Happy Easter

This year we spent Easter with Dan, Krystle, and Luke. We have early church this year, so we decided we would do lunch and an Easter Egg Hunt after. We decorated our eggs as soon as they came over, which the boys always have a blast doing. The boys are really funny together and they are so fun to watch. After decorating eggs, we had lunch and miraculously the Easter bunny came and went :). He was so fast that we didn't even see him! Then we released the kids to find their eggs and their basket. Kaylynn even had a few eggs of her own to find. The kids were so cute. It was a fun mellow Easter. The boys had the most fun with their eggs and candy and just playing for hours.

This was also the first time we gave Kaylynn watermelon. Of course she loved it and ate it right up. Although I think she had more fun squishing it between her fingers and rubbing it in her hair. I was glad that I had stripped her before giving the watermelon to her. She was covered from head to toe so we just threw her in the clean kitchen sink to rinse her off. She totally loved that too. Just a funny happening that's worth remembering.

On a side note, the dress Kaylynn is wearing was made by my mom and I. It is such a cute pattern and I loved that I made it with my mom. I wanted to learn how to sew clothing so this was one of my first classes with my mom. The lace we used on the bottom actually came from Aaron's Grandma Margaret.

Photo Op

Kaylynn is just so darling that sometimes I just have to take pictures of her. In this picture she is 11 months old and just learning to walk. She just looked so cute, I couldn't help myself. How could you not smile at this face.

Boulder City Train Rides

Ashton has always loved trains. Living in San Diego, you are constantly driving over railroads and seeing trains passing by. Unfortunately, here in Vegas, we don't have that. So we had to do some research and luckily found a train ride that we could take Ashton on. We had to drive across town to Boulder City to get to the train, but Ashton was so excited it made it worth the drive! They had a museum section where several trains were on display. The neatest one was the mail train. It was amazing that people even got letters back then. After we walked around, we hopped on the train for a 30 minute ride into the desert. The kids loved it and we made a day out of it. We stopped at this great little pizza place for dinner and drove around the historic part of Boulder City. This is definitely something we will have to take him back to do again.

*There is a short video of clip of Ashton telling us what we are doing. He cracks me up! So excited and so cute.

Baby Kyle

Another fun March event was welcoming baby Kyle into the family. I originally had planned on waiting till the end of April to come see him, but I couldn't help myself and the kids and I took off for a trip to see him within the first week of him being born. How could we stay away from such an adorable baby! He was so handsome and so small. After my 8 lb 9 oz angel came out, little 6+ lb Kyle seemed so small. It was a really nice visit with my sister. The kids all played and we got to relax holding our little ones. We were so happy to make the trip to see him. Jayne and Ashton had a blast playing in the water in the backyard. It was only march, but it was beautiful and hot they had a blast, which is all that really matters. It was a great trip, and we loved meeting our new nephew/cousin :).

* Yes Ashton is in his underwear! Who knew it was going to be hot while we were in town, it was still technically winter!

**The brown quilt Kyle is wrapped in was made by my mom. She did a fantastic job, it turned out beautiful.

Misc. March Fun

March seems so long ago, but I'm determined to update it all and not miss a thing. One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post was that we realized that Kaylynn was going to have curly hair at 10 months (when she finally started getting some :)). We just didn't know how curly till now!

It was about this time that I started bathing the kids together and it is probably one of their favorite times of the day. They are always splashing and laughing and having fun. During March we also had our final T-Ball game. Only three kids showed up from our team and that was it! We let the boys play and took some pictures. It was fun to them and we didn't mind that there really was no game. It was a fun season, but we are off to the next sport.

We also started realizing around this time, how much our kids LOVE music. I have tried to start playing the piano more this year and I can not sit down to play without at least one of the kids coming to play with me. I often find them playing this piano by themselves. More piano stories to come...

Here are some miscellaneous fun pictures I took in March.

Kaylynn's Story

Well I'm behind again and that's because it has just been a busy year! I seriously do not know where the time has gone. My beautiful babies have just been growing so much that I need to start writing down their story.

Kaylynn has been my do everything early baby. She wants to do everything that Ashton can do so she is always trying new things :). I think my last post about her was when she was about 4 months old. Well at five months she was learning to roll in both directions. She had extremely strong legs and started scooting while laying on her back. Sadly this meant that she rubbed all her hair off in the back. Luckily it didn't last long and she started scooting on her tummy.

