Happy 2nd Birthday Natalie!

Happy birthday my Natalie Danielle!  I can't believe you are TWO years old!  It seems just like yesterday that I was holding you in my arms, feeding you with a syringe, and now you eat with a fork and spoon.  You have grown so much this past year, from taking wobbly steps before your first birthday to running, jumping, and climbing on everything you can.

You are my cuddle-bug, you love to sit in someone's lap, give hugs and noses, and holding hands.  You have a heart of gold and your first priority is always your sister.  This relationship between you two is so unique and awesome.  When I get you out of the car first, you ask if Noelle is coming too.  If I take you downstairs first, you tell Noelle I'll "be back" for her.  If Noelle is crying you bring her a toy or her pacy to make her feel better.  If Noelle is in time out for pushing you, you go and sit with her until the time is up.  Your love for your sister is so incredibly sweet.

You are my rule-follower, my easy-going baby who will do whatever is asked of her.  You don't like to get messy but you love playing with baby dolls, toy phones, balls, and your Little People play sets.  You also LOVE to read and would sit and read for a long time if you could. 

Like your sister, we're in that picky food stage of life and while you will try a few more things than her, you also love your fruit, goldfish, and cheese.  You also love your monkey to bits and your blankie is one of your favorite things to hold and cuddle.  You still suck your thumb and I'm trying to figure out a way to explain to you that you have to stop soon.

You enjoy singing and dancing to every song that comes on and you love to use sign language.  You are a little quieter than your sister but you still gain new words every day and are starting to string words together into sentences.  You are working on your counting and can almost count to 11 every time!

Natalie, you are a toddler now but you will always be my baby, my sweet surprise that only God knew about until the timing was just right to surprise us (and everyone else!) with your presence.  Happy birthday little love!

 

 

Happy 2nd birthday Noelle!

Happy 2nd birthday Noelle Brianne!  It's hard to believe that you and your sister are TWO years old!  You are full of life and spunk and we couldn't love you more.  It amazes me how you take that 1 minute older thing to heart...you truly have the big sister personality!  You love telling Natalie and everyone else what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.  You are independent and stubborn.  You know exactly what you want and can throw a great temper tantrum if you don't get it!  You have a mind of your own, a beautiful smile, and are one smart cookie.  You also love to tease us by giving us a big grin and say "Nooooooo!" when we ask for kisses but we always manage to get one from you anyways.

You love to read and count to 11, you can sing and dance to many different songs including "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Let It Go," and you don't mind getting messy.  We've entered into the picky stage of eating and I'm pretty sure you'd survive on fruit, goldfish, and cheese if I let you! 

 

You are picking up more and more words every day and have even started to use sentences, such as "Mommy, I need a tissue" and "Put Mickey on TV."  You love your Minnie Mouse doll, your baby doll, pushing many things in the stroller, pretending to cook, and playing with Natalie.  You also love your pacificer, or "pacy" as you call it and I am definitely not looking forward to the day we decide to say good-bye to pacy :)

These days you run more than you walk, you "read" yourself books, and I'm pretty sure you never stop talking :D (and I have no idea where you get that from!)  It's amazing to sit back and watch the two of you form this amazing relationship that no one else quite understands.  You have your own language with Natalie and you know what buttons to push to annoy her but also how to make her feel better when she's sad.  While you are now officially a toddler, you will always be my baby, my sunshine.  Happy birthday little love!

 

Busy, Busy Time!

So the next few weeks are going to be BUSY in the Alvarez household.  We have the girls' birthday, Disney on Ice to celebrate their birthday, another little girl's birthday party to go to (that's all this weekend), packing, settlement, moving, Ben's 30th birthday, his sister's 21st birthday, doctor's appointments for the girls, dental appointments for 3 of us, a bridal shower that I'm helping with, a bachelorette party I'm planning, Dr. Seuss Day, conferences, and probably some other thing's I'm forgetting.  And that's just in the next four weeks!  So, I will be taking LOTS of pictures over the next few weeks but it's going to take me awhile to get everything on here because we'll be busy and who knows how long it will take us to get internet at our new house.  But I will put it all on here at some point since this is one of my many ways to preserve pictures and memories :)

 

Their faces when they're getting ready to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Noelle has the best excited face!

Happy Friday y'all.  I can't believe my little babies are TWO in two days.  It just doesn't seem possible since I remember so clearly how tiny and squishy they were.  And how tired we were.  And now they run, jump, climb, sometimes speak in full sentences, sign lots of words, and "read".  It's crazy how time flies.  So excuse me while I go cry in a corner about how my babies technically aren't classified as babies any more but are in fact full blown toddlers.  It's going to be a fun weekend celebrating them :D

Have a great one!

Our January

Can you believe we're already a month into 2017?  Our January has been pretty low key...fighting colds, hanging out at home because it's been too cold to go outside, doing house stuff to get ready for settlement, nothing too thrilling.  I haven't really had much to post for the month so I thought I would wrap it up with all the miscellaneous pictures I've taken the past few weeks.

 

Sisterly love

 

Mommy and Noelle

 

Noelle & Natalie

 

Hanging with Pop Pop!  We went to visit them for a few days over MLK Jr weekend.

 

One of my favorite sights....they often like to have their own space but on this day Natalie sat down first, patted the spot next to her on the little couch, and Noelle chose to sit with her instead of her own couch.

 

This one seems to think I'm going to forget her breakfast one day.  Each morning she stations herself next to the pantry as I make lunches and won't move until I feed her.

 

When your sister has a dino hat and won't let you wear it...even though you had the chance to make your own at daycare and refused.

