Merry Eve

Ringin' In Twenty Ten. Happy New Year!

Looking In

An Office marathon, can it get better on a Wednesday night with basic network TV ? Possibly. This is the time of year that really gets me thinking. Right before the dial clicks over and we are into the next 365. Normally I have a pile of projects that got started and never finished.. good intentions on top of great ideas alongside some fantastic revelations gone stale. Not so this year. For the first time I actually feel like I have my s*** together. I spent some of my Christmas cash on organizational stuff for my life and the house.. and I actually made use of it. It is sitting there doing is job of keeping me organized and if feels incredible. I look around and instead of feeling defeated, I feel empowered. I have started looking for more things to clear up and my mind feels light and fully functioning. Having actually accomplished my unattainable to do's is making me feel ambitious. Do you ever do that? Do you feel like you could take on the world after you find a way keep your "stuff basket" clear? I started thinking of other things in my life that I could change. I am always looking for ways to improve and as the girls get older, I have more motivation to make these improvements a reality. I am not a big fan of New Years Resolutions. I love the idea but I always feel like a big fat failure when I .. well.. fail. I have recently started keeping very close track of our money. We have always had a sort of internal budget, but in an effort to make a real go at buying a house one day.. I am learning to track it all in a budget program. It has been really interesting to see where it all goes.. in all honesty it is going exactly where I thought it was in the amounts I imagined so.. that is good news in my book. I am pleased with us. There are improvements to be made but.. for the most part I have not needed any TUMS when reviewing these numbers.

This lead to thoughts about time. More specifically the way I spend my time. I think there is a lot of room for improvement in this area of my life. Particularly the time I spend alone during the girls naps and with Stephen in the evening. Lets just say there are few movies in this house that I can not quote line by line. I justify it by reminding myself that I spend my days keeping up with/ playing with/taking care of twin turbo engines. Still, would my mind be sharper and my spirits higher if I spent more time reading or doing yoga than napping to old Frasier episodes? I am curious. Somehow I am able to do my housework and cooking chores when the babies are awake.. so napping is a luxury I allow myself as a sort of reward for a job well done. Still, I wonder how my life would be different if I spent more time doing something more stimulating instead?

So. Here is my idea, my project for this new year. I am going to attempt to end 2010 with 365 posts on this blog. This is not a promise.. this is a goal, and I think it's doable so no raining on my parade, ok? I also want to make some changes to the way I spend my free time.. so I am going to document it here each day. Not sure how all this will look yet.. it's still budding in my mind but.. I am excited. I think it will be fun to see if I can start to be as pleased with the way I spend my free time as I am with the way we spend our cash.

Table

Stephen spent the morning making a surprise for the girls. A table of their very own!



It works perfectly with the little chairs from great grandmother Shingler and they absolutely LOVE it.






It's the perfect spot to work on a puzzle.



Or, if your name is Margot, chew on an alphabet block.

Migraine

Today I had a migraine. I took two Zomig and it still managed to last the whole day. Still... it relented enough to allow us to go to Church and have lunch with Mom and Dad. After they left, I went back upstairs to take a nap and Stephen took the girls for a walk. They got to see a train go by. Sorry I missed it... aren't they beautiful ?

Christmas time was here...

.. and so was Uncle David..



.. and Grammy and Grampa..









..Ada and Margot got a play kitchen for Christmas from Grammy, Grampa, Nana and Papa.



..they also got big Doodle Pros from us.. they started drawing immediately.



..twin sock monkeys from Grammy and Grampa.. Ada snuggled them right away.



..a new play phone from Ms. Kathy.. they love pulling it around and saying "Ello?"



..paper treats from the Bassage-Glocks.... we blow them up.. they crush them right away and ask to have them inflated again ..



..Ada and Margot playing cars in the kitchen window with Grammy..



..Ada testing Grammy :) Grammy get's an A +






.. the girls could not/can not get enough of their new kitchen. They cook and stir and sort and organize .. open the doors.. close them again.. put away their tea set.. bring it back out.. share tea with everyone.. put their sippy cups in the oven.. take them out again.. I don't know if this is true but it feels like they have been watching me in the kitchen.. cooking.. and now they are putting it into practice themselves.. like I said.. not sure that is the case.. but it sure feels that way.. and I am going to keep that in my heart.




.. we had a beautiful Christmas with our family here. We ate good food, laughed until we cried, napped, read, strolled, shopped, watched movies, listened to music, played with babies, laughed with babies, laughed at babies, sang together on Christmas Eve, prayed together, played together.. all the things that you do with your family that bring a smile to your face. Still smiling.

Wordless Wednesday

Eight

Eight years ago today Stephen and I got hitched. This morning I am curled up on the couch with a warm mug of coffee and a tummy full of the special anniversary breakfast that my sweetheart made for us to share this morning, eggs and blue berry popovers. So good.

