Like Father, Like Son

Mommy couldn't help but laugh when she looked over and saw her two boys curled up on the couch in the same position...both on their iPads.  Truly, like father, like son!!! :)

Ashley's Looks

These days Ashley seems to have two looks.  One: Happy, go lucky smiley girl.



The other: Sleeping.  She must be going through a growth spurt!

T's Last Day of Mini-3s Preschool

Trevor's last day of his first preschool.  Wow.  Sad yet happy.  Our little boy is becoming a young man and we couldn't be more proud of him.  Polite.  Funny.  Stubborn.  Smart.  Helpful.  Honest.  Just a few words that quickly come to mind when thinking about him.  His almost three and a half year old self. 

For his last day they had an ice cream social at school.  Before Mommy got there they dished out the goods.  Charlotte's Mommy said that he would eat all the whip cream and toppings then ask for more whip cream and toppings.  This apparently happened three times before someone finally cut him off!  Gosh he just makes us smile!  He wanted a picture with Mrs. Harvey.  He will sure miss her this summer.  And will probably wonder where she is next Fall when he goes to preschool and has a new teacher!



Here is part of his class.  No surprise that Trevor is right on Mrs. Harvey's lap!  T's friend Brian is also on her lap and Stella (also our neighbor) is in the white and pink outfit to his right.

And here is the other part.  Ashley is in purple, Collette is on Mrs. Lashway's lap, Connor is next to her, and Tristan is in Mrs. Costello's lap (who also happens to be his Grandma).



After a McDonald's lunch to celebrate his last day we came home for naps.  Trevor took the first half of his nap in his bed and then decided to sleep on the floor in our room.  Superman was wiped out!!

For dinner we got to meet Grandma and Grandpa Hillins out for dinner to have another celebration.  Trevor thought he was pretty special!!  Little does he know that we'll be seeing them in MN this weekend too! Very exciting!!!

Ashley's First Cereal

The doctor gave Ashley the thumbs up to start on rice cereal so we did that night!!  We had purchased Ashley her own personalized bib just like the one that our friend Stacey gave Trevor when he was born. It turned out pretty cute and Ashley almost seemed to know that when we put it on, it meant something big was going to happen!

 

Trevor too had been waiting and waiting for the day to arrive so that he could feed her.  Look how excited he is....and look how disgusted she seems to be with her new treat!

Really? I've been waiting for this?  Ick!

Well maybe it isn't so bad.  I do get to eat off a pink spoon afterall....



Nope...just as awful as the first bite.

So then she clamped her mouth shut and didn't let any more in.  So different from her big brother who with his first shot of cereal opened so wide and followed the spoon until it landed in his mouth.

Maybe we'll wait a few more days to try again.  Especially after Mommy tried to feed her and she threw up everything she had consumed.  Daddy got that on video.  Priceless!



Ashley's 6 Month Onesie Pics and Stats

We can hardly believe that our little princess is 6 months old.  Seriously!!  How did that happen??  She is such a joy to have around.  Eats, sleeps, plays, hardly fusses...just like Trevor did when he was an infant.  We think they are starting to look a bit more different.  Well, until they smile then all bets are off except Ashley has huge dimples.  Sigh.

Ashley was a trooper at her 6 month appt.  She proudly showed off all of her skills - including sitting for a few seconds - to Dr. Engle.  She babbled and smiled and laughed and cooed.  It really was cute! Stats:
Height: 26.5" 78th percentile
Weight: 14lbs, 14 oz 26th percentile (no the doctor wasn't concerned.  Look at her!  She's breastfed so the growth curve levels off for them until they start food which will be very soon!)
Head: 44cm 88th percentile

  She also showed off her new skill of taking (and liking) a pacifier.  She just gets it before naps and bedtime but really we'd give it to her whenever if it makes her happy.  

The funny thing is, is that she'll take many different brands of pacifiers.  Going from taking none, to being particular and taking only the soothie one to now taking Advent or Mam brands too.  Kind of funny.  Anyhoo, our precious girl was great at the doctor until the point where we had to wait for the assistant to come in and do her shots.  We were warned ahead of time that one of the vaccines that usually combines three of the shots is in a nationwide shortage so instead of three pokes plus an oral vaccine, Ashley would be having 5 pokes and an oral vaccine.  Ugh. 

She did great though!  Smiled through the first three, whimpered through the fourth and screamed at the fifth.  The assistant didn't do the oral vaccine at the beginning for some reason but it might have worked to her advantage because Ashley stopped crying in less than 5 seconds to suck that down. Maybe it tastes like sugar?  In any case that was that.  We fed in the car and ran some errands and then she slept the day away.  She didn't really have a fussy period about 4 hours after the shots like she did with her 4 month shots.  Thank goodness!  We had put the swing away but Mommy got it back out for her to use after her big day.  What a brave girl. 



Happy Mother's Day!

What a fun Mother's Day Sara got to have in AZ with her now family of four.  Okay, five if you count Randle (notice how the stinker even looks to be paying attention to Mommy reading her Mother's Day card!)

We went to church on Saturday afternoon so that we could have a lazy Sunday morning and that is what we did!  The boys made Mommy eggs, bacon and coffee cake, all of which were extremely yummy. 

 

Ashley seems to be teething even more so we broke out the mesh feeder and put an ice cube in for her to suck on.  She seemed to like it, but Trevor seemed to really enjoy feeding his sister.



 

Her new smile where she has her gums pressed together.  Probably feels good or something!

