Time With Friends, Random Pic and Gibs' Baptism

Last weekend we got together with our college friends at Brad and Jill's new house. It was fun to see everyone (as it always is) and fun to create new memories in their new house. It's so cute now to see the older kids play together since they're all so close in age. Brad's idea for the night was to have a (Wo)Man Vs Burger competition where we all had to come up with a unique yet delicious way to fancy up our burger and then vote on whose was the tastiest. It didn't quite work as planned with busyness of kids wanting to eat urgently, but I'm pretty sure that if we had voted, my feta cheese and banana pepper burger would have won:).

The guys eating on their porch...

Us girls (of course) taking care of the kids...

When we first got there I think Layla spent the whole first half an hour just looking through their slider door at Ella and Alden. She gets SO shy when she encounters a new situation. Last week we went to Rivertown with Em and Gavin and at the end we let the kids play in the playland. Layla has never been there before, but Gavin loves the slide so we had to stop before going home. Layla just stood there watching the other kids looking completely overwhelmed by everything for awhile. That's probably a good thing as there were a lot of big rough playing kids going awfuly fast down the slide:). While we were touring the upstairs Layla finally came out of her shell as soon as she spotted their toddler bed in the extra bedroom.

She curls her tongue all the time now so we need to remind her often to stick it back in her mouth. The other day she discovered that she can make a whistling noise with it:).

I don't think I've mentioned yet that about a month ago I stopped letting her have her pipe during the day. She's only allowed to have it in bed and in the car. MOST of the time she does well with it, but there are still times when she wants it at other times. She's been having a hard time falling asleep for naps and at night this week for some reason so I think part of the problem recently is that she's tired.

This is how Gibson and Madison spent the first few hours of the evening (until we woke them up to eat). It's so funny to see carseats again at get togethers. It seems like so long ago that the toddlers were in carseats, yet 2 years ago none of the kids were even here yet! The oldest (Jonathan) will be 2 on May 1. It's amazing how things have changed in those 2 years!

One of the best parts of the night was that we got to meet Rex for the first time!! He is such a little cutie!! He makes Madison and Gibson seem really big:). The three babies really hit it off:).

Gibson (3 months), Maddy (1 1/2 months) and Rex (3 weeks)...

Here are some pics from a couple of days ago.

A pic of both of them smiling--I think that might be a first:-)...

Having fun together...

Both just slightly grinning...

Never too old for peek-a-boo:).

Her silly squinty face...this is also how she winks:). They talk about winking on an Elmo DVD and she likes to try it too.

Layla got a lambe with her name on it as a baby gift and Gibson got almost the same lambie (it's actually a different brand) in blue from Joe's mom so I recently had someone put his name on his too. Layla loves hers now and also loves his:).

Both loving their lambies...

Layla got a slight owie on her leg the other day so I put an Elmo bandaid on it--a little bit later I found the bandaid on Gibson's leg:) (they unstick and restick very easily)...

This past Sunday night we were able to celebrate Gibson's baptism! It really is a big day for the little guy, even though he obviously doesn't understand that yet. We are so thankful that he is a child of God's and that we are able to make a promise to God to raise him knowing HIM.

Our handsome little guy...

Getting his bowtie put on...

The baptism with Joe's dad helping as the Elder...

Layla has never sat in church before and she did alright but was definitely antsy and didn't want to just sit nice and quiet:). Thankfully the baptism was near the beginning of the service and then once it was done Joe's mom took her out to nursery...

Gibson did really well the entire time. He let out a little cry during the service as he was trying to fall asleep, but besides that he was either happy being held or sleeping:).

With being busy setting up for the dinner and such ahead of time we didn't get a chance to have a family pic, and then afterwards Layla was not into the pic since I had to steal her away from playing with her friends...so this is the best that we got...

The kids enjoyed running back and forth (Layla wanted Grandma to run with her--Grandma said she was getting quite tired:D)...

