Valentine's Day 2010

Valentine's day is one of my absolute favorite holidays. It's just so sweet! It began with my annual trip to Steph's Valentine Exchange party. She always outdoes herself (even 9 months pregnant) and I love seeing how creative everyone is at her party. This year, I made homemade mini loaves of bread and homemade honey butter. I think they turned out cute, and my family who sampled said they were yummy! Local friends (and VT-ees) got freezer jam. Transporting runny freezer jam just seemed like a really bad idea.
For the next few days, the girls really enjoyed the spoils of my exchange (though I kept many for myself). They absolutely gorged themself on a beautiful cupcake the day after the exchange. Sara helped me plant a flower while Laura was at school. Then, the day after Valentine's day (Sara was too sick on Valentine's proper) we had a great time opening Steph's Surprise Ball.

Jason and I started doing a babysitting swap with Deb's family a little bit ago. We lucked out and got Valentine's weekend. So, amazingly, we got a date. We thouroughly enjoyed ourselves at all-you-can-eat Sushi - Jason's request. Ahh...what 7 years of marriage can do to change a guy. Jason hated fish when we first got married!

I dressed Eliza up for Valentine's day because she is really everybody's little Valentine!
Also, on Valentine's day, after we went to Makayla's blessing, we dressed in Valentine's shirts and sweatpants (Sara was so sick with the stomach flu) and the girls got their Valentine's from us - stickers, nail polish, socks and chapstick. They were thrilled! And, we loved all the kisses we got out of the deal.

Eliza's 6 Month Stats

Eliza's 6 month appointment got rescheduled because her doctor was helping in Haiti. So, her stats are a bit late, but for a very good cause.

Her stats are as follows:

Height: 26.25 inches - 80th percentile

Weight: 15 lbs 6 oz - 50th percentile

Head: 41.7 cm - 30th percentile

Yep, she has perfect proportions to be a ballerina - tall, thin, with a small head. We'll see if she takes to it.
Developmentally, she is right on track. Her teeth are behind, just like her sisters. She is ahead on her sitting. She seems just right to me!

Eliza's cheeks garner comments wherever we go. They really are hugely fabulous and insanely kissable!
Yep, poor Sara just can't keep her hands off Miss E! Okay, neither can I, her Daddy, or her grandparents!

Little Miss Personality

Sara and I have gotten creative with what she can do here at the house here in the depths of winter confinement. This girl has no lack of personality! Playing in the sink - I am dilligent on keeping the water and Sara warm - is the favorite. This is how I caught her.

Sara is also loving the tutu I made for her. It's purple, a dress-up and fabulous in her eyes!

Sara has also been spending a lot of time sorting. She has her colors and shapes down, so I bought these numbers for her to sort. Note that all the dark purple ones (her favorite color) are in the canister.

Of course, we made her favorite treat - cookie dough. Because she is Sara, she is dressed in her adorable apron over the top of her Princess Nighttime Dress. This girl can spend 20 minutes working on the beater and loving every second of it.

She also wanted me to take pictures of her. So after many silly ones (first pic), we got what I consider one that really captures her face (second pic.)

Sara is also incredibly independent. She loves to dress herself, but is rather awkward about it. This is how Jason found her first thing in the morning after going to the bathroom - something else she has to do by herself. Eventually, she will let us help her, but she has to try herself first!

Sara keeps us entertained and busy all the time. But, this girls' hugs are worth every bit of effort!

Home Decor Changes

Recently, and not so recently, we have made some serious home decor changes around here. Right before Eliza was born we bought a new kitchen rug for under the table. We ended up buying FLOR carpet tiles because they are durable, customizable in color and size, and we could replace just one tile at a time as it gets hammered.
Just barely, we purchased a new table and barstools. Our other ones just were not durable. And, though we tried really hard to get some assistance (we only had them two years) from JCPenney, it just didn't happen. So, when we found an amazing deal at Oak Express with a 5 year warranty, we bought it.
The table is counter height - a change for us - and has a self-storing leaf. So far, we are loving it. And, Laura says that it is a good homework table. Sara loves the "not wiggly" barstools.

