2

My baby girl is two years old today. 2 really? It is so true that the second child grows faster than the first.

My sweet Emmy is turning into such a sweet little girl. Not sure I can call her my baby anymore as she truly is a little toddler. She is a little lady that knows what she wants (and what she doesn't) and gives a little sass when she doesn't get her way. Oh the drama. But if I think this is drama I can only imagine the drama that will be in my house in about 10 years (or sooner).

Really though Emma is everything I could hope for in a daughter. She loves to learn and is dying to go to school like her big sister does. If you ask her how old she is, Emma quickly replies with "3"... we are working on that. She loves to sing and the last several days has been singing "Happy Birthday" over and over. It's quite cute. Emma also loves to color and any other art activity I will allow her to do. She loves to be outside most. Loves playing with sidewalk chalk or riding her scooter or jumping on the trampoline. She just likes to do. She still doesn't like tv. Honestly I didn't know kids like this existed. She has no interest in anything (trust me we have tried) on tv. Thankfully she does love books and playing pretend so I can usually occupy her when I need to shower or go to the bathroom... you know all those type of things.

Emma also loves the doctor. She can say the name of everyone in the office and I think they love it. Her stats at her 2 year visit:

Weight - 26.5 lbs (50%)

Length - 34 inches (50%)

Head - 19.5 inches (93%)

So she is pretty average. That said she was only in the 25% at 18 months for her weight so the pediatrician thought she might have a growing spurt soon. I guess kids go out and then grow up. But average isn't so bad. :)

For Emma's birthday we decided to just have a fun day. No big party just a family day and a few neighbors over for pizza and cake. It was so nice.

The day started with pancakes by daddy. Emma & Grace's favorite.

Then we headed to the Fort Worth zoo.

We ran into our neighbors and good friend, Riley. It also was her 2nd birthday. What a fun way to enjoy your birthday and a beautiful 60 degree Spring day.
Emma loved all the animals.
But I think this turtle was a hit for all of us. He just hung out near the glass for a while looking at us.

A shot of the girls. Seriously need to work on not saying "cheese"...

Emma's favorite part was walking... she is almost getting too big for her stroller :(

And the afternoon ended with a train ride.

We came home and took baths and a quick nap and it was time to open presents. Emma's big gift was a nice tricycle. She is already getting the hang of it.

Emma's yummy cake I made. I'm really starting to get the hang out it. I didn't have a lot of time so I just did some polka dots.

Ready to blow out candles.

Trying to blow them out... thankfully she got a little help from her sister.

What a perfect day for a two year old! Happy Birthday sweet Emmy.

I love these girls

What sweet sisters!

Limbs for Life Annual Benefit

As many of you probably already know, my uncle was hit by a car about 11 years ago while he was running (on the sidewalk) and the result was the loss of one of his legs. After he lost his leg he became very involved with an organization called Limbs for Life. It's a super cool organization that raises money to buy prosthetics for those that can't afford them. Maybe their insurance wont pay for it or maybe they don't have insurance... whatever the case, they help those folks out. They help those people to have a life again. A life they couldn't have without the help of Limbs for Life.

So last night was their annual benefit. Every year they do a fun theme to get everyone excited and just for fun really. This year the theme was the Roaring 20's. SO FUN!! Everyone was dressed up in their flapper best! Adam and I all ready to go...

We were greeted at the entrance by a 1920's Ford... super cool!! Adam and I and a greeter!

I just had to take a picture of this Porsche. A couple donated it (YES - donated!). It's worth $120,000 and a lucky person who bought a raffle ticket snagged it!

And a picture of my Aunt Marion and I. What was most fun about the benefit was that a lot of my family was there. Makes for a fun family affair!
I wish I could tell you how much money was raised last night, but historically they raise enough money for about 150 people to receive a prosthetic. VERY COOL!! Can't wait for next year!!

four

Seriously, four.

How can my itty bitty baby girl be four years old.

Where did the years go?

It's so true when other parents say that time really does fly. It does. And sometimes, I'll be honest, I'm so happy when the time flies. But most days it makes me sad to see the years going right past me. It is exciting that Grace is getting so big and able to do so much for herself, yet she still needs us. I don't know what I'll do when she doesn't need me anymore.... hopefully she will always need me.

