Thursday, November 29, 2012

Fall 2012




We had such a busy and fun Fall! I can't believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone, and Christmas is right around the corner. Here's what we've been up to...

We celebrated Daddy and Grandpa's birthday in October. Both of them got Ipads for their birthdays!
Matthew liked blowing out the trick candles.

A few days before Halloween, we got to celebrate Matt's Aunt Raydine's 60th birthday with a costume party. Happy Birthday Aunt Raydine, you are a blessing to our family!

We were a Disney family. Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy!

All of the cousins were there! It was quite a feat, but we were able to get a picture of all the kiddos. Too cute!

Matthew had a blast at the birthday party. There must have been 50+ people there and I seriously think Matthew was the loudest of them all. All night long, he wanted his cousin Joshua to chase him around. From the other side of the room, all I would hear was "Wa-Wa!" (Joshua!) I had multiple people tell me that they never knew Matthew was so loud. We aren't usually out late with the kids, but we didn't get home until after 9:30. Both kids were absolutely exhausted and in bed 7 minutes after getting home!


Mollie and Emalynn were happy little girls during the birthday party, taking in all the action of their crazy brothers and cousins. How adorable do they look?!? Amy and I were laughing because the girls' costumes actually fit their personalities perfectly. Mollie is bright eyed, always rolling around, and a very expressive baby. Emalynn is the most laid back, easy going little girl, happy to stay put, always ready to take a bottle. While we were trying to take some pictures, Mollie was hamming it up for the camera and Emalynn was just trying to eat the tulle on Mollie's skirt. Ha! Two precious, little girls who will (yes, I say will!) grow up to be best friends.


Raydine always thinks of every detail and had fun games and activites planned throughout the entire night.
 


Next on the list of our fall activities was the Pumpkin Patch. We chose the worst and rainiest day of the year to go pick out our pumpkins! We put off going to the pumpkin patch for a number of weekends and this was our last chance before Halloween, so we didn't have any choice but to brave the weather and go in search of the perfect pumpkin!
 
 
Thankfully, the place where we went has a huge barn, full of fun things to look at and pumpkins to pick through. We spent our time in there and didn't even head out to the wet, muddy field of pumpkins. Daddy and Matthew did bear the elements go for a ride on the cow tractor through.





My sweet little pumpkins on Halloween. Matthew wanted NOTHING to do with getting his picture taken!

On Halloween night, we dressed up our little Mickey and Minnie and headed to our church for Trunk-or-Treat.


 
We had a great time! Matthew got to trunk-or-treat, bounce in the bouncy house, eat yummy food and of course sneak some candy! He was a little too young for a lot of the activities, but he kept himself busy running around the church with Joshua!
 



And now I leave you with a couple ADORABLE pictures of my kiddos. It was a rare...like never happened before, moment where Matthew actually sat still, arm around Sissy, hamming it up for the camera. These days he is uaully moving a million miles a minute, and I was so glad I could at least capture a few pictures this precious moment!
 
 
 
Happy Fall!

Friday, November 2, 2012

Mollie 6 months

Mollie Lynn you are 6 months old!



What have you been up to these days?


You weigh 15 pounds 11 ounces (50th percentile)
You are 26 3/4 inches tall (88th percentile)
Your head is 43.5 cm (77th percentile)
You wear 3-6 or 6 month clothes and size 2 diapers 

Your hair is finally starting to grow. I say "grow" very cautiously because you hardly have any hair, but I can tell that after 6 months, it seems like it might be ready to come in. I can't wait for pigtails and braids! 

You sleep at night from 7 or 7:30 to 6 or 6:30. You are early to bed and early to rise! You still take about an hour morning nap, and a 2-3 hour afternoon nap. You have only been taking about a 20-30 minute evening nap, so come bedtime you are exhausted and ready to sleep. 

You aren't bundled anymore to sleep! We were really struggling with sleep for a couple of weeks because you would roll over in the middle of the night while you were still bundled. You couldn't get your arms out to find your binkie, and you let us know just how upset you were to be stuck face down, arms at your side, without a binkie. I was having to go in, flip you over and put your binkie back in a couple of times a night. I really wasn't sure how you would do if we didn't bundle you, since you had never slept unbundled, but I figured that we didn't have any choice but to try it. Thankfully, it is working out great!
We just wrap a blanket around your legs, give you your binkie, and lay you down in your crib. You roll over onto your side, and we give you an extra binkie to have in one of your hands and you put yourself to sleep! You usually sleep on your stomach or side. You roll all over your crib, but now when you wake up you can put your own binkie back in and put yourself back to sleep! Sometimes you fuss for a bit, but not very often. We are so thankful for a good little sleeper!


