OKC Cont...

I found a few more (and some of my favorites) on my photo stream...

Playdates with our friends! 

MiMi and Papa

Fishing with Auntie 

Auntie was awesome for getting in this freezing water with us :) 

There is no denying Hadleys love for animals (horses specifically) however this is a miracle shot because Ivy is NOT a fan! I couldn't believe she wanted on! 

This kid will be a cowgirl or a Vet, maybe both

This was an awesome day! 

OKC -May 2013

We have been back from OKC for almost a month but I still wanted to post a few pics from our trip...

OUR TRIP IN PICTURES...

Playing in the rain at Granny's house in Arkansas

Best Friends having a blast in the rain... 

Ivy Mae got in on the fun

Mothers Day with my Mom

Having a snack on one of our many Zoo Trips while in OKC

So much fun in the Childrens Zoo

Hanging with our Friends Blakeley and Briggs

Baby sister's Graduation! 

Our best attempt at getting the whole crew

Ivy Mae was loving the motorcycle(our little daredevil), Hads stayed on long enough for the picture ;)

And of course some horse time. Hadley's favorite! 

Grace and I before Taylor Swift!!! So much fun! 

Our sweet girls hanging out at GG and Grandpas

Despite 2 monster tornados and kind of a rainy month, we had a blast! There was still not enough time to see everyone and do everything, but we feel blessed to have gotten to spend a month at "home".

Hadley- 3 1/2

This post is of course LATE by a few days but this last week as been insane (will post later)!

Hadley,

3 1/2! Wow!
You are sweet and loving, loud with those you know, but shy when you meet someone new or haven't seen someone in a while. You love your baby sister and are usually dragging her around, 'showing' her something. You are a Daddy's girl 90% of the time, unless you are hurt, tired, or sick, then only Mommy can help you. You have beautiful blonde hair that curls when its wet, and your Daddy's blue eyes! We still get comments on how long and beautiful your eye lashes are. You are a little Mommy to other kids, and are very concerned if anyone else is crying or upset. You are obsessed with talking on the phone! Your favorite shows are Go Diego Go, Dora the Explorer, Bubble Guppies, and Curious George! You are a true animal lover! Riding horses is your FAVORITE thing to do right now and ask me to go everyday. You love to go for bike rides, taking Baxter & Addicus for walks, playing in the water table, going to the spray park and playground, and going to 'The Farm' a.k.a Lexi's house. Your nickname is the 'Plumber' because your crack is ALWAYS showing!!! It honestly doesnt matter what pants we put on you, you just dont have a bum!!!! Sorry for that baby girl because Mommy gave you that lovely trait!

We defiantly have had some struggles lately... You are going through a tantrum phase right now and it.is.a.struggle!!!! Everything seems to be a 1-3 minute long tantrum! All the books say its a normal thing at this age but some days it feels like it may be the end of me... Patience is not something I have ever had a lot of and you put it to the test daily but we are learning together as we go.
I know that I will, and have made many mistakes being your Mom, but hopefully I learn from them and dont repeat them (often)! Even through the tantrums and whinny days you are such a sweet little girl. I love your "big hugs" and sweet kisses.


I hope you always stay as sweet as you are.
Mommy and Daddy love you to the moon and back!

Stats:

33 Pounds
39 1\4 inches (3ft, 3 1/4 inches)
Size 8 shoes

3T/4T Clothes

Ivy Mae - 18 Months...

Say it "aint" so! My baby is 18 months old today!!!!

