T-R-O-U-B-L-E

It's that age - into everything and when it's too quiet, you know something bad is happening! Addison is exploring every nook and cranny of our house lately and I spend my time cleaning up whatever she discovers!

She found a chocolate candy meant for Symantha, and felt no guilt whatsoever devouring it. This is how I found her.

The girls were having a special movie night and Addison loves to terrorize them.


The office area is especially vulnerable, despite rubbermaid bins!

This would be my purse emptied on the floor. It was a nice opportunity to clean it out!

Interview with my big girls

This little interview was floating around facebook so I asked the questions to the girls and here's what I got. Just wanted to record it here because it cracked me up.

Symantha age 6 and Hailey age 4.

What is something mom always says to you?

s-Be good behavior
h-Don't be too crazy

2. What makes mom happy?

s-Having fun with your friends
h-when we obey you

3. What makes mom sad?

s-if one of us died
h-disobeying or if one of us gets hurt

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

s-when you are in your underwear
h-tickle us!

5. What was your mom like as a child?

s-playing with Nana, because she is always pretty crazy and she probably spoiled you
h-playing with your friends

6. How old is your mom?

s-62? 72? oh wait, maybe 52? I know there is a 2 in the ones place...
h-8

7. How tall is your mom?

s-I don't know
h-82 hundred feet tall

8. What is her favorite thing to watch on TV?

s-Rachel Ray or house hunters
h-the cook show so you can learn new things to cook

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?

s-clean up
h-go on dates and someone watches us

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?

s-for your great cooking
h-so you can show everyone what great drinks you make and great smoothies you make

11. What is your mom really good at?

s-playing with your friends
h-cooking! Or teaching us things

12. What is your mom not very good at?

s-burning things
h-making tables because you don't know how to, right?

13. What does your mom do for her job?

s-you don't have a job - wait cleaning!
h-make our beds

14. What is your mom's favorite food?

s-the salad you had at the Rainforest Cafe
h-the spaghetti with chicken

15. What makes you proud of your mom?

s-cleaning our messes
h-cleaning!

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?

s-Minnie Mouse
h-Zoe from Elmo's World

17. What do you and your mom do together?

s-go to some of my own friends' houses
h-go on special days!

18. How are you and your mom the same?

s-we have long faces
h-we have the same color eyes

19. How are you and your mom different?

s-you are taller than me
h-you have a big pinky and I have a little pinky

20. How do you know your mom loves you?

s and h- Giving us hugs and kisses

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?

s-he doesn't go on trips ALL the time
h-he takes you on dates and is nice to you

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?

s-scrapbooking - oh wait, Bed,bath and Beyond
h-Rainforest Cafe (uh, this is hers!)

I jinxed it

I think it is funny that this picture shows the weather about the time of my last post, sunny enough that the girls went running out of the house in their bathing suits to "lay in the sun" and were begging me to let them go in the sprinkler ( I said no of course, it was enough that they were laying outside like this! Thank goodness we have no close neighbors that could even see.). It was still only about 50 degrees outside, which made them finally admit after about 10 minutes that they might be just a LITTLE bit cold.
But a few short days later this was the view out the front door! This was last week, but it was hailing and even snowing a little bit today too. The weather seems much more unpredictable this year than I remember in the past. Looking at my month's worth of pictures on the computer is a little confusing because you really wouldn't be able to tell what season it was if the month wasn't labelled!

Speaking of a month's worth of pictures, here is a sample of how my project 365 is turning out (click to see it bigger). I am loving this project and am the biggest nerd taking pictures everywhere I go - Nordstrom, grocery stores, friend's houses, etc. All to capture glimpses of our daily life!

I tried some "fancier" things during our last get-together, like putting three little pictures on this tri-fold card, which slips into those bottom slots. On the back is my journaling and one more picture. This really helped when I couldn't narrow it down to one picture. Two months down, ten more to do! We'll see how excited I am about it towards the end of the year... but right now I am addicted.

Enjoying the sunshine

Just a few pictures to savor the nice weather we have been having in the middle of February. You have to enjoy it while you can - it will probably rain the next 3 weeks straight! Not that I am being negative, but just IN CASE that happens, I will look back on these pictures of family time at the park and know that it is possible:)

Valentine's Day is for amateurs

This title is my husband's quote of the day. He actually stole it from a friend at work, but he LOVES to repeat it the last few days! I would have more of a problem with this if I didn't love his reasoning. He says that it shouldn't take a commercialized holiday to get couples to spend time together, and he shows me he loves me every day with the random thoughtful things he does and plans. Since that is true, and I still get a date around Valentine's day (we went out last night), I'm good. We figured out this is our 18th Valentine's Day together, which is so crazy. I love this guy, and am glad he's mine!



On another note, we have been torturing Symantha and Hailey who have decided that kissing is gross. You should see their reaction now when Derek and I kiss... Symantha sounds like she is dying. But it is a great way to get them to leave the room! Let's hope our girls continue to think that boys and girls kissing is yucky for a looooong time.

Hope you have a great Valentine's Day!

Hailey's work in progress

Derek has been working with both girls on memorizing the books of the Bible. Hailey is doing the New Testament and Symantha is working on the Old Testament. They beg him each night to practice and they LOVE to practice! Hailey is learning the song, but Symantha is just reciting them, which is hard work! I'll try to post a video of Symantha when she gets them all down (a good way to celebrate, as they love to see themselves on video!)

I love this video of Hailey for so many reasons - it was about a week ago, so she was still learning it. Now she has them all down, but it just isn't as cute as this work in progress!

Don't forget to pause the music on the side, so you can hear her:)

New haircuts!

Daddy wanted it for a long time, but I was not ready to cut the girls' long hair! Symantha has wanted to have hair like Opal on the "Because of Winn Dixie" movie (which is a great big kid movie, by the way) but I kept telling her no. She had such thick, long hair - I loved it when I had the time to do it. But I had always said if I ended up with 3 girls, I was going to have to start cutting some hair off! Baths and doing hair each day was so much work, I finally relented and agreed to more than a trim. Symantha's is above her shoulders and Hailey's is just a bit past the shoulder. I'm glad we did it, because I think they look adorable and it is SO much easier!