Updated pictures from my phone

I know I don't update this nearly as often as I should. I know I always say I am going to try harder. Sometimes I do. Most of the time this blog is the very last thing on my to do list so it rarely gets touched. I know that for many this is the only updates you get on our little family. I know it is important for you. So instead of trying harder, I am just going to remember how important it is to you and how important you are to us. I am not going to promise to post more because I can't do that, but I will try to cram as much info into this post as possible.
First, there have been some big changes for Sean and I. Last spring Sean started a new job and started going back to school. He did great Spring semester and made the Dean's List! We are all so proud of him. He took this summer off from classes and we enjoyed a lot of family time. Classes start on Wednesday this week so he is going to be very busy again for the fall.
I quit my job the beginning of July and am now staying home with the kids. I am still selling Thirty-One and am loving the opportunity it gives to supplement our family income yet is still very flexible so I can be with the kids.
The girls continue to amaze me everyday. Lily is so smart and it is awesome to be able to hold conversations with her. She is a little sponge for information. Right now she is loving learning about letters and numbers. Evie is growing up way too quickly. She is convinced she can do everything her big sister does and will try her hardest until she succeeds. I am hoping this continues as we are going to start potty training soon. Both girls have wonderful imaginations and love pretend play. They are starting to get to the ages where they can play together. It is great to see them playing together in their play kitchen inside or playhouse outside and be doing things together instead of just playing next to each other.
Here are a few puctures from this summer. Sorry they are not the best quality since they are from my phone.

Long Time

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted last.  Things have been pretty crazy here.

First off around Christmas time we went to visit family in California.  It was great to spend the holidays with everyone out there, but traveling with two little ones is definitely not a vacation.  While we were out there Sean got word that he was accept back to Ohio State University so as soon as we got home he started classes.  He also started a new job the end of February so he has been running around like crazy doing both work and school full time. 

The girls and I are adjusting to not having him around as much.  It has been difficult with a lot of "I miss Daddy"'s, but over all better than I expected.  We have been able to Skype or talk on the phone with him almost every night before the girls go to bed so that definitely helps.  

Lily is such a little diva.  She LOVES clothes, but only the ones that she picks out to wear.  She does not like anything I try to put on her even it was her "favorite" yesterday.  This past weekend her and I were in a wedding.  I was kinda worried that she either wouldn't want to wear what she was supposed to or wouldn't want to walk down the isle, but she did great with both!  She is constantly talking and loves all things arts and crafts.  She really can't wait till it warms up so we can draw on the driveway with chalk again.  

Evie is really starting to show her personality.  She is a little trouble maker and gets a little mischevious grin whenever she knows she is doing something she shouldn't, like taking a toy her sister is playing with.  She also loves to cuddle and give kisses.  She has started talking a lot and loves "helping" with all the household chores.  She is finally starting to get teeth and it seems like they are all trying to come in at the same time.  In the past 3 weeks she has gotten 5 and has at least 3 more that will probably be breaking through her gums this weekend.  Needless to say, she has been a little grouchy!

Today was Evie's 15 month well visit.  She is wearing clothes that Lily wore when she was around 22 months old so I was surprised to hear her numbers and compare them to Lily's 15 month stats.

I am going to do Lily's in blue and Evie's in red

Weight: 18.5 lbs. (2%tile)  19.06 lbs. (3%tile)

Height: 30.25in. (42%tile)  30 in. (32%tile)

Head Circumference: 17.5 in. (13%tile)  17.75 in. (25%tile)

Here are some pictures from the past few months.  Sorry some are not all that great, they are from my phone because sometimes it is more readily available.

Santa came to the hotel in California!

A barbie!!

A toothbrush!

Evie knew what to do with her toothbrush

Bottle break at Gran's house for Christmas

A bath with glow sticks! The light was on for this picture, but otherwise we had the lights off and played with the glow sticks. Lily asks almost every bath time to make it glow again.

Evie loves giving everyone this look, not sure what it is all about, but it is typically followed by a huge smile.

