Jed and Tiffany

Lately

2012-02-09T21:33:00.001-06:00

We've been preparing for this, doing a little of that and not enough of this.

Life according to my phone

2012-02-03T20:19:00.001-06:00

Charlotte at 5 months

2012-01-22T19:42:00.006-06:00

I often feel bad that I don't take thousands of pictures of Charlotte like I did Jilli. Yes she is the second child and I am usually chasing Jilli around instead of taking her picture. Also Charlotte is quite attached to me so taking her picture requires her not being on my person at all times and being happy about it. When Jilli takes her afternoon nap Charlotte is usually awake for 30 minutes to an hour before going to bed. During this time I try to do quality one on one time with her. I listen to her stories, try to make her laugh, work on sitting and playing you know typical baby stuff.

So the other day I decided that I should take her picture instead of feeling bad about not taking it. I figure when she asks where all the pictures of her are the whole "you wouldn't let me put you down and when we did have quiet time I liked to actually interact with you" will only go so far.

How about them rolls? Wonderful baby chubbiness.

Chargy fun facts:
Things we call her: Charlotte, Chargy, Chargot, Chargs, Charg-zilla, Chippiziuka (pronounced Shippy-zuka), Sugar Bear and Baby-zilla
She rolls everywhere as transportation. I think she will crawl soon, but she isn't there yet.
She is sitting up. She needs assistance to get there, but then she can do it for a while before face planting.
She definitely isn't even starting to babble (people keep asking me what she is saying I answer in high pitched screams and spit bubbles).
I am pretty sure she is the world's most happy baby (unless she is not). She gives the biggest smiles all the time. When people she likes come in the room she squeals, kicks her legs and flaps her arms around.
She holds her arms out for me to get her.
She loves to pull hair. Jilli is very calm and patient when this happens to her, she just tells me that Chargs has her hair and I get it loose (have I said what an AMAZING big sister she is, literally the best big sister in the world).
She plays peekaboo by herself with blankets and chuckles.
She goes to sleep easily, but she wakes up a lot at night.
She takes two 1 to 2 hour naps daily and sleeps 7 to 7-ish.
She gives kisses! You kiss her cheeks and then she plants an open mouth seriously drooly kiss all over your cheek, it's awesome.
She really is a mama's girl.
She likes baths.

Here is a video of her peekabooing :)

Pictures I found on my phone

2012-01-19T19:39:00.003-06:00

So I lied. I found some pictures on my phone. They are pretty funny.

I forgot the sling one day when we went shopping.

baby leotards

Can you see both girls?

Jed took this picture of the wood chuck in the mountains.

Jilli wanted Daddy to hold both his girls.

Hip baby on Andrew.

Marietta

2012-01-18T19:49:00.005-06:00

This is the last Christmas post. While we were in the Mountains we drove down to Marietta where Jed's Dad's family lives. We got to see lots of family and spend some great time watching babies. I'll save you the details on how Jed missed his flight because a bird flew into our house as he was leaving and the four other things that got in his way to his missed flight. Instead I will tell you about how we got to spend time with Jillian and Charlotte's great-grandparents on his Dad's side and other family members. It was a lot of fun. Everyone loves babies, so we spent a lot of time watching those babies be crazy. We ate good food and the girls got totally spoiled by their Lana and Skip (great grandparents). It was a good time and I wish we got to see them more often.

Charlotte quit sleeping the week before we left for vacation. She started waking up to every hour during the night (sometimes she'd sleep a three hour stretch first). We (me and Jed) got way less sleep on vacation and the weeks after than we ever have. There were many days were I got four hours total of sleep, good days I got six. The problem was none of those hours were more than two at a time. So it was hard, we were tired and drained. It took another week of being home to get her sleeping better (only waking three to four times a night).

Jilli always slept like this as a baby, but Charlotte for about 4 weeks on would sleep 8 to 11 hour stretches every night, so we were bummed. One night she screamed from 9:00 pm until 3:30 am, it was awful. The next was worse so we went to the doctor. Turns out she had reflux and wasn't getting enough to eat. I don't know why I didn't realize she had reflux, she was acting just like Jilli had when she had it, but I didn't catch it. She is now on medicine and we are supplementing with one bottle a day and she is sleeping better (waking up two or three times a night and going back to sleep pretty easily). I am hopeful she will get back to once a night without too much intervention from us.

All of that is to tell you why there aren't any pictures for January. We are lucky that we didn't all go insane and that both of girls are healthy and happy now. Not once did I think for those weeks, I should take out the camera and get pictures of all the sleep deprived-ness going on around here.

So this is the last post around here for a while. We are well rested now and I can think about doing more than surviving the day, so February will be grand :)!

The Mountain pic round up

2012-01-15T21:00:00.000-06:00

baby first Christmas

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000-06:00

Christmas day was great. We stayed in our Pjs all day, my kind of day :)! Jilli helped play Santa and Charlotte got lots of love. We ate lots of candy (mostly chocolate) and played games.

Christmas Eve

2012-01-11T07:00:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve we made reindeer food and gave Santa an oatmeal pie (I am pretty sure these are Uncle Gene's favorites). We made the reindeer food and spread it out on the lawn then we put a cookie (without milk) next to the fireplace. Jilli was pretty excited. Nala (Caroline's yellow lab) ate the cookie as soon as Jilli was asleep and we let both her and Princeton (Caroline's toy poodle) out to eat the reindeer food. Jilli was very impressed the next morning with their work!

Gecko

2012-01-10T15:55:00.001-06:00

We found a gecko and then let him go. More Christmas posts coming.

pinecone bird feeder

2012-01-08T07:00:00.000-06:00

We had the great idea to make a pinecone bird feeder. We even had a pinecone with a stick in it so we were able to just stick into the yard and wait for squirrels or birds to come and get it.

Our plans were thwarted by a tiny toy poodle named Princeton (the black spot in the picture below). He got to it before any other creatures could, but we told Jilli that a squirrel must have liked it so much he took the whole thing. We also told her Santa ate her cookies and not Nala (the ever hungry yellow lab below).

The token baby picture:

Christmas in Katy

2012-01-07T07:00:00.000-06:00

We did Random Acts of Kindness with my family in Katy to celebrate Christmas this year.

Christmas at our house

2012-01-06T07:00:00.001-06:00

Christmas at our house came the weekend before we left for the mountains. We did a small Christmas this year (every year), but this year our gift was spending two weeks in the mountains visiting family. We originally thought of getting Jilli giant blocks because we could easily ship them to the mountains and then bring them back. We were very wrong because they come in a huge box, but we still got them. I am pretty sure Jed and I love them more than she does right now, but she will get the hang of it.

We had a great morning :).

Here comes Christmas

2012-01-05T07:00:00.000-06:00

Christmas posts are coming. There will be a lot of them, a lot. First here is us making Christmas ornaments. Jilli is naked in most of the pictures I took, so the picking was limited.

Miss these faces?

2012-01-04T11:39:00.002-06:00

Well once I get unpacked and make my house livable I will update this old blogeroo.

2011-12-15T16:52:00.006-06:00

I have been taking photos for friends. It is something I like doing and would love to learn more about. I have been teaching myself some, but in the future (i.e. when I don't have such small children) I would love to take some classes. Anyways, I have taken pictures for friends before and I am starting to do it more regularly. My friend was running late, so I took some pictures of the girls to check out the lighting (it was raining outside so we had to do inside).

These pictures aren't great. But these girls are the BEST. Jilli doesn't like me to take her picture very much anymore. It is rare for me to get a good one.

She is trying to sit up (okay I am trying to get her to sit up).

"Take my picture!"

"So a priest, a rabi and a minister walk into a bar..."

Chillaxin

You're so cute I could just eat you (or give you a open mouth kiss all over your face)!

So in this picture I can finally see why people say they look just a like. Charlotte looks just like Jed to me (and compared to our baby pictures) and Jilli looks like me, so I am always correcting people and then the look at me like I am mad.

And Yes, sometimes Charlotte stays in jammas all day and Jilli asks me 100 times, "Momma why is Charlotte in her jammas".

snap shots of lately

2011-12-12T13:38:00.004-06:00

Jilli's tree hanging job:

Baby Face

Festivities, she finally got her candy-cane!

