and now we're exhausted!

enough said!

Finley thinks she's so grown up!

She's sitting like a big girl in her chair, wearing her backpack like she's going to school, wearing sunglasses like a studdette and joining in everyday conversation. She really is growing fast.

we're playing dress up

Finley's great grandma bought her this dress. It's still too big but we tried it on anyways just for fun! Thanks Oma!

Happy Birthday Ally!

Ally turned the big "8" on December 27 so to celebrate, we spent the day doing what she wanted. I took her and three of her friends out to lunch and then swimming at a hotel. From there we surprised and took her to Build-A-Bear because she's been wanting to do that for awhile now. After that we went to dinner at Osaka Japanese Steakhouse. The kids had a great time there and loved the food. It was a great day! Happy B-day Ally!

Finley's First Christmas!

Finley had a long, exhausting day of opening christmas gifts ... actually we all did. Casey and Ally were up at 4 a.m. That's right. We made a deal with the kids that when they woke up they could turn the hall light on so we would know they were awake but they were not to come upstairs. It worked pretty well. Finley woke up shortly after 4 a.m. too and she did not want to go back to sleep. The anticipation was killing her too I guess. So finally at 4:45 we just decided to go for it. After we had our christmas we went to my parents and then to Brandon's moms for the evening. It was a full day of opening gifts and few naps. Finley was exhausted by the end of the day at my moms and Oliver was there to make sure no one bothered her. It was a great Christmas!

A year will be here before we know it!

Finley is 9 months old today. I can't believe it. She had her 9 month appt. today and Dr. Lass said she is doing fabulous! She weighed 19lbs. 15 oz. and was 27.5 inches long. She was in the 75th percentile across the board. She is pulling herself up on everything. I had a pot on the kitchen floor the other day for her to play with and it was upside down and she managed to pull herself up to standing with that. We're not pushing her to walk anytime soon, or let's be real, at all but it's bound to happen sometime. Brandon is just convinced that the longer she crawls the more coordinated she'll be. I was, by far, no athlete so unless she gets some athletic ability from her dad then coordination really won't be that much of an issue anyway. Not to mention it's hard enough to keep up with her when she's crawling. I can't imagine when she's walking.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ...

I got Santa hats for the kids to wear this year at Christmas and they loved them. Duh! They decided to cheese it up for the camera.

I'm a mess!

I guess we all have bad hair days!

Finley's big day at school

Finley was invited to visit Pleasant Valley High School for Kourtney's parenting class. Of course she had to dress up for the occasion.

Finley claps

Ally and Finley/work time

Casey and Ally love to help with Finley. One of Ally's favorite things to do is feed Finley at supper time. The first picture is just before dinner and the second one is Finley at work. She's a computer genius.

Mom, I've got my buttpaste and my comb ... now what?

We can do pigtails now!

What personality?

Happy Halloween 2007

This year we had a football player, tinkerbell and a little jail bird. Brandon and Finley were being silly while we were walking around to all the houses and decided it would be funny to stick their tongue out at the camera.

Big sis/Little sis

Ally and Finley had story time the other night. I believe it was one of Ally's library books.

Girls day baby shower

Ally, Finley and I made the trek to Ankeny last weekend for our great friend Sarah's baby shower. Corrie and Sally met us there. It was a fabulous time. I had to call Sarah after I left to make sure I was actually there because the visit went so quickly. We're so excited for baby Lee to be here.

Finley and daddy

How could I resist snapping these adorable shots. They didn't even flinch when the flash went off.

Finley is 7 months old today!

Finley is a whopping 7 months old today. Time is going by entirely too fast.