Sisters

When we found out last September that I had a little girl growing away in my belly, we were SO excited. Excited to be able to pull out Aubrey's hand-me-downs. I envisioned me taking my perfectly well-behaved girls to the salon, where we would all get pedicures. I could just see their first Christmas in matching PJs and looking into their stockings that are each monogrammed with their name. You know, all of the big pictures you imagine when you find out you're going to have two little girls.

But what never really crossed my mind were the little day-to-day events that are SO special and meaningful.. because I never had that growing up. I have two sisters who are pretty friggen amazing, but the difference between our relationship and the more common sister relationship is that they were both already adults when I was born. I'm closer in age to their kids than I am with them. So I missed out on a lot of the real "fun" parts of having a sister at a young age. No building forts and staying up all night talking. No fighting over Barbies. arguing over who gets the last cookie, or who goes first at checkers.

So when imagining all of these perfect scenarios in my head, I never made room for those daily moments.. Like when Aubrey first starting holding Addison all on her own

Or their first holiday (which I unfortunately did NOT get matching pjs for, but come Christmastime, it is ON!)

I look forward to Aubrey teaching Addison the ins and outs of the important things of life.. like sleeping:

and eating:

and playing:

the fine art of being festive for the holidays:

...being a princess:

and most importantly, just lounging around:

And guess what? Even though Addie is a Winter baby and Aubrey was born in the middle of the summer, I can still have Addie rocking the hand-me-downs because she is so chunky! :D

{Addison at 3 months and Aubrey at 10 months}

I got these two gems yesterday right after Addison's naptime. She woke up in the midst of me getting ready for work, so I put her on our bed while figuring out what to wear and Aubrey climbed into bed with her with a blanket and they were giggling and laughing SO hard.. and I instantly heard Keith and few years from now, yelling at them to go to bed at 3:00am because they have been up all night telling jokes in their blanket fort and listening to whatever boy band is popular at the time (please don't let it still be One Direction...)

They are both so amazing, and we are so lucky to have two girls that love each other like these two do. I figured Aubrey would take to having a baby sister pretty easily, but I never thought it would be THIS easy. She has shown zero signs up jealousy and she is always so eager to help and play with her little sis. And you can just tell by the way Addison looks at Aubrey that she is crazy about her. As soon as Aubrey walks in the room, the smile on Addie's face takes up her entire face. I know we have girls that are going to be able to count on each other, and will have a best friend for life. I couldn't have asked for better kids. <3

50 years

Last night, the fam attended a 50th Anniversary party in honor of Keith's stepmother's parents and we all had a great time!

My crappy iPhone camera couldn't capture a picture worthy enough of showing the love that these two have for each other. They are one of the sweetest couples I've ever had the pleasure of knowing and it's amazing that the family has such a wonderful couple to look up to.

There's something about attending a 50th anniversary party that makes you really look at your relationship and think about what you can do to get to that point in life. Even if I was a little upset that a certain husband of mine requested our wedding song and then immediately disappeared for a half hour. Ahem... (Thankfully, my awesome brother in law filled in and asked me to dance and his wife danced with Addie.) We are only 1/10th of the way to 50, and I can't wait to see what the next 45 years brings :)

Keith's dad was super thoughtful and requested What A Wonderful World to dance to with Aubrey (which immediately brought me to tears as soon as the song started and the DJ said this was a "special request". It brings me back to the day after she was born, and he brought us flowers and a card that played that very song). Of course, Aubrey didn't want to dance and wanted to play with her Monsters, Inc guys. Typical Aubs. :P

Addie stayed awake the whole, entire time. I took her out on the dance floor and she was my dancing buddy the whole night! We danced to the Cha-Cha Slide, Cupid Shuffle, and countless other songs. I think she had fun! 

Aubrey wouldn't stay still long enough for me to get any decent photos, but that is the magic of this age. She is always on the go and exploring and I love that about her. It will be fun explaining why photos of her at age 3 are just a blur of pink.

The whole party was a lot of fun, and all of the children of the Guests of honor did a fantastic job putting the party together. The food was amazing, there was cheesecake AND cake (what!?!!), and the DJ did a great job of making sure everyone was having fun. 

<3

Addie Grace's Baptism!

Addison, 

Yesterday was such an amazing day.

Well, yesterday afternoon, anyway. Because the morning was dreadful. And there may have been some tears on my part. Not the happy, "oh my gosh, my baby is getting baptized today!" tears. But the frustrated, "why do I wait til the last minute to do everything?" tears.