Grace wanted a party for her big four year old birthday so we did. We chose a Valentine theme since after all her birthday is on Valentine's Day. And it was perfect.

We had all the decorations made from hearts. I made a wreath from cupcake liners that turned out super cute and made a banner. We also made some crayon hearts which we hung in the windows.

We filled goodie bags with some heart sunglasses, fruit snacks, a heart bracelet and a lollipop and tied a little Valentine on top. We also decorated a Christmas tree with hearts and tulle and I put out a picture of Grace on her 1st Valentine's Day.

All the party go-ers! Yes we did an all girl thing this year. We wanted to keep it small and intimate.
And the cake - made by me. (This cake is much larger than it looks...we are still eating on it!)

When the guests arrived we started with heart shaped pancakes and fruit. Not sure but I don't have a picture of the pancakes. Adam worked so hard on them!

After we had full tummies we played some games.
We pinned the lips on Ms. Valentine and we did a Heart Hunt.We also made a cute Heart picture frame.

Thankfully all the moms helped out!

And of course we ate some cake.
And ended with a little dress up. What else is a girl to do?!

It was a fun party!!

Happy 4th Birthday Grace!!

Happy Birthday Grace!!

Hours old

OneTwo

Three

"my music"

A friend of mine told me about this great kids CD that her girls love so Santa got it for Grace for Christmas. My girls LOVE it!! They are constantly asking for "my music". Thankfully the songs aren't terribly annoying so I can tolerate them. The best thing about the music is that they are learning too! There are counting sounds, letter sound songs, opposites songs, manners, months, math, etc. Even Emma loves the songs and tries to sing along. I think Grace knows practically all the words to most the songs. So if you are looking for a cute gift for Valentines day or something to throw into the Easter basket in a couple months this is a GREAT one!!

"Sounds Like Fun" by Discovery Toys. It was actually first made in the early 80's so some of you may have heard it before. Here is a link to where I ordered it from but I saw it listed on ebay as well. Not cheap at $15, but well worth the money!! You can also search youtube for some videos of the songs.

And for your viewing pleasure a video of the girls singing the Alphabet sounds song. This was from last week when Emma wasn't feeling very well just in case you notice she looks sleepy!

oh my...

I was in my bedroom putting laundry away (for maybe 5 minutes) and I come back into the living room to find 3 packages (that were previously unopened) of wipes torn out of their packages and thrown all around my living room. This was one of those "oh no they didn't" moments. I told them to go stand in time-out and boy did they know what they had done wasn't okay because they marched to time out and put their little faces in the corner without saying one complaint. Can you tell they have done this before? So after I took a picture or two I gave each of them a bag and told them to clean it up. I put the salvageable wipes (some were torn to shreds) into a ziplock baggie and we will be using every one of those. I can't waste wipes!! I thought about taking money out of their piggy banks but I it was kind of funny so hopefully they learned their lessons. It could have been much worse!

Wipes.... all over... my house....Time out....
My two little cleaners....

GRACE

And she writes her name. We have been working on this ALL YEAR so its a thrill to finally see her do it all on her own! I think she is pretty darn proud too.

a little random today

First off, I just wanted to update on my sweet sister-in-law, Christee. She is doing great and believe it or not she is done with chemo. Unfortunately she still has a big road ahead. She is scheduled to have her double mastectomy next Thursday, January 21st. About 2 weeks after the surgery she will start 7 weeks of radiation and then a few months after the radiation is complete she will undergo reconstructive surgery.

Please send prayers her way for a smooth surgery and quick recovery both physically and mentally. I can't even imagine how she must feel, but I hope she feels all the love that is coming to her! We are heading to Austin this weekend to hang out with her and get her mind off next week.

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Next, bedtime and nap time have gotten a bit better.

Crying has been reduced and Emma isn't grabbing onto everything possible to keep me from bringing her into her crib. Honestly, I thought she might learn how to get out of her crib during all this because trust me she definitely wanted out! We didn't really change a whole lot, just tried to keep it consistent and let her cry. We knew she was tired.

Now the problem is that she just chats away in her crib. I mean for like an hour sometimes?! We have tried keeping her later, putting her down earlier, etc and no matter what she just hangs out in her bed talking to her babies. It's actually sort of cute. We are totally not ready to move her to a big girl bed so we'll keep working on her. I don't think it has helped any that she is getting in all 4 of her eye teeth right now and she has a bit of a cough/cold. Maybe things will get back to normal once all that passes?

