elsie says

Elsie:  "My back hurts."
Me:  "Why?"
Elsie:  "Cause I'm not pushing on it, and it's got a lot of energy in it?"

Grammy:  "Elsie, you sound a bit hoarse today."
Elsie:  "I'm not a horse, I'm a unicorn!"

Elsie: struts out of my room in heels and a belt "Ok I'm the mom.  We're going on an adventure today.  But only if you turn your listening ears on!"

Now, I went back and forth on sharing this last one.  But ultimately I find it hilarious and don't want to forget so, sorry Christopher (he voted no), I'm writing it down.

I was making lunch and Elsie was crawling the kitchen.  I wasn't paying too much attention to her jabbering, but then she got louder.

"Mama!  Mama!  I'm tinky (stinky) cunt! I'm a tinky cunt!"

What the hell?  What was my child saying to me??  She said it a few more times.  Then she said she 'paid' me.  A stinky cunt that paid me?  Oh my gosh what?  Then I figured it out.  She was pretending to be a skunk.  But it sounded nothing like skunk.  And she sprayed me.  I could not stop laughing.  I'm not mature enough for this parenting thing.  And no worries, she decided she didn't want to be a skunk anymore.  She wanted to be a titty (kitty).

Oh Elsie girl.  She is a character like nobody else. 

goals for the new year

Well look at that, I managed to get these goals written down before February!

In 2015 I just wanted to survived.  So much change happened for our family, I just wanted to get through it.  It was fun, the year brought us the end of a medical education era, a new home, a new city, little Miss Thea, and so much more.  But it was certainly exhausting.  I finally feel like we're finding our place, falling into a slightly more comfortable routine.

I didn't make any resolutions per say.  But I do have some goals for the year.  Things I hope to complete or accomplish.  I do better with a more concrete list.  Of course I'd love to spend more time with my husband, be a better mother, etc.  But that is all relative and based on perspective and opinion.  I'm discovering that I am a very black and white no nonsense kinda girl.

1. Complete a Whole30.  Fancy that, I'm currently 28 days in!  I can't say it has been a perfect Whole30.  All the foods I'm eating are compliant, but I'm snacking way more than I should be.  I blame it a little bit on nursing, and a lot on the fact that I just love to eat.

2.  Run a half marathon.  I've started training for an April half.  This weekend I have to run four miles, my longest run in almost a year.  I've been slowly building my stamina back up over the last few weeks.  It's daunting, and sometimes I want to give up, but I think everyone close to me can agree that I'm a much happier person when I'm running.  I actually hope to run four races this year, two halves, the Mother's Day 5k, and one race to be determined.  Four just sounded like a good number, and enough to keep me busy.

3.  A family project 52.  In 2014 we took a family photo weekly, and I absolutely love looking back on them.  The fam pretty much hates having to take pictures so I didn't press the issue last year.  But I'm sad about that, so we're back at it this year!

4.  Print my blog books.  Really I want to print a ton of photo books.  But I keep imaging what would happen if blogger just up and disappeared on me.  I'm grateful for my chatbooks and all the memories they have preserved.  Now I need to get my blog posts printed out so I don't lose them!

5.  Find a red lipstick I love.  Dumb?  Yes.  Probably.  But I'll be 30 in April and it's about damn time I learn how to do my hair and make-up like an adult.  I've used the same brand and colors of make-up for probably close to 10 years now.

6.  Read the Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up.  I got this book last year right before we moved, but have yet to read it.  I want to read it and organize our entire house.  We've got a lot of space to hid junk in here and I don't want it to pile up!

7.  Read 10 books.  I love reading.  I really do.  But it is one of the first things to go when I need to find more time.  I spend a lot of time on social media.  I could use even 15 minutes a night of that time I usually spend staring at my phone to enjoy a book!

And I couldn't let the New Year go by without dressing up the baby.  Thea is younger than Ryann and Elsie were at their first New Year, so I couldn't do the photos the same way.  But close enough.  And she is still adorable.

Christmas Day 2015

The good news:  We went from waking up every hour the night before, to a four hour stretch, a three hour stretch, and hopefully a bit more.  The bad news:  We're sleep training Ferber style.  I hate hate HATE hearing her cry.  But less than 48 hours I've already seen vast improvements in Thea's sleep and this last time I laid her back in her crib there has been ZERO crying.  We'll see how today goes, but things are looking much better.  I might actually start to feel human again!

Anyway, back to recapping Christmas.  I had imagined the girls sitting at the top of the stairs, waiting to come down until we let them.  Watching them squeal and giggle as they found their stockings and such.  Reality was Thea had me up a ton in the night, and by the time her and I got up everyone else was awake, had eaten and were watching TV.  Not the most magical beginning to Christmas morning, but I appreciate Christopher letting me sleep.

The girls were excited to find a note from Santa, and that he and the reindeer had eaten the snacks they left out for him.  They were adorable as they pulled the little gifts out of their stockings.  Elsie especially got overly excited about each item.  "Wook!  Oh my gosh its a thing yay!  Wook mama wook!"  Sometimes she hadn't even figured out what it was yet, she was just so damn happy to be emptying the stocking.  After they had a bit to enjoy their little trinkets, we took them up to the playroom to see their gift from Grammy and Papa.  A new teepee for the playroom.  Then it was back downstairs so I could open a gift from Chris.  He got me this canvas.  I'm in love with it.  I just need to find a desk for the study so I can get it hung on the wall!  Then the girls spent some time rolling and jumping on the bubble wrap my gift was packed in.  Eventually we packed up and headed to my mom's for breakfast and presents with the whole family.

