How Do City Folk Buy Their Christmas Trees?

Well for starters since there aren't many tree farms in the "loop", we travel the long .5 mile to the Kroger parking lot, trudge through the asphalt in the subfreezing 70 degree temps, pick out our tree, and then...have it delivered!  Man, I love living in the city and living where all the rich people live- you can get anything delivered!  Afterwards, we went to Michael's and bought ornaments for my real-live Christmas tree. I haven't decorated a tree in 2 years. To say that I am beyond excited is a gross understatement.

Merry Christmas to us!  Our tree will be delivered tomorrow.  Let the decorating begin.

Sisters

Over Thanksgiving our computer contracted a nasty virus.  I panicked a little- not because we'd have to buy a new computer, but that our photos were on the computer and we hadn't backed up our files in a few months.  To me, losing the computer with all its photos is like having your home catch on fire and not being able to grab the albums.  Thankfully, the computer is fixed.  However, I'll be uploading way more pictures to the blog just in case...

I snapped a few of these pics at my parents' house during the holiday.  Both girls were feeling very photogenic.  I love how Piper is starting to really enjoy being a big sister.  Sometimes I'll catch her playing or singing to Baby B.  When Baby B is crying, I'll ask Pip to go check on her sister and keep her company. B loves getting the attention and immediately quiets down.  We recently moved B into Pip's room.  So far, it's working beautifully and I wonder why I didn't make the move sooner. 

These girls are my life and I wonder what I'd ever do without them. 

I put B down for some "tummy time" and Pip wanted to join in on it



Pip is really gentle with B and I love how she has her head resting on B's.  She just loves her little sister.

As you can see, B is doing very well with her head and neck control.  B recognizes a few people in her life:  me...obviously, Pip, and daddy.  

When Pip was this age she had a "look".  We called it her "How you doin'?"  face.  I suppose this is B's "look".  Not quite sure what she's saying here maybe something along the lines of, "Mom, that's enough picture taking for now."

4 MONTHS!

In addition to Pippy turning 3 this weekend, someone else turned 4 months old-so that makes me officially, officially in the "Where the HECK did my baby go?"  phase! 

What is Baby B up to now?

* If you couldn't tell by the picture...Baby B has decided to give her smiles away free!  Those smiles melt your heart, they're pretty cute.  She has a progressive smile:  first, her eyes smile at you and then if she sees you smiling back at her she'll start twitching her lips up and showing her cute little dimples.  If you smile even bigger at her, you'll get a full bodied grin complete with a little squeal of delight.  It's like she's tinkled pink she got you to smile!

*She is a watcher.  I mentioned  back in her 3 month post that she eyes my food.  Well, it's not just food she watches, it's everything.  She watches me talk.  Several people, strangers and friends, have marvelled at her watching me when I'm having a conversation.  She watches her sister.  Sometimes I'll see her watching Pippy do her Pippy-ish things and Brynn just smiles ear to ear.  She loves her big sister.  She watches television or anything that is colorful and moves.  Whenever Bobby holds her, she has to face out so she can "see" the world.  Those big ol' eyes don't miss a thing.

*Sad to report that we've lost our schedule and B is unpredictable.  We're back to square one on napping and sleeping through the night.  We're up early and down late and nap times are varied.  This "new" schedule has me very tired.  Hopefully, she'll grow out of it.

*Baby B is turning into quite the talker.  She babbles, coos, and squeals.  Pretty soon she's gonna talk just as much as her sister. 

*I mentioned several times at how strong B is and she's only getting stronger.  She stands on our legs, on the ground, and pretty much anywhere her cute little feet can touch.  She's already pushing forward with her legs and has even propelled herself a short distance-sort of a pseudo crawls.  She holds her head up like a champ.  And she's even tried to do a sit up.  She's started rolling from back to front. 

*She's wearing 3-6 month clothes, but I still squeeze her into her 0-3 months.  She's like her sister and has a tiny little waist, so all the pants are still 0-3.   

* Baby B is still pretty fussy.  Even though she is smiling more and is awake/alert for longer of periods, she still has her moments of fussiness.  Right now, the doc is having me take out dairy and soy and if it doesn't get better, he'll start her on Prevacid.  Fingers crossed it helps!  Any advice on yummy things that don't include dairy or soy? 

STATS: 


Weight:  12.9 lbs- we're a skinny 24th percentile

Height:  25.5 inches- we're a tall 89th percentile.   At this rate, Baby B will overtake her sister in height (Pippy's only 33 inches tall)

Eye Color:  still BLUE!  Even strangers and friends are starting to see that her eyes are a deep, dark blue.  They have hints of green around the edges and will sometimes look green or hazel, but I don't think her final eye color will be brown. 

