Wednesday, February 27, 2013

5 months!!!

Evie is officially 5 months old!  Hard to believe...
Not sure what she is weighing these days, but my guess is a little over 12 lbs.
She is all smiles and giggles these days, esp. with her sister.  She loves watching and "talking" to SK.
We are still waking about 2 times a night to eat and still ending up some nights in the bed cuddling with mommy.  She just likes her cuddles, I can't blame her really :)

 And this stinker can't stand if she doesn't get camera time too :)




Look who decided to do mommy's hair!  She actually did a pretty good job and just about put me to sleep brushing my hair :)
Here's SK at 5 months (well...actually at 4.5 months I think...).  I think they look so similar in this picture!  Esp. with the finger in her mouth--Evie does that all the time these days :)
And on a side note...look how little our friend Gracie is!!??  Good times...

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Brain Dump...

*It's 5:00 a.m. and I am up with Evie for the second time tonight.  Is it sad that I think that is a pretty successful night??!!  She was laid down at 10 and woke at 1:30 and 4:45...I can do that much better than the previous nights of her only lasting 30 minute stretches in her own bed....

*I love looking at the snow outside.  It's pretty.  To be honest though, I am really ready for warmer weather.  Just warm enough that we can get outside some and go to the playground.  Our apt. gets awfully small in the winter when we are cooped up all day in here...

*I'm hungry, but don't want to get up to go get anything...

*I have been seeing videos posted to facebook from our church family back in Alabama from the annual talent show.  Kinda sad missing being there with such fun cool people :)

*I can't believe we leave for England in a little over 2 weeks!  I told Michael yesterday that I needed to start packing and he laughed at me...

Ok... the babe is about back to sleep...off I go to join her :)

More blogging to come later hopefully...

Saturday, February 23, 2013

SK goodness....

So I thought I would do a little update on our eldest girly.  Let's see...
 The girl loves her some chocolate!  This was yesterday when I offered her a chocolate chip cookie after playing in the snow and she wouldn't even take the time to take off her coat and hat before digging in!

 Last night, SK requested Michael read her some Hebrew instead of reading from Narnia, which is what they have been reading together before heading to bed.  Goofy girl was all about listening to Daddy read, which helped Daddy knock out some school work and do bedtime reading at the same time.

One more for fun...I love my big little girl :)

She cracks us up every day with her silliness.  She uses phrases just about everyday that she picks up from either me or Michael.  Some of them that come to my mind right now:
"Imagine that.."  --like with a sarcastic tone said meaning "go figure.."
"I'm like crazy in love with..." The girl has really picked up saying "like" a lot.
"Here's the deal..."
"I got an idea, momma!"

She is also quite strong willed many days.  It can be challenging trying to figure out how to parent her well. 

The girl has some energy, that is for sure!  We are ready for some warmer days so we can be outside burning some energy on the playground.  SK is quite our little social butterfly and loves to get outside to see what friends are out and about playing.  She typically asks most days who is coming over for dinner or if we can invite someone over for a playdate.  It is almost torture for her to make her play in her room by herself.

She also loves her sister.  I love seeing how much she is in love with Evie.  A few days ago she wanted to rock Evie and sing to her before bed.  It was precious.  I love seeing my girls together.  Melts my heart and I am thankful that I am getting to experience these precious moments.


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Productive Snow Day!

Today started out a bit rough, but once it got going and I had my morning coffee, things turned around and ended up pretty great.  So let's see....
Last night during the night, Evie was a booger.  I don't think I could or want to put that any nicer.  It wasn't nice.  Not nice at all.  She went to bed good at 8:15 (which normally she doesn't give up till at least 10, most nights more like 11 or 12).  She woke up then at 11:15, so I fed her and she went right back to sleep.  I was hopeful at that point that the rest of the night would be not too bad...
Well...then she woke up at 1:15, not the stretch I was hoping for to say the least.  Then I tried to lay her back down at 2:00 and she woke 10 minutes later and was wide awake ready to party.  At one point she just laid in her bassinet and I sat up in the bed and we just stared at each other.  She laughed and I stared.  It was great fun (enter sarcastic voice...).  Finally at 3:30 a.m.  I woke Michael and said he had to take her.  I knew his classes for today were cancelled, so I didn't feel as bad waking him up knowing he had the day off from school.  He came out to the living room and hung out with her till 5:20 and brought her back to me at that point since his alarm was about to go off (he still had to go and get Molly--the little girl we nanny).  I then was able to feed Evie and get her back down.  Then she was up for the day at 7:30.  Whew.  That was tiring.
I made coffee and tried to gather my energy for the day.  I had a goal of fixing some things in the kitchen, but wasn't sure if I was going to actually do it since I was so sleep deprived :)
I pushed through and am glad I did.  It ended up being a fun day cooking with SK in the kitchen :)  We watched the snow fall and listened to music while cooking away.  SK was cute wearing her apron and asked what she could do next to help.
SO what all did we make, you ask???
Let's see...
1--Chocolate Chip Muffins from scratch.  I have made these multiple times and we love the recipe.  I love that they are sweetened without sugar and are so yummy!
2-Pancake Bites--We haven't made these before, but they looked and smelled yummy.  We will give then a try in the morning and see what we think.  I am trying to come up with more breakfast items for us to have on hand either fresh or in the freezer.  It really has been fun to come up with ideas to help get  away from such processed breakfast items like we have tended to eat in the past.
3-Salsa--I love making our salsa and tend to make it about 2-3 times a month.  It is great to have on hand for Mexican food nights and for snacking too.
4-Guacamole-yum. We were having Mexican tonight and I had an avocado begging to be used :)
5-Tortillas--yep, homemade tortillas.  I have done this once before and they turn out so yummy.  They really aren't hard to make, take about 15 minutes and are so much better than store bought, plus cheap and I know what all of the ingredients are.
6-Chocolate Chip Cookies :)  I figured after dinner we needed a treat for such a productive day, so we whipped up some cookies.  To top it off, the cookies were made with some homemade butter I made a couple days ago :)

How's that for productivity.  I told Michael I probably won't want to cook again for a week, but it was fun today :)  And the kitchen is all cleaned up and tidy!

