All I can say today is this...

This woman inspires me and is stronger than any woman I know.

Favorite Part of Today

I am the bedtime gal. Everynight Harper and I have a similar if not exact routine we go through before this little angel falls asleep. Somedays Liv and daddy are in the room with us until the lights go out and other days it's just the two of us. When I mean exact..most nights it goes like this...

1. we head up to bed

2. put jammies on (I remind her that it's not play time, she fusses a bit because she doesn't want the day to end)

3. we then read two stories... THE SAME EVERY NIGHT...one is Baby's first words: Playground book and the other is this poem book with Owls in it. (it's more for a young adul0/adult reader but ever since Aunt Kate gave it to her.. we read it EVERY night..oh wait we don't read it..we look for the owls.. EVERY night Thanks aunt Kate;)

4. We turn on her lullaby music (I allow for her to push the play button but most nights she messes around and hits different buttons and therefore I hit the play button)

5. Next, we turn out the lights

6. We then sit in the rocking chair and rock

7. For the past couple of months I have being asking her about her favorite part of the day...at first I was really telling her what I thought her favorite part of the day was, but now she tells me and we go over things about her day while we rock. (its my favorite part of the day:)

8. I then go to lay her down and this is when she tells me she has to go potty. (I learned not to initiate potty before this point because I was then making multiple trips to the bathroom. This way it's one trip)

9. While in the potty she drops her binky and blanket on the floor and then when she is all done we wash her binky in the sink...EVERY night..

10. I tuck her in the bed, give her a drink of water, and tell her sweet dreams...

About a 10 step process that takes about 45 minutes (ish) give or take. I would say that its one of my favorite parts of the day. The other sweet thing is that when we are going over our fav parts of the day, I will talk about things about Harper and she always chimes in and says Liv's name to include her:) Too sweet!

Snow Days Take One

The day after New Years Day...so Jan. 2nd to be exact:)...was the first snow day of the year that we were able to play in. It's hard for Lateaf to take out Harper during the days when I'm at work because it's just not condusive for Liv. Plus we really didn't have a good snow until New Years weekend. Eitherway Harper and Teaf headed out to play with cousins Kenleigh and Carter at "the lake." Harper wasn't all about sledding down the hill but was enjoying truckin around in it and swinging. She wasn't so happy when it was time to come in because she was having too much fun. It was bitter cold with temps in the negatives so small incraments of time was best. I stayed inside where it was warm and took footage from the deck:)

Bathtime...

Bathtime around these parts are not scheduled, rather it happens every two days (most of the time). It could be morning or night, but we get it done...as a team! Some days he may bathe them both, some days I bathe them both, or some days we each tackle a child. Either way it gets done and the end result are two clean girlies. Here is footage of daddy bathing Liv. She loves bathtime and is content the entire time, even when her daddy almost drowns her:) She is more active now so what happened on film below has happened to this mama! Too funny that I caught it on film.

New Years Day

New Years Day was spent at the lake/Loup City with the Dorsey side of the family. We are fortunate enough to have Christmas every year with this side. Each year the family grows and it is tricky to find a day when everyone can attend but we are still going strong having our family gathering each year:) Great Grandma Dorsey puts together a program each year and has her great grandkids participate. (Bailey, Carter, Hunter, Kenleigh, Leighton, Harper, & Livia) Harper carried the symbolic candle and Liv was the angel:) I was involved because we didn't have enough kids to represent the symbolism and I happened to be in the mix. Next year baby Holmquist (My neice or nephew:) will be the missing link. The festivities don't stop there...we sing the 12 days of X-mas where each family has one of the 12 days as their part. We eat great food, have good conversation, have a gift giving game, and play games at the end. Some played poker while others played Mexican Dominos. What a great time we had!

Cousin Jordan playing with the second cousins:)

I was so impressed how well Harper played by herself. She did play with her cousins quite a bit but I then found her playing with Cousin Kenleigh's new Barbie set for awhile all by herself. This is rare, as she usually wants us or other adults to play with her or at the very least watch her play. Our little girl is growing up!

A snipet of the program:)

These boots...

These boots are made for walkin and that's just what they'll do....one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you...

One of Harper's things is to put boots on. She is not biased to whose boots... it could be her rain boots, her snow boots, my boots, daddy's boots, Grandma's boots or Aunt Kate's boots. I have a feeling her boots will someday walk all over us...oh let's say when she's about 15:)

One of the many reasons why...

Harper loves it at Grandma & Grandpa D's house...

skypin the g-rents

Although we live 60 miles from Grandma & Grandpa Dorsey and see them quite often...we can't get enough of them. Harper LOVES them dearly and frequently asks about going to their house. Even after we leave there to drive back to Omaha, she is asking to go back to their house. We tend to Skype every now and again to get our fix....

Thankful

I have had a long emotional week at work. I am so thankful that I get to come home to these angelic little girls who brighten my every moment spent with them. I am equally as thankful for having Lateaf as my partner. I am blessed!

Christmas Day

Although x-mas is over, I am not done sharing all the fun that was had:) X-mas Day was at Aunt Patti and Uncle Tom's house. The highlight for Harper was passing out presents, playing on the movie "Big" sized keyboard, and eating the desserts. After those festivities were over we headed to Grandma & Grandpa D's house for more presents and family time. Another Christmas Day down in the history books;)

"Let's go fly a kite"

Harper loves Mary Poppins and goes around singing the songs from the movie..."lets go fly a kite" and "just a spoon full of sugar." She also loves entertaining her sis and Liv loves for sis to dance around and sing to her. Everyone wins. I love it all:)

Rice Cereal?!

I was just reading past blog posts from when Harper had her first Rice Cereal experience... Liv's was very similiar. She wasn't too sure about it AT ALL. Their Dr. (whom we love and Harper calls "Dr. Mike") suggested we start working on eating cereal. Here is the footage from Liv's first rice cereal experience. It has gotten a little better with time but it's a work in progress:)

Christmas is officially over...

for our family! We did it! We made it through 6 Christmas gatherings this year ! Our last was spent in Loup City with the Dorsey family (immediate and extended). We rang in the New Year at the lake house with 1 degree temperatures. We toasted at midnight, smooched, and sang Auld Lange Syne. New Years Day we had the Dorsey X-mas party. Harper did a fantastic job in Great Grandma Georgie's annual Christmas program. She carried the candlestick. I ended up being in the program holding the wreath because there weren't enough great grandchildren. But, next year there will be enough great grandkids... because my sister moon is having a baby!!! Yep, that's right.. Aunt Kandra in the HOUSE!!! I am super excited for the girls to have a cousin around their age....

Yay for 2011!! Happy New Year! 2011 will be great...

Pictures from X-mas Eve day at the Kings:

Cousins (Ian with his thumb in his mouth and Owen between the girls)

Grandma Kathy with Liv & Owen
Aunt Kayleigh

Christmas Eve evening at the Wimmer's house:

Harper playing dominos with the men

Liv with cousin Grant

photo op

sweet drooly girl

opening presents.. this is a girl with no nap for the day:)

*more pics to come from our other gatherings;)