Snow Storm!

Brad and my dad went to Florida for a car auction so mom, Iris and I decided to have our own girls weekend. We heard it might snow in Tryon so we decided to go up to the mtn. house and have a relaxing weekend hanging out, drinking hot cocoa and playing in the snow. Well, we certainly did the playing in the snow part. On Friday afternoon the snow came in much sooner than expected. We went out after it accumulated several inches and let Iris play. She loved it. We were excited about it snowing through the night and having even more the next day. Unfortunately, the fun snow turned into a Triple Threat Storm with snow, sleet and ice. At 11:00 that night we lost power and never got it back. So as the house was getting colder and colder the next morning we decided to leave. We got the car packed and made it almost to the end of the driveway when we started sliding backwards down the hill. We had to get our neighbor to help dig us out. Oh well, so much for our girls weekend. At least we all got to play in the snow on Friday and have some fun.... (Thank you Clara for the snow boots!)

(Just the snow on Friday was already over her boots)

18 Months!

Iris is 18 months old! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by and that we have another one on the way!

I took this picture on her 18 month birthday and even though it does not have a sign to go with it I decided to use it anyway because it represents exactly how she is at this age. This morning as I was getting her dressed for school she once again pulled out her favorite pair of silver shoes and had a fit for me to put them on her. I tried to get her to wear a different pair that matched her outfit and she had a fit. She threw herself down and cried and cried. So I gave in, put her beloved silver shoes on and changed her entire outfit so she would at least match. Once dressed, she immediately ran to her straw hat, put it on and grabbed her pacifier (that she 's only suppose to use at bed and naptime) and popped it in her mouth, turned around and looked at me as if daring me to take her hat off or the passy out of her mouth. Since we were now late and I was exhausted from wrestling with her I didn't even care to go there.

She knew I was mad at her and we drove to school in silence. Then all of a sudden she starts grabbing her shoe and saying "shoe, "shoe" over and over again just to let me know she had won.

I thought I was going to have to take her into school with the passy and straw hat but luckily she easily gave those up once we arrived. She definitely has her own little personality, is quite independent and very stubborn. (Hhhmmm...sounds like someone else I know?).

Her 18 month check-up was great and her stats are as follows:

Weight: 23.6lbs, 33%

Height: 33 inches, 82%

Head measurement: 18.5 inches, 61%

She gives kisses, can blow kisses and loves saying "night night" and waving to daddy every night over and over again on her way up the stairs to bed. It's very cute. She can point to and say most of her body parts and she can point out several animals, name them and say what they say. "Moo" for the cow is her favorite. Her vocabulary is really expanding. Every other day or so as I'm talking to her she'll just pick a word I just said and say it back to me. She loves to go to the botton step on our stairs and say "up" and "down" over and over as she sits and then stands back up. She also can say "sit" except she kind of slurs her "s" a little which makes it sound like there's an "h" in the word. When I tell her to "sit" in her shopping cart at a store and she starts repeating it back to me it can be a little embarrassing.

Entertaining an 18 month old...

Trying to keep Iris entertained and the Sprout channel OFF has been very challenging lately. The more pregnant I get, the less energy I seem to have to keep up with her. Her are a few of the new activities we've tried though. The first is making cupcakes.... She did pretty good sitting, watching and playing with the measuring cups etc. Then she decided she was going to stand up and walk on the counter and around the mixer. That's when the cupcake baking came to a halt.

Since she still too young to help me out in the kitchen I decided to keep her entertained with fingerpainting while I got some chores etc. done. It worked well except that she ate the paint and although it kept her entertained and "contained" in one spot while I worked it just created more cleaning and laundry to do afterwards. I can't wait for the weather to get warm. I miss letting her run around and wear herself out at the playground!

Cutie Pie

Just thought Iris looked super cute in her sweater that Nana knitted for her. She would not stand still for a good pix and we were on our way to school so these two are the best I could get.

Spaghetti Dinner

Iris has finally started branching out with her food. She ate chicken nuggets at Chick-Fil-A the other day. I was SO PROUD!! It was the first time she had eaten any kind of meat in months. I have given her spaghetti many times but she would never touch it. I tried again Tuesday night and she loved it! YEAH!! We can add another food to our list! ( Notice she would not eat the pasta shells though, only the noodles)

Goofball

Iris decided she did not want her shirt on so she tried and tried to take it off. It was 30 degrees outside and I would not let her run around the house naked. This ended up being our "compromise" when she put it on top of her head and stayed like this for about an hour. I kept fixing it but she would put it right back on top of her head and laugh and run off again.

Buxton Birthday Party

When we got back from Indiana we went to Hugh's birthday party on Saturday morning. It was at the Lowcountry Childrens Museum and was tons of fun. Here's Iris having a little snack with her friend Clara. The birthday boy!

Iris and Clara "drawing" on the chalkboard in the water room....

Afterwards we met daddy for lunch and Iris gave mommy a big kiss for having such a fun morning!

Snow!!!

It did not snow on Christmas but it snowed the night before we left so we snatched a couple of pictures before heading off in the morning. We set Iris down to see what she'd do with the snow but she wanted nothing to do with it and reached right back up for her daddy.

17 Months

With all the excitement of Christmas day, Iris did not want to stay still for her 17 month picture so we did a group photo instead. Here she is with her cousins Kaitlyn, Lauren and Molly. I wish we lived closer to them because they are GREAT babysitters and Iris loved all of the attention she got from each of them.

Indiana Christmas

After three trips to the Pediatricians and two shots of antibiotics we made it to Indiana for Christmas! This is Iris on Christmas Eve at her Granny and Grandads... Waiting patiently on the stairs with daddy for the next gift to be distributed...

Iris was pretty mellow on Christmas morning. It took a while for her to even get off my lap and look at her presents...

Of course the $1.00 slinky was the biggest hit....

After opening her presents that morning it was off to Brad's sisters for Christmas with her family and then to Nana's for Christmas dinner. Iris was a real trooper and was up running around at full speed until after 9:00pm

SC Christmas

Iris was very sick before Christmas this year. We were not sure if we were going to make it to Indiana or not. Here she is on the couch eating her ice chips. She was so pathetic looking for almost a week. She perked up for just a little bit the Sunday before Christmas so we went to my parents house to celebrate Christmas with them.

She gets pretty excited about clothes for being so young. I think it's the tags that she really likes...

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

It took two days and numerous pictures to get just one good photo for our Christmas card this year. Here are a few that were cute but didn't make the cut...

Iris liked pulling the beads off the tree, wrapping them around her neck and saying "pretty."