Cousin Gwenivere is here!

Cousin Gwenivere graced us with her presence four hours and twenty two minutes after Grace's birthday was over, on August 12th at 4:22AM!

Both of the kids are obsessed with her. Caiden will hold her on his lap for what feels like hours and seems to go in a trance when he has her. And the minute it's someone else's turn he asks when he can hold her again. It's so sweet seeing him like this because he was not this way with Theo or Grace (because of his age at the time I suppose).

Grace is super into getting in her face and just smiling and she gets her voice in a really high pitch and says sweet nothings to her. When it's her turn to hold her she sings twinkle twinkle over and over to her. She will also pat or rub her back when she's holding her and it's just so adorable.

We are so happy to have Gwen in our lives and can't wait to see these four cousins grow up together!

Grace 3-years

Our Gracie Girl is THREE! It's so bittersweet...our little baby is just not a baby anymore. Although she still knows she's our baby and really works us over at times. She's real good at it at bedtime. She has really been wanting me or Marc to hold her in the chair for a really long time before we drop her in her crib. She'll start wining and huffing and puffing the minute you start moving to stand up. Then when you've finally had enough and you get ready to leave the room she wants a kiss then a hug so bad. And she pulls you in and her little arms don't let you go....ahhhhh.

She is so into singing and dancing around the house. She loves putting on her princess dresses and twirling around. It's so cute to see how natural it comes to her. She got a microphone for her birthday and she didn't put that thing down for days. Her favorites right now are Moana and the Trolls songs.

Her most favorite word in the world is, "why". It comes after every single question she gets an answer to even if the question of why doesn't make any sense. For example,
"What is your name, Mom?"
"Jessica."
"Why?"
"Because that is what Grandma and Grandpa named me."
"Why?"
"Because they thought it was a pretty name."
"Why?"

She is just as obsessed with her night night as Caiden is. She still even brings it out of bed with her in the morning and carries it around the house for awhile until she drops it and I take it back to her bed.

She is also in love with her cousins. She is so infatuated with the newest addition, baby Gwen. She immediately wants to hold her when we see her and if she doesn't get a chance she reminds us over again. Her and Theo love each other one minute and fight furiously over something the next minute. But they love each other immensely.

She's a pretty stubborn little girl. She won't eat something if she doesn't want to. She won't nap if she doesn't want to. She won't kiss you if she doesn't want to. She refuses to drink milk. She won't wear something if she doesn't want to. The list just goes on and on. She just has a mind of her own and there's not a lot we can do to change it.

The minute she picked up a pencil she had the proper grip (that was not the case with Caiden, we're still working on it). Now that she's starting school I think she'll pick up writing her name really quick.

She really enjoys having friends, too! She always asks me if her friends are going to come over and play. Her friends consist of a 6 year old girl that lives across the street and....that's about it. She loves giggling and holding hands with other kids (something Caiden is still not really in to) and trying to talk to kids and make conversations even though it's hilarious and they usually just ask each other, "what", back and forth because no one can understand each other.

She's such a little muffin and I love snuggling with and taking her sweet kisses. Happy Birthday, Gracie Girl!

Caiden: 5-years

I feel like I was just sitting down to write his four year old post and now it's already days past his fifth birthday. Where does time go?!?! Here's just a glimpse of what he's up to.

He can't read yet but he's definitely interested in words and how to spell. He's constantly giving me five or six letters and asking me how to say it. None of them are real words but he's trying to figure out how the whole thing works.

He told us that he wants to be a Battler when grows up. Like someone who fights in battles, I suppose? When he gets around other boys he's constantly wanting to play fight and fake kick and push. And he's figuring out that most girls aren't really into that...unfortunately the hard way.

He's playing with Grace more and more everyday. I get glimpses of them playing together and it's so lovely. Just today it was time to come in and eat and he say's, "It's just so hard to eat right now. I just want to play with my sister." I almost just let it go and let him keep playing because they were having fun together. The best is when he teaches her how to hide and I find them under his covers hiding from me and they are giggling and trying to stay quiet.

He ALWAYS wants to know what is going on. If Marc and I are talking about something and he doesn't understand he immediately chimes in and asks a hundred times what it meant until we give him an answer.

