CHEESE!

My sweet Ellie girl just hasn't gotten enough air time on this blog of mine.  And this little ham deserves her fair share!

She has become VERY mobile lately, crawling quickly and efficiently to wherever her little heart desires (usually chasing her sister), and now pulling up on just about anything she can get ahold of.  She is especially fond of Mama's legs, which is a little problematic in the kitchen, but quite endearing.

She LOVES this little table we have that plays music and makes all sorts of noise.  And it's just the right height for her to pull up on.  And she is so very proud of herself for this milestone reached.

My baby blue-eyes.  Man I love this kid.

And she really is becoming quite the little ham.  She can go from throwing a fit to smiling ear to ear if someone just looks at her and smiles (someone generally other than Mommy or Daddy - as in, an audience!).  She absolutely knew she was the center of attention last night during community group, and she took full advantage - waving, smiling, saying lots of "mamama's" (her new favorite!).  It was rather distracting, but really cute :)

And I think she's starting to figure out this camera thing...whatever this little cheesy grin is, it cracks me up!!

Daughter of an Oreo Lover

Last night after dinner, we gave the girls an early bath and headed over to a local frozen yogurt shop (because we had a buy one get one free coupon, of course).  It's one of those where you fill your own bowl with whatever flavor and toppings you choose...and there are a LOT of toppings to choose from.  Caroline and Daddy filled a bowl with cupcake batter yogurt and a smattering of toppings, including her favorites M&M's and Oreos.

As we sat outside and enjoyed the deliciousness, another family sat down next to us.  They had a little girl who appeared to be about the same age as Caroline, and the two hit it off right away.  I should add at this point that the other little girl had about 5 times as much hair as Caroline which was cut in a perfect little bob with a beautiful pink bow holding back her bangs just so, and she was taking tiny little licks of yogurt from her Mom's spoon.  Caroline's wispy fuzz was still a bit wet, she was in her pj's and had already dripped something chocolate down her yellow shirt.  The two starting chatting in adorable 2-year-old babble, and that's when it happened.

Caroline:  "Do you like ice cream?"

Other girl:  "Yep."

Caroline:  "Do you like Oreos?"

Other girl:  "What's that?"

Caroline:  "I LOVE Oreos!"

Other girl's Mama (also looking quite pristine) tries to describe - in detail - what an Oreo cookie is to her 2-year-old.  It becomes quite apparent that this child has never experienced an Oreo.

Caroline:  "You don't like Oreos?  I LOVE Oreos!  But they're Mommy's cookies."

Well, at least she didn't tell her that she might get one if she goes poopy.

I love my job

I was tired this morning.  Really tired.  So when I woke up at 7:30 to tell Dan good-bye and realized no one was crying or talking or moving yet, I went back to bed.  Then at 8:00 I got up and fixed myself a cup of coffee and had a solid half hour of peace and quiet to read my Bible and start my new study.  It was pure bliss.

Then they woke up.  And things got busy in a hurry.  Actually, that's not true.  Our mornings are pretty slow around here when we want them to be.  We lounged around, red some books, played on the floor, had waffles for breakfast.  When Ellie took her morning nap, Caroline played with a box of packing peanuts for at least a half hour, probably longer.  I did laundry and dishes, made some phone calls, etc.  But mostly I just enjoyed my girls today.  When Caroline woke up from her nap before Ellie, we played in the massive piles of pillows on my bed -- mostly because I was sleepy and it was a sneaky way to convince my busy girl to snuggle for a few minutes.

Some mornings, like yesterday, everyone is up at the crack of dawn (and some mornings, it's before that).  So when I realized we were already done with breakfast by 7:30, I decided we'd pack a quick lunch and go to the zoo.  It was 10 before we left, but that gave Ellie a nap and me a chance to get a little laundry done.  It was perfect weather and all 3 of us enjoyed it thoroughly.

