Moving the Blog

Well, Blogger won't let me upload any more photos...apparently I've reached my limit. So, I'm moving on over to wordpress. Follow me if you'd like at westmanfamily.wordpress.com

Any new posts will be on the new blog.

Our thirties

Luke and I both have November birthdays and we are both officially in our thirties now. I wonder if you every really feel like you are the age that you are? 

We had some delicious desserts and a fun time celebrating:

Bowling for Luke's 32nd bday
Audrey loved that we all wore "rock-and-roll" shoes

Cece had a good time once she stopped crying over the fact that she couldn't hold the heavy balls

My sweet husband not only sent me a dozen roses for my 31st bday but each of the girls also got a little bouquet of their own, they loved it!

"Do not regret growing older, it is a privilege denied to many" -unknown

First Snow

This was a typical MN weekend: 74 and sunny on Saturday then 30 something on Sunday, seriously. Yesterday must have cooled things off enough so the snow stuck around for awhile today. The girls thought it was great, thank the Lord Almighty because we also had croup come to our house this weekend and God knew we needed a good distraction :)

Took about 20 minutes to bundle up and both girls were happy about it; lets hope that continues all winter!

Audrey was thrilled to play in the snow and even had to taste some :)

Cece loves to walk and look straight up in the air, so she had a blast walking down the driveway and staring at the sky. I think she was testing me to see if I was paying attention as she moved her little legs as fast as she could to get down to the road. Good thing I'm still quick enough to catch a one-year-old!

We went for a quick walk to try to get rid of that darn "barky" cough; worked for a few minutes.

Here's little Cecelia in the tiniest hospital gown I've ever seen. SO cute! But sure hope she doesn't need to go there again anytime soon. Very thankful for modern medicine though, she slept through the night w/croup. I cannot believe it, hopefully she'll start sleeping through the nights again now :) 

Happy Shoppers

It's been awhile since I've taken both girls for a big grocery shopping trip; they were at the stage where one was constantly bothering the other sitting side by side in the cart but Cecelia didn't like being in my Beco carrier the whole time either. Luke and I had been taking turns going on the weekends but this past weekend was too busy to sneak it in...so today I was cautiously optimistic about our trip to the grocery store and I'm happy to say it was a big success, yay! Don't tell Luke though because I love that he's been so helpful :)
After quickly and happily moving through each aisle, this was how my sweeties ended our shopping trip: 

My view while putting our groceries on the belt

 

Melt my heart! could they be any sweeter? :)

LOVE them to pieces.

Yearly Growth Stats

Both girls have had their well-child check ups and the results are in:

Audrey Ann Westman
Age: 3 years
Height: 3' 3" (97%ile)
Weight: 30lbs (65%ile)

Cecelia Jean Westman
Age: 1 year
Height: 2'4" (33%ile)
Weight: 19lbs (47%ile)

Photo credits to my talented friend, Jenna of JR Portrait Design

The Good Life

Living in our apartment didn't give us as many chances to enjoy the outdoors - we didn't have a yard or a park within walking distance. Now that we are in our HOUSE! we have been loving every minute in and outside of it. It is simply glorious to just walk out the door and be able to play and an added bonus that we have a fabulous park just a short walk away. Audrey has been thanking God in her prayers every night for our new house and she's not the only one:) We are soaking up the nice weather as long as we can!

Cece would push this stroller across the driveway all day

Audrey cruising on her little tricycle w/"Baby AudreyKatie" in tow

Examining the leaves on the ground

We're still enjoying our big leaf piles

Who doesn't enjoy playing in the leaves wearing a princess dress, sweatpants, coat, hat, and mittens in their barefeet?

Ready for our short walk to the park 

First Birthday

A year has already come and gone and our sweet little Cecelia Jean is officially 1 year old! I have no words to describe how loved she is and how blessed we are to have her in our family. She makes our days brighter (and nights shorter, ha!) and just continues to bring us so much joy.

She walks everywhere and is starting to pick up the speed and fall over less each day. She eats everything and likes to drink water from her sippy cup (still nurses a few times a day too). She loves dogs, babies, books, and snuggling much to my delight. She is starting to talk a lot and I can understand some of the "words" she's saying:
Dada
Mama
Dawdee (Audrey)
Ceessssss (Cece)
Bawbay (baby)
Daw (dog)
Duh (duck)
Mmmmm (moo=cow)
baaaaaaa (sheep)
Nana (banana)
Nenya (drink)
Waves and says Hi and Ba-ba (bye-bye)
Claps when we say Yay!
If I ask her if she wants milk she signs milk and walks to the chair in her room where I nurse her. When I ask if she wants to eat she walks to her highchair. And when I ask if she wants to go bye-bye she walks to the back door :)
Says "Nenya!" and points for everything else till we figure out (or don't) what she wants.

Saying Baby

cheese-ball

Ballet

Yesterday marked another "first" in the life of our big 3-year-old: First Ballet Class. She was thrilled about the idea and wore her leotard, leggings and bun all morning in anticipation of class after nap time. I ended up having to wake her up for class (thanks to the UPS delivery man and neighbor kids ringing the doorbell at nap time which lead to mid-nap tears and a later wake-up time) ANYWAYS she sobbed the entire way to class and I was wondering if I should even be making her go...but it was totally worth it. Parents aren't allowed in the classroom so I was the creeper-mom looking through the window in the door and she spent the first few minutes of class staring w/her serious little face and shaking her head "no" at her teacher but thankfully woke-up once they broke out the princess crowns and tu-tus and continued to have a blast for the rest of the class time. She LOVES her new ballet shoes and wants to wear them everywhere. Can't wait for next week :)

She was opposed to posing for pics, so this was the best I got...I'll try again next week:

   

Fall Fun

The fun started on Friday when the girls and I decided to get outside and rake some leaves. It was a bit chilly but fun! So much fun we decided to invite our sweet neighborhood friends over to enjoy it with us.

Audrey and Audrey enjoying the leaves

Cece enjoyed holding the little rake next to the big leaf pile.

Then on Sunday we had some special visitors in town who made playing in the leaves even more fun!

Cecelia, Uncle Danny, Audrey, Uncle Ben

This girl knows how to have a good time w/leaves

Can you find Audrey in the HUGE pile of leaves? Thanks to her Daddy and Uncles :)

Sweet smiles and snuggles from Uncle Danny

Sunday sweatpants and a big pile of leaves; can it get any better than that? 

The Dentist

Now that she's 3-years-old, Audrey got to take her first trip to the dentist. She was a little superstar patient and said she had "so much fun at the dentist." 

So happy to sit in the purple chair

not too enthused about the giant bib

having her teeth cleaned w/cherry toothpaste, yum!

final check by the dentist, she has perfect little teeth and no cavities :)

I didn't get a picture of her with both or her stickers and her new pink toothbrush and pink sand timer, but she was thrilled. Hoping she'll be just as excited for her second visit.

11 months old

Baby Cecelia Jean is already 11 months old!

She is still a happy little thing most of the time but has started to express herself in a more "well-rounded" way. We are learning that not only is Cece happy but she is silly, independent, cuddly and very sensitive!

She will not keep hats on her head, but I somehow managed to snag this pic

snuggles with everything! 

our little climber does not like being told "no"

her cute, sad, crying face

 Here is a series of what happens each time we have to say "no" or anything that she thinks sounds like you are redirecting her attention from something she's not supposed to be doing :)

one

two

three

what? I'm fine :)