Happy Valentine's Day!!!

We made these last week for Valentine's Day (we don't really celebrate V-day-we did for the kids sake though...these were just an excuse to make and eat treats, ha!)Here is a shot I got of Aislynn in My Little Pony movie mode. I wanted to share because LOOK how long her hair is getting!!! The other day we were walking into the grocery store and she wanted to go to the "haircut store" instead so she could get her hair cut short. I really think she just wanted a sucker though, so we didn't:)I am sure you know by now that Friday there was snow in 49 of the 50 states!!! We just missed the snow, it snowed about 30 miles (I'm guessing at that) away from us. But is was SUPER cold outside, so here is a picture of the kids bundled up. Not the best pic, but still cute. Kieran was pissed at this jacket and hat, lol!My Mom and James came into town this weekend and since it was her birthday a week ago, Aislynn and I made a red velvet cake (it was even called Grandmother Paula's Red Velvet cake, lol). Aislynn loves to help blow out the candles, and again...we had to wear the hats:)Saturday night, they watched the kiddos and Shaun and I went out for drinks. There weren't really any movies playing that we wanted to see, so we went to Flemings and had a couple glasses of wine. I like dates:) I like not having to carry a diaper bag...being able to sit by him in the booth and being able to hold hands when we are walking. Oh, and being able to talk without being interrupted! It was fun!! I haven't shared anything scrappy in awhile, so here is everything I have been up to in the past 2 weeks or so:This is a lift of one of Candi's layouts.

This is a lift of one of Sarah's layouts.

This is a lift of a layout by Laura Vegas.

This is a lift of a layout by Marianne Hope.

This is a lift of one of Louisa's layouts.

Some cards:

That's all for now!

Big Boy...

I took Kieran to baby weigh day today and he was at 16 lbs and 4 oz. This had me a little worried about his weight being too low, but after doing a little reading/researching I found that he should be gaining 2-4 oz per week, and he has gained an average of 2.8 oz per week, so that made me feel better. He is hitting all of milestones he should be and he is DEFINITELY a happy baby:) He is getting into everything and he is trying to pull up on things. He still has a ways to go but if you stand him up, he will hold himself up standing for awhile:Look at that hair:) He is so stinkin' cute:) Yep, looks like one happy guy to me!! You can see his top teeth that have come in the past week or 2...it makes him look older to me and a little more mischievous;)

I snapped this picture of Aislynn today...yes, during a nap! On Monday she took a nap, but didn't go to sleep until almost 11, eek. Yesterday, she couldn't fall asleep for a nap, so she just had some quiet time in her bed. Today, she ended up falling asleep, and I haven't heard any noises...so I am keeping my fingers crossed that she was able to fall asleep tonight. I have decided after a few rough afternoons that naps make her much nicer in the late part of the day and that she needs one or at least some time to herself. So Monday, we sat down in the morning and made a schedule of how the day would look and it included a nap.

P.S. I took this with my 50mm lens on the aperture priority setting and the ISO set at 1600, and aperture set at 1.8. The only light in the room was the light coming in through the sides of the blinds.

P.P.S. I love sleeping kid pictures:)

This week...

I wanted to focus on getting more everyday type shots, and I took pictures everyday except for 1-yay!Some highlights from our week:

• Kieran is crawling...for real. He can move so fast now and this has opened up a whole new world for him to explore. So far, he loves going to the entertainment stand and pulling the dvd's off and he goes to one of the end tables. For the longest time, he was going there to get this cake/recipe magazine and he would try to eat it. Finally I got the bright idea (duh!) to move it, but he keeps going to the shelf. I think he is looking for it;) So now, I don't really need to exercise...chasing a super fast crawler who tries to get into everything is exercise enough:)

• I am starting to let Kieran try big kid foods. I tried about 3 weeks ago with some bananas, but he mainly just wanted to mush them. This time he tried to eat them and he liked them, although the slippery little things kept falling into his lap:) Now I remember just how messy babies can get. I think he needs to start eating with no clothes on;)

• Aislynn made valentines...I hope she isn't too disappointed on Valentine's Day. I think she thinks it is like Christmas or something. This morning we went to Michaels for a little make and take Valentine's mailbox and card and afterwards she told me that on Valentine's Day she was going to wake up Shaun and I and yell "Happy Valentine's Day" and we could all go downstairs together.
• We also played with playdough a lot...one of those things we couldn't really do with her cast on:)
• Aislynn started learning her recital dances for ballet. The ballet one is to "Take me out to the Ballgame" and they use little bats. I thought that was weird, but it looks really cute:) The tap is to "Ticket to Ride" and that dance looks super cute! I think they will get their costumes in April? Anyways, you know I will post some pictures!