Granola bar making, she's getting much better at helping.

heels baby

2011-12-08T17:19:00.000-06:00

parades

2011-12-02T07:00:00.000-06:00

Every year Chuy's, a restaurant here in Austin, holds the Chuy's Children Giving to Children Parade. They collect toys for Operation Blue Santa. It was a fun parade with some large balloon floats (like the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade). Jilli really enjoyed it. It was fun to be so close to the big floats.

There were also some very keep Austin weird float like items as well.

Thanks

2011-12-01T14:51:00.003-06:00

These are the only pictures I got on Thanksgiving and I only took one of them. So thanks to whoever took the other.

We had a great day hosting some family here at our house. It was great. Jilli had fun with family and getting to watch TV. When we turned it on that morning she said, "Mamma, we no watch TV anymore". So we tried to explain that it was a special day that we watch parades and football and eat sugar. She never got the TV part, but she did understand the sugar part when Caroline showed up with cupcakes, pies, cookies, ice cream and whip cream. Some where there is video of Jilli being CRAZY from her sugar high. I will have to post it when I find it.

trimming the tree

2011-11-27T16:36:00.002-06:00

We let Jilli stay up late for the first time without Charlotte on purpose. Like we put Charlotte to bed, gave Jilli her first big kid cup of hot coco with marshmellows and had her help us trim the tree. It was wonderful.

proof

2011-11-20T14:18:00.001-06:00

Pre-Thanksgiving

2011-11-18T07:00:00.002-06:00

Because stuffing your face in the name of giving thanks once a year isn't enough. No really. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I think it's because it's like Christmas, but without all the pressure of gift giving and gracious gift receiving. I get to see my family, my sister makes fabulous foods and we all try to make something that will not taste like cardboard next to it. We eat, we play, we argue nicely, we give everyone a hard time and we love on one another.

It's a big deal to me. I've only ever missed one Thanksgiving with my family and that was the year we were in Brazil and I accidentally bought a chester instead of a turkey. I rode the bus down town to the bigger mercado (mall with a grocery store), used my little Portuguese dictionary and thought I bought a turkey. Carried the enormous frozen bird to the bus stop, gave it it's own seat on the bus and then carried 10 blocks to our apartment. Only to have Jed tell me it wasn't a turkey, cue tears. The good news was they cross bred chickens and turkeys (because turkeys are dry in Brazil???) and it all worked out. In fact I made an entire Thanksgiving dinner from scratch for our Brazilian friends and they pretended to like it.

Back to Pre-Thanksgiving. When Debbi had to miss last year she sat me down and broke it to me gently. This year neither of them were gentle and I demanded an early Thanksgiving. The obliged because I am crazy weird about Thanksgiving, but mostly because they are really really good sisters.

And now for the weekend photo dump:

Post Turkey nap :)

rolling baby

2011-11-16T19:07:00.004-06:00

Charlotte rolled this afternoon while we were playing on our bed from her back to her tummy. She did it a couple of times, but I still thought she was using the bed to her advantage. So later we went down stairs and she was playing on her playmat and she was trying to roll again. I spent over 20 minutes trying to get her on film rolling, she never did it. Then everyone took naps and woke up from them and I had forgotten all about it. So when I laid her on her back on the floor while I read a story to Jilli I was very surprised to look up and see her on her tummy! I was thrilled for her, but bummed for not getting it on film. Of course she refused to do it the rest of the day.

I have found that I am better of documenting milestones here on this blog than in a baby book, so today Charlotte rolled from back to front, but I don't have any videos or pictures to prove it. Once I get some I will post them.

And this is my new favorite picture from the weekend, more to come:

Those are my wonderful sisters loving on the youngest of our clan (she's number 8)!

3 months

2011-11-13T20:37:00.003-06:00

Can you believe it?

Really it's true.

Come on you knew it was going to happen.

I'm 3 months old now.

She is a dream and we love her oh so much!

We have been busy trying not to be busy. I don't want the holidays to go by in a blur because that means I will look up and my 3-month-old will be 6 months old. So we are spending more time at home soaking in these little people, enjoying these short moments in time of pure babyness and crazy toddlerness.

camping

2011-11-07T07:51:00.003-06:00

Camping was super successful. The girls did great and we had lots of fun with our friends. We saw an armadillo right after we set up camp, deer while hiking, beetles and raccoons when we were suppose to be sleeping.

It went so well we thought of making it a monthly event and going more than one night next time.

I didn't take the big camera since it was just me with the girls, so the pictures aren't as good as normal and there are not as many.

sisters

Chargy

us

big girls

armadillo

Our almost 2 hour accidental hike.

The Halloween post

2011-11-04T07:00:00.001-05:00

We did a lot of Halloween. Multiple Halloween parties and opportunities for learning how to trick or treat. We went to The Summit retirement home, we had our ward Trunk or Treat, we went to a close elementary school festival and Jed took Jilli trick or treating Halloween night.

Laura was here for the weekend and she went trick or treating with us twice! Jilli loved having her here and so did the rest of us :)! She carried Charlotte around for two days in a row, which was super nice for me.

Charlotte and I went with them to a couple of neighbor's houses and then we went home to bed. Jed took Jilli to his friend's house and their neighborhood which is basically across the street. Jilli scored homemade cookies and a "huge polipop (lollipop), which was actually a candy apple that was delicious! It kind of rocks to have a group of friends where you are the only ones with kids :)!

Jilli says the darndest things

2011-11-03T15:52:00.004-05:00

Jilli: I want to go to the hospibal (hospital).
Jed: Does your tummy hurt?
Jilli: No, I want more babies.

Jilli: I have owies.
Me: Sometimes you get owies when you go camping. See I have some.
Jilli: Oh, I tiss (kiss) them.
Me: Oh that is so sweet, thank you.
Jilli: You tiss (kiss) mine.
Jilli: Right here.
By then she was holding her dirty little heel inches from my face

land firsts

2011-11-02T19:16:00.004-05:00

Charlotte meets the cows for the first time.

Jilli caught her first fish. She helped bate the line and reel it in, so we'll call it her first.

Also, she caught many more fish that day. She was really good at fishing (just like her modest mama).

The drought has hit us hard

Just kidding not that hard. The big tank is down like 10 feet (if I had to guess), the little big one is not as bad, but the small one is just a puddle on a good day.

Jilli actually rowing, a first for her and it was Charlotte's first time on a boat.

Chillaxin

Her first time to really ride a four wheeler more than around in a circle (and yes next time we will take her helmet, bad parenting moment).

A halloween post and a camping post are on there way once I get all the pictures in one place. Just so you know, camping with a toddler and a 12 week old rocked, we want to do it monthly.

Arrrrr Matey

2011-10-31T07:00:00.000-05:00

ARRRRRR, Happy Halloween!

Laura came in for a visit (not just to see us, but don't tell Jilli) and helped us do some trick or treating, more photos to come!

Have a very happy and safe Halloween!

Tea Party

2011-10-29T14:14:00.004-05:00

So we wanted to have a tea party for the girls and we did. I love having friends that are up for anything tea parties, afternoon soccer field running, camping and hiking. We made little snacks, served lemonade and let the girls pretend to use the big girl silver. It was awesome.

Tiny cups makes for lots of pouring.

Soccer balls at Tea Parties are a must around here.

Sugar and milk please.

And a little yard work.

pictures

2011-10-27T13:53:00.003-05:00

We are going on a girl's camping trip next week, so we had to bust out the tent and make sure it was good to go.

This baby looks like her daddy and I love it :).

Twirling, trying out costumes.

Ephesians

2011-10-23T21:31:00.006-05:00

During Sunday School today the teacher was talking about Ephesians and The Beatles' song Imagine. She was talking about people and all the characteristics that can keep people strong and steadfast. Then a woman in the class said that we (people on the earth) have characteristics of our earthly parents much like our heavenly parents. When you look at a family you can similarities and they might have some of the same interests or gifts (like musically talented, or hair color). So all the people on earth have characteristics of our heavenly parents and it is good because we can all benefit on each other's talents/gifts.

I leaned over to Jed and said, "So Heavenly Father is the best quarterback ever? I really like that, in fact I like him even more now." Jed said he was pretty sure she was referring to spiritual gifts, but yes he probably is the world's greatest quarterback.

