Mirror

While I was waiting for my taquitos to brown on the bottom side tonight, I turned around to see my Little headed out the back door with a powder blue princess dress on  backwards, a crooked crown carelessly covering her messy blond hair, Cinderella heals, and a tutu as the crowning accessory.  She look over her right shoulder and said "see ya later Mommy, I'm going to show Daddy my dress." I could here my mother's voice echoing in my head, "Carly Darling, you look like you brushed your hair with an egg beater and what did you do to those tights, they need blow out patches?"

Typing that she is just like me just doesn't do it justice...She is so much like me, that it scares me...because I know me!  I know that sometimes I just have to have a good old temper tantrum, I know that when I don't get my way I pout or even worse cry, I know that I'm prone to doing things (almost all things) the hard way, I know that sometimes I don't think things through before making a wise decision, I know the mistakes I've made (all of them) ....Yikes!

Dear Lord Jesus, Protect my precious girl. Amen.

Sorry, typing it out made me have a panic attack, and I felt the need to pray.

Some weeks, like this week, I feel like I sent prayers like that up all day long, or like this one,

"Lord, I'm not cut out for this, surely you made a mistake entrusting these children to me, b/c it is painfully clear I have no idea what I'm doing."

He doesn't make mistakes though does he?  He knew exactly what he was doing sending my girl to me.

While I was packing, I found a letter that my Mom sent to my bff Laura to read at my baby shower when I was pregnant with Libby...it said "I'll warn you though, if your daughter is at all like you (and I pray she is) you will need to buckle your seat belt and prepare for an exciting ride."

So, was she being funny, like "I pray she is like you b/c what goes around comes around," or "I pray she's like you b/c even though your hair was always disheveled, and your decisions were sometimes rash, I am your mother and I couldn't imagine you any other way?"

For the sake of all that is good and poetic Mother Dearest:), I m going to assume the latter b/c I totally get it.

Everyday a two year wild thing holds a mirror up to my face, and I see myself in her. I can see her now at 2 throwing spectacular tantrums, I can see her when she 16 making rash decisions, and I can see her when she's 32 wondering how she made it here, but consumed with thanksgiving that she did, b/c she is a reflection of me.  The good, the bad, and the "oh goodness, I hope no one knows I'm like this."  I know that through that exciting ride He took my mother on, it brought me here, and here is with her, my Little ball of fire, my rosey cheek beauty. My daughter who is anger and sweetness all in the same minute...and I'm okay with that.  She is mine, she has been entrusted to me, and He made her that way.  I love the fire and the beauty  all at the same time, b/c I am her mother and I couldn't imagine her any other way.

Grace and Peace and walking contradictions...He made us this way, right Babs...love you Mom!
xoxo

Put a Frame On It

Brace yourself....I'm about to show you the most adorable picture I have ever seen.





I did not take it.




My very good friend Beth did, who just happens to be a photographer, have I mentioned her before?:)





She also watched my children when we moved, so that I could stay focussed.




She also loaned us her husband to lift heavy things with Kev and another friend.




She is a good egg.



Are you ready for the cutest picture ever,


Prepare yourself for a mighty big grin,

Here it comes....

The suspense and all the hits on the "ENTER" key are killing me...

Just say it....."AWWWWWWWE!"  Or, "hey honey you've got to see this" or, "I am going to mail this to Hallmark so that they can make a card out of it"


Hand placement, eyes closed, silly little grin, I love it, I love it, I love it!
Pure sweetness!

Grace and Peace
xoxo

Thanks for capturing this moment Beth...now when they get married one day we'll have this picture to add to  a "walk down memory lane" slide show:)

For The Record

For the record, my Littlest turned 4 months old. The day past before I knew it and I don't remember why.

For the record, she weighs 15 lbs exactly, and is 24 inches long, her head is perfectly round, and she does not like shots.

For the record, sometimes she puts both of her hands on the sides of my face while she sings a little Maggie song in my ear. It sounds like a gentle "ah." I close my eyes and listen when she does this and remind myself if there is anything close to perfect in life, this must be it.

For the record, she laughs with her whole entire body. It is infectious. If you saw her do this, you would laugh with your whole body too.  She pulls every roll in her scrumptious, little legs up, grabs her toes, lets out a squeal, until it all becomes too much, then jumps and lets go into a full star formation.  Then she looks at me puzzled, like she didn't know she had all that joy built up in her...It is wonderful.


For the record, I can't think of words to write how I love having a little baby in my life again.  I hope I get to do it again one day.

For the record,  MaggieBell loves Liberty, except for when Libs rolls over on her.  Mags does not love this and frowns a spectacular frown that gives way to tears when this happens.  Most of the time it is all smiles when my girls are together.  I caught them holding hands in my bed Saturday morning, and I thought about how great it was all day long.



