Blogging From PA

The girls, dogs and I are in PA visiting the family while poor daddy is working in India.

Talk about a different baby. Last time the girls and I came to PA (Daddy had another LONG business trip) Sawyer wouldn't have anything to do with my family holding her. She was glued to my hip. I couldn't figure out why she was acting that way because it was so out of character for her. Come to find out that she was teething really hard that week and wasn't feeling well.

This week has been totally different. She couldn't jump out of my arms fast enough to visit with Nana and Pap Pap and the doggy. Not a single moment to get used to anyone. That's my baby! I am so happy that she is back to her usual happy self while we are here visiting. Nana is very very very happy also.

As usual, Sydney is having a fantastic time hanging with her older cousins. She follows them around and she is also having a grand time loving up Bree dog. Too bad Bree dog isn't too fond of the girls.

Jared, Sydney and I took Remi and Izzy on a walk tonight. It wasn't raining when we left, but in the middle of our walk, we started to get rained on. Oh well. Sydy was punchy from spending too much time inside so she really needed to get out. She loves holding on to one of the dog leashes. Tonight she chose Remi. Most of the time she prefers to walk Izzy dog.

Bethany is turning 14....YES, 14 years old this week! I can't believe the first baby in our family is getting so old and grown up! She and I have been making bracelets this week (thanks Aunt Jen and Uncle Cory for the Klutz Book). I haven't made friendship bracelets in years. I think I am going to have to go get the book and make myself some for fun!

Caught up with my friends Tricia and Matt while they were also home visiting this weekend. They havent' met the girls yet and I hadn't met their youngest daughter. We had fun chatting and we are going to look forward to their visit to NY this summer. I asked Sydney if she was going to take her new friends to Lake George and she made a big O with her mouth, her eyes got really big with excitement and then she told them about swimming in George and getting all wet. I mentioned it again and she made a big O with her mouth again. Matt thought her reaction was really funny.

Having a good time in PA...missing Daddy and feeling tired from chasing the girls around.

Going to see Kim and the kids tomorrow. Sydy is going to have a blast. Soybean too.

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow"

Sydy's favorite song. She loves rainbows. We were eating dinner the other night and it had rained just before. Suddenly Sydy was saying Rainbow Rainbow and pointing out the window. It was a beautiful one and really really long. I took a quick snap.

Battle with myself

No, nothing major! I have been battling with whether or not do have bangs cut on Sydney's hair. She has such a heavy part and it is always in her face unless I put it in a rubber band. I hate having to pull so much hair out when using the awful rubber hair bands! I also don't like not having the option to leave it down. I don't want to have to battle with hair everyday!

So I took them for a haircut today. Sawyer needed a bangs touch up (I can't cut her hair very well) and then Sydney had an inch cut off the back and new bangs cut. SHOCKINGLY, I DIDN'T HAVE MY CAMERA WITH ME (and I don' t have a camera phone)! Too much to handle with two kids running around in a kids' hair salon!!!! But I took a picture of Sydney with her new 'do. She looks adorable. It kind of looks uneven because she has this crazy cowlick that makes the one side puff up. But I love it and I love how it looks with her hair all down. Besides, her hair grows like crazy....if I change my mind, we can grown them out again!!!!

New trick

Little Sawyer Molly is a very busy girl. She really is a great baby but on occasion she will dig in cupboards and grab the coffee and start running. Sometimes she gets between the recliner chairs and table to grab the phone. Sometimes she stands at the TV stand and pushes buttons. All the usual toddler antics. I find myself telling her "No Touch" in a firm tone. Her new trick is to cover her eyes and laugh when I scold her! It is so funny. As if hiding her eyes behind her chubby little hands will make me go away!!!! Not so much, my crazy little girl.

Wonderful Day at Lake George

Jim is heading to India for a business trip on Friday (if all the flights aren't cancelled) so he took the day off today and we spent it at the lake! It was so beautiful and we had so much fun. Sawyer was a little irritated about being in the car. That is a first for her. Rarely do we ever hear a complaint out of that kiddo in the car.

We mentioned to Sydney this morning that we were going to go to Lake George. Izzy dog heard us and started to get very antsy. She paced around like a crazy dog and generally got on our nerves. Jim opened the truck hatch and she jumped right in. She spent about an hour out there laying in the back of the truck in anticipation of heading up to the lake. Dumb dog!

