february with the littles

I feel like half of February was spent with sick kids, so I have quite a few sleeping pictures of my cute Colby.  I rarely rock or nurse him in my nice recliner, but I remember this day vividly.  It was time to nurse him, so I opened the blinds in my room to let a little sun in.  He fell asleep pretty quickly, and I just watched his sweet face as he slept.  Babies really are so angelic when they are sleeping!

They both love their bath time!  Colby is always trying to scoot out of this bath sling, which is exactly what Brooke did as a baby.

One morning, as we were getting Brooke's "tea party blanket" from the closet, I saw the Bumbo and decided to see how Colby did in it.  He sat there like a champ, but looked pretty serious the whole time!

Every morning, I wake up to sounds of Brooke playing in her room.  She likes to just look at books in her bed, or play with her toys for a good 20-30 minutes before she will start calling for me.  And she always has a tea part set up :)  This particular day she had some interesting things added to the mix, haha.

I finally ordered the canvas for Colby's room and we hung his frames above the changing pad.  I love how it turned out!

Bedtime with these cuties.  The novelty of Colby laying on her pillow with her has not worn off, and for that I am grateful because it is one of my favorite things at the end of the day.

Little man is doing great with his tummy time, and is able to hold his head up for longer periods of time.

He might be an ear rubber just like his sister.  Whenever Brooke is tired, she starts rubbing her ear.  She also likes to rub our ears when we are laying next to her in bed.

These Valentine's Day pictures melt my heart!  I hung a bunch of hearts in her doorway, and she thought it was the greatest thing ever.  When she opened her door in the morning, she said, "Are these my valentines?"  I love this little girl.  Nay Nay bought her the cute dress, and although we didn't go to church (Colby was sick), she wanted to rock it.

Brooke is so methodical when she plays.  Each letter/number goes in the middle of the square :)  I am a little OCD about having things organized in a certain way, so she may be taking after me :/

One morning, while Brooke and I were painting nails, Colby decided it was time for a nap.  I guess he was a little bored, haha, but I love that he could just relax enough to fall asleep while he listened to his Mama and sister.

We gave Brooke a wooden stable with horses inside, and one morning I noticed that she had lined them all up "as friends".  She even included a random cow that Papa brought back from a food trade show.

Mid February we stopped giving Brooke naps because she was having a hard time going to bed at night.  Although I miss having time to get things done during her nap, the new arrangement works out pretty great.  This was one of the last times I laid down next to her as she fell asleep for an afternoon siesta. Yes, she still uses a pacifier, and yes, I know I need to get rid of it!

Dressed in our Sunday best...

Colby loves doing airplanes on my knees.  Whenever I do this, Brooke runs and gets her Chloe baby so we can "play with our babies together".

Bath time is always pretty entertaining.  Brooke thought she was hilarious when she balanced turtles on her and Colby's heads.

This is random, but I have some pretty sweet friends.  After 2 weeks of the kids being sick, I felt like I was running on empty.  A few friends in my ward, who were checking on me via text, stopped by with the sweetest things.  One friend brought dinner, another some treats, my VT companion showed up with dinner and tulips, and another friend dropped by this pint of ice cream :)  I really feel so blessed to be surrounded by people who are so thoughtful and Christlike.

I found this table at Home Goods, and I was super excited because I have been wanting something to go by the stairs forever.  After I styled the table, I was fixing dinner, and came back to find that Brooke had added a few touches of her own.

Although she smothers him at times, Brooke really does love her baby brother.  She always wants to be the first one to check on him when he cries, and when he is fussy, she always requests that I sing him a lullaby.

Brooke has found a love for typing.  She can type out her name all by herself, and she can recognize and type most of the letters for Mama, Daddy, and Colby if Kevin or I tell her what letters to type. Then we send it to print, which is super cool to a toddler :)

The Taggart family from our ward moved a few streets over, and we have loved running into them at the part.  Brooks is only 6 weeks older than Brooke, and is the cutest little boy.  They have several teenage daughters, which will be great for us once we start having babysitters more often.

This is by far my favorite picture from this month.  With no naps, Brooke falls asleep in less than 5 minutes.  Colby was also ready for bed, so within minutes, our precious babes were cuddled up and sound asleep.  Although I didn't want to wake them, I wanted a picture.  So Kevin took a picture with the flash, and thankfully, it didn't faze them.  When we went downstairs, I almost started crying as I stared at the picture.  Although parenting can be so hard and exhausting at times, it really is so amazing and Brooke and Colby are so incredibly precious to me.

matching with my girl

When I was pregnant with Brooke, I looked forward to the day that I would be able to wear matching clothes with my little girl.  My friend Megan (from church) gave me a hard time about how I always tried to coordinate my Sunday outfits with Brooke when she was a baby.   Sometimes I didn't intentionally do it, but since I picked colors I loved for Brooke, it just coordinated with things I already had.

