Brr...

Our past week has been filled.  Last Friday, the girls and I went to MOPS.  Daddy, with his kind heart came to help with child care because we were short handed.  What a blessed woman I am to have my husband step in to care for others'  children so we all could listen to a guest speaker and enjoy our MOPS time together.

We ended our week last week with a sick baby :(  Early Saturday morning (4 am), Alora woke us.  After pulling her into bed with us to nurse, I was suddenly holding a puking baby :(  For the next 24 hours, she could not keep anything down.  She was so miserable, and by the end of Saturday night so hungry.  We finally got a grape popsicle in her a little at a time, but she was so hungry she got angry, kicking and screaming any time we would try to help her push the popsicle up.  We opted to stay home Sunday to allow her time to recover.

Lots of laundry later...  I was in the process of making our bed and found that Ezri had been tucking in "Barky" and "Fetch" while I got distracted.  It was too cute, so I left it until after she went to bed that night.  Ezri is becoming quite the little mommy to her animals.  I love it!

While we were home on Sunday, Daddy spent a little time repairing one of our dining room chairs.  Alora, feeling a little better, talking and smiling again, wanted to help :)

Thankfully, nobody else got sick!  We got back on track while the weather got unruly...   One afternoon, Alora woke quite cheerfully, chattering away in her crib while she waited for Mommy to come get her.  

Tucker is never far behind, usually at her door before me.  He follows me in and waits for me to get Alora out, and she is more than happy to talk about Tucker and pet him.  I put him in her bed and she thought it was the greatest thing to have him contained so she could get her hands on him for longer than a few seconds :)

What a cold week!  Winter is here in full fury this week.  We started out the week with temperatures in the teens and even low single digits.  A couple of mornings we even saw negative temperatures.  Along with the cold came snow.  Lots of snow!  

By Thursday, we were so tired of shoveling, and it seemed an endless task.    Fortunately, Thursday it was in the mid 20's and "warm" enough for a little time (very short, it was still cold for little ones) outside to play in the snow!  So, we bundled up...

 And headed out into the snow...

 Alora was happy to ride in the sled, and Ezri was having lots of fun walking through the deep snow.

 When Daddy got out a second sled for Ezri, she laid down and went for a ride.  That was lots of fun!

 After a bit, Alora wanted out of the sled to walk and crawl in the snow.  Curious about it all, she was watching Ezri play in the piles and following suit.

After we warmed back up, we had a tea party together.  At least, as long as Alora would let the dishes stay on the table.  She's our little tornado :)

Ezri has been having lots of success potty training!!!  Mid last week, she suddenly started letting us know she needed to go and stopped having accidents.  As if a switch was flipped, we can now put undies or pull-ups on her and she can go all day without an accident.  She goes potty all by herself and if we are out, she will even let us know she needs to go.  It is so exciting!!!

We are gearing up for Alora's big day.  So hard to believe our precious little angel will be 1 on Monday!  How quickly the time has flown by, and how fun it has been.  Walking more often than crawling,  chattering non-stop, teeth popping left and right, she changes nearly daily and we're along for the exciting ride.  Wow!  How truly blessed we are.

Where Did the Week Go?

 Our week has flown by so quickly, I barely got my camera out this week!

Our past weekend was packed with Daddy finishing up some work projects on the CNC machine followed by a busy Sunday filled with praise band and tired girls.

Monday we caught up from the weekend.  Tuesday, the girls and I went grocery shopping.  Wednesday, we were able to have dinner with our good friends the Rollandinis.  Thursday, we got to spend the morning with Dawn and Kenny.  And today (Friday) brought MOPS.  Our times at home when naps were not taking place were pretty busy.

Ezri has been learning the letter P and number 16 this week.  We have also been working the past two weeks on learning a bible verse.  I came across the idea of teaching a bible verse for each letter of the alphabet.  So, we started with the letter A: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."  Romans 3:23.  Ezri has surprised me by learning this quite quickly and I love hearing her say it!

I have been busy updating minor things in our home.  I have become addicted to the website Pinterest and have found many different ideas for cheaply (or free so far) fixing up things in the house.  Like our porch coat rack that used to have John Deere wall paper across it...

 Now it is painted with chalkboard paint.
Our newly painted dining room needed something on the main wall.  So, I got creative and made my own faux wrought iron wall hangings - with cardboard tubes!  Nap times have proved to be very productive for this mommy, especially now that the girls are back to their regular schedules.

The girls have been so fun this week.  Alora is walking all over, further and more steps each day.  She also cut two teeth this week, without us knowing until she bit down on my finger one night.  Both upper molars, and out of order as the eye teeth we were waiting for have yet to come through.  Surprise!

She has also kept us laughing with her antics over the storage ottomans in the living room.  These have become her personal climbing boxes (along with the couch - up and down by herself and things it's great!)...

Ezri's imagination has been great this week.  George and The Man with the Yellow Hat have been visiting our house the past couple of days.  (Curious George - her favorite cartoon).  It is fun to listen to her chatter away and play with George :)

Love these little angels so much!!!  

Catching Up

Last Friday, we went to Home Depot (I know, real exciting!) for a few things before spending the evening with Opa and Oma.  The girls had a BLAST riding in the car cart, and it was fun to push them around. I was laughing to myself as I walked through the store and things from the back tray, where I had my wallet and phone as well as Barky, kept getting grabbed and tossed by a certain precocious little girl.  I used to wonder how it was that parents could be clueless about a lost sock or shoe or other item and not realize it - I know now :)  I could hardly keep up!

