16 Month Mark!!!

• Daddy taught you how to say "shit" and Mommy thinks this is absoluetly hilarious...BAD Mommy!!
• Favorite pastime- chasing the dogs, mostly Jazelle, around the house with a wooden spoon...also hilarious
• New this week- Blue's Clues (YAY) and Somersaults

Walkin' and Talkin'

To add to her 'bye-bye' wave, lil baby Ariya has started to SAY 'bye-bye'!! She doesn't say it often and hardly ever when she is actually going bye-bye but that just makes it even sweeter!!
Ariya has also started to walk! She is very determined to get this down!! I have seen her walk at least 5-6 steps!! And when she falls she gets right back up to try again!!
Other things
- She is and has been afraid of the dogs (I think it's because at this point they are still bigger than her)
-She knows when it's time for nite-nite and she puts her head on my shoulder right before I put her in her crib
-If she pulls my hair/earrings, etc and I yell "OUCH" she will put her head on my shoulder like she's sorry. This doesn't seem to just be a product of the yelling because if I yell for other reasons (like at her sister, lol) it doesn't bother her.

These are just a few of the things we have going on right now. I just wanted to jot them down while they were still fresh!!

HAPPY EASTER!!

Happy Easter everyone!!!
Hope everyone had an awesome time on this BEAUTIFUL day!! The weather was perfect!!
Thankfully I got to enjoy some of it at my grandparents house before I had to go to work!
Taylor was in the yard playing catch with her cousin Bailey and for some reason the baby thought this was THE funniest thing!! It makes me so happy to watch her with her big sister!!!
Ariya is almost 9 months old now!! She has been standing by herself for about a month now!! We have seen her take a step but she can't really get past that yet! I'm sure she'll be walking in the next month or two!!
She finally started waving bye-bye a week or two ago. I knew she could do this with her hands because I would watch her open and close her palm while laying on the floor, but for the longest time she wouldn't wave bye to anyone. She has it down pat now!!!
She is still eating and tasting all different kinds of foods. She still takes her bottle but mostly just in the morning, night, or right before a nap. Otherwise she would rather have her sippy cup with apple juice or FOOD!! The girl loves food, although you cant tell because she is so skinny!!
Taylor had her spring break from school this past week so I was happy to get to spend some time with her.
She is growing so much and is always such a big help with Ariya! Of course Ariya LOVES her big sister and tries to crawl in her room as fast as she can anytime Taylor leaves her door open!
Working weekends is still working really well for us. Tonight (Sunday) for example, Jason came downtown to eat Koren (they closed all the other places closer to the house) and he brought the baby up to see me!! Of course I love to show that baby off!! I miss them terribly while I'm here but I am so thankful it's only 3 days a week and I get to see the baby both before and after work because she is usually awake!
I'm very excited for summer to be here and I am really enjoying the weather now before it gets so unbelievably hot! I cant wait for Taylor to be on her summer break so us girls can spend our days at the pool!! 
Hope everyone had a fantastic day
~til next time!

Weekend recap!!

Quick update:
   Ariya is now almost 8 months old!!! She has 2 teeth, both on the bottom. We also think she has 2-3 more coming in, two up top and one on bottom, which is great for her because this child LOVES to eat!! I dont mean baby food, I mean things like mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, oh and chocolate!! If she realizes you have food she's your best friend!! I think because we always let her taste whatever food we are eating she's decided baby food is just too bland and if she doesnt want it she is NOT going to eat it, stubborn little thing.
Daddy just took her on a trip to New Jersey to see all of her aunts and uncles and my poor little baby came back with her first cold :-(  Other than being a little fussier than usual she's doing fine with it.
While Daddy and baby were gone I took the oppourtunity to spend some time just me and Taylor. I surprised her on Wed and signed her out of school early then took her horseback riding!! She was so excited when she realized what we were going to do!! She's never ridden a horse before so this was the perfect thing to surprise her with!! We went on an hour long guided walk through the woods. Taylor was on a brown horse named May (lol) and I was on a white horse named Pumpkin! It was a ton of fun!!
As always I'll try to post pics soon, although I'm horrible at remembering to do it!!

Where does the time go?

