Happy New Years

Happy New Year! We are very excited to start 2009. The girls are getting so big so fast that we can't wait to see what 2009 brings. It seems like 2008 went by way to fast. It is amazing how things change in just one year. Looking back at this time last year we were in our home in North Carolina with no intention of moving. Natalie was a little over a year and a half entering the terrible two stage, Izzie was a tiny little baby just 2 months old. I was about to start my leave of absence not knowing how staying at home full time was going to be.

Now just one year later, we have moved to Texas and the girls and the dogs are all settled in. Natalie is almost 3 years old, she is potty trained, sleeping in a big girl bed and talking nonstop. She is not a baby anymore! Izzie is trying to catch up to Natalie badly. She is walking, actually she runs now. She dances and has started to talk (more on that later). She loves whole milk and all kinds of food and she loves to feed herself (more on that later too :-). I survived a year staying at home and Aaron is enjoying his work at Dell. We miss NC, all the friends and family we have there but we are starting to make some really good friends in TX so it is starting to feel more like home. So we are very excited to see what 2009 has to offer and we are looking forward to watch the girls grow up and all their new adventures. Although I am a little sad to see that my babies are growing up.

We have been spending the holidays mostly at home. We had a great time with Sue and we were sad to see her go. Hopefully she will come back next Christmas. Natalie keeps talking about Grandma so I know she misses her. Natalie has been busy playing with her new kitchen. She plays with it all day long, making us foods and now she has started feeding all her stuffed animals too. So cute watching her play. Izzie is trying to play along but she does not really understand the whole pretend food playing. So she tries to eat the play food and when she can't bite it or it does not taste like food she looks at us like we are nuts. She is starting to realize that we are just faking it but she still takes bites and tries to drink from the cups.

On some exciting news Izzie has started talking. Natalie was a late talker so it is amazing seeing and hearing Izzie talk. It is funny because she is so little to be running around and now she is talking, amazing. Here are the words that she knows: apple, help, papa (for parker), abu (I think she was trying to say Abi but Abu came out first, either way my mom is very excited), abi (she later said it right ), up, milk. It seems like every day she repeats something else. The funniest is when she says help. She says help for anything that she wants. Like help is the magic word that gets her whatever she can't reach. She is starting to become more independent too. Today for dinner she wanted a yogurt, because Natalie was having one. But she did not want me to feed her. Needless to say she made a mess. She gave up on the spoon and was putting her hand into the container trying to grab the yogurt with her hand and then trying to eat it. I had to take some pictures!

Well I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve we hope to see you all in 2009!

I was trying to get some pictures of the girls in their new dresses from Titi Nilda but Izzie was a little cranky. Thank you Titi Nilda for the dresses!


A blanket and a paci made things better for Izzie


Natalie then wanted pictures with her kitchen


Natalie playing.....


Izzie likes the pretend fruit


Coffee and sandwich time for the animals.....


Lillian came over to play so the girls had a little tea party


Izzie trying to eat the yogurt with a spoon


moving on to use her hand


what a mess, although in the picture you can't see the yogurt in the hair......