As I mentioned above, Sawyer was very bored in the car ride this morning and made a little bit of a stink about it. She decided that taking her shoes off and chewing on her toes would be entertaining. At least it quieted her down a little.

Sydy was really tired after our long hike through the woods and her accidental swim in the bay! She wanted to put her feet in the water so I said no problem. She was in the water ankle deep and I was right there just at the edge of the water throwing sticks to the doggies. She was laughing at the dogs and jumping up and down. She fell forward in the freezing cold water and when I helped her up, she coughed and then said Yuck! It was hysterical and and even more so because she wanted to keep swimming. I told her no way in this cold water. I stripped her clothes and she hiked home in her Elmo undies!!!! Silly girl. Thankfully I had the smarts to roll up my sweat pants as I was standing near she and the dogs in the water. I wouldn't have been so happy hiking home in my undies!!!!!

Sydy's favorite thing to do at camp is to turn the radio on and dance to her music. She has such rhythm. Neither Jim nor I can dance, so we have no idea where she gets her dancing talent from. I am going to surprise her with dance lessons this summer. She is going to love it!

Dancing to the beat of cheesy 80's music.

Soybean helped Daddy build a fire. The house was colder than the outside temperature.

After Sydy's swim in the lake, I decided a bath was in order. Sawyer loved looking at her reflection in the bath fixture. So sweet.

So this is what a day at Lake George does to our babies. Not 5 minutes from camp and they were both sound asleep. I followed soon after!

Tame hair

This is the only time this child has tame hair...right after her bath!

Happy Ending

Today was a very rough day for Daddy and I. Sydney woke up in a grump and stayed that way for most of the day. We got out of the house as soon as the mall opened and she had fun running around playing with the dolls and kitchen stuff at PBK, but then the attitude started when we got home. She has her days when she can be trying, but not often and not this bad.

She has pretty much stopped taking naps and as bummed as I was about that for a while, it really is so much easier at night time. She is really ready for bed before 8pm. Well, after all the grumping today, she took a nap!!!!!

She helped me change her bedding before I put her to bed tonight. As I tucked her in and leaned over to hug and kiss her, she said "thanks for making my bed." It melted my heart. Just like it melted the memories of our trying day...

What a special little lady she is.

Moody Picture

I told you there would be blog post overloads as I am playing with my lovely new lens!

I love this moody looking picture of Sydney. I love her enthralled expression as she was looking out the window at a lady bug. Even more so, I love her profile. She has this really deep arched nose. Not sure where she gets that from as I can't think of anyone in our family who has this curve/arch. It just called for black and white editing. I love it so much just like I love her so much!

Ruined Picture

I was sitting under our secret hide out tree the other day playing with the girls. The sky was super blue, Sydy was running towards me and the dogs were hanging out. I thought it would be fun to take a picture of the house and the green grass for those family members who haven't seen our house yet.

The "watch your background" rule when taking a picture is really important....check the background! Remi decided to ruin my picture by taking a pee while I snapped the photo! Dumb dog!

Spring Flowers

Sydney and I picked some daffodils from our flowerbed this morning while Sawyer was taking a cat nap. I love all of the flowers the previous owner planted! I will be spending a lot of time in the yard this weekend weeding out the landscaping. I don't have much of a green thumb, but I am just dying to get the dahlias back in the ground. Papa needs to come for a visit give me some pointers on how to plant them again! Hopefully they survived the winter in the dry basement.

I took a funky picture of the vase this morning...before Sydney stole all of the daffodils...now I will be finding dried flowers all over the floors! Ugh!

Little painted toes

I was painting my toenails the other day and guess who wanted her toenails done???? Don't they look so cute??? Chubby toes with lavender polish. Wish I had such cute feet.

Painting Sydney's toenails brought back memories of when Bethany was this age and she and I would pretend that she was at a salon and I was giving her a pedicure and manicure (her mommy and daddy always relied on me to keep her toes and nails clipped!!!). I would talk with a funny accent (the accent made her laugh) as I filed and painted her toesies....do you remember that Bethany??? You were so young, but I remember it as though it was yesterday....

Sharing and Caring

Having kids so close together has been great but it does pose a problem in that both girls like to play with the same toys. Sydney often gets interrupted by a very curious 14 month old.

Sydy's first reaction, when Sawyer comes to wreck something or take something, tends to be to lash out in anger. I have been working with both of them a lot on their reactions. I am seeing a huge improvement and can't help but be proud of my efforts.

