Little Scavenger

Today I was on the phone with Lee, and after getting off the phone I realized it had been way too long since  I'd seen and heard Miss Raya Marie. Upon finding her I saw this:

"What Mama? Just go back to whatever you were doing...I'm being  good!"

Apparently Daddy didn't put away his box of Triscuits last night after his snack. Miss Raya (surprise surprise) had sniffed out this delectable little treat and decided to help herself!

"Yum!"

At about this point Miss Raya sensed that I was going to take away her big find, so she hightailed it to the nearest hiding place!

Much to Raya's dismay she couldn't quite fit behind the pack and play LOL

...so she had to try and shove as many Triscuits in her face as humanly possible, before I pryed the bag out of her tight little grip :-P

"Just one more Mama!"

This child is lucky she's so cute....It's impossible to get mad at her! :-P

In Brielle news, I feel like  overnight she gained 5 lbs! When we got up this morning she just seemed so much bigger to me....she's got to be over 7lbs by now I'm sure. I decided to try on some of her 3 month outfits and sure enough, the smaller 3 month ones are starting to fit! Yay for more clothing options haha. The newborn stuff is definitely still her correct size, but she can wear a couple 3 month things without looking absolutely ridiculous, so we're making some progress :-)

Can you notice the chub?

She's even getting a little double chin hehe. I was so excited to get  her in this outfit...it's just my style ;-)

Seriously, don't you just want to kiss those little cheeks?!

She just  gets cuter and cuter every day....following in big sister's footsteps!

Speaking of big sister, she was dying to hold Brielle (as usual) this morning...Brielle wasn't feeling it though!

I think Raya was trying to find the "mute" button :-P

As you can see in the 2 pictures  above, Miss Raya was being a little s tinker about leaving in her hair pretty today, so we decided to do pigtails instead.

I don't think she was necessarily  thrilled with the pigtails, but  she was thrilled with the fruit loops Mama bribed her  with!!!

Although I don't  believe  in "bribing"....I believe  in "providing edible tokens to gently encourage desirable behavior" :-)

...and I'm not ashamed, b/c I "gently encouraged" Miss  Raya to allow for this  super cute  hairstyle!

...now to try for t he 100,000th time to put Brielle down so that I can do some chores around the house! She still is a very  easy baby, but today she has not agreed to being put down at all! It's definitely better than Miss Raya, who as a baby required  that I not  only hold her, but continuously bounce her, walk with her, fuss with her, etc...while Brielle is simply content to sit on the couch being held. But when I have laundry to do and such that becomes a problem! She does like being worn in my wrap, but that is a little akward to wear when carrying laundry, etc. Good thing blogging is still easy  to do one-handed! :-)

The "H" family Thanksgiving/Christmas/ Brielle meet and greet :-)

We had a wonderful weekend with Aunt Megan, Uncle Shawn, and Grandma and Grandpa H.!! Be warned, many MANY pictures are ahead...between Megan and I our cameras stayed busy :-) I figured I better get this post up quickly because I know Grandma F. is anxious to hear about our weekend lol.

**Oh, and I  did many picture collages this time to save myself from having to post each picture individually. You can click on the collages to blow them up bigger if you want :-)

Friday afternoon Uncle Shawn and Aunt Megan arrived...Raya was so excited to see them again...she hadn't seen them since before she could walk!! Brielle was also pumped to meet them for the first time. I had told her they were pretty neat!

They brought Raya a fun toy to play with Friday night as well...she says Thanks!

Friday night we had Lee's famous chili for dinner...Raya's favorite food pretty much! She always eats a huge bowl--and has the diaper to prove it the next day usually!! haha

Saturday morning Grandma and Grandpa arrived. Raya was not shy at all...she remembered Grandma H!

She shocked me by being a huge fan of Grandpa this weekend too! She kept voluntarily sitting on his lap for long periods of time!!

Grandma F. would have LOVED this hairdo I bet :-)

Raya and Brielle just loved getting lots of extra cuddles from everyone this weekend!!!

Raya's going to be mighty lonely now without such fun playmates!

(She tried getting in through the window for some reason haha)

Megan set her camera timer and we got a couple great family photos of everyone!

Saturday for lunch Lee cooked a sprial ham and it was delicious! We had corn, mashed potatoes, rolls, and layered lettuce salad as well...plus lemon bars and brownies for dessert...yum yum :-)

Then Saturday afternoon we exchanged Christmas presents!

Raya got many fun toys...playdo toys, memory game, play cupcakes, and books from Grandma and Grandpa H....a super cool turtle nightlight that puts stars on the ceiling from Aunt Megan and Uncle Shawn!

Brielle wasn't left out either. She got a monkey sweatsuit from Grandma and Grandpa, and from Aunt Megan and Uncle Shawn she got a cool tractor bib, a little cow toy, and a book!

We all had  a good laugh at how giant the bib looked on little peanut Brielle :-)

After presents Miss Raya had to play with her toys of course. She however freaked out when Daddy tried to eat her cupcakes!

...but since she was all about Grandpa this weekend apparently HE could eat her cupcakes without a problem! :-P

Then they tried to show Raya how to play memory. Her idea of "playing" t he game though is dumping all the cards on the floor...then she's done lol

Then Raya did a little coloring of course...

...and as long as daddy wasn't eating her  cupcakes she was happy playing w ith  him as well!

Both girls were very good this weekend overall. Ruth Ann and Larry couldn't get over how Brielle just ate and slept ...I remember how everyone came and visited when Raya was almost exactly this age too, and she was sooooo fussy...we joked with Megan and Shawn that Raya was good birth control after that weekend! Brielle (so far, knock on wood!) is a much easier and more laidback baby!

Then today everyone had to head back home--we were very sad to see them go! Hopefully Shawn and Megan make it this way again soon...and once Brielle is just a tad older we hope to venture out their way too!

To end, here are a few more random pictures from this weekend....enjoy!! :-)

Puppy "train" and torturing Gunner :-P

Caught a big goofy smile from Brielle!

Some of Brielle's many facial expressions!

My girls <3      I'm such a proud Mama!

Crazy kids ;-)

Grandpa won Raya over by showing her the deer outside :-)

Everyone on the couch has a "baby" hehe

We got a picture of all  the girls...

...and a picture of all the boys!

If you count baby cousin Sam (who we really enjoyed hearing about this weekend and seeing pictures...he really was a beautiful baby boy!!! ) the family "H" scale is still tipped  in favor of the boys...6 boys, 5 girls. I can't wait to see if the girls can take over soon or if the boys are destined to rule forever--we need another baby or another puppy in the family very soon!! ;-P

Ok, well Miss Brielle is done eating which means my computer time is up...thanks for checking in today! Hope you enjoyed our pictures as much as we enjoyed our weekend!!!