Category Archives: video

nothing beats this smile.

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Here is a clip of Finley saying some of her words. Don’t mind the fact that i come off looking like a stage mom getting trying to get her to “perform” while she runs away saying “nooo”.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz1iGrM5WRk&hl=en&fs=1]

christmas

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We had such a delightful time celebrating Christmas with our families. However, for some reason I really slacked in the photo department. I managed to leave Brian’s dad’s without a single picture! So, if you will, just imagine us all sitting around the table with our plates piled high with the best curry EVER. Oh, and I wish I would have taken a picture of Finley and her cousin Gage playing in the bathtub with uncle Jeff.

I managed to get a few, although not great, pictures from Christmas at my parents. Our dinner plans for the day were canceled because of the snow, so we were able to stay in our jammies all day! Since Finley is too young to have any wants, and too spoiled to have any needs, we basically just wrapped some random stuff (prunes, oatmeal) so that she could have presents to open. Ok, that’s a lie. We gave her a potty which we justified buying because she is going to need it sometime in the next year, and a bird feeder. Don’t laugh. The bird feeder is a huge hit. We sit on our bench several times a day and watch the birds and squirrels eat the food. The squirrels do all sorts of gymnastic moves to dangle themselves at the feeder hole. Trust me, it’s exciting.

Finley is wearing her new tutu from Mimi. And that’s a blanket Mimi made for her (notice the strawberries)

Papa isn’t so thrilled that we’re training Finley to be a shopper. But it’s okay, she’s more into the box..
Taking a moment to praise the Lord.
Since Brian’s family is ginormous (and his mom is super selfless) we celebrate Christmas on a different day. This was the first year that all the kids and spouses have been there, and boy was it fun! I married into the best family!
Grandma made Finley and Maya matching jammies. You can’t see it, but Finley’s have a little kitty bobbly thing on them (since she loves kitties) and the cutest little ruffles at the bottom. And Gage…well, I guess he’s just being a boy.
Grandma and Finley playing upstairs.
Every year the boys exchange gifts from Value Village. Little do they know, Brian actually likes his shirt and wore it the next day.
Maya is such a good big cousin. Can you guys move back here already?

And here is a little Christmas gift from us to you..

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8hxz_F-FFw&hl=en&fs=1]

our little entertainer

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Finley is the most hilarious person. Seriously, she has me laughing all day long. I’m fully aware that the following information is most likely only funny to me because a) i’m her mama, and b) i’m nearly delirious from cabin fever (on our 6th day stuck at home alone). Nonetheless, here are some snippets from the Finley show:

-her dancing. oh, her dancing! She stars as both the D.J. and the dancer. Her moves would definitely get her straight through to Las Vegas on SYTYCD. Check out the video below to see her new ballerina move.
-she burns lots of energy running laps around the upstairs while pushing random objects in the doll stroller. Some of my favorites have been her dirty socks, a string cheese wrapper, and the watering can.
-she has turned into quite the informant. if we leave out one of our glasses or mugs that she’s not allowed to touch she’ll point to it and say “uh oh”. If we leave the toilet seat up she says, “ewwww”. and don’t forget to shut the baby gate…she’ll walk by, say “oh dear”, and close it herself. today, she reached for the diaper champ, stopped mid air and said “ewwww”.
-fascination with urination. during her bath she stands up numerous times to pee and watch it come out. it’s sort of gross, because i had no idea she peed so much in the bath, but a little pee never hurt anyone, right?
-her new favorite book is the photo album of her. we’ve read a lot less books around here lately because all she wants to do is stare at pictures of herself. i can’t figure out why…but certain photos make her laugh (and her fake laugh is funny on it’s own), and she’ll give some photos a kiss. how vain!

-just call her Linus. the girl LOVES her blanket. the other day i already had her blanket loaded in the car (we have two) and i went to take finley outside. not knowing it was waiting for her in the car, she thought we were leaving without it. she arched out of my arms, grabbed the door jam, and produced huge alligator tears in record time. and it’s getting worse. today she cried when i left it in her bedroom while we headed downstairs to play. once she starts playing, she forgets about it…so i guess she just wants to know it’s nearby. but this is going from funny/cute to i think her heart might stop beating if anything ever happened to her precious blankie.

Like I said, you probably don’t see the humor in these things. And maybe you’re wondering why the heck i’m writing about my daughter pushing her socks in the stroller. I guess my point is just to say, that it’ so fun watching Finley go from a baby to a little girl that is FULL of personality.
Here are some pictures of us trying to stay sane, while trapped at home.
stuck in the snow! it’s over a foot deep!
she waved and grunted at her little car long enough, that i finally unearthed it from the large ice cube it was stuck in.
Here she is mixing some beats at her table.
And here she is taking her socks for a stroll.

This is what you get if you ask her to smile.

