I am very very bad at building forts out of sheets.

I barely get it up and somewhat stable, and then Lucy wants to climb on top of it. And then Emma gets upset that half of it caved in. And then SHE wants to climb on top of it. And then I take it all down and say that we’ll try again tomorrow.

And then hope that they forget I said we’d do it again.

What is it about being under a sheet/blanket/whatever that makes kids so happy?

I went to Pinterest and found a few ideas on how to make forts out of sheets, so I guess I better get to practicing. And buying clothespins.

It was 70 degrees last Wednesday, but our back yard was still a muddy mess, so I sent Emma off to the front porch for some painting.

It took me 30 minutes to find the paints and a brush [we used to have a bunch of brushes - now we have one straggly piece of junk brush that I may have used to dig something out of the garbage disposal], but she didn’t mind … and it was worth it.

Okay, okay. I guess I went a little overboard with the pictures, but she doesn’t get to paint very much with a curious sister who eats everything she touches.

Yeah … I’m talking to YOU, cutie pie.

Even though the SUN finally came out and is super bright and fabulous, it was still a little too chilly to take Lucy outside with her residual cough on Tuesday. So we were all having some serious cabin fever. After building a really awful fort that lasted all of about 4 minutes before it fell down [seriously, I need a tutorial or something], the girls were still whiny and bored.

I really wanted to wash every piece of linen we have used for the past week to try to de-germ our house, so I pulled out the trusty roll of wrapping paper that a neighbor left behind when they moved, taped a big hunk of it to the floor and threw a couple buckets of crayons down with it.

Emma’s newest obsession is tracing her feet and hands, and then measuring them with a ruler. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE having a 4-year old?

Lucy just wants to eat the crayons. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE having a 1-year old?

And then Emma exclaimed that she was “exhausted” and that she wanted to tape it to the door so daddy could see it as soon as he got home.

So that’s what we did.

And then Lucy discovered that she wasn’t sitting in my lap and needed to remedy that ASAP.

Another successful 12-minute activity.

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I decided to follow Emma around during Lucy’s afternoon nap. It’s not very exciting, but this is our life.

We have Arthur and DW this week, so they are along for the ride.

Okay. Let’s go ahead and discuss the state of my floor right now and get it out of the way. It’s been rainy and muddy for days, and we have two dogs and no mudroom. So I have determined that it is pointless for me to mop. The end.

Then Lucy woke up, and I decided to just keep the project going for the rest of the day.

It’s days like this that I realize how amazing and independent and fun she is!

Now that Lucy is becoming a little more tolerable in the car, we can actually go places and do things!! It’s amazing!

So to celebrate the beginning of the new year, we took the girls to the Riverbanks Zoo, and it was seriously the most beautiful day. Can’t beat 70 degrees in January!

Even though Lucy didn’t nap the whole day [and I even tried wearing her in the Angelpack for a LONG time!], we still had a great time. I sure do love hanging out with my family.

Something about the people and the gorilla and how very similar they looked really cracked me up. I’m a Creationist, so I’m not saying anything about evolution here … just thought it was funny. :)

Lucy’s pose here killed me dead.

I hate snakes. I am really really scared of them. But behind glass? They move so gracefully and beautifully, and their coloring is always so unique – I can’t help but take tons of pictures of them.

Upside down jellyfish

This post was meant for Friday, but Ken needs to check my blog issues while we’re sitting here together, so that’s why I’m posting this tonight.

Christmas was far too long ago to recap with words, so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking. Mostly.

I love watching kids open presents and then gradually start putting on the clothes that they receive.

Lucy sat on every. single. present. And poor Emma was so patient with her. Heh.

The only thing Emma asked for consistently was a pair of ballerina slippers. I ordered her real ones. From a dance store. And she has worn them daily since then. I also got her a leotard with a tutu, but it’s been to cold for her to wear it.

We also got her a small tv for her room – this was a purely selfish present, because she is an early riser, comes into our room at 6am and turns on our tv. We thought she might watch tv in her room in the mornings and give us an extra hour of sleep. But of course, that didn’t work. At all.

[Mom, can I help take the red “garlic” off of the tree?] And is it just me, or does she look twelve in this picture?

As per tradition, we let the girls open presents here, then we all piled into the van and headed to Georgia to spend the rest of the day with my family. It was a perfect day.

I don’t really know what to say about 2011. It was a challenging and amazing year. Truly.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Looking forward to what 2012 brings for us!!

So Emma had her preschool Christmas program last week, and I’ll go ahead and tell you … I cried. Three times.

I blame it on the fetus.

Anyway, after she hid her face last year [I can't believe I didn't blog about it!!], I was worried that I would have to pull her off the stage again.

My mom and grandmother drove up from Georgia to see her, which was super exciting for all of us! We got there early and got good seats, and then the kids came marching in. I was right on the aisle, so I whispered, “Hey, Emma!” when she walked by, but she looked at me and gave me that, “Not now, Mom! I’m concentrating and walking and singing and being in a program!” look. Point taken.

And then she was on stage. And I got really nervous. That face? With the little smirk and the refusing to look around? I have seen that face. I know that face well. And I knew for sure that this would not end well.

But then the singing started, and you know what happened??

She sang!

She really really sang!

away in a manger, no crib for a bed

the little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head

the stars in the sky

looked down where He lay

the little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.

And then she played the bells …

I’m telling you guys, I was as proud as I could possibly be for my girl. She was absolutely amazing!

I had to catch myself from running up on stage and hugging her.

SQUEEEEEEZE

So so proud of how much she has grown in a year. Of course, I would have been proud of her, no matter what, but she is really growing up into an amazing little girl.

And then Mema, her great-grandmother, gave her these flowers, which she has smelled and touched and talked about every single day since then.

So if I don’t get online before then, Merry Christmas from our family to yours!! I hope you all have a blessed holiday season.

xxxooo

Emma is out on Christmas break this week, so I have less time for blogging and more time for playing! In that case, I just have one quick share today with the promise of much more in the next couple of days.

flowers for Emma from her great-grandmother after Emma’s flawless performance in their school Christmas program

I really try not to blame any crazy mood swings on pregnancy hormones, because, let’s face it – I am an adult. I should be able to stop myself from being a total nutcase. But some days, I just lose it, and I say things to Emma or Ken that I shouldn’t say. And then I have to apologize. Luckily, they are both very forgiving people, and we just keep on loving each other.

But yesterday morning got particularly bad when Emma wiped her runny nose on her shirt, and I got upset and yelled. It was a ridiculously silly thing to get upset over, but the wiping mouth/nose/hands on clothes thing has been an issue lately. I immediately scooped her into my lap and apologized and tickled and giggled, and all was right in the world.

I guess it’s the repeating of things over and over and repeating and over and repeating and over and over that gets to me. I don’t know. I just know that on days like this, we need to get out of the house for a while.

And yes … Lucy climbed to the top of the slide, crawled around inside the super high playground, and then crawled out to the little plastic viewing globe. And then I had a heart attack and died. The end.

Some days, we just need to hunt mushrooms – all found by Emma, all photographed by me, 3 almost eaten by Lucy.

all pictures taken with my phone and edited with RadLab

Today is the LAST DAY to enter the giveaway for Kellie Hatcher’s amazing color and b&w presets – BOTH SETS!!!

Have a great weekend!! xoxo