standard title.

I started a wonderfully hilarious post at the beginning of January.  And over a month later, I have decided to just hit the highlights, move on, and try to remember to post the ridiculous because I want to be able to come back and laugh at myself in the future.

A. Christmas- because that happened awhile ago.

    1. the girls eagerly anticipated snow and didn't believe me when Christmas was actually super close because we had no snow.  This worked in our favor, as we got Lily and Emma recurve bows and arrows for Christmas and could then go outside and shoot.

    2. Christmas morning was every bit as exciting and chaotic as it should be for 3 young kiddos.  Lily could barely contain herself Christmas Eve, coming out multiple times to check and see if it was Christmas morning yet.  Each year, I think, "oh she is a such a fun age for Christmas!" and every year, I'm right, and her sisters are also. 

B. New Years- hey guys, it's 2016.

    1.We had a power clean and put new toys away in preparation of having Rick, Nikki and kiddos come hang out for a few days.  It was glorious.

    2. I begged asked our neighbor's if a few of them would be up to watching 5 children, 5 and under, so Rick, Nikki, Jesse and I could go watch Star Wars.  Emily and Paul are rockstars and it was so much fun.

C. Snow Days.  They came and canceled everything for a long time.  And still are throwing my schedule off.

1. the girls LOVE going down to take care of the chickens with me in the snow.  Since the roads are so snowy and there is basically no traffic on my road, I pull them down the middle of the road on their sled.  Lily thinks I'm a sled dog and keeps telling me to "RUN FASTER!" up the slight hill to get to the top of our field...no.

D. Kaylee.  Turned.  TWO.  What.

traditional birthday cake pancakes success

    1. She's hilarious.  Her facial expressions crack us up, she is intentionally funny with her antics and things she says.  

    2. She is a motor mouth.  Lily and Emma were barely saying 10 words at two, and Kaylee is speaking in full sentences and it is cracking me up.  Little kids talking is great.  But also, so is silence when it finally comes at the end of the day...

    3. At Thanksgiving, she decided to full out potty train.  I was not in the mood, but fortunately, I went for it.  She did fantastic, including a trip to Great Wolf Lodge (5 hours away) and a whole weekend with no accidents (including the drive there and back) or at the hotel.  She has since regressed some, but that happens and she's doing great again.  The power of chocolate chips.

    4. Birthday cake: 

E. Emma is just hilarious.  

1. She is loving school, and sings along with Lily's school work, which is so fun to watch.  I realized I was focusing so much on Lily's schooling that I might be missing some valuable sponge time with Emma, so we started working on learning letter sounds with her as well.  I don't expect her to learn the same as Lily, or necessarily catch on as quickly- after all, she is like me in many ways.
2. Emma has also hit a super sweet stage.  Mixed with the sour, but I'll take it.  If she's happy or thankful for something, she will just bear hug you and say, "thank you SO much for..." and it's just the greatest thing ever.

F. Lily is doing fantastic with school.  

1. I'm so pleased with how she is doing, even on the days that don't work out quite as planned.  On the rough days, I remind myself that she's only in kindergarten and she will get it, whether it's tomorrow or not until next school year, and that helps me not stress over whatever it is.  

2. She is loving ballet still, and I really enjoy that she is doing it.  

3. She has also hit a ridiculous stage of whining.  I. do. not. tolerate. whining.  We are handling it, and learning that after she has asked for something once that she may ask once more to confirm our decision and then that is our final answer.  Honestly, sometimes she reminds me of something- for example, "you said I could have a little juice after I finish lunch"- and I don't mind that.  I mind pestering and whining when she doesn't get her way, and the tone of voice that comes with, "no, I want that NOW."  That is unacceptable, and she's learning this.  I know it's just something kids go through, and I'm trying not to be impatient and too hard on her since she has to learn somehow.

G. I lost motivation.  Typical.

"I need to exercise so I can be strong." 

Jesse's birthday present. I'm being serious.

"MOM COME QUICK, KAYLEE GOT STUCK." I obviously got my phone first.

Emma and Lily isms 38

Lily: MOM!!!! EMMA WAS YELLING IN MY EAR REALLY LOUD. *points at Emma* her. she did it. Emma did it.

Emma: you're being a DISASTER.

Emma: MOM. Kaylee was pretending I'm oatmeal.

