Halloween!!!

This Halloween was by far my favorite in my life. It started with a wonderful day at school... the kids were so cute and our party was not overly crazy. It was a lot of fun.

Then, I got home and immediately got Lila and Brighton all dressed up for Halloween. This year Lila was going TRICK-OR-TREATING!!! She was SO excited, even though she didn't totally know what I was talking about before. She got the hang of it really fast.

We drove down to my Mum's to trick-or-treat at her door. I was hoping to surprise her and so I didn't call. Because of that, I got there before her... oops. It's okay though, we just went around her neighborhood. It was a great place to start. At each door she would say "trick-or-treat" then "thanks" then "bye" and sometimes she even blew kisses. It was adorable and oh so fun to watch.

After going to Mum's and stopping by Emma's for a short visit we headed back to our neighborhood to trick-or-treat again. We found Dad and Grandma hanging out outside waiting for trick-or-treaters. Every year we get so excited for people to come by and we are always disappointed. This year was supposed to be different. Our upstairs neighbors got lots of people coming by but they didn't know to come to our door. That's when Micah decided to head outside. It was a little late though. So it was again another disappointing year. We know better for next time at least.

By the time I got home again with Lila, Micah had given up and headed back inside. It was okay, though because we still had lot of fun.

We ended the night by watching, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" Then, Lila went to bed very content and very sleepy. 

What a great night!

Here we all are: Micah, Waldo, a bear and a monkey. No family theme here. :)

Lila's stash:

5 MONTHS!!!

Yesterday our little boy turned 5 months old! How fun these last 5 months have been. He is soooooo much fun. It brightens my day just thinking of him.
He has lost A LOT of his hair, just like his sister did. I do think he held onto his hair longer than Lila though because he has these super long whispies on top and they look AWESOME! :) The good news is that his real hair is already coming in and I'm pretty sure (dun da da DA)... it's brown! I'm so happy. Of course I love Lila's hair and wouldn't have really cared if it had been blonde, but our kids just look so much like Micah it's fun to see one of them getting something from me. (Although, I was blonde when I was little...)
Our little boy still loves his exersaucer and now he jumps around in it like crazy. I know he doesn't totally do it on purpose, but it's hilarious watching him just bounce around inside. He loves to watch Lila and it's funny to watch him swivel around in the exersaucer as he tries to follow her. She can get some of the biggest smiles out of him. I can't wait to see them interact more as they both get older.
He also rolls constantly all over the place. We have to be very careful. He hasn't had any accidents yet, but sometimes he makes me nervous.
He already doesn't like to get put into his carseat, which makes me sad since Lila never did that. He arches his back and tries to fight me when I put him in. He also will only be in his swing if he's asleep. As soon as he wakes up, if he's not strapped down, he'll start to kick his way out to the point he almost falls out... once again it hasn't happened.
He's a VERY HAPPY baby. I love coming home to such a smiley boy.
He still loves to cuddle (yay!) and is very content being held.
He makes all sorts of noise, laughs all the time. We finally got a really good laugh out of him on the 10th, but he doesn't consistently laugh that hard. I can't wait for that time.
He's a great eater and generally a very good sleeper.
He has beautiful long eyelashes, chunky cheeks, the sweetest smile, and a wonderful temperament.

Here is our handsome little guy now...

Our little boy enjoying football... don't judge. :)

Roll Over

This morning Brighton rolled over for the "first" time. (He rolled over once in the hospital and then once at about 5-6 weeks, but I don't really count them.) It's quite the funny story how we happened to catch it.

Bright was in his exersaucer when he started to get really fussy, so Micah pulled him out and he was covered in poo, mostly on his back. Whenever Bright has a dirty diaper in the exesaucer it gets everywhere. Anyway, Micah laid him out on a towel on his stomach so he could try cleaning up his back and immediately Brighton rolled over. He was very quick so it was unexpected. It also made changing his diaper and cleaning him up that much more difficult. ;) Every time after that, if Micah would let go of him, he would immediately roll over. It was so cute! He did it so well and easily it made me think he's probably been able to do it for a couple of days, but hasn't been on his stomach for a little while.

