11 months.

Sweet Lillian, month 11 has been so much fun!

You are mobile now, crawling around everywhere and getting into everything you can get your hands on. I love watching you explore the world around you. No more sitting and observing for you..you're on the move, and you're ready to take the world by storm. I am thrilled! Your sister on the other hand, is probably the least happy of us all, as you have now learned that her toys are simply more interesting than yours. Actually, if you're not supposed to be playing with it..baby, you're right there! I love this about you--your curiousity, your big brown, inquistive eyes.

You are also the best vacuum I have ever had! If it's on the floor, you'll find it. It could be the smallest piece of fuzz or paper..nothing gets by you. That's ok, you're just teaching me I need to keep my house cleaner!:)

Because of your inquistive nature, we made a little play area for you. Being gated doesn't always make you very happy with me, but other times you don't seem to mind it.

You love to sleep and you love to eat. These things make me happy, too! You still eat your cereal and baby food, but you also want to eat everything we're eatng too. We definitely can't call you picky, as you rarely pass up any form of food. This is a very good thing.

I took you in for a weight check the other day and you are doing great, catching up on your growth and your development.You are 14lbs 1oz. I compared this to your sister at the same age and she was 17lbs 8oz. Not too bad! You have hit every milestone for your adjusted age and you are even hitting some for your chronological age! The nurse and doctor were very pleased, as the gap between your 9 month check and now is the largest jump in progress we have seen from you. I am so proud of you.

Tomorrow, you're going to be a year old. I choke up at the thought of this. Not just at the thought of how quickly that first year has passed, but also the thought of how much you have progressed in that year. Born at 29 and 4/7 weeks gestation, weighing 2lbs 7oz, you soared through your 6 week stay at the hospital. Coming home at 4lbs 3oz--no medicatons, no monitors, no treatments. Nothing. You never got sick, never had any infections, never needed any surgeries, and you never had any return visits to the hospital. Wow, that is amazing! God is SO good. And you, are His miracle.

We love you, Lillian Faith, and we are so thankful for you and the joy you bring to us.

We're still here.

I have a confession to make. I totally haven't been feeling the inspiration to blog. Other than the occasional return about once a month to give updates on my growing kids, it just hasn't been happening. My kids are what motivated me.  And while I do enjoy sharing and documenting what is happening in our lives, just like anything else, if I don't intentially set aside time to do it, it just simply doesn't get accomplished. And I could tell you I'm just super busy and haven't found a single minute to sit and write, but the truth is, I've put way too many things before the blog. Umm...like pinterest. And if you haven't checked out pinterest, I encourage you to! There are lots of cool things to be found on there. It's a fun site where you can share your interests with others and get inspired by others interests. But just a little warning: it IS addicting, and if you're not careful you can end up wasting a whole lot of time on there. For those of you who are familiar with pinterest, you know this already.

So this morning, as I baked brownies, I got the urge. The little spark that says, life is good. Christmas is 6 days away, Adelynn is more excited than ever,  and my baby is just 12 days away from turning 1. We survived another year, and an eventful year at that. A year when there were times I thought we wouldn't make it through. But by the grace of God we are here, and we are blessed.

Here's what we've really been doing:

On Friday, Santa showed up on our doorstep. That's right. The jolly man came for a visit. Actually, it was Brian's uncle, who by the way, plays a really good Santa.

He even read a story to Adelynn about why the kids leave cookies for Santa and gave her a plate and mug for his cookies and milk.

 I loved seeing the excitment in Adelynn's face. She stood a good distance away frantically waving when he walked through the door. I think she was a little taken back, but she quickly warmed right up to him.

 Lillian, on the other hand, was not as excited. She did great with her first Santa visit, but when the strange looking man actually stepped into her house, she wanted nothing to do with it.

I do sometimes struggle with the whole Santa thing, having some scary looking man sneek into your house while you sleep and leaving gifts. And while I want my kids to know what Christmas is really about, remembering the most important gift God has given us, I also want them to be kids.

So, yes, we'll do Christmas with Santa and gifts. But we'll also celebrate the birth Jesus. We are looking forward to tomorrow when we attend a birthday party for Him with friends. It will be fun!

Potty training

We have days, and even weeks, where we are right on, everytime. And then we have days where we miss...everytime.

Today was a day we missed.

This picture was taken after the third change of pants, chosen by Adelynn, of course.

 There are days I feel like we may never make it there. But we will. Hopefully.

Tomorrow is a new day.

This girl is so close to crawling...

I'm confident it's going to happen very soon. She gets so frustrated trying to get around, especially when she has her eye on something.

She seems to be working on some teeth too. All this just in time for a first birthday.

First birthday. One. My heart gets stuck in my throat when I say those words. The emotions of when she was born are still so raw, it's hard to believe it happened a year ago. But it did. And now we're getting ready to celebrate what the year has brought us.

For now, I have to go get ready for a special Christmas party we're having tomorrow. It's going to be fabulous.

 Happy Day. Merry Christmas. Happy Birthday Jesus.

It's going to be a great week!

10 months old!

Yes, I'm late. So late, in fact, that today, you are actually 11 months old. And though I'll try my hardest not to be so late for your 11th month, I kind of enjoyed waiting until later in the month to write your post. It's so fun to see how much you've changed from the beginning of one month to the end. This month delivered, and I saw your personality come out more than ever.

You're trying so hard to crawl and get frustrated when you have your eye on something out of your reach. You'll stretch as far as you can from a sitting position until you fall forward, face first, and stretch your legs out till you're on your belly. It's not graceful by any means, and quite funny to witness. Then you try  your hardest to move forward to get to what you want. Most of the time you end up sliding backward...I think you may end up being a belly crawler rather than a hands and knees crawler.

You love to give and get kisses and you even make little kissing noises. When someone kisses you on the cheek, you giggle and lean in for more. I love this.

You are such a little chatter box. You can talk, and talk, and talk. You say "dada" and "mama" pretty clearly. And though we haven't heard you actually say any other words, you will often mimic sounds like "ooo", "ahhh" and "hiiiii". Especially if your sister says them.  You think she's pretty big stuff. And still, nobody can make you laugh quite like she does.

You're still petite, but I'm not sure that will ever change. I am anxious to see how much you weigh, since we haven't got a weight on you since your 9 month check. Despite your size, you can eat like no other. You really know how to put food away, and when you see us eating you demand to be fed too. You are still a huge fan of your cereal with your fruits mixed in. You also love bananas, toast, crackers, and carrots..you're becoming pretty good at picking up small pieces of food and eating them by yourself. It just doesn't seem like you should be old enough to be doing this.

You still sleep in our room with us, though you rarely wake during the night. Even though you will share a room with your sister, I still haven't trusted to put you in there with her at night, as I'm afraid she might get excited and wake you..:) I love coming into our room when you wake up, rolling over onto your belly, pushing yourself up with your hands, and stretching your neck as far as you can to see over the side, watching intently for us to enter the room. It makes me laugh, everytime.

When we were at your friend Mollie's house, you tried out her jumper and you loved it, so we just recently found one just like hers for you. It's your new favorite thing. You get so excited and move your little legs fast. It's pretty comical to watch. And I love how entertaining it is for you.

You grab for anything you can get your hands on and everything, of course, goes straight to your mouth. I can already tell once you figure out how to move you're going to be getting into all of those things you've had your eye on.

It's been such a fun, busy month. I have loved watching you learn so much this month. From talking more to moving more, I am amazed day after day by how quickly you are changing before my eyes.

We love you, bean!