A Little Bit of Me

I love being a mom.  I love staying home with my girls each and every day, getting to teach them, and also to learn from them.  It is what I have wanted to do my entire life, and now I get to live that dream. That being said, I still love to do "me" things, such as sing/perform, read, and sew. Singing/performing has definitely been put on the back-burner, except in church choirs, and that's ok.  I love singing songs with my girls, and even though I know my voice is not the quality it used to be, they don't judge me for it.  In fact, they think I'm the best singer in the world, and nothing tops that.  

As for reading, I have a new years resolution to read more non-fiction, to educate myself better.  My goal was to read one nonfiction book per month, but I've already had to tweek that goal.  Now, as long as I am reading some non-fiction book continuously, I'm succeeding.   A few months ago I began reading the biography of Thomas S. Monson.

 It took me a while to finish it, but... wow.  What an amazing man.  My testimony of him as a prophet, seer, and revelator has grown so much as I've learned about his life and ministry as an apostle, and now head of the church.  It is truly an inspiring read, if you haven't read it.  Since finishing it, I have set a new goal to read biographies of all the latter-day prophets.  I feel like as I learn about who they were as men, their adversities and triumphs, their testimonies, I can learn how to become a more faithful latter-day saint myself.  

My current read, however, is not another biography.  It's the Home-buying Kit for Dummies.  We are hoping to buy a home sometime this year, and I am trying to understand the ins-and-outs of what that entails.  Hopefully it will be a smooth and exciting experience for us.  

As for sewing, I try to be working on at least one project at a time.  I love learning new techniques, especially in making clothes for my girls.  My mom always made my Halloween costumes, and I am excited to do the same for my kids (hopefully).  I also have discovered that I love quilting.   However, quilting and sewing clothes both are fairly expensive for my small craft budget, especially since we are trying to save money for when we get a house.  So, my main sewing projects right now are cross-stitching.  Two Christmases ago I made a cross-stitched a stocking for Julie.  Last year I began one for Arek.  But with making Julie's Halloween costume, and moving right before Christmas, it didn't get finished.  So I set a goal for this year to have both his and Kallie's stockings done before Christmas this year.  For those of you who cross-stitch and know how long it takes, this is a pretty big goal for me, especially since I only get time for maybe an hour or two (max) a day, after the girls have gone to bed.  However, this weekend, I finished the cross-stitch part of Arek's stocking. Hurray!  I'm going to wait to finish putting it together until Kallie's is done, so I can do them at the same time.  Here is is.  Arek loves it, and I think it turned out very nicely, too.  (ignore the wrinkled look... I haven't washed or ironed it yet)

 

That's the little bit of me for the day.  Next time I'll be back to pictures and thoughts on my girls, because they are the reason I blog.  

The First Mile

The weather today has been glorious.  So warm that the girls and I played outside without jackets.  We played outside before lunch and after naps I'm going to make sure we play outside some more.  It's just too beautiful a day to not spend it out in nature.  With that being said, I decided that today I was going to get back on track with exercising.  So I hauled out the double-jogging stroller, strapped the girls in, and went for my first jog of the new year.  I call it a jog, but really it was barely more than a power-walk, if that.  I felt pathetically slow.  My excuse, though, is that I was pushing 60 pounds of little girls plus the stroller.  Regardless, we made it around the temple and back (LOVE being so close to the temple yet again... it was one of the things I was the most sad about leaving Logan, but now we are actually closer to the temple) which turned out to be just over a mile.  Not very far but I figured the 15 minutes it took us to do the one mile was a good ease-back-into-jogging time and distance.  Last year I realized- for the first time in my life- that I enjoy jogging, and I went pretty consistently.  Hopefully today is the start of me getting back on the wagon and exercising regularly.  After all, weaning Kallie is going pretty well, but less feedings equals less calories burned for me... and that means I have to portion what I eat.  Ugh.  So I don't really look at exercising as a weight-loss program for me, but rather a don't-gain-weight program.  Hope I'm not the only one that does that!  :)  

Speaking of exercising, Kallie has decided to follow her big sister's lead and has become quite a climber. This morning I walked into the living room to find Kallie like this:  

She was so proud of herself for climbing on the chair to get on the desk that she couldn't stop smiling for several minutes after I got her down.  She and Julie sure do keep me on my toes!

Happy Birthday, Kallie!

1 year ago today Kallie came into our lives. She has been such a sweet addition to our family.  She is pretty shy and very watchful.  We often tease people that she is staring them down because she'll look at them for so long.  She is quick to smile once she warms up to you, although sometimes it takes her quite a while to reach that level of comfort.  She has 2 teeth (height and weight stats to be updated after her dr's appt) and walks like a champ.  She loves music and snuggles and most especially her big sister Julie.  I love this little girl!

