Cleaning Day

I'll admit it.  The cleanliness of our house took a big blow when I got pregnant with Breanne.  It was already suffering, and than wow, did it suffer.  Russ did his best helping me to limp the house along, but he worked a lot of long hours during my pregnancy too.  Since Bree has been born things have gotten slightly better.  I've been able to pick back up on some of my housewife chores and tidy the house a bit.  I've still been feeling a huge crushing feeling on me everyday though as I look around and see things that need to be done.  I lay at night not being able to sleep because I'm thinking of all the things I should be cleaning instead of sleeping.  

Christmas break has been a burden lifter for me.  With Russ being home we together have been able to tackle a few much needed projects.  Today was one of those days.  I have continually just shut the door to the craf troom so I don't have to look at the bomb that had gone off in there.We finally waded in there and started arranging things where they should be.  Charlotte's toys found a new home in her bedroom after we gave quite a few things the boot out of her closet.  We also threw out and donated a few toys that just weren't being used anymore.  Lily and Allie spent quite a bit of time cleaning up their arts and crafts items and books too.  They still need to be gone through by me, but at least they are contained instead of strewn across the floor.  Russ rearranged the furniture for me so that I now will be able to sew and use the craft table without squinting to see what is on it.  The lighting is terrible in that room so the table needed to be moved closer to the window.  Lastly I started to organize all my craft stuff into the closet and bookshelf.  The room didn't get finished but I now can leave the door open without wanting to cry over it.

At one point in time today Russ reminded me that we needed to buy some wrapping paper for Charlotte's birthday that is coming up.  I asked him to write it on our white board so I would remember to pick some up.  Later on I came into the kitchen and saw this on the white board.  I stared at for a long time before making Russ tell me what it is.  Do you get it?  Russ is always drawing clever things like that on board to make me laugh.

{Ugh, I thought I took a picture of this but never did.  So I'll explain it.  It was a DJ at a turntable. Around his head were the words pa-pa-pa-paper.  Do you get it?  wRAPing paper!LOL!}

The girls watched a movie later on with daddy while I worked on some computer items that needed done.  When done I interviewed Lily and Allie for my Project Life Album/End of the Year.  There answers were cute and I can't wait to interview them again in 3 months.  I want to try and do this quarterly.  We enjoyed some pizza for dinner since Russ and I deemed it a "lazy dinner" night..  The girls spent quite a bit of time after dinner coloring on the magna doodle and a color explosion board of Lily's.  Charlotte has really picked up the artsy bug from Lily.  Allie prefers to watch most of the time, but every now and then will join in.

I love productive days like this.  They make me feels so much better!

A New Year

We took today easy again.  Wouldn't you if you were on vacation?!  The girls got up and watched cartoons until the parade came on.  They really loved watching their parade.  It was a bit sad to watch because we had planned on taking the girls to see the parade live in California.  We mentioned to the girls that daddy's family lived near the parade.  The girls of course started looking to see if they could see anyone in the crowd they knew,  We let them down gently that his family probably weren't at the parade.  Poor things were quite disappointed after that.
While the girls watched the parade Russ helped me clean our curtains and sheets.  We've been having allergy problems...again...so we thought it would be a good idea to clean everything real well.  I forget how much dust can build up on the backside of the curtain. 

We had lunch and then quiet time/naptime.  Russ watched the girls while I went out and went shopping for Project Life!  I'm super excited to hit this project hard this year.  Hopefully I do better than last year! LOL! It was nice to be able to go to the craft store without my little ones begging to know if we were done yet.  I didn't buy much but it was still fun to look around.

When I got home I pulled out my makeup.  Allie had been begging to wear some makeup.  I figured it wouldn't hurt to let them dress up a bit for just one day.  The girls each got a little makeup and some lipstick.  It wasn't anything too fancy, but oh my how it played up my girls beautiful blue eyes!  I think we are going to have a serious problem on hands when these two are finally allowed to wear makeup.  Good thing that isn't for SEVERAL years!

I made Allie's favorite dinner of Turkey Artichoke sandwhiches.  Her and Russell can not get enough of these.  After dinner the girls spent some time watching Russ play his new Batman game.  They love watching daddy play the Wii!  While daddy was playing Charlotte insisted that she hold Breanne.  I let her hold for a few minutes.  I'm amazed by how much Charlotte loves Breanne.  She gets along with her soooo well!

Awhile later we shooed the girls off to bed.  I worked on my computer while Russ played Diablo III.  A nice relaxing end to a pretty relaxing day!

Finding a groove of things...

Since having Bree I've been trying to get back into a normal routine.  That is pretty difficult considering newborns love to be sporadic.  One thing I've wanted to get going though is exercising.  I decided since the weather has been really nice I was going to go walk around the neighborhood.  I strapped Char and Bree in the stroller and Allie excitedly jumped on her bike.  I was ready!  We got about a block away when I realized it was snack time.  Poor timing  on my part!  Charlotte was starving and was less than thrilled to be strapped into the stroller.  Bree also hates her car seat so she decided to complain too.  Allie was in heaven riding her bike and didn't notice her tummy growling.  Thank goodness for her!  We went another block and then I called it quits.  Char and Bree were just making too much of a racket.  Hopefully I'll be able to work out a better time to go tomorrow.  {Don't be fooled by the pictures, Char and Bree were mad about being in the stroller!}

One of the routine's that I can count on to happen each day is with Allie.  At least once a day she parks herself in front of the desk and watches our slideshow of pictures.  Sometimes she sits there for over 30 min.  She can't get enough of watching them.  Occasionally she will ask questions about them, but for the most she just sits and watches.  I must say it is getting a little out of hand though, because now if the pictures are going she insists on stopping them since she doesn't want to miss them.

Like I mentioned in a previous post I've been trying to get in the pictures with the girls more.  Still not very successful.  This particular series of photos made me laugh, so I thought I would share them.

Allie was sitting on my lap so I tried to get a shot of us.  Hmmm...cut Allie off.

Charlotte wanted in on it.  Darn magazine get out of the way!

Whoops, there goes Allie and Char...and I'm sticking my tongue out.

Closer.....

Well, we are all there even if we aren't smiling or all looking at the camera.

Yet again, Sprinkles was looking at me like I was crazy while trying to get these pictures....maybe I am.