Randy and I went away last weekend kidless…first time ever…to Fairmont Hot Springs and Discovery Ski Resort…we had a blast!! We soaked in the hot tub outside both nights we were there…one night we even got some snow while we were sitting out there so of course it couldn’t have been any more romantic…ooo la la! We also went skiing/snowboarding one day while we were there. Randy likes to ski and I like to snowboard but neither one of us had done it since highschool! Needless to say it took me a little more getting used to than it took Randy but I conquered getting off the chairlift without falling (which I’d never done before) and we spent the day cruising down the easy runs.

Today preschool was cancelled so Syd got to stay home with Soph and I this morning. We got 11 inches of snow yesterday and it’s still falling outside as we speak! The neighbor comes down the sidewalk with his snowblower every couple of hours to move the couple more inches that have accumulated but who knows how much we’ll end up when all is said and done! So what’s a snow day without playing in the snow?! While Sophie napped upstairs, Syd and I played in the backyard in the snow…

I’ll write later but pictures will have to do for now…Christmas…New Years…and everything in between!

I’m up late tonight (which is a rarity for me) because I’m waiting for my sweet hubby to return from a quick trip to the store for some eggs…you see I started a batch of sugar cookie dough tonight not realizing we hadn’t an egg in the house! Since the dough has to refrigerate over night and there are hardly any days until Christmas, I gotta get the dough ready ASAP so that we can get those cookies cut, baked and decorated tomorrow! We don’t want Santa leaving this house hungry!

Sydney had her first Christmas program on Tuesday night…the preschoolers did well but like Juma always says…it was a little chaotic (much like hearding kittens would be) but about as cute as could be! Send us a comment or an email if you’d like a link to the video of her Christmas program (we’ve posted it on You Tube).

Sophie is doing well…she had a little tummy trouble this week but seems to be fine now. I think it must have just been teething. She is effortlessly rolling both ways and is sitting up without falling now. She isn’t always in the same place where you leave her so we’re starting the stage of watching out for every little thing that could have possibly been left on the floor. She’s a good eater but still thinks it’s funny to blow rasberries while we’re feeding her orange colored vegetables! The girls really love each other…Sophie just laughs at Syd…even when she’s not trying to be funny.! Who am I kidding…Syd makes us all laugh a lot!

There is a lot of excited anticipation of Santa’s arrival and delivery at our house. The girls have been spoiled rotten (as usual!) and have about a million gifts to open under the tree. Randy and I aren’t exchanging gifts this year but I can honestly say that I am extremely excited to watch the girls open the gifts we got/made for them and to hear about the reaction from the children in the family that our small group adopted. We have so much to be thankful for this season but are most thankful for the birth of our Savior…let’s not forget what we’re celebrating in two short days!

The past few weeks have felt like a whirlwind. We lost our nanny Danielle (HUGE sad face) because she is working another job AND student teaching AND trying to finish her last semester at school. The poor girl was just going to have about zero time for herself so we decided it would be best to make the transition to daycare now rather than at the end of January when she would start student teaching full-time. It took a couple of weeks to get the girls into daycare which meant juggling work commitments and being a mom all at the same time but isn’t that what working moms do best?! The fact that one of the weeks was a short holiday week (Thanksgiving) made me VERY thankful and took a lot of the burden off of my plate that week. We all survived though and the girls started daycare Friday. They both did really well – Syd didn’t even want to come home at the end of the day!! I’m glad she had fun but all I wanted to do was squeeze those precious little peanuts…I missed them so much that day and I had forgotten how quiet the house is without them here.

We had a wonderful time hosting Thanksgiving this year. We had 11 people in all and enjoyed stuffing ourselves silly. Sophie joined in on the fun and ate mashed potatoes alongside everyone else. We spent the afternoon playing dominoes and drinking coffee and then enjoyed some awesome pie before calling it an evening.

We spent Friday-Sunday in Coeur d’Alene visiting with my sister and Gavin and Gavin’s family. We took a Christmas cruise Saturday night on Coeur d’Alene lake and enjoyed a couple of delicious dinners out. Thankfully this was not a snowy Thanksgiving and the roads to and from Idaho were dry which made the drive relaxing (along with the help of the portable DVD player to keep Syd entertained in the car for 3 hours)!

