The blessed reason....

....laundry takes forever and a day to get through around here....

And a random bonus...This is Ethan heading out the door for a sleep over at his best buddy's house. I look at him and just can't believe it's been over FIVE YEARS since I rocked him for the first time in his nursery. It makes me well up to think of how quick time is going.

♥ Treasured memories daily ♥

C'mon, I HAD to!

So, I threw a shirt on Audrey and caught a bit of her first steps. It doesn't quite capture the excitement and essence of her diapey vids, but at least I'm not screaming (as much) :)



Norah took her first steps just before her birthday, so within only a few weeks, she has gone from crawling/walking to almost exclusive walking. I would expect the same thing from Audrey...so it looks like we are gearing up for a super duper fun spring with lots of playing at the park! Yippeeee!!!!

I KNEW IT!!

I just got some video of sweet little Audrey taking some steps on her own! She is SO motivated, it's not even funny (OK, it's hilarious AND adorable!). I'll have to get some video later this week because the one I took tonight won't be posted for two reasons:
1. We just finished dinner, so both girls are in nothing but diapers...and their Papi Frank gets greatly disturbed when I post baby naked pictures for all the world to see (right, Papi?)
2. All my obnoxious shrieking, hootin', and hollerin' is quite embarrassing.

Let me tell ya, though...it is CUTE and EXCITING!!!!

One hundred and fifty ten

One hundred and fifty ten is Ethan's favorite number:

"That's how many bad guys you have to fight."

"That's how much I love you."

"Is that more than one hundred and fifty ten?"

"Can you count to one hundred and fifty ten?"

I just want to remember because some day all too soon things like "one hundred and fifty ten" and "hopistal" (hospital) and "wif" (with) and "The Empire 'Stripes' Back" and "Karate Boy" (Karate Kid) will be so far in the past, it probably won't even ring a bell. How we enjoy our little boy and all his silly sayings!

Wordless, um, Monday ?

Next she'll be asking to borrow the car....

Norah made a trade...

I think she has officially traded Hands and Knees for Souls of Feet! I hardly saw her crawl today...she has been trotting around all day, standing 28 inches high...but by the smile on her face, I think she thinks she's 8 feet tall!

It looks like we have a legitimate reason to buy cute little pink tennis shoes from Stride Rite!! :)

And little Ms. Sissy Pants is starting to get the idea....For the last couple days, she has stood there and told us with her eyes, "I want to walk to you!! I want to, I just can't get my feet moving!" Today, she made great efforts and laughed the whole time I coaxed her along. I think she'll be chasing her sister within the month...that's my prediction.

Snow Day 2

I think we've had enough snow play today...we're in jammies for the evening with our fire and hot cocoa (cooled with clean snow, of course!)

Like, one of the funnest days, EVER!

Can y'all believe how much it snowed today! It was snowing when we woke up, and it hasn't let up once all day. Too much fun; totally worth the extra work of bundling and washing all the play clothes!

Snow ball fights with a giggling, screaming, running 5-year-old are great exercise for the body and the soul!

This little guy had a ball rolling around in the snow. I lost track of time, but I'm guessing we got a good hour of snow play in before school, and more than an hour in after school.

Audrey and Norah got a little bored with the show at one point.

A Baby Mum-mum cracker bought us a bit more time!

Those crackers have been my life-saver in more than a few situations.

Happy to watch more of the E-man's shenanigans.

This is so silly, but Chris taught me something today:
You know how in cartoons, they roll snow into balls? I learned that you can really ROLL snow into actual BALLS! It was so exciting to see all the snow gather onto my rolling snow ball! Ha,ha....I really thought that only happened in cartoons. I was so impressed, I had to roll an even bigger snow ball later this afternoon.

I can't wait to see our snow man smiling back at us through our window tomorrow morning.
(and that's my bigger "ball" on the bottom. I haven't quite perfected the round part of rolling a snow ball. And did you know it is HARD to roll a big ball around?!)

I decided Snow Ethan is one of my favorite looks on our son. He's so sweet, he takes my breath away.

And, of course, all this fresh white powder reminds me of our gracious Heavenly Father, who freely forgives our sins:
"Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD, "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land." Isaiah 1:18-19

Blessings!

:(

This poor little guy probably never saw our door coming.

Sorry little buddy :(

Ethan says-

This morning Ethan tells me, "Norah has really cute eyelashes. Like, her eyelashes look like a real growed up girl, huh Mom?"

I wonder if he'll be an Eyes Guy...that would make me happy since so much can be told by looking someone in the eye. Isn't there a proverb that says, "The eyes are a window to the soul", or something along those lines?

Enough on that---my little ones are ready to be changed and we're off for our day!

I'm still here procrastinating....

I AM trying to get the kitchen cleaned up, but it's slow-going because of my "helpers"---

Sitting at the computer procrastinating....

I let the girls feed themselves pasta, and I'm thoroughly dreading the clean-up....so instead, I'm procrastinating at the computer. This would probably be a good time to update the blog with pictures from Audrey and Norah's first birthday, but I'm in much too much of a procrastinating mood.

Here's the view from my table:

Oh my noodle-ness!

The second boy in the orange shirt is insane! I love it!

It's a Lovely Gift

I'm not sure what's gotten into Chris lately, but I am certainly not complaining! Not only has he brought me flowers TWICE this month--romantic red roses and happy yellow tulips--he also got me this fantastic gift:

It's a ParkingTarget, and it gives me a little bump to know when to stop my car. That's important because I have to pull in super duper tight in order to fit:And the wall is not really a legitimate stopper:

So as long as my left tire actually hits the ParkingTarget, which I've only missed like 1.5 times (that's one-and-a-half, not fifteen), I'm golden! And that's good for mine and Chris' relationship.....He doesn't appreciate me hitting the walls and cabinets or closing the garage door on the back bumper, and I don't appreciate getting harassed about it--it's HARD to park my car--so the ParkingTarget is quite a gift of love.

Thank you, my sweetness!