valentines..

{a few days late, because it's what i do}

this year, we decided to do valentines very low key.

we went to dinner last weekend, sans jillian. nothing fancy, but so nice to get away.

and determined that we would get eachother zero gifts. no reason, but just to be simple.

well, kyle broke the law, and got me flowers AND donuts! {i should've known}

so today, i went to the store and got him cokes and candy.

and we're all a happy couple again. {well, not that we weren't. now we're just even.}

we took zero pictures on/around valentines, so i just uploaded random pictures from our dating lives back in high school. we look like 8 years old!

the first picture was from our first valentines day together. it snowed and our parents made us stay home, so we just hung out and played in the snow.

kyle,
i love that you're ok with me loving simple things, and not always going for the fancy plans.

i love that we're just as happy with cokes, donuts, and candy, rather than expensive gifts.

i love that we're so alike, yet different as day and night.


that you know i make zero sense a lot of the time, and you're ok with that.


i love our family and home.

and i wouldn't change one single thing about our lives.

i love you!

ten months!

double digit months.

that only means one thing, we are very close to a first birthday. and that cannot be possible.

i'm late posting this, mostly because i just haven't gotten around to taken J's pictures. I actually wrote the post, sans pictures, 2 weeks ago, so i'm having to come back in and edit the small details of her now life.


this month, we all shared a stomach virus, lovely. poor jillie - it was so sad to see her throwing up. then we thought she had ear infections {all the signs there}, so we went to the doctor, and they said her ears looked perfect! {don't you hate that!?} having to take home a super fussy baby with no reason for it.

but i think we're all past that. J has been sleeping better and seems to finally have her appetite back. she has actually been sleeping past her 6 am feeding and sleeping all the way to 9-10! Praise the Lord!

and she is now back to her crazy, bouncing off the wall self. another person told me this week "i don't think i've ever seen a baby her age with that much energy". if i had a dollar every time i heard that!

the girl has more personality than most adults i know.


she has become so vocal. well, she always has been pretty "talkative", but now she talks all day long! non stop. and she's hilarious!

i'm watching her right now play with her baby doll. she just started noticing it as a "different toy" within the last couple of days. you know how girls play with dolls differently? she will just sit and hold it, then pick it up and "kiss" her face, then put it back in her lap. she'll rock it and "pat" her bottom {sometimes a little violent, but still sweet}. it's so funny/interesting to watch how they know so early!

{so lady-like here!}

she has started walking! she took her first steps on feb.10th. she can walk about 6 feet before falling down, and she usually starts off that way, then ends up crawling to wherever she "needs" to go. it won't be too long before she's running around!

she is so social and loves to be around her 'friends' {mostly just cousins}. but it's so funny to watch her squeal/scream with delight when she sees them. so sweet.

since we have been expecting another baby, i've almost been feeling kind of guilty, that she won't be the baby anymore. {i hear tons feel this way}. and it makes me sad that she's growing up so fast and we're adding another one right behind her. but it seems in the last couple weeks she has become a tiny bit more cuddly {from zero cuddly}. she'll let me hold her and watch tv for like 5 minutes - which is a big jump. and let me rock her to sleep.

so i'm cherishing these sweet times, while she is still the only one i have to rock now. and even a teeny tiny bit happy when she wakes up in the night and i get to go in and rock her {as long as she goes right back to sleep - if not, that's another story =) }

it's definitely just going too fast for my liking!


but i am loving this stage! she's so much fun!