Aloutte

This song is for Grandma Alice and Auntie Mary.  She may not have all the words quite right, but we think it's pretty cute.  And for anyone not quite familiar with the song, here's what it is supposed to sound like...Aloutte!

Happy Valentine's Day

We had our Valentine's party at the library last Friday, so we dressed in pink and packed up our treats to take to our friends.  We had a lot of fun, and as we were getting ready to go home Carys looked in her bag and said, "I wuv Balentime's day!"

After she checked out her treats and the notes of all her friends, I told her I wanted to take some pictures of her and Harper and thankfully they both didn't mind!

Lately, Carys has loved "holding" Harper and one day she even asked to "walk around wis her wike momma?"  I love watching the two of them together. Harper adores Carys. and Carys is so sweet to her.  I'm trying to soak in as much of this as I can now, because with two sisters of my own I know they won't always be feeling the love for each other!

For now though big sister gets some of the biggest smiles! 

Hope your Valentine's Day is filled with smiles! 

Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas this year.  Carys was so fun and it was also special to be sharing it with Harper for the first time!  On Christmas eve, we celebrated with my family.  My mom and brother came over for an early lunch and we had a fun time hanging out with the girls. 

My mom and I tried to take a cute picture of the girls together.  We took so many and I swear it's nearly impossible just to get them to both look at the camera, so forget about getting them to look and SMILE!

Gramma Judy and Carys

Me and my sweet girls

Carys was a trip this year.  Last year it took forever to open all her gifts because she wanted to play with each one.  This year, we had to really work on getting her to look at what was inside and say "Thank you!"  She just wanted to tear into every gift under the tree whether her name was on it or not!  Thankfully no one seemed to mind letting her "help" them open their gifts.  I have a feeling that next year is going to be a little crazy though when Harper isn't going to appreciate big sister's help!

My brother is so sweet with the girls and Carys loves playing with him.  He bought the girls the cutest outfits for gifts this year and it's so sweet to me to see him love on my girls - Thanks Uncle Davey!

Later that afternoon, My Dad, Bev and Grandma Mary all came over.  I am so disappointed that I didn't take one picture!  We had a great time, but by this time Harper had reached her fussy time of the evening and Scott had to go back to work, so I was working on just keeping her happy.  We did have a great visit though and of course Carys kept us all entertained by singing, dancing, and doing gymnastics all night!

Scott got home later that night after the girls were in bed.  It was fun to spend the night together getting everything ready for Christmas morning.  I loved listening to Christmas music, having the lights low, the tree lite, and anticipating the fun we would have the next morning.  I didn't do much to decorate our tree this year.  In fact, Scott and Carys hung about 15 ornaments together and I was planning on adding more, but we decided to just call it good.  So, it may have been a little more like a Charlie Brown tree than anything else, but it was still very special and I loved it!    

Christmas morning was fun.  Carys was still into tearing open everyone's gifts, so it didn't take too long to get everything opened.  Which was a good thing because we needed to leave for church.  So after quickly eating our traditional breakfast of "homelettes" and cinnamon rolls we headed out the door.

Sidenote: As a kid, my family always went out to breakfast on the weekends.  Most of the time us kids would order a ham and cheese omelet. When Lynnette was really little she called it a "homelet" and now that's what we call any dish consisting of ham & eggs in our family.

When Carys saw Harper in her dress she said, "Momma she's an angel."  Talk about melting my heart!

My two angels before church

After church we came home and had the rest of the day to ourselves to play and pack for our trip.  Scott had to make a quick run into work, but other than that we had a great time spending a quiet day together as a family.  And, Carys finally got a chance to see all the fun presents she opened!  She had a blast playing with all of her new toys.

Harper was able to get in on the fun too!

We spent Christmas night getting everything packed and ready to head north to spend the week with Scott's family.  Scott got stuck at work a little later than we hoped, but thankfully the girls were great travelers and we made it home with only one stop!  The morning after we arrived we had Christmas with the girls. 

This little bug was so sweet and spent all morning cuddling with Grandma and Grandpa

Reading Brooke one of her clues for her scavenger hunt - of course, David would have to make her work to find her gift!

