Alaina is 2 months!

Our little Alaina is 2 months old already!  She is growing like a weed and it such a little joy! 

Lainey is a very happy babe, smiling all the time and she will talk your ear off!  Her smile lights up a room and when she shows those two little dimples, it melts your heart! She is so close to a little giggle, she gets excited when you talk to her and loves to watch her big sister.  She is a grunter...grunts all the time!  She is wearing size two diapers and is in 3-6 month clothes...she's a chunk!  I put an outfit on her the other day that Addie wore at about 16 weeks. -YIKES!- She is doing well with her neck muscles and holding up her head.  She hates tummy time, but loves to play laying on her back.  Lainey eats every 3 hours pretty consistently and cluster feeds a little before bed.  I have been giving her more bottles during the day to prepare her for momma going back to work.  She takes the bottle well from me, but will not before bed.  She prefers to nurse to go to sleep.  AND...she is sleeping through the night!  Usually she is up around 5am and in bed around 9pm.  I'm hoping that once I go back to work in three weeks, she pushes that to 6am...it would be perfect!

Alaina likes her paci.  She usually likes to take it when she is getting tired.

Like I said, full of those little smiles and grins!

She loves sitting up in her Bumbo seat to watch all of us.  That is how she joins us for meals now.  So cute to see her talk to all of us!  I have a feeling she will have no trouble keeping up with her sister in that department!

Love this picture!  I am a fan of little feet and hands...

Okay, mom.  I'm done with pictures now!!

Alaina's room...

I know, Lainey will be two months tomorrow and we are finally done with her room!  She started sleeping in it this past week, so I have worked on getting it finished for her.  There wasn't anything major to do, the crib, dresser, and changing table were all set up.  I just needed to do a few finishing touches to make it look perfect for her.

 

We went with a pink and grey theme with birds.  Almost everything in her room was hand-crafted by someone in our family, which is why it is so special.  Thanks to Pinterest we were able to pull it off!

 

I know the picture is hard to see with the sun shining in the window...

 

These canvas' were made by Grandma Dawn.  I saw this in print on Etsy and thought that we could somehow re-create--must cheaper!  The prints were $40.00 and were not framed.  The total cost of this project was around $18!  Most of the cost was the 4 canvas'.

 

I made these little blocks with Alaina's name...it was around $8 to do them.

 

Another idea off of Etsy.  This little puppy on the site was $90!  My Grandma pitched in on this one and the materials cost us less than $5 to make!

 

Close up of the birds.  My Grandma hand-stitched these and did a wonderful job!

 

She also made the curtains!

 

This is my favorite wall of the room!  With the help of my aunt, uncle, and cousin, we painted this tree and the birds on the wall.  All of it was done with left-over paint, so it didn't cost us a thing!  Her name on the wall was done with Grandma's Cricut, so also free!

 

Aunt Shelly made the bed skirt for Lainey's bed...

 

I also made these little pictures, which turned out SO cute!  I bought the wood squares from Hobby Lobby for $1.99 each, painted them, stapled a little ribbon to hang them, then use a little mod podge to adhere them.  Total cost was around $7.50!

 

I love this wall too!  The most expensive thing on this wall is that letter A.  Got it at Hobby Lobby for $5 and Grandma spay painted it pink.  The squares are pieces of frame wood you can get from Hobby Lobby for very cheap with fabric wrapped around them.  My Grandma then made each and every bird and flower to go on them.  The round pieces are old embroidery rings with fabric.  Love how this wall came together!

 

This is the final boring wall...the birds are from Hobby Lobby and spray painted. 

 

I am in love with how Alaina's room turned out for her!  Perfect for a little girl and was easy to do on a budget!  I could not have done it without all of our family helping out with all the projects and I love that each little thing was made just for our little Lainey! 

Mother's Day 2013

My first Mother's Day with TWO beautiful little girls!  We had a great day, busy as usual...but that is the way we run these days.  Sunday morning was the last day of Sunday school and Addie sang in church.  She did a great job singing, but she is really going to miss Sunday school.  We then had lunch with my mom and family.  When everyone left we took a little family snooze (which was wonderful) and then had supper with Dan's mom and family.  We had a great day with family!

 Addie got a new baseball and bat and was playing with Grandma in the backyard. 

 This little lady slept most of the day after being passed around at graduation on Saturday.

To make the day even better...Dan brought me home flowers and the girls got me a necklace with their names on it! Notice Addie would not sit for the picture...so it's just Lainey.

 

Felt very blessed this Mother's Day!  God is wonderful to have given me these two girls to call me mommy!

The BIG sis...

Our household has defiantly changed since bringing home Alaina.  Addie has been such a great big sister and helps out whenever asked (let's hope this will last). We are appreciating the age difference of Addie and Lainey, as big sis does many of her daily tasks on her own at this point.

I have not done an update on Addie for awhile, so this is what she is up to...
- Addie is a goofball...just like her dad.  She will do anything to make someone laugh and makes lots of silly faces!

- We are never sure of what may come out of her mouth.  Most of the time we are laughing at many of the things she says.  She tells the truth, that's for sure!  Here are some that I can remember as of late:
      - "That's not spit-up, that's puke!"
      - "Wow!  Sissy has a lot of poop in her!"
      - "Ahh mom, this has been such a long day.  I am so glad to be home." (we were only gone for 3 hrs!)
      - "Mom, you are irritating me!" ME: "Why?"  Addie: "Because you won't stop telling me to put on my pajamas!  I heard you the first time!" 

