December -- We had a VERY busy month this month! We usually always travel to both Jonathan and my families' houses for the holidays, but since I was to have Miss Finley on Jan. 2, sadly we could not travel all the way to Cuero and we had Christmas with my extended family in Waco really early this past year. However, we had plenty to keep us pre-occupied! We closed on our new house the beginning of Dec., had 2-3 weeks to remodel and get it move-in ready (for the most part), and moved in just 1 week shy of Christmas, Dec. 19. (The whole moving process should be a whole new post in and of itself, but I'll just summarize by saying that we started moving at 9am Friday morning, movers were supposed to there early afternoon, didn't get there until 10pm, and then didn't finish until 4:30am Sat. morning. It was ridiculous and a very CRAZY experience to say the least.) Then the next week, my family came up to celebrate Christmas with us and help unpack, do yard work, get things ready for the new baby and SO much more!! Jonathan's parents then came up the next week too, to do the same. We are so grateful for all our parents have done and still do ALL the time!!!
January -- The highlight of this month was definitely having the privilege to deliver sweet baby Finley into the world. She has been nothing short of one of the greatest blessings in our lives along with her Big Sister Presley and the way that they look and interact with each other! It's so sweet!! For feeling like we (Jonathan and I) would be okay with just one precious child from God, we're sure glad He decided to give us 2! We were also really blessed by having my parents up for a couple of weeks and then Jonathan's mom up for one week to help out and make the transition go much smoother while we were at the hospital and then once we came home too.
Proud daddy!
First bath...she looks so skinny compared to her little chunky monkey self now.
I still feel like she has quite a bit of hair, but not as much as this picture and thankfully grown some more in on top :) For some reason, both our kiddos were born with an old man hair-do. Jonathan was kiddingly calling her our very own Benjamin Button in the hospital.
February -- Most of this month was spent continuing to work on house stuff and just adjusting to being a family of 4. Many times, I feel like we'll never have everything done we'd like to with this new house, but that's okay, I guess there's always something that "could" be done. We also had a really great Valentine's! My sweet hubby and the other guys in our community group from church threw a semi-surprise night for the girls at our house, complete with a candlelight, catered Italian dinner from Amore and wedding video watching...what fun!! I'm so thankful for my romantic, crafty husband! Oh, and I almost forgot...Presley moved to her "big girl" bed this month and gave her crib to her baby sister. She LOVES it and has done excellent with the transition!
March -- Birthdays, Birthday Parties and Milestones...
Our oldest little angel turned 2 this month, on Mar. 2! I can't believe that she is already 2! The time flew by so fast...they say that's what happens when you're having fun and fun, fun, fun we have had over the past 2 years with her!! She is such a joy in our lives and brings a very special smile to my heart SEVERAL times a day! Just a few of her qualities that make my heart melt...she is so sincere, caring, creative, joyful, obedient, patient, gentle, has a huge imagination and is just plain adorable!! (now let me say, that all of these are most of the time...she's definitely had a few "terrible 2" moments and days that I'd like to forget, but overall she is such a sweet girl who truly desires to make good choices and make us proud.) We had her birthday party a couple of weeks later than her actual birthday because we had so much going on, but she didn't know the difference and loved the fact that her birthday dragged on for nearly the entire month. She also LOVED the fact that her big present was her very own bounce house! At her 2 year check up (in which she never shed 1 tear and even showed them the leg she wanted her shot in...such a big girl), she weighed 31 lbs. and was 36 in. tall (if your not great with math, that's 3 feet tall!!) Oh my!
While Presley was turning 2 on the 2nd, Finley was turning 2 months...which meant a not so fun trip to the pediatrician, but she did fabulous and only whimpered a little as they gave her the shots. She weighed in at 12 lbs. 4 oz. and was 23 inches long...such a growing girl. She also began sleeping longer stretches at night this month 7-8 hours and thankfully hasn't turned back since.
My birthday was also on the 9th of March and Jonathan threw me a surprise party at our house the day before it...again, what a wonderful husband I have!! It was a ton of fun and I'm so grateful for all my dear friends that made it there...you all made my special day that much more memorable!
I almost forgot, I gave Presley her first haircut the weekend after her 2nd birthday...and sweet girl still doesn't have much hair, but it's definitely growing faster and thicker this year than the past 2. :)
The Birthday Girl!
(We're still working on a "pretty smile")
Presley and cousin Audrey climbing the slide on her new bounce house. It was raining the day of her birthday party so we had to move the festivities inside...thankfully the bounce house just barely fit in our playroom.
snoozing away...sweet baby Finley slept from start to finish of the party
April -- We traveled to Cuero for the first time since Finley was born to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord with Jonathan's family. The girls did exceptionally well, Finley started sleeping 10 hours at night while we were there, and Presley thoroughly enjoyed getting to play with her cousins Audrey and Joshua non-stop all day, everyday and the big, annual Easter Egg Hunt! She scored lots of yummy candy that she asked to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the next few weeks. We so wish we were able to see Jonathan's parents more and treasure the times we do get to spend with them! A couple of weeks after we returned, we finally moved Finley to her crib in her own room...I swore it wouldn't take me as long to move her to her own room as it did with Presley, but she was sleeping so well in our room and her room is all the way on the other side of the house, so I was a little hesitant. She has done great though and it is nice to have our room back.
May -- The first weekend in May we traveled to St. Louis, MO for my cousin's wedding (Friday-Monday) with my parents. It was our first time to fly with both kiddos and our first time to pay for a seat for Miss Presley. Both kiddos did amazingly well on both flights and did really well with us all sleeping in the same room, despite the first night being pretty sleepless...we weren't able to get the kids down until 11pm that night because we all went to the Rehearsal Dinner, then Presley fell off the bed at 4am, waking Finley up; so, I had to feed her and get her back down and then Presley didn't go back down until 6:30am. It made for a long day the next day, but the wedding was so beautiful and we danced the night away at the reception until Presley decided she would just go night-night right in the middle of the dance floor...our cue it was time to head back to the room and get to bed. The next day we went to Grant's Farm. It was really fun even though it was kind of cool and rainy. Presley had a BLAST riding the carousel over and over and over and since it was raining and we had no umbrella, we bought her a cute new ladybug umbrella that she plays with often at the house, while singing 'If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, oh what a rain that would be.....'
Jonathan is on a mission trip in Brazil right now with our church and returning this Saturday. Although he is having an awesome trip, we can't wait for him to return home and share his amazing stories and just hug and kiss him to pieces!!! We've missed him soooo much!!! We have been in Waco with my family while he's been away and they are keeping us well-fed, entertained, and preoccupied with lots of outdoor fun! Presley has REALLY enjoyed swimming for the first time this year, EVERYDAY! Thank you Lord for taking such great care of our sweet hubby and daddy while he's away from us and thank you mom and dad for taking such good care of me and the kiddos! If you get a chance, please pray for a safe flight home Friday night/Sat. morning for them.
Yay, Monica!! Thanks for keeping us updated! :)
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