There's hope

I heard quiet in the house recently, which is very unusual and normally means someone is making a huge mess. This particular day I went looking for the girls and found them quietly sitting together sorting through their rock collection from Aunt Vicki's. These moments don't happen often but do give me hope that they'll one day play quietly together for more than two minutes without creating a disaster. Such sweet sisters!

Recognize this?

Recognize this pose from Matney? Let me refresh your memory. It hasn't happened in about a year but Matney dislocated her elbow again. We were playing at home and she pushed herself off the ground and it snapped out of place. She cried and I tried not to panic as I called tracking Jared down. I carefully carried her downstairs, gave her new Little Petshop guys (that were really HK's bday present but worked well keeping her distracted) and we waited until Jared could get home to pop it back in place.  

Sweet baby girl - she cried and I cried while he twisted it but it was quickly back in place and Matney was back to normal. I wish there was something to do to avoid this happening again but hopefully she'll grow out of it. Good thing HK wasn't big enough to know she lost her bday presents and good thing my husband is brave enough to fix his little girl!

One Gate Down

We took one gate down last weekend and it is so nice to be able to walk through the kitchen to the dining room. The space feels so much more open. The two gates that block the top/bottom of the stairs are still up until I can trust HK not to go wild on them. She still has no fear!

What was I thinking?!?!?!

The girls were stuck home recently not feeling well. Whenever that happens we grab our Fairy or Princess Cookbook and pick something to make. This day the girls wanted to make snowflakes that involved a "dusting of powdered sugar". Clearly I wasn't thinking clearly when I said ok.

 

It started out ok.

See that sugar? There is no such thing as "dusting sugar" to toddlers.

Matney wasn't so sure about making a mess.

HK was totally ok making a mess.

See the white powder all over the floor?

See it better now? It was in every crack and crevice of the floor, cabinets and chairs...and little girls.

Next time you're here if you notice powdered sugar in the backs of my chairs just ignore it!

HK in a sugar coma. Matney never took a bite but HK licked every bit of sugar she could find. And next time a recipe calls for powdered sugar you can be sure I will NOT be making it with the girls!

It's a Boy & Happy Father's Day!

I am so rarely ahead of schedule these days that I am proud to have already said Happy Father's Day to Jared 3+ weeks ahead of time. Can you believe it? Jared is so excited to welcome another male into the house. Welcome to craziness! I think that once you have a lot of chaos a little more doesn't even rock the boat. Welcome to the family Max!

Max is a 4 year old Golden Retriever and is seriously the calmest dog ever. We adopted him through Adopt a Golden Atlanta and HIGHLY recommend them if you're interested in getting a dog. We met him on Sunday for a home visit to see how we all interacted together. The girls thought that HK was getting a dog visit for her birthday (so that if it didn't work out there were no expectations) and were very excited. After Max left we talked about it and decided that he was such a sweet calm dog that we couldn't let him go! We picked him up and brought him home for good on Monday.

Matney is in LOVE with Max. I am pretty sure that she thinks he is her personal puppy dog. She talks to him all the time - "No Max. Do this Max. Come here Max." and he just follows her around. I took this particular picture when they'd been sitting like this for 10+ minutes. She was playing and talking to him and he just sat and listened. So sweet.

HK can take him or leave him most of the time. She thinks he is very funny but wants to make sure that he's not going to steal any of her attention. She has woken up saying "Where's my puppy dog?" for two days.

Max and I are becoming friends too. I even have nasty dirty feet from being in the yard with him tossing tennis balls all afternoon.

Funniest thing about him is that he wants to "hold hands". No matter where you're sitting he comes over, puts his paw on your leg and wants you to rub it....and if you don't he keeps pawing at you until you keep rubbing. Max was trained as a service dog for an autistic child. That placement didn't work out because the child didn't like/wasn't good with the dog. The training did work because Max is the calmest dog ever. We had more than 10 kids in the house today (shew! it was wild!!) and he sat and watched them never once barked, ran, chased, bothered, etc after them. He just sat calmly and watched. Such an easy transition to a dog in the house!

Halle Kate is TWO!!!

Happy Birthday Halle Kate! We cannot believe you are two!!!!

Here's our girl starting the morning with pancakes with sprinkles.

