Christmas Everyday

Today we took down our Christmas cards. Our family room is much less cheery and colorful! Boo! But instead of putting the pictures in a bag (that Abby actually likes to go through every now and again...) we decided to punch holes in them and stick 'em on a ring and voila! Instant coffee table book thing. :) Before you go thinking I'm clever, I saw it on Pinterest. It's pretty much the only reason I have any good ideas these days... just don't ask what I'm doing to do with old stuffed animals (we have a graveyard of them in the play room we have so many laying around). That's a post for another day! 

Here's our final product :

So now you know that we'll be enjoying your family and the pictures you sent all the year through. Abby especially.

Book of the week : Pride and Prejudice for kids. Amazing! Abby always wants to be Lizzie. "And you, Mom, you can be Mr. Darcy." She has no idea what a compliment that is!

565. a shower and extra time to cut/paste/stuff
566. a quite phone call
567. realizing opportunity when it knocks

Happy Hour

"Happy Hour" is usually not so very happy at our house. Fordy has had it being in his exercauser by then, I'm knee-deep in dinner and Abby has recently woken up, usually, from a late nap and isn't in the best mood. Tonight, sissy's hat livened up Ford's time...

And these? Cuties! Always juices up Abby's post-nap stupor. And she calls 'em "sweeties". If she asks for one, now you know.

And right about that time, mom and dad need a drink. Happy hour, it is!

562. Swinging, swinging and swinging

563. A successful drop off at bsf this week

564. Spontaneous pizza

Winter Warm

As we prepare for our almost 80 degree week ahead, Abby still loves to hug Frosty every day on our walk. He's positioned just up the hill from us and without fail, he gets some love. Isn't it time to start decorating for Valentine's Day? Come on, neighbors!

Just a few days ago it was pretty cool here during the day (think 50s! gasp!) and Abby put together some sweet fashion advice for all of you . What you can't see are the Hello Kitty socks and pink sparkly shoes. You can never have too many patterns working for you at once.

Meanwhile, our favorite male under one is now waking up happy and throws his pacifiers on the floor for us to find. While Abby quickly refused them post surgery, Fordy loves the things. We're gonna have a heck of a time getting those away from him once he gets some teeth. I keep picturing my friend's 3 year old who was found, after they took them away, in the middle of the night on the bathroom floor, sucking away in the fetal position. Gotta head this one off at the pass, huh?

559. navigating Abby's mood changes
560. recharging
561. Abby's hope and "it's okay, mom... it'll work out"

On The Move!

Ford is after everything these days. He really just wants to walk and screeches (and I mean, really, really screeches-- Abby's old teradactyl noises have nothing on this ear-piercing guy) whenever he's on his tummy. Here are a few action shots on our especially hard tile floors. Maybe I should look into those baby knee pads!

 Who, me? Love the new "bed head" patch he has, now...

Heading for the outlets...

Some bath toy surely made in China and not good for chewing on...

And closing in on the monitor...

In truth, this boy really wants to stand so I'm praying that he won't be an early walker. Perhaps it's all that avocado he's eating...

Book of the week : The Giving Tree

555. a safe neighborhood to take our daily walks

556. my kindle

557. purple polish

558. gift secrets

New Years Big Girls

Look at this guy! First time in the grocery cart (because his sister wasn't with us hogging the seat, leaving him to ride in the ergo)...

And his latest fascination... eating cups (yes, they are bpa free!)... and Cheerios...

Abby & Ford's cousins, Gab and Liv, came for a visit and we all enjoyed ourselves so much. Have you ever seen cuter twins in all of your life? And Faith! The sweetest dog to ever steal Red's stuffed toy. We love her for it.

Usually when we have company and Abby heads off to swing, I've got one eye on them at all times. Gab and Liv are so responsible, so communicative, so helpful... I sent them off to the swingset together with hardly a second thought. I honestly could've gone and taken a bath. Or flown to Hawaii. And they would've been fine. Every few minutes, we'd glance outside, seeing that they were fine and go right back to gabbing away about something very important (like what we were going to fix for dinner, which is about all I can talk about from 3pm on...).
They had lunch in the top part of the swing set :

Wore themselves out finger painting...

And we even saw some floats up close for the Rose Bowl Parade. This was taken at around 8:30 pm...after a full day with the big girls. Abby was beat.

And this is perhaps one of my new favorite pictures. Abby with her cousins. She's becoming quite the big girl.

551. Abby being old enough to play with the big girls

552. knowing how to pray

553. cry-free nap time

554. the hope of a future out of town trip

The 3 Faces of Lunch

Lunchtime is always eventful around here. If we can keep Abby's hands out of the yogurt, it's a win. Usually, she's just been asking for bacon. Huh? She's turned into a teenage boy. Over the holiday, we documented some of it.

Lunch often goes something like this. Abby stares off into space. "Abs. Eat your lunch, monkey."

"oh." She says.

"Hey! Can I have some bacon, please?"

And then there's Fordy. Just happy to get his paws on any bit of food that's around. A pea. A crumb. But not really rice cereal. And as long as he's out of that high chair...happy, happy, happy...

546. Christmas successfully taken down

547. the same old soup making the same great impression of abby

548. Fordy talking our ears off

549. knowing what a healthy child looks like

550. sleep! wonderful sleep

Hello Kitty Tea

Just after Christmas, we had a little tea with our friend Pema. There was bacon. There were Hello Kitty waffles. There was tea. There was lots of two year old conversation. There were memories.

