We made it.
The whirlwind of activity, shopping, wrapping, baking, cooking, crafting that led up to Christmas. We got through it. We had a pretty great Christmas, and now it’s over. I always feel a little sad, but also a little relieved.
Nora, on the other hand, is having a hard time coming to grips with the fact that Sprinkles (her elf) and Santa aren’t coming back anytime soon. Every day she asks about them and when they’re coming again. She doesn’t understand the concept of “next year,” so I’ve tried to find different ways to explain it to her—after your birthday, when you’re 4. I’ve tried to distract her by getting her to focus on another upcoming holiday—Valentine’s Day, Easter, etc. But still, every day she asks. I’m beginning to wonder how long she will. And this morning, she cried when I told her we are going to be taking down the Christmas tree. “I don’t want my Christmas tree to go away. I’ll miss my Christmas tree,” she tells me. So this year, I guess I am more sad than relieved that Christmas is over. Because my girl—she really did get swept away in its magic this year.
And magic it was.
I didn’t get a chance to post much this month, what with everything going on. So here is a big, long recap of Christmas in (mostly) pictures. Be prepared for one of the longest posts EVER. Oh, and a note: If you’re seeing blank boxes or black boxes in place of my photos, give it a minute. I know I’m not the only one who has seen a lag in load time for photos through Flickr. Apologies for any inconvenience, but I’m not sure what’s going on with them.
On December 15, we got together at my mom’s house so we could celebrate Christmas with my grandma and aunt, who always buy for our kids. It was nice and low key, and we took the opportunity to get the first photo of all five cousins, now that Sadie is a little more sturdy. :)
I have so much love for this group of kiddos. I can’t wait to continue watching all of them grow up together.
My grandma, with two of her great-granddaughters. All in all, my grandma has 13 great-grandchildren! So cool.
Then, the Saturday before Christmas, on December 21, we realized that hello, we are running out of time to take the kids to see Santa Claus. In the grand scheme of things, going to see the mall Santa? Probably not that big of a deal. But we’ve done it every year with Nora, and I didn’t want to suddenly NOT do it now that Vivienne is here. Vivienne needed her pic with Santa, too! It’s tradition.
So, we begrudgingly braved the mall on what has to be one of the busiest shopping days of the year. We waited in line for freaking 45 minutes, then got stuck in crawling traffic as we left the mall, but HEY. We got our photo of our girls with Santa. And no one cried. I’ll call that a success. You can tell by Nora’s face and body language that she was kind of freaked out, though. Ultimately (once she was off of his lap!), she did warm up a tiny bit and told him what she wanted for Christmas. Vivienne was calm as a cucumber. She was loving the fur on Santa’s cuffs, and was mesmerized by it, touching it. I had to borrow the official Santa photographer’s bells to ring to even get her to look up. If she’s anything like Nora, she’ll throw a fit next year and won’t sit there, so we have to enjoy it while it lasts.
On Christmas Eve, we ran around like crazy people, but did manage to get ourselves and the kids ready for Christmas Eve Mass in the afternoon. The girls wore matching dresses and I discovered that although these types of outfits cost more than you’d like them to, and they only wear them once (or maybe twice if you’re lucky!), they are worth every penny. Because they are SO CUTE.
We opted to have Nora skip her nap in order to make it to 2:00 Mass. Usually, she’s OK with skipping it as long as we’re DOING something, but apparently church was not her idea of fun, so she was kind of a tired beast the whole time. Thankfully we successfully distracted her with snacks (and she did like the choir) but the end of Mass couldn’t have come soon enough. I suppose some day we will be able to relax and enjoy it again, right?
When Mass was over, we headed over to my in-laws’ to visit for a little bit and let the girls open a couple of their presents. Nora, of course, was totally willing to cooperate for presents.
She did, however, end up hitting a wall and was no longer a happy camper. This is the best she could do for a “smile” with Aunt Teenie in front of the Christmas tree. Pathetic.
I can’t wait to show her this photo some day. It reminds me a little of the “angry mouse” photo from Halloween (although that one cannot be topped, I don’t think).
At least Vivienne was happy. I FINALLY got some good photos—on our good camera!—of her smiling. FINALLY.
