Family Time

Chris got 2 whole weeks off for Christmas this year and we REALLY enjoyed it! Since we didn't go anywhere, it was so nice to just relax and enjoy each other and the beautiful City of Austin. Looking back on it now that we have moved, I am SO glad we got this time together! We really enjoyed the simple fun times as a family. We know how lucky we were to live in such a beautiful city!
We went and had a picnic by the lake one day.

The girls wanted their picture right here. :) I always like when they request a picture.
Daphne enjoyed the sunshine. It was a little cold so I enjoyed snuggling her! She had fun going for a walk and looking at everything. Especially the birds!

Daddy and the big girls had fun throwing rocks in the water! They could have stayed there forever! This was the beginning of Sadie's bottle cap collection too!! She really enjoyed looking for the "pretty" ones on our walk. I found an old rusty one that wasn't good enough. Daddy was glad about that! A girl after his own heart...no germs, well not as many! :)

For all our Austin friends craving In N Out, you have to go downtown to P. Terry's! It is the closest tasting burger and fries to In N Out that I have ever had! It was SO good! They have brightly colored picnic tables to sit at under some trees and even a sand box for the kids to play in. Eating that food and being outside in the beautiful weather, I felt like I was at the In N Out in Ventura. Seriously delicious! Their shakes are heavenly too.

The family! (The girls were taking turns taking pictures of us eating and of course a friendly Austin person offered to take our picture! People are SO friendly in Austin! I love it! - Can you tell I miss Austin?)

Daphne enjoyed her lunch of Sweet Potatoes and some fries! She loved it!

And the birds loved Daphne!

The day after Christmas we took the girls down town to the Erwin Center and saw Disney Live! We loved seeing Playhouse Disney Live a few years ago, so we got them tickets for Christmas. They were so excited to wear their new skirts that Daphne got them for Christmas. Again, they requested a picture here. :) Love it!

Such big girls! I can't even believe how fast they are growing! They are so fun!

This show was so perfect! They had ALL the characters we LOVE! Of course Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofie, and then Cinderella, and Woody, Jessie (or as Lucy would say, Jelsie) and Buzz Light Year and Tigger.

Cinderella getting pretty for the Talent Show, with the help of her Fair God Mother.

Having so much fun!!

Daphne was kicking a yelling and loving all the action! About half way through she just fell asleep! So cute! So tried so hard to keep her eyes open and watch but sleep won. I loved it since she normally is not much of a cuddler! Lucy took a picture of me and Daphne.

Lucy was SO excited to see the cast of Toy Story! She is really into it right now. (obviously since she was Jessie for Halloween!) We should have put her in her costume...but I didn't think of that until we got there and saw little girls in princess costumes.

I loved the toy soldiers from Toy Story. They were really cool. They did a stiff dance routine and came to help when the car broke down. They looked so cool!

The girls wanted some refreshments but EVERYTHING was $20! A drink, $20. Popcorn, $20. Snow Cone, $20. Cotton Candy, $20! It was ridiculous! Some of them came with a souvenir cup or something but some didn't. We ended up getting a drink and popcorn just from the snack bar. I know, so boring! They enjoyed it just the same!

We had so much fun!

Chunks at 9 Months

My goodness. This "little" girl has got some curves! And oh do I LOVE them! We don't have small babies, but Daphne is surpassing them all! Sadie and Lucy were both right around 20 lbs at their 9 month check up. Daphne was 24 1/2! And she keeps getting bigger! She is just barely starting to crawl! I personally think it is because she is just too big. But then she kept getting bigger since she is eating a lot more now but not burning it off! So then it makes it even harder. A vicious cycle! :) But boy is she adorable!

I knew I had to take naked pictures of her soon before it started wearing off. Right before we moved I was shocked as I had to take out her 12-18 month clothes. But seriously, she is already growing out of those! But who knows where her 18-24 month stuff is...somewhere in the storage unit. So she will have to wait a few more weeks! She can't even wear her little BabyLegs because they role right down! :)

At 9 Months she got her first and second tooth. It was so exciting. The girls still tell me with excitement whenever they see her teeth! You can see her little teeth on the bottom in this one. She will take her Natural Cheetos and break them off into her mouth on those two little teeth. It is cute.

She is just such a sweetie! Such a good baby! She is always smiling and is so silly! She sometimes has to yell to get some attention around here with all these crazy kids. She definitely has some lungs!!

I mean lets get real! Look at those chunks! I LOVE it!

7 AND 8 Months

7 Months
This little monkey is such a joy!! She is such a great baby! She adapts to anything that is thrown at her on any given day. She really is a blessing to our family! I know how much happiness she brings to Chris and I and it is SO fun to see how much her sisters absolutely adore her!!!