   Taylor's 12th birthday is on Tuesday and I am SO excited!!! I am going to get her out of school a little early so that I can take her to get her nail and hair done!!! Then after Jason get's off we are going to take her to her favorite place to eat...Wasabi's!!! Yum!!! Her party is not until Saturday but I'm excited about that as well because Jason is going to a friends house to watch the UFC figh, so I have a few girl friends coming over to keep me company while Taylor's having her party. This will be the first night I have taken off of work since I have been back and I'm super excited to have a weekend night off!!! I have a TON of work cleaning the house to get ready for this party but I have plenty of time to do it!!

   Ariya gave me a kiss for the first time this past week. It was the sweetest thing! She just leaned forward and put her lips to mine. For a minute I thought I was going to cry!!! She has only given me a few kisses since then, stingy lil thing!!  I was singing 'Hush little Baby' to her one night and she kissed me like two or three times without me even asking!! lol she was probably trying to get me to shut up!!!
Now if I ask her for a kiss she bends her head down so that I can only kiss her forehead, smart lil baby!!! I am having so much fun with her!! If I didn't have health issues and pregnancy wasn't such a pain I would seriously have another!!

Sorry but I'm still being slack on pictures and videos!

Almost Forgot

In the last post I forgot to mention a few of the newest things baby Ariya is doing

   1.) Her new FAVORITE thing to do is to scream at the top of her lungs. Scream not cry and I don't mean when she's hungry or tired or wet, but during play time and especially when she is standing up.  If I'm laying on the floor with her she will come over to me, stand up and then spend a good 30 mins screaming and letting everyone know who she is! She has also learned that screaming gets her attention so she has also started screaming "ahhhhhhhhhh" if she is in her exersaucer and is ready to get out. It might sound annoying but it really is the cutest thing!! (I'll try to get video of this posted soon)

  2.) She thinks it's HILARIOUS if you tell her "No", as soon as she hears this word she will give you the biggest grin. I'm pretty sure she knows she has us wrapped around her finger already and all she has to do is show us that sweet one tooth smile for us to cave.  Oh and as with most babies her least favorite things to play with are her millions of toys. She would much rather be playing with everything else, like computer cords (that one is her favorite) or anything else she can get her hands on that she's not suppose to have. Needless to say she is starting to the the word "NO" more often.

   3.) She has found her thumb. She's almost 6 months so it's not like she just found her hands or anything (she likes to look at them while I'm giving her a bottle) but within the last few days she has mastered the art of popping that little thumb out and sticking it in her mouth. She occasionally sucks on two of her fingers but it's the thumb sucking I want to avoid most. Ever since she was born she has refused to take a pacifier (thank goodness) so this new thumb sucking really surprised me. I'm hoping it's just a temporary thing that she gets over quickly. Taylor never sucked her thumb or used a pacifier so that's not a road I want to travel down this time around.

   That's it for now. I'm sure she'll do something in the next few day and I'll absolutely feel the need to  post about

2012 Already??

Jeez where does the time go??
    Ariya is already almost 6 months old!!! I LOVE seeing how she is growing!! Even though I work every weekend because I have 4 days off I truly feel like a stay at home mom. Changing my schedule was one of the best things I could have ever done for my family!!
    Within just this last month she got her first lil tooth (which daddy found first...punk!!!) and I think she has another coming in cause she has been a lil fussy for daddy over the weekend while I was at work.
  She has also figured out how to go from a crawling position into a sitting position. Now I only work 3 days a week and OF COURSE she picked the time I went to work to figure this out for the first time...Thankfully daddy was nice enough to capture the moment for me!! Jason is really good about sending me photos or videos of her while I'm at work cause he knows I don't want to miss a thing!!! I can't tell him enough how much I appreciate him doing that for me!!! 
    2012 is here and we have a lot of things to look forward to in the next few months.
    Taylor's birthday is coming up this month and she will be 12yrs old. yikes!!! The crazy hormonal teen years are about to be knocking at my door!!!

 Sitting up for the first time while I was at work!! Lil squirt!!!

Thinks she's a big girl pulling up on things!!!

    My birthday is in March and the our 3yr anniversary is in April!! Oh and the most exciting thing we have planned for this year is in May! We are taking the kids to DISNEY WORLD!!!! I CAN NOT WAIT!!! I haven't been since I was 13!!