I have to say it is even more comforting to imagine going to Heaven and getting to play sports. I wonder if basketball will be more mellow than church basketball. Or if there are even better sports that we don't have here. Also I would have my perfect body (every hair in it's place) so I would be at my peak physically all the time, which would rock. Basically it opens up lots of exciting possibilities in my head.

A kind of related picture of Jilli last spring at her end of the year recital for gymnastics.

Some days really are Saturdays

2011-10-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

Some days really are Saturdays and we spend the day doing fun things together. Like going to The Capitol and enjoying the grounds (now that it is not 135 degrees outside). Then roaming Whole Paycheck for a couple of hours :).

Jilli's favorite thing this day was not inside The Capitol, it was chasing the squirrels outside.

I kind of feel like telling her what we tell Abbey, "Oh Abbey you ain't ever gonna catch that squirrel.", but I think Jilli got closer than Abbey ever has.

Charlotte of course is just happy to be along for the ride :).

Us checking out some of the monuments outside.

I'm pretty sure I have taken these pictures of these two at least two other times.

The Capitol is defenitely one of Jilli's favorite places to visit. When we are down town she sees it and wants to go, so we usually drive around it a couple of times (which holds her off until we can actually visit). She says, "I miss da Tapopol mommy, I lub it". When we tell her we are going she gets very very excited. She can point it out in the most obscure photos or paintings. I think we have visited The Capitol 7 times since late spring. I hope she does not become a politician.

Every day is Saturday

2011-10-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

That is what Jed tells Jilli. Every day for her is Saturday, except Sunday, because Sunday is Sunday, but all the other days are definitely Saturdays.

We made paint for the bathtub and Jed and Jilli had a paint party before bath time.

Charlotte sat in the Bumbo for the first time. Her little head is so big it's hard to hold up for a long time.

Jilli works on her comedy act, Charlotte is an approving audience.

We play in the clouds on the ground (fog, or frog according to Jilli).

We go to fire stations.

We have afternoon tea with our closest girlfriends.

More to come on Tea Parties.

And of course Charlotte is just beginning to learn about Saturdays.

Now if someone could just get them to understand that you sleep in on Saturdays, we'd all be happy.

Charlotte rolling

2011-10-19T20:04:00.003-05:00

We finally got it on film.

Warning, if you turn up the volume you can hear Jilli's adorable little voice constantly talking in the background :).

"I don't care Friday" post for Caroline & a Charlotte first

2011-10-13T19:57:00.006-05:00

Caroline sent me an email tonight that basically said she loved posts and they made her day. So to make "I don't care Friday" go a little faster and nicer this post is for her.

Early Morning
When ever I have both girls curled up with me Jilli gets close and says, "two baby girls". She's right two baby girls and I love them so much.

First time she did it on purpose :)! Hooray for me for catching it on camera! She's done it on accident before, but this was purposeful.

Go Chargy :)!

Funny things going on at our house

2011-10-13T07:00:00.006-05:00

When I take pictures of Charlotte Jilli lets me take pictures of her too.

"Woot at me mommy. Woot what I do. Tate my picture. I stetching" Woot=Look, Tate=take, stetching=stretching

"Woot I on my head!"

Then Abbey tries to get in on the action by almost sitting on Charlotte.

Also, Jilli wants to be many many things for Halloween including the following:
Bathroom, flashlight, Texas, puppy, monkey, boy, chair, pillow (a mommy pillow to be exact) and wind

Today when we were getting out of the car after grocery shopping Jilli said, "I like Mommy". I said, "Oh thank you Jilli, I like you too". Then she said, "No not you, Claire's mommy"

Charlotte loves Jilli. She loves to watch her and smiles really big at her. Then Jilli will say something like, "Chargot is wooting at me, Chargot touch me, ha ha."

Today she wanted Charlotte to watch her and then tell her to go go go. So I had to talk for Chargot. Jilli and I call Charlotte Chargot and Chargy :). I know it sounds weird, but I really like the nick name Chargot (like Margot).

Jilli calls pumpkins pumptan :).

Jilli asks me to make something sweet every day so that she help me. She likes to help me by eating it while making it, either ice cream, cookies or brownies. Tomorrow we are going to make lots of pumpkin things (pumpkin logs, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin ice cream). So hopefully she likes pumpkin!

Love Affair

2011-10-11T13:26:00.003-05:00

There are some things in life that I love and will tell everyone about given the slightest window to do so. My Vitamix, love it. My station wagon, super love it. My camera, I don't know what people with kids do without a nice camera. Mac products, and not because Jed works there, but because they are so seamless. But the thing that probably gets me most excited is running or workout shoes.

In high school I would drive everyone crazy about how our new cheerleading shoes were going to change how high I could jump. Running shoes, they made me so super fast (actually I was really slow, but cross country didn't care). Cleats for softball gave me traction that I could run the the bases with. New golf shoes made me put better and drive further.

Then in college I started coaching and shoes made me a better coach because I could be happy on my feet 10 hours a day. This is probably when I started spending big money on shoes. I bought the first round of Gel Kinseis that came out. I went through nice new shoes every 4 months. Because I would run and coach in them.

For the last 3 years I have been obsessed with Nike Frees. I tell everyone about them that will give me the time of day. "Oh you run? You should get Frees, they are the best. Oh sometimes you walk to places like the bathroom? You should get some Frees, they are seriously the best." I ran my half in the Frees. I had the least amount of injuries I've ever had with Frees. I love them, I have the running ones and the mary janes for every day.

When I got pregnant this time around I didn't buy any new shoes even though needed them because I knew my feet would swell and I wouldn't get to wear them for a long time. So I waited and I am glad I did. I started running in my old Frees and started bruising my toes and getting blisters. I had thought my foot had grown during pregnancy, but I had no idea how big they were. I went from wearing a size 8 to a 9. I'm 5'1''.

I am the shortest person with the biggest feet.

But I guess that's okay because it will just make me faster :).

announcements

2011-10-07T14:22:00.004-05:00

A friend of ours made these announcement. They might be coming to your mailbox soon if you are family. If not you will just have to look here. So I love them. She actually made four different proofs and we liked all of them a lot. Jed liked a different one more because it had Charlotte with a ridiculously cute face, but the picture didn't work with this layout. I LOVED this layout and it is what we ended up going with since Jed liked all of them.

The ridiculously cute face

If you need birth announcements, wedding invites, shower invites or anyother type of print let me know and I will pass on her info. She will be opening a store soon and I will post that information when she does.

baby faces

2011-10-02T20:28:00.003-05:00

Abbey will be 11 at the end of this month, not much of a baby anymore.

Charlotte 8 weeks

2011-09-29T20:54:00.005-05:00

Charlotte is getting so big.

At her one month appointment she was in the 90 and 95 percentiles for height, weight and head circumference. Her head grew so much since the last visit they came back and remeasured it. She started smiling and tracking at 1 month. Last time I weighed her (three weeks ago?) she was over 12 pounds.

She smiles and coos. She gargles and randomly screams happily. She rolled over once by accident and never figured out how to do it again. She needs to be swaddled between 6 and 7 (unless she is getting a bath) otherwise she cries. She doesn't have reflux. She eats really well. She loves baths.

She sleeps, this baby sleeps and I mean really really sleeps. She sleeps so well I have been afraid to talk about it because I am nervous I will curse it. Since three weeks she has slept 6 to 11 hours straight, most nights 9 to 10 hours. I can count on one hand the times she has slept less than 6 hours since those first few weeks. It has been the greatest gift. She is also really easy to put down for a nap most of the time. She doesn't have a good nap schedule yet since we are constantly going places with Jillian.

The sleep thing has been very interesting to me this time. With Jilli I had notebooks filled with her sleep patterns. I had nannied a little girl that didn't sleep well at all the summer before Jilli was born. So I was mortified Jilli would be an awful sleeper and I was determined to help her get into a good routine, which I did eventually, but not until she was 5 months old and it took a lot of work from everyone. Jilli is super easy to put down for a nap or to bed (except those weeks around Charlotte's birth, those were a nightmare). This time I'm not stressed about what sleep could be like and Charlotte loves to sleep, so it is easy so far.

