My First Little Love

"I Gotta..."

To say that my daughter has my husband wrapped around her little finger, is a complete understatement. Adriana can sweet-talk that man into almost anything. He loves his boys and enjoys doing all sorts of boy things with them, but his girl is his princess. The other day I asked him to go into Adriana's room to tell Little Miss Chatty that she needed to lay down and take her nap. After a few minutes, he emerged with her in his arms.
"She says she's not tired," he explained with a sheepish grin.
At night, Steven puts the boys to bed; and I put Adriana to bed. We each have our own bedtime traditions. The boy's ritual include things like "Monkeytime Stories" (Daddy's created-on-the-spot stories), "The Banershky Speech" (I'm not even going to try to explain that one), and prayers. Adriana's bedtime routine is a bit more tame and includes book reading, the "Gospel Song" (which she now can sing so sweetly), and her prayers. But one thing her routine must include is a last kiss from Daddy. If I forget to call him in, her daddy jokingly pouts and gives me a very hard time. Obviously she's picked up on this; and as I finished the "Gospel Song" a couple nights ago, she put her hand over my mouth. In an emphatic big girl voice that made me stop in my tracks, she told me, "I gotta kiss Daddy!" You can imagine how much more her father's heart melted when he heard that one...

Bird Watching

We were outside yesterday; and as her brothers spent their time playing football and sneaking forbidden bites from the last patches of snow, Adriana's attention was on the sky. She was so intrigued by the geese flying overhead. There were quite a few, and to her each flock was more exciting than the last. She kept repeating, "Birdie, birdie." Finally in an attempt to get them to come down and say hello, she offered them the only thing she had on her person, "Birdie, snack?"

Love

The other day Isaiah told me something funny that Elijah had said. When he finished the story he chuckled and said, "I love that kid!"

Dangerously Close To Two

Wintertime Activity

This post is for all my fellow mommies. Summertime makes the grass green, the sun bright, the water warm, and the mommies fun. I don't know about you, but mommying in the warm weather is simply easier. In the winter when we're cooped up, I'm always at a loss for interesting things to do. I'm not an especially creative mommy and my kids do a lot of just playing together, but last week I discovered three activities.
1. Mattress Jungle Gym- I was adjusting the bedskirt on Adriana's crib and had placed her mattress on the floor. She went crazy tumbling, rolling, and jumping on it. I'm going to keep the mattress as a "trick up my sleeve" for the next time I need to keep her entertained.
2. Paper Plate Ice Skating- This only works if you have a wood floor. Use a paper plate for each foot and have a skating party.
3. Duster Ice Hockey- Our "paper plate skating party" evolved into "wood floor hockey". We ditched the plates for this one, grabbed a nerf ball, and gave each kid dusters in place of hockey sticks. Mom was full time goalie with a broom and the table legs were the goal.
Anyway, I hope this helps fill up an afternoon for you and your kiddos. And don't leave comments like "you're so creative" because I'M NOT, and I'm already desprite for new ideas. Anyone know how many days until spring?

Website

I decided not to pour money into a beautiful, fancy website for my little business. Since I want this to remain a side thing, not getting in the way of being a stay-at-home mommy, I decided to keep it low-key (and cheap). I was surprised at how much work still goes into such a simple site. (A big thank-you to my brother-in-law Matt who helped me do this.)
Anyway, here it is: www.alyssaannephotography.com/
If you know anyone in the area looking for a photographer, I'd be grateful it if you would pass this site along. Also, if you personally are thinking of using me, please know that I have a discounted price list for friends. Okay, enough with the marketing junk...it makes me uncomfortable. Unlike my hubby, I don't have a sales bone in my body.
A quote I read from John Piper made me think of photography. Piper says:
"We are all starved for the glory of God, not self. No one goes to the Grand Canyon to increase self-esteem. Why do we go? Because there is greater healing for the soul in beholding splendor than there is in beholding self....The physical eye is meant to say to the spiritual eye, 'Not this, but the Maker of this, is the Desire of your soul.'"
This is what I love about photography. Photographing the smile of child, the colorful leaves of fall, the beauty of a family is not creating beauty, but capturing the beauty God created.
"The heavens are telling of the glory of God." ~Psalm 19:1

Warmth

Blogging has been a bit more sporadic as we attempted to get back to normal after the holidays and also as I've been working on a website for my new little photography business.
I had to share two recent boy quotes though. As we packed away the Christmas tree, Elijah went over and hugged it.
"Goodbye, Christmas Tree; we'll see you soon."
Earlier that same day, they were watching Little Einsteins.
"Mom," Isaiah inquired, "if I break the glass [on the t.v.] can those guys come into our living room?"
I was just grateful he actually asked before giving the idea a test run!

Like most of the rest of the country, we've enjoyed some warm weather. It's great to have a break from the cold weather to take the kids out to burn some energy. Of course the camera came out with us...

Paparazzi-ignoring, Tutu-clad Princess

As I played around with my new lens, I asked Adriana, "Can you look at the camera for Mommy?"
She politely replied, "No."

I finally got her to look, but I think my kids are about as immune to the camera as a celebrity's child.

On a different note, we bought her a tutu for Christmas that she refused to try on. When we finally got it on her and showed her it in the mirror, she said, "Oooh, pretty." Now we have a hard time getting her out of it.