My Sweet Valentine

Since Valentine's is on a Sunday this year, we celebrated early. Lance surprised me with a dozen roses, my favorite Haagen-Dazs ice cream, and a date scheduled for next Friday, but my favorite Valentine came from my cutie pictured above. I was sitting on the couch feeding Libby when my boys came back from the store. Lance gave Ella her Valentine's (a single pink rose and a balloon) and came over and showed me what he had for me. Meanwhile, Spencer was hanging back behind the couch. Lance gave him a little nudge and he came forward and presented me with a large candy box filled with Reeses peanut butter candies. Apparently he wanted to get me something himself and bought it with his own money. Lance told him he didn't need to but he still really wanted to get it for me. What a sweetie!!! I love this boy so much and can't believe how quickly he is growing up. He is such a thoughtful young man. Thanks Spencer!

The Name Game

When I first found out I was pregnant I was so sick - "so sick" actually doesn't even begin to describe it. I was "lying in bed wishing to die" sick. I was "living in the doctor's office attached to IV's" sick. I was "laying on my bathroom floor in between throwing up while Ella colored next to me" sick. I ended up being diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum (more on that later) but that is not what this post is about. The point is, I was so sick I could not find any excitement in me at all about the pregnancy. I told Lance that he had to be excited for both of us and that he got naming rights. For the most part, I named the other two kids so I wanted him to have a turn. I retained veto rights but I wanted him to name this baby. He was convinced that I would go back on this, so I dug my heels in and let him name Elizabeth.

Luckily, he chose a name I LOVE. All of our names have special meaning and so does Elizabeth which I won't go into here. Our kids middle names are all named after relatives who have had a special place in our lives (Spencer Michael - my FIL and Ella Michelle- Lance's sister). Lance chose Claire as Elizabeth's middle name after my grandpa (Clarence) who has had a profound influence on my life. When Lance chose the name Elizabeth I knew she would be called by a nickname, I just didn't know which one.


I think Elizabeth has THE MOST nicknames possible of any name: Lizzie, Liz, Eliza, Ellie, Lizbeth, Lily, Liza, Libby, Liesie, Buffy, Beth, Birdy, and so many, many more. I really liked the name Libby while I was pregnant but thought it might be the hormones because that was a name I had never even thought of before. After she was born, I really liked Libby, Lily, Liesie, and sometimes Lizzie. Libby was my favorite but I could not find a single person who also liked it. But I kept going back to it again and again. Finally, I decided that I didn't care what anyone thought and her nickname is Libby. So you will see her referred to as both Elizabeth and Libby. I think Libby really suits her.


Convincing the family was another matter. Lance likes it but the kids are adamant that her name is Elizabeth. The first day I called her Libby, they would both correct me and say loudly "You mean ELIZABETH." When I started referring to her as Libby-Lu I got Ella on my side. But now Ella says her name is not Libby, it is Libby-Lu. Lance calls her only Elizabeth. Spencer decided today that he is going to call her Lizzie. Unfortunately for him, he does not get to make that decision or this is going to be one confused little girl. I told him that if he calls her Lizzie, Ella gets to call him Rainbow. That was the end of that.

So, she will be known by both Libby and Elizabeth. You can call her either name - I love them both.

One last picture of Libby in her Christmas dress. I need to post one of both girls but Ella has been too quick in stripping after church and we have had soooo many church days cancelled due to snow. Maybe this week . . . is it too late to wear Christmas dresses???

Isn't she gorgeous????

WFMW - Hairstyles for girls (and mom!)

One of the things I absolutely love is fixing Ella's hair. Unfortunately, I was born with absolutely no talent when it comes to hair. I remember many painful hours spent in front of the mirror as a teenager trying to fix my hair only to hate the end result. Luckily for me, there are a ton of blogs that have come to my little girl's rescue. They show step by step how to give your daughter (or yourself) the cutest hairstyles around. I fix Ella's hair every morning before preschool and church. We are stopped at least once a day getting compliments on how cute her hair is. These blogs make it so easy that if I can do it, anyone can.

The first blog I found was "She does Hair." She no longer posts on this blog but I think it is a great place to learn the basics of hair styling. I still look through her archives a lot when I want a simple do. Here's the link:

She Does Hair

My go-to blogs for hair styles are these next two. Both bloggers have multiple girls and show everything from easy to complicated hair styles. They have quick video clips for some of the hairstyles so you can actually see how to do it. This helped me a lot when learning to curl with a flat iron and how to dutch braid. "Adopt a Do" has a lot of super quick hairstyles for the morning and even a section for dads.

Adopt a 'Do - Cute Girls Hairstyles

Babes in Hairland

I LOVE these next three hair blogs also and look at them frequently - I just don't find myself using them as much as the others.

It's a Girl Thing

The Story of a Princess and Her Hair

Girly Do's by Jen

Ella knows her hair HAS to be fixed before she leaves the house for school. Depending on her mood (and the time) sometimes we do super simple (like a french braid) or a hair headband. I like to let her pick her hairstyle the night before, that way she is a lot more cooperative in the morning. Here are some of the examples of hairstyles we have learned to do.