She looks pretty serious in these pictures, but she is not always. She loves to talk and make faces at you. It is just hard for me to carry around the camera and the baby all while following Jillian in her next adventure. Charlotte is a very happy and good natured baby, we are very blessed. Except when she's not. In the hospital we started warning nurses that she would scream very loud and turn beet red after she made one nurse nervous.

And that big sister couldn't be sweeter or kinder to her her little sister. She sings her the ABCs when she cries. She hugs and kisses her so softly. She helps get things I need when I am nursing. She helps bathe her (i.e. dumps water on her). In general she has done great with the adjustment. I'll have to write on how well these two do together soon. She is also just as sweet to her mommy until I pull out a camera then she says, "no pic-sure, no pic-sure" and hides.

Sensory Tubs

2011-09-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

Sensory Tubs are tubs filled with sensory activities. We have done bubbles, beans, play dough and this past week we added two new items homemade moon sand and polymer beads.

The moon sand was super messy to make, but was a big hit. Since we didn't color it Jilli really thought it was just wet sand from the beach. It kind of acted like wet sand with more glue. We used this moon sand recipe and it cost all of five dollars to make.

It would be easier to make without the help of a small person, but Jilli loves to dump. Also the first step of the process makes obligook (cornstarch and water make a liquid solid that is fun to play with).

The only picture of Charlotte in this post.

The penguin stormed the castle. The other enormous sea creatures also helped in the hostile takeover of this once peaceful palace.

Jilli played for a solid hour with this sensory tub, which is a new record. Later we added a water tub (which Jilli called the ocean) for rinsing and seashells.

Our next activity was the polymer beads. They are these tiny beads (40 mg worth) that you add water to and they expand by absorbing 4 liters of water. They bounce, they are iridescent, they are slick and soooo fun. We all had fun watching them grow and then playing with them.

They come in these tiny packages (you can get them at craft stores for about three dollars). You can also buy them already hydrated, but it was a lot of fun to play with them while they grew.

These were more fun than cooking beans (dried beans that Jilli pretends to cook by dumping and using utensils) even though she played with them in the same way. I think it is because they are wet, colorful, new and they bounce. They texture of the beads was just really fun.

Check out her new haircut, such a big girl.

big hair cut

2011-09-23T07:00:00.003-05:00

Jilli got her first haircut. A friend of the family who also is a hairdresser did it. She has been cutting Jed's family's hair for over 10 years. Her name is Holly, she graciously cuts my hair every 11 months without complaining that I only cut my hair once or twice a year. She is fabulous, super thorough and very affordable so let me know if you need someone to do your hair and I'll hook you up with her digits :).

Anyways back to Jilli's hair. She was and I quote, "The best first haircut I have ever had". She looked where she was suppose to and was super patient. It was so great. I was thrilled, especially since I forgot to tell her that getting a haircut includes scissors flying around your face until that morning. She is soooo clutch, we are continually amazed by her.

She was also worried that night at bath that we would wash out her haircut. Amazingly she still had her haircut after the bath and this morning. I think it might take a couple months for it to disappear.

music class

2011-09-21T07:00:00.001-05:00

A friend of ours invited us to join a music class. She hosts a group of 2 to 3 year-olds in her home once a week and shares her love of music with the kids. Jilli loves music class. They get to explore different musical instruments, sing lots of songs, dance, play with a parachute, and play with bubbles. She talks about it all week and loves getting to see her friends.

singing

exploring different instruments

Charlotte getting in on the fun

bubbles :), oh how they love bubbles

parachute

Charlotte is worn out!

Work it Out

2011-09-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

I started working out again. I am jogging very slowly while pushing around 75 pounds of stroller and baby. I am also walking because I am just not in that great of shape anymore. Our trail has a parcourse, so Jilli and I have been doing that. It includes: dips, stretching, pushups, core exercises, cardio, etc. It makes Jilli happy to work out with me and it is nice because I can get some exercise in without feeling guilty. Charlotte sleeps the entire time. Also on the way home we drop by the park and swing :).

stretching

pushups

dips

Charli along for the ride

Jilli running to the next parcourse station

time

2011-09-15T07:00:00.001-05:00

park time

sleep time

hiding time
Jilli-"I hiding!"

baby loving time

*This baby is smiling and talking, we can't get enough of her!

snack time
Jilli~"More chippies mommy!" (kale chips, the girl LOVES them)

cooking making time

*These are the best cookies, I will post a recipe for them soon.

Wake up!

2011-09-13T17:11:00.004-05:00

Mommy~"Jilli can you wake up Charlotte?"

Jilli~"My music wake her up"

Mommy~"Can you sing really loud?"

And an updated picture of the fast growing Charlotte:

lately

2011-09-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

Quarry Park, we were the only ones there=awesome fun

Auntie Caroline came for a visit

Guess what we bought...

Andrew~tickets to the gun show?

RaRa visit

cuddle time :)

back by popular demand

2011-09-07T20:45:00.004-05:00

I've had some requests for updated pictures of Charli. So here they are!

Hout 'em hons (Hook'em horns)

Thumb sucking :)

sisterly love

the who does she look like post

2011-08-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

Who does she look like?

Jillian?

Charlotte:

Jed?

Charlotte:

Tiffany?

Charlotte:

Sister Bean

2011-08-27T16:16:00.004-05:00

Me: "Jilli, what do you call Charlotte?"
Jilli: "Sister Bean"

I was hoping she would call her "Seethear", which means sweetheart. She calls her lots of things: Seethear, baby sister Charlotte, c-bird, baby sister, sister and sister bean.

Here are some pictures of the last week.

Their first bath together.

I bribed Jilli to let me brush her hair, wear that shirt and take pictures with her sister. Not one really turned out, but it was worth the one chocolate chip.

This newborn went to sleep.

This real honest to goodness baby woke up.

Big Girl :), so sweet.

Chubby Baby :).

sisters

2011-08-18T19:13:00.003-05:00

These two already love each other. Jilli asks to hold her a lot, gives her kisses, puts lotion on her feet, tickles her, gives her blow bellies, and talks about baby sister constantly. Meanwhile Charli tolerates Jilli.

It is beautiful to watch them get to know one another. I am so grateful to be their mom. Having a baby is even more magical when you have a child in the home. Watching our babies interact is the best. Jilli is so gentle with her little sister and is so curious about all things baby. She is very relieved that Charli's owie (umbilical cord) is gone.

We are so in love with both of them. We are so grateful for their little spirits and the opportunity we have to be their parents.

Charlotte first days photo dump

2011-08-10T06:44:00.005-05:00

Jilli getting to hold Charli for the first time.

Welcome Home Charlotte

Happy Birthday Charlotte!

Charlotte Layne Swan

2011-08-06T17:43:00.002-05:00

Charlotte Layne Swan
born 8/5/11 at 5:12 pm
8 pounds 7 ounces
20.25 inches long

Mom and Charli are recovering well.

Daddy couldn't be happier.

Sleep

2011-07-28T16:39:00.005-05:00

We aren't getting any. Jilli quit sleeping, thus we are not sleeping. She has slept good since 4 to 5 months, but on Friday she quit. She is at a minimum losing 3 hours a day, up to missing 7 hours.

To be fair, she has been sick, but being sick has never effected her like this before. Anyways, she is feeling better, but her sleep is still awful.

Also, I'm about to give birth - any second now (at least that is what I am hoping). I actually had contractions for 12 hours yesterday. The doctor checked me yesterday and said that she expected to see us later that evening or today. No luck.

So now we are trying to figure out what we will do with a 2 year old that won't sleep and a newborn. We are going to try and sleep train again (starting tonight), but we are pretty sure we will have to do it all over again after the baby comes.

All those times we called Jilli clutch baby (because she has been) are coming back to bite us in the behind. Not that we blame her. In the last 2 to 4 months we have: potty trained, bought a house (super stress), moved, vacationed, had visitors stay with us, been sick, increased vocabulary and we are about to welcome a new baby. We just aren't used to her not just going with the flow and doing whatever we expect of her.

So I'm done complaining. Wish us luck. If you have ANY advice or pointers please leave them, we've got nothing.

