Adeline Baby Journal

This child is growing like dandelions on a windy day in my yard.. If I were to post a picture of my yard this analogy would be complete. 

Life with 2 kiddos has been challenging but so heart warming and special. One of my worries about having another child was the fear if I would love her enough. My heart was already so full of love for Brian and for Lydia.. could it expand any more for another human and hold as much love as I already felt?

The answer to that is yes. My "Grinch" heart has grown in size and my love for this new darling spirit is unfathomable. Some people are not "newborn" people and enjoy kids the very most when they are a little older like sitting up or talking or the wild getting-into-everything stage. Having a newborn again has made me realize that I may just be a newborn person. I love how little they are and how they snuggle up next to you. I love to work to get a smile out and I love LOVE the smell of new babies. Though getting up at nights is tough, man it is holding that baby worth it. 

I just love this little girl so much. And I love these two little girls so much.. And I love their love for each other.

Kids come with their own personalities.. that is for sure. While Lydia has always been a wild child going 100 miles per hour.. Adeline is much more content. Lydia was not a snuggle bug at all and just wanted to be on the go.. and Adeline just wants to be held ALL THE TIME.

One thing I really do love about her growing is having this personality of hers poke through even more!

To cut Addie's hair wasn't a debate like I had, had with Lydia. My kids loose their hair around the time the baby acne hits and they are left with the old man half-bald look. I waited til 3 or so months to finally buzz Lydia. This time I just did it. Lydia's had grown in thicker and much more even and already I can tell the same for Adeline.

But this little ball of fluff is so soft.. and that is what it feels like.. like a really soft feather and is extremely fine.

Lydia's favorite thing to do right now is have the baby on her back. It sure makes for a cute picture. They are such beauties and boy do they look alike! Can you tell they are sisters?!

I do get the question pretty often of "do I think Lydia and Adeline look alike" and my answer is yes! They look an awful lot like me but have their daddy's eyes. Sometimes as I am feeding Addie I'll look down and feel like I'm looking at a baby picture of myself. Totally a weird feeling to have little minis!

Adeline is very strong for her age.. Lydia was too and started rolling at only a month old, but Addie beats her in her endurance. It may just be that Addie's acid reflux causes her to be stiff all the time, but she is always trying to stand and has been able to hold her head up since day one.

Lydia continues to love pretty hard on Adeline. I have started to wonder if she'll ever get bored of her sister because there is no sign of that happening anytime soon.

Here is the start of Adeline's baby journal.. I love doing these and seeing how much they change and grow. I think all too often that I'll totally be able to remember the little things she does at different ages, but I know that isn't true. Already I try to remember what age Lydia started doing what.. for example "cooing" and I have to go back and find where I wrote it down. I am so grateful for journals and records and need to do better at writing it all down so I can remember these precious moments!

This is to show Adeline's eyes.. I don't think she's going to be a blue-eyed girl! Her eyes and coloring are much darker. Right now her big eyes are leaning toward hazel like Brian's.

Adeline at 2 months is currently 12 lbs which puts her around 70% percentile for height and she is 23 inches which is 96th percentile for height. I have really tall babies (Lydia was also this way).

One of my favorite things about Adeline is when she smiles she gets so excited that she throws her arms up and her tongue instantly covers her smile... and her eyes get these little wrinkles in the corners like her daddy's...

I also love how much she loves baths. I remember wanting Lydia to love them so bad but she never did and still struggles at times with wanting to take them (Thank goodness for bubbles and bath crayons.. they are the best at helping her want to take them).

Adeline can sit in a bath until it is no longer even warm or lukewarm and she cries when I take her out.

It feels like we have always had this little pug in our lives. (Yes... her nickname is pug due to her constant snorting and snoring). It seems like we just woke up and she was in our lives and it just felt so natural that we never questioned it.

I like it that way.

Marriage Journal Update

It's been a while since I've posted the update of our marriage journal. Along with the pregnancy, and baby journals, I've loved making these along the way.

I'm a big believer in journals. Even though I am far from perfect about writing in mine, I like to find creative ways to document our lives from big to small. This is part of why I blog.

President Henry B Eyring gave a talk years ago that has always hit home with me. The talk is titled "O Remember, Remember" and in it he tells of a story where he returns home late one evening to find his father-in-law rushing out the door after helping his family and hears in his mind very clearly the words, "I'm not giving you these experiences for yourself. Write them down."

He goes on to explain that we are to make a record (a journal of some sort) for our children to read and see how Heavenly Father blesses each and every one of our lives daily. Since this talk given 9 years ago now I have tried harder to keep a record of our lives and our blessings.

I kept a pregnancy journal for both Lydia and Adeline. And a baby journal for Lydia and have started Adeline's. Having one for our marriage is special to me as well, especially as we look back to see how much we have changed and matured!

 

I'm not one to sugarcoat my life.. and truth be told marriage is hard... amazing and worth it, but hard. Year 5 has been a rough year with so many changes and with residency kicking us in the face but I can't even begin to describe how grateful I am to have memories to reflect on as well as a journal of all of the great moments to drown out the hard ones of this year. I'm grateful. 

And that feeling of gratitude is what I'm going to choose to focus on.