I got to be here on Wednesday morning when Ellie really took off with the crawling, learning to sit herself back up when she made it to her destination.  I was here this morning when Caroline decided her babies needed real names, so she named them Bob, Babe & Mommy (brilliant!).  And right now, I'm watching my two girls play together, Caroline simultaneously performing and teaching Ellie how to drum, Ellie crawling towards her sister, grabbing for anything she can (and occasionally making big sister quite distraught in the process as she is beginning to disturb her plans...). 

Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of days when no one sleeps and everyone needs it and the to-do list is 100 miles long and has to get done with both girls hanging all over me.  And I am no fun to be around on those days.  But on days like today and yesterday, I am reminded of how richly blessed I am to be a stay-at-home mommy.  I am forever grateful to Dan for working as hard as he does to allow us days like these.  And I pray that God will remind me of this blessing often and deeply both now and in the years ahead.

Happy [belated] Easter! He is RISEN!

a-hiking we will go

Dan and I love to be outside.  Okay, Dan loves to be outside and I love it when it's between about 50-80 degrees.  I tolerate it at other times.  But last weekend fell very nicely within that range, so we packed up and headed out for a morning hike at a nearby state park.  It was actually chilly enough for jackets (for most of us), which has been a rarity around here lately!  Anyway, we had a fabulous time. 

Caroline has been drug along on enough "adventures" with Daddy in her short little life that she is really starting to get into this stuff.  For example, being the potty-trained girl that she is, Daddy ran into a bit of a problem awhile back while hiking.  But our little nature-girl prevailed and mastered the art of "going in the woods."  Fast forward a few days, I'm in the front yard one morning with both girls and a new friend helping us with our computer (whom we don't know well at all).  I hear Caroline tell me she needs to go potty, so I try to wrap up my conversation with computer man when he suddenly bolts for his car mumbling something along of the lines of "oh-i-better-go-and-let-you-take-care-of-that."  I turn around to find my lovely little redneck princess with her panties down around her ankles, talking proudly about how "Daddy taught me to potty in the grass!"  I'm pretty sure our ranking of classiness went way up that day.

At least no one will accuse us of  being city people!  Here are a few pictures of our most recent hike (don't worry, there's nothing indecent!):

Two peas in a pod

This picture took a little work to get by ourselves!

Ellie is following in her sister's footsteps...she's a pretty happy camper outdoors, too

Stranded!

Sisters

Ellie's first swing - very successful!

We coudn't convince our little ballerina that tutu's aren't the best hiking apparell.

She's HERE!!!

My beautiful niece arrived just a little while ago - at 11:12 pm - after a crazy fast delivery for Kelsey.  I'm sure she'll want to tell much much more, but I can't stand to not share the news right now!  Sweet little Blythe Kathleen Irwin -- welcome to the world!  Your Aunt Kali is head over heels for you! 

P.S.  Why do I have to live so ever-lovin far away???

P.P.S.  I have 3 precious pictures on my phone that I am trying to transfer to this computer, but I'm just not that tech saavy, nor do I have internet on my phone.  My guess is that by the time anyone reads this there will be a gazillion [much better quality] photos already posted and no one will care.  But let it be known that I tried.

another day at home

Have I mentioned before that I LOVE being home with my girls?  Oh sure, it's a lot of work, and some days we all get a little stir crazy if we don't go anywhere.  But most days we find plenty to do around here.  Like playing on an air mattress, for instance.  It's been laying on the floor of the play room since Monday night, and everyday Caroline has found a new use for it.  I love seeing that girl's imagination come alive!  I don't exactly know what type of "use" you would call this for the mattress (maybe a stage?), but here's an example of my girls hard at play:

Did you see my little Ellie waving?!? She's growing and changing everyday it seems right now. In fact, here's something else she's been up to:

You see that little play table waaaay back in the distance?  Well that's where I left this little monkey.  Sitting up, playing nicely at her table.  Stationary.  And then I turned around and found her here!

She's quite the determined little thing.  Roll, scoot, reeeaaaach...whatever it takes to get to whatever she wants :)  She's not really crawling yet, but scooting for sure.

And this little Missy is rather proud of herself I think!