Adell's Birthday

A couple of weekends ago we spent our Saturday in Topeka. It was Adell's birthday party and we decided to make a day out of it. We first stopped over at my Mom and Dad's house since we hadn't been over there in awhile. 

Story time with Grandma!

We had fun hanging out and eating lunch with the family. I rarely get pictures in with the kids these days so I made Hailie take a picture with me. 

We headed over to the Kent house a little early in hopes of getting Anna a nap. Unfortunately that didn't happen with the commotion of the party prep. When Adell arrived Anna was pretty excited! Adell's cousin Sophia was also there and while Anna was a little shy at first she eventually warmed up and had a great time playing with the older girls. 

Pizza time!

Jane seemed to be having fun watching everyone as usual. 

There was a clothing change in there after some amazing spit up (Jane was getting over a cold and was still pretty stuffy making eating a challenge.)

Brandy and Jane!

Anna did pretty well with watching all open all kinds of fun gifts. You could tell she wanted to play with everything but she took being told that she had to wait and when Adell was done she could have a turn. One of Adell's gifts was a new bike from Uncle James and she thought that was incredible. She's much too short for it but she had fun sitting on it and playing with the streamers on the handles.

Another popular toy among the girls was the microphone that Uncle Joe picked out. Adell sang us "Itsy Bitsy Spider" over and over and over again. Anna just stared at Adell singing and when she was given a turn she just stood there in silence. Gave us all a good laugh.

With Adell's birthday party over I've come to the realization that we'll be having a party soon for a very special 2 year old. I better get to planning!!!!

Pictures of Jane

I have a couple of posts to get to but I haven't had a chance to load the pictures from my camera yet. I do, however, have some pictures from Jane's 3 month photo session with Glass Lantern Photography that I wanted to share. As usual I had trouble deciding which to post so I picked my favorite...for today at least. 

Jane was all full of smiles for us during this session. I was looking back at Anna's 3 month pictures and she was all eyes in those. Jane was just ready to grin and show off her dimples for us though!

 Can't forget about that tongue. She doesn't stick it out as much anymore and I'm so glad we have that stage captured.

I love my pretty girl in lavender. 

The quilt you see in the next few images is my Grandma Koch's. She made it and it was the quilt they had on their bed. I love it and I'm so thrilled that we were able to incorporate it into a photo session. I know my Grandmother would have loved to snuggle up with these girls. 

It was tough getting Anna to focus for this photo session. I had envisioned the girls on their backs looking at each other like they do pretty much every single day here at home. Anna was too excited and just wanted to play with Ellie's toys (we were at the photographer's house and she has a daughter close to Anna's age)

She managed to get a couple of cute pictures of them together though!

Jane: 4 months

Our sweet little Jane turned 4 months old last week. We just had her doctor's appointment today so I decided to wait for this post. I had an incredibly hard time narrowing down the photos this month. I think I snapped over 50 and when I went through them I had 20 that I really really liked. From those I got down to 12 and that is when I had problems. I felt like by not choosing one I was saying I didn't like it and it was painful not to load it. I have problems...

Here are the stats from Jane's appointment today:

Weight: 15 lbs 10 oz (75%)

Height: 24.8 in (60%)

Head Cir: 17.1 in (98%)

Jane's height has dropped to closer to average. She's still longer then Anna was at 4 months by over an inch. Overall Jane's appointment went great. She's a happy healthy little lady (despite a couple of slightly blocked tear ducts...no big deal). 

Jane has changed so much in the last month and seems so much older. She's become so much more aware of the world around her...really taking everything in. As a result she's become more distracted while nursing. When Anna hit this stage I was able to go to a quiet area to nurse but Jane is going to have to learn to adapt since Anna is often running around.  

Jane loves her pacifier but also loves sucking on her hands. Sometimes you hear her just slurping away at them...happy as can be. 

Jane also wants to be a part of things now and doesn't take to being ignored. I used to be able to put her in the Pack N' Play in our living room/dining/kitchen area and tend to Anna and even do some cooking. If she's there for what she deems to be too long then you will know. She will start squawking at you until you come and talk to her or pick her up. The squawking is pretty impossible to ignore. She wants to be in the bouncer watching you or in the high chair so she can be a part of things. I love that her little personality is coming through.

Several weeks ago Jane found her feet and she loves grabbing at them. I love it when babies are holding their feet. Jane is also grabbing toys much more and will bat at toys on her play mat. It's fun to see her become more interactive with the world. She is also very close to rolling over from back to tummy. I feel like it could literally be any day now. It also seems like she wants to sit up although she's not quite ready for that yet.

The last month has been a little rough in terms of sleep. Her bedtime has moved earlier which is nice but then she started waking up much more frequently. Usually twice but a few times more often then that which is rough after you know she can go more. We were also attempting to stop night swaddling which wasn't going well. She kept waking herself up with her arms. Last week I decided to give it another go and she did great and even put herself to sleep. No more night swaddling and we are back to a 6 hour stretch! We still have to work on getting rid of the swaddle for some naps but we're getting there.

 Jane is so smiley and is such a happy baby. It seems like she is constantly smiling and laughing. I called her "Joyful Jane" a few times and while I was made fun of for it, it seems to be catching on. (When she is mad though you will KNOW. This girl has a set of lungs on her)

 We just love this little lady and she has definitely stolen our hearts. Seeing our two girls together is the most amazing thing ever. 

Pumpkin Patch

During Kevin's long weekend we also made a trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We've been reading a lot of books about fall, pumpkins, etc so we thought Anna needed a chance to pick out a few pumpkins for herself. We went to Powell Pumpkin Patch in Louisburg.

Anna helping Jane

 As soon as Anna saw a pumpkin she was excited and had to try and pick them up.

