Girl Time

I've been having a blast with these two girls this week. Shelby has been out of town, so we've had a lot of "girl time". Randomly throughout the day Georgia Claire will say "dada" and look at me...I think that's her way of telling me she misses him! :( Shelby will not be able to get out of the child's sight when he gets home!

I captured this picture of GC yesterday playing in her Sonic shades...

She makes me laugh out loud!
This morning when I went to get Georgia Claire out of bed she had taken off her pj pants. When I went over to get her she sat on the bumper pad and started moving her little diaper booty back and forth across the rails of the crib. Then she would stop, put her hand over her mouth and laugh and do it again! Hahahaha! Once again, I was laughing out loud. So, fast forward to getting her out of bed after her nap and this is what I see...

doing her dance...
Tonight we played in Georgia Claire's room for over an hour, reading books, working puzzles, playing with her babies, playing with the nativity, dancing to music, etc. She wanted Ivy (or I-ee as she says) to sit beside her so that she could "read" to her...as you can see they both THOROUGHLY enjoyed themselves!
Every time Ivy started laughing she would look away...

Ivy Jane laid back after being read to...
Georgia looked at me and said, "no no!"...she knows what she's supposed to play with and what she's not!
Miss Fashionista...as her Aunt Heather says, Georgia Claire LOVES accessories!

AND, walking all the way down the hall with the popper...
Sweet big sister giving little sister a kiss. These babies are what I prayed for and having this time with them is priceless.

Four Months Old

Today marks four months that Ivy Jane has been a part of our life. What an incredible blessing this baby girl has been to us! She has THE BEST disposition...happy & content (if momma is close by) and is growing and changing every day. Saturday morning she rolled over for the first time! Today she started laughing and smiling at Georgia...and the more she smiled and laughed the more Georgia wanted to perform. Oh what fun times are in store with these two little girls!

Asleep in her carseat tonight...

And she fell asleep again while I was on Facebook...WITH her thumb in her mouth! =)
Ephesians 3:20 "Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope." God has done MORE for me in the last two years than I ever thought was possible! I give him the glory and I am excited about the opportunities to serve him with Ivy Jane & her big sis as they grow older and learn more and more about him.

Milestones

Georgia is having a BLAST walking all over the place. She still falls down a lot...it's like her ankles buckle and she goes down, but she gets back up and tries again and again! She still crawls and knee walks, but I think it's more out of habit than anything else. My brother-in-law Andy (the Principal) tells me that Georgia Claire is going to be a good reader. Studies have shown the longer children crawl the better readers, etc. they are...has to do with left-brain right-brain development and how the body uses both sides of the brain to work together. Crawling is really all about coordinating the two sides of the brain with every forward movement-right arm to left leg etc. This apparent whole brain physical activity teaches the 2 sides of the brain to work together which is important when it comes to reading ability, speed, and comprehension. After all we have 2 eyes that are each governed by a different side. Interesting, huh? She LOVES to "read" already...I find her in her room many times sitting with a pile of books around her. As a former school teacher, that makes me SO HAPPY!

She's wearing her braces A LOT and I know it's helping. I'm SO glad that my sister Angie (the Occupational Therapist) suggested I look into physical therapy for her. Those braces have been the best thing for her! AND, she's SO good about wearing them! I didn't know how that would go over but she sits patiently and lets me put them on...not an easy task!

This first picture is blurry because she was coming so fast that I had to back up quickly! I love the expression on her face...

Ready or not...here she comes!
This is HUGE...her hips and knees and ankles are all weak. In the past when she wanted to get up she would knee walk over to a piece of furniture and pull herself up. Now, all I have to say is, "Stand up and walk!" and she pushes herself up from the floor! That tells me that she's getting stronger! (notice Baby Jesus on the floor...we got out the nativity from Shelby's childhood and she LOVES IT! I found Mary in her dirty clothes basket tonight!)

Ivy Jane is also doing lots of tricks! She is on her tummy a lot and is holding her head up SO WELL! She's VERY close to rolling over. Does she look like Shelby or what?!
Happy Baby...Momma can get the best smiles out of her...

So Much To Be Thankful For!

Thanksgiving has almost come to a close for 2010 and again I reflect on the "things" I am most grateful for. To say that God has blessed me with a great family would be an understatement. This time last year we were so thankful for sweet Georgia Claire and now we have precious Ivy Jane to add to the list. I am thankful for my loving Lord knowing exactly what we needed, even when it looked somewhat hopeless to us. I am thankful that He blessed us with the miracle of adoption and then just 6 months later He blessed us with another miracle-pregnancy. Other things I am thankful for...a 17 month old FINALLY learning the art of drinking from a sippy cup, Ivy's belly laugh, a great sleeping routine for BOTH girls, the way Georgia not only says "Hi-dee" but "By-dee" too, the way Georgia says "Yeah yeah yeah yeah" when you ask her if she wants to do something, braces to help Georgia walk, Ivy's cuddling, teaching Georgia manners and hearing her say, "be" for "please" after we redirect her whines, watching Georgia play with the nativity and saying "Jees" for "Jesus", the way Georgia stops what she's doing and goes to Ivy when she's crying, and the list goes on and on and on.

