31/365

Today I am thankful for the fact that all day Lucy has done sweet things for Annie. She has brought her toys, rubbed her head, patted her back, and talked to her - all with no prompting from me. Each time she would do something for Annie, she would run over to me and say, "I be nice to Annie, Momma! I make Momma HAPPY!" She has no idea how happy it makes me to see them interacting with one another where they are both smiling and giggling. Annie loves Lucy. Every time Lucy comes near she gets so excited. It is really cute. Lucy has always been very tolerant and was kind from a distance to Annie, but she didn't really have much of a desire to interact with her. We have been making a lot of progress with that and it really showed today. And to just put the cherry on top, tonight when I asked Lucy if she wanted to kiss Annie goodnight, she said yes and put both of her hands on Annie's head and kissed her! She usually tells us no and just says a quick night night. It makes my heart swell to watch these two babies of ours. God, I can't thank you enough for these two girls.

I have one more BIG thing that I am extra thankful for tonight. On Friday we did a video conference with Cheryl, a pediatric Occupational Therapist that we met at our Tet party. She has very graciously agreed to give us some advice on ways to work with Annie on some of the things she is really behind in. She watched Annie on the video and showed me several different techniques to use with her. One of my biggest concerns for Annie is that she still will not put any weight on her arms when she is on her tummy. She keeps them really stiff or off the ground, but they don't support her at all. She uses her back, stomach, and neck muscles to keep her head off of the ground. It has to be tiring. She needs to put weight on her arms for obvious reasons. I would love to see her trying to crawl, but we have got to get her to start using her arms first. I worked with her tonight and just have to brag that she is at least trying. After a few minutes, she was done trying. She wouldn't keep her arms down, but this was our first go at it and I felt like it was successful. You can see her in her picture of the day. It is a weird picture because I was trying to prop the camera on something, get her in position, and push the shutter all at once. I am really proud of her.

Lucy is still in the best phase that she has ever been in, I think. She is great fun. So happy and loving. She has been coming up to me and just saying out of the blue that she loves me. She gives me big kisses and puts her hands on both of my cheeks when she does it. She snuggles tight when we read books at night. It is just the best and I wish she would stay like this forever. I always complain when she is in a bad phase, so I thought I should really brag on the good times. Despite all of this, she still didn't want her picture taken outside tonight!


Lucy has started something new each night. When I am home alone, Lucy gets to watch a show for 15 minutes while I put Annie to bed. The other night I came in to get her for our nighttime routine, and this is how I found her. She takes the cushion off the bench, gets her pillow just right, and covers herself with her "babies" as she calls her blankees. It cracks me up and is just so sweet to me.


This is really for my Mom. Remember when Lucy was just a baby and she played with that old belt of mine from when I was little? We brought it home so that she could play with it in the car. Well guess what? I can't find a belt for her anywhere and found this the other day while cleaning out the toys. It works perfect to keep her jeans up. Without a belt, these jeans fall right off of her. But not with her new Care Bears belt that her Momma used to sport. So glad you kept that Mom!


It is magnetic


This is Annie's normal stomach stance.


But we are working for this! Go Annie!


Dada - We know you had a crappy day today and just want you to know how much your three girls love you. Thanks for everything you do for us. We are so lucky.

30/365

Today I am thankful for my camera. I picked up a digital SLR on my birthday just under 1.5 years ago. All I wanted to get out of that camera was finally catching a smile of Lucy's because my point and shoot was so slow and I literally had about 2 pictures of her precious smile. That is all I thought I wanted to get out of that camera. But then I started really looking at my pictures and wanting to know how to edit them to look better. It slowly started to become somewhat of an obsession. And now, I love taking pictures so very much. I love that I have really learned how to do something that I think is so cool. I still have SO much to learn, and every time I learn something new it is so exciting to me. But what I love the most is that I am going to have my girls' lives so well documented through photos. I LOVE looking through old pictures of me and my sisters. I wish we had a lot more - especially a lot more that weren't from Olan Mills (sorry mom, but they are awful). My children are going to have boat loads of pictures of their childhood. Someday they won't remember this time, but I am trying to make it so they can see how much fun we had each day together. I just love taking pictures and I love the memories that are so easy for me to remember by glancing at a picture. What I don't love is how stinking expensive this is. Maybe if I would buckle down and get a website I could get some more clients, make some money, and buy the camera, lenses and lighting equipment that I lust over. Must do this. Now.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. We are going to a local Tet festival tomorrow. I am excited about that. We are watching the Superbowl with some friends, but that is about it for us.