For the record, that last picture is one of my favorites of all time. These pictures are from our Mother's Day Mini Session, with Beth. I. love. them.

For the record, I love being their Mom more.



Grace and Peace
xxx

For the record, we are moved into the new house and are slowly digging our way into making this place feel like home.  I'm thankful for good friends who care for my babies for me and for their husbands who help my husband lift the heavy things so I don't have to.  I'm thankful for my Mom and Dad who have help me (us) on every move I have made...my Mom just know's how to make a place feel like home (Amy, You know what I mean right?)
When the mountain of boxes is shaved down to a hill, maybe I'll locate my camera and post some pics of the new homestead and of course some of my wild girl and my round baby! :)

Life Change

Moving houses is adding fine lines to my face and by fine, I mean wrinkles, not something that is "fine" as in attractive.
I don't want to negate my thankfulness for a home to call our own, but I am desperate to live in one place, not two, and have a schedule and a routine again.

Do you ever look at the background of my pictures,especially lately?  My house is a train wreck...I need to move.  Did I mention that?

I was determined to give them normal this week, as much as possible.  We ate lunch on our blanket in the garden, we went on a walk, we cut peonies and put them in a Mason jar, we played with play dough, we made stepping stones for our new garden with their footprints, and we ate jello shapes.

Notice my paint palette on the floor, I don't know why this is here.  I haven't painted in months.  This is sad to me, I must make a note to remedy this in the coming months.My mind has actually been churning with some whimsical ideas for the girls lately.

In between all of that beautiful,  I packed, I cleaned, I fixed dinner and schlepped it to the new house so that the girls could see their Dadue for an hour or two, before I schlepped everything back to this house only to tuck my ladies in their beds an hour later than I should have. Kev worked at work, then worked at the new house, and then worked some more, (be still me heart, he is basically like Superman).

Amidst all the crazy that was this week (and actually several weeks now)  God gave me some sweet quiet times with both girls.  While Maggie Bell napped in the morning Libs and I lingered outside, and I gave her lesson about bees, wasps, and spiders.  She ran a low grade fever this week and actually slowed down enough for me to just hold her in my lap, which almost never happens anymore...

My own Princess Kate, watching the real Princess Kate, marry Prince William for the second time around. We LOVE Princess Kate.  

It was a precious time.

During afternoon nap time, instead of putting Mags in her crib like I knew I should, I just held her while she slept.  Sometimes Mags just needs all of my attention and I like this about her, it gives me a chance to stare at her for a while.

She doesn't always suck her thumb, but on this day she did, and I love it!

It was a precious time.
As this is my second time around, I know all too well, that I'll wake up in a few months longing to hold my baby, only to find that she is a toddler and prefers running to snuggling.  While I know this is as it should be, I'll take the occasional sick day, if it gives me an afternoon of holding the first little girl that stole my heart right out from under me.

Fingers are crossed that we'll move this week.  I was hoping to be out of here this weekend, but I was told that I need to be reasonable. (I wont mention who said this to me, except that it was not Libby or Maggie) :)

I can't wait to share the before and afters...Kev is pretty amazing, I tell him the vision I am having and he makes it happen.  In between drawing sidewalk chalk balloons for my Little, and nursing the Littlest I have helped some too!
Here's to our home sweet home...
Happy weekending.

Grace and Peace

Stop Everything, Take A Picture, Just Because It's Beautiful

The weather has been too beautiful to ignore this week.  I can't tell you what day I took these pictures.  I can tell you that I should have been doing something else...like PACKING!  I was trying to catch the Little, but she kept running the other direction, singing a song that went like this....
"I'm running,
I'm run-ning,
I'm RU-UNN-ING!"

When I did catch her, here is the conversation we had...

Me: "Libby, do you see your balloon in the sky"

Libby: "No. I see a sheep"

In my head: "My daughter is a creative genius, she relates that clouds are fluffy like sheep.  She is brilliant"
Then I realized that there was not a cloud in the sky, then she said..

"and I see tigers,

and bee-ars, and Trouby (the cat), and Dussy Boy (the dog)
"Mommy, do ya see um?  Ya see um, Mama?"

 The way that she dances through life is contagious at times. When she plays it just makes me want to abandon all my grown up responsibilities and come with her.  So, sometimes I do.
I was chasing her through the back yard, when I looked back at our picnic blanket to find this little Littlest enjoying the fresh air.

Then she caught me looking and started smiling.

This is one of the things I love most about Maggie...all you have to do is smile at her, and she smiles right back.

Someone reminds at least once a day that she looks just like her father and nothing like me, but I am happy to report that she learned the face below from me...If you are bored with life do some research on this blog and you're sure to find a picture of me making exactly the same face.

