Lyla :: 4 years ::

 It is SO hard to believe that Lyla is 4 now. Sean and I were talking how crazy it is that she was JUST a baby in our arms. How is she now 4? Seriously.

You weigh 34 lbs. You were around the 25% for all your stats. You are wearing size 4t (though slightly big) and size 9 shoes. You are in a phase where you dislike wearing jeans and just want to wear leggings. You have officially started giving your opinion on what you want to wear and can be dramatic when giving your opinion aka... "I have to wear this old thing" (about a new dress).

 You sleep in your bed by yourself and hardly come into our room anymore. You'll sleep anywhere from 830-930 to 730 in the morning. You like to wake me up by saying the sun is up so it is time to get up! You are a night owl and would stay up late if we let you. You also like to come out of your room multiple times trying to let us keep you up. It only works when I feel like cuddling! :)

You still nap and will nap anywhere from 1-3 hours though most of them are around 1 1/2 hours.

You are a pretty good eater, depending on what it is. If you don't want to eat it, we make you eat 4 bites (since you are 4) and then you can be done. Sometimes you even end up eating the rest of it!

You also have a sweet tooth like your daddy!

You are a mother hen and loves babies. You also love bossing Cohen around. We often here you mimicking things we say when Cohen is in trouble. You are super excited to be a big sister too!

You have recently really started giving us your opinion and back talking. You can be the sweetest thing 1 minute and 2 seconds later your are a sassy pants. Definitely checking out your boundaries.

You are a chatter box and if you aren't 100% into an activity (crafts, IPAD, movie) you are constantly talking. You've also started stuttering a little bit because you have so much to say and want to say it all right away.

You love learning and want to constantly know things. You like doing "homework" and counting and trying to teach Cohen his letters. You can write all the letters of the alphabet and some of the numbers. You can count to 30 really well before you start to get distracted. For your age, you are right where you need to be!

You know your full name, our full names, your address, and phone number. 

You are not going to preschool this year but will next year. For now you are doing a program at Hays High for about 2 hours a week and really enjoy it! 

You are a social little girl and have no trouble talking to others. You are great with your manners and people comment how good you are and how sweet you are! We agree!

You are dramatic with everything you dont want to do! If we ask you to clean, you tell me you are so worn out from playing that you can't. Or that you need help because there are just way to many toys. 

You love to sing and dance and your imagination is in full swing! You like to put on shows or practice your dance for us from last year! You and Cohen can play really well together and Cohen will just follow you around and agree with whatever you tell him! This has included him dressing up in your dress up clothes too!

You love crafts and arts and like doing projects! We have circle time sometimes at our house and you love singing songs and learning new things!

Favorite things:

babies, KU, the Steelers, coloring and working on "school work", watching umizoomi, Sofia or Lalaloopsy. You also love movies and want to watch Princess and the frog a lot.  You love helping us do whatever it is we are doing! 

Here's to growing up sweet girl! I hope you keep your sweetness and little bit of sassyness. You make mommy and daddy so happy and we are SO proud of the little girl you are becoming!

Keep shining, sweet girl!

Pictures above taken by Aimee Marie Photography
Pictures below taken by me (at 39 weeks pregnant!)

Cohen Finn :: 2 years ::

Oh Cohen - you are our comedian of the family! You love to show off and put on a show. And we all eat it up! But you are also ornery as heck and can drive your momma and daddy crazy at times! :) But still love you oh.so.much!

- You weighed 23.8 lbs at your 2 year appointment.

- You are wearing mostly 12-18 months, though you are still in 1 pair of 6-12 month jeans!

- You are wearing size 7 shoes.(You have much bigger feet than your sister!)

- You are in size 3 diapers.

- You are in a picky food phase - but you love sloppy joes, spaghetti, fruit and granola bars, and love to drink milk! You also have quite a sweet tooth and loves snacks!

- You just crawled out of your bed for the first time this month.  You do pretty good staying in bed but you do get up mighty early.  You sleep from 8:30/9 to about 6:30-8. You also take 1 nap from 1-2:30 normally.

Vocabulary wise - you are talking more but you are pretty hard to understand.  Some words you say really well, others only mommy and daddy understand!  We often hear no, mine, sorry, lyla, baby and oh oh. 

- You are starting to put 2 word phrases together.

