Family Pics

We didn't have much time, but I really wanted my sister to try and get some pics of our family. As you can tell in most of the pictures, we could not get Celeste to look at the camera and if she did then no smiling.

Someone's glad to be done.

He has a pocketful of sticks.

Celeste turns 2!!!

Her birthday was actually on Thanksgiving this year, but with all the activities of the day we decided to wait until Friday to celebrate. That's ok for now since she doesn't know the difference. However, my sister's 3 year old daughter does and kept asking all day Thursday and Friday when Celeste was going to open her presents. We finally managed to squeeze in presents right before bed after a busy day. Celeste was NOT that interested in opening presents and I was a little disappointed in her reaction.

Wade opened most of her presents for her.

She loved her new backpack so she can be just like her big brothers who have backpacks for school.

We ended the evening with birthday pie from Thanksgiving. I really didn't want to make any more treats than what we already had for Thanksgiving. I realized that Celeste was just way too tired to even enjoy her birthday. Mental note for next year, open presents earlier in the day.

Celeste has been pure joy and an absolute blessing to have in our family. She is silly and loves to be goofy. She is so completely different than her brothers. She has been an amazing sleeper since day 1. She cleans up and picks up way better than the boys ever did and do now. She is not afraid of heights or falling and is quite the daredevil. She gives sweet hugs and kisses, which have to be on the lips. She loves shoes and it's a bonus that she can put most shoes on by herself. She's beginning to be rather picky about what she wears, but thankfully is not dressing or undressing herself yet. A couple of weeks ago we tried potty training. After about a day, I realized that she showed signs of physical control over her bladder--like doing the potty dance. However, after about 5 days of potty training we went back to diapers. She has great control but for whatever reason just doesn't want to use the potty (neither big or little). I can lead her to the potty, but I can't make her go. For now we are back in diapers and hopefully she'll show more interest in actually using the toilet soon. Happy Birthday my sweet baby.

Thanksgiving 2009

We were very fortunate to have Becky's Dad fly down Monday and her sister and her family drive out on Wednesday to spend Thanksgiving in Texas.

Last year our back door neighbor deep fried his turkey and gave us a leg to try and it was so yummy. This year we decided we'd try it out with our turkey (and our neighbor's deep fryer). It was so fast, plus left the oven empty for cooking other stuff. Our turkey was oh so scrumptous!! I was counting on having leftovers for at least 2-3 days, but we ran out of turkey Friday night (which was kinda skimpy). Shawn had to inject the turkey with creole butter and season it before the fryer.

Shawn made homemade apple pie and Nate (Melinda's husband) got the job of peeling and coring the apples while Dad got the clean up job. Isn't wonderful how well we work together?
While waiting for lunch, the kids made a fun and yummy treat of oreo turkeys. Thanks to my sister for the idea and supplies.
The kids with their oreo turkeys.
My sister and I spent the whole evening preparing for our black Friday shopping. We pulled our first all-nighter with the first store opening at midnight. We pulled into the parking lot of Toys R Us and decided to skip it and went and sat in line at Old Navy for 3 hours. A sweet teenage girl gave us a blanket to help keep us warm since we were so unprepared for waiting in line for 3 hours, which never was in our plan of action for the night. In the future, waiting for 3 hours is not worth the savings. I'll pay more money next year so I can sleep in my nice warm bed instead of sitting in line all night.

I'm a Big Girl Now

Well, almost. We do still need to potty train, but that will come later. A friend had given us a toddler bed and so we set it up in her room with her crib to let her get familiar with it. However, she refused to lay in it for more than 2 seconds. The phasing in process worked so much better with the boys. I found a princess bed on clearance and liked it so much better than the one we'd been given. Here is Celeste helping to build her new bed.

Looking very cool in her new big girl bed.

Daddy trying to coax her into the bed.

Laying down in bed. We had to take down the crib before we could get her to stay in her new bed. When it was time for bed she looked over to where her crib used to be then pointed in the hallway where it was currently. Finally she realized that she must sleep in her new bed. The first night I stayed with her and laid on the floor next to her, where she couldn't see me but just hold my finger. It took her awhile to fall asleep but she finally did. She never got out of bed or never looked over the edge at me. Success!!

Update: We've never had a problem with her getting out of bed at night. Naps are a different story. I was putting her to nap at 11:30 am so she would wake up before I had to get Treyton from school. Once she went into the toddler bed she would get out of bed and look at books (she has no toys in her room only a bookshelf) during nap time instead of sleeping. Well, I decided to switch her nap time to after school at 3 pm. Since switching her to the later nap she has only occasionally stayed awake to read. And that is usually on the weekends when we tend to put her down a little earlier (between 1-2 pm). My girl is such an awesome sleeper and has been since day 1!!

Mommy's Shoes

I had no idea that a little girls obsession with shoes would start so young. She had to have been less than 18 months when it started. And recently she discovered how fun it is to wear mommy's

shoes.

Practicing Piano

Shawn is the primary pianist and he practices right before church and Celeste loves to help him. However, they don't always sound so good together. And yes, this is the same day in a new outfit. I've been weeding out the 18 month clothes which are all getting too small.

Our little pumpkins