I Just Love This Girl

Look Alikes

Girls, girls, girls. That is what my life has been the past three years, and what my life is probably going to continue to be for the rest of my life! I LOVE having two girls. All my life all I wanted to be was a wife and a mommy. I (to my husband's dismay!) did not and do not have huge career aspirations. I didn't dream of working my way up the corporate ladder. I dreamt of staying home and taking care of my husband and my children. My dream has come true and the fact that I have not one, but TWO girls is just icing on the cake!
For those of you who know Matt and I, we do look pretty similar (and yes, we have been mistaken for brother and sister before. yuck!) But I still always wondered what our kids would look like. Surprise, surprise Allie and Sienna are the perfect combination of the two of us, and of course that means that they too look very similar. Sometimes I look at pictures and the only way that I can tell who is who is from the hair (Allie had MUCH longer hair than Sienna) and then some pictures I think they look so different. Luckily they both got their daddy's gorgeous blue eyes, and I think they have the same nose and same lips but I think their face or head shape is different. What do you think? Check out these pictures, Allie is always on the left, Sienna on the right.















Sisters? Ya think?!!!

Snip Snip...

Allie got her second haircut this past week. Don't worry, I did not chop off her gorgeous long locks, but it was definitely time for a little trim. We cut her hair for the first time right around her 1st birthday to even out the craziness that her hair was. For those of you who remember what happened at THAT haircut, don't worry the same did not happen for her second haircut. She absolutely loved it this time and thought it was so much fun. I was really afraid that cutting her hair (even just the little bit that we did) would cut off the big curls that happen at the very bottom but luckily it didn't and it turned out beautiful. Nice and even and a little bit layered - such a big girl!

Preschool Countdown

In just two short weeks my little girl is going to be going to preschool! Yes, I said preschool, it's just unbelievable! And I'm not sure it's possible but I think she may be just as excited as I am. :)
I feel like this starts a completely new chapter in our lives. From this moment and for the next (hopefully at least) 18years or so she will be in school, learning from teachers, making friends and away from me :( As much as that last part makes me sad, I know it's a part of life and (I think) I'm ready to imbrace it. (Don't get me wrong, many tears will be shed on that first day/week!) But it does help that I LOVE her preschool. It is exactly what I was looking for and exactly what I wanted. And Allie loves it too...especially the little potties they have in the bathroom :)
She knows it's coming soon so I decided to make a preschool countdown chain (after she started asking me EVERY day, "Mommy, when do I get to go to school?") Allie helped me make it and every morning when she wakes up, we go downstairs and I give her the scissors and she gets to cut a link off of the chain. And she always says "It's getting shorter mommy, I get to go to school in this many days!" Yay and boo!

Par-tay!

I seriously can't believe that I have a one year old!!! We had so much fun celebrating our little princess's first birthday last weekend. Since I have two July babies they are destined to have pool parties for the rest of their lives. So, we had the party at Matt's parent's house since they have an amazing backyard that we could enjoy. I was a little nervous for the party simply because I was thinking of what Allie's first birthday party was like. The theme turned out to be 'it's my party and I'll cry if I want to'. The poor thing literally cried the whole time! And she didn't eat a bite of her cake. Well, much to my surprise Sienna did GREAT! She had so much fun and not a tear was shed the entire time. She didn't exactly eat her cake but she had so much fun playing with it. We were so blessed to have family and friends help us celebrate this amazing little girl's first year!

I just have to post a picture of Allie from her 1st party, I have a ton of pics and almost all of them look like this...

One Year Old!

 

I think the person that came up with the phrase, 'time flies', MUST have had children. Seriously, I feel like Sienna was born just last week and here we are celebrating her first birthday. But on that same note, I can barely remember life without her sweet face. This little girl has brought me so much joy. I really can't wait for the years to come to see the kind of girl she is going to develop into. I really think that she's going to be our strong-willed child...take something away from her and watch out! But she is so sweet and cuddly at the same time. I think she's a perfect balance of independence and knowing when she needs someone. She is always so smiley (except in front of a camera:) and loves to laugh (especially at her big sister). I look at her every day and my heart melts.
Happy first birthday to my sweet Sienna Faith. I love you more than I can explain and I am so blessed to be your mom!

Allie's Party

We had such a great time celebrating our oldest girl's third birthday. We had a really small party at our house with just family and a couple close friends. Allie got totally spoiled with attention, love and gifts. As I cannot (ever) pick just a few good pictures to post, below is a slideshow of our celebration :)

Swim Lessons!

Sienna had her first swim lesson a couple weeks ago and it was so much fun. For those of you who saw her famous splash pad picture, you will be VERY surprised to know that she LOVED the pool. She did great and even went under several times. Matt was able to come and take pictures, sorry there are tons but I even had a hard time narrowing it down to these, she's just so darn cute!









I purposely dressed Sienna in the same swimsuit that Allie wore for her first lesson. They are almost exactly the same age. Allie's pictures are on the left, Sienna's on the right. Sometimes I think they look SO much alike, and sometimes I think they look so different :)

 

(If you click on the collage you can make it bigger to see the pictures better)

Allie's New Trick

Allie discovered a new talent while we were in Ohio...




She takes after me, her Memaw and her Uncle Chippy - we all can pick up anything with our toes!

Sienna's First Bike Ride

Matt came home from a bike ride the other day and said to me 'come on, let's take the girls'. I have to admit I was very hesitant, I thought it was a disaster waiting to happen. We bought one of those bike trailers right before Allie turned one and took her on many rides, but in the beginning, she didn't sit very well in the trailer. They really aren't made for 'babies'. I remember as we would go along, she would slowly slouch over to the side until she was almost lying down. But since this girl was the happiest baby in the world, we would look back at her and she would be smiling away. Sienna is a different story. Not only is she younger than Allie was at this point, she's not the most 'go with the flow' girl out there. I was afraid she would hate every part of it. But Matt talked me into it and I'm so glad we gave it a try...she LOVED it! I tried to secure her a little more with a towel wrapped around her and also Allie was there to help her out. The girls looked so adorable all strapped in next to each other. We rode a few miles to a park, played for a while, and then rode home. I see many, many more bike rides in our future :)

What to Wear???

1 pair of pajamas
rainbow tutu
pink princess dress
purple cheerleader outfit
butterfly wings
gloves
pom poms
princess heels
tiara

I have a feeling this is what my kid is going to want to wear to her first day of preschool!

This is what teething, a daddy who has been traveling a lot and a lack of sleeping due to the discovery of rolling all over a crib look like....

Look at that HAIR!!!

For those of you who saw Allie when she was born, or saw pictures, know that she was born with, literally, a full head of hair. Her hair was soooo long when she was born! And although she did go through the common phase of losing a lot of it when she was a few months old, I swear that not one hair from the very top of her head came out. This resulted in some interesting hair in her first year of life. Again, if you knew her or saw pictures, you know what I mean! (hence, the Donald Trump do:) I did love it though that I could put a barette in her hair (and it would stay in!) at two months old and she wore pigtails at four months old. Her hair is, and has been, sooooo much fun to do. I love doing all sorts of things and trying all sorts of styles. She had her first haircut at a year old, just to even out the craziness, but she hasn't had a cut since. I keep thinking that it probably needs to be trimmed and does need evened out again but then I look at how long and beautiful it is and I don't want to cut it! Maybe when she starts to sit on it I'll get the scissors out :) She looks like such a big girl with long hair!