Little Princess

Have you met many little girls who aren't in love with pretending to be a princess? Well, Clara is not one of those! This little gal loves her Princess dress-up costume, complete with cape, crown, and wand.

Princess Clara

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Here'a little clip of our little man. He loves when I sing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to him. All smiles and giggles, too cute!

Proud of our Soldier

Please join me in congratulating Aaron on being promoted! He appeared before the promotion board this morning and was approved for promotion to Staff Sergeant, effective November 1st. In Aaron's 4 years in the Army he has quickly climbed the ranks from Private (E-3) to his pending position as SSG (E-6). He has excelled at his responsibilities and earned the respect of many. His hard work and dedication are paying off and I couldn't be more proud of my Soldier :) . Way to go baby!

Colton is 4 months old!

This certainly will sound familiar....our little man is growing so fast! Here are his 4 month stats. If you compare them to the 3 month pics, you'll notice that he appears to have lost some weight. I doubt that! I'm chalking it up to the fact that the 3 month weight was "estimated" using our home scale formula of weigh mom, then weigh mom holding Colton and use the difference. His 4 month weight is pretty accurate as it was taken at the doctor's office during his check-up. Clearly our home method isn't very accurate! I recall that we had this same problem with Clara and making her onesies, too.  
      

Hey Mom! Whatcha need?



I'm a little busy now. Sucking my thumb...



...and playing with my feet.



Okay, I'm done! Here are my 4 month stats.

We experienced new milestone this past week. I spent Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Nashville, for a work conference, by myself! That's right, no kids, no hubbie, just me and the ladies from work. They were able to pry me away from my babies for the first time ever for 4 days and 3 nights. It wasn't easy, but we all survived. My wonderful dad came down to help with the kiddos since Aaron's schedule is too unpredictable and he can't go in or get off at normal times for them to have just gone to daycare.

On Monday evening I spoke to my dad and he sounded completely exhausted! But, by Tuesday afternoon he was getting into a good rhythm and getting the hang of juggling two young children. My days and nights were spent pumping, meeting early intervention providers from other Army posts, networking, pumping, learning new work procedures and techniques, relaxing, pumping, enjoying some much needed down time, and, did I mention, pumping. All in all, I had a nice week and enjoyed my little break. That doesn't mean I didn't miss my babies like crazy and got home as fast as I could to snuggle and tuck them in on Thursday night.  I'm not anxious to do it again any time soon, but now I know I can!

Until next time, xoxoxox.

A Visit with Great Grandpa & Great Grandma

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit with Grandpa Paul and Grandma Margaret while we were in South Bend. Although it was short, we had a very nice visit with then on Sunday before heading back home to Rineyville.

Talking with Great Grandma

Grandpa's give the best horsey rides!

Three generations

All laughs!

Fun with Abby and Cooper

We spent the weekend in South Bend. We had planned on taking the kids out for their first ND tailgating experience but Mother Nature had other plans. It rained ALL DAY! Needless to say, I wasn't taking a two-year-old and a baby out in the rain all day. So, we improvised. We went to the mall with Abby and Cooper, played at home, and had fun staying dry!

The bathing beauties! Oops, I mean goofs!

Playing beauty shop

Fun on the floor

The stare-down

The Cutest Irish Fans Ever

Even if the Irish loose a nail-biting, heart wrenching game, these three cuties will always "Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame".

The Little Bride

When we were in Detroit last month we went to our cousin Crystal's wedding reception. Clara was so fascinated with the bride. She kept talking about the dress and how pretty Crystal was. Now, weeks later, she's still talking about Crystal's wedding and being a bride. She puts all her jewelry on, pulls on her dress up skirts and has us sing "Here Comes the Bride" while she marches from the kitchen to the living room. The best part, if you ask her who's she's marrying, she always answers "daddy"!

Here's a picture of our little bride taking a rest.

Our Little Man Is Getting So Big

Colton just keeps getting so big, so quick! Here are some recent pictures of our little guy just being himself and making us smile because he's just too darn cute!

Sitting up so nice



Check out that good lookin' baby

You talking to me Mom?