She especially likes the little tiny pumpkins. I love her expression in this picture...she seems very awnry.

Since we had Jane's stroller we opted out of going out into the actual pumpkin patch. We could of put her in the carrier but it was pretty warm and bright. Gotta protect that pale skin! Anna didn't really care and had fun picking up pumpkins from the trough full of them.

We meant to put a pumpkin in Jane's stroller so you could tell where we were. Poor girl just got pushed around and we didn't take as many pictures of her. She was pretty happy though!

Proof Jane was there

 At the pumpkin patch they also had a big hay pile for kids to climb on which Anna thoroughly enjoyed. We did have to watch out for the bigger kids so we eventually decided to move from it to the sand box they had setup. She stayed playing in that for a long time.

We decided to skip the maze. Anna wasn't really interested in the mini one they had set up but I think next year she might enjoy it. 

After naps we all went outside to do a little yard work. Jane was so cute in her little overalls!

Anna had fun helping Daddy rake leaves. They would fill up the wheelbarrow and then Kevin would plop Anna in and run around the yard to our compost area to dump the leaves. I was making dinner so I didn't get any good pictures but she was having a blast! Since Anna actually never took a nap that afternoon she was pretty tired after her busy day.

Our four day weekend went way too fast as expected but we were so happy to have Daddy home for so many days. We sure love our little family and the more time together the better!

Sea Life

Last week Kevin took a couple days off so that we could have a long weekend. He had been traveling so much in September that we thought it would be nice to have a few days to do some fun stuff and work on a few projects around the house. Not much has gotten done since Jane was born!

On Friday we decided to head over to Sea Life in Kansas City. Anna LOVES fish and sea creatures and we've been talking about going for a long time. Luckily we are Friends of the Zoo so it was 50% admission. With how excited Anna was to be there it would have been worth paying full price. (but I'm glad it wasn't :)

As soon as Anna started seeing the fish she was thrilled. It was incredible to see the joy in her face.

Each time we'd come across a new fish she'd run up to it yelling "a fish" as if she'd never seen a fish before. Jane was a pretty good sport and had fun looking around too until she decided to take a major poop warranting a change of clothes. 

One of Anna's favorite books right now is this National Geographic Big Book of the Ocean. She knows the names of pretty much every animal or fish in the book and it was fun that she had the chance to see many of them in real life.

Checking out the manta ray pool

 Another cool part was the touch pool. We were able to touch the starfish and sea urchins which was really fun.

Jane had fun in the carrier and even caught a nice little nap while Anna ran around.

There were a few areas for the kids to play including this Lego area. There were other kids climbing on it so Anna decided she should too. We had to pull her off but at the very end there was an area meant for climbing which she had a blast on.  

After the aquarium we headed over to grab some lunch. Anna did NOT want to leave but it was getting close to nap time and we wanted to make it back home rather then having her nap in the car. 

It was such a fun day and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go. Going on a weekday was nice too since it wasn't as busy. We will definitely have to go back again!

Fun with Amy

A couple weekends ago I was lucky enough to have my incredible friend Amy in town! She was excited to get to meet Jane for the first time and I was oh so excited to have some girls time. Kevin had the girls at a 1 year old's birthday party so I had a few free hours to catch up with my dear friend. We decided to head out for some sushi which I had not had in FOREVER!

And really...what is sushi without sake??? 

It was so wonderful having some time to hang out with Amy "kid free" and we made the most of our time. After catching up over dinner we decided to split some cheesecake and enjoy a tasty cocktail. 

Jane was already down for the night when we got back but Anna was still up so we let her stay up even later to open a present from "Auntie Amy" and play for a little bit. Anna had fun showing off to Amy although she acted a little bit shy at first.

Santa pajamas in September anyone?

The next morning Amy got to meet Miss Jane! Jane had fun and was so content just sitting with Amy. 

It's always hard to get Anna to smile on demand. A little tickling got a smile but we couldn't get her to look at the camera. She's a work in progress :)

Amy had to head to Topeka to meet up with family but I was so glad she made time for me during her quick visit to Kansas. It's never enough time but I'm so happy we had some! Not sure when we'll be making it to Arizona with two babies so I'm so grateful Amy is so good about getting back to Kansas!

Thanks for visiting and spoiling our girls! Love you Amy!

Ryan and Kara's Visit

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to have my great friend Kara and her family stop by for a visit. Kara's new little girl, Madison, is just 1 month younger than Jane and I was so excited to get to meet her and visit with them. Kara is a teacher and was going back to work the next week so we had to get together before that! The Conley's live in Emporia and we were so excited for them to arrive. 

We got in a little tummy time while we waited. 

 I was so glad Ryan and Kara were able to make it to Olathe. Luckily Ryan's parents live in Olathe and they were planning a trip to Ikea so they had several things planned after driving all the way from Emporia

Ryan with Jane

 I feel like I look so awkward holding Madison in this picture. This is how Jane likes to be held and has for a long time but I guess Madison doesn't feel the same way about it. She wasn't upset but I think it makes me look like a rookie. 

I had the chance to show them around the house and of course Abby (3 years old) and Anna enjoyed the upstairs guest room/playroom the best so we ended up hanging out there most of the time. Anna had so much fun running around and showing all her toys to Abby and there was definitely lots of laughter.

All our girls

Madison was such a sweet little thing. We of course had to get pictures of our little ladies together. Kevin and I laugh about how huge Jane's head looks compared to Madison's. Granted Jane has a month on Madison so she's had more time to fill out those cheeks but we still think it's funny. 

Jane and Madison

 We only had a couple of hours but it was so wonderful to see these guys. I told Kara that we'd have to find some weekend when Kevin and I could come visit them in Emporia. 

Thanks for visiting us!