Our Easter

Easter just didn't feel like Easter this year. It's cold, we were sick and couldn't go to church and the weekend was just WAY too short. But we got to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Rosco so that made up for it! 

They got into town on Thursday and Friday we ran errands, worked on the house and went shopping. Saturday morning we had a SUPER yummy breakfast at Cafe Zinc and then this happened- 

Freaking PINK EYE! It appeared faster than Ls (she had it 4 weeks ago) and started in both eyes. I knew we were in for a long 5 days of eye drops. You always underestimate the strength of your children until you are trying to get antibiotics in their eye. 

Since we were stuck at home we decided Saturday afternoon would be a great time to dye eggs.  

The kids had a blast, Layla was really into it this year and didn't need much help. So much fun!

We had to skip church on Sunday because of our diseases. But the Easter bunny still came to see us!

Here they are walking down the hallway ready to see their surprises! 

Out of all the goodies, Jack's favorite thing was a cup. 

The Easter bunny left lots of eggs outside too! We decided to wait until it was a little warmer to go out there and get them. This was a mistake because the squirrels decided to get into some of the eggs and eat M&Ms. Awesome! 

Don't they look like they belong in The Hangover?

Much better LOL

Jack did a great job hunting eggs! He would pick up his bucket and everything. Such a big boy!

And this is how L used her basket. LOL. I love her. 

Next it was time to get a cute sibling "Happy Easter" shot. This was a good one...

Then we asked L to give J a kiss. 

He accidentally bumped her and then this happened...

We call this the "Charlie Brown" cry. WAAAAAAAAA

I found these on my camera. Grandpa did a good job!

At least we did get one good Easter shot, sick and all. :) Can't wait to see what next year brings (hopefully healthy kids!!). 

Our February

Our February was filled with snow, cold and sickness. We are all SO over winter. We have been spending way too much time inside this month...please come soon spring! 

We tried to celebrate Valentines day but Mommy ended up sick the entire week with a mystery illness. After lots of blood work, an X-ray and an ultrasound I have been diagnosed, yet again, with IDK disease. For those of you that are not my Grandpa that is a highly official diagnosis of "I don't know" disease. It sucks. 

So here's what we've been up to- 

Jack learned how to hike a ball. I can't help but look at this pic and see Theodore from Alvin and the Chipmunks. 

Layla has been working on writing her name. I don't know how people homeschool. This has been the result of lots of fighting and "I don't want to's" in this house. She will do it perfectly fine for her teachers. Stinker. She had to write her name on 19 Valentines. She absolutely insists that her names starts with an "A" and that she has to write it in a "circle". She's kind of good at drawing the individual letters.

Here she is pouting because I'm making her do something

She cracked a smile as she finished the last one. I asked her if she felt good after doing all that hard work and she said "No. You can do them next  year". Future US President right here.

Of course we had our Valentine's Day session

One major development last month was joint bath time. Thank GOD! Layla has finally realized it is fun to have a bath buddy. It saves us time and gives us LOTS of giggles. They were in rare form for the camera here- 

Jack turned 15 months in February. I can't believe it. He is walking ALL over the place and communicating so much more (even within the last few days). His vocab includes: daddy, mama, sissy, layla, goggies (dogs), moooooore, buh bye, up, yeah, no, all done and help. He also has started pointing to things he sees or wants. Jack has always been a screamer but he's really starting to scream when he doesn't like something or is upset. It is ear piercing and I hope this stage goes quickly. 

Jack is in size 24 months/2T and in a size 4 diaper. He eats like a champ and finally got all 4 molars! He goes for his well visit next month so I'll have his weight and height then...but we already know he's ginormous. He's sleeping much better but still insists on being rocked to sleep. We just try to enjoy it and appreciate the snuggles. He's doing better for naps and will sleep anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours (YEEEEESSSSSS) and does pretty well at night too. He goes down around 7:30 but always wakes up at 10pm for a quick snuggle. Then tends to sleep until 6:30-8am. LOL...hoping to get this worked out SOON. 

Mr. Jack found the key to Mommy's heart this month- making us laugh. This boy and his "silly face". Oh my! 

We are hoping for warmer weather in March. It is a SUPER busy month filled with preschool stuff, photo sessions and hopefully a few family visitors from IL! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

You aren't even prepared for the amount of cuteness that is our Valentine's Day session. There are no words so I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

One note- that last picture of Jack on the bottom right corner was the last pic I took. His hair was wild and he had kiss marks ALL over him from L (who wanted to kiss him SO bad the whole session...A-dorable). That picture absolutely cracks me up...he looks so love struck and happy that his big sis kissed his chubby cheeks. :)

Today we are saying lots of "I love you's" and giving lots of hugs and kisses. :) L really has gotten into it since her preschool party yesterday. She loved going through her Valentines and she told me that a little boy asked her if she'd come to preschool with him in the summer to hunt treasure outside. Love is in the air friends! Haha!

Jack's First Haircut

I can't believe it is really time for this. Jack's first haircut?! Shouldn't he be...say...3 or so before we need to worry about this?!

