What's New

I keep not blogging because I have SO many pictures to go through and I can never pick just one to post!  So here is my attempt at snagging a few to show what we've been up to...

Little Miss Lena is 9 months old!  (this is her lovely 9mo pic:) 

She is a SUPER fun baby!!  I wish I could freeze time right now because she is just soooooo fun.

So far she scoots everywhere and pretty fast too...not crawling yet but gets up on all fours ready to and then decides it's easier to just scoot:)  She smiles at everyone and everything and is always happy. She LOVES playing with her sisters and loves to explore.  She such a little spit fire and really has a feisty personality...she'll let you know what she's thinkin'!  At her 9 mon check-up she was 14 lbs and 1 oz so she a tiny thing but LOVES to eat so go figure!  She pretty much eats anything I give her except peas - for the moment...I'm working on that one:) 

All-in-all - she's a keeper!

 Little Miss Piper turned 5 in April and we got to celebrate ALL week long!  It was pretty fun!  On her actual B-day we celebrated with cake and balloons and lunch to McDonalds and she got to open family presents.  She woke up that morning all mature and so proud that she was finally 5!  It was cute but I was worried a little that she thought she was TOO big and wouldn't like her present, Snow White dress up, but she came around:)  Then on Saturday we had a SMURF party at the park!  She loved it and LOVED having all the attention for once:)  Just before (maybe 2 weeks before) she turned 5, Piper learned to ride a bike without training wheels!  She's a pro now!  It's pretty cute to see her whizzning around on it.  She just beams whenever a neighbor sees her riding and loves when they make a big deal out of it.  She's the biggest helper ever and loves to teach Bailey new things.  She is such a good big sister!  Piper loves to pretend play and usually pretends she's a mom.  She'll make a good one some day.  Every day we've been working on a little "school" activity and after naps Piper and I have been working on reading and she's starting to get it!! HOORAY!  I'm so proud! and she is too:)

Bailey is seriously the funniest, cutest, and happiest little munchkin!  She ALWAYS makes me smile.  About the same time Piper learned to ride without training wheels, Bailey learned to pedal her tricycle!  She is soooooo happy to be able to ride with Piper now.  This day we were out playing and Bailey found a snail...I saw her riding along and talking to someone saying "it's ok, it's ok."  I asked who she was talking to and she said her snail!  If you look really close to the picture there is a TINY snail on the back step of her tricycle.  She said she was taking him for a ride! haha!!

She hit a bump and the little guy went flying:( Here she is looking for him in the grass.  She probably looked for 5 minutes seriously concerned for the little guy.  Luckily I was able to talk her into him probably going home to eat lunch with his mommy.

So I guess that's what we're up to here in the great state of Texas!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A Tricky little leprechaun visited us this St. Patrick's Day and was sure to leave our toilet water green and milk green! And we got yummy Lucky Charms for breakfast! Can't beat that! He was even nice enough to drop off some green socks since the girls don't have too much green in their wardrobe:)

For "School" we read a fun book about the luckiest leprechaun and made these silly masks. Don't I have the cutest leprechauns in the whole wide world!!

The girls got a little restless in "school" yesturday so I decided to do a little Easter decorating and came across this silly singing/dancing chicken that Grandmommy and daddy sent last year. We had some seriously silly dancing going on!

"School"

So I am attempting some new "home schooling" with the girls...In the past I've been really frustrated with Piper because she has shown NO interest in learning things like the alphabet, numbers, etc. and has actually refused to "play" with me when she suspects that I'm going to try to teach her something. It really ticked me off! She knew none of the alphabet by sight and surely didn't know the sounds they make. Even after I had her do a little preschool thing in Beaumont it wasn't sinking in! It REALLY worried me because Bailey could count higher than her and new some letters so needless to say I was stressin'! Well, now she's been going to this little preschool by the highschool students and mostly it's helped her socially but I've noticed her taking more of an interest in learning so I decided to work with her more at home now that she actually wants to!

