Learning so much

Raegan has always been fascinated with learning new things. She walked early, talked early, tries so hard to read, and now she really wants to write. At 2 1/2, she just hasn't been able to master it. We have been practicing and practicing her tracing skills for a while, but today was the first time she was really able to trace what I was writing. And of course, I just had to show off her work. We worked on a couple of easy letters and as you can see, she was very into it.Here were her best attempts at the letter A. She had a little help with the 3rd "A" but the rest of them she did all by herself. Not too bad for a 2 1/2 year old!

This was the one she thought was the best. (not sure why)

She tried an M to, and it turned out way better than I expected.

After writing her letters, she decided to draw daddy a picture. I don't think she meant for it to look like a big smiley face, but that's what I thought it looked like. And Clara, I don't know if you can tell or not, but the only color that Raegan uses is pink! Must be a girl thing :)

"Berry" happy

I loved this sweet little moment of Raegan and Drew sitting together on their mini couch. They both love this thing, but usually prefer to have the whole thing to themselves. With no naps for either of them today ( Yep, you heard me NO NAPS...AAAHHH!) neither seemed to care or notice that they were actually sharing. (BTW, they were both sound asleep by 8:00)

And here is Drew enjoying his absolute favorite food on earth... Blackberries. All I can say is, I'm thankful that someone invented oxyclean because that's the only thing I've found to take out blackberry stains.

He would just about eat his weight in these things if I'd let him.

As you can see, he's not the neatest eater, so even with bibs we always need lots of oxyclean! At least it's a healthy food. I'm not gonna complain that it just happens to be one of the most staining foods!

More SNOW!

Once again we had LOTS of snow this weekend. I think we ended up with a total of about 7 or 8 inches. I'm about ready for warmer weather, but at least this year we've had lots of fluffy snow to make the cold days more fun. Since we weren't able to get out to go to church, Tony took Raegan outside to go sleigh riding. I was afraid it was a little too cold, but 21 degree temps didn't stop these two. Once Drew went down for his nap, I joined them and we had lots of fun. Tony and I felt like kids again (although Tony had a few sore muscles from pulling Raegan back up the hill so much) She lasted over an hour outside, and even cried when we made her come in for a late lunch and to warm up.

Here she is getting ready to go down. She has gotten much braver and loves to go down all by herself.

There she goes. And here is Daddy flying past her.

They almost wrecked this time.

And thus, they journey back up the hill to do it all over again.

The "Queen Bee" enjoying the ride up as much as the ride down.

One of the highlights was watching the scrapper truck that FINALLY came to scrape our neighborhood.

You can see we usually ended up in our neighbors ditch at the bottom of the hill.And of course we Roop Girls never miss a chance to smile for the camera.

If it has to be cold I'd prefer to have snow with it, but boy will I be ready for springtime! Hopefully just a few more weeks :)

Baby Jenna is here!

Raegan's little buddy Ryan is officially a new Big Brother. I'm not sure exactly how he feels about his new status, but I can guarantee that he will adjust quickly. Jenna Madison Kidd was born Thursday, Feb 19 at 3:26. She is such a cutie with a head full of black hair, blue eyes, and the cutest little button nose. She looks just like her brother did when he was this size. We finally got to visit tonight, and I couldn't believe how much Raegan just loved this little baby. All she wanted to do was hold her. She surprised us all, and actually sat still for 15 minutes just holding her very carefully. I wasn't allowed to hold her though. Raegan kept saying, "no mama, it's my turn, it's not your turn yet."

She would just stare at her, and rub her little cheek. I couldn't believe how sweet she was with her. I'm just wondering how long that sweetness will last.We went over the rules of handling a baby before we got there, and that she was only to kiss Jenna's head... not square on the lips like she prefers :) Looks like she listened.She even tried her hand at feeding her. I think she would make a fine little helper if we had another baby (don't roll your eyes Tony!)

"Are you sure I'm doing this right?"

Drew, on the other hand wanted nothing to do with Jenna. He didn't really seem jealous, just like he didn't even really know she was there. Maybe he isn't ready to give up his "baby" status.

This makes quite the family portrait. This poor little girl doesn't stand a chance with our rowdy bunch :) This one is pretty sweet of all of them. Again, Drew wanted nothing to do with this baby stuff so he didn't make it in the picture. Michael may be wondering if he can talk Lisa into just one more... then again maybe NOT!

After the novelty of Jenna wore off, Raegan and Ryan finally had a little fun. I don't think this little bike was really built for two though.

