Hill with Aunt Stacey

Aunt Stacey invited us to go to Hill Aerospace Museum with her and her boys during their Spring Break. I ended up carrying Sophie for the better part of our wanderings, but the girls had a good time with their cousins. It was an afternoon well spent.

Lydia remembers, "holding Conner's hand, and Eric running off a lot. And there were a lot of stairs. And there was this plane that looked like it had shark teeth. And I did not want to go near it."

Sophie remembers, "the pennies. I liked when we did the pennies. And I remember looking inside these houses. We couldn't go inside because they were locked. And there was this phone. And I was crying."

They had one of those penny funnel things where you can drop a penny in the outer edge and watch it spin and spin until it falls into the center and down a tube. I think all of us enjoyed watching the pennies.

Happy Easter

I asked Lydia what she knew/liked about Easter.  This was her response: "Because when Jesus Christ died on the cross, He was resurrected and He had some holes in hands, those marks, and He could raise us from the dead. And the Easter Bunny comes. And the Easter Bunny leaves us candy."

Sophie said, "When Jesus was raised from the dead and He was resurrected He raises us from the dead too. The Easter Bunny brings us candy and the Easter Bunny is nice."

These ladies definitely listen/learn from each other. It was a wonderful day! Magical for the little ones with their baskets and fun. And so meaningful for all of us because He lives.

Happy Birthday Sophie Kitty!

 It's hard to believe that nearly a year ago we were worried about Sophie's speech. She's come a long way. Occasionally she likes to make up her own words and define them for me, and I catch a glimpse of what I thought communicating with her was going to be like. But it isn't. The imaginary words are kind of fun. More fun when I can pronounce them the way she wants me to, but fun nonetheless. And the fact that she speaks really well and is constantly adding new words to her vocabulary is a huge relief.

And for the most part I'd say that today was a fabulous birthday. Lydia treated Sophie like a queen. She's always really good to Soph, but she was especially thoughtful today. She wrapped a present for her at preschool and was so excited to give it to her (Sophie's opening it below; it's an egg Lyd's decorated at school). She kept talking about her guests arriving after dinner, and how they were coming to celebrate Sophie (Sophie prayed for her guests when she blessed the food at dinner) and she kept Sophie's "big" present a secret.

Sophie woke up to find a string of Hello Kitty balloons hanging on the wall. She told all of us that the pink ones were hers, the green ones were Mia's and Lydia got the purple ones.

 

She picked out a beautiful dress and some lovely tights to wear for her party later and approved Mia's outfit before we got to sit down together. While Lydia was at school she and I read four of her current favorite books together: Wiggy (a tale of a tail that wigged instead of wagged), Miss Nelson is Missing, Owen, and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse.  She helped me do laundry and then we picked up Lydia. She got to jump in a bounce house outside and watch Bolt while Jon and I decorated her cake and cupcakes. She'd requested a pink cake and so Jon frosted her cat cake pink, but when she saw it she asked why it wasn't brown like most cats. She said she still liked it though. :)

Right before things really got started Jon measured Sophie to see how much she'd grown since last year. Several family members took guesses ranging from an inch to four inches. Soph grew a solid three and a half inches since turning two!

When the party finally started and her guests had arrived, she was so fun to watch opening her presents. She gasped a lot, got confused about which Grandma was which when she went to thank them, and lit up every time she opened a gift. She blew out her candle without too much trouble. I think she got it on her second attempt, and she ran around outside with her sisters and cousins and Uncles.

When Jon brought her big present (a bike) up from the basement, she hopped right on it. I think she would have taken off if she could have. She also carried her little gray kitten around with her most of the evening. The cute little thing was the perfect addition to her kitty party.

She invited Lydia to come in her castle, and agreed to let Mia come in another day. Though she wasn't allowed in, Mia loved looking through the windows at her sisters and giggling at them. And giggle she did, lots and lots.

The only reason today was not a full on success was that sweet Sophie went to bed with a fever. For sure not the way anyone wants to end a day or spend a day, but especially not on your birthday. Hopefully she feels better tomorrow.

Three looks good on you Soph! Cant wait to see what adventures await you this year!

Mia- from her first solids to crawling and teething in between

Looking through these pictures it amazes me how much Mia has changed since November when this first picture was taken. She still loves to stick out her tongue, but so much has changed since the time when she smiled up at me from her blanket and I knew that if I rushed off to get a diaper she'd still be there, exactly as I left her, when I got back. She still smiles at me (though much more readily at her sisters) but she is definitely not one to sit still.

