Miss A's Prayer

Every night, I say, "Alice, have you said your personal prayers." and every night, she rolls over, lays on her stomach, and mumbles out the same speedy, half-hearted prayer. I try and remind her sometimes to think, and she'll tack on something that is mildly selfish and end the prayer. Well, about a week ago, I asked who wanted to say the family prayer. Even if she volunteers, it follows the same pattern as above. Well, she sat knee to knee with me, bowed her head and started. Evey was rolling around on the bed, Rich was trying to contain her, and I was just waiting for it to be over because I'd heard it 100 times. She started, "Oh dear heavenly father, I'm so grateful for this day, I'm grateful for Evey, I'm grateful for dad, I'm grateful for mom and Luke and that we're healthy. I'm grateful for school and Ms. Silvestri, I'm grateful for my books. I'm grateful for my friends. I'm grateful that other kids get all the things that they want and that I don't so I can be grateful for what I have. I'm grateful for my cousins. I'm grateful..."It went on long enough for Rich to realize that she wasn't stopping and to ignore Evey's rolling. It went on long enough that I started to listen to my 6 year old. It went on long enough for me to actually feel gratitude. When she finished, I was teary and thanked her, for real that time, for saying the prayer.

The new Mr. coming to town

This was taken a few months ago, but the ultrasound gal said if she could say 100% that it was a boy, she would, but margin of error, she gave me a 99.9% instead.
I'm now at 29-30 weeks.  I'm getting kicked and can't sleep good, and all the other stuff that goes with being pregnant. The girls are excited.  Miss A thinks a brother sounds great.  Miss E doesn't really like the sound of a brother, but she likes to kiss, talk to, and rub my tummy. We got her to stop crying that it wasn't a girl by calling him prince charming. 
My man and I...I'm amazed at how many people have said, "oh, your husband must be so happy to have a boy." My gut reaction is to say something terribly sarcastic and rude to this as it makes me feel like they are saying girls are a bad thing.  Truthfully, I think another girl would be easier because it's familiar.  But what do I know?  We're getting into unknown territory and we're excited.

Miss E and Grandma B

My Grandma Baker comes and stays with my mom often and for long enough that my girls have gotten to know her better and so have I.  Miss E has really seemed to bond with her.  We've visited before and she'll spend and hour or so with my Grandma in her room reading stories and looking at beautiful jewelry.  This picture, Miss E wanted to know what Grandma was doing and started learning all about knitting. 

Kindergarten Graduation

School for Miss A has been her daily happiness for the entire year.  She loves going. She loves her friends.  She loves learning. She loves her teacher and the TA's and the folks at recess and projects and anything else even remotely school related.  She is actually really excited to go to school for the full day and start first grade.  I think she'll be very happy.
So, for graduation, her teacher had the class go to the local park and they sang for the parents and got certificates and a treat afterward followed by play time at the park for over an hour and a half and a walk back to school to find out she got the first grade teacher she wanted.
She told me that it was the best day ever...because she was a first grader now and she got so many treats in one day.  I only almost cried when I found out she got the teacher she wanted for next year.  It was all pretty special.

Cousin Visit - February 2013

 In February, the Mr's brother and family came and visited us.  It was a sweet weekend and we had a really nice visit.  We went to the Denver Aquarium and the girls got to enjoy time with their 'favorite cousins.'

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At the aquarium, there are mermaids who swim in one of the huge tanks.  We got to have pictures with them afterward.  My favorite part of the picture? Miss E's clothing choice of the day.  She likes to dress herself and has since she was abo

The Butterfly Pavilion April 2013

 When Miss A was off track (year around school folks), we took a day trip to the Butterfly Pavilion.  That was a cool place.  It had way more than butterflies and we all had a great time.  We met Nana and Grandma Baker there and my girls got to pet starfish and hold bugs and tarantulas.  My girls were enthralled, brave and enjoyed the wonder of it all.  

Brave. didn't even flinch. no surprise there.

Brave. I was sort of shocked by this.

Miss A - hand in with no question to touch the starfish.  Miss E - took some time to think about it and we had to tell her it wouldn't hurt.  And then we couldn't get her to take her hand out.

This was in the tropical part with all the butterflies.  We were all sweaty and overly warm. Have I ever mentioned how much I like humidity? I like it. And boy did I get it here.

sisters

that's the face of happy wonder and beauty.

Easter 2013

I didn't get any other Easter pictures this year.  Sometimes, I like to just put the camera away and enjoy the day.  So we did.  The girls had an Easter egg hunt left by the Easter Bunny.  They are both wearing pj's and new Sunday shoes.  And running to get the candy that was stealthily hidden in plain sight.

Happy 3rd Birthday Miss E!

This about my girl:
She loves dressing up - dress up clothes are on 90% of the time and skirts or dresses are the first choice.
She talks well and a lot.
She follows her sister around quite a lot and learns a great deal from her - both good and bad.
She doesn't love bread, pasta, or rice.  She'll eat it, but not really by choice. She's more of a fruit, veggie and meat kinda girl. Oh, and cheese.
She has 3 freckles on her nose that make me smile daily.
She wears a huge shoe size.
She likes things in order.  She'll organize all sorts of toys into rows and play pretend for a really long time. 

