9 months

Addie turned 9 months yesterday! That's three quarters of a year!! Where is the time going?!

-She's starting to slow down on the weight gain. She's still in the 60s percent-wise, but she's leaning out a bit. This is about the time that Emily did the same thing, so she may be following in her sister's footsteps (p.s. both girls had checkups this morning and Emily was in the 7th percentile for weight and 5th percentile for height... she's so petite!)... Addie's hair is also starting to come in a lot more. She's getting adorable curls in the back!

-Addie is STILL not sleeping through the night! I don't even want to talk about it...

I went to check on her on the monitor one night and had a mini heart attack!

-Addie LOVES playing! She wanders around all over the place looking for things to play with (or eat!). Playrooms are her favorite! Since my parents have a one story house, she'll often crawl into the playroom by herself (with someone following close behind, of course). She knows exactly where it is and could stay there all day! Same goes for our playroom... she really wants to be able to go up the stairs herself!

-She's pulling up all over the place and climbing on things that are short enough for her!

her sister's an instigator!

"I'll help you nana!"

-Addie has an adventurous soul. She loves being thrown in the air, twirled around, etc. She especially loves riding on people's shoulders and going for rides on toy cars, trains, etc.

-We started table foods this month and she loves them! She gobbles up anything we put in front of her. She's also starting to get some teeth on the top!

we're crazy about this happy girl!

if I sit on the floor with her, she immediately climbs into my lap :)

outtakes!

three!

As most of you know, our baby girl turned THREE on Sunday. I get emotional whenever I think about how fast she's growing! And of course, Grant had to remind me that she's now 1/6 of the way done with being at home (but she actually turns 18 at the beginning of her senior year, so we should have her until she's closer to 19!).
I already posted about her super fun twinkle twinkle little star birthday party, but because her actual birthday was on sunday, we had a whole weekend of celebrations!

On Sunday, we woke her up with breakfast in bed and 3 balloons. Breakfast in bed is a birthday tradition in our family and now that Emily's in a toddler bed, she's able to participate! She didn't know it was coming and was so excited! It was adorable! We got her a play kitchen that a friend of ours was selling and surprised her with that in the morning. She LOVED it! After church, we had my family over to do family gifts and cake! She had an amazing day! On Monday morning when she woke up, the first thing she said was, "my birthday party is over?" She's been a good sport about it... I have caught her singing happy birthday to herself a few times, though, and then she'll tell me, "I'm just pretending!" Sweet girl :)

blurry... but you can see her excitement!

we've been living in princess dresses this week!

And while we're on the topic of Emily turning 3, here are some updates on this awesome girl:

-favorites: dancing and singing, anything pink or sparkly, her pink sock monkey (she carries it around with her all day!), playing outside, dress-up, breakfast foods, her sister, watching movies, the word "why"

-accomplishments this year: became a big sister, learned all the letters and their sounds (is starting to write some letters), was potty trained, moved to a big girl bed, started preschool

-dislikes: having dirty or sticky hands, trying new foods, taking naps, timeouts

-cute practices: calls us mommio and daddio; pretends there are "scary parts" in movies so she can cuddle with us; when telling when something happened she either says it was "last night today," or "this morning today"; sometimes uses various goofy voices when talking or singing; has started saying "I'm just kidding" when she wants to get out of trouble

I can already tell that Emily's starting to leave the "terrible two" phase. It was never horrible, but I have noticed that the tantrums have decreased in quantity and severity. She's starting to understand more about why she doesn't always get her way and she can express herself better. Sometimes when I ask her to listen to me, she'll say "I want to say my words first," so I let her have a turn first and that helps. 

However, I do see her entering the "threenager" phase :) She can be a bit of a drama queen sometimes and she's definitely got some sass and attitude! 

But overall, she really is so sweet and awesome! She tells me often how much she loves me and gives the best hugs and kisses. I'm so grateful for her and everything I'm able to learn from her each day. I can't imagine my life without her! She made me a mommy and that is the best job in the world! 

twinkle twinkle little star party

On Saturday, we had Emily's birthday party! It was so much fun! I love this part of parenting :) Making holidays and birthdays fun and exciting for my kiddos is such a blast! Emily was in heaven the whole day!
We went with a twinkle twinkle little star theme after I came across some cute ideas on pinterest (especially this blog post). It's one of Emily's favorite songs and she's crazy about anything that sparkles, so she loved the idea of a twinkle twinkle little star party. She's been talking about it for months! One of the perks of having my crafty mom and sister close by is that we can raid each others' craft supplies and decorations when certain occasions come around. We were able to round up a lot of things to use for the party and we made a lot of it ourselves :) It was awesome! (and now we're in the middle of planning a 1st birthday bash for the twins... it's going to be adorable!)

Here are some pics from the party:

favor table!

each kid got a wand and a favor bag with star-shaped goodies :)

dancing around waiting for her friends to arrive

the food table... we served brunch foods

instead of a cake, we had a star-shaped donut tower

outside games

we tried candles and even prepped her and practiced beforehand, but once the lighter came out, she got too scared :(

Addie got to wear a star headband, of course ;)

I love Nils and Maddie in this one ;)

waiting in line for the piñata

spoiled girl!

Thanks to everyone who came and made her day so special! She can't stop talking about it and I think we'll be hearing about it for a long time to come!