October 20-26
Sunday Snapshot: (and yes, they match again and yes, it was on purpose:)
Home Improvements:
The grass is in! The kids have been enjoying the great outdoors all week and can't get enough of being outside. It is becoming more and more obvious to us the difference between boys and girls as Declan gets a little older and is showing us how boys really are so much rougher than girls! We thought Raelynn was tough and daring, but it's no comparing to her brother! I'm just waiting for the first broken bone!!
Not only did Brent shovel all the rock out, till the hard ground, build a sprinkler system, and lay grass seed; he also built this beautiful fence! It even has a little gate to open. It blocks off the AC units, lawn mower, and anything else we decide needs to go there in the future. He planted two flowering vines that will soon start to cover the fence a bit. I think it looks GREAT!
A neighbor at our old house gave us this little playset for free around Raelynn's first birthday! It sure is coming in handy now.
Elliana had another fabulous week. She has been home 3.5 months already. It really seems like she has always been here. Just this week we were talking about how we can hardly remember those first few weeks falling asleep in the chair with her and her waking every couple hours to eat. She is such a perfect fit into our family and we just love her so much. She continues to crawl all over the place and will play with various toys around the room all on her own. She will go into the other room and look in the bucket for a toy she wants. She mimicks like crazy and now says "uh-oh" at the appropriate time. This is a first--she found a paci, put it in and was crawling around with it! She will take it now when we put her to bed and also while we sit in church. We have also started swaddling her less. This week she took all her naps with only her arms swaddled and near the end of the week we started only swaddling one arm. We tried leaving both arms out, but she just plays with her feet or with her blankie and doesn't sleep. She is SO distractible! Because of this, meal times are difficult because there is a lot to distract her. But she will even be distracted by her own hands. It is getting a lot better though and she is eating more and more finger foods. Eating faster and eating more than ONE piece at a time. It's just such a drastic change from our other kids who were like little chipmunks trying to stuff in as much as they could!
This week we had a fall festival with Aunt Ashley, Uncle Kyle, Jackson and Harper. We went to their neighborhood for a chili potluck and fun games. Raelynn LOVED dressing up! We let her pick her own costume out and she was so excited. Elliana is a lady bug and Declan is a dinosaur. The hood kept bothering him--he isn't used to bows on his head:)
Sunday Snapshot: (and yes, they match again and yes, it was on purpose:)
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| I think Declan is looking down at his vest wondering if his button is about to pop! haha. It's an 18 month vest that apparently needs to be packed away until little brother is ready to wear it |
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| I love this picture:) |
The grass is in! The kids have been enjoying the great outdoors all week and can't get enough of being outside. It is becoming more and more obvious to us the difference between boys and girls as Declan gets a little older and is showing us how boys really are so much rougher than girls! We thought Raelynn was tough and daring, but it's no comparing to her brother! I'm just waiting for the first broken bone!!
Not only did Brent shovel all the rock out, till the hard ground, build a sprinkler system, and lay grass seed; he also built this beautiful fence! It even has a little gate to open. It blocks off the AC units, lawn mower, and anything else we decide needs to go there in the future. He planted two flowering vines that will soon start to cover the fence a bit. I think it looks GREAT!
A neighbor at our old house gave us this little playset for free around Raelynn's first birthday! It sure is coming in handy now.
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| Declan can't quite make it up the little steps, so he climbs up the slide and slides down on his belly. Over and over and over. |
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| Playing outside has really helped the bigger two interact with one another! |
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| She looks WAY too big here!!! Practicing her tricycle riding...doesn't quite have it mastered yet |
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Elliana's first time in grass EVER!! She LOVED IT! Was crawling all over the place   Daddy came home with some great craigslist deals one night. He got this little airplane rider, a big wheels trike, and a cozy coupe car all for $10!! The kids LOVE them and it's so fun to watch them interact. Raelynn does a great job of pushing Declan around....most of the time:) I happened to catch this moment on camera perfect!  
Raelynn sure does bring a lot of JOY to all she meets. She is learning the fruit of the Spirit right now. She is such a big helper and always looking out for her siblings. We say she is the second mommy of the house and she sure keeps us on our toes.
   I've started working on "blanket time" with Declan to help my sanity while I nurse the new baby. It helps a lot right now when I'm prepping lunch because they especially like to run circles around me during that time. Raelynn took a lot of training and effort to have her stay on the blanket. Even now, she will stay there but not necessarily look at books or whatever it is I give her. Declan though has mastered this without even trying! I'm talking no. effort. at. all. Well, until he sees the food then he comes running! But I loved this moment when they were both looking at books and when Raelynn would finish one she would pass it over to him:)  And another sweet moment that I caught--all three playing with the same toy. And playing so well together. It's not always like this:) 
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Elliana had another fabulous week. She has been home 3.5 months already. It really seems like she has always been here. Just this week we were talking about how we can hardly remember those first few weeks falling asleep in the chair with her and her waking every couple hours to eat. She is such a perfect fit into our family and we just love her so much. She continues to crawl all over the place and will play with various toys around the room all on her own. She will go into the other room and look in the bucket for a toy she wants. She mimicks like crazy and now says "uh-oh" at the appropriate time. This is a first--she found a paci, put it in and was crawling around with it! She will take it now when we put her to bed and also while we sit in church. We have also started swaddling her less. This week she took all her naps with only her arms swaddled and near the end of the week we started only swaddling one arm. We tried leaving both arms out, but she just plays with her feet or with her blankie and doesn't sleep. She is SO distractible! Because of this, meal times are difficult because there is a lot to distract her. But she will even be distracted by her own hands. It is getting a lot better though and she is eating more and more finger foods. Eating faster and eating more than ONE piece at a time. It's just such a drastic change from our other kids who were like little chipmunks trying to stuff in as much as they could!
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| She eats about 1/3 a banana every morning with her oatmeal. |
Really enjoying toys now. She was loading up this bucket all on her own! I've been trying to teach her this for a few weeks, so it was a great thing to see.
Trying to get her transitioned to a sippy cup...but she doesn't really lift it to drink, so I think it will still be a little while on the bottle
This week we had a fall festival with Aunt Ashley, Uncle Kyle, Jackson and Harper. We went to their neighborhood for a chili potluck and fun games. Raelynn LOVED dressing up! We let her pick her own costume out and she was so excited. Elliana is a lady bug and Declan is a dinosaur. The hood kept bothering him--he isn't used to bows on his head:)
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| Cousins and best buds! |
Love the blanket time idea!!! So smart! Will have to try that one for sure!
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