On The Move

Lucy has quickly made the transition from army crawl, to full blown crawling to scaling furniture - here we go!!!!! In this bottom picture she should be saying, "Ta Da!"

She's Crafty

Well - a little fun turned into an obsession. I got out my needlepoint Easter eggs a couple of weeks ago and I went from having zero finished to 5 done in two weeks. Here are a couple pics. Of course I didn't really completely finish them - the ultimate domestic diva, my mom, made them pretty (ribbon, fabric, etc.) She not only made them pretty - she had the brilliant idea to go trim a lilac bush in the yard to make my Easter tree. Really - how can one woman have so many good ideas? :) Happy Easter!

Bathing Beauties

Doesn't ever parent have this picture stashed somewhere?

Fleeting Moment

I was getting desperate. Bridget had been up in the middle of the night, moving to her sleeping bag on our floor for as many nights as I could remember. (I'm convinced I'm setting up some horrible habit that will never end. I guess I would be lucky if she was sleeping on our floor at 17 - at least I would know she was home :)!) Before I went to bed on Friday night I was reading Eat Pray Love. The author was writing about prayer. She was talking about the need to be specific with prayer. Praying, "I really need help, please help me, etc." usually didn't get the job done. So - taking a cue from Elizabeth Gilbert - before I went to bed I prayed, "Please let Bridget sleep peacefully tonight" - and I'm pretty sure I said it a zillion times. I woke up at 7 am when Lucy was getting up - AMAZING!!! I had a smile plastered on my face for most of the morning and Bridget was a joy to be around because she actually slept!!! Last night I did the same thing, thinking it was probably too good to be true to happen a second night in a row. I was right - Bridgie was in our room at 1am to snuggle up in her sleeping bag. But I'm still ecstatic about the great night sleep on Friday night! My skepticism about her sleeping well two nights in a row could be what doomed her Saturday night sleep. Like Aretha Franklin sang, " I Say Little Prayer for You".....Bridget:)!

This will make you laugh...

No one slept very well at our house last night- actually both girls slept well - Bill and I didn't though. We are both fighting colds. Which means I'm a lighter sleeper than normal and Bill is a louder snorer than normal - not a good combo. So around 1 am I wake Bill up to let him know he is snoring WAY too loud - he let me know (not very happily I might add) that he had JUST gotten to sleep. After he fell back asleep and kept snoring really, REALLY loud, I decided to go sleep on the couch. But - before that I thought it was perfectly sane to go get the video camera, go back to our room, video tape Bill snoring so he would know exactly how loud he was, and then go sleep on the couch. I know, BRILLIANT :)!

Wild Animal

There are so many things wrong with this picture :). First off - sitting naked on the chair probably isn't the most sanitary. The swivel chair can be tragically dangerous. And, oh yes, - the power tool in my toddler's hand!

Some strange wild animal has invaded my toddler. She prefers to run around naked. She likes to climb ON the table at meals. She doesn't hear my voice unless I'm screaming at the top of my lungs. And she smiles or says something amazingly cute at the most inopportune times - usually when she is in BIG trouble! Today I told her, "Bridget you are so much trouble." She replied, "I'm not trouble - I'm Bridgie!"

Jana's idea

My friend shared the best idea on what to do with all your holiday cards! I love saving them. I tried to put them in albums, but they are all different sizes and I never would put them out once they were in the albums. Her husband's aunt puts them all in a collage and hangs them in her house. I love it!!! Here's my collage from this year - I couldn't use a flash, so the picture isn't great - but you get the idea. Thanks Jana!

Picture Ready

Our house is going to be featured in a local magazine. When we were first asked it sounded so fun! Bill and I love our house and thought it was so cool someone else did too. But - after trying to pick up this morning and ruling a couple rooms "off limits" to the photographer because I couldn't even figure out how to make them look nice amid the mass amounts of kid stuff - I wondered, "Can you ever have your entire house picture ready when you're raising small children?" I really thought I could. But after today - I just don't think it's possible. Still - we're excited to see the pics of the rooms that I could get put together :)!

I've been thinking about this all weekend

I'm in the middle of 3 books right now - Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle and Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life by Dr. Wayne Dyer. This is funny because I'm really a magazine reader disguised as someone who really wants to read a lot of books.:) All 3 books are definitely different - but there's a common theme - being your true self. Like I've heard on American Idol all season - being "authentic". I love the idea of being my best self so I love reading these books. But after awhile I started to wonder - can you really find your best self or be your best self while you're raising children? Raising children takes almost all selfishness you might have had and squashes it. I guess it doesn't even have to be your selfishness - just the time you take taking care of yourself gets somewhat squashed. In Eat Pray Love Elizabeth Gilbert takes a year off to travel to 3 continents, in Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life Dr. Dyer takes a year of his life to study the Tao te Ching - I can barely squeeze in a shower every day. Then I brought it up to my mom - "Can you take the time to find and be your true self while raising children?". She didn't even hesitate with her answer - "It's pretty hard to". Interesting. So, I've decided - while raising my children I will be the best self I can be - and when they are grown and fabulous (that's what happens right?:)) - I will work on becoming my most authentic self. Until then, I will read about being my best self and think about how fun that will be :)! Bridget is ALREADY her best self - shown very obviously here.