February

We bought a Mini Van! We are hoping to adopt more children so we've been on the lookout for a while for a good deal. We found one sooner than we expected! We have LOVED having a van! Little A loves being up higher so she can see better. I've loved that I don't get stuck in the snow anymore (it is an all wheel drive mini van).

Nana and Pops were out of town for Little A's birthday so we had a birthday party for her when they got back. She LOVED all of the gifts they gave her! The family all went in on an art kit. Coloring books, stickers, paint, markers and crayons, etc.

Nana made cake pops on top of ice cream cones. Little A's two favorite things!

We got the infant-toddler program set up for Baby L so we can now have PT in our home. That has been really nice! She is still progressing really well, except she isn't a fan of being on her hands and knees. That's the next thing we're working on. To get her used to it we've been using an exercise ball. She loves bouncing on it. Little A is such a good helper too. She will get her ball, and they'll bounce and giggle. It distracts Baby L enough that I can get her on her hands and knees.

We had a meeting with Little A's teachers to talk to them about how she is doing and getting a diagnoses for Sensory Processing Disorder and possibly Apraxia of Speech. She is doing GREAT in school! We started occupational therapy on top of speech therapy due to the sensory things with her hands. She really loves OT. We're doing it at school and privately. We'll be seeing a child psychologist in March to work on a diagnoses. I'm relieved to finally be getting somewhere with this and hoping that she'll finally get the help she needs.

The kids at Little A's school adore Baby L. They fuss over her every day! Little A LOVES to show off her sister and makes sure everyone gets to see her before we leave, ha!

I did a Broadway Review this month. I sang my first solo ever (other than at church). I sang "Can't Help Lovin' that Man of Mine" from Showboat. It went really well!

I also sang an all girls number, "I'm Not at All in Love" from Pajama Game, a duet with my cute friend "Stepsisters Lament" from Cinderella (this one was SOOOO fun to do!), and the cast number "Seasons of Love" from Rent. I also did a little bit of choreography for some of the songs. It was a fun show. We sold out +2!

Allan took the girls so they could see me in the show. They had been such troopers listening to me practice for several weeks. Their favorite one to watch me do was "Stepsisters Lament". They would laugh and laugh! They both wore their headphones so it wouldn't be too loud. Little A loved eating all of the refreshments, and Baby L fell asleep.

We had a nice Valentines Day. We don't really do anything. Allan always gets the girls and I flowers and/or chocolates.

Little A was super excited to give Daddy his valentine, and give her classmates theirs.  She LOVED all the valentines she got at school and looked at them over and over.

She also loved this valentines display at the grocery store and wanted me to take her picture with it, lol! She's such a cute, funny girl!

Baby L turned 8 months old! She is the size of a 12 month old!

Her favorite thing to do is take things out of the yellow bucket (the bottom of her shape sorter). She also loves to bang things around in it and make a lot of noise.

She loves to scoot herself backward and turn circles on her belly.

Sad story. I got a Johnny Jumper from my friend. We'd tried one at K3's house, and Baby L LOVED it! I put her in it while I was getting ready for the day. She and Little A were playing so good. I had talked to Little A about not swinging it so that L wouldn't hit her head. Little A is always really obedient so I wasn't too worried. Unfortunately Little A got too excited and swung Baby L right into the edge of the door frame. :(  It was a pretty bad hit. Her forehead was pretty dented in. I called the doctor, but it came back out pretty quick, and she seemed fine. By the end of the day she barely had a bruise. I haven't been brave enough to pull out the jumper since.

Little A got to have a play date with her bestie. These two are just so cute together. I wish they could see each other as often as they used to.

We had a family fun weekend. We camped out in the basement (still too cold and snowy to go outside).

We played some games and watched a movie with popcorn. Little A was SO excited she couldn't contain herself. It took us forever to get her to sleep.

Baby L slept for about an hour in her pack-n-play and then decided she didn't like it, so Allan ended up sleeping upstairs on the couch most of the night.

Little A is learning how to take pictures. Sometimes they look like this,

but other times they look like this!

Little A is obsessed with Play Doh. She LOVES it! I made the mistake of giving her all of the colors at the same time, so the doh only lasted a couple of weeks. She kept forgetting to put it all away. We do love to play it together though.

Story time with Daddy.

January

We started January by being snowed in. We really had crazy weather here at the beginning of the year. All of the snow meant a whole lot of snow days! Yay! I love it when both of my babies are at home with me! We played outside as much as we could. We even got some wet snow so we could build a snow man! Well, I built the snowman while Little A ate the snow and Baby L sat in the swing trying to catch snowflakes with her tongue, ha!

Our poor snowman. As soon as it was finished Little A dug it's eyes and mouth out. It only had one arm to begin with. The wind came the next day and blew the middle part half way out so that it looked like it had severe scoliosis. Then a couple of days later the wind blew it completely over so that it looked like it was being impaled on it's lone arm. Poor snowman.

The way I get Little A to come inside is by filling up a cup of snow so she can eat it at the table. We made snow cones a couple of times, but she mostly just likes the plain snow.