I love how you can see in the pic how excited they were to be running together--you can see the bounce in their step:)...

Excited faces!

The girls in thier piggy tails...

Gibson with Grampy and Gigi...

Maddy and Gibs tired out from the big event...it won't be long before they're running back and forth:)...

Enjoying the dinner...

Gavin posing by the yummy Cold Stone ice cream cake...

Joe's Aunt Jane let us use these cute lamb pots and planted the flowers in them too!

Gibson enjoyed sleeping in Great-Grandma's arms for a long time after the service...

Jill with Ella and Jamie with Alden...

Easter Pics

We celebrated Easter with my family Saturday night and with Joe's family on Sunday. The kids and I also went to church for the first time in a LONG time! I figured it's hopefully safe now that we're nearing the end of flu/RSV. I wasn't sure what Layla would think now of nursery but she did well. She said bye-bye to me and then seemed a little confused when I left, but then I guess she had fun playing. And Gibson napped both services so hopefully he does that well this Sunday as it's his baptism.

Mike, Em and Gavin with Gibson...

Daddy and Gibson...Gibson was sleeping in his carseat from the time I got home Saturday afternoon with him until shortly before we had to leave so he didn't get a chance to get any "typical Easter" clothing on. I don't think he minded:).

Our family plus Gavin...

Gavin's face is too funny in this one not to post:-)...

Layla opening her Elmo Easter basket Sunday morning...I actually got the basket on clearance last Easter not knowing how much she would love Elmo this year:). I think her favorite part of the basket has been the Sesame Street "grass" in it. I think the "grass" might all have to disappear shortly as I've been finding it all over the house:-).

Family pic again...

Gibson getting his Easter basket from Grandma (with baby food in it:D)...

Chatting with Grandma...(he got hot in his outfit)


Layla opening her Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa...

Having fun bonding with Auntie Heidi...

The kiddos with Grandpa and Grandma...

Layla was sick of taking pics by the time we had her take a pic with Steve and Heidi...

Not an Easter pic, but just enjoying a pedi a couple of days ago. She loves to get her nails done. Lately she's been wanting her finger nails done and does a good job at holding them out to dry and blowing on them. This morning she brought me the polish wanting more--she doesn't seem to grasp that once all 10 nails are done, they won't look good if I just keep adding more:-). I love that she's so girly with that stuff though. I can't wait until she's big enough to go get them done with me:-).

3 Months Old!

I am behind on this post, but Gibson turned 3 months old on Tuesday! I know I sound like a broken record, but seriously, the time is flying by! He's a quarter of the way to one:-). He's overall a really happy baby. He's making all sorts of new noises and loves smiling back at you especially when you make silly sounds:-). He loves just chillin' in his bouncy seat, however, at least a few times a week he hits a really crabby time of time where it's hard to settle him down. Thankfully that only last 30 minutes to an hour. His reflux issues have gotten a lot better in the past couple of weeks. He's been on Prevacid I think about a month, so I'm not really sure if it's the Prevacid that made his tummy issues better or if he's just growing out it. He's about out of pills so I guess we'll find out if that's what is helping! I weighed him on our scale this week and he was about 12 pounds. He goes back into the doctor in a month. His eating schedule now (just as of this week he's made it a little longer at night) is (give or take a little) 8:30/9am, 11:30am, 4:30pm, 8:30pm, 5am. For what seemed like a long time (probably like at least a few weeks) had been 3am instead of 5, so hopefully he keeps with the 5 and then keeps extending that time out! He seems to do best when he last eats around 8/8:30 rather than eating any later--he's up earlier or the same time if he eats later than that. Just recently he started drinking 5-6 oz at a feeding (was more like 4 1/2-5). He's about outgrowing his size 1 diapers so I'll switch him to 2s once he finishes this box which is funny because Layla is in 3s:-). He's such a sweet little (big) guy and we love him so much!! It's so cute to see how Layla loves her little brother and I can't wait to see him reciprocate the feelings as he gets older.

