16 months & SNOW!!

What a day to be 16 months old! We have had SO much snow today. The last time we measured we had almost 5 inches! And it keeps on coming! We took Simms out in it earlier today, when we barely had any yet and at first she loved it, but it only took one fall into the snow face-first to make her want to go inside.


We just can't believe she is 16 months old today! She has changed so much just in the past month! Her vocabulary is really developing, and this month she has started saying a few new words: apple (so clearly), wow, whoa, Elmo (as opposed to Melmo), and she even tries to say thank you, which in Simms language is "tink." She will also do the motions to the Itsy Bitsy Spider. It is so cute to watch her mimic us!

She is into EVERYTHING right now, so our eyes are always on her. Gates for the steps will be ordered really soon, and so will something to go between the banister openings.

We are definitely having to discipline her more. I am reading a wonderful book right now that is helping me to learn to reach out to Simms' heart, and the heart of her misbehavior, and not just correct the behavior. It is really a motivating book.

Things are improving with foods. We have made some progress with some more solids that she will eat, and we just take it one day at a time. Other than one scary incident involving a Cheez-it, she has done relatively well.

Simms has become such a nurturing little child. She walks around hugging her babies and patting them on the back. It is so sweet. I wondered if her dolls were going to interest her, and now they certainly have!

Still only 6 teeth, but she is about to have 2 pop out any day now. And boy do we wish they would hurry up! She LOVES brushing her teeth at night. We have videotaped it because she gets so cracked up and laughs and laughs while we are doing it.

Simms is just the most precious thing in this world to us! We are truly lucky to be her parents!! It is just incredible to me the amount of LOVE that we have for this sweet girl!

Snow Pictures:

Hey Daddy, Part II

Dear Daddy,
Mommy told me that you were coming home tomorrow and I got VERY excited:


I am so happy about seeing you tomorrow! I know you are supposed to get in late, but please wake me up, even if Mommy tells you not to. I promise that I will go back to sleep easily.

Here are some more pictures of me from today. I love you!

Hey Daddy!

I hope you are having fun in Las Vegas. I sure do miss you. Here are some pictures mommy took of me when we were at Publix today. I can't wait for Thursday when you get back! I love you, Simms


"Mommy tried to find some "deals" today. You should be really proud of her"..






**Dru is in Las Vegas until late Thursday. He left yesterday and is out there for work (darn, what a place to have to go). He was really excited about going. He loves Las Vegas, but was missing Simms before he even left. He has never been away from her (or me for that matter) for this long. Since my camera on my phone is broken, I promised I'd put pictures up on the blog for him. Maybe he will think the blog is worth doing after this trip. Thankfully, I have recruited my mom to stay with me each night that he is gone. I WILL NOT stay by myself. I know, I need to grow up.

It is boring here without him! Even though he isn't here during the day we anticipate Daddy pulling in the driveway every night! We do have dinner plans at Sissy and Drew's tonight, so Simms and Bennett can play for a while!

We miss you Dru! We hope you are having a great trip..you deserve a break!!

Happy Day!!

Yep, it is a Happy Day because Simms has a GIRL cousin on the way! Becca and Grover found out this morning that they are going to have a sweet baby GIRL!! We are so excited for them, and cannot wait for her arrival in late July/early August! Congratulations Aunt B and Uncle G!!

Today was also a happy day because my items that I ordered from the ETSY sites to benefit the Cora Playground came!! Here is the adorable shirt that came from I Love Plum:


I also ordered a charm but cannot remember the seller/shop that it came from. It is on a disc and says "Blessed". I gave it to Sissy to wear with her Bennett charm since that is what his name means.

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day/weekend. We went up to the lake and met Dru's parents and Becca and Grover there. Poor Taylor had the flu and we missed him. Dru's mom went all out for the holiday and had the lake house decorated beautifully for Valentine's Day. She even had roses by our bed. So sweet. We ate at Sinclair's Friday night, and stayed at the house for breakfast, lunch and dinner Saturday. The food was wonderful of course!

Simms of course was the center of attention, well, except for when I was on the Wii trying to do the soccer ball game where you try to avoid being hit by the balls or the ski jump. It was most comical. I am not "fit" if you go by the Wii Fit standards! I will just leave it at that.

Anyway, Simms got lots of Valentine's and loves them all! It was a wonderful weekend!

Hopefully Simms won't run from the camera later this week if I try to take some pictures of her like she did today. The picture at the top was the one we used on the Valentine's cards we sent out from Snapfish. They turned out really cute!

Fun Times with Cousin

Simms and Bennett have had lots of fun together this weekend, as usual. It is so fun and special that they are so close. Saturday they went to a birthday party, Sunday was spent playing out at the farm, and today they made yummy Valentine treats. Here are the pictures:

Before the party:






Fun at the Farm:


B: Simms, I know your mommy worries too much. Just don't look back at her and I will keep driving.

Valentine Treats. Recipe came from Joy the Baker. It was so easy and the kids had so much fun. Make note, that is not a cookie cuter, more like a pancake mold, but it did the job! Tomorrow we will deliver to friends and family!







And for the pictures we tried so hard to get:



Also make note: spell check would not work, so if there are misspelled words, I am sure I am going to hear about it from some certain, unnamed indiviuals~Hee Hee!!