- She loves to sing, and makes up her own songs.  They are quite interesting!  She walks around with her Tinkerbell flashlight, which she calls her microphone.  Many times she gets REALLY loud, but it's fun to listen to her lyrics!

- She is now learning how to write her alphabet and identify her letters and numbers.  I have been working with her since I have been home.  It's been quite the experience!!

- She loves her school time and really likes to have me give her homework for daddy to help her with when he gets home (I am hoping that this also will last...until teenage years)!

- She weighs in at a whoppin 40lbs and is in 5T clothes.  She is so tall!

- She loves to help her daddy, and is "working" with him any chance she gets.  It's wonderful to see their relationship grow!

- She does so well with pretend play.  We are always "tending" with her.  It's so cute to listen to her play with her babies and talk on her fake phone! 

- She is very observant and inquisitive.  She does not let anything go until she feels she fully understands and will continue to ask you questions until she gets it.  There have been many times when we have to work really hard to change the direction of the conversation, because it's just too much!  She has asked several questions on nursing Lainey and Dan and I before she was born.  Here are some examples of the crazy questions we have had to answer!:
      - "Dad, do you have milk coming out of your boobies?  Are you going to pump it out?"
      - "Mom, why can't I drink any of your milk?"
      - "Where was I before I was born?  Who was taking care of me?  Did I get left all alone?"
      - "Where is Emma's mommy?  Why doesn't she come and visit?"
      - "Can I feed sissy with my boobs?"
Yeah---Really?!! How do you answer some of these for a three year old?!!  We do our best!

- She is beginning to put together how family is made up.  How each of us are related.  She loves to clarify this during conversations.  "Grandma Jenny, is your mom.  You are her daughter."

- Like I said before, she is such a great big sis.  She helps me out all the time.  When I ask her to do something, she replies, "Yes, mom.  I can certainly do that for you!"  So darn cute!

- She is able to dress and bathe herself (just needing help to rinse out her hair)--really nice when you have a newborn!

- For the most part, she listens well and stays out of trouble.  BUT, she IS a toddler and there are rough days!  We do our best to redirect -- or just simply ignore.

- She will be starting school this fall in a three year old program.  She is not able to be in the four year old class, even though she will be four a few weeks after school starts because of when her birthday falls.  She is super excited to begin school -- Dan and I, on the other hand, are having a hard time coping with the fact that our little girl will be starting school!

- She is a night owl...never in bed before 10pm!  It's been even worse since we brought Lainey home.  Lainey nurses around 10, so she feels the need to stay up with all of us!  She hasn't been getting up until 9am or so, SO we are going to need to change up our routine soon to get back in the mode of mom going to work!

Here are some Addie pics!

She loves to feed her sis every chance she gets!  She was holding Lainey the other day when Lainey began to fuss because she was hungry.  Addie looks up at me and says, "I'll keep holding her, you go pump and I will feed her with the bottle!"  She has an answer to everything!!

Addie pretends Emma is her baby...poor Emma!

We have not been able to plant flowers outside, so we planted some inside!

Yes, she did try to walk out the door with two different boots.  Love the logic of a 3 year old.  She said that she could not find her other cowboy boot, so she made sure she put on two boots!

Addie at the school carnival...

Playing outside on one of our few nice days...

I am so in love with my two girls!  Life is good! 

Alaina Jean at ONE month!

Saturday Lainey turned 1 month old.  Time has been flying since little Lainey was born, but we are soaking up every minute of it!  The weather has not been cooperating with us this spring, so we have spent most of our days at home.  I am hoping that the rest of my maternity leave is a little warmer so we can get outside with both girls!

 

Lainey has started to give us some "non-gas" smiles!  Big deal in our house this past week!  Addie loves to work on making her sister smile.

 

We are in 3 month clothes and size 1 diapers.  She has really been filling out the past two weeks!  We weighed her the other night and she is approximately 12lbs! 

 

We have been falling into somewhat of a routine (yay!!) the past week or so.  She is up around 7am, eats, and then is up most of the morning.  This is the most alert time of her day, so Addie and I love to soak it up!  She then eats around 10, then takes her morning nap.  She eats about every 3 hours or so during the day, as I let her set her schedule.  She sleeps much of the rest of the day, and is up for awhile before her bedtime feeding.  She still wakes up once in the night to nurse, which is about every 4.5 hours in the night!  Addie still takes a nap after lunch and many days I can get the girls down at the same time, which is wonderful!!

 

Lainey at ONE MONTH!!

 

Such a happy girl!  Love her smiles :)

 

 

 

 

Sitting with Grandpa...probably thinking he is full of bologna!

 

 

she loves to sit up and watch everything

 

Grandpa G's first time holding her!

 

We have had lots of visitors, which Addie loves!  My friend, Lizzy made a surprise visit from West Virgina.  It made my week!  I am so glad we got to see her!!

 

Lainey really didn't know what to think during her first ride in the swing!

 

Tummy time with the boppy...

 

I love sleeping babies!

 

I tried to get a picture of Lainey in her leggings, but she didn't want one!  This was the best we got!

 

Hard to believe how fast this month has gone for us!  Makes me sad to think of how fast your children grow.  Seems like yesterday that Addie was this little!  We are taking in each moment, cuddling LOTS and just spending time together.  Before I know it, I will be going back to work.  Okay--done thinking about that! 

 

Happy ONE MONTH Lainey!  We can NOT imagine our lives without you!