Sewing

Cecelia has been extremely interested in sewing recently. For Christmas she got a sewing kit and (shhhh don't tell) for her birthday she is getting a sewing machine. She helped me make place mats for school. She wants to make a dress! Here is a picture of her sewing a button on her dad's shirt. Precious!

Contract!

We accepted a contract on our house today! I am so excited I could just burst. It is still early in the process so things could fall through, but I have a good feeling about this and if all goes well we will close March 31. Now to convince Bob to move to New Town!

Pictures

I am obsessed with pictures. I take a tone during the year. I love family pictures and portraits and I have been religious about getting pictures of all three (yes I said all 3) girls since birth. They had them every 2 months for the first year, every 3 months the second year and I go for their birthday each year after. Until now I have kept up beautifully, but here it is almost February and Sylvia (who was born in August) had not had her 2 year pictures. This weekend I finally went to get them and had Cecelia done at the same time since she is six in a couple of weeks. As usual my kids were so cute it was hard to decide :)!

Bless-you'd

I love kid words! Sylvia has a cold today and has been sneezing all day. She is not very good at catching her sneeze in her elbow yet and this is very stressful for Lydia. All day I have heard, "Mom, Sylvia Belss-you'd again." meaning she sneezed. Too cute!

Boy or Girl?

Kids are funny! Today I replaced our hamster that ran away (I know, it is in a cage, but he got out). Our new one is very cute and right away Cecelia asked if it was a boy or a girl. Sylvia replied, "It a boy, it black." Lydia didn't agree, "It is a boy mom, cuz boys are ugly." Cecelia lets out a deep sigh because she knows everything! Then proceeds to say, "If it is ugly it is a girl because the girls have to take care of the babies." My response, "So is mommy ugly since she takes care of her babies?" All three girls just LAUGHED! I think it might be time for a make-over!

Babyproofing

So Bob and I have never been parents of the year for baby proofing. It is amazing Cecelia is still alive after putting a baby wrench into a light socket (luckily the breaker worked)! We have even used the phrase "Be careful with that saw" on numerous occasions. Well it almost caught up to us!

You know the little switch on the inside of the car door that says child safety lock? The one nobody seems to ever uses. The annoying one, that people flip when there are no kids in the car and they want you to be trapped in the backseat. Well we use it now. Yesterday on the way home on highway 70 going 60 mph, cars everywhere, merging traffic from 170, Sylvia decides to open her door. Yep, it opens while moving! Thank goodness she has little hands and isn't strong enough to pull it full force! Luckily it didn't swing all the way open and we made it off the highway to shut the door. I am pretty sure she won't touch the handle again, but just in case, I flipped the child safety lock feature!

It will be amazing if our kids make it past puberty!

Hines Year in Review Book is FINISHED

So last year we started a tradition with our parents that we would get them a photo book with all of our pictures from the year for Christmas. I love it because I of course order one for us too. They love it because who couldn't love grandkid pics. The girls will love it someday because they will get our copies. Last year was the first year and I finished it in July. It was a basic book from Shutterfly and it was nice, but this year I of course, being me, had to take it a step further. This site called mixbook.com was passed on to me and I love it. Here is the mix book I made this year for our parents and now Aimee and Ben. I finished in January too! That is a record! The only thing it is missing is our trip to Europe, but I decided that needs to be a book of its own!

http://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/all/2009-year-in-review-4651443

To Grandmother's House We Go

So we had a house showing Friday at 8 pm. The girls go to bed at 7 so we decided to head to grandma and grandpa Becker's house. It was so much fun! Aimee came over with Reagan and we made chicken and dumplings, YUM! Then we played with Reagan until bed time and had a slumber party. The electricity went out that night for a couple of hours and it was cold so the girls all cuddled in close together. They were so sweet in a big lump-o-love :)!

In the morning we ate cinnamon bread and played with the doll house. Cecelia took a sled ride with grandpa all over the place. For lunch grandma and grandpa treated us to Steak and Shake. Everyone took long naps and I even read a book. I LOVE getting to spend time with the girls and can't wait until Bob doesn't have to work so hard and can have fun with us too! So far he has gotten to be lazy with us today.

BUSY Snow Days

Thursday and Friday were snow days and boy was it COLD! So cold in fact the bug wouldn't start. No problem, we have a truck right...WRONG! The truck had a flat and got stuck in the middle of the street in the snow. At least I didn't have to work so Bob took my car and I had the truck towed. We got to sled with the Bilibos while we waited for the tow truck.

After the eventful morning the girls and I went to MSB to visit Aunt Linda. They have residential students so she doesn't get snow days :(. It was a long, cold walk and we felt like we were in a blizzard because the wind was blowing dry snow everywhere. Cecelia and Lydia LOVED it. Sylvia will be my warm weather child for now. Her tears even froze on her face, poor baby. We drove Linda's car back the 6 blocks home! The afternoon was spent cuddling and playing and of course we had to have snow cones!

Friday the girls went to school so I could go get the truck. It is amazing how complicated plans can get when trying to figure out the car seat situation. We did figure out that if Bob dropped the girls off and Linda took me to get the truck I could pick them up at school. Whew, who knew snow days could be so busy!

Sleepless in St. Louis

So this week was the first week back after a long Christmas Break. We were all ready to have a little space, but with it comes another kind of chaos. Sunday I was afraid we wouldn't get up on time Monday so I couldn't sleep. We did get up and were even EARLY! Monday was a busy day with school then dance class. We always get back after bedtime on Mondays.

I couldn't sleep Monday in anticipation of a new student that was starting on Tuesday. Tuesday was much better than I ever thought it would be knowing the student's past so I celebrated by looking at houses and found some I loved!!! Unfortunately, I couldn't stop thinking about selling our house, moving, making schooling decisions, etc, so you guessed it.... another sleepless night.

Now it is Wednesday and there is snow. No call before bed so of course I can't sleep. Will the be a snow day or not? Will I need to leave early to make it?

Are you seeing a pattern here? I sure do. I worry too much, then can't sleep and everything always turns out FINE! I know it will be fine too deep down, so here is to letting go and sleeping. It isn't even 10 yet so I think I will try it! Nighty-Night!

2010

Well it is 2010 and I have sworn up and down I will blog. Here is to a new Year and hopefully a new hobby. I am going to try to start with some Smilebox albums I have made (they are pics from 2009) and add on from there. We'll see if I get any followers!