Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Let me tell you a little about Molly

My little Molly Jane has become quite the character. Her personality is revealed more and more each day and let me tell you... this girl cracks me up.



She talks all the time. Most of it is jibberish to me, but she does have some words down. Some her favorites include, "no", "yeah, yeah, yeah" (she says this when we ask her if she wants to eat), "all done?", "shoes", "mama", "dadda", "Anna", "nigh-nigh". She is walking, almost running, all over the place now. She loves to walk down the sidewalk. And when she walks, she kind-of swings her left arm in the cutest way. She's a climber, and I fear will be getting into more trouble the older she gets.


Last week, she picked up a stuffed puppy dog that we have, and suddenly became very attached to it. The puppy-dog and her nuk are her go-to soothers. She eat A TON. She will eat anything and everything. She will eat until we stop her. She bangs on her chair when she knows that lunch or supper time is nearing. She is SUPER ticklish. It doesn't take much for me to get her laughing hard.


She likes to wear this basket on her head. Almost everyday, she finds it, and plops it on her head and leaves it there for a half an hour. She is a good independant player... something her sister is not. Sometimes, I'll find her in Anna's room, just quietly playing by herself. I love that. Yet she is social at the same time. She isn't afraid to smile and laugh at people she doesn't know. Most of the time, she'll let others hold her as well.


She is a drama queen. Some days, the drop of a hat will have her screaming bloody murder. She has been vocal like that from day one. It has me a little worried about her teenage years. She loves to follow Anna around and mimick what she does. She loves to read. Peek a who? and a book about colors are her favs. We love our little Molly Jane, and can't wait to see how she continues to change!



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Friday, May 18, 2012

A beautiful surprise

Day 3 post-op and I'm feeling pretty good. Aside from being careful when I eat, and rinsing with salt water a lot, I'm pretty much back to normal. Yesterday, I received some beautiful flowers from my in-laws. It was such a pleasant surprise to see the flower box on my front step and then the beautiful lilies and irises inside. Most of the buds were closed when they arrived, but they've begun to open, and they are just gorgeous.

 
 
 
 


I'm blessed to have such wonderful family. Dan's parents welcomed this Wisconsin girl into their Michigan home immediately, and I hope I never take for granted how blessed I am through them!
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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Tooth fairy?

I wish the Tooth Fairy was real, and I wish the tooth fairy visited adults. That extra money could really come in handy yesterday, since I lost 4 teeth. Unfortunately, unlike with the tooth fairy, I lost money in the process. I got my wisdom teeth pulled yesterday morning. Yuck. Thankfully, everything went well, and I'm feeling pretty good. Dan and was super-dad yesterday and did a great job keeping the girls out of my hair. I'm glad to have this over and done with, and hopefully I won't have any more problems! Today, the girls are at Mom's day out at church, so I get another day to rest and re-coop. How much do you think the going rate for wisdom teeth is for the tooth fairy these days? Surely, it has to be more than the quarter I got as a kid. :)


Saturday, May 12, 2012

Easy Peasy Makeover

I have a sneaking suspicion that we are not the only family that has problems keeping their shoes orderly. No matter how hard I try, our shoe corner by the door, usually looks like this.



Part of the issue is I have one-year old who likes to carry these shoes all over the house. Another issue, a two-year old who is very particular about which pair of shoes she wants to wear on a certain day. I guess they are both true shoe-loving girls already. Recently, I've been trying to make our house easier to keep clean. With two kids under the age of three, I need it to be as easy as possible. I figured the easiest solution for this spot would be some kind of bin that I could just throw all of their shoes in.

Thankfully, I had this sitting down in my garage.

I received it as a gift a few years ago. Now, I love America as much as the next person, but I knew I could get more use out of this than just one month a year. Enter one of my favorite remedies: spray paint.

I wanted to keep the silver lining, so I taped up the parts I didn't want spray painted.


Used some leftover spray paint.



This is after the first coat. I'm sure our next door neighbor, who was outside grilling at the time, was wondering what the heck I was doing.
 
 Here it is about an hour later. I had to take this picture inside, since it was now dark outside. I'm always fighting the darkness, since most of my DIY projects happen after the girls are in bed.



And now a much tidier shoe corner. What do you think? Will it stay this way? Time will tell, I guess. My favorite part about this project was the cost: maybe 75 cents worth of paint?
 
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Friday, May 4, 2012

Thank God

"Enjoy every single moment. 
The good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, the inspiring, the not-so-glamorous moments. 
And thank God through it all." 

- Meghan Matt


Thursday, May 3, 2012

The perfect evening

It was the perfect spring evening. The temp was around 70, Dan didn't have catechism or a meeting or anything going on, so after supper, we headed to the park.



The girls did their favorite thing, swing.  


 


I even hopped on a swing and pumping my legs, told Dan all about the "swing races" we used to have in grade school during recess. Apparently, he wasn't as cool as I was, and didn't swing for fun back in the day.


The girls ran and played on this unusual playground. What ever happened to the good old fashion ones with monkey bars, normal slides, bridges, towers and balance beams?


Molly, of course, had to taste the wood chips.


And Anna came along to help.
 


Dan was proud of Anna in her Michigan shirt. This is what happens when I'm gone subbing for the day, and Dan gets to dress the girls. 


We attempted a self-taken family photo. Not too bad for only three tries!


Dan and Anna played many games of "chase". 


Molly was happy to sit with mom and watch. 


While watching Dan and Anna play, I couldn't help but feel extremely content and blessed. It was the perfect night.

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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Naptime Woes

The past couple of weeks, Anna has been going through an anti-nap phase. Unfortunately, she figured out how to open her door. So we put up a gate, but then she was just standing at the gate yelling, "Mama! I need water!" You would think she was dying of thirst. Finally, I got one of those doorknob covers, so she can't open her door. Still, she usually is playing or knocking on the door. She still really needs her nap. Four o'clock rolls around and watch out, she is a bear. Or she ends of doing this:



Yesterday, she went down without a peep. (Of course then Molly didn't want to nap) Can the phase be coming to an end?? Please, please, please! I guess we'll see what this afternoon brings.
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