Holidays with Two Little Girls

During these holidays, the Goodwin Girls learned the valuable art of sharing.



First lesson, when there are two girls two years apart, everything will be shared--beginning with Blankie and ending with prom dresses.

Shiloh was dedicated in November, and so Tim and I learned about sharing her with God. Makes me less nervous when I know the Guy Who Made Everything is in charge of brain development regardless of how much Omega 3-6-9 I had when I was pregnant or the husband she'll marry someday whether or not I need to "arrange" those things now or later, etc.
















Shiloh was wearing her great-great-grandmother's christening gown. Thanks, Nida Hazel Clodfelter Brown, for sharing that relic.















Canaan sporting her gymnastics ability on the uneven bars. She'll soon learn to share the Olympic Gold with Nastia Liukin.
























Grandpa's 60th birthday! Not only did we share the fabulous cake, but Canaan and Grandpa also share an uncanny squinty, side-smiling grin. Who knows what they're looking at. Or Shiloh, for that matter.























In November, we took the girls to Berry for our college friend's wedding. Here, a classic look of Shiloh's--content, chicken-fuzz-hairdo, Cheeks McGee, and simply happy.

Canaan's classic two year old look--mischievous, silly, What-Did-You-Just-Put-In-Your-Mouth, wild at heart kind of look.

And Thanksgiving arrives! Matching and monogrammed dresses, pictures at the Mountain House where we spent Thanksgiving Take 1, and the girls are learning to share bows.















At the Goodwin's for Thanksgiving Take 3 (Take 2 was spent at the Pitt's side of the family). We all learn about the Original Shared Feast between the Pilgrims and Indians. Canaan, who is convinced Tiger Lily (from Peter Pan) was actually at the Thanksgiving feast, has now decided that will be her Halloween 2011 Costume.

Shiloh learns about sharing kisses--because who can resist those Cheeks McGee?

Christmas arrives! We begin the season by decorating the house--Canaan helps set up the Nativity scene and soon learns the importance of sharing Jesus with the world. Naked, of course.

We get our Christmas Tree at a real farm with real horses and real hack-saws and real trees in the ground.

Pop-pop and Daddy share the burden of lugging the newly-chopped tree back to the homestead while Canaan brings up the rear.






















Shiloh is thrilled with the prospect of having a real tree in our house! Yeah for Christmas!!















Canaan and Shiloh share the lap of the Santa with the real beard! I was planning on waiting in line for two hours while the girls had on matching monogrammed Christmas dresses to take pictures with the Santa with the really real beard, but Tim over-rode that decision for this Santa--free pictures and no line. At least they were both wearing matching bows.




Shiloh on the reindeer.
















A valuable lesson mother learned this Christmas Season: to share the responsibility of decorating our beloved Tree. Here, Canaan demonstrates the art of Feng Shui using a small tree, 97 sparkly snowflakes, three large holly balls, and one extremely heavy jingle bell. Amazingly accomplished while in her Little Bo Peep Outfit.

Canaan and Shiloh learn the art of Cookie Making for the upcoming cookie swap we hosted at our house. Shiloh is directing the flow of things while Canaan is busy, "Eat the dough, smash the dough, eat the sugar, spill the sugar, eat the dough, smash the dough, eat the sugar..."









I learned how to share a special tradition with my girls--a tradition we'd do every Christmas since I was little. Making Peanut Blossoms with my Aunt Beth and sister and cousins. And now, Canaan demonstrates how to prepare the dough for baking.










The Cookie Swap: featuring such friends as Andre Clark and Mackenzie Thornton, among many others. We made snow, decorated cookies, ate cookies, ate pizza, and ran amok in the back yard! We continue to learn how fun it is to share life with each other.










After the party, girl drama. Canaan not happy with ________ and Shiloh about to fall asleep at the wheel in her Bumpo seat.


We experience our share of drama in the Goodwin Household.












And Shiloh's asleep. If only the laundry would wash and fold itself, the food would cook itself, Canaan could wipe herself, and the dirt would sweep itself, I could hold Shiloh all day.



















During Christmas Part One at the Mountain House with the Trane's, Canaan practices sharing her seven-inch sandwich with Grandpa.













Each Christmas, we've been video taping the kids singing "Away in a Manger" (really, just this year you can actually make out the words. And just this year we went to "kids" plural.). In the following video, you'll see how Canaan shares her love with her sister, as well as slobber and whip-lash.