She actually knows all the letters now Uppercase and Lowercase and knows most of their sounds but we are still doing the letter of the week for Bailey's sake and as review (she loves all the activities even though they are a little easy - maybe that's why she loves them:) but I also got a K4 curriculum that I'm hoping will help get her up to speed - or at least help me know where she should be at so she's not totally shocked when she goes to Kindergarden next year.

Anyway, the girls LOVE it and we've been having lots fo fun together! Piper has actually gotten REALLY in to it and asks everyday if we are going to do school time. It's pretty cute. BUT it's a TON of work for me!!!! but definately worth it:)

This was our first week doing the letter A for apple! They loves trying our different kinds of apples but mostly loved discovering that apples dipped in peanut butter is really good!

On Friday we added our first letters to our Chicka chicka Boom Boom Tree and then had apple pie and watched the Aristocats! It was really fun and the girls loved it.

Bikes, Bottles, and Green Beans!

We've been up to a whole lot of nothing lately and LOVING it! We've been busy but I'm not sure with what...just life I guess! But we sure have been having a blast just hanging out together:) The weather has been beautiful and we've been taking full advantage!!! Curtis got down the bikes a couple Saturdays ago and we enjoyed the sunshine. The girls loved it!

Well, this is as excited as Lena got but everyone else was all smiles:)

Who knew a bottle could make these three little girls sooooo happy! I pumped the other day to take with to the gym in case Lena needed it...well she didn't at the gym so when I got home I decided to give it to her so it wouldn't go to waste and BOY did it make EVERYONE happy! Lena was certainly happy to get her tummy filled but Piper and Bailey were ecstatic! They were soooooo happy to play mommy with a real baby:)

I just had to throw this in of my girls before church - pretty darn cute if I say so myself!

And the biggest news this month...Lena has started solids! Hooray! These are pictures of her first encounter - green beans! She LOVED them!!!!! I was expecting her to make a goofy face and spit them out like her sisters did their first time but nope! She gobbled them up:) Big sister wanted to help and we soon had green beans EVERYWHERE! Good thing bath time was next on the agenda!!!

This was the major contributer to the mess. Haha yes of course Lena but mostly because she would suck on her hands after each bite and then she'd touch everything with her beany hands.

Oh well, this was the end result and the smile was well worth the mess!

6 Months!

So bad mom! I just realized that today is Lena's 6 month birthday! Ooohhhhh! I can't believe she is 6 months! Well, I quick grabbed her and whipped up a bow so that we could do a little photo shoot on her bday:) Here she is as of 15 minutes ago sportin' the same outfit Bailey wore in her 6 month photos!

So here's the 6 month update:
Lena's still not quite sitting up all by herself but it will be soon! Here she is just about to topple over ...

and toppling...

I just love how they show no signs of concern as they slowly tumble to the ground:) No sense of urgency...Gee I'm about to face plant...just chillin' all the way down:)

(Lovely shot of my flower bow if I do say so myself)

She sure loves her Mom and will watch me intently if we are in the same room together and I'm NOT the one holding her and once we make eye contact... man she gets me! And I come RUNNING to hold her!! She's really good about letting other people hold her too and so far doesn't mind other people holding her even while I'm around unless, of course, she's hungry or tired.

She's rolling both ways and even wiggles up onto her knees and rocks just a little... enough for me to think she's a genius baby:)






Lena LOVES her sisters and will giggle at everything they do.

Still no teeth and still no solid foods.

She grabs at EVERYTHING! and has really good use of her hands, moving things all around and studying them.

I can always see the wheels turning in her head! She is ALWAYS thinking and learning and I just love to see it happening in front of my eyes. Today I was holding her and had a drink of milk. She STUDIED what I was doing, watching it go to my mouth, go in my mouth, and then just stared at me after I was done drinking it just digesting what I had just done, then she grabs for the glass and chomped on the rim to check it out. I WISH I could get a picture of the look she has when she is just digesting what just happened- it is HILARIOUS!