Per the usual, we had chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, bacon and strawberries.  Thanks to all the steroids Elsie was on, she was ravenous and ate a ton!  And while I mention the steroids, Thea also woke up with quite the cold Christmas morning.  Coughing and boogers like crazy.  So her and Elsie were quite the pair with their crabbiness.  After breakfast it was on to gifts.





With a smaller family, we do gifts one at a time, oldest to youngest.  We had nothing else planned for the day, besides more eating, so we had to make the gift fun last!  Honestly I like it that way, and unless the family gets a whole lot bigger (which I don't anticipate) I think we'll always do it like that.  It's fun to watch each person open their gifts and enjoy them.  Ryann's most treasured gift of the morning was a Monster High Doll.  That girl has been asking for one for well over a year.  I think they are kind of awful, but it was truly the only thing she really wanted.  Elsie, again, was excited about everything.  It was so fun to watch her.  Thea, well, I think she was just feeling pretty miserable and ready for a nap.

As soon as we were done opening gifts I put Thea down for a nap.  Truthfully I can't remember how the rest of the day worked out for her, but I do know she took a pretty epic four hour nap.  The rest of the day was spent doing more eating, watching Polar Express, playing games, making dinner, and more eating.  When we left my parents we tried to take a quick drive to look at more Christmas lights, but Thea just wasn't having it.  So it was home and time for bed.

I truly can't wait to see the chaos that ensues next Christmas when Thea is mobile!

Christmas Eve 2015

Some day.  Some day I don't know when, Thea will actually sleep.  It has to happen.  Until then I'll be lucky to post my Christmas photos before February and my New Year's resolutions by April.  On the bright side, today I decided to make laundry a priority and did six loads.  Granted those six loads are now in a heap on my bedroom floor waiting to be folded, but whatever.  We all have clean clothes.  As close to winning as I'm going to get right now.

Anyway.  Christmas Eve.  I truthfully can't remember the last Christmas that we didn't spend in Omaha with my dad's family.  I know for certain we spent one Christmas in North Dakota, and one at home (I think?), but pretty much every Christmas memory I have is in Omaha.  But with a younger baby who hated the car and a brand new house, we decided to give staying home a try.  I'd be lying if I said it wasn't weird.  It didn't quite feel like Christmas Eve to not be at my uncle's.  But we still had a good time.

Christopher was working in the morning so the girls and I hung out at my parent's house.  The plan was to go to the 3:30pm church service, but Chris wasn't home and Thea needed a nap bad.  We ended up just staying in for an ever so fancy appetizer style dinner at my house.  It was fun to host a holiday dinner.  And by host I mean I made everyone come to my house because it was more convenient for me and my mom still did the cooking.  :o)  That isn't hosting?  Oh well.  Just like Thea will one day sleep, I'll one day learn to adult on my own.

After dinner the girls got their pajamas on and watched a movie.  Hotel Transylvania 2 of course.  Because clearly that fits the holiday.  Really they were totally killing my Christmas vibes but that is what they wanted.  Ryann loved leaving cookies and carrots for Santa and the Reindeer, I think Elsie was just peeved that I wouldn't let her eat the cookies.  Then off they went to bed!  Thea on the other hand was a punk and took forever to go to bed.  Surprise surprise.  While I was trying to get her down my mom was busy trying to finish up the new playroom teepee, my parent's gift to the girls.  More on that another time.

I'm not sure what our plans will be for next Christmas.  It was nice to sleep in my own bed and spend Christmas morning in a house, not a hotel.  But I miss all the commotion of being with the extended family.  Whatever we choose to do, I'm sure Christmas will be even more exciting with Thea toddling around!

annual cookie day 2015

I'm currently choosing blogging over a clean house or a nap because I'm sad that so many of our family memories have gone undocumented the past year.  Granted, thanks to chatbooks I've got my instagram feed to look back on.  But they generally don't tell the whole story.  So blogging.  It's one of my 2016 goals.  Which I intend to blog about when I'm done playing catch up from December!

We had our fourth (I think) annual sugar cookie baking day just before Christmas.  This year my sister (Auntie) got to participate as well so that was fun.  But for some reason the girls were just not cooperating at all.  Ryann was pissed because we wouldn't let her eat all the dough.  Elsie just wanted to do everything her way right then, and was also licking EVERYTHING, and Thea was doing her baby thing.  So I was a little peeved at first.  When we did finally get to the sprinkle phase the girls loved it.  Elsie may have used so many sprinkles that the cookies were like rocks but she was super proud of her work! 

I'm hoping that as they get a little bit older they might actually be helpful?  I mean I know half the fun of baking for them is eating dough and licking spatulas, but come on...

I'm so sad that we were unable to find more of our matching aprons for the day.  Maybe my mom should just whip up matching ones for all of us for next year.  Sounds good, right mom?  :: winky kiss face emoticon :: I love you!

Hopefully Auntie can join us again next year.  I'm sure it is just going to be a crazy hot mess when you add a one year old to the mix!