Sneak is back!

The girls have been so anxious for Sneak the elf to return. Molly remembered he's always arrived on December 1st and was up at 6:15 searching for him. She woke Sophie up in the process. I came downstairs to find them writing a plan to search for him since they couldn't find him.

You see, Sneak forgot where he was going and showed up at grandpa and grandmas house. He was sitting in grandpa's chair. I casually checked my email shortly after getting up and showed the girls this picture. They found it hilarious! 

  

Then, while they were at gymnastics tonight Sneak arrived and perched himself in our tree with his new friend, Glivert. Glivert was purchased at silver dollar city by my parents as our family ornament for the year. Sophie named him. 

The girls didn't see him in the tree until I said, I he's here, in the living room. It didn't take long then. They jumped up and down with excitement and miles kept exclaiming, "sneak". 

Welcome home, Sneak!

The first snow

Sophie has been anticipating snow since last Friday. They talked about it at preschool and she was really excited to see a little on the slide in the backyard. Molly wanted to build a snowman and was disappointed there was only a dusting, if that. Nonetheless, they went out before we took molly to school to see the snow. Molly quickly brought a small handful up for miles to see. He was not impressed and wouldn't touch it because he was so cold. Molly ran inside cold before I could snap a picture of her. Sophie made her snowball and came right in also. We've got some adjusting to do to this cold air! 

      

         Sophie making her snowball

      

          Miles yelling no because he didn't want to touch the snow. 

Hard to rest

Unless we are out running errands, miles has such a hard time slowing down at home to nap. He'd much rather play and then crash about 4:30 or 5. Sometimes I purposely run errands during nap time to ensure he gets a good one. Of course that will all change when we put him in his big boy car seat. He's almost completely outgrown his infant carrier. His ability to sleep so well in it is the only thing that has kept me from switching sooner. 

He cracked me up today while trying to fall asleep for a nap. I told him he needed to lay down and close his eyes. This is what I got: 

    

    

Finally, he slept....such a sweet little face!

Kerplunk!

I found the game Kerplunk at a local thrift store in perfect condition for $1! It's the kids' favorite game right now. Even Miles loves to play. He likes to lose because it means more balls (marbles) fall when he pulls a stick. The girls are perfectly fine with this. Winning is a big deal. 

       

       

    

Funnies

Molly: my baby's name is Caroline but her nickname is carol.

Sophie: my baby's name is hosanna and her nickname is hose.

Molly: like the garden hose?

Sophie: (kinda laughing) no

        

        

Molly brought home her pizza certificate from the library for completing the summer reading program. It's for a local pizza establishment and Sophie was remembering Molly received Pizza Hut coupons for the book-it program last year. She couldn't remember the name though and kept asking when Molly was getting one from huts peas! Ha ha

Miles came upstairs carrying a ball in a pan with a spoon saying, "cook ball". He then proceeded to take the ball, place it on the spoon and play baseball.

         

    

Sophie

One of the things I love about Sophie is her usually care-free spirit. She's not overly concerned with how things look or are done. She doesn't have to do things perfectly and is okay when things don't turn out quite the way she expected (most times anyway). 

It's fun to do projects with her because of this. The other day I asked her if she wanted to do a project while miles napped. She said she wanted to make a monkey and that the monkey would have her hands and feet.  She focuses hard when cutting and her little tongue goes back and forth across her lips. It's hilarious to watch. While cutting one hand she accidently chopped off the pinky finger. She looked at me and said, "this hand just isn't going to have a pinky." I laughed out loud at the way she said this. Later she decided we should trace a new hand that had a pinky. :)

                     

Here's her finished monkey. She was so proud of it and cracking up at how silly it looks. I love that she has her own sense of creativity and enjoys the things she makes. 

                    

This is life right now...

Miles and I have been up since 6:45, the girls since 7. This. Is. Early. We are a stay up late, sleep in kind of family. I love not having to stick to a schedule of strict bedtimes and just play it day by day based on moods and what we have planned. This thing called school gets in the way of my spontaneous nights and mornings. See, if the kids just stayed little we wouldn't have to worry about this.  Anyway, Molly starts 1st grade (sniff) on Wednesday, Sophie starts preschool (sniff, sniff) next Monday, and Miles is 18 months old today (sniff, sniff, sniff). Matt switched shifts at work so he's now working overnight and sleeping during the day so I can't rely on him to take the girls to school like last year. I had it made last year. This is better though because he will be awake when Molly comes home from school and we will have evenings together like a "normal" family (if normal really exists). 

I usually don't "practice" getting up early for school. I mean, the more days I can sleep in the better but I have to transition Miles to an earlier nap time, resulting in an earlier bedtime (hopefully). So, here we are up  at 7. Everyone has showered, dressed (except Miles) and eaten breakfast by 8:10. We are in good shape to be on time to school this year assuming all mornings go as smoothly (yeah, right!). Molly hates being rushed around and told to hurry up so I'm trying to allow for plenty of "take your time" in the mornings. 

The challenge today will be keeping Miles awake until 1 which, will be almost impossible because we are meeting friends at the park later on this morning and he will probably fall asleep in the car, and keeping Sophie in good spirits without taking a nap. 

Happy Monday!