Sunshine 2012 - Part 1

We still haven't figured out a good routine for visiting family. Between Kansas, Minnesota, Colorado, California and Arizona we never have enough vacation time or money to make all the family and friend trips we want to each year. Why of course this is a good problem but me being the guilt filled person I am always worry that we aren't getting around to see all the family and friends we very genuinely want to see. This year we decided to try something new. We took a nine day vacation starting in Palm Desert then finishing in Phoenix. All in all it was a fabulous vacation and we thank our very generous hostess and hosts! After Southwest four our lost luggage (for the second straight trip, not that I'm keeping track) we were ready to start the first half of our trip in Palm Desert.

My inner Mary Ruth comes out before vacations when I layout clothes, make packing lists, etc well in advance of when a normal person packs. I suppose Amelia picked up on my actions and decided she of course needed to pack. Amelia loaded up her baby doll crib and pushed it around the condo telling us it was her suitcase. Why she is naked with a towel around her I have no idea.....

Once we made it to JuJu and Poppy's both girls took good naps and when they woke up they were ready to start vacation.

Fashion according to Amelia; pick out which ever clothes and accessories have the most colors and patterns then top off the outfit with lots of purple. Oh how I wish I had a picture of Amelia's outfit when she went on a special afternoon date with Poppy. He took her up to the clubhouse for a golf car ride and snack. According to JuJu she was wearing her princess dress with her Bears shirt underneath it and her winter stocking cap. Apparantly she got many comments on her outfit. Poppy treated her to a chocolate chip energy bar and her first Coca Cola. Not only was she in hog heaven she was wired when they got back!

A sunset round of golf with Poppy was well worth a four hour flight!

Amelia loved the putting course so we spent lots of time riding the golf cart to/from the course and watching Amelia perfect her swing.

By now you are probably wondering where Baby J was? She was busy going to urgent care to get a prescription for her pink eye. It wouldn't be a Lang Family vacation without checking out the local healthcare facilities. She didn't let her pink eye ruin her vacation!

A short two weeks shy of her first birthday we decided to do a practice birthday party with the grandparents. Poor Juliet was still bumming from her pink eye so she just kind of stared at the cupcakes

I know the day will come when I watch a car drive off with Amelia behind the wheel and Juliet in the passengar seat playing DJ but we are a long way from that! Thank goodness the golf cart wasn't on or I think the girls would have been ready to go for a spin.

Papa made the drive from Phoenix to pick us up for the next leg of our trip. The only complaint I have is that we weren't in either place long enough. So although we were super sad to say bye to California it was time to head to Phoenix.

January

We have no dull moments in the Lang household thus January has been no exception...

Amelia is wanting to grow up way too fast for our liking. She constantly wants to do what I am doing; put on make-up, put on chapstick, etc. Although I do wear clothes. Mark and I were starting to get excited that we were nearing the end of Amelia's latest "naked" phase. However the naked phase has been replaced with the change outfits phase. On weekends we can go through at least six outfits in one day. All of which are hand selected by Amelia. None of which match.

Seriously? It was nice enough in Chicago in January to go to the park. It was heaven for all of us to get out of  the condo, feel some sunshine and run off some energy.

GranAnn and her little girls ready to race down the double slides.

She is mobile! No more leaving Juliet for a moment to run and throw a load of laundry in. She is  crawling all over the place and tries so hard to keep up with her sister.

Play cooking and taking care of her dolls are  at the top of Amelia's favorites list these days.

The girls fighting over string cheese. Never mind that we had a full package of string cheese so there was plenty to go around. Being a sister to a sister I know darn good and well that this is just the very beginning of many years of pointless fighting....

Amelia making real pizza dough with her daddy so we could host Sophia and her family for a pizza party.

"Baby J what's wrong?"
We do try to give our girls nothing but the best nutrition; nursing, homemade baby food, organic milk, etc. However at some point you just have to introduce them to Kraft mac-n-cheese. So what was wrong with Baby J? We wouldn't give her any more baby crack aka Kraft mac-n-cheese. Watching her eat Kraft mac-n-cheese for first time was hilarious. She had Mark, Amelia and I all in tears. We would give her the bowl full, she would tip her head back, dump the mac-n-cheese on her face and shovel it in her mouth as fast as her cubby hands would move. I think the onesie is trashed and we have a carb and fake cheese addict in our house! Strike two against us in raising kiddos with healthy eating habits....

Christmas 2011

We celebrated Christmas in style with my dad in from Phoenix, Merrill from Lawrence, JuJu/Poppy from California and their favorite cousin's Georgia and Charlie. The girls were good and spoiled. I was feeling very cleaver after I put a bunch of their gifts away in a closet and thought I would just pull them out over the next few months. Amelia didn't ask for the hidden gifts so I figured I would get away with this move for one more year. Then out of the blue yesterday she starting asking for specific gifts. So much for that idea.....

Thank you grandparents for all the wonderful gifts!!! We have two very happy girls with all their new loot.

Gingerbread houses are becoming an Amelia/Papa tradition.

The final masterpiece.

Hitting the road to JuJu/Poppy's for Christmas Eve.

Ah, a family photo. Now we just need to all be in the same place at the same time, all showered, with someone who has a camera and actually get the girls to look at the camera.

Those four grandkids can turn a room upside down in 2.2 seconds. Add a room full of presents and platters of JuJu's cookies and they can really do some damage!

EE's favorite present this year, a new niece!

Merry First Christmas baby! All she wanted were her two front teeth and they came in just in time.

