a week's worth

It's been a week since I blogged.  I miss my bloggy world, but it is a distant second to real life, so sometimes it just takes a back seat.  Life has been good though, just full.

Holidays
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family.  It was laid back and yummy!  I made The Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls and WOW, those things are legit.  I don't recommend making them on a regular basis.  Because I think I may have gained 5lbs eating them.  But every single calorie was worth it!  If you are looking for a special Christmas morning breakfast, this is the recipe for you!  They actually are fairly easy to make, there is just some time involved letting it sit a few times.  I made the dough the night before, then rolled it out, put on the filling and baked them the next day.

I'm on a mission this year to not stress over Christmas shopping at the last minute, like I usually do.  Bean and I made it to Toys R Us last night to pick up a few gifts that were on sale.  I'm also going to try to not go overboard on Christmas, sticking to my list!  Trying to figure out what to get Bean, well that will be stressful as I always want to get him the perfect gift.

The girls
There are so many cute and funny things that the girls do, that I think "that would be fun to blog" but rarely do I remember when I sit down to write!  I am really enjoying the stages they are in right now.

Miss Rose is doing better with her behavior.  Her attitude still comes out in her words, but she is more easily corrected.  She has a definate sense of humor, which is kind of a given living in this house.  She says a lot of things now that make Bean and I genuinely laugh. 

A cute thing that happened this morning...Santa Claus is not one of our holiday traditions, but Miss Rose knows the story and character.  This year she's deciding she WANTS to believe in him (watching The Santa Claus marathon last weekend probably didn't help).  We have a lot of retired couples that walk our neighborhood.  This morning as we were leaving for school, a couple was walking by and the gentleman was a rather jolly looking fellow with white hair and a white beard.  Miss Rose told our neighbor girl riding next to her in the van "I think that might be Santa Clause."  I couldn't help but laugh!

Gracie, well she is her quirky little self.  She still loves wearing gloves, usually just one at a time.  She recently discovered she can fold herself into this small rectangular box and sit in it.  Last night she was sitting in the box (which is clear) wearing one gardening glove, talking on the Elmo phone.  It was quite a sight!  I will have to post the photo once I download it.  Gracie loves asking questions and having discussions.  She is also quite enthralled with Diego and often while we're driving in the car she'll tell me "that sounds like an animal in trouble."  Then we talk about the rescue that needs to occur.  It's so cute and fun!

Waving, shaking her head and saying mama & dada are Lily's new accomplishments.  She's been flapping her arms in greeting for a few weeks now, but she's just mastered opening and closing her hand and she's quite proud of it.  Lily has been babbling for a while now and of course the mama and dada syllables are some of the first to develop.  Both Bean and I have noticed that she seems to be using these syllables appropriately.  Crawling is still far off.  She doesn't spend a lot of time on her tummy because until recently it would just make her spit up and be uncomfortable.  So now, she jus doesn't like it.  But her development in all other areas is right on, so I have no reason to believe this won't come at the right time.

Hopefully I'll have some more blogging time this weekend, which has begun.  Being a pastor, my "weekend" is Thursday to Saturday.  Tomorrow will hold a lot of cleaning.  Apparently it's been a long, full week and the house is showing it!

Oh, and Lily has been waking at night recently, which is hard to adjust to when you're used to sleeping through the night.  She has no teeth yet, so perhaps it's teething.  She also gets "stuck" easily in a pattern.  Saturday & Sunday nights I was up from 1-3am with her, and yes, that was me, passed out on the couch while she watched Baby Einstein at 2am because it kept her from screaming.  Monday night it was 3-4am and last night 4-5am.  I end up having to let her cry or just nurse her back to sleep.  I'm hoping she sleeps through tonight, but I'm prepared to be up with her again.

Happy Weekend to me!