• On Sunday, Aislynn asked if she could wear panties to bed. We had tried this awhile back, but she was having multiple accidents per night plus with having to get up with Kieran so often, we stopped trying. We made a deal that if she could keep her pull-up dry all of Sunday night, then Monday she could start wearing panties. She did keep it dry and Monday she wore panties and stayed dry. The next 2 nights she had accidents, so after doing a little reading, we came up with a plan. She should wear pull-ups at night until her accidents are down to about 1 a week. Then in the morning if her pull-up is dry, she gets a gum drop (she picked out the candy!). So far, it has worked 3 nights in a row. Woo hoo! I read that about 15% of kids her age aren't able to make it that long without emptying their bladder, but she obviously can stay dry with an incentive so I don't think that is the case with her. I take her potty once before I go to bed and a couple nights she has woken up on her own to go. Anyways, we are proud of her!
• This is probably the biggest thing this week: Aislynn is basically reading!!!!! Lately she has been pointing out words and sounding them out and reading them. Monday we started having her read a book to us, just the simple ones, we have been using books from this series: Innovative Kids. We have books from level 1, 2, and 3 and she has been reading ones from level 2 and 3 (we did the level 1 books so many times I think she has them memorized!). She understands the vowels and the long and short sounds, so we felt comfortable having her start with those. It takes a really long time to get through a book, but she is SO proud and we are so proud of her! It is so awesome to have her read to us!!! I highly recommend that series of books for any kid learning to read-they are awesome and the parents guide that comes with it is really helpful and gives you activities that reinforce what you just learned. I found a bunch of the sets used on ebay.

I was scrapping a lot this week, so I will try to share that pretty soon:) Hope everyone has a good week:)

Today...

We made a pizza for dinner tonight. We bought fresh pizza dough from Publix and put sweet Italian sausage, red peppers, and onions on it. Yummmmmmm....Aislynn helped with the dough:

We rolled Kieran in the kitchen and while we baked the pizza, he ate his puffs-he devours these things. He starts getting all excited when you pull the box out and keeps checking out his tray to see where they are:)I got this cute video of him babbling and blowing raspberries-funny guy:)

I have been trying to take more videos lately:)

8 Months and an arm update

Just to let you know, there is a picture of Aislynn's arm after her arm update at the bottom of this post-so if you are squeamish or get grossed out easily, don't look! I will post a warning before the picture:)

**Okay, I tried to make a big space before the picture, but when I publish the post, it moves it up...so don't look after the picture of her in the bath if you don't want to see her boo boo**

Here is a picture from our picnic yesterday. I think this is the best I will ever get at both of them looking at the camera at the same time and smiling! It is still cute though:) Aislynn is going to miss Lillian so much, she was telling the nurse at the doctor's office about her best friend Lillian moving to Utah:( The little man is 8 months today-eek! It was a little harder to get pictures since he moves around more now:) He really wasn't into sitting in the rocker for long. A little about Kieran at 8 months:

• is crawling-seems like each day he adds on another little forward movement, he will be fully moving pretty good soon!
• has 3 teeth-one of his top teeth came in a couple days ago and the one right next to it looks like it will pop through pretty soon
• is in size 3 diapers and 6-9/6-12 month clothes
• eats 3 solid meals a day and loves puffs (he gets SOOOOO excited just seeing the container!). I have tried offering him little pieces of banana, but he wasn't into it...just liked playing with it:)
• is getting more vocal...babbling more and more and varying his voice inflection. Just like his sister, when Shaun is talking, he starts babbling really loud, hee hee!
• when he is sleepy, he says "mmmmm" "mmmm" and buries his head into my chest
• loves to play...his favorite toys are a little radio that plays music and lights up, his little teething giraffe that squeaks, and a little Leap Frog activity table that has different things to do on it (that used to be Aislynn's and we took the legs off so he can reach it-once he can pull up, we will put the legs back on)
• is starting to get more interested in books...I've been incorporating books into his bedtime routine. Sometimes he looks, but sometimes he just tries to eat the books:) What's funny, is that I started with the touch and feel type books, so now he feels the pages of all the books:)

And here are more pictures:

Being able to get around a little better means you can get stuck in weird places...like under the crib:)

So now Aislynn's arm update. She got her cast off today and didn't have to get another one, YAY!!! She was so brave. The weird saw thing they used to get her cast off made her a little nervous, but she did good during that. Once her cast was off, she could see the pins sticking out and the bandages over her scar from the surgery and her voice got all wavery, poor honey, she was trying to be such a brave girl!! She didn't like getting the x-rays taken either b/c I couldn't be there holding her hand. When the doctor took the pins out, she was nervous, and then he squeezed where they were to get the goop out and she started crying then. But then she got that all wrapped up and was better. The doctor said that her arm is about 75% healed, and he showed me on the x-ray where it was still broken, but he said it was MUCH MUCH better (only Shaun saw the original x-ray). He said that kid's bones heal much faster and he wanted the pins out so her arm won't get infected and she needs to start moving her elbow. She is supposed to wear her sling for 1-2 weeks so that she will be more cautious while wearing it and it will slow her down. The doctor said no playgrounds or anything like that for 6 weeks (our follow up appointment) and that as long as she doesn't fall on it, it should heal up nicely. So that's that! Glad she is out of the cast now! One of the first things she wanted to do was take a good long bath so she could play!!!***Now don't scroll down if you don't want to see her boo boo****

