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.
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!
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.
Happy Tet everyone! 
Today I am thankful for our warm, cozy house. I love it when we can use our fireplace. It is not that often, so I use it on any cold day we get. We are in an ice storm watch and I just can't imagine not having a warm home to go to. I hope that everyone out there is able to find a warm place to sleep.
I am absolutely exhausted today, so this is all I have. Some days the sleepless nights just hit me so hard and this is one of those days. Justin got up with Annie each time last night, but I wake up every time and then I couldn't go back to sleep after 4:30 am. That is a really early time to start your day!!
This one is for you Seashy.
This is how she really feels about these pictures.
Today I am thankful that Annie is finally starting to REALLY get that I am her momma and that I am not going anywhere. Before the past week, she showed very little preference towards Justin or me when other people were around. She didn't mind if someone else was holding her. She has always smiled the biggest and most for us, but that was obviously not enough. This week though, she has changed her tune. NO ONE was allowed to hold her during the party today except for me - not even Justin - she would freak out if someone even tried. She has been my girl all week, and it is really nice to see our hard work paying off. It is really tiring for me - especially my arm that never gets a rest - but I am not going to complain because I know how big of a deal this is for her in her journey towards attaching to us. Break out the slings!!
Our Tet party today was a total success. We got to meet some really awesome families from our area with precious children from Vietnam. One family is still waiting to bring home their daughter and I am praying she comes home soon. There were 8 families total. We mostly sat and compared stories while the kids played. It was at our house and I loved having everyone over. I am really sad but I got almost no pictures. Annie would not let Justin hold her, so she was with me the whole time and taking pictures one handed is not easy. I got a picture of all of the kids on the couch, but I don't want to post it because I didn't ask all of the families if they would mind their picture on here. I FINALLY got to meet Heather in real life. We have known each other through blogging for a long time. It was great seeing everyone and watching all of the kids run wild.
Lucy obviously LOVES to be thrown as high as anyone can get her. I can't explain enough how much of a daredevil she is. She is scared of nothing that involves thrill. She would make Justin do this all day long, but it gets tiring really quickly. She always kicks her legs out in an X at the peak of the throw and squeals with glee the entire time. It really looks like she is about to hit the ceiling. He gets her high, but not quite that high. I wish we had done it outside. It would look crazy high in the air then. We will do that soon. I am trying to get a little more exciting on my pics versus just a normal portrait each day. Most days it is hard to think of something cool. Hopefully I will become more creative because of this little project.
Look at the joy on her face.
The ONLY picture I have of the girls from the party today. Pitiful.
A little rest after church.
Today I am extremely thankful for days when both babies take nice, long naps. I usually prefer that both girls take their afternoon nap together so that I can have a little bit of time to myself. Annie usually naps like she sleeps at night - she wakes up several times but I can get her back to sleep. However, this morning, I laid her down later than normal and she slept, with no wake ups, from 11-1. Lucy and I ate lunch together and she helped me put away groceries during this time. We also did some cleaning. Mom, you would be so happy, Lucy LOVED being my little helper and she dusted away! Then I took Lucy up for her nap at 1. I got her down and about 2 minutes later, Annie was up. I got to have a lot of quality snuggle time with her. She didn't have to have Lucy trying to get in my lap with her or demanding that I put her down for a while. We just hung out. She smiled and cooed and I enjoyed it. At about 3, Annie was ready to lay down. Lucy woke up as I was rocking Annie. Annie went back down from 3-5:20 (and I woke her up then because I don't want her up all night). So, as you can see, there was a lot of napping today. But the way it worked out was perfect because I got to have a lot of one on one time with each girl, which is something that is hard to come by around here. I don't mind them having nap schedules like this if I get a semi-normal night of sleep. I got a great night's sleep last night. Woo hoo! Come on for tonight. Justin gets home tomorrow and we are all really ready to see him. We love and miss you Dad!!
A little background info on the pictures today. First, it is cold here again. At least, cold to us. I took both girls to the grocery store this morning (my first time to do that alone and it was a huge successs!) and on our way it was only 35 degrees. Cold! I thought it would be cute to get pictures of Annie with this big hood on. This is Lucy's coat, so it swallowed her, but you can't tell in the pictures. Then when Lucy got up, I wanted pictures of her with the hood on too. In order to make that happen, I bribed her with whip cream and Reece's Pieces. Guess which one of my avid readers turned her on to whip cream? She instantly agreed to my bribe. We zipped her up, I asked her to sit down, and she went to work. Lucy seriously knows how to work it for the camera when she wants to. She sat down, looked right at the camera, smiled, laughed, posed with her head tilted, and then a serious straight on look. I swear to you, I said nothing other than what her bribe was. After she did each of these things, she said all done, and that was that. It all went down for her in about 45 seconds. I liked that just as much as she did! I guess all of that time she spends in front of my camera has really paid off! Love that girl. I had a really hard time picking a favorite today. What I really want is a big faux fur hat for both of them. I am on the look out for that if you know where I can get one.
All Done!
Where is my treat?
