Happy Girls

While both of my girls experience their fair share of tantrums and tears, we are pretty fortunate in that the majority of the time, they are pretty happy.

Of our two girls, Emily is the most laid back and is almost always cheerful, unless she's in pain, over-tired, or hungry. (Though I'm sure that will change more as she gets older and starts to develop more opinions of her own.) But, for now, she must be following some of the tips in the book she was reading earlier today: Caroline on the other hand has become much more opinionated and of course tends to have more tantrums when she's not getting her way. But she does have a smile and a laugh that will melt your heart. Here she is eating her lunch today. We picked up some yummy fresh raspberries at the store, and she was delighted to have them with lunch. (She's wearing sunglasses because the sun was shinning in her eyes and she couldn't see her lunch.)

A Weekend Up North

Ever since Christmas, our family has been very excited about a planned weekend up North with my parents and my sister and her family. Caroline bragged to her teachers at "school" for two weeks about the trip we were going on. Well, last weekend it finally came (and went all too quickly). While it was still pretty chilly, the weather did let up a little bit, and wasn't quite as bitterly cold as it had been the week prior.Em - the marshmallow baby who can hardly move in her jacket and snow pants.
Mom & Dad's driveway up North is perfect for sledding. It's long and has a nice slope away from the street (which isn't busy anyway) and since it curves, you can't hit the house either. The challenge is to get a good enough running start to try to reach the tree line at the edge of the yard. (The only ones close to reaching that goal were the adult men with a little more weight.)

Mason tried out all of the different sleds. The single blow up tube worked the best.

Mason did well on the Snow Jack too.

Emily enjoyed the double tube with Auntie Shell.

Emily also enjoyed the single tube with Allie.

Note that there are no pictures of Caroline sledding. She wanted to ice skate. Uncle Jon had flooded the lake to make a smooth rink, but it wasn't ready yet. She got mad and went inside. Too bad she missed out on a lot of great sledding!

Carly did finally get to skate. Allie and Mason showed her how to skate in her boots, which she thought was so much better than skating on skates. (Of course, Allie and Mason are good at explaining things to her in just the right way; and since she doesn't have ice skates of her own yet, this was ideal. Seriously, the child will believe or do ANYTHING if Allie and Mason tell her.)

Once all of the younger girls got chilly and went inside to warm up, Uncle Jon, Auntie Shell, Mason and Jeff went snowshoeing. They made a loop through the woods, across the lake, and ended up near the Chanticleer Inn and decided a beer would be a nice reward for their long trek. Unfortunately, they were greatly disappointed to find the Chanticleer closed. They had to make due with hot chocolates with Buttershots and whipped cream when they made it back home.

While warming up inside, Emily was in little baby heaven as she is in love with dogs and was surrounded by three of them for the weekend. Here she is giving Casey some love.

All of the sudden, when no one was looking, Emily disappeared. Here we found her under the coffee table.

Rather than pull the puzzle out that was set aside on the shelf under the table, she crawled under there to do the puzzle.

Carly enjoyed some snuggle time with Mason while watching a movie.

By the end of the weekend, all kids and dogs were exhausted.

And, admittedly, some of us grown ups were a little sore. (While sledding, we were more worried about getting a good running start and didn't think much about what running and jumping onto a blow up sled (landing on your stomach) will make your abs feel like.)

We all had a great time and are looking forward to doing it again next year, possibly celebrating our holidays there at the same time. We haven't had Christmas up North yet.

What a Little Piece of Bread Can Do....

Em has been fussy, to say the least, from the second we walked in the door tonight. Both of the girls schedules are still a little off from the holidays, and I think we are all a little over-tired.

My little grump-a-lump, ate her carrots for dinner, then protested everything else we tried to feed her. However, hand my little carb-loader a plain piece of bread (at least it's whole grain!), and gone were the tears. She had nothing but smiles from then on, as if I had just given her candy! When everything else fails, hand the girl a slice of bread!!

Christmas 2008

Once again, I'm a little behind in posting some pictures. The hustle and bustle of the holidays continues as we try to find homes for all of the new gifts; write thank you notes; and take down the Christmas decorations. Sorry, but I'm too exhausted for creative posts tonight. But, here are some picts from the past couple of weeks: My two beautiful babes. I have so much to be thankful for.

Em enjoyed rocking with Papa.

Carly enjoyed playing with Pete.

Santa found us at Grandma and Grandpa K's house.

Caroline enjoyed seeing Auntie Mindy and Cookie!

Emily is obsessed with Fletcher (and his doggy door).

Carly enjoyed a little dress up time with Molly.