Icy Day

OK so this a totally random pic that doesn't belong with the post...but I had no where to put it and I think it's so cute. About a month ago, Hannah found this little bug in our entry way and the girls were mesmerized. Here's the result :)

Our Icy Day...

The freezing rain started yesterday afternoon and I'm not sure if it's stopped yet. My agency was closed today and Chris cancelled his clients so we spent a cozy day at home with our daughters. Here are a few pics of our adventures...

Madeline ready to go slippin and slidin

Enjoying an icicle

Hannah wasn't too sure about walking on the icy ground

Defrosting and eating raisins

Madeline eating a bowl of snow

These are some of my FAVORITE PICS!! Madeline and I mixed a batch of homemade cinnamon rolls this evening. And then Hannah pulled up a stool to get in on the action. The girls were eating flour (yuck!) and loving it.

Mini Vacation...

On Friday, we were so pleased to receive an invitation to join our friends for a trip to their parents house on Lake Eufala. I did a miserable job of taking pictures but we had a wonderful time! We arrived late Friday night and the kids stayed up until about 11:00 playing like crazy. My girls were up bright and early Saturday morning and we filled the day with meals, more play time and a trip down to the lake. Kathy - I stole some of your pics from facebook to add to my sorry collection of memories :)

Baby Rylee really likes Madeline, she smiles every time Madeline comes near.

Ed and Chris took Madeline and Gunner on a golf cart ride to the other side of the lake. If you look really closely, you can see tiny Madeline in her yellow coat and tiny Gunner to the right of her.

Hannah warming up from our trip down to the dock

Breakfast of champions - powdered sugar donuts and blueberries!
Amazing that we got all 4 children in one pic!! L to R: Gunner, Madeline, Rylee and HannahMadeline holding Rylee - my girls are absolutely enthralled with babies!
Ed, Gunner, Rylee and Kathy

Madeline, Jen, Chris and Hannah

Madeline modeling...

Madeline picked out her outfit and made a specific request for her hair this day. Lately she's been running from the camera. But she was so proud of her carefully planned look that she decided to grant me a photo shoot. Grey turtleneck with metallic threads, dark skinny jeans, Target "ugs" My cutie!! I love her!!

Sweet Celebration...

January 3rd was the 7th anniversary of my mom's entrance to Heaven!

Some day I'm going to create a post about my mom. She was (and is) an amazing woman with a loving heart and a deep down joy that was evident to everyone around her. I miss her so much and I passionately look forward to seeing her again in our eternal home.

I've found creative ways to teach Madeline about her Mimi and I look forward to carrying this on with Hannah when she's old enough to understand. Though Madeline has never seen her Mimi, she "knows" her and loves her and looks forward to meeting her one day.

On January 3rd, I was talking with Madeline about the day that Mimi went to Heaven, and her first response was "We should make a cake!!!". What a lovely idea from a lovely girl! Madeline knows the pink breast cancer awareness ribbon as "mimi's ribbon" so of course we had to decorate with it. Below are some picks of our cake. While Madeline and I iced the cake, Hannah enjoyed rubbing peanut butter and bananas all over her face. I'm going to post a video too...it's obviously staged but Madeline is cute in it.

Mimi's Cake from jen giles on Vimeo.

Hannah's Trick (15 mos old)

This video is old - this happened in October. But it's one of my favorite videos of Hannah. None of us taught her to do this - she just went through a phase where she was making herself burp on demand. It was SO funny! Watch her eyebrows, that's the funniest part to me. She was about 15 months old here.


Hannah Burping from jen giles on Vimeo.