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...

Life... at home....

Now that we're a good, solid few weeks into the school year people have been asking me how I like being a stay at home mom. Mostly, I smile and say "It's so great!" and then try to change the subject. In all honesty, I DO (mostly) love it, but to say that it's perfect and wonderful and awesome... that would be a lie. 

I LOVE not having to get up and go to a "job" each day. I like that I can take a walk in the sunshine with my kids. I love being able to hang out in the evenings and help with homework and bike riding and lunch packing and not have the ever-present hum in my brain about all the stuff I have to do for work. 

With that said, I hate the feeling of "what should we do today?" that I wake up to each and every morning. For some people- that would be such a blessing... to have every day as a blank slate, filled with endless possibilities for adventure. I, however, am a planner... and having no "plan" for each day...well, it stresses me a bit. I'm working on getting into some sort of routine and hoping that helps. While it is nice to have the freedom to do whatever I want, I'm also on a very tight budget... which leaves some of those "endless possibilities" not so possible... 

I also miss "grown ups." Desperately. I love, love, love my kids... but sometimes I want to talk to grown up people... about grown up things. I shared an office with an awesome co-worker last year, and worked on a team with some amazingly supportive people... who I miss tremendously. I miss talking about how hot Bradley Cooper is or the great deal I found at Target on a pair of shoes for Lucy. Unless it has to do with Elmo, Hattie isn't much of a conversationalist when we're home together in the mornings....  Last week I had a doctor's appointment, and (other than Dan) that poor nurse who checked me  in was the most conversation I've had with anyone over 4 feet tall in days!

So... do I love being a stay at home mom? 
Pretty much.

Because I get to be home EVERY day to watch Lucy bounce off the school bus and tell me about her day.

Because I get to be the one to hear Hattie say new words for the first time, like "color," and "apple." 

Because I get to volunteer to teach Maggie's Sunday school class this year. 

Because, ultimately, I realize I will have the rest of my life to "talk to grown ups" because God knows, my girls will be all grown up soon enough. 

This is the look on Hattie's face when she sees Lucy's bus come down the block.... 

THIS face alone is worth staying home for!

PS: It totally helps that I was invited to join a BOOK CLUB that met for the first time tonight. I cannot begin to tell you how energizing and refreshing it was to sit with other women and talk and drink wine and talk some more! Just what I needed!

18 Months!

Holy bananas! Miss Hattie is already a year and half old! I thought the first year of her life went fast... but these past six months have truly flown by!

Eighteen months is such a fun time... it's a perfect mix of them becoming independent little people coupled with the snuggly chubbiness of babies. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE this age!

With that said, Hattie is by far the most outspoken and "adventurous" of all the girls. I never once considered purchasing child safety locks before this one. I have never once had a second thought about leaving the older girls upstairs briefly while I ran down to switch laundry. I have never once had to use the buckles on the stroller. This one? Check. Check. And Check.

Other than causing all sorts of trouble.... Hattie LOVES to color, read books, and do whatever it is that her big sisters are doing. She loves to say "Bess You!" whenever she hears someone sneeze, says "Woof!" for just about ANY animal she sees, and makes a "fish face" when she sees a picture of a fish (or is hungry for goldfish crackers... ) She tries on ANY shoe that is left lying around, repeating "Shoe! Shoe!" Her vocabulary is growing every day. Just this past week, we've added "color" (crayons), "poop" (pointing to her butt when she has a full diaper) and "cookie." She also (very clearly) says "Iwanna..." followed by some mumble-jumble telling the world what it is she wants. While she throws a good tantrum anytime I try to buckle her into the shopping cart at the grocery store, she also gives great kisses and is quite cuddly with her "Ella" (stuffed elephant) and an episode of "Elmo." So.... I guess we'll keep her! :)

Hattie's 18 month appointment was last week. She weighed in at 22lb 12 oz and was 32.25 inches tall. Just for fun, I looked back to compare her to the other girls at 18 mos. She was almost identical in height and weight to Lucy (22lb 11oz/32.75inches) but a bit smaller than Maggie (23lb 8oz/32.75inches) I also thought it might be fun to compare what they all looked like at 18 months. Because I'm their mom and know them all as little individual people, I also think they look so different than one another. Comparing these pictures, though... there is quite a strong resemblance! 

  Hattie- 18 months (September 2013) 

 Lucy- 18 months (December 2010)

Maggie- 18 months (October 2008)

Commute

Last Friday after naps, the girls and I took the drive down to Crystal Lake to visit Dan at work and take the girls to Portillo's for some famous chocolate cake (oh, and dinner, too!) We've been talking about taking this trip since he started working there over 2 years ago, but we finally did it this past week. 

The GPS said it would take about an hour. 

The GPS lied. 

It took almost TWO hours. And it sucked. A lot. It was a lot of in and out of little towns- very stop and go. 

After dinner, Dan took the 2 bigger girls with him, and I followed him on a different route home. This ride was a bit faster (only an hour and 15 minutes!) but so, so boring. Through farm fields and more small towns. There truly is no "direct" route to Crystal Lake... but let me tell you. I have a newfound love and respect for my husband- who drives that awful ride every day, TWICE a day. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. 

On a happier note- Dan's office is really cool, his co-workers are super friendly, and the chocolate cake was delicious!