Winter Wonderland

As I opened the back door this morning at 5:30 to let the dogs out this is what I saw...


Most of the day was spent relaxing inside in our pajamas...


A certain little girl was getting very antsy about going outside to play in the snow so after lunch we all bundled up in layers and layers and layers of shirts, pants, socks, gloves, hats, coats and the pathetic choice of "snow" shoes we have...


and we headed out...


I couldn't believe how deep it was on our deck. Wind was blowing the snow off the roof onto the deck leaving drifts of at least 12" or more in areas. We ended up getting about 4" of dry snow topped off with about 1-1/2" of sleet. It was still sleeting when we went outside so the outing was a short one.


Samantha and I came back inside after about 5 minutes but I took a few pictures from the kitchen windows.



Bella loved the snow but she was having a hard time running and getting around because it was about half as deep as she is tall so Ed sent her in shortly after Samantha and I came in. She cried and cried to go back out and play though.

I think maybe Samantha wanted to go back out too.

And after about 15 minutes Ed and Gabrielle came inside as well for some cupcakes and hot chocolate. Yummy!

We promised Gabrielle she could go out tomorrow and play for a little longer. We'll try to make a snowman and she keeps talking about making snow angels. Hopefully I'll get some better photos as well especially of Samantha out in her first snow.

The rest of the day was spent napping and more being lazy. I am looking forward to another day of the same tomorrow!

Some Entertainment

It was an active and artistic and creative day for us!

First, for a couple of video clips of Gabrielle dancing - this is what 5 months of Creative Ballet gets:

"She's Got Moves, Part 1"

"She's Got Moves, Part 2"

And Samantha is showing some promise in the music industry as well.



Last night I gave or tried to give Samantha Gerber baby food spagetti. It has little pieces of pasta in tomato sauce. She was not interested. The two spoonfuls I managed to sneak in made her gag. Well tonight the rest of us were having pasta for dinner so I decided to overcook some wagon wheels to get them really tender and add a little bit of my homemade pasta sauce. Well the girl LOVED it! She knows how to make her mommy feel good.

From My Little Sunbeams

Offering her daddy some delicious pasta.

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

I guess I'm in the mood to allow the girls to get as messy as possible because last night I gave Samantha for the first time a teething biscuit. Now that she liked.

From My Little Sunbeams

From My Little Sunbeams

Gabrielle was good all day and ate really well all day so she earned some yummy ice cream for dessert tonight.

From My Little Sunbeams

We also had a little incident with markers this morning. Gabrielle had left a wooden heart she had colored with her markers lying on the living room floor. Samantha grabbed it and of course it went straight in her mouth.

From My Little Sunbeams

You can still sort of see the blue ink but when I first picked her up before I was able to get the camera her entire mouth inside and out was royal blue. Gabrielle was a little freaked out. A wet washcloth was all that was needed to wipe Samantha clean. I would say maybe this would teach Gabrielle a lesson about leaving her belongings on the living room floor but since the same wooden heart is now sitting on the floor a mere 2 feet from me I guess that isn't the case.

Yesterday Gabrielle asked if she could feed Samantha her bottle. It has been a few months since Gabrielle tried this and obviously Samantha has gotten a lot bigger. She looks almost as big as Gabrielle in the picture.

From My Little Sunbeams

Gabrielle was all smiles the entire time and Samantha kept staring at me with a very perplexed expression on her face.

If you visit my photo blog you'll see a few pictures of Gabrielle and Ed playing with our new Nintendo Wii. I'm not sure which one of them was more excited.

What is almost as exciting as the new video game? Well the bag it was brought home in of course!!

From My Little Sunbeams

I would say it has been a rather eventful and entertaining week so far in the Lingg household!

Sleepy Sunday

Today was a very relaxing day for us all. We all awoke fairly early, me and Samantha being the first early birds of the day at 6:00 am. On the way home from church Samantha fell asleep in the car. She had a bottle about halfway through service so once I put her in her crib at home she slept until after 3:00!! I'm not sure if Ed fell asleep but did lay in bed to watch a little football for most of the afternoon. I also was able to several brief cat naps and rest in bed for an hour or two. Gabrielle crawled in bed with me and Ed as well but was too antsy to stay put for long. Much to my surprise, however, when Ed got up to get Samantha and fix her a bottle he found Gabrielle asleep on the couch. It was a perfect Sunday in my book!


This was Gabrielle before church this morning. I thought this outfit was so cute! Her arm is covering Minnie Mouse on the corner of the jacket.

