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!

Christmas 2013

We had an amazing Christmas at home this year. I love that Santa has gotten to come to our house 2 years in a row! Here are the kids finding their gifts from the big guy on Christmas morning-

Layla worked hard all December on her Santa advent calendar. She was SO excited to put the red nose on him for Christmas day. 

Then it was time to open gifts. 

After lunch we decided to take the kids outside and play in the snow. Jack loves to zoom around on the sled and L loves to make snow angels and play "treasure" in the snow. 

What a GREAT day!

A couple days after we decided to visit the Santa house here in town. L was NOT into the big guy this year and J could have cared less, so we decided not to wait in line when Santa was actually there. But we have to get our annual picture in the chair! The kids were too busy looking at all the trains to care about my camera:

Here are some more pictures of the house-

We also decided it would be fun to go bowling while Grandma and Grandpa were here! This was L's second time bowling and she really enjoyed it. This was J's first time and he really didn't care for it...he wanted to crawl around and see everything else.

What a great few weeks it has been. I felt like I did a great job of getting pictures until I realized I didn't get one of Gma and Gpa Barton with the kids!!! UGH! My New Year's resolution (at least one of them...) is to be better with PICTURES!

Layla's 4th Birthday

Can't believe our baby girl turned 4 a few days ago. She requested a unicorn birthday party this year complete with rainbow cupcakes and balloons. And of course, that's what the birthday princess got-

Layla and her friends had so much fun decorating their own unicorn horns.

Grandma Barton even helped Jack do one!

 

Layla had to share all of her photo books and special ornaments with Miss Carrie. 

Here we are playing pin the horn on the unicorn. The kids loved it!

Layla was so excited to do her cake and candle that she didn't want to sit still for a good picture.

She acted a little shy again this year but was all for it for the most part. This was the first year she actually blew out her own candle. I have a feeling our services will no longer be needed when it is time to make a wish.

Of course we had sprinkles on our ice cream! And L just ate the frosting.

Here is most of the gang. We are so thankful for these great kids and their families! Layla is one lucky girl to have all these BFFs! PS- you can tell how much fun she had by how frizzy her hair is! LOL

We tried to get another picture with the birthday girl but the dogs would NOT leave us alone. Another photo opportunity ruined by Oscar and Moose. At least we got a good smile out of L. :)

She had a lot of fun opening gifts again this year. Some of her favs include the lip stick and chocolate candy!

Moose forgot to buy her a present so she got a hug.

And Daddy gave the bday girl an extra hug too.

Layla had such a great time at her party! After gifts we headed off to her favorite restaurant- Olive Garden, where she ate "1,000 breadsticks", 3 spaghetti noodles and 6 pieces of chocolate.

Thank you for all the messages, gifts and fun to everyone!! I can't wait to see how she grows this year...who knows what kind of theme she'll come up with for 5! ;o)