And right around that same time, this guy crawled up in the rocker as well as got to sit alone for the first time in the shopping cart while sister stayed home and slept. Plus, he's scooting around like crazy now. Go Fordy!

542. enough energy to read at night

543. cabbage to stave off mastitis

544. a blank calendar

545. planning to celebrate others

Pre-what?

We had a preschool tour today. Let me say that again... pre.school.tour. How in the world can our girl be this old? I mentioned "school" and she said "I never want to go to school!" Yikes! So, I told her we were going to our friend Kibru's school to check it out. We didn't see him there but we had a good time and she wore her sparkly shoes for extra fun.

539. our new stereo (thanks, Santa)

540. using an old iphone as an ipod on the new stereo

541. pandora on the new stereo

Bathtub Confessions

Fordy is completely sitting up alone in the tub now. Which got me thinking... that this pink tub became Fordy's only a few weeks ago. Yes... I've had Abigail in there ALL. OF. THIS. TIME. I kept telling myself I was saving water (it was easier for me) and I was saving water (it was easier for me) and besides that, I was saving water (it was easier for me). It was just easier to have her in there -- not filling up the big tub, having to chase her around in there and all that. But now, bathtime is a new, fun thing. For both of us. I'm sorry I waited so long to see this girl stretch out and lay on her tummy and try to blow bubbles. And one night when she decided to jump in there with him ("there's no room!" i yelled. "stop!" i screamed. "you'll smoosh each other!" i half-whispered) I realized that they both might do better in the big bathtub after all. And just like that, the pink tub has been retired.

Before Abby was born, I kept hearing how everything went by so quickly. That was obviously not our story with her. Time was slow. She grew slowly...and my worries slowly faded. But with Fordy -- whew! He's sitting up, he's eating, he's growing like crazy -- and almost 8 months has flown by. Truly. I am in awe of how time stood still that first 4 months of Abby's life -- how terribly slowly everything went. The good news? It was so slow that I remember so many moments in those months it still amazes me. Amid the chaos, the tears and the fear, God has imbedded some sweet memories in my heart. So much so that I feel a little guilty for not having the same with Ford. But I know our trials with him will come as well. I only hope I cherish the slowing of time afterwards as much as I do now.

536. new friends becoming good friends

537. a return to bsf this week

538. getting down the timing with dinner/bath/bedtime

Goodbye, So Long...

And when Grandma and Papa finally left, Abby looked like this (imagine her just having shrugged her shoulder and sighing)...

She started walking down the street after their car saying, "Bye! I'm walking to Grandma's house!" I should've asked her if she brought a snack. That 5 freeway can go on forever.

Then she came back, took a nice long look at the hazy view, asked again if they really weren't coming back and headed inside.

Besides, Ford was inside showing off his new skills : screaming, scooting, pulling up and eating Cheerios by the fist-full.

533. a fuss-free moment in the high chair

534. being reminded of parenting fundamentals

535. this book

I'll Be Home For Christmas

And, boy, was it divine. Well, not divine... I mean, nothing like the virgin birth -- but it was really nice.

There are a few things I've realized about this two year old age. She won't necessarily remember much of what goes on this year even if they're big things to us. Disneyland. Santa. It's cool and all...but as I realized as we were in line for our 6th ride at Disneyland... "two rides at this age is really, really awesome. Maybe 7 is way too many." We'll never know. But I had the same feeling Christmas morning. She was stoked.... stoked to get Princess Band-Aids and a few treats in her stocking. But then the real gifts started coming. We thought we kept it mellow this year, trying to keep a low standard for gifts...but it was too many. We were the ones excited to give these gifts to her. You live and you learn, I guess. But I fear we'll be de-Santa-ing next year and trying to focus even more on Jesus' birth.

Her new shopping cart was a big hit.

Stockings. My favorite part...

Princess Band-Aids

Who are these crazy people? That hat, by the way, is Abby's. Yep, not only can Little Grandma shop in the kids department for clothes, apparently she can wear cool hats for toddlers.

We set out to get Abby an oxymoron Mini Big Wheel so she could reach the peddles. After two pillows and a blanket behind her back, Grant gave up. She'll have to scoot along for a few more months on this one, too...

And after a heart-stopping breakfast of Pioneer Woman Cinnamon Rolls and my mom's famous sausage egg dish, it was nap time...

529. giving rather than getting

530. Abby handing Ford her coveted balloon to play with

531. Abby giving her favorite Bob Snacks to her cousins

532. all the family getting back home safely

Christmas Eve and all

And suddenly, it was Christmas Eve. We had Little Grandma and Papa here... and it was lovely to not travel (for the first time in my entire life!).

There was yard work (what? bah humbug!)...

There was anticipation...

There was jumping and man-handling and pulling up and screaming...

There was kindle-reading and Charlie Brown Christmas watching...

There was happy birthday Jesus singing...

There were snow monster caves...

There was Santa putting-togethering...

Two bald guys on the carpet...

And a very merry christmas eve had by all! Especially after watching Christmas Vacation!

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining, It is the night of our dear Saviour's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 'Til He appear'd and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born; O night divine, O night, O night Divine.

525. Grandpa Nieporte healing well

526. feeling at home at our first Christmas at home

527. skype

528. fingerpainting