Well that just breaks my heart!

So I am entering the mothering phase where you start hearing your child tell you things that just make you want to cry.  For the last few days, Cecily has had a few instances where she has totally lost it (usually when she doesn't agree with me telling her she can't do something) and cried,  "I want brothers and sisters!"  She still cries her huge crocodile tears, and it's seriously so dang sad to hear it!  And unfortunately, it will be a while before that wish of hers will come true.  (I don't think she actually considers Ainsley a "sister" yet.  At least in the sense she has been using the word.  I'm guessing she wants kids who can play with her all the time).

She's also been asking for a doghouse for Christmas.  Now, anyone who knows me and Derrick knows that we aren't animal people.  We will NEVER have a pet.  We joke with Derrick's parents all the time that if their dog outlives them, he's going straight to the pound.  No offense to anyone who loves animals.  I think that's great.  You are way better people than we are!  Anyway, I'm hoping that with Cecily's doghouse wish she'll settle for a stuffed dog to put in it.  That is....if Santa decides to bring her a doghouse!

Cecily went to Disney on Ice with her cousins last week.  She thought it was pretty great.  It's so fun to be so close to fun events like this again.  That was one thing I really missed when we were in NM.  Here are a few pictures of Cecily with her cousins Ashley and Ashlyn.

What?!!?! A New Post?!?!

Yes, I am totally a slacker.  And this post is not going to be much more than pictures.  Sorry!  We're doing good, but keeping busy.  I promise that once things calm down a bit I will write a great big long, interesting post.  Until then, you'll just have to enjoy some photos of my little Darlings.  Cecily as Tinkerbell, and Ainsley the Witch!

AAAAHH....

That's it, and I'm happy!

Yes, it's true.

I am officially announcing that we are, in fact, living in Utah again. I realize I haven't really said anything, and some of you have been inquiring, so I figured I had better make it official. So yes, we are in Utah, but our furniture is not. I hope that by 2009 we will be settled!! :)

Yes, we're still here

Since it's been over a month since I last posted, I figured I'd better post something.

My sister Jana's baby Andrew was blessed a couple of weeks ago, so we took advantage of the family being together to take some pictures together.Ainsley with her cousin Thomas. Thomas is Brenda's little guy. Brenda, Jake and Thomas were in town from Chicago for a month before they headed out to live in Thailand for 9 months while Jake works on his dissertation:Here are some recent pictures of the girls. We went to the park and they had such a great time. Ainsley is starting to crawl around and LOVED the grass!

The Girls

First of all, I have to say that I HATE my camera!  I have all of these photos that I've been taking of the girls, but they all come out blurry!  But here are a few so you can at least see how they have been changing.  I can't believe how much they are growing up!

Ainsley is pretty much sitting up now.  She started at a little over 4 months.  She is so strong!  I swear that girl is going to be crawling soon.

While up in Utah, we went to Grandpa Tony's cabin at Scofield.  Grandpa owns a trailer park there, and they were having an appreciation day full of activities.  It was raining like crazy for part of it, and the following pictures are of Cecily enjoying the puddles:

(Yes, that is a DIAPER she is holding.  She is actually potty trained, but we had put a diaper on her for the drive, just in case.  She was so good and "held it" even though she had to go really bad!  But the diaper fell off during her puddle jumping festivities)

I must be a sucker for sleeping children.  A majority of my photos of Cecily are of her sleeping.  And here I go again with Ainsley...

This is how I found the girls tonight as I was getting Cecily ready for bed.  It doesn't get any better than this, does it?

Copy Cat

Okay, I'll admit it. I'm totally going to copy my friend Shar (who actually copied some other people), and do pretty much the same post as she did when she went out of town a few weeks ago.

I am heading up to Utah to visit Derrick and I don't plan on updating my blog while I am up there. So for any of you who visit my blog and see this post, I want you to comment with questions that I will have to answer in a post when I get back. What kind of questions? Oh, whatever comes to mind. They can be serious or silly or anything in between. I'll answer them all in a post when I get home. The deal is, I have to answer them HONESTLY!

I thought this was a fun idea, so I hope you all play along. Hopefully my kids will get a kick out of my answers to your questions someday.

Memories....

As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you have of you and I together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

Nothing like reminiscing......right?  It's sure to bring a smile to my face, and hopefully yours!

Next (if you choose to), re-post these instructions on your blog and let people leave a memory about you.

If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Our Cecily is Three!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CECILY!

I can't believe our little princess is already three years old! It makes me so sad that she is growing up so fast, but I love seeing the wonderful little girl she is becoming.

Tonight we celebrated Cecily's birthday by having some friends and cousins over for pizza and ice cream cake.If you can't tell, the cake is a Tinkerbell cake. Cecily is still totally into the Disney princesses and fairies, so she was totally excited about this cake!

Sabrina, Sage, Cecily and Sophia

Some of our favorite things about Cecily:

Cecily has the sweetest voice. When she speaks, she shows "ownership" of the things she loves such as, "My Ainsley," "My Daddy," "My Jessie," "My Brett," "My Tinkerbell panties," "My raisins," "My kids," The last one referring to any child on the face of the earth. She absolutely LOVES other kids and is the friendliest little thing!

When Derrick gets home from work, she immediately goes running to meet him at the door and is ready to give him hugs and kisses. Cecily is very affectionate. She likes to give lots of hugs and kisses. And she gives THE BEST hugs and kisses!

Cecily is such a tease. She loves to play games and try to trick you. She is great at putting puzzles together, but she will pretend to put a piece in the wrong place and say, "Does it go here?" Of course she knows it doesn't but is just checking to make sure you are paying attention. Her mischievous look when she is doing this is priceless!

Cecily has very good manners (most of the time). Some of her first words were "please" and "thank you." She'll also throw in an "Excuse me" and "Bless you" here and there. If you sing the "clean up" song with her, she's totally up for cleaning.

Enthusiasm? Our Cecily's got it. Our favorite phrase from her is, "Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!" Her excitement is really contagious. I hope she always has her zest for life.

Cecily has always been a very independent child. She likes to do things by herself. Although this can get her into trouble at times, it also makes her a very good helper at other times.

Many of you have probably noticed all of the pictures I have of Cecily sleeping. This is seriously one of the most amusing things about our Cecily. This girl can sleep ANYWHERE and through ANYTHING. Here are some of the most recent pictures I have taken of her sleeping. How on Earth did she not fall on her face?


It's so pathetic, I could cry! Don't worry, I put her in her comfy bed as soon as I was done taking pictures. The other night we got some dust or something in the smoke detector and it set all of the alarms off in our house at 11pm after we were all asleep. We all woke in a panic except for Cecily. She snoozed for the whole five minutes the alarms were going off! Even Derrick doesn't sleep that deeply!
Cecily got some roller skates for her birthday. Doesn't she look fabulous? She was SO excited!

Here's little Ainsley participating in the fun.

Well, Cecily, I hope you know how much we love you! Our lives would be missing something really special if we didn't have you in our family. We hope you continue to grow up with your enthusiasm, sweetness and laughter. WE LOVE YOU, PRINCESS!!