On the Move...

“On the move” perfectly describes our last month so much that I have taken a hiatus from blogging and taken hardly any pics this past month. In getting ready to move, we have been busting it to get our house ready to sell. We have taken our first trip to MS already looking at neighborhoods, houses, preschools, etc. David is also on the move in many ways. He went from pulling up on comfortable places to relentlessly pulling up on everything. He went from army crawling to crawling on all fours. His 3rd and 4th teeth have moved in on the top front. Verbally, he has added tons of more sounds to his vocabulary like ba ba, ya, ya, ga ga and my favorite, ma ma. And yes, he appropriately uses “mama.” I love it!!! He often says “ma ma ma ma” with urgency when he wants more food or often when he is standing in his bed waiting for me to come get him. I asked David if he could say "'sister" one time. He said "sisa." So cute!

We have been on the move so much that Day Day (David's nickname) turned 9 months on us and I had not even scheduled his 9 mo check up. He got in the next week thanks to a cancelation. He is still our "lil man" according to his stats but no concerns as he is following his growth curve appropriately.

And this past Friday, I took my first trip alone to Louisiana with the kiddos 3 hrs one way and back for the wake of my 25 year old cousin :( The kids did great overall but mommy got very tired on the way home. Don’t plan to do that again anytime soon! (no pics...didn't even take a camera)

We have had a full on February and March so far. Hopefully, it won’t take me so long to update the blog again. The below pics are in no organized order, but just from the last month....just glad to have them uploaded. ha!

Getting faster every day...

Back when David first learned to pull up, he loved standing and reading at the fireplace.

If you click on this pic, you will see tons of drool. That is the norm these days with what seems like him breaking teeth constantly and having several buds about to bust. We are shocked by this as Alex popped her first 2 teeth out at 10 months old and her 3rd tooth at 13 mos!

Don't know if you can see in this pic, but David has a ton of hair. It is getting so thick and coming over his ears. I think he'll have a haircut before Alex and she is almost 2.5!!!

Day Day often stands with one hand to reach other toys. We have only seen him free stand a few times, but never have a camera near...especially since we lost our pocket digital - ugh! Since the lil digital camera is missing, I can't post any videos yet since I haven't tried to figure out how to upload our video camera videos yet.

"Sister, will you share your bread with me?"

Alex loves to go with me to get Day Day up from his morning nap

the smoothie mustache...

Alex is growing up more and more. Her questions and comments are so good and often hilarious. We often marvel at her incredible memory and association skills, too.

Here are just a couple of her random questions I can remember:

Where do eggs come from?

and

While driving past neighborhoods, streets, or stores off the interstate, she often asks "how do we get over there?"

I must tell Alex "just a minute, I am ____" often as she has started to tell me the same when I ask her to "come here." She then tells me "just a minute, I am ____". She hasn't learned yet that it doesn't work that way. One of her latest statements was, "Just a minute... I am not going to come. I am reading to my kiddos." Despite these statements being disobedient and us having to discuss this, she is so cute saying it as she is seriously trying to take care of her dolls. I refer to my "kiddos" multiple times a day so Alex calls her dolls "kiddos" now. It is cute.

"I love feeding myself!"

Short overnight stay at Grandmother's on way to Jackson a couple of weeks ago

(the above and below pics are the only ones we have from our trip to MS...sorry other family and friends. We will have to do better next time.)

So glad Aunt Robin and Amber were at Grandmother's, too

Mommy's helper... doing yard work with kids can be a challenge so I included her in the process some so she would let me work at all. Ha! Of course, it took longer, but we had fun. She rode to the woods to dump leaves and then back many many times.

the kiddos supervising me raking... after a few rakes, I often ran over there to give them a push as Alex constantly wanted to go higher. David looks a bit puny here as he ran a fever earlier today.

More Snow Days...

