This Week in Pictures

Who? Me?

Getting into trouble?

NO!  I'm just brushing my teeth!

Honest!  I'm innocent!

Family Fun!

I ended my Christmas break with some family fun!  I got to see all FOUR of my beautiful nieces last night, including my precious new niece, Maliah.  Molly and Rayna had a good time playing with their cousins and we all had a good time catching up.  

 

Not a lot to report....

Other than the ice is FINALLY melting. I'm hoping all of the sickness goes out with it! Molly has been sick again and stuck in the house until today. This round wasn't quite as bad as the last time she was sick, but it's still been no fun for her. She's been coughing, snotty, and had a fever for a couple of days. She's on the mend and we enjoyed going outside today since it was a little warmer.

We only went to school one day this week. Friday is the first time I saw my school kids in a month! I was excited that they all remembered my name! :-)

I have been so slack with my video updates. Last night, I got the video camera out for the first time in months. I really don't have an excuse. I got one of those handy little Flips for Christmas a couple of years ago--I just need to use it! I didn't make any New Year's resolutions this year, so maybe that should be it! Look for video updates soon! Grandma and Grandpa, if you don't see any videos soon, call and bug me, okay? :-)

Rayna's Many Faces

Rayna has a big personality. BIG. And to be just 14 months old, she makes a whole lot of faces. And she makes several of them on command. For example, if you tell her to say "cheese" she squints her eyes, smiles really big and says, "cheeeeeee!" I love this baby girl!

The "Cheesy Grin"

The "I'm up to no good" face

The "Who Me?" face

The "Give Me A Break" face

The "I Know I'm Cute" face

The "I Look So Innocent Even Though I'm Sitting on Top of the Table" face

So many faces! And I love them all!

More Snow!

Today was supposed to be my first day back to work after Christmas vacation, but we had another SNOW DAY! When I woke Molly up, we had the following conversation:

Me: Molly! I have a surprise for you! (Raising window shade) LOOK! It's snowing!
Molly: Oh, no. Not again. I'm NOT going out there this time.

Ha! Well, luckily she changed her mind and we had some good fun in the snow. She had a great time and stayed outside and played with Brian for quite awhile. Rayna loves being outside and she thought the snow was the greatest thing ever. I didn't keep her out too long because it was so cold and windy and her skin chaps SO easily. When I took her in, she was heartbroken. She wanted to go back outside so badly. Maybe we'll try it again tomorrow. Yup--we have ANOTHER day off! I hope my school kiddos still remember me after 3 and 1/2 weeks! But I'm loving all of this extra time with my sweet girls!

And I just had to post a picture of the greatest husband in the world. When I came downstairs from taking my shower yesterday morning, this is what I found. Brian, unloading the dishwasher with Rayna in tow. Sweet guy!

Spoiled?

Password Protected

I am still learning a lot about Wordpress, but the main reason I decided to do my personal blog using Wordpress is that you can password protect certain entries without having to make your whole blog private. There are some things that I would like to share, but not with strangers. So if you would like a password for the password protected entries, please leave me a comment or send me an email and I will send you the password.

My New Blog

On a chilly day in January, we......

Go out for ice cream! What else?!
In other news....

Awhile back, I had started a blog for me to post things outside of our family happenings. It didn't get very far. I want to try again, but I'm going to try my hand at Wordpress. I hope you'll follow!

Mommy's Very Own Blog
http://melissacarpenterhines.wordpress.com/

14 Months!

I have been really slack with the girls' updates, but I'm going to try to get better. Our baby is now 14 months old!

At 14 months, she says: Dada, bye-bye, uh-oh, Sissy, cheese, night-night, and no. But not Mama. I found some comfort in the fact that Dada is easier to say than Mama, but when she added "cheese" and then "Sissy"--I began to get a complex! Just kidding--I'm sure she's just saving the best for last, right?! She also signs: more, all done, milk, and she just added "eat."

Rayna is quite the thinker. Some of the things she figures out really amaze me. If you give her several tupperware containers, she can match the lids to the right container. She is also able to do simple peg puzzles. She has really good fine-motor skills for her age. I'm quite certain she'd be able to scribble if she wouldn't eat the crayons. :-)

Rayna is BUSY. She never stops. Never. Stops. She is always running, climbing, and getting herself into trouble. And she's so fast! Just this week, we've caught her "washing" her hair in the toilet, climbing on the dog, and I cannot even count the number of times I've pulled some foreign object out of her mouth or taken her down off of the table.

But the good news is that she's an absolute sweetheart. She loves to be held and cuddled. She LOVES her sister. She always gets up first so when she hears Molly's baby monitor, she gets SOOOO excited. When I open Molly's door, she runs in and climbs in bed with her. It's the sweetest thing ever. She's also a really good little Mommy to her baby dolls. She rocks them, pushes them around in strollers, and gives them big slobbery kisses. It's a good thing she's just as sweet as she is naughty! :-)