personalized valentine

Gumdrop saw Sweetpea writing the names of her classmates on her Valentines, so this is what Gumdrop did to her own Valentines. Looks good to me.

dancing girls

These two love to play dance class. Sweetpea is the teacher and if Gumdrop has been really good, Gumdrop gets stickers at the end of class. Most of the time Gumdrop is kind of good and gets stickers anyway. Our electric piano has about 100 songs and those songs have been played so many times over the years that I know what song is coming next. "My Heart Will Go On" is the first song. I hate it. But, I love to watch the girls dance all around the room. 

painted faces

Sweetpea had the whole week off school last week. I was wondering what we were going to do fun. It was easy. All I had to do was go to the gym, workout, and let the girls have fun in the club's day care. One of the days they got their faces painted and then got to climb the rock wall. So fun!

Lately, the girls have been getting along so much better. A couple weeks ago, Sweetpea missed 7 days of school. I hate it when she is sick, but I was thrilled at how well they got along all those days. Sweetpea even told me "it's fun to be nice to Gumdrop."

I've got a brand new pair of roller skates

So cute, so funny. "I'm doing super good."

must have!

Just had a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful weekend. My hubby surprised me and took me to the coast. One of the best things about the weekend was listening to these talks on the car ride. We have decided we need to go away once a year, by ourselves, and listen to these talks (maybe on our flight to Europe, someday). I feel renewed and have already started implementing the things I learned so I can be a better wife and mother. 

If you have never listened to these, they are so worth the time and money. If you've already heard them, do it again. I'd forgotten so much.

One of my favorite things I'm going to work on is not criticizing my husband, my kids...anyone, anything. I'm sure I won't be perfect. But, it's so much more fun to be happy and positive (and a little crazy).

it's someones birthday

Christmas

Since I missed most of November, December, and January I wanted to share a few highlights from those months.
Our Christmas tree made me smile every time I saw it. Someday I will decorate my tree very pretty and coordinated  but that's not going to happen for a while. The girls decided it needed some decorations so they added their own. I loved it.

fun posters

Saw these posters on a friend's Pinterest page and thought they were so fun. I tried to find the source and couldn't find it (until just now, I'm not usually that dumb, here it is) so I made my own. I am not very creative, but I can copy almost anything. My girls don't think they are that neat, but if I had boys, I'm sure they would love them.

LOVE

Oh how we love these people. My niece L and her husband J are incredible. During Christmas break they spent several days visiting. Gumdrop was enamored with J. It is very rare that she takes to someone like that. She loved to play, cuddle and just hang out with him. It kind of made everyone jealous because she's really not that friendly with everyone. Sweetpea and L made up a duet on the piano. It was really good. Each time I heard them playing it, I was surprised it was Sweetpea playing the piano. My girls were so sad to see them leave and didn't want them to go. COME BACK AND VISIT SOON.
Don't you just love Gumdrop? She's going to love all these pictures when she grows up.

ice skating

   

We got off the ski hill a little after 2:00 and met up with the cousins at the skating rink at 3:00. We were pretty special and were the ONLY ones there for over an hour. The kids thought that was great! I was the only adult to skate. My desire to skate was a -300 on the scale of 1-10, but I had fun anyway. At one time I looked around and saw all the kids lying on the ice. I had to join them for a picture opp. Gumdrop did not last very long. She threw a HUGE fit so we had her hang out by the fire pit with the adults. The kids improved so fast. I was amazed at how well they did. D was the most improved, by far. L had falling skills. He managed to slide into his falls instead of on his bottom. K was awesome to start with and just got better. It was Sweetpea's first time ice skating. She really got the hang of it and looked like a little bird flapping her arm wings. We had the kids race several times. So funny. They were determined. Sweetpea, the birdy, won the races because she was slow and steady while the boys were like steam rollers and fell over and over but got up so quick.
How people jump 3 feet of the ice and land on one legs is beyond me. I can't even keep my ankles from rolling inward.

ski season

Ok, so maybe I will use this one for the Christmas card. I love how the girls are standing. 