We were so immersed in the Superbowl game on Sunday night that we did not pay attention to the weather. We woke up Monday morning to a blanket of snow on everything. It continued to snow throughout Monday getting deeper and deeper. This was our biggest snow we have experienced in our almost five years in Little Rock. We've had fun with it, but I'm ready for grass and flowers. ha! I can't imagine living in snowy conditions for weeks on end. Actually, it looks like we will be as the snow is still here and more is predicted this weekend and next week.

Sorry these pics/videos are not in order as we played/took pics in the snow Monday and Tuesday multiple times. To really show the depth of it, I should have taken pics of the mounting snow that grew on/around our neighbor's car parked outside!

Attempting to make snow angels but the giggles took over :)

Who knew Little Rock had snow plows and on our street at that!?!

Hunter, Uncle Chris took Flat Stanley box sledding early Monday morning. Next time, send him some snow gear. :)

Early morning outing with "Frosty the Snowman" as Alex called him

Flat Stanley ventured out again about noon on Monday after more snow came down.

While David decided to nibble the big piece of bread that mommy thought was out of his reach, the puff nabber quickly gobbled up his puffs.

More box fun while staying warm inside

"Sure wish I could ride my toy"

"Snow on the slide is not going to stop me."

David braved the cold in 3 layers of clothes

"Daddy's snowball is fun to throw!"

"Yikes! My mitten fell off."

No, I didn't fall...just felt like sitting in the snow which = a COLD bum!

According to Alex, she was pretending to ride in a boat to MS. :)

Finally, a hot bath...the quickest and best way to warm up after freezing outside!!!

Painted Letters

I have painted wooden letters a solid color twice before to glue on canvases, but this was my first time to decorate just letters with paint and ribbon (and get paid for them :). I was so honored that my sweet friend, Stacie, asked me to make them for her daughter, Samantha. Samantha will be a big sis this Friday (yea!!!!) and is getting a rainbow room makeover. I used her bedding for inspiration. Can't wait to see them (and Caleb's canvas) on the wall when we come over after baby Caleb is born.

Snow Day

After successfully napping on the floor in her princess sleeping bag yesterday, our Sleeping Beauty wanted to sleep in it last night. With a little hesitation, we let her. Alex started her snow day at 5:30 am wanting in her bed. ha! However, she napped again in it today and yes, is sleeping in it again tonight!

Fun Times!

Daddy making and Alex throwing snow balls

Alex loved touching/playing with the snow, but the poor child's hands were freezing. She was so cold after playing that we let her play in a hot bath mid morning for a while for her next bout of snow day fun.

Taking a magic box ride... definitely a pajama day

(excuse the mess in this pic... we are already boxing some things up - can't believe it!)

After being cooped up inside, running in circles in the driveway is so much fun!

8 month old David

I cannot believe David turned 8 months old a couple of days ago. Time is flying by. He is so much fun and of course, Alex is too. Grandmother first witnessed David pulling up in the laundry basket a couple weeks ago. We reenacted it this week. He's so proud and wants to stand or try to pull up on everything now. He's rocking on all fours, but still resorts to his army crawl. Daddy tried to teach him to say ball a while back, so now he says "ba ba...." along with da da. We are so enjoying our lil man and watching him grow up. Alex is still full of life and a bundle of joy as well. She gets just as excited as us when he does or says something new. So sweet! Enjoy the videos!

Full of life entertaining David. Some days Alex just laughs while running back in forth in front of David. He just watches with a big grin, chuckles and wiggles like he wants to run, too. I just thought my house was lively now...I have a feeling it will be even more lively when they can chase each other. Fun times!

Pulling Up...

...and up

...and up and balancing

Mid January bump, but nothing compared to Haiti

As the devastation in Haiti has weighed heavy on my heart recently, I want to share a miracle story. One of my college friends has family in Haiti. She immediately came to my mind when all this happened and we began to pray. Soon after, we were receiving emails that her Aunt Mimi was missing and in a collapsed grocery store. After ~ 5 days on her knees (literally) with no food or water, she was rescued alive. It is a miracle story, but her faith in Jesus Christ got her through. She could talk to 2 other people on the other side of a wall in whom she shared her hope in Jesus. She told them that if Jesus cared for the birds of the air, how much more did he care for his children. Her faith is amazing! We praise God that He is being glorified through her testimony! She has shared openly about her faith and survival to many TV stations.