This is the best picture I could get. The 2 white dots on her elbow are the holes where the pins were and you see her incision from the surgery. I took the butterfly bandages off after her bath and cleaned up the dried blood and the scar is not *that* bad. Her poor little arm:( It is skinnier than the other one and her skin is so dry where the cast was. She got a little upset when we were at home because her arm was itching so bad and I think she thought that would stop once the cast was off. We got some lotion to moisturize and relieve the itchiness. Her arm feels soft too, definitely lost some muscle tone, but I know that will all change pretty quickly!

On the way to being on the move...

I took this picture Sunday and I love it because it captured Sunday afternoon perfectly:) Aislynn playing computer games on www.starfall.com, Kieran playing on the floor and see that big piles of laundry? That was what I was doing:) I would like to take more pictures like this...that capture our everyday life.

Sunday night, Kieran started crawling!! Just a few movements, but he is slowly figuring it out. I estimate we have about 1-2 weeks before he is fully mobile. Brynne came over Monday and after dinner we were all sitting on the floor trying to get him to crawl some more. Here is just a short video of him trying too:) Sorry it is so dark!!!

Here is a video of some big baby giggles:) And here are some pictures I took yesterday of Kieran trying to crawl:) We tempt him with different toys to get him to crawl to us...Aislynn was using her lion stuffed animal, "Mufasa," to get entice him here.

Sweet Victory! This picture totally cracks me up:) Just when Kieran can reach the toy, Aislynn moves it away...poor guy. I guess big sisters are supposed to torture their younger brothers though, right? ;) We are off to a picnic with Lillian and Megan. They are moving back to Utah on Monday:( Totally bummed about that, they have been great friends to us and we will miss them A TON! I don't think Aislynn totally gets the concept yet, she thinks they are just going on a trip:( Tomorrow we go to see the orthopedic surgeon and get this cast off. Keep your fingers crossed that everything looks all better and we don't have to get another cast. I will give an update tomorrow about that.

Long and random...

It's been awhile, so this is going to be a kinda long post with tidbits from the past week:)I got this picture earlier in the week because I have been wanting to do a scrapbook page for a long time now about Shaun reading bedtime stories. The way he reads them is so very entertaining:) He makes the characters come to life by giving them voices and personalities. Sometimes he changes the voices of well-established characters or he changes the words to the story and this makes Aislynn "mad" and she corrects him and they both laugh over it. Some of the favorite stories/characters that he does the best are: The Little Red Hen, Little Critter, Fancy Nancy, Milk and Cookies, Amelia Bedelia, The Paper Bag Princess, Bear Shadow...and I am sure there are some I am forgetting. I think Aislynn is such a lucky little girl to have a Daddy that reads to her every night like this...and I love watching them bond like this:)I wanted to get a picture of Aislynn's cast, and finally she let me:) We will go on Thursday to get this one off. Hopefully she won't have to get another one, but if she does...I think she can get one that is able to get wet.Aislynn wanted me to write her name on the cast:)

Snapped these while taking the cast pictures, just thought I'd share:)

Kieran is working on getting his top teeth in. Who knows when they will come in, but we have had some cranky nights this week. And as you can see below...he always wants to have something in his mouth. You better watch your fingers around this guy...he is a little snapping turtle!

I have done some scrapping in the past week or so, and here is what I have come up with:

This is a lift of a layout by Ann Costen that was in the May/June (I think?) issue of SB Etc.

This is a lift of one of my friend Shel's layouts.

This is a lift of one of my friend Kathy's layouts.

This is a lift of a layout from Ali Edwards that was in the November issue of Creating Keepsakes.

I have had these picture printed out FOREVER (Easter 2008), but just now scrapped them. I was forced to scrap what I had printed out since we were out of printer ink:)

More old pictures:)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Waving Hi and a Message

Aislynn was working on this "word message," not to be confused with a phone message according to her. I asked her what it said and she said "I love my Mom and Dad. I love you Kieran. I love myself." Sweet girl:) This is the first time I have uploaded a video, so hopefully it works:) Kieran's new trick is waving. My Mom came over last Saturday for a few hours and as soon as he saw her he started waving. The other morning, when he woke up, Shaun and I went into his room, and as soon as he saw us he waved and got the biggest grin on his face! He likes to wave to Aislynn A LOT, and sometimes when I am nursing him, he starts waving at me. It is adorable! So I kinda got it on video-he is doing it best when the video first starts-so pay attention, lol!!