 

Diva much?  Noelle grabbed the sunglasses as I put her in her high chair for breakfast and wouldn't take them off.

 

We spent one weekend at the World Pet Expo at the Maryland State Fairgrounds.  The girls LOVED it.  They did a great job holding our hands as we walked around and excitedly pointed out each animal.  They especially loved seeing so many doggies!

 

Kinda hard to see but a baby baboon!

 

Capybara

 

Two-toed sloth in the laundry basket

 

Noelle liked clapping for the dock dogs.

 

Dock Dogs!

 

Instead of diving in after the bumper, this dog ran up to the edge, peered over, and then jumped in!

 

 

Daddy and Natalie

 

Alpacas

 

One of the dogs checking out the sheep

 

Mini Horse and Fainting Goat

 

We made pumpkin bread one day and my little sous chefs enjoyed "helping"!

 

All the family watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

 

Probably another night of watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

 

I'm trying not to think too much how tomorrow is February and that means we're less than two weeks away from having two TWO year olds! How are they almost two?!?  We have lots of plans for February including birthday celebrations and settlement!

2016 in Review

I feel like this year has flown by...it was summer and then I blinked and now it's the beginning of a new year.  How many days does it take you to get used to writing 2017??

Here's how our 2016 shaped up...

January

• I lamented over the fact that my babies were 11 months old, meaning only 1 more month till they turned one!
• We got hit with a little blizzard nicknamed Snowzilla and had over 29" of snow, 3" over the old record!  Schools were out for over a week (goodbye summer) and the girls had their first experience with snow, which was really them sitting in holes we dug out for them since their snow suits were too puffy for them to move in.

February

• February was probably our biggest milestone of the year with our two little babies turning ONE!  We celebrated with two parties, mama cried a little at her babies officially becoming toddlers, and they were spoiled by our friends and family.  You can see their birthday post here and their individual years in review here: Noelle and Natalie (as I write this I can't believe we're about to celebrate their second birthday!!! Ahhh!)
• Both girls took their first independent steps.  Natalie was first followed by Noelle about a week later.  They started walking and never looked back!

March

• Looking back at the blog, I mostly wrote about the girls' birthday celebrations in February.  In March we celebrated Ben's 29th birthday (last year before 30!) and Chessie's 20th birthday.  I guess I didn't take any pictures for those celebrations!  I'm already looking forward to celebrating their big birthday's this year, 30 and 21!!
• We celebrated Easter with Ben's family.

 April

• Biggest part of April was co-hosting one of my best friend, Kaitlyn's bridal shower!  Kaitlyn and I have known each other since middle school (we actually didn't become friends till high school) and she asked me to be her matron of honor in her June wedding.  Her maid-of-honor and soon-to-be sister-in-law, Kara and I hosted a shower together to celebrate her!  

May

• My friend Kayla and I took the girls to the zoo for the first time! It was hot, sweaty, and crowded but we made the best of it.
• Celebrated Mother's Day with ice cream and brunch.  Ben gave me one of my favorite crafting machines, my Silhouette Cameo!
• Attended the bridal shower of one of my other best friends, Kayla!  She also also asked me to be in her wedding, which was in July. 
• Went to our first wedding of the season, one of our friends from college.  Congrats Katie & Mike!
• Celebrated my brother's birthday and my father-in-law's birthday.
• Said goodbye to the bottle! This was harder for mommy then it was for the girls!

June

• Our first big event in June was dedicating the girls at our church.  Our family & friends came for the service and then we had a nice lunch after at my in-laws house where we celebrated with a few special gifts and cake!
• The second of our three big events was my friend Kaitlyn's wedding!  Ben's parents kept the girls for the weekend and we had so much fun celebrating Kaitlyn & Joel as they started their new life together.  
• At the end of the month my mom and I took the girls to South Carolina to visit some family friends.  It was the girls' second time on a plane and I can say it's much harder at 16 months old than 5 months old!

July

• Spent the Fourth of July at the beach! Beach Babes Part 1 and Beach Babes Part 2.  
• We also celebrated my mom's birthday while at the beach and my dad's birthday a week later.
• Took our first family vacation just the four of us!  We went to Dutch Wonderland and had a great time!  The second day we visited the Strausburg Railroad Museum.
• At the end of the month I got to stand up next to Kayla as she said, "I do" to Tom!  We had so much fun at their wedding, our third one of 2016.

August

• We went to the Queen Anne County Fair and the girls had a blast, especially with the animals!
• Started mentally preparing myself to go back to school.
• We celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday!

September

• My cousin Stephen got married!  This wedding was extra special because the girls were flower girls for the first time!  

October

• We visited the pumpkin patch and picked our pumpkins!
• Ben and I decided to sell our house and hopefully find a house with a bigger yard to run around in.
• Halloween with Minnie Mouse and Daisy Duck.  Daisy was sick for the actual Halloween trick-or-treating but Minnie had a blast.

November

• We officially listed our house and spent time every night cleaning it and picking things up.  Talk about tiring!
• I celebrated my 29th birthday with my family.
• We went to meet Santa the day before Thanksgiving.  There were tears but not because of Santa but because the elf took his sweet time taking the pictures.
• Thanksgiving this year was with Ben's family.  As much as I missed seeing mine, it was nice to stay local and not have to drive as much.

December

• December was crazy which left little time for pictures and posts.  
• Christmas was big this year!  You can read all about it in Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3!
• Ben and I rung in 2017 by sitting on the couch together, watching the ball drop, and toasting to a new year!