SEVEN MONTHS SQUISHY!

We are now past half a year old and working towards one year old. Elyse has already made it past the seven month mark. What an amazing seven months it has been! Praise the Lord for blessing us with two miracles now.

LETTER IT

It seems there are never enough hours in the day to get all of the kid things and the mommy things done. I've figured out how to shower with the kids around (baby surrounded by toys on the bathroom floor, Lauren in the bathtub playing with her toys) and make-up can happen (though Lauren usually ends up with makeup on as well... but she does her own which leads to questionable results). But things like crafts, blogging, photo editing, laundry folding - all activities that can't be accomplished with kids around - have to get relegated the the few hours in the evening that I have without small people. It seems that I end up with not enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Lately, I've been doing lettering art. This is something that I've fiddled around with but now I'm doing it by hand, instead of with computer fonts. And I love it. I love being able to use my hands to create something. I've been posting my lettering to Instagram (@amandaarneill) and lately I've started a hashtag called #saidaroundhere with lettering art of the things that are said in our house, either by an adult or a kid. I like that it is a good way of capturing the silly bits of our lives that make us laugh, shake our heads and roll our eyes. Here are the #saidaroundhere pieces that I've created so far.

Lauren kept insisting that she wanted to read the "Beep-Bop-Boop" and it took me a ridiculously long time to figure out that she was talking about the Fairy Godmother. Bibbity-bobbity-boo!

The new shampoo that she uses makes lovely bubbles in the water if I run more hot water into the bath. To Lauren's delight, apparently they also taste good.

When asked if she could bring her dishes to the dishwasher, I got a happy reply.

Potty training is finally done but this was an oft said phrase while it was still a work in progress.

CHRISTMAS RECAP

I know that Christmas is well past but I thought I would share some pictures from our Christmas. It is always special to celebrate a new child's first Christmas and Lauren is at such a fun age that we knew she would be able to open her own presents this year without them all having to be in gift bags. Our predictions were right, Lauren was excited to rip the paper off of her gifts and hold her new treasures high. (Elyse's strategy was to try to eat the presents open. An interesting approach for sure.)

We had a full week of Christmas events from celebrating with Matt's family to the Special Kids Christmas Party to cookie making with my mom, my family on Christmas Eve and more of both of our families on Christmas Day. It was packed. 

 

Christmas is always nice because of the time that we get to spend with family and, strangely enough, I never seem to get sick of it. Quite the opposite. It seems to make me crave more. I figure that is a pretty good sign!

That seems to be how the two girls feel about each other. This morning, they spent the whole morning playing together in different areas of the house while I made what might possibly be a month's worth of baby food (though I only started out to make a few small containers). Lauren has started to play more independently and she often includes Elyse in her play. It is my hope that the girls continue to love their time together and love the time that they spend with both their immediate and extended family. 

And of course there was a mandatory first Christmas photo for Elyse.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and has a blessed 2015.