Monday = Laundry Day

Do your kids come running when they hear the washer starting?  Mine both do.  Mady was the fastest this time and grabbed her chair and ran over to help.  We're definitely cultivating this love of laundry.

Also, do you love her fashion statement?  Look at that turquoise necklace.  It goes great with her Halloween PJ's.  ;)  I got it last week and she's totally commandeered it.  She pretty much hasn't taken it off since Sunday morning, so I think it's officially her "pretty."

A Little Help Here?

I'm putting out a call for ideas here.  We're trying to figure out how to teach Sydney to WANT to be good and listen to us.  Sometimes, she's awesome,  but it's usually only when I've convinced her there is mortal danger (like around cars, etc.).  I know that a lot of it is simply the fact that she's only 2 1/2 years old, but really, I feel like a lot of the time we're going backward instead of forward.  So for those of you who've been there, know someone who has, or have some genius ideas, please please please share!

Gems

Sydney came up with a few gems today that I loved.  While out garage saling today, I had given the girls some cereal to snack on.  Out of the blue, Sydney turned to me and said, "Mom, you such a nice mom to bring this cereal for us!"

Then later when I was singing along to Hercules, Sydney said, "You a good job singer Mom!"

She's such a sweet little girl!

Perfect Day

What a gorgeous day we just had.  The weather was supposed to be so hot, so we planned to have some friends over to play in the kiddie pool.  It ended up being perfect; warm, but not hot.  The kids had a blast in the pool and running around our NEWLY FENCED YARD (YAY!!!) and the adults had a great time enjoying the warm fresh air and some great summer fruits and salads.  Perfect.  After that we had naps (except Sydney decided she was not tired and stubbornly refused to sleep).  When the kiddos woke up, it started to rain, but it was still lovely and warm!  We of course ran outside to enjoy it.  Being from Idaho, I am used to very infrequent rain storms accompanied by freezing temperatures, so I love our warm rain storms out here!  Last year Sydney loved puddle jumping, so this year it was time to introduce Mady to it.

She loved it and has so much fun.  Sydney remembered exactly what to do and enjoyed her new rubber boots and rain coat.

They had so much fun jumping, kicking, splashing, sending off leaf "boats," and throwing rocks in the puddles.

I love seizing the moment to play with my girls!

Then we had baths in the sink! (This is a new tradition we've started if the girls are having baths at night.  It reduces the amount of bath water they drink and therefore makes it more likely that their sheets will be dry in the morning).  The girls think it's so fun.  Sydney calls them "little showers."

My baby girl has started posing for the camera and saying "cheese!" when we pull it out.  So darn cute.

Such a perfectly beautiful day.  I love being home with these babies.

Curly Girly

Look at the curls this little girl woke up with after her nap!  I think she's got some wavy hair in her future! 

Getting Sappy

In the "Before Sydney" chapter of my life, I remember how painful it sometimes was to read other people's blogs about how much they loved their kids.  Not the "I love my kids so much" comments, but the ones who could talk of nothing else.  It seemed like they were just twisting the knife in my heart with each word.  (Don't feel bad if you've done those posts, you didn't mean to hurt anyone, you just love your kids.)  So, in the "With Babies" chapter of my life, I've tried not to be overly gushy about them since I know I have blog readers who are in the same situation I was once.  But tonight, I have to write it down.  I have to preserve how I feel, so if you feel like I did, then you might want to skip this one.

I just watched 2012, and like all apocalypse movies, it made me sad, but the worst part is when a child is the main character.  Seeing the little girl in that show made my think of my little girls, and when one of them called, "Mommy!" in her sleep, I ran up.  They were both asleep, so I took a rare moment and just stared at them.  I smelled them, kissed them, and brushed their sweet little cheeks.  I love them so dearly.  I've heard people talk about how they love their children more than life itself.  I've wondered how you know that, and then occasionally, it hits me.  I love them.  Differently, yet equally.  But so much it hurts.  And I decided a few things tonight.  People often wonder what heaven will be like.  I think I know.  Heaven will be the color of Sydney's baby blue eyes.  It will smell like Mady's hair does after a bath and that yummy purple lotion.  It will be as soft as my babies' cheeks and as wispy as Sydney's little curls.  It will sound like their soft breathing when they're deeply asleep and the stars will look like Mady's smiley eyes when she's really pleased.  Her whole face smiles and it's like someone turned another light on in the room.  No one will ever be sad, because how could you not be on cloud 9 with smiles like these to look at?  (Plus get a load of those mad scientist eyebrows on Sydney.  She uses them well and often.  I LOVE them.)

I love my family.  I love my husband.  I love, cherish, and adore my babies.  I have to go peek in on them again.  Goodnight.

So Tired

We played outside today.  For a good long while.  When we finally came in and ate lunch, I realized how hard Mady had played:

Amazingly, she ate an entire sandwich like this.  Then she finally woke up when she put the blackberries in her mouth and realized she'd gotten her second wind.  Then came the fight to get her to actually go to bed.  Such fun.  (She keeps reaching for her head because she strokes her hair when she goes to sleep.)  Welcome summer.

Adventures in Landscaping

For a long time now I have hated our front yard landscaping.  It was done by the builder and the shrubs that were out there were both ugly and poorly arranged.  The sprinkler system didn't work so they hadn't been watered for 3 years, but the dang things refused to die.  Finally on Saturday, my great friend Karen took my kids and we ripped them all out! 

Then we went and bought a lot of rocks to build a front garden!  My family came to visit this week and were good enough to help us out with some manual labor and/or watching our kids.  We built the garden, filled it with happy dirt (not the native clay bricks), ran a working sprinkler line, and planted trees and flowers! 

Here they are building the sprinkler system.

Here's the finished product!  I love it!

Here's the corner flower bed up close.

Hooray!  We have more color and prettiness than before!  Goodbye conformity!  Thanks everyone who helped!

New Pets

A few weeks ago there was a slaughter in our house and a lot of our fish died.  Then all but 1 fish and our frog followed suit.  We've been working on getting the tank all balanced and happy so that we can fill it with fish again.  Rupert is a trooper and has survived the devastation, as has a single nameless fish whom I decided deserved a name after living for so long.  Since he's proven hard to kill, I've dubbed him Rasputin.

Here's the rundown of our new pets and who named them for your amusement:
Rupert the frog - Sydney
Taffy the Beta - Sydney
Mango the male Swordtail fish - Mady
Nefertiti the female Swordtail fish - Sydney
Marty the Vacuum fish - Sydney
4 tiger barb fish who were recently acquired and are currently nameless

Apologies

Sorry to those of you who checked my blog last week and found it missing!  Thanks for being concerned about me!  Turns out my gmail account was hacked and my email, blog, and anything else related to google was disabled.  I freaked out, but am thrilled to have access again.  Let the blogging begin again!