Speaking of rolling over, you are ALL over the place now. You are always getting stuck up against a wall, a bookshelf, a toy or the fireplace. One day I walked into the living room and you had rolled all the way across the room and was sucking on the leg of our bench.

You love your binkie. I swore I never would, but I've resorted to using a binkie clip so that we don't lose binkie after binkie. And so your big brother doesn't steal yours!

You are eating solids really well. For a couple of weeks, you weren't really interested in eating food, so I wasn't offering it to you very often. However, the past week you have decided that eating solids is really yummy! You are eating brown rice, avocados, sweet potatoes, pears, bananas, peas, pumpkin, peaches and applesauce.

Over the past month, I have noticed that my milk supply has decreased quite a bit. Because of that and a few other reasons, we have switched you to almost exclusively formula. I still nurse you about once a day but I'm sure that will stop soon. You love your bottles, tolerate the formula really well and have made the transition very easily. You get really excited when you see your bottle- sometimes I think you actually prefer bottles. You can hold the bottle all by yourself! I would have liked to nurse for 1 year but I've learned to be happy that I was able to get 6 months of breast milk in you!



You sit in your highchair to eat, and you look like such a big girl!

You love bath time, being naked and sucking on a wet washcloth or a rubber ducky. Matthew likes to pour water on you.

You discovered your toes, and LOVE playing with any and every toy we give you.
You have really good fine motor skills.


You can only sit up for a couple of seconds before toppling over.

You are very ticklish, and love kisses on your neck


Sissy, you absolutely love to watch TV.

When you were five and a half months you had your first fever. You had a low grade fever for about 24 hours. You were pretty lethargic, wanting lots of snuggles, and Daddy said you had 'tired eyes'.

Mollie, you love to jump and bounce! The more we bounce you or the higher you go, the more you giggle and squeal. You go crazy in your jumperoo.
You notice when we leave the room. When you are tired or hungry, you are sure to let us know that this doesn't make you very happy.


Mollie Lynn, you are a precious gift from God! Your infectious smile brightens our day, and you bring so much joy to our lives. We love you so much Sissy!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Matthew 19 & 20 months

Matthew Jay 19 & 20 months
 

Matthew, I can't even begin to describe the joy that you bring to our family! You make us laugh and enjoy life to the fullest, but boy oh boy you wear us out! You are one busy toddler, always on the move, with a curiosity through the roof!
 
What have you been up to these past couple of months?
 
 
At 20 months old you...
weigh 25 pounds 6 ounces (45th percentile)
are 34 3/4 inches tall (90th percentile)
have a big head! 49 3/4 cm (95th percentile)
 
You played with shaving cream and loved it!

 
You tell us when you are poopy, and are very interested whenever we are going "potty". At the end of August, I decided to buy you a potty seat. I'm not planning on starting potty training yet, but I just thought that it would be a good idea to have a potty seat around for you to get more familiar with sitting on it and being around it. You LOVED it! You would ask to go "potty" all the time. You love to sit on it and play with it. One day, you were sitting on your potty seat in our bathroom and I had to run to do something really quick. I was gone maybe 2 minutes. By the time I came back, you had the potty seat on the floor, and you had both feet standing in the toilet. I walked in and you immediately said "Uh Oh!" I couldn't help but run and grab my camera to snap a few pictures before getting you out and scrubbing you off. Boy will be boys!

 
You rode on your first rides all by yourself at the Evergreen State Fair and loved them!
 
 
 
 
As of 18.5 months you say" home" every time we pull into our neighborhood. You say "church" when you recognize us pulling into the parking lot at church, and you say "bumpa" when coming down the hill into Grammy and Grandpa's neighborhood. At 20 months you also started saying "ba" every time we were pulling into our driveway at home, asking for the garage door button so you could open it. Our little helper!

You are SUCH a little ham, always giving cheesy grins and corny laughs. Daddy taught you how to fake laugh- haha!
 

At 18.5 months you fell on our back patio while playing outside and split your chin. We did end up taking you to the doctor to have it checked out, but thankfully you didn't need any stitches or glue. As of the middle of October, your cut has healed but it looks like it might scar :( I'm hoping it fades with time.
 

On 9/4 we went to the zoo with friends from church! You loved running around with your little buddies and seeing all the animals.

You love to play chase and hide-and-go-seek. You run everywhere. You like to swing on your tummy.
 
 

At 19 months your favorite TV show was Chuggington. Whenever we asked you what you wanted to watch, you always said "Choo Choo". Your favorite character is Coco. As of 20 months your favorite show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. During the intro to the show, you can name every character. You are going to be Mickey for Halloween.
 
