it was a lovely day…on the warmer side but no matter, we couldn’t wait to see my girls! of course, i was on time and i am usually late with juggling these two girls! karen and kt were a half hour late…thank goodness my dollies are well behaved! a half hour is an eternity when you have kids.
when they arrived, lots of hugs and squealing ensued. we ordered our food and sat down. it’s always a challenge for me to keep my thoughts straight when the kids are around. you feel so discombobulated. i had to keep ellie calm and keep olive entertained or basically, make sure both girls are well behaved and not screaming inside the restaurant. hahaha!
karen and kt are soooooo stinkin’ good with kids and they kept olive going. she was so enamored with karen but karen is soooo good with olive. she loves kids and it totally shows. she was olive’s bestie and olive just adored her.
we yapped and yapped and yapped non stop. i was so beyond excited that kt is engaged. i am so proud that i had set them up! who knew?! i was beyond persistent in setting bobby and kt together. something just told me it was right and now look! one year later they are engaged to be married and i couldn’t be happier for them!
we talked about life, relationships, weddings, kids, babies, work, you name it. we were there for a few hours but time seemed like it flew by! while we were visiting, bobby and his partner katie stopped by to say hi! it was great to see them! i was so glad i was able to see bobby and see the happy couple together.
it was such a great afternoon! i had a wonderful time, i am happy we were able to meet up, and i was glad that they were able to see olive and ellie. i love these two sweet ladies…definite staples in my life.
happy day lovelies!
[waiting patiently for her pink aunties to show up]
oh girl! you’re two months already?! where is the time going? you are growing up so fast! i can’t believe how different you are, already. be still my heart.
you’re sleep digressed a bit after one month but picked back up to a regular routine in the last two weeks. thank the Lord because we are so spoiled and i don’t think i could handle all those sleepless nights like other parents {olive was terrible the first four weeks and got into her routine after that!}. gah! you are solid throughout the night. you will pull in a good 6-8 hours straight! woo hoo! we try to keep you awake from 6 pm and on. we try really, really hard to get you to sleep by 10-11pm and you will be sound for the rest of the night. sometimes you will wake around 4, feed, and sleep until 7-8 o’clock. let’s pray that you continue to be so consistent every night until you’re an adult!
one thing i forgot to mention last month was the fact that you don’t like to be swaddled. probably from the second week here and on. you slept just fine & have ever since you were home, not being wrapped up all tight! i think we swaddled olive every night up to 4 months, hoping she’d stay fast asleep but you’re a rock star sleeper with not being wrapped up like a cocoon .
you pretty much eat every 2-3 hours still. i think i said this before but nursing the second time around is so different. you know so much more, you are more comfortable, you understand your body better, and i am so much more relaxed. i wish i could say that you stopped upchucking your milk but alas, that is still your thing. oh em gee. after you eat, it’s like…wait, wait, wait for it…puuuuuuuuke. there are days i hope i can catch it with the burp cloth and there are days where you are so stinkin’ sneaky and it throw it at me when i am not looking. i have never done so much laundry in my life. i change my clothes constantly, i change you constantly, and i always think i never have enough burp cloths. they are always drenched in milk and other fabulous body fluids. yuck.
you are starting to ‘talk’ back. it’s the cuuuuuutest thing! you recognize people, you perk up when you hear familiar voices, you smile at your mama alllllllll the time! i am so in love. i can’t even take it when you coo back and respond to me! it’s the best feeling in the world, it makes me so happy to see you growing! your smiles and facial expressions are so fun to watch and i can just stare at you for hours…well, actually i do. hahaha!
it means so much to her to have us around. if we leave her in her swing or dock a tot and walk away, it makes her very upset. she loves it when we are sitting right next to her, she loves it even more when she is by her sister. she loves looking and listening to olive. it makes you happy. ditto for olive…she is so in love, overprotective, and oh so sweet towards you. you love to be held, you love to be touched, and you love having your sweet little family right by your side. it’s so apparent in your reactions…i hope that is how you will always feel.
you have kept your hair, your double chin is out of this world, your cheeks have grown exponentially but it’s all not as big as your belly. your belly is so beyond ginormous! it’s sooooo stinkin’ cute! i love your little thigh rolls, your pointy little nose, and your sweet. sweet eyes. i try my best to soak in all your features, reactions, & sweetness because i don’t want to forget, take for granted, and miss out on all your baby goodness.
