Bag Lady Continued….

This is Taylor’s daily jaunt.  Glove…check.  4 purses…check.  Baby stroller…check.  She normally has 3 necklaces/ bracelets on too.  I just love my girly-girl!

Gone Fishin’

Bailey rigged her own fishing pole together the other day…a “heart” shaped straw, string and a plastic cup with lid.  I was amazed at her creativity!  She is super excited to go fishing with “Fishy” Papa and Daddy in April.  Taylor overhear our conversation and kept saying, “Me, Papa, Daddy, Fisssh.  Me, Papa, Daddy, Fisssh”.  I guess that means she wants to go too :).  Bailey has her own pole at Papa’s house…looks like Taylor will get to go shopping with Papa and pick one out too. 

Here is to a girl who loves going FISHIN!

Mama’s helpers

Both girls love to help me in the kitchen!  I try and take a deep breath most days and enjoy these moments :)

Here is Tales all cheese-y faced.

The girl’s helping position (My spot is the tiny area next to Tales! )

 

Bales isn’t a big fan of EATING veggies, but she certainly loves PLAYING with them!

Tales is all about eating lately.  And I do mean eat. Like…as much as I do!  She is still gaining about a pound a month…craziness!

Picture perfect….even with imperfections :)

My baby girl is looking like not-so-much-of-a-baby-girl anymore!  Tales is hilarious and so precious.  Always ready for a hug and gives the best kisses.  Please disregard the fingerprints all over my fireplace….it is life with 2 toddlers :).  (you should see my windows :)).

Hot dog dance :)

Mickey Mouse is the main attraction at our house these days. The girls watch a little first thing in the morning as Taylor is drinking her milk and I am scurrying around getting our breakfasts/bags ready for the day. Here they are this morning doing the Meeska-Mooska Mickey Mouse hot dog dance!

Bubbles

The girls have been busy blowing bubbles in our garage.  It has given me precious time in the evenings to get supper cooking/ready.  They play so well together and encourage each other to blow more bubbles :).   Here is one Mom thankful for bubbles and spill-proof bubble containers ($2 at Walmart for those interested..they were just the right size for their hands).

Just call me the bag lady.

Taylor normally has not 1, not 2 or 3 bags…no she has 4 bags she carries along.  She also normally has several bracelets/necklaces.  So pretty and pink and precious!

Valentine’s Day surprises

Because we were so sick with the flu, Bailey missed school all last week.  Yesterday, she finally got to hand out her valentine’s to her friends and receive hers!  She was so excited to rush home and “eat all my candy”.  I’m so thankful for a wonderful preschool and great friends for Bailey. 

sisters…..wrestle!

The girls have been doing a great job playing together lately (well, when they aren’t trying to kill/steal from each other). Here are some pics of them rough-housing and generally being silly!

FLU

The flu hit our house on Sunday and continues to wreck havoc.  Last night was one of my worst  nights ever as I had fevers/chills/uncontrollable shaking for over 3 hours.   I have had to make the decision to cancel Rebekah and Sophie’s visit (they were to arrive tomorrow) as well as not to run the half marathon.   It is so very frustrating to work so hard towards something (and anticipate such a great visit) and then have it ripped away by illness.  I can not even stand up for more then a few minutes right now….I don’t think I will be able to run 13.1 miles safely in less then 72 hours.  My biggest concern is that I am so dehydrated….another kidney stone is inevitable if I were to run.  While I am NOT a happy camper right now, I am trying to count my blessings.  Bailey seems to be getting a little better and Taylor has only had a runny nose (no fevers!).  Blair is heading home in about 6 weeks and I have great friends here that will help out if I absolutely need it.  While I do not understand WHY this is happening, I pray that God will change my heart from a heart of disappointment to thankfulness.

Valentine’s Day…sick edition.

Bailey spiked a fever as soon as we got home from church on Sunday…a few hours later it was up to 103.  I started feeling tired that evening and we have both been fighting the FLU since then.  Needless to say, Valentine’s day did not go as planned.  We have spent the last 2 1/2 days quarantined in our house….  here is my attempt to still make our day special.

Heart shaped whole-wheat blueberry pancakes from the freezer (best idea ever- make extras and freeze the rest :)). 

Lunch was heart shaped biscuits, ham and cheese with apple slices. 

By dinner I was feeling so bad we ordered pizza.  I don’t remember the last time I did that…. we are feeling a little better today.  Praying hard that we feel much better tomorrow and can get some stuff done.  The flu stinks.  Valentine’s day stinks with a husband gone.  Deployments stink.  To have them all on the same day = really, really stinky :(.  Oh well.  Life goes on, right? ;)

Matching.

Some days I just can’t resist….don’t they look cute all matched up?

Rainy Days…more rainy days…

It has been raining around these parts.  Many days.  While I dislike not being able to go running, I am SO thankful all this rain isn’t snow.  We’ve had enough of that this year…at least we can go places if we want to brave the wetness.

