Happy Birthday Josh!

We hope you had a great bday yesterday. Enjoy your wii :)

A Tootsie Roll at 10:00 a.m.

I just spoke to Kendra about how Taylor was already potty trained like 2 days ago. I was excited for Taylor but frustrated because we had been trying so hard with Ryleigh. Then, this a.m. when Ryleigh and Jake stormed in the room to show me that she was eating a tootsie roll..I wanted to cry! Not because she was eating candy so early in the day but because I knew that meant she had pottied in her big girl Dora potty! Jake said that while I was in the room getting ready, she came up to him and said "wanna go potty" and so he took her in there and she peepee'd like a big girl, thus following up with the reward, a TOOTSIE ROLL! I am so thrilled that she is getting the hang of it - she just used the potty again so hopefully this time it will stick. Maybe we are bad rents for bribing our child with tootsie rolls but if you know Ryleigh, you know that she is motivated by food, not toys!! haha

Sleep Deprived and Blessed

I think the title of this post explains it all. I am not going to complain or go into detail about how tired I am because I also know how blessed both Jake and I are, but we'll just say that the Lord, prayers and coffee are the only things getting me through this first month of having 2 kiddos! Here are a few pics I took recently, and don't laugh at the ring photo - something I wanted to do and Emily and Heather never got around to shooting it.











In addition to limited sleep, the past 4 weeks have also taught me that being a mom is not only joyful and challenging but it is also VERY COMICAL!

WARNING: If you have a weak tummy, I wouldn't attempt to visualize some of these :)
Also Note: in many instances you may 86 MOM and sub DAD

I have decided to begin posting my "mom experiences" on this blog. I hope that you get a chuckle out of them. Here we go:

*Only a Mom would have half a chicken nugget fall out of her shirt when changing into her jammies at night
*Only a Mom would see something suspicious on the floor & immediately run to her toddler only to find the toddler's diaper falling off and a little "prize" falling out
*Only a Mom would have to wait until 10:30 pm to make her first trip to the bathroom
*Only a Mom would be able to say they have seen "projectile poopy"*
*Only a Mom would need her hair cut so badly that she would hold her newborn on her chest and bounce her while the cutting and styling continued on

More to come in the future, and to all of my mom friends - please feel free to submit your "Mom Experiences" and I will post them next time, as anonymous, of course!

Happy Birthday Heather!

We love you and hope you have a great 26th bday - go Wildcats softball!

2 Week Check Up & a 20-month-old

Lil Keira went in on Friday for her 2 week check up!! Her numbers were:
70% in weight
75% in height
50% in size of head

So far she is sleeping pretty well at night and her favorite things are:
the swing
the play gym

She is such a sweet littlt gal and already has the best big sissy!

Rylz is doing great with Keira. At first it was challenging but each day gets better and better. She loves holding the bottle while K eats and she likes burping her. She always wants to help out and always wants to "hold sissy" or "pick up Keira". They are going to be best buds, I can tell :)

Ryleigh also now understands "I love you" and uses it at all the appropriate times AKA when Jake is trying to leave her in the church nursery and she wants to stay with us in the service. Screaming, "I love you, I love you" over and over again makes it hard to drop her off in there. But of course, once we leave, she has fun playing with the kiddos and learning about Jesus :)

Last thing and I will stop typing but Ryleigh also cracks us up when she puts her sentences together. It amazes me how much these lil people can do at such a small age. Some of my favorites sentences of Ry's are:
"knife hurt you, careful."
"bug bite you"
"I shut door"
"I want some go-fish (goldfish)"

Well it's about bed time - I will update again in a few days hopefully with a fresh pic. Love you all!

