Winter Wrap-Up

I do believe that spring has sprung but I haven't blogged in awhile so I'm going to rewind to the snowy, cold and blustery weeks we've just endured to catch up!

Valentine's Day was extra sweet this year.  Lainey got to decorate a Valentine's box for a party at church.  This was one of the highlights of my elementary school experience.  Target had the cutest decorating kits and fancy boxes but we went old school and wrapped her shoe box in a paper sack.  Then I let her loose with the glitter glue and stickers.  She had a ball.

I took her to Target to pick out Valentines for the party and shocker, she went with Frozen.  She's been working on writing so much lately and she signed every single Valentine all  by herself!  She's been writing her name on anything and everything ever since. I can't believe she can spell and write her own name... sniff sniff. I really feel like I'm going to blink and she's going to be off to college.

Dropping off the Valentine's was fun.

Eating a few sweet treats was fun, too!

But the best of all was opening her box full of cards, treats and trinkets from her friends!

We did a "love" and Valentine's theme for our preschool group the week of Valentine's Day too.  The kids loved sorting, counting, graphing and then of course eating little candy hearts as well as doing a craft with them!

On Valentine's Day Jed took Wyatt to teach him a thing or two about how to love his ladies well.  They went shopping for sweet gifts and flowers.  Oh and doughnuts.  They definitely know the way to our hearts! :)

Wyatt needs to hang out with more dudes.  Note his shoe selection.  He does this all on his own but we giggle and encourage him of course.

Tiegan continues to be a sweet sweetie and is smiling all of the time now!

Winter afternoons (or mornings or evenings in her case) are great for naps.  I am thankful that most days I get a significant window of time with all 3 sleeping peacefully.

Lainey is most certainly Tiegan's favorite person.  She talks to her all of the time and their interactions are absolutely precious.  Often she'll say, "I can watch her for you, Mom" (and she DOES)!  When I return she'll say "she was quiet the whole time!" :)  She's ALWAYS willing to fetch diapers or wipes or pick out her clothes for the day.  She is such a little Mommy and I love it. I can tell all of Tiegan's milestones will be exciting for her like they are for me.

We do A LOT of coloring and painting around here.  I like this shot because it shows my righty and my lefty hard at work!

Tiegan is definitely still the most popular person in the house.  They're always crowding around her in the bouncy seat or when she's in the swing.  I've had to start putting her down for naps upstairs to keep them away and more than once I've had to chase after Wyatt up the stairs as he goes to "check baby Tiegan!"

Not much has changed this winter with Wyatt and his love for his trains.  Thanks to my cousin Mike, our collection of wooden tracks has expanded so we have a set upstairs on his train table and I keep a bin of tracks downstairs too.  We play trains, we read about trains, we watch Thomas on IPTV or Netflix, we do train stickers, we listen carefully for the trains that pass not too far from our house, etc.  I hope one of these days we can get the kid on a real train!

Tiegan pretty much lives in her jammies.  It's just been so silly cold that it doesn't make sense to worry about a onesie, pants and socks versus a warm fleece sleeper.  I love putting her in my favorite items that Lainey wore.  This is my not even 3 month old baby snuggled up in a pair of 6 month size pjs.  She's growing TOOOOOO fast!

Winter treated us well this year.  We stayed relatively healthy and enjoyed our many at home days!  I can't say I'm anxious for next winter to come but I am sure there will be sweet memories to be made.

Month 1

This post is less about Tiegan turning 1 month and more about life during her first month of life, because a whole month is more exciting than a 1 day "milestone."  I'm sitting here writing this as I look at my almost 7 week old baby and reflecting on that first month... allllmost tearing up because it's just incredible how fast time as gone.  I know she's still so little but I'm already sad to be past the teeny tiny sleepy newborn, wrinkly hands and feet, mixed up days and nights stage.

For example, the above pic makes me sad because she doesn't fit into that sleeper anymore!

She really is the most popular person in our household.  These two adore her and are always concerned about where she is, what she's doing, why she's crying, etc.

I snuck away with just Tiegan on New Years Eve for her 2 week check up.  She well surpassed birth weight, was much less jaundiced and looked just perfect

Both of my big kids love her so well but Wyatt is sweet on her in a totally precious, he still seems like my baby loving another baby sort of way.  When he talks to her, his voice totally changes and gets softer and high pitched as he says hello to his baby Tiegan, which sounds like baby chicken.

I loved this picture because I laid her there wide awake and she passed out hard a few minutes later.  Wyatt used to do that ALL of the time.

She's still calm as a cucumber during bath time!

This may have been the case with or without the addition of Tiegan, but one thing I've observed this past month is how much closer these two have gotten.  Wyatt's vocabulary is exploding and he and Lainey are communicating so much better, which lends to more conversations during play time.  To watch them share, pretend and play together is so fun.  There's such great opportunity to learn so many of life's lessons about getting along with others with siblings close in age.  I've even been asked if they're twins multiple times when out and about -- usually at Sam's Club, maybe because they sit in the cart right next to each other... or maybe Sam's patrons are just extra conversational, I'm not sure.  

This picture was from our first day on our own here at home.  3 on 1!  That day in particular went really well.  The next night and day didn't so much... and it's been kind of an on/off pattern ever since. I'm learning/remembering that we are going to have good days and hard but good in their own way days.  My attitude makes the biggest difference in which kind of day we are going to have, regardless of who is crying, how many gross diapers I have to change, how many spills or messes I clean up, etc.  We've been working with Lainey on Philippians 2:14 which says "Do everything without complaining or arguing," but really, it's been more of a help and reminder for my own heart.

