Ty - 6 months

Happy Half Birthday Ty!

I say it as each month goes by but, I cannot believe you are 6 months old. Half a year of your life already! I vividly remember this day when Kinley hit her half birthday. I felt like she was so old and that I had been a mom forever already. It's crazy because I feel like time literally has jumped forward from that day and I definitely feel like I know less about being a mom now than I did then. I wonder if that trend continues?

Ty-Ty you truly are a perfect gift from the Lord to our family. I cannot imagine our little family without you. You continue to be a pretty easy baby and I feel so blessed. A few things about this month:

• Your sleeping has gotten a little less awesome. You are probably waking up once to twice a night still and you are a pretty restless sleeper. I swaddle you in the miracle blanket every night. You are way to long for it so, I really only wrap your arms and your feet are open. You kick those feet up and down all night long and as soon as your arms can wriggle a little you want to wake up! So, we re-wrap almost every night.
• I also will not move you from our room yet. I know! I am crazy...but, I don't really want to walk all the way across the house twice a night yet. And, even though the weather has been amazing...every so often it still gets really cold at night and your room is the coldest in the house. But, I am feeling the move very soon, buddy.
• You are VERY vocal. The sweet ladies in the church nursery tell me that you talk, talk, talk everytime I pick you up. You will still go to anybody and just talk their ear off. You are in the church nursery at least 2 times a week for church and bible study and have always done great. They have never had to page me to come get you. I guess you are just too busy talking! You try to tell us all what you want and if you are about to get upset.
• You got your first 2 teeth this month! Your two little bottom ones. They are so adorable. I am pretty sure this is why your sleeping went downhill a bit. I am hoping it gets better now that they have popped through..until the next round of teeth. This has also led to you having your hand or a toy in your mouth pretty much non-stop.
  
  
  
  
  
• You still completely adore your sister. She can get you to smile and laugh when no one else can. She is our best distraction for you and our biggest help when dad and I need a few more minutes before we can pick you up. She is actually making you smile for this picture.
  
  
• You can pretty much sit up all on your own now. If you are playing with a toy and just chill you can do it but with a little too much emotion or squirming and you topple over. I would not say you have mastered it yet.
• Your diet still just consists of nursing with a little formula mixed in now and then. But, we are excited to start feeding you some fruits and veggies in your sixth month. I hope you love them and continue to be a great eater!
• Your smile brings joy upon joy to all our faces. You smile with every part of your face and it totally comes from inside you. Every worry, trouble, mundane frustration or ounce of exhaustion melts away in your smile. It is totally contagious and so sweet.
  
  
• You had your first major accident this month. Just call me MOTY (mom-of-the-year). I shut your fingers in dad's truck door. So sad! I was holding you and trying to grab some bags out of the front seat while sister was sleeping in the back and while trying to shut the door so carefully and quietly, you just were just too sneaky and slid your hand right in there before it shut. It was quite traumatic and I was so sad to hear you cry like that because you really never do. We went straight to the doctor who told me that you are more than perfect and that my panic, though understandable, was completely unnecessary.

Ty-man, you are the most precious angel. I love you more each and every day. I continue to pray for you and Kinley that you will both come to know Jesus and seek after him from an early age. I pray for God's protection of you both and guidance in your lives. Dad and I are so honored, humbled and a bit overwhelmed to help guide you guys to Jesus. We are thankful for God's mercy and grace. We thank you for making every minute of it a complete joy.

We love you sweet boy.

Kinley's birthday invite and inspiration board

Kinley is about to be 3...THREE!?!?....years old. I can't believe it. This last year has flown by without any warning. To put it mildly, Kinley is very aware of what she wants these days and made it known months ago that she wanted a Puppy party for her birthday.

Really?

Puppy party?

Well, there is no way I am actually getting you a puppy.

That's just crazy talk.

Poor Haley gets very little love these days and the idea of a new puppy makes me have the shakes.

But, there is NO de-railing this kid when she is on a mission. So, puppy party it is!

I did not have any idea what to do with this theme when she first brought it up. I had never seen or heard of a puppy theme before. I started googling it a while back and all I could really find were birthday parties that people were throwing for their puppies. I know. I have yet to throw or attend a birthday party for a dog. But, who knows!? It might be fun!

Well, since then, I have come to know that Kinley is either a trend-setter or has the gift of prophecy...because in the past month, I have seen puppy party overload...everywhere!

Martha Stewart got in on the action...

via

Tons of Pinterest Ideas...

And there is even a whole puppy section at Party City now...

via

This is my puppy party inspiration board for Kinley. I am thinking a black, white, and red color scheme. Our dog, Haley, is black and white and I love the red fire hydrant. I am really getting excited about all the puppy-themed food, activities, and sayings. I hope Kinley gets excited about it!