"Reely" fishy Halloween

Halloween rocked this year. It was such a fun-filled day. And the cool part is, Brian got to spend the morning with us. It's always special when he has some time to be with us.. And he sure caught himself some "reely" cute fish to spend it with. 

(PS-if you notice.. Brian's costume is the same from two years ago when he was a bug catcher.. he's not much into dressing up so.. Usually a hat and prop is the way to go)

This picture almost had me rolling on the ground laughing..Where's Adeline? Halloween really was a blast and I have a feeling it will only get better from here as Lydia starts to understand more and more.

We went to Gardner Village for the Witchfest and did Six Hags. We swam in corn kernels and played in a haymaze and they had a super cute petting zoo that she adored.. even when she got nipped by the horse. I'm pretty sure it was Disneyland to Lydia. She could have stayed there all day. She also got to ride a pony... and it is a good thing her pony was so well-behaved because her loud laughing the WHOLE time would have spooked most horses. It was adorable. Too bad she can't get a pony for Christmas... ha

Kaitlyn was our neighbor in Chicago.. our doors were seriously about 4 feet apart.. We became instant friends which is such a blessing to find when you're away from family.. especially when the person is your next door neighbor.. close enough that she could hear Lydia singing in the tub at night through the wall! It was a blast to have her come visit as well.

Debbie and Lydia have a very special relationship.. Debbie's husband Brett passed away a few months before Lydia was born. Lydia took immediately to Debbie and it often seemed as if Lydia already knew Debbie. I always had a very strong impression that Debbie's husband Brett had sat Lydia down up there and told her to take good care of Debbie while they were apart. Lydia loves and adores Debbie and I think it is safe to say Debbie feels the same. They share a very very special bond.

 

The llama wanted a selfie.. so I had to oblige. 

That smile says it all... like I said. This was probably how Disneyland would rate to this girl.

This is how Lydia feels anytime she gets to hold the baby... and while it is super duper adorable.. it also scares me and has me on edge ready to save Adeline from Lydia's sudden movements (I'm talking about the times when Lydia will push her to land on her face or try and carry her in a choke hold, or "hand" her a toy and end up giving her a goose egg on her head... those kind of sudden movements).

I truly hope Lydia always loves her little sister as much as her face shows in these pictures. I can just stop worrying when Addie can defend herself a wee bit better.

Lydia is obsessed with airplanes or "kites" as she insists on calling them. She reminds me of the dogs from the movie Up. When they see a squirrel they stop mid-sentence or whatever they are doing and say.. "SQUIRREL!" Lydia does the same thing with airplanes.. "KITE!" or "AIRPANE!" Don't believe me? Watch her video I did for her second birthday. I didn't even put in how many times she got distracted by an airplane flying overhead.

I'm pretty sure Adeline wondered why I woke her up to stick her in this big poofy thing... but it kept her really warm so that was worth it. And she makes an extremely adorable fish if I might add..

Lydia was surrounded by quite the crew for Trick-or-Treating.. and I'm that really cool person that made them all wear a costume (which turned into a hat of some sort).

With Debbie and Kaitlyn  in town they were able to catch Adeline's blessing and spend Halloween with us which made Halloween a real treat. Brian's mom Laurie joined us for some quick trick-or-treating. Brian sadly had to work.. He started night shift for the next couple weeks.. Ugh.. don't get me started on that... ANYWAY.... 

 

Trick or treating was adorable.. like melt my heart can we do this forever kind of adorable. We practiced her saying trick or treat before we went and hearing her darling little voice say that was enough to make anyone dump all their treats into her little pumpkin container.

But when we actually went to the door and she saw the candy people where just giving away.. She would say... "P-p-please?" and that put her trick-or-treating cuteness up a notch. SO STINKING CUTE! Especially as she'd wave goodbye and say "Tank Ooou!" and blowing kisses. My mommy heart was bursting.

Trick or treating crew! If I were to somehow tie in all our costumes I would say that Kaitlyn is the magician with a magic mouse (Debbie) that comes out of her hat because the bunny was on vacation. Me and the babies are the fish in the magician's fish tank in her office where the evil assistant magician Laurie is trying to steal Kaitlyn's hard earned money....

Okay.. that was a stretch.

Happy Halloween from our tank to yours! 

BLESSED

Sunday October 30, our families gathered to witness the blessing of our sweet Adeline in our new ward in Bountiful Utah. My memories are very fresh of Lydia's blessing just shy of 2 years ago now. And I felt my emotions close to the surface all day with the blessing of another precious spirit.

Adeline wore the same dress that Lydia wore and I can't help but think of what darling little angels have come to our home.

Adeline was blessed by her daddy and surrounded by the wonderful men in her life who hold the priesthood. Watching these men that I love and admire gather around my daughter brought tears to my eyes.

I thought.. Today we say that Adeline was blessed but  the truth is.. we all were.

We are blessed to be surrounded by family and friends who love and support us (and we missed those who couldn't make it).

We are blessed to have the knowledge of the gospel and blessed to have an eternal family.

We are blessed to be back in Utah and blessed for our experiences and life we had in Illinois.

We are blessed to have a wonderful home and a job to take care of our littles.

We are blessed to have the priesthood in our home and a wonderful daddy who can bless me and his girls. I'm so happy to have him as my partner.
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And we are blessed to truly have each other.

What more could I ask for?