Saturday, January 1, 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011!!!!!

Hello 2011!!!

With the new year, I'm starting to blog once again...but let me tell you, getting used to the new blogger editor is making me rethink that!  Arg!  Maybe I'll just keep posting updates to Facebook...but then that would make one person in particular unhappy...you know who you are, Kerri!  ;)  Haha!  I promised my new year's resolution would be to start blogging once again!  :)

So many things happened in 2010 and I missed blogging about a lot of them because, well, I was pregnant for most of 2010 and with running around after Alegria, I must admit I was way too tired to do anything more than just sit on the couch when she would let me, doze, and then when she finally took a nap, take one myself.  It was the year of sleep!  Well, not really but some of you may understand and get the picture!

Our year in short, though, went like this: Alegria and I began attending a weekly playgroup with some other Army wives and have made some really great and close friends there, Cameron went to NTC in California and while he was there, Alegria and I spent almost a whole month in Montana, Cameron and I celebrated 5 years of marriage on June 1st, Alegria turned 2 on August 19th, and Odette Marie joined our family on August 29th! 

Now Cameron is deployed to Iraq and the girls and I are slowly getting the hang of being just the three of us at  home!  I'm glad we live in this time where technology is so advanced because since Cameron's been gone, he's called us pretty much every day, we got to Skype with him (video-chat) on Christmas Day, and we've been able to email daily and Facebook chat as well!  It's great!

Anyway.  Now that my quick run-down of 2010 is over, here's how 2011 has begun...!

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It was a peaceful and quiet day today in the Marlow household, with nothing much to tell.
 

The girls and I got up at about 7:15 and spent the morning in each other's company...playing, laughing, tickling, cuddling...

Odette took a nap at about 10 and since Alegria was still happily watching the movie I had popped in the DVD player prior to going into our bedroom to nurse Odette, I decided to steal away into the office to work on a few items for Abilehi's upcoming wedding...

Once Alegria noticed that I was no longer watching the movie with her, she came into the office and began making mischief...as usual. I kept an eye on her and was able to keep her mischief to a minimum while I worked.

As I was on the computer, I had my Facebook chat turned on...and lucky me, Cameron messaged me!  As we chatted, Odette woke up, so I went to get her and brought her back into the office with Alegria and me, where I sat her in her rocker.  Odette is really mellow and does not complain about being in her rocker like Alegria did when she was her age, so it's awesome and Cameron and I were able to chat for a good, long while!

Finally, though, it was time for Cameron to head to bed and for me to get the girls fed and down for their naps.  We said our goodbyes and then with a smile that will last til tomorrow when I hear from him again, I went about getting stuff done.

After lunch, I put Alegria down for a nap and then took Odette into our bedroom to change her diaper...and though I had noticed the stickers that Alegria had put on her face earlier...

...it wasn't until I took Odette's pants off that I noticed that Alegria had also placed stickers on her legs!  Silly girl!  :)

Tired as I was, I ended up falling asleep in the rocking chair with Odette while I was nursing her...and when I woke up again at 2:30, I tried putting Odette down in her crib, but she wouldn't have it.  So...she was up for the rest of the day!  Oh well!

In the evening, we again just hung around the house.  Next week is going to be crazy and busy, so I'm spending the weekend relaxing as much as I can!

Alegria found ways to amuse herself...using her imagination to create a leash with her "Daddy Necklace" for her beanie baby elephant, which she's named "Baby Elphy."

Turning on all of the lamps in the house...

Just being cute!

And I amused myself tickling Odette!  :) 


I had started getting the girls to bed a little later than I wanted to by the end of this week, so today I decided that I needed to start our evening routine earlier so that they'd be in bed at the right time!  So a little after 6, I began by bathing Odette.  She had a grand time, as always!  I just love how cozy and cute she looks in her towel!

Once she was dressed and I was taking her dirty clothes to the laundry room, Alegria decided that she wanted to undress Odette!  Luckily I caught her before she did and put a stop to it!

That didn't stop Alegria from kissing her, though!  Odette loves her big sister's kisses!  She was just giggling the whole time Alegria was kissing her! 

Thank goodness, starting the routine earlier got us done earlier and with enough time to have some fun tummy time before bed!

Poor Odette was so tired by then, though...

...Alegria was the one enjoying her little penguin toy more than Odette was!


By the end of tummy time, Odette hardly smiled at Alegria's antics...which she usually always smiles so big at and giggles, too!



One last effort to pick her head up...!

And of course, Alegria couldn't help herself and placed Baby Elphy on Odette's head!

Odette went to sleep pretty fast.  She was in her crib by 7:20.

Then it was Alegria and Mommy time!  We played a little, then cleaned up, and then it was time for Alegria's bath.  I'm so glad Alegria likes taking a bath!  It's a sort of down-time for me to just wash her up and then sit there and watch her play.  It's a relaxing way to end the day...and she gets clean at the same time, so it's a win-win situation!

As I was getting her ready for bed, Alegria insisted on putting her pajama top on all by herself.  She's getting so good at dressing herself!

Then we went to the living room, where we watched her "Daddy Movie" (a video that Cameron sent her and Odette from Iraq where he reads them "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?").  After watching the video three times, Alegria and I headed to Cameron's and my bedroom, where Alegria has officially claimed our bed her bed as well!  It'll be quite the ordeal getting her back into her own bed when it's time for Cameron to come back home, I'm sure!  Anyway.  She was in bed by 8:50...not 8:30, but not bad!  :)

My night wasn't over yet, though.  I still had to feed the fish, feed and play with the dog, load the dishwasher...and being that tomorrow we start church at 9, I decided to get as much done tonight as I could as far as morning preparations go!  I got the diaper bag ready, snacks and juice in the fridge ready to just stick in the diaper bag prior to leaving, Alegria's clothes for tomorrow ready, along with tights, shoes, and bows for her hair...and that's about all I could think of that I needed to do.

Finally I came back into the office to upload pictures and to blog...finally, to blog!!!

Well, that's it for me here.  Now I'm going to email Cameron and then head off to bed.

Good night everyone!  I hope your first day of 2011 was great!  Mine sure was! 

I LOVE OUR LITTLE FAMILY!!!!!  :)

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