snowy fun

I must admit I was not really ready for it to snow, I was a little crabby about it actually. However, Jennifer was very excited about the snow. When we picked her up from school on Friday she walked outside and very excitedly noticed the snow, she held out her arms and started shouting, "Its snowing, it's snowing!" Then Saturday morning when we went outside to play in the snow the giggles that came from my girls made the snow a little more bearable.

Mikayla all bundled up and ready to check out the snow.

Of course I thought I should get a picture of the girls together. It didn't really work so well, Jennifer had more important things to do and Mikayla just wasn't impressed with me at all.

As this picture shows I needed to just put the camera away and move onto playing.

Mikayla was not all about trying to ride in the sled with Jennifer so Jen thought she would pull her. Really it was very sweet. Both girls thought this was great! Jennifer was pulling Mikayla around the yard, talking to her as they went and Mikayla loved it.

Jennifer was going to try to make a snow angle but it didn't really work out for her.

I wasn't sure if Mikayla would try to move around in her big snowsuit but she crawled everywhere!

Each year we set the camera on the front step and take a family picture in the snow, usually the picture doesn't happen until towards the end of the winter season but since we were all outside we thought we would get an early winter picture.

Christmas tree

Jennifer was very excited to put the tree up once again this year. I must admit I sort of stand back and let Jen and Bill do their thing with the tree. Simply because I love to watch them.

Putting the tree together.

Getting the top on. Jennifer wanted to pretty much do everything this year and so she did pretty everything.

Even Mikayla got in on the fun this year. Last year at this time she wasn't even sitting up, this year she is every where!

Maybe I will pick this branch to go on next!

Making sure the tree skirt is where it needs to be.

Jennifer put almost all the decorations on the tree, by herself. Bill put a few up top and helped Jen get a few on but otherwise our tree was completely decorated by Jennifer and I love it!

Mikayla just tried to eat the decorations so she didn't really get to help with that part.

Our finished product. If you could see the one side of the tree you would notice there are no ornaments and that is because Jennifer focused mainly on the front of the tree.

I took this picture the day after the tree was up and if you look at it today it may look a little different. Jennifer takes the ornaments off every now and then and puts them back in different places. Makes me laugh. Today she took off an ornament from her first year in preschool, she was three. There is a picture of her on it, she brought me the ornament and said, "Mom, look Jennifer, baby, baby Jennifer." Made me laugh, she does look a lot smaller in that picture. I love that she is so excited about the little things of Christmas.

Thanksgiving

Over Thanksgiving I had a couple of family members tell me that I have been doing a poor job of keeping up with our blog. Yes, I admit I have. All of our pictures go onto Bill's computer and well Bill has been ever so slightly busy with school work lately. This means I have no time on Bill's computer to do things like update our blog. So I do apologize, I will try to be better!

Now onto Thanksgiving... We spent Thursday with Bill's family and silly me I did not get my camera out there. Friday we had Thanksgiving with my family, what a crazy but fun time!

The kids getting ready to eat. It ended up being more of a lunch on the go for these three, I don't think they sat very long to eat.Even with a mouth full of food Mikayla is one cute kid!Enjoying a little building time after lunch with Aunt Jen.Mikayla once again just being cute. Things get a little loud with Jennifer and the boys and Mikayla at times was not all about it, so she is on the couch, which for her was a little safer place.Jen and Ben playing in the basement with Papa. Who knew a hula-hoop would also make a good train?Once again just being cute.Later in the evening after eating a light supper the kids thought it would be fun to play in the kitchen of all places. The chairs are set up to be a train and there was lots of signing and laughing happening.After a fun weekend with family it was back home to get ready to put up the Christmas tree. Jennifer was very excited but had to wait while Bill and I moved a few things around so we could get the tree up. Jennifer decided to catch up on some football while she waited.The putting up of the tree pictures will come soon...

sleepy girl

Mikayla was having kind of hard day. Teething and a cold can really take a toll on a girl, let me tell you. I was finishing up doing something this afternoon when I heard Mikayla start to whine, she was on the kitchen floor, the next thing I know she is sleeping. The poor girl, she couldn't make it the few seconds until I got her, she just feel asleep on the kitchen floor.

It was really too cute not to take a picture.

one of those days

Today was well, just one of those days. On days like this Bill will often sign to me, "Mama said there would be days like this..." You all know what song I'm talking about! The funny thing is that it makes me smile every time! This morning, really early, Bill was off for week two of school. Which means it is week two for the girls and I without dad. The morning started off fairly well but by the middle of the afternoon I was ready to crawl into a hole and stay a while!
Jennifer had OT today (occupational therapy) and well she just really didn't want to go. So when the therapist came to take Jen, well lets just say it was a little ugly. Of course there are other people sitting in the lobby watching my child throw a little, ok maybe not so little, fit. Oh, isn't that just so much fun? It really is hard to try and scold your child with other people watching. At this moment I really needed a hole to crawl into. There was one mom sitting there, watching this lovely event unfold, and oh I wish I would have known what was going through her mind. A few moments later it was her daughters turn to go back with her therapist and like the perfect child she smiled to her mom and walked back all nicely. I think maybe I will just stay in my hole a little longer and scream, is what was going through my head. Oh the joys of parenting, oh the joys of parenting when daddy is gone for two weeks!
I may be in my little hole a lot this week if anyone wants to join me!

making cookies

I have mentioned before that Jennifer really loves cooking. If we are doing anything in the kitchen Jennifer wants to help. The other day she really wanted to make cookies. In fact she would not let it go. I would try to get to play a game, color or pick something to do. All she wanted to do was make cookies. I kept telling her no, she kept asking, finally she just went to the kitchen, got into the cupboard and pulled out the big bowl that we make cookies in. She brought it me and said, "Make cookies, come on mom!" So of course I gave in and we made cookies.

I decided it was time for Mikayla to get to join in on the fun. So she got to lick a beater too! She thought it was pretty great!

Once Jennifer had licked all the dough off her beater she tired to take Mikayla's. Of course Mikayla was not having any of that. So Jennifer just went and got more dough! It may be a little hard to see but there is a big glop of dough on that beater!
I quickly took the beater away and so the next best thing was to just eat the dough right out the bowl, a big finger full would have been perfect for her. Again I had to put a stop to this. I do wonder where she gets these crazy ideas?!
We got a new fridge over the weekend and not sure why Bill thought the girls needed to sit on the old fridge but it is kind of a cute picture. Never fear I was standing close by in case one of them decided to jump off!

playing in the leaves