The Townsends

My 8 Year Olds

2015-04-13T13:53:00.000-05:00

For the next week or so, William and Lily are both eight. I can't believe how big they are getting! They are pretty awesome.

William has been busy with school and Cub Scouts. He completed his Bobcat last year and has been working on getting his Wolf patch. It was a lot of effort put in at home, but he finally finished it in March and should get the recognition at the Pack Meeting this week. We are so proud of him and his willingness to do it. He had his first Pinewood Derby last month also. We painted his car like a Creeper from Minecraft. He came in 2nd overall and got a little car pin to put on his uniform.

Lily has also been busy with school and has had straight A's all year. She did a report about someone from American History (William did this last year also and was Michael Phelps) and she chose Annie Oakley. We had so much fun putting her report together and getting her costume made. Of course, we had to take pictures of her doing Annie Oakley's famous trick shot.

She did a great job in her presentation. Our favorite line was at the end where she said, "I like Annie Oakley because she was a cowgirl and I like guns." That is our Lily!

Lily turned 8 on the very last day of March. This is a big age! She has started going to Activity Days on Wednesdays and just competed in her first Pinkwood Derby. She painted her car like a Captain America shield with pink. We are also preparing for her baptism next week! She is so excited and we couldn't be more proud of her to make this decision.

These two kiddos are so wonderful. They are patient with me when things are crazy and are forgiving of me when things are crazy! They are incredibly helpful and loving. I'm so glad that I have them!

Great to Be...

2015-03-31T21:23:00.001-05:00

Happy 8th Birthday to my beautiful Lily girl!

1 Month

2015-03-25T21:04:00.000-05:00

Little Miss Abigail is one month today! It is strange to me how fast time seems to go by. I keep thinking that Abigail has grown so much quicker than Jane did... False. I just can't keep up with how fast time is going by.

Abigail is nursing great and is growing like a weed. She likes to sleep, but mostly when you're cuddling her.

Abigail has a lot of funny expressions that we all like to watch. Her hair is starting to lighten some as well as her complexion. She still has LOTS of hair. I went to her when she was crying today to find her grasping for dear life to her own hair. She also thinks she is big and is trying to hold her head up already.

Things have definitely been a little hectic since bringing Abigail home, but it has also been wonderful. She has such a sweet spirit and it's amazing to see what she has brought to our family.

Baby #4

2015-03-09T15:17:00.000-05:00

One of the biggest things that happened in 2014 is we found out that we were pregnant at the end of June! It was such a surprise and definitely a welcomed one. And we were in for an even bigger surprise to find out that we conceived identical twins due March 9. This was the time that we found out that I have twins on my side of the family. Needless to say, we were shocked, but so excited and immediately went into planning mode.

At our 11 week ultrasound, however, we found out that we had lost one of our little ones and the other was in danger as well. After a few weeks of taking it easy, we had another ultrasound and saw that this little one was a fighter and pulled through. I'm not going to lie, this was one of the hardest times in my life. The emotions I had were a complete roller coaster and I felt guilty no matter if I felt grateful and hopeful or if I felt sadness. I learned a lot about the ability of my body and what happens in such situations. I was frustrated and amazed at the same time. It was such a confusing and helpless time.

We found out at our 18 week ultrasound that we were having another girl. William was bummed out, yet again, that he would be the only boy. Lily was excited because "the girls will dominate." Throughout the rest of my pregnancy, I had ultrasounds with every visit for one reason or another. I had a hemorrhage in my placenta, the umbilical cord wasn't placed in the placenta correctly so they watched her growth, and then we found that she had a cardiac arrhythmia that was checked weekly. As stressful as it could get, I was grateful to be able too see her so often. I had a 3d ultrasound done one time and got to see how much she looked like her brother and sisters. She definitely had the Townsend look about her!

On February 24, I went into labor and went to the hospital that evening when Matthew got home from work.

Abigail Phillipa Ann Townsend was born February 25, 2015 at 9:57am. She was 6 lbs 9 oz and 20 inches long. She is beautiful and amazing.

We gave her 2 middle names after her 2 grandma's, one of which would have been her sister's. Now she has that with her always. I can't describe the feeling that I have to actually have her here. She is such a strong little lady and is one of my heroes, for sure. Her health is perfect and she has grown out of the arrhythmia like the doctor's hoped she would.

We are trying to get used to our new normal of 4 kids. 4 kids! We love our kiddos and it's fun to see them change with the new too.