And then we managed to snag a decent family pic before we left to head home:
On our way home, we swung by a couple of nearby houses that have nice Christmas light displays, including this one:
At home, we let Nora watch her favorite part of The Polar Express a couple of times (she really just likes the songs—particularly “When Christmas Comes to Town”). She sang and danced and twirled and jumped… and was just plain goofy at times.
She was really in love with “When Christmas Comes to Town” last year, and “sang” to the best of her abilities at the time. But this year, she really embraced it and learned all of the words and everything. We got several video clips of her singing throughout the season, but I hope I always remember the other times as well.
When she’d sing it in the back seat of the car while I was driving. When she’d bust out in song while we were waiting in the line at Joann Fabrics, and strangers smiled and giggled at her exuberance. When she’d run and hold Vivienne’s hand at the end of the song, because that’s what the characters do at the end of the song in the movie. It was all so cute.
After some singing and dancing, we took the girls up to take a bath, then put them into their Christmas jammies. We brought them back downstairs so we could do the preparation for Santa. I took Nora outside—despite it being about 10 degrees out there—in her boots, coat, hat, and pajamas in order to sprinkle the reindeer food (glitter and oatmeal) she made in our front yard.
We ran back inside to join Michael and Vivienne, at which point I helped Nora write a note for Santa, and put out cookies (that we totally taste-tested!), milk, and carrots.
Nora was so, so excited. And we were, too. But we were also stressed because um, well, I didn’t do ANY wrapping in advance of Christmas Eve. BIG MISTAKE that I hope to never make again. Needless to say, we didn’t have a nice, relaxing Christmas Eve. I was in the living room, Michael was in the kitchen, we were both just gettin’ shit done. There was wine involved, though, which at least made it tolerable. :) And thankfully, I HAD put together the play kitchen in advance—otherwise, we would’ve been pulling an all-nighter.
Around midnight, we heard Nora over the monitor. Her typical wake-up call: “Hello? Hello? Is anybody there?” I looked at Michael, wide-eyed, as we were only about halfway through setting up her dollhouse. Nevermind that we hadn’t even gone to bed yet. I ran upstairs, and once in her room, she told me, “I’m not tired.” I knew she had to be really excited, so I explained to her that Santa had not even come yet, and that she needed to back to bed until morning. She was actually pretty agreeable, but asked for a drink of water. I got her one, and then she settled back down without issue. Thank goodness.
Back downstairs, we finished up and I think we headed upstairs around 12:20. Not TOO shabby, right?
Morning came, and Nora woke up around her normal time—like 7:00ish?
She was understandably very anxious to get downstairs to see if Santa had come. She insisted that, while she was sleeping, she had heard him and his bells on our roof. So cute. Downstairs, I made her wait a few seconds while I ran into the family room ahead of her and got the camera set up to shoot some video as she made her entrance. She was obviously NOT happy about that, but I was quick and I was so glad I did this because her reaction was too cute. (Video to be shared at the end of this post.)
Nora had an absolute blast tearing into all of her presents. And Vivienne’s, too. :)
That Baby Einsteins treasure chest is what Nora had picked out to give Vivienne. She had, of course, already “told” Vivienne what it was like five times before Christmas (secret? What’s a secret?) but she was still so, so excited to give it to her.
We finished opening presents and let Nora play for a little bit before we packed up to head over to my mom’s for breakfast and more presents. My dad drove up from Virginia on Christmas Eve so he was there to celebrate with us, too! I haven’t been with my dad on Christmas morning since… geez, I was probably only 5 years old. Needless to say, it was nice, and I think he probably really enjoyed it, too. New tradition?
Sadie and Vivienne just happened to have matching Christmas jammies—so fun!
We wrapped things up at my mom’s house a little before noon and packed up all of the new presents… so many presents… to take back home. Once home, we put Nora and Vivienne down for naps (dual naps are so glorious, by the way—must make them happen more often in 2014, haha!) and got to work again. Michael and I rearranged the playroom to accommodate Nora’s new stuff, got everything moved around and cleaned up, started the sauce for dinner, etc. My dad and brother came over to hang out and before we knew it, it was time for everyone else to arrive. We hosted both sides of our family for dinner, dessert, and drinks.
Oh, and MORE presents. We exchanged with Michael’s parents and one of his sisters. My kids are very blessed.
We had a really nice evening, and it was really nice to relax FINALLY after a couple of days of just go-go-go.
