Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Ahh, precious family pictures.....

Well this is what happens when trying to capture a picture of my 3 precious girls with a very squirmy, strong willed one year old!

smacking her big sister in the face....
(and yes she's pantless and strapped to a booster :) )
 and then wailing if they came anywhere near her....
 No hitting Brooke, now give your sissy kiss.....


 umm, let's not lick our big sissy....
 oh now, other big sissy needs a kiss.....

 Well I tried. :)



Monday, January 30, 2012

Mom's Night....

The last two years I've looked forward to Mom's Night at my girls' preschool!
This last Thursday I enjoyed Mom's Night with my Brynnie girl.
I was so interested to see how she was in her class environment.  I always knew what miss outgoing Bella was like, but I didn't know how Brynn was in the classroom.  She's always quiet and reserved when I drop her off.  
Well this evening she was a giddy and smiley little girl.
She's still super shy with her teachers, but she was bouncing off the walls excited to have me there I think. :)
This year's theme was a night at the movies.  I emailed the other mommies and we suggested we all dig out our old bridesmaid and fancy dresses for our night out with our babies!

My dress did not photograph well (its actually mostly black with sparkles but the flash showed the under layer) but it was from before 3 kiddos so I was very proud to actually fit (BARELY) in it!! :)  Brynn was very excited to get fancy too!


Like I said, SMILEY!

We had sparkling Ginger Ale, popcorn, and the kids made us chocolate covered pretzels.


We walked the red carpet and had paparazzi take our pictures. :)


The kids decorated picture frames that our pictures will go in to.

Brynn and her dear friend Madelyn.....

Calling Anna Banana!!!

Here they are!

Had a great Mom's night!!!  And of course finished it out with the annual tradition of dancing to the Mom Song!



Friday, January 27, 2012

Life via my Phone....

3 little ones and not too much going on during the cold winter months?  Means a lot of our life is documented on my phone.  I thought I would share some of my recent favs.

Got this idea from Kelly's Korner's blog.  Playing with glow sticks in the bath tub, if the water hadn't gotten cold the big girls would have stayed in there forever!

We don't get out very often, but we have decided to babysit swap back and forth with some good friends of ours.  We recently got a night out to enjoy Red Robin and then see Mission Impossible.  We were trying to remember the last movie we saw together and all that we could remember was Toy Story 3 last Christmas. Yikes!

Celebrated our friend, Eliana's, birthday at Gymnastics Factory

Caught the girls having fun with their besties at Church.  I remember growing up in church waiting for my parents to quit talking already and horsing around our congregation.  So fun to see our girls doing the same.



 If I had to watch a sport, my pick would be football.  Its the most interesting to me.  And now with all the Tebow hype, its totally got me into it.  I can't believe the courage he had to be outspoken as he is.  He truly is inspirational.  We watched the big game that ended very excitingly in OT and had to do a little Tebowing afterwards. :)

The girls and I were on our own one night so we had a nail painting party.  Had my own little assembly line going. ;)  I even did the big girl's finger nails for the first time now that Bella isn't sucking her fingers. (left Brynn's thumb unpainted though)

Somebody enjoys helping me do the dishes by getting IN the dishwasher, in her Tinkerbell costume and all. :)

The girls got some Shrinky Dinks from a friend for Christmas and they insisted on watching them the entire time they were in the oven.

That's our life from a phone! :)


Thursday, January 26, 2012

Heart!

It certainly isn't always like this, but it sure does make my heart over flow when I come to the top of the playroom stairs, only to look down and see this.....





Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Who is watching these girls?!


(waiting for big sissy to get off the bus)

Looks like such a sweetie, right?  Don't let her fool you.  Just kidding, she is a sweetie. :)  Here's a funny story about this little cutie.  She is a major snacker, rather then 3 meals a day type of gal.  So she's often finding her snack trap and walking around snacking during the day.  So I didn't even think twice one day when I saw her with her snack trap. I did however take notice when I saw her coming out of the pantry with her fists full and jamming them into her snack trap.  On further inspection I found she was filling her snack trap with DOG FOOD!  Her cheeks and mouth were just full of it!  
Oh man!
This incident happened the day after Miss Brynn swallowed a balloon and were still waiting for it to pass.
Really?! 



Tuesday, January 24, 2012

A Date.....

....with my two big girls!!

I was so excited to take my girls to see Beauty and the Beast.  As you may know they are princess obsessed, so any excuse to see a princess movie in the theater!  And they were even more thrilled when they heard there was a mini-Tangled movie beforehand.  We rarely go to the movies.  Just can't stomach $20 for a movie these days, especially with how nice TVs are these days (unless its a big blockbuster like MI4 that must be seen in the theater).  Anyway, I decide to go to a matinee to save some $, the nice guy says he won't charge me for Brynn, and my total still comes to $21.50.  Yikes!  And then I remembered why I never see movies in the theater.  However, my baby girls are worth it! :)  I (nor the girls) had ever seen a 3D movie, figures mine would be a kids movie. :)  I was a little afraid it would scare them but after getting used to it, they really liked.  It really was amazing.  I loved that they kept trying to grab things, too cute. :) We had a great time just the three of us and they enjoyed the movie!