Right at six months we started feeding her solids. And did she like them? Oh no she did not! Not one little bit. It took some serious coaxing and a whole lot of patience to get her to swallow even the tiniest bit of rice cereal. And don't get me started on vegetables. Oh how she hates the greens. Peas and beans are the worst! Absolutely the worst. It was weeks before I felt like feeding her didn't take a solid half hour. But we've moved past all of that. She absolutely adores rice cereal. In fact she gets giddy excited when I pull her rice cereal box out of the pantry. I've learned that I need to feed her her fruits or vegetable before giving her her rice. Because if I don't she likely won't eat them at all. She did get pretty good at tolerating vegetables, but once I introduced fruits (aside from the unfortunate banana) she didn't really want to waste her time with them. I now feed her both fruits and vegetables before rice and she's almost got my number. She's definitely on to me. I start with a bite of fruit which she hesitantly accepts. When she realizes I'm giving her the good stuff she readily opens her mouth for a bite of mixed vegetables. And instantly regrets it. She keeps it in her mouth far too long before swallowing and then holds off opening her mouth again when I offer her another bite, sure that it's more dreaded beans and carrots. But it's not! It's blueberries and apples! And she's happily surprised. Until the next bite which she eagerly anticipates, only to find that it's not more yummy fruit. And on and on we go. But eventually we get to the rice cereal and once there, she's pretty good not to hold anything against me. She's really sweet that way.

Right around this same time she started sitting up like a champ. Not right away of course. She scraped up her delicate chin quite a bit because it took the brunt of many a fall to the carpet until she truly mastered the art of sitting up. And it was really exciting when she figured out how to get herself from her tummy to sitting position because we knew it wouldn't be long before she'd be crawling. These huge milestones have all been coming together so quickly, one after another!

I should probably mention that she no longer has more food on her face than in her mouth, but that was exactly how it was for several meals in the beginning.

We've been told that she looks like The American Baby doll. I'm not familiar with them but they're part of the American Girl doll family, I believe. Anyway, Jon and I looked them up and were surprised to see that she really does look exactly like one of the dolls. Like the doll was made to look just like Mia. Just. Like. Her. This doll she's holding is not one of those dolls but she was playing with it one night during scriptures and Jon couldn't resist taking a picture. They're almost the same size and she's handling that baby doll like it's her job. Like she's going to care for her. Like she's such a big girl. So grown up! Because she really thinks she is. She loves to hold big girl things. Like chap stick. Or spoons. Or those medicine syringes. Or tiny bowls. Or books! She loves to hold books. Whatever she can get her hands on. Also, she recently discovered balloons and they are now a favorite. I cringe just a little every time she goes near one, sure that it's going to pop all over her. It's funny to see what she does when any of us hands her a "baby" toy. It's like she'd like to tell us, "what do you want me to do with this? This is meant for a BABY." Obviously she's not a baby anymore. And somewhere in the middle of all this growing up, after she started solids, she grew two teeth. They came in right at seven months. Lydia's first two teeth came in at eight months and Sophie's first two came in at six months, so she's just averaging out big sisters experiences. Since then nothing else has broken through, but we're sure they're on their way. For about a month we weren't sure if she was suffering from an ear infection (turns out she wasn't) or if she was just in misery because of sore gums. We assume it's her gums. All that swatting at her ear must have been her way of telling us her mouth hurt. The doctor confirmed that her ears were fine. Fortunately the past few nights haven't been as miserable for her and we've all gotten to sleep a little bit better. What a beautiful thing!

Towards the middle/end of February Mia got really good at crawling backwards. Lydia and Sophie were the same way. It was like her arms were ready to take off and go on adventures, but her legs hadn't yet made up their mind to join in or not. Apparently not. She'd get herself stuck under everything! She backed up into the green couch and got her leg stuck underneath while I was making dinner. She found herself stuck under the frog chair that Uncle Jim made Jon when he was a little boy while she watched her sisters play. She got stuck underneath the crib while we read stories in her room, but getting stuck under things because of crawling backwards is now a thing of the past. As of March 13th her legs figured things out and she is officially crawling like a professional. I just hope that she doesn't want to conquer the stairs anytime soon.