Amelia preparing her first beef tenderloin in "Papa's Kitchen" or so we allow him to believe.

"Papa's Sous Chef" was taking her lessons very seriously....

All Amelia wanted for Christmas was a Dora kitchen. I didn't want a Dora kitchen sitting in our small home so we opted for the IKEA version and were a bit nervous she would have a meltdown Christmas morning. Low and behold she had long forgotten the Dora kitchen she saw at Target and is in love with her new kitchen. She takes her cooking very seriously and pizza is her latest specialty. If you are wanting a pizza with pepperoni, M&M's and orange watermelon (aka cantaloupe) you know where to come....

Trying out a new hair style.

Waiting for Santa

It probably comes as no surprise that we spent December getting ready for Santa and all the activities that go along with his arrival.

"Look! Little Christmas trees just my size. Can I pick one out?" We were feeling in the Christmas spirit so we left the garden store with two Christmas trees. Amelia was very proud of her colorful tree!

The Rainforest holiday show was a hoot as always. As you can see Amelia's class had a country theme and clearly Amelia was the cutest cowgirl in the class with her skinny jeans hand-me-down cowboy boots from her Aunt Jennifer.

Our cowgirl with her BFF Sophia.

She has enough hair for pigtails (well almost)!

There are always those kids that corrupt the other kids around them. JuJu and Poppy's grandkids were those kids while waiting for their holiday photos to be taken.....

Making gingerbread men with Georgia and Charlie.

Juliet was the only one who listened to Aunt Bobbie's directions. Charlie wanted to get his hands on Juliet's Cheerios...

Apparently in Chicago the schools have pajama day the day before Christmas vacation. I don't know this to be  a fact but Amelia's daycare did, Georgia's did and I saw a picture in the Tribune of kids at school in their pajamas that day so that seem like enough schools for me to say it is a Chicago thing....

Dear lord they were all hyper at the idea of wearing pajamas to school!

We were really looking forward to not knowing who presents were for on Christmas morning as someone couldn't be kept away from the presents and managed to pull tags off the gifts on a regular basis. Never mind that some of the wrapping paper was nice and dissolved from a teething infant...

Amelia is Three

I am in total denial that our little turkey baby is already three. I know this isn't about me, but seriously how can it go by so fast???? Literally it feels like yesterday she almost arrived on Lake Shore Drive. As much as I tried to pretend like she wasn't really turning three I finally had to accept it and celebrate her third in style! The festivities were kicked-off with early presents from JuJu and Poppy. The doll potty was a total hit and all her "friends" have been busy learning to use the potty. Next was her classroom celebration of mini-cupcakes, balloons and a round of happy birthday sang by her favorite people (that would be her classmates). For her actual birthday we had no plans and just wanted to make the day special for her. Okay, maybe my life these days didn't allow for birthday party throwing so we did try to make her feel very special. I'm thinking next year we actually need to get our act together and throw the girl a party. For the love, I'm a Christmas baby so you would think I would respect a holiday birthday and not just couple her birthday and Thanksgiving together. We will pick of the therapy bill if she discovers being a holiday baby isn't so cool.

I think she was pretty happy when she woke up to a pile of presents and balloons. So the balloons were leftovers from Randy's surprise birthday party the night before. I don't think that is lazy parenting but rather resourceful.

This picture hits at who Amelia is right now; She is wearing mismatched pj's she picked out, drinking milk from her new Walgreen's tea set that she thinks is the greatest toy she has ever gotten, has a donut she requested (but of course didn't touch) and has plate of fruit salad waiting for her (that she of course ate all of).

When people asked Amelia what she wanted for her birthday she would respond, "I think I get M&Ms." When she told Papa that on the phone I full expected a wrapped bag of M&M's. Of course that would not be good enough for Papa's "favorite oldest granddaughter." Oh she got an M&M dispenser full of M&Ms that said, "Amelia's B-Day." She couldn't do anything the entire day without getting an M&M first. We hid the dispenser when we got back to Chicago and for some reason she hasn't brought it up. I'm thinking it will be something we bring out when she has friends over, etc. However she did manage to tell her teachers about it so I know she hasn't forgotten....

Amelia's grandma's both know how much she loves her dolls these days! JuJu picked out a big sister/little sister set. Amelia has taken to little sister and likes to pretend like she is Juliet. GranAnn spoiled Amelia with red headed Bitty Baby and doll crib. Amelia can spend an entire day putting her "babies" to bed so this was a perfect present. My mom made the bedding in the girl's room so she used the scraps to make matching bedding for her new crib. Seriously, she should sell her stuff on Etsy as it is great!

Juliet liked the balloons.

Amelia's birthday fell on teh Saturda after Thanksgivign and after naps were over it hit me that I really hadn't done much in three days. I inherited from both of my parents the inability to sit still. I was going stir crazy and needed out. When I discovered that Teller's had a kid's menu with all of Amelia's favorite food I convinced Mark to take the family to Teller's for Amelia's birthday dinner. Hey, maybe Teller's isn't the logical place for a 3rd birthday dinner but it is a special place for Mark and I and happy parents mean a happy child. Right? Oh yeah, and we had two doting sets of hands to help Mark and I enjoy a dinner out :)

Yum, birthday tiramisu!

We even let our hired helpers eat and drink.

Amelia got her first Shirley Temple. Merrill and I LOVED drinking Shirley Temples as kids and feeling so grown up. It seemed only natural that Amelia would have her first one with Merrill and I. Maybe now that she is three she will learn manners......