Here’s a video with a few snippets from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day:
You’d think our celebrating would surely be over now, right?
Wrong.
On Saturday, December 28, Michael’s sister and her family drove up so we got together at my in-laws’ house to celebrate with THEM, too! And guess what… MORE GIFTS! This isn’t very different from how we normally do Christmas, but this year, it just seemed like so much. Not the events themselves, but the presents. Wowzers. I have some very, very fortunate girls. We are so grateful they have so many people who love them.
We exchanged gifts and had a nice lunch and just had a chance to catch up with everyone. The kids were crazy excited for all of the new stuff they got and it was a fun afternoon.
I do love Christmas. It was wonderful to have the extra time to spend with our families, and particularly with our girls. I love and cherish them so.
I hope you all had equally special holidays. On to 2014! :)
You guys! Is anybody still even reading? I think I’m trying to set a record low for number of blog posts in one month. Busy just doesn’t even begin to cover it. I can’t even believe that Christmas is two days away!
For a couple of years now, I’ve been sharing “Christmas wish lists” of Nora’s. I figured I’d do the same this year, in case anyone is looking for ideas (um, completely last minute!) for their own three-year-old kids in their lives. Since Nora is completely into Christmas and has more of an “opinion” on toys now (which is basically that she loves them all!), we’ve had a really hard time narrowing down the gifts this year. Between Santa, us, and the grandparents, aunts, and uncles… we might be doing a little spoiling. We can’t help ourselves. I’m just sayin’.
I’ll also do a list for Vivienne, too (much harder!), but not until tomorrow.
By the way, I’m linking to all of these items on Amazon, but if you’re interested in any of them, you should definitely price shop. In many cases, the prices currently listed on Amazon are A LOT higher than what we actually paid for the item.
Here we go:
Nora has a “mini” kitchen that my brother and sister-in-law got for her for Christmas when she was 16 months old. At the time, it was the perfect size for her, and I never really thought about getting her a bigger one… until now. She is really getting good at pretend play, so I think she would love this! The price fluctuates a lot on this. We ordered it from Walmart for only $129 the week before Thanksgiving, but right now it’s listed at $229 on Amazon. Crazy! I think a kitchen set is one of those classic pretend play toys that nearly every kid should have. We’re actually planning to put both Nora’s AND Vivienne’s names on this since we believe that both of them will get many years of play out of it.
We apparently got one of the last ones available, because I’m told Fisher-Price is discontinuing this particular model. They’re still available from some retailers (I linked to Amazon above), but the price is very high. You can get the Fisher-Price Loving Family Dream Dollhouse for much, much cheaper than that! I saw it at Toys ‘R’ Us for around $50 today. I’m glad we ended up getting our hands on one of these, though, simply because I like this style better. Would it have mattered for Nora? Nope. :) This dollhouse (and the other version) has a ton of available accessories out there, so we put a bunch of them on Nora’s wish list that we shared with family. I think she’s going to end up with a well-furnished house.
Nora and I were “shopping” on Amazon together one morning a few weeks ago, and she randomly told me she wanted a purple guitar. She’s really into performing for us recently, so this should be funny. And probably annoying sometimes, but whatever. :)
Nora has been memorizing her books for months now, and “reads” them to us instead of the other way around. We figure she might want to give the Tag Reader a try so that she really CAN “read” on her own! :)
We haven’t seen this yet, but I scored it for $10 on an Amazon Lightning Deal on Black Friday. I don’t ever mind having Disney movies in the collection—plus we heard this one is pretty cute.
Nora is big-time into school right now. She can’t WAIT to go to school. She’ll go to preschool three mornings a week next fall, but until then, we put this little backpack on her list. I read in the reviews for the LeapFrog Tag Reader that this thing is actually the perfect size to cart around the Reader and the associated books, so that’s its primary purpose—although I’m sure she’ll find a multitude of uses for it.
Nora is so excited for Christmas this year. I seriously cannot wait to see how she handles opening all of her presents!
Every year since Michael and I moved in together in 2005, we’ve sent out photo Christmas cards to family and friends. I think. And every year, our list gets longer and longer.
Back in the day, the card consisted of a nice photo of the two of us that we had snapped sometime during the year. And once we got Tessa, she was featured, too.
