and to all a goodnight

This was how I found sweet Emmie sleeping when I went to tuck her in last night. The best part was when I pulled back her blanket to move her to the bed she was laying on about 10 books!

Stuff

Yesterday my mom came for the day and it was so nice. We haven't seen her since mid January and she starts her stem cell process soon so she won't be able to be around the girls until her immunity starts building back up. I was so, so glad that she was able to come visit and the girls had lots of fun with Gran.

the girls gave Gran the princess treatment!

Today we went to the zoo with Lindsay and Mason.

Emmie and Mason were so cute holding hands. Poor Mason just got dragged along wherever Emmie wanted to go!

Emmie milking the cow!

Ellie was not so sure about how this process worked!

Emmie had the best time feeding all the animals. She fed the giraffes, goats, and the lorry birds. Usually she'll give the giraffe one piece of lettuce and then she's done and she normally doesn't want to hold the nectar for the birds but I guess she was feeling super brave today and I was extremely impressed with how well she did with the birds.

(she was starting to get a little upset by the time I got my camera out)

Ellie enjoyed feeding the goats and the giraffe. She was really funny...she has no fear so she was practically sticking her hand down their throats while she was feeding them. It was making me a little nervous that she was going to be short a few fingers when all was said and done (plus the giraffe slobber was getting all over me as well..yuck)! When we were getting ready to go to the zoo this morning Emmie told me she wanted to ride the horse and since there wasn't a line I let her. She always amazes me with how well she does on the pony!

 Emmie melted down after the birds (the girls were up early this morning which was just lovely since I haven't been sleeping well the last few nights) so we headed on home for naps.
I also thought I'd share with you Ellie's choice of outfits post-bath tonight. She wore this outfit and "flew" around the house.

(those are Emmie's shoes by the way and fairy wings on her back)

Today

Usually I sit at my computer and think "hmm...what did I do today?" and then I get frustrated because I felt like I ran around all day and at the end of the day it seems like I didn't get anything done.
Today however the question is "what DIDN'T I do today?".
We had quite the busy day today but it was super productive which makes me happy!

We took a meal to a new family at church today so the day started out with a quick trip to the grocery store...in the pouring rain. I'm not even kidding when I say that every single day it rains I have some reason that I have to go to the grocery store. But the trip was pretty painless and we managed to not get too wet so all  was good.
After the grocery store we swung by the house and picked up Franklin and ran him over to Amanda's to get his nails clipped. It was quick and painless (at least for me and the girls...Franklin might tell a different store...getting his nails clipped is about his least favorite thing in the world...it's right up there with being petted by a small child).
We came home and I got busy making dinner. It was quite nice to have everything ready for dinner by noon! All I had to do tonight was pop it in the oven for 30min and heat up some rice...awesome! After I cooked the dinner I even managed to get the dishes washed too, put up the girl's clean clothes, and throw in a load of laundry.
Then I fixed the girls a delicious lunch of eggs and waffles. We had this at lunch because they had pb&j at breakfast. That's Emmie's new favorite breakfast food...silly girl! Actually, I think she started doing it to see if she could get a rise out of me since she was asking for lunch food at breakfast...she was sorely dissapointed but then she decided she really liked having pb&j for breakfast so there you go. Poor Ellie just has to go with the flow. I always load their sandwich up with peanut butter and just a little jelly so they start off their day with lots of protein. (By the way, have you tried Earth Fare's organic peanut butter? So yummy!)
Once the girls got down for naps I read for a bit and then headed upstairs to work on my Secret Sewing Project (SSP). I'm super excited about it and my friend that's helping me clearly knows me well...she gives me deadlines for getting different steps done...I so need a deadline when I'm working on project and usually I create my own deadline so I'm up all night the week before an outfit has to be finished. My friend rocks and I'm going to have this project done way ahead of time...yay! So anyway I realized I had lots of work to get done before she gets back from her out of town trip which is when my next deadline is. (I use the term deadline loosely she's really not the sewing nazi.) In this time period I also managed to clean my sewing machine, change the needle, order the rest of the fabric for the SSP, and sign up to work at Tot Trade (hello super early shopping AND an extra percentage on the clothes I'm consigning...score!).
After naps we headed over to deliver our meal and visited for a few minutes and then came back home and got our dinner ready. Lately Emmie seems to always be starving...I had to give her a mid morning snack this morning and she had eaten all of her breakfast and still managed to eat all of her lunch and then some! So she didn't get a snack after naptime so as you can imagine the world was about to come to an end if she didn't eat immediately! While dinner was cooking I managed to fold and put up some laundry (Ellie's bank-bank was in that load so I was glad it dried quickly...the whole having to wash bank-bank is slightly traumatic for Ellie), get a little more done on the SSP (aren't you DYING to know what it is? the evil part of this situation is that it will be many months before I reveal the SSP...and no it has nothing at all to do with a baby...I know someone out there was thinking that so we'll squash that rumor before it starts!). Also while dinner was getting ready Ellie climbed up in Emmie's chair at the kitchen table with some playdoh and started jabbering and it took me a minute but then I realized she was telling me "I'm Emmie!".

