85 months

Christmas morning the girls were up early (but not as early as I thought) and had to practice self control after seeing the temptation under the tree waiting for them! Maybe we should set an alarm next year so we have done our morning business and wake them up instead! They tore into their presents and were pretty happy campers (Santa failed last year so he had to make it up to them), of course J had to count the gifts to make sure there was an equal amount for them both! J finished tearing into hers much quicker than C, she had to recount to make sure of the number of gifts they each got matched. She got some new Legos, a unicorn monkey finger, a learn to draw sketcher, big girl double tipped markers, Polly pocket stuff, and lots of stocking stuffers, to which she called out the big JoJo bow wasn't real because it didn't have the charm! We spent the morning hanging out, we forgot to watch the Disney parade and J spent some time learned to draw animals. Uncle G and Auntie V came over for brunch before they headed back to Miami and we spent the afternoon relaxing, Facetiming with cousins and baking more cookies! G&G came back over for dinner, we enjoyed watching the girls play, some steaks and champagne, it was a quiet but nice Christmas, the girls were happy and that is all that mattered!

As if we didn't have enough to do the day after Christmas to get ready for our trip to Atlanta, we snuck in a trip to the farm to pick fresh tomatoes and strawberries to take with us! J loves to pick strawberries and is always on the hunt to find the biggest one, and she makes it known when she does! She also loves picking the grape and cherry tomatoes and has to find the perfect bitty ones for her to eat! The 10+ pounds of berries we took with us to GA were polished off in three days, they were delish and we are so glad berry season is back, we are definitely gonna turn into berries!

The girls had been counting down to our trip to Atlanta and when the day finally came to leave they popped out of bed! They were pretty good in the car, watched movies and played and when we finally got there after lunch they were so happy to see their cousins! The weather was cooler and rainy while we were there and lots of indoor fun was had, we had hoped for snow but didn't get any. We had a family Christmas the day we got there and the kids wasted no time tearing into things! The girls got Caboodles, makeup and girlie stuff and J made sure to tell me that Aunt Fonz got them real JoJo bows and showed me the charm they have, of course she did! J was all excited about the Mario Kart tournament Aunt Fonz set-up, she always wants to play video games and wasted no time learning how to play! She quickly learned to "smoke" people or so she thought! We all had fun racing each other (and there were some meltdowns when it wasn't someones turn, the problem when there are six kids and only four controllers), C bug was the one to beat, the little almost six year old was better than everyone else! The second day we ventured with this crew to lunch and then to Sky Zone to exert some energy, our girls were a little timid of most of the attractions and spent most of the time just jumping into the foam ball pit. They did try the swing, they got scared when they hit there feet on the platform and they took a try at the small ninja course they had, while the other kids didn't want to leave when the time was up I think mine were glad it was over, and so was mom!

We did get to venture to Stone Mountain to see their Christmas Village on the one somewhat nice day we had. We rode the Skyride cable car to the top of the mountain, I don't think the girls knew what to expect at first and since it was so crowded they could barely see out the windows as we rode to the top. I think it wowed them when we got to the top and they looked down, we were pretty high up, the farthest up they have ever been. There were some pretty views of the city, they say you can see 60 miles on a clear day, and the suns rays were so bright. They got a better view on the cable car when we went down the mountain and got to watch our descend. We spend the rest of the afternoon playing (and trying to keep track of them) in the indoor playground, the kids had some dinner, we attempted to see the tree lighting and the parade but it was so crowded you could barely move and decided to call it a day/night and headed back to play Mario Kart. The next day it was lousy again and we took the kids to lunch and bowling, the kids had fun and no one got their fingers smashed by a bowling ball! J of course thought she was the "bomb", these days she is into thinking she is the best at things and has to WIN everything, wonder where her competitive side comes from?

We drove home on NYE and someone entertained us for a little while with her Frozen renditions while the movie played. Of course I had to show her the videos from when she was two and had to rewind the movie so that I could get her singing on video, still tone deaf five years later! We had dinner at Wolveshead and watched the fireworks in Rio on TV before we all called it a night, no way we were waiting until midnight! The next morning the girls built their new Lego sets (yes more Lego's, not sure what Santa was thinking) while I took down the tree. Later that day we went to G&G's to BBQ,  and the girls had fun playing with their Barbie house and making a mess with tissues. We spent the rest of Winter Break picking strawberries, hanging out in jammies and went to see Mary Poppins Returns again, this time with Grandma, and this time mommy had to sing along to all of the songs!

J got an extended Winter Break thanks to the flu! Nana came down with the flu just as we left Georgia, not sure if J got it from her or just from being out, but it called for being home for 7 days and missing school! Thank goodness she had a mild case,within 3 days she was back to her old self and feeling fine, she had trouble understanding though why she was still quarantined to her room and "bored" as she would say. We got some school work from her teacher that she completed pretty fast, she spent lots of time coloring (which won her a new princess costume from the coloring contest she entered), watching TV (she thought she was cool that she had a TV in her room for the week), making loom bracelets, reading, and playing with her doll house and Polly Pockets. We had a nice weather day or two and she was allowed out on the patio for some fresh air and I took her strawberry picking towards the end of her seven day cycle. These seven days were the longest of my life and I think C's too, she was actually bored and upset she couldn't play with her sister and would sit pouting in the hallway outside of her door!

School is halfway over and she got all 4's and E's on her second quarter report card. She is a star student in her class and we are proud of her achievements. She missed her awards ceremony at school and receive the PBS Award for her Gator Baits once again, she was most excited about the new key tag that came with it to put on her backpack, the amount of "stuff" she has hanging from it is crazy, must be a completion to see who can hang the most? She is doing very well with her reading and fluency folder, she is reading 1-2 of the short stories a week practicing on her words per minute and starting to learn how to answer the questions on her own and with a complete sentence. She is still spelling words out with how they sound to her (even though she can read them the right was) and we work on her spelling words each week as homework. They celebrated the 100th day of school and had to do a project at home, after looking around the dollar store for a 100 of something to make her project from she chose to do a 100 piece puzzle and show counting by 10's, pretty appropriate for her!

MLK weekend it was cold and the weather was blah so after spending Saturday home and in jammies most of the day we took a little adventure to Brandon on Sunday to get out of the house and go somewhere different. We walked the mall and had some lunch before we headed to the bowling alley for a little afternoon fun. We found a great little bowling alley (worth the 45 minute drive) and all had fun, J is getting better at throwing the ball on her own and think she even got a few spares that day, of course she was upset she didn't win, but she didn't lose either!

Everyday she asks if we can see a white spot, meaning she wants to know if her top teeth are coming in yet, she says her gums hurt and complains that she can't bite into food. There aren't any white sports yet but you can definitely see the ridges of the big teeth there waiting to come down! Maybe by next months post she might have a spot or two? We said goodbye to the beloved coozie car that the girls had definitely outgrown, it was something Nana had at her house since J and G were little and we inherited it when they moved here as it was a favorite of C's. I hated to part with it but it has a new home at the preschool we love so much. The first month of the year has flown by, time can you just slow down a little?

Here are the pictures from Christmas, Atlanta and the month.