Snowed In

Let me start this post by saying that I completely understand that I am putting myself in a position of mockery since I am writing about the amazing snow we received here, when we just moved here from Rexburg which has WAY MORE. There has just always been something so special about North Carolina snow. Maybe it's because it's rare to have enough to play in, or maybe it's because all the green trees look prettier, or maybe it's all the hilarious drama from people who have no idea what to do in snow (Ben really enjoyed watching the news which always says to not leave your home unless there's an emergency! The governor even declared North Carolina to be in a state of emergency and grocery stores run out of food the day before storms hit! Oh it has been fun to be back... hahahaha.....). But I'm sitting here enjoying the snow outside and although it is Sunday morning, we are not at church because it was cancelled. And hopefully school will be cancelled tomorrow (I'm rooting for you Wake County students!!!). All because of a few inches of snow...... yep. It's definitely different here. :)

Saturday morning was fun. I got up and made cinnamon rolls to make the day a little more special (sorry, Hubby. I think I'm going to make you lose the Macbeth Biggest Loser competition. Whoops.) Lily and Skyler had some quality reading time. She is such a good big sister!

Here's our house after the snowfall.

One of the best parts about living on the top of a hill is that we get to sled right in front of our house........ oh wait........ nobody wanted to do that with me...... so I didn't get to sled. Hopefully the snow will melt a little today and refreeze tonight which will cancel school and mean some AMAZING sledding tomorrow. I don't care if I'm some freaky mom sledding by myself. It will be done.

Since Lily only wanted to spend a good 5-10 minutes outside we built a fort for the day and and played with blocks and watched movies. We even built a little round section for Sky's bumbo.

Ben thinks I'm crazy because I got so excited about the snow. But it really has been fun to see. Make fun of me if you want but I'll probably always be this crazy.

Little Handsome and Nanni

Skyler has a dinner date with my mom every night. It consists of yummy cereal and (now) formula!!! YAY!!!! He still won't take a bottle but he'll chug it out of a cup! What a relief!!! I know they say that it's a myth that babies who drink formula before bed sleep longer, but it sure does work for my kids!!! Don't mind the pink bib, it was one of Lily's and we just haven't gotten Sky a blue one yet....

We stuck a grain of rice in his mouth... apparently it wasn't a hit....

But that's OK.... look at that adorable face!!!

Skyler's sleeping better now (although he's never been a good napper) and Lily's an amazing sleeper as usual. One of the best parts of the day is when it's time for her naps or bedtime. It's so cute because we'll say, "it's time to go to sleep." She'll just pick up her blankie, start climbing the stairs, say "nigh nigh" to everyone and run to her room. Does it get any cuter than that?!?! Sometimes when she starts getting tired on her own she'll grab her blankie and do all that without being told. Oh how I adore my cute babies!!!

She is all grown up! (Kind of)

This past week has been a lot of fun with Lily. There are definitely blessings that come with being unemployed. It really has been fun to spend so much time with the family and feel like I am helping Heather at least a little.

The title of the blog is fitting, though. Lily is growing up so fast. She really is one of the reasons why we are so happy. The past couple of days Lily has started to fold her arms when we pray. Of course we had to get a picture so we told her to get ready to pray and voila, she folded her arms.

Lately She has been more than willing to help us with Skyler. Yesterday he got thirsty and so Lily decided to give him a drink! She is such a good helper.

Lily has a new best friend -- Papa and Lily have been going on long walks together and playing together. He really is her new snuggle buddy.

We have been trying to exercise so we have been going on long walks each day and playing at the park. Lily loves the park. Her favorite part is the slides. She is ok with the little kid slides, but loves the big ones and goes down them by herself. She laughs and giggles every time.

She also like the purple dinosaur for about 30 seconds and then it is back to the slides.

Yes, we love our kids. Maybe we dote on them a little much, but we completely adore them. They make life grrrrrrreat!!!

Lily and Skyler Updates

Well our adventure in NC continues and although there are a few frustrations, life in general is pretty sweet right now. Lily and Skyler are growing and changing which has its ups and downs. Lily's always been a talker, but not a lot of what she says is very clear. Every now and then she would learn a new word but then she'd stop using it after a couple of weeks. I was really worried about her until I read "What to Expect the Toddler Years" (all of those books are 100% AMAZING!!! LOVE THEM!!!) and they said that your child probably is talking she just is hard to understand. But lately Lily's been speaking much better and is learning quickly. She now likes to help clean up her meal crumbs. I don't mind her wanting to help!

But of course she's not perfect. The bathroom is her designated time out spot because it's tiny and she can't run (which is basically the biggest punishment we could give her at this point...) Clearly she is MISERABLE in time out. Notice the unrolled toilet paper and the tipped-over trash can. We actually have to put the toilet brush on top of the counter because I caught her using it as a sword once.... eeewww. Lily also likes to climb up on the toilet and pretend to ride it. Now when we try to give her a warning when she's doing something wrong we'll ask, "do you want to go to time out?" and she'll just nod her head. Life as a toddler is rough!

As for my little Handsome he's now enjoying his Bumbo more. We just clip on the tray and put his toys on it. It's funny because he's not perfect with his hands yet so he just goes "SWOOSH" and knocks all of the toys off. All of this is done which he has a total look of concentration on his face. He's a pretty cute kid!

And here he is again about to fall asleep on Ben. His sleeping is so much better now!!! A little while ago we started letting him cry at night again. (Last time it didn't work out because we went to Seattle at Thanksgiving and then when we got back life was crazy with packing, and then we moved here and we're finally settled without much change.) He's sleeping for about 7 hours at a time and so I can't complain! Let's just say that I can think normally again! Thanks, Bud!