We did get a good snow today, probably around 6 inches is my guess.  It was pretty to look at from inside :)  SK and Michael headed out to play in it this afternoon and had fun.

And after saying our bedtime prayers with SK, we got to have a cool little chat with SK about the gospel.  It is so neat to see her understanding of the gospel growing.
Then she was giving hugs and kisses, and when giving Evie's, little Evie grabbed SK's cheek and pulled it to her face and gave SK a nice sloppy open mouth "kiss".  Melt my heart.  Don't try to convince me that it wasn't really a kiss or that she was just trying to put anything she can get her hands on in her mouth.  I think she was really giving love to her sister :)
And Evie was so giddy about it.
SK asked me to lay in her bed with her for a minute and sing her a song tonight.  We don't typically sing at bedtime, she listens to music and we cuddle, but she doesn't normally ask us to sing to her.  After I sang her a song, she said, "Hey mommy!  Here's the deal.  Let's do a pattern (she actually says...patturin...).  One night you sing and the next night you don't..."  I asked her if she wanted me to sing her another song tonight and she replied "no."  Ha.  I guess that is what she thinks about her mommy's singing :)

I love my girls.  Even when one of them keeps me up during the night or the other screams at me when she doesn't get her way...God has truly blessed us with 2 incredible little ones and I cherish these awesome moments like today.


Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Lack of Blogs...

Long time no see right??!!  So sad.  Michael is in the midst of a crazy semester and has to use the computer a lot for school work, so that means little chances for me to get time to blog or do anything on the computer for that matter.  This semester is definitely the biggest load thus far for him.  Add to his school work, his jobs and such....boo.

So I might not get many chances to do blogging the next few months, but I will when I can :)

So what have we been up to?  Not much really.  Same old stuff for the most part.  I am happy to say that we have had a couple really good nights with Evie.  For the most part, she still wakes 2 times a night, but those feedings are tending to be pretty easy and quick, so that is nice.  
We did have one night last week where she nursed at 9:30, I went to bed and Michael took her till she finally gave up and went to sleep at 10:45, then slept till 4:30!!!!!  So that means I got 7 hours sleep!  I felt like a new woman :)  We haven't had that long of a stretch since, but that is ok.  I will take it when I can get it.  Now if we could just figure out how to get her to lay down at night before 10 or 11 or even later at night.  She gets tired around 7:30 or so most nights, but won't let us lay her down to stay for longer than 30 minutes....So that means we don't go to sleep (or at least one of us...) till at least 10 or later every night.

What else is new...

She is getting big enough now to enjoy her bumbo seat :)  The girl loves it too.  She is always trying to sit up when we have her in the swing or bouncy seat.  So she is a happy girl to have a seat where she is sitting up!
 She loves her ring finger for sucking and chewing on...so funny!



I have been trying out some new homemade things lately and doing some other homemade things I haven't done in a while.  Old things include coffee creamer (why haven't I made this in a while?  I love this stuff!), butter, granola, laundry detergent...
New stuff include getting into some bathroom things.  I tried the whole no 'poo thing with my hair but couldn't take it.  My hair felt so greasy the next day (I know I could have pushed through the first part and it wouldn't stay that way, but I couldn't do it...).  SO no go on the no 'poo thing.  I do like the coconut oil deep hair conditioning, so I will do that on occasions for sure.  Speaking of coconut oil...I am loving the many uses of it.  I use it mixed with baking soda to wash my face, also as an all over lotion for the girls and myself.  If you haven't tried using coconut oil as a lotion, I highly recommend it. HIGHLY.  My skin feels amazing.  I also mix in some Vitamin E oil when I remember too.  Or I put Vitamin E oil in a hot bath.  My skin feels so soft after that :)
I also am trying out using baking soda in place of deodorant.  So far I am sold on that.  I have wanted to try doing something besides store bought deodorant, esp. given all of the possibly harmful and weird ingredients in them.  I first thought I would make a homemade deodorant, till talking to a friend who said she just used baking soda and found she liked it just as well if not better.  I figure if it works just as well it would be easier than making one.  So I have been "deodorant free" for over a week now and no stink so far :)  And MIchael has joined me too, and I can say the same for him too :)

Alright...off to make some muffins this morning while the baby naps!  Or maybe I will piddle around online since I actually have the computer this morning while Michael is in class :)

A few more pics of the girls to leave yall with :)




 Evie is loving to play with her piggies lately!


Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Mimi's Snowy visit

Mimi was in town this last weekend and brought the snow with her :)   It was quite a chilly weekend and we got the best snow of the season the day after she arrived!  SK had a blast playing in the snow and staying indoors playing too.  There were plenty of games played, tea parties had, and lots of cuddles!  SO here come the pictures, cause that's what yall really want right??!!




 (Mimi happily kept the baby warm indoors while SK played outside!)




While Mimi was in town, EJ had her 4 month check up, which meant shots too :(  She didn't enjoy those and ended up with a little bit of a fever and sleeping more than normal, but was back to her perky self after about 24 hours.  I am happy to report that EJ is now "on the charts" as far as her weight goes, meaning we are making up ground in that dept.  She is a whopping 11 pounds 7 oz!!!  I know, huge right :)   That put her in the 3rd percentile, which is good considering she wasn't even on the percentile chart before...She is growing great and I was happy to hear how well!

Off to watch a movie with my big girl while the others nap...