Aunt Jenn

Aunt Jenn always brings out the wild and crazy in the kids. She captured this moment and called it "Monkey See, Monkey Do." We always love when she visits!

Maw Maw and Aunt Linda

Aunt Linda came to visit Maw Maw, and we stopped to visit. I didn't get a single picture of Linda, but I got these sweet pictures. Maw Maw gave Susie a little teeny purse with some Mardi Gras coins in it. Guess who got jealous and had to have some too?

Mommy's Day Off

I got to stay home today. I love playing with the kids and watching them interact with each other. They snuck into my closet with flashlights, and their little giggles made my day.

End of Summer/Back to School

It's that bittersweet time again - summer is over and I'm headed back to work. This is a struggle. I love being a teacher. But I also love being a mom. And unfortunately, those two roles often battle it out for my time during the school year. This moment was just a few days before I went back:

Emmett was playing with his train. Susie had just woken up. He saw her and said "Hellooooo Susie! Welcome to the train station!" And she ran over, sat in the train bucket, and they played so nicely.

Was my whole summer like this? Definitely not. Everyone is right - the three's are worse than the two's. They both struggle to share. They wrestled. A lot. But this moment was sooooo perfect. It made me not want to work.

This is the day before I went back. I totally didn't mean to dress them alike. I swear. But look how sweet. 

Look at how she is looking at him in this one:

They crack each other up. All the time!

But for now, it's back to school. I'm so, so, SO blessed to have such a wonderful friend who watches my babies and loves them like her own. So this is the scene when I dropped them off Monday morning:

Emmett was so happy that Gigi had his milk ready. And Jackson had to love on Susie right away. No tears, no sad goodbyes. And I'm focused on getting this year off to a great start.

Sneaky Farmer

Emmett often gets a little jealous of Susie's toys. She got a princess castle complete with all the princesses, and he loves to come and steal all the pieces so she can't play. Tonight, he brought his Little People tractor and farmer, and said "The farmer wants to play in the castle." Well, that lasted about 1 minute before the sneaky farmer loaded up all the princesses into the tractor and drove off. Silly boy still has some work to do on sharing!

Here's the farmer in the castle.

Here are the kidnapped princesses.

Saturday Bike Ride

We're trying to get out every Saturday morning before it gets really hot. We took another ride on the Salem Lake trail. E's favorite part was seeing the "struction struction" site (construction site).

Mother's Day 2014

I had a great Mother's Day with my family. I am so grateful for my babies and the blessing that they are in my life!

Family Bike Ride

We took another bike ride - this time with Susie. They did pretty well in the trailer - it will take a little getting used to!

Splish Splash

Bath time is wild around here - both kids love to splash!

And so it begins...

Sibling love. One of my favorite things is to watch them interact. Today I got a preview of sibling pestering. Costco has the gigantic carts that can hold two kids, so we tried it out. Susie thought she was pretty cool. Emmett thought it would be a good time to start poking Susie. Then, he stole my berry smoothie. When I tried to get it back, he said "Mommy, you have to be nice. I drink it all!!"  Stinker!

Music to My Ears

I really don't think I'll ever get tired of watching Emmett and Susie interact. I'm documenting the fun now, because I know it won't always be like this!! Today, Emmett was playing piano and Susie was just fascinated. She was jumping up and down and laughing. Emmett loves to make her laugh. In fact, this morning our breakfast conversation went like this:

Me: Emmett, do you want a cereal? Or a bagel?
Emmett: No, I want to make Susie laugh.

Siblings

I'm always amazed at how much Emmett loves Susie, and really hasn't ever been too jealous of her. He's so sweet with her. Just now, he sat down by her and said "I'll sing Susie a song!" I love watching them together, and I think they'll have so much fun once Susie can move around!

5 months old!

Susie is five months old. She's rolling and inching her way around. She's still smiling all the time, and she is only unhappy if she isn't watching Emmett have fun. I think she'll be running after him before we know it. He gets the best giggles out of her (he's playing with her on the floor as I'm typing this!). Her hair is getting darker and longer, and she's growing like a weed!

Emmett came in and wanted pictures too! And he actually smiled for a picture! Shocker! This is my new favorite picture of them. Love it!!

Susie

Here are some random photos of Miss Susie Sunshine. She's the sweetest baby ever!

Getting SO big!

She loves to play with Emmett! She always rolls and turns so she can see what he's up to.

She'll roll herself over and put herself to sleep this way. So sweet! (I just wish she wouldn't suck her thumb!)

Hey! Where'd the rest of my toy go?!?

Dinner and a Show

Emmett found a new way to get out of eating dinner - he loves to entertain Susie. I love this video because it captures how he says Hey Susie (Hey Z-Z) over and over. He does this ALL the time. It also captures how he says "sliming" instead of "smiling."

My little singer

I love when Emmett sings with me. Or to himself. I like to think he's musically inclined (the other day I had the radio on in the car, and he said "it's a piano!" and he was right! There was mostly piano in the song!). I hope he'll continue to love music.

My favorite is when he makes up songs. Even better is when he sings to his sister. I'm not sure if this link will work, but here's a video Gigi took of the boys, mostly Emmett, singing to Susie.

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And here they are tonight. We laid Susie down in his bed and he just held her and sang to her. It doesn't get any better than this!

Singing to Susie before bed

Family Resemblance

I finally see a really strong resemblance between Susie and Emmett. I've seen little things, but after Tina took pictures of S in her blessing dress, I compared it to pictures of E at the same age in his blessing outfit. They look so much alike! What do you think?