Today we woke up and walked to the park. We met up with the Schwarz family and had a really fun time. The weather wasn’t as nice as I had hoped for, but it was enough to get us out and about. This evening we went to church, but I left Zoey Belle at home because her teething seemed to get the best of her.

At class, Hadley announced that her daddy’s name is Eric and her mommy’s name is babe. I couldn’t stop laughing about that. We had caught a ride to church with Jenna and the kids and on our way home Jenna decided to swing through McDonald’s and get the kids ice cream cones. It was a good idea in theory, but Hadley always makes a mess. It was pretty fun to watch the kids enjoy their treats though.

This week has already started to pass us by. Sunday was a busy day. Eric had friends over to help him work on his upcoming film project and I took the girls to church. They were very well behaved and it was a breeze. I really enjoyed how well mannered the girls were and the fact that everyone wanted to help with Zoey, so that made it super easy too. We got home and the girls and I cuddled and watched some movies and just hung out and played. We also baked brownies and just had a fun afternoon together.

On Monday we were lazy. We played and rough-housed and giggled a lot. It was one of those days where nothing gets done, but it sure was fun. We did go get groceries though in the afternoon, and Hadley was a big helper. She even carried in the bags for me.

Today we got up and went to a play date with two kids from church. They have one little girl that is Hadley’s age, and a little boy who is Zoey’s age. They kids had fun playing and the adults got to have some nice adult conversation. We came home and got lunch going and spent the lunch hour with Eric and rested a bit in the early afternoon. Once Zoey Belle woke up from her nap we got some of our chores done and then headed outside to enjoy our spring weather. Zoey Belle had a blast. Hadley apparently takes digging in the dirt and moving dirt very seriously. I didn’t take many pictures of her because she was so focused she didn’t have time for my shenanigans. Zoey Belle is loving climbing on things and had a great time going down the slide. She got it figured out at the end and learned to lean forward so she didn’t just fall backwards as soon as she went down. She even figured out how to scootch herself up to get down the slide.

Zoey Belle is pretty much out of control.

Walking has given her the ability to get to almost everything. The fact that genetics gave her arms like her father does the rest. Her favorite things are turning off the tv and shutting off my computer. It’s a blast. She also enjoys taking off on dead sprints, tripping, landing flat on her chest and then looking up and smiling at anyone who’s looking.

Hadley is being quite bi-polar lately. She can be so good and then she just hits the switch and completely loses her mind. Linds took the girls to the mom’s bible study this morning and Hadley was great, until it was time to go home. She demanded to get a drink, refused to listen to her mom and ignored all cues. Sometimes it gets frustrating, but we know we just need to stay consistent with her. One thing that’s nice is that most of the time she’s good and she can be the sweetest little girl in the world.

Tonight, the girls played in their room for awhile. Hadley was basically wrestling Zoey Belle all over the floor and they were both laughing their heads off. It was pretty funny to watch.

As for the teeth, ZB still is without, but she’s definitely feeling the pain. She is drooling like a monster and chewing on anything she can get her gums on. Hopefully that first one will break through soon and give her some relief.

Papa and Grandma Eckert got a web cam on their computer and as soon as we do, we will be able to do video chats with them. We did a test run tonight in which we could see them, but they couldn’t see us. Hadley really seemed to enjoy it, but didn’t quite understand that they couldn’t hear or see us. I think this will be really great for the girls to get to see all their relatives who don’t live near us. So you all should probably go out and buy web cams and get a gmail account.

When I got home from work, I told Hadley that if she ate all her supper, we could go get a special treat. She didn’t know what it was, but she was motivated and ate a sloppy joe like there was no tomorrow.

She and Zoey both got Valentine’s in the mail from Great Grandma and Grandpa Schmit with a dollar in it. Hadley immediately took her dollar and put it in her purse.

So after supper, I told her to grab her purse and put on clothes. She was still in pj’s because she will only wear dresses or pj’s at this point in her life. That being said, she would only put on pants and a shirt if she could keep her pj’s on underneath. What do I care?

Off we head to the grocery store. Hadley was so cute carrying her purse, excited to go make a purchase with that dollar.