At the Christmas Eve service, we shared candles with a thousand other people at our awesome church, Watermarke, located off Sixes Road in Canton, services at 9:30 and 11:15. (A shameless plug for our church.)









Shiloh is elated at the prospect of having her very first CHRISTMAS EVE!! Delicious food is on the table, Christmas attire is donned, the tree is laden with presents, and Santa is on the way!















And the family portrait is taken! Canaan, eyes closed, hands clasped in excitement, Shiloh dazed at the amount of pictures being flashed...















...this was supposed to be the "Everyone kiss Shiloh" picture, but Canaan decided to kiss her Dad's shoulder blade instead. That's sweet.













Another sweet picture of "Unka John" and the girls! We shared Christmas Eve with him this year--and good thing, too. The 492 piece, two-hour minimum assembly time kitchen was tackled by my engineer brother. Thanks, John.
















And the moment we've all been waiting for...the cookies baked for Santa, the carrot crisp for the reindeer, Canaan's lips coated in chocolate, Shiloh hanging on for dear life...it's Christmas Eve.

















Christmas Morning 2010, shared with our friends and family on video!









Shiloh rips into her gift, ready to share the spoils of Christmas with her sister.
















Canaan, masking her enthusisam at recieving the final piece of her Bitty Baby Nursery--the long awaited for Changing Table! Thanks Grammy!!!





















Shiloh, not masking her enthusiasm at recieving a barrage of baby toys!














And in January, we were all pleasently surprised to share a week of snowed-in fun! Ariel the Little Mermaid, of course, shared in the winter activities...


















...eating snow (snow tastes best when you slip into a tutu first)...















...taking pictures (my favorite: the obligatory "Everyone-Get-In-The-Picture" picture, regardless of the 5 month old's desire to take a picture, laying helpless and immobile on the snow. Nevertheless, we got the Snow Angel picture.)












And we all loved Daddy's ability to share in a week's worth of adventure! Thanks, Goodwin Investment Advisory! We love that CEO!










































Like all Georgians, we had to sled down our "hills" using whatever the Good Lord provided in our garage or back yard. The sand box top worked for us.


Check out the sledding video in the next blog (Blogspot couldn't handle all the megabytes or whatever, so we had to load some video on a seperate blog.)

Finally, our holidays wrap up with a little late-night cooking, clad only in a towel, Canaan shares her culinary masterpieces with the family. Cookie icing for us...

...and broccoli for Shiloh. On Shiloh's five month anniversary, January 7, we feed her Real Food for the first time--broccoli. She loves it. The video in the next blog chronicles our super-parenting skills in feeding our child broccoli for her first food.

Shiloh, with all her loving heart, has learned the valuable lesson of sharing during the holiday season. She shares the broccoli with us, Tim's shirt, her chin, and later, out the sides of her diaper.

Life is more fun when you share it with your kids and each other, regardless of the mess or the plans that don't go according to what you thought it'd look like. God has a lot to share with us and we learn it best through our kids.

Busy Girls!

Life with two girls becomes busy quickly. In this picture, Canaan is busy watching for the "plane show"--every plane with a smoke trail she sees shooting across the sky happens to also be a plane show, like the one we saw months and months ago. So living within 20 miles of Dobbins airport keeps her busy.

Shiloh, at two months in this picture, is busy looking at Canaan. And because Canaan is constantly busy, just watching her busy-ness will wear you out.

Thus the reason for sleeping much of the day. It could also be that the rate of hair-growth wears a sister out. Look at that chicken fuzz hair!

So what does a parent of two children do to expend energy? Harness your two year old to a bungee cord, dangling her over a trampoline. Solving two issues: 1.) She can jump her little heart out and have expended enough energy to be ready to walk and enjoy the rest of the fair without us having to give chase through crowds of thousands saying, "STOP! Stop running right now! Come back!!! No more rides for you, young lady, if you don't get BACK HERE!!!" 2.) Daddy, Shiloh, and I can go get a funnel cake or a cup of coffee or something and relax for about 20 minutes since she can't really go anywhere.

A two year old can also get the busy-ness out by playing with other two year olds! Here, Canaan is enjoying Mountain Day at Berry College with old neighbor, Caroline Swafford.