This particular Sunday(2/28/16), I think Brooke was feeling pretty cute in her new jewelry she received as a valentine from her cousins Kinley and Aubrey. When I pointed out that we were matching, she agreed to let me take her pictures, and then even took a picture with me.  These pictures are pretty precious to me.  The days are sometimes long, but I love being a Mom and I am trying to cherish each moment because I feel like she is growing up so quickly.  I have the cutest conversations with her, and she says the funniest things.  One quick story: At the beginning of February, I was in my room trying to get Colby down for a nap.  Brooke kept coming in my room, and I told her to play quietly in the living room.  She ran in a few minutes later, and my initial reaction was frustration because I was having a hard time with Colby.  Then she whispered, "I love you Mama", and turned around and ran out again. It was the first time I think she initiated the expression of love, and it made my entire day.  (And I am really glad I didn't say something about her getting out of the room, I would have felt terrible and she would have been so shut down.)

Oh, and one more funny story.  The weekend before this picture was taken, I was nursing Colby on the couch.  Kevin was in the kitchen, so I asked him to make Brooke a smoothie.  I normally do all the smoothie making around here, so I offered him a little guidance.  I said, "Use the single serve blending cup, but just follow the proportions on the bag of the frozen berries."  I saw him get the bag of frozen fruit from the freezer and measure out one cup of berries.  The blending cup was almost full, and he turned to me and said, "Are 3 cups going to fit in here?" (Which was what the recipe on the bag called for...but I had told him to just follow the proportions of fruit to milk/yogurt, etc.)  I must have given him a funny look, and said "Kevin", in a kind of joking way, and Brooke goes "Are you serious?" to Kevin.  Hahahahaha.  I was dying laughing.  It was said at the perfect moment, and in the perfect situation.  Just hilarious.  Love that girl!

daddy-daughter love

One Sunday, Kevin decided to stay home from church because he felt super sick.  (He was sick pretty much the whole two weeks that Colby was sick.) I had just finished getting the kids ready, and we actually had time to spare, which was a miracle.  Even with one o'clock church, I am still always rushing out the door.  Maybe one of these days I will pull it all together :/

Anyway, I decided to take a few pics of Colby in his new bow tie.  Kevin was helping me get him to smile, and then Brooke wanted me to take her picture, with her Daddy.  I love my Brooke so much, and it makes my heart so happy to see how much she adores Kevin.  He is so kind and gentle with her, and is so patient even when she is being crazy.  I like to think that I am a pretty patient Mom, but sometimes my patience wears thin at the end of the day.  Kevin really only sees her at the end of the day, and she is always so thrilled when she hears the door beeps when he walks in.  One of my favorite things to see is her running to the door yelling "Daddy", Kevin putting down his lunch box, and him scooping up his little girl.  I have a feeling that they will always have a strong bond!

colby-3 months old

Colby (also lovingly referred to as: Colby Bunches, Lovie, Baby Bear, Little Prince, and Buster) turned 3 months old on February 2nd.

This picture cracks me up because I think it looks like he is pounding his fist, like "This is the last picture, Mom, or else."  Hahaha.  

Brooke really likes to "help" me with the monthly pictures, but she is always super close to him when making him smile...so I don't get great pictures of just him.  But I do love to document those cute siblings together anyway.

 He weighed 14 lbs, 9 oz on the 8th when I had to take him to see Dr. Joki for a cough, which turned out to be RSV.  It was a rough few weeks at our house, and really not much I could do for the little guy.  We ran the humidifier all night, used saline spray in his nose, suctioned whenever he sounded especially congested, and gave him a lot of extra loves.  He would wake up every 2 hours, and had a difficult time nursing due to his congestion.  Dr. Joki cautioned me to do all I could to make sure he was nursing enough and having at least 6 wet diapers a day to avoid dehydration, which would probably land him in the hospital.  So, of course I started tracking his wet diapers and being overly paranoid about everything.  Despite his difficulty nursing, he was still having really wet diapers, so I guess he was getting all that he needed?  And even though his breathing sounded awful, and we had several scary coughing attacks, he was still a pretty happy little baby.

 (We were at the doctor's office for almost 2 hours, which was totally ridiculous, but this season has been awful for sickness.  You could hear kids coughing in every room! Brooke and I resorted to taking pictures of ourselves because we were bored, haha.)

 Poor sick baby...

 I propped him up with the boppy to help elevate his stuffy nose.

 The smiles were a welcome sight after hearing his labored breathing and seeing him feel so crummy.

All tuckered out from playing with his toys.

This is not a flattering picture of me, but I loved that after I nursed him, he was totally bear-hugging me.  I love newborn snuggles so much, and although he is getting bigger, he is still pretty snuggly, especially when he's milk drunk.

