January 2018

Grandma and Grandpa got Little A this set for Christmas. She LOVES it! And she is already saying more sounds. It also helped me realize that she already knows all of her sounds and can tell which words start with what letter most of the time. One day she's going to speak more, and more clearly, and I'm going to be blown away with all that she knows. Little smarty. Whenever I think I've found something to challenge her she shows me she's way ahead of me, lol!

We started going on dates with the girls every week so that they can have one on one time with us. One week I'll take Baby L and Allan will take Little A and then we'll switch the next week. It's been a lot of fun for all of us!

Little A was thrilled to turn 5 years old! And even more thrilled that her bestie got to be there on her birthday. They had a sleep over. They tried to sleep in the same room, but they were too excited.

We got Little A some paw patrol cars to go with the paw patrol car mat that AG and family got for her. She has had a ball with them!

She has 5 friends whose birthdays are in January! We went to another friends birthday party. Birthday parties are very overwhelming for her but it went okay.

When I told her it was going to be her birthday she said, "Friends come my house eat yummy food!?" So we had a birthday party. We had some lunch, ice cream cones, and played. They loved playing hide and seek downstairs, and with the balloons that her bestie from school brought.

AG and family came down for a birthday party too! They surprised her with this awesome cupcake cake! She was SO thrilled! We had a lot left over so she took some to school to share with her class. She is a very proud 5 year old!

AG and family also got her this cute Skye hat and glove set, a stuffed Skye, and an adorable suitcase for when we go to Disneyland next month! Little A is pretty excited about it!

They also got her this magnet set that you can paint. She really loved painting it. You can see her concentration in the picture, lol! She is super proud of her butterfly magnets!

I've wanted to take Little A (and Baby L when she's older) to the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique at Disneyland FOREVER! We showed some videos to little A and asked her if she wanted to go and she said no and cried. :(   It would be a sensory overload for her for sure. Maybe when she's older.

Heehee! Practicing.

Baby L is determined to participate in dance class too. She gets SO mad when I won't let her. I keep telling her she has to learn to walk first.

We got to visit with A's bestie and family for her baby brothers baby blessing. It was so fun to see them all! C had a gift for Little A. Best Friend necklaces that attach together with a magnet. Oh the cutness! I can hardly stand it! In the picture they're connecting their necklaces. Little A never wanted to take it off. Then one day she chewed on it and the chain broke so we need to get a new one. She was so sad.

Here's miss L on the treadmill! She LOVES this thing. But she refuses to walk on it. She just lets her shoes drag behind her.

She got hungry.

Little A said "Oh, I sick" and fake coughed. She wasn't.

But Baby L was. Poor baby. She had an ear infection. Little A did catch a cold a couple of days later though.

This year it has hardly snowed at all, and the girls have got ear infections every time it snowed. Then by the time they're better the snow has melted. What a bummer.

Baby L had her 6 month check ups. She is doing great! She was VERY brave for her blood draw. They had to stick her twice. It's hard to find a vein in all that baby chub. They gave her this teddy bear for being so brave.

My sister-in-law gave me a foot zone and Little A wanted one too. I was really surprised because she doesn't like to have her feet touched. One of the cousins did one for her and she seemed to love it. Unfortunately she woke up in the middle of the night screaming in terror and saying her feet hurt. She was completely frantic. She paced up and down for a while limping until I could get her calmed down enough to let me hold her. We were up for about an hour with her screaming. She finally went to bed with me and touched her feet and hands to me the rest of the night. Poor baby. We won't do another foot zone any time soon.

We had a couple family councils the last couple of weeks. One of them we talked about our diagnoses and what they mean. We talked about each one and then explained Little A's to her. We told her what each one was and she said excitedly "I got three!" It was too funny! We laughed and laughed! We told the girls that when Heavenly Father gives us things that can make things challenging for us, He also gives us special gifts that help us, and then talked about their special gifts for a while. We are truly blessed with both of our beautiful daughters!

The next one was about adoption. We asked Little A how she feels about being adopted and she said she feels happy. When we asked her who her birth mom is she said "My AG!" with this sweet little smile on her face. At one point we told the girls that being adopted means a whole lot of people really love you. She said, "Ya! My AG, grandma-grandpa (AG's parents)", and then said grandma grandpa over and over until she thought she got all of them counted! Ha!

December

Poor Allan sprained his ankle playing basketball. He was on crutches for a few days and is now gimping around. The doctor said it will be quite a while before he's back to normal. :(

Ava's preschool had a preschool parent day in December. It was so fun to go and see what she does in school! We made Christmas tree's,

bracelets,

Christmas ornaments, and they sang "Silent Night" and did the sign language for it. Little A has been practicing the sign language for it at home, and even taught it to me! She was too nervous to do it at school though. She stayed up with her class the whole time, but then cried and cried afterward. It was so sad. She was so brave though! Also, it was so noisy she asked me if we could leave after only being there for about 10 minutes. Poor baby. Overall it was a really fun time though!

This is what happens when Mama makes cookies. We also were having a home study the next day. I cleaned FOREVER that night. UG.

A sister makes a great pillow! Ha!

My cute little Christmas beauties!

We had a fun Christmas Eve at Nana and Pops house. Little A was so happy she got to play in the snow with Daddy and cousins.

There was delicious food and lots, and lots of presents!

Baby L got stuck in the basket so she didn't get lost in all the wrapping paper.

They were VERY excited about their new toys.

So excited that when we got home Little A had a melt down about the presents in the car. We had to bring them inside and down to her room to help her calm down and go to sleep.

