It's Snowing!!!

With the snow that came on Friday, we got between 2.5 and 3 inches. It was beautiful.

With the pending snow, Emma got out of school an hour early, but they were still able to get in their Valentine's party. Heidi had had her Valentine's party on Thursday. Both had received several lollipops - and these girls particularly like their lollipops. So here are my lollipop girls!
It's snowing!!!
The first thing Heidi did was go jump on the trampoline in the snow - "making foot prints."
Heidi snow angel.
Working on our snowman - I think this is the middle ball.
Snow baby: Rachel fell asleep while I was walking around with her, so I put her down in the snow and got this picture - then quickly picked her up again.
Emma tossing snow at Daddy.
Our snowman is almost done.
The finished product. Heidi REALLY didn't want us to use "her" blocks for the face or the circus hat. She was afraid of them getting wet. But she eventually was ok with it.
We don't have a sled, but innovative Daddy grabbed a piece of cardboard out of the garage and pulled the girls around the front yard a little bit. They called it their "sleigh!"
It was fun to have a good bit of snow. We haven't had that much snow around here in quite awhile. It's pretty much all gone now - except for our snowman. But as Heidi says, "he's getting tinier." We were possibly getting a little more snow last night and this morning, but it was just rain. Maybe we'll get another snow before Winter is over.

Heidi's New Bike

So most of you know I'm a consignment sale junkie. I just really enjoy going to consignment sales to see what I can find. They are a fabulous resource for most everything kid related - especially young kids. (And if you have young kids and don't know about consignment sales - oh, you are missing out. There is a great website: www.thebargainwatcher.com that lists area consignment sales. They are based in the Atlanta area, so they have a great listing of sales around here. But they do have other states listed - so check it out. End of commercial.)

Anyways, I recently went to one and found this bike for Heidi. We have another small bike like this for Emma, but thought it would be good to have two. And this one seemed very appropriate for Heidi - It has the Disney princesses on it. :-) AND it has a bag on the front. Heidi LOVES putting things in bags. So she has taken blocks, Little People figures, etc and put them in her bicycle bag.She does pretty well pedaling it. She just hasn't completely figured out the coaster brakes - that if she pushes back on the pedals, the bike stops. But we'll get there. In the meantime, she's really enjoying pedaling back and forth on the driveway.

First Cereal

So we started giving Rachel cereal last Thursday. The box says for the first feeding to mix 1 tbsp cereal with 4-5 tbsp liquid. I did 1 tbsp cereal with 3 tbsp liquid and it was still SUPER watery. Which I guess is the idea - easing them in to it. But it was pretty much like spoon feeding her liquid - on a very small spoon. :-) It was very hard to tell if she was even consuming anything between what dribbled down her chin and what she spit out. So the next time (which was last night) I mixed a thicker consistency - which seemed to work better for me - and she ate it just fine. So we'll keep working on this and increasing the amount. Then we'll be on to veggies!!

And of course, Heidi wanted to be on hand to supervise.

Rachel at 5 Months

Rachel was 5 months old yesterday! My how the time goes by quickly. At her 4 month check up, she weighed 12 lbs. 4 oz. We don't go for a 5 month check up, so we'll have to wait for her next weigh in at 6 months. But she is beginning to wear 3-6 month clothes - depending on the brand. Lengthwise, they seem to be ok, but I guess she has short arms, 'cause lots of them hang way over her hands.

She continues to "talk" sweetly and Emma and Heidi enjoy interpreting. She is really close to sitting up on her own. She can sit for 10-20 seconds or so...

and then she shifts a little and gravity takes over.

But she doesn't mind rolling over.

She is kind of on an eat, play, sleep schedule. She eats about every 4 hours - give or take depending on what's going on - time to pick Heidi up from preschool; time to watch for Emma's bus; time to go to BSF; etc. She is fed in the car quite frequently and lots of her naps are in her car seat. Poor thing. But she is sleeping pretty well at night - for which we are VERY grateful! Her favorite position is arms straight up over her head. She generally starts every night like this. But within the last several weeks, she's become mobile and we'll find her 60 - 120 degrees rotated from how we left her.

I'm thinking we'll give cereal a try this weekend! Stay tuned...

What did you do today?

That's a question I frequently ask Emma when she gets home from school. I guess like most kids, she doesn't generally give much, if any, information. But I keep trying. I try to ask leading questions - trying to get any information out of her. Last night, the conversation went like this:

Mom: What did you do at school today?
Emma: Nothing.
Mom: You just sat and stared at the wall all day?
Emma: Yes.
Mom: Did you ride a bicycle?
Emma: No, I rode a bus.
Mom: Then what did you do?
Emma: I got off the bus and went inside.
Mom (excited that I might be getting somewhere with this conversation): Then what did you do?
Emma: I went outside, got on the bus, and came home.

Well, at least it was a conversation. Not a wealth of information - but a conversation. :-)

What I Learn at BSF

Heidi started attending BSF with me last year after she turned 2. Part of their morning routine is saying the Pledge of Allegiance and then singing "My Country Tis of Thee." So at home she'll bring me one of the little flags we have floating around the house - require me to hold it in my left hand and put my right hand over my heart. Then she says the pledge and breaks in to song. She's missing a few words, but it's still pretty cute. Here's a recent video of this:

(OK, so I need to learn about uploading video clips. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.)



Rachel also now attends BSF with us too. BSF started an under-2 program in January. It's a wonderful opportunity for mothers of young children to be able to participate in BSF. You may think - what do they do with a 5 month old??? Well, they read a bible story to her, sing a hymn, and pray for her every week. Pretty cool, hunh! I'm not sure Rachel has much of an opinion of it yet - she slept completely through the first two weeks she went.

Heidi and Her Dolls

Heidi really likes playing with her baby dolls. She has 6 and they ALL have to be in her bed for naps and bedtime. She also takes advantage of all of Rachel's things and uses them for her babies.

Then there was the day she thought Rachel needed some company...

Where's Waldo - I mean Rachel?

6 Yrs, 3 Yrs, and 3 months

We finally got around to taking the girls for portraits a couple weeks before Christmas. We all went on a Friday afternoon. I was really hoping to get a nice Christmas photo of the three girls, then an individual of Emma. That was the goal - knowing I could go back with Heidi and Rachel another time while Emma was at school. However everyone did really well and we were able to get some great pictures.