 Loving our cook shades! :)



Monday, January 23, 2012

Brooklyn Update....

About time we had a little Brooklyn update,
who is 17 months old today!

Here are some fun facts about our little bean:
She is curious about everything!  The big girls never really got into things, but Brooklyn seems to be able to find everything she shouldn't have.  If she can't play with it, she wants it.
She also rarely sits still.
Thankfully she is the happiest baby EVER.
However she has a flare for the dramatics, if you take something away, say no, or she gets hurt you may think her life is ending. :)
She has a super fun personality, I think she may be our family clown.  She makes us laugh all day long!
She still dances anytime she hears music.
She loves to spin in circles.
She cracks herself up by flailing herself on the floor, although she also has a knack for doing this in protest as well.
She LOVES her sisters and finds them quite hysterical, especially during bath time.
She jabbers ALL DAY long.  Its quite funny.  She has inflections, gestures, etc.  She'll carry on lengthy conversations with you, you just won't know what she's saying. :)
She points and jabbers at everything.
When I count 1.... she'll say two....three!  She started this probably 2-3 months ago, I was shocked!
She says dada, baba (Bella), maymay (for her blankie), Bebe (Brynnie), ball, doggie, more, mormor, pop (for poppi), baby, puppy, bubbles, ow, wow, no, cheese, please, done, momma, bup (up), and I'm sure a few more I'm forgetting.  She also repeats a lot of noises and animal sounds.  And the hubs and I swear she said "love you too" the other day. :) 
She loves dressing up- loves hats, shoes, tiaras, and dresses.
If she sees steam coming off of anything, she'll blow on it as if to cool it down.
She LOVES books.  She will sit (which is rare) flipping through books and jabbering away.  She won't however let me read them.  Anytime I sit to read, she's last for about one page before she insists on turning them way quicker than I can read. :)
Since November she has mastered stairs, to the point we don't usually worry about them.  She has also mastered the girls' bunk bed ladder, yikes!
She still detests being changed.  It is still a constant crying, wrestling match.  Sometimes I can distract her long enough thats its not totally unpleasant but it doesn't usually last long!
She loves bath time, however she has a tendency to poop lately!!  How do you prevent this!!??
I can't stand meal times with her unfortunately.  She's a terrible eater.  Breakfast goes fine but lunch and dinner are hit or miss.  She won't touch any kind of meat usually, veggies are a hit and miss.  She'll eat peas and used to down carrots and green beans but now she won't.  She used to love Pinto beans, so I would give those as protein and now she won't touch those.  She enjoys fruit and any kind of bread.  She loves the little peanut butter cracker snacks but if I give her a peanut butter sandwich she won't touch it.  Its very frustrating because you work so hard to make something and she won't touch it and then whines all through dinner cause she wants something different.  The other night at dinner she wouldn't even eat strawberries, which she normally loves.  She'll love something one day and won't touch it the next.  So dinner time isn't usually the greatest these days. :(
She can point to the common body parts.
She loves to give kisses.
She definitely can follow one step commands, if she's feeling like it. :)
She will occasionally hold your hand when out walking, doesn't last long though. :)
She loves to put things into things.  Helps at clean up time. :)
She, since early on, has always been good at putting her arms through sleeves or pulling shirts over her head.  She just started, if I hold out her coat and ask for her arm, she'll come stick her arms in.  If I were to just come at her with her coat she'd run in the opposite direction, so this new found skill is quite nice.
I hear momma about 14 bajillion times a day.  There was a time I was begging her to say momma and now.....
Its just she says it ALL DAY, EVERY minute and when she says it she sounds like a loud italian (not to say italians are loud, Brooke is just loud) with a chicago accent- MOMMA, MOMMA.  Just a little irritating.  Although momma is better than MA- which is was for a couple months.
I will get my occasional snuggles, which I just cherish.
She just recently transitioned to one nap and it was a hard transition for her.  She'd cry briefly (which she wouldn't at all before, but it really was brief.  Like by the time I'd reach her bedroom she'd be over it) when I would lay her down sometimes, but it usually just took a little extra snuggle and she'd be good to go.  One plus though is she's sleeping sometimes 13-14 hours at night!
She still loves her paci and blankie.  I'm toying with the idea of trying to drop the paci next monthish.  Although this terrifies me, so who knows if I'll follow through.
She really does have a sweet, hysterical personality.  She's just busy, inquisitive, independent, and strong willed.  The hubs and I just love to sit and watch her with smiles on our faces.  Although she is at a very tiring, challenging age, its also the sweetest, most hysterical, rewarding age!  
She we'll take a little bad, with the abundant good!!

I thought I'd post a video of just a typical evening with Miss Brooklyn :)  
Not sure if you can tell but she has just the most fun, humorous personality!


