S'more!

Thea's first s'more, do you think she liked it?


I think she did...

Babies

Some days, most days lately, I look at my daughters and I just want to drink in their youth; their carefree little spirits, their beautiful sweet soft skin, fluffy cheeks and uninhibited joy. Children are amazing, and their perspective is priceless.
In the car on the way to school yesterday Leila says to me, "Mommy, I am not going to grow up anymore, I am going to stay this size forever!"

I didn't respond right away, because I was thinking to myself right now, when there are no tantrums in sight, that doesn't sound so bad to me. Every day I wake up missing my girls, and every night when they go to bed I am torn between wanting to bask in my freedom from their constant needs, and the sometimes overwhelming desire to sit by their beds all night memorizing their sweet faces and verifying every breath they take. The other night when I woke in the middle of the night to see Leila's scared little face looking at us, I can't say that it bothered me to see Cory lift her up and place her between us in our bed, where our very presence was enough to calm her back to sleep.

I came to my senses, and I reminded Leila that if she stayed this size forever, she wouldn't get to go to kindergarten. Leila has been looking forward to kindergarten for about year now, and with one year left to go to get there, She quickly realized that she couldn't stop growing right now. Instead she told me she would stop growing up as soon as she went to kindergarten.

I responded with, "But what about 1st grade? Do you think that might be fun someday?"
Leila had to think about that for a minute. "Ok, I will go to first grade, and then I am gonna stop growing up!"

I thought I better bring her back down to earth so I replied, "Well Leila, what about being 7, 8, 9??? You never know, maybe 10 is the best age!"

Her face turned sad and she looked down at her lap, that was covered by the special baby blanket that she has loved for the last 4 years. "But Momma, if I keep growing, I am going to outgrow my Nigh Night."

"Leila, even if you get big, you can always keep your nigh night."

Leila looked up at me, a little more hopefully now that I had reassured her that nigh night wasn't going anywhere and she said, "Mommy, no matter how big I get, even when I am 10, I will still be your baby!"

No doubt about it!

I love photography.  Why? The details.  I never want to forget these sweet faces.

Daddy

Happy Daddy's day! As a woman who grew up with an awesome dad, and pats herself on the back all the time for choosing such an awesome dad to make a family with, I love fathers day!

Here is a little father's day love for my baby daddy from the girls....Thea didn't have any answers to the questions below, aside from "da da," so we added a little picture to show how Thea feels about her Daddy.

What is something that Daddy always says to you?
He tells me not to spit at or hit Thea.

What makes Daddy happy?
That I follow his rules.

What makes Daddy sad?
When I don't follow his rules.

How does Daddy make you laugh?
He tickles me.

What was Daddy like as a little boy?
I think he liked new books.

How old is Daddy?
29 (smart girl!)

How tall is Daddy?
about as big as Steve.

What is Daddy's favorite thing to do?
Play with me!

What does Daddy do when you are not around?
He works.

What is Daddy really good at?
Playing hide and seek.

What is Daddy not very good at?
tricking me...He can't trick me!

What does Daddy do for his job?
he types.

What makes you proud of your Daddy?
That he can stay here with me all day as much as he can.

What do you and Daddy do together?
We play together a lot.

If Daddy was in a cartoon, who would he be?
Prince Naveen!

How are you and Daddy the same?
How we will stay together forever.

How are you and Daddy different?
I am the smallest and he is the biggest.

How do you know that Daddy loves you?
Because I love him and I am his sweetest 4 year old girl.

What is Daddy's favorite place to go?
The museum



What is Daddy's favorite food?
I think Daddy's favorite food is meat.

What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy?
I like to play games with Daddy, like baseball and soccer.

Summer in Iowa

Summer in Iowa has potential for all kinds of crazy weather, and for beautiful, majestic and powerful skies...I have to share some of the pictures that we took today.  Keep in mind, we are brand new to the DSLR game and so far, all of our pictures are straight out of the camera, no editing and I am playing with settings so we aren't the most clear and consistent, but the learning curve is fun!

Wow, what a beautiful night to watch the sky!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

While I wait for Cory to finish playing with the camera so I can upload some new ones for the blog, I will tell you a little bit about my new love.  My new love hides under the mask of "healthy" by containing fruit, and not containing oil.  The downfall, or the highlight, depending on how you look at it, is the chocolate chips.  I was skeptical at first, but trust me...this one is a keeper.

And bonus...there is lots of kid assistance potential, hence my personal banana smasher, and her apprentice:

Chocolate Chip Brown Sugar Banana Bread

• 1 cup Mashed Bananas (2-3 Whole Bananas)
• 4 Tablespoons Butter, Softened
• ¼ cups Apple Butter Or Applesauce
• 2 whole Eggs
• 2 Tablespoons Milk
• ¾ cups Lightly Packed Brown Sugar
• 1-¾ cup Flour (sneak Some Wheat Flour In, Nobody Will Know)
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• ½ teaspoons Baking Soda
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• ¾ cups Chocolate Chips
• ¼ cups Chopped Walnuts (optional)

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Smash the bananas until they’re broken up but not completely smooth. Some lumps are OK.
Add in the butter, apple butter, eggs, milk, and brown sugar. Blend with a hand mixer until everything is incorporated. Again, small lumps are OK.
In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients.
Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture and mix gently with a spoon. When all the flour is mixed in, add your chocolate chips and walnuts.
Spray your loaf pan with cooking spray, and pour in the batter. Bake until golden and a toothpick/piece of dry spaghetti comes out clean, about 60 minutes.
Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool to room temperature.
I used half semi sweet and half milk chocolate chips.  Heaven.

