sledding

it was a perfect snowy sunday morning. the temp was going to rise and we knew we'd have to get out for a snow day because it'd be melting away. so we bundled up and headed for the hills....

we were the first ones there so we had the big hills all to ourselves which was nice!!

we took turns going down...

ya know as soon as we could situate ourselves in all our gear....geesh.

we'd go down in a flash of course....then have to walk all the way up the big hill. except for elena - she'd sprint up the hill like a little jack rabbit. see her way up there.

ad was smart and hitched a ride.....every time. she never even got off the sled once. ha.

daddy and e going down.......

ad and i would follow and then we'd all head up....e got tired and stayed with us more and more walking up....

hitching a ride....

ya forget how much fun it is to go sledding!!! seriously fun! it's probably been decades since i've been. but walking up - um, not so much. they make it look good, though, don't they?!

we took a break and of course we had to hit up the play equipment at the park....

i mean how fun to do this in our snowsuits....

daddy and i joined in too....

then it was back to sledding on the big slopes...

ad and i going down down down...and almost running an old man off...

e hitching a ride...

we let them the girls go down by theirselves down a much smaller hill...they loved it...

then daddy encouraged lanie to throw snowballs at me. she has good aim.

"Every mile is two in winter." ~George Herbert

the five stages of grief: the loss of my sleep

let me preface this with - i do NOT like sleeping. i truly don't. if you know me at all, you'd know i'm a big night owl and i honestly think sleep is a waste of time. but....obviously i am an intelligible person and well aware that i NEED sleep to survive and thrive. blah, blahblahblahblah.

that said....with almost an entire month of coughing, stuffy noses and toddlers that are just so so at hacking up mucus and freeing their tiny noses of snot, i have not been sleeping that great, er, um, at all. throw in a few late nights out for the momma, racing thoughts of a horror story i heard on the news, your occasional child's nightmare, the need for a drink of water/trip to the bathroom/covers reassembled/etc, and of course the eversolovely overtired toddler...it's been a pretty sleepless few weeks....and i have been grieving the loss of my sleep.

stage 1 - denial. oh i'll just get her water and she'll go right back to sleep. she needs me real quick, i'll be back to bed in a snap. the sooner i go in and get her back to sleep, the sooner i can return to bed. i'll just rub her back before she full blown wakes up. it's so sweet how she needs me, i'm going to miss this one day when she's 16 yrs old and not even home yet. ::cue tear and speedy momtotherescue service:: get back to bed, look at the clock and calculate the hours of sleep i have left....psssh, as if i'm actually going to get them all! silly mommy.

stage 2 - anger. ok, seriously just go back to sleep. yea, i know - i've been in here 6 times. no, your covers are fine, your water is full, you just peed for the 3rd time and your sheets are not too slippery to sleep in. now lay down and close your eyes. yes, the night-light is on. shhh, do you want to wake your sissy and daddy? just go to bed. that's because you have to close your eyes and stop talking to sleep. grrrr. don't you dare get out of bed. go.to.sleep. now. justgotosleep. ::teeth grinding. fist clenching. quick prayer for patience.::

stage 3 - bargaining. yes, your friends are coming over tomorrow, but only if you get some sleep. well then i guess you can't have any ice cream tomorrow. did you want to sleep outside? cause i'm thinking of putting your bed on the deck. how does that sound? if you girls can sleep through the night for a month straight, we'll take you to disney world!! i will start going to bed at 8pm , just please please please fortheloveofgod, sleep! what do you want for breakfast? i'll make you whatever you want if you go to sleep. and you'll get stickers. and cotton candy. and a new bike. as long as you gotosleep. ::more empty threats. more trying to reason. followed by more empty threats and begging, pleading and more begging. pure desperation.::

stage 4 - depression (and guilt). whaaaaaa. starting to really feel the consequences of being awake during the wrong hours. want to cry. want to take back every thought in my head. feeling delirious. feeling physically sick from lack of sleep. feeling sad. for me. but mostly for my babies that can't sleep either. my poor babies. this sucks. how am i going to function tomorrow. will we ever get a full night sleep again?

stage 5 - acceptance. cuddle up and snuggle my baby so that we're all squichy and cozy until their breathing slows and becomes heavy. watch them look so peaceful. oh how i love watching sleeping babies. sneak, creep and tiptoe back to my bed. look at the clock and realize i've been defeated, but hope i can actually sleep for the hour i have left. come to the conclusion that this is probably why some species EAT their young. thankfully for them, we are not those species. ;) tomorrow's a new night.

unfortunately, it's not going to get better for a few days (whether the girls sleep or not) and that's ok. i still have yet to appreciate sleep, and realize this may just be a part of my journey to actually value sleep. but i am confident my time is coming. :)

"People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. " ~Leo J. Burke

women rock

to my momma....thank you!
to elena & adelyn....you're welcome (and i'm pretty sure it was closer to 75 units of pain for you, miss ad).


"If the whole world were put into one scale, and my mother in the other, the whole world would kick the beam." ~Lord Langdale

snow snow snow

up until last friday....we've been spending a lot of time inside - being silly....

having our typical days....of being crabby....

and being creative....

and being sweet....

but we can only do so much inside....

and we were starting to get a little delirious....

so we headed out....DURING friday's snow storm....the girls loved it....

until ad fell about 4 seconds into it....but she recovered quickly....

snow, snow, snow....

we shoveled.....the grass....

and made snow angels....

but it was freezing and the falling snow didn't help....our eyelashes were icicles,

our cheeks were way past rosy and it looked like we had mini string cheeses hanging from our tiny noses. we stayed out a little longer than we should have, but we had a blast in our first time in the snow of 2012!

"There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself." ~Ruth Stout

this year so far

ok, so this was before the new year, but we had a fun playdate with some of our besties. these 6 seriously play so nice together and it's so awesome to see...(and sit and chat while they play - ha)
we've been spending a lot of time indoors. brrr. i was feeling guilty about not taking them out in the first snowfall. i am not a fan of playing in the snow. i just like looking at it. but i do try and do the annual snowman, sledding, snow angels, etc. and then daddy does the repeating. ;) but we finally got out...those pics coming.being indoors means indoor adventures....here is adventurer lanie jae....

i've been wanting to do our annual winter photo shoots, but my babies have had colds for a good 10 days now. so it's been red runny noses and swollen eyes. hopefully we'll be over it soon so i can snap their pretty faces!

colds means we've gone through boxes and boxes of kleenex. and elena's used kleenex? they end up on the floor under her bed....

we've been kicking butt on the wrestling mat...

usually 2 against 1...mmmhmmm...

pizza nights have not changed....BUT i found mini pepperonis at the store and they're a big hit. ;)

we let e play kinect....here we were playing baseball and she's pitching to me....

she kicked my butt....

daddy and the girls had a carebears movie night....

while mommy got a night out with some great friends....woot.

and some things never change....old man leo sleeping SNUG against jason so contently that he doesn't mind his face being all jacked up....good lord. let me come back as a lazy lazy dog....

"Give thanks for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow." ~Fernanda Miramontes-Landeros