Jaina's Birthday

We crammed a few friends into our little house (Reilly's 1st birthday was easier; we had it outside!) and made sure that Jaina had pictures of her first birthday. :) She enjoyed the cake, and the presents (though not as nearly as much as Reilly did) and is enjoying being one. She still seems like such a baby to me, especially since she's not walking yet, but I don't give her enough credit. She is growing up so much and so quickly!

Enjoying her cake...


Getting so unsolicited help from big big brother. He had been asking for "cake!" ALL day...


Isn't she cute? (and cleaner than her brother was after his 1st cake...)

Reilly testing out one of her presents...


Angry at Daddy for not letting her hold the phone while she talked the Grandma and Grandpa.

Picture Post

So... we're very busy around here. Trying to get everything done and hoping the weather will come and go and be calm again for our traveling on Saturday and Sunday! Jeremy's had a bunch of tests, and is excited to get done soon. Instead of being productive I'm updating the blog... hmm. Just a few of my favorite pictures from the last week or two:
Reilly, thoroughly enjoying the one time Mommy has gotten us both (Jaina was sleeping) bundled up so he could check out the snow:
Chilling while talking to Grandma and Grandpa. Yes, there is a lamp in the middle of the living room.
The kids love when Daddy comes home. He's been gone a lot lately, so he tries to make the most of his time with them when he's here.
They were a little unsure about Santa. Jaina started to tear up just after this picture, so I rescued her, and Reilly had some pretty good looks for Santa, but was excited to get the little present he was handing out. :)
A beautiful sunrise I caught the other morning. I try not to see those too often, but when it happens after 7 am, it's not such a big deal. :)
Jaina, the night before her birthday. She was craning her head trying to see what brother was watching on the DVD player, so we did the grand "Turning of the car seat" at that point. :) She was bewildered, but happy.

Happy Birthday Baby!

This time last year I didn't know we'd be parents again by the end of the day, but we were suspecting. We expected her early, but didn't know she'd come more than 2 weeks before her due date!
I can't quite believe it's already been a year, and that we've survived it (having 2 so little, not survived Jaina), and that she'll be a toddler before we know it. It's just a little crazy... But we're so grateful to have her, and we love her so much! Happy Birthday Jaina!

All moved in

Some of you might think that means you're getting to see pictures of our new place. No such luck. It's not exactly picture-worthy yet (though the ratio of unboxed things to boxed things is decreasing!). Hopefully by Jaina's birthday this Friday at least the main rooms will be pretty enough to take pictures of. Until then, you'll just have to imagine it. Unless you live here and ever visited the McPhie's. If you also visited us, you can picture their house with our stuff all over it. :)
The move went really well. It was a ton of hard work (which I've never fully experienced before, usually being on the sick end or the huge end of a pregnancy) but nothing went wrong, we had plenty of help loading and unloading the moving van (THANK YOU everyone!) and a two amazing friends (in the same family) even helped us clean some on Saturday. That was quite the job. It's nice to be in our new place, though, and amazing to have two rooms for our two kids. I feel spoiled, but it is so much less stressful for right now! We're a little further from the school, and not really close to any stores (vs. having Wal-mart in our old "back yard") but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I definitely prefer the new view. I liked it even more before it was covered with several inches of snow, but only because Reilly could actually play out there before that. We finally even got our Christmas tree decorated tonight, and things are looking better. I need to kick into gear and finish getting these last "bedroom" and "bathroom" boxes unloaded...
Okay, so now that I look at our pictures, I guess you do get to see some of the new house. These were all taken (I think) with our new camera! It is our Christmas present, since the old Cybershot (which we loved) was being held together with a hair tie, (not a problem for me) and starting to take too many blurry pictures. (a problem for both of us) Here is our new camera: (the Sony Cybershot DSC-H10). Loving it.

Here is Reilly in the kitchen, "helping" me by mopping. I guess he's trying to hint that the floor's not so clean... Really, it's winter here, and he's dressed 99.8% of the time. He just wasn't that very moment...

Here is Jaina being cute and happy to wake up in her crib. You can also see the grey elephant that equals sleep for her. Kind of fun, since Reilly never attached to anything but his pacifiers.

Reilly, in the living room, with the kitchen and back door behind him. He's watching something on the portable DVD player while I played with some of the camera's features. He wasn't very impressed.

Jaina, looking out the front window at the snow. I can't believe she'll be a year in less than a week now. She's still my baby!

Reilly, playing with all the little toys he found in a box in "his" room. This is a rare sweet smile, that we seldom get to capture.

And finally, the view out our back door. Well, it was, until the next snowfall. Now there's more white and less gray. Er... brown. :)

So much excitement. Aren't you happy I updated?