Lily: where are our donuts?
Me: ...we don't have donuts.
Lily: yes we do, remember? you were talking about them yesterday morning.
Me: I have no idea what you're talking about.
Lily: we DID! someone must have taken them. probably Daddy.
Emma: probably while we were sleeping! Daddy is sneaky.

Lily: ok, honey, Momma will be right back, I'm off to shoot a crocodile!

Emma, looking at a picture of herself: oh, I just love myself.

Emma: these are camel (camo) overalls. are they beautiful?

Lily: who is that?
Me: I don't know, Lily.
Lily: I like her face.
Me: she was pretty, wasn't she.
Lily: yes she was pretty, like I am pretty.

Me: girls, I am so tired. can I take a nap and have quiet time instead of you and you all can make dinner?
Lily: but I don't know how to cook!
Me: you make pretty good peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Lily: yeah...and scrambled eggs! I'll make those, too!

Emma, discussing her Sunday school lesson of Jesus turning water into wine: Jesus was at a party and they didn't have any party drinks. so Jesus took water and made it into a party drink!!!

snowed in.

I have another post about 80% complete, just sitting, waiting for me to finish writing about how marvelously brilliant my children are, and how super chill and together my life is (hah I'm hilarious), but then we got snowed in.

And being snowed in needs to be recorded.

"see, it says right here, 'DEEP SNOW.'"

Obviously, this winter has been mild for us in WV, as well as a good chunk of the country.  Something something science weather patterns, we have barely gotten any snow and the girls and I have been bummed.  Lily and Emma are both to such a fun, adventurous age that I want to do all the things with them, and they are willing participants, but then we had no snow!  I kept telling them that Christmas would come and we'd have snow and then no snow.  They didn't believe that Christmas was coming and I had to explain that I don't predict the weather. 

We did have a brief snow- we could still see the grass- a few weeks ago, and they were just thrilled that we could get the sled out, bundle up and make at least snow angels.  They both made little piles of snow, asked for carrots and declared that they had made snowmen, but I was bummed this was all the snow we'd gotten.  

And then about a week or so ago, we all started hearing about this Storm Jonas that was supposed to hit, and in the days leading up to it, we heard predictions from 4-30 inches of accumulation and everyone began to freak out.  Understandably.  But I was skeptical, and thus excited when we actually started to get some of this snow.  And then girls and I were honestly beside ourselves this morning when we saw that we had gotten at least 16 inches of snow over night and it was still coming down.  

Jesse came home from work early in anticipation of the snow, and I'm so thankful he did because once it started coming down, the snow fell hard and fast and quickly piled up.  I'm so glad I wasn't stressed over him driving home in it, like so many were.  Emma was a little stressed by the height of the snow this morning, but waist high snow is pretty stressful when you don't have enough force to plow through it.  She and Lily got the hang of it and were tromping all over, having a grand time.  Kaylee likes the snow, but only for short periods of time.  She also has been trying to fight a cold and been extremely tired, so she and I have spent a lot of the last few days cuddling.  And I'm writing this down for myself when she's in high school and being difficult: yes, it wasn't easy to get stuff done, but the cuddling was worth it.  You are glad that you took the time to hold your children and turn off your brain's to do list. 

extra snuggles with Daddy, too.

 Emma was extra tired this evening from the hard playing in the snow, and so was extra weepy at bedtime.  I always feel the need to hold Emma as much as possible because she and I had such a rough first year, so when she asked me to snuggle her for awhile before she fell asleep, I couldn't say no.  And it was wonderful and guess what.  The laundry didn't die while I avoided it.     

  

oh you know...being ridiculous.

this was before we forgot the sled was outside and it is now lost somewhere in our yard, buried under the snow. drat. we'll look harder tomorrow. 

pulling the troops on the sled, down to the field to check on our chicken friends. Lily kept yelling, "go faster, Momma!"

And by "snowed in," I really do mean it.  I don't expect to see a snow plow for a few more days and the roads are still ridiculously covered.  I saw 3 cars all day, and there is no way we can get anywhere, even with AWD.  I'm thankful for electricity, a warm house, plenty of food, a family I like, and not frigidly cold temperatures where we can't even play outside!  We can at least go out for awhile without fear of frostbite!  We will see what tomorrow brings!

pretend I posted this before Christmas.

October and November went by in a blur.  School and our other activities have kept me busy this year, and I think I'm still working on finding our new normal and a balance of how to have stuff while keep the house in order.  Some days I do much better than others and feel like I'm on top of it; other days I send Jesse, "please bring home pizza for dinner, I failed," messages.  I try to keep those days to a minimum.