There have been times when we've thought about the other little one and what it would be like if she were here with us as well. We consider ourselves lucky to have Abigail here and to be able to tell her about her angel sister who watches over her. This experience, along with others, has made my testimony waver, but I feel like it comes back full force and stronger. I'm so grateful for the ordinances that take place in the temple and that I have a family that can be together forever. The little ones that I have lost are waiting and cheering us on to be better and keep covenants so we can see them again.

I'm cherishing every little moment with my children. I'm memorizing details of Abigail like what it feels like to hold her tiny body in my hands and her dark brown hair (SO different from my other little ones!) and her little cry that sounds like a baby bird squawking. And, of course, I'm taking pictures like crazy.

2014 Recap

2015-03-07T14:32:00.000-06:00

Looking at my blog made me sad because it's been almost a year since I've updated! I like to keep a record of our goings on and this blog has been it usually. So, I'm taking the time to finish up our 2014 in one post so that I can move on to the new and exciting things of 2015!

Lily finished up her rec. soccer season on Team England. They, of course, dominated because they were such a good team and worked together to well. Lily found her niche as a "Sweeper" and tended mostly to the goal. She is a great defensive player. We're excited to hopefully start back up in the fall. She also finished up her season on the Lady Rapids. I don't think she'll play on that team again, sadly. They decided to move up from an Academy team and turn into a Competition team, which meant they would be playing tournaments on Sundays. We love the Lady Rapids and had so much fun playing with them when we could.

William turned 8 years old in April and decided to be baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was baptized and confirmed in the Smyrna, TN building by Matthew on July 19th. He wanted to wait until Carrie's family could be here for it. Matthew spoke on Baptism and Carrie spoke on the Holy Ghost. We are so proud of him for making this choice. William is such a special boy and it was wonderful to see the change that a decision like this can make.

Lily finished up her 1st grade school year in Ms. Smith's class.

William finished up 2nd grade in Ms. Byrd's class.

Last Day of School

Over the summer, Carrie's family came to Tennessee and we had so much fun. We celebrated the 4th of July with them. We watched the Smyrna Fireworks show from our porch. We had an awesome party at Mom and Dad's complete with pie eating contest, water balloons, and fireworks.

Our apartments offered swim lessons over the summer. It was $5 a kid. What? It was awesome. William and Lily loved it.. most of the time. But, I'm mostly grateful that we have conquered the fear of water and that they are comfortable to swim. William was so fearless and it was good for him to learn what to do once he jumped in! Lily was so scared of the water and it was great to see her loosen up and master the back stroke! They got to have an ice cream party.

William and Lily started school back up at the beginning of August.

William is in 3rd grade in Ms. Duke's class.

Lily is in 2nd grade in Ms. Pollock's class.

Jane turned 1 on August 12th! How did she get so big? She tore her cupcake apart. We had a party for her at Mom and Dad's and everyone came to celebrate with us.

Her token 1 year picture!

I made this collage to see her change through the year.

Shortly after Jane's birthday, we moved back into Mom and Dad's house and it's been exactly what we needed. We lived in our apartment for about 5 months and ended up needing to break our lease. It's nice to be back home.

October was a pretty full month for us. We had fall break and went to the pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins to carve.

We had Halloween, which was FREEZING! I was able to make Lily and William's costume. Lily was Little Red Riding Hood and William was Emmett from the Lego Movie. By the time I had gotten those finished I had to resort to buying a strawberry costume for Jane.

Matthew went to Atlanta to do a job for work and I was able to drive down and spend the weekend with him. He did work for an annual party for The Walking Dead at Terminus. When he wasn't working, we got to tour the Coca Cola Factory and the highlight of that was trying all the different Coke products through out the world. Matthew was excited that they had Kuat, his favorite drink in Brazil. We were also invited to attend The Walking Dead party and got to meet some of the actors from the show, see some zombies, and eat some amazing food.

We got a few family pictures taken by Keaven in our backyard.

We sold our Sentra towards the end of year. We've needed to upgrade to a family car and so we had to say goodbye to this guy. I bought it the summer before Matthew and I got married.

William started to attend Cub Scouts on Wednesday nights since he turned eight. He has loved it. He got his Bobcat badge and it was sweet to have him put the bobcat badge on me at the pack meeting.

We had an awesome Christmas. We finally updated our tree and had it in our hallway. We did a lot of our traditions like getting new ornaments and I made pajama pants.

2014 was a crazy, but good year.

Our Easter

2014-05-09T14:03:00.002-05:00

I love Easter! Okay, I love all holidays. Who doesn't? We all love them for different reasons and every holiday comes with a different feel. Easter is no exception. There's excitement in Spring. Green, flowers, newness everywhere!

