Monday, July 30, 2012

July

Life here in sunny Florida has been busy to say the least. Besides taking care of two 16 month olds, and working it seems there is hardly time for anything other than pure survival. Oh, and in my free time, cleaning out our spare (junk) room and getting ready for baby. And organizing our garage. And bedroom. But I keep my head up knowing that things work out, somehow someway. They always do.

Uncle Nolan came for a surprise visit last month which was really nice. Looks like we won't get another visit until maybe December, pre-deployment! So much will change by then :) Not to mention, we get another visit from Tia in a few short days! Yay!

Audrey is my little helper. She is very good at following directions, loves to clean up and always seems to be supervising Madison's shenanigans. She is signing (and saying) new words everyday it seems. Her newest is "Cookie" from Sesame Street. Elmo is still her one true love but he still has the name "doggie!" She learned the tricks well and will sign "please" at the back door, wanting to go outside, or in front of the entertainment system, in hopes of watching Sesame Street. I guess it could be worse! Most recently, she hopped up on her rocking horse and started rocking! How fast they grow! :')



Madison, still our little tomboy, also loves her outside time. We get our diaper free time outside most mornings and/or evenings. On any given day you can count on a nudist running around our backyard. She likes to walk around the entire backyard checking things out. Eating acorns, throwing rocks, and trying to reach the pooper scooper! It's never dull. She has always been shy around strangers but it is especially pronounced now. Suddenly, it's all mommy, all the time. She goes from practically ignoring me to giving me random hugs throughout the day, only wanting ME to hold her and being grumpy with daddy. (Poor daddy) but he's used to a woman's mood swings ;) She even signed mommy for the first time today. Guess she does love me after all!



Baby Jones is 28+ weeks along! I think it is not a question of he or she but human or ninja! This kid is much more active than my girls but there is probably more available space too! I'm still feeling really pretty good but have my days of sheer exhaustion. Some days I get to lay down during nap time for a nap myself. Guess I better enjoy that now. I think the more kids you have, the less sleep you get. Is that about right? We have made some headway in the nursery, getting the painting done (yay!) and starting to put the little details together. I've got all the neutral newborn clothes washed and put in the drawer, along with the newborn diapers ready to go! Hard to believe this baby will be here in less than 3 months!

Let's not forget about my wonderful hubs. He works hard 5 days a week and I have plenty of tasks for him in the mornings before work and on his days off. Really couldn't fathom life without him! We are lucky enough to have parents stepping in to allow us a much needed weekend away. We'll be staying at the beach for 2 nights. We might actually have a few meals in quiet and sleep in after 8am! SO looking forward to this!!!

As always, pics from the month are in our web album.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

June

On the first of June Rusty celebrated his 29th birthday! Getting close to the big 3-0!!! We celebrated by staying at one of Universal's hotels (our first night away from babies!!!) It was very relaxing but too short :)

Not too much else happened this month. I spent it in recovery mode, trying to organize my photos, work on the nursery and clean out the garage (AKA: nesting). It made for a few late nights after the girls went down for bed!!

At least once a week I take the girls over to see my mom and have dinner there. They love to run around her house and make a mess :) Other evenings you can find us reading books with toys sprawled across the living room or watching Audrey's favorite show, Elmo. We also go outside when the weather is nice and play with the water table they got for their birthday.



Audrey is quite a little ham. She is always giving a big smile with her eyes scrunched closed...she knows it's cute too. There are still just a few words she is saying but instead of her favorite "doggie" she also says ducky, doll, and ball frequently. She likes to make animal noises too...you can pretty much count on the monkey, duck and cats in her books to make some sort of noise while you are reading! She loves to pet Layla and it seems like Layla is more tolerant of her than she is of Madison.


Madison still isn't talking yet but she still wants to know what everything is! She points and makes this hissing noise when she wants to hear the name of an item. When she wants to, she follows pretty complex instructions and points to specific items in her books. She loves story time and will bring you book after book if you are willing to read them! She remains a brute but is very sweet and likes to cuddle at bedtime. Her blankie is still #1!

They both learned that if they "ask nicely" (by signing please) they get what they are asking for. Trying to teach manners to two 15 month olds is proving challenging! They also have a few minutes of potty time each evening where they get to sit on the potty like a big girl, I tell them. I'm hoping to have them potty trained by the time they go to college ;) Their new thing is giving each other a kiss goodnight before bedtime and naptime. It is absolutely precious in case you were wondering!

Baby Jones is growing well. I had my 24 week check up a couple of days ago and they are still seeing me only every month! Quite a change from my last pregnancy and thank goodness for that! Everything is going well, my blood pressure and urine screens have been normal. Baby has a strong heartbeat and is measuring about 23 weeks via tape measure! I seem to be feeling more kicks and jabs this time but that might just be because there isn't another baby to kick in there, only me! We are still playing the name game too, in case you were wondering. We have agreed on one girl name and one boy name but I'm not 100% sold on either one. For some reason #3 is much more difficult to name than the first two!

We don't really have plans for July other than to survive the Florida heat and hopefully spend sometime in the pool!!!