I decided to create and print all the invites this year and used my silhouette to cut out a bone-shape invite and a red fire hydrant. They are super simple and used up $0 of my birthday budget because I had everything at home! Yay!

Much more puppy-party-planning over the next couple weeks for us!

the park, the zoo, and honey's birthday

It's already a week into March and I have yet to blog. Crazy. We have been having a great month so far. The weather has pretty much been awesome. We love being outside. We have been sidewalk-chalking and tricycle riding up a storm. We also LOVE walking to the park and playing on the playground and sliding and swining. Ty had his first swinging experience this week. He was a little confused but I think overall he liked it.


Are yall so sick of the iphone pics!? I totally am.
I just seem to have my arms full everytime I leave the house and so the camera isn't picked up. I wish I had used my real camera for these pictures for sure. Kinley is already starting to dress up Ty in her dress up clothes.


We also made a trip to the Zoo on Monday. It's no surprise we love the zoo. We have been and blogged it many, many, many times. We went with Jen, Eden and Jack. The weather was in.cred.ible. Truly gorgeous. Everyone was perfect and so sweet and happy. We ate lunch and took our time through the exhibits and what could have been chaos was so relaxing. I loved it. The boys were troopers in the stroller while the girls hopped in and out of the wagon throughout the park.

They also climbed on pretty much any animal statue they could for a picture.




The HUGE hit this time was the bird sanctuary. For some reason every time I have been before the birds could not have cared less that you had food on a stick for them. They just flew around you. But, this time, they were totally interactive and jumped on the sticks to eat. Holding the birds totally topped just feeding the birds and it was awesome.



This is the best I could get with both girls in a picture holding birds. Kinley's is kinda hard to see but its on there.


Here is Ty taking it all in.

He was beat after lunch and napped for a bit.

Also, yesterday was my mom's birthday! She is in Africa right now on a mission trip with her church. We are missing her like crazy but, so proud of her and my dad and their team for being the hands and feet of Jesus and spreading His love to all the nations. We can't wait for her to come back and celebrate but, we did send her a quick birthday song video yesterday morning. It was her birthday night there for her but, she got it and loved it.

We have started planning Kinley's 3rd birthday around here. Invites just went out yesterday and we are getting really pumped. The theme was totally Kinley's idea this year and she is SO excited about it. Much more to come on that soon, I promise!

February Catch Up

Yay for how fun and busy February has been around here. Massive picture dump below...a bunch from the iphone so pardon the quality. But, we have been having a fabulous month.

Kinley is very into "dressing" herself these days. Pretty much every outfit entails a princess dress, lots of accessories and possibly some body art.






Last weekend we had an impromptu fabulous night with family and friends. We try to hoard everyone over here as much as possible since we are the only ones with kids. We never really know who can come or when but, we just always want as many people that can come. The more the merrier for us. Our friends bring friends, people just stop by, we love it. I am sure it is not always the most fun to hang out with a baby and a toddler when you are used to being kid-free but, I am so, so thankful for our friends and family that think it is fun. It is just a new level of appreciation that you have for people who you love who also love your kids. It is just precious and such a blessing.

I mean, how sweet are these girls....Kinley has a new favorite game where she waves a magic wand and says "abra-cadabra you are a (insert animal here)" and then you MUST act like that animal or-else!
Ashley was a great camel.

I think we are all being octopus here.

She is showing us how its done and yelling "hey, everybody, hear me!"


Then we played follow-the-leader...and had some races.



I mean, she is totally loving it and in her element here. Look at that smile.

And, how fun is Aunt Minnie! She is always down for whatever and is such a help with my kids. Oh, how they love her so.




This is a huge deal for Ty to sleep on her like this. He never does it.


Speaking of...Mendy brougnt some valentines cookies for Kinley to decorate and we had so much fun doing that. A little late...but, oh well!




After all those cookies...we needed a good teeth cleaning! Kinley had her first dentist appointment and she did great! She was such a trooper and let them do x-rays, clean and floss her teeth!




And, if you are still with me (if you are...you ROCK) we had a fun time at the lake this past weekend. It was just the Harrison family and so relaxing and fun. We really did nothing. We just relaxed, worked a little in the yard, talked and enjoyed being outside. Ben took a couple pictures on his phone of Kinley playing in the leaves.




And how cute is Ty in a hat!

Whew! That was a crazy catch up! And I cannot believe tomorrow is leap year! Not sure if we are going to do anything too exciting or creative..but if we do, I will try to post it! Thanks for bearing with me during all this busy time!