Cracked

Our glass stove top cracked! I couldn't believe that it happened and was very surprised at it, as I've never heard of this before. I was boiling water one night and the water boiled over, so I removed the pot and drained some water. Water has boiled over lots of times before and I'd never had any trouble so didn't think anything of it, so turned the temperature down a little and put the pot back on the burner. A few minutes later I heard a popping or cracking noise, but didn't know what it was. Well, when I cleaned up the stove top after dinner I realized what the noise had been. It was the stove top cracking. As you can see in the picture, there are several cracks going throughout the burner and up into the top burner, too. Thankfully, the crack did not go over to the burners on the other side, so I still have one good side to work with. I haven't been using the cracked burner for fear of it exploding or something. :)

We checked into replacing the stove top and found that it would be too expensive when compared to buying a whole new range. So, we bought a whole new range. We hadn't planned on that expense, but I'm actually kind of happy about it! The burner that's still working has never really heated up well and the oven takes forever to heat up. It will be nice to have everything new now!

And when I say everything new, I'm not just talking about our range, either! In 2013 we got a new refrigerator. In 2015 we had to replace our water heater. In 2016 we got a new washer and dryer, dishwasher, and microwave. The only other big thing I can think of that we might need to replace is our HVAC system and we certainly don't want to do that anytime soon! $$$$$$$$$

Packing And Unpacking

Lucy got a suitcase from Gumm and Poppy and a sleeping bag from Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Nathan for Christmas. The sleeping bag came in a drawstring bag that you can wear on your back as a backpack. Lucy was thrilled with both gifts and spent the week after receiving both "packing" and "unpacking" every single toy in our house that she could find. She would put everything in the drawstring bag, carry it around the house for a little bit and then unpack it into the suitcase. It was really funny at first, but got to be a little frustrating when I realized what all she was packing! Little baby toys that we still had out, game pieces, toys that go with other things that are now missing......I tried to let it go and just let her do it, but I eventually had to put away the suitcase and bag for my sanity. I do love her creativity, though!

Joy To The World

Lucy really enjoyed listening to and singing Christmas carols this past Christmas season. We listened to Christmas music all the time in the car and even at home during the day. It was not uncommon to hear her singing (or rather trying to sing :) ) Christmas carols randomly throughout the day. One night when we were playing in the living room Lucy started singing "Joy To The World" and I was lucky enough to get it on camera. It's so sweet to listen to! And it's dark because Lucy decided the lights needed to be turned off and refused to turn them on. Oh the demands of a three-year-old....

Playing Together

Lucy and Molly seem to really like each other and are good at playing together sometimes, too. It's so fun to catch them playing together, especially when they've done it on their own with no prompting from us. The pictures below are from Christmas when they were both playing with the art set Lucy got. The video is from Christmas Eve morning. They were both in Molly's room with the door closed playing together. I watched them for a little while in the video monitor but didn't get it filmed until it was too late. It was so sweet to watch them play together. I hope they'll grow up always being best friends!

My Address Book

I bought myself a new address book and love it! It was a bit expensive, $25, but very worth it to me. I like to send letters and cards to people and like a paper address book instead of an electronic address book. I bought my last address book maybe 8-9 years ago and it served its purpose well, but I noticed over the last year that it has gotten a bit messed up and unorganized. Friends have gotten married so their location in the book has changed. Friends have come and gone. Family has been added. My last book was just a mess and I couldn't stand it anymore! I looked at a few stores but couldn't find any I liked. Since I use the book a lot, I really didn't mind spending more money on it than someone else might. I found this one on Etsy and love it. I like the cover and the pages are a nice quality of paper and easy to write on. So happy writing to me!

Lucy's Dinner Prayers

We say a prayer each night before we eat dinner, whether eating in or out. Until Lucy started preschool we would say my family prayer of, "Come Lord Jesus, be our guest. Let these gifts to us be blessed." Lucy learned this prayer and would always say it with us. Molly would fold her hands and always say Amen at the end.