Evie and Lily in their chairs for their birthdays

Birthday cupcakes! Yes Lily specifically asked for a plate and a fork for her's!

Getting ready to open Birthday gifts

Playing in the snow

Stomping

Pretty Girl

Having a blast

Evie at the wedding

Lily (and me) walking nicely down the isle after the ceremony

Blowing bubbles at Mr. and Mrs. Bauchmire!

Blowing more bubbles while waiting for the reception to start.

Lily and the other little girls dancing with Nicole

Family portrait after a long day of partying

Painting!

Lily drew her family (it is hard to see, but there is an Evie on the right side, the marker just didn't show up all that well)

Lily, Nana, Papa, and I went to see the musical "Peter Pan"

Lil's silly face.

Update

Lily and Evie had their 3 and 1 year well visits yesterday at the pediatrician.  He is very impressed with both of their development especially how smart Lily is (she knows almost all of her letters!) and Evie's language (she says around 10 words!).  

Here are the weight and height stats:

Lily:

Weight: 26lbs (7 %tile)

Height: 35.75in (21 %tile)

So she has going up a few percentiles for weight and a bunch for height.  I knew that she had gotten a lot taller though because all of her pants are too short!

Evie:

Weight: 17.34lbs (3 %tile)

Height 29in (41 %tile)

Head Circumference; 17.25in (14 %tile)

So she has gotten A LOT taller!  Sean and I both thought she was going to weigh a bit more because of how much she eats but I think because she has gotten so tall and is crawling so much she doesn't hold on the weight.

Lily has been potty trained for a few months now.  She is still in diapers for naps and nighttime partly just because I don't feel like doing a bunch of laundry if she has accidents.  She is doing great during the day and can even "hold it" if we are somewhere that she can't go immediately like in the car.  

She loves puzzles and letters.  She knows almost all of her letters and even some of their sounds.  She has also started writing a little bit and wrote her name for the first time the other day.  Of course it was on a dry erase board so I couldn't save it so I will have to get her to write it on some paper soon so I can have it in her memory box.

Evie started crawling in October and is now really close to walking.  She will "cruise" around furniture and walks while holding onto our hands.  She got a walker toy from my parents for Christmas yesterday and has been walking all around the house with it this morning. 

She also got her first teeth (yes multiple) this week.  It has taken her so long to get her first ones that I have a feeling that she is going to have a mouthful of them by the new year.

Evie is starting to say so many words and gets so happy when she says something and we understand it.  Normally the doctor wants kids her age to have one or two words and she has over 10!  She says the normal ones like "mama" "dada" "Lil" "doggy" "up" "uh-oh", but she also has ones that many kids don't learn till much later such as "no" and "mine".  Can you tell she has a big sister that might say those words a lot?

Time is flying by

I know I haven't updated the blog as much as I have said I was going to.  Time just gets away from me.  We have been so busy with just the day to day stuff of being a family of four that we haven't been doing anything super out of the ordinary so then I forget to update.  I forget that even though the day to day stuff is just normal for us that maybe some of you would enjoy getting to read about it.

One big thing that has changed is that we have a roommate.  One of Sean's friend from high school got a job down in Columbus so he is staying with us until he finds his own place.  It has been great having another set of adult hands sometimes.  Both girls love having him around to play with and Lily needs him to say good night to her every night too.  Since our girls both go to bed fairly early we have taken the monitors down to him and Sean and I have been able to go out for a walk, to dinner, or to the grocery store together without kiddos.  

I know I have said many times that Lily was starting to potty train, and I am sure everyone is thinking "how many times can you start?".  Well this time we might actually be finishing potty training!  I had realized that Lily understood the concept and seemed to be able to tell when she needed to go, but didn't want to take the time away from whatever she was doing to actually go.  She would even through temper tantrums to try to not go in the bathroom.  I didn't want to force her in there because I couldn't force her to actually use the potty and I wanted to make it a rewarding experience not something she dreaded.  I decided one weekend to just stick her in a dress with nothing underneath.  I had read somewhere that even the feel of underwear on a child will confuse them and make them think they can just go like in a diaper, but if there isn't anything there then they will thinking about it in advance and try to go to the bathroom.  I also set a timer so she was reminded to go.  So far it has worked!  I started this about a week and a half ago and while she has had a few accidents most of them were when I wasn't paying as much attention to her as other times.  We still do a diaper at night and for nap, but I am so happy she is starting to finally get the hang of this!