And here are some of Lily's dance moves. Well, I guess she starts off with dancing and then it quickly turns into the Haka (Polynesian war dance) and ends with a bow. Oh, and she's wearing my apron. Enjoy!

Stories from our Kitchen Table

I have to admit I can't think of a lot of things to write about right now...... but I know I'll get some pretty scary threats from my sister, Becca, if I don't update with pics soon enough. :) So since this blog is basically my journal I'll share some of the smaller cute things that are now a part of my everyday life. Can I say how wonderful it is to have a kitchen table?! Ben and I have always had a table (well we actually have two now.... weird...) but we never had the space to set one up in our apartments. So now that we're living with my parents we're back to eating our meals at a kitchen table, which is something I have really missed (plus I hear it helps you eat less which means you may lose weight which means I'll accomplish resolution #2). Anyway one thing I'll want to remember is that we all sit down to dinner together and we have Lily's booster seat on one chair, and then we plop Sky's bumbo seat on another and so even the babies are a part of dinner. It's so cute. If it wasn't daggone frustrating that Ben's unemployed I would want to have the whole family home like this forever. Oh well.

Lily is loving it here. Could it be because she's a magnet to anything that's breakable/valuable? Perhaps. But one of her favorite things is the space. She can just run and run. And that's awesome for her because she doesn't ever stay still. Another thing is that she doesn't need to eat her peas as long as Mia's (aka Lily's new BFF) begging for food. Oh wait. That's all the time. :) But even if Mia isn't busy stealing Lily's veggies Lily has learned a new trick on her own to get rid of them: pick them up off the plate (while hoping nobody sees) and stuff them into the pocket of her bib. Then she throws her bib on the floor while Mia attacks it for leftovers. Sorry, Lily. We can see right through your little masterminding scheme. And although I wish I could end this post with some smart comeback about my masterminding scheme to get my daughter to eat her veggies, but no, I haven't figured that one out yet. So until I figure out some way to accomplish this without having to make everything Paula Deen style (if you're unfortunate enough not to love Paula let me just explain that she makes just about everything with a stick or five of butter) I'll just keep reminding myself that kids eat mud and all sorts of other disgusting things. The human body can survive crazy things, right?

Thankful..... again.....

These past few days without Ben and my dad have been really hard. My mom's been having health problems, Hurricane Lily (yes that is what we sometimes call her. It's no exaggeration. I think she has the same amount of power and path of destruction as hurricanes....) has been in full force, and Sky has been teething and super clingy. I always wanted a clingy baby but now I just mock myself. He doesn't ever sleep through the night (in fact, last night he woke up 3 times), he won't take a bottle, he doesn't like solids, and he ALWAYS wants to be held by MOMMY. Let's just say that the past few days have been tough and that I'll have a huge sigh of relief when Ben gets back tonight. But the hardest thing of all has been the sleep deprivation. As all moms know, everything is 10 times worse when you're exhausted. So today after church, the babies went to sleep at the same time! Miracle of miracles! Do I even have to explain why I hopped right in bed? But of course, no sleep. I would drift off, and something would wake me up. And then I would get right back into drifting mode and something else wakes me up, and so on. Let's just say I ended up with Skyler in bed with me (and of course he just falls right asleep when he's with me...) and I'm at the end of my rope. So the "mommy weakness tears" start flowing and I just said a prayer to just be at peace. As soon as my prayer was finished my head was clear. No frustration, no exhaustion, no nothing. And then a hymn (How Firm a Foundation) started playing in my head.

How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!

What more can he say than to you he hath said,

Who unto the Savior, Who unto the Savior,

Who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?

In every condition-in sickness in health,

In poverty's vale or abounding in wealth,

At home or abroad, on the land or the sea

As thy days may demand, as they days may demand,

As thy days may demand, so thy succor shall be.

Fear not, I am with thee; oh be not dismayed,

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.

I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by my righteous, upheld by my righteous,

Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

What's crazy about what happened was that I'm pretty sure I've never memorized the first three verses to this hymn, but it was so clear in my head! I'm so grateful that the spirit can bring peace and comfort into our lives when we sorely need it. I constantly think of how grateful I am for the gospel and I just weep on the inside for those who don't know about it or who choose not to live it. I can't imagine how hard and confusing life would be without the spirit. So although I'm soaking up this time that the babies are both still asleep (since of course, I can't... haha) I'm grateful for all that I have. I know I say this all the time on my blog (I really hope it doesn't get annoying for y'all) but I really have a lot to be grateful for..... especially Ben coming home tonight..... :)

2010

My dad and Ben are currently driving our Camry back to NC and so my mom and I celebrated the New Year at about 9:30 with our "bubbly." But yesterday I hurried to make just a typical dinner so I didn't have to eat the traditional new years dinner. Let me explain. Collards are significant because they represent $$$$. However, they also represent fertility, so NO COLLARDS FOR ME, THANKS! So resolution #1 this year is to not get pregnant!

Then my mom and I went to the mall with the babies today to make some returns. At one of the clothing stores a worker asked me when I was due. Great. Just when I thought I was starting to look good again..... so resolution #2: I think I'm going to shoot to lose another 5-10 lbs. And may I just add that I was exchanging clothes because I needed a SMALLER size.... thank you very much.

I have a few personal resolutions, as well and I hope that 2010 is a great year! Happy New Year y'all!