Somehow she turned 4 months old today.  I don't know how this happened...Did I say this last month or the month before that?  Will I say every month till she turns one? Probably.  Will I continue to say it each year for the rest of her life?  Probably.
She found her feet somewhere between painting our kitchen cabinets white and buying a new refrigerator.  She loves them and I love watching her grab them. It is one of the best things about babies.  She also has a serious relationship with several of her stuffed anmials, particularly the giraffe that hangs on her car seat and the puppy on her play mat.   

She and I got to spend several hours together today, just the two of us. Libby and her Daddy had some much needed time together while we ran errands.  With only her smile and chubby legs, she managed to charm the entire makeup section of Nordstrom's.  One woman actually said she wanted to eat her and another woman did a dance for her right there in the middle of everything...Call me crazy, but it was a little weird to hear someone say that they wanted to eat my baby, but at the same time, I totally get it.

 I am out of words, and it is late, so I'm wrapping things up. Let me encourage you...if you see something beautiful today, like flowers, or a little girl running and spinning, or a baby grabbing her toes, stop and take a picture of it.  It is a much better use of your time than PACKING.

Maybe I should be PACKING instead of writing this blog....
Hmmmmm.
Maybe I'll go to bed and PACK tomorow.
Grace and Peace
xoxo

Dearest Blog

If I ever were to come back and write on you I would tell you that we bought a house, this house

We have not moved in b/c the kitchen looked like this before,

and we  are in the process of creating an after photo that is taking forever.  Therefore, I am neglecting you, and the laundry, and the grocery list, and the children.  However, I have made some very good friends at Home Depot.  They love my children and give the Little a balloon on almost every visit. The house renovations are taking over our lives, but we would like to finish them while the house is empty... Do house renovations ever really end though?


Also dear blog, I would tell you that one afternoon Libby got dressed up b/c Daddy was coming home from work...she even asked me to fix her hair.  I think I taught her this b/c I get dressed up when Daddy comes from work.  I don't often put on a princess dress, but once I heard a fine Christian lady speak about her mother in the 1950's always putting on red lipstick and heals right before her husband came home from work and I've been fixing my hair around 4:30 ever since....

Here's the play by play...we love when Daddy gets home

In other news, the Littlest was laying in the middle of her new bedroom while I was painting it the other day when we heard a thump. I turned around to find her on her tummy, then moments later she was on her back again. Milestone documented, baby knows how to roll over.

I have officially stopped fighting my inner demons over not being productive in the morning. I am not a morning person, and subsequently neither are my children. I have come to a place, where I think that I  am okay with this.

The Little and I are cranky for a good 30 minutes and the Littlest will often fall right back to sleep after we get up.  We have to have to linger over coffee and pj's before we can face the world.

I am not productive in the morning, and have come to realize that I need to stop feeling guilty about it. I get a lot more done in the afternoon and evening and if I say it enough times, I think  I will believe it.

We took a break from house renovations for Easter and went to Babs and G-Dads.  We also went on about 1 million egg hunts prior to Easter, so we have about  a trillion plastic eggs floating around our house.

At this egg hunt, all the children went to the right and Libby went left.  She had half a yard full of eggs all to herself.  I encouraged her to give some away, b/c goodness knows no child needs 40 plastic eggs all to themselves...I guarantee that we have more that 40!

Here she is at Babs and G-Dads looking for yet more eggs.

This was Maggie's extent of looking...however, look at those fine motors coming along.

This Easter we learned that too much sugar turns the Little into something that resembles a gremlin and we are fairly certain that  we would rather have our rosy girl as opposed to a gremlin, so we are cutting her sugar intake WAY back.  I can't believe the difference it makes.  It actually amazes me, gremlin be gone!

We also learned that the Littlest looks delicious in a bonnet (which I know I mentioned in my last post, but thought that she looked cute enough to bring it up again)

or a tu-tu...my, oh my, we are frilly round these parts....

I also learned that until I decide to exercise my way back to my old figure, I should face forwards for pictures.

So dear blog, I wish that my words were more creative.  I wish I wrote on you more than once a week.  I wish my life would go slower so that I could  appreciate each moment I spend with these sweetlings. That is why have you though, so that I can remember that when they were little, the light danced off their pretty blue eyes, and that my heart skipped a beat every time I saw their sweet faces together.

We should be moved in by the end of the month and I will resume normal life and normal posting again. This is going to be a long May.
Until then...Goodnight little blog.

Grace and Peace and my sincerest apologies for any typos like last post (I hope you had a great Eater Sunday.  If you ever wonder why this blog is riddled with typos, please know that I write them at midnight after long days of wrangling two little girls and a dog that resembles a yetti. )

xoxo