2 year olds are fun

Malia loves church. I think it is mostly because she is a social kid and it is a chance for her to hang out with other kids. This past Sunday, we picked her up and she has a special headband on:
I was laughing so hard when I saw her. They talked about how Jesus was God's gift in her nursery room and so then decorated the kids as presents. Too cute.

Then later in the day, we were playing upstairs and she saw her Halloween costume hanging in the closet. She told me that she wanted to wear it which surprised me since we had to bribe her with candy to wear it on Halloween, but I put it on her. A couple hours later and after a trip out to Old Navy wearing it, we had to change her so she could nap.

Never know what they are going to do to make you laugh.

Merry Christmas!

Wrapping Gifts

Last year I was feeling crafty and green this time of year. I came up with the idea to make fabric bags to wrap presents in - my mom had passed down a lot of fabric to my sister and I a few years back including some Christmas fabric so the project didn't even cost me anything.

I made some bags for my sister and for myself. I didn't make enough last year to fit all of our gifts so some were still wrapped.

But this year, only one present (outside of stocking stuffers) got wrapped with real paper at our house - (I ran out of big sized bags). It got wrapped with brown paper which was a little boring so I decided to ask Malia to draw something on it. Usually her attention span for drawing is about 30 seconds but to my surprise she got really into it and covered the entire package with red scribbles that in her mind were santas and candy canes.

And here is our best present this year all wrapped to go out in the cold.

6 weeks

Davey is 6 weeks old today. This feels like a milestone day for me even though it really isn't because if I would have had a c-section this is the first day I would have had doctor clearance to pick up Malia or anything else heavier than Davey. I can't imagine what the last 6 weeks would have been like if I would have had that restriction.

Instead, the last 6 weeks have been amazing. I am in awe of the gift that God gave us in Davey and so thankful for how smooth the transition from having 1 to 2 kids has been. Life has changed so much for us and at the same time it feels so natural and normal.

In the last week Davey has started to smile a lot more which is so fun. And she has decided that she likes to sleep 7 hours straight at night which is also fun!

Baby Dear

Andrew's aunt, Bobbie, sent Malia this sweet, old book for her birthday. It is about a little girl who gets a doll from her parents when they bring her little sister from the hospital. The girl and her mom feed the baby, "bubble" the baby, change the baby etc. - perfect huh?

Malia really likes the book. Here she is reading it to Davey last week.

Thanks Bobbie!

ABCs

Through a few "talking" alphabet toys around our house, Malia has learned not only to sing her ABCs but also to identify all of the letters of the alphabet. We don't have much to compare her to, but we think she is pretty smart. Her is video to show her skills.

Sleeping Beauty

Davey is a great sleeper - she has pretty much had her days and nights straight from the time she was born. The first couple of weeks she fed pretty regularly throughout the night - every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. She gradually stretched it out to where she would go 4 or 4 1/2 but two nights ago she jumped to 6 hours straight and last night it was 6 1/2 hours! That is pretty good for only being 5 weeks old.

Here is what she looks like when we bundle her up for bedtime.

Note: Our first child, whom we love very dearly, was a "normal" infant who would be awake for hours in the middle of the night and who would cry for long stretches of time, several times a day. We have been those sleep deprived parents who have to switch on and off in the middle of the night to preserve our own sanity.

We are thankful that we have not had to deal with those issues this time and are enjoying the easier road, but believe me, we have been there.

Family Kitchen Fun

Andrew and I got Malia a play kitchen for her birthday. I got it used on Craiglist in September so it has actually been in our garage under a sheet since then. We decided to give it to her a few weeks ago for 2 reasons - a) to spread out her presents and b) as something new and exciting for her as we were giving attention to Davey.

She loves her kitchen. Her favorite things to make in it are pancakes and waffles. For her birthday, her Emmie made her an apron.

