This is a bit late but I was going through pictures and saw this.  My baby at 18 months!!! Her first day of nursery:( actually no :(... HOORAY!!! She loves it and I love it! But I am definitely sad she is this old.  Where does the time go?

Nap time!

So this morning the two big kids were off at school and it was just me and Lena.  Lena's been sick since last Thursday night so we've just been taking it easy and having lots of naps:)  Today we were hanging out in her room and I got up and, while putting some clothes away (not looking at her) said, "Ok, Lena, time for naps."  Then I hear, scurry scurry scurry. I turn around and see no Lena...???  I new she couldn't have gotten far and would have noticed her walk out of the room...so I look behing her crib and what should I find??  Little Lena sitting against the wall and her crib HIDING from me with a sly smile on her face!  TOO FUNNY!  I guess she's been paying attention to the big kids when they play hind-and-seek:0

This is our recreation of that moment...This was her second nap time and Bailey was in on hiding this time too:)  This morning Lena was crouched by where Bailey is standing not making a PEEP!:)

 

 

 

Peek-a-Boo!

 

My Little Kindergartener:)

Well, Piper is offically a Kindergartener!  I have been highly concerned about sending her off this year but it has actually been ok!  I was sooooo worried that she would be too shy and not feel comfortable with all the kids and a new teacher and being there ALL day and how would she do with lunch and recess and...  But the first day home from school she said..."Mom, this was the BEST day EVER!!!  You should go to Kindergarten, it's so fun! You really should, Mom.  It's the BEST!"  She told me her favorite part was riding the bus home:)

 

Here she is at meet the teacher the Friday before school started

 Aug 27th - First day of School!!  Off we go in the bike trailer:)  I was the only kid that biked my kids to school:) but hey I didn't get stuck in traffic:):)

 Waiting to go in

 Piper's seat!

 So I was FULLY expecting and episode when I tried to leave so I lingered for quite a while (oh P.S.  Bailey was really cute...she found an open seat and just sat down ready to start class - not worried about sending her to school:0) Anyway, I figured it was time I leave and so I said bye to Piper.  She started to have a little fit but I think it was just for show and I said that I really thought she should think about it before she started in on a fit and she stopped, thought about it, and said ok bye mom!!!!!!!!!   Um, where's Piper?  I COULD NOT believe it!  Seriously that's IT.  For her WHOLE life she had had a BIG fit when I try to leave her somewhere...church, babysitter, alone with DAD, preschool (that was a mess everyDAY!  I guess she was FINALLY ready to be a big girl! WHAWHOOOOOOOOOO (not sure how to spell that)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  (Although I must say, even though I didn't want to deal with crying and what not, I WAS a little sad that she didn't.)


Me leaving - her coloring:)

Back from the BEST DAY EVER!

Happy Birthday Lena!

Our little Lena has turned ONE!!!! Not sure where the time had gone!!!She sure has been a fun little addition and DEFINATELY keeps us on our toes:)I call her my little spitfire because that is JUST what she is!!!  She is a little devil baby that knows what she wants and WILL get her way whether we like it or not.  I'm still not quite sure how to parent her, she's thrown me for a loop.  I remember when she was born and she was screaming like they all do... I remember thinking there was something different about her scream...it was more, I don't know, determined.  And then they finished all there test and wrapped her up and gave her to me and she fussed a little but then I craddled her in my arm and she just looked at me, stopped crying, and closed her eyes and went to bed.  I didn't dare MOVE!  Even then I somehow knew she was content -DONT MESS WITH HER.  So I fell asleep in the most uncomfortable possition possible:)  But you just can't help from laughing at her determination and falling head over heals for the little stink! 

She is definately the smartest of all my babies - no offense to the others, they were smart too - but Lena is a genius!  haha don't all moms think that of there babies:)  Seriously though, she will study something and figure it out - I guess a good word to describe her is DETERMINED.

So on to her birthday day!  We celebrated by getting her one year picture taken, which I'm sure she loved:) and then had half of the Gerratt's over for cake and ice cream (Mutual/cub scouts was that night)  I think her favorite part was just playing with the big kids:) it was pretty precious - she was in heaven!

On to the Birthday cake - I was SURE Lena would just DIVE in...not the case:(  I think it was late, she was already full, and there were to many people watching.

Seriously, do I have to eat this?!?!?So she wouldn't have anything to do with touching her cake so Curtis was feeding her with a fork...then I gave her a little ice cream...then Curtis gave her a little cake and...SCREAMING, CRYING, VERY MAD BABY!  So I picked her up and she attacked my icecream.  I guess she wanted ice cream not cake for her birthday!

Back to school presents from Grandma and pa!  They were in HEAVEN! Thank you!

We tried again - SUCCESS!

Recent photos

So I figured I should post a few more recent pictures of the girls...  Love these of Lena:)  Here are her before and after shots:)  I wanted to try out my new camera so I got my little model ready and we headed to the park for some nature shots.  I know I know I am NOT a good photographer:(

Yesturday we played HARD outside.  While I was weeding our HORRIBLY over grown with weeds flowe beds, the girls got to play in their little blow up pool...after a while I thought we should spruce up the play a little so I told Piper and Bailey to get out of the pool and I was going to move it over to the bottom of the slide.  Piper, being the little debbie douter that she is at times (why change a good thing right?), was questioning my logic but I just kept telling her "it will be fun I promise."  So with the pool at the bottom of the slide and the hose on top of the side - Voila!  We created a perfect back yard water park!  They loved it and after a little bit I heard Piper say to Bailey in a very amazed and 'i can't believe it' voice, "mom WAS right!  This IS fun!"  Yeah!  Every once in a while I have a good idea up my sleeve:)  Anyway, this is a shot of Piper at "rest time".  Pretty cute!  I guess our water park wore her out:)

 We set up the tents to kill some time before dad got home and thought we'd try Lena out in them... I don't think she liked it.