This is pre-sleep deprived Bean:

P.S. Today is our due date, but I guess we are now hoping to not go into labor until Jilli is sleeping again. Although I am just ready to not be pregnant anymore and at least we would get to sleep a little in the hospital. Our families would have to deal with a no sleep Bean, so that's no fun.

Waiting for baby

2011-07-20T15:20:00.003-05:00

This whole pregnancy I have talked about how I loved that Jilli was late. I loved it because she came out super chubby, a great sleeper and really good eater. It is a lot harder to take care of a baby outside the womb, not mention once they are out that is it...THEY ARE OUT.

So we have been playing the waiting game, but I have been having pretty fantastic labor symptoms since Sunday morning. I want to have this baby now, yesterday, Sunday. I'm ready. I know she will come when she is ready, but I am ready now. My energy is pretty zapped, no nesting going on here.

I'm having a hard time not just wanting to lay on the couch and rest after a full morning of entertaining a Bean. Dinners have become sparse around our house. So we have resorted to a few interesting dinner choices including, but not limited to yummy things like Sno Cones (or in Jilli speak, "no nones").

Last minute adventures

2011-07-15T08:00:00.001-05:00

So we are waiting for a baby to be born. I am trying not to do too many things (because mostly I just want to nap), but I feel guilty so out we go.

This week we went on an adventure with our friends Gaby and Anya to the Austin Symphony kid's day. It is was pretty neat for a couple of minutes. The kids got to touch and play instruments (they wiped down each instrument after a kid touched it), get balloons, watch a little performance, and get scared by clowns.

It was super hot and there were a thousand people there. So 30 minutes was about all we could handle.

We then had the great idea to walk (up hill in 115 degree Texas heat) to The Capitol. Linda was smart and packed lunch and she shared with us :).

We mostly just walked around inside trying to keep the girls somewhat reverent whenever it looked like we around a place where people were either working or touring. We ended up in the basement.

So at the beginning of our adventure we had 3 balloons.

That was until I made the mistake of saying it would be so like me to loose these balloons into the rotunda, because that is exactly what I did seconds later.

We walked around the rest of the time with one balloon that looked just like the two that were at the top of the rotunda, not suspicious at all. And yes it all happened as soon as we walked in.

Jilli will tell you a story that goes like this:
"Da Tapopal, my ba-oon dere, it's all gone at da Tapopal. It too high."
Translated:
The Capitol, my ballon is there. It's all gone at The Capitol. It's too high.

The group with just one balloon left.

We accidentally went the wrong way on the way out, so although it looks like we are going to The Capitol in this picture, we are actually leaving. You can tell because there is only one balloon.

Jilli at 2

2011-07-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

13 months

15 months (playing with Abbey)

17 months (Halloween, Abbey Dog costume)

19 months (Christmas pictures)

21 months (at the park)

22 months (obsessed with cows)

23 months (gymnastics recital)

2 years (birthday party)

Fun things Jilli is doing right now:

Things she says:
"I want to come tyyoo"
"Oh dangit"
"Good Mornding"
"No, too bad"
She screams at the top of her lungs in public "Hey you guys, Hey you people, Hey you Target, Hey you groceries, Hey you plates, Hey you _______ (whatever she sees at the moment)". It's fabulous.

She is starting to tell stories. It is awesome. Stories about birds, puppies, happy monsters and friends.

She sings:
"You love me, You love me, You me tyyoo" (this is from Barney).
"Ashes ashes fall down, tows in da meadow, dunder, ightening, jump up"

She's started calling me mama sometimes, I use to dislike, but now I love it.
When you ask her how old she is she says, "Tyyoo birtdays".
She use to say "Happy to you" when it was someone's birthday day, but now she says "Happy birtday ______". I kind of miss the old way.
She calls our car, her car and says "Where my car go mommy?" whenever Jed takes it to work.
She wants to ride her bike to work like daddy does.

She identifies the letters: E, O, S and A (most of the time) and the numbers 2 and 8.
Her counting got worse, it now goes "one tyyoo tree pour pive eight ten tree pour evan tree".
She is throwing, running, jumping, galloping, donkey kicks, rolling down hills and being super crazy (pretty much all the time).
Her favorite colors seem to be orange, blue, white and pink.

She pretends to be a puppy a lot and wants you to play tyyoo and then tells you, "Out of da kitchen puppy!". She will lick you in public and crawl all over any floor barking.

She is into music big time right now. She loves a music set my mom got her for Christmas plays it non-stop.

She is still a complete mess, but a fun happy one and we love her so much!

Randoms of July

2011-07-08T20:01:00.005-05:00

It's my birthday month, which has turned into my birthday week since Jilli was born. It still totally rocks. I LOVE July for so many reasons. I love the 4th, I love summer, I love swimming, I love not cooking (because it's too hot and it's my birthday month), and I love that most of my family has birthdays in July. I've also begun to love June because most of Jed's family (and that baby Bean) have birthdays in June. Celebrating birthdays is fun.

Jilli and me made cupcakes for my birthday. I was going to make a cake, but then I realized it was a lot easier to sneak a cupcake when your toddler wasn't looking than trying to cut a piece of cake and eat it before she notices the icing on your face. It was a good call I had 3 today without her knowing and 2 for dessert (I'm 13 months pregnant so it's okay).

Anyways we are settling into the new house. Hot summer days that include park and greenbelt trips first thing in the morning, pools and sprinklers in the afternoon have become our norm. July has been perfect for this even if it is 110 degrees EVERY day. We are drinking tons of water and eating ice, popsicles, frozen fruit, etc.

Jilli is naked most of the time, but that isn't due to the heat or the summer, it's just how she rolls. The Pediatrician asked if she could dress herself at her 2-year-old check-up and I said she had no desire to be clothed. She has even taken to taking off her shirt in public.

I will have to make a 2-year post later to tell you all the funny things she does like saying "Oh dangit!" or pretending to be a puppy constantly (including licking). She is a wonderful mess that Bean of ours.

I wish I could say we were ready for that new baby, but we are not. We keep changing her name. Last weekend we went and got her a coming home outfit, diapers, wipes, etc. I haven't packed a hospital bag, printed out Jilli's routine babysitter thing, read any of the books that I planned to, etc. We are going to the hospital tomorrow for the tour, mostly for Jilli so it doesn't totally freak her out.

Our new park

2011-07-01T14:45:00.003-05:00

We are two blocks away from a new park. It is pretty awesome in comparison to our old park because of two things: shade (lots and lots and lots of shade, everywhere there is shade) and BATHROOMS. Yes this park has bathrooms, bathrooms that I can use (I'm still pregnant, like 11 months pregnant). I love it, Jilli loves it. It is a great park with lots of things to do all while being able to use a bathroom and sitting in the shade.

Two other cool things that our old park didn't have are a pool (kiddie pool included) and toddler swings.

We are loving our house and all the things that are around us (even if our Greenbelt is currently brown).

Jilli's first birthday party

2011-06-26T21:50:00.004-05:00

We celebrated Jilli's second birthday by throwing her a birthday party, it was her first. It was super fun for the kiddos. We had a sprinkler hanging from trees, two little pools, lots of food and chalk. It was very hot, but we were able to stay mostly cool.

Here is the party in pictures:

Thanks to all those who helped us celebrate!

OBX 2011 round 3, That Chair

2011-06-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

On Jed's birthday I let him sleep in. He let me sleep in every other day of the vacation (you know because I'm hugely pregnant at this point). He is an awesome husband (da best!) and he is dictating this as I type it.

Anyways, back to the post. An early morning beach walk turned into a chair adventure. We were walking and she saw the lifeguard chair and said "I want dat chair mommy, dat chair!". So off we went to get the chair and up she went. We found two Corona with limes at the top, but Andrew says they weren't his (likely story).

OBX 2011 round 2

2011-06-24T07:00:00.002-05:00

Airplanes go "joomjoom!"

What to do when your kid wakes up every morning before the sun (ON the coast, i.e. before 5:30 am), chalk, lots of chalk.

Brent teaching Jilli how to use the Ipad.

Beach fun

Sand Chairs

OBX 2011 round 1

2011-06-23T06:55:00.006-05:00

These are the obligatory white pictures that we take every year. Everyone wears a white shirt, we go down to the beach and take pictures.

