All Smiles

Jace has been getting really good at giving us smiles and laughs.  So today I tried to catch it on camera.  Haylie wanted to join in on the fun.

H: "I hold ear."

Me:  "......... um, ok."

 I love his chubbiness and especially that double chin.

There we go.  I love that face!!

Our Junk, Your Treasure

Whoever thought that having a garage sale while juggling a 3 month old and a 2 year old was crazy.  Oh wait, that was me.  Between tantrums, naps, pumping bottles, getting snacks, ref-ing fights between little 2 year olds and trying to keep the sale together, I'm not sure how I survived. But I LOVE having garage sales!  If I could be a professional garage sale go-er/throw-er, I would be. A huge thanks to my friends for helping me run the show.  It would have been impossible without them.

About a month ago, I got together with a few friends and what turned out to be a small group actually turned into 9 families!!  We had stuff up to our ears.  Literally.  Friday morning came early and we started setting up a little after 6:30.  People started coming about 7:30 and didn't stop!  Pretty close to mass chaos.  We finally had to just put stuff away because between all the moms helping me run the show, we had about 6 kids who majorly needed a nap and no daddies to help!

Saturday was a bit slower but still steady.  We wrapped up a little after 3:30...I think. At that point I was on autopilot. There was a red BMW that pulled up as we were getting our stuff ready for Goodwill and we told them to just take whatever they wanted.  And boy did they!  They barely had room enough for the people to sit in the car.  I'm glad they found some stuff - it helped us not to make more than one Goodwill run.

All in all, we had an AWESOME sale. It was crazy, stressful, tiresome and hot, but oh so worth it.

Some of my favorite moments:

-A hug from a stranger that we sold furniture to.  Apparently we are now BFF's. Hi Gail!
-Someone asking if we would take $3 for an $8 item on Friday morning.  Are you insane?  No way!  Come back tomorrow and ask me that.
-A lady going off about people getting ripped off for trying to help Haitian people. Seriously, stop talking. Now.
-The clothing racks that just kept falling over.
-Seeing all the crazy things people bought...and they were excited about it.
-Spending time with some of my best friends for two days while we laughed and talked...and made money!!!

Ahh.  I already can't wait until next year.  Who's with me?!

Around Here...

Elmo is still pretty popular..

Haylie has set up a new diaper changing station...

Hanging out in Mom's car is pretty cool...

 Jace is deep in thought...

Bears are our sleep-over best friends...

And fans are still our #1 form of entertainment.

Life can't get any better than this.

I'm In Love

With these two!!

The In-Laws Visit

This last weekend, my brother & sister in law came down to visit!  We were pretty excited to have them come to see us since it's been 2 years since their last visit. Last time they got stuck in 14 inches of snow, with no gas, one mile away from our exit. This weekend promised crazy tornadic (word?) weather.  Why can't we just have a sunny, beautiful weekend when they come?

Anyway, Haylie was sooooo excited to see Jagger and Cash.  I might have bribed her to take a nap saying that when she woke up, they would be here.  Hey, it worked.  They got to all sleep in the same room both nights and it actually went very well.  On Saturday morning though, Haylie walked out of her room like this...

 Her boy cousins dressed her for the day!  Like a princess! We might have had a talk about undressing our girl cousin...

Jagger was especially sweet to both my babies - lovin' Jace too!

We spent a lot of time just hanging out since we didn't know when a tornado might threaten our day.  Thank goodness for the iPad and an awesome 10 year old Game Boy to keep everyone occupied.

I tested the weather and took the three older kids on a walk to the park.  Jagger wanted to push - what a deal!

We met some other crazy kids out at the park!

On the way back, I broke a major sweat because none of the kids wanted to walk!  So, thankfully Jagger let Cash ride on his lap and Haylie sang songs all the way home.

Love these kiddos (and their parents are pretty cool too, I guess :)  It was a great weekend, despite the weather.  Just wish it was longer!

See you in a few months, CoMo Cornells!

Easter 2012

This past weekend we celebrated Easter by hanging out with family.  On Saturday morning, our neighborhood put on a pretty decent egg hunt for the kids.  We invited our cousins to come and had a great time.  Eli and Haylie even found prize eggs!  More Play-doh for our little one.

Jace spent his first egg hunt napping.

Side note: I think buying babies a specific outfit for a holiday is ridiculous.  Why spend money on something they will only wear once?  Well, I did this year on a whim.  And I shouldn't have. I bought him the onesie in this picture and he spit up on it after he wore it 5 minutes on Saturday.  Then I washed and tried again for Sunday after church but his butt exploded before we went anywhere...so no one even saw it!!! So, please adore his Easter onesie...even though you can't really see it. 

