Three Years

Alannah,
Three years ago, January 27, 2008 at 11:38am, we welcomed you into the world.  Every day since then has been a gift with you.  It is hard to believe you are already three! It seems like just yesterday we brought home our chunky little baby. You keep me and daddy on our toes and always have us laughing.  You are so sweet, polite, and caring, yet so strong-willed and determined at the same time.  You are so smart….you know your ABC’s, colors, and you can count to 20 (except you always skip 16 for some reason).  Your favorite color is pink…just like mommy. You love Dora, Max and Ruby, Olivia, and are obsessed with anything Disney Princess.  Recently your favorite food has been “an orange”.  You will say “Mommy can I have an orange?” or “Mommy I want another an orange.” You eat 2-3 a day lately.  I’m afraid you will turn orange! We are finally on the road to no more diapers because “ you’re a big girl now” as you will say.  When you were a baby, I had visions of you being potty-trained before you turned 2.  We even got you a potty chair for your first birthday.  Yeah right!  You had other plans! But, the last week or so we’ve been working really hard and you’ve been getting plenty of stickers and M&M’s and keeping your big girl panties dry!

I hate calling you a “big girl” because I wish I could keep you little forever! The stage you are in is so much fun.  I wish I could bottle you up just like you are right now! You are so active!  Santa brought you a scooter for Christmas and you ride it like a natural! You are always busy and doing something.  Even when your cartoons are on, you’re doing something else while you watch.  You love to color, play dress-up and play doctor.  You love your babies and you are such a good mommy to them.  One of your favorite things to do is mommy’s hair…which you do almost every single night. I’m not complaining, I love to have my hair brushed.  The one time you got a comb stuck in the back of my head because you were “curling it” wasn’t so good, but it was only once :)  

You are a ball of energy and you never stop! But we wouldn’t have it any other way! You are not a very good sleeper and lately  you have decided that you like mommy and daddy’s bed better than your own and you come in our room sometime during the wee hours almost every night.  It makes for some uncomfortable and sleepless nights sometimes, but the cuddles make it worth it. 

I could go on and on and on about everything we love about you… how smart you are, how funny you are, how sweet you are, etc.  But there are not enough words to describe how much we love you and everything about you.  I wish I could record every moment of your life because I know my brain isn’t big enough to hold all the memories. Since I can’t, I will remember as much as I can and continue to take pictures all the time.  Just know how special you are and how much mommy and daddy love you! You will forever be our baby girl no matter how big you get!

Happy birthday baby girl!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy 

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Resolutions for 2011

We are a few days into the new year and I’ve been thinking a lot about my resolutions.  I don’t normally make resolutions (besides the typical lose weight and save money), but this year there are some things I really want to focus on. 

• My number one job is being a mom, but this year I need to take some extra time to focus on me.  Since Alannah was born, I have gone up and down with my weight.  I’m not so much concerned with the number on the scale as much as I am with getting fit (so maybe I’ll fee comfortable in a bathing suit this summer).  I won’t lie…I despise do not like exercise.  But I do know that I feel better and more energized when I do it.  I read that it takes 21 days to form a habit.  Hopefully I can train myself to like working out :)
  
• Shortly after Alannah was born, I bought my “fancy” camera.  That was over two years ago.  Since then, I’ve wanted to learn how to really use it, other than in automatic  mode.  I have books and websites bookmarked, but haven’t taken (found) the time to read through them.  This year I want to really learn it and how to take better pictures.  Maybe I’ll even take a photography class or workshop. 
  
• I want to really work on getting our finances in good order this year.  Thankfully we paid off most of our debt before we moved.  We still have a small amount that I want to get completely paid off this year and really begin to build our savings.
  
• I’m going to cook more this year.  I’m lucky that Josh is home two weeknights a week and will usually have dinner ready when I get home on Mondays and Tuesdays (sometimes we’ll eat out one of those nights).  On nights when he is working, I will just make something quick and easy for Alannah and I, or we’ll eat leftovers.  I love to find recipes on other blogs and in magazines.  A few months ago I got all my recipes organized and made a recipe binder.  Now it’s time to start trying those recipes and cooking more on work nights. 
  
• There are a lot of projects I plan to finish and catch up on this year.  We bought our house 6 months ago and there is still a lot we want to do.  We need to finish painting the upstairs (I’ve been promising Alannah her pink room for months now), I need to organize the playroom and get it looking cute, I have a ton of frames that I need to fill up with pictures, I need to finish decorating the master bedroom. So much that I want to do in the house!  I am also way behind on my photos.  I take hundreds (maybe thousands) of pictures a year.  I back them up on an external hard drive and on Shutterfly.com.  I am about 6 months behind on that.  I also decided to start making photo books each year after Alannah was born.  The first and last one I did was 2008…oops :) 
  
• Lastly and most importantly, my main goal for this year is to find a better work/home balance.  I love my job, I really do.  But I’m finding it more difficult to be able to spend the amount of quality time with Alannah that I want, have “me” time, have couple time, work on projects, etc.  I’m considering slightly cutting my hours at work to give myself more time in the evenings.   The time when I am home, I’m going to try to focus less on what needs to be done (laundry, cleaning, etc.) and spend my time doing more quality things and staying as positive as I can.  Alannah is growing up too fast and I don’t want to miss a minute! I want her to grow up in a happy and positive environment.  

So, those are my goals for the year.  I am making a commitment to work on those things for the whole year!

Christmas Recap {in pictures}

I had almost two weeks off from work and it was great! Josh was off for a lot of those days so we got a lot of family time in these past couple of weeks.  Christmas was so much fun this year! Here is a recap of our Christmas in pictures…

Alannah and I made a gingerbread house and did some baking
 

View Full Album

On Christmas Eve we spent the afternoon at Grandma’s to visit everyone.  We went home for a bit and opened our Christmas Eve presents (PJ’s for everyone to wear Christmas Eve night).  We spent the evening at Nana’s, but before we left, we made sure to leave out cookies and mild for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  We had dinner at Nana and Joe’s and spent the evening there opening presents and having a good time!

View Full Album

Christmas morning was so much fun! Having a toddler at Christmas is the best! Santa may have gone overboard this year but it was worth it! Alannah was first surprised that the cookies and carrots were gone.  Santa even left her a thank you note! The look on her face when she saw her scooter under the tree was priceless! She rode it around the house for a bit while we ate our monkey bread.  We took some time opening presents.  Santa brought Alannah some princess dress-up dresses, so we had to take a break for her to put her Cinderella dress on.  We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon playing with toys and then headed to Grandpa’s in the afternoon for more presents and dinner. 

View Full Album

We had several days of Christmas celebrations this year, but never got tired of it! I love Christmas and I love it even more now that Alannah is old enough to understand it! The rest of our vacation was spent relaxing and doing a few things as a family.  Alannah spent a night with Grandma so Josh and I could go out.  We went to dinner and made the rest of the night a Blockbuster night.  We also went to Disney on Ice which Alannah absolutely loved! Maybe we’ll make that an annual event.  

It’s hard going back to work after that much time off! Now it’s time to plan Alannah’s 3rd birthday (after Papa’s and Grandpa’s of course).  I can’t believe my baby is going to be three! Where does the time go?