Brooke is almost 9 months old and has recently started sitting. I really wanted to take advantage of her new skill and capture some pics before she figures out how to crawl. My sister, Laura is a budding photographer (and a VERY good one), and she agreed to take some pics of Brooke. I just LOVE how they turned out. Here are a few of my favorite ones....it's hard to just pick a few, though!
As our family has gotten bigger, gotten busy and has moved around, it is a rare occasion that we are all together all at once. Well, this past weekend, Dan and Kim were in town for her Spring Break from Tulane grad school. EVERYONE was able to make it down for a family meal and evening together. It was so nice to see them and spend time with them. We took the opportunity to have my parent's neighbor to come over and take a picture of us all. Pretty informal, but so nice....
Four is such a fun age (most of the time). Gavin is such a cuddly little boy. He loves to just sit with you, hug you and love on you. He also says some just sweet little things right now. Here are some of my favorites:
Gavin: "Mom, I have something to tell you..."
Me: "Yes, Gavin?"
Gavin: "I just love ya'"
"I never want another mom" (or dad, if he is talking to Jeremy)
"Can I be your best boy forever?"
Of course, these sweet sayings are also coupled with some not as nice ones when our sweet little boy is having a little meltdown about not getting his ways.
"I don't love you anymore! I'm giving you no more kisses!" This one always makes me laugh. He knows I love kisses, so he's trying to deny me from them.....thankfully, he doesn't hold out for long.
I love this little guy and want him to stay little forever! (As I do with all of my children)
So having the girls share a room has been a little challenging in the space department. They were doing really well actually sharing a room, but I seriously wanted to pull my hair out everytime I walked in there. It was just….cramped. There was always stuff everywhere and it drove me nuts. I saw a bed at Ikea I wanted and lucky me, found a used one on Craigs List for half the price.
This is a picture of the disassembled bed. Not very girly….but I took care of that. we painted the wood pieces white and covered the blue panels with pink fabric. This thing was a pain in the you know what to put together. Well, actually, the assembly wasn’t that bad, but getting those panels into the grooves about put me over the edge. Jeremy helped me though and with some true Wonder Pets-style teamwork, we got it done.
This is a picture of the girls’ room when you first walk in the door.
This is a view of her bed. I am SOOO pleased with how it turned out. I really love this bed. It is a loft bed, but it is only about 4 ft off of the floor, so changing the sheets and putting Kayla in to bed isn’t tooo bad. It has helped greatly with some storage issues. We moved the stuffed animals out of their closet and into the bins underneath her bed. Their dirty clothes, which always seemed to be all of the floor, now has a bin in the closet to stay. The nightstand will have to move eventually (before Brooke figures out how to crawl out of the crib), but we’ll cross that bridge later.
The kids have loved have a little play area. Mikayla likes to take Brooke under there and play with her and read books to her.
It has been a fun place for all to play. I also like that her toys pretty much stay under there, which means they aren’t all of the room. I can actually breath and enjoy this room now. That’s a success in my book!
I have a new niece! My sister had a sweet baby girl on February 24th. Her name is Nora Jean and she is just so darling. I love getting to cuddle with her!
I was fortunate that Jeremy was off the day after Emily delivered, so I was able to drive to Athens to see the new babe. I’m not going to lie, I got very teary when I picked her up. She is so teeny and my baby is so big (relatively speaking at least). It feels like yesterday that Brooke was that small.
Doesn’t Emily look fantastic for just having had a baby 24 hours ago? That’s what you get when you only labor for about 6 hours and push for, maybe, 15 minutes (she’s a delivery rock star!).
Look at all of this hair! And that is not baby fuzz, my friends. That is big girl hair that you can put all kinds of clips in. I must say that I am a tad jealous.
The kids, well, mostly Mikayla were so anxious to see their new cousin. So the weekend after Emily and Nora came home, I made the trek out to Athens again with my little ones in tow.
Mikayla was a natural holding Nora. She has had a good bit of practice! She just loved getting to hold a little baby again.
Gavin did a good job, too. He was satisfied with a quick hold, though. He did remark at how “shute” (cute) she was.
We thought that Brooke should have a turn holding her baby cousin, too. She was pretty enthralled with her. She particularly liked trying to poke her eyes out. I think she is jealous of all of the hair.
I love this picture. Brooke was just so interested in Nora. I like to think they were reacquainting themselves after their brief separation from their time in Heaven together. : )
This picture makes me a little emotional. I love how happy my mom is when surrounded by her grandchildren. She is a great grandma to them! I also want to note how good Andrew has done with having a new baby sister. He has been so gentle and patient with her.
This is just a funny pic I had to share. Nora’s foot is on the left and Brooke’s midget-sized foot is on the right. She is barely in a size 1. I have no idea what I am going to do when she starts walking.
I get to see Miss Nora again soon and I can’t wait to see how much she has grown….they grow all too fast, especially in these first few weeks.
Gavin’s preschool class has a stuffed dog that gets to spend the weekend with one of his classmates each weekend. Mr. Scuffles got to come to our home over President’s day weekend. Here are some pictures of his adventures with us.
On his way to a visit at Grandma’s house.
He came with us to pick Kayla up at school after her animal club meeting.
We had a twin version of Mr. Scuffles! They enjoyed getting to visit with one another.
Mr. Scuffles had lots of fun with our family. It was fun to include him in our everyday comings and goings. We finished off the weekend with a journal entry complete with pictures.
We decided to stretch out our Valentine’s celebration this year. On Valentine Eve, I made breakfast for dinner ( a favorite here! ). We had heart shaped pancakes and I attempted some heart-shaped bac0n that I saw on the internet – they looked a little more like bacon blobs.
On Valentine' morning, I made some heart shaped cinnamon rolls. Very easy and very yummy!
I made the kids Valentines this year that they shared with their classes. Gavin’s were suckers made to look like Super Heroes. Mikayla’s were suckers made to look like butterflies. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of those. I made those the night before she needed them while I had a migraine, so the thought to take a picture of them did not cross my mind. They were cute, though!
On Valentine’s Day, Jeremy had to work late, so my grandparents invited us and my parents to go out to dinner for some Chinese. I wanted to make sure that Jeremy came home to some Valentine happiness, so we set out cards and cookies for him.
I helped the kids make this card for him…their thumbprints made those little heart. <3
Some pictures of my sweet little Valentines before we headed out to dinner. I just love them so much!
We had a great night at with my parents and grandparents. Brooke was quite the little charmer that night!
When I got home, these were waiting for me…..I have a wonderful husband.
I tell you, Jeremy is a master flower picker. He always picks the most beautiful bouquets. This one also had lasting power….it stayed near perfect looking for nearly two weeks!