One day I will not be obsessed with Annie Banannie's toes, but for now, I can't get enough of them. I find myself focusing on them all of the time when I take pictures of her. They make me smile.


I was so excited to get back outside today for pictures. You would think that I would know that the bokeh on our front porch was this gorgeous, but I didn't until early this evening.




The toes get the focus yet again.


And again. Try and tell me that these toes don't make you smile. I don't believe you if you say they don't.




Annie is obsessed with any animal. She shrieks with joy every time she sees one of our dogs, who have been on here a lot lately since many of you didn't even know they existed. They don't quite get the attention they used to with two little ones.






Lucy's lone dimple is one of my favorite things in the world. I love it. People comment on it all of the time. It is just that cute.






This is how I found Lucy when I went to peek at her during her nap. So sweet.


I used the word love about 4,000 times in this post. I must be in a very loving mood.

29/365

Today I am thankful for yummy Mexican food. Silly, I know, but I love Mexican food. We ate at one of our favorites tonight which just happens to be practically right out our back door. It is a one minute walk. I had these awesome quesadillas with chicken, cheese, and spinach in them. Lucy and Annie were so good at dinner, which always makes it extra nice. Thanks for dinner Grandy!

As you can see from the pictures, Lucy got a hair cut this morning. She did so well. No tears or fuss at all. I realize she looks terrified in the picture, but she wasn't. I have always got her hair cut at my place by my girl and she has always hated it. So I broke down this time and took her to a kids' place and she loved it. She got to watch a show and look at some fun things while the lady chopped away. The whole cut took under 5 minutes. I needed to get it shaped up and evened out. She ended up cutting at least 2 inches off. It looks so much better. She has been really pleased with herself all day since we all keep telling her how beautiful her new hair is. Funny girl.

We got so much more done around the house today. Justin and his dad got the garage cleaned out while I worked on all of the marks on the walls, vacuumed the downstairs, and scrubbed the floors. I swear, Magic Erasers really are magic. Lucy was my little helper and Annie napped through it all. I could get almost everything off of the walls. Then Andy replaced two posts on our fence that got torn down and replaced the ceiling fan on our upper balcony. He tacked back a few places where the molding outside had come loose. Andy also unclogged a bathroom sink that has been draining so slowly. I told you, he can do anything and everything around the house. We did have to have a plumber fix a leak, but we were able to do everything else on our own. Justin and his dad are making one last run to Home Depot because one of our smoke detectors is broken and needs replaced. Tomorrow we are doing a few small paint touch ups and then we will be basically done. I will still have some more cleaning to do, but not much. I got our room all cleaned out, dusted, and vacuumed today. It has been a busy day. But I sure do feel productive after a day like this. We accomplished a lot!

We are putting our house on the market to see what happens with it. We have been talking about moving for quite some time, but are ready to make a change now. We love this house, but it is not ideal for a growing family. We want another bedroom for when family comes and more places for the kids to have as their area for toys. Since the housing market is pretty slow right now, we are just going to put the house on the market and wait. We won't worry about finding a house until we know we are getting rid of this one. So, that is our plan for now. We'll see how it goes. I actually really hope our house sells quickly. I like to have a plan in place and this kind of leaves everything in limbo.

Doesn't her hair look precious?


Very focused on something on the floor.