After not getting out a single Christmas card last year, I was quite proud of myself for mailing them all out on 12/1 this year. I guess I’m overcompensating for being a serious slacker last year! I’m still way behind in posting pictures so here are some of our favs from our trip to Georgia at the end of October, Halloween, fun in the snow, and Thanksgiving weekend.

I took these a few weeks ago and still giggle at how priceless they are…can you tell I’m the only morning person in the family?!

Our little SoRo (Sophie Rochelle) is six months old today…where has the time gone?! Haven’t had the joy of meeting our second perfect peanut? Here’s an ode to our little Sophie:

Who is the SNUGGLIEST baby I know?
Who gets millions of compliments as the cutest baby ever anywhere we go?
Who rocks the most adorable little leg rolls I’ve ever seen?
Who is the baby that everyone asks, “Is she always this easy?” to which we can emphatically reply, “YES!”
Who hasn’t slept through the night since 3 months old but has blessed us with two back-to-back (and might I say) glorious nights of sleep the past two nights?
Who giggles with delight when she sees us making her bottle and then screams if you take it out of sight?
Who laughs hysterically at anything her big sister says yet yanks her hair out at any chance she can get?

SOPHIE!

She has the sweetest heart…such a sensitive but gentle spirit! She is her own unique self and we’ve loved every minute we’ve gotten to spend getting to know her (or trying to figure her out)! I can’t remember life before Sophie and hope I never have to experience life without both of my girls. They complete our family and are a physical reminder of what God’s unconditional love is like.

The weekend before we left for our trip to Atlanta, we spent a day at a pumpkin patch in Kalispell. We enjoyed a beautiful drive around Flathead lake and beautiful fall weather while we were there. We had a lot of fun participating in all of the activities the farm had to offer and ended up bringing home a pumpkin for each of us plus a few others to decorate with! Although the window in my new car got stuck in the down position before leaving the farm, Randy baracaded the wind for the girls and I so we didn’t freeze in the backseat (it was only about 45 degrees outside when we left)!

It has been a muffin extravaganza in our house this week…not intentionally…it just worked out that way. Thursday morning Syd had snack day at preschool. I wanted to make something for the kiddos to eat so I decided to send her to school with banana muffins and string cheese. I have started making banana muffins regularly because everytime I bake banana bread it falls in the center…every time! I carefully follow the recipe each time but regardless of over baking, under baking, perfect measuring, it falls. So, rather than give up on one of my favorites, I chose to start making muffins and they are delightful! (Good portion control too for those of us who need a little help in that area!)

Last night I decided to make chili for dinner…it was a cold and rainy day and sounded like a great way to curl up at the end of the day. We always make cornbread muffins to eat with our chili so those became the second set of muffins baked yesterday!

All of that being said, when Randy came down yesterday morning and smelled the banana muffins baking, he was sorely disappointed to learn that they were not for his breakfast. Feeling a little guilty I decided I’d try to make a special breakfast this morning to make it up to him. I have been dying for something Pumpkinlicious as I try to find ways to mix it in to various carb-filled goodies this time of year…waffles, pancakes, muffins, bread, etc. I found this recepe and made them this morning and they were amazing! Not only did they fill the house with a wonderful aroma but they were as easy as they were delicous and made up for the muffin-misunderstanding the day before!

PUMPKIN MUFFINS:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin (from a 15 ounce can)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice
1 1/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Put oven in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Put liners in muffin cups.

Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, 1 1/4 cups sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.

Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another bowl.

Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about three-fourths full), then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Cool in pan on a rack five minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

Enjoy!

Last week my sister came from Portland for a visit…it had been May since we’d last seen one another so we had a lot of catching up to do! I needed some serious sister time so we spent the week playing with the girls, making dinners, having a belated birthday party, and just plain hanging out! Brandi let Syd “camp out” with her in her room Thursday night and then we had a fashion show after Brandi’s birthday dinner Friday night both of which were the highlight of her trip for Syd. Sophie loved all the cuddles and snuggles that her auntie brought for her and refuses to let us put her down now! Both girls loved seeing their auntie and being able to spend some much needed quality time together!