Cousin love and weirdness March 2013

This is as normal as they can be

This is actual normal

My girls have the happy privilege of living really close to some great relatives.  These are their cousins (well, cousins and first cousins once removed?).

Cousin love and friendship

This is what you get when you have 4 little girl cousins all really close in age: friends. 

February 2013

she had just kissed frosty. cutie.

Miss A wasn't trying to push over frosty, but she was actually sliding down the snow.  bad footing.

honestly, this girl really enjoys the snow.

February was, sort of a bust, even with birthdays and Valentines day. My family has undergone as much illness as...well, a lot of illness.  What that means is that we've been relatively house bound in a home full of germs.  So...today, finally when feeling slightly better, and the day after a lovely snow storm, we went out and I built a snow man with the girls (yes, they'll tell you they built it and they DID make a solid effort, Miss A constantly saying, "we need to make it stable.").  It was fun. It was a needed reprieve from feeling lousy.
Onto more about feeling lousy. I've been sick for approximately 2 full months.  Not to mention the strep, stomach flu, or bronchitis, I have morning sickness. Yes. We are happy to say number three will be joining us this year - due date: September 2.

Grandma Baker and Miss E

I really love that my Grandma Baker comes to visit Colorado for months on end.  I love it because my family gets to see her more and therefore, my kiddos know her better.  She's a really interesting and lovely person with a quiet sense of humor and pleasant disposition. 
When she was at my house, Miss E came to her and asked, "you wanna cowor wid me?" She brought crayons and a big print out of a princess, and her and my Grandma spent about 25 minutes coloring together. That's really sweet.

Merry Christmas

Yeah, that's snow white.  and true to course, I take blurry Christmas pictures.  And they're still cute and Miss A looks more grown up to me.

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pictures from Thanksgiving - at the Park

Miss A and her cousin Page becoming friends

Miss E was "hiding" because she was angry with me.

The Mr.

Not a great picture, but there it is for posterity.

a silly one.

Thanksgiving - park photos

On Thanksgiving, it was a really nice day, so we went to the park.  I got really cute pictures of my niece Page as the light was perfect.  So I thought I'd give it a try with Miss A.  Instead of delicate and posed smiles, I got genuine child of mine.  I love her.  I should say, however, that she really tried. 

Thanksgiving

This is our Thankful Turkey.  Miss A wrote it this year and both girls colored it.  I loved it.

We had a really great Thanksgiving this year at my parents house.  It was a beautiful day and everyone was healthy.  I got to play with my niece, Page, who normally lives in California and my brother Michael and sis-in-law Taylor.  Brea made place cards for everyone at the table and we all sat around with linens and fancy goblets and enjoyed a feast.  The sweet potatoes are almost always my favorite, but this year, Andi's mashed potatoes were...well they were so creamy. As you can see in the picture, both my girls are silly (Miss A making a face and Miss E always ALWAYS in dress up).

This is what happens when I leave out a block of cheese for 2 minutes. 

Yes, those are miss E's very two year old teeth marks. She didn't think it was weird at all to be walking around with a block of cheese the size of her head.

H.O.W.L Award

Miss A loves Kindergarten.  I love the amount she is learning. The school does awards and one of the awards is making Wise Choices.  My girl got this award.  In my mind, I'm not really sure a 5 year old can make 'wise' choices...but good choices for sure.  She would come home from school and tell me the ways that she was trying to be proactive (yes. she used that word.  They are also teaching the 7 habits of effect children at the school).
It was a special moment for me.  I got teary eyed. I would have loved the moment even more and maybe yelled, "that's my baby!" if it hadn't been for little sister pitching a fit for having to sit through an award ceremony.
And here is the documentary:

Royal Backdrop

My girls as royalty.

For the last two years, I've been able to paint a backdrop for the Activity Day.
 girls father daughter evening.  This year, they wanted a royal, castle sort of theme with no pink. I loved doing it.  It was done on a Queen size sheet and I got a lot of free paint from Home Depot.  I really wish there were more opportunities to do fun things like this because I really enjoy it.

The day of, I got to go and see the backdrop up and so my girls got to have their pictures taken, crowns and everything (Miss E in the tutu is just because the girl was still in her dress up clothes when we left the house.  That's a pretty common occurrence).

Dragonflies - crafting with kids

 So, during the fall, the maple seeds, know as helicopter seeds because of the way they are shaped and spin, are found everywhere in our yard.  They are beautiful to me and have a really cool natural shape. With 4 of them and a stick and some hot glue, they look like dragonflies.  So, I glued, the girls and cousin Brayden (not pictured, but definitely there) worked on painting them dragonfly colors.  We had a really nice time and the iridescent qualities of the paint and the seeds looks really neat.

Miss E painting carefully

The dragonflies drying.  Far left - Brayden's, Middle - Miss E, and Right - Miss A

She took a long time as she was really focused on being precise.