Personality...

My perfectly mellow baby is getting

a back bone and an opinion!

She can certainly voice her concern when things

aren't quite right!

Now that she is mobile,

she loves to find little things on the floor...

Like Lego's are no longer

played with in the living room!

 If you take a toy away

{or if she simply drops it}

she will let you know that she is pretty ticked!

 Life is just no fair sometimes!

She was trying her hardest to crawl over to the Lego's...

and we kept moving her away and

taking the Lego's away.

Poor girl!

{Prior to this day we didn't know she was

quite so mobile...so we now have a strict

"no little toys in the living room" rule...

and a

"no food in the living room" rule too...

baby is just too fast!}

Meeting Gracie...

A few weeks ago we took a little family

day trip to the

Mall of America!

The purpose of the trip to get summer

clothes for all 3 kids...

they had grown so much since last summer

that they had nothing!

~

The other reason for our trip was to

visit the

America Girl store!

Elsie has always drooled over the

AG magazines that come in the mail.

One day she picked out her

'dream doll'

a Bitty Baby with light skin and red hair...

and she decided to save

her money till she had enough to buy it!

She saved her birthday money,

she did little chores around the house to earn money,

she even helped Grandma B.

with some chores to earn money.

She kept her money in a glass jar and

counted it quite often!

Soon she saved up more than enough...

and all we heard was

"when can we go!?"

 For at least the entire week before we

went to the MOA,

Elsie packed and re-packed a little

diaper bag for her baby.

Jon said she just as excited to bring her

dolly home,

as we were to bring Angelina home from the

hospital!

 When we got to the store,

Elsie marched right over to the

Bitty Baby section and

grabbed the correct doll!

She was SO excited!

And Daddy spoiled her a little more

and even bought her a special little outfit

for her dolly!

She named her dolly

Gracie Elizabeth.

And for the next couple hours after buying her doll,

we shopped at the mall

and she wore her baby in her little sling.

No doubt in my mind that

this little lady will be one awesome mama someday!

 After she shopped till we about dropped,

we headed for home again.

Well, I'm sure

Elsie, Angelina and I would've shopped more

{I am terribly spoiled by girls who love to shop!}

but, James and Daddy were done!

 Jon was very patient with his

girls...

He knows Girls just need to shop...

with 2 daughters,

he better get used to it!

I'm sure he cringed though when he saw

just many shopping bags we had

stashed in the stroller!

 I think

Jon an I do this same

self-portrait every time we go somewhere...

 I get bored.

I'm not a good passenger.

I prefer to drive.

So does Jon.

He wins every. single. time!

 James isn't exactly what you would call

a good passenger either!

He is pretty much the complete opposite of good!

The girls do great in the car though.

Angelina is amazing.

She pretty much sleeps,

whether she is tired or not,

she just dozes.

We have a 4+ car trip planned

later this week though,

so maybe I shouldn't get quiet so sure of myself!

 Elsie just played with

Little Gracie the whole way home.

She has had the doll now for over a month...

and she never leaves the house

without it..

she sleeps with the doll every night...

I love it.

I will be sad when she gets too old for dolls!

A fun

Family day...

Hello...

A guess I needed a week long

blogging break!

I was feeling overwhelmed with

not being able to keep up with everything...

baby was teething,

no time to cook descent meals,

baskets of clean laundry waiting to be folded were piling up,

I was snappy with the kids

and had little patients.

So blogging was on the back burner.

~

After a fun family weekend,

beautiful weather,

a daddy who kept the kids busy

while I got everything back on track,

I am feeling much more on top of things again!

And baby now has 5 teeth

and is back to some lovely 2 hour naps!

And I pre-cooked food for baby,

a menu for the week,

and the laundry is all clean, folded and put away.

I think it's going to be a good week!

 Sometimes I need to remember

it's okay to

not always be on top of things...

its okay if my plans fall apart.

A basket of un-folded laundry isn't the end of the world.

A bag of store bought meatballs and a can of beans

for dinner is okay...

the kids will survive!

 I need to slow down and remember

my kids wont remember

those little details anyhow.

They will remember the little moments.

The little things we do together.

How I make them feel.

The simple things in life.

The laughter.

The fun.

 I guess creating warm fuzzies

is far more important than the perfect meal,

and a perfect house.

Cherish the little moments...

Sleepy Time...

I have always loved

to rock babies to sleep...

even when I was a nanny,

I rocked the babies to sleep.

I've rocked our babies to sleep.

I rocked our foster baby to sleep.

~

Then along comes Angelina...

if she doesn't fall asleep while nursing,

she squirms in my arms until  I lay her down

on the bed and cover her up.

She scoots around and finds

her cozy little place,

then falls asleep.

By herself.

Without me rocking her!

Sad, sad, sad!

Sometimes if she is busy playing

and I don't put her down for a nap at

her regular time,

She will just fall asleep on the floor.

Weird!