And now this sweet little lady is nine months. As of today. I've determined that if she didn't depend on me for sustenance she'd be happy to check in with me as little as possible. I know that she's not talking in any words that I understand, but it's pretty clear that she wants to spend all her time with her sisters. She lights up when she hears their voices. She jumps up and down in my arms after waking up from naps when we join Lydia and Sophie. If she's sad they're always able to cheer her up just by being near her. She seriously loves those two and they're so good to her in return.

We've taken some really fun pictures of the three of them lately, but I just love their expressions in this one. Not sure if Soph is telling both Lyds and Mia a secret, but she and Mia definitely look like they're up to the same something. Lydia just looks ready to be entertained by whatever is happening. So much personality. It's fun and exciting to see and anticipate what Mia will add to the adventures of the Frazier ladies.

Provo City Center Temple

On March 20th we took the family to the Provo City Center Temple Open House. We carpooled with Grandma and Grandpa Frazier and enjoyed listening to the girls tell them stories and Grandpa teasing Lydia. Sophie even sang one of her songs for them on the way home.

The temple was beautiful; inside the building as well as the grounds.  Lydia asked if people were getting married in certain rooms as we walked through our tour. Sophie loved walking (or being carried) up the stairs. Mia didn't complain as she was passed around and everyone remained calm and cheerful through it all. We admired the stained glass windows, the baptistery, the furniture in general. Everything from the carpet to the chandeliers. When I think about these incredible buildings being the Lord's house it's no wonder they're so magnificent. It's not easy (at this time in our lives) to go to the temple as often as we'd like. Especially since our girls are so little and so dependent on us. I know this won't always be the case and for now I'm determined to enjoy where we are in life. "Come what may and love it" (one of my favorite talks by Elder Wirthlin) is the attitude I want to have. Life won't be this way for long and I don't want to look back and wish I'd done things differently.

Once the tour ended the girls really wanted to go to the fountain outside and watch the water. Always a favorite pastime for these ladies.

We also took a close look at the Beehives surrounding the temple. Lydia wanted to walk up the concrete ramps lining the stairs next to the Beehives and Grandpa wanted to see if the Beehives were cut from one solid rock. Because Grandpa's a stone mason things like this are fascinating for all of us. He noticed the caulking surrounding the bricks and it was interesting to discuss the time it must have taken to restore the Tabernacle and everything that went into getting it to the stunning state it's now in. What a remarkable temple. I'm not sure that the girls will remember much, if anything, from this open house, but I'm really glad that we went. They were too young to attend the temple dedication with us yesterday (which was amazing) but I hope that one day they'll be in attendance at another temple dedication.

Just had to share this little gem. The girls found out what CTR stands for and here they are showing off their lovely rings that remind them to Choose The Right.

Lydia and Star Wars love

Don't let this sweet little innocent face deceive you. She's not just into ponies and princesses. But we already know that, don't we? She's always been intrigued by the bad guys in any given story. Maleficent was probably the first scary character that really caught her attention. And now this little lady is intensely fascinated with Star Wars. It started just before Christmas when Star Wars The Force Awakens came out in theaters. The girls gave Jon a few Star Wars stories that became bedtime stories and then she started asking Jon to tell her Star Wars stories every time we were riding in the car long enough to hear a story. We used to tell mission stories, stories from our childhood and injury stories, (or the girls would tell us a story they made up) and we'd take turns telling them. The girls would request to hear the cobra story or when Jon got hurt on his mission playing basketball. These were quickly replaced with requests for how Anakin turned to the Dark Side, or what happened to Yoda. She said she knew that he died but she needed to know in which episode and how. And she'd ask "which episode did Darth Vader die in? Was it Return of the Jedi? Or The Empire Strikes Back?" Also, Jon found some Star Wars toys that he'd had when he was younger. A Darth Vader and Storm Trooper head full of tiny Star Wars characters that the girls thought were really cool. They really enjoyed opening them up and holding the Chewy or Han Solo or Leia.

I'm not sure if her interest started at home or at school, but she'd come home from school full of Star Wars talk. It seemed to be all the kids wanted to talk about. She told us that she was telling her classmates about Boba Fett and how he's real in Star Wars, but not in real life. She said that the other kids didn't believe her. One day their teacher gave them Star Wars crackers for snack time and the kids were yelling to each other, "don't eat Princess Leia!" I'm sure that's not all they talk about, but it sure sounds like it! And I'm quite confident when I say that she knows EVERYONE from Star Wars. She could jump in a discussion with the biggest Star Wars nerds out there. And keep up with them. Did I mention that she also knows the names of the planes and planets? Yah... She does. One of the books referred to Vespin as Cloud City. When I read that to her she said, "not Cloud City! Vespin!" And then let me know that Lando lived there. Duh Mom!

