a cousin Christmas.

Our house guests are dwindling and we are wrapping up a busy week full of family and fun.

Wishing you all a silly and joyful New Year!

baby's first Christmas.

Just about the sweetest thing is a baby's first Christmas.

And this little angel enjoyed it all...especially the wrapping paper and bows. :)

Merry Christmas to all.

We have been busy little elves around here.  

Never a holiday, birthday or event without a little project around here. :)

As Christmas Eve is upon us, more updates will likely come in the New Year after lots of time with family and yummy food too!

We wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

Love,
Todd, Lisa, Quinn & Andie

december.

We were without our main computer for a few weeks so I haven't been able to update.
Despite not uploading pictures and updating our blog, it's amazing how "freeing" it feels to be disconnected.  I can't imagine how it would feel for someone far more connected to devices than I am.  Give yourself the gift of disconnecting from all devices for a while, you will feel refreshed, grateful and keep life simple. :)

Here is just a tiny bit of what has been keeping us busy this month:

Walk with Santa - Another adorable event our town hosts.  After a viewing of The Polar Express at the Downtown Theatre, Santa and Mrs. Claus greet you outside and you walk with them up Main Street to the Courthouse where Santa will light the tree.  Such a fun event to get into the Holiday spirit.

poor little Quinn has been prone to injuries lately - her band-aid is a reminder of an incident with a heavy stocking holder that left her with a black eye for a week.

Lots of snuggles.

A Santa visit. (I don't think that chin could get any juicier :) - Andie's, not Santa's!)

Quinn's Preschool Christmas Concert
I've been looking forward to this since the moment I became a mommy.  It was adorable.
I'm working on getting a video together.

This concert was past Andie's bedtime, but she did great!

 A wonderful Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Derek

Coming up this month:
Beauty and the Beast dance recital this Friday!! yay!

More wonderful time spent with family.

Baking cookies together.

Seeing Christmas lights.

And Christmas with both of our girls - Andie's first Christmas.

gobble up.

As we still gobble up all of our leftovers from Thanksgiving, there is something even more scrumptious we just gobble up every day...

 the most delicious butterball turkey ever!
Andie, you are so incredibly beautiful and the juiciest little baby- we eat you up every day and it's still not enough - so, slow down just a bit. :)

 Quinn wore this Grandma-made outfit for her first Thanksgiving at 9 months old.  Our little 5 month old Andie actually fills it out much better. :)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week.  It was filled with extra time with Daddy and two Thanksgiving dinners hosted at our house.  We saw both of Todd's Grandmas, his Dad, Mom, Stepdad, Aunt Polly, Uncle Hal, Aunt Linda, and cousins Kelsey and Eric.  We were so grateful for good family time spent together.

Todd and I have so much to be thankful for this year.
Especially the two little beautiful and healthy girls that fill our days with so much joy.

andie ~ 5 months.

Andie 5 months on Vimeo.

Our sweet girl just turned 5 months!
Andie, you are such a happy baby and you have the sweetest little personality.
Full of smiles, giggles, excited expressions, you definitely aren't our serious child.
You are always trying to make us smile and giggle and it is the absolute sweetest thing.
Already you have such a desire to see joy in others. :)
You are growing way too fast little miss, please slow down.

Andie at 5 months:

weight:  17 pounds  (please don't ever let me forget these juicy thighs! - they are the best!)
eating:  100% breastfed, still despises a bottle.  We never force her to take one, I just started offering                her one occasionally - zero interest.  There is no real need for her to take one.  She is with her
             mama all the time anyway. :)  For me, it's just in case my milk stops coming in.
             Andie breastfeeds about 5 times a day (5-15 minutes) and is now eating one meal.
             She just started cereal, zucchini and apples.  I love being back to making baby food!
sleep:  Andie isn't the most amazing sleeper at this stage, but I can't complain because she is a happy
        sleeper.  There is no waking up crying, it's waking up playing with our feet and cooing. :)
        Things that are consistent with Andie's sleep:
        She is ready for bedtime at 6:00-6:30pm everyday.
        She take 3 naps (usually catnaps - 30min-1hour) (sometimes 4 catnaps).
        Naps are now in her crib.
        Things that are not consistent with Andie's sleep:
       One night she will sleep 12-13 hours straight, the next it is 7 hours - wake - then 5 hours, the next        night it's awake every 2-3 hours (which she didn't even do as a newborn)
        She is having some random sleep at night lately.
loves:  the johnny-jump-up and being in your exersaucer, and just being around people.
sizes:  clothes - 6 months - some pants are a little small and tight on your thighs though
           diapers - size 3

Andie, you are our full of life baby!  We can see in you such a calmness, something mommy could even sense about you before you were born.  We predict you will be our child that will let things roll off your shoulders easily, have a strong sense of yourself and roll with the flow very easily.  As you grow it will be so fun for us to see all that you become!  We LOVE you so much sweet girl.    

first haircut.