those moments are so so precious and that is truly what life is about right now. my family, the moments together, my girls, my husband, and life in the moment because you can’t take back that time and should savor every moment God has given to us. life is too beautiful to waste it.
happy two months my baby girl. it’s been the most fabulous two months since your debut and we are so blessed to have you here.
last time kim and i met up, it was at the zoo, and it was a bit of a debacle. well, we decided this time around to head on up to kim’s abode to chill.
i made a few wrong turns driving up there {helloooo, so silly}, and it took freakin’ 20 more minutes to get to her house than it should have but alas, we made it. olive fell asleep five minutes before we got there but i was surprised she pleasantly woke up and willingly came inside the house. of course ellie was out! she was on a sleeping marathon.
once inside, i see the little people play set and knew olive would only play with that the entire time! and i was right. she did. brady was being energetic and it overwhelmed olive. awwww, poor girl. she kept staring at brady like he was entertainment and she was super intrigued. brooklyn was napping but when she woke up, she was just super cute {as usual} and minded her own business. these two kids are so stinkin’ cute and they seriously are twinsies! they soooo look like one another…so handsome and beautiful!
well, the kids played and kim and i became engrossed in our conversations…we eventually had lunch and continued on with our play date in fun fashion. i love hanging out there, it’s fun, relaxing, and always a great time. it’s always a hit or miss with these toddlers. near the end of our visit, olive became possessive over the little people toys and didn’t want brooklyn to play with them. oh my goodness…it’s so hard to get toddlers to understand that they need to share…it’s so hard to get toddlers to understand a lot! olive kept crying and i tried telling her that they were not her toys and that brooklyn was letting her play with them. tears and meltdowns ensued. ugh.
it was finally time to leave {without a few meltdowns, ellie waking up right when i was about to walk out the door, the dog barking like crazy, and kim’s brother in laws popping in right then} and after a few glitches, we finally got out the door and headed on our way home.
we had a really great time…the hiccups and craziness make it all the more fun being moms of two kiddos each. i still can’t believe our personal journeys have been so parallel and i am so fortunate kim has become such a great friend to me. love this girl! well, until next time…i always look forward to our play dates!
[yes, quite the odd pic…brady and olive were playing ‘doctor’. hahaha!]
[she’s such a doll]
[yummy caesar salad for lunch]
[she was content playing by herself…eep!]
[i was seriously stupid taking this selfie. i couldn’t look at the camera…hahaha!]
it had been forever since i last saw jodi. there were a few times we tried to get together but those dates fell through but not this time!
we started our morning in the backyard on the play set. olive wasn’t so keen with jett yet but then again, she’s kind of like that overall. she likes to observe first and then interact. it only took ten minutes or so for her to finally play with jett! they both started on the swings but jett and olive wanted to play kick, so that is when they starting to talk and play! woo hoo! after that, they were non-stop and it was so stinkin’ cute.
after a half hour or so, we headed inside. jodi and i talked, caught up, and the kids played and baby ellie slept and slept and slept! she was tired! i prepared lunch for the kids and then had lunch delivered for me and jodi. unfortunately, our fridge recently broke and i couldn’t store any food in the house for our get together, i had potbelly deliver their tasty sandwiches, chips, and cookies! yum!
the kids tore up all the toys and had such a blast playing in olive’s room. they were jumping on the bed like monkeys and being so darn cute with one another. it was so sweet to watch. jett is a sweetie and olive was having fun with him! i wanted to take a million pictures of their cuteness together!
after a few hours, it was encroaching on nap time for everyone, so we gave hugs and kisses and said our goodbyes. jett gave olive a sweet little kiss and her look was priceless. you’ll have to scroll down to see the capture. it’s hilarious. jett is so happy and proud of himself and olive is like, whatevs. haha!
anyhoo, it was awesome to see all of them! we were just missing matt! love that hubby of jodi too! we had such a great time hanging out {i just needed to chillax and let the kids be messy…ugh, my ocd is terrible}. i hope that it’s not too long before we see them all again! love this family!
we were so excited to have aaron and olivia come out to visit! i always love my time with these two beautiful people. it’s always fun and entertaining.
they came over early afternoon for a late lunch. hc and i just came home from shopping and we bought a few good eats from our local grocery store and decided to make it a casual lunch.
