the last 3 years...

in 2007 i married not only my best friend but the most amazing man i have ever met...





in 2008 we welcomed and instantly fell in love with our first daughter, Averi Noe'l Yates...




in 2009 we welcomed and also instantly fell in love with our second precious daughter, Sofia Pearl Yates...




HERE IS TO ANOTHER BLESSED BUT HOPEULLY NOT SO EVENTFUL 2010... HAPPY NEW YEARS!

Averis christmas performance

Averi's PDO had a little christmas performance and party just before christmas. I forgot my camera so I caught this video on my phone...she is on the far side mostly watching the other kids performs!

still looking alike?

Averi at about two months...

Sofie at about two months...

Aunt LaLa and Uncle Shnookie graduate

My very best friend Lindsay and our dear friend, her boyfriend James both recently graduated from Western University. We are so proud of them both and can not wait to see what God has in store for them both! What a blessing and priveledge it is to be their friends!
If you will notice in the pictures James got everyone in the stands going as he got the president of Western to sign his shirt!

Merry Christmas to all...

we spent the last nine days in TN celebrating the holidays with Kevins family. We had a ton of fun and so appreciated the help with the girls. We recieved many wonderful gifts, among them were our double stroller, toddler chairs, a toy kitchen and lots of Bass Pro gift cards. We are so blessed and are incredibly thankful to God for gifting us with two beautiful children the last two years. We were ince again reminded of what christmas is truly about this year and are already brainstorming ways to better teach both our girls about Christs birth not only next christmas but all year long.

2 months

Sofie hit two months on the 21st... can you believe we have had this gorgeous girl here for two months already? She has turned into a much better baby in the last month, typically only crying when she is tired or hungry. She is a mamas girl and seems to have a difficult time calming down for others, although she fell asleep twice in her Nanas arms on christmas, big props to Nana!
she goes from perfectly calm to a total meltdown in seconds. I swear you could hear her cry from a mile away. She mostly sleeps in her swing and is sleeping between 9-11 hours at night, Go Sofie. At her two month check up she weighed 11pounds even, 50th percentile, and was 221/2 inches long, 75th percentile. She smiles easily and has begun to laugh out loud. She is beautiful and spunky and I cant imagine our home without her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAPA AND POP POP!

Happy birthday Papa Yates and Pop Pop Buchwald... we love you both so much!

christmas dresses

My mom bought the girls these adorable dresses as part of their christmas presents...thank you meemom Buchwald, we think they look adorable!

Averis first date!

Averi is utterly obsessed with our friend Shawn. Shawn works with Kevin and as soon as we go into Kevins office, after she has found her daddy, she starts looking for Shawn! Well Shawn and his wife (one of my dearest friends) Lindsay came over for dinner on monday and Averi was by Shawns side the whole night! She even crawled behind lindsay on the couch and pushed on her back until she scooted over so she could sit by him! I snapped this picture of Averi and Shawn watching her nightly Barney before bed.

An answer to prayer...

Suzanne hasnt updated their blog today but I saw on facebook that sweet Flara is going home! She was born several weeks premature and has endured several weeks of hospitalization... and finally today after weeks of prayers from countless people and Im sure lot of agony, concern, tears and more prayers from her parents that day has arrived and sweet Flara Sophia is home in her parents arms visiting with her sweet big sis Noel! We are so happy for the Veitz family! Praise God for he is good, he watches over even the tiniest of infants who face the biggest of complications! Here is Suzannes most recent post, Im sure she will post about her going home soon!
click here

Sofies photo shoot...

So Ive realized how badly I neglect catching pictures of Sofie compared to how many pictures I took of Averi as a newborn, I know it is due to the fact that I am chasing Averi around while caring for Sofie and therefore have no more hands for a camera...but still, tonight I was convicted so decided to do a little photo shoot with our precious baby girl! She has already changed so much, she is definately my chunky baby girl, I can not wait to see how much she weighs at her next check up!!
Sofia is becoming much more laid back and seems to be overcoming her acid reflux... PRAISE the LORD, I hated seeing her so miserable! I even worked an 8 hour shift on sunday and Kevin kept the girls, he said she did GREAT only cried when she truly needed something and even took a bottle, something we have struggled to get her used to! Thank you for all your prayers the last six weeks, things are getting much better and even settling into a new normal!

IT ON!