We'll start with Saturday night. I start making the cross-shaped cookie favors, that I decided to frost and decorate and put in a clear cellophane bag with a wallet-size photo of you in your gorgeous Baptism gown that was originally your sister's. I got the dough all set and rolled out on the counter and realized I didn't know where the cookie cutter went. The one that I drove  all over Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire looking for. The one that I ended up finding at a no-name party store for $0.69. Yup, that one.

Half an hour goes by and I finally find it in a bag that was headed towards the trash that had plastic wrappers from paper plates, cups, etc.., but of course by that time the cookie dough has softened to room temperature and was sticking to everything. I manage to scrape it into the bowl and put it back in the fridge to chill for a bit.

3:30 am rolls around and those cookies are DONE. I throw 'em in the fridge for the frosting to harden and hit the sack. 4 hours later, I'm awake again. Time to prep everything else. I recruit your daddy to put your picture in the cellophane bags while I put the finished cookies in. I'm pretty damn pleased with the result.

9:00 am. Crap. I forgot to make the meatballs. I'm supposed to leave to set up the hall in an hour and I FORGOT TO MAKE THE MEATBALLS. Of course, I couldn't take the easy way out and buy them frozen, oh no. They have to be homemade! I scramble to get all of the ingredients together and your daddy saves the day and rolls them and puts them in the oven for me while I prepare the sauce. I nervously leave him in full control because I needed to leave 5 minutes ago.

11:00 am. I am finally at the hall and setting up. Given the fact that I only had an hour, I think I did a pretty good job.

12:20 pm. I get home and rush to get into my dress. The ceremony starts at 1 and the church is 20 minutes away. You are NOT HAPPY with me putting your dress on you and you throw a mini tantrum. 

1:15 pm. We finally arrive at the church. I'm mouthing apologies to our family and feeling pretty awful that we kept everyone waiting. Thankfully you were the only baby being baptized.

You did so well throughout the whole ceremony; and you only got a little upset when the water was poured over your head.

Your baptism was performed by a deacon. When we met with him on Thursday, I felt so connected with him. He explained to us how he didn't go to church very often as a child/teenager, and that he found God after he and his wife experienced a miscarriage. The story hit extremely close to home, because the first time I ever went to church was after we lost your brother. I didn't go as a child because Nana and Grampa didn't go. 

When your daddy & I were trying to decide on Godparents, we knew we wanted someone who would take good care of you. Your cousin, Carina and her husband, Mike are two of the most caring people that we know. We see them often and know that you and your sister are in good hands when you are with them. We were so excited to ask them if they would do us the honor of being your Godparents.

{Addie and her Godmother}

You were all smiles at your celebration. You were given some wonderful gifts from our family who love and care about you and your sister so much. 

Looking at all of these pictures makes all of the tears, headaches, running around, and stress of the morning 110% worth it. I'm so glad you will be able to look back and see pictures of this special day. I love you so much, sweet girl!

Love,

Mama

Aubrey's Dance Recital

Dear Aubrey,

Tonight was your dance recital. I can't even put into words how proud I am of you. When we took you to dress rehearsal Thursday night, I have to admit I didn't have high expectations of you doing your dancing for the actual recital. You were laying on the floor and dragging yourself around, pulling feathers off of your costume and throwing them at your friends (which got a good laugh from everyone in the audience), and just overall not listening. 

Fast forward to this afternoon. I desperately wanted you to do that dance. Like, really really bad. Ever since I enrolled you in dance school, I envisioned you on stage at your recital doing twirls and pliés in your tutu (apparently, at that time, I forgot I had a 3 year old.) As a result of my desperation, I resorted to good, old fashioned bribery. Your latest obsession is Littlest Pet Shop .. so clearly an offering of Littlest Pet Shop trading cards after your dance was all you needed. You did her dance and you did it well! At one point, you caught a glimpse of a feather floating in the air. It put you in a trance and you started walking towards the edge of the stage and one of the teenage dancers had to run and grab you (again, cue the laughing from everyone. At least you were doing your dance this time, though.. and we still had the awesome kid that made everyone laugh!). 

Photography was not allowed while you were performing, but I absolutely adore these photos of us from backstage!

The recital's theme was Four Seasons, and your class was in the Winter set. The song you performed was "Little Snowflake" and it is the most adorable song ever. I'm sure any time I hear this song, I will think of you in that sweet, little dress with half of it's feathers missing, doing your pliés just like I imagined 9 months ago.

We will definitely be ordering the DVD so we can watch it back with you as the years go on so you can remember it. We weren't sure about sending you back to dance school in the fall, but if you want to, I certainly won't stop you. I know you can do anything you set your mind to, and I can't say enough how proud I am of you today, and every day.

I love you, sweetpea!

Love,
Mama