Little Miss Personality

I just love these pictures I took of Natalie yesterday. She is little miss personality these days. She keeps us on our toes with her ideas and questions. She is also showing us the beauty and challenge that is all the emotions of little girls. It is eye opening to me as I explain to her the control we have over our emotions. Definitely an area where I'm being challenged to act, not just speak! Here's my beauty...

Six Months

Well, my baby girl is six months old already. I love the stage we are heading into. There is something about the playfulness of the next few months that I absolutely love, but there is a part of me that already misses the teeny "tinyness" of those first few months.

Brielle is a delight. She is most often happy as long as she is caught up on her sleep. And this girl loves sleep. She has been going to bed at 6:30 for the past couple of months - I always thought that sounded ridiculous but when it works, it works! She still gets up once to eat and then sleeps until 7 or 7:30.

She's still a little thing. She weighed in at 13 pounds last week. The doctor is really pleased with her development though. The silly girl rolled over a few times around Christmas and now won't do it again. The doctor said it seems like she's just laid back because she has plenty of strength to do whatever she needs to do. I'll take it.

When I think of where we were last year at this time, I am amazed and overwhelmed by God's goodness. This girl has been an adventure, one I wouldn't trade for anything. She's truly our gift "of God".

Happy Valentines Day!

I've long been a fan of Valentines Day, and not just for the expectation of chocolate and flowers and romantic perfection. I don't really consider myself much of a "romantic." However, a day to give sweet cards and treats to those you love - how can you resist? This year, Natalie was all on board too, which has just increased my love for this day.

We started last week by making these Valentines for her cousins and church friends (not to fear, cousins, you will receive them soon). We started small, but she LOVED this first attempt of making her own Valentines. Let me just say she was queen of that glue stick.

The thing I love is that Natalie knew exactly what she wanted for Valentine's - a red heart balloon and green flowers. I'm really not sure why green, but her daddy did not disappoint. (We had a little trouble keeping the balloon still long enough to get it and the flowers in the same picture).

Brielle was not left out of the festivities either.

Here she is again with her Valentine shoes and my beautiful flowers in the background - I love my husband. He has a lot of girls to please these days and he's done quite well!

Happy Valentine's Day! If you need some treats, come here! We have plenty to share :)

Quick Update

It's been awhile. These girls are keeping me on my toes. Natalie had decided that she only needs to nap about half the time - silly girl. I tried to remind her that she's only two and a half, but she doesn't seem to think it matters. Really, she's been doing quite well on days that she doesn't nap, so I guess I will embrace it. The beauty of it is that it almost always means an earlier, easy bedtime. Brielle is a little cat napper right now, so the two of them combined means that I've been getting 10 - 15 minutes max of downtime in the afternoon. So here's a quick blog/picture update. Then I'm moving on to my new addiction "Downton Abbey". If you haven't watched this show, you must. Sunday nights at 9 on PBS. You can also catch the first season on Netflix :)

Natalie is such a little ham. She loves showing off for her daddy and I. I'm sad that not everyone gets to see this side of her because she tends to be shy when we are away.

Natalie is becoming such a great big sister. She loves to hold Brielle, pick out clothes for her, run to her when she cries, get her toys, and make her laugh and smile!

Brielle is five months old already! I can't believe it. She's enjoying her exersaucer more these days. She rolled over a few times around Christmas, but won't do it again. She is quick to smile. She adores her big sister. She is a beauty!

Gifts

Ok folks, here it is. My 2012 goal.... ok, one of them. The fun one that I'm hoping will challenge my perspective and help me move outside of my "this is all there is" box of despair. I love what I do, but let's be honest, it's not everday, every moment fulfilling. It's not designed to be. So, here's my project. Everyday, I'm already a week late I know, I plan to snap a photograph of a gift, something that brings me joy, deepens my perspective, lightens my load, whatever it may be - a word, an object, a person. I'll do my best to post these pictures at the end of every week. I'm not a photographer, do not pretend to be, not sure I even desire to be, so bear with me. The pictures aren't being taken as an art form but as a reminder, a perspective gainer. More to come....

My date with Natalie and Amirah

Natalie and her cousin, Amirah are two of a kind! I love these girls so much, but they also tend to be a handful together :) They love each other intensely and sometimes fight intensely as well. Today, I took the two of them on a little date because we miss having Amirah around everyday and I thought Natalie might benefit from some time without her baby sister. We had a great time!

Natalie wanted to take Amirah to the library to play with the puzzles. We stopped at Dunkin' Donuts first for a little treat. Here are some pictures of my sweet girls.

Miss Brielle

Brielle is three .... and a half months old! I don't know where the last two weeks have gone! I've been wanting to take some pictures and blog about her but it just hasn't happened until now. She is laying beside me watching her little fists move in front of her face. I could just eat her up!

We are loving this little girl. She is full of smiles these days. My mom bought her one of those floor play mats as an early Christmas present and she loves it. She will kick and move her little hands around and make all kinds of adorable baby noises contently under it for a long time. She's not so impressed with the bumbo. She holds herself up pretty well, but it seems she would much rather be laying down.

She loves Natalie. She will strain her little neck to get a glimpse of her whenever she hears her voice. Natalie loves her too. It's so fun to watch this bond grow. Natalie's favorite thing right now is to sing "Jesus loves me" to her and she loves to talk to her. If I interrupt she will say, "I'm talking to Brielle." Please, don't let me intrude :)

She's packing on the pounds too. I don't think she's far behind anymore, maybe not behind at all. I love my chubby cheek babies! What a little miracle - I love this girl.