2 cuties

Just wanted to update the blog and say that both Jake and I just love our two lil gals. Although the past 2 weeks have been very tiring and challenging with 2 trips to the ER, we are so thankful to the Lord for blessing us with our family! I have attached some photos Heather took of my lil ladies at chick-fil-a on Saturday. Hope everyone is doing well :)

Newbies

Here are some fresh sneak peeks from Emily. To view more photos, check out her blog when you get a chance:
http://emilythurmondphotography.blogspot.com

Sweet Baby Keira

Those motherly instincts were right...baby K arrived like 2 weeks early on Tuesday, March 25th at 8:35 a.m. weighing in at 8lbs 2oz and 21 inches long.

Just a brief run down..Ryleigh and I went with Heather V to Jake/Josh/Javi/Tyler's/yadayada softball game Monday night. Got home from the game, put Rylz to bed, ate some captain crunch berries cereal, watched How I Met Your Mother and started having horrible contractions. Called Heather V at 1130pm and she came over to stay with Rylz while we headed to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, we called our rents and they were on their way. (both Mimi's were sure this was it!)I text Kaylee and Heather P cuz I knew they were in a late late movie and would be awake and they headed to the hospital after their movie. To make it short, my medicine worked this time and like 8 hours later Keira was here and I was pain free!! Praise the LORD for that! And praise the Lord for our little miracle.
(thanks to Heather & Josh for putting up with my false labor and the actual labor and coming over to watch Rylz...life savers for real. Thanks to Kay and Chabib for keeping the grandparents occupied in the waiting room while the hours passed)

Ok, well I will blog alot over the next few weeks of my maternity leave so I won't bore you right now. Enjoy the photo and I will post more once Emily gets the photo shoot posted. Hope all is well with everyone. Happy April!

Easter Sunday and Baby Watch

Happy Easter! On top of spending time with family and friends, I hope everyone had time to think about what Easter really represents today. I will quote a part of one of my favorite worship songs at church "sin has lost it's power, death has lost it's sting, from the grave you've risen..victoriously." Love that song and am so thankful to the Lord for bringing us to the Village Church where we met up with our home group which we LOVE and wouldn't replace for anything!

Secondly, we are on major baby Keira watch! She has tricked us already about 2-3 times. Thursday night, we actually made Josh and Heather come over at like 1am and sleep on the couches while we went to the L&D floor. We sadly went back home around 430am still PREGO!! So, everyone just pray for a healthy and speedy arrival for Baby K!

I am going to attempt to fall asleep now - these contractions don't really allow me to get much rest. Hope all is well with everyone (all of the 5 ppl that actually read this blog! hahaaha)

Elmo in February & Snowing in March!

We are finally all over the flu! Praise the Lord for that yeah! With that being said, we had a great time at the Sesame Street Concert. Ryleigh and her friend, Mallory actually sat through the entire thing. What a fun little event for the gals just a few weeks before their new little sisters arrive!

Also, weather here in DFW has been crazy. Two snow days in one week...wow! Rylz got out in it today and wasn't a big fan of touching it or standing in it. She enjoyed looking at it and watching her dad make snowballs and the little snowlady.


Some funny things Rylz has been up to:
*everytime we leave Mrs. Cheryl's "where Blane and Jaxson and Garrett and Cheryl?"
*says "cuse me" after someone burps or sneezes
*instead of me saying "good girl" she likes to say it herself when she does something big
*can count up to number 8
*making complete sentences like "i want more cereal" or "where'd Roxy go?" or "dat tickles".."dat funny"
*picked out her first outfit today and chose her LT Chargers jersey with pink crocs - wonderful! hahaaa
*everytime we open up her Bible to read it, she wants to know "where's Noah?" and any guy in the photos with a beard (which is every man in the kiddy Bible - she thinks is Noah)hhahaa

Update on Keira:
The plan is to be induced March 28th but we all know that no matter what you plan on..sometimes doesn't happen. So, whatever the Lord wants to happen will happen but right now March 28th is the date. We are very excited for her arrival but are not anywhere near complete with the nursery. I will attach a photo for you to view.



Hope everyone is well- love you all!