PRECIOUS!




Everybody pet the person or animal next to you.




Has anyone seen Lucy?


Peek a boo.

I ♥ Faces - Joy

I am going to start participating in the I Heart Faces contest each week. This week the theme is joy and I think this picture is definitely joyful. Come play with us at I Heart Faces. I see a bunch of friends doing this, so I thought I would give it a try this week.

28/365

Today I am thankful for Justin's parents. They would do anything for us. His dad drove all the way here today (6 hours) just to help us get some projects done around the house before we put it on the market. June would have been here in a heartbeat but this is her busy time at work. We miss you Nana! They come up every spring and help us get our yard looking beautiful. They are truly the most helpful and generous people ever. The girls love you both so very much and so do we! You hold a really special place in Lucy's heart and before long you will with Annie as well. I can't thank you enough for all that you do for us. We are so blessed to have you guys. Love ya!

Thanks for all of the food suggestions. I would love for her to try solid food, but she really rejects those. She is no where near having a pincer grasp, so she can't feed herself. I do need to try that mesh thing.

We did end up getting ice last night. I have said it before, but those of you who live in places where it is -10 are CRAZY! I would never make it. I hope you warm up soon. I have several things I would like to get done tonight, so that is about it for me. Tomorrow we are going to get most of our last projects finished up and this house is going to be in tip top shape.

One of Lucy's favorite things ever is to dance with Justin. He twirls, dips, and shimmies her. It is so cute!


You better be ready for this girl because she will jump at you from anything, whether you are ready or not.








Look at her wild hair!


See, it is cold here!

27/365

Today I am thankful for Lucy being in such an awesome mood the past several days. She has been so easy and fun. As I have said before, she has the tendency to be a bit moody from time to time. With the moodiness comes whining, fits, demands, and not listening to a word we say. Just typical 2 year old stuff. But when she is not in a funk, she is the most enjoyable little girl who makes us laugh all of the time and keeps us on our toes. I really don't think she has whined at all for several days, and if she has, it has been so little that I have no recollection of it. I took her out for a special Lucy/Momma outing while Daddy and Annie napped yesterday. We had so much fun. This morning we made blueberry muffins. She loves to help in the kitchen. Thanks for being so cool, Lucy Goose. We couldn't love you any more!

It is really cold here. We never got the ice storm that the news LOVED to pretend was going to be THE weather event of the year. It is just super cold. The dogs despise going outside. They freeze their mini paws off. I hate going out there to make sure they go to the bathroom. We have been camped out in the house all day long. Brrrrrrrrr!

Still crazy tired. Last night was rough, yet again. We have tried everything. I am at a loss of what to do. I guess she will sleep at night when she is ready. How about now, baby girl?? I must say, she has been napping better, which is a nice treat. I am sure she is exhausted as well from being up and down all night long. I am really going to try and stop dwelling on the sleep issues, it is just really affecting me because it has been so bad lately. Starting at about 5:30 I feel like I am about to pass out. Even if I tried to go to bed right now, it wouldn't matter because she is up and down all night now. It starts very quickly after she goes to bed. She does still go down easily, which is a plus.

Quick question on eating. She is still having issues with food. I am about to get some help tips from an OT that was at our Tet party and I am really excited about that. Really excited. She will eat her baby food out of a bottle with a little water added. It is not that she doesn't like the food, she is just freaked out by a spoon in her mouth. Does anyone else's child do this??







Food or no food, that gut is still kicking!








She would prefer the batter over the muffins, but she did eat two muffins today.


I got asked about the color blocked wall in our kitchen the other day and here is what it looks like. The back wall of our kitchen is painted in the blocks and then the rest of the walls are one of the light, bright greens. We had painters do it. They knocked it out quickly. It would have taken us a zillion years. We picked 6 shades of green and just randomly placed them. There is not a pattern. We have loved this wall, so if you are thinking of doing something similar in a nursery, I say go for it. You will love it.