Bridal Shopping

Today the girls went out shopping for bridal/bridesmaid gowns. Adriana was a true girl and had lots of fun shopping!

Who's the pretty girl in that mirror there?:



I love being the center of attention!:


Cutest flower girl this side of the Mississippi:


Mom found the perfect mother-of-the bride dress:


What about this dress? Do you think it would make me look fat?


Being a girl is just too much fun!

Aunties & Uncles

In my children's world, their aunts and uncles are the coolest people. They spoil my kids; spend hours playing on the floor with them; hold them as long as they want to be held; toss them up in the air like a football; give them the noisest, flashiest toys (we can't wait for paybacks on this one!); and are just straight-up fun. Unlike boring, old Mom and Dad, Aunties and Uncles are happy to let you bounce up and down on your chair while holding your singing toy airplane and eating chocolate milk, cake, and candy.

So here's our picture tribute to the "funnest" (as Isaiah would say) people around.

Uncle Eric:


Aunt Autumn (a.k.a Aunt Aumum):


Aunt Christine (a.k.a. Aunt Tee-tee):


Uncle Matt (a.k.a. Matt-the-Hawes)- uncle status will be official on April 21st:


Uncle Josiah (a.k.a. Uncle Ziah)- probably the worst spoil-em, rile-em-up of the bunch:

Aunt Hannah (a.k.a. Aunt Nana):

Uncle Tyler:

Aunt Katie (a.k.a. Nanny K):

Uncle Gabe:

Tricks

Here are two of Adriana's latest tricks:



You can tell by her face how proud she is of herself!

Yum...

Tonight was the big night. Adriana tasted her first baby food. Notice that I said "first baby food" not "first food". Daddy, grandparents, and uncles have been slipping her food since she was about a month old. For her first meal, we featured rice cereal mixed with prune juice (yum, yum). I find it ironic that I start my babies off with food that I wouldn't put in my mouth if you paid me.

When Elijah was a baby and had his first taste of baby food, he reacted as if we were poisoning him. Adriana was the exact opposite. She acted like an old pro and gave us looks that seemed to say, "Where has this been my whole life!"

So, thus it begins. I'm not a huge fan of this feeding stage: applesauce in the hair, strained peas behind the ears; no outfit is safe regardless of what bib you use. But as I scrub carrot stains out of pink dresses, it will be a great time to remind myself that each baby season is a gift from God and an over-before-you-know-it joy.

Over the River and Through the Woods...

Last week we went to Michigan to have an early Christmas with Steven's family. Here's some of our trip in pictures...

All packed up:


Great Grandma Spas with two of her great grandkids:


Grandma Sieb with Adriana (pucker up Ana!):


Daddy with the boys:


Adriana opening her first-ever Christmas gift:


My friend Nikki & I went shopping with our little ones. Her son Noah is one day older than Adriana:


Aunt Autumn, Uncle Eric, and the kids:


Grandma & Grandpa Sieb with the kids:

Dress Up

When you're a kid, what is more fun than dressing up and playing pretend? When this happens, I think the second kid tends to get a bum deal. As a child, I remember that when we'd play house, someone had to be the mom and someone had to be the dad. Since I was the oldest, I got to choose first (those were my rules). Of course, I needed to be the mom; and dad duty fell to Christine. Now I'm watching it play out in my children. Isaiah's in charge; and Elijah tags along, letting his brother boss him around way to much. So, once again someone has to be the mom and someone has to be the dad.

At least mom gets to cook...

The good news for Elijah though is that there is an up-and-coming for the role of "Momma":

Our New Place

Some different family and friends from afar have requested pictures of our new place. To all of you who asked for these, sorry it took so long for me to get them. I wanted to get the rooms painted/renovated/decorated before I took the pictures. Also, in January we're doing some renovations to our front room and a bit more decorating for our master bedroom; so I'll wait to post pictures of those rooms until they're done...
Here's our townhouse:

This is the dining room. It's a bit cramped right now since we decided to put the tree in there:

The main bath:

My favorite room- the nursery:

The nursery doubles as a guest bedroom:

The dresses hanging as decor in the nursery belonged to Adriana's grandma and great-great aunt:

The boys love the University of Michigan, just like their daddy:

Hail to the Victors!:

