Lucky

Well, Austen is officially a "walker," and of course I can't figure out whether to be over the moon with pride or cry because that's it for babyhood at the Collins house. I'll go ahead and choose both, but I reserve the right to go back and forth between the two.

She is cruisin'! About four days ago, she finally made the transition from a few steps here and there, to walking more than crawling. I think she's pretty excited about being able to do more and more that Big Sister can do.

In other news, Austen has yet another tooth, and is working on another one. This child has been teething nonstop for what feels like forever! Poor thing. :(



But there is plenty of this in between:



Austen is becoming more of a little girl every day...dancing, holding things up to her ear and saying "ello?", saying "hi," and continuing to do this hilarious face where she clenches her teeth and fists...I WILL catch it on camera. She makes us laugh, and we couldn't be more happy that our little family is complete. We are so lucky.

Speaking of making us laugh, Kaitlyn is a non-stop comedian. I went in to wake her up early on a day care morning, and she greeted me with, "Leave me alone...I'm sleepin'!" And, as we went through the drive through at McDonald's (what?) the other day, a confident voice from the back pipes up with, "I'll have a Diet Coke" (hmm...wonder where she got that order from!) This kid is such a joy in our lives, and Jeff and I try not to take a moment for granted.



,

I could wish for a million things in this life: More nice weather, a nicer house, to be a stay-at-home mom...but the truth is that I am the luckiest person alive because I have MY kids. Nobody else gets to be their mommy. Instead of wasting my time wishing, I'm working on living gratefully for what I have been blessed with. Why do anything else?

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Why God Made Little Girls...

Okay, so there are many other, less superficial reasons, but just LOOK at this outfit:





That is all.

Evidence

I love finding "evidence" of the girls. Abandoned little socks, lone Cheerios, block towers, scattered color crayons. As I walk around the house after they are tucked in and all is quiet, I inevitably will find small reminders that will make me smile.

The bottom of the stairs:


Who doesn't love itty bitty jeans?


Little shoes taken off by the door:


Baby having a snack in front of the coat closet. These warm my heart the most, because they are reminders of Kaitlyn's growing imagination.


These are things that I don't notice until I'm tyding up. Half of the dollhouse furniture has been stacked on the roof. Why? I'm sure it made perfect sense at the time...


Some would call it clutter. I'm learning to accept it as evidence of a house that is lived in. :-)

Happy.

Now that we have our new bedroom furniture (have I mentioned that to anyone yet? ;)), I have been busy decorating. I found the birdies on sale at Target, and got canvases and paint at Michael's. These are hanging above our bed:



I am having a great time with some small projects, and avoiding bigger ones. (Think yardwork, more garage organizing, and others along those lines.) This is much more fun!

Fun With Paige

Travis, Kara, and Paige came over for a playdate this weekend, and I think the girls had too much fun. Paige and Kaitlyn are almost three months apart. It was quite the scene to watch/listen to them all night! :-) There was... Doll-playing:

MISCHIEF! We should have realized that they were too quiet...they emptied every.single.item out of Austen's drawers. Oh well, looks like they had fun doing it!

What I imagine they are thinking: Kaitlyn "Oh, hey Mom." Paige, not having noticed that they've been caught: "Hey Kaitlyn, this looks like it would fit that doll I had earlier."

Kaitlyn: "Ohh nooo...I hope we don't get trouble!" Paige: "Well, this one would be really cute on her, too...what do you think?"

Crib jumping (Kaitlyn wearing evidence from the room-trashing, and they did get in there on their own):

Checking out Toy Story 3:

This next sequence of pictures took place between about 9:30 and 10:30 p.m., when delirium had set in. Shrieking, giggling, somersaults, booty-shaking, circle-running, etc.:

This would be Paige's booty shaking:

Water break:

Jeff dragging them on a sleeping bag:

Kara wanted a turn, too ;-)

And so ends my spring break...can't wait till summer! :-)

Austen's One Year Stats

Height: 29.5 inches (61%) Weight: 22lbs. 10 oz. (74%)

Better When We're Together

****I fully, 100% stole this post title from a good friend...it just seemed so perfect for some recent pictures of the girls. :-) (Thanks, Jenn!) Oh, how these sisters have grown to love each other. They are just recently starting to have more and more fun together, and Kaitlyn seems to have taken more of a nurturing, "Hey, this sister thing is kinda fun" approach to Austen. Yes, of course there is still pushing, trouble sharing, etc., but it's so much fun watching them together. My spring break has been full of girl time, and I've appreciated every minute of it...even when we went into Kaitlyn's room after a nap to hear her say, "I dropped my poo-poo!" I'll leave that story at that. ;-) Here are just a few pictures from our week: This seems a bit backwards, but Austen pushes Kaitlyn around on this toy: Little stinkers like to turn the TV on and off. Riley is usually in on it, too.

Oh wait, Riley is just there for the snacks.

Happy Friday!