Ivy Mae,

You are such a sweet, beautiful little girl! You have such a big heart and the attitude to match it ;) You are a take charge kind of girl. You know what you want and you usually get it. You still think your big sister has hung the moon and want to do everything that she is doing or does. You are still a Mommy's girl but think your Daddy is pretty awesome and LOVE to follow him around the yard "helping" anyway you can. You have warmed back up to dogs and cats but all other animals still scare you to death! We just went to Oklahoma for a month, and while you loved seeing everyone, you think your Great Grandpa is pretty cool! Pretty much everyday that he came home for work you would run for him!
I still get comments daily on how amazing your eyes are and how pretty you are! You love to give hugs and kisses, and you have the cutest 'pout' I have every seen! You have lots of words but your favorite is NOOOOOO! You say it often, even when you dont mean it ;) You are so sassy and your Daddy and I have loved watching you come into your personality.
Thank you for being such a loving little girl! We feel so blessed to be your parents!

Stats:

24.42 Pounds
31.5 Inches tall
18-24 Month clothes
4\5 Shoes

You love oatmeal and special K for breakfast, and will pretty much each anything, as long as you can feed yourself... You are very independent and HATE it when someone tries to feed you.
You are a water bug and will play in the water table for hours! You also love when the sprinklers come on so you can play in them, or taking a trip to the spray park! You.Are.FEARLESS!!!!

We love you so much baby girl! Happy 18 Months!!!!

Mommy and Daddy

Back again...

Hello Blogging world,

I have once again disappeared for over a month!

The month of April...
April absolutely FLEW by! Which I am very happy about since the weather was pretty miserable :(. The girls have done so good this winter considering we have been trapped inside for about 7 months now! Thankfully we spent November in OKC and a week in Cuba in February to break it up a little.

The Dominican- Graham and I just spent a week in the Dominican Republic for Graham's best friends wedding! He was the best man! The resort was great, the weather was amazing, the wedding was beautiful, and other than me getting the WORST burn of my life, it was a great week. We missed the girls like crazy and I lost count of how many times G or I said "I wish the girls were here". I am glad we got time away from everything but I certainly cant see us doing many trips away from them (for that long) in the near future! I was so happy at how well the girls did! They split time between our babysitter (whom I LOVE) and my sister n law! It went far better for them than it did when we left Hadley to go to Hawaii two years ago. There were no major crying episodes (that I know of) , they slept great and ate great! All in all, a success!

We are off to Oklahoma on Sunday and we could NOT be happier about that! We are lucky enough to get to spend a month there this summer! While its going to be crowed, we are so thankful that my family takes us in for such a long period of time :)
I know that is going to fly by like it always does! We already have way too much planned but we will make it all work.

I will leave you with a few pictures and the promise to right again "soon"!

Have a wonderful weekend

Updates and Ivy Mae 15 months!

Well its been a while...

It honestly seems like time is speeding up! The days and weeks fly by! On one hand it makes me happy because I am so freaking ready for winter to be OVER!!!! But on the other I sure wish time would slow down... The girls are getting so big and growing up too fast!

Hadley is doing amazing! We had her Hemangoma appointment in Calgary on Friday (she goes once a year now) and it was a great appointment! Its hard to say how much its gone down, but whats important is that it IS going down. I honestly cant remember the last time someone has noticed it.
She is still the sweetest, most kind hearted little girl I know! She is so loving to her little sister and EVERYONE else! She is so concerned if there is another kid crying or upset! I love her sweet heart!
She is now fully potty trained (except wearing a pull up at night), she is without a soother and is doing great without it, she counts to 20, knows all of her colors, says her ABC's, and so much more. Everyone knows how concerned we were with her language, well I am happy to say that we no longer worry! Her speech has improved so much in the last 2 months! She still may not be "caught up" completely but she has made huge strides of improvement! I guess I should have listen to the speech pathologist a year ago and I would have saved myself a lot of stress! There was absolutely nothing wrong with her, she was just a little "lazy" when it came to her speech! Why talk when Mommy and Daddy will do it for you! ;)


Ivy Mae @ 15 Months!