Here, Shiloh is enjoying floor-time with her friend Isabella Lyle, three weeks older. The energy of a two year old and the energy of a two month old varies in intensity--these girls are extremely busy at bone-growth, working on double chins, keeping the bow positioned properly, etc.

And for a lot of busy-ness, we go to the girls' favorite friend's, the Clark's!! Andre, busy looking for pirates in his toilet-paper-tube-binoculars, Selah busy eating a condiment of some sort, Shiloh busy eating her hand, Canaan busy thinking about jumping up and "freaking out" after the picture is taken. Which she has told me while jumping frantically on the bed, "Mom, I'm freaking out!!!" I'd freak out too if I had that much energy coursing through my veins.

Another plane show--and a freak-out session by little sister. For all Shiloh's laid-backness, when she does get agitated and starts screaming, it's so intense it makes me think every time, "It must be her appendix that's ruptured. Surely a poopy diaper isn't this bad."

And another picture with the girls! We're always busy trying to capture sweet memories--like Canaan and Shiloh trying to make the same squinty-eyed, awkward-smiley face.

Amidst the busyness of our lives, Tim and I do still have date nights and conversations that don't consist of singing "To-MORROW, to-MORROW, I LOVE YA, to-MORROW". While they're fewer than the days Before Kids, we appreciate them even more. Just like we appreciated all the wine we drunk after visiting this vineyard.

With Halloween comes the annual Picking-Of-The-Pumpkin. Here, Canaan is "holding" Shiloh while Shiloh is desperately trying not to slip into the scratchy hay underneath.

Afterwards, we get busy carving those pumpkins. And not your typical smiley-face pumpkin, but a really unique one, which Tim is ever so excited about "carving what into that little pumpkin?"

Shiloh is excited about her first pumpkin-carving experience. She's busy holding the tiny pumpkin for us while we get to the other ones.

Canaan is busy scooping out the "pun-kin guts", having to resort to scooping-blind since the pumpkin guts have sealed her eyes shut, her hair to her forehead, and her shirt orange-stained forever.

Shiloh is much cleaner and much more efficient. The only casualty here was a stray seed.

Alas, the pumpkin of Halloween 2010 is finished. Shiloh is mesmerized, Canaan is ready to spring back into action as soon as the picture is finished, and the Pumpkin Guy is posed to welcome the three trick-or-treaters we get since we're miles away from the entrance to our neighborhood and technically in "The Bridgemill Ghetto."

In preparation for Halloween, Canaan's cousin Courtney teaches her a classic Halloween dance: Thriller.

For Halloween, Canaan and Shiloh matched (of course) and were monogrammed (in case someone forgot their names). They were "Pink and Green Tinkerbell."

After much deliberation, we chose Tinkerbell since tu-tus are really cute, who doesn't love to wear wings, fairies make for darling pictures, I already bought the stuff by the time Canaan changed her mind and wanted to be Tiger Lilly instead, and ultimately, I'm the boss around here.

Shiloh, an extremely happy and content baby,

was okay with being green Tinkerbell. Really, she's okay with anything right now. Actually, she's not okay with Canaan trying to "nurse" her or with Canaan trying to get her Uncle Michael to "nurse" her. Other than that, she's okay with everything else.

Not being as busy as her sister, Shiloh sleeps through most of Halloween, content to let her good friend, Selah the Elephant fill her in on the action she missed while sleeping in Dad's arms.

Some of that action included a sword fight between Captain Feathersword and Red Power Ranger. Canaan was busy simply eating all her Halloween candy, knowing it'd be a full year before she ate a Butterfinger again.

After trick-or-treating with Andre and Friends on Saturday, we trick-or-treated in our neighborhood on Sunday. In this video, Canaan is busy trying to tell us what is special about this day while thinking, "How fast can I run from one house to the next while still keeping my hair in this cute bun?" Shiloh is busy thinking, "I love my mom. I love food. I love clean diapers. I love my mom. I love sleep. I love my mom."

And since Halloween was a month ago, I've included this clip of Canaan's most recent two-year-old busy-ness. Her doll, Annie, got the brunt of that busy-ness when Canaan found a ball point pen.

And because God knows how much busy-ness a parent can handle, He gave Shiloh to us: sweet, happy, chilled-out Shiloh. Here she is at three and a half months old!

Life is certainly busy with little ones, but we keep reminding ourselves, they're only this little for a short time and enjoy those little blessings while we have them!!