"Seriously, you just don't get any sweeter than this..."

Many mornings Emily can sleep in until 8 AM if I let her...of course, with school this isn't possible. Therefore, most every morning, I have to wake Emily up so we can all take Carolyn to school. This morning I went into Em's room and started picking my sleeping baby up...as I lifted her out of her crib, even before her eyes opened - she smiled a big huge smile and then opened her beautiful blue eyes to greet the day. And I just thought, "Seriously, you just don't get any sweeter than this." She is such a sweetheart. A smiling sweetheart.

After that, I thought about how I think I have three girls that just can't get any sweeter. We obviously have our meltdowns and sass moments, but - I think my girls are incredibly sweet. After I had gotten a smiling half-asleep Emily out of her crib, this same morning as Carolyn left for school she began giving everyone her hugs and kisses as she always does. When it was my turn, our hug was weak so I said, "Carolyn, I need a better hug than that." To that she replied, "I'll give you a good hug any time."

Then, tonight as I was putting Angela to bed I gave Angela her goodnight kiss in which she responded, "I need a better kiss, mom!" So I gave my little Ang-ba-nang another kiss and she exclaimed, "I love you too much!" - something that Angela tells me ALL of the time. I just love it. I love my three sweet girls!

I also love my mornings with Angela and Emily. I just can't even put into words how much my mornings with Ang mean to me. A typical morning after we drop Carolyn off for school is we come home together and do starfall.com together as I feed Emily. Then, we eat our oatmeal together and chat. Then (Emily usually plays independently really well at this time so I can really focus on Ang) we go upstairs and have preschool together and then reading time together. I love love love it.

This week I have finally started making Angela her OWN phase books. She has been asking for them for awhile now...she loves Carolyn's so I am excited she finally has her own. My phase books are books I make personalized for my kids...they include lots of pictures of themselves, their family members, and friends...or whatever (animals they loves, princesses they love - anything that gets them excited about the book). Carolyn loved learning to read with her phase books and so far Angela is inlove with hers, too. I find it a wonderful way to teach kids how to read. This "R" book is all about one of her best friends, Rowan, and includes pictures of Rowan and her. I'm making phase one books right now for Angela with all the letters in the alphabet. We'll first focus on those and learn the letters and sounds really well. Then move on to phase two books with one word in them with pictures to cordinate (their favorite pictures are usually pictures I put in the books of them with someone or something). Then, phase three books have an easy phrase/sentence and so forth. Anyways - I love our phase books.