Month 3 for Liz and Christmas Prep with G!

It is incredibly hard to believe that my girl is 3 months old. Probably the most exciting thing about this month is Elizabeth trying to talk. She tries REALLY hard and squeaks out quite a few sounds! She also loves playing with her brother, and him with her:



She also loves scooting our of her chair!


and falling asleep in her jumper:


Well..sleep in general is good for Lizzie Kate:


She is the cutest narcissist ever though ;).haha! One who has found her hand and is quite pleased with it! For a child who won't take a paci to save her life, I am happy she has learned another way to self soothe. She is drooling a whole lot already, so I'm not sure if she is already getting teeth or not? Seems crazy but I remember Gabriel getting them super early. So, the fun will begin soon I am sure... :(

In other news, we are all excited for Christmas time:



I wish we were in Florida like last year, but sometimes it is good to be home too. Josh and I are trying to decide on family traditions with the kids. So far we have considered Santa or no Santa, PJ's on Christmas Eve, cookies, Christmas at our house Christmas Eve, and where to eat Breakfast. We definitely want to make it special for the kids without spoiling them rotten, or wearing ourselves out running all over creation on Christmas Day. It has been decided that they won't be getting dump truck loads worth of toys for Christmas. We also very much wish to focus on the fulfilled prophecies of Jesus. His birth which was prophesied 1000 years prior, in detail, and the promise He has for all who believe (Eternal life through Christ). Speaking of Jesus, I must add that Gabriel is quite the fan. He loves singing "Jesus loves me" with us, and praying before bed. He will fill in many words of the song and is sure to say "Amen" after we pray. He also enjoys patting my head as daddy leads us in prayer, and telling me he "loves you!" Obviously meaning me. It is the most adorable thing ever!

Gabriel minds very well the majority of the time, but sometimes he irritates me and does something that I have told him repeatedly not to do. So yesterday he was standing in the co sleeper (the bed Elizabeth sleeps in next to my bed) when I walked in and told him to get out. So what does he do? He gets right back into it of course! So I told him I was going to pop him next time he did it. He started to laugh so I told him it wasn't funny. He then cocked his head to the side, slanted his eyes, and gave me this flirty grin to say, "ohhh mommy" in the cutest little voice I've ever heard. I totally wish I had a camera in my head, but this blog is the best I can do for remembrance sake. He's a sly one that one, but I love him to death!



Oh, we did go on a train ride this month. Gabriel was over the moon! Pics to come...hopefully! haha ;).

Smiley Girl!

So I wish I had time to blog a little more, but sometimes I feel so overwhelmed with work, cleaning this pig pen of a house, and chasing Gabriel around that the last thing I want to do is turn blogging into another chore. For this second, however, Gabriel is in bed napping and Josh has Elizabeth snug in his lap. I just enjoyed a cup of eggnog latte (a little too hot at first to remind myself to drink it slow and relax)and wanted to jot down a few memorable things! My little Elizabeth had her 2 month check up -slightly late- and is almost 11 lbs. She is growing like a weed and has little rolls on her legs and under her chin. She is also getting a red tint to her hair. She is the most adorable thing, and she is a social bumble bee. She LOVES looking at people, smiling, laughing, and cooing. I swear she says, "HI" to us sometimes. She even gets her legs kicking and arms flying. She just gets so tickled that we want to talk to her, or even walk by her, in her chair. It is almost as if she is thinking about you and when you walk by she says, "hey, hey, here I am! Look at me!" It makes my heart smile! She is also very picky about certain things in her life. She wants to be held, doesn't like to be set down, likes to stand up while being held, won't sleep unless she is being rocked or has a boob in her mouth, and loves to be swaddled. So, Josh has learned if he can swaddle her, stick a paci right at the corner of her lips (because she won't actually suck on a paci), and turn on his phone to white noise, she will go right to sleep. Like magic! When you don't have a boob you improvise! haha! Gabriel was also kinda picky. I like to say my kids know what they want. Others would say they are just spoiled. Who cares though, I love spoiling them if that is what I'm doing! They are only small for a fraction of a moment. Here they are, the cutest kids in the world:












We also celebrated Daddy's 30th birthday last month:




And although I'm the one mostly holding Elizabeth, daddy gets all the pics:



I love all of them so much. They are my world! Even though Gabriel has a serious daddy obsession! I can't complain though. I love that he loves dad so much, and I hope he is a good man just like Josh =).

2 month comparison!

Gabriel at 2 months:



Elizabeth at 2 months:

Miss Elizabeth is 2 months! Gabriel is 2 years and some change!

