I am a Warrior!

For weeks I have been mulling over a post that I would like to make about how amazing Travis is and how helpful and wonderful Sophia is. They really are both incredible. This morning, though, I decided to start with how amazing and wonderful and incredible I am! Let's recap all of the things that I am:
1. Mom (twice over)
2. Wife (once over... thank goodness!) haha
3. Full time Veterans Benefit program coordinator for Clay County, MN
4. Marathon runner (even if it's not the whole 26.2 miles! I've only done that once!)
5. Hobby Farmer

Yesterday I...
1. Woke up at 6am. Nursed Kaia, got everything for the day ready, nursed Kaia some more, left for work.
2. Worked 8 hours. This entails meeting clients, completing all their VA paperwork, providing administrative support, and all kinds of miscellaneous. I used my lunch break to call daycare centers to try to figure out childcare for the fall. I had to take two "pumping breaks" and took phone calls and answered emails during those "breaks."
3. Picked up children at 4:45. Nursed Kaia while I played a game with Sophia at her school.
4. Dropped books at the library.
5. At home doing my "single mom thing" because Travis works evenings: Sophia and I both chopped vegetables and made a casserole together. We all had supper (Kaia now sits in a high chair and eats rice cereal!). Sophia and I did 2 puzzles and a small writing project. Then it's dishes, laying out school clothes for the next day, prepping Sophia's backpack, stocking the diaper bag, picking up toys, handwashing the 5 bottles and pump parts, feeding cats and dogs, etc.
6. Then it's the barn chores: I muck stalls (with Kaia slung around my neck in a front-pack carrier) while Sophia stocks the mangers with hay. I haul 5 gallon buckets of water to the barn. Sophia helps me grain and lock up the horses and keep the dogs away from their salt lick (who knew??!!).
7. Then it's getting ready for bed: I bathe both girls, we all read a story together, and the girls are tucked in by about 10 which I KNOW sounds so late, but Travis works nights so we put them to bed late so they'll sleep in with daddy. :) It works for us!
8. I stay up until 11:30 reading up on vaccines because the girls had Dr appointments today.
9. Kaia sleeps in her crib until 3am and then it's off and on nursing until...
10. 5:45am my alarm goes off and I hit the treadmill because I'm getting ready for my first post-Kaia marathon event! (10k during the Fargo Marathon at the end of May). Running is MY thing. It makes me feel like a rock star... I come off that treadmill feeling like a million dollars, with energy to do my crazy day all over again!

Learning to Write

Last night I had a little extra time so Sophia and I played "school" (one of my favorite kid games as a child AND an adult!).  I got to be the teacher first, and I wrote a list of words on her white board for Sophia to sound out, and then we did some addition. Sophia was the teacher next, and she wrote the following words for me to read:
1. HRS (horse)
2. SOPE (Soapy)
3. LDBG (Ladybug)
4. SOPHIO... I read that one as "Sophi-o" but she corrected me. The word was actually "soap." The H, I, and O are "silent letters."

I LOVE the way she thinks!

Happy February!

February has been such a busy, blizzardy, birthday-ish month! Here are a few highlights from the last week:

 Sophia brought a Valentine's card to my office on V-Day :)

 Saturday the 16th was a STUNNER. I have never seen the world look so sparkly!

 Good morning, Margie!

 Oh, sorry Pepper... did I wake you? :)

 While Kaia and Travis slept in I bundled up Sophia and we headed out to the barn to groom the horses

 Sophia has this thing for icicles :)

 Their cozy little stalls

 Margie always comes right up... she's like a golden retriever! She always WANTS to be played with, is inquisitive and super friendly and playful! She has a wonderful personality!

 True to her golden retriever nature... she is amazing with the kids :)

 After grooming and then family breakfast we bundled up both kids for some horsey time! Kaia likes the front pack carrier now, and my track jacket zips right over her

 Sophia and Travis tussle a LOT!

 Lovely walk down the road!

 In the afternoon we enjoyed watching Sophia's ballet practice

 Back at home Sophia took her princess car for a spin around the basement!

 This is the icky storage side of the basement... lots of bins and some shelves in the back

 This is the cute playroom side! We're planning to put in more lights and curtains, but it's pretty much done!

 SO... here's where I need your help! I was going to paint green circles on the blue wall, but then decided to think about it. Should I leave the blue wall solid blue? Or paint green circles or stripes or some other shape? Can't decide! Let me know if you have any suggestions :)

 On Monday (my birthday!) we suffered another blizzard... we enjoyed the family day at home, but the cold snaps and deep snow are getting a bit tiresome. I was happy for the birthday gift of extra family time, though, since everything was closed and cancelled on Monday! Travis gave me a Kindle and made lots of treats, and has continued the "birthWEEK" treatment all week long... he's even cooked me breakfast 2 mornings this week! This is a guy who works until 3:00am! Kaia also gave me some presents: Her first 8 hours of sleep in the crib (Monday night) and rolled over for the first time on Tuesday! (Back to front).  I took the above pic on Tuesday... this rainbow is called "sun dogs" out here. It was like -20 on Tuesday; we get sun dogs when it's bitterly cold and the air is full of ice crystals!

