O Christmas Tree

I love to watch Gabrielle.   She's so curious.    Normally, we keep the doors to our downstairs office closed because we're not quite sure how Gabrielle would be with the Christmas Tree.    So, rather than take a chance, we just keep the door closed.    

Well.

A certain someone snuck in.

And surprisingly didn't do any damage.   

She knocked off one (non-breakable) ornament off the tree and one candy cane and spent about 30 minutes playing and talking with them both.

Love those eyelashes

Loves opening and shutting doors too!

She is such a ham

Sarah's Big Birthday Weekend

This past weekend, we celebrated Sarah's birthday with family and a few friends.    

The birthday girl!

 After cake and presents, the girls wanted to play hide and seek.    When the girls started running out of ideas on where to hide.   So who better to ask but Daddy for help?

Hide and seek didn't seem to interest Gabrielle.   However, Aunt Leeann's bracelet sure seemed fascinating.

I love it when I can get a photo of the girls all smiling and looking at the camera.   

We Have a Birthday Girl! Sarah Is the Big 7!

Dear Sarah,

Today you turn 7 years old!   It just seems like yesterday that we met you for the first time.   You came one day before your actual due date.  My water broke at my doctor's office, and you were born just about two and a half hours later.  (Yes, two and a half hours).   Things just moved so quickly, there was no time for an epidural even if Mommy wanted one.  You arrived just in time for lunch.

Last year you had two really big milestones happen in your life:  (1) You became a big sister when Gabrielle was born, and (2) you changed schools in the middle of the school year because we bought a house.    Mommy and Daddy are so impressed with how well you've adjusted to both of these milestones.  You transitioned so well, it's as if you never left your former  school.  You've taken to the big sister role very well.  You are such a huge help to us and play with Gabrielle so nicely.  She responds so well to you and giggles whenever you're around.   Right after Mommy and Daddy bought the house, you were so excited to start full day school instead of half day.  Today, you are halfway through your 1st grade year and absolutely loving it.  You love gym and math lab at school.  At home, you enjoy your screen time and listening to music.  At your teacher conference recently, your teacher told us that you're excelling in reading and your addition and subtraction in math is becoming better and better.    You're also taking gymnastics as well which you really enjoy each week.

We have thoroughly loved watching you grow up and change everyday.  Each year you grow you add more freckles to your little nose.   You lose more teeth and your smile gets bigger and bigger.  Everyday is a new adventure with you.   You teach Mommy and Daddy everyday just how strong willed you can be sometimes but we thank God everyday that you are here with us.

Happy Birthday sweetheart.   Here's to many more celebrations with you.   We look forward to it!

Love you always, 

Mommy & Daddy

The Start Of Christmas 2015

Today we began our yearly tradition of the start of Christmas with finding the Christmas tree.   We decided to have some fun before finding our tree for the next month or so.

Gabrielle is a huge fan of candy canes.   She was curious at first, and then we couldn't keep it away from her.   Baby with candy cane = sticky mess