Everyone that was at the beach this year.

Just blood related peoples.

Check out Jilli, Jed and Gene's faces:

Hanna, Meryl, Jilli and Auntie RaRa

Bb and her kiddos

Attempts at a family picture with a super uncooperative bean.

Auntie Caroline and gang

Jilli and her Daddy, so cute.

The Jillian-Andrew pictures, she was less than cooperative this year.

Here are the past year's pictures if you want to see her growth:
August 2009
June 2010

Jilli footprints

By the way I had no idea how pregnant I was until I saw these pictures :(.

May 9, 2011

2011-06-22T21:43:00.004-05:00

I am way behind on posting. Here is Jillian's gymnastic's recital that was May 9, 2011.

She loved gymnastics and she was coordinated enough to actually pick up some skills. We really enjoyed going every week. I miss it, but I am glad that I am not chasing her around a gym right now (I'm pretty pregnant).

Jed got to come to the recital (end of year watch day for parents) and they had a great time playing together. The facilities are really amazing and I can't wait for next year :)!

Jumping into the pit

Beam

Bars

Airtrack with Daddy (the only time she ever laid on it while it blew up, every other time she was too scared of the loud noise).

Checking out the trophies with Daddy.

Tada!

Trophy time! This trophy now sits on our mantel next to one of mine (a silly one) that Jilli found while moving, she likes them together.

And of course one final parachute time!

April 10th

2011-06-22T15:23:00.000-05:00

Apple finally had a party that spouses and families were invited to that we could attend!!!!!

It was a big deal at our house. I was sooooo excited and I was not let down. Jilli got to ride ponies and for at least a month thought every party we went to afterwards would have ponies. We also got to swim, play, eat and do lots of fun things.

birthdays

2011-06-12T17:04:00.004-05:00

We are at the Outer Banks with Jed's family enjoying a wonderful week. During that week we celebrate Jilli, Uncle Gene and Jed's birthdays. We started the celebration today with Jilli's cake.

I have lots to post and hopefully I will get to it before the baby comes.

Until then we will be enjoying the sun, the ocean and the sand. Happy June everyone!

buy a house

2011-05-16T15:10:00.005-05:00

"buy a house daddy", is Jilli's new favorite thing to do. It consists of running around empty houses, checking out backyards, running up and down stairs, climbing in cabinets, and turning on all the faucets she can find.

We did this for a couple of days before finding a house that was close to Apple, had a nice sized yard, was in good condition (all the houses close to Apple are 20+ years so we wanted one that had been well taken care of), had the right number of bedrooms and a living space we could envision living in. I am pretty sure that was how our priorities ranked.

We found a house, we put an offer in, we negogiated, we signed a contract, we hired an inspector and electrician, we lived through the option period and now it looks like we will be home owners come June 2nd. If we do make it through this whole process I think it will be a miracle. Who knew buying a house was so stressful and time consuming?

Anyways, that is one of the things we've been up to and with any luck this greenbelt will be right outside our back yard gate in two and a half weeks.

cascarones (confetti eggs)

2011-05-09T22:46:00.004-05:00

This is a rare Jed post! Well, the day before Easter, we were hanging out with family and Bb had made cascarones. Jilli had a lot of fun with them. Normally, you crack them over a friend's head without them knowing. I think she'll understand the element of surprise a little better next year. Maybe the year after.

on the ploor

2011-05-02T21:42:00.003-05:00

Potty training was/is going great. A couple of days with no accidents and then 3 accidents within 2 hours. Here is how the conversation goes:

Me: "Jilli where do we go pee pee?"
Jilli" "On the ploor mommy."
Me: "No Jilli we go pee pee on the potty."
Jilli: "Oooh."

I can't promise to be better at posting, we kind of a lot going on around here (besides the whole preparing for another baby). We've been sick and busy playing towgirls (cowgirls).

The Austin Zoo

2011-04-15T13:57:00.000-05:00

We went to the zoo with friends and had a great time. I have to say everyone told us this was a pretty awful zoo, but I thought it was great.

Jilli had no bathroom accidents, a lion sprayed me with pee, one of our little friends had her food bags stolen by a goat and we got to see lots of turtles. It was fantastic!

friends :)

monkeys

turtles

little girls holding hands makes my heart smile

this guy sprayed me

the sign dripping with urine

feeding sheep

goats being greedy

wish us luck

2011-04-04T19:55:00.004-05:00

We are really potty training now (i.e. not going much of anywhere) and I am hitting the uncomfortable part of pregnancy. So don't expect much from the blog over the next week and I don't have anything to show from last week.

Just to give you a good laugh until then here are some things Jilli has been saying:
"I heard dat, I heard dat mommy"
"C-ya"
"it's not woking" (it's not working)
"It's hard" (when thing are difficult to accomplish)
followed by an "I deed it, I deed it!"
"one, two, tree, pour, pive, siiissss, evan, ein" =1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10
"I pee pee on da ploor mommy" (yes she peed on the floor)
"I toot"

Jilli: "tow food, mommy food" (pointing to a bowl full of mush in a book)
Me: "Jilli is mommy a cow?"
Jilli: "Uh-hu, moooooooo"

See you next week-ish, hopefully fully potty trained :)! Wish us luck!

the new gym

2011-03-28T19:24:00.005-05:00

Champions Academy in Westlake was where I coached and directed gymnastics, tumbling and cheer for 8 years. I still occasionally sub and sometimes help out during Jillian's class. I LOVE Champions. I love everything about it. It is a positive environment for children to learn about coordination, gymnastics, social interaction, following directions and so much more. I miss coaching there a lot, but I would miss being home with Jillian more, so we visit as much as possible.

For the last 5 years Gretchen (the owner) has been talking about getting a new (bigger and more permanent) location. Well she did it! It is so beautiful. It is more amazing than I could have ever imagined. I took some pictures after Jilli's class today, but they don't show half the gym and they don't do it justice.

This Saturday at 1:00 Champions is having it's Open House/Grand Opening. They will have another Grand Opening in August to kick off the new season and celebrate 15 years in Westlake. We will for sure be there for both. If you would like to come with us this weekend let me know and we can carpool. I know you want to jump in the pit, bounce on the airtrack, swing on the bars and tumble on the spring floors :)! Also there is an Amy's Ice Cream across the parking lot, perfect for cooling off. Seriously let me know if you want to come!

The PIT :)

4 Sets of Bars

Parachute

Tada!!!!

excited face

2011-03-23T21:40:00.000-05:00

Here is Jilli's excited face, it pretty funny.

Tows

2011-03-20T13:59:00.010-05:00

We went to the Austin Fair and Rodeo this weekend for one thing and one thing only, tows (also known as cows).

Jilli is obsessed with cows. She loves them, she moooos all day long and talks about them every chance she gets.

Her Good Night Moon book (the book we read before every bedtime and nap time), has a cow on almost every page and she points it out. She calls the mush in the book tow food. She knows the symbol of UT is a cow and points that out every time she sees one. She points to all the cow things at the grocery store. I hope you are getting the point, that baby LOVES cows.

So we went to the rodeo to see the cows and other animals. She didn't care much about anything, but the cows. Although she did manage to ride a couple of John Deeres. I'm starting to believe that she might be a little country girl and my desires to move away from the big city would be in her best interest (maybe I'm projecting a little bit).

The petting zoo.

Daddy these are not tows.

Where do you want to go?

Cute face :)

Not a cow

TOWS!!!!! TOWS mommy, TOWS daddy!!!!!

She wanted to get real close.

Feeding cows!

They race pigs, for real. The prize is an oreo.

This actually was this group of pigs first rodeo and I don't think they got it. There was very little running involved and I hate to tell you, but the red raider won.

Moooooo!

Riding a tractor, she loves tractors too, but not as much as cows.

I think this one was a knock off of a bob cat.

We were about to leave and Jed heard the Mariachis, so we stayed a little longer. I think he wishes secretly he could be in an Mariachi band and play the trumpet all day long in a super hot suit outside in the Texas heat. Okay maybe not really, but I think he misses playing his trumpet just a little bit.

Spring is here

2011-03-15T07:30:00.001-05:00

Spring has arrived here in sunny Austin Texas. We celebrated by pulling out the sprinkler at our friend's birthday party.