Saturday Brandi and I took a trip to Coeur de’Lane to spend some time together without the kiddos. This was my first night away from both girls but Randy did a great job holding down the fort. I didn’t know what to do with 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep! Brandi and I had planned on casually looking at cars to help me narrow down the type of SUV I wanted to buy. I ended up finding a car that was exactly what I was looking for (at a good price!) so Randy and the girls and my dad drove over on Sunday to check out the car, give their seal of approval, and by Sunday evening I was the proud new owner of a 2008 Ford Expedition! I love my new car and although we didn’t get as much downtime as we’d hoped for, I was so thankful for any time with my sister and for all of her help throughout my car search!

I can’t wait to watch Sophie and Sydney grow up alongside one another. They won’t know until later how great a blessing having a sister truly is but I hope that they keep that in mind during those years that they think they can’t stand one another. There were a few precious sister moments today that kept me smiling and thinking of my lil sis…Sophie woke up from her nap today and while sitting on my lap rocking in the rocker, she was just staring at Sydney who was sitting next to us on our bed. I moved Sophie to re-position her on my lap and she just started crying hysterically…turns out, she was mad because she no longer could see her sister. As soon as she could see sissy again and calmed down, she was fine again! Syd and Soph can now ride next to one another in the new car. If Sophie starts to get upset in the car, all Sydney has to do is start talking to Soph or singing to her and soon you’ll hear Sophie hysterically laughing…it’s so cute! Sydney told me several times today that she’s going to get to take Sophie to school on the school bus when it’s time for her to go to kindergarten…it makes my heart so happy that she has such a helpful heart when it comes to teaching her sister!

After a…shall we say…stressful (to say the least) week, I took a little time this weekend to decompress and do a little self-reflection. I must admit, I can be my biggest critic and although I know this about myself, never cease to continually convince myself that I’m not doing a great job in any area of my life.

I have so many roles right now that I sometimes feel like I’m stretched too thin to be doing anything well. Instead of showing up somewhere with the kids feeling polished, organized, and 5 minutes early I’m skidding in sideways at 45 miles-per-hour 5 minutes late with toilet paper stuck to my heal while eating my breakfast out of a ziplock bag. If it weren’t for my Outlook calendar, I wouldn’t remember what I’m supposed to be doing that day.

As a working mom there’s always guilt about not spending enough time with your kids. But, as a working mom, I often have to remind myself that I work FOR my kids. I work so that Randy AND I can have a great relationship with our kids -so that he is not the only one burdened by the financial stresses of this world; I work so that we have some extra margin to do things like gymnastics and preschool and swimming lessons; I work so that we can pay a babysitter so that Randy and I can go out and have some “us” time every once in a while; I work because it is fulfilling and rewarding to me; I work not because I desire to “be at the top” of my career but to fulfill something that fills like one of my callings in this life.

“Callings” you might ask? The truth is yes, I have never felt more than I do when I’m working that “this” is what I’m supposed to be doing. I want my girls to grow up knowing that you can be passionate about work and love what you do but most of all that you can have a family that you put first too. I want them to see mommy as a strong, confident, intelligent woman who loves their father and them dearly and who has found balance in a career and home-life.

I never knew the idea of a stay-at-home mom when I was young…it just didn’t exist in the world I grew up in. The world I grew up in was one in which my mom and dad worked 40 hour work weeks and took an occasional part-time job on the side to help ends meet. Staying at home with your kids was a luxury our family never had. Although Randy and I could probably make it work financially if I were to stay at home, it is not my desire to do so. I love to work and am good at it.

I love being a mom to my kids and am always learning to be better at it. I appreciate my time with my children because it is something that I try not to take for granted…being “away” from them while I’m working reminds me that we may not always be together and we have to enjoy every minute we are. I am even more blessed than most working moms at this stage of my life because being “away” from my kids means closing the door to my office-in-the home while Danielle watches the girls for me 3 days a week. Although the girls aren’t spending 40 or more hours a week in daycare for me to work outside the home, there is still always guilty feelings that I should be spending even more time with them.

I have come to the realization though that I can’t continue to compare myself to other moms to gauge my own success/failure as a mom. I will not always be the mom that bakes and cooks everything from scratch, I won’t be the mom that makes all of her own baby food, I won’t be the mom who spends $2.76 on a cart full of groceries that cost $300 retail, I probably won’t be the mom that mends socks instead of buying new ones. What I will be is the “me” kind of mom…the kind that will do anything and everything in my power to love on my kids and to make them feel like there’s no one on this Earth that loves them more than their daddy and I do….that’s the kind of mom I would like to strive to be…the kind of mom we probably all desire to be.