And it's not just Lyds. Soph surprised me and Uncle Tophe one day when she said, "I can't remember his name but the man who was frozen in carbonite...Who is he?" and then assigning us to planets another day. "You live on Tatooine, and you and you!" I've heard her say "I love Princess Leia, and Queen Amadala and Rey." Even though she's also confessed to thinking Star Wars is disgusting.

Both girls love pushing all the buttons on one of the Christmas books they gave to Jon. I actually really got a kick out of watching them take turns pushing the buttons and discussing what they knew about the movies. Jon's mom made this great Star Wars blanket for him when he was little that he still has. Lyds always asked to be wrapped up in it for movie night. And bedtime books went from Corduroy, Pinkalicious and Dr. Seuss stories to A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. It's all been really fun. Even her Darth Vader breathing attempts are fairly convincing. Unfortunately there's a downside to all this Star Wars business. Nightmares. So, to help her out Jon packed up all the books, the toys and even the blanket. We decided it might be best for everyone if we took a break from the goodness that is Star Wars. At least for a little while.

Aside from Star Wars there are some things I don't want to forget about what Lydia is like right now anytime soon. She always brings a stowaway in her backpack to school each day. And each day it's a different stowaway. Her teacher loves her. She says she's the calm in the storm of active boys she gets to teach. And she also thinks of her as a bit of an old soul. Something I've never really considered before now, but can definitely see. And I love it. She's great at explaining things simply to Sophie, but sounds so grown up doing it. Sometimes she requests that I do her hair certain ways. Often it's a ponytail. Sometimes it's a braid. A few weeks ago she asked for a pointy up. I had no idea what that was, so she explained to  me that it was a ponytail with two elastics around it so that the hair stuck up a bit more than if there was just one. The elastics sit side by side, not around each other. I did my best and when I asked her where the idea for that came from she told me that it was from an illustration she'd seen in one of the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books Isaac and Amber gave us for Christmas. Her writing is impressive. She's figuring out how to spell things by sounding them out and her reading s coming along little by little. She loves being outside and working with her dad, and she often thanks Heavenly Father for our prayer chart.

She still knows who she's going to marry. Gabe. That hasn't changed, but there's a boy in her class (Cody) who has confessed to both Lydia and his mother that he loves her. He plans to take her on her first date when they turn 16. I think it's adorable.

She excitedly tells us about school. She loves her primary teachers (one of them is Cody's dad) and animatedly tells us the stories they tell her at church. She requests a dessert after each meal. She has different play sets. Her collection of dogs has become a play set. Her farm and farm toys have become a play set. I believe she even has a dinosaur play set. They studied dinosaurs last week at school and she rounded up a bunch of little dinosaurs we brought home from Thanksgiving Point a few years ago. 

She's also an artist and made this day and night picture. One side was colored to look like daytime and the other side like nighttime. Each morning she makes sure that the daytime picture is showing and right before we read scriptures and pray she turns the paper around so that we get to enjoy her illustration of the night. Love.

 

Also, we're thrilled that as of today she will officially be in Spanish Immersion starting in July when Kindergarten starts. She's so excited! We're all excited! And I'm especially excited for her to learn actual Spanish. She's told me some foreign sounding words that she claims are Spanish and then tells me their translations. Between you and me, they aren't really Spanish. I love her enthusiasm and look forward to more adventures with little miss Lydia.

Happy Pie Day

I've been wanting to get a Pie Day tradition going even since Jon and I started dating. I attempted a raspberry pie around Valentine's Day a year or two after we were married that was an absolute fail. I suppose the crust was alright, but once we cut into the pie, the berries didn't hold their form and despite their delicious taste they weren't pretty. My enthusiasm for baking delicious pies was crippled and though I've had good intentions ever since it wasn't until today that things came together and this tradition started in earnest.

