may babies

May is a fun and busy month in our house!  Big E turned 8, Miss Em turned 3, Mom turns **cough** thirty-something **cough**, and then add on Mothers Day, teacher appreciation week/end of school stuff, and capping it all off with Memorial Day! Whew! 

Here are a few highlights from my growing babies...

BIG E:

• Loves to dress in black, neon, camo, and sometimes all three.
• Loves swords, nerf guns, and spy gear. Requested a double-edged sword for this birthday, but settled on a hatchet.
• Went turkey hunting for the first time (no one was hurt - not even a turkey)
• Best friend is Kale
• Aces most spelling tests
• Super responsible kid and an awesome big brother! He makes me proud every day!

MISS EM:

• Loves to wear her "cow boots"
• Rough & tough girl. Walked in one day to find her sparring with a boy from her class.
• Loves to sing, especially Happy Birthday, ABCs, Old McDonald, and Little Bunny Foo-Foo
• Wanted scissors and candy for her birthday 
• Best friend is Sutton aka "Sutt-Sutt". Other buddies include Sibley "Sibby-rose" and Kate.  
• "Yesterday" means anything from this morning to three years ago (example: "I was at that hospital yesterday when I was a baby."
• Total daddy's girl, but gives mama plenty of hugs and kisses too. Love our baby girl!

This year the kids had a horse party for their birthdays! If you ask Em which was her favorite: the slower smaller horse, or the bigger faster horse, the answer is of course the big fast one (not pictured)!

Halloween 2006-2013

This is a little story about a lion, a zebra, and a bumblebee...  

My awesome two year old.

Miss Em at 2 years, 3 months...

She's starting to speak in sentences, and cracks us up with her Italian accent. "I wash-a ma hands!" "I poop-a da potty!" "I drink-a ma juice!"

She loves to dance (a lot!), loves to draw (still calls it "ess" for some reason), loves to play with her baby (whom she has named Baby Julie), and loves to play and wrestle with big brother - always.

She enjoys going to school each morning. Her favorite teacher Miss Jenny just left for school, but she's quickly become attached to Miss Carley and Miss Beth. On the way to school, she'll say "Eric hit me" or "Sut-Sut pull ma hair".  This morning I responded, "he just pulled your hair 'cause you're so cute." To which she said "I'm not cute." When I glanced back she said in her just kidding voice: "I'm cuuute!" (I don't think she's often abused by her classmates - but she's hung up on the couple of times she got picked on by the boys.)

She can say her alphabet, count down backwards from 10 (blastoff!!), and can sing or hum twinkle twinkle little star.  She loves music, but is also very opinionated about it.  I'll often have to flip through several songs ("don't like it") before we land on one she can be-bop to. Her current favorite? Icona Pop - I love it

If I could freeze time right now I would, but unfortunately I don't have the super power yet. However I know that she'll just get funnier and cuter and smarter as time goes by, and I've got a front row seat!

march kidstagram

Cute kids + Instagram = Obsessed!  (albeit a little late)

riding back from visiting family in Illinois

working on some dance moves

story time with Big E

loves to make mustaches

taken by her big brother

finally warm enough for the park

sick again at the doctor's office

playing jeff's piano

easter morning funny faces

peeking out of em's new window!

helping daddy with yardwork

horsing around

watching elmo videos on youtube

february kidstagram

Yes I'm obsessed with my kids, taking photos, and instagram.  Here are February's highlights!  

Little Miss Elmo

It's been a little while since I've posted an update on Miss Em, who's already 20 1/2 months old!

She can say a handful of words, and adds to the list every day. Lately she started referring to herself as "Elmo". She can say broke, help, up, book, brother (bubba), milk and poop. You know, all the essentials. The rest of her baby talk sounds like something out of a small African tribe.  A lot of "wakitikiliki" talk. There is a lot more meaning behind her words now, and she looks at you like you should be getting every last bit of it. 

She had a week-long bout of RSV earlier this month.  She coughed a bunch and wasn't eating much. Since then she is feeling much better and has been cleaning her plate at almost every meal.  The tummy is back and she's shot our of her size 18 month pants and into the 2Ts. I swear she looks older every day.

Of course she's still crazy about her brother.  They were home with each other for two weeks around Christmas, and never got sick of each other.  She beats up on him a little, but those are just sibling love pats. One afternoon I heard Big E shouting "help" from down the hall. I ran in to find him stuck in his closet with Miss Em holding the door shut. So yeah, he gets bullied more than she does.

It's always a good thing when real life is more entertaining than television. And my kids don't disappoint.

Dancing Queen [18 months]

 

 

Miss Em is 18 months! How blessed we are to have such a smart, lively, funny girl in our lives. We should call her goldilocks because look at those blond curls! Maybe we have a future in shampoo ads. 

