Last Day

Today is my last day in Napa. I haven't taken many pictures but I have spent a lot of time with family. Yesterday we took the girls to visit some long lost friends who live in the Sacramento area. It was great to see them and spend time with them like time had never passed at all.

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Don't you love those visits?

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Well now I am off to the outlets to return one of those impulse buys. Then I will probably go out to lunch to celebrate the new changes that happened at my office today.

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The past year has been tough at my job but with the removal of some, and a brand new addition of a new and excellent doctor, things are about to start over fresh and WONDERFUL!

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I am actually excited to go to work tomorrow and see what the day holds.

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Sorry to everyone for being grumpy for the past year. That is what stress can do to you. This year will be much better. Especially thanks to my sweet hubby for still standing strong by my side through all of this. I love you!

Classic Pictures

Here is the best picture of the day. This "Aunt Fifi's Jello Salad" was in the back of the garage freezer. It had been there since last thanksgiving. Yes, there is mold on there.

Oh wait, here is another classic. Erin is constantly trying to kiss the babies in the family, Zach tried to ruin pictures, I laugh at everyone, and Rich is posing of course.

Look how much fun Nugs had playing football with all the big boys at the turkey bowl.

Check it out- Here I am with CK and she has the snot bubble of the century. I am not joking. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Ryann loves her uncle Zach and all the fall leaves. These are new and exciting for her.

Oh Cara- you poor thing. You get dragged all over town whether you like it or not.

So those are the top pictures of the trip to Napa for Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving

How was your turkey day? Ours was excellent. This little munchkin is one of the many things I am thankful for.

I am thankful for Black friday too... oh what fun to get up at 4 and shop until 7. Then come home and sleep!

Happy Thanksgiving

There are a million things I am thankful for. I am thankful for my God, my Savior, my family, and personal revelation. I know that the Lord can guide and inspire me and he truly answers my prayers.

Happy Birthday to Ryann's Bestie!

Happy Birthday to Kennedy. Ryann went to her birthday party on Saturday and she had so much fun! It was a princess tea party with games and presents and delicious lollipops and cakes.

The girls were all dressed as princesses and they decorated their own crowns to wear.

Nugs playing pin the crown on cinderella

look at these amazing princess cakes!

Here is a little clip of the fun at the tea party!

Going to bed early tonight

I am going to bed early tonight because we are leaving EARLY for NAPA tomorrow!! I am so excited. We will visit and play and shop and eat and take lots of pictures!

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Remember this? Remember my cute munchkin playing at my old elementary school with uncle Zach and daddy? Gotta love Turkey Bowl.

Will I see you Thanksgiving Morning to play? I will be there chasing a crazy toddler and probably wearing my Cara Kay in a sling unless an auntie/grandma/friend decides to snag her from me.

Bottle Time

Cara drinks at least 3 bottles a day at daycare of breastmilk. Sh obviously has been trained that if you can't do it yourself you will starve??? No, I don't think that is the case. However, it is a pretty neat trick that she can feed herself a bottle.

Ryann never fed herself the bottle. Rich will attest to that because he used to be the only one to feed her a bottle when I worked night shifts.

Good times.

Gone Fishing

Little Miss Jaidin and Ryann went fishing in Cara's crib the other day.

I don't think they caught anything except the fish attached to the line- but it was sure fun to watch them imagine and learn and explore. Oh the fun things when someone bigger than you comes over to play.

Ryann can't climb into Cara's crib by herself yet :)

Block Party

At a church activity this week we had a "block party." It was fun to spend time with friends and make these cute picture blocks. I really wasn't the creative one but I sure had fun with the paper cutter and the modge podge!

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I think my black blocks are cuter. I just need to find a spot for them in my house.

Nonsense

Today was full of sweet nonsense from my babies. Lots of nonsense at work- but that is not the purpose of my blog today. Today it is to share the nonsense of my baby girls.

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Cara is eating, pulls away and gives me the biggest smile. I smile back and then she proceeds to rip 2 big ones, giggle, then continue nursing.

