Sister, sister

We had our sonogram today and found out that Sydney is going to have a little SISTER!!!  More importantly, the baby is healthy and measuring right on track.  Praise God!  Last night before Sydney went to bed, we asked her if she thought the baby was a boy or a girl and she said Girl...I guess she knew all along.   :)  I know Craig is just seeing the dollar signs running through his head right now...extracurricular activities, prom, college, WEDDINGS....etc.  I pray that Sydney and her little sister are the best of friends...not that they won't ever fight (we all know how girls are!) but that at the end of the day, they are there for each other no matter what.  After the sonogram, we took Sydney to Target so she could pick out something new for the baby.  She got her this adorable little sleeper.  She just carried it around Target telling us how it was for the baby.  It was so sweet.  I think she's going to make a fabulous Big Sister!

10 things I love about Sweet Sydney

1.  The way she leans in for a kiss when she's in trouble - when Sydney and I are talking about why she's in trouble she'll lean in and pucker her lips just waiting for a kiss.  How can you resist that?  

2.  Her independence - yea, I realize later in life this may come back to bite me, but I just love how she wants to do everything herself.  She will say "I do it."  Whenever I see her having a hard time doing whatever it is she was doing, I'll ask her if she needs help...sometimes she says yes, sometimes she says no.  It feels good to know that we have instilled a confidence in her to know that she CAN do it, but to also know it's okay to ask for help.

3.  Her nurturing side - she got a lot of baby dolls for Christmas and they are her favorite thing to play with right now.  She walks them (in a baby stroller), swaddles them, rocks them, tries to change their diapers, and even gives them a bath by taking every wipe out of the box and washing their faces.  (I think she's getting ready to be a GREAT big sister!)

4.  Her love for church - Sydney gets so excited to go to church on Sunday.  Maybe it's because she gets to play with her BFF Madison but I hope it's also because she learns about Jesus.  As soon as she sees our church through the car window she yells "Sydney's church!"

5.  Her smile and laugh - maybe it's a little cliche but this girl has got the most amazing and contagious little smile.  You can't help but smile back at her.  (another way she tries to get herself out of being in trouble)

6.  The way she lights up when Daddy comes home from work - enough said...it's one of the sweetest parts of MY day too.  :)

7.  How she loves to read her Bible - every night before bed, we read one book and one story out of her children's Bible.  She never forgets that we read her Bible and I love that she's starting such a good "habit" at a young age.

8.  "Thank you much" - this one is fairly new.   Sydney has been learning about manners at school this month and her new thing is to say "Thank you much" instead of just plain ol' Thank You.  I like her version better.  :)

9.  Her pats on the back - When Sydney gives you a "big" hug now, she'll pat you on the back.  

10. Dancing - Sydney loves to dance.  She dances at home when we have music on and in the car while we're driving.  She always says "I dancin'!" as she bobbles her head from side to side.

Playing at the Park

We take Sydney down to the Elementary School's playground in our neighborhood a lot to play. She loves going down the big slide while we're there. Here are some pics we took from the other day.

Watch Jackson...

Sydney is doing and saying the CUTEST things right now. My new favorite is that when she is playing in the backyard, she'll say "Watch Jackson." Jackson is our dog so she is telling him watch whatever she's doing; swinging, going down the slide, kicking the ball. It's really cute. She also says "watch mommy" and "watch daddy" when she wants us to watch her do something. I feel like she is getting so big now. This morning, when she woke up, the first thing she said was "nose stuffy." I love that she can actually explain herself to us now. This is such a FUN age!!!!

Christmas 2008

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Ours was fantastic and very busy as usual. We had a total of 5 Christmases. It started Christmas Eve with Craig's dad's family, then Christmas morning with my immediate family, Christmas afternoon with my dad's family, back to Craig's parents for an immediate family Christmas Friday night and the last one was Saturday morning with Craig's mom's family. Whew! Thankfully our friend Daniel let us borrow his SUV so we could get back with all our (read: Sydney's) gifts! We were packed to the gills when we drove back from Houston. Santa brought Sydney a new play kitchen and a 2 foot tall Minnie Mouse (her favorite character). She also received books, clothes, baby dolls, a doll stroller, and many other toys. It's pretty cute watching her with all her new baby dolls. She wants to change their diapers, swaddle them, rock them, etc. I think she's getting ready for her new little brother or sister! :) Here are some pictures from all our Christmases. It appears that we got a little lazy as the days went by with taking pictures....ooops!!!

Big Sister!

That's right!!  Sydney is going to be a big sister!!  I've been meaning to post this for a while now but by the time I was out of the first trimester, we got busy with Christmas shopping and and Christmas traveling, that I didn't have much time until now.  I'll be 15 weeks tomorrow...due date is June 25th.  We got to see our little beating heart at the 7 week appointment and then got to hear it at our 11 week appointment.  We are VERY excited and can't wait to find out what we are having.  I think we'll find out the end of January.  So what do you think?  Take my poll below.

Fun at the park with Katelyn

Katelyn came over a few weeks ago to play with Sydney so we took them to a park near our house.  Katelyn is about 9 months older than Sydney and you can tell that Syd totally looks up to Katelyn.  It's fun to watch them play together.

Fall fun!

This is our first Fall in our new home.  For those that haven't seen it yet, we have 3 gigantic, beautiful trees in our yard.  Definitely one of the things that first attracted me to the home.  Well, with big trees, comes LOTS of leaves!!  This was the first day we raked.  Sydney had a blast playing in the piles of leaves!