Choo Choo!

Our little man is all about the Choo Choos! And by Choo Choos, I mean anything with wheels. Trains, cars... Anything! 

When Grammy was in town, she very kindly gifted Dee this amazing train table! The kid spends so much time with the trains! It's heaven! 

Now, he gets a bit frustrated with the levels so we have taken down some of the fun stuff and made the track simple for now. When he's a bit older we can add the cool stuff back on. 

Thank you Grammy! We love it!! 

Thank You Grammy!

I am not sure we would have survived the first 2 weeks of Baby Dee's life without Grammy.

Not sure that I can put into words how much we appreciate it!!

She made dinners, did laundry, woke up every morning with Ballerina and played all day!

She attended Ballerina's Valentines Day party when I could not!

Table at Miss Janet's for Valentine''s Day.

Ballerina matching on Valentines with a classmate. 

 Grammy was around to witness that we are not just telling people that our little girl is crazy, 

 she really is!

Ballerina trying on ALL her new clothes at once. 

 I truly believe that without Grammy being in town, Ballerina would have had a much harder time adjusting to her new sibling. However, she was still the center of attention for 2 whole weeks!! 

Thank you Grammy!!

We love you!!

Only Chld No More!

Well, the weekend before Baby Dee was set to arrive we pampered Ballerina a little. 

It was her last weekend as an only child, so we thought she could call the shots. Ha!

 

This kid loves the vacuum. Hopefully, she will continue to love this in her teen years! 

So, a little house keeping in the morning! 

Then for lunch we headed out to Ballerina's favorite restaurant in town, Ray's BBQ.  

(Mommy and Daddy like it a lot too!)

 

 After Ray's, Ballerina was treated to a Classic 50s Milkshake. Considering we normally go as sugar free as possible around here... this was a BIG deal!

 When we got home, there was a big sister gift from Cousin Krissi! She sent tattoos! 

Ballerina was a little scared at first but then she was happy to get Tinkerbell all over her arms!

 While Daddy and Grammy made some dinner, Ballerina and I got to play all by ourselves. 

She loves to Facetime with relatives but we cannot call them all day, everyday. When trying to avoid her making phone calls... I turn the camera on and we "photo shoot!"

You know you are getting spoiled when you have full control of the iPad! I am amazed at how well she can work it! Finds her own folder and everything!! It's crazy!!

We had a wonderful weekend spoiling the Ballerina!! 

-Whitney

Thanksgiving with Grammy!

It had been 1 year since we saw Grammy in person. 1 year people!! So, we were very excited for her arrival in Oklahoma for the Thanksgiving holiday!! 

We threw Grammy right into the fun! We had her teach Ballerina how to make her amazing cranberry sauce for our Thanksgiving day dinner. It was a great success. Brian and I also learned that Ballerina is much more capable of helping in the kitchen than we give her credit for!

We have the old school grinder out and everything!! 
Ballerina was a big fan of putting the cranberries in the grinder.

She also got to crank the thing! (With a little help from Daddy, of course)

On Thanksgiving Day, we got up early and headed to Ardmore. We even missed the parade. Oh well... no way Ballerina would have watched it for too long!

I love the way my mother decorates her tables! 

 I had a small photo shoot with Ballerina once we arrived and changed into our "party clothes". If only I could get her to sit still without snackies!

As the day went on Ballerina got a little over-stimulated by the huge group of people in Tutu's House. So... she took Millie for a walk with Daddy and Grammy. 

 Or maybe, Millie took her for a walk. Not sure!

We had a wonderful time with Grammy! We cannot wait for her to come back for a super long visit when Baby Brother arrives!! 

-Whitney

11 months old, Grammys BDay!

WE ARE BACK & BLOGGING!!

Sorry for the delay in posts and updates friends & fam!! "Life" just gets so busy sometimes we have not an extra moment to breathe. 

A while back the Ballerina turned 11 months old. (On April 24 to be exact) The same day that her Grammy turned 70!! We were unable to celebrate with her amazing Grammy because she was across the pond living it up!! 

Love,

Whitney

Turkey Day 2012

We were so lucky to spend the Thanksgiving holiday week in NY with family.  I wish we could have seen more friends while in town but we had to share Ballerina with her cousins and Grammy first and foremost. And no worries... we will be back often! 

The day before Thanksgiving, we played at Grammys in Upstate NY all day. Grammy must really love Ballerina because she had more toys than we knew what to do with! Ballerina loved it!

Grammy even got a walker for the Ballerina!! And boy was that a hit!

But one of the best surprises... a mini blanket to match her big one at home! Ballerina loves her blankets made by her Grammy!! Nothing better than a homemade gift from someone who put so much love in it!

And in case we haven't mentioned it before, Ballerina LOVES her some Grammy!!

