Catching up on December stuff: Part 2

This would be my eldest child, who takes my word at NOTHING. I came in the living room one afternoon to find her like this, as she tells me the hole is NOT big enough for Santa. I told her that Christmas Magic is amazing stuff. Good grief.

This was at her Christmas party at preschool.... where she was

obviously enjoying decorating her cookies. And Brooklyn sat there, her only job to drink her drink and look cute. DONE.



Playing a game with her teacher and classmates as they open their book exchange.

Giving B some sister-lovin' in her stroller. LOVE it.

B is ALWAYS a hit with the kids in R's class... they flock to her. I had cuter pics of B smiling at them, but this one shows R's best friend at school in her ADORABLE shirt,

"My brother is the naughty one."

On my birthday, giving THANK YOU kisses when I opened my present. New JamesAvery earrings. :)

David cooked us dinner, then we had Tiramisu for dessert.... YUM. R had an icecream cone instead. Here, R is singing Happy Birthday To Mommy. :)

The next day we went to my parents' house for our Christmas with Adam, Missy, Adley and Corbin. Reagan's definition of HEAVEN. Doing some cousin coloring.

Having Adley around is MY definition of heaven. She does EVERYTHING for Reagan and loves it! They both do! R had never taken a shower before this, but Adley wanted to and said she'd help R.... easy enough!

The kids about to open their stockings from Mom and Dad. (B was still sleeping.... we love her, but we started without her.)

I love the pics of them sitting amongst the pretty wrapping paper. :)

Opening her new Tinkerbell panties from her stocking. We looooooooove Tink right now.

Corbin with his boxer briefs!!!

If you can't tell, her mouth is full of stocking candy!

I am less patient with presents than Adley and Corbin! They can open a few, then just sit and talk and play. And I'm like, "OK, next present!! OPEN!!" Gotta love those kids... they rock.

The "Other" Grandmommy of course gets to be with us. LOVE her.

Showing R what all new princess dress-up stuff was in her recently-opened gift.

I just like this pic of my brother.

LOVE this one!!!

Sprawled out with her new laptop.

Figuring it all out. She loooooooves this present, thinks she's big stuff.

I like this pic for the sweet conversation R and Grandmommy are having. Plus, because it captured such a GORGEOUS expression on my face.

And I guess Leo was trying to help me figure out the laptop thing. It baffled us all at first, but we've got it now. Gotta love it when adults have trouble with kid toys. :)

Adley's balley barbie and Corbin's new cool yoyo.

Reagan got to help B open all her loot when she got up. B mostly loved the bows at first.

When she first woke up, she IMMEDIATELY grinned and passed by all the gifts and crawled STRAIGHT for Granddaddy. She knows who to love!!!

Scores big points.

Adley and Corbin picked out their OWN presents for everyone. Here is Adley giving her present to Brook.

She picked out a new frame for Grandmommy.

Corbin is the sweetest kid EVER and absolutely can NOT get enough of Brooklyn. Obviously, she kinda likes him too. :)

Reagan and Adley playing with this playdough stuff, which was gooey and messy and super fun.

B and her new inchworm. She figured this thing out in a hurry and thought it was HILARIOUS. Brooklyn pretty much thinks everything is hilarious.

We got a quick visit from the Brooms that morning, right as the kids were taking a bath. So, we made room for one more and hopped Cass in the tub!

After their baths, the little BFF's exchanging gifts. HOW CUTE ARE THEY?!?!

And the love affair begins!!! Now, BOTH my girls are totally in love with Jeremy. She went RIGHT to him and stayed just like this until they had to leave. Awwwwww...

Parts 3 and 4 in the works... then hopefully I can move on to January! Whew!

And here is my apology to mom for the fact that I do not have a single picture of her with the kids from Christmas! She does get all the credit for her hard work in making it a fabulous time together, but the credit doesn't come in pics evidently! I'm a terrible daughter.... but I love you dearly.

Finally!! Catching up on December stuff: Part 1

Yay! I can now upload pics! AND it is so much easier now with our new computer, it is unreal. SO, be prepared for LONG posts and LOTS of them in the next few days.... probably the kind that only grandparents will enjoy making it through. But I have to "scrapbook" my favorite month of the year, even if it is a tad bit late. :)

After gymnastics one night, we decided to start decorating the tree. To go with this, R got to help Daddy make hot chocolate. Slowly stirring....

Ladling (is that a word??) into our Christmas mugs.


Yummy. Right up her alley.

Getting out the solid ornaments first. And fyi, that beach towel would later be covered up by something much prettier. :)

I had to help lift her so all the ornaments were not 3 feet off the floor.

This month, B started drinking out of cups! We are so proud.... this girl is a completely different kid after December 2009!!! She makes a huge mess of course, so she needs supervision. And we do use sippies too out of convenience, but she CAN do the cup which is great.