Hair Color:  dark brown.  She hasn't lost any of her hair, no bald spot or anything.  She has these wispy hairs that look like a little mohawk on the top of her head.  No matter what I do, I can't get those hairs to sit down.

Exercises:  Tummy time is slightly enjoyable.  Right now, she loves her jungle gym play mat.  She kicks and swats at the dangling toys. 

Look at Me, I'm 3!

I'm officially in the "Where did my baby go?"  phase.  This entire weekend we celebrated Pippy's 3rd birthday.  For starters, I can't believe she's 3 and second, I can't believe she can tell people she's 3.  It seems like yesterday I was cradling her as a newborn.  (sniffle, sniffle)

Our birthday celebrations began with a fun birthday party at the park (it's TX and we can have outdoor parties year-round) with Pip's 2 friends Sebastian and Reagan (though a few were missing, I'm sure they know who they are...) .  All Pip wanted for her birthday was for people to sing "Happy Birthday" to her.  You should've seen the grin on her face- priceless.  We had a modest party and modest gifts- several books, monogrammed tote bag, a new train, a Cars 2 car, clothes, a puzzle, Rio movie, and a Thomas the Train activity tent.  She loved ALL her presents! We ate ice cream cake and Chick -Fil- A and the kids played.  I had a few "not so smart mommy" moments- like dressing my birthday girl up in white pants, bringing an ice cream cake to the park in 70 degree weather, and almost throwing away her movie (we were on our way back to the park to sift through trash when I found the movie wedged between the passenger seat and the door). All in all it was a complete success! 

The friends:  Bastian and Reagan

I think birthdays are hard for the kids in attendance, especially when they see a present they want for themselves. I love the look on Bastian's face, " Hmmm, that looks like fun.  I hope Pip invites me over."

My Birthday girl (I know I said it was 70 degrees and yet she's wearing a fleece, but the wind was really blowing and Pip gets "chilly")

Presents!

Singing "Happy Birthday!"  The only way to get the kids to come back from playing was to bribe them with cake.

Waiting for the food!  Pip was so excited to see her friends

Party time!

Buddies

And more buddies!

Some fun tid bits about our 3 year old:

1.  she shares a birthday with daddy
2.  her favorite color is Blue
3.  she loves hot dogs, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and strawberries
4.  LOVES to dance and sing
5.  wants to help animals feel better ( we told her that's a veterinarian)
6.  thinks Target is the mall
7.  has a very active imagination and loves to "talk" for her animals
8.  "reads"  books and if she can't "read"  she likes for us to read it to her so she can learn the words
9.  very intuitive and observant- I've never met a child who is empathetic
10.  Is still the happiest little girl on the planet

Pippy- we're so blessed to be your parents!  You are an amazing little girl and so smart. We love you!

Blessed

While we were in Colorado (early October), we decided to bless Baby B. In our church, babies are dressed in white and then given a special blessing from their fathers.  We wanted Bobby's parents, family, and friends to take part in it since they weren't able to come for Piper's blessing and for many of them it was the first time they got to meet Baby B.  We had a nice dinner and then did the blessing.  Baby B wore Pip's blessing dress that my mom made.  I was worried that it wouldn't fit B since Pip was considerably smaller, but it fit like a glove and B looked so cute in it.  

After dinner, Bobby (along with his dad, brother in law, and friend) gave Brynn her special blessing.  He blessed her with an increased capacity for Kindness, that she would be able to change and help others through her acts of Benevolence, seek to be a Peacemaker in her family, that she would be blessed with Self Confidence and have a sense of Individual Worth, that she would have knowledge of her Divine Nature, develop Good Judgement. 

What marvelous traits and qualities to be blessed with.  I know that Brynn has an amazing love for others and a certain gentleness.  I appreciated Bobby including the qualities of self confidence and self-esteem since girls nowadays have so much against them.  I want both my daughters to know that they are Daughters of God and are loved unconditionally and to be of strong moral character.  I'm glad that Bob was inspired to include that in his blessing.

I feel lucky to have witnessed such a beautiful blessing.  Brynn cried through the whole thing (but that's okay), we could feel the spirit of the words being spoken.  I hope Brynn knows how loved she is and will strive to live up to her greatest potential.