At 3 years and 7 months little miss Quinn had her very first haircut.  And I mean very first, never had a trim or hair cut ever before!  This was a big deal.  I think I kept putting it off because it would make her look older.  Quinn's hair has always been beautiful and luckily grown very evenly, so there really wasn't a need for a haircut...until recently.  It is so long, it was starting to get in the way on the potty.

Quinn was pretty excited for her first haircut.

 Before.

She didn't believe us when she was done that she actually had her hair cut.  Good thing I had this picture to show her the proof. :)

I don't have an after picture.  But just picture the teeniest, tiniest amount cut-off and the bottom looking more even - and that's pretty much it. :)  But still, a huge day!

let it snow.

I didn't think I was quite ready for snow yet, but that changed very quickly when you have a 3 year old who screams and dances around the house like it is Christmas morning at the first sight of a beautiful snowfall.  It was truly beautiful and sparkling and falling so slowly.
One thing about living at our new house, winters are more beautiful than ever.  Our views out the windows are always of pure white sparkling snow, we aren't staring at snow that gets mucked up and dirty.  Makes winter all the more enjoyable. :)

There was barely enough to cover the grass but that didn't stop Quinn from wanting to dive right in!
She even requested the sled.  The sled pretty much pulled the light slow off the grass in our backyard on our little hill. :)
The snow gets us SO excited for Christmas and the holidays.  Time to pull out the bins and decorate!

Andie is getting so big!  Really, so big.  Peanut Quinn was about 9 months old at this size. :)
We pulled out the johnny jump up this weekend, she LOVES it!  She giggles and bounces and it's the cutest thing ever.

our little Frozen sisters.

I knew that this year would be the year Quinn would take over selecting her own Halloween costume.  But little did I know that she would steal Andie's away from me too!
Months ago, Quinn said she thought the two of them should be Elsa and Ana from Frozen.

On this gorgeous Fall day we headed out to our town's adorable and fun Pumpkinfest with our little princesses, Elsa and Ana. :)

The kick-off day of the week's Pumpkinfest festivities is a day you drop off your pumpkin creations for the pumpkin contest (hundreds of creative pumpkins fill the entire courthouse lawn), a pumpkin entry gets you a free meal, there is a huge cake & cake-cutting ceremony, and trick or treating at all the shops downtown.  It's straight out of a movie, and one of the things we so love about our hometown.
Quinn said she wanted to make Wally and Norville pumpkins from the Nick Jr. show Wallykazam.

Sweet little Elsa.

sweet girl.

This sweet girl is rolling all over the place these days!  

She is grabbing her feet too (one of my favorite things).

Our smiley, happy girl.

She is also starting to have some "mommy only" moments, she is too young for that!

We realized that as much as Quinn has always been right by me and with me always, Andie is with me even more.  

my favorite.

I love every single stage of babyhood & toddlerhood, but the 3-6 month stage is just the most delicious stage.  I love it!  I love every single thing about it.  The fact that it is pre-crawling doesn't hurt either, it's still nice to be able to run to the bathroom and know they will be right where you left them when you get back. :)

Both of our beautiful girls at 3 months. 

andie ~ 3 months

Our little love is 3 months old and we are soaking up every ounce of this wonderful baby stage.

The wonderful thing about being baby #2 my girl, we spend so much more time just snuggling with you, making you giggle and smile as much as possible, squishing your juicy cheeks and thighs and smelling your sweet baby smell.  Because we know how quickly time goes by and how fast you will grow.

Our incredibly sweet little Andie you are...

You are such a happy girl.
You love to smile and laugh, and right now you are doing a lot of trying to make mommy laugh.  It's just mommy right now because it's when you are nursing and you put on a show sometimes that I can tell is purely for my entertainment.  I love every single second of it.  If you want to make mommy smile and giggle at 2 in the morning, I am game my silly girl.

You are ALL about your HANDS these days.
Can't get enough of them, boy they must be delicious! :)
You don't take a paci, so this takes it's place.  Fine with me!, you can always find them yourself.
Mommy just wipes those little juicy hands down about 6 times a day.

Andie, you have the sweetest little round Gerber baby face.  Every little feature is the most beautiful thing in the world to me.  Mommy and Daddy just melt over you.

A good little sleeper you are.  At night you are like clockwork and are so ready to get ready for bed by 6:30 at the latest.  After jammies, nursing and songs you are usually down and out in minutes.
You sleep for 10 hours typically, wake to nurse for 5 minutes and go back down for another 2-3 hours.
While at night you sleep so well in your crib, you don't as well during the day for little naps.  Many of your naps are still in our Rock N' Play that we LOVE so much.  It is our favorite baby item.  Who wouldn't love a cozy little inclined bed that soothingly vibrates?