Ryan almost seems to be saying "Miss Amy, can't that baby just go home with you?!" Actually, he isn't really amazed with Baby Jenna, but he is very sweet with her. He always asks what she is doing and why she is making noises. He is gonna be a good big brother.

Silliness

This is what we have been doing a lot of at my house over the past few days... resting. Raegan had Impetigo (a form of strep) and Drew had Strep. Needless to say, no one was sleeping much at night, and they both ran fevers for several days. We must have just gotten too much sunshine and fresh air in our lungs when we had all that pretty weather :-) This was on Friday night and they were trying to stay awake (until 8:30) to finish watching the Bee Movie. Another one of Drew's problems is that he was cutting another tooth. So far he only has 4 teeth, and every time he gets one he is cranky for at least 2 weeks. I've never seen so much trouble just trying to cut a tooth. He chews on everything in site though.

We did manage to have a little fun when fevers were down. School is one of our favorite things to play. Raegan and Drew both sit at the little table and we have "lessons". Raegan usually tries to learn a new Bible verse, or recite an old one, then she will "read" book after book to Drew. It's pretty cute!

She was really into this book.

And here she is off the school. She had her book bag packed and was ready to go. Who knew all you needed for school was a stuffed hippopotamus and a mini Bible :)

And yes, when we get really crazy, we put on our marching band "hats" and just act goofy.

Is she cute or what?

The airplane game is always a fun thing to play. Raegan always wants me to do it with just one foot though... I'm gonna have to work out a little more to pull that off!

Snow days

Cabin fever seems to set in every day we can't get outside at least for a little while. We were so happy to get to play in the snow last week. Nine inches of snow on Thursday, but today we got out in 64 degree weather without hats and coats at the playground. Quite the change of pace, but as long as it involves getting outside, we don't care. Anyway, we did make snow angels and a Frosty the Snowman. Here is our lovely Frosty. His face and buttons didn't last too long after we let the dogs outside. Everything was edible, and just too tempting for them not to eat. We did get a cute picture with him.

Swinging in the snow.

Our little buddy Ryan came over and played. Raegan was taking Ryan's order so she could cook him something in her little playhouse.

I just thought this was a cute little picture of the two of them.

On the days it is either too cold or too wet, we have to entertain ourselves in other ways. Raegan just LOVES cooking in the kitchen, and one of the easiest things to make is cupcakes. We made cute little heart cakes to decorate on Friday.

For these 3 little cakes, Raegan used an entire bottle of sprinkles. Check out the mound of sugary goodness.

She doesn't actually eat the cake, but can scarf down lots of icing and sprinkles.

That's a lot of sprinkles!

Drew just gets a plain cupcake. We figure that's about as much sugar as he need right now. He doesn't seem to mind.There are only crumbs left when Drew gets a hold of a cupcake. It's a nice little treat after a long day cooped up. I'm gonna be ready for spring time this year!

Back in action

After a Wonderful weekend away from my children, I'm back in mama action. As much as I LOVE being a stay-at-home mom, I needed this little break from the feeding/wiping/dressing/diapering/hugging/creating world of motherhood. I went to visit my old college roommates in Virginia Beach and to attend a baby shower for one of them. It was a little more rushed than I would have liked, but I loved having a little time just to be me again.

That said, I am SOOOO happy to be back home with my family. My sweet husband cared for our kids (and even took them to a Cinderella dress-up B-day party) and I couldn't be more grateful. I missed them like crazy though. I seem to appreciate the little things that my kids do and say even more now. So today instead of following our daily schedule, I put Drew down for a nap and let Raegan skip nap time. She and I headed outside to play in the snow. We went sledding, had a snow ball fight, attempted to build a snow man, made snow angels and chased the dogs with fist-fulls of snow. It was SO much fun, and even though she is a little cranky this evening... it was so worth it. I didn't even bother with the camera, but instead just had fun with my daughter. Sorry I don't have pictures though.

I did want to share a funny little story with you from last night. To set the stage a little, Raegan has been doing her best to stay up as long as possible these days. She used to go to bed without a fuss, but now she will come up with any excuse to get out of bed. Anyway, last night she had been in bed for about 15 minutes and then starts saying she needs to poop. I figured it was a scam, but I let her up and indeed she did some business on the potty. As I was tucking her back in, this is our conversation:

Raegan: "I don't want to go back to bed, I just want to stay up with you"

Mama: (thinking I would outsmart her) "Shhh, you should be quiet. We don't want to wake up your baby doll."

R: (Sitting up and looking very confused) "This baby right here?"

M: "Yes"

R: "Thats funny, I was just talking to her a minute ago. Wonder when she fell asleep?"

AHH, the imagination of a 2 1/2 year old. It's very refreshing!