I tell them over and over, "good caring and sharing" when I see them being so nice to one another. Sydney really understands what I am telling her and I see such improvement over her reactions.

Lately they have been all about sharing, hugging and playing so nice. More than I have seen in a long time. I hope this means they are going to get along always (yeah right!).

Good girls...

Sun Flares

So I got myself a new toy...the mother of all camera lenses for portrait photography. I have been playing with it for the last week and even used it for my two latest photo sessions. Be prepared for lots of blog posts of the girls as I continue to play with this awesome new piece of equipment.

I am an old school photographer. I learned exposure back in the day of 35 mm SLR film and I learned very quickly that if I didn't expose correctly, I was wasting a ton of money on film. Not so good. I went digital years ago and love the freedom of playing to my heart's content and deleting what doesn't work. Most of this afternoon's pictures got DELETED as I attempted to take some nice outdoor pictures of a very busy almost 3 year old and an even busier 14 month old!!!!

As I am growing my photo business, I am scouring the web for composition ideas but at the same time, sticking with good solid exposure and not buying into "Fad Photography." One major fad is sun flares. Back in my old school days, fun flares were avoided at all costs. We didn't like them and they messed up a good picture. Seems that sun flares are becoming very popular these days. I still don't like them when they ruin a nice picture, but I tried to master the technique today while the girls and I were outside playing under our favorite secret hide out tree... our beautiful weeping willow tree. Here is my first attempt. Pretty cool if I do say so myself. Lots of cool colors in the flares. But two minutes later, I took a picture of Sawyer that was ruined by a sun flare. Guess there are times when sun flares look good and times when they don't look so good.

Sun flare right near her head....ugh! Good thing the picture wasn't that great to begin with.
Sydy fell in love with this beautiful weeping willow tree when I introduced it to her a couple of days ago. They are my absolute favorite tree, so I am not surprised that she loves the tree also. We have been playing under it for the last few days. She told me "get under, Mommy" while she lifted the weeping branches up. These trees really do make you feel like you are under a tent. Ours isn't even that big yet, but I love to sit under it with the girls. I see lots of picnic lunches under this tree once the warm weather decides to stay.

She likes to grab hold of low branches and spin around while holding them. That posed a little problem today. My silly girl got her hair all tangled in a weeping branch. Ouch. Took me a while to untangle the mess!

Potty Dance

Do all toddlers do the potty dance? It cracks me up! Crisscrossed legs, holding on tight...seriously, she is hysterical. I'd get a video of it, but I am afraid she wouldn't hold out long enough!!!!

Sydney is now actively telling me when she has to go pee. I am so happy that it happened so quickly. She has been great about telling me for the last week or so. Now we are just waiting on night time dry diapers...someday.

14 Months Today

Little Soybean is 14 months old today. My little angel. What a doll.

She has been teething hard lately so she is a little out of sorts. Poor girl. 3 molars are popping through right now. But as usual, she maintains such a happy spirit.

This evening I was playing with the girls in the living room and Sawyer wanted to lay on the couch. I told Sydy to give her a kiss and it cracked Sawyer up. I mean serious belly laughs. So we made a game of it. Kisses all around, giggling girls, lots of fun!

I know, I know...

I know this is a rather "over used" photo composition, but seriously, it is hysterical! I had two photo sessions this weekend and daddy was a bit exhausted hanging with the babes all by himself (no sympathy from me). I got home on Saturday afternoon and there was a beer on the counter, half gone, so it wasn't too bad of an afternoon. Looked good to me to, so I grabbed one myself (can't remember the last time I had a drink of anything). Little Soybean tried to steal a taste or two of daddy's beer. Isn't she so sweet??

Singing

Both girls love to listen to music and Sydney loves to sing along. I thought it would be fun to sing Twinkle Twinkle in the car this afternoon. I finished the song and Sydney says, "Turn the music on!" Apparently my singing isn't so good!

Cards

Aunt Jen has a friend/co-worker who makes homemade cards. They are beautiful. I look forward to all of the holidays because I know Jen will be sending a pretty card to the girls. Here are the lovely cards she sent them for Easter. Thanks Aunt Jen!

