Daddy's Girls

As usual Nate is busy with school, but he always finds time to spend with the girls. Every night that Nate is home while the girls go to bed he sings to them. They LOVE that time of night!  Another favorite of the girls is when he throws the girls on our bed. Most days that he walks in from school the girls scream and say, "daddy throw us on the bed!" This ends with wrestling and hiding from each other in the sheets. A few mornings ago the 3 of them spent close to 2 hours laughing and wrestling on our bed. Nate had a lot of homework that morning, but decided it was more important to play with the girls--of course that made my life MUCH easier!! Our girls adore Nate so much and I LOVE it!!

We went to the mall to window shop and have lunch:

After lunch

Hallie was dancing to some hip hop music in the store (we spent about 45 minutes in Brookstone--we love it there)

Adalie could not get enough of this chair!

My babies! 

This week on Hallie:
Are you sick of me blogging about Sound of Music??? Sorry we are still not over it as a family.....
Often we sing the songs around the house and today it was "How do you solve a problem like....Adalie"....the girls laughed and said, "no it's MARIA!" This all happened right before Hallie's nap and we told her it was nap time and she ran to the TV and yelled, "NO! I don't want nap! I want Maria!" Adalie said, "Hallie it's okay after you wake up you can watch it." Hallie said, "NO I don't take a nap, I will watch Maria!" she was so serious and adamant that I had to laugh.

So at this stage of Hallie's life compared to Adalie at that stage she is not as girly as Adalie was and is. She doesn't care so much for skirts and each morning when she gets dressed she tells me she is a boy. I am pretty sure she understands the difference because I will ask her what gender other people are and for the most part she gets it right. She always wants to wear her navy blue ND shirt, (NOT the pink one) to match Nate, and the other day she wanted her "boy pants" I wasn't sure what they were and discovered they are her camouflage pants. She is also pointing out to us the gender of others and immediately follows with, "I'm a boy!"

She is getting closer to potty training (won't happen until after Christmas) and she gives us (including Adalie) the same treatment we give her. When she finds us going "potty" she comes in and says, "Tell me when you're are all done okay" she leaves and shuts the door then comes in a minute later and says, "did you go poo and pee? Good Job!" Then claps for us. Its pretty funny.

She always has to "go to school" she puts on her ND shirt and packs her back pack full of toys and tells us she needs hugs and kisses before she goes.

 This week on Adalie:

She wants to be 16 so that she can play the games that 16 year old girls play.
"Peter Pan, like Wendy and they get to fly around and have wings.....I really really want to fly."

Yesterday for some reason she wanted to go and buy Nate a birthday present. That wasn't happening (his birthday is in May). So instead she made him a card and wrapped up a Christmas craft she had already made. She put one of her hair bows on it since we didn't have any regular bows. She stuck it in his pillow case and when he came home she told him to go lay on his bed to find his surprise. She was so excited! It was so sweet!

She is the most observant kid I know!!! Yes, it can drive me crazy, but I love her for it. Nothing gets past her!! It's impossible to go through the day without her making sure everything is running perfectly. She has high standards and when they don't go that way she melts. When she asks me questions about why and how things work (like all kids do) I give her a mediocre answer and she is never happy with the answer. I finally find myself going into elaborate detail and then after I am finished her response is an easy, "Oh, okay!"

SNOW

We finally got our first snow! It didn't last long, but Nate and the girls ran out and made some snowmen!

I LOVE when Hallie sings this song so I had to capture it and post it.

As I mentioned earlier we have really been into "The Sound of Music" at our house and Adalie just learned this song and I love to hear her sing it!

Of course I want to write down some cute things about my girls for us to remember later....

Hallie:
I was changing Hallie's dirty diaper and she kept saying, "ewww stinky" she thought she was so funny and kept laughing and then she said, "you like that mommy, haha.... stinky, you like that mommy?"

She was climbing up on a chair to reach some crayons on the shelf:
Nate: "Hallie get down"
Hallie: "Don't worry about it"

She loves to sing her responses to us. When she is done eating, wants something etc. she sings her answer.

Adalie:
So of course my girls know I am sick with this pregnancy and they have been praying for me in their prayers and it's so cute. Adalie was trying to make me feel better one day and said, "mommy, when that baby comes out of your belly you will feel better".

Playing catch up...in so many ways!

I am not even sure where I left off in the blogging world. I will post some pictures I guess and call it good.

At our first ND game!

