Cute Riley

Riley has entered that stage of sitting. He must sit all the time. It's a fun stage, most of the time. His sitting up skills are getting better and better. Sometimes he sites for long periods, and other times he seems to get tired fast. He and JJ have also entered a chatter stage. They both will just start chatting away. Sometimes they sound so similar we aren't sure who is talking. They don't really talk to much together, but just talk in general. JJ has also started putting some of his big brother skills to use (besides smacking Riley on the head). Often, Riley will start crying for a bottle and JJ will go to him and talk to him and keep him company while I make the bottle. I love seeing JJ comforting Riley when I enter a room.














This is cute scene I cam across when I went to check on Riley the other day. He reminds me of me when I sleep. I have seen him sleep like this a few other times since.


(Mom, I did one post today and three yesterday)

The Funny Side of the Mess

Every once in a while, you wonder, is my one-year-old ready for.... You decide to give it to them, or let them do it. Some times you are surprised and get excited for this one less thing you have to do and other times, you laugh and say not now. And then there are those times where they try it with out your support and you just have to laugh or you go crazy. I can't remember if we gave JJ the can or he took the can. What you don't see in these pictures is the soda all over the floor. And most of the soda wasn't from JJ spilling it out of his mouth, it was from JJ shaking the can.


This was a funny picture. I think some soda might have tickled his nose because he really likes it.





Making muffins. I think he liked taste testing more then mixing.

Valentine's Day in First Grade

The teachers invited the parents to school for the Valentine's party. Samantha asked me every day if I would go. Jamie took the day off so I was able to go. Samantha was very excited to have me there. All the kids had a lot of fun. They made these hearts to put their Valentine's in the day before, and Sam carried her's around the house for until she broke it to much to play with.

Kiss any one?

Poodles and Poka Dots

Andrea had her fourth Birthday recently. When I asked Andrea what kind of cake she wanted this year, she said she wanted a pink cake with pink frosting that looked like a dog. Hmmm. Where does she get these ideas? The pink parts were easy, it was the dog part that was tricky. I told Jamie, and he said why not do a poodle. What a great idea. Then the search started for a cute, easy poodle picture. This is what we came up with. Andrea loved her cake. Then we all got to eat poodle cake for the next week.



Andrea loves poka-dots. When I saw this dress, it yelled Adrea. She loves it and every time it comes out of the wash, she wants to wear it.














I think I have the start of an idea for her cake next year...

Samantha

I don't have a recent picture of Sam, besides the one at the top, but she wasn't mentioned in any of the other posts so here is one about her. Yesterday we had a "sick" day. Samantha has a cold and when she woke up she wasn't feeling to great. That's normal for having a cold. She was once again doing the "I'm sick, I don't want to go to school" thing. You know how it goes, they think that if they stay home it's all fun and games and playing. Jamie and I decided to let her have a sick day, but since she was "sick" that meant all day laying down, no playing. Not two minutes after I get off the phone with the school I find her upstairs playing saying that she is feeling better. Grrrr. I told her that she has to lay down or go to school. She said school. Double grrrrr. Well, I tried my hardest, and made her stay down all day, no toys. Whatever I did, it worked. She decided that school was more fun and by the time Jamie came home from work she was saying, I hope I am well enough for school tomorrow. She was quite eager to get up and ready for school today. I hope this memory lasts a while for her.

Thoughtful Andi

Riley is really liking his jumping toy. I put him in his jumper so that he can play with toys, and sit up, and see everything better. There have been several times when it suddenly gets quiet and when I get up to check on him, has fallen asleep. He doesn't cry to let me know he wants to take a nap, he just stops jumping. So this day I hadn't heard him for a minute or two and I though, oh no, he fell asleep again. When I got up to check on him, this is what I saw. When I asked Andi about it, she said she thought he was tired of jumping, so she gave him a chair to sit on.

Scissors

Note to self: Just because you THINK the scissors are in a safe place, doesn't mean they are.


Before:


After:


Of course, this is after I fixed it. And, this is me telling Andi to smile. Her response, a bigger frown and comments along the lines of, I don't like to smile, I want to be sad, I want to be sad all the time. I think one the ironic things about this is that the other day before this happened, I was looking through some old pictures and her hair was like this. I was thinking how cute she looked and that maybe she should get it cut like that again.

Silly JJ

Riley isn't the only one that gets caught sleeping in odd places. Although he out grew this chair a while ago, it is still one of his favorites. Even Sam and Andi enjoy sitting it every once in a while. Sometimes even Riley gets a chance to use it.

Snow

So far this winter has been like all the other winters here, unpredictable and very different form past years. Last week, we got dumped on in about eight hours. And to add to all the snow, we get a lot of wind. The houses are set up to make wonderful wind tunnels so some places get about two feet of snow while other spots only get a few inches (and the mounds of snow only land in the spots that have to be shoveled). Then the sun starts to come out and just as the snow is almost gone, we get hit again. So here are a couple pictures of some piled up snow.