New bug blanket to snuggle up in for "moosie night" - Thanks Uncle Hoon and Brooke

Trying on Grandma's stocking

Hair Model

Snuggling with Grandma 

Getting ready to break in her new snow pants 

Our pink marshmallow 

Having fun in the snow.  Carys was more excited to pull the sled than ride in it. Mush kid! 

We had such a fun relaxing visit.  Grandma and Grandpa even allowed us a night out and it was awesome to hit the town with David and Brooke and spend some time catching up with Scott's cousins.  The week flew by and before we knew it it was time to head home.  Of course it didn't snow much while we were there until the morning we left, then a blizzard hit.  Both of the girls were a little cranky too, so it made for a really looong drive home.  Both girls finally fell asleep when we were only an hour from home!  But aside from that we had a great trip and it was a perfect way to wind down our holiday.  

Christmas is so much sweeter now that we have the girls and I'm am so excited for the years to come when I know it will be even more fun!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours!

This is our 2011 Christmas card and on the back I included one of my favorite verses right now.

"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing."  Zephaniah 3:17

I have so enjoyed teaching Carys about the reason for this day.  It makes me so happy that when I ask her what Christmas is she says, "Jesus's birthday!"  I also love that when we pass the huge nativity at the hospital she yells out, "Jesus is born!"  She was excited about Santa, and we've had fun learning about him too, but I never want our girls to lose sight of the greatest gift that we have been given - the gift of a Savior.

Merry Christmas!

Pa-rum Pum Pum Pum

We have been rocking out to Christmas music since the day after Thanksgiving (maybe even a little earlier) and Carys loves turning on the "iPot" and having a dance party in the "lizing room".  And since we haven't been heading outside very much it's been a great way to burn off some energy multiple times a day!

Carys definitely has some favorite songs and always asks to hear them over and over and over again!  Along with "Jingle Bell Rock", "Jingle Bells" and "Feliz MobbyBob Navidad", she loves "The Little Drummer Boy".  Grandma Alice bought her a book with the song lyrics to add to our book advent and it's been very popular.   She was "reading" it a couple days ago and I was able to catch some of it on video, so here it is.  

Jingle All The Way!

I am so excited for Christmas this year.  Carys has been asking to "go to Christmas time" for awhile now and it is just so fun know that she understands and is looking forward to celebrating the season.  We started a couple of new traditions for the girls this year.  The one I'm really excited about is a book each night in December to countdown to Christmas.  And we kicked of our book advent with The Elf on the Shelf as another tradition to start with the girls.  

When Carys came upstairs to read her bedtime story she had a visitor.  Our elf had arrived and we read his story to explain that he was here to monitor her behavior and report back to Santa each night.  Every morning he returns to a new spot in the house and Carys needs to find him.  She also needed to choose a name for our special elf.  She was having a hard time thinking of anything, so I suggested Jingle (after an elf we recently saw in a movie) and Carys liked that.  Of course, since Jingle Bells is her #1 requested song these days - she quickly added Bell to our elf's name.  So, Jingle Bell it is! Now I'm thinking I should have bought the little skirt for our elf since Jingle Bell is a quite a feminine name for our male elf, but oh well!

She is getting more excited to see Jingle Bell in the morning as the days go on.  We haven't gotten super creative like some of the pictures I've seen on other blogs and Pinterest, but so far Jingle Bell has showed up sitting on a shelf, the TV, and in our Christmas tree.  He's also been found swinging from the kitchen light (C's favorite, "He's doing gymnastics!"), and riding on the ox in our nativity.  I will admit that there have been mornings that Jingle Bell forgot to come back from the North Pole to a new spot, so we have decided that he likes some spots more than others!

 Some mornings she wants to get him down and play with him, but she hasn't argued the "no-touching" rule when I remind her, so I think she's catching on.  I think next year will be fun when Jingle Bell will likely get a little more creative and Carys is more excited to find him.  She doesn't really remember to look for him, but she does get really excited when she sees him and says "Jingle Bell...He came back!" 