She has learned to sign milk which came at a hard time. At 7 months stopped nursing! Seriously just a little after she learned that. I felt horrible. The second day of no more nursing, I was handing her over to the Day Care lady at the gym and Daphne had the biggest sad face and was signing milk! I almost cried right then and there! Honestly, she did great transitioning to a bottle. After she realized she can get satisfied the same by a bottle she was fine! I even nursed her one more time after a couple days to ease my (physical and emotional) pain, and she didn't even seem too excited by it! That made me feel better! She loves her bottles now and knows that milk just comes in a different container. :)

8 Months

Daphne's personality is really shining through! She does the cutest expressions! She is a funny girl and loves to tease. She learned to shake her head "no" and she knows she is funny when she does it! I just love it! She also started clapping. So she will clap and then shake her head no. All the while, she has the cutest sly grin on her face!

We finally went to the Pedi Dermatologist about her little birth mark on her leg which turned out to be a form of a port wine stain. It's really light and comes and goes, so my Dr. wanted it looked into to be safe. No worries here. Her skin is also marbled which you can see in the picture. But that is very common and nothing to worry about. Lucy was that way too I think. I just thought it was because she had fair skin. But oh my goodness, Daphne's thighs are to die for! She really is a chunky monkey and I just LOVE it!

We love our sweet little Daphne and really enjoy all that she brings to our family! She is such a sweet little girl!

PS - for all you friends that are into photos, notice the 7 month compared to the 8 month. 7 month shot in auto, while 8 month shot in manual. It makes a difference!! :)

Summary of Christmas

Besides the decorations going up and the countdown calendar, our holidays usually begin with a package from Grandma and Grandpa. In this package is, not only, our Christmas gifts but a present a day for the twelve days of Christmas. The girls love it and so do I. Part of the purpose of doing this is for the fun, obviously, but to also help keep the kids entertained so Mommy can get stuff done. Grandma...it is working! :) (Sadie, Daphne and Lucy watching the movie Up from Grandma and Grandpa.

Lucy got some Christmas fun rolling with her school program. She was so cute and did such a great job! You could hear her over everyone! It was hilarious!
Such a proud Daddy!
Lucy and Mrs. Lisa. She is so sweet! Lucy loves her!
Averee and Lucy - BFF!
We always go to Chuck E Cheese after. We lived it up and had a blast! There were even new rides so it was extra exciting! Lucy love the horse race!
Next we had Sadie's school party. I was lucky enough to be one of the planners of the party, so I helped the kids make these little snowflake ornaments.

They rotated from 4 different tables doing 2 different ornaments, a Christmas bingo, and decorating gingerbread cookies. Then they had a book exchange by reading a "left/right" story. Half of them didn't get their left and right so it was quite funny! There are some really sweet kids in her class!

Making her ornament.

We love Mrs. Little!

Mrs. Little had to do a silly face one! Sadie was game!

We had to decorate our own cookies at home too! Yes, it is cold here, but Sadie insists on coming home and changing into something else everyday! :)

We were so lucky and got to have my sister Cyndi and her husband Craig and their sweet baby Hunter come visit us for a few days before Christmas! Here is Hunter actually liking some rice cereal. He is so cute!
Daphne and Hunter had fun baby play times! They are so cute!
With Cyndi and I together it was fun to be able to do my family's tradition of playing the dice game. Sadie LOVED it and liked counting the dots on the dice. She REALLY had a great time with it and wanted to play it again the next day. Sadly I didn't have more little presents. Lucy was a little too distracted by standing on her head and whatever else! She did like rolling the dice though. For some reason she would close her eyes when she rolled the dice. It was so cute!
Cyndi, Hunter and Craig ready to play the dice game!
Christmas Eve all snug in their bed! (I tried to take one of Daphne but I totally woke her up when I went in her room...which is random because we go in every night just to look at her and her cute little snuggled face!)
Santa CAME!!! So EXCITING!!! So much chaos! :)
Daphne enjoyed her first Christmas! She didn't get the unwrapping part too much but enjoyed playing with the paper after. The girls were always willing to help unwrap presents for her though!

Lucy was done with pictures but Sadie and Daphne were ready for more!
Here is one of our new family members! This is Fluffy (formerly known as Squeakers - until we discovered that Fluffy squeaked all the time so we switched names!)
We got the girls 2 little hamsters. We didn't get a picture of Squeakers but she is quite cute and is solid dark gray. The girls absolutely love them. They haven't been a difficult pet so far. They sleep a lot and like to run around in their little ball.
Sadie must have heard the hamsters running in their wheel downstairs, because she came running into our room to wake us up saying that she "HEARD SANTA!!!" We needed to HURRY!! It was a great Christmas! We had so much fun hanging out, playing and relaxing!