go big or go home. or something like that

Christopher, being the amazing dad that he is, had this great idea. He wanted to build the girls an indoor play house. He's a genius because its too cold to play outside most days and Lorelei and Addison are at such a fun make believe sort of age. They make houses out of anything they can while taking turns being mommy and baby. They play house together every day and its the sweetest thing.

My only problem with the play house is that it has to be in one of the common areas of the house. I don't know why, but toys in living areas really irritate me. No, I mean, it really irritates me. I'm growing though. Or at least I think I am.. or I think I want to grow. I'm not completely sure yet. However it needs to be said, I decided to just go for it. I'm going to let there be toys and kid things downstairs and I'm going to be okay with it. To show my full commitment to change and get over my ridiculousness, I decided to embrace the concept of 'go big or go home'.

So here you have a few pictures of the enormous house that now takes up a giant chunk of otherwise useless space on the far side of our living room.

Christopher did a great job building the frame so I would have something to base measurements off of

Helping me figure out the best way to sew it together during one of the 'phases' of creation

Finally starting to look like a house!

Here it is basically finished, complete with sky lights and all. Their little kitchen fits inside with plenty of room to spare for little chairs, table, baby doll stuff. You name it.

We had to move the Christmas tree out of the way to set it up where we needed it to go. The fun part is that I am going to have the girls help me make accessories to velcro to the outside, like flowers and bushes, and whatever else they want. Felt is one of the most kid friendly fabrics everywhere and I know they will love decorating the outside as well as the inside with all the fun little pieces we will come up with. I'll be sure to post those pictures as well.

With the freezing temperatures outside, we spend a lot of time indoors. Lately the girls' favorite thing to do is build with their soft blocks. These are the greatest blocks ever! They're made of a really cool foam, and the girls Love them. We got them from Johnny and Catherine a long time ago, and boy have them come in handy. They love for Christopher to build them all sorts of towers and castles for them to play with. Granted, I think they love knocking the blocks down more than anything else.

thanks Grandma Archer!

Grandma Archer got the girls an adorable little porcelain tea set. The best part was that it came with special paint for them to decorate the pieces with however they wanted. The project was a little mature for the girls, but they had a great time all the same.

I wasn't able to get very many pictures because my flash wasn't working well enough. We put the tea set up for a while until the girls are a little older since it was very breakable. But they did a great job painting each piece (inside and out!). Plus, they hardly painted the table or themselves at all, so I was pretty happy. :)

hypothetically...

Chris can't have babies. But for the sake of this post we're going to play the hypothetic game. Hypothetically, let's say he could have babies. And since it's a game, lets go a little further and say he could have them all by himself without using any one else's genetic material. Do you know what that hypothetical child would look like?

(keep scrolling)

Lorelei Jade

She looks just like her daddy, and I ♥ that. When we were first talking about our future and kids, Christopher always said he wanted girls. I wanted kids that looked just like him. God is good.

it's a serious thing

We went to dinner the other night at Chik-Fil-A. Well, Chic-O'lay, if you ask Addison to say it. The girls each got ice cream and I snapped these pics on my phone real fast. I think they turned out so funny. Lorelei wasn't posing and had no idea I was taking a picture. Every time I look at her face I laugh. She's so serious about her ice cream.

This picture was taken with the hipstamatic app on my phone. I pointed my phone in her direction and tried to get her to smile. Instead she burst into tears.

bella bella

you know how there are those dogs who don't realize they're dogs? here's one. she thinks she's Christopher's only love and priority. anywhere he is, she goes. when he's not home, she settles for me. but as soon as he pulls into the driveway, she's at the door, tail wagging, barely containing her excitement. if she had to choose one way to spend every moment of every day for the rest of her life; this would be it.

seriously.. i love them.

Okay, so clearly I don't have many pictures of the girls and I. That's hard to accomplish when I'm the one always taking pictures. We were watching a movie a short while ago, and Christopher grabbed the camera and snapped this little shot.

Know what I see when I look at this? Two really big girls that used to be sooo tiny. I used to carry them both around while I was delivering boxes at work. I could not possibly imagine trying to do that with as tall as they are now!

Even though this was just a few weeks ago, Addison has grown substantially since then. I just can't believe it. I think I'll just go back and look at tiny baby pictures now.

barbie dot com

The other day Lorelei came and sat next to me while I was online. She asked, "Mom, could you please go to Barbie-dot-com? I want to look at all the Barbies."

