Lydia - 4 months

Lydia is 4 months old! I never got around to posting her 3 month birthday, but it did happen.

Lydia's eyes have settled on a beautiful shade of blue, very close to the same color as Brianna's eyes. She loves to laugh and suck on her hands, reaches for things I am holding, can roll back to tummy, and is finally napping like a champ. She is still waking once a night to eat and I have no intention on breaking that habit anytime soon because of the room-sharing with Dallin situation at the moment. I'm not complaining though - I have found that going with the flow is immensely less stressful than trying to night wean.

Her daytime schedule is typically waking at 7 AM for the day, napping 9-10:30/11, 1-2 and 4-5, and going to bed around 8 PM. She nurses 5 times during the day and then the one time during the night. She weighs 11 lbs 13 oz (6%) and is 23 inches long (15%).

She has the cutest little baby voice! She talks to us a lot and the other kids all love it.

Lydia is starting to show her personality. She doesn't mind being left alone if she has something to play with - she loves her piano play gym and the bouncy seat - but she does get lonely. 

She is a wonderful little thing. Having figured out how to help her not need to cry so much has really helped us see who she truly is, and we sure like her! 

Brianna's 5th Birthday

Brianna is 5! What a fun day she had! 

First thing in the morning we opened gifts. She got a musical jewelry box,

a new two-wheeler bike!,

and Picasso magnetic tiles. She was very happy with all three! ("Why did I only get three presents?" "Because you got a bike.") After presents she and Ryan went to breakfast together.

I was happy to have a few minutes of snuggle time with the birthday girl and her sister.

That day was VERY hot. We set up the Mega Slide and the kids enjoyed playing on that in the 100 degree weather. One of Brianna's friends, Hazel, came over for a couple of hours to play too. I didn't get a picture of her; when she arrived I had to go inside to take care of Lydia.

Between playing and dinner, Ryan spontaneously took the older girls to see Toy Story 4.

After a yummy waffle, bacon, egg, and watermelon dinner, we dished up the cake! This photo is before I frosted the whole thing. It looked so pretty! She asked for a honey cake, and while I could have taken the easy way out, I decided to do the fancier one and count it as one of my gifts to her. 

The cake was delicious and well worth it! We had Papa and the Searles over again. 

After cake we went outside so she could try out her new bike. We were not surprised when she caught on to riding it within minutes. By the time we went back inside some 30 minutes later, she could start, ride, turn, and stop all on her own. Family bike rides, here we come!

That night after Dallin and Lydia were in bed, Ryan and I played Patchwork and Go Fish with Maya and Brianna. It was really fun and maybe something we will turn into a birthday tradition. We played until 10 PM and then we all went to bed at the same time.

Happy birthday, sweet Brianna! 

Dallin's 2nd Birthday

Dallin is 2 years old! He is such a wonderful little man! He makes us laugh and smile all the time, even when he's being a stinker. His vocabulary is really blossoming, he loves cars, airplanes, and trains, walks up and down the stairs without holding on to the anything (I can hardly bare to watch), still loves his cozy, his favorite books are Brown Bear, Brown Bear and anything related to that, and his favorite songs are Mahna Mahna and The Greatest Showman.

He got some fun presents for his birthday: a Phantom F4 Jet (the same kind his great-grandpa flew, but the only one I could find says Navy on it and G.pa Bruce was the Air Force), a new book about trucks, Polar Bear, Polar Bear What do you Hear?, and a Hot Wheels track for all of his cars. He loved all them!

Papa came to celebrate with us! We had grilled hot dogs and bratwursts for dinner.

And then his cake! I had so much fun decorating it. It's supposed to look like a road but when I put a few of his cars on it they were huge in comparison so I left them off. The Searles joined us for cake and ice cream. Dallin loves their family, and we do too!

Happy 2nd Birthday, little guy!

June Jollies

June! What a fun month! The last summer before our two oldest kiddos are in full time school. We are trying to live it up, despite having no travel plans because of Ryan's efforts to finish the basement, as well as having a 3 month old. Travelling with babies is not my favorite thing to do.

Sometimes Dallin puts himself in time out. 

I will not take all 4 kids to the pool by myself so we have compromised a couple of times this summer by going to the splash pad.

Dallin loves Lydia!! He doesn't care about her personal space bubble one tiny bit.

We made it to the pool for the first time! I brought Tambryn, one of our sitters, to help me. Ryan has taken the kids a lot of times since then, but I have only gone three times. Lydia is always a bawl-bag when we go so I don't tend to enjoy myself very much.

We went to Playgroup for the first time since last Halloween. It was fun to see everyone!

One morning during breakfast Ryan said, "Let's go on a hike!" So we did! It took longer than we wanted to get out the door (hello: four kids) so we ended up having to settle for Bobcat Ridge Trail instead of Horsetooth Falls because the lot at Horsetooth was full. Thankfully Bobcat Ridge is very easy (it's flat) so there was limited complaining.

We hiked/walked to the cabin. This cabin was built in 1901 (if I remember right). History is so fascinating to me - to imagine the people who lived here so long ago and what life might have been like. Needless to say, I am thankful for our modern day luxuries.

Lydia was coming to the end of needing to be held all the time to sleep, but I was still happy to snuggle her on Sunday afternoons, especially if I was napping too!

We get snuggles in the morning sometimes too. Every now and then she wakes up close to 6 AM and doesn't have a huge desire to go back to sleep, so I bring her into bed with us and let her nurse. She usually goes back to sleep, nursing, for an hour. I never did this with Dallin and I missed it!!

We only did hair a few times this month. I don't have as much time, and the complaining is real.

Dallin loves playing with his cars!

Bath time with the youngest babe. She enjoys splashing, and is getting so big!

I made a Peach Crumble Pie for Father's Day. There was some leftover pie dough and the kids had fun playing with it for an hour.

The pie was so good! Funny story: the blogger who posted this recipe said that her husband commented on how the topping looked like ground beef. As I was putting the crumble on the pie before baking it, Brianna said, "Meat?!" After it was baked and Ryan saw it he said, "That looks like ground beef." It sure didn't taste like ground beef!

Ryan's grandma brought us this clock from her collection. We love that it adds charm and character to our home. While it is a chiming clock, it is fairly quiet and not a nuisance at all.

One day Dallin wanted to take his nap in Maya's bed, so I let him. He stayed in there for two solid hours! I was impressed, but we haven't done this since.

The girls got a Barbie house! Ryan found this on a neighborhood sale page and it was a steal! The girls were so excited about it and they still play with it almost every day.

We went to the zoo. It was Dallin's first time and he seemed to really enjoy it, especially the tiger.

Brianna's hair was so long and kept getting in her face, and then her mouth while she was eating. I said, "ENOUGH!" and put it up and out of her face. It stayed like this for three days.

Maya got something much simpler but still very pretty.

This toy had been in the basement for ...I don't know, a year at least. I brought it back up and Dallin immediately started playing with it with all of his Hot Wheels cars. I am glad to see it finally get the love it deserves.

Sibling love at the breakfast table!

I bucked up and took all of the kids to a park. It was nice to get out of the house and thankfully not too stressful!

Ryan always helps with bedtime, and I am super appreciative of that when we have a nursing baby.

Lydia getting all glam.

We got a Mega Slide (thank you, Costco!). It is 25 feet long and comes with these sleds for sliding on. We have used it a couple of times, and it is always a hit! We are excited to use it for Brianna's birthday this year.

One more hairstyle for the books this month.

Halfway through the year! Christmas, here we come!