Sarah + Jump Rope + Kitty = Hours of Fun!

So, I am beginning to think that this Kitty was an AWESOME idea! Sarah will run around and do this FOREVER if I let her (she is really loud, and I can only take so much). Anyway, she thinks she is pretty funny. Normally she is giggling hysterically while doing this, but alas I didn't catch that on camera. Enjoy!

PS - Don't mind the stuff on the couch, we had a student staying with us to interview for Pitt Med. The other junk around, I have no excuse for...hahaha!

Chocolate Meringue Cookies and Heavenly Smiles

On Sunday I decided it was time to be adventurous with my cooking abilities. So...I decide to attempt Chocolate Meringue Cookies! They were yummy!

Here is the recipe for anyone who is interested!

Chocolate Meringue Cookies

• 3 egg whites
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup white sugar*
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips**

• DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

• Combine egg whites, cream of tartar, and vanilla. Beat until the whites form soft peaks. Slowly add sugar; beat until stiff peaks form, and mixture becomes glossy. Fold in cocoa and chocolate chips.

• Drop mixture by teaspoonfuls on to a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

*I used 1/2 cup of sugar.

**I didn't mix in the chocolate chips, I just placed a few on top. Some I didn't put any on at all, and I actually like that better, but Ryan prefered them with chocolate chips.

Heavenly Smiles

Have you ever been holding a baby and then they look past you, or off to the side, and get a huge grin on their face?

Well Abby has been doing this ALL of the time. I know many people just say that it is gas, and maybe it is. But I like to think that Abby is smiling at angels, spirits, or whatever you call them. Specifically, I like to imagine that Grandma June and Grandma Goeckeritz are standing behind me talking to my lil' Abby. I often sit and wonder about the cooing words they would say to her and the funny faces that they might be making to get her to smile. I also like to think that they helped to get Abby ready to come down to me since they couldn't be here to welcome her.

So, call me crazy for thinking that there are angels or spirits hanging around, but I just enjoy the thought of loved ones past being around and helping me to become a better mother like they were. Hopefully the next time you see a baby do this, the same thought will cross your mind.

Sarah Speech

Sarah has been saying so many adorable things so I decided to sit down and type up all of the ones I could think of, off of the top of my head. Enjoy!

"Take-a my picture mon-ny! Taka my picture please."

(Mommy is pronouces like - Mon-ny, an"N" for the middle /m/ sound)

(So here is me taking a picture of us)

Mom: "Sarah~ time for a bath"

Sarah: "No, I too big for bath"

*Abby sneezes* - "Bless you Abby-gail!"

"Mommy, you sleep good? Yeah?"

"Nigh-night mon-ny" *kisses my forhead*

*brings me the kitty* "She's nice, she's nice mon-ny" *I take the kitty and set her down so she can run away, Sarah chases her and brings her back* "Look mon-ny, she's nice!" (repeated a hundred times)

"Hi Abby, Abby-gail"

Wandering around the house singing songs (like "I am a Child of God," "I know you" (from sleeping beauty), and "The Wheels on the Bus").

(Anything with a slightly sad face) "Awe, she's sad. Look mon-ny, she's sad." Sarah then makes a sympathetic sad face (and makes sure that I see it).

"Happy day Mon-ny. You old. (I think Ryan told her that) Wanna sing Happy Cake? Okay!"

(On my birthday of course)

*Sarah saying a prayer all by herself...she's getting so big!*

Sarah: "I wanna drink"

Mom: "You want a drink?

Sarah: "No! I wanna a drink!"

(Um, isn't that what I said?)

"Say hi to Maga? Maga Lisa? Yeah?" (Nodding her head convincingly)

"Wimmy, where are you? Hmmm...where's Wimmy?" (She does this with Eleanor and Jeffrey too!)

"Nigh-night Baby, you sleep good. See you in the morning" *Tucking her baby doll into bed, putting a blankie on her and then kissing her hand and patting the baby's head*

"Clean up, time to clean up" *then starts singing the Clean up song...you know, everybody everywhere...*

"Mon-ny, I wanna snuggle, you want to snuggle? Okay"

"Tickle me Mon-ny, tickle me!"

"Mon-ny, I'm princess Aurora!" *spining around the house with a little tiara on*

(Here is Sarah pretending to be Princess Aurora, I had to have her sit down to get her to focus and actually look at the camera, still not the best picture, but I'll take it!)

"I don't know where it is?" (She says this when I ask her to get anything) *gasp* "There it is! Look mon-ny, here it is!"

"Hi sweetie! You sleep good? Okay. Hi, Abby-Abby-gail" (when Sarah wakes up I am usally in feeding Abby and this is usually what she says to Abby every morning)

When I ask Sarah to do something her latest response is: "I can't! I can't mon-ny" Then she pulls a half smile (that I have yet to catch on camera) that she picked up from her new friend Cody (the smile, not the refusal to do things, Cody is a very well behaved boy).

"So funny mon-ny, its so funny!" *while doing a fake laugh and covering her mouth*

I know there are lots more phrases that she says all the time, but of course when I go to type them up I can't remember. There may be a sequal to the Sarah Speech in the future. Hopefully it isn't to boring. Its really cute to me, because I can hear how she says it in my head.

