Happiest of Birthdays

6.29.2011

My birthday was yesterday...thank you again for all the birthday wishes people!

I've had some very wonderful birthdays over the years, but I can say this was truely my favorite so far.

The day before my birthday me and my beautiful baby girls headed off to Costco to get my choice of birthday treat: Cheesecake! mmmmm!
As we walked past the fresh flower display Taylee, in all her sweetness, asked if she could buy me some flowers for my birthday. I excitedly agreed and told her to choose any flowers she wanted to.
She chose some beautiful pink gerber daisies. {I happen to love gerber daisies, too}
Now for the best part...
She wanted to get them out of the bucket which was just out of her reach so I lifted her up to get them. As her feet toched the floor, she turned to me singing "Happy Birthday" at the top of her longs right there in Costco while handing me these flowers!

Needless to say my heart grew 3 sizes that day.
It is moments like these that really make being a mom the best! (and make up for all the awful moments of fighting and whining and nastiness)

Oh, and my birthday got better. I spent time with those I love. Thank you for making my day full of celebration.
~Jenn

9 months

2.13.2011

Mastered:
* SMILE! Finally I got a picture of her smiling. Aly has always been so serious. I love it, but am glad I was finally able to capture this sweet toothy smile on camera.
* Furniture cruiser - She pulls her self up on the furniture and 'walks' along them
* Patty-Cake - she pats it, she rolls it and she throws it in the oven.
* Feeding herself - (speaking of cake) Ya for mom, I can finally get something done!
* Backup Singer - Big sister loves to sing, and Als loves to sing along
* Just Dance - wii love to dance at our house. We have a dance game for the wii. She gets the remote, points it at the TV, and shakes it. But really whenever/wherever there is music she grooves and it goes something like this: hears music, starts the belly bounce (or knee bounce-depending on the position) then the arms and hands start waving.
* Signs - she's come up with some great ways to communicate. When she wants you to come here she'll pat her belly or knees (as if we're her puppies). She will sign Night-night when tired, sometimes milk -but mostly food when hungry, more, and all done
* Kissy-kissy - she's been giving kisses for awhile, now she'll blow you kisses
* Copy-cat - this may be my favorite age because of this. Als is really learning how a lot of things work. Some of my recent favorite examples are: when I answered the phone she had a toy in her hand so she held it up to her ear and started 'talking'...and she likes to wash her hair (yes she fills up the cup and dumps it on her head), brushes her hair and teeth,, imitates her sisters play, or our laughs...
* and I must be her favorite, because I am...and really she says "Mama" a lot!

Working on
* Balance - it seems that she has more confidence than balance. I try not to encourage this too much. I'm not sure I'm ready for her to walk.
* Walking - OK I'll admit it...it's starting. My baby is working up some bravery. Letting go of the couch or other support system. Even trying to stand up while not being supported by anything. So ya, here's to hoping this lasts a little while.
* Talking - I know there is gonna be some time before this is mastered, but she really concentrates on the sounds we make

Yes, we're still here

I really wish I was good at blogging. Not just making posts, but making awesome posts. In reality, that is why I don't love posting on this thing. But I do love looking back and being able to read about stuff like this:

Alyssa
7 months

Mastered
* Crawling - look out big sis, I'm coming to get you! It didn't take long to get this down, and once she did, she got fast.
* Sit up, Stand up - She can sit up or pull herself up anywhere, anytime. Even if that is in her crib at 2 a.m. But she gets stuck, can't wait until she learns to sit back down.
* Scream - Aly has been a pretty quiet baby, unless something is wrong. But now she thinks it's really funny to scream. Then Tay screams, and as you can guess, Aly screams...back and forth it goes.
* Kisses - she's pretty choosy about who gets em, and when. But my favorite part of this open mouth, slobbery kiss is when she says "Ooohhh" after!

Working on
* Her dance moves
* Trying to be as big as big Sis
* Sleeping through the night (fingers crossed!!!)

Happy...

1.09.2011

My New Years resolution...maybe, just maybe I can not neglect this poor little blog.

Now for the catch up.
I'll start with Christmas:

This year really was one of the happiest, if not the most, Christmas' to date. T-Bug was so afraid of Santa at Thanksgiving (as you can see in this photo).

We thought it would be so great to have most of the cousins in a pic with him since we were all together.
Then one day she woke up and told me she wanted Santa to bring her the Rapunzel doll (from Tangled) that sings. She wanted this doll SO bad that she was very insitant on going to visit him again. I wasn't about to stand in line for ever to have her freak out about him again (not that I blame her-the whole thing is a little wierd,right).
But we did go to a Christmas show where Santa and Mrs. Claus were there to greet the children.

I'm so proud of her. She faced her fear! When I said she was afraid, I mean terrified! Like hyperventilating, holding on with a death grip terrified. So it was a big feat for her to just wake up and decide...Sure enough Santa was proud of her for this, and because she was mostly such a good girl

She got her doll that sings.

Aly was fun at Christmas time, too. She just wanted to eat the bows and paper, of course.


NEW YEARS
If I had to sum up the night it would be wow! Tay lasted until about 1 am when she finally fell asleep in the car on the way home. Who can sleep when they have thier 'Prince' to ring in the new year with?


We hope you had as great of holidays as we did, and that the 011 brings blessings of joy to you!