A VERY eventful week in reverse!

I have so many pictures and stories this week, I have been seriously stalling on writing. I just spent the time uploading all of the pics (there's a crap ton of them), and within the last two realized I did them all backwards. So instead of starting with Sunday and going trough Saturday, I started with Saturday and went backwards to Sunday. Follow me? We will see...

Since my family is going on scrapbook weekend next weekend, we celebrated early this week. We made the coolest eggs ever, and super easy. I shaved old crayons and while the egg was still hot from boiling, we sprinkled the shavings on top of the eggs. As they melted they made these awesome marbling patterns. My favorite is the one on top.

We also made cute snorkeling eggs and some animals out of plastic eggs using felt and various junk. I got all of these ideas out of Family Fun magazine and submitted my pics to them. I hope they put them in the next issue!

Last year's Easter hunt, we basically threw the eggs in the grass and let Jakob pick them up. This year, he can look for them. I hid them, but in open sight, if that makes sense. He did really well. He found all of them but two and they were the hardest ones! Can't wait to do another one next weekend in Jon and Debbie's enormous yard! That will keep him busy!



That morning we took the kids to take their pics in the bluebonnets. They both looked adorable, but were difficult to work with, especially Jakob. I think I got a few good ones though. I am framing these three together in a tri-frame I already have!






I have been trying to teach Jakob to cover his mouth since before Ashlyn was born. He always takes reminding though, but of course during pictures he remembered...lol.

I want to enter this picture in the State Fair photography contest.


On Thursday, I tried to take a "drive" with the intention of getting Ashlyn a nap before Jakob started hollering and carrying on like he does when we are at home. He would not be quiet though. I don't want to get into it all, but literally the boy could not stop words from coming out of his mouth for more than 2 seconds, not even to let you respond. I was trying to tune him out, but then I heard the word "boxes". He has never said that so it caught my attention. I wondered what he could be saying and looked around and saw this....


I had to laugh and said, "Oh yeah...you are right honey. Those are boxes!" =)
I think it was thursday also we had the hail storm, maybe Wednesday. Anyhow, there was so much hail. Lucky for us it never got much bigger than a pea, but it was sure loud. Jakob woke up after it was over and would not go back to bed for hours. He thought it was morning and we should all get up, and of course threw numerous fits when we refused. Ahhh toddlers.

That's a lot of hail...it was like the back corner of Jakob's play yard was solid ice.


Ashlyn was super cute and adorable this week. I can't believe how big she is getting. I had to retire all of her 3-6 months clothes, which particularly upset me because she outgrew her adorable Easter dress and sandals. =(

She suddenly loves tummy time. She learned to roll over, so maybe it's because now she knows she can get out of it. The other day I laid her on a blanket on her back and went to the kitchen. When I came back she had rolled onto her stomach and put herself in tummy time!

I am always trying to get sibling shots but it is so hard with Jakob. I can't believe he won't let me take his picture more than he does.


Ash also started using and enjoying her jumperoo. She won't take much weight on her legs yet, but will tolerate 5 minutes or so in it...and seems happy to be there...laughing and such. She is so darn funny.
Cheesing it up in her first bubble bath.

Jakob wants to hold her but has no soothing skills, and basically freaks out when she cries. He tried for a second this week, but gave up after about 2 seconds!

So these are from after Finn's birthday party Sunday, or the beginning of this week! =) The kids both zonked out on the ride home. Jakob must have been crashing from the sugar he consumed because he barely made it five minutes and he was out. To his credit he kept his grip on his balloon for the first 45 minutes of the drive!


Some of the previously mentioned sugar.

I love this picture of Finn trying to feed Meaghan. I wish it showed her face, but I have a pic just like this of me and Jakob on his first bday. That's Michael's hand on the right(his dad).

Besties.

I love party pics of Jakob. I love that he wears the hats (except someone snapped his nose with it on accident, so now he will probably never wear another one). I have a similar one from Torie's 2nd bday party!

With the birthday boy himself!

Finn and Ryan (his Aunt, my friend and coworker)
Meaghan made "Old Swampy" out of her cupcake book. I was super impressed at how awesome it turned out. I helped her with the eyes.

Mom came over and helped me with the kids. We finally broke in the waterpillar, my awesome clearance purchase at the end of last season. Jakob loved it and was totally drenched when we went in.
Ashlyn was kinda fussy. =(
and kinda happy (usually within seconds of each other).

Whew. I am finally to the end of the most pictures ever week! Wowie! If you are still with me, you gotta give me a nibble. I am totally fishing.

4.9.11 Another Uneventful Week

Nothing much happening this week. We went to the Bradley's for Jon's Bday. He bought Jakob his first putter and they hit some balls for a while.

Jakob wants to help feed his sister but loses interest in about 5 seconds. Still cute though. He really wants to hug her and hold her and play with her, but usually just hurts her or scares her. It will be so much fun when she is bigger and they can interact more.

Ash is so close to rolling over, but not wuite there yet. She is getting really chunky!

At night Jakob wants to sit with me when I am rocking Ashlyn, so I managed to snap this picture...I love pics with all of us in them (though we have yet to get one of all four of us.) Jeff may be getting a new job, where he will work even more than he does now (grrr), so we may never get a family picture!