More Photos

Just some photos from this crazy day of ours...

Samantha in her crib this morning. The photo quality isn't that great but she really did look cute. She was staring at her mobile and sucking on her fingers.

Having some coffee. This was after the formula spewing incident. I didn't want to put clothes on her again until I knew for sure she was going to keep the second bottle down. It made little difference since I had to change her clothes two more times regardless due to diaper incidents.

Sporting our Valentine socks today. I wore a pair today too but it was hard enough getting a photo of their feet together.

Sisters.

I love the look Gabrielle is giving Samantha. It is the loving annoyed look only a sister could give.

Standing up to the dog food container. Today was the first time I let Samantha in the kitchen on the floor to explore on her own - supervised of course. She had fun getting into everything and seeing her reflection in the oven door.

"oooo...how do I get out there?"


Some yoga moves.

It seems like all I post are pictures of Samantha lately and very few of Gabrielle. It certainly isn't because I don't try to take photos of Gabrielle. She just moves much quicker than Samantha and when Gabrielle sees the camera she immediately gives me a scowl look and asks "hey, what are you doing? why are you taking a picture of me?"

An Interesting Saturday Morning

It is only a little after 8:00 am and already some unusual and amusing events have taken place here. First I have been up since 5:00. You heard me - 5:00 am!! On a Saturday!! I am not nor have I ever been a morning person but for the a couple of weeks now I have been training myself to get up earlier and earlier in hopes of getting some quiet time to myself before the crazy day begins. Only a couple of days, today being one, have the girls actually slept late enough for me to get this time. But back to the point, I have been up over 3 hours already and it is Saturday. And I don't even feel tired. Very unlike me.

Gabrielle was in the kitchen eating her Trix cereal while I was giving Samantha her bottle. Gabrielle was asking why I was giving Samantha a bottle and I explained to her that babies get a bottle when they wake up. I told Gabrielle when Samantha turns one she would no longer get a bottle in the morning and would sit at the table to have breakfast - just like Gabrielle. Gabrielle asked her usual "why" so I tried to explain to her how babies grow up and once they are one they are no longer babies but toddlers. So to get to the sweet part of this story (at least I thought it was sweet) - the idea that Samantha was going to grow up and not be a baby forever did not appeal to Gabrielle.

Gabrielle replied, "But I thought we would have a baby forever. I just want Samantha to be a baby." Oh how many times I have felt the same way. If only I could freeze time and keep both my girls small for just a little longer.

And now to the third event of the morning which some of you I'm sure will find amusing even though at the time I can't say I saw any humor in it. Samantha had a couple of ounces left of her bottle when she pushed it away. Some times she needs to take a little breath or burp near the end of her bottle so I didn't think much of it. She let out a little burp and then a little bit of formula came up. And then more formula. And before I knew she had completely spewed out all 6 ounces she had just taken. All over the clean clothes I had just put her in, all over my clothes (I was still in exercise clothes so no biggie there) and all over the couch and floor. Then she smiled and laughed as I sat there in horror and confusion.

I'm still not sure what happened but I do have a couple of theories. First, we are out of the usual nursery water I use to mix her bottles. It is not the first time this has occurred. I used tap water which I give her in a sippy cup during meals regularly. I tried to let it get to room temperature but it was a little cooler than her bottle is usually. Could it have been the cooler bottle temp that caused her to not keep it down? My second theory involves her clothing. I had dressed her in jeans, a onesie and sweater cardigan. The jeans were a little snug. The poor thing has such a belly I would have to buy jeans a size or two too long in order for them to fit comfortably around her mid section. I could get the jeans snapped without too much effort so I thought once she had them on for a little bit they would stretch a little and be ok. But could it be the jeans were just too tight around her belly to make eating comfortable?

Don't worry - grocery shopping is on my to do list for the day and I have nursery water on the list. As for the jeans, I guess she won't be wearing those anymore. We'll just have to stick to nice stretchy elastic waist leggings.

Just Some Photos

I have been meaning to post something all week but have been in a bit of a funk for some reason. We haven't been up to too much exciting. Earlier in the week we took advantage of the nice weather. We played outside, went for walks and made a trip to the park. Now it is cold again and rainy so we're sticking inside trying not to go stir crazy.

Gabrielle playing in the tub.

Playing in her room.

Pulling up on the bag of dog food.

We just felt like dressing up on this day.

I think she looks adorable in this color.

