But baby it's cold outside

Busted snuggle bugs!! This is the post afternoon nap sweetness that I sometimes catch them doing. Put on some Blues Clues and they just cuddle right up together.

Yup that is Princess Belle driving that Humvee! I bet when Brian got that collector model toy he never expected that a princess would be in there ready to shoot. :)

"mommy don't take our picture, we're relaxing!"

Her favorite green blanky. She loves to pull all her blankets out but this one's her favorite by far

my little double dimple girl!



Her favorite book of all, a story of Winnie the Pooh looking for honey. Not sure why but she drags it everywhere with her



You know sometimes you just have to take pictures of the everyday stuff. A day in the life kind of post. Just me and my girls hanging out at home, jammies on, messy hair playing in the girls rooms. I love to sit my my glider rocker and just watch them go....sing...bounce...giggle and everything they try to do to entertain each other and me. It's a blast. Never a dull moment. Funny when I have stuff on my mind and I would like to think thoughts while supervising but that just can't happen. Amazing with only 2 kids how noisy and demanding they can be. But like I said, entertaining. Abigail will just stand on the side of what ever seat I'm in and inch her chubby cheeks and doe eyes as close to my face as she can before I either redirect her attention or just get tickled and deal with her clingyness. She loves her mommy's attention....undivided attention no doubt! Now if she tries to get in my lap and wants me to read to her little ms muffin gets all kinds of jealous and so I wind up with both girls in my lap taking turns who picks what book next. They love their books. Chloe constantly wanders up w/ a book and grunts for you to scoop her and read to her. Her books look like they've been run over by trucks cause she just loves to play with them as much as her toys. My house looks like a library threw up all over the place. We have a good time me and the girls. It's a big deal when Daddy leaves in the morning. The girls love to perch up on top of the couch and wave to him out our front window as he drives by on his way out to work. It's so much drama if Abigail gets side tracked and forgets to look when he passes or worse when he gets side tracked and forgets to wave. Sometimes he even turns around and does another pass. They take it very seriously. It's so sweet. Chloe is starting to do that European backwards wave thing and say 'bye bye' but she will only do it when she's apart from who she's talking about, like after he closes the door she stands there all pitiful and says it to the door. Gotta love em! Ok, that's enough random details for now.

pajama day

This is one of Abigail's favorite days in her little preschool. This week they had their annual Pajama Day. Now where all these fun ideas were when I was coming along I don't know! These kids have such creative school programs now. I'm so glad for her little school and the sweet buddies that she's gotten so close to this year. These are most of the girls in her class, I think one was missing. Madison, Katie and little Amelia make quite the mod squad of the 4 year old class. To top it off she got to have show and tell and lunch bunch all in one day. I suppose that has something to do with the fact that she awoke at 6:20 in the morning wide awake. It was a great day for her.

February!

our Valentine peddys

This was the girls having their own 'pajama party' during our Super Bowl party. They were just adorable in our bed watching Mickey Mouse!

Ok lots of pictures but it's been a wild month. We recently enjoyed a visit from Michael and Lynn for a lazy weekend. We mostly sat around , drank lots of coffee and talked while Chloe and Abigail entertained us. :) It was a great visit and Abigail was so smitten with her Grampa and Ms Lynn, more so then ever this time. I think maybe it being on her turf and she wasn't tired from a long trip. I don't know but she had an absolute ball with them. We all did. We went out to the Homeplace for dinner Saturday night and ate our fill of fried chicken and mashed potatoes. That was fun. Then Monday the sweet souls offered to watch the girls so Brian and I could attempt a real Valentine date. I say attempt because of our really bad Valentines day history as a couple. From deployments to hormones to funerals the holiday has rarely been a success for us it's gotten to be kind of a joke. This year all signs pointed in the direction of a real romantic evening out. We went to a local Italian restaurant, steak lobster dinner (thank you Grammie Adam for the dinner money), then a drive out to the country to visit the land we are looking into buying to build on. A quick smooch in the apple orchard across the street then a head home. It's here the evening got a little spoiled. God was good to allow us to get through the entire weekend with our out of town guests before it hit. A whole week had gone by since Abigail's recent bout with the stomach flu but...on Route 220, right by the Volvo dealership it finally caught up with me. Yup, open door, gravel in the knees and little skirt blowing in the cold February wind and throwing up my lovely fancy romantic dinner. Brian showing the perfect combination of chivalry, pity and humor to help me through the ordeal. We scooped me back into our little Civic and headed home. Must say, we shared a good laugh at the once again failed attempt at a normal good Valentine holiday. Ennggh, oh well maybe next year sweet heart!
The week after they left we had quite a scare to finish out the month. Dad had another heart attack and had to be air lifted from the lake to the hospital here in town. Talk about a terrifying hour until we knew that it was mild and he was going to be ok. God can move mountains in the midst of terror though. He worked out the details beautifully. Mom and Dad both were in good hands and made it through what seemed like chaos to us. Dad spent a week in the hospital, a good hospital and had 2 more stents placed. They thinned his blood and got him back in ship shape. A mentally exhausted Mom, Me, Sue and Amy were glad to see the week over but honestly enjoyed finally getting back into contact and communication with one another through it all. Family's are good at that. Pulling together in a crisis. Not that we were estranged before but God used it to renew us as a family. Now all we need is to sell their house and move them closer so we don't have to go through the scare of how to get him here fast.
It was a good month all and all. Ended with a bang and a nasty bug that eventually took us all out but sweet Chloe. It was great to see Michael and Lynn. It was great for them to get to meet Chloe, well and my parents too for that matter. That meant a lot to me. :) It was great to see Dad through his ordeal and to come away smiling. We'll see what March holds. Never a dull moment, but that's life isn't it!?

