Storytime with Lily

Ever since Lily was a tiny baby I've tried to have reading time with her everyday. As a result, she loves to read! She gets up beside me to read nearly everytime Levi is eating. I love it! Just recently Lily started getting books and "reading" to Levi. It's the cutest thing ever!

Of course she has to sneak a few kisses in too. ha!

The progression in these pictures cracks me up -

Levi chewing on toy, toy falling, 

Lily chewing on toy, Levi chewing on toy again! 

Silly kids.

Squeaky Clean

The other night both babies needed baths and Jacob was at youth orchestra rehearsal, so I got brave and bathed them together. They both adore bathtime and Lily loved having Levi in the bath with her! They were so cute all jammied-up afterwards that I couldn't resist getting some pictures. 

 Serious conversation. lol

 Sweet kisses

 Just chatting away. 

Levi's first time in a 3 month size outfit - still a little big!

Resurrection Day

We had a wonderful Lord's Day yesterday worshipping our risen Lord! We also enjoyed a delicious dinner with my family. It was a beautiful day, although quite humid, so we got some pictures. Would you believe that this is our first-ever family picture with Levi?? Horrid, I know! We somehow forgot to get a family picture when he was born, and ever since we've just said many times how we need to get a picture...but we never have. Oops!

I cannot believe how fast Ridley and Lily are growing up! Just comparing our Easter pictures from last year to this year is crazy!

I was so excited to get some pictures of me and my babies! Normally I'm the one behind the camera.

Hope you all enjoyed a wonderful weekend!

First Experience with Markers

The other day I had the brilliant idea to let Lily play with markers (washable, non-toxic markers...thankfully) while I fed Levi his bottle. She did really good at first not putting them in her mouth, but then when I had my back turned, she snuck a taste. 

It was so funny to watch her when she realized that she had marks on her hands. She tried rubbing them off with a very confused look on her face!

So funny!

She was not a happy girl when I decided that "color time" was over because she wouldn't stop putting them in her mouth. We'll try the markers again in another month or so and see if she does better about drawing instead of eating! ha.

Lily's First Bad Fall

My poor little girl tripped and fell out our side door onto the concrete. I wasn't at home at the time, but when I saw her sweet banged up face, I cried. 

She didn't seem too bothered by it. Jacob said that she screamed for like 10 seconds when it happened and then was fine. Precious girl fell asleep on the play area rug (which she never does) but that's the only abnormal thing we noticed. 

Unfortunately it happened the day before we were leaving on a weekend trip to visit family and friends that we hardly ever see. I guess that's the way it goes - growing up, it seemed like someone always got hurt right before we were going to get a family picture. Ha! All the scrapes scabbed over and looked just lovely for our trip. We had been planning to go to a beautiful park to take pictures of the kids, but we just nixed that idea.

Her face is all healed up now, and I don't think she's going to have any scars. Those little accidents really make your mama-heart hurt! {sniff}

Lily's First Haircut

A couple weeks ago (yes, I'm waaaay behind!) I took Lily to the Barber Shop to get her hair trimmed up. Down here in Alabama barber shops are not just for men! Ha!

Her hair was really uneven in the back and the front was all straggly so I thought a trim would be good. She played while we waited our turn. 

I assumed that she would be scared and I would have to hold her, but she surprised me and sat all by her big-girl self!

She was a little wiggly - I think mainly because it was tickling her. 

When she was all finished she got a sucker for being so good! The funny thing is that since we don't give her a lot of sweets, she took one lick of the sucker and didn't like it! She wanted to eat the raisins I'd brought for her snack instead. LOL

Daddy Love

The other night while I was fixing supper, Jacob got down in the floor to play with the babies. Of course I had to snap some pictures!

Lily finding Levi's eye

Love this!

Levi's Appointment

I just want to say a quick welcome to all my new friends from the Ultimate Blog Party 2011! I'm so glad to have you here, and although I haven't had much time to party, I will visit your blogs soon. :o)

Thank you all so much for your prayers for Levi's appointment at Children's last week! We really liked the doctor's and we feel like they are the best ones to be taking care of Levi. There is a whole team of Cleft Lip/Palate doctors, so we saw an Audiologist, ENT, Genetic Specialist, Plastic Surgeon, and Feeding Specialist. It was rather crazy to say the least!

Levi did really good with all the poking and examining, but after about the third person looked in his ears, he covered them with his little hands like he was wanting to say..."Step away from my ears!" It was so funny!

My mom was able to go with us and it was nice to have an extra set of ears to help get all the information we were being given. We go for a CT scan and pre-op at the end of this month and the surgery is in the middle of May. 

Since a midline cleft is rare and sometimes caused by underlying issues, they decided to do the CT to check his head for any other abnormalities. From all outward observations he appears to be a normal, healthy little boy except for his split upper lip.

They found fluid in his ears, so they want to put tubes in when they are doing the lip surgery. He's never had any infections or any trouble, so we don't really feel like the tubes are necessary. I've had alot of friends whose babies got tubes and they still got tons of ear infections so...we're still deciding what we're going to do. 

Thank you again for your prayers! We appreciate them more than you know!

15 months

Our little sweetie is growing up so fast!

She's such a girly girl - loves shoes, loves bows, loves jewelry, loves her toes painted

Little southern girl with her pearls on. Ha!

She's in love with her little brother. It's so sweet when she's been taking a nap and wakes up, she runs to Levi saying, "Baby!" and gives him tons of sugar.

She also loves her baby dolls - usually one goes with her where ever she goes and she sleeps with about 5 in her crib!

She eats so good - loves fruits and veggies.

She got her hair trimmed yesterday (pics coming!) and she got a sucker for being so good. Well, we don't give her many sweets at all so she took a couple licks of it and then didn't want it anymore. She wanted her raisins instead. ha.

She loves blowing kisses!

She's a bigtime Daddy's girl! From watching at the front door for him to come home, to asking for him constantly when he's away and then running to him for kisses when he is home. It's precious!

She is growing, slowly, but surely! She's wearing 12-18 month clothes and size 4 shoes.

She usually takes 2 naps each day, but sometimes she just reads/plays during her afternoon nap. It's fine with me for her to just have some quiet time.

She is a happy little girl who is fun to be around!

She loves going "bye-bye" - whether it's church or shopping or just driving around, she loves getting out!

She knows the answers to these questions - 

"Who made you?" ..."God"

"Who was the first man?" ..."Adam"

"Who was the first woman?" ..."Eve"

We listen to Patch the Pirate Sunday School Songs in the car and she's started doing motions/saying some of the words to some of the songs - "This little light of mine," "If you're happy and you know it," "The wise man built his house on a rock," and "Jesus loves the little ones." 

We love this little girl to pieces! She is such a blessing to our little family!