Our Week:

We started the week out with Simms' 15 month check-up. Praise the Lord she is as healthy as can be!! She got 3 shots (so sad, as always) and of course was weighed (23 lbs./50th%) and measured (31 in./65th%!!). I was so surprised she is getting so long and lean! Then of course we had THE DISCUSSIONS. Simms' lack of interest in "real" food, and her DISLIKE of the sippy cup. The paperwork I got for 15 month olds even said NOW is the time to start weaning from the bottle IF you haven't, so that made me feel a little better. Our peditrican was very understanding about the bottle, and even thinks that Simms may not be taking the cup due to her aversion of new textures, which leads us to why she won't eat real food. The solution, as I expected, is to take her to a Speech Pathologist, who is going to work with her on this. They will even help her with the cup. The only problem is it could take us a while to get in with them, so if Simms seems to be improving, we can cancel the appointment. With so many sick babies that I have heard of recently, I will gladly welcome this "issue" and be thankful for it.

The rest of the week consisted of staying inside and playing with Bennett. It has been SO cold here. We even had a pipe bust today~lovely! I am so thankful for a handy husband who rushed home from work to fix it!

We made Daddy a Valentine,(okay, Simms put her handprints on it, and I of course did all of the extra detail. I guess it is the teacher in me. I like presentation!) He loved it though:


Simms' Easter dress came in today and is just GORGEOUS! (Didn't take a picture)

I have moved Simms' up a "bow-size" in case anyone was wondering. I like big bows:



Tonight we are meeting Dru's parents for dinner in LaGrange. That is the nice part about only being 2 hours from them (Montgomery) is that we have great meeting places. Our favorite meeting place is Auburn! I wonder why? It is such a special place!

Our Saturday will look like this: Simms' is going to Lanier's 2nd birthday party. Last year Sweet Simms was 3 months old at the party! Dru and his friends are joining, from what I heard, a thousand others (probably exaggerated) for a "ride" on 4-wheelers, rangers, rhinos, etc **EDITED to take out the word gator and instead put rhino.I guess the fact that it was some kind of animal threw me off. How could I not have known??... Hmmmm....I will be happy when he gets back tomorrow night; in one piece might I add!

This was the Christmas outfit that HAD Santa on it, but came with the interchangeable tabs! I love outfits like that! Worth every penny:


She won't eat food, but pinestraw is good:



Have a great weekend!!

15 months..

Simms is 15 months old today..And it has certainly been a fun 15 months! It is so neat to watch her developing into a little girly-girl. It is amazing to me (and sometimes sad) that as soon as the 1st birthday passed, she has become less and less of a little baby each day.

Just to update before I go on..the sippy cup never happened. We tried and tried for 3 straight days (yes..that is 3 days with hardly any liquids in her) to get her to take it. She wouldn't. It never got easier, and we never got to the point of thinking we were making progress. I finally just came to the decision that I wasn't going to deprive my baby of milk/juice just because she wouldn't take the cup. I don't even know why it is such a big deal. I know most 15 month olds have been off the bottle a while, and that is great, but Simms is obviously not there yet, and I am ok with that. I had a bottle till I was almost 2 and don't think that it hurt my development at all. Now, I just hope I can express this to my peditrician. I actually think she'll be understanding about it. We have given valiant efforts, after all. Ok..on to our 15 month old (who still takes a bottle)....

Simms' vocabulary is definetly growing! Her words at this point are Mama, Dada, Meme, Papa, Siss Siss(Sissy), NeNe(Bennett), baby, bye bye, uh-oh, Melmo(Elmo), EeeEee(Ellie), No(that one is fun to hear), she can do the following animal sounds when asked what that animal says: bark, meow, moo, make a monkey sound, buzz like a bee, baa like a lamb. She will kiss and hug on her own and when asked to. She can point to her nose, eyes, ears, teeth, tounge, hair and belly button and will blink and give you high fives when you ask her to. You can also ask her to go and bring you something and she is usually on it within a second. This is all so amazing to us to see her developing into this little person.

Her eating has not gotten much better, but it has definetly improved some. She will eat crackers now, mashed potatos, smashed up peas and sometimes some ground beef from spagatti. She likes to lick lemons and chew on pickles(just like her mommy). I am going to bring up her eating habits, or lack thereof, at our appointment tomorrow. I just want to make sure she doesn't need a vitamin or anything to ensure she is getting all that she needs but could be missing out on. She is still on baby food (stage 3 and those Gerber toddler meals) so she is getting something from those.

She sleeps good, and usually late (8:30) and takes a 2 hour nap each afternoon.

She still loves books and is so curious now about everything else in her little world. We have to watch her very closely now!

I enjoy spending my days at home with her more than anyone will ever know. It was hard last year when I had to go back to work for 11 weeks, so I am extra grateful to be at home with her, because I know how both sides are. I am sure there will be a time when I go back to teaching, but for now we feel strongly about my being home guiding Simms.

She is such a wonderful, delightful addition in our lives. It seems like she has always been with us. I will try to update tomorrow with weight, height and what the doctor tells us concerning her food!

Happy 15 months Sweet Simms!! We love you so very much!


This is my bottle..No one is taking it from me until I am ready!


I am not joking..You cannot have my bottle.


"Melmo" continues to be one of Simms' favorite things!

Cameras do not. She shuts her eyes or turns away as soon as she sees one:



I think it is safe to say, after 15 months, that Simms' is going to have Dru's curly hair and blue eyes, and I am so happy!(Excuse the red-eye)



We love our sweet girl!