- You love to make animal sounds and can match sounds to animals pretty well.

- You love to say mark, go and run around the house!

Photography about by Aimee Marie Photography

Photography below by me

- You love puzzles and can match colors but you think every color is blue! 

- You love to wrestle. It doesn't matter if it's daddy, sister or nana. You will wrestle anyone that will get on the ground with you! 

- You love to color and draw on anything, including walls and furniture!

- Your listening skills are highly lacking and you love to push mommy and daddy's buttons. 

- You love sports. Doesn't matter what it is, you love it.  You can make a fun game of baseball out of a hair brush and box if you need to!  Daddy is pretty proud because you have an awesome golf swing and can throw the ball really well.

- You also love cows and farm stuff.  Driving down I70 we hear the word cow a lot! 

- You LOVE your sister and also love to destroy anything she is playing with.

_ While you do love sports, you also love to play dress up with Lyla and barbies.

- You LOVE water and love to jump into the pool! 

- You are not shy at all and love to say hi to anyone that passes!

- You love going to football and basketball games with daddy or cheering for them on TV.

-Your favorite number to say is 3.

- You are in a phase were you whine...a lot. Over everything and anything!

- You have awesome hair and we get lots of comments on it!

- Nicknames for you include - Co, coco, coco monkey, and lyla will sometimes call you a pain in the tush! :)

Love you baby boy!

Stella Monroe :: 1 month ::

 Miss Stella - How in the world did I give birth to you a month ago? Times goes by so fast! You are such a good baby and quite the little sister to your bigs who love you oh.so.much.  I think we all want to kiss your chubby cheeks 100 times a day!

- 1 week and a day ago you weighed in at 9 lbs 7 oz so I'm going to guess you are close to the 10 lb mark now.

- You measured in at 20 inches

- You are wearing a mix of newborn and 3 months. 3 months is still a bit big, but the newborn stuff is pretty tight except for a thing or two. 

- You are wearing size 1 diapers

- You sleep really well and have only had a few rough nights. This past week you have slept about a 5-6 hour stretch and then another 3-4 hour stretch. Normally you get up around 3:30 and back to sleep by 4. 

- You sleep in your crib at night and we have been trying to get you to take at least 1 good nap in your bed. Today you slept for 2 1/2 hours in your crib.

- You are nursing about every 3-4 hours. 

- You actually take bottles easily and like the paci so far. Will you be our first kiddo to actually use one?

- Gross motor wise you are still rolling over. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but around 9 or 10 days old she rolled over for the first time. Thinking it was just a fluke, sister has done it every day since just about. Once night she did it 6 times. So... while it seems crazy, I guess my baby is rolling over from tummy to back.  

- You have really good neck strength for a 1 month old when doing tummy time.

- You don't really track well or follow our voices well, but I'm sure that'll change soon!

- Around 2 weeks old you got baby acne and still have it!

- Hair wise - you still have light, light brown hair and blue eyes. I'm really hoping your blue eyes stay.

- We are still unsure who you look like. I see more Lyla in your than Cohen but daddy sees more Cohen.  As much as I DO NOT want you to grow up I am excited to see if you look like either of the two!

-You had a blocked tear duct when you were born but it cleared up around 3 weeks thankfully!

- Nicknames for you include Stelle Belle, smelly Stelly, punkers, chunky punky, sisterella, Stella baby and Stella girl!

I'm not really sure how I want to document your monthly pictures so I decided to do them 2 different ways! A chair picture like we did with the other two but then also of you in your crib. I LOVE your nursery so I want to document you growing up in there!

- You look so tiny in there!

Happy 1 month, baby girl!

Stella Monroe :: Newborn pictures ::

When we found out we were having a girl I started thinking up what I wanted to do for pictures for her. Girls are much more fun to photograph just because the props are SO cute! So I had all these big plans - but then I had her and had a rough recovery and I didn't even come close to doing everything I wanted to do. Thankfully it worked out to have some family pictures and some of her done by a photographer that is a friend while she was in Kansas so I felt better knowing that she got some. I was super bummed because I really wanted to do more, but I do love what I got! 

One thing I really wanted to do was outdoor pictures. We had a 70 degree day so I went for it and I loved how they turned out. My favorites out of all of them! I'm not a huge "theme" person when it comes to my set ups, but since she is an October baby I added the pop of orange!