The Big Room Change

Original plan:
Move Lauren into Mya's room Christmas Eve.  Set up bunk bed in Lauren's room as a surprise for Christmas morning.
Mya would then get used to sleeping in Lauren's old bed in her room {which we assumed would be super exciting and fun for her}, and Lauren would get used to sleeping on the top bunk of the new bed.
Once Mya was used to sleeping in a big girl bed, move her into the bottom bunk in Lauren's room.
What actually happened:
Christmas Eve went as planned.....except it took them almost 3 hours to go to sleep.  Oh well, that was kind of expected, right?
Christmas night was a nightmare.  Mya was terrified of both of the big girl bed options.  Finally, at 12:30 am, the crib was put back together and we all had a "good" night's rest.
New plan:
Leave the crib up and talk up the new bed like crazy, giving her the option every day.  Decided the idea of the "interim" bed in her room {Lo's old bed} was a stupid idea and went straight to telling her the bottom bunk in the new room was her new bed.  We were preparing for this process to take weeks, possibly months.  Mom and Dad had serious anxiety.
What actually happened:
She slept in her crib for a nap, night, then next nap.  Next night, she decided she was ready for her bed.  End of story.  Now we are just dealing with little girls who like to talk and giggle for about an hour before falling asleep.  That was expected, and I actually find it quite cute {for the first few minutes, anyway}.
All that stress and anxiety over nothing.  She decided she was ready, end of story.
This kid never ceases to amaze me.  She's so different from her sister, who moved into her new bed happily, never got out, and never lost a minute of sleep during the transition.  Mya just likes to do things when Mya wants to do them.  I've never met a more obstinate child.  She gives me heartburn, headaches, and makes me want to scream from time to time.  But I wouldn't trade her for anything.
She's just Mya.  You'd think I'd be used to this by now :)

Christmas Festivities

 We tried to do a lot of Christmas-y activities during December.

Here are some little craft kits I bought thinking they would be easier than actual gingerbread house kits.

Yeah, right.  Nothing fit together and I had to find myself some serious glue to make anything stick.

But the kids sure had a blast!

  

I apparently got the worst seat to take pictures of Lo in her very first dance concert.  She's in the far right of the picture.  Next time I will be asking her teacher where she's at before I run down to take pictures.

Her class was #16 to perform, and she just kept asking if it was her turn.  She wasn't even nervous, just super excited.  I think I was more nervous than she was - she was just excited to wear makeup :)

She did great - didn't miss a step {though she was looking around more than straight ahead, as seen below} and loved every minute of performing.

And on to Christmas morning.

Since we had 2 trees this year, Santa put all of his presents to the girls under their tree.

Lauren's favorite present from Santa was her Lalaloopsy doll.  She must've been a very good girl.  It was all she asked for this year.

Bryan has decided to let the girls get me what they really want to get me.

This year it was a dolphin pillow pet.  It is my most treasured gift this year.

Lauren told Bryan it was because she wanted me to be able to hang out in "the big TV room" with her & Mya and their pillow pets.

Is that the sweetest thing, or what?

So now I have a pillow pet of my very own.  And I am not allowed to go anywhere in the house without it.

It is now hidden from plain sight for that reason.....it was kind of getting ridiculous.

But I love it, and I love why it was given to me.

Do You Speak Myan?

If you did, you'd know that:
Cor Fry = Corpse Bride
Princess Teet = Christmas tree
Eeyor = Igor
Keekabew = Tinkerbell or Jingle Bells
Geekamow = Drink of milk
Wen = Lauren
Weewen = Uniqua
Iwageekiss = I want to get a kiss
Dis Baket = "This" blanket (a pink camouflage blanket)
Woken = Broken
Susan = Monsters Vs. Aliens
Foosack = Fruit snack
{and until recently} Deedoo = Thank you {now it's "kiku"}
C Cup = Sippy cup
Dia = Darrell
Fapy Waity = Sleeping Beauty

This kid has her own language.  I think I only understand about 75% of what she's saying.  We do a lot of "OK"ing and head nodding around here.  And a lot of "What are you saying???".

Just the 3 GIRLS!

At the risk of sounding like a horrible person, here goes.

I wanted this baby to be a boy.

Really, really, really badly.

And I honestly thought it was.

I have been a lot sicker and not as tired as I was with my girls, and I'm carrying differently.

I just really, truly felt it was a boy.

So imagine my surprise when the ultrasound tech at Fetal Fotos confirmed those "3 little lines" this afternoon.

I was fighting back tears, because we're about 99.9999999% sure this is our last baby.

But you're not supposed to cry because you're having another, what I'm sure will be, BEAUTIFUL baby girl.

