Why I love Saturdays...

I LOVE Saturdays.
I really, really love them.
It was nearly 70 degrees today, still in January!
Temperatures like that make me love living in the desert.
Anyway, Harlo is obsessed with bubbles and she got a bubble toy for her birthday from my sister. It's a no-spill carrier thing that is actually genius. You can tip the thing up side down without it dripping. Harlo tried and tried to get those bubbles out of the wand, and eventually she'd get a few. Her face was so cute, though. I couldn't stop snapping shots of her.
Stella, of course, just kicked back and enjoyed watching her sister.
My goodness I love these girls!

Harlo even tried to teach Stella how to blow bubbles.
(I hope this never, ever stops even though I know it inevitably will, but Harlo always includes Stella in what she's doing. She always wants to show her, or teach her, or share with her... I just love it. She is such a sweet big sister.)

Stella gave up on bubble blowing lessons and decided to eat her feet instead...

Harlo stayed persistant. She finally got one tiny bubble out of it. :)

Family Pics 2010

I'm a little late on posting our holiday pictures, but better late than never?

I'm sure we look like a nice, happy family but on this particular day...

Harlo acted like this:

Good things I'm friends with our photographer!

So we got a lot like this:

Which is sometimes kind of fun, too. Moms and Dads don't get a lot of attention :)

We did manage to get a few when Harlo didn't notice we were doing it... such a stinker.
(for the record, this behavior is totally not normal for Harlo. She's sassy, but she's not this naughty on a regular basis, thank goodness.)

Stella, my happy little clam, didn't mind a bit...

From our house to yours!
xoxo

{NEW WEBSITE}

Hey Friends-

We just launched my new photography site, cassidymillerphotography.com.

Check it out and tell me what you think!

(Be sure to check back next week for some awesome specials!)

Harlo Tidbits

{Harlo}

This little sass queen is quite the TWO.YEAR.OLD.
and I honestly love it.

Some days she is nice as pie.
I can't even believe she's real, she's so nice.
Some days she's an absolute sassy/spunky/whiney/wild/pushy/naughty/sneaky sassparilla.
One thing is for sure,
no matter her mood,

She's hilarious.
She has us laughing all the time.
I think everyone needs a two-year-old.
I love her little mind right now.
Yesterday was one of my faves: She's been wanting to sit on the potty sometimes and yesterday she was sitting there before her tubby. She never actually does anything on there, but just likes to sit. (and to wipe, oddly enough) I always sort of wondered if she even knows what she's supposed to be doing on there. Well she hopped down and went in the living room while I finished filling the tub. All the sudden I hear, "Uh oh, mama! I spilled!" and I go in to see what she's talking about and she's standing over a teensy puddle of pee. :)
I giggled about that one all night long!
She loves to sing and is actually a great little singer.
She can sing along to quite a few songs and she gets a lot of the words. She even holds the notes.
Her favorite song right now is either "signing time" or "tooth fairy" from yo Gabba.
She's obsessed with Yo Gabba Gabba.
Now that I've watched it, I actually like it better than a lot of the shows. (teaching wise)

Better than that Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. That's my least favorite.. :/

Every morning when she first sees Stella she squeals, "BABY STEL!! A-GOO! A-GOO!!" then usually asks her if she wants some of her oatmeal/banana/yogurt/cracker.. She's such a nice sister.
Although she's gotten a little "button-pushy" and will sometimes play too rough around Stella which leads to her being a little rough on Stella.
She's only had a couple time-outs in her life and responded well to both.
She usually will shape right up with a reminder or with me distracting her to something else.
She got a little tool set from Uncle Scott for Christmas and she loves it, she calls them her "Tolls"
Her Daddy's-Girl-ness has just amplified as she's gotten older.
Somedays I feel like 'if I hear "I WANT DADDY!!" one more time I might just scream."
But when Daddy isn't around, she's nice as can be and loves to play with me, thank you very much.
Can't win 'em all, can you?