 Saturday, we spent the morning helping Great Grandma put her Christmas decorations away.  Ezri was very excited to help, having just helped me get our tree put away the day before.  We had a great time with Great Grandma, lunch and all.  I love that our girls get to know her so comfortably that Ezri feels as if Great Grandma's house, and by extension all of her stuff, is hers.  We also helped take down the Christmas decorations at church on Wednesday, where she was able to help lots as our pastor's wife, "Miss Carrie" was full of jobs for Ezri to do :)

Our week at home was very relaxed and quiet.  We worked on getting naps back on track some more and just played.  Barky has developed quite the personality as of late, so suddenly he needed to have a high chair to sit in and eat as well.  Luckily, we did have one for dolls, so up it came and it sits by our table, right next to Ezri every time she eats.  Alora had to try it out too!

 Our little monkey has created some new fun this week.  Our storage ottomans in the living room have become fun to play in.  Alora figured out how to flip the lids off and will crawl into one for a moment, then to the next, back and forth... So much fun to watch her play!

We are so close to having a walking baby in the house.  Alora is able to get from the floor to standing on her own and takes 6 or so steps at a time, and more often each day.  She is determined to catch up with Ezri I think.  She has also taken an interest in watching Ezri in the bathroom.  Lately she'll perch upon a step beside the potty and sit while Ezri is on the potty.  We've lost a few items into the potty already *sigh*

Ezri has stalled with potty training, content to stick with diapers.  She's been going through a baby phase where she wants to be held, carried, fed, etc. like a baby.  We're not sure where it came from, but we figure it won't be long and she will not want us to even hold her at all, so while we aren't encouraging her to act like a baby, we aren't making a big deal of it if she does.  Some day she will be potty trained.  We're not sure if the signals are quite there yet for her to be able to recognize when to go, but we are confident that she will not be in diapers in high school :)

Happy New Year!

Our week was thankfully pretty quiet after the chaos that the past month, and especially the past two weeks, has brought our way.  Last Friday, I started a new project in the house.  I had the opportunity to get a free gallon of Benjamin Moore paint as part of a review program I am a part of.  Having chosen the color and bought the paint a few weeks, back, I decided now was as good a time as any to get started changing the dining room.  It has been the same colors as it was when we first moved in, the only room we've not done a thing to since owning the house, and I was ready to make it mine finally!

Color plans changed part way through, but I am thrilled with the results.  All said and done, I only had to pay for the ivory paint for the upper half of the walls.  The rest was either free or already in my home from other rooms, and why let that paint sit and waste away?  The biggest challenge was the ceiling.  Some mystery spots had come through and it took 6 COATS (what?) of Kilz primer and a final coat of white to finally get them cover. Unbelievable!

Before...

After...

Now to get things back in order, get some new curtains... what do you think?

We had one last get together with Kevin, Katie, Drew and Luke on Sunday (with the rest of the Rynbrandt crew) at Dad and Mom's before they headed back to Japan later this week.  Again, chaos, of course :)  We were so glad to have had the time to spend with them and will miss having them so nearby for sure!

Our New Years Eve this year was very quiet, and that was ok.  Many invites were extended, and in the end, we had the perfect night with just Alex, Andy, Scott, Kenny, the girls and myself.  After the kids went to bed, the guys and I played some games on the Wii and laughed, really enjoying ourselves.  I was glad, in the end, to have had a quiet night with our closest friends.  With the extended holiday weekend, the girls got in plenty of Uncle Andy time as well, and loved every moment, of course!

One afternoon, Ezri had Andy all tucked in on the couch to "go sleeping", covered in blankets.  She was sitting right next to him, reading him a book.  It was so cute to watch, and sneaky Uncle Andy caught a bit of it in video for us :)

Alora took the spotlight much of our week.  She has quickly learned how exciting it is to put coins in her piggy bank, and knows exactly what to do whenever we sit her down with money and her pig.  On occasion, she'll try a taste, so we have to watch her closely, but she does great all by herself putting the coins in one at a time...

 We're still waiting for her teeth to come through.  It seems they begin to get near breaking through and then she'll get some relief for a bit, and then several days later we're back at it again.  We're grateful that she is feeling better from her cold that she was fighting last week, however.  Nights are still pretty restless, so we're just doing what works for now and often that means grabbing her up for a night feeding and then both of us falling asleep.  Poor peanut!

 The big news of the week was that Alora took her first steps all by herself and while we caught it on video.  She has continued to get braver with each passing day, and soon those few steps will turn into unstoppable many.  Our baby is getting so big!

Ezri caught me off guard and guilty Thursday night, and I had a reality check that often times only my kids can give me, resulting in a "resolution" of sorts (I generally don't do the whole resolution thing).  While talking with me, she noticed I was distracted with something else and not giving her my full attention.  She stopped, grabbed my hand and said, "Mommy, it's time for you to start listening to me!"  Yes.  It is.  The wisdom of children!  I was hearing her, but was I really listening?  Obviously she has heard that a time or two herself, but it made me realize again just how important it is that I show her I believe what she has to say is important, not to just hear what she says and respond.  God, help me to be an engaged and attentive Mommy to my little ones.

We are hopeful for a nice, quiet, relaxing weekend at home to enjoy one another and focus on the girls a little more now that the holiday parties have finished.  Time to play (and nap)!