She thought she was so funny (and who are we kidding...she is so funny!) and I thought it would be a good moment to get her on video telling me what her name is. You can't really hear her say her own name in the video but I think the part where she's trying to tell me she's Emmie is hilarious!

After dinner I vaccumed the whole house (Ellie so kindly assisted me) and then got really ambitious and flipped and turned the mattress on the guest bed...talk about a workout! Then it was bathtime and then bedtime for the girls. I put Emmie to bed first and then came out to find this situation...the kid cracks.me.up!

I had to PRY that bag out of her hands...she thought she was taking it to bed! Also, for those of you who don't know, that is the infamous Baby that she sleeps with.

By the way, did I mention that in addition to having to pick out her shoes in the morning Ellie is also insistent on picking out her pajamas at bedtime? Yep, she's a little diva but oh so stinkin' cute!

I was super impressed with myself tonight because Paul wasn't home to help but I still managed to get the girls in bed by 7:35. Excellent. Then I headed upstairs to work some more on the SSP and after making quite a bit of progress and only having to call the sewing nazi (hehe) once ( I was pretty impressed with myself) I headed back downstairs to wrestle Emmie into staying in her bed and write this blog!
I think I had quite the productive day!I
I'm also very excited that I've managed to keep my small children germ free this week so that my mom can come visit us tomorrow!!! The girls and I are so excited the last time we saw her was early January and I've been so scared that someone would get a cold this week and she wouldn't get to come but we did it...we stayed well...quite the feat with 2 small children in the middle of winter!

waiting for daddy

Look who was excited to see daddy get home the other night!

The Quiet Moments

With a 3yr old and a 19mo old there aren't many quiet moments at our house but lately the girls have been spending the time between dinner and bathtime sitting in the den together reading. I love having those few minutes of quiet at the end of the day!

Snowflakes

I was so excited when the forecast called for some snow today. Debbie Downer (aka Paul) rudely tried to burst my happy bubble by telling me that it wouldn't snow today but I believed!
When all your 3 year old asks for is snow and an Ariel doll for Christmas you hope and pray all winter that it will snow. I had pretty much given up on the snow thing...after all it's mid February and it was 70 degrees most of the month of January.
Lo and behold Ellie and I were at My Gym today and it started to snow! Sadly Paul and Emmie were at home and were upstairs and didn't see it and I called but Paul's phones were downstairs so he didn't hear me calling. By the time we left My Gym the snow had turned back into rain and by lunchtime it looked like the skies were clearing up. So I once again gave up on snow for Emmie.
Then the rain started again right before dinner and then the wintery mix started and then more snow! We bundled the girls up in their ski bibs and jackets and boots and sent them out to play in the snowflakes (sadly, I didn't get any pictures of that). After about 5 minutes it turned back into rain but I was so happy that Emmie got to see snow at her house!
After dinner I went to take some trash out and walked out into the garage and the snow was coming down pretty heavy!!! We had no idea! I hollered for Emmie and she was so excited! Ellie was too! Poor girls were in their PJs so we only stayed out for a few minutes but we were able to catch some snowflakes in our hands and on our tongues!

19 Months!

I am 19 months old today!

• When I was at the doctor earlier this month I weighed 23.4lb so I'm steadily gaining weight.
• I wear 18-24mo clothes and size 5 shoes.
• I am talking a lot more this month and starting to make small sentences.
• I have started liking more fruits. I still won't touch the green veggies but we're making progress on the fruit and veggie front. At any given moment in time I may or may not like blueberries, purple grapes (but not the green ones), strawberries, cuties, or apples.
• I now have 12 teeth! I have gotten all 4 molars this month which was NOT so much fun. It involved a day of fevers, LOTS of drooling, some fussiness, waking up in the middle of the night and lots of other not fun things. But now all the molars are in so we're done with that!
• For awhile whenever we dropped Emmie off somewhere I would cry and whine for Emmie until we went back to pick her up but I've definitely gotten a lot better lately. Now I tell her "bye bye" and say "miss you" and then I"m ok. I'm always so excited to pick her back up again though!
• At My Gym I do the exercises by myself.
• This month we went to the zoo and I was so brave and fed the giraffe.
• If you ask me my name I say "ey-ye". (sounds like Ellie but with y instead of L)

• This month we went to the mountains with Papa and GG and we went sledding in the snow. I had the best time sledding...I said "weeee" all the way down the hill!