The girls wanted to see HK's cake - I turned my back for a second not being smart enough to think that they would dig in. See the pancake still on the plate? Icing is always better than pancakes.

I did quickly take it away and try to turn their attention back to the pancakes.

HK's favorite thing in the world, Daddy Daddy's Ipad. She meets him at the door at night and screaming "Want to play Daddy's Ipad!!!!".

There are only two places we are brave enough to take our girls to eat - Chickfila and Cici's Pizza. HK picked Cici's for birthday. She ate 3 noodles, 1 bite of pizza and was ready to drive a race car.

We let HK go to Walmart and pick out anything she wanted for her birthday. Sometimes it is hard to be a parent. We went down the princess row, the My Little Pony row, the baby doll row and she didn't want anything. Then we followed her to the boy toys section where she picked out Tow Mater from the movie Cars, a Cars book and an alligator. Jared and I both had to keep stopping ourselves from pointing her in different directions and let her choose what she wanted.

Getting ready to sing to our sweet girl. Notice that the half eaten/smashed cupcakes from breakfast had been replaced!

Matney jumped on the table to blow out the candle.

Yummy cupcakes! HK licked and licked and licked that icing until it was gone. She wouldn't let us take the paper off and wasn't interested in the cake.

Halle Kate brings so much joy and laughter (and gray hair) to our family. If she is awake she is FULL of life. At two HK is speaking in 6-8 word sentences, can sing her ABCs, loves to sing (Itsy Bitsy Spider and Old McDonald are some of her favorites) and can count to 14 by herself. She loves cream cheese on a spoon, strawberries, gold fish and milk but getting her to eat is still a big struggle. Her favorite shows are Yo Gabba Gabba or Bubble Guppies, she loves her bounce house and she has to read Christmas Puppy before bed. When HK has eaten she is normally in a great mood and always trying to do something to make us laugh. When she's hungry or tired she can be more than cranky! There are so many times a day HK's little pigtailed self goes flying by and someone says she "is the cutest little girl"....and she is! Happy Birthday Halle Kate. Your Mama and Daddy are so incredibly crazy about you!

It is so very very hard to believe that our baby girl is two years old. And I won't lie and say that I haven't been a little emotional about the whole thing! Having her turn two has been hard for me because for 3 years there has always been a baby in this house. A two and three year old means no more babies. Sniff. If someone would like to be pregnant for me then let me know and I'll take another baby anytime you want to give me one!

I would have blogged lots last week but Jared was out of town and just flew back in Sunday morning for HK's bday. We realized after he left that he'd taken my camera cord with him and I couldn't download pictures. There are lots to see from the past few weeks so get ready soon.

I hate germs

I don't have a picture of Matney but we have two pitiful sick girls AGAIN! Both are running fevers, snotty and congested. HK was coughing so much in bed a little while ago that when I went in and picked her up she barfed on me. I am so hopeful that summer will bring healthy girls back to our house. Until then we'll all just sit on our bean bag chairs watching Yo Gabba Gabba - unless I run screaming from the house before then!

Dying Eggs

The girls had a great time dying Easter eggs. I only boiled a dozen and then we only dyed 6. Is that horrible parenting or what? They were tired and making a mess so we hid the rest of the eggs, finished what they'd started and then headed up for a bath. The girls never knew what they missed and I am well aware of what I didn't have to clean up!

Halle Heald Hearts Chocolate

The Easter Bunny didn't bring the girls candy in their baskets so we made "birds nests" as our Easter treat- so easy and so yummy. Melt 12oz of chocolate or butterscotch chips with 1/2 cup peanut butter and toss into 6oz chow mein noodles. Form into nest shapes and put a few "eggs" on top. We used M&Ms because I had some but I've always seen jelly beans.

Matney and Snow White were great chefs.

What should I do with a bowl full of melted chocolate and peanut butter? Dip an apple in it of course!

Matney is in the background of lots of these pictures but she wasn't too excited about her treat once it was made. HK woke up from a nap to find chocolate and she was thrilled. I knew they'd be a mess so we went right outside. I am so smart sometimes!

I'm a mess Mom! After I cleaned her up she apparently wasn't finished eating. We turned around to find this.....

HA! Such a smart girl!

We had a wonderful day together!