C is for Cookie... B is for Birthday!

Yesterday was Hattie's second (gasp!) birthday. It happened to be an "off" week for faith formation classes, so we were able to plan a celebration on her real day! Hattie is obsessed with all things Sesame Street, so we decided on a "Cookie Monster" theme. What a wonderful day we had!

 Hattie started her morning off with a big poop (through her jammies), Fruit Loops in the family room, and watching some Sesame Street from the top of the toy box!

Cookie Monster cake!

 Cookie bar!

 I sooooo wanted to do a "year in picture" display. Dan said it couldn't be done. I was up for the challenge. 24 hours after the party, and I still have them all up. I love it!

  

 Hattie shows Papa the cookies...

 Pretty much love this picture of my dad and Hattie... they are obviously buddies!

 ...and then there's Gramma (or MeeMaw as Hattie calls her) They're pretty good buds, too!

 COULD. NOT. GET. HER. TO. SMILE. Grrrr....

 Candle time!

 Singing "Hap Burt-Day!" I LOVE all the LOVE surrounding my little girl in this picture... 

 Big sisters are really great helpers when it comes to blowing out birthday candles!

 We thought it was only fair to re-light the candle and give Hattie a shot at blowing it out all by herself!

 My baby girl and I... where does the time go? Sigh...  

 Holy presents!!!

 Party wouldn't be complete without a clown nose, right?? 

 

 New baby doll... so she can keep up with her sisters! 

Thanks Auntie Katie, Uncle Doug, and Hunter!

 Taking a break to read birthday cards!

 This gift was a huge hit- look at everyone's faces!

 Money is always a great gift... but it's so much better when it's presented like THIS!!!

 Hattie says, "PEOPLE!" Another popular gift!! 

Snow!

The longest, most God-awful winter dumped another six inches of snow on us yesterday.... We just stacked it on top of the several feet already piled up outside. The best part about THIS particular snowfall, however, is that it was followed by temps in the 40s today... so I dressed the girls and sent them outside! It's been so bitter cold this winter, that even with all the snow, they've hardly been able to enjoy it! I had to DRAAAAG them in to eat dinner tonight! They had a blast!

Olympic Floor Washers!

About this time exactly two years ago, I was HUGELY pregnant and stressing out about the disgusting state of my kitchen floor. I didn't have the stamina or patience to do it myself, (if you've ever seen the size of my kitchen, you'd understand) so I took the advice of a dear friend and "mommy mentor" of mine, strapped some maxi pads on the feet of my girls, put on some music, and let them "skate" the floor clean. It really was win-win. 

Fast forward two years. My daughters have asked me repeatedly to do this again. I've been putting them off. Because of a stupid foot injury, I've had to wear my running shoes in the house for the past month or so, and my kitchen floor was LOOOOONG overdue for a good scrubbing. So, in honor of the Olympics, we strapped "skates" on the 2 big girls once again, and let them clean! It kept them entertained for a long time... and they probably got the floor much cleaner than I would have anyway! 

 Maggie's feet have grown a bit in the past 2 years... 

we had to alter the design of her footwear this time around!

 Skating lovelies...

 No, we didn't lock Hattie in the basement while the big girls had all the fun... But we did send all three of them downstairs to "finish up" and let the floor dry. Hattie was not having it. 

Married 10 years, and I learned today that Dan is a darn good floor washer! Thanks, dear, for finishing up!

Dress Up!

We were stuck inside for our first of two "cold" days off school. 

The big girls spent a better part of the day in the basement playing Barbies, which meant Hattie was banished to the upstairs to hang out with me. After climbing completely INSIDE the toy box and emptying it from the inside out, she discovered the dress up clothes and had a great time trying on the different dresses. She insisted on carrying a purse- which she promptly filled with keys, a toy camera, and a Little Person zebra.... of course!

Hershey Kisses... from Heaven

Happy New Year! One of my resolutions is to write at least one blog post a week... I'm counting on all of you to hold me to it! I have a ton of holiday pictures, etc to share, but had this one post rolling around in my brain for weeks and I wanted to finally find time to sit down and write it tonight. 

I woke up this morning bound and determined to get our Christmas tree down in the family room. It's one of four trees we put up this year, but the only "real" one. The needles have been dropping like mad, and with Dan home from work today, I had an extra set of hands to get the tree out of the house. Not surprisingly, my ADD kind of kicked in, and halfway through taking the tree down I started taking other stuff down, which lead to washing the kitchen floor, which lead to cleaning the bathroom, which lead to... well, 90% of my Christmas decorations are down and I am silently hoping for a "snow day" with the girls tomorrow where we can sit and snuggle and watch movies and enjoy a clean house and not have all this Christmas stuff staring at us, begging to be put away. 

