AMAZED

Delainey is 21 months old, and so far every age has been my favorite.  I am amazed at what a precious little girl she already has become.

These are some of the things she does to amaze me lately.

• She hands me a book and tells me to sit
• She turns her Twilight Turtle on with her toe… just like Mommy and Daddy
• She wakes up happy
• She already loves shoes!  She loves her own, she loves Mommy’s, and she loves Daddy’s

• She loves her “Woof Woof” aka Dags… she wipes his nose with a Kleenex
• She helps Mommy and Daddy with any project

• She tries to repeat everything
• She blows kisses, but not on command :)
• She loves Daddy's hats

• She gives the greatest hugs, the most exciting high-fives, and has the sweetest smile

• She loves “Ring Around The Rosie”

This weekend as we visited Great-Grandma and Grandpa Spindler, Delainey reached to Grandma Peggie to hold hands. Then she reached for Great-Grandma Del, and they held hands. Delainey then said to me, “Mama, Rosie?” I joined in and the four Louises sang and played “Ring Around The Rosie”. 

How amazing.

Warm Days

We have been blessed with warm weather this week, and we all have enjoyed it! As we headed out each morning this week, we didn't get the "take your breath away" feeling from the bitter cold. Instead we walked a little slower to the car after daycare, we soaked up the sun, and took a deep breath of fresh air. We can't wait for spring and summer!

Since the weather warmed up, we finally got to take Delainey sledding for the first time. We stayed in our front yard, but it was still very exciting and fun! We have more snow this year than I can ever remember. Some has already melted and it is still higher than Delainey.

Looks like she's walking in a tunnel!

This week we also celebrated Valentine's Day! Delainey gave and received several valentine's from daycare, and she even tried giving one to Dags. He wasn't too interested, maybe next year?

"Dags, please be my Valentine?"

Horses

"Horse" is one of Delainey's clearest words.  See the video below, and please ignore the second part of the video. We had a disagreement on who was suppose to hold the camera. :)

The word first came out as we played with puzzles. A horse and a dog seem to be on nearly half of our puzzles, so we talk about them a lot. We really don't know which animals Delainey loves more dogs or horses, but we know these are two of her favoites! 

 

This love will come in handy when playing with her cousins, Maya and Elliot, who both love horses.  What is it with this animal?  As a little girl I also had a love for horses.  I planned to save my allowance and buy one someday, but I'm glad I switched my focus.  I would probably still be saving!  However, I still do love horses; they are strong and beautiful and perhaps I will ride one with Delainey someday! :)

18 months and growing!

Delainey is changing by leaps and bounds these days! She is adding more words to her vocabulary daily. A few of the favorite words are horse, sock, car, hat, please, duck, and dats (which means dad, mom, or whoever else will answer)  :)  There is still a lot of jibber jabber within the words which is always fun to listen to as well. She even leaned in to tell a secret last night before bed.  I was reading her a book, and she leaned in, looked me in the eye, and said something very serious in a sweet, soft voice.  It made us giggle!

Kicking back on the new couch

Another fun thing Delainey has been doing lately is picking up after Shaun and I.  She brings the remotes to Shaun wherever he is in the house. Also, she carries our drink glasses to us if we leave them behind. There have been a few spilled glasses of water, but that is an easy mess to clean up!

We have had a few fun nights of snacking on popcorn together!  I think Delainey enjoys it almost as much as I do!

Loving the popcorn!

Delainey's imagination is already in full swing, she entertains herself so well. It is fun to watch and listen to her turn into a "toddler"!  She recieved a baby for Christmas, but it wasn't until recently that she has treated it like a real baby. I think she has been watching the daycare ladies with the newborn that just started coming to our daycare.  Now she feeds her baby a bottle, burps the baby, rocks the baby, and kisses the baby's forehead. It's so precious.

Big girl playing with her hair pieces

Last weekend we went to visit Great Grandma and Grandpa Spindler. Delainey played with grandma's tupperware cupboard and had a blast!

She was also very excited to be able to color the newspaper. Life is good! :)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Well, I guess I took a little break from the blog, and boy have we had a fun holiday season!

As I took a look at the last post I published, it marked the start of our holiday celebrations. I will do my best to sum up the past few weeks in a few short paragraphs.

We had our Christmas at home before heading anywhere.  We got Delainey a mini couch, and she loves it! These are the daytime activities....

...and these are the night time activities.

In a few short days we managed to spend time with both sides of our families.  We first stopped at Dad and Nita's for a fun-filled night of cousins playing, Santa visiting, some new tasty cocktails, and some much needed catching up! We even got to enjoy some of Grandma Gale's homemade lefsa.....it doesn't get any better than that! 

Not so sure of Santa Claus

This year she sure knows how to tear them open!

We woke up Christmas Eve, said our good-byes, and were off to Rosholt for some more Christmas cheer! The Falken cousins had a great time playing and sharing each others new toys!  The adults also had a great

time catching up on the latest and greatest in each others lives.

Falken cousins on Christmas Eve

The Falken girls posing for the camera!

Enjoying a cup of tea!

Delainey helping mommy pack away Christmas decorations

We enjoyed a long weekend tucked inside during the New Year's blizzard! We closed another year feeling so blessed with everything and everyone in our lives.  We begin 2011 with open hearts and can't wait to see what life has in store for us!  Happy New Year to you!

Happy Merry!

Over a week later and I am just sitting down to write about our fun-filled Thanksgiving/Christmas weekend!  We hosted Thanksgiving this year with the help of many family members to pull it all together.  We were blessed to have four-generations of family at our Thanksgiving feast! We ate an abundance of food, did a lot of visiting, and then ate more food. Everyone enjoyed aunt Sarah's pies, especially Delainey who got to taste them for the first time!

After some rest and relaxation we headed over to Grandma's house for some holly, jolly Christmas celebrations!  I think the children could have waited to open gifts until Friday, but Joe and I couldn't wait, so it was settled.  Thanksgiving night... we celebrated Christmas! Let the fun holiday season begin!



Loving the ribbon

Delainey got a new stroller and a baby...yea!

The girls all played so well together with their new toys.  It is fun to watch them get to know each other more with each and every weekend together. We all had a wonderful time visiting, laughing, and telling old funny stories...even some that I had never heard before! :)

We ended our weekend with a celebration of marriage between our good friends - The Petersen's!  It is always fun to get dressed up and attend a party...we had a blast! 

Happy Holidays!

Hats

Since our last post we have been having fun trying on and wearing new hats. Check out little Miss Style in her lovely hats...

Go Bears

Go Bears again!  (Daddy's hat)

Love our new hat from Jill!

We finally got some snow!  We have been loving the wonderful fall weather, but we are due for some snow.  It was fun to see Delainey's face as she saw snow for the first time. I suppose it was not technically the first time, but it was the first time she reacted to it.  So we had to go outside and enjoy for about a minute and a half...brr it's cold outisde!

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and we actually start our Christmas celebrations immediately following eating the turkey and stuffing. A friend of mine told me they call that Happy Merry! So, because of "Happy Merry" we have had some packages arriving in the mail.  Delainey claims any box as her personal couch.  It's quite entertaining!

We wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!  We are very thankful for our wonderful family, friends, good health.......and most of all, our precious little girl.  We will leave you with her new, hilarious face.  Remember what I said in an earlier post...she is her father's daughter! :)