Top Ten things in the wrong place at our house

1- My car keys under the couch

2- The living room remote under the bed.

3- Pacifiers in the oven.

4- Hair Brush in the dishwasher.

5- Earrings in the pantry.

6- Cell Phone in the vanity drawer.

7- Make up in the bathtub.

8- The most coveted princess currently in our house (Tiana) well under the crib.

9- Wii Remote in a book on the bookshelf.

10- Cough syrup bottle in the toilet.

And these are just from today!  Needless to say, Harper is an excellent hider!

A few Wednesday Things

I don't have anything really exciting to share, but better keep this thing up to date, so here goes!

Our morning routine-

I love our after breakfast/before the day time.  It usually goes like this: Sophie inhales her breakfast. (She gets that from me.  I am ravage hungry in the morning, and must eat.  And have caffeine.)  Once she is done, she asks in this quiet, sweet voice may she PLEASE play with Harper, it has been all night since they played. (And yes, it is that sweet.)  I clean them up, and off they go.  Usually it involves Dora or Toot and Puddle on TV to complete their alone play time, but that is fine with me.  I have 20 minutes in the morning to drink coffee, read my news, sit, etc, while they play.  Occasionally Harper has to come find me and check on my location, but for the most part they love their  "alone time" as much as I do.  We are currently on minute  12 of their time, so I have about 8 more minutes before someone is done with this little game.

Our new vegetable-

My oldest brother called me several weeks ago and introduced me to a new food.  Spaghetti Squash is my new favorite side.   They are at Publix in the pepper area and look like a mini yellow watermelon.  To fix, you just poke some holes in it, microwave for about 10 minutes, then throw it in a 375 degree oven for about an hour.  Cut it open, scoop out the seeds, then start peeling the meat out!  You will be shocked at how much it looks like spaghetti!  I usually take all the noodles/squash out, throw it in a casserole dish and throw olive oil, parmesan cheese, lemon pepper, and salt on it and pop it in the oven for a few more minutes.  It is delicious!  You can also serve just like spaghetti. The girls have no clue it isn't a starchy noodle, and they are getting a great veggie!  They are cheap, too.  I think on squash is like $1.20.  

Growing up-

I definitely see the girls growing every day.  It is so amazing to see them learning.  Of course Sophie at school this year has brought home many new tricks, good and bad, and it is interesting to see her write the new letter of the week, solve matching puzzles, and generally have such a "figure it out" attitude.  She also knows when I need help.  Lee has been gone some on the weekends lately and she lets me know she is my helper.  I see her clean her room, dress herself, and help with Harper.  Not always does this happen, but I will take what I get!  I have also started a jar for Lee with some of her funny remarks.  Sometimes they just come out of her mouth, and other times I ask a certain question to get her take on a situation.  He has his jar so anytime he has a bad day or needs something funny to think about, the jar is full of three-year old wisdom!

Of course Harper's age is a fun learning time.  We are learning our body parts and how to do a ton of motor skills.  She has mastered the climbing and running away motor skills, unfortunately.  She also loves to whistle, which I llovveee, and loves to color and glue things.  She becomes very proud of her artwork and wants it hung right by Sophie's.  I have a feeling she will do things much quicker than Sophie, but she definitely still loves to be cuddled.  As long as she does that, I am fine with the learning at a quicker pace!

Sewing

I have stepped up on my sewing.  Since right before Christmas I have been steadily doing shirts.  It has helped me improve a lot and inspired me to set up a shirt account with a company!  It is fun to place an order for the shirts I need rather than running to every Target and Walmart only to find they are out of what I need.   I am ready for Valentine's and Easter to be here so we can show off some of our shirts!

That is all for now.  Harper has abandoned Sophie and is now bringing me a doll to rock.  Time to start our day!

Enough already

When your prissy little girl is tired of wearing this "fancy" hat, you know we are ready for spring.  

I am glad I know English

So this morning we were all sitting together eating breakfast. And, by the way, we rarely all sit and eat breakfast.  Usually no more than two are together at breakfast time, but this day was a stellar job of syncing breakfast meals....go us!   Anyway, Sophie happened to look up at our chandelier and pointed out that a light was not on.  I just casually said, "Oh, it blew out.  We need to add that light bulb to our list".  We went on our business of daily baths, daily tantrums, play time, etc.   A bit ago Sophie and I were coloring while we waited for Harper to wake, and she wanted a blue crayon to draw our blown out light on her sheet of paper.  Oh I dread homonyms.

BRRRRR

If Harper could speak clearly, she would be saying that it is bbrrrrr rabbit!   For the first time with the girls, I went today and bought them the jackets with fleece lining and hats.  We are such summer people.....

The Annual Resolution

Each year, about Dec 29, my husband and I are on the exact same page.  We look at each other, and both know it is coming.... the annual trip to the Home Depot. I promise you every year since we have dated, been engaged, or married we have decided about four days after Christmas THIS is THE year we get our house so organized that if we left today everyone could find anything they needed.  Seriously, every year.  This year was no different.  This year's victim was Harper's closet.  

For some reason she has been left out of the closet fixing antics since she was born.  Her closet held such important items as Rock Band, old clothes, picnic items, and other unchildlike items.  I am proud to say that after 4 days of trying, she now has shelves and cubes to store some of her new toys, shoes, and the blow up bed equipment, as her room doubles as our guest room until we have a bigger living situation.  

What does the rest of our house look like, you ask?  Well, that is the other part of our EVERY YEAR issue.  Because Harper's closet is so organized, I got the play room organized and have play stations for the girls to enjoy.  Because the play room was purged, Sophie's room now has new toys in her closet that she can enjoy during quiet time.  The living room? kitchen? our room?  Complete disasters....   maybe next year.....

HEY! Unto you a CHILD is Born!

Growing up there was one book I read every year without fail during Christmas time.  The Best Christmas Pageant Ever was a classic in our house.  The Herdman's story of discovering church and being in a play is one of my favorite stories to revisit every year.  

When I got to college I got put on the speech and debate team.  If you have spent any time around me you probably guessed I hated the whole de

bate aspect, but the speech portion was tons of fun.  My Senior year of college my advisor entered me in the dramatic interpretation. Having seen the movie Shag a thousand times I was all about it, as long as there was no "Yankees in terror" speech to be had.  And of course, to push my limits, she entered me in the serious interpretation.  Again, if you have been around me, you know this is NOT my forte.  I searched for a month for the perfect piece to recite, each one feeling so fake as I rehearsed.  About three or four days before our tournament I was going through books in my dorm closet and my favorite book fell out.  I immediately knew this was it.  Of course my advisor HATED my choice, discouraged my edit, and never really sat down to hear the whole story.  

As we entered the regionals room I grew a little nervous, thinking my idea of this being a dramatic piece would not fly with the judges either.  As I entered the stage, all I could think about was how every Christmas the book got a little deeper in my understanding of the Herdman's and their growth in those three weeks of terrorizing their local church.  I got on stage and made my point in the telling of the 200 page book in ten minutes, Herdman voices and all.

By the final round, my advisor was proud of me for picking a story I could relate to, and that I knew I could tell.  The book is told by a girl that always grew up in church, was there about every time the doors were opened, and never knew or had interactions with someone that didn't fit in the family mold... until the Herdman's came.  After that experience, life really made sense.  

I remembered this chapter in my college life because A) It is Christmas time, and of course my old copy of the book is on my coffee table, and B) I recently took a picture of Sophie doing her new favorite role-play-  a pregnant Mary, just like Imogene Herdman.  To me, the picture below screams the angel Glady's only line she delivered without fail-  HEY! Unto you a CHILD is BORN!