Our kids have always been awesome

night time sleepers,

but never ever have they been great nappers!

So Angelina

is kinda throwing me for a loop.

I'm sure her love of napping will come to end soon...

so I better enjoy it while it lasts!

Peaceful little lady...

Pizza...

Pizza with the Aunties

{and Grammie}

on a cold and rainy afternoon...

They even got soda!

What a special treat...

Gluten free pizza...

{with no cheese}

pepperoni and deluxe...

yum and double yum!

Since these pictures were taken,

this pizza shop closed its doors...

and relocate...

in our own little town!

And its even within walking distance to our house!

I have a funny feeling

a lot of

Pizzas may be in our future!

Sitting Up...

This little one of mine,

seems to be growing and changing

by leaps and bounds lately...

she now sits up

unassisted and plays by herself now!

And she is SO close to crawling

that I am getting scared!

And she picks up little finger goods

like rice or bread

off her tray and feeds herself!

And she can walk across the yard holding onto

our fingers!

James grew up so fast,

I swear he practically skipped being a baby...

so I was kinda hoping

Angelina would be happy to be

my baby for a long time...

but she is growing up fast!

Slow down,

baby girl...

no need to rush...

I kinda want to just rock and cuddle with you

a little longer!

* My blog might be pretty quiet for the next few weeks.

I am working on goals and am pretty excited!

I will try to do some pre-written posts or

wordless posts.

The End of Winter...

I think maybe,

just maybe...

spring is here to stay this time.

So with any luck,

this will be the last of the snow pictures

until next winter.

The last snow storm was a doozie...

we were "blessed" with about

13" of snow...

in the middle of April...

that's crazy, even for Minnesota!

Today people are still out ice-fishing...

and fishing opener is just a few weeks away!

Crazy weather this spring!

~

The last big snow storm did leave behind

some perfect

snowman building weather though!

Jon and Elsie made a

cute little snow man together...

and since we were all out of long carrots,

they used a banana!

{and strawberries for eyes under the shades!}

 Elsie was pretty proud of her snowman.

She came inside and got the camera...

and took about 15 pictures

from the same angle of the unmoving snowman!

And Jon took one of

she and snowman together.

Too cute.

What a fun memory.

Creating...

A few weeks ago while thrifting,

we came upon some fun

stencils...just a set of three.

Then a few days later,

while thrifting at another store,

we found the whole set of stencils!

I remember having the same set when I was little.

Elsie has been loving the stencils...

especially the letter ones!

 Elsie spend all afternoon making this

special card for her

only girl cousin, Lydia...

but then something didn't turn out quite

as perfectly as she wanted,

so Lydia never did get the card!

 I love watching my girl create.

And I love her love of words.

She is always asking me how to spell something.

She is getting better and sounding out words

and figuring out to spell on her own.

I love the way little kids write the way

they hear something said!

 My little perfectionist.

Lord help us!

Life...

This will pretty much be a

wordless post.

This week is going to be a busy one...

dr appointments,

eye appointments,

being intentional about our time...

finding a balance between

being on the go and having fun

and enjoying down time at home and

enjoying the simplicity of a

slow paced life.

~

~

The moments we captured in these pictures

are the kind of moments that,

as they are happening,

I find myself wishing

time could stand still...

I love the simple fun,

the joy,

the way my heart feels so happy

that I think it could burst into a

million little pieces.

~

These moments are what life is all about...

and what a rich and

beautiful life it is...

Pizza...

Because of our

food issues

we don't go out to eat...

our idea of out to eat is a taco or fries in the car!

But a local pizza place recently started

serving gluten free pizza

with a vegan cheese option!

So we enjoyed pizza in a restaurant for the very first time!

The kids were SO excited!

We went after church one Sunday afternoon...

this pizza place has a balcony where we ate...

the kids thought that was pretty fun!

James was so excited that I really don't think he even

ate much of his pizza!

After Pizza,

we went and checked out the toy isles at

Target...

then grocery shopping

and home.

A fun little family outing...

And such yummy pizza!

Baking Soda+Water

This winter has been a very, very

L.O.N.G.

one!

Snowstorms in April is just not okay!

So being that playing outside is pretty limited...

{you know,

because the snow is now so deep the kids can't even walk in it!}

We've been trying to get creative inside.

 On this day we made

vinegar and baking soda experiments.

This kept the kids so busy...

in the end we used

half a big jug of vinegar and a whole box of baking soda!

 We started out nice and clean with eye droppers...

they would carefully drop a little

coloured vinegar into a dish of baking soda

and watch the little

volcanoes.

 That soon evolved into dumping

cups full of vinegar into the baking soda

and watching big explosions...

~

And that soon evolved into

dumping handfuls of baking soda in their cupped hands

then I would pour vinegar on top...

a volcano in their hands!

 Nothing is fun unless you can get good and

messy!

And around here we seem to be messy

90% of the time!