Gwenners

Gwen was taking her nap this afternoon and we had just a few moments before I had to get Elle from school.  I poked my head into her room to find her looking at me through the slats of her crib with a little smile on her face.  I took a few shots of her today and she was just too cute.  She is such a sweet and happy baby.  I love her chubby, soft cheeks, her warm toes, and her funny little giggle. 

Sweets for my Sweets

If you know Elle, you know she loves her sweets.  What happened tonight proves that she must have been REALLY tired.  I was doing the dinner dishes and turned around to find her asleep right in the middle of eating her ice cream sandwich.  She just put her head on the table and was out.  Gwen was smart enough to realize that this was a golden opportunity.  It made me laugh because watching it in person reminded me of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland where the prisoners are trying to get the key from the dog while the guard is sleeping.  Gwen wanted that sandwich so badly...she just couldn't reach it!  

Monday, Monday

A lazy and happy Monday morning.  Elle watching her favorite cartoon, "Wow,Wow,Wubzzy", made even sweeter by her pink dog named "Sugar", her thumb and a new pink Barbie watch from the cereal box this morning. Gwen is busy as usual, doing her daily dumpster diving.  I think I now know what happened to the missing remote control.

Happy Valentines Day

No, my dog Tiger didn't take this photo...I did.  Let me explain.  I have always wanted to read the book, "I Was a Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids".  It rings so true to me.  I had a vision of myself being so organized and put together and that is just not the case for me a lot of days. Valentines day for example...even just a few days ago I had a vision of what I wanted to get done.  It is Elle's first Valentines Day that she is in school.  I went to Michaels and bought a mold to make cookie suckers.  Yep, heart shaped cookies on a stick!  Elle and I could make them and frost them together, tie them in cute red bows and hand them out to her little friends and teacher at school.  Yesterday at about 10:45 I was reading a note sent home from her teacher a WEEK ago.  It said that they would be celebrating Valentines Day one day early because the teacher was going to be out of town. What??!!  School started in just 20 minutes!!!  I threw a pink shirt on Elle put her in the car with Gwen who was screaming as well.  I grabbed a red pen, scissors and a roll of red ribbon and threw it all in the car.  We drove to Albertsons, I put both crying girls in the shopping cart, rolled them straight to the cheesy valentine section.  Elle took too long trying to choose her Valentines so I just chose the princess pack for her.  I grabbed a bag of pink tootsie pops and hurried to the cashier.  Out at the car I made Elle sign her name on them with the red pen (a red pen...how festive of me). She is only 3 and I was making her sign the cards on her lap in a grocery cart with a marker while I am saying, "hurry up Elle, an E an E now an L  not a P!!!"  We raced to school where I hastily wrapped the tootsie pops in the red ribbon for her to hand out.  She jumped out of the car and  I made her take a picture holding everything...because any "good" mom would have a picture of her daughters first school Valentines Day.  Since I am in a photography class, my camera is set on the Manual Mode (ugh).  The settings were set for pictures I had taken INSIDE the NIGHT before.  So needless to say the picture is WAY over exposed.  She looks like a blown out ghost...but I got the "money shot"...you can't tell her face from her shirt but I got it.  We will make the cookies another day and I think it's time for me to surrender to the myth of "perfection" in this art of motherhood. 

Happy Birthday to my Jon

Today is my Jon's Birthday.  The big 3-4!  Happy Birthday to my best friend, the best daddy to our girls, the smartest, funniest, most caring person I know.  The best decision I ever made was choosing to share my life with YOU.  You make me want to be better and do better.  I love you Forever.  Happy Birthday! 

Cute Kandis

Today I took this photo of my adorable niece, Kandis.  A few things I learned about her while she modeled for me...her favorite subject is science, she has 6 webkins, she LOVES all animals and thinks her bulldog at home is pregnant! Love you, Kandis.  Could she be any cuter?

Busy, Busy, Busy

Gwendolyn is quite a busy girl.  From the moment she wakes up until bedtime, she is BUSY. Busy pulling things out of cabinets, busy putting our phones in the toilet (that happened this morning), busy finding any cupboard that I have forgotten to fasten with a child lock.  I was in another room and heard the water running.  Gwendolyn had discovered her favorite toy...this step-stool which gives her direct access to her new favorite pastime to keep her busy.  Playing in water.  

Sweet Gwendolyn

Gwendolyn has been sick for the past week.  She was so miserable that I finally took her to urgent care on Sunday morning.  Sure enough, both of her ears were infected.  Poor Gwenners!  She has been so fussy... not wanting me to hold her but then when I would set her down she would cry even more.  Basically, she has been miserable.  The dr. prescribed her some medicine and today is the first day that she has not been a crying mess.  She actually had the desire this afternoon to play with her toys.  I am so relieved to know that she feels better and is back to her happy and sweet self. 

Princess Jammies

About a year ago, Elle and I were running through WalMart and I was in a hurry to check out. While we were standing in line, Elle saw an enormous TACKY Disney Princess display.  She promptly begged for the shiny polyester, horribly ugly, princess (did I mention polyester) purple nightgown (1st picture above). I told her no, no and again, no.  She of all children did not need a new pair of pajamas.  I promptly reminded her of all of the adorable PJ sets she had at home...the cute toile pajamas with her monogram on them or how about the pink cotton ones embroidered with "I love you" on the pocket?  She wasn't having it.  So I hesitantly agreed.  It has been a year and those have been her favorite jammies.  They got a hole in them and so I gleefully threw them away.  Elle saw them in the trash and began to cry.  I told her that they were just too small now and that it was time to say good bye.  She was so sad, so I told her, "OK, let's go online and you can pick out a replacement pair."  We found a (slightly less tacky...but not much) pair.  For the last week, she ran to the mailbox everyday to see if they had arrived.  Well, yesterday they did. She wore them to bed last night and was in heaven.  She even slept in her princess shoes...I am not kidding.  I asked her how much she loved them and she put both of her arms out and said, "this much!" I need to put blinders on her when we go to WalMart from now on.  Heaven help me if I ever bring home the matching trash can and drapery set!