People ask me if it bothers me if she's a daddy's girl and honestly, it doesn't at all.

First of all, I'm a total Daddy's girl and always have been.. and if Brady was my dad, I'd probalby be one too.
I actually kind of love it. (except when it's being shoved down my throat in 'I WANT DADDY's all weekend long :)
"Harlo do it." is another thing phrase frequents that little mouth.
She has a friend named Kamryn that she calls "Camera".
"Camera" is a little older and Harlo thinks she is the coolest show around.
I love hearing her talk about Camera.
She still loves her oatmeal, but lately she's on a yogurt kick (or 'Ogurt as she calls it)
She would eat 'Ogurt for every single meal if she could.
She likes peanut butter and jelly's, but always peals it apart and eats the peanut butter side.
Funny, because I'd choose the opposite.
Her favorite book right now is "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?"

She can still navigate Brady's iphone better than I can.

By far.
When it freezes up or she gets it to a place she can't get out of, she'll say, "it's too hard."
My dad went to California a few weeks ago and brought the girls back matching Elmo shirts and he gave it to Harlo and she grabbed it and said "It's just so cute."
Everytime she sees a picture of herself, she tells me it's "so cute!"

If she calls Auntie and she doesn't respond immediately, she'll say "AUNTAY!"

Harlo always has to give Stella lovins when she passes her. Even when she can't take her eyes away from the TV. :)

And a quick pic of Stella, the acrobat.

.FIVE months.

{January 3}
my little stoodle is five months old!
(Our printer is currently out of business so we had to step out of our normal paper number and get creative... turned out pretty cute and Harlo thought it was super cool!)

I believe this poor little nugget is getting some teefers.
I think I'm in "teething denial" but now i can see two white dots on her gums, so I think thats the real deal.
She's been a tiny bit fussy the past few days and hasn't been napping as well,

so I think that explains it.

She doesn't cry, she just scrunches her face and yells.
It's so funny.
Her little clogged tear duct (did I mention she has a clogged tear duct just like her sister and mama did?!) does good some days and weaps a lot other days.

Dr. Marsden says he'll give it til 9 months until he refers her to an eye doctor to get it fixed.

I'm going to go ahead and wait a little longer...
I'm not into my baby being put under so they can stick a wire into her duct to open it...

Call me crazy.

I've heard a lot of great stories about chiropractic therapy taking care of tear ducts, so I think we'll try that route.
Now I just need to find a chiropractor that adjusts infants.

So, she sounds like a hot mess these days, but she really isn't.

She's a perfect little rolly ball of squish and silk.

And when I say "rolly", I mean it.
She rolls ALL over the place.

Changing her diaper has become a bit of a challenge.

Harlo thinks it's fun to lay down and roll around like Stella.
She's not really close to sitting up or crawling,

Which is FINE by me.
I like my babes to stay babies as long as they can.
(Do I need to remind you that Harlo didn't walk for 18 months?)
She talks and talks and talks all the time.

She is fascinated by Itty.

She is some-what reaching for people.
She'll hold one or both hands out when she wants you.
She gives kisses out like nobody's business.
She likes when I sing to her,

She'll just sit and listen and when I stop she says "laaaa-la"

She wears size 3 diapers now.
She hasn't had as many blow-outs lately, but I'm sure we're not out of the woods yet.
She has been wearing 6-12 month clothes for some time now but was still fitting in her 3-6 moth jammies,
But now she's grown out of those as well.
She has tiny fit. Still 0-3 or size 1-2.
She's tried oatmeal this week and LOVES it.
So does Harlo, so it's been her before-bed snack for the past few nights.
Don't know how we're going to end that habbit. oops.
I honestly thought she'd hate it, have you seen that stuff? Yuck.