She's got some spunk in her and if she's holding something and you take it away, watch out! She'll let you know she's not happy! I think she'll hold her own pretty well with her two big sisters:)








Lena's absolute favorite toy is her jumparoo! Now she jumps in your arms while you're holding her - it's a pretty good arm workout!

She still loves Pat-A-Cake and LOVES to have her tummy kissed and neck eaten. And her laugh...oh man it's MUSIC!

She really does just have a sweet sweet disposition and I'm so glad to get to be her mom! I've enjoyed every moment we've spent together!

Cutest Baby EVER!

Ok so I just HAD to post this picture because it makes me laugh out loud EVERY time I see it! HAHAHAHA I LOVE IT!!! My little chillin' monkey! Lena is seriously the cutest baby ever and I just love every moment I have with her - I mean come on!!!! Look at that FACE!

And still more cuteness to come!...

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a fabulously pink (and red i guess haha) Valentine's Day!!! We have been preping for DAYS and the day finally came for some super FUN LOVIN'!! Piper had such a special day at school complete with treats and valentine giving. She had such a blast and was so excited to get to participate in a big kid school party:) I was feeling a little bad for Bailey, though, because she was so excited for Piper to give out Valentines and then said..."can I give valentine's to MY friends?!" Awww! I realized she was hearing all about what fun Piper was going to have and figured she was going to get to have a party too! So...Monday night I whipped up some games/activities for us to do together to celebrate. Here's little miss Bailey with her valentines breakfast and getting ready for some sweetheart activities!

Lena was so good to bounce away while we ate our conversation hearts and counted heart jewels.

After our activities we decided to head out to deliver Valentines! Here's my big girl with her bag of goodies. I felt a little bad and maybe should have called everyone first to give the heads up but only one of her friends was home for her to give to personally ... but she still enjoyed taping the treats to the door so all is well. Except... while on our outing I got a TICKET!! GRRRRR!!! Seriously who the heck stops a mom with kids whos going the speed limit, wearing her seat belt, using her blinker... COME ON! I swear next opportunity I have to get the heck out of this state I think I'll jump for it ;) Never in my LIFE have I gotten a ticket until we move to TX!

And moving on...

After naps the girls were so excited to make special chocolate covered strawberries for daddy and we even dipped a few of those FABULOUS Cinnamon Bears MaryAnn gave me for my bday! They were SUPER YUM!




Ok so who knew HGTV would entertain my kids so much. I mean Bailey won't sit down to watch ANY cartoon - even BARNEY! But here she is LOVING HGTV. It's a mystery!

Gotta love Lena and her looks! Such a SWEET baby!

Daddy was able to get home a wee bit early for our SPECIAL V-day dinner and the girls' luv bugs reappeared with their final treat AND Grandmommy and Grand daddy's Valentines showed up in the mail so we had some serious LOVING going on. Our dinner may or may not (but mostly may) have come out in courses because turns out I don't know how to cook steak but when the steak FINALLY was done it was GOOD! I asked Piper earlier in the week what she thought we should make for daddy on V-day and she said steak! Ahhhhh I was like Seriously! What 4 year old says steak! But I DID ask so I figured I should give it a shot. So we had loaded baked potatoes for our first cou/a(?)rse, followed by Asparagus (which turns out my kids DO like if you don't cook it till it's black - good to know), and for our final cou/arse steak. And it actually turned out good - hooray!

Here's the love of my life holding the sweetest baby in the world. Isn't he FABULOUS!! Lover Boy surprised us ALL with a bouquet of flowers - ROSES! Always and Forever my favorites!! Such a classy guy... and a SUPER stud muffin!

I'm so grateful I have such a wonderful Fam to give extra loves to! Hope everyone had a super fabulous Valentine's Day!!