But I digress... a lot.... 

Back in November, my aunt called me and asked (with tears in her voice) if I was interested in "inheriting" my gramma's "Hershey" tree. You see, each year my gramma would send in for the annual Hershey ornament. She was so proud of those ornaments. I remember helping hang them on her tree and looking forward to seeing what the new one looked like each year. When my gramma passed away, my aunt took the ornaments and displayed them on an adorable little tree in her kitchen. This year, she was ready to pass them on. 

I cleared a spot on the buffet in our kitchen and set up the tree. It was so fun to take each ornament out and find just the right spot on the tree. So many of those little guys brought back such great memories. 

(Like my impromptu tree topper? Thank goodness for leftover Halloween candy!) 

I miss my gramma every day, but feel her absence most profoundly during the holidays. Having the "Hershey" tree in my house and being able to share those ornaments with my girls this year was extra special.. and a tradition I am so excited to continue! And the best part? Most of the Hershey ornaments are little elf-like men, but check out my VERY FAVORITE Hershey ornament I found buried at the bottom of the box. Needless to say, she had a very prominent place right in the front: 

Letting Go....

I'm so grossly behind on blogging. Ugh. I really thought NOT working this year would leave me with tons of time for stuff like this. WRONG!

Anyway... I had to take a few quick minutes to write about yesterday. Earlier in the week, Lucy came home with a large, green piece of construction paper with an outline of a Christmas tree on it. The directions were to decorate the tree as a family, and send it back in to be displayed in the hallway at school for the holidays. I put it aside, with grand ideas in my head of stringing real popcorn on it, making fancy "lights" out of foil, and just really making it the epitome of Christmas awesome-ness. In the meantime, Lucy asked me about the tree every day. I kept putting her off... there was always something else that needed to get done- grocery shopping, making food for Dan's hunting trip, laundry, balancing the checkbook, and about 15 new ""ruler" orders that I got just this week. 

Finally, last night while I was putting groceries away and trying to get dinner made, I was explaining AGAIN to Lucy why I wanted to wait to work on her project. Maggie piped up with "I can help her, mom!" Ugh. I KNEW the creation made by a combination of a six year old and four year old would look NOTHING like the amazing project I had already created in my head. But... I was having company over the weekend. I wanted the paper off my countertop. And Lucy doesn't have school on Fridays. And it would keep them busy while I made dinner. So.... (and I SOOO wish I would have taken pictures of this...) they sat at the kitchen table together and drew PLANS first (so totally, totally my girls) They made "sample" trees on scrap paper and planned what kind of decorations they wanted. First, they used watercolors. Then, they got out out the sequins and crafts and carefully arranged and rearranged the decorations. They asked if I could make bows (because our Christmas trees ALWAYS have bows!) so we found some Christmas ribbon and tied some bows. They glued all the goodies on... and then carefully explained how they wanted the glitter glue to go on (which I wasn't quite ready to allow them to do!) And... my favorite part? They had planned to put FIVE red sequins on it- one for each person in our family. While the ornaments weren't quite big enough to write each person's name, we did manage to include an initial for each. So stinkin' cute. 

So... while the tree looks NOTHING like it did in my mind..... it turned out amazing. Watching the two big girls work together and plan the decorations together warmed my heart more than a "picture perfect" art project. And... Lucy was SO PROUD! 

One of the hardest parts of motherhood for me is allowing my kids to be more independent. I mean, I KNOW how important it is... but it's so,so hard. First, because I know most of the time what I can do can get done in half the time and turn out much better (making  their beds... agghhh!) Second, because, selfishly, I HATE that they are growing up and needing me less and less for some of these things. This morning while I showered, Maggie combed and "styled" her own hair for school. Um.... it was HARD for me... but I let it go. I realize the hit I take to my controlling, Type A personality is nothing to the self-confidence and independence growing within my girls. 

Now, check out that Christmas tree:
(And, even better? Check out the smile on that kid's face!) 

Pure Awesomeness

Tonight I had the most awesome "mom" moment. I don't even really know how to put it into words, so I'll just show you a picture instead: 

We were all snuggled in the recliner tonight while Maggie read us a Fancy Nancy book for her school reading log. While we were reading, Hattie disappeared and came back with "Good Night Moon" and tossed it at Maggie saying, "Book! Book!" As soon as Fancy Nancy was done, Maggie moved the little girls to the couch and read them both another book. 

It kind of breaks my heart to see my girls growing bigger each day, but so cool at the same time to see Maggie become this person.. this "reader"... this awesome, incredibly caring big sister. 

Awesome mom moment. 

Love these girlies...Love this life...