January

Over Christmas/New Year break, my sister's family came down for the holidays to get away from the snow, only they brought it with them! Our kids were SO excited and had to play in it, but their cousin Adison didn't understand why it was so exciting; it's just snow :)

After playing in the snow, it was time for some down time...relaxing in front of a movie. Emalyn & Adison are both finger/thumb suckers w/their blankets. It was cute how in-sync they were.

Ronan is playing in a new castle the kids got from my parents for Christmas, and it keeps him entertained for long periods of time. He wouldn't let go of the sword either. This thing actually helped him practice getting his balance while standing. It would fall over with him when he put his weight into it, so he quickly had to adjust :)

While I was holiday shopping, I found some cute Amy Butler towels on clearance and decided it was time for new hooded towels for the kids. I also made one for my niece (the white one w/fabric trim) and I love the way it turned out!

On the 13th, Emalyn turned 3 years old! She is a sweet, sassy little girl, who is finally starting to outgrow screaming and trying to actually talk to her over-eager 5 year old sister instead. Gabriela loves her a little too much, a little too often for Ema's liking :)

Also in January, I got to help my good friend, Melanie, from Above All Fabric, man her booth at the Tucson Quilt Festival! It was an awesome event, her booth was gorgeous, and I had so much fun (despite sore feet at the end of the day)!

At the end of the month, Ronan turned 10 months old, and is quickly taking after our crazy Gabriela! He gets into everything, tries to eat everything (including rocks in our backyard), and doesn't really have an interest in toys.

If you go back to the beginning of this blog, you'll remember Gabriela pulling a filing cabinet down on her at 11 months old. We started this blog because our families didn't quite believe all the crazy things she was doing at such an early age (and neither could we!). We needed to document it all. It looks like we'll be doing the same with this kid...Ronan pulled the drawers out of the night stand and it fell over and the drawers landed on his legs, but no marks, just scary looking when I came running in. He was sitting right in front of the alarm clock and had it not been plugged into the wall, it would have kept sliding down and clocked him in the head :) I don't know if I can go through this again!

February

I tried to make some burp cloths for quick & easy baby shower gifts and they turned out really cute! I also tried working with laminate for the first time and made a lunch bag (which I still haven't finished the closure), and a nursing cover for my friend.

Gabriela got her first toy gun from Danny's parents at Old Tucson, and she was thrilled. We gave it a try, but it wasn't too long before we had to hide it :) Oh, and I made her this skirt. When I first made it, it was way too long and it looked pretty bad. Shortened it up and much better.

Poor Ronan :) We went through our clothing boxes, putting away too small clothes, and getting out new ones, when we found this treasure! Isa wore this for her first Halloween and Bren had a "Steve shirt" and they went as Steve & Blue. It was dang cute back then! We thought we'd try it on Ronan and it obviously doesn't fit, and he obviously was embarrassed.

I know this looks really gross, and it kind of is. But, it was too funny to not take a picture. The kid is obsessed with peeking in the garbage can to find things, and putting things IN the trash can without us knowing (I'm sure we've thrown away several toys). I keep this trash can cloroxed often on the inside and out because he's always touching it. I had just put an almost empty Healthy Choice lunch bowl in the trash (resting on top of empty cereal boxes, nothing gross like chicken guts), when he peeked in and saw food. He ate the rest of the spinach that was in the bowl!

Here he is at 11 months, still not walking and still putting everything in his mouth. I love his chubby body!

December

I keep hoping time will slow down and that Ronan will be a baby a little bit longer, but it's just not happening :) Only a week after finally sitting on his own, this kid's ready to get a move on and pulls himself up to standing. He's so proud!

But along with the excitement of standing, comes the frustration of getting stuck and not knowing how to get down, and interrupted naps & sleeping. It took him a week or so to work it out on his own...it was a long week though!

I started a few too many projects at the last minute. Pajama pants for all SEVEN of us, a Christmas quilt, and a couple of other catch-up projects. I did get the pants done for all the girls, the boys are still waiting, and the quilt is already put away to work on for 2011.

We spent Christmas Eve with Danny's family and my favorite gift was a pair of Adidas shoes for Ronan! I love shoes. Danny's grandpa (known to everyone as "Sir") was teaching Ronan how to whistle and he was quite fascinated! Ronan would imitate by putting his fingers in his mouth, and then when Sir would put his fingers in his mouth to show a new whistle, Ronan would blink really fast in anticipation. It was pretty cute.

Christmas day was spent with my family and the kids had so much fun playing a new wii game with their cousins! There are now 25 of us, so it was a fun, FULL house. I loved it.

Ronan turned 9 months old right after Christmas.
His stats: 23 lb 5 oz, and 33" long.

I've been wanting to make this quilt for Ronan for forever and finally finished it for him. I'm so happy with it!

Then, after all the craziness died down, we went and got Emalyn's ears pierced at her pediatrician's office! She was so excited and didn't even cry. All the way over she said she wanted diamonds and we told the nurse that's what she wanted (we even pointed at the picture), then the doctor came in and did them and when we looked in the mirror, we were a little disappointed to see they were silver balls instead. That's when Ema was upset and said, "I didn't want balls, I wanted diamonds!" The doctor offered to switch them out, but I think it would have been too traumatizing, especially since we lucked out w/out any tears! All Ema could say for the next week when people asked about her new earrings was "the doctor shot me and gave me balls instead of diamonds!" We promised her diamonds for her birthday to help with this atrocity :)