A Happy New Year it is

HELLO!

These two are starting to play together a little and Ainslee just adores her big sister. Lena Kate loves Ainslee too, except when she is trying to get LK's LeapPad when she is playing it.

This has been a good week for us. We started off with an impromptu trip to the Aquarium followed by lunch and playtime for the big kids at Brewster's. It was dollar day at the aquarium where everyone gets in for a dollar. This is great and a super gesture for those that can't normally afford the luxury, but it was really crowded for us season passers! We managed to navigate the numbers if large families and had a great time despite the crowd. Lena Kate and Justin (we went with Juli and Justin, and baby Tyler-our friends) had ice cream as a special treat. Push-up pops are just tasty and always will be:) How could we deny the requests. The adult conversation is crucial for Juli and I. It is so nice to just get to talk for a few hours. The babies were super troopers too which was an added bonus.

I'm really trying to be spontaneous and just have some fun special moments and take advantage of invitations and such with the girls. Enjoying the small things is what I'm trying to do! No excuses...now if only I can get Lena Kate to understand-no excuses :)

Yesterday I took Lena Kate to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D. She did great, even wearing the glasses most of the time. She inhaled tons of popcorn and at one point declared that we were almost out. She loves salty snacks and fruit and could care less about candy with the exception of lollypops and chocolate...which are very special treats if she gets them.

Ainslee has decided that she does like baby food and is eating pretty well 2 times a day. She also will lay down for a nap now without crying-usually...but she does still cry sometimes. She is waking a time or two at night, but falls back asleep on her own without me going in within 10 minutes. Yea for sleep training and Dr. Ferber's method. It works, folks. Ainslee loves to stand anytime she can. I have a feeling she will be an early walker, and that is OK with me.

Lena Kate is all about Disney World and princesses. I wish we could take her now but she'll just have to wait a few years so Ainslee can enjoy it too!

Here she was talking to Snow White-her favorite princess even though she hasn't seen the movie!

I am currently trying to shed those last stubborn baby lbs (12 of them to be exact) with the 30 day Shred by Jillian Michaels. I really like it because it is a 20 minute workout and I have no excuse not to work it into my day. Now if I can only bump up my willpower and cut out the sugar fixes. I'm going to try not to bake until after my birthday in March and give up candy for lent-that will be a challenge FOR SURE.

Lane has already started working pretty late with tax season upon us-UGH! I think we'll be doing some traveling over the next couple of months, especially closer to April 15th since we won't see much of Daddy then anyway. Poor Lena Kate is going to be disappointed when she doesn't get to see Daddy come home after a late night at work, but she'll be fine. I may miss him more!

Happy Friday to yall and God bless!

A Magical Christmas

Here I am blogging a little late about Christmas-surprise, surprise, but Lena Kate still wants it to be Christmas, she even prays for it to be Christmas at night!

We started off the festivities at the Daws' Christmas Eve party. This year Lena Kate was big enough to play with the other kids without direct supervision which allowed us to visit and have a good time. She was making pictures and bringing them to us periodically. Ainslee was a good little girl too. Then we headed to Granny's.

Babies bring Granny much joy. Can you believe she is 91 years old-and no her hair is not colored?!

Santa came to see the girls soon after we arrived. It is so special to have our very own Santa visit every year. He's so very special to us. You have to love a Santa in cowboy boots! Lena Kate LOVED Santa this year and was SOOOO excited that he came to see her at Granny's house.

She declared it the best Christmas ever after he left. Ainslee liked him this year as well.

She was fascinated by his beard.

Lena Kate wanted to open her gifts as well as everyone else's.

I was so happy to get some good Santa pictures. Christmas day Lena Kate was the first to wake up and surprisingly she came to our room first rather to checking out Santa's offerings. I had to show her the piles Santa left and we waited for Daddy and Ainslee to get up before she was able to open her gifts. We headed over to Mimi and Papa's for lunch and Christmas with them. Lena Kate was on Christmas overload, but had a super fun day. Ainslee was a good girl too. This year I got new boots from Lane which I absolutely LOVE. They are Ariat's and sooo comfortable. I crocheted my little heart out and was able to get Lane an new .270 rifle with the earning from my hat sales.

We spent the rest of the week visiting Mimi and Papa at their condo in Rockport and going to cousin Matthew's 6th birthday party. We topped off the week by heading to San Antonio for New Year's Eve at Trent and Nancy's house. Leelee and Paw joined us and we had a nice dinner and just visited and played with the girls. It wasn't a wild party considering the biggest excitement was Trent calling the cops on the neighbors shooting off lots of large fireworks across the street. You know your are old when you are the one calling in the illegal firework shooters rather than shooting them off yourself...granted we have only shot them out in the country. Why would you put your home and others' at risk?! Anyway.....it was a good time and we are excited about the new year.

In our home the new year brought on sleep training for Miss Ainslee. She was waking nearly every hour and it was getting ridiculous. With Lena Kate it took her 3 days to learn to go to sleep on her own and cut out night feedings as well was sleep through the night. Ainslee has been a bit tougher and cried longer, but she is definitely doing much better after nearly a week and the last two nights when she woke up, she was able to go back to sleep without me having to go in at all after 20 minutes and then just 1o minutes last night. She still cries for anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes before going to sleep for a nap or bedtime. It is hard on a Mama to hear her baby and not rock them and hold them the way they want. I so love that she wants me to cuddle her, but it is just too tough to get up every hour when she wakes and I know it will be better for her in the long run, as well as the rest of us. If only we could pick and choose when we got to rock them and when they would go to sleep on their own. I'm definitely soaking up the cuddling when I'm away from home at naptime-like today at church. Day 4 was ROUGH and I had a rough night. I think I cried more tears than she did. The dark of night at 3:30 in the morning can be a lonely sad time when your baby is crying for you and all you want to do is go get her, yet, you are the one keeping yourself from doing it. It is tough to know that soon she won't want me to rock her and I'm denying myself that joy on purpose right now when she does. Fortunately, the next night was much better. I prayed that it would be and God granted me the relief and reassurance that everything was going to be ok. God is good, all the time. I had a momentary dip in attitude, but reminded myself I was so blessed to have a healthy and happy baby and that soon it would be just a memory. With the rise of the sun comes a new opportunity.

I love that my girls are so different. -both personality and looks. Lena Kate is miss independent and Ainslee, at this point, is a Mama's girl for sure. She will crawl/scoot across the room pretty fast to get to me, and I love it. I think that they will be alike in the fact that they walk early. Ainslee is already pulling herself up to standing at 6.5 months, so I'm thinking she'll match her sister and walk in a couple of months. It is funny to see such a little thing standing and playing.

Random note: Children's time at church is hilarious. This morning Pastor Patti was talking about shells and LK immediately took the shell and put it up to her ear declaring she could hear the ocean. Then when talking about Jesus being baptised in the river, Lena Kate said, "the river, ducks live at the river-quack, quack." There was another line in there that got everybody chuckling but I can't remember what it was. I need to record each Sunday. She's a hoot. When they pray at the end, she quints her eyes shut and it is so cute. Gotta love my little precious "angel".

A classic photo

Surveying her loot with new doll she got the night before and her milk in hand.

Her favorite gift from Santa-Princess slippers-these are ALWAYS on now :)

May you have a blessed and God-filled week.