Little miss...
You are such a beautiful, sassy little girl! While you are very sweet you defiantly have an attitude about you. You know what you want and are NOT afraid of taking it from whomever has it ;)
You are saying Mama, Dada, bye-bye, and maybe a few that we just dont understand just yet. You are constantly babbling and giving kisses! You are still a great sleeper at night and taking between 1-2 naps a day (depending on the day). Weighing around 22 pounds. Wearing 12-18 months clothes, size 3/4 shoes. I love your wild hair that is usually going a million different directions! You are getting so much more comfortable with people other than Mommy, Daddy, and Sissy! We have loved seeing your personality develop. Your absolutely in love with your big sister and get the biggest smile on your face when she comes into a room. I love that you two are best friends!


These girls are the light of our lives and we are so excited and feel so blessed to be their parents!

Milestones and New Challenages!

She did it, she did it!!!

Ok, so Hadley has been potty trained since August, pee trained that is... We have had the on going battle with #2! She wouldn't go in her underwear but every time we put a pull up on her for nap time or bedtime she was going #2! Well I am happy to say we have had a solid week of going #2 on the potty! I have no idea what changed or why she decided that it was now time but almost 6 months after being pee trained she is officially POOP trained too!!! WOOOOOWHHHHOOOO! We are such proud parents! Now onto getting rid of pull ups at night! haha.

Next on the agenda was her soother! I honestly didnt see much problem with her having one until she was 20 if she wanted because she was only having the when she went to bed!!! However this started changing about a month ago... For some reason she started wanting it more and more! Every little owey turned into an absolute breakdown until she got her 'sue, sue'! It didnt matter where we were if she was upset about something she had to have it or we had to leave because of the huge temper tantrum that would insue...
The second reason we decided it have to be gone was she started chewing holes through them! 5 in the last 3 weeks! So we would have to throw it out and give her a new one... Well they are not cheap and my biggest fear was it was going to happen just before bedtime or during the night and I am sorry but I am NOT taking a 3 year old and a 1 year old out in the middle of the night to buy more soothers...
I knew that it was going to be hard on her (and me) but 3yrs, 2months was the time for her.
I talked about it for a few days telling her on Thursday the Sue, Sue fairy was going to come and take all the sue, sues away and give them to babies that need them. That she was a big girls and needed to help the babies. She was strangely welcoming to the idea and smiled and said "ok Mommy". On the big day we put her soother in a bucket and left it on the front porch for the Soother Fairy to take. The whole thing went way too smoothly! I actually started to think that all the Mom's that blogged out there about their success stories werent full of crap and this was going to be easy!!!! Well bed time came, we got our treat that the Fairy left us and she was still going ok. I put Ivy to bed, read to Hadley, tucked her in and closed the door... She was doing so great... for about 30 seconds and then the tears came, and came, and came! It was awful! I went in every 10 minutes or so and reassured her everything was ok, but the tears kept coming! After about an hour I went in and laid down with her until she feel asleep. She woke a couple of times during the night upset but went back to sleep pretty quickly. The second night was much better with this only lasted about 30 minutes, then last night was FAR WORSE with me almost caving! Today however she actually took a nap without her soother for the 1st time EVER! She cried (mostly whimpered) for about 5 minutes then went right to sleep! I am so proud of her and know that it was for the best... Who knows what tonight holds but I think she is turning a corner.

Leaving her soother

Seeing if it was still there

Found her treat and looking for the soother

Not happy the soother isnt there...

Ring pop and a note

Yummy sucker!

I have been quite shocked by some of the feedback I have gotten. Most positive and supportive, but some very negative telling me I should NOT  "do this to my child"! I feel that I am a great Mom and would NEVER do anything to harm my children in anyway!!! I know their wants and needs better than anyone on this planet so it surprises me when someone else thinks they know what is best for my children?!?!?!?!? Anyway, I appreciate all the support and know that everyone does not do things "my way" but I respect the people who believe in me as a Mom. I may not always do everything right but I always do them with the best intentions, and with my children's best interests in mind...


Off to a birthday party for Hadleys friend!
Hope everyone is having a great weekend!