Last night I was thinking about my favorite moments throughout the last eight years. Which would I call the happiest day of my life. Leaving out all the large and little moments with our newest baby family members.. I tried to think about our wedding day .. was that truly the "happiest day of my life" as you often hear from married folk? I gotta say it's a no. Our wedding day was wonderful.. don't get me wrong. Still, the happiest day of my life (again.. before becoming a mommy) was occurred many years ago. I was wrestling through the crowd in the camp store to get the mail for my cabin.. had been through a pretty tough day and was so ready for a night off.. I grabbed our mail and turned to make my way back through the throngs of kids fighting to get their hands on something sweet enough to ruin their appetite for lunch...and I saw him.. Stephen's was standing in the doorway ... back from a day of canoeing and headed to get his own fistful of mail.. my heart leaped and I cried out his name without a thought in my head.. and I knew. He was the one for me. Has been ever since. Sigh. Ain't life grand?

Collaboration

Away on a tree branch...?

..rock-a-bye robots..? You might be wondering why I am posting a photo of the girls new robot ornaments (from Grammy and Grandpa) ... looking a bit askew in the tree branches.. their soft little knit yellow and orange bodies dangling in the needles.. this photo was taken about a week ago... we gave the girls their ornaments to play with..and play they did.. then before they headed off to bath and bedtime.. they sweetly nestled their little ornaments into just the right spot in the tree. And here they are. They have moved them a couple of times since then.. but we will always have this picture to remember their first tree decorating experience. Seems silly when I think about it sometimes.. am I going to look back and wonder why I took this photo? I only hope I remember the rush of loving excitement when I saw what they had done. They are growing up :)

Season's Greetings.. on the way cheap....

On so now that we are officially into the month of December.. I can joyfully announce that THIS YEAR we WILL be sending out Christmas cards!!! Still.. there is a small disclaimer about said cards. We decided to send out postcards this year.. we like postcards.. the postage costs less than a candy bar.. and it just felt right for us this year. We looked for sites that we could order these photo postcards from... found quite a few.. were on the verge of hitting the order button when I mentioned Hippopost to the man of the house and suddenly a light went off. Hmm... maybe we should use this site to send our postcards. See, they send them for free.. postage paid.. no cost at all.. sounds great right? Well that remains to be seen. There is a limit of 10 free per day.. so yesterday I started on our batch.. 10 down.. many more to go. The website says it can take 7-10 days for your card to arrive at it's destination. SO.. while I think you should all be getting a card in your mailbox.. that may take a few days and as this is the first time I have tried this so.. it's a big experiment.. please bare with me! Like everyone else these days, we are trying to pinch our pennies - thus Hippopost. Will keep you posted on whether or not it's successful!

Just in case this is all a big (un)funny joke and no one gets our cards.. take a look at the image above and just imagine that there is a really witty personalized message on the back full of love and blessings for each and every one of you.

Do you..

... ever try to hide behind your mama's shoes..?



...believe a tambourine on your head makes you invisible ..?



...grow at a rate of several fee in as many seconds..?



..oh...



...ever wonder why people are always taking pictures of you..?

Do you.... have Trader Joe's O's in your carpet, and grapefruit stickiness on your kitchen floor? Do you need to vacuum said floor? Mop? Dust? Do you have a dog that spends most of the day playing with babies and looking for a warm lap to snuggle in? Do you wear knee socks every day when the weather is chilly? Do you long for a steaming bowl of rice and Indian Food every night for dinner? Do you have greasy little baby hand prints on your windows and mirrors.. and can't bear to wipe them away ..? Do you have giggling girls upstairs that are supposed to be napping?

We do.

Mommy's Helpers

The girls helped me put our laundry away this morning.



There's a baby in my closet.



Soon the fascination with Mommy's "soo"s waned and it was on to the big people books. Here Ada is checking to make sure that I am following Mrs. Plowman's advice to the letter.






Whoops, we have a baby down. It doesn't take much to overwhelm you when you are smaller than Mommy's "soo" rack. Take heart dearest, we will plow through it all together one day.

Girls vs. Tree

The first day the girls came downstairs and saw our tree.. it had a baby gate around it - with good reason. After a few days of gated tree viewing.. I decided to take it down and try it out our 16 month listening/obeying skills.



Man it is tough for little girls to keep their hands gentle on this tree. Poor Ada just sees balls hanging all over it and wants to play catch. I keep a close eye on them when they are near it .. it could be dangerous if they pulled it over on themselves. I don't want them to be afraid of the Christmas tree so.. they do not get any "pop pop" s (as the girls call it when I have to pop their hand in discipline) but they have been "instructed" to "be gentle" and "touch with one finger"... many..many.. many times. Grin. It's a patience builder but I love those sorts of things. I feel the stupid anxieties that I put on myself for meaningless reasons drop away as I stand over them helping them learn this new.. skill.



Ada is my most frequent rule breaker so far. But when corrected she sticks her little finger out and strokes the ornaments while calling out her names for them "Bawwwww!": ball
"Bebe!": baby.. that's it so far :)






It's hard to enforce these rules from behind the lens sometimes.. still.. how adorable are they? The wonder in their faces at the sight of the lights and decorations is infectious. Happy Christmas babies.