 Too bad she has sisters that MAKE her like it:)

 And my little tom-boy:0  I think she's going to be a keeper in Curtis's eyes;)  She just about cried on Saturday when I told her Curtis was going to go ride his motorcycle at the track and she couldn't go. 

 I'm thinking she gets to go next time...look at that form!!:)

My Favorite People:)

Summer's here!  And we are so excited to live it up!  We've started off the summer with a bang from going to the beach(not my favorite and probably won't happen again for a while:0), to swimming, making jam, going to the splash pad, bike riding, and LOTS of BBQ ing!  It's been a hoot and we are determined to live it up before Piper has to be boggled down with school:(  Here are some recent pics of my FAVORITE people!!

Little Miss Lena...a certain big sister who's name rhymes with Hyper thought she needed to get dressed up too.  Lena didn't mind until 5 seconds after she got the snow white dress on it was time to get on a new dress - then she decided it wasn't all that fun:)

Happy Dad's Day to the best daddy!  We had so much fun celebrating out dad last Sunday and I THINK Curtis had a good one (except for the "accident" Bailey had in her underwear...it involved smearing:) - I'm sorry but he just HAD to know how HORRIBLY potty training was going...after a week of such horror for ME, it ended Sunday!)  The girls LOVED making Curtis's presents this year...the 1st were crush bottles filled with treats that he got to take to work for snacks.  We had a real hoot making that one...I think we ate more than made it into the bottles;)  And their second gift is a picture frame with all of our hands cut out.  The girls were SO SO SO excited to give it to Curtis and then tell them whose each hand was - it was pretty cute.  Even after they had each gone through it and all of us had moved on Bailey ran back, grabbed it and I saw her sitting on the couch talking to herself, going through whose hands were whose.  Thank you pinterest!  We're so grateful for Curtis - he sets such a good example for the girls and they have so much fun with him!!  Thanks for being such a great dad!!

Munchkin #1.  Piper is SUCH a big helper!  And SOOOOO good with Lena!  I just love her to bits!

Munchkin #2.  Bailey is a little stinker and into everything but is constantly making me LAUGH!  Even when I'm pretty ticked, there's a giggle trying to escape because she is just that hillarious!

Our little "school" is going very slowly haha!  But we are still attempting to spend some time each week doing letters and activities.  This was for the letter D for...Dinosaurs!  I made "fossils" and the girls got to dig them up and the dinosaurs and then match them up.  It was fun.  I think I had more fun than they did:)  And then WE (yah no diet that day!) had Dino nuggets for lunch.  Bailey was highly concerned about having DINOSAUR nuggets but we warmed her up to it:)

Ok so again my crazy kid...it's like 100 degrees outside and she's wearing a sweater...go figure!

So there ya have it!  That's what we've been up to.  I'm sure there are so many more adventures to come!!!  like COLORADO! Whoot Whoot:)

What's New

I keep not blogging because I have SO many pictures to go through and I can never pick just one to post!  So here is my attempt at snagging a few to show what we've been up to...

Little Miss Lena is 9 months old!  (this is her lovely 9mo pic:) 

She is a SUPER fun baby!!  I wish I could freeze time right now because she is just soooooo fun.

So far she scoots everywhere and pretty fast too...not crawling yet but gets up on all fours ready to and then decides it's easier to just scoot:)  She smiles at everyone and everything and is always happy. She LOVES playing with her sisters and loves to explore.  She such a little spit fire and really has a feisty personality...she'll let you know what she's thinkin'!  At her 9 mon check-up she was 14 lbs and 1 oz so she a tiny thing but LOVES to eat so go figure!  She pretty much eats anything I give her except peas - for the moment...I'm working on that one:) 

All-in-all - she's a keeper!

 Little Miss Piper turned 5 in April and we got to celebrate ALL week long!  It was pretty fun!  On her actual B-day we celebrated with cake and balloons and lunch to McDonalds and she got to open family presents.  She woke up that morning all mature and so proud that she was finally 5!  It was cute but I was worried a little that she thought she was TOO big and wouldn't like her present, Snow White dress up, but she came around:)  Then on Saturday we had a SMURF party at the park!  She loved it and LOVED having all the attention for once:)  Just before (maybe 2 weeks before) she turned 5, Piper learned to ride a bike without training wheels!  She's a pro now!  It's pretty cute to see her whizzning around on it.  She just beams whenever a neighbor sees her riding and loves when they make a big deal out of it.  She's the biggest helper ever and loves to teach Bailey new things.  She is such a good big sister!  Piper loves to pretend play and usually pretends she's a mom.  She'll make a good one some day.  Every day we've been working on a little "school" activity and after naps Piper and I have been working on reading and she's starting to get it!! HOORAY!  I'm so proud! and she is too:)

Bailey is seriously the funniest, cutest, and happiest little munchkin!  She ALWAYS makes me smile.  About the same time Piper learned to ride without training wheels, Bailey learned to pedal her tricycle!  She is soooooo happy to be able to ride with Piper now.  This day we were out playing and Bailey found a snail...I saw her riding along and talking to someone saying "it's ok, it's ok."  I asked who she was talking to and she said her snail!  If you look really close to the picture there is a TINY snail on the back step of her tricycle.  She said she was taking him for a ride! haha!!

She hit a bump and the little guy went flying:( Here she is looking for him in the grass.  She probably looked for 5 minutes seriously concerned for the little guy.  Luckily I was able to talk her into him probably going home to eat lunch with his mommy.

So I guess that's what we're up to here in the great state of Texas!