Musings on life, parenting, Jesus, and more...

Check out what my awesome, amazing, super talented friend Kelly just made for me. I LOVE them, and can't wait to frame them for the girls' bedroom wall.

This is Jenica 3 years ago, at only 9 months old! Yes, she had enough hair to french braid before she was even 1! At that age, I would braid her hair while she laid on the floor drinking her morning bottle. When she outgrew the bottle, she also outgrew the ability to stay still while I did fun hairstyles like this. Then, for the next couple of years, she just hated having anything done with her hair. But, she's finally getting old enough now that she thinks it's fun to let mommy try new hair styles on her - and thanks to Pinterest, I have lots of ideas! Here is what we did this morning: Do you have an idea you think I should try on her hair? Send me a link! I'm loving trying new things and maybe if I get good at doing her hair, I can try some on my own hair too!

We celebrated Tenley's first birthday last weekend with cake, lots and lots of cake... and she loved every bit of it! Friday was family picture day. My amazing friend Kim came up from Salem to take some fun family pictures of us at our house. During the session, Tenley got a hold of a handful of her birthday cake that Jessica had dropped off that morning. Fortunately, it was out of the back of the cake so it still photographed nicely for her cake smash session on Saturday. Then Sunday was party day! By now, she was a seasoned cake eater and knew just what to do to please the crowd! To go along with the birthday cake, my friend Kelly and I made some oh so delicious cake pops. It was my first time making them, and I couldn't have done it without her help, but they turned out delicious and were really fun to make. Jenica even got to come help out! Thanks to everyone who helped celebrate our baby's first and make it a special day for...

Where has the year gone? I can't believe that in just one short month we'll be celebrating my baby's first birthday. She is on the go these days! Not walking yet but pulling her self up on everything and cruising around on the furniture. Oh, and she's discovered the stairs and is enamored with them! Every time I turn my back she makes a bee line for them. Fortunately, big sister is a good monitor when I'm not watching and is always quick to tell me, "Mom, Tenley's climbing the stairs again!"  She also has an adorable playful side - initiating games of peek-a-boo on her own with the kitchen hand towels while I'm making dinner. She loves to feed herself all kinds of finger foods and has even started weening herself off the bottle in exchange for a sippy cup. She says dada all the time but has yet to call me mama. I think it's just a fun game for her now. I say mama, she says dada and laughs! One of these days she'll call me mama and melt m...

I'm a little behind the times and I can't find the date anywhere when she actually started crawling but it's been a while now... so we'll just say "somewhere around 9 months". It started out with the army crawl but it has progressed to full grown big girl crawling, and now even pulling herself up on the furniture. This is happening way too fast. I don't want my sweet little baby to grow up just yet. She's so fun at this age! Here are a couple pics:

Tenley got her first tooth on Monday (January 23rd). Here she is showing it off:

My baby is growing up too fast! She started sitting by herself last month, which I think made Christmas much more fun for her! She loves eating food now and actually has a hard time drinking her bottles anymore because she'd rather have yummy veggies and cereal. She had almost doubled her birth weight at her last doctors check up. She still looks so much like a baby to me compared to Jenica at this age because she still hardly has any hair! Except for one little curl on the right hand side, she has about the same amount of hair that she had when she was born! Jenica on the other hand... well, take a look for yourself!