By six months she was a scooting pro and was rolling like crazy. She started trying to crawl and she could go about two times on all fours and then she would do a hop were she would pull both her legs in. It was really cute. I knew that I needed to get her sitting up on her own to get her really crawling. I started doing this a little before six months so by the six month maker she could sit for a little on her own, but she sat really forward using her arms as support. When we were at my mom's for thanksgiving, Kaylynn started waving for the first time. It took me seeing it a few times before I figured out what she was doing. She would stretch her arm strait in front of her and then open and close her hand. I thought it was pretty cute.

By seven months (and Christmas) she was totally crawling and could go from sitting to crawling. She also loves clapping. I think I am always clapping for her to say she is doing a good job, so she does it all the time. It was also at this age we figured out her tummy issues. She went from sleeping through the night to waking up all the the time and spitting up. We found out she had acid reflux, but it was symptomatic till I started her on solid food. I started making all my own baby food and started using Lavender oil on her at night and she was back to her usual self. No more spit up and sleeping like an angel.

At eight months Kaylynn totally surprised us by pulling herself up to a standing position. I didn't think babies were strong enough at this age. We went to get her out of her crib one morning and she was sitting there standing. I immediately lowered the crib to prevent her from climbing out. It took her several weeks to really get the hang of it, but by 9 months she started pulling herself up onto everything.

At nine months other than perfecting her standing, she got her first tooth. She not only got one tooth, but she got two at the same time. They were her front bottom teeth. It was also around this time that I finally started getting her back on a regular sleeping schedule and sleeping through the night again. She also started becoming more vocal at this stage. Dada has been her favorite word since she learned it and we decided it not only meant dad but also food. She started saying mama more clearly and not just when she was mad.

At ten months she started walking along the furniture. She also changed her wave to the right way. She is talking all the time and I realized that both of my children are chatter boxes! Ashton talks constantly and Kaylynn decided she wanted to be heard so she started talking louder than him. This continues to be a problem, especially when we are in the car and Aaron and I are trying to talk :). You have always been able to see Kaylynns personality, but its really starting to come out now. She started tattling on her brother and fake crying. I can't believe how early they learn. She also started standing by herself and getting her balance.

At eleven months she is as happy of a baby as the day she was born. I have never seen a happier baby. She is always smiling and laughing at everyone. Kaylynn took her first steps two days before she turned eleven months. She started by taking two steps and sitting down. She would also go from sitting on the floor to standing with no support. She literally would do squats all day long. Those are some strong legs and great balance for a baby whose not even one! We started working on her walking and was taking ten steps in no time. She would try walking towards everything which made her progress very quickly. Also at 11 1/2 months she started using a straw. This may seem late, but I didn't even think to try it. I had forgotten a bottle and we were eating out, so I ordered her milk with a straw. She got it on the second try and is now crazy about straws. Her favorite drink is water, but she goes for anything with a straw so no leaving diet cokes around grandma and papa :).

By twelves months Kaylynn was walking all over the place and would usually only fall if her legs wouldn't move as fast as she wanted to go. She had four little teeth with plenty more ready to move in. I also started letting her put herself to sleep at night and she loved it. We would rock and sing a song and then lay her in her bed. She would snuggle up with her blanket and stuff animal and go to sleep. This was hard for me because I love rocking my kids to sleep, but I knew it was better for her if I didn't. I couldn't believe how easy the transition was for her. Can we say little miss independent?

In the past two months she had 4 more teeth come in getting her up to 8 teeth, she eats everything she is feed, is running, constantly waving and clapping, always talking, and the biggest climber I have ever seen. I thought Ashton was bad, she takes the cake! Soon after she turned one, she started pulling herself up onto our kitchen chairs. Now she can climb on to anything and even tries to jump for our ottoman to the couch. It's more of a run and fall, but she thinks it hilarious and it scares me to death that she is going to hurt herself. She is saying a lot more words like grandma, pappa, hi, bye, no, momma, dada, kitty cat and whats that. She is always pointing at things and asking whats that. She also tries to come up with her own words for things and I am slowly learning her language. She has always loved the water and with it being summer, she LOVES all our water activities. Between swimming and being at the lake, she loves all her water time.

It's amazing that she is now 14 1/2 months old and so independent. I wonder where she gets that from? Yes from her mom. She is adorable and a wonderful Tasmanian devil. Or should I call her my Tasmanian angel. She is always exploring and into everything, but I know its part of her learning process and she is just copying her brother and her mom. She has quit the personality and doesn't take no for an answer. One of her favorite food is sauteed spinach, which I find hilarious. She loves vegetables, but struggles with the texture of fruit. If its blended she will drink it, but I can't get her to eat it. She really is a fantastic eater and I love that she eat all the healthy stuff that I put on her plate. I will enjoy that while it lasts! Her and Ashton love playing together and I can already see they are going to be Trouble 1 and Trouble 2. She has been such a blessing in our home and she truly is my angel.