For the Grandmas!

And anyone else who is in love with my lil' Abby as I am!

Sarah and Abby having a Tea Party

Don't mind the naked girl...

Asleep at last...

Oh, I'm so cute!

She loves her lil' sissy!

All done with the photo shoot!

The Naptime Rebellion!

Okay so I have been trying to be really good at getting Sarah on a good routine. Since we moved here Sarah has been waking up earlier (which is weird, because if she was still waking up Utah time, she'd be waking up later) and going to bed later (about the same time in Utah). So since she wakes up around seven in the morning, I've been trying to get her down for a nap between noon and one o'clock and then to bed around seven-thiry or eight-ish. Well today we got home from play group. Ate a HUGE lunch and then I did our nap routine and put her to bed. Well I heard her moving around in her room for about a half and hour and decided to check on her.

She was being oh so cute playing chef, but was not sleeping! She needed a diaper change (yes, we are not potty trained yet...sigh) and after that she still was not going to sleep. Sometime between three and three-thirty I finally stopped hearing movement. After her nap I went in to check on her and this is how I found her.

Reading on her bed. Who knows if she even got a nap or if she just layed in her bed with books. Should I be mad that she was happily reading books in her bed? *sigh* Hopefully this isn't the end of naptimes, I still really them.

This is how I found Abby after her nap! All cute and smiley!

These last two aren't the best of pictures, but I wanted to show everyone how blue Abby's eyes still are. I am crossing my fingers! Sometimes they almost look like a lavender color.

Hopefully Abby isn't blind from her photo shoot! I took way too many pictures.

Goals for the week

Okay everyone! I am going to post some goals on here so you can all hold me to it. This week, I am going to try my hardest to get some pictures up of the house so you all can know what it is like living in Pittsburgh (which means I still have to unpack a dozen or so boxes, hang some pictures and clean up some junk lying around, and finish cleaning the last little area in the basement...and killing more spiders). By doing this I will also be able to show you some more awesome stuff that I "freeloaded" (as Ryan calls it) off of Craig'sList/Freecycle.

Speaking of Freecycle, I have to vent for just a moment (sorry). I was SO excited because I found someone who was giving away a sewing machine (in good working condition) and she told me that I could have it. Well, she e-mailed me this morning and I didn't check my e-mail until after we got home from church and had finished dinner. She told me in the e-mail to call her because she had a great deal of interest in the sewing machine. When I called her she said that she had already given it AWAY! I was so disappointed. I really want to learn some sewing skills so I can make dresses and things for the girls. I shouldn't be mad, because she just thought I had flaked and changed my mind about wanting it. But I think she should have at least waited one day to see if I would respond. Grrr! Okay, I'm done!

Another goal. I want to be better at posting the little moments of each day. My new friend Tiffany just invited me to see her adorable blog and she is amazing (as so many of you are) at posting just the cute everyday little moments in her family's life. I want to do that, it would be so fun to look back on and read. So I will try hard this week to pull out my camera more and record simple little things. I always feel like it has to be some huge thing, but it doesn't right? I'm still learning the ways of the blogging world. Forgive me!

My third goal, and I hesitate to share this one, is to work on being more optimistic and cheerful. I feel like I have been having WAY too many grumpy days lately and I fear the my sweet, dear husband is wishing for a wife refund. I joke about that, but I want to help my whole family to be happy and it needs to begin with me. One of the things that I feel will help me to be happier is to start exercising. (This is one of the things I need all of you to check up on me with). I know how much happier I am with myself when I have had a good workout and so I just need to get up early and do it. Which means... I need to get to bed earlier. SO if any of you see me posting on facebook or something late at night... call me on it! Send me to bed! Along the lines of being happier I want to be better at reading my scriptures and saying personal prayers. So ask me about that too! I am starting to fill up my week with activities and so this should help the happiness factor too, but I want to be a ray of sunshine again and help my hubby to enjoy coming home from school. :)

So those are my three goals for the week (and longer). I always try to do a total life makeover when I set goals, so hopefully that is a nice and simple start, something achievable.

I love and miss you all! Help me out. :) Please!

Inspired by Deb

My sister-in-law posted some way cute videos of my neice and I loved watching them. So, since I enjoyed them so much, I thought some of you would enjoy some videos of the girls. They aren't nearly as cute, but I hope you like them anyhow.

When we named Sarah we didn't realize how much she would take after the meaning of her name, "PRINCESS" Right now Sarah's world revolves around princesses. Her favorite is Princess Aurora and she loves singing the song. She doesn't get all of the words, but you can get the jist of the song.

The second video is just of Abby. Of course she was being super cute, smiling and cooing, before the camera came out, but then stopped being quite as cute when I began filming. Regardless, I think she is adorable (biast I know) and hope you enjoy watching her being cute and attentive.

Side Note:
I love my girls, and I love being a mother. Even though sometimes I get frustrated and short tempered, I still love it and feel so blessed by the opportunity. Now lets just hope I can help them turn out right and not crazy like their mother. :)