Happy Birthday B!

10 years ago today Jason and I (along with our family) welcomed one of the most wonderful, beautiful, terrific and fantastic people into this world!
Happy Birthday 10 year old! We love you SO much!

I'm still here... call this a writer's strike! :)

While you wait for me to get back to writing/putting pictures on here for you to peruse... here's a little cliff hanger of what is to come.
1.) We went to the zoo a couple of weeks ago and I'm working on a montage of that...
2.) My baby girl is crawling (video to be available soon)...
3.) My eldest daughter was painted as a kitten tonight picture to come soon
4.) When A throws a fit her eyes develop red circles around them and she gets red spots on her forehead - not attractive but we have pictorial proof to use later as blackmail.
5.) I also have pictorial proof that Z has begun using the potty successfully (about once per day!)... but I'll refrain from that.
Finally....
6.) I will be the mother of a 10 year old boy this weekend! AWWW!!! And an 8 year old girl next week - double AWWW!!!

Siblings

I like my brother, Mark! I think he's a really neat guy and here's the thing that I like the most about him... he's living proof that you can be wrong about a person! I used to think there couldn't be any good reason that my mom kept him around. :0)
Guess I was wrong! These are a couple of pictures from our Christmas with Mark & his family (FYI - the other reasons that I think Mark's a good guy... Shawn, Justin and Cheryl are pictured too).

Mark giving A her Christmas present.

Justin with his cousin A.

Shawn relaxing.

My mom, Terri & Mark's wife, Cheryl
(one of Mark's greatest attributes - he wisely married her!)

Another reason Mark is fun - he knows how to act like a fool! :)

She's clapping!! ... or does she want more?

Here's a little video clip for our loved ones far away. A has really begun to "grow up" before our very eyes. Yesterday she started clapping and I was so happy to be the FIRST one to see it. We had lots of fun with her clapping yesterday but it was a little bit of a problem since we also gave her finger foods for the first time and I was trying to show her sign language for more... I may have to rethink that.

Other things you need to know before you watch the video...
1.) Z wanted me to video him too, as you will see.
2.) When Z is being video taped he wants to "see" himself so I have to turn the screen, causing the camera to shake - sorry about that.
3.) In the first part look at these adorable pants with the little pockets on A!!! So cute! Thanks Nicole.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Some pictures of Z&A

A playing with her new doll house.

Z helping A out with the pacifier...
the next picture was of him taking the pacifier away
(sorry not included, it was blurry)!

Z fixing Buzz... who knew that Santa would bring a defective toy! HA!

A with her new chair. Thanks Aunt Erin & Uncle Alex, great chew toy!

A getting angry with all this going backwards stuff!!!

Z in a box
(don't get ruffled, the lid isn't shut, he put himself in
and I took it away soon after these pictures were taken).

Laughter

I read a statistic the other day that made me sad, the average American child laughs 200 times per day, while us straight-laced adults only laugh about 15 times per day! So I challenge you... LAUGH! Laugh often, laugh hard and laugh out loud! :)

So here's a great way to start, share a funny story or memory. You can do it here as a comment or you can just post it on your own blog.

Here's mine. Last night as I was going to bed I had a mental image of myself as a prepubescent child... picture this if you will (AND LAUGH)!!!

Me in periwinkle blue knicker pants, plaid high collar shirt, knee high socks and of course the 70's hair parted down the middle and feathered on each side! The best part about it... I thought I was lookin' good and oohh so stylish!!

I'll try to get my hands on a picture so I can give you a good laugh on another date... until then share a laugh with us!

Our little A girl news

I thought I would post a blog to let you know all of A's news. Our sweet, happy little girl is now officially crawling... backward! Sitting up after being on her belly and now has 5 teeth (two top ones, three on the bottom). I'll post pictures and maybe even a montage later this week.
I couldn't help but reminisce this morning that a year ago today she was just a flutter in my belly... wow how time flies!
Happy New Year!