Piper Gets Her Ears Pierced!

I can't believe it, but my baby girl has brand-new sparkling earrings! 

"I'm big like Lucy now!" Little Pi Baby finally got her 3 year old wish granted for earrings. Lucy got hers pierced in Seattle, WA and Piper in Portland, ME. Allllll the way across the country from each other! (Ha- we've had a crazy couple years!) Anyway, Lucy was so sweet and cheered her on the whole time! Piper's so proud of them and it's so cute!

She went back and forth about it for awhile.  She's been wanting them for about 3-4 months.... She wanted earrings, but didn't want to actually get them pierced. I never had a "rule" for when I'd let my kids get their ears pierced when I became a Mom. I had to wait until I turned 8, so I figured I'd make my kids wait til kindergarten at least.... But when Lucy started begging me to do it around her 3rd birthday, we decided that if they want to get it done when they turn 3, we would let them (so young, I know...but little girls are darling with pierced ears!).

She cried! It was so sad for me! Lucy didn't cry, so I didn't expect Piper to. My heart broke a little and I thought we'd made a terrible mistake in letting her get them done, but it only lasted a minute. Then she got a treat and was happy! She's been showing them off to everyone saying she's big like her sister, and she kept telling me all night how much she loves them.  This morning when I was getting her dressed and doing her hair, she kept running up to the mirror to see how "cute" she looked with her earrings :)

Now if only she'd go easy on me when I clean them.... 

We were able to sneak in a visit to Portland this weekend!  We haven't been able to go since Lucy started school, so it was fun to have a short getaway again :)  Aren't they just the CUTEST?!?!

We celebrated afterwards with a Carousal ride and dinner of her choice at the mall food court: Macaroni and Cheese and Pizza :)

Fa La La La La.....Merry Christmas!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  Especially if you have little kids at home.  Kids who believe in Santa and all the magic that Christmas brings!  Never in my life have I loved Christmas more than I do now....and that's saying a LOT.  Because if you know me, you know how OBSESSED I am with Christmas.  Having kids who lived and breathed all of Santa's magic throughout the month of December was the best. thing. ever.  So amazing is their innocence.  You can't help but have a happy heart each and every day of December.  I am lucky!

I baked and cooked all day on Christmas Eve..... even though it was just us, I can't let the day go by without cooking a smorgasbord of delicious food.  Shawn doesn't quite understand why I make so much...but I tell him he didn't grow up in my house on Christmas Eve, so he doesn't get it ;-)  Traditions are too important to stop, simply because there are only 4 of us, hehe!

That night, tucking the girls in, was so sweet!  They could hardly contain their excitement that SANTA WAS COMING!  He'd be IN our house!  He would drink the milk and eat the cookies we baked for him.  He would leave presents.  RUDOLPH WOULD LAND ON OUR ROOF!  How exciting!!!!

Baking YUMMY cookies for Santa!

The next morning, they came in at 7:13 (I'm so thankful they let us sleep past 7!) and Lucy kept saying "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S CHRISTMAS!"  I made my way downstairs to get the cameras ready, and boom.  As soon as Shawn opened the baby gate for them (we don't trust them to not sneak downstairs just yet... so we put up the baby gate on Christmas morning to trap them, haha!), sweet chaos erupted :)

We were lucky that they wanted to play with their toys in between opening gifts, so it took us 3 hours to get through everything.  My finger tips were blistered by the end of the day because all those dang toys are impossible to open!  It's just annoying.  But it was such a sweet morning!  I think Lucy's favorite toys were her Snackin' Sara doll, and Gabby Doll.  Piper's favorites were her Walkin' Pup, Snackin' Sara, and My Little Pony dream house.  They both got a HUGE Barbie Camper (thank you Aunt Christa) that is amazing, make-up kits, and microphones that come in 2nd place.  They are always so spoiled by everyone and get everything on their lists!  Funny that their main toys from Santa are probably their least favorite things, haha! It's ok.  It was a perfect day.  Just magical in every way possible.  

Sad that we have to wait another 366 days 'till next Christmas (don't forget- 2016 is a Leap Year!).  But I suppose it's the anticipation that makes it that much better :)

  

This was the first year we had nothing to put together on Christmas Eve.  We watched Christmas Vacation (our tradition!) and got to sit on the couch and relax.  Ahhhh....just perfect!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Christmas night:  The Pi Baby gathered up all her new ponies and had to sleep with them.  Too cute not to sneak a picture!

Piper Turns 3

Did my baby girl really turn into a 3 year old?  What?  My mind can't seem to comprehend that my BABY is 3.  Her little life has been SO full, so in a way, it seems like she was born years and years ago, but also, I remember so clearly delivering her and our first night together in that snowy hospital 3 years ago and sometimes it feels like it's only been a few weeks.  Where has the time gone?  It's all a blur almost.  It makes me stop and wonder if I'm doing this "Mom" thing right...Am I holding onto the memories as tightly as I should be?  Am I wasting our days away on unimportant things? Or am I making her little life the best I can to my abilities?  I know I love her deeper than the deepest ocean, and I know I show her tons of love and affection....but please, let me be the Mom that gives her life meaning while she's still so young and impressionable...  I hope I'm doing a good job.  Somedays, I know I have failed big time.  But somedays, I hope I'm doing everything just right.  What I do know is that I love my babies so much it hurts, and sometimes, that feels like enough.

