Fresh Flowers

I got to take home some of the flowers from Young Women In Excellence a few days ago. I love having fresh flowers in the house,  and am especially grateful for them when we have lots of snow falling outside.

Gratitude catch up

I am a little behind, but better late than never, right?!?

Jessie turned 26 this past Friday. Happy Birthday! I am grateful for Sisters. Hopefully I get to see them both soon. I am dying to get my hands on those boys before they get any bigger!

I haven't seen Cori, since E was this small- depressing. Hopefully soon, we miss her.

I am grateful for heat! It is so cold and I love that I can find E curled up under the Lego table getting warm by the vent!

I am grateful for this group of girls that are just awesome. They had Young Women in Excellence and did amazing!

Lastly, I am grateful ( and this is a stretch) for the deer that I get very annoyed at, but that my girls love watching out the window. So, because it makes them smile, I will be grateful for them. Oh and that they are eating something other than my bulbs!

Snuggly Babies

I am grateful for snuggly babies. I guess Lucy isn't technically a baby but she is still little enough for me to rock. I love rocking my babies before bed and even though today was mostly because she was feeling icky with a cold, I'll take it. Sometimes I think I do my best thinking in the quiet of rocking my girls.

She woke up 45 minutes into her nap. I got her up but she was acting pretty miserable. She went and got me her pjs and walked me to her room. Sweet girl.

Happy

I am very grateful for the moments when E and Lucy play so well together. Today, I was able to get lots of housework done while they were making Thanksgiving sticker pictures with a little lego building on the side.  Elsa was so patient in helping Lucy get the backs off the stickers. Lucy was so great at saying "hep" (help) and not just crying out of frustration. It was wonderful!

Elsa May

I am grateful for my sweet Elsa May. She is very sensitive, smart, sympathetic to others feelings, has the best imagination, takes good care of Lucy, is funny, and really I could go one and on. 

 She makes my days brighter.

I asked If I could take a picture of her and she said yes...

Then she said I needed to take pictures of her "with her other feelings."

These are her descriptions in her own words...

I'm saying oh my goodness.

 Thinking hard at preschool

 I'm surprised

 I'm sad, like when Lucy takes stuff from me.

 I am so excited!

This is what I looked like for the picture man at Beulah school ( she got her class pictures taken last week)

Little Hands

I am grateful for two little girls who love to help. Not to mention how thankful I am that I have a dishwasher, washer and dryer. I would die without  all of them!

 

Lucy's favorite is a toss up between pushing the buttons to start a cycle or unloading the dishes, even when dirty

E wanted to help with the laundry the other day. Afterwards she said she mainly wanted to help so that maybe she could get into the dryer. I told her that was not very safe and she just replayed oh, I guess I would get tossed around too much!

Weekends

I am super grateful for the weekend. Alex will be home (after traveling much of the week) and we are all looking forward to spending time together.
 
Hopefully we will be able  to enjoy the weekend weather and get outside...

and the girls can have some more fun with all their fun pretending...

 I was told they were "roasting marshmallows by the fire" using the heater as the fire

and also "cleaning out the fire box"  with paint brushes. (not totally sure what that meant)

Original Artwork

Today I am grateful for how creative my girls are. I love all the pictures and creations I get from Elsa and Lucy is now starting to really discover coloring (and on paper- yay)!

The Calm

 I am grateful for calm mornings where the girls are happy and content playing alone or with each other. It's nice to not have to disturb their playing to rush out the door some where. Today they just played and played until the craziness of coop preschool started. It was lovely!

Family Outings

I am grateful for days where we get to spend the day as a family out and about doing fun things.  A few weeks back we went to Harvest Valley Farms and then stopped to get a bite to eat on the way home. E was elated to go to a restaurant with a real menu (you can tell we don't eat out much)!

Lucy Girl

Today I am grateful for my Lucy. She is funny, busy, a risk taker, and so sweet. She gives the best "squeeze" hugs and is always getting into things. She loves shoes, bags, hats and of course her big sister.

It's hard to believe that this was her, not so long ago. 

She has been saying a specific word/sound the last few days and then it finally clicked. She was saying Elsa. It's pretty cute, especially when she yells it.

Books

This is a day late, but I am grateful for books. I love that both my girls love to read.

 Blue Hat Green Hat used to make E laugh when she was a baby. Now Lucy laughs and laughs when it is read to her, and especially when E is the storyteller!

Some books we are loving at the moment,

I cannot wait to read the Little House series with E but she is still a little too young. I found these gems at the library and we check out a couple each time we go. They are perfect!

 We also read our first Amelia Bedelia book. It is still a little over her head but E can still catch a lot of the silliness and loves it.

As for Lucy girl, She loves any books with flaps or Elmo. And of course she can never get enough Blue Hat, Green Hat