He loves building things. We have a hand-me-down box of the classic wooden Tinker Toys and he loves putting them together to make robots, cars and guns. I would say in the last eight months that has been his go-to when were at home. We just did his first real Lego airplane. It took about an hour to walk him through the book and guide him on how to follow the directions left to right.

He loves to cuddle and lay with me every night before he falls asleep. He has to have a book read and a story from me and Marc every night. He's definitely phasing out of his naps. But almost everyday at the same time Grace goes down he lays in bed for at least 30 minutes before I tell him he can get out. Once or twice a week he'll fall asleep and actually sleep but usually he lays in there and talks to himself until he gets bored and asks me in the camera monitor if he can get out yet.

His bed is always made, his books are always in just the right spot and he usually finishes every drop of food on his plate even if he doesn't like it. I think he's going to be my "easy" one ;).

Kids birthday party

We celebrated the kids birthday at the park by our house this year. It was another successful birthday party with so many friends and kids. We got a balloon guy who does amazing creations. He doesn't just do your typical sword or dog. He uses probably 50+ balloons on each one he makes. We also got an amazing painting artist who drew on the kids arms and faces. Most importantly the kids had a blast!

Caiden's 5-year check-up & Grace's 3-year check-up

Caiden weighed 40 lbs. (45th percentile) and 42.3 inches long (37th percentile). He was a rockstar and passed his hearing, eye and blood pressure tests. He also got two booster shots and will need to get two more next summer before he starts Kindergarten. 

Grace weighed 30 lbs. (45th percentile) and 35.9 inches long (27th percentile). They performed the same hearing, eye and blood pressure tests that they did on Caiden and she did so perfect during each one and passed them all! Dr. Roberts said that only about 10% of 3-year olds actually perform those tests so he was surprised she sat so well and did all three of them. Such a good listener! I asked the Dr. about her leg aches at night and he said growing pains are completely common in preschool kids and that she'll eventually grow out of them.

Summer Camps

Both Caiden and Grace did a summer camp at the new school they will be starting at in the Fall. The camp was two weeks, Monday through Friday from 9am-12. I had no clue how Grace would do at drop off -if you recall Caiden screamed bloody murder for the first three days when he went to camp.

The teachers decided to keep them in the same class for camp which at first I wasn't a fan of. I thought Caiden would be bored but they do the same activities for all of the Preschool through Kindergarten kids so it didn't make much of a difference. There were kids from 3-5 in the class (although Grace was the youngest of all since she's still not three).

Them being in the same class was actually amazing. She marched right in there on the first day, said, "bye, mom" and off she went and sat next to Caiden for morning circle. I'm not sure it would have been the same experience if Caiden wasn't with her. And she loved it! She is so excited to start school now and I'm hoping even though they won't be in the same classroom she'll be familiar with the environment and jump right in.

Marc was able to drop them off a couple of days! Selfie time!

Caiden did Outpost Summer Camp the past two weeks also. He really loved it and asked if he could go more days.  The first day after I picked him up he said, "We didn't spend anytime in a classroom, it was all outside! We trekked through a jungle (really just some palm trees and bamboo on about an acre), left some food for a panda, and found a snail trail!" Grace was quite pissed when she couldn't stay so I kept promising her she'll do it next year when she's old enough.

The first day when we picked him up he had paint all over his body. Grace was quite intrigued when she saw him and wasn't sure what to think. He said he was painted with tiger stripes.

The second day they tie-dyed a shirt. Caiden could not have been happier to wear it the next day of camp.

For the rest of the summer Caiden is doing swim lessons twice a week, we're going to hit up the beach...and wait for Baby Cousin to arrive!!!

4th of July 2017

We spent about 6 hours at the beach this year and skipped naps. We had a huge group of people and even though it's a pain parking and dragging yourself through all the people it's the only place I would spend the 4th! And since the kids didn't nap they went to bed when it was still light out!

I regret to say these are the only pictures we got. It's so hard dragging your phone around in a wet and sanding swimsuit.

Caiden played with this stick and red cup for a couple of hours. He said he was doing something with the sun but I can't recall exactly...haha