Jude - June

-Jude is currently OBSESSED with snakes.  Namely Kaa the snake from the Jungle Book (also an obsession).  What he doesn't seem to understand is that Kaa is the villain!!  He loves to sing the "Trust in Me" song that Kaa sings too, which is pretty hilarious!
-I absolutely melt when Jude says "Lub you so much"!  Its our "thing"!!
-One afternoon we were going to meet some friends at a park.  On our drive he looks over at a cemetery and says, "Is that where my friends are?"
-We taught him how to set up obstacle courses to jump and run through; he gets so proud of himself and says, "Look, I set up a popsicle course!"
-We are big time in the "Let me do it" stage...no more words necessary!
-He has shown a pretty protective side to his little sister.  He does not like it when people come over and touch her stuff.  He isn't always the nicest in these situations, and tends to get in trouble, but I have to say I kind of like that he's already protecting her!
-Jude will often join me when I lay sister down for her naps.  He will sit in the rocking chair with us very quietly and rock, then sway with us as I lay her down and sing "Jesus Loves Me", just like we always did with him.  He has started doing this exact routine with his Scout doggie and is the cutest thing.  Pretty much the only time we have seen a nurturing side from Jude.
-Instead of saying no lately do something that he doesn't want or want to do, he'll say, "Not today"!  I have no idea where this came from!!
-We had a little "incident" with sister earlier this month and had to take an ambulance ride (see Quinn's post coming soon).  Jude and Grancy followed us in the car the whole way.  I didn't really think he took much of the whole thing in since he wasn't really saying much about it all, until one day he started saying that his George (Curious George monkey) needed to go in a mambulence.  I couldn't figure out what he was saying and it finally dawned on me, "Do you mean ambulance?"  He said, "No, a mambulence", so mambulence it is!!!  He also points out the hospital and says sister had to go there every time we drive by.  We don't live super close either, so its pretty amazing that he can always figure out it was that specific hospital!  His sense of direction is crazy good (no idea where he got that since daddy and I are horrible with this!!!)

Annual Father's Day photo shoot 

"Just like Daddy"

If there is water, he must touch it!

Boys being boys and hopefully not breaking anything!

Wedding fun!

Bubble boy

Loving swimming this year with so much more freedom

Yep, he thinks wearing sister's headbands is pretty cool

Big snowcone on a hot day

Having fun with Grancy

Pure fun playing in the water (Please notice the snake!)

Visiting the horses on our morning walk 

Cleaning George at Build a Bear

Always playing some type of sport

Learning to cast in the backyard.  He starting to get it down!

Father's Day fun with the cousins 

He loves to hold sister...not sure how much fun sister thinks this is!!

Such a sweet big brother!

ADORABLE

We had Quinn's newborn photos taken when she was 8 days old by Kelly Kennedy and we could not be more happy with the finished product!!  Quinn was super snoozy that day, so she was able to put her in any pose that she wanted!!  I think these photos captured our beautiful little girl perfectly.  She was even able to catch a few sweet family photos too, despite a certain two year old that is not fond of posing for the camera!!

  

 

Jude - May

I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to keep up with a post per kid each month, but this month was a pretty "big" month!  These posts are what I use for their memory books though, so too important to me to not do.  I sure hope I can keep it up (experienced moms are now saying, good luck ...ha)!!
This was a pretty crazy month for Mr. Jude.  His world has been completely shaken up, for lack of better words.  I have to say that for the most part though he has done pretty well.  We have and are dealing with a few issues, but for the most part I feel that he is transitioning well.  He loved all of the grandparent time that he was able to soak in while they were all here and thank goodness they were! This little boy would have been super bored with just two extremely tired parents hanging around!  He has taken to his big brother role very well and loves to help us with sister.  He also gets really excited to hold her and even sometimes doesn't want to give her up!
Some Judisms from the month:
-We were talking about daddy one day in the car and how he was the only one that could do a certain task, and Jude says "Daddy's a strong boy".  Well yes, yes he is!
-He is always in need of his sunglasses any time that we are outside, but instead of saying that the sun is bright, he always says that its HOT!  "oooh that sun is HOT (hawt)!"
-He loves finding the sun and the moon depending on the time of the day, and as we were driving one afternoon in the car could see them both, and says, "Its so sunny and moony outside."
-His way on loving on sister is to pet her head like she is a dog, it always cracks me up!

Taking advantage of one of the days it wasn't raining!

Making play dough with Grancy

Yogurt time

Playing in the water on one of the coldest May days while it was raining, hum???

Celebrating Mia's birthday

Crazy boy and his swimming rings

Celebrating a wedding renewal 

Check out my new toothbrush

Pretty Mia post dance recital 

Popsicle and cousins on Memorial Day

Shaving cream craziness 

Bubbles with Grancy 

Popsicle time with Daddy 

Quinn - 1 Month

Miss Quinn turned one month this week!  I can't believe we have been a family of four for an entire month now...we survived!!!  There has definitely been some adjusting, but we have worked our way through with the Lord guiding us every step of the way (and provided us with every ounce of energy that we have)!  This little girl stole all of our hearts from day one.  Although her brother's world has been turned upside down, he is even pretty smitten with her!  He loves to help change her diaper (aka: hands mommy the diaper and wipes), is always the first one to run and get the paci, loves to help rock and sing to her before her naps, and always lets us know if sister is crying.  Thus far she isn't a huge crier, but when she does she lets it loose!!  Luckily for us she tends to be settled pretty quickly.  When she starts crying, you'll always find Jude with his hands over his ears saying, "sister needs her paci" or "find sister's paci" in a pretty panic voice! He is definitely not a fan of that!
This girl LOVES to sleep and probably equally LOVES to eat, so that is pretty much what we do each day - eat, play for a bit, sleep, repeat! She had a hard time sleeping on her back for a bit due to what we think is reflux, but seems that we are starting to find some remedies to help her through that.  I pray these tummy issues that she is having fade away soon though, because it breaks my heart seeing her struggle through them.  Closely related to her tummy is sister's pooping habits.  From day one she basically holds it in and lets it all loose at once!  It makes for some pretty fun clean up opportunities!  She's a growing girl though and is already up to 9 pounds (as of Monday), so we are pretty happy about that!  Sister makes some pretty funny faces that keeps us pretty entertained and can get a pretty good triple chin going!  She may be petite, but she has some good rolls!  Lastly, we have found that she takes after her Mo and can never just sneeze once; its usually a good three or more. The cutest little sneezes you have ever seen!
The Lord has blessed us beyond anything we could imagine and still can't believe that he has entrusted us with two precious miracles.  It may not be perfect every day, but I could not be more thankful!

First pedi visit

Sweet girl was blessed with some lips!

Paparazzi 

First sponge bath...she is now taking regular baths and loves them!

Dressed in her "fancy" outfit

Somebody decided to finally wake up and show us her pretty eyes

Stretch it out!

"playing" with brother

Tripp and Mia loving on her

These next two pics deserve some special words.  Mo and Grancy were here for a few weeks after Quinn was born and we could not have made it without them.  They selflessly gave of themselves serving us left and right.  They cooked three meals a day, did all of the grocery shopping, washed our laundry, cleaned our house, lost sleep so that we could sleep, and the biggest job of all - entertained Jude!  We could not be more appreciative and thankful for them!  

Mo and PawPaw

Grancy getting some last snuggles in before she left

Uncle Jacob got to come for a short visit!

Grancy and Pops lov'n on Quinn