It's only been almost a year since I found a chicken pot pie recipe that I love. I've made it a few times since then but really wanted to make it a part of our Pie Day tradition. For the most part I don't think of us as picky eaters, but I'll admit that it's really nice making anything (and especially a pot pie) from scratch with only ingredients that I know will be enjoyed and appreciated by our family. Meaning, specifically, no onions. We use onion powder instead. I'd be okay with celery, but leave them out for Jon. The girls have decided they don't like mushrooms but I think Sophie might still be persuaded. Not Lyds though. She detests them. And I get it. She'll pick them out but I know she'd prefer to not have them there to begin with. Sophie takes Lydia's lead on many things, and I have to laugh when she asks to have mushrooms taken off her pizza because between the mushrooms and the black olives she gets confused and always asks Jon if what she's holding is an olive or a mushroom. Sometimes she ends up eating a mushroom thinking it's an olive and tells us she likes it. ;)

For dessert I decided we should start with something simple this year. Basically I needed a win for this first year to be a success and so that I'd look forward to future years. Fruit pies are a little overwhelming to me, so for now I'm not going to attempt one. One day I will, but not today. I found a pudding pie that looked/sounded good and had good reviews as well. It's called dirt pudding pie which Lydia thought was funny and Sophie thought was gross. With a little probing I realized that Sophie thought we were going to put actual dirt in our pie. Should have seen that coming... Once we had the ingredients lined up she gave me her stamp of approval, and that was that!

Sophie- The potty training begins

 I was remembering the other day that in almost all of our letters to Uncle Nate while he was on his mission Jon and I would write about Sophie and how she continued to be our little sweetheart. And she really is. She's so sweet with Mia and she's the perfect buddy for me when Lydia is at school and Mia is napping. In fact I love that time with her. We read books together, she asks to sit on my lap and we find a pretty dress for her to wear and clothes for Mia for the day, which Sophie usually insists is a dress as well.  She rotates laundry and pours in detergent, puts ingredients into mixing bowls for me, sets the table at meals and is the best at putting away utensils. She loves to get diapers for Mia too. And those are just a few examples of how sweet she is and how she helps around the house.

She's made up a song about balls and gowns and jewels that has about 8 verses and she sings it loud and proud. And I absolutely love it. I love listening to her and Lydia play together. They act like princesses and take on roles from Sofia the First. They take turns being doctors and give each other or their stuffed animals check ups. They really love taking turns being a mommy and a baby. They'll tuck each other in a bed they've made on the couch and then make "breakfast" with tessellation blocks. One of them will often be sick and they'll work to get the fever down. I could go on and on, but I love their imaginations and especially that they enjoy spending time together.

She's also sassy and can be a bit of a firecracker. She'll tell us that we're not the boss of her. You don't have to guess what she's thinking either. She's definitely very honest. You might even say brutally honest. I hesitated telling her that I was getting my hair cut a few weeks ago because I knew she'd rather I didn't. Sure enough, when I came home from the beauty school Sophie told me she didn't like my hair. She liked it when it was long. I just about died when we were looking at pictures from a few years ago and she saw the family pictures we took of the girls in their gold dresses and she disappointedly asked, "who cut my hair?!"

She's super observant. She noticed that Grandma Frazier was wearing Christmas wreath earrings on Christmas Eve. She also told me that her doctor had a shark on his shirt when we were at a check up last month. He'd left to print some information for us and sure enough Bruce the shark from Finding Nemo was pinned to his shirt. It led to a great discussion. She tells me when she likes my shoes or shirt or whatever. She also has a thing with hair (in general, not just mine) and prefers hers down. I love putting a messy bun on top of her head. It's such a good look for her, but she doesn't like it and tells me so if ever I succeed in doing her hair that way. She talks about how Mia doesn't have a bunch of hair, but one day she will. She told me that "Mia can have some banana swirl when she's older, has teeth and a bunch of hair." She loves to wear fun patterned tights with her dresses. She talks about living in a castle one day. I tell you, this little lady is the real Sofia.

She loves nursery. Her nursery teachers love talking to her because she's so verbal and apparently has awesome stories to share. I can only imagine... And one of them told me, when I picked her up after class, that she said a really impressive prayer that day. Like really impressive. He was totally blown away that a two year old could be so specific. It was Valentines Day and among other things Sophie prayed that she was grateful for Valentines Day, and for Nursery class and her teachers. I love her nighttime prayers and the reminder to us that we read scriptures together.