I'm feeling a WHOLE lot of guilty about this because I made such a big deal about L's first cut. We even went out to dinner to celebrate (and so she could show off her new locks) after. Poor Jack got TOTALLY robbed. First of all I went first and had dye in my hair during this whole process, Bryan walks Jack in about 3 seconds before the comb starts running through his baby hair and L is bouncing around excited because she gets to go next.

I didn't get fabulous pics like I did for L's first cut. This obviously makes me the worst. Mom. EVER. And I'm sure I'll hear about it someday.

Poor J was so shocked at everything going on in the salon that he really had no clue what was going on to him (this is a good thing). Our stylist worked super fast and he was done in a flash!

This was seriously his face through the whole thing. He was so ticked. He was tired and hungry and just didn't want to be messed with. There were NO tears, I'll take those grumpy cheeks over crying any day.

And my last picture is a cell phone picture because again, I'm the worst Mommy ever. But here is Mr. GQ sporting his new look. It's so hard to tell because we did keep it long on top but the back is short. No more crazy hair in the back and sides...my baby boy looks like a big guy now. :(

Let's talk about January

Oh boy. I'd like to say that we've been busy this month but the truth is we've been stuck in the house with NOOOOOOOOOTHING to do. It's been cold. Real cold. And although L loves winter and snow...we can't be outside in the negative temps, especially with J. So we've been spending a lot of time getting creative inside-

We've also been encouraging bath time together this month. L still insists on taking separate baths and we haven't pushed it because J is still very wobbly in the tub...it's like he has no idea what to do in the water. LOL. So in an effort to not have a child with a concussion, we've done separate bath times.

J really LOVES baths with sissy when he can get them. She was in the tub here but did not want her picture taken.

We've been eating really well this month! L is doing SO much better and has even been *gasp* quicker at eating. By quicker I mean 30-45 minutes but that is a serious improvement.

It takes Jack 4.6 seconds to eat his entire meal and then starts eyeing Layla's. It's a problem. He eats more than her at every meal. So we have to get creative while we wait for sis to eat.

Layla had a sweet friend, Larkin, over yesterday. These two are so sweet. They enjoyed doing a craft and having hot chocolate!

One more day of January and we are on to February. Can I dream of warmer weather yet??

Layla's Yellow Shirt Pictures

The bigger she gets, the happier I am we started doing these yellow shirt pictures. It is so amazing to see her grow in the same shirt, and she's getting really into it too! Her shirt hangs up in her closet and she asks about it all the time. She was SUPER excited to do her yellow shirt pictures today. :) Here she was at 18 months, 2 years and 3 years...

She had a hard time sitting still for the pictures today. Then Daddy promised her 4 Hershey Kisses and all was good-

What a silly girl. It is so hard to believe she's 4. That seems like such a big number for such a small girl. Layla is SO SO SO smart. I know everyone thinks their own child is a genius but she really is. She's also super silly and still loves to make us laugh with her goofy faces and "jokes" (mostly about underwear and poop ugh).

Last year I made a list a few years ago of all of her little quirks. Last year I just updated the list but this year I'll just highlight some of her favorite things and some changes to her ongoing list of quirks. :)

- Layla's favorite food continues to be anything covered in chocolate. She would eat her weight in chocolate if we'd let her. Sometimes she'll tell me her stomach hurts because she needs more candy. Ha!

- She still loves to have dance parties. Her new favorite singer is Katy Perry. She likes "Roar" and "ET".

- L still sleeps with 10,000 stuffed animals. Her bedtime routine consists of lots of books, a story acted out by her dollhouse people and she must have a flashlight. The only thing she absolutely can not sleep without is taggie.

- Her new talents include whistling! It is pretty amazing...she's getting REALLY good and can actually carry a tune. She whistles better than I do. She still makes up LOTS of songs and even rhymes now.

- She still has a bit of a temper but her attitude is what is getting her in trouble lately. She loves to tell us "NO!!" and/or "NEVER!!!". It is hard not to laugh because she gets very serious. She is very emotional and still very sensitive so we are working on not yelling and talking it out.

- L has always had a strange southern accent when she says certain words ("more") and now she has a New York accent when she says things like "parking lot". No clue where she got it but I LOVE it!

- She is the most helpful kid you will EVER meet. Even her teachers tell me how great she is to have in the classroom and help. She helps me do laundry, dishes, dusting...and her absolute favorite thing to do is scrub the toilets. What a weirdo! But anytime I need help I know I can ask her. God love her.

- She's had 2 haircuts this year and we are getting ready for another. Her hair seems to get curlier and curlier! When straight it is way past the middle of her back. I would love to see what it would look like dry and straight but she won't let me do it...she likes her curls. :)

- Her favorite books are "find" books (think I Spy) and her favorite movie is Tangled. Her favorite colors are "green and blue"...she will not pick just one. This makes things very complicated.

- She is beginning to show interest in playing with her little brother (finally). She gets very upset if/when he gets hurt and very curious when he gets in trouble. Nosey Rosie. Right now she likes to chase him around the house and "carry" (drag) him.

This kid. She's so awesome. Words just can't even describe how lucky we are to have her. She keeps us laughing all day long and has really grown into such a sweet/helpful little lady. We love you Layla!