We got to Super-V and bee-lined it for the candy isle. After what seemed like hours of deliberation, Hadley finally decided on sour gummy worms. I reinforced that she would not be eating the whole package tonight. She responded by letting me know that she would eat the rest of the bag when she woke up tomorrow. I told her that was a negotiation for mom.

We walked up to the register and Hadley put the gummy worms on the conveyor. Then she carefully took out her dollar and handed it to the girl. I gave Hadley her change, which she put in her purse, then she told the girl thank you and we were off for home.

Lately, we’ve been telling Hadley that we have inside and outside voices. She is not allowed to yell inside, but loves yelling outside. So this is what she did the entire way back from the grocery store. We got some weird looks, but she was just enjoying yelling so much, what are you gonna do?

Zoey Belle is a walking machine lately. She is going from one side of the house to the other. The only time I really see her crawl is when I get home from work. She literally sees me and seizes. She stops whatever she is doing and comes flying toward me. It usually starts as a sprint, but she falls and never skips a beat. By the way, the entire time she is moving she is laughing and squealing. She gets to me and just wants to be held and given kisses.

You can’t ask for a better reception than that.

Hadley has this new saying. “Potties are not poopies.” She says this whenever she does not want help in the bathroom. It is seriously funny, especially because she always says it with a scowl on her face.

On a less gross note, we had a really fun day! This morning we got up and went sledding.
We had gotten so used to enjoying the nice weather outside that we figured we would just bundle the girls up and go enjoy ourselves despite it being cold. It was actually really nice out.

Our friend Gerry had a really fun toboggan and we went to a local park for a while. Zoey Belle seemed indifferent to it, but Hadley, Eric and I loved it. Hadley and Eric struggled to get back up the hill, and Hadley would say “I am really, really tired” before she even made it a fraction of the way back up.

Hadley and Zoey Belle then went to a babysitters for a few hours this evening so Eric and I could go see a movie. Hadley had a lot of fun with a family from church and she baked sugar cookies for Valentines Day and played with their puppy and also made a little snake family out of some sugar cookie dough. She had a lot of fun. Zoey Belle seemed to like it as well.

The only bad thing is that our day went so fast because we were doing so much fun stuff. Eric did post more pictures on spotted as well.

It snowed. A lot.

I came home for lunch and immediately Hadley asked if we could go out and play in the snow. Since it was nearly white-out conditions outside, I told her that we would have to wait until the wind stopped blowing. Amazingly she agreed.

When I came home, it was fairly nice out so I decided to scoop the snow and Hadley came out to join me. She loves to “help” shovel and by help I mean throw shovels of snow at me. We had a good time and she loved making snow castles.

After supper, we decided to watch a movie. Bambi was Hadley’s selection, but like most movies, it only lasted about 20 minutes. She and Zoey Belle had more fun climbing around and playing with each other.

Finally, it was bed time and Hadley did a good job of staying in bed. Zoey Belle stayed up for a bit longer and then she went down without a hitch.

FYI, the photos link now goes to a page that will hopefully be easier for me to update on a consistent basis.

We have been busy and sick lately. Yesterday we had a really fun day and the girls and I made valentine’s for Eric and Hadley baked her very first loaf of bread. She loves that it has “fingerprints” in it. This is the result of kneading the bread with your fingertips instead of your palms. She was very proud and did a very good job. Her Valentine’s also turned out very well, and we will be making more later on in the week. Dawson, Makai and Lael came over last night to play. The kids all climbed into Hadley’s closet and began to throw everything out of it. I do mean everything. I am sure Hadley thought it was fun at the time, until I made her put everything back into it before she went to bed. I put stuff back on the hangers and she had to hang it all back up. She then said, “mommy, next time, I will never, never, never do this again.” I thought so.

Today we did a bunch of chores, errands and took another trip to the doctors office. Hadley broke out in a rash, and since her cough is not too much better I thought we better get it checked out. The doctor said it looks like a strep rash although she doesn’t appear to have strep. I don’t know what that means, but he gave me an antibiotic to knock this out of her system. She has been one sleepy little girl though, so I can tell she is trying to fight off something.