Irish Marching Band

Adalie being cute one morning

The girls about to let their butterflies go

Camping in their bedroom

Ron and Vickie came to visit!

Sister loves

Bagpipe Band, Adalie always asks why they are in skirts and wants one like theirs

My Uncle Zeb is a Chaplain at the Air Force Academy and travels with the football team. This year they came to ND so we got to see him!

Nate's parents at their first ND game

Nate preparing to be tossed in the air after a touchdown. This is tradition with all of the students after a touchdown. A crowd of students lift you up equivilent to the amount of points ND has. Its cool to see when the entire student section participates. (video to come later)

Some scary monsters came to visit--I mean Becky and Brandon came for the weekend with their girls!!

We went to Chicago and took the train from South Bend

The bean

The girls jumped off of every step they could find while at Navy Pier

Nate and I finally made it to the Chicago Temple!

The girl are currently obsessed with the Sound of Music. I knew Adalie would love it so one Sunday afternoon we sat down to watch it. Now each morning we turn on "Special Features" and there is a section that skips through to the songs. Their favorites are "16 going on 17" and "The Lonely Goat".

PS I took a total of ZERO pictures during Halloween. It was a hard one for me this year being sick and all. Nate had class during trick-or-treating so I took the girls by myself at our complex which took 2 hours--if you have never been here you will know that, that is a lot of stairs. It would not have been a big deal but Hallie was extra slow so I carried her on all of the stairs!

Adalie was (depending on the day and party) Cinderella, Pumpkin Princess, and Tinkerbell

Hallie was a wicked witch--her idea of scaring people was to growl at them. She loved being the witch and was so happy when wearing the costume!



Number Three

Yes!! Child number 3 is on its way! I am 11 weeks today. I have been sick since about week 7--which is why there has been random and a lack of posts. You can usually guess that I am pregnant if I don't post for a month at a time. The sickness this time around has not been as bad as with the other two, but I am beginning to think it might just be mind over matter....I have more responsibility and what feels like "chores" now than with my other pregnancies. Having things to do each day that keeps me busy helps keep the sickness away or tolerable. However I have had MANY horrible days where I want to curl up and cry and not face the world because I feel so sick. Nate seems to understand this pregnancy sickness more which is a HUGE help. He spoils me! Today was his first day back to school since his amazing 10 day fall break! I was soooo sad this morning when he left, I have to keep telling myself that there are only 7 more weeks until a MONTH long break!! Hopefully my sickness will be over by then. I am almost past my 1st trimester, but sickness wise that has meant nothing for me in the past. I am hoping this one will be over sooner as it started later. Only time will tell. My house is suffering and so is our nutrition....we eat out a lot and my kids end up eating what I eat which is whatever sounds good at the moment which usually is not healthy.  In my "normal" life I would put a stop to it, but at this point I really don't care. I keep looking around my house thinking about how nice it will be when it gets a really good cleaning. Hmmmm I can only wish right now....

Anyways enough of that...we are super excited! Adalie at times can't contain herself because she wants a baby brother so bad. She keeps asking if she can have  2 --like Marcus and Carter (twin cousins). Sorry not happening this time around. She keeps asking if she can name the baby. So far she has come up with Max, Jackson, and Lizzy. She will be crushed when she finds that we won't use those names. As for Hallie, she rubs my belly and says hi to the baby. She will talk to it and then ask me to talk to her belly. I am a little afraid to bring a baby into our home with Hallie around. She is going to squeeze this baby and never let it out of her sight. She is so clingy with babies unlike Adalie. I also think she may get a little jealous.

Well I have many things to post which will have to come later. I am lazy (if you will notice the lack of pictures). We have had Nate's parents in town, My cousin Becky and her family, some Notre Dame football, a few more trips to Chicago and a few random things. I'll be honest, who knows when I will post....at least you know why I am slacking now. :)

I Love You to the Moon and Back!

I love Nate! Last night I was prepared for a typical night--Nate comes home for about 15 to 30 minutes somewhere between 7 and 8 and then leaves again for the night. I heard him coming down the hall to our front door and think to myself, "will he be home for 10 or 20 minutes?" As soon as he walked in he said we were going on a date and that he got a babysitter. We rode our bikes (in the freezing cold--very fun though) up to campus to look through some telescopes they had pointed at the moon and one at Jupiter. To see Jupiter was fun because we went to the top of one of the science buildings and there was a dome we went in with a telescope set up. Apparently the telescope's lens was from the 1860's. After that we went to get some hot chocolate at Star Bucks--Nate had a gift card he won--We looked like idiots ordering because we never go there and didn't know the lingo. It was funny! Thanks for a great night Nate! I love you!!