It is official, the journey to skinny begins monday for me and my friend Ashley. after her three babies in three years and my two in two we are both fed up with maternity clothes and feeling just plain fat! So starting monday the battle begins we are both weighing in and then in 90 days whoever has lost the most weight gets a hundred bucks from the loser and free child care while they get a date night with the hubs! You better be prepared Mrs. Barrett to watch all five kiddos because I am going to WIN!

fun with friends...

well our favorite indoor play place, the boat at Oxmoore mall has oficially been taken away, why you may ask...well so far no one knows! It is seriously sad times for all of us moms who frequent it so our kiddos can run off some much needed energy, plus it was free, nothing gets better then free! Well me and my friend Ashley both needed to get our kiddos out of the house, with my two under two and her three under three we both understand how stir crazy you can get locked inside when it is cold! So we headed to All About Kids to let the kids go crazy!
All about kids is a gymnastic place that opens to the public on fridays and for five bucks your kid gets to go crazy on all their fun equipment! The three older girls, Emma Jane and Averi had a blast...especially Emma that girl is FEARLESS!!! AShleys youngest Nathan and Sof mostly chilled with their mams but seemed content! What a joy it is to have other mamas to go places with, even if you are running like a wild women trying to keep up with five little ones it is still FUN!

cousinly love

Sweet Corbin and Av got to have another slumber party! They are SO cute together, Corbin even says "thats my averi" when someone else wants to hug her...SO SWEET!

BOWS

I know she may be little but you are never to little to sport a bow! I LOVE having daughters!

Happy thanksgiving!

Well our Thanksgiving did not go as planned! We typically split holidays between Kevs family and mine so this year we were supposed to spend thanksgiving with my family and Christmas in TN... my sister and her family had even come in from Florida to spend thanksgiving with us! Unfortunatley on Thanksgiving morning at about 730am I recieved a text from my sister to let me know both her and my mom were sick... since we had just gotten over the stomach bug we decided that we would not be venturing up to my parents house. So we made a quick decision to head to Tn for the day and come back first thing the next morning! Some how we managed to get out the door in an hour and a half and were to TN in plenty of time for thanksgiving dinner!
Although it wasnt at all what we had planned it was a joy to spend the holiday with sweet family! And to ofcourse show off our newest addition Sofie! This Thanksgiving we are both recognizing how tremendously grateful we are for family and their constant support and love.... we are also thankful for the incredible gift of children, even when they are challenging they are a joy... both Averi and Sofie are precious to us!

a moment to vent...

First let me say I LOVE LOVE LOVE being a mommy... I feel beyond blessed to have two healthy and beautiful daughters... yet I am not afraid to admit miss Sof has thrown us for a loop this last five weeks. If she is awake she is either eating or screaming... she fights sleep so hard it can take well over an hour to get her to calm down enough to sleep and once she is asleep she will pry herself awake despite being swaddled and then the process starts all over again. I don't mean to compare Averi and Sofie, I know they are going to be compared for the rest of their lives but Averi was a much easier baby which has made the adjustment to Sofie that much harder.
I know she has acid reflux and therefore she is uncomfortable which breaks my heart for her that much more... not being able to comfort your own baby can make you feel like a failure rather quickly, as a mom you feel you should be the one person who can soothe your baby, unfortunately in many instances no one can soothe poor Sof. Dont get me wrong, she has moments where she is content, moments where she looks in my eyes and gives me one of those content baby grins...she has just enough of those moments that I am reminded how much I love her, how grateful I am that God placed her in our lives and how a year from now this time of fussiness will be a distant memory!
After over four hours of Sofie screaming tonight I am exhausted...we tried rocking, walking, nursing, swaddling, the swing and even letting her cry it out to no prevail...she finally crashed in my arms, I think from pure exhaustion, the poor thing... I then placed her in her swing for 30 minutes so I could have a few uninterupted minutes to myself! My house is a mess despite trying my darndest to stay on top of it but I am realizing that is ok... a messy house may just be the spot we are in right now, eventually it will calm down and on the days Sofie is not so fussy I will get as much cleaned as possible!
i am incredibly blessed... I hate to come across like I am complaining, I'm not... I am just tired, I want to fix my babies fussiness and am having to realize I can't... I am having to realize more and more to place her in Gods hands and to place my anxieties at his feet! "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" this is what I repeated to myself throughout Sofies birth and this is what I will continue to tell myself as we get past this point of colic! And now I hear Sofie crying again... time for another round with her but after a minute of venting I feel far better.

cousin photo shoot

while my sister and her family were in town we decided to get some pictures done of Averi, Sofie and their big cousin Corbin! Thanks (once again) to the talented Rachel Marshman for these beautiful pictures!