as soon as they arrived, of course hc had to show off the new car to aaron and olivia went straight inside to say hello. i was running around, doing my typical br stuff, when she walked in. she greeted olive first and then i came running around the corner to let her know i was just putting stuff away and i would be right out.
we hung out in the kitchen and immediately started chatting up a storm. that’s a big connection between me and olivia…we talk like it’s going out of style. we can gab like there is not tomorrow. i love that about us, our friendship. of course we didn’t even notice how long the boys were gone or when they even came in, we were too engrossed in our conversations.
we offered them some tasty libations from our stash & olivia brought over champagne as a baby gift. that cracks me up. it’s sooooo olivia to give me champagne as a baby gift. i love her. i love how quirky she is in the most awesome way. her gift giving is always so unique and thoughtful. of course we had to pop it open and imbibe it! it was absolutely dry and delicious!
we served lunch, we sat around, we talked, laughed, and enjoyed our silly subjects that were grotesquely funny and very non pc…mainly coming from mr. aaron himself. his creative mind cracks me up!
anyhoo, their main purpose was to see baby ellie…well, that little nugget slept up until they left! the little baby woke up right when they were about to leave and we were able to squeeze in a quick crying pic before they walked out the door!
well, nevertheless, it was an amazing visit as usual. i love hanging out with these two! it was a lovely afternoon indeed!
[my cheerleader pose]
[love these two]
[nuts in a cup…]
[baby ellie was not a happy camper…she was HUNGRY, but we had to squeeze in a pic before they left!]
it was a casual afternoon spent at the in laws. we had grace for the weekend and i asked hc if he wanted to visit his folks since we had to drop grace off on sunday. so, we headed on up to dick and jane’s place for an afternoon of fun.
his sister missy, nephew daniel, and aunt wendy were over as well. aunt wendy grilled burgers and hot dogs and we all just chillax’d and hung out. nothing special, nothing over the top, just good ol’ relaxing. we sat around, talked, did nothing, hung out, doted on the baby, and chilled. a perfect, simple sunday afternoon.
olive had a blast hanging out with daniel and his girl rachel. rachel is so sweet to olive and olive felt very comfortable with them. she hung out with them quite a bit downstairs while everyone was watching t.v. it’s always cute to see other people be so sweet to your kid…you always are {obvs} but it is very heartwarming to see people do the same. maybe i am saying this because most people don’t take to kids or other people’s kids and it’s refreshing to see the opposite. especially when it’s genuine, you can definitely tell when someone really likes kids because as a parent, you always think your kid is da bomb and it’s sweet when someone else thinks the same.
of course we had to take a zillion pictures of olive and ellie. how can you not?! i bring my camera everywhere and have become a total mamarazzi! i can’t help it. i have always wanted a fancy camera to capture moments like these. i think it’s been the greatest gift to date…or at least the most used!
i love casual days like these and i feel like we never have enough of them! cheers to many more sunday fundays!
oh my goodness! i can’t believe ellie is one month old. whaaaaaa! it’s already flying by too fast! i am so sad…really i am. i want to savor every single moment with this precious babe. i love looking at her, smelling her, holding her, and thinking about her future. it’s all so overwhelming for me because she is our last babe and so i am highly emotional over everything.
well, she’s an eater! i am doing much better this time around with nursing and producing milk. i know so much more and i am more comfortable…so it is more relaxing for me! i loooooove her chubby cheeks…they have gotten chubbier by the week so she is gaining weight quite nicely. ellie eats every 2-3 hours but unlike olive, ellie is a spit-er! she has reflux and vomits everywhere, all day long. this girl is very gassy! she toots and spits like it’s her full time job. olive rarely spit up or vomited {therefore we didn’t do a ton of laundry with olive like we do loads with ellie!}, ellie acts like linda blair from the exorcist! hahaha! i pretty much do laundry every other day.
ellie is a great sleeper. she is pretty solid. she’s pretty calm and docile until she needs a diaper change, a feeding, or is struggling to fall asleep {since babies can’t fall asleep on their own…it’s a learned behavior!}. otherwise, she will sit around and look cute! she is still waking up one or twice in a night for a feeding…it depends on last feeding and her sleep pattern before we hit the sack. when she wakes up to feed, she usually will go back to sleep. there are certain nights where i have to rock her back to sleep but that is usually an hour or less…although i absolutely dread it when i am beyond exhausted. overall, this babe will sleep for 2-4 hours, be awake for an hour or two, then fall back asleep. that is pretty much her routine…eat, sleep, poop, throw up and repeat.
