13 degrees

Uggh!!  Yesterday was 13 degrees (the high), what do I even say??  In an attempt to occupy the girls, namely, Ms. Jessie we did a manicure/pedicure on each of us & we actually changed her color twice, finally settling on blue polish with purple sparkle for her fingernails.  Despite the fact it was so cold, of course, Jessie was wearing nothing but undies around the house.  I don't know how she stands it, as I was cold even in a turtle neck, jeans, & another sweatshirt.  She takes after the father in that way :)  Jessie was pretty proud of her nails, so she let me take a few candids.  We watched Cinderella while Ella napped & played her new princess go fish game, you know the one, where the little "fish" go around in a circle & you have to catch them with a pole when they open their mouths.  She's gotten pretty good with it and actually almost beat me yesterday, of course, I was trying to multitask & do laundry/start dinner while playing so I guess that's why my # of fish wasn't higher (at least that's what I tell myself...haha).  She's still lethargic from her flu, but definitely much better.  Not much else to report from this frozen land, which is my home.  Here's hoping we break 20 today!  Hope you all have a great day :)

So intense watching Cinderella

This is now the face I get when I ask her to smile, gotta work on that one

Decisions, decisions, which color to choose??

Trying out a different white balance technique to get better skin tones inside, what do you guys think??

Pretty proud of her blue fingernails with purple sparkle over the top

A little happiness.....

A glimpse of happiness from our Jessie girl who has been suffering through a terrible flu.  This bit of happiness....courtesy of none other than the grandparents :)  Look at her expression in the new Cinderella mouse ears.  She's pretty excited as you can see.  I must admit it made me happy to see her back to herself, if just for a few moments.  Thankful that she is on the mend enough to even get up to play, a few days ago, that was not the case.  Enjoy a few candids of our little girl in her princess ears & have a great day!

Little love

Still recuperating, but had to share these two of Ms. Ella in her Valentine's outfit.  I picked up these matching skirt/shirt sets at Walmart for next to nothing.  I have a photo shoot planned with both girls, but since Jessie is still sick & I'm not doing that hot either, Ella will dominate the blog for the next week or so...as she is the more cooperative of the two :)  Valentine's will be especially sweet with this little one!  Planning on getting the girls a little Valentine's treat from us this year.  Probably some candy & a little gift of some sort, but we will see.  I dislike indoor photos, as I really just feel I can never get that depth of color that I get outside, but when it's 20 degrees, you gotta do what you gotta do!  I know the grandma's will like these, so here you go Grandmas...here's your little love bug :)

Yep, that's a red heart sucker...I will use bribery if I must :)

Fog

**Still sick in our home, but much better; had this post in my drafts, enjoy!**

The other day as the snow was melting & our weather was dramatically warming up...we had lots of fog!!  I mean seriously, it looked weird outside.  I couldn't resist taking a few pics of this strange weather, oh and some of Ella also, who was out anyway playing in the mud puddles that were abundant thanks to the 6 inches of melting snow.  Enjoy & have a great day!

Couldn't resist playing around with different white balance settings, this spot would be great for a photo op....alas it did not work out the day I saw the fog

Created my own preset in Lightroom for some of these to give it sort of a light/airy look, what do you think??

Of course, a dance broke out!

I think my preset, looks pretty cool with the fog :)

I thought it was very cool looking

20 months

What can I say about Ms. Ella at 20 months old?  Funny & very busy.  She's got a mind of her own & can really throw a tantrum if she doesn't get what she wants.  She keeps us smiling, always laughing with the biggest belly laugh & so ticklish we can hardly put lotion on her feet.  She definitely wants to be my little helper also, and I often have 2 little ones fighting over little chores to do, like putting laundry in the washer & dryer or wiping up things off the floor.  Ella also seems to have inherited my OCD & just can not stand for toys, books, or clothing to be out of place.  She will get so upset until things are back in their rightful place.  She also really dislikes it when the baby proof locks on my kitchen cabinets are not locked, she will stand there & try to lock them all herself, finally, giving up & yelling until we put them back together.  She loves the dish washer & would crawl right in if we let her.  If she's not running through the house naked screeching or laughing as loud as she can, she's sitting at the island in the kitchen eating (a lot)!  She really only sits in her high chair if she's really hungry & just wants to get business done.  She's wild!!  She can now climb up on our bed & jump around like a little monkey.  Often, she and her sisssy like to do this while making monkey noises.  She is finally patient enough to sit through most books & we spend a good amount of our days reading books.  She especially likes when I point to something & she tells me what the object is. Her vocabulary continues to amaze me, we are continuing to work on her colors, she's got purple down, but the others are hit & miss depending on the day.  She can count to 3, which I think is pretty good.  Her hair continues to be curly in back & the front has gotten so long we must put a little piggy tail in it everyday to keep it out of her face or put a bow in, which may or may not last.  She loves to carrying one of my old purses around & will tell us bye-bye as she totes it around the house.  She also loves to pretend to talk on the phone, she almost always says it's Dada on the phone when asked, but sometimes it's one of her babies or one of her stuffed animals.  She likes baby dolls a lot more than Jessie.  She also likes getting dressed up for church or for anything really.  One of her favorite jobs is to help me get the mail, I hold her up to grab the mail from the mailbox & then she always gets to carry a non-important letter to the kitchen & put it on the counter.  Although, the allergy medication seems to have helped, she still continues to wake at night or early morning...going for a test for cat allergy as soon as everyone is well enough around here for that just to be sure she isn't allergic to Kitty Jenkins (that's kind of aside, but thought I'd put it in for the grandparents).  She enjoys art & has become quite the little finger painter.  She's the trouble maker in the bath & really gets splashing at night.  Despite the fact, it makes a huge mess, she laughs so hard & it is kind of funny!  If you ask her how she slept when you go to get her from the night or a nap she always says "good".  We are slowly working on potty training & she does wear cotton training pants a good amount of time throughout the day.  She has had several totally dry afternoons & some progress with #2, but it truly seems to come more easily to her than it did with Jess, so I'm not worried (probably, because I have a better idea of what I'm doing :).  That's about all I can think of to update everyone on our little girl, can't believe she'll be 2 in May--where did the last year go, it seems like a few weeks ago I was planning her 1st birthday.  Enjoy a few snapshots of our little darling from yesterday & have a great day!

Snow day play

Thankfully, it has warmed up here a bit & it's truly a welcome relief to be able to get outside.  A few days ago when things were beginning to melt, the girls and I went out to explore the yard & neighborhood.  They walked so far & then had fun playing in the yard.  Here's a few candids of them playing, oh, to be a kid again & to enjoy the simple things!

P.S.  They did both have on gloves at one point, but always insist on taking them off in order to eat snow.  Any other moms with me, you dislike the eating of snow??  I just think it's probably so dirty, it bothers me that they eat it.  My mom is probably laughing at me seeing as how we would make "snow cream" when I was a kid & I seemingly turned out ok.  Also, if it looks like Jessie has marker on her face, she does, she really gets into her art!

I think this will be one of my favorites from winter this year