When we bought the table and barstools, we were initially shopping for an entertainment center. With the new surround sound, we just needed a bigger unit. I don't like them huge, but I did want to be able to close off the stereo components from little hands. It's about 5 ft tall and about 6 ft long and doesn't dominate the space. We adjusted the room - picture and furniture - and it fits in the space beautifully. I really like it!

Significantly before we bought the rug (we're talking 8 months ago) we purchased a table for behind the couch from our favorite table store. It provides a pretty transition from couch to kitchen. And, I love the storage that it provides. You can also see two of my other favorite things in this picture: digital photo frame (huge and filled with family pics), and air purifier (helps me feel better and has UV to kill germs).

The floral arrangement on the couch table was stolen from the entryway at Christmastime when I put out the apothecaries. I loved the apothecaries and relocated flowers so much, that I made them permanent. I am keeping the apothecaries out and changing them with the seasons. They are all decked out for Valentine's now.

Things are really feeling comfy in the areas where we spend the majority of our time. It feels good and, even better, it feels like home!

Eliza @ Six Months

All day yesterday, the big girls and I sang "Happy Half Birthday to you". I can hardly believe Miss Eliza is 6 months old. Though, my arms can definitely feel the difference and I had to switch her to 6-9 month clothes last week. Look how much bigger she has gotten!
Her smile is huge - she smiles with her entire body - and quick to come. My absolute favorite part of the day is getting her out of bed in the morning and the huge smile and flapping arms I get when she sees me. Yep, she melts me every single morning.

Eliza continues to be exceptionally content and easy-going. She loves toys and gets incredibly excited to have them. We say she is flying or flapping when she gets excited. She is getting quite coordinated with her hands and can manipulate the toys quite well and often will take her binky in and out. But, nothing makes her laugh and smile more than her sisters! And she is wonderfully patient with awkward Sara.
We all love to play the kissing game with Eliza. If you ask her for a kiss, "Can I have a kiss" she will open her mouth and dive for your face and kiss you. Sometimes she will even grab my face with her hands and then kiss me. After the kiss she gets bounced with a "Yay" and she grins her little face off. It is the favorite game for everyone in the house!
Eliza can roll from her stomach to her back and is getting great at sitting up. She also rotates all around while laying on her back with her little head as the axis point. I think I will feel confident with her sitting alone (without pillows) quite soon. She loves to eat solids and her favorite food is flavored oatmeal - applesauce and pears particularly. Eliza sleeps each night from about 8 pm until 9:30 in the morning with one quick bottle in the middle. She doesn't like to nap much and will only take two quick cat naps during the day. But, she is so happy, and sleeps so well at night, that I don't mind.

Eliza loves to talk and to watch her sisters. She also loves to watch basketball on TV. She revels in kisses, affection and backrubs.
Can you tell that we are all just a little obsessed with this baby?! Eliza is so easy to love, so happy, so fun, so affectionate. She is just our little magic, perfect, fake baby! We love you, our 1/2 year old!!

Tooth Fairy

I officially have a big kid! Laura lost her first tooth yesterday. We actually had to go to the dentist to get it pulled because her big tooth had completely grown in behind the baby tooth and the baby tooth just wasn't getting any looser. She was awesome at the dentist and the tooth fairy made her first ever stop by our house last night. Laura is super excited to have it gone. Here she is sporting her new toothless grin along with some marks on her nose from the laughing gas mask. Yay, Laura!

Laura Updates

Laura has been so busy lately, I just haven't seemed to blog about it. She recently started piano and is loving it! She loves to learn and is taking to it beautifully.

She is also doing Choir at school. I think this is her very favorite thing! She practices all the time and Sara is often found listening to her and dancing as she practices. Laura tells me that someday she wants to be onstage singing and dancing like they do in "Aladdin" at Disneyland. Knowing her, it'll come true.

Also, they recently changed her reading level at school to the 800's (or 8th grade) and she is working on fractions in math. She is growing up so fast and learning so much - sometimes I think it is wonderful and other times I just want to hug my little girl from days gone by. A fun example of what she is learning is that she told me when I cut my finger the other day that "the platelets will stop the bleeding, Mom."

She loves playing with her friends. And, Lily is still her bestest friend of all! They play together every Saturday and have the greatest time! They ended up matching the other day and thought it was the coolest thing!