Thank you for all your sweet advice. I guess I just needed to vent more than anything.

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And yet reason why you should coupon... I got all this for $12.37 (thanks to some great coupons and good sales!). It would have cost me over $70!! What is frustrating is I had additional coupon for $2.50 off that I meant to use. Oh well I can use it next time. Oh and I only went to Kroger for all this!!(5 crescent rolls, 2 cinnamon rolls, 2 biscuits, 2 hot chocolates, 1 softsoap, 1 Dannon 6pk yogurt, 4 bags Nabisco snacks, 2 boxes oatmeal, 1 taco seasoning, 1 pkg strawberries, 1 package blueberries, 1 avocado, 1 bunch cilantro, 2 cans corn, 1 can black beans, 2 packets tuna, 1 V8 fusions, 1 Gatorade, 1 can tomatoes chopped, and 8 packs of Rolaids - don't really need Rolaids its just that I made .80 cents on every 2 I bought so it helped my bill - if you know someone that needs Rolaids let me know!!)

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Grace and Emma got some new dress up stuff for Christmas from their Aunt Tricia and Uncle Todd. The girls LOVE all the jewelry it came with.

Emma has every piece of jewelry on that she can wear, while holding a purse and pushing her baby. Such a little mommy in the making. :)

Grace posing for a cute picture with wild hair!

sleep

I've always thought that I was pretty good at getting my kids on a good little routine for sleep.

Grace has always been a pretty good sleeper. However she did wake up once a night until she was a good 8 months old, she would get up, eat and drift back off to sleep. I always thought the breast milk didn't fill her up as much. But after that she was a pro. Even today she sleeps a good 10 hours at night (if not more) and usually a hour to hour and half nap. Yes she is nearly 4 and still takes a nap. Honestly, she does okay without it, but after a couple days she is wreck so she gets a nap unless its a school day.

Emma on the other hand was a fantastic sleeper really from day one. I remember in the hospital her going 4-5 hours at night. Pretty much unheard of - or least it seems most of my friends weren't so lucky. She dropped down to one waking within a couple weeks and was sleeping through the night (9pm-6am) by 2 months. Oh and she had several daytime good naps. She really has been a good sleeper and for the most part is still, but we are having a problem. She is having a hard time settling to go to sleep for naps and bedtime. I know she is tired, but has been fighting us terribly. She cries when we put her in her crib and that has been lasting for a good 15+ minutes and then she will play for another 15+ minutes and then this is followed by a 3-4 hour nap during the day or 11 hours at night. I've tried talking about and for the most part our days are much alike.

So my question - any ideas? At night our routine is bath (every other night), pjs, hang out, brush teeth, books, etc. 95% of the time its the same. During the day she always goes down shortly after lunch for nap. We eat, clean up and usually read a book or something quiet for 15 minutes or so and then I lay her down. This has only been lasting for the last month or so. Could it be just a phase. I'm starting to worry because we are planning to transition her into a big girl bed this Spring/early Summer sometime so I want this to be a thing of the past or bedtime will really be bad.

OH and I should add that Adam and I were rocking her when this all first started to get her to relax or calm down but it didn't help and honestly I think it was starting to make it worse. So the last few days we have just been saying "its night night time and we love you".

Any recommendations? Really hoping its just a phase.

It's crazy for me to think that we moved Grace to a big girl bed at this age. She was 22 months when we moved here (yes we have been here 2 years!). I could not imagine Emma in a bed. SCARY!!

New Year

Welcome 2010. We had a rough end of the year with the death of my granny so we thought a couple days away would be nice. We went to see Adam's parents for a night and then left the girls for an additional night and we headed to visit our friends, Joey and Hailey, in Arkansas. It was a breath of fresh air to get to hang out with them. I miss them and wished they lived closer, but at least we can drive - only 5 hours!

Miss Presley was ready to party - or maybe just eat the sunglasses.

Adam and I's self photo.

And Hailey and I lookin' cute!