You are always wearing a hat.
 

You are very good at saying "Peese" (Please) and "Yank ou" (Thank you). We have worked very hard at teaching you manners.

Some of your favorite activities are playing in the car or outside, riding your bike, reading books, lawnmowers and getting the mail. You especially love to get the mail with Grandpa. You know where he keeps the mail key, and will go over to the drawer, find the mail key, and ask Grandpa to get the mail with you. You and Grandpa are buddies these days.

 
Some of your favorite songs are, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, If You're Happy and You Know It (Happy), the ABCs, Jesus Loves Me, Rise and Shine, and Itsy Bitsy Spider. We can stop in the middle of almost all those songs and you will say the next word or phrase, even the ABC's. (advanced, I know! Oh wait, doesn't every parent think that their child is advanced?!?)

 
You count to 10 all the time, and just learned this past week how to count up to 13! You skip the number 4. My favorite number you say is 7 (sem-men). You always say 9 & 10 fast and in a row. You like to count the stairs when we walk down them.
 
You love going on walks and being outside.
 
 
We got you a trike at a garage sale the beginning of September. At first you would sit on it, walk behind it and like for us to push you around. By the end of September, you have learned how to cruise on that bike. You pedal with your feet and will absolutely zoom down the hill in front of our house. You like to ride your bike around the block, but always need help going up the hill.
 

We bought you a Strider balance bike. It is harder for you to ride then your trike, but you are really starting to like it. We also bought you a new helmet, but had to buy you one for a 5 year old because your head is so big! You can thank your Daddy for that one.

 
You wave "Bye-Bye" by opening and closing your hand.

You call Grammy and Grandpa, "Gabby" and "Bumpa". You love spending Fridays with your Gabby. I don't think that you miss Mommy or Daddy at all! You call Bami "Banna"

 
You are still unbuckling your seat belt while in the car, but it's happening less often.

You have been really difficult to take to restaurants lately. All you want to do it get down and run around. We either end up scarfing our food or one of us walks with you in the lobby. Lately, we just opt for take out!
 
You LOVE your sissy and are one pretty awesome big brother!
 
 
You went to your first high school football game at Cedar Park.

You like to play with shoes. You can put your Crocs on all by yourself. Lots of times you will ask for your shoes to be taken off in the car.

You like for the car window to be rolled down. You stick your hand out and say "wind!"

Matthew, you give the best hugs lately!

 
Anytime that we ask you what you want to eat, you always want waffles. Your other favorite foods are pretzels with hummus, spaghetti, oatmeal, & PB&J. Carbs are your favorite! You are a good eater, but can be picky at times.

Whenever I tell you that we are going to go to the grocery store, you always say "Cookie!" I can't run into the grocery store with you without making a stop at the bakery for a special treat. It keeps you happy and occupied though.

You like to spot buses, trucks and airplanes when we are driving. Lately, you have been spotting "punkin" (pumpkins) too!

You still LOVE "Yexi" (Lexi). She hasn't jumped on the Matthew-lovin' bandwagon yet. I'm hopeful it might happen some day because she would have an instant best friend. Every night before you go to bed, you insist on Lexi coming into your room so that you can say nigh-nigh to her. You also try to sneak her tasty treats if we aren't watching you! You give her very gentle "Pat pats" and love to give her hugs and kisses.
 
You love books and throwing balls down the stairs.

 
I made prayer sticks for you in mid-October (gotta love Pintrest!). On each stick is a picture of someone in our family and their name. Each day you pick a new person to pray for. We get to talk about them during the day, and most importantly we pray for them before meals, at naps and bedtime.
You can name almost all of your Aunts, Uncles, cousins and grandparents...even the ones who live out of state.
 
After we pray, you say "Aaaaaa-MEN!"

When you are excited, the volume of your voice gets REALLY loud, especially when "bumpa" (Grandpa) or "Wah-wah" (Joshua) are around. We are teaching you how to whisper, and at night you will whisper "I luv yoo" in our ears before you go nigh-nigh. Precious!

 
 
You talk ALL.THE.TIME. You are starting to put 2 words together. (Mommy camera, Lexi outside, Sissy nigh-nigh etc.)
 

When you don't want to do something you say "Nope". You sometimes get confused and say "Nope" even if it's something you want to do. You are a blast these days, and have been listening much better! We are teaching you to obey Mommy and Daddy the first time we ask you to do something, and are striving to consistently discipline you in love.

Matthew Jay, I look forward to every day I get to spend being your Mommy. We love you to the moon and back!