My year of accomplishments

I'm totally not tooting my horn in this post, so I hope that doesn't come across, but I decided this year I was going to do things, rather than just make lists. Which, by the way, I am really good at making lists. One of my ongoing lists, is a list of things I want to do/accomplish/make, etc. This isn't just a board on pinterest for me, it is a physical list of things that I want to do in my life. And so far I have accomplished 3 of them. It really feels so good- to finally be able to say that I did these things than keep saying in my head "I really want to do this someday." Most of you probably don't care, and that's fine, I'm more writing this as a journal entry. The first one- I owe the responsibility to my sister Melissa, but I finally ran a 5k- yikes, I really hate running without a purpose (purpose being a long jump pit or pole vaulting mats at the end.) Second- I finally donated my hair. I've been wanting to do it for almost 10 years now, and I would try to grow it out, but kept getting tired of dealing with long hair, so I'd chop it off. But I did it! Cut off 9 and a half inches and donated it to Pantene Pro-V's Beautiful Lengths program. I didn't take a before and after shot, but here are the pictures that I last took that shows my length and now how short it is.Third, we have planted our very own garden, we tried this once with James' sister and it didn't work out- nothing grew, but until now we haven't had a yard of our own- last year I grew tomato plants out of planters, but we have 5 tomato plants this year that are all producing, 2 strawberry plants- with berries on them, a pepper plant that is blooming, some squash and cucumber plants that are all sprouting, and some green onions and carrots that are shooting up. And it feels so good to be producing a significant portion of the fruits and veggies we eat! Lastly, I am working on quilts for Emma and Lucy, I hesitate to mention this because it will take me a long time to get it done, but everything is cut up, I just need to start sewing it together. Eek! It feels so good to be a doer- a runner, a philanthropist, a gardener, and a seamstress (granted, I know I am taking all of these terms and applying them much too liberally on myself) there is just such a unique special feeling from doing rather than just thinking/planning.

A belated Easter post

 Our Easter; Emma did the Easter egg hunt by herself, and loved the Sweeney's tradition of seeing the bunny tracks . . . more on this later....

 It led her to find a lot of eggs, we mostly gave her the bunny marshmellows and she got lots of princess stickers, a jump rope, some little nail polishes, and some pennies!

 So James' family used flour to make little bunny prints on the carpet- so James really wanted to do it, I told him he could- if he cleaned it up. He agreed, and proceeded to put bunny prints all over the house- not just on the carpet, but the furniture, and some toys too. Well he left the bowl of flour out, and then we heard a lot of coughing from the other room. And we came to find this, Emma said she  was looking for the Easter bunny.

And guess who cleaned it all up? That's right, not James :)

 Never were there such ADORABLE sisters. . . (humming along to the song)

 Sorry James, not the best picture of you, but the one where mostly everyone is looking....

 So mom and the girls and dad and the girls- these will be Easter 2013 family pictures :)

 And cute Lucy got to play with the basket! Hope you had a great Easter (a month ago)!

Our computer is fixed, so we have pictures!

 Emma taking her nap, while Lucy tries to crawl up and get her. Yeah she's crawling..... yikes!

 Lucy has the longest most beautiful eyelashes- we hear it from EVERYONE :) Lucky girl!

 Our Lucy girl is the happiest baby I know, seriously, she is so photogenic, because she is never not smiling, well very seldom

 And the person who can get Lucy to laugh the most is Emma, Lucy just LOVES Emma, it is heart-warming.

I have a lot to catch up on, I know, but I thought I should break it down and ease into it, so it doesn't seem so overwhelming.

Time for an update

Well I know it has been a while, but this won't be very long. Our computer broke months ago, but since we havE had the iPad we haven't been in a rush to fix it, which means I can't take my pictures off my cameras and that the only updates I can do are from the iPad and the only pictures I can use are ones that I have taken with this... So it probably won't be an exciting post. Sorry! First Emma turned 3.... Yikes, we have a 3 year old, how did that happen? Lucy is 7 months now, she started crawling at six months and now more than ever Emma has to hide her toys :) Lucy is still the happiest baby, but is starting to feel separation anxiety. She is also the loudest one in our house.... So when she gets sad, everyone knows it. Emma is the smartest girl I know. She loves to watch certain shows and picks up certain phrases, and uses them in the right circumstances. So for your enjoyment.... Cute stories, courtesy of Emma....

I was getting ready to make dinner one day and didn't feel like making an elaborate meal, so I expressed my frustration that I didn't want to make dinner and Emma responded to me and said, "mom, take a deep breath and clear your mind."

Lately when Emma gets hurt and we tell her that we are sorry, she says, "it's okay, no harm done."

She is starting to outsmart us lately. The other day we told her to go and get something, she went upstairs and five minutes later we called up to her and she came down with a jacket and shoes and said she was going to go play outside. We told her she needed to go get whatever it was that we asked her to go get, and she said, dad you should go get it, I'm going to go outside. :). Another instance of this happened just the other night. James and Emma were doing a puzzle, but Emma was handing James the pieces to put in, until he realized that he was doing all the work and he said, "maybe you should do the puzzle," and Emma responded and said, "maybe I should not."

I am sure there are many more, but those are the ones on the top of my head. Hope you enjoyed them!