I am also so incredibly thankful for Shelby and the provider that he has become at the young age of 33. I am thankful for his work ethic. He wants nothing more than to make his girls happy. He sees the importance of me being able to stay home to raise our girls-he knows that makes me happy and also makes our babies happy. He loves his job and does it so well that he has been rewarded for his efforts. I'm so proud of him. I'm thankful for the 11 years of marriage and each mountain we've had to climb and each valley we've had to walk through. He is my best friend and I love him so!

We made our yearly trek to Granbarry & Mimi's house Tuesday night after Shelby got off work. I got the girls bathed and in the pj's before we left thinking they would sleep the whole way (or most of it). Ivy Jane did but Georgia Claire played, sang songs, read books, etc. Shelby and I joked about our choice of cd's lately...it used to be things like Coldplay, John Mayer, and David Crowder, and now we listen to songs like, "The Wheels on the Bus", "Little Red Caboose", and "Old McDonald"...I will say it once again, "TIMES HAVE CHANGED!"

We always take pictures for the Braman family Christmas card during our Thanksgiving visit. We took advantage of our color coordination and took some extra pictures! (Ivy Jane was laughing and Georgia was looking at us like we were crazy as we were singing, and dancing around behind the camera trying to get her to smile.)

Heather (Shelby's sister) and her sweet boyfriend Julian. Georgia loves both of them...Ivy will too, I'm sure!
We have all kinds of things in the car to try to keep Georgia entertained. Here she is talking away on her cell phone (my old BlackBerry)...
And here she is in some sunglasses from Sonic & her cat...
And here she is drinking juice telling us "Shhhh" with her finger beside her nose instead of on her lips because Ivy was sleeping...
Heather baked her first loaf of bread for our Thanksgiving appetizer...OH SO YUMMY!

Ivy Jane (or should I say little Shelby?!) and her great-grandma...

Grandma brought Georgia some beads...
After our Christmas pictures, I gave Georgia my scarf...she thought it was great!
When we got home tonight Georgia immediately started playing with the Fisher Price nativity that some friends sent us on Thursday. I had to take pictures of her version of the manger...I got a close up...she was pointing and laughing...notice the angel is not on top of the manger, the shepherd is! She also added another Fisher Price little person and the merry-go-round for close-up seats to the Baby Jesus! =) This makes my heart happy!
After baths, Ivy Jane fell asleep on a blanket sucking her thumb...
And Georgia Claire disappeared to her room only to come back (knee-walking) with Scout and three books to read...
Thank you Lord for the BOUNTIFUL BLESSINGS you have bestowed upon us. This life you have given me is what I prayed for..help me to soak it all in and count my blessings each and every day!

17 Months on the 17th

Oh my oh my how much fun has our life been these last few days?! Georgia Claire is 17 months old today...she is growing and changing right before our very eyes! It makes me sad in a way but it's also lots of fun! We got her ankle braces on Monday and she has been a champ! She doesn't like putting them on but once they are on she doesn't seem to be phased by them...thank you, Lord! After shoe shopping on Tuesday for 4 hours while she was at MDO I came home with a pair of purple low top converse. They were the only shoes I could find that would open wide enough to fit the braces inside! I never dreamed it would be so hard! The bad thing is that Georgia is in a size 4 (almost 5) and I had to get a size 7 to accommodate the braces. I'll keep looking...have gotten a couple of tips from some friends about taking out insoles and getting extra wide width. I'm not going to go out and buy a lot of shoes because we feel like she won't be wearing them long! Last night she took 9 steps 2 or 3 different times and today she has been taking 5 to 7 at a time. Tonight we were all four in Ivy Jane's room and Georgia Claire decided to walk clear across the room. It was hilarious...Shelby said, "look!" and we both just stood there with our mouths open as she glided across the room (like a beauty pageant contestant) looking at us! I scooped her up and we hooped and hollered and she squealed and laughed...THE BEST thing ever! Here's a couple of pics of one of her braces & her shoe...

Caroline & Georgia are becoming BEST buddies! The older Georgia gets the more fun they have together.

I asked Georgia to give Ivy a kiss and she kissed her bunny at first...
Then I said, "No, give Ivy a kiss!"
She was SO proud of herself!
Mom has a Christmas village that she puts above her kitchen cabinets every Christmas. The kids LOVE it and LOVE when she gets all of the houses down from the attic. She & Dad always put them on the low countertops in her sewing room for the grandkids to admire for a few days before they go above the cabinets on display. Georgia LOVED it this year. Here she is in her footed pj's scoping it out with Paw Paw.

We always ask her where Smokey (Mom & Dad's gray beagle) is and she points to the gray dog laying on the porch of one of the houses...
I asked her where Paw Paw was and she found the man on the green tractor! YEP! That's Paw Paw...
Dad asked her where the birds were and she pointed to them and said, "teet teet!" Such a smart girl!

I lost her for a few minutes today while I was changing Ivy Jane's diaper and here's what I found...digging in Momma's purse!

Momma's shades are a little big...
Then I got her in some play clothes and she decided to read a book to Ivy...
And pat her head...
We walked and walked today. When I ask her if she wants to walk she says, "Yeah yeah yeah yeah!"

Checking out her shoes...
We had our church's Thanksgiving meal tonight and we walked and walked around while waiting to be served. Even Luke & Mary Katherine walked with Georgia. They are SO SO SO sweet with her!