Arhhhh...is winter over yet??

Ok, the holidays are officially over now and mommy's countdown is ON!! I love winter through the sentiment of the holiday season. The DAY that they are over, I am ready for warmer weather. The cold cabin fever doesn't quite set in until about now every year then I turn into a pill with poor Brian expressing my desire for warm sun and playing outside. We are on our way. The decorations are up. Shown here with the girls "helping" Brian with the lights. And Abigail and I even got so stir crazy we attempted fresh from scratch bread making. I must say we rocked that project. We made an ungodly mess but we had a ball and we did an awesome job. It tasted great! Chloe is still ever into trouble. In fact the picture I was trying to get of the taking down decorations was when she got stuck flat out on the coffee table trying to escape the "zone" as we call it. She did not like being left out of taking stuff down. And it was so stinkin funny how many times she got up on that table and couldn't get down. Unfortunately once I remembered to snap a picture she wouldn't do it anymore. Sweet Aunt T and Uncle Phil surprised us all by buying the girls these adorable matching snow sets to endure the rest of the winter. Maybe some snow to try them out will cheer us up. Seriously though. Me and the fam are having a good month. Ready for school to start up and Brian's made us some good chowder to keep us all warm. He loves his winter months so much poor little Mainard, and I just totally poop on his snowy party! I'm so lucky he loves me so much. :)

Happy New Year!!!

she was getting soooooo sleepy so far past her bedtime


Brian was just a glutton for punishment and laid down for the kids to jump on him, they had a ball and he invested in quite a bit of Advil the next day

Abigail was so protective telling all the kids " Don't hurt my daddy, be careful!"



I think Caroline and Chloe enjoyed ganging up on poor Cohen.

this girl loves those little babies and just begs to get to hold them






Well we found the perfect party to his this wild New Years Eve. Some friends at our church decided to give everyone a fun option this year for the holiday. Sweet Tara didn't want to be alone cause her hubby would be working late at the hospital so she threw the New Years bash all on her own at her place. The most wonderful thing was they started the party at 5! We all showed up with hungry kids and the chaos just felt like home. So many babies in that group. So different from when we started hanging out with these folks what about 6 yrs ago. Our New Years parties were very different back then. Now we come early and retire early. Oh how life changes doesn't it. We ate some chili and chocolate and mostly just tried our best to double task watching the kids while having conversations. The kids had a ball and we actually were able to catch up some. It was a great time. I think we weren't alone in packing up by 9ish to get the wild things home to bed. I think a couple folks put their kids in pack and plays and stayed it out. We on the other hand have Chloe to thank for reminding us what the midnight hour looks like, we don't need to wait up for it and smooch in the new year. We don't like being that tired the next day, why would we CHOOSE to do it on purpose. We've seen enough balls drop to satisfy us. We'd just assume head off to sleep at a normal hour and give a presmooch to welcome in the change. We have that in common and I'm so glad. Looking forward to good times in 2011 with my sweet hunny and our girls. Happy New Year!