Random updates on a Monday

1. She has gotten to such a cute age and finds such silly things to be so much fun..over and over and over and over again. Last night Neal rolled her up in my yoga mat and then got requests to do it again about 20 times. She giggled and squealed and had such a ball doing this.

2. Yesterday we also got into the high 50's in the middle of January. That was exactly what we needed to get us through to spring. We took full advantage of the nice weather on Saturday and Sunday. We jumped on Grayson's trampoline both days, played at the playground, went to a super fun outdoor birthday party and mastered riding the "4-wheeler jeep" which Reese has been scared of until this weekend. Now she loves it! Ella was in full dare devil mode and when I looked over at her she was standing on Grayson's pick nick table over the concrete porch. That child is bound to get hurt one day but so far has mostly kept herself out of too much trouble despite her daring personality. Love them both!

3. How did she get so big? She is so silly and fun. She often makes this face when you ask her a question and she doesn't know the answer or doesn't want to answer..it is one of my favorite faces.

4. We love this dog more than we can express. I wish we could clone her as she gets older. She just turned 7 the other day. I am thinking we will be getting another dog in the next couple of years but no dog will be able to measure up to this sweet girl.

5. Both of my girls have been sick a lot lately. Reese went a long stretch without being sick at all and then has been sick twice in the past month. She had what really seemed like the flu (& 3 of her good school friends had confirmed flu) 2 weeks before Christmas and then recently was sent home with some bad bathroom issues. This is her and I, and 2 Rapunzel dolls and a Rapunzel pillow, laying in bed the day that she was recently sent home. She was a really happy sick girl this day at least.

6. These girls are fighting a lot lately. Ella has entered full pestering sister mode. She has learned what buttons to push to really get to Reese and she does it constantly.They also really love each other though. There are many moments of complete love and it makes me so happy when we have those moments.

7. Reese has made so much progress with potty training. She has gone 2 full weeks without a single accident (aside from the potty issue day that she was sent home) at school. After a full week of no accidents she got to eat a cupcake for breakfast, she was one happy girl.

8. I love these 3 with all of my heart. They are just so cute.

A pottying update

Today marks day 6 of wearing panties during all awake hours! Reese has done such a great job. We have had 1-2 accidents on 5 of the days and no accidents one day. I am so proud of her. I am hoping that in the next few days we will be almost accident free. It is so cute to watch how proud she is of herself too. She is still hesitant to poop on the potty at home. Last night she started begging me to put a diaper on her so I was pretty sure that meant she needed to poop. I convinced her just to try to go on the potty and immediately after sitting down that is what happened. She is such a big girl and I am so proud of her.

I cannot believe how much different and more grown up she looks without the added bulk of a diaper. It makes me sad that she is no longer my baby but also very excited for things to come.

Her sister was jealous that I was taking her picture and cheesed it up so that I would take her picture too. She is just such a mess.

And I love this. I told Reese to stand with her sister so that I could take their picture together. For the first time she listened to me but Ella wanted nothing to do with it. I don't know that I will ever get any good shots of them together.

Blessed

As we enter 2013 I am amazed to think of just how blessed I am. It is crazy to me that Reese is so close to 3 years old and that for almost 4 years I longed to be a mother so badly and now here I am with 2 amazingly beautiful and sweet girls. God has been so good to me and it is easy to forget that and just live life, as hectic as it gets. It is so crazy that Reese was conceived through In Vitro and her precious life is nothing short of a miracle. When I think about Ella and how easily I was able to get pregnant with her after my body had refused to get pregnant for so many years prior I can’t help but realize that her precious life is nothing short of a miracle either. They are both just so amazing and it is wild to me that I have so much love for both of them, a love that I never imagined before having them.

I am also blessed by my husband. We fight in true married people fashion but I love him with all of my heart and am so thankful for the caring, supportive, sensitive and considerate father and husband that he is. The girls are so fortunate to have a man in their life that is going to be there for them no matter what and is going to love and support them to the end. He did want to have a son but I have no doubt that God knew what He was doing when he gave him girls. He is such a spectacular girl daddy. Our girls adore him and it is going to be so much fun to watch that love grow as they grow older.

I am so excited to start this new year but I just want to slow down time. Both of the girls are getting so big so fast. We have such a fun year ahead and I look forward to all that 2013 holds.