I bought Colby this adorable grandpa sweater, and made sure that Daddy wore his matching sweater to church.  Thankfully, Kevin was a good sport, and I think they looked adorable.  Colby looks pretty ticked, but he was ready for some milk.

One day, while playing at the park, I noticed that his hair was looking so fluffy!  I loved the little duck wisps in the back, and had to document it.

Nothing is better than a sleeping baby...except maybe a happy, chubby, smiling baby :)

Other things to note this month: Colby went on his first plane ride (to Miami), slept 7 hours at night (only happened once), and constantly blows spit bubbles and raspberries.  Oh, and he tries to fit his whole fist in his mouth :)

miami-day 5

On our last day (Saturday), we packed our suitcases, checked out of the hotel, and headed to Hollywood Beach.  We had to drive both rental cars since we would be heading straight to the airport from the beach.  This was a bit annoying, and traffic was crazy, but we both really wanted Brooke to see the beach in Florida.  It was a gorgeous day, but we could have done without the 25+ hour winds!  It was seriously so crazy.  The car seat cover was flying around like crazy and poor Colby couldn't catch his breath.  We finally rigged it so that it blocked most of the wind, and headed down the boardwalk.  

At first, Brooke wanted Daddy to carry her.  I think she was unsure of all the sand, haha. She didn't want to feel the water either, but Kevin said it was warm.  I stayed back with the stroller, and this cute little guy.

She was, however, IN LOVE with chasing after all the seagulls.  She ran back and forth after those silly birds, and was squealing with delight.  Her fear of the sand also quickly dissipated as she threw it up the in the air, kicked it, and ran all over it. 

We enjoyed a yummy meal (pizza and greek salad) at one of the restaurants along the beach, chased a few more birds, ate some Ben and Jerry's, and decided to get on our way.  That morning, we had finally heard back from our friend, Diana Salvadore (previous post), so we arranged to stop by and see her before flying home.  It was so nice to see her again, and she loved seeing our babies.  Brooke was super shy, which is understandable since they've never met.

And just like that, our time was over, and we had to get to the airport.  We dropped off our rental cars, and headed over to security.  As Kevin opened his backpack, he said, "Did you take out my laptop", to which I replied "No, why?".  Then he told me that it was not in there.  What??!!  He was 100% positive that he packed it in his backpack at the hotel, and it had been in the car all day.  We parked in a parking garage at the beach and I heard Kevin lock the van multiple times, and I locked it at Sister Salvadore's house, so we had no idea how it could be missing.  There were no signs of the van being broken in to, and my iPad and Kindle were both still in the backpack.  It didn't make any sense, and we were both SICK about it!  At that point, there was nothing we could do.  We just had to continue through security and get to our gate.  Kevin made a comment about how, besides the loss of the actual laptop, we also lost all the GoPro footage.  His phone still had all the pictures, so those weren't lost forever.  At the time, I was thinking the GoPro stuff was all boating footage, which is sad to lose, but not traumatic for me.  It wasn't until a few days later that I realized that meant all the footage of when Brooke was using her little baby walker, kicking her chubby legs in the pool for the first time, her first time on the swings, etc.  I totally cried when I made that connection.  Oh, and when I realized that we lost the letter that Kevin wrote to Brooke the morning we were in the hospital waiting for our son to be born.  Makes me so so sad because it was seriously the most precious letter ever!

It's just kind of disgusting that we live in a time when people steal from each other, with no regard for the personal information they probably deleted just to sell the computer.  I guess I hope that they deleted it, because it's creepy to think of the alternative :/  It just didn't make sense though!  Why steal the laptop, but leave behind the other electronics?  A few days later, after replaying the day in my head a million times, I think I figured out when it was stolen.  After packing everything up, Kevin pulled the van outside the lobby (which was also right by our room), and began loading up our stuff.  He made maybe 2-3 trips back and forth, while I nursed Colby in the room.  On the final trip out, he took Brooke with him.  I finished up, and walked outside.  I saw Kevin inside the lobby, and figured the van would be locked, but walked over to wait next to it.  I tried the door, and it was unlocked, so I strapped Colby in his car seat only minutes before Kevin came back out.  The car was unattended for maybe 5 minutes (tops!), but someone must have been watching and took the opportunity to open the van and grab what they could.  SO ANNOYING!  I asked Kevin if he thought I should call the hotel and ask if they had security cameras, but it would really only help if the person stealing was an employee or someone identifiable to the manager.  Kevin figured it was a lost cause since they wouldn't even bring us fresh towels the night I called to request some (since housekeeping hadn't even come to our room that day).  I figured her was right, but a few days later, I made the call anyway.  The manager was actually pretty helpful, but said that he couldn't see anything on the footage tapes.  It was worth a shot :(

Lesson learned...Never leave your car unlocked, even when you are super close.  And back up everything from your computers!!