Happy Birthday Aubrey!

On March 2nd, Aubrey turned 6. Just as I said with Chloe, I can't believe that Aubrey is 6 years old. She's gotten so big and grown so much. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that she is now as old as the kids I used to teach when I taught first and second grade. It doesn't seem possible that she could be this old already! She has gotten taller and lankier. According to the nurse at her well check, she is 45 inches tall and weighs 41 pounds, which is up 3 inches and 4 pounds from last year at this time. (Although when I measure her she's only about 44 inches and only weighs 38 pounds.) She is definitely an oldest child - her bossiness comes out quite frequently, especially when dealing with Chloe. She often wants Chloe to do things her way, and then gets upset when Chloe refuses. She continues to be very sensitive and can be found in tears when she gets hurt or things don't go her way. (This only occurs at home though - she's pretty tough at school.) She loves to be a helper and LOVES to take care of her brother. She can't wait until she's old enough to carry him around. :) She loves school and has learned so much this year. Her handwriting is gorgeous and the sentences she makes up with the words they are learning is amazing! Last weekend I was folding clothes and told her to read me a book while I did it. She picked up an easy reader chapter book and read me the whole thing. I only had to help her with a handful of words. She's such a sponge and just continues to soak everything in. I'm so proud of her and the things she is accomplishing and learning!

Aubrey and Chloe's Birthday Party

The end of February we had a birthday party for the girls together. They chose an Ariel themed birthday party. I always make a cake that goes along with their theme, but this year I really struggled to find a cake that I liked that was possible for me to do. After lots of internet searching, I finally found a cake that would work. It ended up being my favorite cake that I've made so far. We had family over for dinner following church and then presents and cake. The girls loved playing with their cousins and had a great time opening their presents.

Jenna's boyfriend Scott came with her to the party. They were a wonderful help with the kids!

Gabe loves cheesing for the camera.

Coye and Gabe actually played some together.

Playing with Coye's racetrack

The finished cake - view from the top

View from the side

The boys all playing together.

Gabe and his cheesy smiles

Happy birthday Aubrey and Chloe!

Opening presents

One of her favorite presents

Another of her favorite presents

Coye loved playing with the tissue paper and gift bags from the girls' presents.

Grandpa and Gabe

The girls eating cake and ice cream.

Coye's silly face

Grandma and Aubrey building her new Lego set

Pictures

In the beginning of February, I went and had the kids' pictures taken - Coye's 9 months, Chloe's 4 years, and Aubrey's 6 years. The kids did really good and the pictures turned out great. Here's a few of them.

Happy Birthday Chloe!

Last week was Chloe's birthday. She turned four years old. I am flabbergasted by the fact that she's four now. I look around the house at pictures of when Aubrey was four and think to myself where have the past two years gone! She has grown a lot this past year. According to the doctor, she now weighs 35 pounds (although on our scale at home without clothes she only weighs around 31) and is 41 inches tall. This means that in the past year she has grown four inches and gained 6.5 pounds. She is definitely more grown up too and has become quite a good helper with her brother and the other little boy I babysit. She absolutely loves school and thought that on her birthday when she turned four, she should be able to go to the morning four year old preschool class. She was four now, you know. She anxiously awaits her sister to come home from school every day so that they can play together. She loves to color, draw, and write and makes at least five pictures every day for someone. Her favorite game is Memory, and she has become quite good at it. She can usually get almost as many matches as me when we play, and I am really trying. Her favorite things to play are babies, Barbies, and dollhouse. She is such a silly girl and loves to make people laugh. She continues to be a loud child - I don't think it's in her to be quiet. Although her teachers tell me that she's very good at school and is quiet there. Our family would not be the same without her - it's usually too quiet when she's gone. :)



 

Bunk Beds

When we found out we were expecting Coye, we knew that the kids' living arrangements were going to have to change. While we have a bedroom in the basement, neither one of us were very keen on putting one of the girls down there by themselves. We both just felt that they were too little. So the only other alternative was to put the girls together in one room. Aubrey already had a full size bed, so we just put them together in the same bed hoping that it would work out. We moved them together the beginning of April last year and it has been a constant battle of getting them to go to bed ever since. Chloe loves to talk at night and has a hard time falling asleep, especially if she's had a nap. Aubrey likes to play in bed rather than just quieting down and going to sleep. This fall we began talking about getting bunk beds. While we figured it wouldn't necessarily help with the talking, at least they wouldn't be able to touch each other or play around in bed together. We had a hard time deciding on what to get. We already had a full size mattress, so we were leaning toward a twin-full set of bunks, although I was afraid they would be too big in their room (their ceilings are lower so I was also worried about Aubrey hitting her head). Calvin went and looked at a few and decided that Aubrey would be fine, so I ordered them shortly after Christmas. We didn't even have to buy a twin mattress, because mom and dad were getting rid of one. They finally came in on Monday, and Calvin put them together that night. He told them that if they messed around still he was going to take them down and burn them. That night they had a hard time falling asleep - I think it was the whole newness of it all. The rest of the week they've been much better. They still whisper and talk some, but it hasn't been as bad and it's nice for them to each have their own space. Hopefully it continues!

New beds - Aubrey on top, Chloe on bottom

9 Months Old!

Coye turned 9 months the beginning of this month. He has grown and changed a lot this past month. We went for his well check last week and he weighs 16 lbs. 15 oz. and is 28 inches long. While he seems healthy and happy, the doctor was concerned that he hasn't gained much weight in the past month and dropped in his percentiles. She wants him to come back in a month for a weight check, so my goal is to feed him more solids and try to nurse him more to get his weight up. Hopefully that will help and the little peanut will grow. Other than that, he's doing really good. Here's what he's been up to this past month:

• He's a good eater and will eat anything I give him. He's still eating mostly pureed food, but does like Cheerios and puffs.
• He can now drink out of a sippy cup. He doesn't get much out of it, but he can do it.
• He figured out how to crawl and has gotten very speedy. The girls are learning that they have to keep things up or Coye will get into their stuff.
• After a few days of crawling, he also figured out how to pull himself up onto his knees and then how to sit back up from his belly.
• He got his haircut and looks like such a big boy now.
• He loves his daddy and would much rather be with him than me if he's around. 
• He doesn't like to be left alone, but will crawl around and play as long as someone's around.
• He only takes two naps a day - a mid-morning nap and an early afternoon nap, but still gets up at night.
• His favorite toys are balls and blocks.
• He continues to be a very happy, easy going baby.

Coye's First Haircut!

I took the girls to get their haircut a few weeks ago. Coye's hair has been growing in lately and some of the pieces were really long. While I still wasn't ready to get his haircut, Calvin was insistent on me getting his "girly" bangs cut. He finally convinced me - I didn't think it would change his looks that much, but I was wrong. He looked so much bigger after we got it cut.

Coye's "girly" bangs

Getting a haircut - he sat really good!

The new look