When Nora came along, she became the star of our Christmas cards. I did my own photo shoots with her at home, dressed festively and posed nicely. Or, at least as well as you can pose a baby/toddler.
This year, I decided kind of last minute that I would like to do another family photo session with our favorite photographer. Just a mini session, to get a few snaps of our family at this point in time. Vivienne had already grown so much since her newborn photos three months before, and plus we could use the photos for our Christmas cards! I ran the idea past Michael, and luckily for us, our photographer was already planning a Saturday afternoon of mini sessions. So off we went, on a chilly Saturday in early November, to meet our photographer at one of the only spots that seemed to still have a ton of colorful leaves on the trees. We rushed around as she arranged us into different poses, and 20 minutes later, we packed back up into the car to get warm and head on our way. A week later, the photographer sent us our photos, and I was thrilled.
So worth the money. As family photos always are.
Next up was to choose a Christmas card design. Before I could get too far, I got an email from Tiny Prints, who generously offered to let me choose one of their cards for our family’s Christmas card this year. It was my lucky day! Tiny Prints has so many beautiful designs. I browsed their site for quite some time and “tried on” several cards, easily inserting our photos and customizing the cards. Eventually, I narrowed it down to three choices and showed them all to Michael. Here’s where we ended up:
The greatest thing was how many different photos we were able to use! There were so many good ones of the girls, and we had a few family favorites as well. It was so great to have a way to share a variety of them on our Christmas card.
We love the way the cards turned out. The photo/print quality is great, and the paper is nice and thick. We mailed them out earlier this week and we’ve had a lot of phone calls and texts about how wonderful they are. Thanks, Tiny Prints! If you’re running late and still don’t have you cards done, I encourage you to check them out.
Oh, and just a quick thing about mailing the square cards because I thought this was really cool. Normally, square cards cost more to mail—and that extra postage adds up! But Tiny Prints offers you the choice to get special rectangular envelopes that are made for square cards, but don’t require extra postage. The square cards still fit snugly into the envelopes, but you save money. And we could all stand to save a little money around the holidays, right?
As for the photos themselves, it’s nice that they aren’t Christmas themed, since we can now display these in our house all year round! There are some favorites that are definitely going up on our walls. And I am now convinced that fall really is the time of year to do family pics. Before now, we’ve had them done in spring, summer, and late summer, but never fall. The colors are outrageous. Although you’ve already seen several of them on the card, here are a few in their “full size”:
This photo is ridiculous. Michael and I were dying over it when we first saw it. It is my favorite photo of Nora of all time. I mean, who is this little girl? The hand, the hip, the HAIR… the sass! Just ridiculous.
I love this candid! Nora is all about giving her baby sister kisses—all day, every day. “I want to kiss her!” she tells us. And who are we to argue.
Nora’s pose kills me in this one, too. All the photographer said was, “Hug Mommy’s leg!” and somehow she ended up with her foot like that. I mean, REALLY?
Vivienne didn’t crack a real smile the entire time, but it was cold and she was probably a little bit like “what the heck, guys?!” Plus there was so much to look at out there, with us dancing around and the nature and all. Next time! I already can’t wait to get more pics done, hopefully in the spring. I wish we had more professional photos taken of us when Nora was smaller. It’s not that we don’t have that time documented—we have thousands and thousands of pictures we took ourselves—but now I can say with certainty that there is no such things as too many pro pics. No.such.thing.
Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays, everyone!
Or at least I think I do. That’s what I keep telling myself.
We had Vivienne’s 4-month well baby doctor’s appointment this morning and the pediatrician was THRILLED to hear how well Vivienne has been doing in recent weeks. The little chunk-a-monk (I’m sure she’ll appreciate that nickname when she’s older!) is regularly sleeping all the way through the night at the moment. We’ve still had a night here or there when she’ll wake up once, seemingly wanting to eat, but all in all, it seems like she may be growing out of that.
The bad news is that it appears that cutting milk products out of my diet made a big difference. Just like so many of you suggested it would. And so I am officially off of milk products for the foreseeable future.
*sigh*
It’s only been three and a half weeks since I had my last bite of delicious milk-laden food, but it feels like it has been FOREVER. It has been both harder and easier than I ever thought it would be. My diet still feels so, so limited. A lot of the things that we used to eat on a very regular basis are a no-go, even with modifications.