 Sophia loves to crawl into Kaia's crib and hang out :)

That's it for now!

Just a couple pics...

 Nope, I haven't gotten tired of the deer yet! :) Here is one standing outside Sophia's window.

 I'll follow this up with an "Ode to Sophia" post, but here are 2 pics of her latest wonderfulness: she is now fully capable of chopping fruits and vegetables to help me in the kitchen! She has her own cutting board and chopper (from the "Small Hands" catalogue, which I LOVE)... when I make an apple crisp Sophia does ALL the chopping and I just make the topping! She also chops things like mushrooms, green peppers, etc. for pasta/pizza/stir fry etc. and chops bananas or cheese for her own snacks, etc. It's awesome.

 Margie watching the deer come through the back pasture at sunset (headed towards the pile of rejected hay... there is one deer that also beds every night in the front corral!).

 On our "snow day" on Monday we all enjoyed the gift of an unexpected family day! We mostly hung around indoors and worked on house projects... and Sophia completed all of her Valentines for her school party! She decorated each card, wrote "Sophia W" very carefully, put the card and a candy in an envelope, and sealed each envelope with a heart sticker and a piece of tape and then decorated her envelopes. We made the first one together, and then she made 23 of them herself. VERY project-oriented kid! :)

Sunrise this morning. :) We had a really lovely, dramatic fog in the prairie. It was one of those mornings that is so quiet and still... I didn't hear a single sound except for my own boots in the snow.

And, YES, I realize that I don't have a single pic of Kaia on here! Not good! I guess I've been taking her pics on my phone, and I haven't yet figured out how to get those pics onto my blog. :( I'll get some on here SOON! Basically she's big and fat and happy :)

Just a little more comparing

LOTS of baby faces and busy-ness!

 On January 19th Sophia's ballet school (Gasper's School of Dance) had their winter showcase... in spite of being part of a huge class only Sophia and her little friend, Hope, showed up for their classes' demonstration!

 Hope was too frightened to go out on the floor so Sophia took her hand and helped her!

 I was so incredibly proud of Sophia's performance at the showcase, and how she's responded to ballet this year in general. The difference that 9 months makes is just mind-blowing... she is approaching dance with such confidence and concentration this season! She's often the "leader" in her large class, and I just can't put into words how proud and pleased it makes me feel!

 On the 20th we drove up to Grand Forks to spend the day with Ralph and Carmen, who just celebrated their birthdays! They also have bulldogge puppies, which is always fun!

 Cousin Ava is a HUGE baby-lover! I just love it because Kaia's almost as big as her :)

 The 3 "big girls;" Gabby, Jaylin and Magdalene

 Baby poses! My SIL, Lindsey, brought some butterfly wings so that I could get some extra-cute baby pics :)

 Grandpa Ralph with his 2 littlest girls, Ava and Kaia

 We have lots of these moments too! :)

 I snapped a pic of Sophia playing at her preschool a couple of weeks ago... I just love the indendent play at the Academy! Nervous about switching schools in the fall for kindergarten!

 Grandpa Ralph brought us a bale of hay last week and squeezed in another visit :)

 Yee-haw!

 Margie... still the most beautiful horse on the planet :)

 More cow-girling :)

 Sophia's favorite part of bath-time: holding Kaia for a minute while I fill the baby tub!

 Ugh... -23 last week. AIR temp. The wind chill temps are unspeakable!

 Sorry... for some reason these pics got goofy! More bath cuddles!

 Trav loves this one because the low of the day is -24 and the high is-23

 As you may have seen on Facebook... we have become the hot new hang-out for all the locals! (the deer)... we have a moldy pile of hay by the barn that smells so sweet and is so lovely... EXCEPT for the mold of course! Since we don't want colicky horses we left the pile for the deer and they told ALL their friends! Travis counted 24 deer on our land on Saturday!

 This gal was hanging out in the front yard

 The conga line coming out of the prairie to the Williams' Deer Cafe!

 Party time! :)

 We occasionally find time to just hang around and goof off!

 Love this pic of Travis and his mini-me :)

 Sleeping babies are the sweetest

 Kaia is truly a very very happy, chatty, smiley baby... it's just hard to get a picture of it! But, on Feb 3 (her 4-month birthday) she was so extra smiley in the morning that I finally got some pics!

 One more deer pic :) We have deer on our property EVERY day now, but I never get tired of it! Even the deer poo is okay with me... they are just so beautiful!

 Last night we went to our friend, Tiffany's, for Super Bowl! Her daughter Azahna was great with Kaia

 Brien (the owner of the stable we boarded Margie with) holding his son, Hayden, who insisted on holding Kaia. Tiffany boards her horses with Brien and Jess so it was a big gathering of horse-lovers... you could have heard a pin drop during the Clydesdale commercial and the Dodge Ram "So God made a farmer" commercial! We had so much fun pigging out and hanging out!

 Sophia and Tiffany's son, Ayden, hanging out. Sophia, Ayden and Hayden are all the same age!

 Another country sunrise :)