Lainey and I do a lot of sitting together and feeding our babes.

Wyatt takes care of babies too!

I really love a big pile of kids and I really love babies in footie pjs so basically, this picture is my dream come true.

I wouldn't go so far as to say Tiegan hates the car seat buuut she doesn't love it.  On this particular day someone at Kohl's called her a "he" ... while wearing pink.  She doesn't look to pleased.

This was one of the first days I put Tiegan in real clothes other than jams.  Hooray for getting dressed!

This is some wild post bath hair.  It's the best.

Ahhh... everyone's favorite time of the day!

These are from Tiegan's actual 1 month birthday.

She has the most intense eyes.  We think they remind us of Lainey's as a baby.

She's all belly and cheeks/chins.  Yes, chinS.

We're so in love with our sweet baby T.

Terrific typical Tuesday

I have a running list in my head of things I want to remember about these days when our kids were little.  Things like birthday parties, holidays, etc. are easy to remember because they're annual and there are usually pictures to accompany them.  I want to remember trips to the grocery store, kids in my lap reading stacks of books, the smell of baby lotion after a bath... the every day things.  Today has been a totally normal stay-at-home morning.  Our play date fell through and it's just too cold to go out any way.

Lainey's imagination has been on a roll this morning.  An empty laundry basket has been a rocket ship, a huge bath tub for all kinds of plastic and stuffed animals and a bed of hay for baby Jesus (played by a Minnie Mouse doll).  The dialogue to go along with each scenario is a riot.  None of this was encouraged or suggested by me, it's all her.  My living room is a mess of toys and books and the sink is full of dishes, which normally drives me a little bonkers, but I'm trying to be more present, less distracted and enjoy these moments more.

Moments like this.  Wyatt, such a sleepy head.  I always have to wake him up if he takes a morning nap at home otherwise he'd sleep the day away.

And moments like this.  She took control of this all on her own too.  They both loved it.  They are becoming so much more independent each day.

And this.  She beat me, fair and square, twice at Candy Land.  Then proudly declared she was done.  I like to quit while I'm ahead too!

Thankful for these kids and that I get to be a part of their every day moments.

Insta(gram) Winter thus far

Can we all agree there is something beautiful about winter?  Yes; snow can be beautiful and there is something so cozy and sweet about staying warm inside our house, drinking hot chocolate and eating soup.  Can we all agree there is something challenging about having small children in the winter?  Double yes.  I'm having to get more and more creative as the weeks pass and the temperatures plunge even further.  And I'm not even going to get in to the fun of chasing down my toddlers so I can bundle them up in coats, hats, mittens, etc. every time we leave the house. (Don't they know it's for their own good?!?  Sheesh!)

If you follow me on Instagram you've seen most of these but I can only elaborate on them so much on there so that's why I'm reposting them.

Daytime bath times used to just be for extreme diaper blow outs.  Now, they're a great opportunity to pass the time, practice letters and numbers, draw all over the tub and splish and splash.  My kids play in that tub until the water is WAY too cold and their hands and feet are totally wrinkled.

This picture says a lot about what we've been up to.  We don't always have that blue table upstairs but when we do, I need to pay extra close attention to my sweet little Wyatt.  He's such a monkey.  Lainey has been SO in to watercolors lately.  She asks to paint multiple times a day.  In fact, we had to go out and buy new paint this week because she had literally used up that palatte.  It's so fun to watch her paint and paint with her.  I know it's great for her fine motor skills and it's just fun.  I've been drawing outlines of things in sharpie marker and then letting her paint them in.  I need to get better at drawing though because I'm running out of ideas of what to draw for her!  I have a huge stack of Lainey originals if anyone is interested! :)

I'm so thankful we have a play area set up in our basement.  This allows us to play with different toys on each of the three floors of the house, which helps when we're stuck inside so much!  That teddy bear Lainey is serving tea to was mine when I was a baby.  She loves when I tell her things like that ("This was yours, Mommy?").  We enjoy lots of tea parties in the basement as well as playing on all of our big outside ride on toys down there too!

Wyatt's room is also a popular place to play.  His new rug and vehicle garage (made by his Grandpa Johnson!) keep us busy.  I'm not sure how such a little guy acquired so many cars, trucks, tractors and dump trucks in such a short amount of time between his birthday and Christmas, but we play with most of them almost every day so I guess it's a good thing!

I don't know if the employees at Petco appreciate us treating their store as a zoo, but my kids sure enjoy it and they do behave well while we're there.  We usually pick up a treat or toy for Simon while we're there too so I suppose it's okay!

Let's not forget one of the best parts of cold weather and small children... footie pajamas!

Afternoon naps are the best way to spend a winter afternoon!

We enjoyed a really warm Saturday afternoon at the zoo a few weeks ago before things got super cold.  Love that zoo membership all year round!

Books are a FAVORITE past time of Wyatt's this winter.  One of these days I need to count the number of books he brings to me in a day.  The number is surely no less than 20.  I'm really thankful he loves books and loves to be read to because I think it will help his vocabulary... if he ever starts talking! :)  I picked up this book for him for Christmas and it seriously looks like it's been read for years it's so worn already.  Wyatt may love his superheros but funny enough, one of the other books he brings me constantly is a Disney princess book.  I think it's so funny that he can pick it out among all of the other books on the bookshelf.  He also loves any books that have touch and feel spots about animals.

We're only halfway through January so I know we still have many weeks of winter left to endure enjoy but at least we get to enjoy them together :)