And the winner is...

Remember this post, from not too long ago? When I wrote it, I wondered what would happen first: Sevvy getting her first two teeth, or Sparkle loosing hers.

Tonight as we were visiting with Aunt R and Cousin N...

(who we're SO excited came to visit us all the way from Seattle!)...My oldest little lady came up to me and excitedly plunked these into my hand...
There was some blood involved, but we got that cleaned up no problem...Soon enough I had this sweet face smiling back at me...She said it didn't hurt that much, but I was quite concerned since her teeth really weren't all that loose. She apparently tripped and fell on her face. She comes by it honestly... I knocked out a couple of my teeth growing up too.

Wishing Daddy were here tonight for our first tooth fairy experience. I asked Sparkle if she wanted to wait until tomorrow when he could be here, but she excitedly declined. I can't blame her!

Again, she's growing up way too fast.

You make me...

Sunny: You make me sooo happy, mommy!

Me: Aww, thank you Sunny! You make me so happy too. I love you!

Sunny: I love you too, mommy! You make me love you*!

*I'm quite sure that she meant it in a "you are so wonderful, how could I not love you" sort of way and not in a "I only love you because I'm forced to love you" sort of way. It was in her tone, I promise.

Sisterly Love

My dad has a blog that he just recently started. This week he posted this little gem of a photo:Yup, that pretty much sums up the extent of our relationship growing up... me trying to look cute while inadvertently (sometimes not so inadvertently) choking my Sis.

I hope she doesn't hold it against me.

Happy Birthday TJ!

Tonight we went to dinner and had cake to celebrate a very special lady's 9th birthday! We love you!

My girls, my girls, my girls...

...talkin' bout my girls!

I have the hard drive out today and I couldn't resist looking through some old pictures and comparing my girls at the same ages.

Sparkle now:

Sunny now: Sparkle at Sunny's age: Sevvy now: Sparkle at Sevvy's age:Sunny at Sevvy's age:Aren't they beautiful? I am so incredibly blessed!

Camp-in Photos

I've been meaning to put these up for a few days now. Instead I've been enjoying the time off that Buzz has had over the weekend. :) I've also been taking naps nearly every day... except that I decided at about 1:30am today that I just can't afford to lay awake all night. I must be sufficiently caught up on sleep, so the naps need to stop! Anyway...

Buzz' camp-in was a huge success. We roasted hot dogs for dinner and ate s'mores for dessert, climbed Mt. Billharzamanjaro in the dark, told stories in front of the camp fire, smelled bug spray, tasted water purified with iodine tablets, and (the kids) slept in tents in the living room. Buzz even forbid the kids from using cups for most of the night, instead making them drink from the "stream" (faucet) with their hands. I don't think I've ever seen happier kids.

It's a good thing for daddies/uncles... my kids just wouldn't have much fun if I were in charge all the time!

Time for hot dogs!

Roasted to perfection.

Diggin' in.

"Say Cheese!"

Sevvy checks out the action.

Mmm... S'mores!

Story time!

Learning about purifying water. :)

Look! Moose!!!

Fireside

Tonight is our much anticipated "camp-in" with the cousins. At the moment we're taking turns telling parts of a story. Let's see if I can type fast enough to keep up...

Sparkle: Once upon a time there were some fish and the fish said, "come out, come out!" Then a shark came and the fish swam home as fast as they could and the shark knocked on their door and said, "Don't swim away, I'm just a big fish. I'm your mom."

Buzz: They said, "If you are our mom, what are our shoe sizes?" The shark said, "Well, your size is 3, your shoe size is 4, and the big guy over there, your shoe size is 5."

B.I.: And then the big fish... and then the little fish said, "Well, if you think... if you want... if you are our mom, what is our favorite food?" And the mom said, "The small fish is pie with pizza in it. And the little bigger fish, you like eggs with pizza with pie with blueberry cheesecake. And the medium guy, you like to eat paper mixed with cheesecake. And the biggest guy, you like to eat blueberry cheesecake with strawberries on top and poured with chocolate sauce."

T.J.: Then the little fishies said, "Whoa, you know all about us." They brought the shark into their house and the shark said, "Thanks." Then the little fish said, "Do you want some dinner? We're having cheesy macaroni and cheese."

Meo: The shark said, "Thank you very much for inviting me to stay for dinner. I would love some mac and cheese. WITH A SIDE OF LITTLE FISHIES!"

