A Walk Around the Block and Apple Sandwiches...

Still pretty cold and snowy, but the girls love to bundle up and go for a walk. They always come in with cold hands, and somehow I have trained them to "need" hot chocolate every time they even step out for a minute.

These are my little helpers in the kitchen.... or should I say snitchers?! They make it fun... and keep me on my toes.

We made Apple Sandwiches. Amberlee and I found the recipe in February's "The Friend" (Thanks Grandma Kaye- we read it cover to cover!) and we thought it would be a fun one to try. It was really good- even to me, so we posted the recipe on my cooking blog if you don't get The Friend. http://putalydonit.blogspot.com/
By the way- had a doctors appointment today, and baby is doing great- sweet little heartbeat and we're getting excited!

The Man Must Love Me!!!

I decided that Doug really loves me! (or a clean house :) I spent my whole day cleaning the house- top to bottom, and when he got home he was thrilled, and I just mentioned how good some of his amazing banana bread sounded and before I even realized it, a batch was baking in the oven. Talk about happiness and "Lovin' from the Oven!" I was quite tickled, and already I have almost single-handedly devoured an entire loaf. :) Thanks for "loving me" Doug, and you're welcome for a clean house. :)

I posted the recipe on my cooking blog if you are interested... how could you not be?! :)
http://putalydonit.blogspot.com/

A Red Letter Day for Autumn's Hair!!!

Hide and Seek: I came into the Kitchen the other and the girls just about gave me a heart-attack popping out from under the sink. The little stinkers! They thought they were pretty clever- I had to take a picture.

Let's hear it for Autumn's hair! It is finally getting long enough to do something with... How about that!!!! I've been pretty excited and she has been pretty patient with my pulling and parting. :) Amberlee said she was "Shirley Temple" today. I had to agree!

I wanted to point out Amberlee's cute clip. Her Aunt Choody made several darling flower clips for the girls. (I will post some pictures of some more of them.) She calls her little business "RUBY BLOOMS" and they are so darling! They are only $4 a clip and well worth it, I think! (Let me know if you would like her contact information.) My cute cousin Liz made the cute Jasmine bows Autumn is wearing. Aren't I such a lucky gal to have sweet sisters and friends to do the crafty little things like that for me! Love to them both for it!

Just around the river ben, beyond the short...

My girls and their Disney Princesses- they are getting those songs down! Here is Autumn singing Pocahontas. She cracks me up!

Baby Up-date

I just had an appointment this last week, and everything is looking good for our baby boy. He moves around like crazy! I love it when he gets the hiccups! He got them the other day and even Amberlee and Autumn could feel him. It was really fun! We are getting really excited! Just two more months!

Anyway, we are having a hard time narrowing down the name and thought we would post a poll to see what you think. We for sure want "Douglas" as the middle name, but we can't decide between Truman, Ezra, or Seth. Vote on our poll and tell us what you think!

Note: We have come up with three names with the past two girls and come up with something totally different at the end, so don't be offended if we don't even chose one of these three. :)

A Daddy that plays with me...

My girls are so lucky to have a Daddy that plays with them. They love playing with him, too! Even when he is pretty strict. I sometimes let them win, but he really makes them work for it. :) I think it is probably good for them, though. It makes them smart and they actually get pretty good at the games. They are pros at memory! Anyway- I just wanted to post one of the many reasons I love Doug! :)

Also... Doug recently up-dated his Landscape Architecture Portfolio with some of the neat things he did this last semester. I am so proud of him for all that he is learning. I hope you'll check out his blog!

http://douglasstewartportfolio.blogspot.com/

I Love being a MOM!!!!

A place to play...
The girls were needing the "run" out some of their energy, so I took them to the local mall play pen and they went crazy. It was so fun to watch them. I am so glad they are such good friends. They just ran around holding hands. This place is no secret, every kid in Moscow must have been there (there were three birthday parties going on), but they held their own. The big boys (who probably shouldn't have been in there in the first place) were climbing up the slide the wrong way, and Amberlee said, "Please don't do that, you could hurt my Little Bumble!" (That is what we call Autumn.) Then Autumn went around yelling at the top of her lungs, "I Little Bumble. Don't hurt me!!!" Funny girls!

Hey- check out these beauties. :) No- really I just usually have really bad luck with my bread and I was so excited that these loaves turned out. (I am amazing at killing yeast!) I'll be posting the recipe on the cooking blog shortly!!! (It's a good one that you can't mess up!)

I'm not posting this to say "I'm the most amazing mom ever..." just Me "Waxing Philisophical" or just having an appifany (that most of you have probably already had) I guess...