Just chillin' in a onesie and pants the other week as he got hot in the shirt he had on...

Pic with Grandma and his only Great-Grandma...

Happy boy...

Wearing his cute Gibson shirt from his buddy Mackenzie...

His hair is growing longer, but mainly just on the top of his head. After a bath it looks like he has a mohawk:-).

3 Month pics...of course sissy isn't too far away!

"G is for Good Boy"...and Gibson:-)...

Turning 3 months is hard work!

Friday night we went out for dinner for my (belated) birthday to On the Border with my family. Both kids looked cute wearing shorts for the first time this season so I thought I'd take a quick pic before we left. Layla's shorts or from last summer and they fit her better this summer (6-12), Gibson currently wears 0-3 pants so soon they'll only be one size different! Actually the other day I put a white onesie on Layla and thought to myself, I really need to get rid of these 9 month onesies, this one is really stretching to fit. Then I realized it was one of Gibs' 3 month ones! No wonder it was too short! :-)

Chillin' before leaving for dinner...

Mommy and Layla...

Hearing, Playing and Walking

This week has been flying by already. Most weeks do these days. Last week Friday Layla had to go to have a hearing test. It's only because she was a preemie--we have no reason to think that her hearing isn't normal. I'm pretty sure that when she doesn't listen it's because she's ignoring me, not because she can't hear me:). Anyway, the appointment was going good, they had Layla and me sit in this little room inside of a bigger room and the guy would talk to Layla and he made sure that she would turn her head the correct way for where the sound was coming from. She did good with that. There were a few times when he would just put a weird sound through the speakers and she'd ignore it because she was too busy pointing out things in the room (there was a Mickey and a Minnie which she loves), but for the most part she would look to where the sound was coming from. Well, then he wanted her to put headphones on which she wanted nothing to do with. So then he said he'd try it a different way and gave her a tray full of stackable block type of things. He told her to put a block by her ear and then when she heard a noise she needed to move the block away from her ear and stack it on another block on the tray. Uh, yeah, she totally didn't get that. She did it once, but it was purely a coincidence:). He then checked her ear pressure by sticking things in her ears and surprisingly she didn't mind that. She likes to get the "yuckies" out of her ears at home so I think she thought it was like that:). So then he said there was one more test and he dinked around the computer for what seemed like awhile and then he said we were done. So now we need to go back in six months since she couldn't do any of the tests that test each ear individually. I'm pretty sure he made it sound like that block test was to test each ear individually, but that really has nothing to do with testing them seperately. Who knows. Hopefully she cooperates in six months:).

Gavin is over today and the kids have been playing nicely together, thankfully:).

Layla and Gavin were pretending to go nigh-night earlier today...pretty sure they would never really take a nap like this:).

I put together Layla's princess tent that she got from Grandpa and Grandma for Christmas. Apparently the people that made it are not very smart as the holes where the poles go in were on the bottom of the tent instead of on the top of if where they were supposed to be and all the poles were too long so Joe had to cut them down! But it is now in working order and the kids love it!



Gibson has lots of entertainment watching Gavin and Layla...

Gibson checking out Gavin...

Gibson's baptism is coming up so I need to get some more pictures of him with our families to put in the slideshow (and it's of course just nice to have those pictures too:D)...

I like to sometimes get recipes off of other people's blogs so I thought I'd post one from a salad I made earlier this week. I've been pretty impressed with myself how much we've been eating at home since having Gibson. We didn't get any meals brought over from people from church like we had after we had Layla so it's forced me to cook more since we've been home a lot and don't have any good restuarants near our house! :)

I made the salad into a lettuce salad and it was a refreshing summer salad!