The Funny Farm

HaPpy HalloWeen

Somehow, someway Halloween managed to skip by me.  I, typically, have our Halloween costumes already picked out and envisioned a full year in advance.  BUT this year...I was lucky to even get the kids' costumes finished. Our theme was supposed to be "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and I would be the farmer, Bob would be a cow (we have a cow costume from a work fundraiser Bob participated in back in August), Piper would be a pig, and B would be a lamb.  Piper wanted to be a pig and then 3 days before the church's Trunk or Treat she decided she wanted to be a bird.  After much convincing, she went as the pig.  I think the kids looked really cute in their costumes. Surprisingly B wore hers without much fuss- I painstakingly glued on cotton balls to an old onesie and beanie hat.  Bob and I didn't dress up though.  I did, however, wear the cow costume to pass out candy at Pip's preschool.  All in all, I was super lame.  We didn't even go trick or treating.  We took the kids to Costco on Halloween night!  I even forgot my camera to the Trunk or Treat!  Blame the new baby, blame a busy beginning of October looking for houses, blame it on the fact that it's been 80 degrees with no fall leaves, blame it on my decorations being locked away in storage- whatever you blame it on, I totally bombed this year's Halloween.  Next year...will be better.  I promise.  Here are few pics I did manage to snap of this year's festivities.

Terrible cell phone pic, but it was one of the better ones of both kids in their costumes

Pip was a little afraid of the Halloween decorations and she didn't quite "get" the whole trick or treat thing.  In fact, she didn't even eat much of her candy.  She had more fun with her bucket. 



Pip's preschool class.  I know it's weird, but I don't have permission to post these kids' pictures so I put them incognito





Piper Piggy!



Pumpkin Pickin'

It's becoming a tradition to go pumpkin pickin' in October.  We went last year to a delightful farm in Indiana and had so much fun, we decided to do it again here in Texas.  I saw an ad for this particular farm about 30 minutes from where we live, so we packed up the kids and headed off to Dewberry Farm.  The place was busy!  They had several attractions for all age levels: hayjumps, corn maze, lots of food, pig racing, and a petting zoo.  Pip immediately made a beeline for the pony rides and petting zoo.  She LOVES horses, but was slightly disappointed that they weren't horses- only ponies.  What kid knows the difference?  Anywho, we convinced her otherwise, until she spotted one of the farm workers on a "real" horse and insisted that she be allowed to ride that one.  We humored her and let her pet the horse. 

Here's her on the "fake" horse-y ride

Check out that grin

The "petting" zoo wasn't really "petting" friendly, but enjoyable nonetheless.  You could stick your fingers through the cages and poke the animals (only if there wasn't a sign that read, "No fingers allowed"  which was only on the pig's cage)  Pip loved the baby chicks and apparently one took a liking to her too!

After the pony rides and petting zoo, we walked over to the pumpkin patch.  I suppose the drought didn't help the pumpkins this year because it was basically pumpkins on a lawn- but hey, it worked for us.  We skipped the tractor hayride since I didn't want to leave my stroller in the stroller parking lot.  I tried to set up a cute little pumpkin backdrop to photograph my kids in, but B was sleeping and Pip had too much fun trying to pick up pumpkins.  After a short search, we finally settled on the perfect 12lb pumpkin for my jacked up Jack-O-Lantern (I cannot carve a pumpkin to save my life and yet I try...every year...) and snapped a few pictures.  

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Can I have this pumpkin, pleeeeease?





Is this the perfect pumpkin?

Yep, this'll do!

We picked out little pumpkins for our little "pumpkins". 

Farmer Piper and her little pig

Waiting to ride the ponies.  I commented to Bob that it certainly did NOT feel like Fall.  I think it was like 85degrees (thank goodness for the breeze or we would've roasted) and the leaves haven't even changed.  I'm sad now, but I know come winter when everyone I know is cursing snow, I'll be in shorts and a t-shirt running through the sprinklers!

I decided to dress B in a cute little "farmer-ish" outfit.  I wore this when I was a baby!

Obligatory sister pic- Pip has started taking a special interest in B and wants to take pictures with her and lay on her.  It's cute until someone starts crying. 

House Hunters

After receiving our renewal notice on our apartment and discovering that it would cost us quite a bit to continue renting, we began an abbreviated house search.  Luckily, Bobby and I had already done most of the legwork and selected the homes we wanted to see.  My realtor, Charo (who I LOVE dearly, she's so nice and has a very kind heart), and I set out on a mad dash to find the perfect house.  I told her from the start that my home was in this mix and that we were going to find it.   Due to our short time frame, I agreed to visit the homes during the week and then if I liked them, I would schedule a 2nd tour for Bob.  Our budget ranged from $165-230 and we were willing to do moderate fixing up.  I drove all over greater Houston, navigated the most convoluted interstate system, put an extra 600 (plus or minus) miles on my car, and saw about 20 homes.  We narrowed them down to these 3.



Guess Which House Is Ours?

When I walked into this home, I immediately told my realtor, "This is my house!"  I was overjoyed and quickly called Bob to tell him about it.  We discovered it had already entertained 4 offers and was now looking at its 5th offer, but we were allowed to return for a second visit so Bob could see it.  After we toured it, we found out that the offer had fallen through and that it was still available.    At the very top of our budget, we worried that the sellers wanted full asking price ($229,900).  Could it be...could this be my house?