Still, I’ve managed to find a lot of things to help fill the void… in the sweets department, anyway. I found a chocolate chip cookie recipe that substitutes coconut oil for butter that certainly did the trick. And a “brownie in a mug” that is also made with coconut oil that could turn out to be seriously dangerous. I’ve also been known to eat a tablespoon of peanut butter with semi-sweet chocolate chips (Wegmans brand is dairy free, woot woot!) to satisfy my sweet tooth in the evenings. Or just chocolate chips by themselves, actually. But Christmas without Christmas cookies and cinnamon rolls and chocolate… wahhhh. And I guess I should figure out what I’m going to eat for dinner on Christmas Day, in lieu of the lasagna we have planned.
I think I miss pizza the most. Which is ironic considering I didn’t even like pizza until I was 10 years old. (Before that, it had always made me gag. Go figure.)
Our pediatrician did say I could start to “test” foods with milk in them at my own discretion. She said she would definitely avoid things like ice cream and cheese, but that I might be able to get away with the products that say things like “Made in a shared facility with milk products” or whatever. I might even be able to get away with “baked milk,” which would be things like… cookies! But who knows. I’m kind of scared to mess with a good thing. I guess worst case scenario is that things go awfully and I just quit ALL milk ALL the time again.
I’ve had a couple of people ask me why I wouldn’t just give up breastfeeding since a restricted diet is such a pain in the ass. I guess it’s a fair question, since it’s not like formula is the devil. But the thing is, with the milk sensitivity and reflux in question, we would likely have to experiment to find the “right” formula for Vivienne, which also sounds like a pain in the ass. And expensive. Not to mention that I’ve been blessed with the ability to make milk—and enough of it (at least for now)—for my baby, and I would like to take advantage of that.
Besides, this is all temporary. At SOME point, I will be able to eat all of the world’s dairy again. There are many people out there who can’t. Ever. So even if I do have to put up with this for another eight months, it’s not the end of the world. It’s nothing to cry over.
If I have to continue with the restricted diet, will I make it to a year of breastfeeding like I did with Nora? I don’t know. I may not be able to, simply because of supply issues. With Nora, once she started solids at 6 months, I definitely noticed a drop-off in supply, and as time went on, there were days (most!) when I was dipping into my freezer supply to make her bottles. I was taking out more than I was putting in. That was fine at the time, given my large freezer stash. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been able to build up the start of a cow’s-milk-free freezer stash, too, but there still remains the issue of the 600+ ounces of cow’s-milk-filled milk that may or may not be able to be used. And if I get to a point when I have to supplement anyway because I’m not making enough? Eh, I don’t know what my decision will be. I won’t ever say never.
I have my fingers crossed that this is something she will outgrow sooner rather than later. The pediatrician said that they see significant improvement in a lot of babies by 8-9 months old, so… maybe?
Until something changes, I’m just going to count my blessings. Giving up milk products seems to have saved us from looking at other (scarier!) reflux meds, a trip to a pediatric GI specialist, and has resulted in better sleep and a happier, more comfortable baby. When you look at it that way, it’s a worthwhile sacrifice.
Disclaimer: Before the baby safety police come after me, let me just say that in that one photo above, I KNOW sleeping with loveys/blankets up near her face like that is unsafe. It actually gives me a heart attack, as I think I am one of the most SIDS-paranoid people you’ll ever meet. But sometimes, it is the only thing that will put her to sleep when she’s fighting it. We move them away from her face once she’s sleeping, and/or keep a very, very close eye on her. It’s only when we’re WITH her. We do not let her do this in her crib alone at night. Believe me.
Dear Vivienne,
I fall more and more in love with you every day.
You are growing into such an interesting little character. There are times when you just won’t stop smiling. I can look away, putting on makeup or drying my hair, and I can see you out of the corner of my eye, just smiling at me for no reason at all. Then, there are the times when we try ANYTHING to get you to smile… like, for instance, if we’re trying to take your picture… and you will stare at us with the most serious look on your face. Getting photos of you smiling is a huge challenge, but it’s one that I have certainly not given up on.