Jilli had a great time playing with her friends. We especially enjoyed her creative use for a helmet.

literally

2011-03-13T21:02:00.011-05:00

We are literally leaping for joy that our next baby will be a girl (possibly one just as crazy as her big sister). It has been amazing to welcome Jillian into our lives and we know Heavenly Father knows what he is doing when he builds families. So we cannot wait to see how this little person enriches all of our lives.

Just so you know Jilli took off the cover to the mini ottoman, moved it away from the couch and then executed her jumping all on her own. We just sat back and laughed and then ran to get the camera before it was all over.

Also Jed told me one day I would thank him for his efforts in teaching Jilli to jump from the big ottoman to the mini ottoman. That day has not come yet.

to Katy we go

2011-03-09T20:47:00.004-06:00

Two weeks after we went to the land we went and saw my sisters and mom. All my nieces and nephews were there, i.e. Jilli was in heaven. Jilli loves pretty much everyone, but super loves her family (I think it's because we're all so fond of her). She went to bed, woke up from every nap and night asking for Dusty and Dani (two of the six cousins, they must be the most fun).

She has talked about everyone since we left. Nani go bye bye car? Aunt Lori and Cricket are night, night? Dusty and Dani are with Aunt Debbi and Cassi at their house or in their car? RoRo night night? Nathan and Uncle Chris bye bye?

Here are the seven cousins and my oldest sister Debbi.

Jilli inherits things when we visit Aunt Lori. Cricket grows out of things and then they get handed down to a little Bean. Also it's awesome that all the older kids play and entertain her while we are there. Even Cricket who is the youngest in her family and the princess (two older brothers) is super fabulous with Jilli. She shares with her, plays softly with her, tries to make her laugh and is so sweet with her. It's pretty awesome, I didn't realize being the youngest sister and the last to have children was going to be such a win.

She scored this water table/pool this time:

We had a great time and with everyone's birthdays coming up we are planning at least two more trips before the baby comes.

Oh and by the way, we find out the gender of the new baby tomorrow! We don't have a feeling either way (or maybe it's that we have different feelings every other day) which gender it will be, but we are super excited for either :)!

cows and such

2011-03-09T20:43:00.001-06:00

My Dad invited us out to the land recently and it was super fun. Meryl and Andrew (2 of Jed's cousins) came with us and enjoyed the Texas sun (a little too much, we all got a little burned). We played with cows, fished, rode the four wheeler, pretended to drive the tractor and ate big hamburgers.

Feeding the cows

Riding four wheelers

Catching tiny fish

Catching no fish, but relaxing

Trying to give cows huggers

Daddy daughter date

Playing on the tractor

Andrew reeling in a fish, I will not admit that he caught it.

There are more pictures, but Meryl and I have matching cameras. I am pretty sure I grabbed her camera thinking it was mine a couple of times. So there were some pictures that I thought I had that I didn't (like Meryl catching a fish bigger than mine, pictures of everyone riding the four wheeler, giant delicious hamburgers etc.).

We had a great time and we hope to go back again before it gets too hot.

Thanks for having us out Dad!

P.S. If you ever want to know how a steer and heifer can get you an ag exemption and then turn into over 14 long horns and cows, my dad is the guy to ask.

sensory tubs

2011-02-27T16:02:00.005-06:00

We have been bored. Bad weather, illnesses and my recommitment to no tv has left us bored. So I remembered sensory tubs from school, did a little research and we made one with beans and dumping materials.

We've also done soap (it is most fun done with daddy). I want to do water when it is warmer, clean mud and other super cool things that I found here.

Yes she is eating the dry beans. I'm pretty sure she spit them out.

Firestation 28

2011-02-17T15:58:00.005-06:00

Last week for playgroup we went to the firestation for a tour. The guys at station 28 were great. The kids loved seeing everything, especially the truck.

The first half of the tour Jilli walked in front of everyone with the Sargent leading our tour. Then we got to the firetruck and Jilli was constantly trying to sneak back into the truck. She was very sad when it was all over.

Jilli and two of her friends

Jilli trying to sneak back into the truck and the Sargent pulling her out.

Can you find Jilli's shoe as she tries to climb back into the truck (I'm taking the picture and my friend was holding her)?

No Jilli we can't get back in the firetruck, it is all done...

fort swan

2011-02-13T08:00:00.000-06:00

Jilli is really into making forts right now. I think we have perfected (at least for now) the bed fort. It has provided lots of fun during all the cold weather.

Dumpien

2011-02-10T07:00:00.001-06:00

Dumpien is Jillian's favorite thing to do right now. It consists of us giving her things or her finding things and then dumping them all over the place. This includes (but is not limited to) food items all over the floor or books all over the couch.

So I thought why not put her dumping skills to good use and let her help me make granola bars. Most of the ingrediants are dry and okay to nibble on (which is exactly what she did).

Dumpien

More dumpien and some missien

And some cean up cean up (cleaning up)

The floor was mostly clean.

Then on to bites

More dumpien

Don't let her fool you. She is not trying to stir; she is trying to get a bite with the spoon.

And success!

The almost caramel

Squishing

And final product

We love these granola bars and if you want to check out some recipes and try to make your own here are the links I use:
Joyful Abode

Naturally Knocked Up

Happy eating!

nastics

2011-02-07T13:26:00.004-06:00

Jilli has been going to gymnastics again. She really hated it at first, like she ran around crying the first class and most of the second class. But this week she totally participated in everything including parachute, which normally she runs away from and screams the entire time it is going on. So improvement is great! She really loves the stamps she gets at the end and that we stay after all the other kids are gone and play (there are some perks to coaching for 8 years).

Anyways she calls it "nastics" and I think when I ask her if she wants to go next week she might say uh-huh (yes) instead of nu-uh (no).

Carl

2011-02-03T13:26:00.004-06:00

Jilli loves Carl. Her favorite book right now is Carl's Birthday. Followed by Carl's Snowy Afternoon and the other Carl books currently residing in our home curtesy of our local library. Jilli calls them all Happy because of the Happy Birthday Carl book. Sometimes she says Carl is Abbey. She also says "No, no" whenever the little girl rides Carl, because she knows we don't sit on Abbey. She is such a dog lover that girl.

The problem is our local book store only carries one of the dozen plus books in board book form. We borrowed most of the books in hardcover from the library, but I would have preferred the board books. The surprising thing is that Jilli is very soft with these books and sits for 30 minutes at a time letting me ready them to her. It's the weirdest thing ever (Jilli doesn't sit for anything, not even dinner).

Anyways they are adorable books and if you haven't ever checked them out you should. The pictures are so beautiful and I like how we get to talk about the pictures on the page (they tell a wonderful and complex story at times).

It was warm yesterday...

2011-02-01T14:15:00.005-06:00

...and today it is cold. We knew the weather would be changing so we spent 2 and 1/2 hours at the park. Jilli has taken to climbing everything so here a the few pictures I got before I had to abandon my camera (also a ton of kids showed up shortly after we got there and it would have been hard to get pictures).

Pioneer Farms

2011-01-28T20:20:00.006-06:00

We went to Pioneer Farms today for playgroup and it was awesome! I have to admit I have looked at going here before but thought that it was overpriced. For the month of January the cost was only 5$ per person over the age of 2. There were lots of historical things, houses, camps, barns, etc.

What we really were excited about were the animals (longhorns, donkeys, chickens, pigs, horses, cows and sheep). Jilli was a little timid (i.e. totally freaked out at first), but she came around and ended up loving the donkeys. I was excited because we are planning a trip out to my dad's land in the very near future and he has about a dozen longhorn and cows. So I thought this would be a good warmup for Jillian to get use to the animals (they were all caged at the farm and they roam at the land).

I have a crush on this donkey.

He liked me too :).

This picture doesn't do this pig justice, it had to have weighed at least 200 pounds. Every time we saw her she was eating.

Mooooooo...

Your thumb looks delicious.

Hay is for horses.

Just checking out the chickens.

This is what my friend calls the "sit down" or lay down if the child is laying position. Basically the kid has had enough, is tired and doesn't understand the social norms of where it is appropriate to sit or lay. Jilli chose a long dirt road, this was our cue to leave.

