Babies Everywhere

Throughout the 9 months I was preggo with Jillian, we had, if I remember correctly, 17 other babies being born in Sunday School class. And that doesn't count a few other new friends that have joined our class since their little ones were born, but are the same age - or even my other friends that have little ones Jillian's age. So needless to say, Miss Jillian is blessed with lots of friends and I am blessed with lots of mamas going through the same stages as I am. A few of the girls in my Sunday School class planned a baby playgroup so these little ones can start to get to know each other and so the moms can have fun too! I didn't get a great picture of all the kids together, but I am sure there will be lots of other opportunities to get a few!

Museum with Daddy

Last week, Neal had the day off for President's Day, so we planned a fun day. We started with Doughnuts for breakfast (Meredith had been begging to go to the "Donut Store") and then we headed to the Museum for the first time since we had our passes. It was much more crowded than when we went the first time but was still so much fun!

Meredith was most excited to check out the grocery store and do lots of shopping (here she is checking out with all her loot!) Again, it was very crowded, and this is a very popular spot for kiddos, so they were out of buggies. I was so proud of my sweet girl, who just waited patiently for someone to be done. She waited and waited and waited forever! Finally, Neal convinced her to use a hand basket instead. I was so proud of her for not snatching a basket, for not throwing fits that she wasn't getting her way, and for not having a breakdown that she had to use a different kind of basket. I am one lucky mama!

Jillian loves all the stuff that is made just for tiny ones - here she and Daddy are playing with the buttons on the bubble tubes.
Sweet sisters playing together

This face makes me laugh! Meredith worked hard at cutting up a cup and a coffee filter and taping them together and testing out her flying device in a wind tunnel. Hers flew really high and I guess she was very pleasantly surprised!

Jillian's 9 month pics

These are a little late coming because both Jillian was sick and Adrien's family were sick around the time we planned to take these, but here they are and I am so happy to have more beautiful shots of my girls! As always, I am beyond thrilled with the fantastic work from apmdesign Photography!

Meredith wanted to get in on the photo fun, so she hopped in and then there was lots of fun pulling off hats and bows. I love how this shows my girls just having fun together!

Guess who wanted to take part again?
Much to Aggie Adrien's disgust, we pulled out a Longhorn dress we have a cute pic of Meredith in at this age, I think she did pretty well in capturing this considering Jillian was beyond done at this point and since Adrien was not too excited about the wardrobe choice! :)

Jillian is 10 months old

Valentine's Day was also Jillian's 10 month birthday. I feel like this month was really monumental in taking Jillian from a baby and forming her adorable personality. She hit lots of milestones - she started waving and even sometimes waves and says "Hi" if I am holding her while answering the phone. It makes me laugh every time. She loves to clap, both for herself whenever she does something good and to any kind of music. Also when music is on, she loves to dance - which means she is either bouncing on her knees or shaking her head back and forth. If you shake your head like she does, she will do it over and over and laugh and laugh. She also learned that this is what a clock does - if you say "Tick Tock" she will start her head going too. She loves giving kisses and entertains herself by playing peek-a-boo with anything that she can hide behind.

Her little wave with her cute little tongue-out concentration face.

She also broke out her first two teeth on the bottom which she is loving to test out on crackers and cucumbers and other little munchies.

Showing off her new teeth

Happy Valentine's Day

We were very thankful to spend Valentine's Day at home in our warm house once the electricity came back on! We had fun as a family just spending the day together and then heading to have dinner with the whole Geurin clan.

Here are two of my three favorite Valentine's sporting their matching "My Heart Belongs to Dad" shirts!

SNOW!

The end of last week was such a surreal experience for a native Texan. We had record-breaking snowfall. Starting Thursday morning there were what seemed like constant flurries until Friday evening. Needless to say, there was more snow on the ground than I have ever seen in Texas. It caused a few problems for us, including a 36+ hour power-outage at our house and lots of downed limbs in our backyard. But mostly we enjoyed our time in the snow!

First up on the snow to-do list was making a snow man. She and Daddy also loved having Snowball fights and playing with Coki in the snow.
Jillian supervised the construction of our snowman from a stroller.
Meredith had the most fun accessorizing the snow man
The family with our snow man

After dinner that night, I made us Snow Cream. The excitement Meredith showed here ended quickly. We all got a little ooged out about eating snow, but it was still fun to make!
Here was our snowman after another night of snowfall
Froggies came in very handy in the deep snow!!

On Friday we headed over to Gigi's house to try to keep each other warm (her power was out too, but came back on before ours, luckily). We kept up the snow play after we got there, which included heading one house over to recreate my favorite memories of snow as a kid - sledding down the neighbor's driveway! It wasn't quite like I remembered it, but Meredith (and Jillian) were both excited to try it out!

Jillian, the snow bunny ready to go for a little sled ride.
Then it was Meredith's turn! We really needed ice to make it work, but they still had a blast.
Making snow angels
We made another snow man at Gigi's - he wore Papa's hat, so we named him SnowPapa.
Giving SnowPapa a kiss.

Meredith's Valentine's Day Party

Last Thursday was Meredith's preschool Valentine's Party. This time even Jillian got to join in the festivities!

Meredith enjoying her Happy Meal lunch and Jillian trying to sneak a fry.
All the kids got to decorate (and more importantly eat!) these heart-shaped cookie lolli-pops. It was a definite hit!
Meredith and her friend playing Valentine Bingo, which was made so much more fun because you got to eat the M&M markers at the end!

Meet Meercat

Neal loves to check out the meercats every time we go to the zoo and any time we go without Daddy, we make sure to swing by and see "Daddy's favorites." A few weeks ago, Meredith found this stuffed Meercat with her other animals and immediately took it to Daddy - just in case he wanted it. From there, she has insisted that Meercat (who was at first named Mary, and then suddenly become Joseph, but most often he is just Meercat) stay in our room at night. Then Meredith told Neal that he needed to cuddle with him at night time. And every morning, she makes sure that Meercat goes to work with Daddy, she instructs him to allow his friends to play with Meercat, to share his lunch with Meercat, etc. I am sure there are lots of guys out there that would have said no to any of these requests, but I watch Neal walk out the door every morning with Meercat tucked in his pocket, listen to him tell Meredith stories of Meercat at work, and watch him scramble to get Meercat up on the pillow each morning before Meredith comes into our room.

Neal has started taking pictures to send to Meredith during the day to see what Meercat is up to. He even took him on a work trip last week and pulled out Meercat on the plane.

Meercat had lots of important calls to make.
Neal getting a little help from Meercat
Meredith made sure to tell Neal that he had to make sure he was all buckled up on the plane to keep him safe.

This is one of the many reasons that I love Neal so much and that his little girls just adore him and light up when he walk into the room.

Cuties at Play

I am a little behind on blogging, so here are just some fun pics that I have since the last post of my two sweet girls just having fun around the house!

I love my Tuesday and Thursday mornings when just Jillian and I play while big sis is at school. Of course, I love it when Meredith comes home to join us too!Meredith was excited to get her tent out last week - and Jillian didn't miss a beat to climb right in too. I am loving watching them have so much fun together.
I think this look is telling us to not judge her crazy-static-end-of-the-day hair.
Jillian loves to sneak off and play with Coki's crate. This picture was one Daddy snapped right after she climbed out which she thinks she is pretty hilarious! Gonna have to keep that door shut from now on, I guess!