...then the laptop crashed

These were the last of the back~logged pics from my camera I had ready to go before the great crash of 2012. Luckily, all of our files were saved. I've got three words for ya': back.up.now. You probably already back up. I do, too, just not nearly often enough.

So, this is gonna be quick, so hang on.


Anna Claire's newest past time is picking weeds in the back yard. Sweet thing thinks they're flowers. She puts them all in a big bucket then makes little bouquets.

Another outfit Mallory chose herself.

On St. Patrick's Day a silly leprechaun visited and left the girls Lucky Charms and green milk and water for breakfast.

Later that day the girls got hair cuts and we shopped a bit at Target for some shorts and t-shirts. I got caught again unprepared for the warm weather.

Later that night we celebrated Papa's birthday at Wasabi, the girls' first Japanese steak house adventure. They loved it! And did surprisingly well with the rigged-up chops sticks!

Horrible phone pics. :-(

A couple nights later, we celebrated Daddy's birthday at home with spaghetti and pound cake. Yum.

Mallory still wants to be a bride when she grows up. Notice the mismatched shoes.

Now, you're almost caught up. Spring break starts in about ten hours {whoo~hoo!}, so I'm sure I'll be back soon with all kinds of fun stuff!

Right Now

Mallory has been in her room calling my name because she wants more water...which she is NOT going to get.

Walter is listening from around the corner as Mallory tries to convince Anna Claire to yell with her in unison...

"Anna Claire, let's yell together..."

"Anna Claire, louder..."

Anna Claire yells my name and Walter hears Mallory say, "Good, Anna Claire; you got it."

I figure they'll get tired in a minute or two and fall asleep.

...then my camera battery died

Not this past weekend, but the weekend before that, we had a cookout over at Aunt Pam and Uncle Rick's. It was warm enough to play outside until the sun started setting, so I got a few pics...then my camera battery died.

Does Mallory look like she's in jail? The only this she was guilty of this night was eating an entire hot dog ~ bun and all ~ and two helpings of macaroni and cheese. Seems like the girls are only picky eaters when they want to be.

Anna Claire walked around the entire perimeter of the flower bed "balance beam" and it is a huge flower bed. I've got to say I was pretty impressed with her balance...until it was time to go home. It was dark. She was tired. Then she stumbled and fell.

We had a great time {wish I had more pictures}, and the girls were asleep before we could get home.

Camera Dump

Last week was a long week and I pretty much stayed off the computer unless I was working. I did pick up my camera several times, though, so for the next few days I'll be catching up on all the fun last week and this past weekend.

Let's get started with Mallory's new favorite past time ~ going into Mommy's closet and/or jewelry box and coming out looking something like this...

{valentine's day garland coming down today; how embarrassing}

Dog Heaven

Sweet Cody went to dog heaven Sunday morning, and we are heartbroken to have lost both Cody and Tanner so close together.

Quite unexpectedly Cody died in his sleep, seemingly painlessly, sometime early in the morning. I woke up around 2:30 am to cover up Anna Claire, and he was actually in their room, so I shooed him out and went back to bed. I heard him just a few minutes later moving around in the hallway "making his bed" as he liked to do. When Anna Claire and I woke up around 7am he had moved to his spot near the kitchen where I thought he was sleeping. He knows my morning routine, and he usually waits for me to get my coffee before asking to go out...which is what I thought he was doing.

A few minutes later Walter got up and realized something was wrong. To say we were in shock was an understatement. Cody had seemed very depressed since losing his best buddy back in September, but was otherwise, to our knowledge, healthy despite needing to lose a few pounds.

Nothing in his routine had changed...still lazy as ever, eating and drinking fine, letting Mallory brush him, howling like a hound dog at trains, barking at the neighbors' dogs, stealing the girls' lovies...nothing to indicate to us that anything was wrong. Walter talked to Chad who said it could have been a blot clot or sometimes large~breed dogs have issues with their spleen, but basically we have no clue what went wrong.

We miss Cody so much. It's so odd not having him as part of our lives anymore. I've caught myself a million times getting ready to tell the girls to pick something up off the floor before Cody gets it. He was definitely a sweet dog with great manners who even knew a few tricks! Losing Tanner was hard and we still miss him, but I think we believed we'd have Cody for years and years to come. Now, with no dogs in the house, things are so quiet {no, really}.

I thought I'd share the book that has been a huge help to all of us ~ Dog Heaven. I learned about it from Holly and later found out Michelle actually had it already. I bought it when we knew we were going to have to put Tanner down, so I would have it ready when we told the girls {they love it}, and we read it again when we told Anna Claire and Mallory about Cody {they've taken it pretty well, actually}.