I really didn't want to leave, but it was close to nap time and we were hungry, so we are planning to go back and take Daddy (Jed). Also it really made me miss home (home for me is the country). I really would like to have a very very very small farm one day (Jed is slowly coming around to this dream).

Remember that time...

2011-01-26T19:45:00.004-06:00

...that we had a baby and it was super awesome? We'll we are doing it again. We're looking at having a new little person joining our family July 29th-ish (really I am betting on August 9th because of Jilli's timely appearance).

I have made it through the first trimester and I am so grateful it is OVER! We are 14 weeks along and feeling great! I have had way more morning (end of the day and eat anything greasy) sickness. I gained 15 pounds with Jilli during the first trimester and I lost 1 pound this time. So I'm currently experiencing the honeymoon phase of pregnancy and I refuse to think about what comes next.

I am convinced it is a boy, just like I was with Jillian, but I will be thrilled with either. It would be so fun to have a boy and so awesome for Jillian to have a sister (and to be the parent of two girls).

So hooray for an expanding family, we are so excited (and nervous)!!!!

Still not there

2011-01-20T11:27:00.005-06:00

Jane (great-grandma for Jilli) left on Friday. And nope we're still not back to normal. This week I got a stomach flu for the second time in two months, super super lame. Jed took a day off work and Bb and Terry (grandparents) took Jilli for a day. Hooray for Jed being able to take time off and having family close, LOVE it.

But before I got sick we got to enjoy one of those beautiful weather days (there were 3 and now it is cold, drizzly and rainy again).

Look at that follow through and form, I think we have a ball player on our hands :)!!!!

not normal

2011-01-11T20:49:00.007-06:00

We have yet to get back to a normal routine following the holidays. So I have not taken any pictures since Christmas and have been just spending lots of time hanging with that husband, that baby and family.

On a positive note, I did upload the pictures I took of the time before Christmas. Jilli got a black eye on Christmas Eve while playing hard with her cousins. It was her very first, which is interesting because she is such a crazy active kid.

Anyways, when we get back to normal I will post more.

Post Christmas aftermath.

Black eyed Bean with Daddy in her Christmas dress.

Rehanging ornaments with Dusty.

update

2011-01-05T20:29:00.006-06:00

A picture from last fall when we got the flu.

We were sick the week of Christmas, then we kind of got better, then Jilli got sick again (with Roseola for the second time). I took a total of 6 pictures Christmas day and haven't taken any since.

Our Christmas Eve plans were postponed because my middle sister's family got the flu, but we got to see everyone else.

Despite all that stuff we had a wonderful Christmas break. We spent tons of time at home hanging out. Jed had almost 2 weeks off, which equaled total bliss. My oldest sister came to visit us Christmas day. Also Jane has been in town for like 3 weeks, which means everyone here gets together tons and we play and eat (it's fabulous).

New Years Eve was spent with Jilli asleep before 7, me asleep before 10 and Jed staying up trying to calm Abbey all night (noise phobia). The next two days we got to see Hanna and meet Brent! Hanna just got released from the Peace Corp (she served in Azerbaijan). We are so happy to have her back in the States and we're so proud of her!

Also some time in there we celebrated 4 years of marriage, not on the actual date, but some time. We went Alamo, I love Alamo. Godfather pizza :), yum. Oh and I tried fried pickles from Pluckers, double yum. I love food lots, but not as much as I love Jed. Love Jed super lots.

And Jilli went potty in the girl potty in between getting sick. She asked me to go potty and then went, so we got her potty and she went once. Then she got sick and I didn't want to push it. We took pictures, but I don't think she will appreciate naked pictures of herself on the potty for the world to see later in life. Also I'm not a fan of things that have been urinated on being on the internet, so just take my word for it.

So that's our update. Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

escaping

2010-12-28T20:57:00.005-06:00

Jilli escaped from her crib twice. So we asked her to show us how she did it. She of course acted crazy and then showed us how it all happens.

We then converted her crib to a big girl (toddler) bed, sniff-sniff. When will that baby quit trying to grow up so fast?

The final product:

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T07:21:00.000-06:00

This greeting customized with Smilebox

Santa makes a house call

2010-12-23T07:00:00.002-06:00

Last week we went to a Christmas Party at our friend's house and there was a guest of honor, Santa Claus!

It was a great party and Jilli didn't hate Santa.

Today I read this article about what one family has decided to tell their children of Santa Claus. Truthfully I hadn't even thought about it and some of it made sense. So wish us luck in the upcoming years. I'm sure I will be asking for advice later, so get ready.

Until then Merry Christmas and we hope St. Nicholas makes a house call to you!

18 months

2010-12-21T07:00:00.001-06:00

Jillian turned 18 months last week. Wow. She is just the most fantastic kid ever. I really believe it. After having Jillian and seeing my friends with their children that are about the same age, I would guess that they probably feel the same way about their kids. I was kind of terrified when I found out Jillian was going to be a little girl. After she was born and joined our family, I knew that there was no other child at this time that was supposed to be with our family. It really built a testimony of Heavenly Father's timing and purpose in my life. She is just as crazy, physical, funny, easy-going and perfect in her own way as we are (not that we are perfect, but she is perfect for us). Every day she surprises us with something hilarious, new words, her understanding and her growing personality (she has lots of personality).

So some new and funny things about a Bean:
She is saying 2 and 3 word phrases.
She understands and does what you tell her to (i.e. Jilli find your shoes and socks so we can go bye-bye, take the phone to Daddy, or please put this in the trash).
She likes to jump off and onto things (ottamans, curbs, people, etc.).
She can actually jump off two feet occasionally.
She always wants to go bye-bye, sometimes even trying to put her seatbelt back on when we arrive home.
She is very attached to Grinch, who is now pronounced "Gee-n-g" (also, we bought a backup, yes we have become those parents).
She tries to make the hook 'em sign, but can only get her thumb and middle finger down. I personally blame this on this year's football team. Had they had a better season there would have been more celebrating and more games, thus more practicing the hook 'em sign. Although she does do the touchdown sign and say "uchdown".
Her hair is long enough to wear in pigtails, but she won't.
She loves that puppy.
She is so very loved.
It's getting way harder to get a good picture of her.

The ones that made it

2010-12-16T07:12:00.000-06:00

So our family Christmas picture shoot was great! My friend Katie took our pictures and they turned out soooo nice, way better than what I did last year.

So here is what to expect in the mail (if I actually get the cards ordered).

Our new addition

2010-12-14T07:00:00.002-06:00

We went to Dallas a couple of weeks ago for a conference. While Jed and I were at said conference my sister and her children watched Jilli all day. Jilli had french fries with ketchup, ice cream (followed by a sucker), white bread and the list continues. They also took her shopping. While they were shopping they stopped at Khols and let Jilli pick out one of those stuffed animals at checkout. They had the whole the Grinch Stole Christmas line up and they let Jilli pick which one she wanted. She picked the Grinch and now she does everything with Grinch.

She calls him Rinch, she sleeps, plays and generally just carries Rinch everywhere. When she gets ready for a nap or bedtime she says binke (blanket) rinch and then goes and finds them to read a story before lights out. It's really adorable, I just wish he wasn't quite so ugly (bright green, lime green and weird huge yellow eyes).

And here is the man of the hour, Rinch:

*Yes the bow and blue tutu were also purchased for this weekend by my "I haven't had a baby in 11 years sister" and Jilli loves them as well (I might like them a little bit too). There are also silver boots that I haven't got a picture of yet.

Also this happened after I had bought her this all organic, fair trade, no dyes/bleach beautiful hippo for Christmas, that I am sure she will never look twice at now.

We had a great visit and we are super grateful that my sister and crew was willing to watch that baby all day.

More pictures to come of our visit!

Christmas Pictures (take 2)

2010-12-12T19:34:00.003-06:00

So we tried taking pictures again. This time we actually got a couple where Jilli wasn't screaming and actually looking at the camera.

I also took Jilli to a professional studio place to get her picture taken in Christmas dress. She stood outside the room for 15 minutes crying, screaming, saying "bye bye, stroller, mommy". So we couldn't even get her in the room to take a picture.

Here are the outtakes of our family shoot: