Welcome Little One

This is my newest little niece, Vivian. She was 7 weeks premature, so she is just a tiny little thing. She is literally half the size of Addy's birth weight! She might be small, but I am amazed at how strong she is. I couldn't be more excited for my brother and sister-in-law. They have endured a lot of heartache in the baby department and are so grateful to have Vivian in their arms and hope that they will be able to bring her home soon.

We love you, Vivian and can't wait to meet you in person. We are so excited for you be able to go home to your loving Mommy and Daddy. We can't wait to watch you grow and play with our girls.

Happy Birthday to.......

THIS GUY!!!

This is Tyler in the bubble of the prairie dog habitat at the zoo.

Happy 31st Tyler!!! I love you so much. Here are 31 corks about Tyler for everyone's reading pleasure:

1. He eats PB & J nearly everyday.
2. He watches episode after episode of "Lost".
3. He loves "The Office" also.
4. He goes to "Tamale Tuesday" at Bajio nearly every Tuesday.
5. He eats at PF Chang's every chance he gets.
6. He likes to golf
7. play basketball
8. and softball.
9. When Torence cries he says "What seems to be the problem, officer?"
10. He likes to watch "Phineas and Ferb" with Addy
11. and without Addy!
12. He likes his steak cooked medium well.
13. He takes great care of our lawn.
14. He despises our garden so,
15. he does not work in the garden.
16. He likes to work on finishing our basement.
17. He does beautiful finish work....you should see our girls' rooms!!
18. His middle name is his father's name.
19. He loves the Tennessee Volunteers
20. even when they don't do so well.
21. He will only use cinnamon toothpaste and cinnamon mouth wash.
22. He likes to ride with his window down.
23. He goes through about 10 pairs of sunglasses per year.
24. He does not like tomatoes, but loves BLT sandwiches.
25. He does hand shadows with Addy every night before bed.
26. He sent me flower the other day...just because.
27. He made Torence laugh for the first time.
28. He likes to watch "Hell's Kitchen" because he likes when Chef yells at everyone.
29. He holds the highest score on the planet for "Brick Breaker".
30. He is a wonderful daddy
31. and husband

Happenings

It has been awhile since I have posted. We have been keeping busy and having fun. The girls are so much fun to be with everyday and are growing up so fast. Here is what we have been doing:
Baby Torence smiles now!! She is a happy, tiny, long little thing. She only weighed 9 lbs 7 oz at her 2 month appointment. I love having a baby around again. It still seems like we just brought Addy home. Babies make life slow down a little bit and leave more time to enjoy the important stuff.

Here are my little bundles of joy and the loves on my life, minus Tyler, of course.

Addy likes to take pictures now and here is one that she took of Torence in her swing. Addy does pretty well at taking pictures I must say.

Addy is really in to Princess stuff now. A few weeks ago the ladies at Tyler's office threw a little shower for Torence. I wanted to get Addy a present to open that day so she didn't feel left out. She loves the Princess jewelry and crown.

This is the most recent, tragic event at our house. Little Addy toppled off the couch and hit her face on the edge of the coffee table. She hit her mouth, nose and eye. When I picked her up there was blood above her eye, so I took her in to the bathroom to wipe it off, thinking it wouldn't be a big deal. Tyler followed and said, "She might need stitches" just as I wiped the blood off, revealing a big, deep gash on her forehead. My heart just stopped. Off to the ER we went and this is the aftermath.

This is the first "ER needing" accident at our house. I have dreaded this day since I had Addy. I know these things are bound to happen with kids, but I hated every second of seeing my child hurt. I am glad Tyler was home because he seemed to keep his cool much better than me.

Out of the Mouth of Addy

Addy spotted a wedding picture of us standing in front of the temple. She got so excited. Here is our conversation:

Addy: Princess Mommy, Princess Daddy and a castle!!!! (We apparently need to establish the difference between a prince and princess. Tyler wasn't super thrilled to be called "Princess Daddy". I, on the other hand, laughed my head off and immediately called to tell him the news.)

Me: You can go in that castle someday.

Addy: Otay. I will wear my princess jammies.

Sisters

I love that my little girls have sisters. I grew up with four older, awful, horrible brothers that beat up my stuffed animals and later my boyfriends. They would take apart my big-wheel and later my Bronco II. One time my parents went out of town for a week. They stocked the house with food for the week for me (I was the only one left at home at the time). My brothers came over and ate all the food. I lived off a box of poptarts for the whole week. I still can't eat those things. They remind me of a time when I nearly starved to death.

I like my brothers just fine, but am super excited about the sister situation. See... look how much fun they have.

This is what I do while Tyler is at work. He doesn't like this flower headband. He says it looks ridiculous, but I think it is SO cute.
Speaking of ridiculous... I think this guy is ridiculous. Our cat jumps everywhere. This is him lounging on top of the wall that separates the stairwell from the garage entrance.

Proudly Introducing.....

Torence Ruby

8 Pounds 2 Ounces

19 1/2 Inches

When we got to the hospital, I realized that there are no pictures of me pregnant with Torence, so here I am in all my pregnancy glory at 39 weeks. I was sooooo sooo nervous to have a scheduled C-section this time around. When we got to the hospital, the nurses hooked me up to millions of monitors and told me how awful the pain would be afterwards. I asked if I could get up and go to the restroom. I didn't really need to use the restroom, but used that alone time to plan my escape from the hospital. I decided that it was far too cold outside to be running around in a hospital gown and decided to stick around.

Here I am with my new baby girl!! I know every mom says this, but immediately after I heard her cry for the first time, everything was worth it. All of it!!

Here is Addy, the best big sister in the world. She loves her baby and calls her "Sisters".

Addy loved to come to the hospital to hold the baby and help me. She is very tender-hearted and liked to help me get out of bed.

Baby all ready to go home.

There she is!! Now we have two beautiful little girls. We are very thankful to be blessed with such sweet little angels.

Our Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. Addy was so much fun and brought such a sweet Christmas spirit to our home. Santa was not shy either. There are no pictures of Tyler and my presents though. I got a new laptop, which I am using right now. I love it! Tyler got a large pile of lumber, which he then framed our basement with. He also got some clothes.

Check out what Santa brought Addy:

Opening presents with Daddy.

Addy asked Santa for a "horsey, please" and he delivered! She bounces up and down and the horse actually moves across the floor. See that kitchen in the background? Santa also left that. Addy has been making delicious meals for us ever since.Addy got a play-doh center from her aunt, uncle and cousin. She loves "clipping" and "smashing" the play-doh.

We got a ton of snow the week before and week of Christmas, so we got to play in the snow. Here are my snow angels!

Addy was bundled up really warm like that kid from A Christmas Story.