I bought a sled and introduced little A to sledding. At first we build a small ramp in our yard to go down. Then Little A got creative and made the stairs to the deck a sledding hill. We had a lot of fun with that. Later I took Little A to a sledding hill in town so she could see what sledding was really like. At first she was pretty scared, but after a couple of times down the hill she was in love!

Little A started going to Sunbeams at church. Her first Sunday as a Sunbeam she had to give a talk. We prepared for a couple of weeks talking about it and practicing her talk with her animals and Daddy and Baby L as the congregation.

She did a good job. She was so nervous, but she came up with me. I sat her on the podium and she covered her eyes and peeked occasionally while I read the talk. I was really proud of her for coming up.

Little A and Baby L love each other so much. For this I am extremely grateful! While I work in the kitchen I'll put Baby L in her high chair at Little A's table, and they'll play Play Doh, stickers, stamps, etc. Baby L laughs and giggles the whole time; it's darling!

Little A turned 4 years old! She is so big! She is still working on learning to say words, but she is doing better and better every day! She is a very kind and loving girl, and so smart! She loves to dance and play with pictures of her grandmas and grandpas. She is in love with dogs and cats. Her favorite color is green. Her favorite food is noodles, and she loves chocolate! She has the cutest laugh I have ever heard!

We got a package in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa for Little A's birthday! She was so excited to open it. Inside was a Cat in the Hat game and a big bouncy ball! She had a fun time trying to pump up the ball with Allan. Then we played the game. It was so fun! We've played it over and over again. Sometimes she'll get it out and play it by herself.

We took Baby L to another PT appointment, and while there Little A got to have a fun play day with her birth family. They gave her her Christmas and Birthday gifts. She is in LOVE with them!

She enjoyed eating mac and cheese while watching her favorite show.

This dog is two in one! One side is a husky and the other side is a polar bear. She plays with it all the time. I love that she brought it over to have a tea party with her and that she put it in the high chair, ha!

She had a really fun birthday! Daddy left little love notes all around the house for her.

We went to school, and she was given a princess birthday crown, we brought a treat to share that she picked out at the store, and they gave her a little bag of gifts. She was SO excited to show me! I think they spoiled her a little too much though because she sure gave me some sass that night, which is very uncharacteristic of her, lol!

Since she's not a fan of cake I was going to do ice cream cones again, but then we discovered that she loves cake pops. Go figure. So, we attempted making cake pops together. It was a disastrous mess, but we had SO much fun! She loves eating things she helps make.

Allan always takes Little A on a date for her birthday. They went out to eat at the deli at the grocery store. She loves going there because she can see all the food and pick out exactly what she wants. Allan told me that she was so excited she chased up and down the aisle looking at all the food and telling everyone all about it! She always gets potato wedges and chicken.

She was super excited about her presents too!

She got a hide and seek board, a sleeping bag, some lacing boards, a farm themed lacing bead set, and a balance bike. She was super excited to have her own sleeping bag. She loves to go camping with Allan.

She was pretty nervous about the balance bike at first. She insisted that I show her how.

But then she really got into it and did really well. Baby L hopped on the little push car and we all took a ride around the house. We had planned on having a family sledding trip, but Baby L had a fever from vaccinations, so Little A and I went by ourselves. We had a BLAST!

Baby L learned how to sit on her own!

We are so proud of her! She continues to meet her milestones on time!

I found this Christmas outfit and couldn't resist putting it on her, ha! She's such a cute chubby little thing! I forgot to put in the last post that the doctors had been worried about her head as it was measuring large for her age. However, we talked to the K's and Baby L's twin had the same size head! They are just both big, healthy girls! When I told the doctors they kind of laughed at the big head size and noted that she didn't need to have a scan at this time. This is one of the many times I have been very grateful for open adoption!

She still loves to be swaddled, and really enjoys being read to.

She also loves to play. She is such a social girl. If something is going on she has to be right there in the middle of it. Like her sister she is happiest when we are all playing together.

We have missed story time a lot lately due to snow and sickness. We love story time and our story time lady! She is the best!

Little A and her bestie from school, S. These two just love each other! S's mom says that he is always talking about going to school to see little A and give her a hug. One of my favorite stories about them at school is when they were in speech therapy. S was having kind of an off day and was being a little rowdy. Little A looked at him and gave him a good scolding saying "Sit down, S! Sit!" He sat down and straightened up right away, lol!

We gave Baby L a teething biscuit for the first time. She loved it at first, but ever since that first time all she does is crumble it up.

Allan got the shelves up in the toy room! I LOVE them!!!! Now I need to hang the pictures.

We have loved playing in our toy room, especially now that the toys are far more organized and we can actually find what we want to play with. Little A dressed us all up as princesses the other day!

Allan went on a winter Scout campout, the Klondike. He hasn't been a fan of these in the past, but he really enjoyed it this year! The boys had a lot of fun. Allan slept in the back of his truck this year, but says he wants to dig a snow cave next year! I am shocked.

My Mom is directing Alice in Wonderland and K6 is choreographing it. They asked me to choreograph the song "Down the Rabbit Hole". It's been a lot of fun! Hopefully I can get some pictures of it. They are using black lights so that we can create the illusion that things are floating/falling. The kids have done a great job doing all the crazy stuff I ask them to!

We sure love these beauties!