Friday, December 14, 2007

Abigail's B-day


Yesterday, was Abigail's 3rd birthday. I am so saddened at the thought of my BABY being 3 years old already. It's a bitter-sweet thing. Time has flown by so fast. I do feel so blessed to be her mommy. She is truly the sweetest little 3 year old I know. She has such a big heart. Always loving, hugging, kissing and reminding me that she loves me. She is so gentle and so kind, but yet she can stand her ground when she knows she is right. For example, the other day her 3 year old cousin Noah(he spent 4 days with us), and herself were sitting at the table eating their breakfast. I heard Abbi cough and Noah say "cover your mouth Abbi!" This immediately attracted my attention and I observed their conversation that went like this....
Abbi: [coughed]
Noah: cover your mouth Abbi!
Abbi: I DID cover my mouth!
Noah: no you didn't!
Abbi: yes I did!
Noah: no you didn't!
Abbi: yes I did!
Noah: no you didn't!
Abbi: yes I did!
Noah: no you didn't!
Abbi: yes I did!
...... a few moments of silence and Noah coughs AND covers his mouth
Abbi: cover your mouth Noah!
Noah: I did!
Abbi: no you didn't!
Noah: yes I did!
Abbi: no you didn't!
Noah: yes I did!
Abbi: no you didn't!
Noah: yes I did!
Abbi: no you didn't!
mommy: both of you... cut it out and eat your breakfast
Abbi: Well, I covered my mouth too, Noah!
LOL - she accused him of not covering his mouth, even though she seen him do it just so she can prove her point. Kinda like - what goes around comes around! Pretty smart thinking if you ask me!
She has brought us so much joy these past 3 years. I thank God for both my girls EVERYDAY! Abigail requested a "Princess Birthday Party", which we had down in Alabama, a few days after Thanksgiving while visiting my folks. She LOVED her party! She still talks about it. :) The pictures are in my Photo Album under Thanksgiving Photo's 2007. One of these days I will file them into their own folder. :)
Tonight, I am trying something I have never tried before. I have always wanted to make Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast, but never wanted to get up at 4:00 in the morning to get them started, so they will be done in time for breakfast. So they were always served as an afternoon treat. So tonight, I decided to knead up a batch. I went through the whole process until I got to the "let them rise an hour and bake". I rolled them out, cut them, set them in a pan and then put them in the refrigerator to slow down the rising process. I will get up tomorrow, let them finish rising at room temperature and then bake, all the while PRAYING this works. If it does - this will be a bad thing as I will be making them TOO OFTEN! But anyways, it will be awesome as my kiddies and hubby love them. :)
I have been thanking God daily for all the ice storms that have missed us. I do however, feel sorry for the people who didn't get missed. Jonathan and I went thru an ice storm just a little under 3 years ago. The ice came down one night and accumulated quickly. Right around 3:00 A.M. the power went out, which I was unaware of until Jonathan told me about it the next morning. However, I did realize the house was freezing cold. Abigail was just 3 weeks old so I immediately got up and started packing all of our bags. It was getting cold fast and there was no time to waste. The roads were bad and they were asking people to stay off the roads unless it was an absolute emergency. We had an emergency. A 3 week old and a 20 month old. We headed over to Columbus at my sis-in-laws, who thankfully still had power and wasn't affected near as bad as we were, and graciously shared their home with us for a week. Poor Jonathan was driving back and forth trying to take care of our house. The day after the storm, the ice started to melt. To make a long story short, (something I am not good at but I will try) since the electricity was out our sun pump underneath the house wasn't working. Water started to accumulate at an alarming rate. For some odd reason, our furnace is under the house and IT was standing in water. Jonathan was bringing water out with buckets (my poor sweetheart - it was 30 degrees outside and he was standing in ice cold water with NO rubber boots), then the neighbor offered to bring over his generator for a while. (we couldn't keep it too long as it was keeping the elderly couple warm) He brought it over a few times over the course of the next few days. (Oh yeah.. supposed to be a short story) Anyways - we thought we lost our furnace (was told that it's no good FOR SURE) .. and then we prayed. *smile - Afterward we called someone out to take a look at it and all they had to do was relight the pilot light. PRAISE GOD FOR THAT! It would have cost several thousand dollars we did NOT have to replace it. All-in-all, it turn out good, but it was a very stressful week. Something Jonathan and I never want to go thru again.
On another "cold weather note", we are under a storm watch this weekend. For the last couple of days they have been talking about a possible 4 to 6 inches of snow. Now they are talking around 12 inches of snow! Please pray with us that our electricity does not go out. The girls are both excited and looking forward to the snow again. It is supposed to start about 7 A.M. tomorrow morning but I am hoping it will hold off as I have a few errands to run first thing in the morning.
Soo.. anyways.. it's time to start up my best friend in the kitchen aka the Crockpot! I have tomorrow's supper, Chili, waiting to simmer all night. Nothing better than waking up to the smell of food, especially when you know it's that days supper, which means you can spend that time getting something else done. I love the crockpot!

Thursday, December 06, 2007

Winter Wonder Land

Today was, what I like to call "A Winter Wonder Land". I knew we were supposed to get several inches of snow throughout the night and 1 to 2 more inches throughout today. After waking up this morning and peaking though the blinds of the window that hangs just above our bed I called the girls and pulled up the blinds. "look out the window girls"! They were both in awe... Abbi said... "it's snowing"!!! and when Emma found her voice she said "I can't believe it"!!! ... and I was thinking right along the same line. It was absolutely beautiful. So after feeding daddy breakfast and seeing him off to work, the girls and I bundled up (it was their idea for me to bundle up) and went outside. I was planning on only sending the girls. It just looked so cold and it was so early, but yet they wanted to go. Soooo... our conversation went like this....

Emma: mommy, I want to get dressed and go outside
Abbi: me too!
mommy: well.. what about breakfast?
Emma and Abbi: I want to go play in the snow
mommy: o.k... y'all can play in the snow for a while and then we will have breakfast
Emma and Abbi: YYYAAYY
mommy: o.k.....let's get you dressed! Now... mommy isn't going out with you.. o.k.?
emma: why not?
mommy: because it is sooooo cold. I want to stay inside where it is warm
abbi: it's ok mommy... I will hold your hand *smile - TOO sweet!
emma: but I want you to be cold with us!! *lol

So they talked me into going out with them and I am SO glad I did. They had a BLAST and it was soooo beautiful! Yes - it is nice to watch it snow from the inside but it is also awesome to be out in it.. for a short time anyways .. until you start to loose the feelings in your nose and hands and depending on how many pairs of socks you have on.. sometimes toes too. The bad thing is it happens so fast! One second you think.. wow - it's not too bad out here and then before you know it.. WHAM - owe, owe, owe, OWE .. you can't make it in fast enough.

All-in-all, it was fun, beautiful, gorgeous and MOST importantly - my girls had a blast!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Right now it is 10.9 degrees with the windchill of 1 degree. Yes - it is time for bed and my warm blankets. Oh yes - you can see pictures of today's snow in our photo album!