It wasn't anything too wild and crazy, but I did stay up till 3am. That is like a world record for me!! Thanks for a fun time Hailey and Joey.

here

Yes I'm here. Wow what a busy, fun, exhausting, relaxing and exciting last few weeks we have had. I can't tell you how many people have asked me if I'm not blogging anymore! Really I had no idea that anyone was actually still reading. I know I have been terrible. Honestly no excuses - life has just gotten in the way and blogging hasn't been on the agenda. Someone also told me that "blogging was so last year"... really? I do really enjoy blogging. I love looking back at the silly things I wrote about my girls or my life or the lack thereof. But mostly I enjoy reading about other friends and family and their lives. So yes I'm still here. And ready to give some updates!!



So here they are... (Tiffany style) ... either click on the link below or keep scrolling. Enjoy.

Granny

Christmas-time fun

Christmas 2009

Christmas cards 2009

granny

My sweet Granny went to be with our Heavenly Father on December 29th. At the young age of 78. She has been sick for a long time so honestly I'm really happy that doesn't have to live the way she was anymore. She rest her heart and lungs and watch us from above.

I can't help but remember so many wonderful things about her.

Every year for my birthday (without fail) I would get a card from a granny. Growing up I would receive a card with money in it. The amount was always based upon how old I was. At 10 I got 10 bucks. I always looked forward to it. This lasted until I was 21 when I graduated from the money program and just got a sweet loving card. After all, she did have 15 grandchildren and 3 great-grand children. We got expensive!

In the last few years we have turned into email buddies. I always knew she was just an email away. She LOVED my blog. She is one of the main reasons I blog. If I would miss days or weeks of no blogging you better believe my granny would email me and ask if everything was okay. I was usually sure to post something quickly after that.

She would also email me with great parenting advice. Shoot when she was my age she already 5 kids so she has been around the block a few times. She always made things sounds easy.

I'm just thankful that I've known her my whole life. She was an amazing mother of 8 children. I can't even fathom being a mother of 8. It really takes a special woman to do that!

Here are two of my favorite pictures.

Grace when she was itty bitty and Granny Brooks.

Four Generations: Granny, my dad, me and Grace. Sadly we never took one with Emma.

I was also thankful that last Monday night (the night before she passed) I was able to whisper in her ear how much I loved her and hold her hand while she rested. She was ready to go. I pray that when my time comes I can go as peacefully as she did.

Love you granny!

Christmas-time fun

Grace had a precious Christmas program this year. But wouldn't you know I pulled out my video camera only for the battery to die within 3 seconds of it being on. I was lucky I at least had my camera. Unfortunately we didn't really have a fabulous view despite the fact that we were sitting close. So the best picture was of Grace after the performance. She did so great. Huge improvement from last year. From my memory I believe last year she just hung out and watched all the bigger kids sing their little hearts out, but this year she actually sang all the songs and did most the hand motions. I can't wait until next year. I promise to be more prepared!

We have enjoyed a cold and snowy winter so far. It has snowed 3 times this December. We even got enough snow this last time that a few of our neighbors built snowmen. Emma was battling a cold so we stayed indoors and watched from our front window.
Still can't believe all the snow we got!

We also had a lot of fun doing other Christmas stuff.

One morning we baked cookies - which turned into an entire afternoon of icing and decorating. I think its sure to be an annual thing.

And to go with the theme of the month I forgot my camera for most everything else we enjoyed. We made a gingerbread house which turned into a bit of a disaster. We will attempt it again next year! We also headed to Northpark mall in Dallas and visited the trains. So cool. The girls loved it and I think Adam loved it even more. :) One night we headed to the Frisco fire department and walked around their little town were the girls got to drive a sleigh, get a Rudolph nose painted on, get a temporary tattoo, try on firemen gear and even drive the fire truck. So cool that they do that. We also enjoyed a couple nights of driving around looking at lights and lots of Christmas movies. I think at one point Adam has 10+ Christmas kids movies recorded. Grace loved everyone. Emma on the other hand still doesn't like tv.

What did you do with your family throughout the Christmas season?

Christmas 2009

Our Christmas usually starts on Christmas Eve. For years now we get together with my mom's side of the family for a big dinner. We don't do gift exchanges anymore since there are 40+ people in the family but its always a nice night of family, food and fun.

Here are all the little girls (my cousins) and my girls.

Grace and Emma and Audrey and Lexi. The big girls are 8 months apart (Lexi being older) and the little girls are just 2 days apart!