The following links are just a few out there that tell Mireille Dittmer's story (aka Aunt Mimi):

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/34911183#34911079

http://www.dailypress.com/news/national/fl-haiti-quake-pineswoman-20100118,0,837146.story

http://www.wpbf.com/news/22267070/detail.html

http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI141451/

When Grandmother came to visit last January, it was to help us as we were cycling a tummy bug. Unfortunately, her last morning here, I had a one time tummy bug episode. Then Chris became nauseated the next day, then Alex wouldn't eat yesterday. Thankfully, none of us became full blown sick and recovered much quicker than last January. We did enjoy our time with Grandmother this weekend. Mom brought Alex a dry erase book to practice tracing letters and finding hidden ones. Oh my! Alex loved practicing and finding letters with Grandmother.

new hideout from Grandmother

David supervising Grandmother apply her makeup.

Enjoying a birthday party during toddler time at the skating rink - such a neat idea!!! Toddlers can bring any riding toy and use on the rink. We forgot to bring anything, but it was ok as all kids shared and used everybody's toys.

Alex excitedly told me she brought some baby toys to David. When I looked, he was surrounded by all these baby toys. ha!

"Da da"

lil G.I. Joe

So Far So Good January

I don't expect any of you to remember our January of 2009, but we do and it stunk! We cycled a stomach bug in our family while I was preggo and Chris was working a ton before he broke his leg. So this January, we are super thankful for Chris' better schedule, him doing P90x instead of his leg propped up, and the worse sickness so far has been David's cold combined with the breaking of his first 2 teeth resulting in a spiked fever. He is all better now with 2 new pearly whites. Yes, I know it is only the 9th of the month, but we are grateful for the small things.

By the time we got outside to "play" in the snow this past week, this was all that was left. Hoping to get more this winter!

Alex likes to paint like mommy. Here she is finger painting, but she has tried acrylic and will try water colors soon.

My second canvas painting...this was for my friend Stacie who is having baby Caleb in February. I designed it to match his bedding below. My inspiration came from the blue elephant with the green and white polka dot background. I was super pleased with this painting and had so much fun doing it. And yes, I let Alex help paint one of the coats on the balls. :)

You can't see the orange and red well in the bedding below, but the painted balls helped bring those colors out. I painted the wood letters separate and glued them on. I really like that look.

Caleb's super cute bedding...it's similar to David's, but cuter with the brighter colors. Sorry David... I didn't see this one when you were coming through. :)

Storytime with her dolls

The only place David would nap one ave when he was down and out with a cold, fever and 2 teeth pushing through at the same time. They looked so sweet napping together.

About the only (half) smile we saw from him when sick. He was at least holding his head up in this pic as he went a whole day being so lethargic...it was pitiful. (Don't let the sippy cup fool you in the pic...he has not taken to one yet; we are just trying every day. He has never taken a bottle (though tried), so the cup is going to be work.)

"Click on this pic and see my 2 new teeth!!!"

We were shocked to see teeth at 7 months old as Alex didn't get her first 2 teeth until 10 months and her 3rd tooth at 13 months! David already thinks he's hot stuff with his teeth as he tried to chew a few samples of ice cream today. That's not a norm, but we had to let him celebrate with us in Alex's potty training successes which will be another post one day...maybe. Until then, here's a part of a cute conversation with Alex today. While on our way to get ice cream (her choice) in 20 something degree weather today, I told her, "It is freezing today for us to be eating ice cream." She excitedly, yet seriously said, "We have jackets." ha!

Speaking of talking...hopefully, I'll get a video of David talking more soon. He's been saying da da and many variations of it plus attempting more sounds. I love hearing him "talk!"

My sweet friend, Jennifer, had precious baby Andrew Thomas this past week.