New Years Eve around these parts

Isn’t my new kitchen artwork beautiful? My friends gifted it to us for Christmas and I couldn’t possibly love it more. That constant reminder of Christ’s sacrifice for me and the growth that He gives us, placed in my kitchen. The room of the house that gets the most use.

I hope your New Years Eve celebration was a sweet as ours. We kept it simple with all of our littles running around. They did get to stay up late. Ten o’clock. Wow!

I am thankful for:

The look on her face when she sees ice cream being served.

The joy these two have. Their excitement is contagious!

Homemade ice cream cake to ring in the New Year

Because what could be better than ice cream cake?

A Crazy Costume Competition to end the evening? (Lexi decided to wear her Birthday Suit)

How did you spend your New Years Eve?

What we’re up to: Told in Pictures

A whole lot of cute

A whole lot of busy

A little bit of baking

A lot of holidays

Some visiting

A little bit of decorating (and of course, admiring!)

A lot of playing with toys and animals

a whole lot of summer!

Just a quick note…for now.

Yes, we are alive and kicking! It’s been months since I posted here due to Facebook invading my life, that’s where most of my pictures and updates are. I remembered that there are a few people who don’t use Facebook but do like to read my blog and see the zaney antics of my girls via this blog (I’m talking to you Nana Cantrell!)

Here’s the run down:

Lexi, 22 months old. Her latest adventures include knocking down the Christmas tree, using my makeup brush to clean the toilet bowl, ripping her diaper off and streaking through the house with an amazing amount of toddler-ish energy. She is busy.

Abigail is busy with her usual stuff, saying the funniest things, wearing the coolest clothes, still sucking her thumb to fall asleep, and filling all of her coloring books with her beautiful coloring talent.
Elena is, as usual, practicing her Future Mommy skills. She likes to boss, help and clean. Her favorite word to write is GOD and she can’t wait to start school again. She also tries to sneak and turn the Air Conditioner on whenever we’re not looking.
That’s all for now, and I’ll try to update more but I’ll need to find an extra 30 minutes to plop into our days in order to do so. Anyone have extra minutes laying around they can gift me for Christmas?

No?

I didn’t think so.

Chicken Run!

The other day we had quite the adventure. I’ll let Elena tell you about it in her own words:

“Okay. Once upon a time, there was a chicken right next door and it came into our yard, and Alice was chasing it and I was screaming “Daddy! Daddy! Save the chicken!” And then Daddy stopped Alice, and I picked up the chicken. I was so proud of me! Then I was five years old, but now I’m six. And that was a very funny day. My Daddy was laughing very hard when he was chasing the chicken.”

Abbie’s view on that day:

“I was thinking if that chicken would get dead by Alice. I was sooo worried. I screamed very loud. And laughing too. And I thinkded that I would have to take it back to the man that the chicken belongs to. Because I was scared of the chicken. And that’s it.”

Captain Alice’s view:

“Chicken. Get in my belly.”

The End.

Why I blog

Sometimes I forget why I blog. Why do I feel the need to post something as often as possible? It isn’t to make money, obviously. And I don’t really do it to interact with people although I LOVE getting comments. I blog so that one day my girls can remember what they did, said, and acted like “way back when.”

So…to my three little crazies, on this day, September 8th of the year 2011 this is what your day looked like:

Mornings are slow….Angry Birds on the couch while Mommy makes oatmeal for breakfast.

It was a rainy, drippy day and Elena had the best idea yet – put on rain boots and play in the mud. She ran around in circles, splashing in puddles and shouting out “BEST.DAY.EVER!!” (For those who don’t know, that’s a line from the movie Tangled)

Then it was time to make dinner…a new recipe, Potato Pizza! It was yummy and they were both sweet in the kitchen.

My big girls helped by sprinkling rosemary on to the pizza and then feeding leftover bits of fresh parsley to their pet caterpillar named Pasqual, who I am sorry to inform you blog readers, passed away this afternoon. Caterpillars don’t like to be pulled apart into two pieces, this was Abbie’s lesson of the day.

Except for a long game of Ring Around the Rosy with Lexi before bed, those are all of the highlights of today in pictures.

Just little snippets of our days for my girls to remember, I usually only write about the good stuff. There were also some bad attitudes, laziness, and whining today.

(Mostly all from me, and that’s the truth.)

Messy girls!

Things I love about this picture.

1. Crocs. My girls each own two pairs of shoes. Flip flops and crocs. That’s it. There’s not a lot of dressing up around here and I feel that we’re still sorting and cleaning lots of shoes as it is.

2. Lexi is covered in water. She’s a big girl and wanted to drink out of a regular cup, which resulted in being soaked.

3. Scabby knees, bruised legs, and dirt smears. Playing outside is so good for them!

4. Color. I love all the colors they are wearing.

Two more weeks till we move into our house!! I feel like I’ve been waiting for this move for two years (oh wait…I have been!) I wonder what I will do with my life once it’s done? 🙂

Abbie’s Fashion

All over the internet I am finding blogs where people talk about what their kids wore. Vintage outfits and what not. It’s very cute. Check out Pippi Parade, pretty neat, right?

We all know I’m not good with the fashion stuff, my girls dress themselves every day. Elena is very conscious about what she wears and how it looks.

Abbie is sort of like me.

Is it comfortable? If yes, wear it. If not, don’t.

I give you A Week In Abigail’s Fashion:

Notice, when it’s cold she just puts tons of clothes on. A dress, over a skirt, over leggings.

Why not?

What is it?

We made this hair clip thingy today out of circles of fabric. We went crazy with the hot glue gun. We can’t decide if it looks like a fabric flower hair clip or like a bunch of fabric circles hot glued together.

What do you think?

Elena couldn’t hold still, this is normal.

Abbie kept making funny faces for the camera, this also is normal.

Today I got all the laundry done.

(And by done I mean washed, NOT, washed, folded and put away. That would just be crazy.)

Eggs, Paper, Paint, Sandwiches

*Whew*

Today is over and it was a good day, but I’m Tired. (Yes, with a capital T!)

Abigail learned how to make her own peanut butter and jelly sandwich today. She was very proud of herself and told me to “tell your computer I can make my own sandwiches.” I think that’s her way of saying “please blog about me and my new skill.”

So there you have it, computer. Abbie can make her own sandwich.

She also made this painting which I really, really like. I think I might frame it for their play room in the new house.

One of the reasons I may be so tired is because I found two weeks worth of eggs smashed on the floor.

(Alice thought they were AWESOME.)

I won’t name which child did this, but here is a picture of a certain someone fleeing the scene.

Dear Lexi,

That’s a lot of eggs,

and they smashed on top of the construction paper

that I bought downtown.

Going downtown is a nightmare for me.

No more ruining construction paper, please!

Signed,

a Tired (with a capital T) Mommy

Same old same old

Today was big day around here.

We taught Alice how to play futbol.

She’s very passionate about the sport and shows lots of potential. Ha!

Elena drew a picture of this family and then took a picture of it.

Alexandra got into the puppy’s water dish (again) and I told her not to (again.)

Abbie pretended she was sleeping so that she wouldn’t have to clean up the mess she made. Sneaky.

Just another day in paradise!