The Backlog

I have so many pictures and so many words I want to write down before the moments just slip from my mind, like that one last thing I meant to pick up from the grocery store so often does.  We are in a very busy season of life right now and blogging seems to be the last thing I make time for.  I really hate that b/c I love this space of grammatical errors and run-on sentences.  It is filled with our life.
So, here are two pictures of my girls on Eater Sunday, especially for my friend Miss Jan (aka Laura's mom) who requested to see them in their Easter outfits.  I found a picture of a bonnet that I wanted to buy for Maggie, but thought my Mom could make one just as nice for cheaper...This one turned out more expensive (as always) and let's just say it turned out a hair more frilly then the original design I picked out!  But I really don't mind....if you can't pull off an extremely frilly bonnet when you're 3 months old, when can you?  Babs said she looked like a china doll, I said she bore a strange resemblance to Old Mother Hubbard...Either way, she is still very pretty and I like her round cheeks and bubbly lips very much.  I kiss them often, repeatedly..Some times I can't stop and people start starring...but just look at her, how I could I stop myself!

Grace and Peace and Easter Bonnets
xoxo

Circus Side Show Act

My girls were dressed up pretty on this warm Monday.
 I tried to get them to sit together for a picture so I could have one of them looking just "so" on my front steps.
 No one wanted to look just "so".

 Maggie Bell cried and Liberty gave her a sticker to try to calm her down.  It didn't work.  I stopped trying to get a perfect picture after that.

The following pictures are more real life.  Every time I try to go any where with  both  of my ladies I feel like we are on display. My mom told me that I need to get it together (thanks for that Babs :).  Is it just me, or is it a work out, both mentally and physically, trying to go any where with two little ones?




 I always wonder if I'm making it more difficult than it really is.  I come home from most outings feeling like I need a nap more than the kids do.  This could be any number of outings, from going to the grocery store (which after our last group trip, I have declared that I will never go alone with both of them again), the post office (ick), the park (which is supposed to be fun right?), a friend's house, and heaven forbid I try to go somewhere like a mall (my browsing days are through).

Truthfully, things go better when we stay at home and stick to the "routine"(as always, I use the term "routine"very loosely).  I'm okay with that, we have a lot of fun at home, but we can't stay here forever.  We have to go out sometimes, and there are days when we are all stir crazy and going somewhere is essential for our sanity.

You know, in the end I love the crazy- beautiful life we have.  I'm okay with not strolling through the Anthropologie sale racks.  I just need reassurance that I'm not the only young mother who finds going to the grocery store a challenge.  I want to know that I'm not the only circus act in town.

Here's to our circus act, may I cherish every moment for all to soon, I will be performing this show alone, which won't be nearly as much fun.

Grace and Peace and little girls who I'm afraid will never look just "so"
xoxo

The Special Hook

My Little cherishes balloons.

She loves them.
We could get rid of all other toys and just have rooms full of balloons and she would be the happiest kid in the world.

When we have them, they go everywhere with us.

Up to bed, down to breakfast, out in the garden...We had one balloon that lasted 2 months before I finally smuggled it out of the house and hid it from her in the garbage can.

A kind woman at Home Depot gave my Little a bright red, star shaped balloon yesterday. She loved it.  True to form the balloon went everywhere.  It floated up to bed with her, then it drifted into my room this morning, then down to breakfast, and out into the garden with her to play.

Can you see where this is going?  She let go of it for a split second and off that shiny balloon went.  I told her that floating up is what balloons do best, and that is why we tie ribbons to them so they can't fly away....Then I told her when something wants to fly it's hard to hold it down.

I wiped her "heart-broken cause my balloon flew away" tears away, and we went out for the rest of the day.  I might add, that every few minutes I had to answer "Mama, where'd my balloon go?"  "Libby where did Mama say the balloon went?"  Then she would answer "Up."

When we got home, right at dusk, something caught my eye.  There was her bright red, star shaped balloon, hooked to one of the highest branches of my neighbor's tree.  She put both hands on her hips, and said "Mama, my star is up der wif  da moon, it's got a special hook, right der.  Daddy needs a chair n some scissors and he get it down.  Mama, it didn't fy away, I can see it from my window."

It was probably one of the single most wonderful conversation I've ever had in my life.  I especially like the part when she said "my star's up der wif da moon"

I scooped her up and smiled...of course Daddy could get it with a chair and scissors.:)

Grace and Peace
ooxx

British People Enjoy Walking...At Least My British Person

I've always like this about my husband.  He always wants to take a walk.  Several Saturdays ago, he said "hey, let's take a walk..." like he does every Saturday.  So, I threw a blanket over Maggie and stuck a sweater on Libs and off we went.
Maggie thought.."hmmmm a walk would be nice, but I think we should stay home, it looks like rain"

"Why am I still in this stroller? I said it looks like rain!  Doesn't anybody listen to me?