At the beginning of November, we went to Nashville for a long weekend to see some dear friends.  Basically all of our friends that we have stayed close to from college have ended up in TN, and we were able to get down there for a few days that went way too quickly.  Except for the drive, that took FOREVER.  I know some of my friends are blessed with children who travel easily and well, and please know I am very jealous of you.  Mine have gone through stages of cooperating on roadtrips, and I think overall, Lily and Emma can stay entertained easily now.  Kaylee. hates. the. car.  The projected 16 hour round trip drive ended up being at least 21 and I think Kaylee cried/screamed/fussed for 18 of those hours, and I'm not exaggerating.  But the time with friends was wonderful: we walked into Jared and Lindsey's house and Lily and Emma immediately took off to play with their two daughters like they were together every day.  Those four little girls ended up slumber partying together, and it made Lindsey and my hearts so happy.  Jesse and I also were able to FINALLY able to meet sweet Olivia, our friends' Derek and Tiffany's little girl.  My 3 crazies just loved her to pieces and Kaylee didn't want to let anyone else hold her...until Lily, Emma and Kaylee saw the pile of dirt and sand they could play in.

Thanksgiving day was low key here.  The plan had been to go to my dad's side of the family gathering, but I was not feeling up to it.  We all were fighting congestion and coughs, just changing weather related, and with Jesse's family coming in that weekend, I just couldn't do it.  I was incredibly disappointed, but coming off of the Nashville trip with our little screamer, we felt that was the better option.  Our neighbor's rescued us and let us hang out with them for the day, and the report I got when Lily and Emma went to help make pies was that Lily was a pie crust rolling champ, and rolled out about a dozen crusts by herself.  Emma and Kaylee absolutely melted down later, so staying home was definitely the better option.  Matt, Erin and kiddos came in Friday evening and Mom and Dad Hildebrand Saturday for a Hildebrand Thanksgiving weekend, and that was wonderful and fun.  Erin and Mom held down the fort entertaining kiddos so Matt and I could make our dinner, and it was delicious, and being able to cook without the girls coming into the kitchen at all was just the best.  The powers of grandparents and their super special play dough!

The first weekend in December was Jesse's company Christmas party.  Mom and Dad H came back to our house to watch the kiddos for us so we could, and much fun was had and we looked spiffy.

A few weekends ago, we drove to Great Wolf Lodge in Ohio to meet up with my side of the family for our Christmas weekend.  It was so much fun and the girls had a blast.  Someone had the great idea to go to the Cincinnati Zoo for Zoo Lights, which was brilliant.  We ended up going after naps and leaving right as it was getting dark which was even more brilliant because holy crowds, Batman.  NOT something any of us really wanted to do with 4 little kids.  Plus, Kaylee and Cameron were very done, but we really enjoyed it anyway.  Lily was a little fish and loved swimming as much as she could, and loved showing everyone how she could go under water.  She stayed in the wave pool most of the time, getting splashed and thrown around and loving it.  Which kills me, because she was getting dunked and loving it and handling it perfectly well, but if she gets a drip of water on her face in the bathtub, she freaks out.  I don't get it.  The last thing Jesse and I were able to do before we left was leave Emma and Kaylee with my parents and take Lily on one of the water rides.  She was nervous the whole way up, but decided she could be brave and give it a try and as soon as we got to the bottom, she was LOVING it and wanting to go again and again.  So fun to share that with her.

Emma Photography

Emma Photography

Emma Photography

"girls, come get a cheesy picture with me!!"

"Lily and Emma! go sit with Kaylee! fine! be difficult, SOMEONE please come get in a picture with the big kitties!" enter Cameron and Aunt Kimmy.

I'll catch up more eventually!

c is for cookie

I started a different post, catching up on all the shenanigans of the last 3 months, but then we made cookies and I have to share these pictures.  With my patience being as thin as it has been this week the last few months, I made the cookies and the girls got to roll some out.  I wasn't in the mood to deal with three small people bickering over whose turn it was to dump ingredients into the mixing bowl, and fortunately, I have 3 rolling pins.

it took Lily all of 30 seconds to get flour on her face.

favorite picture.

Emma was in her element.

I love Kaylee's concentration in these pictures.

some of the cookies that I rolled out and decorated. I'll let the girls decorate their own how they want.

And maybe I'll get my act together and finish my other catch up post before Christmas...or at least maybe before Christmas 2016.  Setting standards high.