Bubbles and outside fun

We have been loving this nice weather!!! I love spending my days at home and being outside playing with the girls. I pulled out the summer clothes the other day and laughed at the skin color difference of my two babies! Ever since she was a baby, we always marvelled at Sydney's dark skin tones. We just assumed that Sawyer would have the same skin tones also, but I remember, even after the chaos of delivering her in our car along the road, saying to Jim how much lighter Sawyer was in comparison to Sydy.

After I put them both in shorts and t-shirts the other day, I sat back and just admired their individual looks.

Soybean thought it was fun taking her sneakers off.

Nana and Pap-Pap sent bubbles along with other Easter surprises. Sydney has been carrying them around for days. Most of the bubbles got spilled, but she has had so much fun playing with them.

We took a walk tonight and then played in the yard until it was time to get the girls ready for bed. They love swinging so much. I love this picture of Sawyer. She was watching her big sister climb the little rock wall. I am sure she will be climbing it pretty soon too.
Crazy girl loves to swing so high and now she thinks she is big enough to jump off before the swing completely stops. Silly girl.

Easter Treats!

The Easter Bunny visited the girls...they got lots of treats. Too bad neither one of them eats much of this stuff. I sent lots of it home with Grandma and Papa. Daddy is going to take some into work, them mommy will have a few bites!

Beautiful afternoon for an egg search. We didn't expect the wind, so the girls had to wear a coat. Sydney had a blast running around the front yard looking for the eggs. I didn't hide them, just scattered them around.

Sawyer joined in on the fun too!

Nothing says Easter like a basket full of eggs! Lots of money to put in the piggy bank.

Checking out her finds.

Inside to see what the Easter Bunny left them! Sawyer was having so much fun looking through her basket of stuff!

Painting eggs was so much fun. Sydney had such a blast dipping and painting! I knew she would since she is such a crafter. She is still thinking with that tongue sticking out! Now I just wait for that tongue to stick out before I snap a picture. It makes me laugh so much.

Sawyer Molly got hold of a Q-tip soaked in food coloring. She thought it looked pretty tasty! Her lips were red for a few hours!

Grandma had so much fun painting eggs too!

Mommy painted a Lady Bug egg just for Sydy.

More eggs.

Great Easter

We had a great day! We had a big ham dinner this afternoon after Grandma and Papa arrived, the girls enjoyed hunting for Easter eggs in the front yard, and Sydney had an absolute blast painting eggs tonight (we were too tired to paint them on Saturday night)! She sat in her chair for a long time and just painted and dipped her eggs! Sawyer thought it was more fun to eat the egg than to paint it, so she just watched.

Thanks to our families for all of the Easter treats and surprises. The girls had fun looking and taste testing all their treats. This was probably the most candy Sydney has ever had! She isn't much of a sweet eater (shocking that she is my child). But she did enjoy a few jelly beans and a bite or two of a yellow peep.

I will post lots of pictures of our Easter egg hunt and egg painting tomorrow. The windy days has my allergies in an uproar and my eyes are so itchy and watery that I can barely see straight.

Happy Easter

More pictures to come as we go through our Easter activities. Grandma and Papa are here visiting so the girls are having a great time.

Thought I would post a picture from last year. Grandma, Papa and Teddy came to visit last year. Teddy is not here this year, but Sydney and Sawyer are happy to visit with Grandma and Papa. Look at how little Sawyer Molly was last year. Just a few weeks old at the time...how has a year past already?

This year's photos will be posted soon. (I had the tripod set up to take this photo. Sydy loved listening to the camera making the beeping noise as the timer was going, hence the big smile!)

Spring Day

What a wonderful day. I hard boiled eggs first thing this morning in preparation for the egg dying on Easter. I can't wait to watch the girls paint their eggs. Sydney loves to craft, so I am sure she will have a blast. Wonder how long the food coloring will stain their hands??

We spent most of the day outside today. The weather was fantastic. Jim was doing lots of yard work while the girls and I played on the driveway. They love the water table and spent most of their time playing with that. I can't wait to get the kiddy pool out once the weather warms up. They both love the water, so I am sure we will be spending lots of time in the pool!

We took an evening walk tonight, as we do most nights during the beautiful weather. We found a patch of daffodils along a field, so I picked two for the girls. Sydney carried them around with her all evening. It was very sweet to watch.

Looking forward to Easter tomorrow. Grandma and Papa are coming to visit and the girls will be so thrilled. Easter baskets are ready and waiting for them to see and we plan on hiding eggs in the yard for them to find.

Here is a picture of Sydney enjoying the flowers we picked tonight.