I searched through my photos to try and find some pics of Ella's hair done and it turns out most of my pictures don't really show off the hair, so I will have to try and take some that show the whole style. But here are a few where you can kind of see what I have done. I really really wish that I had taken more pictures of the different hair styles because I am missing most of my favorites.

I do variations of this style a lot (I wish I had better and more pictures)! These two hair-do's end in messy buns but I also finish it off using two ponytails, one ponytail, one bun, or leaving it down. I also will braid or twist the crosses. I have also thread ribbon through the crosses which is super cute. You can also do this hairstyle upside down with the buns ending up on top. You can find the instructions for this hairstyle on almost every blog I link to. It really is a lot easier than it looks.




This next hairstyle was a mistake but I was too tired to go back and fix it. Suprisingly, I had a lot more people stop me that day than usual.


I only wash Ella's hair every other day so a lot of her hairstyles are transformed for the next day. This next one, I just took the back down and put her hair into a ponytail.


In this next picture, her hair had two french braids the day before. In the morning it was really wavy and cute but it rained this day so the waves were gone by the time I took the picture.

I found this next hairstyle on "Babes in Hairland." It is one of my favorites to do because it is easy to adapt into a number of different hairstyles at the end. I don't often have enough time to do the "X" on the side so we will finish it with a braided bun and cute bow. I'm going to show the front, top, and back of this hair-do.

In this first pic, we had been at the farm all day and the side kind of got messed up (but still cute).





One more new blog I have found is Redpunzel. She has a section for Mom-Do's that are really cute and easy. I have had fun trying them on my own hair - sorry no pics of me.

Another post that might be of interest to you is how to make the cute hair bows you see everywhere. They are super easy! Here is the link:

Easy Hair Bow Instructions

For more great tips and ideas head to We are That Family where she hosts "Works For Me Wednesday" every week.

My previous WFMW posts:

Sweet Spinach Bread
Library Bags
Letterboxing
Curling Ribbon
Safe Plastics
5 Ingredients or Less
Laundry Tip
DIY Lip Gloss
Tips for Clothes Shopping with girls
How to teach a child to swallow pills
Removing old stickers, adhesive, etc.
Easy Hair Bow Instructions
Managing school papers
Fall Traditions
Coupon Binder
Toys Worth Buying - Board Games

Thanks for visiting!

Neighborhood Dig Out

Oh my. I think this weekend cemented our plans to retire in California. These pictures are from Sunday. We started shoveling on Friday (by we I mean Lance :). Most of the neighborhood was out in shifts all weekend trying to stay on top of the snow.

I love our neighborhood. There was a real sense of cameraderie this weekend as everyone helped each other out and looked out for those who were not able to shovel their own walks. This is a picture of our street Sunday morning. Lance was down out the end digging out my mom's car so she could get to work Monday morning. It took him 3 hours. He dug out our car yesterday with the help of our next door neighbor. Crazy, crazy snow.




This was the view right outside our door Sunday morning. The tree at the top of the post is the tree in front of our house. I love how pretty it is in the different seasons.


Ella had a blast "helping" her dad clear the snow. She built a snow sculpture, climbed "snow mountains" and ate a lot of snow :)





I'm not sure why but I'm getting a kick out of making the kids pictures more retro looking. Ella brought in a whole bowl full of snow and sat at the table and ate it with a spoon. I think it is her favorite treat right now.

We are now in the middle of another snowstorm. They are predicting between 10 and 20 more inches. I doubt the kids go to school for the rest of the week. The federal government has been closed for 3 days now. It's closed tomorrow but Lance has to work from home since it is his telecommuting day. Hopefully, I will post more pictures tomorrow after this current snowstorm. We only need 9 more inches to be the snowiest winter on record. Absolutely crazy.

Snow, snow, and MORE snow!

What a crazy winter we are having this year. It seems that every storm that comes this way brings snow with it. This weekend we were hit with what has been dubbed "Snowmageddon." It ranks #4 in recorded history for DC and this storm also brings us to the 3rd snowiest winter in DC history. So what does that translate to for us? Snow days, sledding, laundry, naps, hot chocolate, wet floors, warm baths, lots of movies, hide and go seek, snow ball fights, shoveling, pajama days, and lots and lots of family time.

Libby had a doctor's appointment yesterday morning. When we left it had just started to barely snow. By the time we got home, kids were already sledding and my two older ones were dying to go out.





I love how Spencer watches out for Ella when they are outside together. He always makes sure that she is included (even though he doesn't always want her to tag along).


Isn't the view from my deck beautiful?




The two pictures above were taken yesterday morning. The picture below is of our deck this morning when I woke up. It continued to snow for most of the day. Spencer left his sled outside yesterday afternoon. We know it is out there somewhere, we just don't know where.


Church has been cancelled tomorrow. I doubt we have school Monday and more snow is expected on Tuesday. The kids only had two days of school last week (they had Monday off and Weds. and Fri. were snow days). We have lots of food, games, movies, and general supplies . . . I'm just not sure how we are going to survive each other :)