I tried to go to Jimmy Johns on Thursday for lunch. They were appreciating their customers with $1 sandwiches. There was no way I had time to wait in this line though...even if I did I doubt I would have. The sandwiches aren't THAT great.


We got the bill for Ashlyn's surgery, $22,050.00! Apparently our insurance is not paying so I have to call Monday to find out what that is all about. We had better not get stuck with that, I will freak out! I also got a letter my OBGYN is leaving the practice. If you don't know, I adore her. She is the best doctor I have ever had and delivered both of my babies. If I can't follow her wherever she is going, than that puts another nail in my reproductive coffin. No way I am trusting anyone else to my complicated pregnancies!
I am counting down the minutes till 10:30 (98 minutes from now!) when I get to get out of the house kid free. I am going to do some very light shopping, pick up Ashlyn's pics, and then....get an 80 minute hot stone massage! I really hope they can work away some of my back pain. It has definately gotten better since we got the new mattress (oh yeah, we bought a new mattress on Sunday and got it on Monday...it's fawesome), but still needs help.
Ok, maybe it wasn't totally without events, but that was my week.

4.2.11 It was a bad week...

Well it may not show much in the pictures, but I had a rough week. The day to day monotony of work, feeding the kids, and getting them to bed, and never having anytime for myself finally got to me. By this time with Jakob, I had probably called my mom hysterical 2 or 3 times. I knew better what to expect this time around, and have handled things better. Wednesday night though, I just lost it. Both kids cried all night, and Ashlyn decided to quit taking a pacifier, so the only way to get her to sleep was to let her cry and cry and cry. I ended up crying on the couch and Jakob came to comfort me. After he went to bed (I cried through storytime too), I called my mom and vented for like half an hour. It was nice to talk to someone who had been there before and could relate. I always feel so awful after a mental break like that, like I failed my kids. By morning though, they both seemed to have forgotten all about the bad episode.
Backing up to talk about this week's favorite pics, Tuesday brought the next photo in Ashlyns Bunny series. I don't think she looks to much longer this month, just chunkier. At least this time she is not screaming her head off.

Jakob and I played outside a lot this week. We finally moved his battery operated car outside where it belongs, and he rode it all over the back yard.

Tuesday and Thursday Maeghan and Finn came over to play and give her hubby some much needed study time. It was so fun having them over, and I was surprised how good Jakob did with Finn. There were a couple times the ugly "M" word (mine) reared its head, but for the most part he shared well and tried to play with Finn, who only seemed interested in carrying as many things as possible around.

I told Jakob he should give Finn a hug, and this is what he did...like Finn had cooties or something. Too funny.

Random (but kinda cute) picture of me on the hammock.

Hehe.
Jakob was playing on his fort and I told him to stick his head through the hole and say cheese...so he sticks his head through EVERY hole and says cheese. It was pretty funny and I got LOTS of great pictures! Here's one.

Saturday the kids and I went to mom's to have my mommy and me redo photo shoot with my sister. We didn't get to take too many pics because Ash was pissed off about getting stuck back in that Big Ass Bow and hot outfit, but I was smart enough to bring a cute cooler outfit as well and we got some good ones outside as well as a few good ones in the B.A.B. I actually took this one my self....go me!

3.26.11 Ashlyn is three months old!

We started this week off with a family BBQ at my moms house. It was a lot of fun, and it was nice to see my sister. I feel like since I have gone back to work I hardly ever see anyone any more. Ash loved being outside and rocking with Nana...she got so comfy she let it all hang out. It cracked me up how far out her little Budda belly was sticking.

Mom bought a new water table for the kids, her justification being now there will be three kids who can enjoy it for years to come. She cracks me up. Jakob of course loved it. It was still a little cool out, but Mom promised he wouldn't get super wet. She forgot Tio was coming over....they ended up having to strip the boy down just to go in because he looked like a little drowned rat. He had so much fun though, and it certainly wasn't cold enough for him to be sick or anything. He didn't seem to care at all if he did feel cold!

I need to get a video of Jakob pretending to be the baby, but here's a picture. It's almost as funny as a video would be.

Another smiley Ash pic. She smiles so much these days, and squels with delight. I love it!

She turned three months old this week. I can't believe how fast time is going. I managed to snap this pic on Jeff's phone and I adore it. My stupid battery in my camera died though, so I only got this one and two others on her actual 3 month bday.

Yesterday I took her to Sears to get her official photos done. I forgot how much work it is to get good pics of a baby in a studio. We spent what seemed like forever just trying to get pics of her not crying! I think the ones of her turned out really great. I also did mommy and me pics and they sucked hardcore. I was so upset. I don't understand why its so hard to get a good picture of me with her...everyone else seems to get good pics with her all the time, but there are very few of the two of us. I asked my sister to come do a photo shoot later with us, so hopefully we will get some good ones then.


In milestone news, she rolled over twice this week, both of which seemed accidental and surprised her. Awesome. Even more awesome is that 4 of the last 5 nights, she has dropped her 3 am bottle and slept through the night. We are super excited!