I'm back

Wow, time flies!  Need I say that life has been busy with the holidays, three kids, going back to work, and a husband in fellowship working 80+ hours a week?  Before Laney, I used to stay up late occasionally after the kids went to bed to blog.  Now, with Laney, she goes to bed so late and sleeps so erratically, that as soon as she is down for the night, I race to bed with the hope that I will get to close my eyes before she is up again.  Her latest trick is to be up from 3am to 5am.  All week, we have done battle during those wee hours of the morning.  Laney will wake up, nurse, and fall back asleep, but the second I lay her down in her crib, she starts wailing.  I pick her up, she falls asleep, I lay her down, and she cries.  She's driving me crazy!! But somehow that sweet smile and ready laugh wins me back over at the break of day.  As I said, I am back to work now, but just two days a week.  On my days off, I get to sleep in a little bit.  Laney will usually sleep until 8 or 9am, after I finally get her back to bed.  Being so tired this past week, I have been convincing the big kids we should snuggle in bed for a while when they get up before we start our day. 

this is my "sleeping in" (David, by this time, is long gone at work)

While I have not been posting lately, I have written tons of blog entries in my head.  Hopefully I can get some of them caught up soon.  I was just going through some pictures and I can hardly believe how much Laney has grown up already!  I want to get some of the cute baby pictures up before she is all grown up!!

So to totally skip over Thanksgiving and Christmas, I was baking with William last week.  He told me he would be the mixer and I could be the pourer.  We made blueberry muffins from this recipe, which I have to say were delicious!

Look at this big kid! No longer a toddler, he seems to have grown up so much recently.

At lunch that day we played a new game.  We had gotten at pack of cards from Chick-fil-a called "Games to play at dinner." It contains cards that each have a different game to play while sitting down such as "guess what is in my hand" or "Mrs. Paghetti's Spaghetti." I actually really enjoyed the games and so did the kids.  Some were a little hard to play with a two year old and a five year old (like naming animals with each letter of the alphabet).  However, we found many that we could all play pretty well. One game was called "Family Awards." In this game, you think of an award to give to each name in the family.  For example, I started and gave myself the award "Best at folding laundry" and gave Eliana the award "Best at making Laney smile." After those examples, Eliana really ran with things and came up with the following awards for her family members. 

Daddy - Best at taking care of patients
Will - Best at eating blueberries the fastest
Laney - Best at laughing at Eliana
Grandma Flanigan - Best at babysitting
Grandpa Flanigan - Best at making noise
Grandma Bond - Best at getting stuff and helping
Grandpa Bond - Best at taking naps
Uncle Ray - Best at fixing stuff
Aunt Rhonda - Best at driving
Uncle Roger - Best at taking care of Aunt Hannah
Aunt Hannah - Best at waiting on Uncle Roger

(at this point, all of the awards became best at taking care of so and so, so I quit the game).  I was cracking up with this game.  She came up with some great awards (Grandpa Bond being one of my favorites).  Way to go Chick-fil-a.  This was one kids meal toy that even I liked!

Making Laney smile