Andrew and I also got a new toy for our kitchen - a green KitchenAid mixer. I think we were one of the few people who didn't get one for our wedding (we didn't register for one because I didn't think we needed one). Before we had Davey, I started thinking that maybe we would use one - I had started baking a little more but was struggling with our hand held mixer because I don't have a great bowl for it, so things inevitably ended up getting sprayed all over our kitchen.

Anyway, the joke was that if I was able to have a VBAC that I could get the KitchenAid because we would save so much money than if I had another c-section. So as soon as I pushed Davey out, I started telling my doctor and the nurses that I had just earned a KitchenAid. (I should note that my parents gave us money towards it as our Christmas present which was really nice.)
We got it in the mail the same day that we gave Malia her kitchen. And we have been enjoying it lots. Tonight we made cookies, pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and banana bread. Needless to say I don't think this KitchenAid is going to help me get back down to my pre-pregnancy weight anytime soon!

Our beautiful 2 year old

Malia officially turned 2 today. It was a weird day because we had already celebrated with everyone else last Friday, yet it still was a special day but it was also so normal. We just hung around the house and did normal things.

I wish that I was good with words and that I could write something fabulous about Malia in the next 10 minutes that I have before I need to feed Davey. But to get something that I liked out would probably take me at least an hour and I don't have that time.

I will say that I love Malia. She brings so much joy to my life and to the lives of so many others. She teaches me so much - about myself, about life and about God. I am so grateful that she joined our family 2 years ago.

Here are a few pictures from the day...

She loves to play with Andrew and I's phones. Today she rested on the activity mat that I got out yesterday to play with my phone. It was a funny sight.


We hung ribbon streamers from her door last night. All day she kept wanting to go upstairs to "the party" (it definitely took awhile to figure out what she was talking about).

Doesn't she look so old?

And yes she picked out the pink and purple bows and wanted them both in her hair.

One Month

Davey is a month old today. Amazing. It has been such a great and special month full of family, friends and sweet memories.

Davey continues to be a great, and relatively easy baby (even babies who don't fuss much still require a lot of attention, work, and middle of the night feedings). She makes me smile, laugh and want to cry because she is so beautiful. We are so blessed.

Green Jammies

As I noted in an earlier post, we spend a lot of time these days in our pajamas (or jammies as Malia calls them). Luckily the girls both have new green pajamas.

Birthday Party

Malia turns 2 on the 12th, but we had her birthday party a week early because we had extra family in town - my sister and brother-in-law as well as Andrew's grandparents. We had a great time celebrating sweet Malia.

The cupcake tower.

The birthday banner I made inspired by one my friend Tracey had and another my cousin Amy made.

My sister, Beth, and I. I don't know what I would have done without her help.

Davey was passed around throughout the evening. Here she is with my good friend, Ali.

Malia, me and our neighbor Sadie in their party hats.

Malia had not seen Sadie in awhile because Sadie had a cold and then they went out of town for Thanksgiving. She kept on giving her big hugs all night.

The only entertainment we had for the kids was a bunch of blown up balloons and they were a hit. Thanks to winter weather here, things were really static-y which made the balloons extra fun as they stuck to the kids.

Happy Birthday to Malia. Her face was precious as we sang to her - so precious that I made everyone sing it again (that and I forgot to have someone videotaping the first time!)

Enjoying her cupcake.

Opening gifts with chocolate on her face.

It was very special to have Andrew's grandparents in town. They are great baby holders!

My Hero

My hero camped out and braved temperatures that went down into the single digits (with a little snow) for over 24 hours so that I would not have to make dinner one night, every other week, for the next year.

My hero is Andrew.

He, Erik and Chris camped out at the opening of another Chick-fil-A in the area earlier this week. Andrew came home with 52 meals - while it is not as glorious as the 104 meals we earned last year when we were both able to camp out, I am so thankful that we get any this year.

Thanks babe for providing so well and in so many ways for our family. I love you (and Chick-fil-A).

Naked Baby