Life With Our Little Ladies

After the sweet arrival of Lily Monica last month, we knew we had a party to plan for her very first birthday with us. Abby has so much fun planning birthday parties for her babies, but this one was an especially big deal. Not only was Daddy home on Saturday to celebrate with us, but Ella was old enough to join in the fun this time. Complete with a singing birthday cake, gifts from around the house that Abby gathered and wrapped, a special birthday card from across the country and a princess birthday tiara, we partied it up Saturday afternoon.

birthday girl

enjoying the party

Did I mention Lily Monica has a ton of friends? No baby doll in our home is random. Each has her own name and identity given to them by their Mommy (Abby)! I work very hard to keep them all straight and these are only SOME...the ones who could make it to the party. The attendees from left to right were: Molly Chiny in her monkey suit, Annie, Amelia (who loves to swim and wears her bathing suit all winter), Hazel (in purple is very chatty), Caro Chiny (the butterfly...possibly some relation to Molly Chiny?), Abby Em (little Mommy), Lily Monica (the birthday girl!), Minnie Mouse, Goko Ono (doesn't like to wear clothes and might be Japanese), Foofa and Ella Margaret. Phew!

the whole crew

birthday girl and her cake

PARTY ANIMAL

best part...the cookies!

the proud grandparents? :)

trying to get Lily Monica's birthday present. You see that's what happens when Abby takes one of her sister's toys and wraps it up as a birthday present for someone else. Ella just wanted her ball back! :)

Happy Birthday Lily Monica!

Abby using Ella's video monitor as a phone to call Grandma.




Can you figure out what she is saying? It's so sweet.

my baby girl

Me: Abby, do you know how much I love you?
A: Sooooo much!
Joe: Do you know how much I love you?
A: Sooooo much!
Me: Who loves you more, Mommy or Daddy?
Abby (shrugging her shoulders): Jesus!

loving the jump jump

Me: Abby, where are you going?
Abby: Just to go find your phone, Mommy. Don't worry, this isn't goodbye.


watermelons and pushey kisses = marshmallows and Hershey Kisses

reading books together

I love baby feet.

Abby: Mommy, I want you to take me to the bathroom before I go to bed.
Me (sitting on the couch relaxing): I think Daddy should take you. I will meet you in your room when you are done to say goodnight.
Abby: This isn't about you, Mommy. Come with me now, please.

beauty.

goofy girl decided to eat her giraffe

decided she wanted my camera instead...

almost sitting up all by herself

enough said. love them.

Abby's favorite thing to do is read us stories. She has always LOVED books, but just recently she has starting "reading" anything with words to anyone who will listen. It is so sweet. I might be biased because she is pretty much a twin of my three year old self, but so precious!

Lucky girl has a mommy whose love for books and sharing it with others probably started at the same age, so she has my undivided attention. Read your heart out, baby girl!





This melts my heart!

Let the Christmas preparations begin! This weekend, Grandma came for a visit and we did some fun Christmas activities, starting with a gingerbread house. Try encouraging an almost three year old and her eager Grandma to wait patiently for the frosting to dry before starting the next step. About halfway through we decided to just go with it and have fun as the walls came tumbling down. We made a big mess and had lots of fun!

 

DANGER!  :)

And the walls came tumbling down...

On Saturday morning, we woke up to our first snowfall. Perfect morning to bundle up and go get our Christmas tree.





Daddy and Abby encouraged all of us to go inside the farm store and look around while they finished looking for the perfect tree...which explains how we ended up with the tallest tree EVER! It's so big we had to cut down the top to even think about putting our star on and it's so wide that it almost touches our couch and dining room table at the same time! :) I love their optimistic, carefree Christmas tree picking spirit, especially because sometimes Mommy is just too practical. So, when you come to house for dinner during the holiday season and you are being poked in the head by our GINORMOUS Christmas tree as you enjoy your meal at the end of the table...remember that big dreamy tree picked by our sweet dreamer girl is just making Christmas in our house even more fun this year! 

Oh, we'll see you in a few minutes Mommy!! ;)

 

Our tree trip wouldn't be complete without a special treat.

Ella hung out in the front pack for the morning festivities, but when we got home even our littlest girl got excited about the decorating...

Since Abby was a little baby, I learned to have very low expectations for sleep while traveling. In our personal experience, a new bed, new room, new roommates and new sounds usually means some broken sleep, shared beds and lots of comforting for our girl. It has gotten so much better since Abby has grown and moved from the pack and play to a bed. Ella is still young enough that her surroundings didn't effect her very much this trip, but (like at home) she was up to eat at about three each morning. On our Thanksgiving trip, Abby ended up in our bed at some point the first two nights and on night three she stayed in her own bed all night. As I was taking care of Ella in the middle of the night, I couldn't help but snap a photo of Abby at three am each night. I wanted to remember years from now how equally challenging and sweet these sleep deprived travel nights can be during this season of our lives.


Night 1:

We were all snuggled in nice and close.

Night 2:

Someone loves her Daddy!

 Night 3:

Whoever says we didn't make any progress?

I love her!