We had kind of a rough month in the sleep and reflux departments. We alternated weeks of horrible sleep and incredible sleep this month. Shortly after I wrote your 3-month post and called you “chill,” you became anything but chill. At least at night. It took me a full week of broken sleep and nighttime battles with you to realize that you were uncomfortable due to your reflux. We increased your meds, and it was like night and day—suddenly you slept 12 hours a night, straight through, for the first time ever. I thought we were in the clear. Then, after five days of that, you suddenly went back to being up all night again. It was terrible and exhausting and at times I thought I might lose my mind. I had a lot of hard moments during those nights. (I admit openly that I do not handle sleep deprivation well. At all.) You had a cold, so we weren’t sure if that was the cause of your reflux flaring up again so soon, or if it was something else. To try to make it better, we pulled out all of the stops: humidifier, baby chest rub, a big increase in your reflux medicine, and… I gave up all foods that contain milk products. Mommy can no longer eat cheese, cereal, cookies or… well, A LOT of things.
It’s not fun. But I’m doing it for you! After all of that, you gradually improved and now, for the last week or so, you’ve been doing fantastic again. You’re back to sleeping 12 hours through the night, but we’re still not sure what made you better—the increased dose of medicine, the cold getting better, or my giving up dairy. We’re waiting it out until your 4-month well baby appointment and then the pediatrician said we can “test” it by maybe eating some dairy and see how you react. I’m not sure how that’ll work yet, but we’ll see. I want to be able to eat at least SOME dairy, but I also don’t want to mess with a good thing!
When the sleep troubles first began at the beginning of the month, we moved you to your room. You’re sleeping in your own crib now! It was hairy at times, having to go all the way down the hall a million times, but it worked out and I’m glad we’ve made the transition. You still like to be swaddled, though! We tried one arm out for a while and it worked okay, but when I tried two arms out… nope. Your reflexes are still too strong and you still don’t have enough control of your arms and hands. They flail all over the place, you poke yourself in the face repeatedly, and you wake yourself up. So back into the swaddle you went. I’m not going to stress about it. I know you’ll give it up when it’s time.
Anyway, when sleep is good, it’s GOOD! You wake up in the morning—or we wake you up—with a huge smile on your face. As soon as we peer over the side of the crib and say good morning, you light up. It’s adorable. And Nora loves to be part of it, too.
You have started to giggle. God, it is the cutest thing. It’s over the silliest things, but not always the same things. You get bored quickly, I guess. :) You love when people talk to you. You smile at pretty much everyone when you’re in the mood to!
You continue to grow and grow and grow. When you were weighed a few weeks ago, you were 12 lbs., 8 oz. You go again on the 11th for your 4-month well baby appointment so we’ll see where you’re at then. You still fit into 0-3 month clothes, but it is starting to be a tight squeeze into some of them. I need to get down into the basement and pull out the 3-6 month clothes and wash them! The few 3-6 month things that we have put on you are a little big, but they’re certainly not ridiculous! You’re getting so big so fast. I can’t even take it.
You have been doing so well at Mary’s. And you’ve found your voice! We noticed this past weekend that you were doing a lot more squealing—when you were both happy AND upset—and Mary noticed the same thing today. When I picked you up, she said that you were going to be exhausted tonight because all you did all day was squeal and squeal and squeal. You seem SO CLOSE to rolling over but you haven’t done it yet.
You’ve really started to notice the world around you. I saw you “discover” Tessa. You stare at her and are completely fascinated by her. You’re grabby now, grabbing and holding onto anything you can get your little hands on. Your hair is filling in on top—you have a fuzzy little head—but from all the movin’ and shakin’ that you do, you’ve also succeeded in rubbing off the little hair that you DID have on the back of your head.
We’re gearing up to celebrate your first Christmas, which will be magical. I’ve always loved Christmas, but I love it so much more now that I have you girls. I can’t wait to take you to church for Christmas Eve Mass and watch you as you hear all of the Christmas music and the homily. It’s so beautiful and spiritual. I remember getting choked up as I sat in that pew during Nora’s first Christmas, and I anticipate feeling the same way with you.
There’s something so very special about you, Vivienne. I don’t even know how to describe it, but when I’m rocking you or holding you and we just stare into each other’s eyes… there’s a bond there so strong that there are really no words for it. And this probably goes without saying, but you are SO STINKIN’ CUTE. You’ve grown “into yourself” so much and I think you’re so cute that it actually makes my heart ache a little bit to look at you.
I can’t wait to keep watching you grow.
With all my love,
Mommy
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
