it is chilly in the morning and then warms up to the perfect temperature to be outside playing. I love that fall brings pumpkins! (Jay just reminded me the other day that Maddy's first and favorite word for a while was "pumpkin".) We bought several of them at the store the other day and decorated our planters with them.

I love the breeze that fall brings. My A/C broke in my van the other day, but it hasn't been a problem at all with the nice cool breeze!

Kaelyn today collected two fall leaves. One was red and the other a yellow color. She was so happy she had collected them. The red one she called "pink" and since it was pink it was her favorite one.

At story time at the library a few days ago the girls and I picked out a whole bunch of books about Halloween and the fall. We have been reading them over and over.

It rained the other day, all day and the temperatures dropped to the 50's. I just wanted to snuggle up in a blanket all day and relax. I loved it!

With some of the pumpkins we bought.

I can't believe how big they are getting! My three little princesses!

Getting so big! Kaelyn is always smiling!

Brooke playing with her new phone she got at the dollar store

My New Dollar Tree Glasses! Brooke has broken 3 pairs in one month! Now if she breaks this pair I am not going to be heart-broken!

Madelyn wearing her school t-shirt. She looks like such a big kid in it!

Down the street from my house. I love the mixture of red and yellow trees!

Our front door. Doesn't it look like fall! Love it!!

Having a picnic outside with a friend

What I wake up to every morning. This was taken on the rainy day we had a few days ago. It was heavenly!

I love this picture!