Home

It was our first home together.

Ironically Brian found this one without me too (I was teaching a class in Boston).

I waddled up and down these stairs when I was pregnant.

I brought both of my babies home from the hospital to this house.

Kate

I woke up countless times in the night to trudge down the hallway and hold their soft sleepy bodies to feed them and comfort them.

Kate

Their little knees grew raw from it's carpeting while they learned to crawl.

I mopped up spills and chased our toddlers across it's hard wood floors.

Kendall

I nursed scraped knees and pulled splinters from our deck and driveway.

We've snuggled up by it's fireplace and cuddled within these walls on rainy or snowy days.

Kendall

We've sat on the front porch rocking chairs and waited for Brian. Both Kendall and Kate have raced down the front porch steps yelling, "DADDY!" to greet him.

Kate
We've worked in the kitchen and listened for the garage door to signal his return home from work.

We've lived life with all it's highs and lows.

Kendall

In just a couple of days I'll walk through these rooms, the rooms will soon be completely empty of all our furniture but will still hold the signs and memories of our life here. I know that I will be sad to leave it. But what I've found is that "Home" is where he is, it is where we are together, where we laugh and cry and love together and I'm excited to create our next home together.

So She Says

Today after nap time we met Jennie at the mall to spend a little time together. We found ourselves in Pottery Barn Kids where Kendall became enamored with this dollhouse. I was excited to see her loving it because I had already thought that this would be a fantastic Christmas gift that both girls will play with.

Tonight we went to CJ's soccer game. On the way out we passed a port-a potty and Kendall asked if that was a dirty bathroom (she was remembering a traumatic experience we had at another soccer game) and I confirmed that yes, it was a dirty port-a-potty. I could tell she was thinking about something the whole way to the car and then she said, "Why is it a dirty poot-a-potty" Gosh I love that girl. Natalie, one of the soccer players little sisters, hung out with Kendall and read books to her during the game and Kendall kept calling her "Add-a-lady" I will miss these mispronunciations when she gets bigger!

Our Evening

Speaking of reading lots of blogs. Jennie also drew my attention to this set (on the Nothing Fancy blog) that I plan on making with my fabric scraps.

This week while we were at Lorie's house I saw these and she sent them home with me. I envision leaving little love notes in them for my girls. Today Kendall was playing with them and I taught her how you put the flag up when you want the mail lady to take your mail. Later we had this conversation:

Me: At our new house we can put one in your room and one in Kate's room then you can leave mail for her and she can leave mail for you.

Kendall: Kate's a mail lady?

Me: Uh no, but you can send each other mail.

Kendall: okay.

Oh and I guess beading is exhausting. I went in the living room to tell it was time to go up for nap and I found her like this.

Tonight my super girlfriend Karin invited us over for dinner. She made a great Shepard's Pie, so good! I have the greatest friends ever, I can't believe I only have one more week with them before we move!

Staying Busy

This morning we did a little beading. This beading set is made by Melissa and Doug (my favorite toy maker) from Kendall's Aunt Lin.

Kate was stringing too. Well, she was tasting more then actually stringing.

I like this next picture, it's like she is saying, "Look what I did mom!"

Then one of them fell under the table.

She decided it was a good place to rest.

After stringing the beads we played with the plastic lid and then did a little sorting.

So that was about 15 minutes of our day, now to find activities for the rest of it!

New Discoveries

We've had a few new discoveries in our house.

Jennie introduced me to this site simplemom.net and I love it. I plethora of good information. My current obsession is her Home Management Notebook series, I use something like this already but it will be tweaked to include some of her PDF (free, downloads) once were all settled in at our new house.

I also have discovered the goodness that is Google. Not the search engine but their email (I opened a new Gmail account) and I encourage everyone I know to open their own Gmail account so that we can chat live online (instant messaging) this will be especially useful once we move to Paris. Also on Google I started using their calendar system. In the past I have always preferred handwritten datebooks to electronic ones but I like this system and I can give other people (currently only Brian) access to it so he will see when our appointments are as well as see my meal plan for the week if he ever wants to know what we are having for dinner (see how Simple Mom uses this system here). I also have it set up to send emails one week prior to family birthdays so hopefully I will start getting cards in the mail to loved ones for once in my life.

Finally in Google I've also started using their Reader program. I admittedly have a list of blogs that I like to read--mainly crafty ladies that I like to get ideas or recipes from. However, searching through the blogs is such a time waster when a lot of them don't update daily. With the Reader program you add in all the websites that you visit and when you open the Reader site it shows all the updated blog posts on one screen. Now you don't have to visit each individual blog site! Love that!

Here at home I love to discover Kendall's organizing.