let me also say that she is such a noisy sleeper! holy cow! it’s like a noisy train laying by our side. she loves to grunt, holler, cry, snore, you name it…ellie does it! it’s soooo funny to listen and watch her. she is so stinkin’ loud.
just in the last week, ellie has become very alert. you can see it in her eyes. instead of a glazed over look, you can tell that she notices you and becomes attentive to what she is looking at. she is starting to mimic my facial expressions and is slightly, just slightly cooing. so that is a great sign that she is wanting to ‘talk’!
you can already tell that she is becoming mesmerized by her big sister. whenever olive is around, ellie is fixated on her and loves to watch her big sister, olive, do the crazy things she loves to do! it’s so sweet to watch! i can’t wait until they can really interact!
happy one month baby girl! we are so excited to see you grow and can’t wait to see what millstones you will hit next month!
oh my goodness! i am in love with ellie’s newborn pics! tricia always does the best job!
tricia has been our photographer since olive has been in my womb. we love her work and we love her! she is so easy going and fun to work with, plus she captures our family in the most delightful way.
we got to tricia’s house bright and early. we were given instructions on how to prep ellie for her photos…um, better read then done! a 45 minute car ride with a newborn and trying to keep her awake was almost impossible! you want a baby to be sleepy for her photos because you get those cute pics that way! so, i tried my best to keep her awake {fail} but ellie was a pro regardless!
the day was so darn hot and humid. very humid. tricia keeps her studio warm because it keeps the baby sleepy but combined with the humidity, we were dying. i, honestly, never really sweat and i was sweating! the first part of the session, tricia likes to get the sibling and family photos done {so the parents and kids can relax after that and she goes full force into the newborn pics}.
of course, olive was resistant and uncooperative. she didn’t want to lay down with ellie and take pics. she didn’t want to do anything. gahhhhhhhhh, i was like, really olive?! c’mon! after a bit of coaxing, tricia actually won her over! i was shocked! olive cooperated, giggled, and did what tricia wanted her to do! oh my goodness! i couldn’t believe it!
the photo session just flew by after that {even though it was three hours long and add in that we got there 15 minutes late, and i fed ellie when we got there, so we were there for over three hours}. it didn’t feel long at all! hc, olive, and i just relaxed and had a great time hanging out in tricia’s awesome child friendly wait room while she did her magic with ellie. plus, we love tricia…i love talking with her and she is a great person and easy to get along with. i highly recommend her if you are in the chicago area…she is so great at what she does!
as you can see, ellie’s pics turned out fantastic! we are always so, so, so pleased with her work! she captured us, olive, and ellie so wonderfully! thank you tricia for always producing the most wonderful pictures of our family.
[this…is.my.favorite.]
[i love this one…but i will say that about every pic during this session]
fresh48: it’s something i thought about doing with olive but didn’t but i decided to do this with ellie. i love the idea of capturing the baby right after she was born, hence the name fresh48! our photographer, tricia, used to offer fresh48 sessions but decided to drop that option due to her kids and schedule.
i decided to book our fresh48 with lemonade stand photography, a photographer i was originally interested in when i was pregnant with olive. i had researched several photographers for Olive’s newborn pics and couldn’t decided on who to go with…a friend recommended stephanie and another friend recommended tricia. i loved both their work but it only made sense to book with tricia with her being in chicago and us being in chicago {stephanie’s studio was too far away}!
anyhoo, with tricia not doing fresh48 sessions anymore, i contacted stephanie and she was available! i was very excited! i couldn’t wait to work with her. well, the day had come. i went into labor and contacted both my photographers…one for the fresh48 and the other for the newborn pics, i get so darn excited over pics!
stephanie confirmed she would be out to the hospital on sunday {36 hours after ellie was born} to capture the sweet pictures of our newest baby girl. i was so excited and nervous…again, over olive cooperating! who knows how this babe reacts in these situations. usually she becomes very stubborn and fussy…
well, stephanie arrived right at 10am. the rain and darkness had cleared and it became a much brighter, sunny day! phew! just in time for pictures! of course, as i had thought, olive was soooooo fussy. she was not having it.at.all. she didn’t cooperate, screamed, fussed, and didn’t want to take any pictures with ellie. ugh. i was sweating. she has been this way since her freakin’ newborn pics! she still holds the record for being the longest newborn session with tricia!