Tete Becca taught her all about that particular dot-com while she was here visiting. They spent hours pouring over all the different fancy Barbies. Even Addison got in on the Barbie action. Such sweet time they spent together.

Yes, those are underwear on Lorelei's head. Don't ask. I have no answers. :)

snail mail

Lorelei and Addison LOVE getting mail. Their friends across the street always get cards and letters and little care packages from their grandma, so naturally Lorelei assumes her grandma will send her things as well. She couldn't be more right! They feel so grown up when they each get their own little cards addressed to them. When I checked the mail and handed them each their envelopes, Lorelei exclaimed in a much too highly energetic voice, "I just knewwww my Grandma would send me mail. I just KNEW it!"

They keep everything they get in the mail like its worth diamonds. Often times, I'll find them up in their room admiring their cards and pictures together and I just smile because these two little girls are so loved.

so if anyone wants to make their day, just send them a little piece of snail mail.

oh boy.. i mean, girl.. i mean.. whatever.

When first talking about marriage and family, Chris and I differed greatly in one area. Children. Not so greatly that one of us wanted 8, and the other didn't want any. Basically, I wanted two boys. He, on the other hand, wanted two girls.

I wanted boys because I wanted to stay as far away from the prissy girl thing as I could. Dress up and dollies didn't sound fun at all. Plus the hair and bows, shoes and dresses. Then later the PMS and all that glory. Not to mention, girls are generally less tough and resilient than boys are. I wanted kids that could fall and not be phased. I wanted children that could take whatever came their little tiny way. Wrestling, bloody noses, black eyes- all those things were way less intimidating to me than all the 'ish' that comes with little girls.

Clearly, God loves Christopher more than He loves me. Okay, that's potentially untrue. Maybe God just knows me more than I know myself. Either way, clearly we have two very tiny little females running our lives.

I wouldn't have it any other way. Wanna know why? Because very often, I am reminded that God gave me a very comical dose of what I had desired in a family. Sure, Lorelei and Addison, in their slight little frames, are very girlie and enjoy dressing up and playing house with the prissiest of them all. Yet somehow, at the very same time, they are rough, rowdy, competitive, and physical. While the scales of estrogen and testosterone lean heavily towards the feminine side, they are by no means delicate.

I realized this comical little 'gift' from God a while ago when Addison's finger got cut off, and she was left with exposed bone under an entire arm bandage while we waited to see how it would grow back. One evening a couple of days after the finger incident, Lorelei and Addison were running through the house tackling each other. That's right, just running and tackling over and over and over. Of course bumped heads and bloody noses ensued. I still couldn't get them to stop! I felt like I had two teenage boys instead of one and two year old little girls.

Things haven't changed one bit. Another of their favorite games is pulling each other off the couch by their ankles as fast as they can. Lorelei grabs Addison's feet, says "Addison, let me help you!", and goes running the other direction, causing Addison to slam onto the floor hitting not only her little tushy, but her head. They have a good laugh and switch. They run around playing chase. Instead of tagging, they push or punch. They always think all these games are hilarious, and believe you me, we do NOT encourage this.

Today they were playing 'crazy dancing'. They hold hands, jump, spin, and wiggle all around until one of them falls from dizziness or trips, yanking the other down on top of them. Well, today's game didn't end so funny as Lorelei's elbow let out a loud pop and she was suddenly not laughing. She said her arm hurt, so I had her sit on the couch and relax for a while. She couldn't move it without the assistance of her other hand, and each time she tried, more tears would come.

I gave it some time and finally decided to head to the doctors since she was still in tears. At the mention of going to the doctors, she said she felt fine. Clever. I asked her to show me she was fine by doing a jumping jack. Her eyes got big and she emphatically shook her head no. With that, we went to have her checked out. Every time the doctor moved her arm or put pressure on it, her eyes welled up with big tears, but she refused to cry there. She patiently sat there with tears in her eyes, breathing deeply until they were done. She was so grown up.

After X-rays and two different doctors examining her, they deemed her arm just severely sprained. I am so thankful that's all it is. So is she. While there waiting for the X-Ray tech to call us back, she asked, "Mom, can I be done being brave now and go home?". I think she was afraid she'd have to get a shot. When I finally convinced her that wouldn't be needed she perked up quite a bit.

Lorelei is a little trooper. I love this little girl so much.