This home was an interesting one.  It's located in a neighborhood that I wanted to live in, but had already decided that the area was out of our price range (think $250-350,000).  This little gem ( over 3,000sqft/5 bedroom/3full baths) came on the market at $199,900 and our realtor informed us that we could easily get this home for $190,000.  It was a fixer upper- kitchen, bath, carpet, etc.  But at that price and having so much living space, it was hard to ignore.  I saw this home first and didn't get wowed by it, but it still lingered in my mind.  I took Bobby to see it and did another walk through. 

I fell in love...again.  Even more with this one than the house pictured previously.   I started envisioning the new kitchen and wood floors, the girls having gigantic bedrooms, cooking in the massive kitchen with my "cookies and cream" granite.  Could this be my new home?



This home was another rogue addition.  It's in another neighborhood that we discounted due to high entry level, but after crunching our numbers, we discovered that this neighborhood was actually cheaper because of it's low tax rate and no HOA fees.   This home was exactly our style- Craftsmen cute- and fit our budget at $225,000.  However, it was significantly smaller and less grand than the other homes we had seen and were considering making an offer on.  My initial reaction to the home was, "It's a good house."  I could see our family living here, but I couldn't shake that it read a little "townhome-y, apartment-ish" to me.  But I could see us living there and making a few minor changes- mostly change the carpet to wood floors.  The neighborhood was super cute and all decorated for Halloween.  My realtor commented that this neighborhood was like a storybook Christmas village.  Up until this afternoon, we were going to make an offer on this one.



Unfortunately,  NONE of them will be my new home.  And I'm still wiping away the tears.

We crunched numbers, worked and reworked the budget,  prayed and prayed some more.  But, we couldn't make a decision.  The bottom line is: We want a home.  We want those homes.  However, we don't want to stretch ourselves thin and leave nothing for a rainy day and it seems that rainy days like to visit our home often.  I know that had we made a decision to purchase one of those homes that everything would've been okay.   It would've been fine. 

So, we're taking a step back to decompress.  We signed on to our lease until May and we'll resume our house search again in March.   I'm sad.  I can see why people get emotional about buying a house.  You wrap up all your dreams and memories into a home.  And when it doesn't work out, you're left with a lot miles on your car and a few more gray hairs from Houston's interstate system and horrendous traffic. 

Our home is out there 

(and honestly, we've got great taste! I mean, really, did you see those homes?  Talk about nice! I wish you could have seen the inside.  I also never noticed how symmetrical each home is- Can you tell we like symmetry?)

Sisters

My most favorite pictures aren't the ones captured by a professional photographer.  They aren't staged or forced.  The wardrobe might not be matchy-matchy cute. They might even blurry or off center. 

Nope- the photos I love are the ones caught in a candid moment, snapped hastily with a point and shoot.  They have a certain realness to them that can't be fabricated. The ones that show love.  The ones that show my everyday.  The ones I wish I could burn into my memory.   Those are the photos I cherish. 

Today...I snapped a photo of sisters.



B looked so cute and serene laying on the couch.  She moves so much- kicking her legs, stretching her arms.  She'll be rolling around in no time.  I had to capture that last little bit of newborn in her. 



As I was capturing said "newborn-ness", Pip decided she wanted to be the picture too!  This isn't staged.  As soon as she saw the camera go up, she popped into the picture. 

Piper and Weston

One nice thing about going to Colorado is that my dear friend Chelsey just recently moved there.  I know Chelsey from Bloomington.  She was the very first person I met in church and right off the bat she was genuine and friendly. Not only is she super nice and extremely thoughtful, she also has an adorable son, Weston, who is Pip's age. Pip and Weston have been playing together since they were like 9 months old.  Pip loves Weston! Piper was super excited to get to play with Weston and talked non-stop about it for a month.  I was super excited because I needed to see a friendly, familiar face again and feel like I truly know someone again.  The kids were a little confused for a minute, but got right to playing.   I enjoyed talking with Chelsey (and wanted to talk all day, I didn't want her to leave), but Pip was getting tired and Brynn was acting fussy, so the playdate didn't last quite as long as we wanted.  I missed them the minute they got in their car.  Thankfully, we visit Colorado often enough that meeting up with Chelsey and Weston will definitely be on our "to-do" list!

I haven't seen my little girl this happy in a long time.  She misses her friends on a daily basis. 

Cheesy little grins

It was funny watching them get re-acquainted.  It took a minute, but once they got over the "shock" they played like it was old hat

I have a ton of pictures of the 2 of them playing over the last year or so and they always look like this:  the 2 of them exploring.  Too cute!

Playing blocks!

Eating yummy cinnamon rolls

There's nothing like a true friend!