I don't want to always compare Elizabeth with Gabriel, but I love to see the parallels between the two kids as they grow. This is why I am so glad I wrote everything in my blog =). At 2 months Gabriel had:

*Smiled and laughed (not a full out belly laugh yet though)
*Improved his motor skills and has learned to suck on his hand (and find his hands obviously)
*See at greater distances
*Roll over
*Lift himself completely up during "tummy time"

Miss Elizabeth has:

*Smiled and laughed (yep, not a belly laugh)
*Can find her fist, but prefers not to suck on it. She wants only the boob. No paci for her either!
*See at distances. She LOVES watching her brother walk around and smiles at him often!
*Can't roll over. She hates tummy time and won't even try.
*Not as strong as big bro. Again, doesn't enjoy tummy time and just bobs her head and cries!


One thing I didn't list on Gabriel's 2 month blog post was cooing. Elizabeth coos at us and smiles SO big! She absolutely loves interacting with us, talking to us, and keeping our attention. I definitely think she will be talking before Gabriel, or at least talking more! Gabriel isn't a big talker. He can say a lot of words, but he likes to get to his point with as few words as possible (boy=man). A good example is when he wants a drink. He will start out with "juice," that turns into "JUICE, which finally ends in him pushing/pulling me while saying, "JUICE!!!!!!" haha! We are working on this. Trying to add in a please and ignoring him without the please. I imagine when Elizabeth is old enough to ask the question may sound more like, "mom, I would really like juice. I enjoy juice. Can you please get it for me!" -wink wink-.

Elizabeth has yet to go to the doctor (insurance drama), but we will know how much she weighs on the 28th of November. One day after daddy's 30th birthday. I am definitely not worried about her weight, she has rolls all over! She is definitely a cutie and I feel so blessed to be her and Gabriel's momma!

1 month!

One month later and I'm finally posting pictures of the birth! I can not believe it has been a month since my beautiful baby girl was born, but we have been soaking up the moments -and the snuggles-. It amazes me how different my two kids are already. That God makes each baby so unique! I'm sure they will have their similarities as well, but for now I'm noticing more of the differences. Things like, she enjoys being held in a cradle position close to my body, while Gabriel enjoyed being held on his tummy with his face out. I guess he wanted to see the world a little more, while Elizabeth loves to sleep! Gabriel loved the pacifier (wub nub) and she chokes on it. Silly girl just doesn't know what she wants to do with her tongue. Lizard definitely fits her ;)hehe. Even eating becomes a challenge because she doesn't always want to latch. I have to really work with her which makes night time feedings a bit harder. Gabriel was super good at finding what he wanted and getting it *the food that is*! More differences I've already noticed deal with contentment. She is super content and could literally sleep all day, even in a chair. She prefers to be held, but I can set her down. Which is more than I can say about Gabriel as a babe! I would set him down in a chair and he would scream his head off. I swear if he was awake he was screaming...not Elizabeth. I will not complain =). Similarities as of right now are few, but they do look a lot alike. I would say especially their lips and nose. Their eyes are shaped similar, although Elizabeth has a "hooded" eye lid like I had as a child, and Gabriel never had that. They both also have/had a "hawk!" That is a line of hair that is growing thicker in the center of the head! Liz does have more hair than Gabriel, but the mohawk is a noticeable similarity.

Other than differences and similarities, I also wanted to write in this post that Gabriel adores his sissy! He looks for her every morning and wants to give her a hug and kiss. He also looks out for her in the car, and calls her "sissy!" He wants to play with her SO bad and does not really understand why I keep telling him "no." I can't wait until she starts laughing at him. He is going to get a kick out of that.

I have to tell a story about Gabriel as well. This will be embarrassing for him one day, but it was super cute. We were at my mom's house playing with Shelby and Sydney when Mylena picked up Gabriel and noticed he was wet. She said, "eww, he wet through his diaper." I told her that was impossible because I just changed him, but when I checked his pants they were definitely wet with pee. I took them off to see what the deal was to find he had pulled his "pee pee" out of his diaper in the front. It was sticking out the top! So, he says, "oh, it's stuck!" hahaha. We all had a good laugh about that one =)!!!!!

I think that is all for the one month. We have yet to take Elizabeth to her one month appointment, because she has not been added to the insurance. It was a big to do that ended up with me going to the court house for her birth certificate. They no longer give an uncertified copy at the hospital and they don't mail them. How stupid! Anyway, so I don't know how much she weighs, but she is chubbing up a little. She has little rolls on her legs and under her chin that are super cute. Gabriel never had this either, skinny thing ;0). So, I'll post some stats when we actually make it to the doc.. We won't be doing shots at all until I'm done breast feeding, and then it will probably be the same ones Gabriel got.

Happy Halloween tomorrow. Gabriel will be a monkey!!!!

October Morning

Gabriel loves holding his sister in the morning! I go get him and he asks, "where's baby?" and so we go find her. When we find baby he says, "hug!" So, we hug and play with her feet =):




I never want to forget these mornings. My plan is to bring the professional camera home and get a good size portrait out of this. I'll have to do some planning and make the bed, put them in cute pj's, etc., but I think it would be worth it!