More Prayers for Sydney Grace & Family

Sydney Grace was able to go home with her family but is struggling. Please continue to pray for her and especially her family. Sydney's mom, Lindsey, posted an update on facebook earlier this morning that just broke my heart. I cannot even imagine what it must feel like as a parent to watch your baby have to fight like Sydney. Please visit her blog for more detailed update and please, please, please pray for her family.

http://amazingsydneygrace.blogspot.com/

A Nice Day

I know - my blog titles are horrible. I think it must be the most difficult part about posting!

Today actually turned out to be the nice day the meteorologists had forecasted! Gabrielle and I played in the backyard a little before and after lunch. Samantha fell asleep on the way home from the grocery store and slept through the middle of the day.

Gabrielle did some digging...



...some climbing...



...some sliding...



and some swinging but I didn't get any photos of that nor did I get photos of her drawing all over her swing set with sidewalk chalk. The girl LOVES sidewalk chalk! She was covered head to toe in yellow chalk by the time we came in the house. I washed her up, changed her clothes and put her to bed for her quiet time. It took Samantha about 10 minutes after I had Gabrielle settled to wake up and decide she wanted lunch! My entire day was completely thrown off but that's the way it goes some days I suppose.

A little later this afternoon we took a nice leisurely walk. Gabrielle would have walked forever I believe but I was getting tired of walking at a snail's pace. Once we got back home I let Gabrielle play in the front yard for another half hour to burn off some more energy. My photo blog has a collage of some of the random photos I took while we were hanging out on the front steps.

After dinner tonight I decided to make some "healthy" chocolate chip cookies. I've been craving chocolate chip cookies and since I met my monthly weight loss goal a little early I decided I could allow myself a healthy cookie. They turned out pretty good - much better than I expected - and maybe a little too good. It will be more difficult to limit myself to the one cookie per serving a day! I only baked one pan of the batch of cookies so I don't have a ton of cookies tempting me everyday. I took a tip from Martha Stewart and froze the rest of the batch by first scooping out cookies onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper as if I was going to bake them. I put the baking sheet in the freezer for a while to freeze the cookie dough in individual cookies. Then I put all the cookies into a freezer bag and back into the freezer. Now whenever I want a couple of cookies I don't have to make an entire batch. I can just pop 5-6 into the oven and voila! Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies!!

Gabrielle enjoyed the cookie too. I don't think she even noticed they were any different than the normal cookies I make.



All in all a nice day. Gabrielle was a little clumsy today - well, ok, a lot clumsy. She tripped twice on our walk and scraped the palm of her hands a little and tonight she kept tripping and falling into furniture, walls, pretty much anything and everything. I think part of the problem was she was tired. She was up really early this morning. I had hoped she would fall asleep during her quiet time but she fought it all the way and would not lay down long enough to actually relax and fall asleep. Tonight she was asleep probably five minutes after saying good night. Samantha was her regular silly self today. She must have recently discovered her tongue because she now keeps it sticking out her mouth almost constantly. And I caught her trying to stick her finger in the one electrical outlet in her room we don't have a baby proof cover on.!I now need to spend the weekend making sure all outlets are covered. This little girl is certainly going to give us a run for our money and be into EVERYTHING!!!

Hello Warmer Temps!

Finally it is warming up a little! The girls and I are so tired of the freezing temps. The only time we have been out of the house it seems is to go to doctor appointments and shopping. I can barely recall the last time we got outside to play. So tomorrow the high is supposed to reach 60 degrees and we are definitely going to take advantage of the weather. I did most of our grocery shopping today and only have a few things to pick up at a second grocery store tomorrow. Park here we come!! Hopefully Gabrielle can get some energy burned off and the sunshine will put us all in little more cheery moods.

Samantha with one of her favorite toys of late - a measuring spoon!!


Gabrielle showing off all her jewelry.

"hmm...I wonder if this is my size?"

Look what Ed brought home today!! I finally have a new 3-in-1 printer. I have gone without a printer for about a year now and really wanted one with a scanner. And now I have it!! Let the coupon printing and photo scanning begin!!!

Oh Well!

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while might remember the post What Goes Around... . I ended that post with the hope - the wish - Samantha would take after her neat and organized Aunt Faith. I know she is still young (Samantha not Aunt Faith! Ha! Just kidding Faith!!) but the photo below somewhat dashes my hopes and dreams.

While Gabrielle was in the kitchen eating breakfast, Samantha crawled over to the toy bin, dumped it over and proceeded to take out all the toys, one by one, play with it for a second and toss it to the side. Can I not catch even a little break? Oh well! I know who they get it from so I can't complain too much I guess!