This was our biggest renovation. Because of water damage, we had to gut the master bath:

More master bath:

The Christmas Picture

Getting a picture of a group of kids is about as easy as flossing with a table knife. Just as an example, during our last trip to Michigan, we were at Steven's grandmother's house for Thanksgiving. At the end of the day, some of us brilliant adults decided to get our dog-tired kids together and take a great grandkid group photo. Here is a sampling of what ensued:



Well, one of my yearly duties as a mother is to get that super important Sieb Kids Christmas picture. You know what I'm talking about- the one you stick in the family album as the end-of-the-year picture, the one you send to your Great Aunt Mabel who hasn't seen the kids since the last Christmas picture. But the thing that amazes me each year is how difficult it is to gather my kids (not exactly a large group) and get just one sweet, angelic, everyone-looking-at-the-camera-and-no-one-with-their-finger-up-their-nose picture.

The other morning, I decided that today was the today. I started trying to get everyone dressed up and looking their cutest... a lot easier said than done.

"Mom, why do we have to wear our nice outfits?"

"Why can't I wear an undershirt!?!"

"I don't want you to spray water on my hair!"

"But I got to wear an undershirt at Thanksgiving!"

"WAAAAAHHH!" (interpretation: "I don't like it when you put a barrette in my hair!!")

"But why can't I wear an undershirt?!"

"I need help putting my pants on..."

"I don't care if it will only be for 15 minutes. I NEEEEED an undershirt!"

Finally we got everyone to the place in the house that had been determined to be the 2006 Christmas picture spot. The noise continued, this time from mom...

"No, no, honey, don't go up the stairs."

"Adriana, look at Momma."

"No, no, sit next to your sister."

"Adriana, look at Momma."

"Isaiah, hold Adriana tight."

"No, not that tight."

"Adriana, look at Momma."

"Elijah, don't check to see if your sister is looking at the camera. You look at the camera."

"I can't take a picture when your moving."

"Smile."

"No, a nice smile."

Fifty shots later, I think I finally have keeper. And, yes, they all look angelic.

Here we go...

Let me be honest. I swore I'd never be here. I-Alyssa- would never blog. Who needed (or really cared) to hear about the day to day happenings of a 20-something-year-old mom of three? I don't think I'm especially important or interesting; I don't have much spare time to speak of; and I'm not even a good writer. But...I have kids and those kids have relatives and other people who want to see the latest pictures and hear the latest kiddo news bites. After putting together one too many Kodak albums and then going back again and again to edit, add pictures, or send a viewing invite to new people requesting those all-important baby pictures, I decided I might as well be blogging. I was practically Kodak.com blogging.
This blog is going to be about the kids- not me. I'm not growing an inch every month, saying "Ma-ma" for the first time, attempting to be a barber with the kitchen scissors, or learning my ABC's. I do need to warn you about a few things before we start:

1. There will be errors in my posts; it's inevitable. During my schooling years, no matter how hard I tried read an assignment over and over my as-accurate-as-a-spell-check mother would still have to mark up my papers in red with spelling errors and missing words. When you see them, feel free to laugh at me.


2. A large portion of this blog will be pictures. As I said, I'll never publish a novel (or any piece of writing for that matter) in my lifetime.


3. (I love parenthesis.) (I litter my emails, letters, and everything else I write with them.)


4. Posting will be sporadic. I'm a mom of three- no further explanation needed.

Finally, I'm sure it's not normal to dedicate a blog to someone; but I'm, by birth, a Helms (Helms=not normal). Seriously though, I want to dedicate this blog to my Grandmama Esther who passed away last Saturday. She was a very proud great grandmother and so very loving. No one would have been more delighted to hear about or see a picture of Isaiah, Elijah, and Adriana Esther.

I'm going to end this post with some favorite pictures of the kids this past year. So here we go...

My Grandmama Esther with her son, granddaughter, and great grandbabies~

Elijah cuddling with his sister before she was even born~

Boys will be boys~

Adriana Esther~

Adriana in her Great-Great Aunt's vintage dress~

Elijah Gary~

Miss Blue Eyes~

Isaiah John~

Adriana in her play saucer~

Dressed up for our church's Harvest Carnival- a cowboy and an interstate~

Angel baby~

And the Academy Award for my favorite picture of the year.....