The girls discovered the race car at Lowes and it was such an enjoyable trip because they just "drove" around the whole place. Even better they were both sitting comfortably in the cart so everyone was contained nicely.

They also discovered bubble baths for the first time.

More Craftiness and Playing

While I watered our grass the girls decided that swimsuits were unnecessary.

Kendall and I altered this cheese container. She doesn't know it but this is for her on our trip. I put envelopes, cards, "stamps" (stickers) and a pen in it. I originally had them all in a Ziploc but when I finished off the cheese today I noticed the cute box and thought it would be perfect.

A Recipe and other stuff

This is a recipe I put on the blog before I added the "In the Kitch" category. I just want to point out the link for those of you that haven't tried it. It's yummy and a Chick household favorite.

Caramelized Chicken Breasts

Today we spent the morning babysitting the Sprout Spot kids.

Here is Anna demonstrating safe sandbox playing techniques. Please note the safety head gear.

I wonder if Brian taught her this, you all remember his safety sink plunging gear don't you? Here, let me remind you.

I created a special parking spot for Nathan and labeled it "Mr Roboto Parking Only"

Kendall and Anna decided that the garden gnome (or as Kendall calls him, "Santa") needed a little color. I hear that Nathan is going to be disappointed at the gnome defilement, he has a real affinity for concrete yard statues. Hmm, that would be a great going away present for him, a collection of concrete yard statues. I wonder if they make robot yard ornaments?

Set Our Circus Down

Tonight we got home from a GREAT photo shoot (I may show pictures later, or I may save them for gifts) kind of late and I COULD NOT find Kate's paci. After some frantic searching I tried my luck and just put her down without it. Now it's almost two hours later and I still haven't heard a single peep out of her....she went to sleep....without crying. What have I been waiting for? I realize I'm not out of the woods yet but still, I'm estatic!



I found these Tim McGraw song lyrics in my Inbox tonight, from a very cute and sweet husband of mine. I love that man.

Sometimes this road, it just keeps winding
Round and round and back again
But you've always kept me smiling
Over every hill, round every bend
Baby you're the one smiling with me when the sun comes up
I got the wheel, you got the map and that's enough

And we go rolling down this highway
Chasing all our crazy dreams
I've gone your way and you've gone my way
And everywhere in between
One of these days we'll find a piece of ground
Just outside of some sleepy little town
And set this circus down

Sometimes I lie awake just thinking
Of all the horizons we have seen
And as another day is sinking
I thank God you're here with me '
Cause baby you're the one laughing with me when the sun goes down
Living on faith and holding on tight to the love we found

And we go rolling down this highway
Chasing all our crazy dreams
I've gone your way and you've gone my way
And everywhere in between
One of these days we'll find a piece of ground
Just outside of some sleepy little town
And set this circus down

And set this circus down
Maybe one of these days, gonna set this circus down
Set this circus down

Discovery Jar

I've continued on my quest to have supremely entertained kids on our drive to the new house. Today I made this discovery jar. I collected various treasures. This part was easy because I mentioned to Lorie what I was making and she gathered a whole lot of jewels for us, gotta love her. The timing was perfect for this project because last night I finished off the popcorn kernels so I had an empty plastic jar with a lid. I poured in our treasures, added sand about 3/4 of the way in and super glued the lid on. Now the girls can twist, turn and shake shake shake it to find all of the buried goodness.

If you have older kids you can create a list (words or pictures) of things to find and tie it on the bottle.

I Spy Little Helpers

We're having a good day today. Kendall slept in, of course I woke up early and repeatedly checked on her to make sure she was alive. The girls entertained themselves (okay there was some TV watching going on, oh the shame) while I cleaned the entire house. Now they are both napping and I've done a little bit of prepping for our drive to the new house. I'm creating little activity bags for Kendall, one is a collage bag with safety scissors, glue stick, paper and some pre-cut shapes, another has pipe cleaners and bead for stringing and I will make a felt board with shapes for another. What I'm most excited about is our personalized "I Spy" book. I took 7 pictures of groupings of our toys and I have ordered two of each picture. I'm going to make a little book (paper stapled or otherwise bound together) with the picture on the right side and I'll cut individual items from the second picture to glue on the left side of the page so she can 'find' those items. I think she will love it. She likes the real I Spy books so I think she will love recognizing our own things. My only fear is that she will spy something that she wants and I wont have it with us, ha.

The Blahs

Just some pictures today. I'm tired and a little overwhelmed by everything right now. I'm going to try to go to bed early and sleep it off!

Kendall decided to wear her new pajamas after nap and didn't take them off. So soft and sweet despite the cartoon characters all over them.











Such a sweet snuggler, I squatted down to take her picture and she came over for a little squeeze.