Helpers

Turns out, some Windex and two rags will keep these girls occupied for quite some time. They gave it their best and sprayed and scrubbed and sprayed and scrubbed the sliding glass door for about an hour a few weeks ago. In the meantime, I got the kitchen sparkling clean with no interruptions. All it cost me was a full bottle of Windex.

And I'd buy an hour of productivity with that any day.

2 Years Old and So Dang Cute

In the midst of all of the craziness that has descended upon our recent life, another miniature baby of ours has gone from tiny squishiness to full-blown toddlerhood. (I wish they would stop doing that. It's like they're ganging up on me on purpose.) Little Lex has been such a sweet baby from the very beginning, and it has been so amazing and yet so heart-breaking to watch her become the little independent person that she was always meant to be.

Amazing: She is a wonder in every way.

Heart-breaking: Her tiny days are fast coming to an end.

Her Royal Squishiness, February 2010. 

Her Royal Toddlerness, Present Day

Her second birthday consisted of a visit to Savanna's dance class,

Presents at home... 

(it's hard to say "cheese" with a Nutter Butter in your mouth...)

(Holding on to her new Dora movie for dear life)

(She loved this princess car and the Nutter Butters 

so much she wouldn't even look up for a picture.)

And a family date to Scooptacular. 

(Ah, the ease of pleasing a two-year-old...)

Recent highlights:

~She has officially graduated from the high chair, per her
own request, and is contemplating giving up the bib as well.

~She is surprisingly easy to reason with, and will usually
compromise with Craig and I or give in to avoid a stint
in time-out. (Although she will scream like a banshee
 if her sisters attempt to cross cross her in any way.)

~She speaks really well, almost always in complete sentences. 

~She can do everything without any help from a grown-up
 (or so she supposes.)

~She remembers details of things that even I forget. At
Target today, she saw a Bop-It and said, "Lincoln have one."
And indeed he does. 

Some of our favorite things about her:

~She calls Savanna "Nanna"

~She calls Dora "D-D-Dora"

~She snuggles like a champ both before nap and before bed. 

(I will not be ready to give this up any time soon.)

~She out-eats both of her sisters most if the time

~She LOVES to read, and can finish the sentences in almost all of her favorite books.

~She lets me do whatever I want to her hair. (This will not last.)

~She is an unconditional lover of every member of her family,

 including cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.

We love her so much we could squeeze her all day. The End.

Dream Within a Dream

Guess where I just went?

I will give you some hints:

That's right, folks, I just lived every Mommy's dream of a blissful getaway to beautiful Hawaii. After the initial guilt of abandoning my husband and children for a 6 day, 7 night Hawaiian vacation with my mother-in-law, (who also happened to be very much in need of a break) I buckled down and allowed myself to indulge in the utter joy of it all: beautiful ocean views, delicious food, snorkeling, ziplining, sunset cruising, and general revelry which also included someone making my bed and vacuuming my room every day. I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Can't wait to show you the rest of my 391 pictures and tell you all about it!

Just One more Reason to Love Craig

One night after showing up fashionably late to our standing Monday night laundry date, I found Craig already up to his elbow's in a week's worth of laundry. Man, I love this guy.

This Was Bound to Happen Some Time...

My nephew Lincoln is the only boy out of my sister Cyndie's four kids. In a house with so many women, it was only a matter of time before someone took a straightening iron to his killer curls.

I can't get over how much he looks like such a little teenager.

P.S. This is what his hair is supposed to look like. 

When Christmas Came to Town...

Remember that one time that Christmas happened and I never blogged about it? Well, if you know me at all, you know that that's just par for the course. I've been getting in trouble with my sister (ahem...you know who you are...) for not blogging lately, so I figured I'd start with something that happened almost 3 months ago.

Christmas being on a Sunday was new territory for us. We had a really beautiful, spiritual church program that was a great reminder about the actual meaning of Christmas, and then we came back home for the decidedly non-spiritual part. We did stockings and Santa gifts and first breakfast before church, and after church we did second breakfast and everything else. (If you are familiar at all with my children's grandparents, you will know why they were opening presents until it was dark.)

The candy trail...we adopted this tradition from my sister 

and the girls L-O-V-E it. It's usually Christmas Eve by 

the time that we remember that we need enough candy 

to go from their bedrooms upstairs all the way 

down to their presents downstairs. 

Thank goodness we always have m & m's.

Lexa's Santa gift. She sure loves babies. As long as they're not real.

The girls got Wuggle Pets. I had some guilt at the 

last minute about giving them such a small gift as 

their Santa gift, but I soon realized that my worries 

were unfounded...these guys were crazy about 

being able to make their own little stuffed animals.

Stockings and the rest of the presents.

(Maybe I should ask Santa for new couches...)

All set to follow the trail.

Getting ready to stuff the Wuggles...each one came 

with magic sprinkles to put inside and a 

birth certificate so the girls could name them. 

Stuffing "Uni" the Unicorn

(I am still finding magic sprinkles in the carpet.)

She'll make such a good Mommy as soon as 

she gets over her aversion to real babies.

One of our favorite books.

A DVD reading of another fave...

Vanna loves her big sis.

The T(h)ree Amigas

Second Breakfast sponsored by Craig the Omelette-Maker

The Egg-Maker

The cheese-maker

Ponies from Grandma

No, we didn't get "Maverick" for Lexa, even
though she is a die-hard Mel Gibson fan. 

She is opening it for Grandpa Dennis.

Cute backpack with a puppy attached. 

Or maybe she's more fit to adopt a monkey...

Merry Christmas (3 months later)!