So that's why I feel like a horrible person.

Both of my girls are 100% Daddy's girls, and I really wanted to have a Momma's boy.

I was so sure, I had this in the cart at Old Navy last week.

Good thing Bryan reminded me it was "bad juju" to buy it, so I put it back.

But within minutes I was just excited again.

I get to have 3 girls.
I was a little worried, because I've been referring to it as a boy, and Lo also was convinced it was a brother.  We took her with us to the ultrasound, and she is just thrilled!
She got to see the baby on the TV {was completely obsessed with the gel on my tummy - would not stop talking about it} and is now all about helping us choose a name.

I told Bryan, maybe it's because I'm going to get so good at handling girl drama, that I get it times 3 {whatever you've got to tell yourself, right?}.

The sharing of bedrooms becomes not so much of an issue.

Not to mention the clothing situation

{Was I excited to buy an entire little man wardrobe?  Heck yes.  But that's OK, girl clothes are WAY fun!}

See: 

.

So I am blessed.
I got to see my little girl moving around today, and her beautiful profile.
Bryan gets to bless another cutie in the blessing dress my mom made out of my wedding dress.
I got to see a strong heartbeat and what looks to be a perfectly healthy baby.
I'm so happy and lucky.
And I'm used to girl.  I know girl.
Our house has already been invaded with princesses and Barbies - why not keep it coming, right?
And I have plently of adorable nephews to get my little boy fix.
And now, how in the world do we pick another name????

It's Time to Leave

These are the words that cause Lauren to lose her mind.
At Grandma's house, at friends' houses, any family's houses, the park, the Play Place, and even the grocery store (from time to time).
We try and prepare her very far in advance - "would you like to leave now or in 15 minutes", we count down the minutes to leave starting at 10.
We stay as calm as possible, and sometimes end up carrying her out to the car.
I am at the end of my rope with this!
Today we were leaving a friend's house and she had the most epic tantrum ever - screaming at me, stomping her feet, crying.
Luckily, my friend is very well acquainted with this behavior and has seen it happen many times, so it was nothing new to her, which makes it slightly less embarrassing for me.
I'm just so tired of it.
So I'm asking you, moms who follow my blog, moms who are way more experienced than I am, moms who I have received awesome advice from in the past.
Have at it - let me know ANY suggestions you may have about what to do.
I've already exhausted every avenue we learned about in our Love & Logic class (which helped at first, but not anymore).
So please, I beg you, HELP ME!
The Holidays are here, which means a lot of parties, and a lot of leaving houses and places that are fun.
And I will be able to get a lot of practice with whatever genius suggestions you all give me :)

Thanks, Martha

I came across this last Christmas while doing a search for advent calendars.

It's from Martha Stewart Kids, and I just loved it!

So I spent the entire year collecting 12 pairs of green, red, white and brown kid/baby socks to make it.

A couple of Command hooks, some twine, and clothespins, and voila!

 We did one of those paper ones from Walmart last year with the horribly nasty chocolate candies in them, and every night when we did them I thought "THESE ARE SO LAME!"

And I vowed to find something better, and I did.

It's just so cute!
Some of the socks have little treats {candy} in them, some have a piece of paper with an activity listed {Dec. 2 we are going to the Festival of Trees} or do something fun {coloring Christmas pictures, reading a Christmas story, making cookies}.

I get so excited to find something new, easy, and inexpensive to do for my kids for the Holidays.

I'm so excited that tomorrow is December 1st!

Just thought I'd throw in a little bit of Lolo sass

 And a sweet Mya moment :)



Daisy Dog was Found!

After the worst night of sleep in my life, as I was getting ready to take Lo to school the next morning, I got a phone call from Animal Services.  Someone had found Daisy and she wanted to check some information, and call her back.  After I hung up with her, a nice lady named Heidi called me and told me she had kept her warm and fed in her garage overnight.  I started crying - all night I kept saying to Bryan that I just hoped someone had taken her in and kept her warm.  But I was seriously worried that someone was thinking of her as an early free Christmas present.
Luckily, there are some good people left in this world.
She gave me her address, and she was only about 3 streets over from us.  Not shocking for me, since in the previous 2 times Daisy has Houdinied her way out of the yard she has been found no further than the corner of our circle :)
We had a lovely conversation with Heidi the Dog Rescuer - she said Daisy was wonderful and her kids didn't want to let her leave. 
I thought it hilarious that when her daughter spotted her in their backyard, she said "Mom, there's a little dog in our yard".  Little?  If Daisy is little, I hate to see what a big dog is :)
So, anyway, she is back home and happy, and so are we.
Who knew I loved this stupid animal so much?