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Ryann looks at Cara when she is making silly noises and being loud and says, "Callate- Shhhhh"

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When CK is tired or done eating she blows raspberries.

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Ryann likes to say, "Shake your booty" while she shakes her little bum back and forth. She then proceeded to give herself a wedgie and shake her booty even harder. I can only imagine she learned that from uncle Zach.

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Cara rolled 3 times in the opposite direction from me when I was changing her diaper. She wanted nothing to do with me and she wanted to get away FAST!

Good Morning

Usually I wouldn't post a picture with how bad my face looks in the mirror- but I know you will enjoy it.

I love you all!

April Showers Brings May Flowers AND...

Babies!!

The Easter Bunny sometimes comes in May too. And this May along with the Easter Bunny comes a new little niece or nephew!!

I am so happy for my big brother and sister in law! Congrats. You guys are going to be AMAZING parents!

Biscuit

If anyone has ever tried these "biter biscuits" by gerber then you know they are the messiest things in the entire world for babies. But guess what? The babies LOVE them!

We just got the okay from the pediatrician to start introducing semi solids (puffs, biscuits, cheerios, etc.) that dissolve and Cara is loving it. This was her first time gumming a biter biscuit and it was hilarious. I am also including a messy video of her eating. This is not for the easy queasy people who don't want to see baby food come back out of a baby's mouth. :)

Christmas Bazaar

Today I spent some time in the West Valley selling our laborlooks gowns. Rich bought the girls to play for a couple hours and Auntie Vicki came along too. Not only was Ryann amazing at passing out information cards but she ate a huge cupcake.

She also ate half a hot dog and 3 nachos.

and she played in the bouncy obstacle course


and played on the monkey bars
and went swinging on the swings with daddy
and met Santa
and enjoyed all the little shops where she let mommy know some of her favorites

don't tell but I bought one of these sock puppet beauties for her and she will just be in heaven when she opens it on Christmas!

Say Cheese!

I leave a cute little CK on the floor while I set all my bags down from the day. She loves sitting up and is always all smiles.I leave her alone in a room with this little munchkin below. Usually fine. Ryann absolutely loves Cara and always wants to hold her and tickle her and give her toys. I have never had her try to feed Cara because we always say, "Cara doesn't have teeth so she can't eat"
But then I overhear, "Here Cara- Cheese". Smiling for the camera? I don't think so. Ryann was trying to feed Cara some cheese from her breakfast that had happened 8 hours prior. (I think Ryann has caught on that we have started feeding her solids and not just milk)
And here I was trying to take a picture of the cheese all over the floor (some was stuck to Cara's face too!) but Cara is getting fast and she grabbed my camera before I could do anything else.

Watch Out Santa

Watch out Santa- Ryann got ahold of the target toy catalog. All morning long I was hearing, "Whats that mommy?" and I would say, "a toy" and then Nugs would reply, "I want that one"
I better make sure to shred this soon or else things could get a little crazy around our house. Or maybe we will keep it until a week before Christmas so she can keep herself entertained all day long by flipping back and forth between toys and pages and then forget about them come Christmas day. Or I could just wrap it up and give it to her for Christmas.

What do you think?

Biffy Baff

I think my mom used to ask us if we wanted to take "biffy baffs." Rich thinks it is weird when I ask the girls if they want to take a bath by saying "biffy baff."

But either way you say it Cara loves her baths.
And I love this girl's eyelashes. The tips are blonde so you don't really get the full effect unless they are wet or you are up close to her.

Stress Relief

I know these are basically the same pictures as yesterday, but now that Cara is sitting up Ryann and her have been interacting so much more lately. Ryann has a blast bringing her toys and taking toys away and just making Cara giggle and laugh.
And then when Ryann gets bored she watches TV and occasionally Cara watches too. But mostly Cara watches Ryann.
I have been stressed a lot at work lately but it makes me really happy and it is such a big stress relief to come home to these princesses. They love me and they really love each other.

When does the fighting start? Nah- I am not going to think about that now. I am going to sit back and enjoy this. Or maybe get down there on the floor and let Cara pull my hair and Ryann ride on my back.