After almost four years of being a mother, I am just now coming to realize how wonderful and fun it is to be a mom. How lucky I am to be at home with my girls! I have always wanted to be a mother, and I think I have even enjoyed it most of the time, but I am finally realizing what a beautiful fun thing Motherhood is! I just have to SIMPLIFY...

I have a real tendency to want to involve myself in so many other thing. I love volunteering for things. I love checking things off my list. I have sometimes felt like I have all these talents or skills that I'm not using. I have even sometimes just felt left out because I have kids, and it is so much trickier to get around. (That's maybe kind of sad to admit...) but over the last couple days I have realized how important it is to just simplify, just do the basics/necessary and now I am REALLY enjoying it! Sometimes it's ok to throw away the list, and just let the girls run around for almost 2 hours in the mall play pen. :) You can never read them enough stories. It's ok if they put their hands in the flour while I'm making bread. :) It's ok to just watch them splash in the tub- those dishes can wait a minute more. :) (Also, maybe that way they won't empty three bottles of shampoo while you are away! :) It may not be convenient, but get those boots on and take them for a little walk. Those are the "necessary" things. I'm just learning. Simplify....

This is probably something that most of you have already discovered. I'm a little slow on the up-take sometimes I guess, but I'm just finding the less I try to schedule out my day and the more time I really just give to my little family, the more happiness and fulfillment I reap in return. (This really isn't rocket science! Why has it taken me so long? :) Sure being a mom is still exhausting, and even a little discouraging at times, but I am grateful to be able to find so much fulfillment and happiness in my home with my precious babies and good husband!

Finally Finished...

Can I just say: I LOVE MY NEW SEWING MACHINE!!! (I can even sew buttons on!!!!) It is amazing! Not only is does it sew perfectly, but I have a resource to turn to when I'm stuck! They have a 1-800 number I can call anytime with my questions about the machine. I couldn't remember some of the things they showed me from my last lesson, and they walked me right through it over the phone. (THANKS mom and dad, again and again!!!!) I started this pillow projected in June and I finally just wrapped it up on Saturday. I LOVE finishing projects! It was about time on this one. Big thanks to Momma Stewart, who basically sewed everything but the finishing touches last June. She is amazing!

Amberlee the Artist...

This is a picture Amberlee drew of this little fairy. I was so proud of her. I actually thought she did a really good job. She has been such a good little friend to me! I just love my girls. Today was a "C" day, so we made cup-cakes. It was pretty fun. Doug is at his Grandpa's funeral, so our most common phrase the last two days has been, "I miss Daddy..." I love that man. I sure miss him when he isn't around. Glad I have my precious girls to keep me company when he is gone!

A is for Ants...

Well- we're back in the saddle. The girls and I started Joy School at home on Wednesday. I am actually so glad we're doing it at home. It has been so much fun! I just love my girls and it has been a lot of fun to find some good Preschool resources and come up with lesson plans again! Two that I have liked a lot are http://www.first-school.ws/ and http://www.preschooleducation.com/. For our first day, the girls finger painted ants and drew legs on them. We read some fun books and munched on Apples for snacks. I think we'll do a letter a day and then start on numbers. It has been a lot of fun so far though! Let me know if you have any good ideas or resources!!!

Grandma Kaye's Christmas Blankets

I had to post a picture of these cute blankets my mom made for all the Grand kids (all 8 of them!). They were so bright and cute and each one had their name embroidered on them. Go Mom! They are the girls "NEW" new blankies!

In Memory of Grandpa Olson...

We just found out this morning that Doug's Grandpa Delos Olson passed away. He was such a good sweet old man, and we will miss him and treausure the sweet memories. He has been struggling with health problems for some time now and has missed his wife for over 20 years. We are sure glad to have known such a good man and have him in our lives.

Grandpa Olson...

In Memory of Grandpa Delos Olson

Family Pictures...

I know have done a ton of posting, but I had to catch up from a month of no blogging. :) We had so much fun with family and we miss them so much already! The Stewarts- it was fun to get all of us together!

Some of the Romney's. I'm so glad we atleast got to see Anth and Kylie before we took off- they were in Indiana for the whole break with Kylie's family.

Momma Stewart made two beautiful pink quilts for the girls for Christmas- I was really proud of her! They sure turned out cute and they look great on their beds!

Happy Birthday DOUG!!!!

We played some fun card games with family!

My cute hubby turned 26!!! We had a really fun family party with everyone- it was good to get together and I think he got some fun prizes. Doug's parents cooked up some of their Alaskian fish with us and all of my family. It tasted amazing! (it makes my mouth water just thinking about it. I'll try to track down some recipes for my cooking blog!)