A few weeks after preschool started, Lucy said the prayer for us and she said, "God is great. God is good. Let us thank him for our food. Amen." She learned that at preschool and said they say it every day before they eat lunch. We thought that was so neat and started saying that as our prayer each night before dinner.

Well, our dinner prayer changed again a few weeks ago as Lucy told us she had a new prayer for us when we started to pray one night. We told her to go ahead and say it and we would listen. She folded her hands, closed her eyes, and said, "God. God. God. God. God. God. Amen." It was the funniest thing and I tried so hard not to laugh! It was so sweet because she was being serious by it. I think she was maybe trying to make something else up but didn't quite know what to say, so just said God. :) The "God. God. God." prayer has now become one of our regular prayers at dinnertime.

Donuts!

Molly loves donuts! Several times she will ask for donuts in the morning but I have to say no because we don't always keep them on hand. One morning, which happened to be a morning when she would go out to my parent's house later in the day to stay the night with them, she was demanding donuts for breakfast. I told her I was sorry but we didn't have any. She wasn't very happy with me.

Fast forward to later that evening. The girls were at my parent's house and I was texting with my Mom about what to do with them. Lucy was crying because she didn't want to stay at their house, she wanted to stay at "my Mommy's house." Ross and I decided it would be best to go get them, so we planned to meet my parents halfway between our houses to bring the girls home.

Well, Molly heard all that was going on and wasn't very happy about this. I got this text from my Mom explaining Molly's irritation.

"Molly realized going home meant NO DONUT! So she's been walking around saying "donut...morning...donut...morning...donut...morning." So I've sent along a donut they can split."

I laughed so hard at this text! Poor Molly! She had been denied donuts that morning and now she was being denied promised donuts for the next morning. What a hard little life she has. :) I was so thankful that my Mom sent home a donut for them to split, and as you can see in these breakfast pictures from the next morning, Molly was very thankful, too!

Merry Christmas ...Or Something Like That

I have a set of blocks that spell out Merry Christmas and the past few years I've displayed them on our entertainment center. Each time I've put them out I've wondered if the letters would get rearranged or not. I didn't have to wonder long, because about two weeks after having my decorations out I noticed that little hands had gotten a hold of them and rearranged the letters. Such is life with toddlers. :)

Favorite Dresses

I love these pictures below! I had then taken as a surprise Christmas present for my Mom and am so happy with how they turned out. My sister and I wore these dresses when we were little and my Mom saved them, hoping one of us would have a girl someday to wear them again. The dresses are some of my favorites and are still in pretty good condition, especially considering they are 40+ years old! They are just so cute! Lucy and Molly did a fantastic job posing for the photographer, too.

Tiny Photographer

Molly likes to play with my phone. At first, she always wanted to look at the pictures on my phone, or anyone else's phone that she came in contact with. Then she discovered she could watch Paw Patrol, Doc McStuffins, or Daniel Tiger on my phone and only wanted to do that. Now I guess she's discovered she can take pictures on my phone and likes to do that instead. Here's some of her photography work. Should I hire her out now, or give her another year or so to perfect her skill?  :)

"We're" Baking Cookies

Lucy and I baked cookies one day of our Christmas vacation. Or rather I baked cookies during our Christmas vacation. :) We started off baking them together, but I ended up finishing them and that's okay. I figured it would end up that way. We made sugar cookies, or cookie cutter cookies as I've always called them, and cut out Christmas shapes with cookie cutters. Lucy did a good job helping to cut a few out. We also frosted them when they were done. She helped a little more with that process. She enjoyed putting the sprinkles on the cookies. :)

Happy New Year!

Happy 2017 and happy birthday to my blog! I started it on January 1, 2010, and mainly blogged about getting married later that year. Now I mainly blog about my kids. Such is life. :)

The caption for my 2016 post says:
Goodnight and good-bye 2016! Lucy had a fun year turning 3, riding a bike, going to preschool and dance class, and most importantly, becoming 100% potty trained. Molly turned one, learned how to walk, run, jump, talk, and is such a great mix of happy and calm. We look forward to all that 2017 has in store!