Valentine's Cuties

Our first attempt at Valentine's photos for this year. I definitely got a few adorable ones, but it was much too cold to be outside long... especially for the baby. So we will try again for some of all three girls. Today, I asked Vivi what she wanted to do and she said, "Well, I do NOT want to go outside and freeze my tootsies taking pictures in the snow!" Poor Minnesota photographer's kiddos haha.

Snow Day

The forecast was for 5-10 inches of snow. We got 11 inches! And we woke up the next morning to the most delightfully sunny and almost pleasantly warm morning! So, of course, we donned our snow gear and headed out to play just after breakfast. There was lots of throwing fresh powder, licking mittens filled with snow, and crawling "puppy trails" in the yard. The girls had a blast playing, while we shoveled the driveway. Time to invest in a snow blower so we have time and energy to join in the playing next time!

Jumping on the bed

As a third baby, Edie can sleep through a lot of noise, but even I was surprised to see her sleep through the big girls jumping and pillow fighting on the bed haha.Golly, I love them! Vivi and Lulu had the time of their lives with the pillow fight. They napped for over 3 hours after! Win win!

18 months

Our little Lulubean is a year and a half old! We just love her to pieces. She really is living up to her names meaning and "lights" up our family. 

At 18 months:

• Lucielle can smile her way out of almost anything... which makes disciplining her adorably hard. Also, the second she is disciplined, she gets these giant weepy tears that fling from her eyes.
• Big sissy Vivi is Lulu's best friend and listening to them play and giggle makes me insanely happy. They do fight and yell "no" often at each other, but really get along well and I pray they will always be best friends.
• She is learning new words everyday. The one's we hear most often are pretty much food related haha "please, bite, more, water, mine, and thank you" although she is starting to put together phrases like "where are you, love you, and no thank you"
• Foxie is her favorite toy. Blankey is the best for snuggles. And with both of those, she sleeps 12-13 hours a night, and takes a 3 hour afternoon nap. 
• When getting her shots she cried and cried and said "no thank you!" haha. Pathetically polite.
• She loves books.
• She loves to play dress up in princess dresses, carry a purse or backpack, and/or play hide and seek.
• She is giving out hugs and kisses more freely.
• She has a very excited dance whenever Papa gets home from work.
• She likes to look at pictures and videos of herself. 
• She couldn't get more excited about seeing puppies but when she gets a chance to get close to one, she is terrified haha.
• She loves babies and points them out whenever we see one. She does NOT like when Mommy holds a baby. 
• She LOVES to go outside and asks to everyday. She stands at the window and says "outside. snow. jacket. birds. play!"
• She likes to point out "dots" when she wears polkadots.
• She's a climber and pushes chairs and stools over to use to climb on the kitchen counters or on her dresser in her room. Uh oh!
• She is starting to feed herself with a fork/spoon, but would rather I feed her because it's faster. 
• Her favorite foods are: eggs, yogurt, banana, bagels, olives, pickles, berries and cheese. If she doesn't like something, she will spit it out and say "yuck!"
• She tells us after she has gone "poopy" and says "ick" haha. Maybe potty training will be easy? Let's hope so!
• She has all of her teeth minus her 2 year old molars. 
• She loves to smell things: particularly candles, scratch n sniff stickers, and essential oils.
• She is our precious gift that we love so dearly!

Snow Play

17 Months

Whoops! Looks like the last couple months have flown by! I forgot to do a 16 month post. Lucielle has really grown up and become so fun! She is a firecracker with strong opinions who is fiercely independent and loves to make people laugh.

At 17 months:

• Lu loves big sissy. She follows her around and they are beginning to play together.
• She is starting to show her independence about food. She used to eat any and everything we put in front of her. Now she licks every new food we feed her to make sure she likes it before she "commits" to eating it haha. He favorites lately are soup, grapefruit, bananas, black olives and apples with peanut butter.
• Foxie is her beloved toy. Blankey is a comfort. And a baby-doll or ball or balloon would be her plaything of choice. 
• She is super chatty... but not all real words. She a baby babbler. She is starting to put together phrases like "here you go" "sissy, where are you?" and "love you!". She probably says about 30 words. And to be honest, they are mostly words that we understand but no one else would haha.
• She loves to remind us to pray before each meal. It's so cute! She puts her hands together and says and signs "help" because the sign for help is similar to folding your hands to pray. 
• She has two decibels. Loud and LOUDER! She pretty much yells everything. Especially if she's happy haha.
• We've nicknamed her "tumbleweed" because she's ALWAYS falling over. I think she has a bruise on her forehead at all times. She hasn't quite figured out how to put her hands out to stop a fall. And she runs full speed with her belly sticking out.
• She loves to be tickled softly on her back or belly. It's one of the few times she will actually sit still.
• The only other time she will sit still is for a book. 
• She's mastered going up and down the stairs so we no longer have baby gates up. Yay!
• She makes the funniest facial expressions. My favorite is her crinkled frown when she tried to mimic us winking at her.
• She is a fearless little daredevil. She loves to climb and go down slides and go sledding. She, however, is TERRIFIED of being upside down haha.
• She LOVES LOVES LOVES playing in the snow. She's a Minnesota baby for sure!
• She is still a great sleeper but two naps has become too many, but one nap isn't quite enough. We've started a "two day without a morning nap and then a day without one" routine. It seems to help. On the days that she takes only one nap it is a little over 3 hours long and she sleeps from 7pm to 8am. Heaven!
• She has 13 teeth and her other 3 eye teeth are days away from breaking through the gums. 
• Lulu loves other babies, but hates when Mommy holds them. Which is a total bummer because I think every single one of my friends either just had a baby in the past month, or announced their pregnancy. So I've got lots of opportunity to snuggle newborns if my lovie Lulu would let me haha.
• It may seem like a silly milestone, but she sat still enough to watch most of her first movie the other day... Frozen. She's seen bits and pieces of movies here and there but she has a really short attention span and loves to be busy. But, just like big sis (and every little girl in America) something about Frozen had her captivated.

Brian built a little "slide" for sledding in our back yard. It has been a big hit with the girls!
We had some fun this weekend during the really warm (37 degree haha) weather. After some sledding, we had a little snowball fight. My poor baby was an innocent bystander until Papa got a little off target and she took some snow to the face. I've got to admit, it was pretty funny. She was a good sport about it and still LOVED playing in the snow after I brushed it off her.

Snow Day

After a brown Christmas, we finally got snow! So we invited the cousins over for some snow day play! Lots of snow angels, tobogganing, pulling Lulu in the sled. Then we warmed up with hot cocoa and mini marshmallows and watched a movie. A perfect winter break day! It's so sweet to watch my girls play with their older cousins and to see how patient and fun they are with my little girls. Viv especially LOVES to play with Eliot and Olivier and asks often if they can come over. I never grew up with cousins around, so this is really fun!

 Holding hands while going down the hill!