Our Christmas 2012

Christmas this year was really special and a lot of fun. It is so much fun to have two little girls to spend it with that are now to an age that they really enjoy it and get into the gifts that we get for them. We decided not to travel for the holidays this year. We welcomed any of our family that would like to come here for Christmas to come. Neal's parents came up for Christmas. While I did miss my family very much it was so nice not to have to pack all that 2 little girls require and take vacation time around the holiday. We had a great 1st Christmas in the home that our girls will grow up in.

 

 

We started the weekend with a trip to chuck e cheese. Reese has been begging to go there and we don't know why because she has only been there twice and the last time was 8 months ago. Honestly, we can go there and only spend an hour and just get a few tokens and she can have a blast on little money and not much time spent. They were both worn out too and took great naps.

One of Reese's favorite things right now is chap stick. I love this shot of her putting her chap stick on Ella. She really is a sweet big sister, most of the time.

 
On Nelson's (our elf on the shelf) last day he brought cupcakes for Jesus' birthday. Reese thought that this was the best idea that he has had all season. They had a lot of fun with Nelson this year and we did too.

This girl is a nut, love her!

Her too.

Every year we get new jammies on Christmas eve and take a picture in them. This year we took a silly face picture too. Below the silly face photo is a look at our Christmas jammie photo in 2011 compared to 2012, the girls have definitely changed a lot in the past year.

We left some sugar snap peas out for the reindeer (Reese is offering some to Barkley but she wasn't interested) and some cookies and milk for Santa.

Their G Pop made them an awesome kitchen. It even has ice trays in the freezer, a metal grate shelf in the oven, a sponge shelf under the sink and slots for their play plates. I made the drape and Chelsea and I painted the window scene. G Pop is so handy and creative. I think he had fun figuring this out and I know the girls will have a blast with it.

 

Chelsea got Neal and I a date night, movie tickets and free babysitting. This is a PERFECT gift for parents of a 2 and 1 year old. We look forward to cashing this in.

Reese was very excited about her new baby. This girls loves princesses and babies.

A sweet picture of the girls with their Gigi.

 

I love this picture from our Chuck e cheese visit. Reese is explaining something very serious to Ella. Ella just sat their and listened to her. Ella loves Reese so much and it is really cute to watch them begin to play and interact together more lately.

 

We are so blessed to have our precious girls to celebrate Jesus' birth with each year. We had so much fun this year and next year should be even more fun as they both become more aware of the event.

Virtual Christmas Card

Today I am linking up with one of my favorite blogs to read, kellyskornerblog.com. She is doing a Christmas card link up. I love this idea. I think this year’s card is my favorite…the last three years are at the top of my list but this year I am not recovering from pregnancy (I still have weight to lose but we are not in sleepless newborn stage) and I have both of my precious girls in it.

Here comes Santa Clause- 2012

I am pretty sure that this years Santa photo will be my favorite ever. Last years was pretty great but Ella was only 2 months old so I wasn't ready to put her on his lap. This year Reese was thrilled to death to sit on his lap and talk to him and Ella wanted nothing to do with him. I was pretty certain that Ella was going to scream bloody murder, she's not too fond of strangers and pretty much prefers me over anyone else. I thought Reese would be willing to at least talk to him and probably sit in his lap but I never imagined that she would run into his arms like he was her long lost friend. She told him that she wants a baby and princesses, luckily she is getting just that. I think I will frame this years picture at Christmas time each year. Love these girls!

Favorite!

She absolutely loved him.



2011, terrified of Santa.

 

The elves worked their magic and made her happy.

 

2010- 1st Santa experience, unsure.

 

She decided he was okay.

Studying the beard.

Houston~ December 2012

The trip to Houston is complete and we had a great time. It is such a long drive but it was so worth it. It was a short trip but I felt like we had some really quality time with my family. The drive down went great. We stopped in Dallas overnight and did some really fun things while we were there. On the ride home we left around 5 and got in around 2:30 am. That was pretty miserable. Reese went to sleep around 9:30 and Ella didn't go to sleep until after midnight. They both woke up crying often and it was hard to comfort them. We won't be traveling at night again.

While we were there we went to the Houston zoo, had the extended family over for dinner, it was so great to see everyone, celebrated Christmas with my family and went to lunch at a great Tex-Mex restuarant that has a huge sand pit with toys just outside. We all had a great time and look forward to getting back home again.