The next morning we woke up at 8am (yay!) to Little A playing with her new toys, ha! When we came down we got Baby L out of the crib so she could play too.

After a good play we went upstairs to see what Santa brought. They were thrilled with their toys and played all day long. Baby L got really mad at us anytime we interrupted her play. Their favorites were the Little People bus and plane, and their Doll House.

Allan got me an instant pot, a keyboard for our tablet, and a piano book. The girls got me some treats. They got Allan a ring toss game for our camping trips. I got him some camping gear and tools he wanted. 

Little A and I got to go on a sledding date. We had a blast!

Daddy took the girls outside to play in the snow while I cleaned up a bit. Baby L is not a fan so she didn't last long.

Once she was back inside Little A got Daddy to throw her in the snow banks, lol! It's her favorite thing other than eating the snow!

We got to visit Great Gram, Grandad, and Grandma H for New Years. The girls had a really good time. They both really loved the dogs, as usual.

Snuggling Grandma H.

Little A enjoyed playing in the snow with her cousin J.

Snuggling Grandad.

Reading Christmas stories by the Christmas tree.

Daddy had some good time off over Christmas and we really enjoyed it! He took advantage of his time off to spend some good quality time with the girls!

Christmas party at the dance studio.

This is how we do laundry....  Baby L has started saying more words. She says Mama, Dada, A's name, Moo, Boo, Vroom, signs milk, tired, eat, more, all done, and occasionally says sentences. For example she helps dress herself. We tell her to put one arm in, she does, then we tell her to put the other arm in and she says "I did it." Lol! It's too funny.

Matchy, matchy sisters! Little A loves to match! Baby L started crawling 4 days before Christmas! I was so excited that I cried a little! Our house got a bit messy while we were trying to get things ready. There were toys EVERYWHERE! She couldn't get around army crawling so she just got up on her knees instead, lol! If I'd known that was what it was going to take I would have stopped cleaning my house months ago, ha! In all seriousness though, we started seeing a PT at the hospital (who is also our neighbor). He has been helping her crawl up a small set of stairs and on the treadmill and I think that is what helped her to figure it out.

This is how Baby L goes to sleep. In other words. She doesn't. Poor baby. Now that we know she's a safe sleeper we're trying to remedy this. You can see how it's going.

One night Allan gave baby L a blessing to help her start sleeping through the night. Little A heard that he was giving L a blessing, so she asked him to give her one too. She thought for a second and then asked him to give her a blessing for a dry spot on her lip that has been bugging her. He gave her the blessing and she apparently felt the Spirit because when it was over she got a little emotional and gave him a long, tight hug. It was such a special moment.

November

This month we tried to focus on getting settled into our new house, and spending some quality time with each other once the show was over.

Baby L has decided to follow in Little A's footsteps and be under my feet at all times. Gratefully I haven't stepped on her yet! She is a little more curious than Little A though, and will open the cupboards occasionally to explore them.

She also LOVES to read books to herself. She likes to be read to also, but seems to like to look at them herself even more. She'll point to all the pictures and say "Dat, dat, dat".

Playing "choo choo". This time we went to Grandma's house. Little A makes a great conductor. :)

Little A saw a gingerbread kit in the store and asked if we could get it. We had a ball making it, and of course eating the candy.

Snuggled up before bed.

The girls had a ball playing in this box. They played boat and sailed down the river to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Little A got very curious about make-up while we were doing the show. Now she likes to try out my lipstick and draw "meowy" whiskers on her face with my eyeliner. I only got them for the show so I don't mind. Ha!

We went to the ward talent show. I sang "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" because it's easy and I have the music. It went well. Poor little A was very done though.

Our cute nieces and nephews came for a visit again! We were so excited to have them!

They love my caramel popcorn.

We played tea party, they played in the snow, they showed us how they play their musical instruments (they're getting really good!). We had a lot of fun! Unfortunately Baby L got sick and wouldn't sleep through the night. So we were all exhausted and watched a bunch of movies the last couple days. :(  Hopefully next time they come visit we won't get sick.

We hung up the girls' swing. Best thing we ever bought!

With a shaded backyard comes a whole lot of leaves! We had a lot of fun raking them and playing in them. Little A was more of a fan than baby L. I think she'll like it a lot better when she can move around better.

This is baby L's favorite place in the house. In front of the play kitchen. She empty's it every day and will play here happily all day, literally.

We got the children's books unpacked. Little A was so excited to see her "yubbies" again! She sat and read them all while I got them unpacked, organized, and put on the shelves.

I sure love this little beauty! Look at those dimples!

Baby L got to try out the walker again. She did really good in it this time, so he checked one out to her for us to take home. She is loving it! She can't do it by her self, but she'll walk for a while with me helping her in it.

Tired babies after a long, and yummy Thanksgiving day!

We went to see the cities winter show. It was super cute!

We had a little incident with the Halloween candy. Baby L was very pleased with the Reece's Peanut Butter Cups. However, she's not supposed to have dairy. She broke out in eczema. She was livid when I took the candy away from her, lol!

Little A became interested in nail polish the last time we visited with AG and family. She actually let me paint her nails! This is a HUGE accomplishment for the child who HATES having her hands and feet touched. I was amazed!

We got the Christmas tree up and decorated. The girls had a lot of fun decorating it.

Little A was enamored with this cloth Christmas book that K1 gave to us. She sat and read it over and over again.

We always look at the lights from under the tree.

Allan is enjoying his new job, and we are all enjoying getting back to our normal routines.