Buzz: And that is how the little fishies learned that they are not wise.

Sparkle Quotes...

From this morning as we were getting ready for school:

"Mommy, are we made out of meat or dust? My book says God formed us out of dust, I thought we were made of meat." (Yum)

"Mommy, Bill the science guy thinks that your heart sounds like a dog. Actually, it says, 'lub, dub, lub, dub.'" (So proud! Can't wait to tell Daddy that one!)

Visit

Today we visited the hospital where daddy works.

We took him lunch because he was tired of eating cafeteria food.

He liked that a lot.

The girls had a bit of a dance party

in front of the giant jukebox in the cafeteria.

Doesn't Daddy work in a fun place?

Too bad there are nasty little germs everywhere.

I think the girls would go see Daddy just about every day if they could.

We also took a going home present to Sparkle's new little pen pal friend.

It was a joy to see Sparkle and her friend meet and thank each other for the pictures, notes and gifts that they've exchanged over the past week.

It's hard to have Daddy gone so much of the time and it's been a long week without him home. It was good to take time today to remind myself and our girls that Daddy is doing an important job. Thank you, Daddy, for making us proud. We love you!

This girl...

...is hard to photograph.

She just doesn't want to sit still.

Unless she happens to be...

preoccupied with helping me... clean up after making a cake...for a certain dessert-loving friend who was in town this week.

In that case she sits perfectly still.

Priorities

Today I did something significant.

I deleted my chore list on my Blackberry.

I created the list, more of a schedule really, when we moved into this house. I was overwhelmed by how much floor space there was for toys to spread, how many toilets there were to scrub, and how many surfaces there were to get grimy.

So I made a schedule.

I had a similar schedule when we were selling our house in Utah. The house had to stay presentable because we were getting one to three showings a day, usually with little advance notice. I tried to do things that made sense. Like cleaning the bathrooms on Friday so that they would be ready when friends came to visit over the weekend. And I saved all the cleaning of floors until Monday, after the increased traffic flow had subsided.

I discovered that I really like having a clean, presentable house. I liked that I didn't feel the need to panic when a friend wanted to drop in for a spur of the moment visit. Or when the mailman rang the doorbell with a package... yes, it's true. I'm that crazy.

When we moved here to the Midwest, I buried myself in taking care of the house in order to forget about how much I missed the friends and the life that we had left behind. I found myself living by my list. I had daily chores, once a week chores, bi-weekly chores, and once a month chores. And my phone told me when to do them.

Then Sevvy was born. Survival mode kicked in and our house fell apart. Dishes sat in the sink for days, clean laundry had to be found wherever it had landed when it came out of the dryer... usually not folded. I had to avoid really looking at my toilets when I used them. But we were (aside from the sleep-deprivation headaches) happy.

This week I read this post, and this one too. I realized that no one in my family but me cares what the house looks like. They do, however, care about the quality and quantity of time we spend together.

Mommy's just no fun when she's scrubbing toilets.

I'm still working out in my mind how this is going to work. I'm sure that I'll stress out about it, because that's what I do best. But I'm going to do my best to spend my time doing the things that will some day be out of my grasp. Like cuddling my kids and tickling them and singing a couple of extra songs at nap time.

Today I took my first step in the right direction.

This morning...

I attempted to use one of these... With the help of this...
To remove one of these...

From a certain two year old's nose.
Apparently, though... Since I took a few moments to take photos...
Of the priceless faces she was making...
She managed to dislodge it herself... And it was nowhere to be found.
Think she learned her lesson?I wouldn't bet on it.

UPDATE: The cheerio has been found, ladies and gentlemen. Cemented nicely into the fibers of my carpet by the ooey-gooey-ness that lives on the inside of a two year old's nose. An ENTIRE cheerio, mind you. Not just a piece, as I had previously thought. I thought about posting a picture to prove it to you... but I just can't bring myself to be that gross. How's this for alternate captions for the pictures above?

And she huffed...

And she puffed...

And she blew the thing out!

Catching up...

Popo and Mamma visit!

Waaaay back in early November, we were happy to welcome my parents to the Midwest to introduce them to sweet little Sevvy.

We snuggled...

played...

and went to the zoo (with the cousins too!)...

Much fun was had by all and I was ever so grateful for the extra helping hands around the house.

We love you, come back soon!