So close, so close...

Jersey has been crawling since she was 6 months old.  She's almost 13 months...and still crawling.  I'm sure many of you reading this know that I'm SO ready for her to walk!!!  She's been crawling forever.  Yes, walkers are a lot of work, they get in to more things, but there are also many perks!  My back is tired of carrying her everywhere.  She can't really play outside at all in the winter because it's too cold/snowy to be crawling.  And she can't wear any of her cute little dresses yet, because they get in the way when she's crawling!  Well, she is FINALLY close to walking.  Actually, she can walk just fine, she just hasn't decided to make it her primary mode of transportation yet.  But we have seen major improvements in the confidence department this week, so my hopes are up that within another week she'll be a true "walker."  Until then...she's still pretty darn cute ;-)  And the way she says, "Hi!" in this video makes me smile ear to ear.  I love her.

(For those of you who get this blog via automated email whenever I do a new post, I don't think the video comes through like pictures normally do.  If you can't see the video in your email, go to the actual blog link to view if you want to: www.teamschween.blogspot.com).

My days

I spend a lot of time on the floor these days.  My job, 7 days a week, about 13 hours a day, is taking care of a 1-year-old and an almost-3-year-old (and a 22 week gestation little baby - which is a lot of work!).  My uniform?  Black yoga pants or whatever else comfortable I can find.  I do not have vacation days, and I do not have sick days.  I don't get lunch breaks.  The coffee is made by 7:00 am at our house, but I don't often drink mine until 9 or 9:30, after it's been microwaved a couple of times, because I've been changing diapers all morning :)  The perks of my job?  I spend afternoons on the floor, playing with my kids and listening to my little girl learn to use her voice, and sing...  Best job in the world.  Hard job?  Yes!  But when I hear her little voice learning it's way in the world...all is made right.

I read this quote the other day in one of my new books, and it brought tears to my eyes!  I posted it on my Facebook page, but I thought it was worthy of re-posting on here.  Actually, I think it is worthy of being framed and put up in my house so I will see it every day!!! 

"When you look at your children, pause and stand in awe that you have been entrusted with these little lives. Embrace them with your arms, your time, your attention, and relish these fleeting years. Seek God's strength to love them. Love them enough to be gentle and tender. Love them enough to diligently train them and discipline them. Give them firm boundaries and clear expectations so they will thrive. Instill in your children a firm foundation upon which they will build their entire lives. Uphold their dignity and speak kindly of them before others. Acknowledge that no one else was chosen to parent these children. God chose you."

 I'm thankful that God chose me, to spend my days on the floor with my kids, listening to them sing.  It's not glamorous, and it doesn't exactly pay well, but the rewards are greater than I could have imagined.

The day I've been WAITING FOR!

 Okay well YOU may not think this is that great, but for me, this is a very exciting a long awaited day!  I'm pretty sure I've been dreaming of this day since I got married, and since we learned we were pregnant, and since we found out we were having a girl.  THE FOUNTAIN PONYTAIL.  I seriously think it is the cutest thing EVER on little girls.  Come to find out, there is another reason besides just being cute that so many little girls wear their hair this way...  They won't leave their hair clips in!  Jersey's hair has been falling in her eyes for a while now, and I have a bunch of adorable hair clips I keep trying to put in her hair.  They last 2 minutes - maximum.  Finally today we tried the fountain ponytail.  I'm in heaven :)  I'll admit, I am slightly obsessed with her...

Pre-ponytail.  Yes, her hair is always a mess and in her eyes.  The girl will not leave hair clips in!

Ta-da!  The blank stare in every picture is because I turned on Baby Einstein for her to watch so that she would sit still while I put the rubber band in ;-)

Juuuust chillaxin...

"Mom, why do you keep pointing that camera at me!?  You've already taken 50 pictures in the last 5 minutes."

"Seriously - are you done yet?"

"Yaaay!  Picture time is over!"

Awww isn't she so cute?  I can't believe how big she is already.  These pictures are pretty much as girly as it gets.  We have: hearts, ruffles, pink, bling, and a fountain ponytail!  Love it.

The 20 week pic

I meant to post this last week since this picture was taken New Years weekend, but forgot!  So for those of you who've asked (Amy!), here's a "bump" picture :)  And for those of you who are wondering (Mary Frances!), pretty sure baby has had a couple of growth spurts since this picture last week, so she's bigger than this now ;-)

We're finally starting to think more about a name, and I'm realizing how quickly the next few months are going to go by!  Before baby comes we have a few transitions to go through.  We'll work on dropping Jersey's morning nap, AND she will be moving into Tyson's room for 6 months or so, until baby girl #2 has been sleeping through the night for a few months and has her daytime routine down solid.  Eventually we'll move Jersey back in so the girls share a room.  Lots to do lots to do!

Wintry trip to the zoo!

The day after Christmas we had our first family-of-4-trip-to-the-zoo!  I have been with both kids a couple of times when I can get in for free with our friend's guest passes (kids under 3 are free, so Ty still qualifies for another couple of weeks).  But we've never gone with both kids AND daddy, since he's usually working.  A few months ago there was a Groupon (gotta love it) for the zoo, so I bought 2 adult passes knowing both kids would still get in free.  It was so fun to have daddy with us!!!  Plus, I'd never been during the winter months, and even though some of the animals weren't out in their habitats, it was neat to see them in their "winter" habitats indoors.  For some animals, like the giraffes, that meant we saw them really close up since they were inside - cool to see how tall they REALLY are instead of seeing them from a distance.  Anyway, it turned out to be a gorgeous day, and pretty warm, so walking around the snowy zoo paths with barely anyone else there was so great.  Oh, and another bonus was that the kids got to use their new Radio Flyer wagon that they got for Christmas!  Having the little storage bin on the back worked perfectly - didn't have to carry around a diaper bag and it was just enough room for the day's essentials.