Also, since I made muffins (along with a loaf, I told you I love this stuff) the muffins only took about 30 minutes, and more like 45 for the loaf.

To my girls

A couple of items have been weighing heavy on my mind lately.  One of those I will save for another, more inspired day, but the other was dancing through my mind tonight as I walked Zoey in sweet silence just before darkness set in.  I was watching the reflection of my imperfect body and humidity stricken frizz head as I went back and forth pulling and being pulled by the dog, who has never gotten the hang of submission.  I noticed a can laying in the grass and reached down to pick it up.  In one hand I held the leash and in the other, a bag of rather unpleasant smelling dog poo and as many cans and other garbage pieces that I could manage to hold.  Zoey and I were both ready to leave the moist summer air and turn in to our cool apartment.  I dropped the waste into the dumpster by our summer home and took off for the door of our building where you were both sound asleep.
Why does picking up trash make me think of you, my sweet little girls?  One time when I was in college Cory and I were walking back across the Iowa River to our apartments after a football game.  I had been drinking and was feeling good after a fun day at Kinnick.  As we walked along with the rest of the tired mob across the river I saw a beer can sitting on the railing over the river.  I carelessly gave the can a push and it fell down through the railing.  I didn't watch it land, but one of two things happened: 1. It landed in the river and was carried away, joining the many other pieces of carelessly discarded trash items in the river, or 2. It landed on a bank, and someone went to the effort to climb down the bank and pluck it out of the soggy riverbed.
A man walking behind me said something to me about my action.  I don't remember what he said, and it really doesn't matter.  The point is, I did something I should not have done, and he called me out on it.  I started to cry (I had been drinking, plus, I am me, so the crying shouldn't be a surprise.)  Your dad was mad at the man for making me cry, and I told him to let it go. He didn't do anything wrong, I was the one who had something to be ashamed of.  This wasn't the first time in my life that I had felt regretful and ashamed of my actions, and it wasn't the last either.
I don't tell you this story to point out that as much as you currently place me on that pedestal of honor, I am in fact not perfect because I rather enjoy feeling like a celebrity when I walk into the room that you inhabit and am greeted by hugs, kisses and the excited exclamation, "MOMMY!"  I tell you this because someday you are going to find yourself having done something that you know isn't right.  You may feel embarrassed or regretful about your decision.  If you happened to pick up your mom's over sensitive genes, it is ok to cry.  The important thing is that years down the road when you have moved on from that mistake, no matter how big, small or far removed it was, you honor the lesson you learned.  Turn your regret and embarrassment into something you can be proud of, and I will be proud of you.

Most of the time I am not a fun mom. Its ok, I can admit it. I yell at my big kid a lot. Not because I like to yell, but because for some reason my normal speaking voice is inaudible to her 4 year old ears. I can talk and talk and talk, but until I yell, she simply can't hear me. I spend a lot of time counting, or threatening to count, (1-2-3 Magic, if you get to 3, you dole out a time out). Leila hears a lot of "be quiet" "stop that" "be nice to your sister" "put that down" "its time to go now!" You get the picture. I don't like it, I wish we could be buddies, and have fun together all of the time, but the fact is, she is a bit out of control, and I owe it to her and the rest of the world to keep things under wraps in the hopes that when she leaves my home without me, I won't get a call to come and get the beast.

I love my kids, I love to please them, and I really love to surprise them. Today we went to visit a friend of mine and her babies for a while after lunch. Leila REALLY didn't want to leave, but I made her. We had the talk that we frequently have these days when she is being forced to leave somewhere that she wants to stay. The talk goes something like this, "Leila, you know that Mommy wants to take you to fun places, but if you want to get to come back you need to be a big girl and leave when I say it is time to go." After a couple of rounds she usually gets it, and today was one of those times. On the way home she said to me, "Mommy, I really didn't want to go home." So as we turned off towards our summer home and approached the elementary school that we drive past nearly everyday, I pulled into the parking lot and said to Leila, "How about we don't go home? Wanna get out and play?" And so we did. I followed my girls around the playground trying to snap pictures and also keep Thea from taking off and out of my reach. Leila wasn't interested in slowing down for a photo op, and I can't blame her, this was stolen playground time. This wasn't a typical planned trip to the park, this was an out of left field, pull into a parking lot and explore a playground she had never seen before kind of afternoon.

The babes

I really like this picture that Cory took of Thea. She loves this toy and has gotten to the point where she can open and close the doors herself, and then she claps to celebrate. So stinkin cute!



We went to a summer festival in Cedar Rapids last weekend and we had a fun time. Leila got to play on inflatables, which she LOVES and we all got to hang out and enjoy the nice weather before the rain set it.



This is another picture of Thea that shows her little personality. She has started to carry around this purse and stick treasures in it. I just love seeing how much she is picking up from other people. She is doing lots of sign language these days, including "all done," "more," "drink," "milk," and "bath." I can't get enough of my little princesses and they both seem to really like each other and seek each other out to play together during our days together. Life is good!

Progress!

Last Friday night when we drove by our lot, we saw a sight that I never imagined myself being so excited about....

Port Johnny is in place!

Even with some rain early this week, we have seen a bit more progress to report...we now have a hole! :)