She ALWAYS wants to put her cups up to her forehead.... no idea. Thus, supervision required.

Showing off her new skill to Big Sis.

Another one of her December-acquired skills: pulling off ornaments. All the non-breakables were at the bottom.

I LOVE this pic. Little devious one.

These wooden candy canes have clips. She clipped them to her nostrils. Dork.

Our December snow!!!! Houston RARELY gets snow, much less in early December. It was fun, it didn't stick though. But R had fun just standing there watching it. Looked so darn cute all bundled up on top of her pj's.

LOVE this pic too.

On to the big Birthday Bash! The day after the snow was Brooklyn's Winter ONEderland birthday party. It was just a small family thing, but so fun. R helped me decorate a bit.

R helped with the "snow".

Party favors.

Eating lunch.

The birthday girl ready to eat HER lunch.

Brandon was doing something that B thought was HILARIOUS.

R helping me put the "1" candle on the cake.

Family Photo. B was transfixed on the flame.... guess that obsession with fire can start early.

R was MORE than willing to help B blow out her candle.

Then we had a do-over so Brandon could help too. :)

Cake Time!

Let me preface this with some eating history with Brooklyn. Starting baby food with her at 6 months was a cinch. However, she had not TOUCHED anything with texture above a puree since. I mean, run-of-the-mill applesauce would make her gag, gag, gag, puke. And puke HUGE. So, we had seen a specialist to see what we could do to help her eat. I have several friends with precious kiddos who have issues with eating (you know who you are, blessed girls!), so I was concerned and trying to get help for her and her oral sensitivity. Evidently this is fairly common with NICU kids. Anyways, we hadn't made too much progress, except she was starting to mush around Gerber puffs. Which was HUGE.

Fast forward to her party.

Her therapist and I had laughed about putting cake on her tray for her to stare down and eventually puke on at her birthday party. But goodness gracious, all babies are supposed to get to smash a cake! So, here I am... FORCING her to TOUCH it... hoping maybe she would at least play with it a little.

Resistance.

MAYBE a little icing...

"Hmmmmm... that was kinda good. Let's check this out..."

By this point, I am CRYING!! Absolutely could NOT believe it! I put tons of pictures of this process... not only because she is darn cute doing it but because it was a MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH moment for us!

In our family, we call this "scrunching." That whole tense-up-your-muscles-until-you-shake-with-excitement thing.

So proud of herself!!!!

The child never even gagged ONCE. Awesome!

"Hey Mom! You've just been feeding me the wrong stuff! Where has THIS been all my life?!?!"

"Hmmm. Got some stuck in my elbow creases."

"And maybe a little right here too."

"Here too."

So, as an update, she has been eating EVERY THING IN SIGHT since. Never gagged or puked a SINGLE TIME. Un. Be. Lieve. Able. Who knew God would answer my prayers through a Betty Crocker box cake?!?!

So, after a quick bath, we were on to opening presents.

She had just started crawling the day before, so this was a HUGE weekend for B!!

Austin and Reagan doing the opening, Brooklyn excited about her new lunch box to put all her new foods in, and Uncle Turbo yawning out of pure boredom. :)

Big kids loving the baby toy.

Brooklyn opening the pink sea horse that Reagan picked out for her.

Sister thank-you kisses.

B checking it out. She now LOVES this thing.

Big Cousin Austin showing B how to use her new phone. These kinds of phones are hard to come by these days, but evidently Austin had prior experience to share.

One of my FAVORITE pics of her in a long time. It's just so her. Our little Birthday Girl Snow Princess.

And, as promised, her 12 month pics in her chair.

We quit doing this with both girls at 12 months. I'm kinda sad about that.... although I'm kinda sad about all things gone that are "baby."

Amazing if you made it this far! And I still have lots of catch-up to play. But just a few more things about our little one-year-old before I'm done documenting:

*21.5 lbs at 12 months

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*her head went down from the 120th percentile to the 99th!!

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*signs "milk" and "all done."

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*will wave "hi" and do "TOUCHDOWN!" (she now does it automatically when she sees football on tv.... too funny)

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*her FAVORITE song is "If You're Happy and You Know It"

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*smiles, squeals, laughs constantly

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*still no words. No syllables at all actually. Please pray for that!!!! More later... (help from any speech path friends???)

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*crawls like a CHAMP. Starting to climb up on cushions and soft "stairs."

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*quite the cuddle bug. Loves to snuggle and bury her head in your chest. Love it.

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*loves TV way too much

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*turns pages in books way faster than I can read. Reading time goes by fast.

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*thinks her sister HUNG. THE. MOON.

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*Is the sweetest little miracle and the greatest gift to our family!