I thought for sure he would roll from his back to his tummy like Lila, but I guess he wants to carve out his own path. It's so fun watching him grow! I'm so happy that it happened before I left for work and so I was home to see him do it.

Brighton- 4 months

On September 20th Bright turned four months old. This past week he had his doctor's appointment. Our little guy sure has grown! Here are his stats:

Head: 17 in. 88th percentile

Length: 24 in. 6th percentile

Weight: 15.2 lbs. 40th percentile

Dr. Mumford told us that for premature babies brain development usually catches up first, then weight, and then length, so it looks like Brighton is following along with that pattern perfectly.  I'm interested in seeing his length at six months.  He also said that he'll no longer be on a premature growth curve. He was amazed at his progress and said it's only good news. He seems to have outgrown his acid reflux already... far earlier than expected. All of his progress makes it hard to believe he was so early. I'm grateful I have such healthy babies. I'm so proud of little Bright and how strong he has been. He is the best, happiest, sweetest little guy ever! It fills me with such love and joy just thinking about him. 

At four months old Brighton's personality is starting to come out. He smiles ALL THE TIME and has been smiling for a long time now, but I only have this one terrible picture of it. 

He gets distracted by the camera whenever I try and capture his smile, so I guess that picture is better than nothing. 

He is quite the little giggler, but we haven't yet gotten a true belly laugh from him, so I'd have to say he hasn't really laughed yet. I know it'll come soon though. He loves to "talk" and starts conversations all the time. He's beginning to bald, which makes me a little sad, but he held onto his hair a little longer than his sister. I'm interested to see what color hair he ends up having... and how much!

He seems to be quite close to rolling over and I think he'll go from his back to his front first, just like his big sister. 

He loves his exersaucer, his hands, being cuddled, being held while someone is standing, being on his tummy, eating ;), and laying on his boppy. He also loves his sister, his momma, daddy, and pretty much anyone. He's like Lila in that he doesn't care who holds him. I hope that keeps up! Lila has been so easy because of it. 

This little guy just melts my heart and I'm so grateful he is a part of our family!

We're really blessed to have you, Bright!

Hurricane 2013

Over Labor Day weekend we were able to go down to Hurricane with my family. It was so much fun and JUST what I needed. (Is it sad that I already needed a vacation after school had just started? ;) Because we went down over the long weekend we got to spend more time there than usual. 

It was Lila's first time being in a pool that she was happy about and Bright's first time ever! Aren't my kids so adorable?! I love that I have been able to go down to Hurricane the years that my children were born. Putting them into their fun little swim suits (Brighton's came from one of my students last year) and just relaxing with them at such a young age has been so much fun. 

All the cousins.

Nice photo bomb, Jared.

 Thanks for the floaty, Jess!

         

We don't do much when we go down to Hurricane, but that's what makes it so great. We swam a lot, ate A LOT, rode on the Rhino, four wheelers, and bikes. The trike was my favorite! I really, really want one!!! Lila had a lot of fun riding on the back. 

Lila was in HEAVEN being with all of her cousins. She loves to just follow them around. Here is a cute picture of her with her cousin P. We happened to catch them watching t.v. together.

It was great to be with my family. We missed my Dad, but it was good to be able to Skype with him. Thanks Ems for letting us go down. It was such a great vacation! Here's to hoping there are more in the future. ;) 

I can't finish this post without mentioning our little family dog, Toby. He died while we were down in Hurricane. He was 14 years old and just ready to go. He had been attacked by a big dog (the first time ever in his life) just a few days before and he just never fully recovered. I was at least grateful that he was down there with us. I'm going to miss that dog so much! He's been around since I was 10. He was one of the sweetest dogs we have ever had! I love you, Toby!