On a side note--I wanted to write this down to remind me what a sweet innocent little girl I have! As many know Lion King came out today so I let Adalie stay up and watch it. She saw that Mufasa died and about 30 more minutes into the movie she crawled up into my arms and sobbed telling me that she didn't want daddy to die. She was soooo upset and broke my heart. I told her daddy wasn't going to die and she kept saying, "no, when his spirit leaves his body he will". I said it wasn't going to happen for a long long time until she was a grandma and she still didn't like the idea of that. She continued to cry and I was at a loss and told her we would all die together and hold hands and hug and then live in the clouds and she still didn't like that. I hated seeing her that way. After I got her calmed down there were two different occasions before bed that she cried and told me she loved me! This girl completely broke my heart tonight! I love you Adalie!!

The Little Things

I have been storing in my mind some things I want to remember about my girls and sadly I am forgetting them so I need to write down as much as I can right now.
Hallie:
She is missing her Daddy so much lately (he is gone many many hours of the day). When he leaves to go to school Hallie will often tell him, "NO Daddy! You NOT going!"

Another time Nate was in the kitchen singing and Hallie said,"Nate, NO singing!"

One day Nate was close to being home so I said "Hallie, Daddy is coming home soon". Her response: "Daddy's coming home? He's all done with bike and school (he rides his bike to school)? I love Daddy, I want to hold him". It was so sweet.

I dropped Nate off at school today and Hallie was not prepared for Nate to get out of the car and so she started screaming and Adalie being a good big sister said,"Hallie its okay, in lots and lots and lots of time Daddy will come home from school." Hallie's reply was so cute, through her tears and crying she said, "Oh.....okay" and then stopped crying.

Adalie:
Adalie is too smart for her own good. Nate and I have nicknamed the girls #1 and #2 (according to their age) so that we can talk in front of them without them knowing they are the ones we are talking about. Well one day Hallie got out of the tub and ran around naked and Adalie said, "Look at #2....she is so funny" So then I asked her who #1 was and of course she said,"Me!"
She was really mad at me one morning because I told her to do something that she didn't want to do. She came out of her room with a very serious voice and scowl and said, "Mommies are NOT in charge, only policeman are!"

On a side note I think Hallie is ready to be potty trained and I am NOT! She hates when she has a dirty diaper and is more often than not, taking her diaper off right after she goes #2. It's driving me crazy because she makes a mess when she does it. Today it was on my bed and she drug her nasty bum across my sheets. Then later in the day she took her diaper off and took a poo inside her tent that we had set up in the livingroom! I think I need to work with her and hope for the best!

Adalie turns 4 and My Mom Comes to Visit!!

Two days after I got home from Wyoming my Mom came out to visit for 8 days! It was so great having her!! We didn't really do much over the week, just sat back and relaxed--which is why I have almost no pictures, makes me mad that I didn't take more pictures! We drove to Chicago to pick my Mom up from the airport. I didn't tell my girls who we were going to pick up. I wanted them to be totally surprised! They (or should I say Adalie) was guessing who it was the entire time. When my Mom was walking towards the car my girls could see her and were so excited!! They both screamed and I hurried and unbuckled them so they could hug Grandma. It was fun and I was glad I kept it a secret.

We celebrated Adalie's birthday the Saturday after my Mom was in town. It was pretty low key. We had Adalie's preschool friends over and played some games and had cake and ice cream. Adalie loved that she practically got a new present everday during the week of her birthday. There is a perk not living close to family--goodies in the mail. After almost a week after her birthday she asked if we could go check the mail to see if there were any more presents for her. I told her there wouldn't be and to not be sad when we opened the mail box. Sure enough there was a belated birthday card from my sweet cousin Annie!

 Daddy bought her a flower that lived a whole 30 minutes in our house and she got some butterflies that we watched spin cocoon and turn into butterflies

 Playing a butterfly game

 Pin the bow on Adalie

 Fishing

 My sweet girl is 4!!

 Cake and ice cream

 Excited for bubble gum, just like her mom!

My Mom is a ventriloquist so the kids really enjoyed Ernie for the week!

One thing we did do while with my Mom was visit Shipshewana to see the Amish!