Her favorite book these days is Knuffle Bunny by Mo Williams. She loves to sing "I am a Child of God". And today we dove into potty training. Like really dove in. I suggested she just wear her undies and not pants (which she shockingly picked out instead of a dress) so that if in the event she had an accident we'd still have dry pants. She refused and I saw her heart break when she didn't quite make it to the potty the first time. That happened two more times, but she's successfully gone on the potty another five times since then and doesn't even ask that I go with her. I'm cautiously optimistic that we're through the worst, not that I don't expect us to have several more bumps on this potty training journey, especially since our experience with Lydia is still fresh in my memory. Soph is thrilled to be flushing the toilet, washing her hands and earning stickers. And especially thrilled not to be wearing diapers. And I'm thrilled as well!

Bowling

Jon gets very few days off and often spends those days working on projects he's had in mind and been anticipating for weeks if not months. And possibly even longer. He has an ongoing list that will probably never be completed because he's constantly adding to it. Tear down the steps leading out our back door and redo them. Finish a room in the basement. Do a makeover in the laundry room. Just to name a few. This President's Day was a little different. Instead of focusing on projects, we worked around the house all morning and into the afternoon. Mid afternoon Jon suggested we surprise the girls by taking them bowling. Lydia's been talking about bowling and hockey and dance and basketball. Oh. And karate as of late. Her interests are ever changing and I'm excited for her to try to figure out what she'd do well at and enjoy. Eventually. I've also been curious to see if they've improved since we went bowling with the Heiselts a couple years ago. I guess when I say "they" I mean Lydia. And I'm not sure how much she really participated back then. Anyway, we went to Boondocks for family night and loved it!

The girls used a ramp to roll their bowling balls towards the pins and we put up the bumpers when it was their turn too. I probably should have had the bumpers when it was my turn; I would definitely have benefited from them had they been there. ;) Jon was the clear winner throughout the game, but Lydia and Sophie did excellent as well. Lydia was so tired in between her turns that she'd "rest" on the bench until she got to bowl again. Sophie LOVED carrying her 8 pound ball to the ramp and would stand guarding it if it was almost her turn. We were bowling next to another family with young kids and between our two families we had four 8 pound balls. It's a good thing she was guarding hers. Obviously. ;)

Jon and I took turns holding Mia. Except when Lydia insisted on holding her herself. And Mia was awesome. I know I mention this constantly, but she really loves watching her sisters. Her giddy excitement when Lydia or Sophie even look her way is absolutely adorable. One of my many absolute favorite things about this little angel right now.

Sophie says, "I liked when we were bowling and we were having too much fun in the last place we were bowling."
Lydia says, "I liked three things about bowling.  I liked when I pretended I was taking a nap. And I liked when I was pretending I was having a swing. And I liked when it was my turn." Lydia likes to put her hands on any two closely spaced objects (chairs, benches, etc.) and lift her legs up and rock back and forth. That's what she was referring when she said, "having a swing."

Definitely a fun night. We look forward to doing it again sometime.

Happy Love Day from these sweethearts

A friend of mine reached out to me asking if she could do a Valentine's photoshoot with our girls. And we said, "why not?" By far the favorite part of this shoot for Lydia and Sophie was the props.  They loved putting on those glasses and holding up the "free kisses" sign. They were sweet to each other, helpful with Mia and thrilled with the cookie they got to take home when we were all done.

My biggest regret was that Jon and I weren't there helping the photographer to get these ladies to smile. I was nursing Mia so that she'd be full and happy when it was her turn and Jon had to make a run to the store.  The smiles just aren't as natural as I think they might have been with a little help.

And yet these are still fun photos.  We've been having so many tears lately over growing up and how Lyds and Soph DO NOT WANT TO GROW UP!! And yet they are!  It is hard for me to believe that Lydia will be five in a few short months. Sophie's almost three?  Wait! What?! And don't even get me started on Mia. Didn't we just bring her home from the hospital yesterday??

It's not like I want them to grow up. Not really. I wouldn't mind if we could slow things down a bit. At least some days... But ultimately I'm excited for their futures and what their lives will be like. I'm excited for them, that is, when I'm not terrified about this world that they're growing up in.

And this by far was the saddest moment of the morning ever. Mia did not want anything to do with this photoshoot. Remember how I fed her so that she'd be happy and full? Yep. Didn't work. She was mad mad mad. Oh well. I'm just glad we're taking pictures of these ladies (happy or sad) since they really are growing up way. too. fast.