Taking advantage of a pretty day!

It was a beautiful day on Wednesday, so we decided to head to the park before the next round of winter set in! The girls and I had a great time... swinging, sliding and running off some energy! What a great day!

Birthday week! 31 months and 9 months!

That's right! We're still doing monthly birthday pics... Joel hopes to keep them coming until she's 18 years old! :) So far, so good! Our Ellie was 31 months old on the 14th - Valentine's Day!!!... She's ALL little girl right now... No more baby here.

Look at this little lady. Just LOVE her... You can often hear her say "Ellie's gettin' bigger!" and that she is. When you ask her how old she is, she often answers very cofindently "I'm 3!" Soon enough, sweet girl, soon enough.

She is finally - for the most part - into her 2T pants, though some of them still need a belt. :) She is still as sassy and mischievous as can be. She always wants to "see" what you're doing and carries her stepstool around the house with her so she can get to anything she thinks she needs. :)

We always have a "story a day" about our Ellie. Sometimes it's a story an hour. :) I am vowing to video tape more often cause I feel like I'm missing so many special moments. And her cute little nuances just change so quickly.

And then our sweet baby, Alexa, turned 9 moths old on the 17th! And guess what? She started CRAWLING on her birthday and now she can get anywhere and everywhere that she wants to!

It's just amazing to me how quickly that change occurs. One day you can leave them sitting somewhere and know that they will be there when you return. The next day you can't walk away for a second! So...here we go again! Lock up all the valuables and watch all the outlets. Alexa is mobile! :)

Alexa is still our little blue eyed beauty. I could look at those eyes all day! She is just so sweet... She continues to be contemplative and a bit more of our introvert, though she does love people and is very smiley...especially in the mornings. She is incredibly observant and determined. When she sees something she wants, there is no stopping her from succeeding in obtaining it. She is relentless. Just ask her sister. The fighting has begun. Ha!

She has been on solid foods for almost a month now (yes, I waited pretty long to get her started!), and she is doing GREAT! She is also becoming a little better sleeper. She still often wakes up once or so a night and is up and ready for her day by 6am. But it's all good. I love waking up to her sweet little face!

So this Mom is getting ready for this new busy season of 2 "Mobilites" as I like to call them. :) They are sure to keep me on my toes in lots of ways. But I wouldn't trade this season for the world.

Oh please stay little my sweet girls... I am cherishing these days...

Snow day!

Like most of the rest of the country, we've had some "snow days" this week! It's provided some really fun time with the girls, but I've had to get creative... especially as Ellie really started getting cabin fever about 24 hours into all the bad weather! So, for snow day #2, I came up with a list of activities to keep us busy! Activity #1... BAKE COOKIES!

Ellie and I had discussed our plan the night before as she went to bed... and she woke up SO excited! She didn't even want to eat her breakfast or anything! So, after bribing her to eat her breakfast, we dove in!

Joel's Mom and Dad got the girls these adorable aprons for Christmas, so I was excited to try them out... Alexa did not want to be left out of the cookie baking party, so we put her apron on her and put her in her high chair so she could oversee the whole operation.

Here is the play by play... Above is Ellie with all of our ingredients...

Alexa contentedly looking on, hoping that she'll get some food soon.

El was a champ and dumping everything in! She even cracked the eggs and did a pretty good job for a 2 year old! I was trying to loosen up and be a fun Mom who lets her kids make messes. I'm not always very good with that. :)

And of course she had to test out the batter! What fun would making cookies be without that? :)

We finished just in time to have them ready for Daddy to come home for lunch! Ellie was waiting for him at the door with a cookie for Ellie and a cookie for Daddy! :) Too cute...

Then another, "what was Mom thinking" moment was when I decided to take a picture with both girls and a plate full of fresh from the oven cookies. Alexa couldn't WAIT to get her hands on them. I wish you could have witnessed this sight. Ellie, trying her hardest to protect the cookies from little sister saying "No Alexa, you're too little!", but to no avail... Alexa won out and cookies and chocolate were EVERYWHERE! The next picture, which I did not post, is of the girls hugging without clothes because I had to throw them all in the washer! Nothing a little "Resolve" couldn't take care of on the carpet and it was SO worth it for this fun memory with my girls... Gotta love those snow days! :)