• We had some really nice days this month which meant I got to play outside a lot. I LOVE to play outside!

• I still really like to play with my baby dolls.

• I rarely walk...I run pretty much everywhere!

• At night I sleep with Baby and my yellow duck blanket.
• I love to dress up like a princess with Emmie.
• I'm such a girly-girl! This month Mommy painted my fingernails and I'm so proud of them.

• I am a pretty content toddler but I will get mad if you don't let me where the shoes and outfit that I want to wear!

• This month we went to the Children's Garden and I took a mud bath...yuck!

• We had our Valentine's Party for our playgroup this month and I had so much fun decorating my box and cookie. I love arts and crafts and am really good about sitting still to do them.

• I really like to read books now. My favorites right now are Goodnight Moon and the jungle Wheels on the Bus. I will sing along to the Wheels on the Bus book and it's super cute!
  
  

Emmie at 19 months...I think they look so much alike except Emmie was a chunky baby! Here is Emmie's 19 month post.

Valentine's Party

Today we had our play group Valentine's party. We had it at our house and it was a little crazy with 12 kiddos! Fortunately the rain stopped for a bit so they were able to play outside some. We also decorated boxes and then distributed valentines and decorated cookies!

The whole crew (minus Andrew...he was eating)! Sophia, Mason, Kenzie, Lucy, Mikey, Emmie, Everett, Ellie, Parker, Mason, Jackson

Decorating boxes

The disaster on the playmat! Ellie was dumping all the boxes out!

Eating

Decorating cookies

Children's Garden

Tuesday we had a nice day (albeit a little breezy) so we headed over to meet some friends at the Children's Garden. We even took Franklin with us so he could run around...and he did a great job staying near us. I was very impressed. I only put him on his leash when we were near the water because there were more people down there. After playing around for a bit we flew kites for a few minutes. However, Jackson was not a fan of the kites so we didn't do that for too long! We then headed down to the pond where there's a little stream off to the side. Christina had brought some rubber frogs and lizards and a net and the kids had a blast fishing the rubber animals out of the stream. And then Ellie fell into the mud. She was not too happy about it until she realized that she got to take off her clothes and then she thought it was great. Fortunately Christina had brought a change of clothes for Jackson so Ellie borrowed one of his shirts!

Emmie flying her kite.

Ellie "fishing". That mud puddle that Franklin is sniffing is the one Ellie later fell in.

Jenna and Baby Luke.

I thought for sure Emmie was going in trying to get the lizard out!

Remembering

Today we went to the Children's Garden with Christina and Jackson and our friend Jenna from work and her baby Luke. The Children's Garden has this really big open field and since it was breezy today Christina brought kites for the kids to fly.
The neat thing about that is that today would have been my cousin John's 30th birthday. John passed away last year after a five year fight with a very aggressive brain tumor but one thing I always remember about him was how he loved to fly kites. Our families went to Kiawah every year and John would always bring his kite to fly on the beach. Over the years he got pretty good and his kites got pretty fancy. He was always trying to do new tricks with his kites and I think we were all entertained watching him.
So today when Christina pulled out the kites I immediately of John and thought it was a perfect way to remember him...flying a kite on his birthday!

Digging Out

I think we're finally starting to dig out from the hole of sickness we've been in the last 2 weeks (although Paul is trying to get sick now but hopefully he'll manage to avoid the worst of it).

Yesterday the girls played together really well all day (except for the moment where Emmie closed Ellie in the closet and Ellie almost passed out). They had a ball playing with pincesses and then pulled out their baby dolls and had a great time taking care of them. They are so funny to watch play together now that Ellie is talking more and more. It's neat to watch them communicate with each other. After taking care of their dolls they then pulled the toy boxes out of their rooms and played one of their favorite games where they get in their boxes and pretend to sleep.

The baby dolls are ready to eat!

"Amen" (Ellie's prayer for her doll...so cute!)

Princess Emmie's doll is ready to eat!

There's an Ellie in the box!

For dinner last night we got pizza and ate in the den while we watched the game. The girls thought it was great fun especially since they got to use their tailgate chairs!

Super Bowl Party!

Today I got up about 5:45 to go stand in line to sign Emmie up for preschool. Christina and I were #2 and #3 in line and we were total rockstar moms...haha! We got our kiddos signed up for preschool and I was really glad we went so early. There were only 4 spots for 3 year old 2 days a week and there weren't any spots for the 3 days a week.

Super Moms!

I took Ellie to My Gym this morning but after that we laid around and had a very relaxing day. The girls were so cute this afternoon. They were sitting in the chair in the den reading books and very nicely passing them back and forth. Such sweet girls!

Ellie in the chair...Emmie got up before I could a picture.