5 months

I almost forgot that Claire turned 5 months today, but luckily I remembered and took her 5 month photo before the day ended. Looking through the lens of the camera, I realized how much she has grown. She looks so big to me! Just a month away until we can introduce food. Guess I need to get the food processor going again.

Gobble , Gobble

I am constantly trying to figure out what we can do as a family that won't break the bank, but will still be fun. So when Tim got an email about turkeys at Rancho San Rafael, I said why not. With little expectations, last weekend we went to Rancho San Rafael to see the turkeys. It was a fun little event. They had four turkeys, chickens, painting activities for kids, coloring activities, story time, and toy trains (Lilybelle's personal favorite). They even let you get in the pen with two of the turkeys and take photos.

Lilybelle when we first arrived. I had originally planned for her to wear jeans, but she was of another mind.

Claire fell asleep on the way there.

The famous toy trains

The fam with the turkeys.

Making turkey feathers with stamp pads. I shouldn't have dressed her in white, but she didn't get any on her shirt!

4 Months plus Halloween

Claire is four months now. I can't believe it. Time is going by so fast. She's playing on the floor now and grabbing at her toys. She talks to us constantly and her favorite game is peek a boo with Lilybelle.  In fact her favorite person is Lilybelle. No one can get her to smile like Lilybelle.

Both girls are doing well at their school. Lilybelle has become so more outgoing. She can count to ten and say her ABCs with help. It's been great to see her learn new things and to be excited about learning them.

For Halloween this year, I dressed the girls up as bees. I can't get over matching them in matching outfits so Halloween was no different. For my friends' Halloween party I went as the queen bee, the girls were bees, and Tim was the beekeeper. Our best group costume to date I think. But sadly, there is no photographic proof because my two year old decided that she didn't want to put on her costume until we pulled up to the party.Oh to be two and rule to world.

This was the first year we let Lilybelle go trunk or treating at our Ward's Trunk or Treat. She had a blast! Her cousins took her and did a few carnival games with her (the cake walk was her favorite) before the actual trunk or treating. When I took her outside to go get candy she wasn't sure at first, but by the third car she knew what to do. After she did one round, she went inside, sat down, and immediately checked out her candy. I don't know who had more fun, her or me.

For actual Halloween night we stayed in since the forecast called for rain. We didn't get any until midnight, but it was really windy. We got a pumpkin and I thought it would be great if we carved it as a family. Well it turned out to be Tim's activity. Lilybelle didn't want to wear her bib to help carve, and Claire chose that moment to wake up and demand to be fed. Oh well, better luck next year.

3 Months

Whew. I made it. I'm getting Claire's three month photo up before she turns four months. I had a hard time posing her this month mostly because she's found her fingers and like her big sister she believes that fingers are for sucking. At this rate I'd better just start saving up for braces for both girls because I don't think I will be able to break them of the habit before it ruins their mouths. Oh well.

Claire is such a talker and it has only become more common the older she gets. She's rolled over from her tummy to her back. She loves her big sister. Yesterday when we went to Target I had Claire in the Ergo baby and Lilybelle was running wild. I picked up Lilybelle and when she was eye level to Claire, Claire got so happy and couldn't stop smiling. Lilybelle can make Claire laugh or smile just by looking at her. Lilybelle loves Claire too, and makes sure that I know when she is crying by saying, "baby crying" as if I can't hear it in our approximately 750 sq foot house. I seriously think we need to upgrade, but with housing prices rising I don't see it happening any time soon. Plus a two year old can't get far in a small house.

I can't wait to see all her monthly pictures together to see how she has grown. I guess I better get working on her year one photo book now. And the family photo book too for that matter.

Happy Birthday Lilybelle

For Lilybelle's birthday this year we had an Elmo themed birthday lunch. A few months ago she become obsessed with Elmo. From her diapers. Yes, her diapers. She asked who was on her diaper one day and I said "Elmo." It went downhill from there. While I was on maternity leave, we must have watched I think six seasons of Sesame Street in the span of twelve weeks. I used to think I wasn't going to let my children watch that much tv, but having two kids under two cured me of that notion. But I digress. This post is supposed to be about her birthday.

She had a lot a fun and especially loved her Elmo balloon that she and Tim picked up the day of her birthday lunch. I got a lot of good pictures and planned on editing them before putting them on the blog, but our computer died before I got around to it. Hence the reason I'm just now posting. It was great to see Lilybelle enjoy her lunch, cupcakes, and all her presents. We decided to keep it low key this year and just had a birthday lunch for her and just keep it small. I made an Elmo face out of fruit, and then made us a rice, chicken, and black bean dish that was super yummy. After lunch, she blew out her candles on her Elmo cupcake, and then opened her presents. It was neat to see how much she has grown since her first birthday. She's gotten so independent. I can't wait to see her grow.

Two months

Monday Claire was officially two months and we celebrated it by getting her two month vaccinations. Pretty exciting huh? She was all smiley and cute right after so I thought I had dogged the cranky bullet. No such luck. But in the grand scheme of it all it wasn't too bad. 

She's growing so much. She is developing this great personality. She sits on the couch and coos and laughs at us. It's great. I love taking her monthly pictures. Getting her all dressed up and posed. Since Tim got me my camera for my birthday, I've had more fun taking pictures. Below her two month photo is a photo shoot that I did just for fun.

Sunday night Lilybelle got her finger smashed in a door. It was a sad sight to see. She saw the doctor for it Monday morning and then got an X-ray to see if it was a compound fracture. Luckily it wasn't. Whew. But I tell you, getting shots and x-rays all in one day made for a pretty eventful day. 