My sweet little blonde is slowly growing out of her Terrible Two's phase (what a relief!).  We started 2015 out on the wrong foot with this girl.  She gave me a run for my money.  I actually don't really know how I survived her.  You might think I'm exaggerating, but you weren't there to see the fits, the tantrums, the uncontrollable screaming that plagued us all day long without a single break.  The tears from both her and I....Daddy travels so much, and sometimes just focusing on how I was going to get from one hour to the next hour of my day was the only way I could manage.  She was unbelievably tough.  So tough, in fact, that we travelled over an hour to a pediatric behavioralist to get her evaluated (that was a WHOLE other blog post on it's own).  The point is, she made me question my abilities as a Mom day in and day out.  She made me cry more than I'd like to admit.  She frustrated me and worried me every single day.  When she was sweet, she was OH so sweet!  But when she was having one of her tough days (which were way more frequent than the good days), it was more than I could bare!  All I could do was pray.  I'd cry at night and just pray for some relief; for some answers as to WHY she was the way she was.... Luckily, around September, she finally started to slow down in the "fits" department....and here we are, 3 months later, and I feel as though she turned into a "normal" 2 year old with her sassy, independent self, and now a big 3 year old!  She is unbelievably loving.  She loves to cuddle.  She is much quieter than Lucy.  She plays by herself much better than Lucy does.  She is smart as a whip.  She's witty, as well!  She's sneaky, she's playful, she's so ticklish, she's confident, she's opinionated, she's HILARIOUS, she's really brave, she loves people, she cracks us all up, she's social, she loves to dance and draw and create things, she loves to play with toys that encourage her brain to work hard, but she also LOVES her dolls, ponies and Barbies as well.  She's full of life!  She loves to run around and show off, she always copies her sister, she's quick to follow the rules after a "1, 2, 3," count from me, she loves to swim!  Her imagination is taking off these days and it's remarkable to watch her play.....and she's my Pi Baby.  She's mine, all mine.  I love that girl so much.  I love the memory of her birth. Soft Christmas music playing...Alone in a hospital, just her and I, watching the snow fall outside my window.  It was one of the best nights of my entire life.  The hospital's policy was no babies were allowed to sleep on their Mother's; they had to be in the little bed's provided (for safety, I guess).  But I held her on my chest all night long...Skin to skin.  I was not about to follow that rule on her first night of existence! I couldn't put her down.  So all night long we held each other.  She is my Christmas baby.

She is my everything.

Let's rewind to last weekend:  We took the girls to a place called Santa's Village about an hour from where we live for Piper's "party".  It's a Christmas theme park that's open year round!  Even in the Summer (they have a water park and all the slides are red and green, haha!).  Anyway, since we took Lucy to Disney World on her birthday, we thought we should try to take our Christmas Baby to a Christmas theme park!  How fitting!  It only cost us a few hundred dollars less than a Disney Ticket.... ;)

Piper is much braver than Lucy.  She wanted to go on the big rides with Daddy (this one spun all around and almost upside down!).  Lucy and I waited down below.  I couldn't go on all the rides because of my belly, and she didn't want to go, so it worked out.

We met all the reindeer!  And we even got to feed them! So fun!

The Ferris Wheel was Lucy's favorite ride, while the Carousal was Piper's favorite :)

On Piper's actual birthday, we just stayed home because there was nothing playing in the movie theater suitable for a 3 year old, we don't live by any bowling alleys or arcades.....and it was cold outside with no snow to even sled. When there's nothing to do, we make our own fun at home! 

Piper's daily menu was this: For Breakfast she requested Mickey Pancakes (NOT Minnie, even though Minnie is her favorite) with a dab of honey, an Orange, and NO bacon (she loves bacon too....not quite sure why she didn't want it, but what baby girl wants on her birthday, baby girl gets!). Lunch:  Hot chocolate and toast.  And dinner:  a SQUARE pepperoni pizza :)

 

The night before her birthday, Daddy set up her new little Minnie Bike and a Washer and Dryer set while Mommy decorated the house.  In the morning, Piper was ecstatic to see the balloons and snowflakes hanging!  The girls had helped me make the snowflakes the day before, but they had no idea I was gonna hang them up.  I hung them with strings of tinsel so that everything sparkled a bit more :)

 In lieu of a traditional birthday cake, we made a Christmas Tree forest instead!  The girls had SO much fun decorating those trees.  Yum!

We finished off the night with some confetti poppers, a nice warm shower, and "The Grinch."  The girls passed out quickly and Shawn and I high-fives at a successful day!  We love you Piper!

A week earlier, the girls decorated Gingerbread Houses for the first time ever!  It was so much fun!  Piper kept eating all the candy off faster than we could put it on, and it was making us laugh pretty hard.  They are so much fun!

  

And finally, Lucy's preschool is still a favorite place of ours :)  This upcoming week they are doing a Polar Express party! Can't wait!