Ooooh, Monday...

...how you sneak up on me every week and leave me sad and disappointed that the weekend is officially over. :(
When I looked outside this morning to see terrential downpours and strong winds, I dreaded the drive to work and the walk from my car into the building. Needless to say, I prevailed against the nasty weather and had a decent start to my week.

This weekend, we had more appropriate weather for January, so we took advantage of a gorgeous blanket of Saturday snow and ventured outside.

It's amazing to me how much more independent Hannah is this year than last year. She's able to trudge through the knee-deep (to her!) snow and pull a sled, as well as make snow angels with some help!
Oh yes, and she learned to throw snow. She eventually got the hang of it and realized that throwing it up in the air didn't always end well...

Sarah wasn't too thrilled with being bundled to the point of being immobile, and she certainly wasn't a fan of her first trip down the hill on the sled which ended with a face plant right into a snow drift, but she did pose for a few pictures!

After sled riding at Gram and Pap's:

Then Daddy came home from work and the girls told him all about their adventures in the snow that afternoon.

I ordered Hannah a booster seat this past week, as Sarah has been slowly outgrowing her infant car seat for a few months and will need a convertible car seat very soon. We decided to move Sarah to Hannah's convertible car seat and get Hannah a booster seat that can grow with her for several years. No worries, it's a five point harness system, so she'll continue to be safe and sound on all of our outings. ;)
It arrived this afternoon in a huge box, perfect for playing.

This face cracks me up!

Sarah decided she had had enough and proceeded to climb out:

It was a good thing Daddy was close-by to ease her fall!

Just for kicks...aren't these soft, wispy curls just delicious?!

Lastly, for the sake of only doing one blog post tonight, my entry for the ABC challenge. This week, the letter was "D"...
D is for downward dog.

Happy Monday!

Weekend.

This weekend, we hung out with Mark and Linda, went out on a date, went shopping, painted the dining room (pics to come!), did laundry, cleaned, cooked, played outside in the melting snow, had a FHGI meeting, ate too much, and watched Veggie Tales more times than I can count.
It wore some of us out:

The Kennedys welcomed us into their home for our weekly praise and worship meeting this Sunday. Hannah loves the Kennedys and loves going to visit at their house.

Ruth and Amy found a Princess table and chairs set while they were out running errands the other day. They offered to pick one up for me, as the set was on clearance for next to nothing, but I declined. The set looked way bigger in the picture than it actually was. I was pleasantly surprised with I how much I loved it (they decided to pick one up for their house for the girls to play with when they come to visit). The girls loved it, too. I called our local Walmart and was thrilled to hear that they had one left in stock. I high-tailed it over there to pick it up, only to find that it was missing the pink flag...Hannah was not happy. Micah saved the day and created one out of a painted lollipop stick, a piece of pink construction paper, and a few princess stickers. Voila! Hannah was happy.

Tea parties commenced early Monday morning.

Please excuse Hannah's hair in this next one. She had asked for "two pony tails" that morning, but then rubbed her head all over the couch until it looked like this:

It's back to work tomorrow after a week off, thanks to MLK day. :)

C is for:

This week's photo challenge is C.

C is for cake donut. ;)

You can join in or follow along on FB HERE.

Snow Days.

We've finally had a few days of good snowfall which has kept me and the girls inside. It's been bitter cold, windy, and as Winnie the Pooh says, just downright "blustery".
To beat the winter blues, the girls helped me try out a copy-cat Starbuck's cake pop recipe. I'd include it, but trust me, it's not even worth attempting. I was very disappointed with my results, but we did have a blast eating the goodies!

This morning, Hannah emptied every toy from her toy basket in the family room and climbed inside. I convinced her to allow me to move the basket into the center of the room away from our end tables to prevent injuries and ended up with both of them in the basket.

Their serious faces

Hannah's giving her one of her infamous "head-lock kisses" in this picture...look closely.

Being a kid seriously rocks...

I love this one of my girl.

Micah and I went out on a rare date night this evening with Mark and Linda. It was fabulous.

Linda snapped one of us:

Good friends (and family!), good food, good fellowship. It was a wonderful night!

Recap & arts 'n crafts...

This weekend, we had plans to go to my parents' house to watch the Steeler game. The girls wore matching Steelers tees:

Hannah had just woken up from her nap. I literally flung open her door and snapped this picture. She was waving to me. :)

Excuse the grain. I was pretty much maxing out settings in her dark room.

Sarah loves to sneak into Hannah's room. I went to grab a few things from my room across the hall and found the girls in Hannah's room peering into Hannah's bed:

It was a nail-biter. Unfortunately, it didn't end well for the Steelers.:( But we still had a good time!

Hannah spilled a bunch of water on her Steelers outfit right before we left, so she supported our team in spirit. ;)

Last week, I ordered Hannah some art supplies from Amazon so we'd have some activities to work on during the winter months. They came in the mail yesterday, but UPS delivered them and left them down by our garage. Unfortunately, by the time I realized that's where they were, it was too late. I made sure to open the box the minute I got home from work today so that Hannah could try out her new supplies. She LOVED everything.

She colored, painted, attempted to cut, and doodled for almost an hour.

We didn't even open the rubber stamp/colored pencil set. I'm so excited to do a little art project with her tomorrow. However, that being said, I'll make sure that no un-capped markers roll onto the floor, as there are consequences when you have a curious, mobile baby wandering around...

Maybe she thought it was a popsicle?
A quick wipe with a wet paper towel and few sips of juice later, and we were back to 100%. Lesson learned!

Until next time...

January Sun

Thank goodness for Saturdays when Daddy gets home from work hours earlier than during the week. When the day seems more relaxing just because you know it's the weekend.
We played all day today. We skipped, ran, jumped, crawled, laughed. It was fabulous.

Sarah modeled her new purse:

Pap and Gram stopped by for a bit this morning. It's always a party when they're here:

Hannah was awed by Pap's dance moves...

Sarah joined in on the fun:

The weather was beautiful today. The sun was perfectly golden, the temperatures were almost bearable, and one little girl was thrilled to get some fresh air.

She's been asking to blow bubbles for months, but the weather has not permitted us to venture outside for long. She was so excited when Daddy brought her bubbles out for her to enjoy.

We stayed out until it was just too cold...

...and the sun began to set.

:)