Brian and I were able to get out of the house a tad during the day and see some of his hometown. We went to Golden Harvest Orchards. We don't have things quite like this in Oklahoma. I love going to see all the apples and get myself some amazing cider! Not to mention, this place makes some killer vodka from apples! CORE Vodka. 

When we returned to Grammys house, the cousins had arrived!! Yay!! That Riley sure was a sweetie playing with our Ballerina all week!!

It was impossible to get a pic with all the ladies looking!!

Someone got a little festive with her Turkey Day outfit!! 

"I'm Stuffed"

Grammy did such a fun craft with all of us! Everyone made their own hand turkey on a table runner and that was our center piece! So cute! I may have to steal this idea!

While dinner was a cookin' Brian took Ballerina outside to check out the wildlife. Grammy has a bird feeder that was very fascinating. 

One more attempt at a family pic... Blurry and no one looking! 

I was so proud of our lil Ballerina, she ate her dinner at the table with us and never got fussy. I loved having her at the table with us while we ate dinner. First Thanksgiving was a success!!

Cannot wait to see more of her big first holidays soon!!

-Whitney 

Cousins!!

Ballerina met her cousins for the 1st time 2 weeks ago! 

They were the cutest cousins EVER!!

When we arrived they were wearing these adorable "Big Cousin" shirts... and Ballerina had a "Little Cousin" onesie! So cute!! AND... they made her the cutest welcome sign!! (which I never got a picture of because I suck!) 

After the first few hugs and hellos, we took Ballerina in to get her diaper changed and her new matching outfit on. The girls thought they would "help" their Uncle Brian with this task.

After finally getting everyone situated, I convinced everyone to sit semi-still for a pic! The pic pretty much sums up the next few hours.. Addison, was pretty much over the chaos of everyone in her house about 20 minutes after it began. Riley, soaking it all in... posing. :) And Samantha, trying to get a "word" in by yapping loudly. (yup, she's my kid after all)

We love her shirt! Thank you!! 

After we took pics... Grammy arrived! Yay!! She got there in time to give Ballerina her dinner and have dinner with the grown ups! I didn't take a pic... (again, I really sucked at it this trip) but Uncle Corey had a wonderful spread ready for us! 

I cannot wait for the cousins to come visit us in Oklahoma! We miss them so much already!

-Whitney

The 2nd Week of July I went back to work and Sammie came with me!! Well, kind of!

I had a week long Summer Dance Workshop in Ardmore and Sammie came to Ardmore. We had a blast and it was the first time most of my students got to meet her.

The first day of workshop was a blast. I left Sammie with my mom all day and this is what I came home to.

Sammie's Grandmother had done a little shopping. We love our new KickyPants sleeper.

The 2nd day of workshop I only had to teach one class, so I took Samantha to the studio with me for a bit... we watched some cheerleading and pom classes. 

 She fell asleep posing like the cheerleaders! Ha!!

On Day 3 of workshop, I took Sammie and she stayed in the office with my mom. We take out quilt from Grammy everywhere. As you can see, she LOVES it.

 She wore her tennis shoe socks for Miss Michelle's Hip Hop Class. :)

 Just playing around early one morning before we head to the studio!

Sammie will sleep anywhere... and apparently, so will my students! They make great babysitters, dont they? Love you girls!!

We had a great week in Ardmore but were very happy to get back to Norman and see Daddy. He missed his baby girl so much he got up for the 2am bottle just to cuddle!! Awe...

-Whitney

Grammy is Here!!

Just 1 day after Grandpa Brown headed home, we got another visitor! 

GRAMMY!

This is love people!!

 Grammy partaking in Sammie's favorite activity... EATING!

 

And Ballerina looking fabulous in her sleeper from Grammy.

 We had a very hard time getting Sammie to burp in the early days... good thing Grammy was a pro!

She taught Daddy all the tricks!

Grammy sure does give good snuggles!

Half way through Grammys week in Oklahoma, we headed down to Ardmore to see my parents. And in true Crites style they threw a party. This was one of the first times (and really one of the very few so far) that Ballerina did not really corporate. She was a tad fussy. Not too bad though. 

 

 Still looking pretty darn cute at the party!

 The boys cookin' up the kabobs!!

 Precious girl!

Hangin' with great-grandma, Mimi & Uncle Coco.

Happy 1 Month Birthday!!

 Exhausted after a long 2 days of meeting friends and partying. 

 Just hangin' out on Pappy's porch for a lil morning coffee.

 Proud Daddy.

Uncle Coco getting his snuggles.

 Grammy taking Ballerina for a walk around the neighborhood!

Last minute snuggles from Grammy.

Thank you for coming and teaching us so many great tricks of the trade!! We miss you and cannot wait to see you again really soon!!

-Whitney