A cute snapshot of Daddy and his favorite hip-rider saying "cheese".

December seemed to skip past me and before we knew it we had the video camera and were recording as Grace walked down the stairs Christmas morning. There really is something cool about being up BEFORE your kids and being able to see their eyes light up when the see Santa visited them. I'm sure we only have a couple more years that our girls will be up before us, but it sure was nice to enjoy that this year.

The girls big gift was a trampoline from Adam's parents and boy do they love it. Too bad the weather has been SUPER cold otherwise we might be out enjoying it more. Hopefully warmer weather is to come.

Here is Adam lovingly putting the tramp together on Christmas Eve in a wet cold snow. I helped for bit, but then went inside to dry off by the fire. Oh how I love a fire on a cold day.

And here is the tramp on Christmas morning. Would you believe it snowed 3 times in December. This was the first white Christmas that Dallas has had since 1927! It was beautiful. Bummer we had to wait to enjoy the tramp. Plus Adam still had to add the safety sides. OH and did I mention we put it together wrong and Adam and had to take it all apart again! Ooops! Read ALL the directions when putting one of these together!

Santa brought Grace her beloved paints (aka watercolors) and a fun marble game, plus some fun stocking goodies - you know new undies and socks, new sunglasses, etc :)

Santa brought Emma lots of baby doll stuff. This girl really is my little mommy rocking all her babies to sleep and "shooshing" in their ears.

The girls also got a few things from us as well. Spoiled - never! :)

By 9am we were at my parents house opening gifts and enjoying a yummy breakfast. My parents got all the grand kids cute little chairs. The girls LOVE these chairs and drag them all over the house!

And finally a cute family shot. What more do I need on Christmas than a little family like this!This seriously is probably one of the only pictures of all 4 of us where everyone is smiling. Too bad Emma isn't looking at the camera, but it is cute none the less!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas as well.

Christmas cards

My super cool neighbor took pictures of the girls this year for our Christmas cards and we are totally going to have him do it every year! The girls had a blast and we fell in love with all the pictures!!

"The one" - this is just so their personality. Smily and serious!

Christmas cuteness

I just wanted to get a few things down on paper before I forget them...

*After we finished decorating the house Grace informed me that I forgot to decorate her room. I felt so sad so I ran out to Walmart and got her little tree with lots of pink decorations! She loves it!

*After finishing the whole house and her room Grace said "Santa's gonna love it" - she was being VERY serious!

*Emma proclaims anytime she sees Santa. Yelling "Santa!" and followed by a "Ho Ho Ho". She has got it down!

*We have a house in our neighborhood that decorates their house like something out of Christmas Vacation... wow! It has everything from Santa and his reindeer, to lights, to carollers and even a full nativity. The girls love it. Really that is an understatement. If I drive past it too fast Grace will yell at me - "I didn't get to see baby Jesus!" Unfortunately for me this house is on the way in and out of the neighborhood so there is no avoiding it. So if you are neighbor and reading this - sorry if you get behind me, we have to take note of every piece of yard art before moving on.

check

Well I can finally check off that I have completed a half marathon. 13.1 miles done. And it couldn't feel better!

The entire race/run was amazing. It blew me away at the number of volunteers and police officers and spectators that were out there cheering for the runners. Pretty much the entire race there were people holding signs and cheering on strangers.

Mile 12 was a bit tough because I was pretty tired but somehow pushed through it. My chip time was 2 hours 24 minutes and 47 seconds. Just under an 11 minute mile. I was really just hoping for under 2:30, so I was happy with that. But would really like to be closer to a 10 minute mile since I know I can do that!

Thank you for all the encouragement and support during this training. I couldn't have done it without it!!! And to my sweet husband for coming home early, going into work late, and helping with the girls to make my training my possible. I couldn't have done this without you baby! Love you!

And yes I'm hooked - thinking my next race will be the Dallas Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon - March 14th. No desire yet to run a full marathon... but not ruled out either! :)

5 days...

Sunday is the big day. 13.1 miles here I come.

More later. We've been busy with Christmas shopping, running, planning Christmas parties, going to parties, etc. So much to update no time now.

I will update next week after the race. For now I'm tring to have a quiet week and rest for the big run!

Have a great week!!

ps... I'm done Christmas shopping!! Lots to wrap, but I'm done!!