Friday, April 12, 2013

Around the house: March edition

Hello!  April is flying by, so I thought I'd better go ahead and post a few pics from March. Not a super eventful month... mainly trying to entertain ourselves during the remaining winter days. We are so happy to be playing outside now!!

I know Jane's obsession with Nickel is old news by now, but somehow I never tire of it. I think it is hilarious how many ways Jane has found to play with or pester Nickel. I mean, she's a cat for goodness sakes. They are supposed to be just boring old lap warmers. But Nickel is pretty awesome.


Brought her breakfast over to sit by Nickel on the floor.

So, about a month ago Ouisey starting rejecting a bottle. She would just scream and scream before it even touched her lips. Then one day I realized that she also hates being held in a cradle position, which is how we were holding her to give her a bottle. So it occurred to me that maybe she was just upset by the position and that the poor bottle never even had a chance. I mentioned this to Richard who agreed to try feeding her in an upright position... voila! An added bonus was that Richard can walk around an show her stuff while she eats, ha!


I started a reward chart for Jane to encourage her to cooperate, make good decisions, be helpful, etc.  I told her I would take her to get a treat when she filled the whole chart with stickers (thirty!). She chose to go get cake pops. This girl is seriously motivated by sweets. Me, too!


Look who's big enough to sit in the Bumbo chair! Oh, and Jane is wearing a swim suit just because.


A successful stroll!

Did you know there is a wild peacock who lives in our neighborhood??! His name is James. We went to dinner at our neighbors' house and they were telling us that he lives in their backyard, and maybe we would see him if we were lucky. About ten minutes later, he appeared on their roof! He was beautiful. You can't see the colors well in these backlit pictures, but his body was bright blue and and his tail, of course, was amazing. So cool!  


Happy April, everyone!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Ouisey is four months

Happy Four Months to Ouisey!



Ouisey has really "woken up" this past month and is so much fun. She is much easier to entertain during the days and not quite as high maintenance as the newborn phase. Jane is enjoying getting to know her as a little person, too, and not just a crying blob that takes Mommy away. Phew!

Now for a few other pics from her four month photo shoot... (both backgrounds are the two sides of the beautiful quilt Anna made!)




See ya later!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Around the house: February edition

One of my favorite things about Jane being a big girl now is watching her make "art." On this particular day, I gave her an old catalog, a piece of paper, scissors and glue. It was wonderfully cheap entertainment for both of us!


This chalkboard has been great too, and even easier to cleanup afterwards. 

"This is me and Daddy."

A rainbow.
Wish I could keep it, but erasing is inevitable.

And now some random pictures:

New dress-up discovery... Daddy's sweatpants!
Complete with Tinkerbell dress, of course.

Happy Valentine's Day!

One of these things is not like the others.

Jane continues her manual labor training with Richard.



When I was taking Ouisey's three month pictures, I convinced Jane (with a little bribe) to put on her Easter dress so I could try and get a picture of both girls. I managed to snap a few decent shots... 



Then Ouisey got this look on her face...



And then this happened... end of photo shoot.



 Here is a picture of Jane in heaven... Nickel is her BFF.


 (Nickel may feel otherwise.)

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Ouisey is three months

Happy three months to Ouisey!  


Thursday, February 28, 2013

Talkin'

Ouisey has started "talking" a lot more this week. It's fun watching her trying to make the sounds come out, and when she succeeds, she seems so proud of her little voice.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

A Downton Abbey Shower

A few weeks ago, the girls in our church small group celebrated Ouisey's arrival by throwing me a baby shower. Before I got there, I was told that it would be a tea. But to my surprise and delight, when I walked in the door I found everyone dressed in period clothes from a wonderful Masterpiece Classics drama called Downton Abbey. They went all out with costumes, food and decorations. It was such a fun afternoon, and I felt so special. Thank you, girls!

Anna greeted me in this lovely maid's
outfit that she made herself!

So that I would not be left out of the
costuming, I was adorned with this vintage
fur stole, beaded collar and lace gloves.

Beautiful and delicious food!

Awesome sign with intricate silhouette of Downton Abbey itself.

Can you find Lord Richard, Her Ladyship Katie,
Lady Jane and Lady Ouisey in this cast of characters?

Downton Abbey paper dolls... this really is a hit series!


Old fashioned don't smile photo with the hostesses.

When I got home, I had to take these photos of Lady Ouisey herself...


Cindi made this awesome "Free Bates" onesie

If you haven't seen Downton Abbey yet, (and therefore were not amused by any of this post), you can watch the first two seasons on Netflix and catch up with the current season three on PBS.org.  I highly recommend it!!

Monday, February 4, 2013

Ouisey is two months

I took a few token pictures of our new little girl to commemorate her first two months of life. One really cool thing that my friends have done is take a picture every month in a similar spot and/or with the same toy so you can see how much they change. I didn't know about this fun idea in time to do it with Jane, but I'm trying it for Ouisey with this little pink teddy bear in her rocking chair. Here is month one and two...


And here is a little side by side comparison of Jane and Ouisey both at two months. I couldn't resist, since Ouisey has all Jane's old clothes, ha!  


Jane wanted in on the photo shoot, especially since she was all dressed up like Tinker Bell for no special reason...

"Help!"  - Ouisey

"Help!"  - Jane