Dinnertime 5/365

A few shots from dinner - we had breakfast for dinner and Lucy was covered in syrup. Check out how Annie is standing up so well! I am so proud of her. Also, I never got around to posting the last shots from one night when John's dad, Adam, was flipping John and Lucy in the bed. It was hysterical and they both loved it so much. Lucy would stay crouched down in the ready position until it was her turn again. And just as a side note, Lucy and John ended up really getting along so well this time. We all said they had a major breakthrough this trip.

I did get the Nikon SB600 flash with some of my winnings from the Indian casino while we were in Oklahoma. I am the luckiest gambler ever. I told Justin maybe we should move to Vegas and I will be a professional gambler. I honestly win every time. Anyway, I really like the flash, especially since my parent's house does not have great natural light but does have great white ceilings to bounce the flash off of. I have wanted an external flash for quite some time since my camera gets really, really noisy at an ISO of any higher than 400 - which drives me absolutely insane. I HATE this about my camera. And since I get asked a lot, I currently use a Nikon D200, but would like to gamble some more to make enough for a D700. :)





























I LOVE this one.

Bath Time Fun 4/365

I hope to get most of my pictures of the day during the day and not wait until the last second before the girls go to bed. However, tonight I knew we were using Lucy's new bath paints from Nana and Grandy, so I wanted pics of that. The paints were a huge hit, by the way, so excellent gift Nana and Grandy. Also, Annie absolutely freaks out (in a very good, happy way) when she sees this fish mobile thing in the bathroom at my mom's and I have been dying to catch it in a picture but I have never had my camera around until tonight. We all always laugh because when Annie smiles, literally her whole body smiles. If someone is holding her and all you can see is the back of her head, you know when she smiles because her whole head smiles. Seriously. And as I keep saying, she smiles ALL of the time. Just a quick glance in her direction and she lights up. Love it. Can you tell from this picture that she smiles with every ounce of her precious little being?

That is Aunt Katy (Seashy) in the background and I think she might like the fish as much as Annie does.....




I adore this picture of my Lucy Goose. She is such a funny girl.


The paints look like deodorant bottles so we got her to put them on like deodorant and she thought she was pretty darn funny. She was.

Chuck E Cheese 3/365

We took all the kids to Chuck E Cheese's last night. Lucy had never been before and she definitely liked it. She wanted to ride everything and even went up in the big maze/slide. It was a madhouse in there and I must admit, I was really glad when all of the tokens ran out and it was time to go home. But the kids really loved it.

Lucy has been sleeping with Lee Lee and Papa the past two nights because Annie has really been having a hard time in the middle of the night, so it is quiet in their room and Lucy can get some peaceful sleep. She thinks this is the greatest thing ever and has been up until 11 the past 2 nights because she is just so excited to be in Lee Lee's bed. Annie really struggles in the middle of the night. I know that teeth have something to do with it, but sleep has always been a stressful time for her. Justin and I are exhausted because right when we are ready to go to bed, she wakes up and is up crying for the next 2 hours. We are rocking her, bouncing her, patting her, sleeping with her, etc and for the moment, not much is helping. She eventually passes out around 2 and sleeps until 8:30 or so with several wake ups in between that are brief. We are so tired, but we have a lot of help, so that is nice. You would never know that this girl gets so little sleep because she is just so unbelievably happy when she is awake. She is really doing so well. She is putting weight on her legs now and she wants to stand up all of the time. She only has to hold on to one finger to stand up, which simply amazes me considering that even 2 weeks ago she would barely put any weight on her legs. She baby babbles all day and she just has the sweetest, soft voice. It does, however, get very loud in the middle of the night. Hopefully tonight will be better. Please Annie!!

Here are my pictures for the day.

John and Lucy played robot in boxes from Christmas. It was so funny.








Annie is making improvements with her eating, but she still is not great. She does at least swallow some now though.


Check out the crazy long hairs in the middle of her head. There are about 50 of them and Justin won't let me trim them to match the rest of her fuzz.


Lee Lee and Lucy are pretty much inseparable. Lucy is her special little helper and my mom lets her help with absolutely everything. Here they are working on the dishes tonight after bath.

Picture a Day 2/365

My New Year's resolution is to take at least one picture of each girl or a together picture of them every single day of this year and post it each day. Some days I will have a post with the picture, but some days will only be a picture. Quite a lofty goal, I know. I am getting some doubt from my family, but I am going to try. It will be amazing to have every single day of their lives documented for one year through at least one picture. I posted pics yesterday, so here the girls are today. This is lots of family pics from today.

A VERY rare family picture. I wish I had more of these.




Me and my sisters


Wyatt was not quite up to the grandparent/grandkid picture

Happy New Year! 1/365

I hadn't gotten the chance to post this yet, so let's start with this because it is quite entertaining. I will have to submit it for Ellen's bad Santa photos next year.


I simply can't believe that another year has come and gone. 2008 was a wonderful year for our family. We had all kinds of fun with Lucy, Justin and I actually got to get away alone for a few days, we are all healthy, and we were blessed with our sweet Annie coming home on Thanksgiving morning. We couldn't have asked for more and our blessings are so abundant. I hope that 2009 brings even more love, happiness, and joy to our lives and everyone else's as well. Happy New Year!

Let me get back on track with some more Christmas pictures. These are from Christmas morning and the following days.











Wyatt










Even Annie got into Rock Band




Isn't it hilarious how they are sitting. Lucy has never sat with her legs crossed like this and we were all just cracking up over it.


John


My parent's Christmas card picture