anyhoo, stephanie was so patient and great to work with {no surprise, since they deal with kids as their profession}. she was calm and tried her best with olive, although olive totally gave her a run for her money, i was so incredibly pleased with our pics! she captured so many great moments between all of us and managed to snap some sweet pics of olive and ellie.
i absolutely loved that we were able to document our newest addition to our family, sweet little ellie, just being 36 hours new! memories captured that we will cherish forever. welcome to our world beautiful baby girl!
we were so blessed to have our friends and family visit little baby ellie!
first off, in the hospital, we had my family come say hi. kim, terry, and the boys stopped by to see miss ellie {although the boys couldn’t come in}, terry and kim said hi to the new babe! they brought little miss olive with them {they watched her all weekend while we were in the hospital} and she got to say hello for the first time to her new baby sister! it was the sweetest thing to watch! it totally melted my heart to see her intrigued, excited, & shy about the whole thing! you can see it in her face. my favorite picture is of her holding miss ellie! too precious!
we then had dana and scott {fresh from their honeymoon!} come to the hospital and visit us! we were so excited to see them. they stayed for awhile and brought the cutest gift for the girls. i laughed because it was so dana to get me a balloon that said ‘you did it!’…she seriously cracks me up with her quirky humor. she bought olive a cute little teddy bear, one for ellie, and flowers for me! how sweet are they?! love these two so much!
while dana and scott were visiting us, my sister thuy showed up! we all hung out in the hospital room together, talking about the baby, their honeymoon, the wedding, future vacation spots, etc. it was pretty awesome to have them all there.
once we got home on sunday, my family came over and reagan and bennett were able to meet their new cousin ellie. it was so sweet to see them excited to hold her! my parents were over, along with my sisters and terry.
the following day, we had rich’s parents, dick and jane along with grace come say hi. grace brought me flowers and dick and jane brought ellie a cute little gift. it was so sweet to see them with ellie! their new granddaughter and grace’s new sister!
we then had rich’s sister missy, nephew daniel, and rich’s aunt wendy come say hello! missy always brings the best gifts, especially for olive! she brought her a peppa pig set and she absolutely loved it! or loves it…because she still loves playing with it! well, if anyone knows olive, they know that her most prized possession in this world is her bunny blankie. a gift from her aunt missy. well, missy found another one and gifted it to miss ellie! i really hope she loves it just as much as olive does!
we also had lan, pete, and avery come visit! i really didn’t get a good pic of them holding ellie but nevertheless, it was pretty awesome to have them come by to say hello. they were over along with my family, again, and my brother dan finally made it over to see ellie. thank you so much for the awesome gift you gave olive! we call her dr. olive now! she absolutely looooooooves it!!!!
we then were blessed to have kim come visit us. we were so excited to see her! i love catching up with this lovely lady. she is just the sweetest and it always feels like there is never enough time between us! we always have so much to talk about and before we know it, it’s time to do something else, get somewhere, or time is just plain up! she also brought the cutest gift for ellie’s room. thank you so much for such thoughtfulness!
well, there ya have it. ellie’s first week and a half of visitors. we were so happy to have so many special people come by and say hello to our new baby girl in this world. thank you to our friends and family who were able to make the trip out to us!
[she wasn’t sure what was going on]
[look at her cheeky look]
[how precious is this? my heart is melting!]
[how beautiful, my sister kim with her niece ellie]
[dana {and scott in the background} and ellie]
[cutie pie on her way home]
[having fun with the presents]
[dying over the balloon dana and scott got me…plus flowers and a gift for olive, so thoughtful!]
[olive loves the song, ‘the wheels on the bus’ so naturally she said, ‘shhhhh, shhhhh, shhhhh’ to baby ellie as she cried!]
[cousin reagan and ellie]
[sweet bennett really wanted to hold ellie]
[grace and baby ellie]
[love the laughter and love shared between these two]
[papa and gramma loving ellie]
[flowers from grace]
[as usual…the baby is crying in auntie missy’s arms]
[vera bradley bunny lovie…hoping ellie loves hers just as much as olive does!]
[she was totally into the peppa gift from aunt missy]
[a gift from aunt wendy]
[cousin daniel with ellie]
[lan, pete, dan, and family visiting ellie & each other!]
