Sweet Sisters...

Conlee really is turning into such a sweet big sister. She is super helpful with Reece all day long. She loves to take Reece her pacifier, turn on and off her sound machine before and after naps, 'hold' her, give her kisses, pat her back to help me burp her, and all kinds of other helpful things. The one thing I cannot get her to do these days is wear clothes! The girl LOVES to be naked. She's started trying to take off her diaper, too, but she knows that will get her into trouble. She can be anywhere in the house and I'll hear the tabs on her diaper being pulled off, followed by this loud, cackling laughter, and then she'll run into whatever room I'm in and 'hide'. Her hiding consists of covering her face...the whole, if I can't see you, you must not be able to see me, routine. As long as her diaper stays ON, I find this whole bit pretty funny!

Anyway, we have all these precious matching outfits, and I can't get her to wear ANYTHING! I tried for a photo shoot yesterday with their Big / Little Sister outfits. No such luck...but I did get some cute ones with her top off. And let's be honest, you can totally pull off being naked if you've got a pretty, hot pink bow in your hair!

I tried one more time to get her dressed...no such luck!

Ah, Daddy's home...all is well with the world now!

My Favorite Little Liar...

As I've mentioned before, Conlee's favorite word is "no!" She says it after every thing you ask her, even if she means yes. Fortunately, she doesn't say it in a bad, tantrum-like, terrible toddler way, but more in a sing-song voice, this is truly my favorite word, kind of way. She says 'no' to everything! Here are some pictures I took yesterday that I thought were funny. She had just woken up from her nap, which explains her crazy hair. Of course, we don't get out much anymore, so maybe they're only funny to me!

me: "Conlee, did you eat your crayons?"

Conlee: "No!"

Then I snapped this photo showing the crayons all over her mouth...

A little later after she finished her dinner...

me: "Conlee, did you like the pasta?"

Conlee: "No!"

Well, as my dad would say, "At least she's consistent!"

La Jolla Christmas Parade

Sunday afternoon we loaded up (which is no small feat!) and headed over to Matt & Ali's house to walk to the La Jolla Christmas Parade. I love this time of year in La Jolla. When I first moved here, it really bothered me that it was so warm in December...it just never felt like Christmas. But now, I love the mix of Christmas trees and palm trees...it's only taken 9 years, but it just feels like home! Especially when we're walking through the parade and see so many of our friends...none of whom were married or had babies when we met. A lot has happened in the last 9 years for sure!

After the parade, our church had a live manger scene and a cookie decorating station set up in the courtyard. Who knew Mia & Conlee would be such excellent cookie decorators!

Here Comes Santa Clause!

Ah...my absolute FAVORITE time of year!!! I LOVE Christmas! I love every single thing about this holiday. Of course for the obvious reasons, Jesus and I celebrate our birthday together each year at this time...but I also just love the joyous feeling in the air. I love Santa, I love Christmas trees, I love decorating the house with lights, I love shopping for gifts and wrapping them up, I love garland and wreaths and stockings and mistletoe...I could go on and on and on! I drive Brent crazy each year because literally as soon as the Thanksgiving dishes are cleared, I'm busting out my Spode Christmas china! And, the only thing better than celebrating Christmas, is celebrating Christmas with Brent and my two precious baby girls.

I had been so worried about Conlee seeing Santa this year. Last year, at 6 months, she was completely unfazed. She sat happily on his lap and didn't think a thing about it. This year I was scared because she's such a clingy girl. She's shy and it takes her a while to warm up to anyone who isn't Brent, me or Aunt Ali, basically! But, she did great. I gave Reece to Santa first, and I think that helped Conlee not be scared. I didn't get the great smiling pictures I was hoping for...Conlee looks so serious, Reece is asleep, and Santa looks like he's had a few tranquilizers! But, other than that, I think they turned out great!

Unfortunately for Brent, I made him go with me to take the girls to the mall to see Santa. There was just no way in the world I was going to be capable of loading them both up, getting them there and on Santa's lap, and then taking some pictures. It's just not possible!

We saw Santa for a second time at the LJ Christmas Parade. Mia went first...as you can tell, she wasn't a huge fan!

Thanksgiving with Granddad and EI!

We had such a great Thanksgiving! Brent and I decided not to travel for the holidays this year because it was going to be too overwhelming with Reece being so young. Two lap children on an airplane...can you imagine?! So, we were super excited when Granddad and EI decided to fly out and spend the holiday with us! Of course we always love when they come for a visit, but this time was extra special because it was their first time to meet Reece!

We have SO much to be thankful for every year, but especially this year. Most obviously would be our newest addition, Reece. I'm so thankful to God for blessing us with her. She's been such a sweet addition to our little family. I love watching Conlee with her. She's always wanting to give her kisses, and she's so helpful...bringing diapers and blankets and pacifiers and burp cloths. It's the most amazing thing to watch her love on her little sister. It melts my heart! It makes the sleepless nights worth it to know what great friends they'll be soon!

I tried my best to take my camera everywhere while Granddad and EI were here. These pictures are in random order, but you can tell what great fun it was having them here!

Granddad and EI with their two granddaughters!

Conlee is obsessed with books, and she LOVED being read to by EI!

Conlee's new favorite playmate is her granddad. She had withdrawals for a week after they left.

We took Granddad and EI to our favorite little Greek restaurant.

Conlee in her new dress from Granddad and EI. She LOVES it because it has puppy dogs. Every time she sees it in her closet she starts barking!

It was Reece's inaugural visit to the restaurant...even though she enjoyed their food in utero for the last 9 months! Our waitress was excited to meet Reece since the last time we were there was the day before I delivered her!

Forget Jack in the box, we have Conlee in the box! With all the packages arriving this time of year, there are no shortages of boxes for Conlee. She had a ball with Granddad spinning her around and around!

Thanks for making the trip out to see us, Granddad & EI! We loved every minute of having you here!

All By Myself...Don't Wanna Be All By Myself!

If you’ve seen the opening scene from Bridget Jones’ Diary, then you'll understand the title of this post and you’ve seen what things looked like at my house yesterday morning…minus the massive amounts of vodka and cigarettes (though both would have been welcome!). How is it that a 31 year old can be so terrified of a few hours alone with a 17 month old and a 2 week old?! It doesn’t help that Reece is suffering from a massive bout of thrush and Conlee has just learned how to say, “no! no! no!” Although, I think I could handle just the ‘no’ all day...the problem is she doesn’t know what ‘no’ means. She says it when she means yes, no and maybe, and that makes for a lot of confusion! Well, we survived to live another day, but let’s just say that all three of us cried a lot!

Today was much better, and I’m starting to think I can keep both of these girls after all! I took my first shower while leaving them alone in the house. As I stepped in, I just silently prayed, “dear God, please let them survive the next 15 minutes!” As I stepped out, waiting for the water to drain and things to get quiet enough to decipher any screaming…all I heard was deafening silence. Is Reece still asleep? Is she still alive?! As I peeked around the corner, what do you know…she’s silently sleeping in her swing and the only thing different from how I left her was the addition of every stuffed animal Conlee owns! Whew…things are looking up! J

Sweet Baby Reece

Here are a few of my favorites we snapped of Reece the other day. It's hard to remember to take time out for pictures...she's already changing and growing so fast! I want to capture all these sweet moments!

Conlee loves gymnastics

Every Wednesday we take Conlee to the rec center across the street for her gymnastics class. It's called Diaper Daredevils, and she loves it! It took her about three weeks to warm up to the teachers, equipment, etc. But now she's all over the place...she loves the balance beam and trampoline the best!