We love you Brooklyn Blythe!!


Friday, January 20, 2012

Snow!

Well on January 11th we finally had our first snow!!  
Which is unheard of for these parts.  
And I had THREE very excited little girlies that wanted to play in it! :)
Was it snowing while we were out?  Nope, somebody sisters' liked throwing snow at her.  And as you can see, she was simply delighted about it. :)











Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Well, only almost 3yrs later.....

Well Bella may be turning 6 soon, but I finally ordered her 3rd year photo book. :)


Create a gorgeous, high quality wedding photo album at Shutterfly.com.


Monday, January 16, 2012

Forever changed....

The hub's and I had one the proudest moments as parents yesterday (1/15/12).  We go to kinda of a large church so once a month they have a worship and communion night as a whole congregation.  This month's was created specifically for families.  They had exciting, loud worship music (don't want to sound ancient but it was loud :) ).  They had hilarious skits and fun science experiments.  The underlying theme of the evening was the phrase. "Out with the old, and in with the new."  All evening they spent time explaining about how God sent Jesus to earth to make us new again.  He wants to take the "garbage" out of our lives and replace it with a new, clean creation.  After all the fun they had us take time as families for a devotional.  We put the stages of a caterpillar in order for Brynn and Bella put the verse we were studying in the right order.  We read the story of Zacchaeus and then discussed the story.  Some of the questions were Would you climb a tree to Jesus?  Zacchaeus cheated people out of money.  How did he make it right?  What are some things that you need to make right?  What are some areas of your life you'd like to see God make "new?"  What does it mean to you to become new?

After the last question our family discussed asking Jesus in to our heart and how He comes inside of you and makes you new again.  I told Bella if she ever wants to say that prayer and ask Jesus into her heart she just has to ask.  Actually, I've probably said this to her a couple of times over the last year but she never really brings it up again.  I just didn't want her praying it because it seemed like the right thing or because everyone else was.  I also wanted to make sure she really understood the concept and the step she was taking.  I think The Chapel did an awesome job the whole night explaining this concept and putting it in a way even a 5 year old could understand.  So this night was different, I truly felt she was ready.  So when she followed up with us again and said she wanted to pray that prayer.  The hub's and I happily prayed with her.  One of the proudest moments as parents for us. :)

We are so proud of you Bella and pray that your relationship with Christ continues to blossom over the rest of your life.  May you turn to him when trials come and praise Him when blessings come your way.  So thankful you won't be doing life alone, but with our Lord and Savior by your side, and us too of course! :)

Wanted to post these videos too.  The first is of a couple of the wonderful leaders of our church in a, umm, different light.  They were having a time of improv Bible story time.  So they acted out the story of Zacchaeus but had to act however another leader directed them to.  So he asked them to perform the story as pirates.  It was one of the funniest things I've seen at our church.  I recorded a little clip. :)


The last video is of the last song they performed that night.  This was immediately after the family devotional time and when Bella prayed the prayer that changed her life forever!  Such a beautiful memory.  Hard to see but Brynn and Bella are in the center in green dresses.  Couldn't have ended with a more appropriate song. :)


"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"
2 Corinthians 5:17







Friday, January 13, 2012

Our First, well 3rd, New Walker Injury!

Well last week we had our first new-walker injury.  Thankfully we made it to 16 months before we did.  You know every kid, unless you keep them in a bubble, has one.  Our big girls each had one.  Thank the Lord Almighty none have them have been real serious.

Last week, Brooklyn was playing at the top of our two stairs, oh and I saw it coming.  It was one of those slow motion things.  I saw her getting too close and went to grab her and she of course fell before I could.  Worse thing is her face and forehead took the brunt of the fall. :(  Poor sweet thing.  She was SO worked up she ended up vomiting which of course freaked us out.  However, she has an extremely high gag reflux so this is not too unusual for her. :(  We definitely kept on eye on her though.  Her eye was red around it and very swollen.  I thought for sure she'd have a black eye in the morning but the next day you couldn't see any evidence of her fall.  She apparently has her daddy's tough skin! :)

Snuggling and snacking with big sissy after the incident
 Swollen and red, but still all smiles.
 They were finding it quite entertaining that they could see themselves in my phone.
 Poor baby.

Just for kicks, here's Bella after her first major new-walker injury.  Not sure if you can see, but her's actually drew blood. :(  She hit her top gums (no teeth yet) on the corner of our dresser!
 Here's Brynnie boo.  She ran smack into the table leg of my grandma's dining room table.  Can't tell here so much but the huge welt came out about half an inch from her forehead!  
Poor sweet baby!  Breaks a momma's heart when they get hurt.




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    I used to be an elementary teacher but am now a stay-at-home mommy with three sweet baby girls. Bella is 6, Brynn is 4, and Brooklyn is 1. We also have a sweet Golden Retriever named Beckham. I have been married to the love of my life, Vincent, for almost 12 years. Although I hate the cold I am a Chicago girl through and through. And thats about all I've got!

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