We bought season passes this year. We only had to do 4 times to make it worth it...we've been way more than that. This last time we realized kids 4 and under ski for free. Really? We knew Gumdrop would LOVE to go on the gondola and go skiing. My Hubby took Gumdrop up to the learning center and took her down the hill several times. She had a blast until her hands got cold, then she was a grumpy pants. He took her up to the lodge on the top of the mountain where Sweetheart was spending the day. Sweetheart (my mom) watched her while we went off and skied. Sweet Pea wasn't feel too great so she skied for a couple of hours then joined them in the lodge. They were perfectly content with their hot chocolate and Netflix. I guess we wore Gumdrop out because she fell asleep on Sweethearts lap for over an hours.
Instead of riding the gondola down, the four of us decided to ski down. I did most of the hill holding a camera taking pictures or videos and trying to keep from having a heart attack. Gumdrop was skiing between her dad's legs and they were going sooooooooooooooooooooooooo fast. She kept laughing and yelling "faster, faster." On one part of the hill it was pure ice. Sweet pea went down first and screamed the whole way down. She was scared because she was skiing so fast and couldn't stop. I was so proud of her for being so brave.
We still have 2 years of free skiing for Gumdrop. Yipeeee!
After we went ice skating, but that's for another day.

2013 Christmas Card

Wew, check something off my to do list. I already have the picture for our 2013 Christmas cards. I got a few complaints in 2012 because there wasn't a picture of my hubby and I on the card. Well, here is a picture of all of us. Next post I will tell you all about it.

Happy Valentine's Day

  

paper bag monsters

We saw this idea one afternoon while we were reading OLIVIA (she is such a funny pig). It was a hit. I'm so glad I save paper bags. At first they put on the bags without the eyes cut out, hilarious. Now the bags are hanging on the handy dandy art center. I love it.
p.s. it was a pajama day, Sweetpea was home from school sick.

friend or enemy

Oh man, these two girls can fight like you would not believe. We stopped by cousin T's house and T gave Gumdrop generous amounts of candy and they ran around like best friends. I brought Gumdrop and T to my house and they fought like worst enemies; crying, complaining, horrible selfishness and meanness  After a few time outs for Gumdrop, I wasn't sure I could handle them anymore. Then, they were quite. We found them on the bed Gumdrop reading a book to T and T being thoroughly entertained. They got along perfectly after that. Silly girls.

sick

When my Sweetpea is sick she frequently falls asleep but refuses to just lie down. I find her dozing in these funny positions. Just put your head on the couch!

bubbles

Sometimes, when I'm not sure I will last through the witching hours (4:00-6:00 pm) I stick this little thing in the tub. She really wanted to sit in Sweetheart's hot tub, but I was too lazy so I enticed her with a bubble bath. She even got to pour the bubbles...half the bottle. What a blast. There might have been more bubbles in the bath than water. She got a little panicked when all her bath animals got lost. I reassured her they were still in the tub and they didn't go down the drain. After searching, she finally found them.

More projecting

There is always art work hanging on this wall, usually stuck up with tape or sticky wall gum. Surprisingly, the wall gum works pretty well most of the time but sometimes I can't get a piece of paper to stick at all. I wanted to put art work up faster and have them look a little more organized so after seeing some ideas on Pinterest, I came up with this. I painted the trim the color of my wall, decopoged fabric onto the clothes pins, and glued the clothes pins onto the board. I also love the fabrics on the clothes pins so it makes it even more fun.
Our family attended a Christmas party in town and we ended up getting our picture in the paper. I was so delighted when the man asked me who the third little girl was in the picture. He was probably loosing his eyesight. I love the picture. It might stay up for months. Maybe, I should use it to remind my girls Santa is still watching.
Yesterday, Sweetpea counted out 100 poppy seeds for her 100th day of school project. While she was busy counting with Sweetheart, I took Gumdrop out on the front porch and taught her how to draw with Elmer's glue. She was in heaven...oh the joys of glue. After she scribbled on the page with glue, I had her sprinkle poppy seeds on the glue, then dump off the extra seeds. She was adamant that she do everything by herself. Such an independent and mostly capable little girl. When I went inside to check on Sweetpea, Gumdrop smeared glue all over her hands. They were covered in glue and poppy seeds. There is NEVER a dull moment with her.

I've been projecting

Oh how I love these rain gutter bookshelves. Sweetpea's teacher has them in her classroom and for Christmas I installed another set for her. I thought they were such a great idea, I did them in Gumdrop's room...for only $6, yes, that's right, it only cost me $6. I bought a ten foot section at Lowes, cut it in half and screwed it into the studs, then screwed in a few extra screws just for some wobble security. You can put some end caps on them, but that increases the cost by a lot and I didn't feel like I needed them, yet. Gumdrop hasn't hung off of them, yet. But, she has loved picking new books everyday and putting them away. The front of the book is so much prettier and interesting than the spine of the book. There use to be cute polkas dot going all along with walls, too. A little monkey climbs up on her bedside table during nap time and pulls them off the walls