Loving our new wagon!

The animals were so pretty sitting in the snow!

The kid is a waver.  He waves and says hi to all of the animals.

And Jersey pretty much just sits in there and smiles and makes little sing-song noises :)

Okay, this was actually a little bit creepy...  We were inside the primates exhibit and a few seconds after Ty walked up to the glass, this little guy charged the window and was banging on the glass and screaming at Tyson with barred teeth!  Ty jumped a little bit, but I think I was the one that was trying not to freak out, lol!  He was totally attacking Tyson through the window and I had never seen that happen before.  Of course, both parents are trying to laugh it off and making lame comments like, "Oh look buddy!  He's talking to you!"  Yeah, right....he's actually trying to eat you but he can't get through the window, lol!!!  That was a new zoo experience...

After a while JJ REALLY wanted to get down, so inside one of the rain forest parts Robin got her out of the wagon for a while.  Silly girl - I keep telling her if she'd just start walking, life would be a lot more fun when we're out and about!  The walked with Robin's fingers and crawled a little bit before we put her back in her seat.

Basically pulling daddy as she tries to walk.

It was impossible to keep her still!  She's a mover...now if she would just be a WALKER we'd all be happier ;-)

It was kind of cool to see the penguins swimming around with their habitat all snowy and icy - actually looked like what their natural habitat probably looked like sometimes, lol.

Doesn't Tyson look thrilled in this picture!?  He wasn't too happy that mommy kept wanting to stop and take pictures...too many animals he wanted to see.

We brought lunch for the kids, but went inside the zoo cafe to take some layers off and eat inside.  Sometimes I can't picture doing things like this with three kids!!!  We already have our hands full when the ratio is one adult to one kid, ha ha.  Even just sitting at lunch we were all having a good time.  Everyone loved having daddy there with us.

First born, worker bee, always wants to help pull the wagon...

Starting to get a little sleepy...  She missed her whole morning nap so we could go out, but she did great despite being so tired!

Aaaaand then she hit a wall, and fell asleep on the side of the wagon.  Haaa ha ha!!!  It was so cute.  She actually fell asleep with her eyes closed for a while, but woke up before we could get a picture of that ;-)

After her little power nap she woke back up and got out of the wagon for a while again.  She loved the fish tanks!

And she REALLY loved standing up to the tanks that went down to the floor so she could see the fish swimming around, and stand by her brother :)

Even though the giraffes didn't SMELL that great being inside, I loved seeing them up close!  They are so tall and unique looking...God must have had so much fun creating such amazing creatures.

And there you have it, our wintry tour of the zoo!  I knew it would be fun, but for some reason, the day was even better than I thought :)  Kids did great, weather was beautiful and warm, the zoo was almost empty, and Robin was there to help me with the kids and take turns pulling our new wagon.  Blessed by family days like this...and so glad we have a digital camera to capture the memories!  Pretty crazy to think that by this summer we'll have 3 kids to haul around on our outings.  Yikes!

Snow Day - Part 2: PLAY TIME!

 Took me a while, but finally got around to the second post from our snow day right before Christmas!  Even though it snows fairly often throughout the winter here, it doesn't always happen that we get this much in one dumping, AND that it falls on a weekend or holiday so that Robin is home to play in it with us!  That's why this was the perfect day.  Over a foot of snow, sunny and warm, and daddy was home to lead the fun...

Sledding with my little man!

The snow is SO PRETTY here with the huge, cloudless, blue skies...

Cool dude.

First born, busy body, worker-bee = he could drag his sled around through the snow for HOURS...

Daddy pulling Ty around on a snowy tour of the neighborhood ;-)

Robin (still a boy at heart), decided to go down a steep little hill...basically into a ditch.  Guys are weird...  And of course, his son is cheering him on!

Thud at the bottom, lol!

Knee deep in snow drifts!

Best buds.

I took this picture while Robin was towing Ty in the sled again, but I also liked it because it shows you where we were in relation to our house!  Ours is the one on the right that you can see.  We back to open space, and have a huge open space, perfect for snow play and sledding, right on our street!  That means Jersey naps and the baby monitor reaches while we all play in the snow :)

Snow bunny...he would stay outside the entire day if we let him.

Walking the little loop of our neighborhood, and this is a pathway between some of the houses.  Of course, even though someone had been kind enough to plow the ACTUAL path, Robin and Ty decided to be adventurous and trek through over a foot of snow instead...

...Ty didn't stop smiling the whole time.

Walking back down our snow-packed street towards home!

Aaaaand snow tour, complete!  Made it home.

I had so much fun that day!!!  As I said in the first post, I didn't grow up around much snow, so this has been one of the most fun parts of moving for me :)  Not to mention, having an almost-3-year-old this year has made it even more magical.  The kid lights up in the snow and the looks on his face and excitement in his voice pretty much makes it the best thing ever.  So thankful that Robin was home to enjoy this day with us!