Don't grow up to fast... PLEASE?!?!?

Focus

My camera was having a hard time figuring out what to focus on. The cute girls in the background or the lovely "booger sucker" that we has so fondly been using all weekend.Ryann likes the booger sucker. It is a game. Cara tolerates the booger sucker. Unless she is nursing and then it is an annoyance that doesn't allow her to breathe so she gets mad at me and lets me know.

Good thing Cara doesn't have teeth yet.

Urgent Care

This morning we spent some time in the Urgent Care. Yesterday afternoon Ryann was playing and somehow she hurt herself. She was really holding her right arm close and she kept telling us her wrist hurt her. It wasn't swollen at all, but I know that not all breaks (for kids) get swollen.

So after debate last night Rich and I decided to keep her home and see if it got better. Well, come the middle of the night every time she rolled over or bent it she woke up crying. Finally up for the day at 4am and that was enough for me. As soon as 7am rolled around this is where we were headed:
This is Ryann at the urgent care when I told her we were at the doctors to make her all better. She was really excited about this. This was all before the doctor came in.
The doctor took X-rays and thankfully no break- however, she diagnosed Ryann with "nursemaids elbow" which basically means the ligament in her elbow popped out of place. Any movement will hurt- especially the movements that have to be done to pop it back in place. This picture above is after the doctor tried the first 3 times to get it back in place.
Finally Ryann got a sticker because after 5 different times of manipulating her arm (and Ryann screaming the entire time) it popped back into place. She actually got 5 stickers and was pleased as punch when they gave her apple juice afterwards.
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I was happy when she reached for the apple juice with her right hand
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So this means no more swinging by her arms or any other movements that will jerk her arm in anyway- once you have nursemaids elbow it is very likely to happen again.

Poser

Cara always poses for the camera. Nugs on the other hand likes to smile then as soon as I start to take the picture she walks towards me so she can see herself after the picture is taken. Even when she was Cara's age she didn't smile for the camera. But guess what?! I got my little girl to pose for the camera!


I told her to show me her princess shirt and she was so proud of this $4 target beauty that she stopped and posed for me. LOVE IT!

6 Months

No I didn't go out and get 6 month pictures of Cara... We are getting those after thanksgiving... This is a picture of RyRy when she was 6 months old. She didn't like to smile for the camera.
Cara likes to smile for the camera, so I had to find a picture where they look alike with the same face. Just so happens to a picture Erin requested of Cara tackling Cousin Addie.
Cara had her 6 month check up yesterday. Her head is staying steady at 30%. She is 26 inches which is 50% and she is a whopping 14 lbs which is 10%.

My family doctor asked if I wanted to try to increase her weight. I asked her how and she really couldn't come up with a good answer besides "feed her more". But let me tell you, this little Diva would never eat more or less than she wants to. She is very polite about it. Doesn't fuss or throw fits she just won't do it.

No teeth yet. She LOVES her feet. She loves to smile. We start finger foods today- as in those little puffs that melt in your mouth. She makes funny noises. She loves her sister but probably not more than Ryann loves her.

Overall Cara is so sweet and loves any attention you will give her. She is a lot like Ryann, but definitely has her own personality.

Finish it already!

I know I really need to finish posting my halloween pictures. So hopefully this is it.

Here is Ryann riding Emma the pumpkin. Lulu was a bumble bee.
Zach the jedi and Devyn the Boxer. I have money on Zach.
Grandpa and Cara were pumpkins for the night and I love them both so much!!
I can't wait to go back to Napa for Thanksgiving!

On The Move

Doesn't it appear that my little munchkin is on the move? Really we just found out she can only crawl backwards. Thats okay. We aren't in a hurry.Her sitting up skills are getting pretty impressive too!

Cousins!

We got some cute pictures of Addie and Cara this weekend.
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We have the classic trying to make the babies sit up next to the pumpkin picture:
We also got a sweet picture of them as best buds
And then right before bedtime!
They are so much fun and they are basically the same size. They never seemed to pay attention to each other at the same time- but they were always reaching towards the other one and they never failed to make us laugh.