Evelyn is really wanting to crawl but just can't quite figure it out.  There have been a few times that she will get up on her hands and knees only to lunge forward onto her stomach again. She does maneuver around a bit and can get to toys that are a few feet away.  Honestly I will admit that I am a little happy that she isn't crawling yet.  I know it is just going to be that much harder once they are both mobile and can go in different directions.  They are becoming such good friends that I am sure they will quickly learn how to conspire against us.

Smiling

Unhappy because she couldn't run around outside like her sister

So pretty

Lily was constantly moving so this is what all the photos of her looked like

Playing together

"Enough pictures Mom!"

I had to be sneaky to get her picture

So happy that she was able to "catch" Lily's puppy

Growing up, 8 months, and Arts and Crafts!

There are some days that I feel like I can actually see both of my girls learning new things and growing.  While Lily is still tiny for her age she has gotten so much taller the last few weeks.  We have had a few cooler days this week so I tried to put her in jeans that she wore in the spring and they were all too short!  I guess she will be getting a new wardrobe.  The main problem is that she is so skinny compared to her height that most pants don't fit her.  A lot of her pants just slide right down when she is running around and she is constantly having to pull them up.  I just know it is going to get worse too because she is still in diapers so once she loses that extra bulk there will be nothing to hold up the pants.  I am going to have to find a belt for her.

This morning I swear she woke up with so much more language than she did yesterday.  Everything she has said today has been super clear and in sentences.  I love being able to have conversations with her.  I am always amazed at what all she has to say.

Evie is also small for her age (although I don't know a percentile because she doesn't go back to the doctor until September), but she is bigger than Lily was at this age.  Most of the clothes that Evie is wearing that belonged to Lily are from when Lily was right around a year.  So much for my idea that I was going to get to reuse all of Lily's clothes since they were both born the same month.  Luckily it has been hot here for the most part because Evie has just been wearing onsies or even just in her diaper.  Once it gets colder she will have to get a new wardrobe too.

Here are some photos of Evie at 8 months:

 

8 months

"Here Mom"

 So I got the crazy idea to have the girls finger paint on canvas to make some artwork for their rooms.  Surprisingly it was Lily that was messier than Evie.  I was going to put something down on the ground but figured Lily was going to slip or trip on it, and the paint is washable, so I decided to just let them sit on the tile and paint.  Evie loved it and did great not trying to put any of it in her mouth.  Lily of course got it everywhere including all over her body, legs, face, and hair.  I actually think by the time they were finished and I got them in the bath that Lily had more paint everywhere else on her body than on her fingers!

Figuring it out

She looks like she thinks she got caught doing something wrong

"I put on lotion"

The finished work

7 Months and 100 degree weather

I have been trying to find fun things for Lily to do outside.  This activity was actually going to be for both girls, but Evie was sleeping and I needed something to entertain Lily before she got too loud inside and woke Evie up.  These are just colored ice cubes made in muffin tins.  I think I put too much food coloring in each one as there were some spots that were super colorful and where the color was rubbing off on her hands and clothing.  She had fun stacking them up like blocks, naming the colors, feeling how cold they were even though it was close to 100 degrees outside that day, and even tasting them.  Later on we put them in a bucket and watched how the colors mixed together as they melted.

Exploring the ice blocks

Feeling how cold they were

She wanted to see if it tasted like a popsicle

Her hands were a little colored for a few hours but it washed off that night during bathtime

Evie is 7 months old!  I can't believe how fast this year is going.  

Smiling for the camera

Still not crawling and that is okay with this momma right now!

"Hey, what's this?"