She is still nursing like a champ.
(which I'm very happy about, we've officially broken the record of how long I nursed my first)
She does get very distracted though,
Especially when Harlo is bringing her tea cups and faux food to snack on. ;)
We get it, though.
I'm glad I'm a little more layed back this time and have stuck with it.
I'm sort of funny about her watching TV, but I have let her a few times and she loves baby einstein.
I try to keep it to a minimum, though.
One of my resolutions was to cook at least 4 times a week, so she's seen a bit more of TV since then.

A mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do, right?
She still loves her lamby.
It goes everywhere she goes.
She is a getting more and more giggly.

Specifically with her sister.
Everyday more of her sweet little personality shows through.
I can't get enough.

the GIGANTIC Holiday Post

(Since the Holidays are so crazy, I'm doing all the holidays in one big post.)

Thanksgiving 2010

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Aunt Judy's. It was such a blast. Since my dad and sister are both not married, we tend to stick together a lot so they were able to come with us to the Miller Thanksgiving. SO fun. I'll be really sad when both of them are married and have to go to their own inlaws, for now I'm soaking up all the holiday time I've got. Both my girls had a blast being fussed over and fought over. They are quite popular among the Miller/Harris crew. We had so much fun. Brady's family is so amazing.. and the food was delish! Thanks for hosting everyone, Aunt Judy!

Christmas 2009
(remember last year I was 10 weeks pregnant, sick and tired, my baby turned one and that's about all I could post. We had such a blast last year, though so I had to get it in somewhere!)

Last year for Christmas we headed up north to Angie's to have our first "white christmas" It was quite a hassle getting all our presents wrapped and up there safely, especially since we traveled up with Me, Brady, Harlo, My dad, Ali, Itty AND Willow (the dogs, our chinese crested and Ali's weimaraner!) all in our Camry. (not so fun) but it was so worth it. We had such a good time. We also announced our pregnancy on this trip. We ALL had matching pajamas which we dont' have ONE group picture of which, to this day, I'm so bummed about. They were hilarious.

This Christmas was especially fun because Harlo is old enough to kind of get the magic of it all. We did talk about Santa (which she calls "merry christmas") but she didn't grasp that whole concept quite yet. I tried to focus more on baby Jesus and the whole manger story. I made her a little nativity scene out of toys because I don't have a nativity (yet) so for like 3 weeks she'd call her little mermaid barbie (that played the part of Mary in the faux nativity scene) "Jesus' Mommy". I call that a partial success.

Another fun part about this year was passing on and making new traditions. The first being, Christmas Eve Jammies:

twin sister jammies...

&twin-sister jammies :) ( I just can't resist a matchy-matchy!)

My mom made Harlo this play kitchen and dropped it off on Christmas Eve. She didn't get to see her open it, but Harlo was very excited. She immediately started cooking for everyone.

Brady got exactly what he wanted for Chrstmas,
A digital rain gauge. :)

Brady pulled all sorts of tricks out of his sleeves this year.. I was extremely impressed!

Santa found Stella as well... and was a huge hit!

Harlo was loving playing with all her stuff, and going around to help everyone play with theirs..

The table and tea set was the biggest hit. she didn't even know what to do with herself. She'd make everyone sit down then grab the cups and fill them up with "water" in her kitchen sink.
I couldn't get her to sit still long enough to get a picture!

Stella got just what she asked for... peep toe shoes ;)

And she loved her baby!

Auntie got all the kids converse, Harlo is obsessed with shoes and specifically, Auntie's shoes. She loves all the funky things Auntie wears. Right when he opened them she squealed, "Auntie's shoes!!"

Then we headed to the big Harris breakfast that Grandpa Harris puts on. I had never been to one yet because the first Christmas I lived in Texas, our 2nd I had just barely given birth to Harlo and our 3rd we spent in Salt Lake. It did not disappoint!
The Harris' did what they do best...

loved on my girls.

I love the Harris family. Every single one of them. You're always sure to have a good time at a Harris event. We had a delicious breakfast followed by some fun family time. It was definitely our best Christmas yet. The whole day was so magical... I can't wait for next year!