We also are loving having holiday themed "Mosie Night".  We have watched The Polar Express and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and both were big hits.  Even Harper loves to join in and last weekend we had Uncle Hoon and Brooke too!

We have had a lot of fun this month and I can't believe Christmas is almost here!  We are counting down!

3 Months & "Up Nort"

It's so hard to believe that our baby will be three months old tomorrow.  It feels like time is flying by and at the same time it's hard to remember our family without Harper.  She is just such a sweet angel and we enjoy her so much!

Happy 3 Months!

Harper has been such a great baby.  She started sleeping 8 hours through the night between 6-7 weeks old.  Now, with occasional exceptions, she is averaging around 10 - 11 hours a night (and that makes this momma SO happy!!)  I'm thankful that so far we have had two really good sleepers (especially with all the warnings we received about 2nd babies!)  I'm sure most of it is luck of the draw, but I think we've also had some great resources to help us set up bedtime routines and nap schedules.  We used the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child with Carys, and I've referenced it quite a few times again with Harper.  With Harper I also did a Moms On Call  online seminar and I loved it.  Both resources helped us so much, and I would have been pretty clueless without them! 

We have been having some issues with Harper eating lately though.  At her 2 month check-up her Dr. thought she may be having some heartburn caused by reflux and he prescribed Zantac.  Since she was only fussing here and there I didn't fill the prescription right away, but last week it really ramped up and it was hard to get her to eat.  Every time she would start eating she would end up screaming after the first couple of minutes.  Then it was hard to get her to eat at all after that.  There have been a few days were I felt like she didn't get enough to eat, and then sure enough she was waking up during night to eat.  We started her on the medicine and I honestly haven't noticed a real difference.  This is her second week on it, so we'll follow up with the doctor again next week and hopefully get more answers.  

Other than that though...Harper is still just a easy-going, sweet baby.  She loves to watch her sister and it's so cute to watch her eyes follow Carys around the room.  She also likes to "play" more now too.  She has started hitting the hanging toys on her activity mat and she really stares at any toys you put in front of her.  And just like her sister, she loves the star that lights up and plays music.  She'll smile non-stop at that!  

And of course, big sister is always nearby!

Harper loves bath time.  We've been giving her a bath in the sink, just to save our knees and back from bending over the tub, but she's pretty much out of room, and with the way she likes to kick her legs we'll need to switch pretty soon.   

More playtime! 

Harper is so much more alert now and she really likes being able to look around.  I was showing Scott how I hold her and he did it the same way only his arms are MUCH longer, so it looked pretty ridiculous!

We had our first "movie night" with the girls.  Carys loved it!  We got out the sleeping bags, made some popcorn (Grandpa Tom style ), and watched Tangled.  Since then Carys has been asking to "watch moosie night again" nonstop!

This past weekend we headed up north to Boyne Mountain for a little weekend getaway.  Uncle Hoon and Brooke met us up there and we didn't have much on the agenda other than just hanging out.  

Happy girl even though mom put her hat on crooked! 

Harper was pretty fussy trying to eat on Saturday, so the two of us just hung out in our room while everyone else headed outside.  Of course, after seeing the playground, Carys didn't let them get too far.   

Carys doesn't like to do anything when Brooke is around without asking "Brooke too?"

After I finally got Harper to eat and settled down we headed out to grab some pizza for lunch.

Of course we had to check out the swans and ducks first.

We love getting to spend time with these two!

Look!  We found some snow.  Uncle Hoon showed Carys how to crunch the snow with her boots and she was all over that!

After naptime, we hit the indoor waterpark.  And yes, that's some pretty sweet bedhead she's sporting here!

Carys was a little slow to warm up at first, but she did all the big waterslides with Dad.  Even the scary tunnel slide that Uncle Hoon tried to warn against, but was too late.  Carys arrived at the bottom pretty wide eyed, but wanting to go again!  

We had a great time with Uncle Hoon and Brooke and were so glad they could come with us.  Every time we leave the house Carys asks if we are going "up Nort with Unca Hoon and Brooke?"  So, we can't wait to chill with them again over the holidays!