Here is the recipe as taken from the Food Network's website:

Ingredients
3/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/2 cup orange marmalade
3 large garlic cloves, minced (1 tablespoon)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 cup olive oil
4 teaspoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
1 pound large shrimp, about 16, shelled and deveined
4 wooden skewers
1 ripe avocado, peeled and quartered lengthwise, fanned out onto 4 plates
1 orange, peeled and sectioned (all pith and membranes removed)
Fresh cilantro sprigs
Directions
In a medium non-reactive bowl, whisk together the lime juice, marmalade, garlic, cilantro, 7 tablespoons of the olive oil, soy sauce and dried hot red pepper flakes. Using a measuring cup, remove 1/2 cup and set aside, refrigerated. Add the shrimp to the bowl and toss to combine thoroughly with the marinade. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Place the skewers in a shallow tray and cover with hot water. Set aside until you are ready to grill the shrimp.
Preheat a grill or broiler to medium heat.
Place the shrimp on the soaked wooden skewers. Lightly pat dry with paper towels and, using a brush, lightly coat the shrimp on both sides with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Grill for about 2 to 3 minutes on each side, or until shrimp are golden brown on both sides and cooked through. Place the shrimp on top of the fanned avocado slices and season with salt to taste. Top with the orange segments then divide the reserved dressing evenly among the 4 plates and garnish with the cilantro sprigs. Serve immediately.

I left out the garlic, added all the oil to the dressing accidentally (used Soybean oil), used mandarin oranges, and added romaine lettuce (but we both agreed spinach would have been even better) slivered almonds and feta cheese. Oh, and I didn't have enough lime juice, but it was still plenty limey. Layla enjoyed it too. I hope Gibson is as good of an eater as she is--there isn't anything she won't try!

When the whether was nice last week we took a family walk except it was cut short since it was a lot windier than we thought!

St. Patty and Mickey

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! It's such a beautiful day today! Both kids are napping now, but we should go for a walk to enjoy the day once they're up. Gibson is now on a four hour eating schedule during the day which is nice. He was starting to not finish his bottles (5 oz), so now that he's eating every four hours instead of three, he is hungrier. I know, obviously that makes sense:-). And last night he did one seven hour stretch and then a six hour stretch--so not too bad! Hopefully that means sleeping all night is coming soon!! His tummy also seemed better yesterday, he did really well with his feedings. Not sure why, but I'm happy he seemed to feel better! That might have helped him sleep a little better--otherwise he often wakes up full of spit up or needing to get some burps out. He's starting to have more awake time during the day and making more noises and smiling more. It's amazing how much I've forgotten about this baby stage:-). It all seems new again! Ok, enough rambling, here are some pics!

Layla loves watching him and talking to him. When he starts "talking" now she'll sometime come over to him and say "hi". One of the noises he makes always sounds like he's saying "hhhiiii":-). This morning he started cooing and she laughed and then gave me this look like, 'Aw, he's cute isn't he, Mom?' :-).


I'm getting braver with my outings with both kids so Monday morning we went to Target, Carters and Meijers (ok, so we just went through the pharmacy drive thru at Meijers). But getting all three of us ready in the morning and running errands all in between his feedings (and since we don't live very close) doesn't allow too much time for perusing the isles at Target! Anyway, at Carters they had 3 month girl St. Patty's Day shirts on sale and 18 month boy shirts--exactly the opposite of what I need! I didn't think Gibs would enjoy wearing pink on his shirt, so he is just wearing green and Layla is wearing the shirt I thought that Gibson might be able to wear next year. It's boyish, but I'm pretty sure you can still tell that she's a girl:-).

I couldn't decide which one I liked better, so I thought I'd just post them both:-). Gibson had just eaten, so he wasn't so into the picture.

While cousin Gavin was in Disney World last week, the kids thought they'd wear their Mickey/Minnie pj's since they couldn't be there with him. You can't tell, but Elv's collar is Disney:-).

Never too young for Mickey ears!

Gibson just found out that the Disney Store (where Grandma got his sleeper) is no longer in Rivertown:-(. It really is sad to me that it went out of business. Layla loved going there. Poor Gibson I think only got to go there once before it closed.

Not wanting to keep the ears on...

A partial smile during tubby time...