She makes us laugh

This little girl is SO ornery!! At the same age (and earlier), when we told Aidric "no!" he would get a sad little lip and stop doing whatever he was doing. When we tell Juliet "NO!", she smiles this huge smiles and laughs at us. I usually end up laughing back b/c it's just too funny not to. The other day though, she was biting me on the shoulder while I held her, so when she laughed at my first no, I came back with an even more stern, "NO, Juliet!" Her response? She put her head on my shoulder, patted my back for about 5 seconds and then popped up and looked at me with another huge grin. If this is 13 months...one has to wonder just how terrible the twos are going to be.....

Here she is letting us know she would NOT like a bite of ham



And here she is very enthusiastically showing us that she WOULD like more veggies. (She got distracted by the camera for the first few bites...stick with the video, it's hilarious.)

Merry Christmas!

It's been sooo long since I've updated!! Here's just one quick pic of the kids in front of the tree. I've been taking some pictures, but just haven't had time to get them on here. Soon..

I tried REALLY hard to recreate this picture my friend Mollie took. While I did not get it perfect, I still love this. Thanks for the editing help Mollie!

Indiana Fun

Major catching up to be done here! I'll keep it to very few words and a lot of pictures! Here are our first few days in Indiana...

Juliet's birthday

We had a small party for Juliet on Sunday morning.

Cupcake pops made by Aunt Sarah- delicious and ADORABLE!


Cupcakes- made by Aidric and Grace


A birthday banner by mommy


Grace relaxing before the party.


Jules wore her birthday finest for a little while..


but changed before digging in to the cupcakes.






Connor and Uncle Louie both enjoying their cupckaes =)



back to the birthday girl


Presents!

Rain

Holiday Stroll at Riviera Village

Before I post these pictures from last night, I have to go a little off topic for a minute and say that this is just one of the reasons I love living where we live. There are sooo many fun family/kid friendly things to do. Especially around the holidays. Prior to moving to Southern CA, I wouldn't have thought it would be like this, and I'm just so glad that it is!

Last night, there was a "Holiday Stroll at Riviera Village". Fake snow, Santa, Christmas Carolers, free food and drink samples, shopping, horse-drawn carriage rides and tons of families there to enjoy it all. We met Joli and Sawyer there; Sawyer and Aidric just love each other and it is so sweet to see them interact. After sitting on Santa's lap and getting a sucker, they just hung out and danced for awhile. Wish I had had the camcorder there to record the moves a little better!

This is how we started the night. Looked promising, huh?


Jules, against her will, sat on a Santa's lap for a quick picture. Aidric wanted nothing to do with Santa and cried when I put Juliet there.


However, once he realized there was a sucker in it for him, he decided to give it a go. I wanted a picture of them together, but Juliet was already back in the stroller and it was just too much effort to get her back out.




Dancing



Snow!


Not enjoying the snow as much as the boys did

Happy 1st Birthday Juliet!!

How can such a small number sound SO big??

At Juliet's one year well check appointment today, they gave me a handout, like they always do, that lists milestones and guidelines for the age range your child is entering. "Your baby will do this.." and "Your baby may need this..." type of things. Today, I opened the pamphlet and it said, "Your toddler learns quickly..."

Wait! What? Toddler? Overnight? She was a baby last night at 11 months and 30 days and now at 12 months, she automatically turns into a toddler? I'm not ready for that! Until she walks, I am sticking with baby =)

A quick list of words that describe Juliet

Happy
Ornery
Content
Snuggly
Determined (Chris's word, though I agree)
Sassy (again, Chris's choice and I agree)
and Happy again

She is honestly the happiest baby/toddler ever. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean she isn't super ornery, but even when she's being ornery, she's doing it so happily, if that makes sense =)

Her one year stats:

29 1/4" - 60%
20 lbs. - 30%
17 cm (head circumference)- 20%

And of course, she has an ear infection. Aidric finished his antibiotics for his most recent ear infection on Sunday. That meant it was inevitable that Juliet would get one. They take turns. She did GREAT with her three shots. She got the booster for H1N1 and the seasonal flu booster, so we are up to date with those. Also got the Hep A. She should have had MMR and varicella today as well, but with the flu shots, that just seemed too mean. So, when we go back to have her ears looked at in 2 weeks, we'll get those. She honestly didn't even make a peep though. Didn't even notice.

All in all, I think we'll keep her. She's pretty great =)

Thanksgiving and Oak Glen "apple farm"

A few quick shots from Thanksgiving weekend. (Yes, I know it is someone's birthday today - that post is coming!!)

My husband would not cooperate, so he got cut out of the shot- that's his ear on the right.



A little more cooperation here..


and here...


We took the kids outside after naps and before our delicious dinner.




The day after Thanksgiving, we drove to Oak Glen. It was really pretty and the store was cool, but there really wasn't much to do for toddlers. It sounded much better on the website =) We had lunch, let them run around a little before heading home. We wanted to take a hay ride behind the horses, but the wagon was full and we just couldn't wait an hour for the next one. We settled for a quick petting and headed home.

A (rare) moment of peace and love between Grace and Aidric.






The picture doesn't do the colors justice.