Braces & Snow!

Literally everything they’re wore this morning was matching! Black pants with silver sparkles, new t-shirts, same boots, and giant puffer jackets that Nana got on clearance at the end of the season last year, that they just wore for the first time today. And they’ll certainly get some good use out of those jackets this week!

Jeff took both girls to school today, because he actually had the whole day off work today (and tomorrow), due to the bad storm that was on the way.

I worked a half day, and then I already had pre-approved leave for this afternoon, for Emerson’s orthodontist appointment. So I ran home at noon to pick up Jeff, and then we went together to pick up Emerson early from school, to head over to Dr. Burch’s office. A few months back, her dentist referred us to the orthodontist, because they could tell her mouth and jaws and teeth would need some assistance.

She did so amazing getting the work done today, and both the ladies were so impressed with how calm and brave and chill she was the whole time. Emmie will have two different phases of braces, one now for about 12-18 months, with just a few brackets on her top teeth – four in the front, and one in the way back on each side with the coils (or whatever they’re called?) connecting. The goal is to bring her front four little bunny teeth down and back, so that her lower jaw can finally have space to grow out itself, because currently her top teeth are actually preventing her bottom teeth/jaw from growing correctly.

She was smiling so big when she got her first glimpse of the new braces in the mirror!

She got to pick the colors of the bands, and even with only four bands, she picked out four different colors, so she has a different color on each tooth. We’ll have to go back for little check-ups every six weeks or so, and then they also want us to add in some extra cleanings at the regular dentist if we can, so we’ll have to look into that… She’s actually really happy with them, and with how they turned out. And of course she’s still the most adorable little girly, with her sweet little braces now!


We had planned to take her to a new ice cream place on our side of town as a special treat after getting her braces on. But by the time we picked up Addison from school when daycare closed, and made it back to our side of town, the ice cream place was closed for the storm! So instead, we ran inside Publix and let her pick anything from the ice cream aisle (well, anything she could eat with a spoon), and she chose a box of cherry lemonade Italian ice’s!

And of course I made myself another iced “teddy graham latte,” and then settled down in a comfy chair in the late afternoon darkness, with my Kindle for a little reading time. I’m currently reading “The Women,” by Kristin Hannah. I’ve loved all of her recent books (The Nightingale, The Great Alone, The Four Winds) and this current book has gotten rave reviews lately too.

Eventually, I decided to turn my chair around so I could watch out the front window for the snow to start.

Then these two cuties stole my spot for a bit, so I relocated to the couch.

We started seeing some snow flurries coming down, so we got all layered up and went out into the front yard to play in it. I took tons of photos and videos, but you really can’t see it much in any of the photos. The girls thought it was pretty amazing though, and we stayed out for about 20 minutes with them just running wild back and forth.

We had all the softest foods possible for dinner tonight (meatloaf, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, bread & butter), in the hopes Emmie would be able to eat a decent meal.And it worked, because although she had to learn to take tiny bites, and eat with mainly only her back/side teeth, she was able to eat pretty well. And then she had another icee 🙂

Addison saw Emerson telling me a secret, so she hopped up to copy-cat and tell Daddy a secret, but all she said was jibberish. But in the spirit of that, here are some funny things she’s said recently, that I’ve been writing down and forgetting to share.

Some of my bones are not good and they’re not clean. I ate some Goldfish and they’re not clean.

The feathers are coming! I’m gonna ’bout to see them when it snows!! (I think “feathers” is “flurries.”)

When I grow up, I can have some of ’em, at her school. (talking about braces)

I have so many thoughts and I’m not tired. (when she should have been napping)

I am hungry, but only for cheese puffs.

Look at that big dirt of mountain!

Can you hear it? It’s my bread! Can you see if? It’s my bread!

We needed some hot tea on this cold night, so I got out my new box of tea I got for Christmas, “Winter Spice.” And obviously that was the perfect option for this truly wintery night!

I also lit a brand new candle, and it’s such an interesting smell. I thought it was going to be more woodsy and earthy, but it’s not really. But I don’t really know how to describe what it actually smells like… But I like it! I just asked Jeff what he thought it smelled like, and he said “An old country store?” This is actually one of the ones he picked out a while back, when he was “curating candles” for me out shopping one day. (Wow, just realized that was actually over a year ago! I keep a little stash in my linen closet, and pull out new ones when I’m ready.)

Jeff and Pennie just got back from a 20-minute walk in the snow up and down our road and in the front and back yard. And Pennie never would go potty. But he saw multiple people try to drive up the steep hill beyond our driveway, and get literally stuck in the ice halfway up…

We’ve seen TONS of photos of everyone else around town playing in the snow, and so it seems like it’s snowing literally everywhere else in Tallahassee except our little neighborhood. Well, it’s still raining/sleeting/snowing out there, and some of it is finally starting to stick on the ground here at our house. So who knows, maybe there will be more to see in the morning when we wake up!