 

We spent the rest of the day with Grandma Pauline and Papa John.  They came over for an appetizer lunch, swimming, chatting and a most wonderful steak dinner.  Too bad Mommy got sick after eating dinner - probably too much dairy-free fake cheese the two days prior.  That caused Mommy to miss getting a pic with her two kiddos but at least Grandma Pauline got one with her two AZ grand kids!

Day with the Jansen's!

On Friday we were invited to Phoenix Children's Museum with Nicci, Adam and Cole and boy did we have a fun time.  The boys are like the three amigos!  They had fun at every activity and Nicci and Sara really enjoyed watching them and their smiley faces.  So much so we didn't even break out the iphones to capture said smiles.  That is, until we got to the bikes.  The kids were too cute not to take a picture.

Or two,,..



Or three...'cuz we have to remember that this contraption held their attention for a good thirty plus minutes!

Okay and just one more because we have to remember that Trevor would crawl into Ashley's infant seat in the stroller to rest.  Maybe he was weaned from the infant seat too soon??

That evening the men, Brian and Mike, along with Mike's Dad joined us for...you guessed it...bull riding!  They too had never been to see it so we got to introduce them to what is becoming our Friday night tradition!  They were fans of the food and entertainment (although the horn sound was a bit much for Cole's ears and none of us enjoyed seeing the sheep riders crash into the gates but we're sure we'll be back).

Our Little Artist

Every so often we get a picture from Trevor's preschool that makes us smile.  This is for sure one of those pics!  He might just be the next van Gogh.  And a cute one at that!!

Weekend of Fun!

What a fun time we are having!!  Ashley is changing by the minute, Trevor is changing by the day and we are just trying to soak it all up!!  For example, Ashley finally learned how to grab onto the star on her office and take a big bite. We can remember like it was yesterday the day Trevor did this (and has the exact same picture!)

 

Trevor and Ashley can't get enough of each other.  It really is precious.  Earlier this week Trevor made sure his little chair was positioned right next to her office so that he could read books to her and play with her.  Love the expression on her face here....she doesn't want to miss a thing when big brother is around.  What's that she seems to say!

 

Other happenings include Ashley trying out the old sippy cup that Trevor used to use.  Although it came out much too fast but boy was she proud grabbing onto it and using it!

 

Ashley has been known to flip over and sleep on her tummy...and is content doing so...until she wakes up and realizes she is on her tummy and is then very pissed off.  Lazy one won't roll herself back over.  She'd much rather fuss and know that Mommy will rescue her :)

 

Speaking of the sucky sippy cup, we got our princess a new sippy cup that seems to work much better.  And it's pink. Every girl needs a pink cup!

 

Trevor loved helping her with her new cup and Ashley sure didn't seem to mind the help either.  'Lazy'

 

But anyhoo, about the weekend.  Boy was it busy and fun!  On Friday we celebrated Fiesta Friday with our neighbors - about 15 kids and 14 adults.  All from the 7 houses around us!  We had always heard about our neighborhood Margarita Monday parties but had yet to actually see one since we moved in so we decided to host our own party!  Plus a party on Friday is way better than on Monday in our opinion.  Celebrating Cinco de Mayo was in order so we had tortillas, pulled chicken, taquitos, chips and salsa, churro puppy chow mix and lots of Corona.  People brought dips and margartitas and overall we just had a great time in our courtyard. 

 

On Saturday night we had an impromptu dinner with Grandma Pauline and Papa John and of course that is always a nice time.  Trevor doesn't want them to leave so lucky boy gets to stay up a bit later than normal on nights like this!!

 

On Sunday we talked to Uncle Jim since it was his birthday but also enjoyed brunch with Mike, Nicci and boys.  We were going to go to their house but last minute switched it to our house so the boys could go swimming.  Nicci brought over a wonderful egg bake and caramel French toast that was out of this world.  Must get that recipe pronto!!

Almost 3.5 years and 6 month pics

On Wednesday of this week we had the kids' pictures taken at Picture People in the mall.  We had a Groupon that expired that day so if we didn't go we would lose it and who likes losing money?  Not us!  We got some cute ones of the kiddos so it was all worth it! 

It didn't take much to have Trevor give his little sister a kiss!

Big girl 'sitting' - only because of the baby propper!  She has no interest in hitting milestones early like someone else :)

So happy (even with an infected clogged tear duct)!

We had this one cropped a bit and printed so we have a bazillion of these images if anyone wants one!

Sibling love = precious!

Seriously cute!

Happy, happy!

You can't force this.  Love!

Trevor loves any chance he can to hold his baby sister.  Nothing like putting their outfits together 30 minutes before we needed to leave but they ended up coordinating nicely!

Not sure how long we can call her baby - she's huge!

Princess has finally got the hang of tummy time and proudly lifts her head to show off!

Yes, I know I'm cute :)

...and happy!

Thanks to Uncle Bob and Aunt Kathy for her cute dress!  The headband is part of a 6-12 month dress that Jeff, Dawn and girls gave to her.  Funny that the dress doesn't fit yet but the headband is already tight!

You just have to laugh looking at our happy boy!

Such a contagious laugh and smile!

He's got the model pose down!

Yep!

And at the end of their session Trevor was very, very concerned why Mommy wasn't getting her pic taken too.  So nothing like a wash and dry hair and no make-up look but if it was important to Trevor she was going to do it!

Might be a bit better in black and white, but Mommy was very glad that Trevor insisted on a picture of Mommy and her kiddos!

For Ashley's 6 month pics, maybe we can sneak in a full family pic too :)