A few more random tidbits about our sweet girl:
- At 3 months you weighed 14 pounds - you now weigh 15 pounds.
- You had your first little baby illness - pink eye, and it has come back twice (which is why this post is so delayed).
- This past month your hair has thinned quite a bit and seems to be getting lighter.
- You are wearing 3-6 and 6 month clothes now. You are such a deliciously juicy baby, we love it!
- You are wearing size 2 diapers.  I can see 3's in the not too far future though.
- You are 100% breastfed and don't take a bottle.  This is something we need to work on. But mommy is really okay with always having a little sidekick attached to her. :)
- You eat about every 3 hours during the day, anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes.
- When you smile you now have a little dimple in your cheek.
- You giggle and laugh so adorably.
- What makes you laugh so far?  making funny noises with you, dancing with you to Coldplay's "Sky full of stars", and giving your little legs a shake and tickle.
- What makes you smile?  just watching your sister, singing to you, changing your clothes, smiling and talking to you, laying on your changing table in your room, telling you that you are a pretty girl. :)
- You are a little talker.  Your favorite sounds are G, M, U and O.
- Your favorite place to be when awake (other than in our arms) is laying on a blanket on the floor.
- You are grabbing and playing with toys.
- You are rolling over all the time.  (You started rolling over regularly at 2 months about a week or two before you turned 3 months.)

You are the sweetest girl.
Even your cry is so sweet.
We love every little bit of you.

andie.

I just want to eat her up every single day.  She is the most adorably delicious thing ever. :)

Many more pictures of our little 3 month old to come.  I just had to get something up here before the day got away from us - it's been so long since I've been able to post!

the road to preschool.

If you need either a big smile or a good little cry... here you go. :)
Even if you don't know Quinn that well, any parent or grandparent will get a good little happy cry from this today.

Quinn's Road to Preschool
(tiny peanut to big preschooler in just a few minutes)
turn up the volume & enjoy



A good little video camera easy to carry around is the greatest gift ever.
I LOVE having all of these moments on video and being able to watch our kiddos grow up all over again.

guess who.

Just thought it would be a little fun today to see pictures of both of our girls.

Can you guess who is who?

Waking up Q&A  on Vimeo.

We never realized how tiny Quinn really was until we started to look back now at pictures of her and see the difference between her and Andie.
This last picture in the carseat - Quinn was 3 months and Andie was not quite 2 months. :)

Q's first day of preschool.

Today was the day.
From the moment she woke up she had a huge smile on her face and an extra giggle in her laugh.
She was so excited to go to school and meet "Miss Julie" her teacher.
We made it as special as it could possibly be.
It is her very first day of school of many more to come.
It is such a special day.

When did this girl get so big?
She does not look like a little 3 year old.

I mean didn't we just have this little bitty girl like yesterday?

Quinn and her teacher, Miss Julie.

Today was a shorter day to sort of ease their way into school.
She did fantastic!
Two things I realized...
all of Quinn's life when I envisioned her going to school on her very first day
1. I never thought she would walk in willingly and have no tears. (not the child that was attached to my hip for sooooooo long)
2. I never thought that I would actually be ready for her to go.  (but I know she is so ready and it is going to be a great experience for her - and let's be honest 3 1/2 hit hard and that brought on a little sassiness too ;) ha!)

But this is my baby and yes this day is 100% all about our little Quinn.
Quinn one day you too will realize that this very first day of school well it is a big day for a mommy like me to let a girl like you go.  We have been together everyday since the day you were born - you and me.

We decided it was a good idea to take our first selfie.
Well, ha, with my camera,
here is our first attempt... (with a little too much zoom)

and our second attempt (but Quinn's face is priceless)

finally another mother saw our pathetic attempts and grabbed my camera to save us :)

Letting you go and dropping you off wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do.
But I am SO excited about all of the amazing things ahead of you.
All I can hope for is that you show kindness and respect and that you see it in others, make good friends who make you happy and love you for all the beauty in you, have fun and be silly and start to grow a love for learning.

I also hope that when you go potty you don't go back into the classroom completely naked.  Because I'm kind of thinking there is a high possibility of that happening.  Lots of dresses for a while probably! :)  At least until you regularly get onto and off of the potty without completely taking your pants off.

Quinn's first day:
   No tears!  Walked right in to give Miss Julie a big hug.  Looked around at her new classroom and walked right over to sit for a table time activity.  She was good to go and Andie and I reluctantly left the classroom just waiting for a moment of if she was going to miss us. :)  In the hallway, I heard her little voice say "Where's mommy?" to which the teacher said "She will be back very soon to see you!" and she seemed just fine with that as the answer - and Andie and I were on our way.
  When we picked her up she was full force running into mommy's arms, but she was a very happy girl.  We could tell she had a great time.  The best feeling in the world.  She talked all about the playground and how they would be able to go next time.  She talked about playing with circles, triangles and squares.  Told us about how she saw all the pottys.  But her biggest tale of all was how she lost her shoe while she was on the rug. :)  Oh goodness.  She met friends named Jack and Anna.  And saw a train to play with.  Oh it was a good day.