Random rantings.

Today is my oldest sister Cara's birthday!!!  Happy happy birthday to her!

Not much has been happening around our household.  Flara is grinning more and more, and now she makes sweet little sounds along with the smiles.  It's so cute!  She is pretty much smiling at anyone who comes and looks at her.  It seems like it's been forever to get to some of these stages.  Having a baby nearly 3 1/2 months early makes for one extremely long newborn phase.

Noël is really upping her vocabulary.  It seems each day she pulls out a bunch of new words.  Today she added 'sketti' for spaghetti!  She said, 'poop' today, which wasn't exactly exciting... but she says it now!  She also said, 'shoo' when I changed her diaper.  She knows that the white stuff on the ground is 'snow' and she loves to tell me 'no' now for lots of things!  TROUBLE!  haha!  I'll say, 'Noël, please don't step on Sissy.'  She tells me, 'no, nooooo.'  It's really hard not to laugh!  She's also really into Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton right now.  She wants us to play it daily on Pandora, and she flat out boogies down!

As our family grows, so do our needs for a larger vehicle.  We're currently in the hunt for one.  With the car seats in the back of our little Focus, I have to ride with my knees crammed in the dash.  When SnoopDogg travels along, he has to travel under my feet on the floor.  With his epilepsy and nervous nature, he gets really scared by any bump along the road, which results in his trying to crawl under the seat to the back.  Usually, he gets stuck halfway, so there will be two little stubs sticking out and irritated grunts erupting from beneath my seat.  He'll give up, then give the most concerted effort to cram his big block head between my knees to sit in my seat.  It's a serious battle of the wills!  Typically, he's a very obedient dog, but when he's scared, there's no telling that dog to stop doing anything.  Thankfully, I always win, but I'm covered in dog hair by time the battle is over.  Ugh!

We're still trying to sell our home, only by owner now.  We had to let a sale slip between our fingers last year because it happened during the week that Flara was born.  The couple ended up buying a house around the corner, but had really wanted ours.  It's hard to not sometimes be frustrated by that, but we know that God's timing for all things is always perfect.  In our first week now, we had probably ten phone calls of interest.  We're going to show the house tomorrow, so please pray for us!

We had a good week of superb weather... up in the 60s!  But, we're back to the icky cold and snow flurries.  I have not seen a winter hold on or come so early in years.  I think since back in 1993, when the Hoosier state got hit with a blizzard.  This winter just doesn't want to let up, and it's killing me.  I have not felt so much cabin fever ever in my life.  I'm sure having a toddler adds to it, because she is constantly telling me she wants to play outside.  It's just impossible with little Sis.  Thankfully, during our warm weather break, we were able to get up into the Park a couple of days and get in some minor hiking, as well as take a few strolls around the neighborhood.

We also saw that Noël's strawberries have sprouted a few flowers!  Oh, spring, please come quickly!