I don't care if it rains just PLEASE take me with you. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't leave me in the back yard!!!!!


30 minutes later, when we were as far as we could be from our house in this neighborhood, it did start to rain,  and then the temperature dropped, and then it started to hail, and then I realized that after all this time, I am still in the running for mother of the year.  Kids inappropriately dressed, outside for a walk, in a hail storm.

When we got home, Maggie said I told you so and Gus licked our faces b/c even in the hail, he's happiest when he is with us.

Libs would be pictured in this post to if Blogger didn't hate me and make it extremely difficult to add pictures to my blog.  She did not care about the rain.  She would play all day in the rain, hail, snow.  She laughed and asked why the ice was bouncing off of Daddy's shoulders.

Grace and Peace

The Sweetest Thing

No seriously, sweet and delicious.  Last time Kev went away, he took a Friday off work when he got home, and took us down town at my request to get frozen yogurt from Sweet Frogs.  I have not stop thinking about sweet, Sweet Frogs since.  I kind of want to go every night of the week.

Sweet Frogs provides you with fat free goodness then encourages you to pile the fat back on, by adding toffee bits, sprinkles, cookies, brownies, and pretty much anything else you might want to add to your ice cream.

Man I love that place.
I think I'll take the girls there for breakfast tomorrow.
Just kidding...no, seriously.

Grace and Peace
xoxo

Because I Don't Want To Forget

It is past 12 and I'm wide awake b/c  Kev had to go out of town again.  I just wanted to pop these couple of pictures up here so that I don't forget why I took them in the first place.
#1 Sometimes the Littlest thinks she doesn't want to take a nap on her own.  She thinks she wants to stay curled up in my lap, which I'm okay with, but occasionally I do need to get things done.  When I put her down she sucks on her binki and kind of grunts at it, like she is trying to yell at it for not producing milk, then she establishes a death grip on her on bunny and eventually drifts off.

#2 The Little was wearing a "Dorothy" from the Wizard Of Oz dress on this particular Wednesday afternoon. I told her all she needed was a pair of ruby slippers  to complete her outfit. She insisted that "Nooooo, Mama,  I need gwass swippers,"  I tried to explain that Dorothy wore ruby slippers, but she wanted nothing to do with anything but glass slippers.  Despite her need for Cinderella's shoes, she was convinced that she was Alice...3 fairy tales, all at once.

#3  The weather on this Sunday afternoon was perfect, look how happy it made him.  It doesn't take much to make him happy, weekends, clear days, his girls...he's happy.  This is one of the reasons I like him so much.

#4 I have a picture of Libby looking up at Kev when she was just about this age.  They love him.  Everything is better when he is with us.

That's all.
Time for bed.
Grace and Peace
xxx

I'm That Mom I Said I Would Never Be

You know the one I'm talking about....The one who documented every time her first baby had a messy diaper, but neglected to mention that her second baby is already 3 MONTHS OLD!  How is this even possible?  I feel like I just brought her home.  Like just yesterday, this happen....

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of all time...

Why can't my babies stay little forever!
WAHHHHHHHHHHH!

WAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

WAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Okay, I'm composed again.
So just for the record, at 3 months old my littlest is a happy, happy girl.
She loves watching Libby play.
She loves for me to hold her.
She loves spitting up on Daddy (this is funny b/c I sling her around on my hip all day and she never gets me).  She is very, very, very strong.
She will be sitting up in no time I think.
She has fantastic rolls, dozens of them.
She laughs when she should be napping and I'm happy ashamed to announce, that I encourage this.
She is a precious girl!
When I look back on the blog before Mags was here, it seems like a lifetime ago.  I can't remember life with out her, it's just like she's always been with us.
We are smitten with this little lady, I think we'll keep her.

Grace and Peace
xoxo

When The Whole World's Gone Topsy Turvy

Some sad news made me kiss these little faces just a  bit more than I normally do this weekend.
My mind spins when I hear a story that doesn't make any sense, but I read this truth that came from a father who had just lost his son, that comforted me and reminded me of God's faithfulness,
 "In spite of our loss, the church bells are still ringing, and God is still at work"

 Should these precious girls ever look to me for an answer of why this world doesn't make any sense sometimes, I am so thankful that I can tell them that "I don't why this world's gone topsy turvy, but I know that God is still at work, and it makes perfect sense to Him"

Father, Bless these little girls.  When they look to me for answers, may I always point them to you. 


Grace and Peace
xxx