 

Dance class is in our near future because girlfriend loves to get down!  If she hears a few beats, she'll stop whatever she's doing and start bouncing around.  Makes my heart so happy.

 

She's making new sounds daily. She can tell you when she needs to be changed and just went in the potty for the second night in a row! Her words are currently limited to please, ball, help, more, hello/yellow, and hi, but I can tell she's just on the brink of talking up a storm.

 

She just started in the Toddler 2 room with her teachers Ms. Linda, who watched Big E when he was a baby, and Miss Carissa, who watched him in the school age room.  It's really nice to feel such a sense of family at our day care. Her best buddy is Sutton.  He likes to dance too.

 

These pictures were the hardest to get.  She cannot seem to stay still for as long as it takes for a flash to go off on my camera. 

 

Em loves her stuffed animals - especially her pink sock monkey.  She loves her big dog Padre even more. He gets daily hugs from his little sis.  And then there's her other big brother...

Em loves Big E SO much! She wants to do everything he is doing and vice versa.  These two are my heart and soul.  I am glad they will always have each other.

I love my babies.

munchkin update

Big E

Almost 6 1/2 and in first grade, E is a high energy kid.  On a scale of 1-10, his volume level is often at 11.  He's super funny, super nice to his friends and super smart. His favorite subject is math.  He struggles with reading a little bit, but is trying hard to learn. We read almost every night and started working on flash cards for sight words. I fell like he will be rainman when it comes to math - just like his dad. The numbers just seem to come to him. He's also very interested in space, which I've learned freaks me out. Anyone else get anxiety talking about space?

E's a hard one to get to stand still for more than a second, but here's a short interview I managed to film.

Em

At 16 months, Em loves music, books and drawing.  She'll focus for a long time on anything with buttons to push. There's one toy with a little keyboard on it and I she played the best song for me. She loves Ring Around the Rosy, Old McDonald, and Twinkle Twinkle Dinosaur (with big ROARS and stomping included, which I totally need to get on camera). If she hears music, that little blond head starts bobbing.

Her communication skills are the biggest advances lately.  She can sign for please, thank you, and milk, and can say "baa" for sheep, "ma" for more/milk, and nods yes or shakes her head no. When you ask her to say the word "please" after she signs it, she'll just make the biggest "cheese" face. It's cute.

I did manage to capture some moments on camera this month.  Loving the easy upload from my phone to YouTube.

Excited for Dada to be home | Eating a lemon | Riding her pony

The best part of all is seeing all the sibling love. They love to wrestle and hug. Em wants anything her big bro is playing with, and sometimes he'll even let her have it. These two sure keep us busy and it's hard work, but I can't imagine life without them. Yup, we're pretty much moving to wherever they go after college. 

lady bug birthday party [Emma is ONE!]

Sweet baby girl is ONE! What a wonderful year is has been. I have tried my best to soak in every single moment with my sweet pea. I average about 300 photos and videos a month (triple backed up of course), so not too many moments went by without proper documentation. 

Her birthday party theme was lady bugs.  I didn't have too much other than her shirt, cake and balloon. Everything else was just red and black, but it all looked cute together.

I got my craft on and made these ladybug invites.  I think they turned out pretty cute. They were fairly simple to make, just required some new supplies since I'm not an everyday crafter.

Our Lady Bug is turning ONE!

          Her super-cute birthday shirt custom made by The Sassy Squirrel.

Her amazing lady bug cake created by Nellie's Custom Cakes.

Cute little daisy smash cake. All white, of course.

Her party was a lot of fun with family and friends.  She wasn't too sure about everyone singing to her and staring at her to eat her cake. Once everyone started eating their own cake, she got into it a little bit.

She received some beautiful handmade clothes and fun toys. She got a little kitchen that sings a lot of cute songs and the night of her party she started dancing and hasn't stopped since! She does a little side-to-side swing move and the classic bounce.  She just can't hold it in once she hears the music. 

The next day was Mother's Day. We went to Grammy's for a shrimp boil and then baby girl played and danced in the pasture while the boys fished in the pond.

In the last month, she has gotten her two top teeth, some blond curls, started pointing and making new sounds, and... drumroll... started walking!! She started out very hesitant, but now she jumps up and goes as fast as she can a few steps and then falls. She can go the length of the driveway if she's really focusing. She loves playing with balls and bubbles.  She makes the "buh" sound for both, as well as for her bottle.  She's kind of a tom boy too.  Loves to get dirty and play with (and eat) sticks and rocks. 

The photo below was taken in April. It's amazing how much she grew in a few weeks! The new little blond curls make a lot a difference. 

This blue dress was mine when I was her age.  Mom found it while cleaning out the barn - so glad she did!  It looks adorable on Miss Em! I call it the Shirley Temple dress.

And just one more because she's so cute.  Here she is lounging while mom drinks her coffee the Saturday morning of big brother's birthday party.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl! We love you SOOO much!!