We've been talking to them {when they ask} about how much Cody missed Tanner and how they are both together now in dog heaven sleeping on clouds, barking at geese and eating squirrel~shaped dog biscuits. Sweet boys! We miss them so much.

 

Twins for Twins {help wanted}

Time for another transition that oh~so~painfully reminds me my babies are growing up right before my eyes. It's about time to move the girls into twin beds.

It looks like they're going to be tall like their Daddy, and they're just about to outgrow their toddler beds. We've actually been contemplating this move for about a year...remember when Mallory stopped sleeping through the night last spring? I was willing to do anything to bribe her into staying in bed ~ including buying new beds.

Recently, I found the beds of my dreams at a sale price I could live with ~ precious while sleigh beds reminiscent of their cribs. I've always been worried about fitting two twin beds in the girls' room across the back wall {where their beds are now ~ see below}. I knew we'd probably have to swap the dresser and armoire since the armoire is narrower. I was thrilled to find out two beds and the armoire would fit with inches to spare. Then it hit me that I'd never considered the length of a twin bed ~ a whopping 75 inches!

I'll spare you the hysterics I experienced last Saturday and simply tell you between deep breaths that two twin beds will NOT fit in their room {perfectly, which of course, is the way I want it}.

Look around the room, if you will; we have measured off every possible configuration, and they just won't fit...perfectly.

We have options, though, which I present to you here:

• option 1 ~ new bunk beds in their current room {I don't even want to go there}
• option 2 ~ buy new sleigh beds and move their bedroom upstairs into the playroom; move the playroom back down stairs to their current room {more than enough room upstairs, but the girls would be too far away from us, in my mommy opinion}
• option 3 ~ buy new sleigh beds and split up the girls {one would go into the spare room/former playroom right next door which is where we now keep my sewing machines, the girls' art easel, the wireless printer, etc. ~ I'm not thrilled with the idea of splitting them up, sniff, sniff}
• option 4 ~ could this be the perfectly imperfect option I've been looking for? I've been wrestling with this all week and yesterday I had a brainstorm! Could we take off the closet door, replace it with a cute curtain instead, buy bed frames and mattresses only {no new sleigh beds whose length is 86 inches!!!!} and just let the foot of the bed stick out a little in front of the closet doorway...

{add 11 inches to that and imagine how far out the sleigh bed would come ~ not a possibility}

None of these options is perfect, but we've got to decide which one we can all live with as long as we're in this house {which won't be forever, but I'm not sure new beds for the girls is an good enough excuse to put the house on the market}.

So, what would you do? What do you think we should do? Any and all opinions and advice are welcome!

Happy Birthday, Owen!

Anna Claire and Mallory were so excited to go to Owen's birthday party Sunday. For days beforehand they would ask over and over, "Is it tomorrow?" Sunday morning while playing at home, Anna Claire proclaimed, "I can smell Owen's cake from here!"

Mallory playing peek~a~boo...

Couldn't believe Anna Claire went down head first. Over, and over, and over...

Yes, they got to have their cake and eat it, too. Just look at both of them shoving hunks of cake into their mouths. How embarrassing. We've got to work on table manners...either that or this mommy's going to have to give in a little every now and then when it comes to sweet treats.

Yes, the cake tasted as amazing as it looked...Brigette made it herself!

Say Click!

Yesterday afternoon Mallory got a hold of my old point and shoot and went to town taking pictures of some lovies and figurines in her room. She lined them all up on the dresser and one~by~one took their pictures. I've got to tell you, once she realized she had to keep her fingers out of the way and center the image, she did a pretty good job.

Green Eggs and Ham for Dinner?

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

I thought it might be fun to make green eggs and ham for dinner tonight, but the girls are so picky these days. They'd probably eat the ham, but I can totally see Mallory gagging at green eggs. She actually loves eggs, but the thought of green eggs would probably send her over the proverbial edge.

The girls made Cat in the Hat hats at playschool yesterday ~

And we made oobleck this afternoon ~

The girls made oobleck last year in play school, but this afternoon, they were a little less sure about it and took a little while to "warm up" to it. Once they did, though, oh what a mess we had!

1 1/2 C. Corn Starch
1 C. Water
Food Color {optional ~ we did not use food color}

Let Down Your Hair

Sometimes Anna Claire lets me take my time to blow dry her hair, and when she does, it comes out long and smooth and shiny. Like this...

Of course, by the next morning it's curled up again. She says she wants hair like Rapunzel. She's got the blonde part; Mallory's got the length...

Hair cuts scheduled for March 17th!