........

Anyway, back to the weekend festivities.

 The cousins at the neighborhood hunt!  I forget why Evie was so sad...

Later that day, I laid Jace on the bed and went to go get something.  Well, I walked back in and saw this - at first glance I wasn't sure which was the real baby!

We did get together with my extended family later that day but I didn't take any pictures.  Wah, wah.

Easter 2012.  My sister made her this sweet skirt! I didn't get a pic of Jace because he was sleeping.  Oops.

Our Easter dinner was at my sister's house and we had another egg hunt.  I think the kids were hunted out because after getting about 3 eggs, they were done!  We got them to keep going though.

Jace got to enjoy the hunt snuggling with Mimi in his non-Easter apparel.

I hope that you had a great Easter weekend and got to celebrate with loved ones like we did!

**I think the best part of the weekend was when we went to church and heard a wonderful sermon by Phil Brookman.  Then got to witness our good friend Greyson be baptized into Christ! Hallelujah!**

Jace Jace

Jace Jace - that's what Haylie so lovingly calls him. Yesterday he officially turned 2 months old, but I wanted to wait until we saw his pediatrician today so I could remember his stats.

 Jace is 12 lbs, 8oz, which is the 75th percentile. He is 22 3/4 inches which is the 50th percentile.  And his eyes are huge - just like his sisters.

He is starting to really interact with us - cooing, smiling (a little), and being awake a whole lot more.  Especially at 4 am. He did sleep through the night on Saturday, but hasn't repeated since.  But he is really only getting up once, staying awake for about an hour, then sleeping for another 3-4.  I'll take it!

He looks scared most of the time, but I think it's because he is around Haylie and is wondering what's going to happen next. He toots every time he stretches, he loves looking at fans on the ceiling, and still lets me swaddle him for sleep.  He is wearing a size 1 diaper (close to a size 2 though!) and 0-3 mo. clothes.

 He lets me bathe him without a fuss and has even fallen asleep on the floor playing. I honestly did not know babies could just fall asleep.  That has never happened in my experience with being a parent, so I am flabbergasted by this.  He is a pretty chill baby, which makes me love him even more.

He even likes to play the Finger Hole game with you - whoops, you looked.

Sweet Haylie

I don't really keep track of how many months old Haylie is - to me she is just plain 2 years old.  But I thought about it and today marks 28 months.  I want to remember what a sweet and smart little girl I have at this point so to celebrate 2 years and 4 months, here are some tid-bits about my Haylie Brooke.

She absolutely loves to sing.  Her favorite songs are "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" (which I have mixed feelings about since I am TERRIFIED of those nasty creatures), "ABC's" and "The Farmer in the Dell."  Most of her versions are pretty spot on - except Farmer in the Dell.  "High ho did you know, the farmer in the dell."  You know Haylie is in a great mood if she is singing away.

She also adores books. She will be in her room "reading" them to her stuffed animals, Elmo or our cat.  Anyone that will listen! She makes up her own versions according to the pictures.  This is a big past-time during the day. Right now her favorite book is anything with Elmo and "There's a Wocket in my Pocket" by Dr. Seuss.

She also has lots of friends - Julianne, Liesel and Ava are the friends she talks about most.  Luckily, we get to play with them all pretty often!

To avoid a major meltdown at naptime and bedtime, we have started letting her lay on the floor with her pillow pet and most of the time she just passes out right there.  Fine by me if that avoids hours of screaming!  This definitely reminds me of myself since my parents used to find me in the hallway, on the floor by the nightlight, just peacefully asleep.  She is truly my daughter.

But most of all, Haylie diapers.  She diapers bears, Elmo, baby dolls...and she'll lift up a tab, say "eww, nasty!" and proceed to then change their diaper.  She'll roll them up and tell us it's trash. Her teachers at school tell me that she knows everyone's diapers and will help them by opening the diaper and getting it ready to go.

She's just a little mama.  Very concerned about others and wanting to help them. The other night I said, "man, my back hurts!" and she got up and started patting my back to help me "feel" better. She can count to 13 on her own and knows all of her letters and numbers (up to 10) by sight.  When we tell her in a minute - she holds up her hands and says "10 minutes?" like she understands time.

Haylie loves being outdoors too!  We got her a bike and she loves to ride it.  She can't pedal but she pushes herself all over the place.  She wants to be in her stroller and go on walks to the park a lot.  And her dang blanket must come with us everywhere. The park, library, grocery store, school...but that is okay because we have officially given up the paci!!  She was only having it at naptime and bedtime, but Justin started not giving it to her and we went from there.  Hooray!!  Next up, potty training.  If we can just get it in her mind that diapers aren't THAT cool.