"now, which ones are the twins?"

We've been hearing that quite alot lately...now that Lila and Bennett have lost most of the baby fat and Lila's hair finally decided to grow. They are big for their age and Elise is {almost} average, so the three of them together do often perplex strangers...

My sweet girls were snuggling together on the couch last night (L & B are sick), watching some Yo Gabba Gabba (so totally strange, but apparently very entertaining to the 4 and under group) and I had to snap some pics...It really touched me that Elise was trying to comfort her little sis, who is not feeling well, and climbed up under the blanket with her...with no prompting from me. What a pleasant surprise to walk into the room to check on them and find this sweet sight!



When I saw them like this, snuggled up so closely, I finally "got" why people often ask me that....they definitely look like they could be the same age! Although, I have a feeling, before long people are going to think Elise is the little sis....
Should be interesting to see how that goes over....:)



I hope these girls always love each other as much as they do right now! I'm so happy they get to have the joy of having a sister, I know mine is one of the greatest blessings in my life!


Hope everyone is enjoying their week and the return to their normal routine...
Love,
Nic

new year, old friends

Happy New Year!!

We made a last minute decision to spend New Year's in David's hometown of Lake Charles. There were several people he had been wanting to see; and, in addition, Elise really wanted to see Emmy and Pop's house- we hadn't been back there to visit in quite a while, and she couldn't remember our last visit.

I think we crammed as many visits as possible into our short visit. It was great to see everyone!!We were really bad about taking pictures, (although I think Emmy took about 500- will have to snag some of those) but David had a LOT of fun playing with his new FLIP video camera that my parents got him for Christmas.

David was able to see some of his oldest friends - they are such great guys (and girls- Sadie- we love you too!) and it was fun to catch up with everyone. The kids loved Mr. Jace, Mr. Jason, and Dr. Bill. We were also able to visit with David's childhood nanny, Mabel, who he just loves to death, as well as her husband. She was so excited to meet her "babies", and like everyone we saw, thought Bennett looked like a miniature David. We visited with his Godmother, Lynn, his surrogate Grandparents the Stevens, and Jace's parents the Dennisons. All this in 2 days!!

We spent the afternoon at Jason and Jodi's great house...they have three boys, and based on the number of toys, you could tell. Our kids' eyes lit up when they saw the selection, and, of course, they were dying the ride the little four wheelers. This resulted in one of my favorite videos of the trip. (*Don't worry- no Parnells were harmed in the making of this video. And, I promise, the four wheelers go really slow. I am an admittedly over-protective Mom, and was initially totally against letting them ride...but, I came around.)

Listen closely for Bennett's laugh when he crashes. This is SO HIM.

Our girls were pretty brave and tried the four wheelers as well...so I can't leave them out!

Although the last-minuteness (word?) of the trip initially stressed me out, I am really glad I went with the flow and we went. The kids loved seeing where David grew up, and his parents were excited to have us there as well. Lots of generations of Parnells have lived in that house, and I know it was neat for them to have the youngest generation there. We are thankful they were willing to accomodate us and all of our stuff on such short notice!

The kids all crashed on the way home today, and David and I are totally wiped and about to go to bed early- IF David will stop showing me all of his prom pictures and sports awards from the scrapbook he swiped while we were home!!!

Happy 2010!

Nicole

merry christmas everyone

the children are nestled all snug in their beds....

We had a great low-key Christmas eve, filled with family time! David was able to have the whole day off of work, and for that, all four of us were very thankful!
With David leading, we made cookies for Santa....

We were very thankful that weather improved slightly this afternoon, after a day full of horrible weather. We got ready and headed to church. We were so excited that SuSu and G decided to come to our church with us.

{ a typical group pic these days}

*

Then we finished the night off with another tradition...David lit a pathway of sparklers in the front of our house for Santa...the kids loved to watch...

Elise even remembered that last year the sparklers were different colors, and was quite concerned that he would know it was still us. She cracks me up.

And now, everyone is tucked in. We are all looking forward to a few days filled with family and friends. Mo and Phillip are en route at this moment after a trip through some of the horrible rain. We can't wait to see them and to spend some time together.

We hope you and your families are filled with the love of family, the warmth of friendship, the joy of Christmas, and the Peace of Jesus this holiday season.

Merry Christmas!

Love,

The Parnell Five

reindeer games

Check out the extra cute shirts my kiddos are sporting these days. Handmade just for them by Suzanne. How adorable can you get?? And trust me, with the little bit of sewing I do, I KNOW these were a labor of love. Chenille is tough to sew on. They are the cutest things ever and they have been sporting them non-stop. As soon as we wear them I toss them in the wash so they are ready to go again!






The kids have been singing lots of Christmas carols. I love them all, but my favorite today has to be "We wish you the Peace of Jesus", which around here is being sung as "We wish you a piece a Jesus".
The other top contender is Happy Birthday Jesus. My favorite part is when Elise goes into her falsetto for "the real gift is yooooouuuuuuu!". David and I have to hold back the laughs. We wouldn't want to crush her American Idol hopes.

I can't help but smile.

The one sour note of our Christmas vacation thus far has to be the fact that Lila has fallen off of the potty training bandwagon. After a month of big girl underwear, we had finally gotten to the point where I wasn't even nervous in public with her. I trusted that she had it totally down pat. Well, based on the hugely disgusting mess I just finished cleaning up (I'll spare you the gory details), I would say the fact that she has completely regressed has been confirmed. Don't know what is up with that. I know I shouldn't compare, but it is hard not to do so. Elise HATED to have an accident. Lila seems to think it is kind of funny. And the mess all over herself and the floor doesn't phase her one bit. So, I guess we are back to two in diapers around here until she can prove she is a big girl again. Bennett stills seems very content to just let me change his diaper rather than going to all of the effort of pulling his pants down to potty!

I can't believe Christmas is so near....

Hope you are all enjoying your week!