Happy birthday Kara!

Happy birthday my sweet Kara.

I don't know how time has gone so quickly.

You are so grown up already. As of your 1st birthday you can walk, talk, sing, dance and yell at your sister for stealing your toys. You love life. Each day is an adventure to you and nothing gets you down. Over and over this last year I've had people tell me, "I've never seen such a happy baby." Its true. You really are the happiest little girl I've ever known. You bring so much joy into this world, especially into mine. The best part of my day is when you wake up. When I get you up you cuddle into my shoulder and snuggle for a few minutes. I love that about you. You also love music. You sing along and dance and bounce whenever you hear a song. If we are in the car you will yell at us until we turn on the radio.
You also love your sister Julia. You follow her everywhere and shower her with kisses and hugs. She loves you too. Just today she spent almost an hour to set up all the Little People toys just right so that you could have something fun to do on your birthday.

Kara Grace, you have been such a blessing in our lives this last year. It hasn't been an easy year, but you have truly handled the changes with grace. Your dad and I know that Heavenly Father sent you here to our family to help us all. Your sweet and spunky personality has brought so much joy to our lives.
Today I can't help but remember your big sister Adria. She loved you so much.

One of the hardest things for me as your mother is knowing that you will have no memory of how much she loved you. I have to believe that the two of you were very close in Heaven before you came here. Before she died, Adria would hold you every day. She would share toys and books and her favorite blankets with you. Very few 3-year-olds are that attentive to their baby sister. For the first few weeks after the accident you would cry whenever someone set you down. No one was sure why, but I think you missed her. You love your family so much, even at such a young age. I know you grieved with the rest of us. I hope you know that she will always love you and watch over you.

Thank you for being you. I love you more than words can say. Happy birthday little one.

Projects

I have been trying to keep busy lately. I've done a few projects. My favorite is Julia's room. We were hoping that a new room would help her to sleep again. She was having a hard time sleeping and kept ending up in our bed. I don't know if the change is what helped or if it was just time, but she doing much better now.
So here's the room:

 We kept the ballet theme but repainted and got new furniture.

Julia and I also made her old dresser into a wardrobe for her dress-ups. I did the base paint and then let her decorate the sides however she wanted. She wanted these round mirrors and some pink glitter paint.

We put baskets at the bottom for shoes, crowns, wands, etc.

She had a great time. I did too. It's fun to have a project to work on together.

Walking

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I lost both of my cameras. As far as we can tell someone stole them from our car. Bummer, right? We didn't want to go buy new ones until we were sure someone hadn't accidentally put them in the fridge...I have done that before....or just misplaced them. Then we had to decide which camera to get. There are just too many choices at too many prices. Anyway, the point is that we have a camera again so now you have to put up with more pictures of my adorable girls.
Kara has pretty much decided this week that walking isn't so hard.

Its so fun when your little baby starts walking. (Although it may have the unintended side effect of making you baby hungry when you realize you now have a toddler).
I have to tell you before I show you the adorable video that Kara has a funny quirk. She shakes her head "no" when she wants something. I should get other videos of her doing it to prove I'm not just imagining it. But she does it all the time. We're trying to teach her to go up and down instead of side to side, but she's not too concerned about it since we know what she means. So when Julia asks her if she wants chocolate and Kara starts shaking her head, she's really saying yes. She's also waving her hands around because that's how she tells us to "come here." She's trying to tell Julia to bring the candy to her. Now then, for the video:
(I'm sorry that it probably only works if we're friends on facebook. Blogger and I have never gotten along when it comes to uploading videos)

And yes, we did give her a bite of chocolate. Nothing else was convincing her to walk that far. Besides, my grandmother and my mother always taught me that sometimes the best tool in parenting is a bribe.

The start of trouble

In the last two days both of the girls have brought to our attention that they are starting new stages of trouble.
This morning when Ben was leaving Kara and I went out to wave goodbye. When I turned to go back inside, Kara shrieked and I asked what was wrong, not really expecting a reply, but she said, "bye bye! dada bye bye!"
I asked, "You wanted to go bye-bye with Daddy?" She started bouncing up and down, all excited. I laughed and said, "We're not going right now sweetie." Then she surprised me even more by shrieking extra loud and yanking at my hair! Such a temper!
Then an hour later I was cleaning up the rest of our Christmas stuff and a chocolate fell out. When I didn't let her have it she started crying. So I picked her up and she bit my face! I didn't remember the other girls have that much attitude at 11 months, but I could just be remembering wrong. All I know is that I'm not quite ready for the tantrums yet.
But Julia is the one we're going to have to watch out for. Last night I was putting Julia to bed. I bent down to give her a kiss and she said, "I'm going have a kiss like that at my wedding." I was a bit caught off guard and didn't know what  to say. She wasn't waiting for me though, she had more to say. She continued, "Caleb doesn't like kisses, but he'll get older and like it." My gut reaction was to shake her and say "YOU'RE 5!! STOP THIS!" But I didn't. The rest of the conversation went this this:
Me: "Did you kiss Caleb?"
Julia: "No, I told you, he doesn't like it."
Me: "Well, when did he tell you that?"
Julia: "We were talking about when we get married and I told him when you get married you kiss each other and he said that was gross."
Keep in mind that this handsome boy sits next to Julia at school. She's got really good taste in guys, he's a sweet kid. That's when I suddenly remembered Caleb had asked me back in November if he could marry Julia. I had thought it was really sweet so I said yes. His reply was classic, "She said she'll wear a white dress. I guess I'll wear....what grown ups wear." I guess they both remembered and they're still planning on it.
I went on to tell Julia that she is much to young to be kissing boys and then tucked her in and said goodnight. I then made the mistake of telling Ben. His reply, "Who is this Caleb character?" That's when I told him that we were just getting started with boys and kissing and crushes. He was not pleased at all with this news.
I can't believe how fast these kids grow up!