Zoey is walking almost everywhere she goes and is now beginning new adventures with climbing on things. It has been really hard to keep up with the two of them, but I suspect my remaining baby weight is going to slide right off in the next couple months.

Currently, every member of our household is ill. Sick and yucky. Despite our stuffed up noses, headaches and coughs we still had a great weekend. Dondi and Julie wanted us to come visit even though we are all gross. We set out on Friday and went to the farm. We hung out and had a good time relaxing and Saturday got up and went to get Hadley’s dress for Eric’s cousin, Marci’s wedding. Hadley adores the dress, and cried when it was time to take it off. As soon as it was on her she said, “Mommy, I will be the princess and you can be the prince.”

We left the bridal store and went to get ice cream. After heading home Hadley got to hop in the hot tub with papa and Eric. Hadley loves the hot tub. The weekend was filled with fun, chores, dune buggy rides and shopping. Lots of treats too. Eric woke up Sunday morning feeling horrible, so we headed back home in hopes of getting some rest. I believe we watched Finding Nemo over and over again because all of us were too sick to do anything else. The girls went to bed really early, and we never heard a peep out of them.

Zoey Belle is walking all over the place now. She does not like to walk on hard wood floors, but anything with carpet is fair game. She has been sleeping a lot because her cough medicine makes her a bit loopy, but it is helping.

It was finally a nice day.

Unfortunately both girls are still under the weather. Linds took them to the doctor to make sure it wasn’t serious. They did a digital x-ray of Zoey Belle’s chest to make sure it wasn’t pneumonia and everything appeared to be fine. Hadley even got to help the doctor and she got lots of stickers.

When I got home from work, we took the girls to the park to get some fresh air and a little exercise. Hadley really enjoyed it and went down the slide, climbed on the monkey bars and hit up the swings for awhile. I got to swing with ZB for a bit and she really seemed to enjoy it.

After that we ate supper. Zoey was working on a Cheerio when it got stuck on the back of her tongue. Needless to say the pear banana mix I just fed her looked interesting on the way back out. Linds had some errands to run, so I gave the girls a bath and then we read books until bedtime.

Here’s a video from the other day that I never had time to get up until now. Zoey Belle is starting to get this walking thing figured out:

Life has gotten away from us, and I have not posted for a long time.  Eric has been working very hard and has done numerous websites that are seperate from the York News Times site.  It has been a huge blessing, but it has kept him busy.  Hadley and Zoey Belle have been doing great, except for their colds that make them sound like seals.  Neither of them seem to mind too much, but I am taking them to the doctor tomorrow just so I am reassured that it is nothing more than a cold.

Hadley has kept us on our toes latley.  Last Wednesday she went to bible class and told me she was frustrated at Mr. Eric (one of her teachers) because “he wouldn’t bow tie me.”  I had no idea what this meant.  I kept trying to ask her and she just kept repeating the same thing.  So, tonight, I went into her class and asked her teacher if he knew what she was frustrated about.  He said he had no idea, but after some thinking was able to tell me that they were learning about Jesus healing the blind, and he had a blind fold.  Mystery solved.  She was frustrated because Mr. Eric wouldn’t blind fold her.  Sounds about right.  She probably would have run into walls and laughed hysterically next.  Despite her being “frustrated” she was still very well behaved, so I was happy.   Hadley didn’t get to go to church because of her cold, but they missed her in class and had a lot of wonderful compliments about her.  It is always nice to hear that other people like your kids.

Zoey Belle is just as wild as ever.  She is loving life and is so content.  I am getting excited for her first birthday, even though it is still two months away.  She is just such a little bundle of joy and we can’t get enough of her.

At church tonight, one of the women pulled me aside and asked me if her and her husband could watch our kids on Valentines Day so we could go out.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful people around us!

And, Emily watched the girls for us on Saturday so we could go out for Garrett’s birthday.  We had tons of fun, and Hadley and Zoey Belle LOVED having Emily here.  Hadley woke up crying the next morning begging for Emily.  We are very lucky to have her.

The blessings seem to just keep coming, and that is fine by me!