We rented Sleeping Beauty from the library this week and have watched it twice so far!  We pulled out our “Sleeping Beauty Princess” chairs to watch them in in style!

Bailey came up with the great idea of a “foot rest”.  Taylor had to join!  (Bailey’s face shows how happy she was about that :)).

I pulled out some beans/rice/pasta that was getting a little old and threw it on some baking sheets for the girls to play with.  Bailey LOVED it and literally played for hours.  Taylor did well for a little while and then dumped her WHOLE pan on the floor.  Oh well…it killed some time for us all ;).  AND my floors are really clean now!

This week is a normal week for us with the exception of a few fun Valentine’s celebrations.  It is so neat to have little ones now…we are making Valentine’s for Bailey’s friends at school.  First time!

Complete Crockpot Chicken Dinner!

BBQ Dinner

Make sure and click the above and get the recipe for this awesome dinner from Eat at Home (blog).   While my chicken turned out a little dry (I only had 2 1/2 chicken breasts), the rest turned out just fine.  The girls even ate all of it (a miracle these days…please do not tell Bailey that corn is a vegetable. This is the first she has eaten happily in a long time!).  So simple to throw together and clean up was easy too…just one crockpot to clean! 

Pajamas and Pancakes

Today was Pajama and Pancake day at school for Bailey!  I bought her some cute Valentine Mickey Mouse PJ’s a week ago and they were perfect for today (Taylor got a matching PJ set…they LOVE Mickey these days :)).  She had a blast and enjoyed checking out everyone else’s pjs!> Jace had a monkey and a car on his she said :). 

Tales….crazy, sweet Tales.

Great Wolf Lodge

We had the pleasure in joining Amber and Avery (longtime friends from Florida) for a weekend at Great Wolf Lodge, Williamsburg  HERE is more info.

The kids had a blast.  The Momma’s were both sick….but we had fun despite that!  We would go to the waterpark at 1-2 hrs at a time and then head to the room for meals/naps.  It was great having that flexibility.  The room was nice and roomy…. While the Lodge definetly caters to elementary/middle school kids, the toddlers had fun too!  They had very watchful lifeguards which made me feel a little safer trying to keep track of 2 little ones.  Bailey loved the water stuff in the pic below.  THere is a BIG bucket (says Great Lodge) on it at the top.  Every 5 minutes or so it dumps a TON of water out.  By the end of the weekend she would run up and let the water come down on her like the big kids.  Too cute!   Biggest plus?  going swimming in the dead of winter!  Biggest downfall?  Wearing a swimsuit in the dead of winter! ha!

Bailey, Taylor, Avery.  This was Sunday morning after a busy weekend…we were all a little tired!  The three kids are about 9 mo apart each in age (Bailey-3, Avery 2 1/2, Taylor 21 mo).  All us girls fell in love with sweet Avery!

Taylor and Avery….Paci buddies :)

Once home, Taylor and Bailey started “swimming” on our kitchen table.    They miss the waterpark!

Princess Camping..

 

Aunt Lindsay bought this tent for Bales awhile ago and I have never set it up.   After being stuck inside for so long due to the cold weather, we put it up and played in it for a few days!  It is a “real” tent that could fit both of them!  We are planning on going camping when Blair gets back…and this was good practice getting them used to a tent.  They loved it!

My two princesses.

Candy Canes, Presents and Cousins…

I still have more Christmas pics to share!  Oops.  Here are the three cousins chomping down some candy canes…

Yummy

So, so, so cute.  I could just kiss them all to silly pieces!

Taylor. Cracks. Me. Up.

We are headed to somewhere really, really fun this weekend.  Can’t wait to tell ya’ll about it when we get back!

Funny Bailey...

Most weeks we try to memorize one verse out of this book for the girls (and me!!). While we are now on "N", this morning in the car I decided to "review" from the beginning all the verses with them. We started out "AS for me and my house we will serve the Lord". Then "BE kind to one another". Then I said, let's do the C verse "Children..". Bailey stopped me and said NO! I don't like that verse! (The complete verse is Children, obey your Parent's in the Lord for this is right.). HA! How funny is that?!?! She knows the verses so well she knows which ones she DOESN'T like. Got me to thinking how sometimes I want to "ignore" certain verses in the bible that go against what I want to do..... It is exciting and enlightening teaching your children the ways of the Lord. You realize how closely your "self" resembles a 3 year old....

Super Sunday

Today was a great day.  We had a good day at church….our pastor has been preaching off of the book Christian Atheist.  If you haven’t read it I highly recommend it!   We had a couple friends over for lunch and then had an afternoon playing and getting some stuff done around the house. 

Here is the “suspect” squirrel that I think took off with the bird’s treats.  Today during lunch he took off with the girl’s water table boat!!!!  Must be REALLY hungry to want plastic ;).  He doesn’t seem in need of much food to me…

Slip n slide indoor edition!

They both loved playing this game…I was impressed Bailey could pull Taylor around.  They are only about 10 lbs different in weight.