Time to play catch up

A New Year's resolution for me:   update this blog at least once a week!

We have been up to a lot since my last post:

Makena is potty-trained, day & night!  It happened one weekend a few months ago and we haven't looked back.  Of course there has been an accident here or there, but for the most part she is doing excellent.  We are so proud of her & mama is happy to only be washing diapers for one.  

Tayler turned one on November 16.  Wow - the year has flown by.   She took her first step the Tuesday before her birthday, but neither Michael or I saw it. She was with Auntie Debi while Kena and I were at our once a week Parent/Child class at the Waldorf school.  Darn it!   She is walking and practically running now, way past the early monkey walk.   She still doesn't have many words, but the girl knows how to get her point across.  She is signing more, all-done and we are working on please, thank you, milk, and eat.  Speaking of milk, we are still nursing about 4 to 5 times a day & unfortunately, 2-3 times during the night...   I keep telling myself she will be sleeping through the night soon.   Makena was well on the way to weaning by this time, but I think it will be some time before Tay is ready.  

Christina & Dan got married on Oct 25 - in Reno at the courthouse.   We were halfway there & running late when we realized we left our garmet bag & toiletry bag at home...  But hey, at least the girls look cute!  It was a sweet & simple ceremony and we are so excited to have Daniel as an official member of the family.  Poor guy!  

Declan Harty Leonard was born on December 16, 2008.  Welcome little cousin!  He is as cute as can be.  In the picture is the first time that the girls and I got to see him.    For those that don't know the other gal in the picture is Jan (or Granjan) Declan's other grandma, Kali's mom.    

We had a wonderful Christmas with family.  Of course we missed all of our family that could not be with us.   This was our first Christmas with out Bear and that was a bit weird.  We found some old photos of him the other night and then the next morning Michael was making me an espresso drink and there was a Bear hair in my cup!  We always said that we would be finding his hair for the next 20 years.  We miss you Buddy!  

I especially missed him the other night.  We have always closed the girls doors at night.  We have monitors in their rooms, but you don't always hear everything.  Tayler woke up and I went in to get her and noticed that Kena's door was open.  First thing I did was look at the alarm panel - still red.  With my heart in my chest I walk in and she's still sound asleep.  Whew!    If Bear was still with us I would not have even looked at the alarm because he was such an amazing guard dog.    He was the kind of dog that didn't bark, just to bark - only when he thought there was danger.  He was one of a kind.  Lola, while I love her to bits - so not a guard dog.  While some are intimidated just because she is a pitt bull, she just as soon love you to death than anything else.    Turns out that Makena woke up and didn't want her door closed, so she opened it and went back to bed.  That happened a couple nights in a row, so now we leave her door open.  

We took the girls to the snow last weekend.  It was a lot of fun.  There was not much interest in sledding - but playing in it was a big hit.  Michael would stick Tay down in the drifts and she thought it was the funniest thing.  We threw snowballs, ate snow, and enjoyed the beauty of it.  Tayler was tired & hungry so she and I headed back to the truck for awhile, but Daddy & Kena stayed out for another hour or so.  They even built a snowman! We took Lola, but it was a bit hectic with two kids,  two sleds, so she got out for a bit, but had to hang out in the SUV for most of it.  Poor girl - but she did enjoy the car ride.  

Okay - and not sure what the deal is with the pictures...   I am trying to figure out how to move them around.  I did have them in order of how things came up in the blog, but I don't know what happened.  So hopefully future posts will be a bit more organized!