How Does Your Garden Grow

After many years of discussing a garden, Tim and I finally got around to planting three tomato plants. I didn't figure that we would get too many tomatoes but I was wrong. Over the weekend Tim picked and brought in over thirty tomatoes! How on earth were we going to eat all these tomatoes?! Thankfully I consulted Pinterest and figured it out. From those tomatoes I made salsa, stewed tomatoes, and fire roasted tomatoes. I froze the stewed tomatoes and fired roasted tomatoes to use for later. Below are the fruits of my labor. I'm glad that none of those tomatoes went go waste and can't wait to have fresh tomatoes in the winter. 

Staying home with the girls on my maternity leave has been great and crazy at the same time. Below are some of those ahh moments brought to you by Lilybelle and Claire. 

The Mundane

We've all settled into a daily routine around here. I'm enjoying my time with the two girls just doing the daily mundane tasks. Weather permitting we go for a walk and I try to take them to the museum once a week. We also clean the house and do a load or two of the never ending laundry. 

 We've had some colds in the family lately so it's changed our routine a little. On Friday Lilybelle and I built a fort using boxes and a sheet. It was a lot of fun. 

We've also been looking for a minivan for about a month. We realized after Claire was born that two kids and all their stuff don't fit too well in a compact car which is what Tim and I both have. So after looking at a lot of minivans we bought one today. Tim did a pretty good job negotiating for it. I can't wait to really get to use it. 

A Day at the Discovery and 1 Month Old

Today I summoned up my courage and took Lilybelle and Claire to the Discovery Museum. It went better than I expected. We might even do it again.

This week is bubble week at the museum and since Lilybelle is obsessed with bubbles right now I figured we had to go. It was pretty cool. We made a bubble snake and watched ivory soap turn into foam in the microwave. We also played in the river exhibit, went down the slide, played with the foam coal, and generally ran amok (and by we I mean Lilybelle, Claire and I just followed her). Claire was a perfect angel who slept in her baby bjorn the whole time. 

Today also marks Claire turning one month old. Below is her one month photo. I can't believe it has already been one month. Time flew. So I guess that means I must be having fun. :)

Aunt Shana comes to visit

My sister Shana just spent a week out with us. It was a fun week. We hung out, visited with family, and did some shopping. While she was out here we also blessed Claire. She looked so precious in her blessing gown. Originally she was going to wear the same gown as Lilybelle but at the eleventh hour I found my blessing gown. I had been looking for it off and on for the past few years with no luck. But the night before I decided to look in a container I thought I had looked in before. I must not have been very thorough because I found it!

But let me back up. A few days after Shana arrived, we drove down to our parents' house and spent the day with our Mom and little sister. Lilybelle even tried out Minden's sunglasses. 

She looks so good in the sunglasses but I can't get her to wear sunglasses her size. Ugh. 

On Shana's last day we went out to Legends for a little shopping, water, and lunch. I wanted to buy the girls matching dresses but Carter's was having a good sale so we went a little crazy. Let's just say that there is more than one matching outfit. 

While I fed Claire, Shana and Lilybelle played in the water. It was so cute. 

4th of July

Yesterday we had a good Independence Day. The day started by dressing the girls in matching outfits (I've always wanted to do that).


My parents came up for the day and after nap time we went to the River School Farm to look at artwork and flowers. I've never been out there and I wasn't disappointed.



After our little outing we came home and had dinner complete with a patriotic desert - vanilla ice cream on top of a blueberry raspberry crisp.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A Long Time Coming

I haven't posted in a while, mostly because I'm lazy and this last pregnancy totally took all my energy (my almost two year old probably didn't help any, she has limitless energy). But I felt the need to introduce our newest member of the family.

Claire was born on June 25, 2014 at 5:42 am. She weighed in at 8 pounds 10 ounces. She is the spitting image of her big sister when she was born. The good news with Claire is that she was only three days late versus her sister who was eleven days late and had to be forced out via an induction.

Funny story on her birth. I was originally scheduled for an induction on June 26, 2014. My doctor took pity on me and went ahead and scheduled it when I asked for one. I went and saw him on Tuesday (June 24) and he told me I was dilated to a 2. He went ahead and massaged my cervix and I went home fully prepared to check into the hospital on Thursday evening. I got home, put Lilybelle down to bed and took a nap myself. When I woke up, I felt some cramping but I didn't think anything about it. Tim got home later than normal that day and I told him that he was in charge of dinner because I thought I was having contractions. He wanted to know why I hadn't texted him when I my response was "I think I'm in labor." I told him I didn't think it was a big deal. I continued to be in denial that I was in labor until about 8 that night when Tim insisted that we start timing my contractions. Sure enough they were 5 minutes apart and lasting about a minute. I labored at home until a little before midnight when we called my mother-in-law who came over to watch Lilybelle and Tim took me to the hospital. My sister-in-law, who is a labor and delivery nurse, just happened to be working that night. She checked me out and sure enough I was far enough along to stay in the hospital. Which was good because I didn't think I was up to laboring at home anymore. A little less than 6 hours of labor (soo much less than Lilybelle) Claire was born. It was an amazing experience! It was so different than my labor with Lilybelle that I felt like having a kid before this didn't really give me any insider knowledge. My sister-in-law was my nurse and she did an awesome job. It was such a special experience. But without further ado please meet Claire Yvaine.

Lilybelle seems to really like Claire. She keeps calling her "my baby." I'm glad that she loves her little sister. Lilybelle has also taken to water. That's all she talks about. So on Saturday she went swimming in her cousin's pool and had a blast.

I'll try to be better about the updates in the future.