Here are some of pictures of her from the past year - there's a lot, in part to make up for a year of not blogging.  

My little Kallie

Daddy/Daughter: Love at First Sight

First time Julie and Kallie met - Julie couldn't have been more thrilled

Blessing Day

Kallie loved this play mat so much more than Julie did...
she would giggle and giggle at the dangling toys

about 3 months 

Love my sleeping beauty - about 5 months

Julie includes Kallie in all games, including
hide and seek in the linen closet

how cool is she?  :)

Higgs family trip to Star Valley, WY

1st Birthday -
Trying to grab the cake before we had sung to her

Birthday girl
We love you so much!

My Favorite Love Letter

First off, this was not a love letter to me.  Arek has a multitude of talents, but writing love letters is not one of them.  :) My dad, on the other hand, has written absolutely beautiful letters and poems to my mom throughout the years.  I love reading the things he writes to her.
This letter was written by a man in the Civil War to his wife.  My parents, who are both Civil War buffs, introduced me to this absolutely beautiful letter.  It is just pure love in written form.  Even Arek was wowed when he heard it.  Enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSprdaGol34

Tradition, Tradition!

This evening Julie came up to me looking like this.

 My first thought, "Fiddler on the roof".  Who does Julie say she is?  Little Red Riding Hood. Um... ok, sweetie.  She has been loving role-playing characters from books and movies lately.  Of course, she brings all of us into the role-plays, too, including Kallie.  We are loving her imagination.  :)

Valentine Butterflies

Here's a craft we did today.  Julie liked it so much, she decided to make two 

Gearing Up for the Olympics

We are so excited for the Olympics.  I admit, usually I only watch it for the figure skating.  Arek is the opposite - he prefers almost anything BUT figure skating: the snowboarding, hockey,skiing events, etc.  Luckily, we've both educated each other over the years, and now we are happy watching most any of the events (Arek corrects me... he still doesn't like the figure skating, but he loves me enough to tolerate it).  We rarely watch t.v. (we're more movie people) but I think the t.v. will be on most evenings for the next week and a half.  

     Julie is even pretty excited for the Games.  We've been talking to her about how amazing the Olymipcs are; the fact that so many countries around the world come together to play sports and celebrate. Last night after watching some of the qualifying snowboarding and skiing runs Arek broke out his snowboard for Julie to "try-out".  It was adorable... I think Arek has her convinced that she needs to do snowboarding with him sometime.  On a side note, Julie is such a thrill-seeker, I am a little nervous for the kinds of sports she'll want to try when she gets older!  But really I love how full of life she is, and how much she loves adventure.  

Arek modeling his boots and snowboard with the girls

French Braids

Every day this week I have done two French braids in Julie's hair.  And every day Julie has complained about how I pull her hair while braiding it.  Then the next day when I ask her what she wants me to do with her hair, she tells me French braids again.  So I guess the pain is worth having a hairstyle that keeps her hair out of her face! 

"J"s, drama, and love "bombs"

The other day Julie was drawing on some paper when she turned to me and said, "Mom, I drew a J".  I looked and she had indeed drawn the letter J.  She is so proud to be able to draw the first letter in her name, she now writes it all the time.  We're still working on what other letters are in her name... she always forgets U.  Still, for not being 3 1/2 yet, I'd say she's doing ok. :)

Kallie has recently decided to try out her dramatic side.  Whenever she is upset with me (usually because I set her down so I can actually get something done around the apartment) she flops her body onto the floor and pretends to cry.  It is pretty comical, and I have a hard time not laughing out loud... don't want to encourage this behavior too much! It usually only last a couple seconds, but the other day she did it for long enough that I was able to snap this photo:

Totally different subject, but now that it's February, it's time for Valentine's crafts.  I'm not sure why, but I LOVE Valentine's Day.  It probably has something to do with my ultra-romantic father.  Arek is not so out-wardly romantic, but I still like to plan fun crafts for Julie and fun heart-or-pink-themed foods for Valentine's.  We haven't begun to make her cards for friends and cousins yet, but yesterday we made our first craft.  Normally I have to come up with my own material, but now that I have the internet (and pinterest!) at my disposal, this year we're trying out some new ideas.  Here's a play-by-play of our Explosion of Love craft, (or Love "Bomb" which I found on Pinterest)

1. Julie helped me cut lots of confetti from scrap cardstock I had

2. I taped a heart onto cardstock

3. I put glue all around the outside of the heart, then spread it around with my fingers so it came to the edge of the heart

4. Julie had a blast sprinkling confetti all over the picture - and the table and floor!

5. We took of the heart and - Viola! - Explosion of Love :)

Random photo of fun Daddy-daughter time from the weekend.  These girls love their daddy!