Here’s another video of her dancing and she’s got some different moves this time.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn4coKB6UlM&hl=en&fs=1]

celebrating our sweet girl

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This weekend we celebrated Finley’s first birthday (a few days early). Thankfully, it was a beautiful, crisp fall day, and we were able to entertain both inside and out. We ate, she opened a ridiculous amount of gifts, and then we all congregated around her for the highlight of the night…cake time! Proving that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, she thoroughly enjoyed every morsel of her cake. Eventually, she grew tired of playing in the chocolaty goodness and fell into a sugar trance. We gave her a bath, put on her special birthday pajamas, and she gave a goodnight kiss to every single guest (probably not the most hygienic idea). Three hours later she awoke with a fury that I can only assume was from ingesting many MANY more calories than her little tummy is accustomed to. I think we’ll lay off the baked goods until next year. Aside from that, her first birthday went off without a hitch. Not a single meltdown or tear shed, and that’s saying a lot for a one year old, hopped up on sugar, with 40 people vying for her attention. We are so thankful for the outpouring of love, kisses, and gifts from our family and friends. Thanks for helping us honor our sweet baby Finley.

Check out more pics in the birthday album.


[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfLGBaPochM&hl=en&fs=1]

first words

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So, I’ve had a hard time discerning Finley’s first word. She’s been saying “mama” and “dada” for months. But it’s more of a general babble as opposed to her identifying us, so I don’t count either of those as words yet. About a month ago she started saying “night night”, but it was sort of prompted. At bedtime I say, “It’s night night time”, and then she will say, “night night” and wave bye bye to whoever is watching. So, I kinda count that as a first word. Her new word, that she says completely unprompted, is “uh oh”. She says it anytime a toy falls to the floor and makes a loud noise. She even sticks out her bottom lip while saying it! We don’t like to encourage her to drop or throw her toys, but I just had to catch it on video. You can kinda see the pout in the beginning of the video.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7g49INrCoU&hl=en&fs=1]

Yesterday, I was feeling around in finley’s mouth and I was shocked to discover that she had a molar in. Wait. A. Minute. She was teething? We called papa immediately to tell him the news. This is so exciting because she got a tooth in and we didn’t have to deal with any fussiness, sleep issues, etc! If you aren’t a parent of a child who has gone through teething you might not understand why this is noteworthy. If you are, then you know that this is almost as exciting as winning the lottery. Well, not really. But close. Such a trooper, that daughter of ours!

our week in review

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Well, the little bon bon and I just got back from another week in Chelan with Mimi and some family friends. As usual we had a great time enjoying the sun and water and all the extra time with Mimi. A highlight of the week was taking Finley to the water park. Note to self: do not lather yourself up with oil and then take your 9 month old down a water slide. We flew down the slide and had a real dicey moment where i thought we were both going under. Fortunately, we didn’t have anymore mishaps. We spent most of the day in the baby play area, and only returned to the bigger slides after i had been thoroughly de-greasified. As soon as we convert the video recorder tape to a cd i’ll upload some footage, because it really is precious.
Finley also perfected some new tricks this week. She loves to play “so big”. I say “How biiiiiiiiiigggg is finley?” and she lifts her arms above her head while i say “so big!”. And she learned how to wave hi/bye. She loves waving to anything that moves…birds, trees blowing in the wind, strangers walking by, the lady cleaning the windows and red robin, you name it. I think she really understands what the action means, because this morning after brian kissed us goodbye she sat looking out the window waving bye bye, unprompted. Such a smart little girl!
The other highlight of our week was going for walks with Mimi early in the morning at the River Park. I say early because finley decided that during vacation would be a good time to arise an hour and a half earlier than normal. Thankfully, my loving husband presented me with some “starbucks money” for the week, which if you know us, you understand what a huge gesture this was. I am eternally grateful, because caffeine has never been so truly needed. Anyway, back to the walk. We experienced this weird phenomenon as we walked around the park. In the seven o’clock hour people were friendly. As we passed people they smiled, said hello, stopped to look at finley, asked questions about her. I know this doesn’t sound noteworthy, but it was just so refreshing to see that people are still nice and happy and friendly…let alone at that hour in the morning. It seems that more and more often I have encounters with angry, grouchy people and I was so moved by the friendliness we experienced every morning. Kinda weird I know, but it made me happy.
Anyway, we had a great time with our friends and family and are so thankful to spend another summer making memories in Chelan. `If only Brian had been there, it would have been perfect. Instead of vacationing with his family, Brian worked long hours and then came home to work more on our deck. And what a beautiful deck it is! I came home to a finished deck complete with assembled patio furniture! I can’t wait to dine al fresco! Yes, Finley is waving at the cars driving by…

Here is a little video of finley showing off her new tricks.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5O53tr8vQg&hl=en&fs=1]
This is Finley reading one of her favorite books. She’s either really vain, or thinks that her reflection is a friend.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ5Z66RtAOc&hl=en&fs=1]