This Easter is the first holiday we spent in our new apartment. John and Krystin brought their boys over the night before to color eggs. We used food coloring and they turned out pretty awesome except for my first one. I put it in a color that was supposed to be raspberry, but only turned out tan. That's like the most boring color for an Easter egg. Tan. But all of the others were pretty vibrant colors.

The Easter Bunny came with a few candies and wrist rockets with marbles. And also Rise of the Guardians.

Jane also got some goodies like cereal stars and a new sippy cup. She also got the best kids book in the world. It's a Pride and Prejudice board book. I'm pretty sure I love it more than she does.

We spent Easter Sunday going to church with Mom and Dad and then having dinner at their house followed by an egg hunt.

I only got a picture of Lily with her haul. William was "taking a minute" because he was upset he didn't get the golden egg with $5. He tried so hard and was so close to it, but someone else found it. Life lessons can be hard. But Lily made out with a lot of candy!

We went to the Nashville Temple on Good Friday to take Easter pictures. This is another thing that I love about Easter. Taking the kids to the temple in their nice clothes is always so tender. We talk about the purpose of the temple and how we are so grateful that families can be together forever. We talk about Jesus Christ and the Atonement. How everything in Spring reflects the Atonement. I'm astounded at how much these children know and can share. I learn lessons from them constantly. It's one of my most favorite traditions.

It was fun to have Jane there this year to mix it up a bit.

And she was SO done by the end of it.

Spring Break Baby!

2014-04-30T21:06:00.000-05:00

We went to Utah for a week of our Spring Break! Let me tell you, a week is not long enough! We had fun with the time that we had. We stayed at Carrie's new house, which is awesome! The kids loved hanging out with their cousins. William and Lily miss the Page girls and were so excited to spend the night with them every night.

We saw the Lego movie with them while we were there. William had been dying to go.

Carrie and Jane were able to warm up to each other. So much so that Jane gave Carrie the most awkward kiss in the whole world. She opened her mouth and just rested on Carrie's face for a good solid minute. As gross as it was, Carrie agreed that the adorableness outweighed everything else.

We got to go downtown one day. We saw the new mall that the church built across from Temple Square. We went to the Disney store and ate lunch at Kneaders. Then we went to Temple Square, of course! I knew that William and Lily wouldn't remember going when they were younger.

We got the best photo bomb picture ever, thanks to Presley. I can't help but laugh until I cry every time I see this picture.

We went to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. That place is probably one of my favorite buildings. I wish that the hotel was still operational. I would totally stay there. I think this is one of William's favorite pictures because Jane is popping out behind Joseph Smith. He thinks it's hilarious as you can tell from his face in the picture.

You've gotta love taking all of the cliche pictures! I have a picture of Matthew, William, and me when we first had William in this exact place. It's crazy to see how much our family has changed.

We got to hang out with a lot of Matthew's family while we were there. We went to dinner at Julie and Jeff's house one night and got to hear Zach and Colton quote Napoleon Dynamite word for word. The kids had a blast playing with the boys. William and Colton were pretty much inseparable.

The kids also got to spend a lot of time with DJ and Laura's kids. It was fun to get to know them a little better and get hugs from their sweet twin girls. Lily loved Brooklyn and the opportunity to have a little girl cousin at Grandma's house.

So, we were crazy and drove to Utah in our Versa. You do what you've got to do though, right? It ended up being a lot of fun and torture all in the same trip. We packed some fun stuff for the kids and I had some help from Pinterest on some ideas to keep them busy. Poor Jane got so tired of her car seat by the end of it and there was a time about 2 hours away from home when all three of the kids were crying at the same time. But, we pulled through and made it home!

Oh, I almost forgot! While we were on the way back home, we ran into snow and stayed in Sydney, Nebraska. Lucky for us, that it the home of the Cabela's headquarters. You know that Matthew wanted to go and the kids were insistent too. Matthew thought that the Pony Express rider statue was really cool and wanted to take a picture. As you can tell, we were not prepared for the weather there. I mean.. we were all wearing jackets and there are icicles hanging down from the horse. It was freezing.

I'm so glad that we were able to travel out west. We got to see family we haven't seen in years and met new little ones. We got to see people's new houses and loved seeing the houses that are home away from home. We got to eat at all the places we wanted to, Café Rio twice! I only wish we had more time. We'll have to go back soon.

8 Months!

2014-04-24T11:48:00.000-05:00

Little Jane Marie turned 8 months on the 12th! She is growing up for sure.

Jane is sitting up all by herself really well. She can even go from her belly to her bottom, which she just did one day out of the blue!

She is still eating really well and loves her baby snacks, especially the yogurt bites.

Jane likes to look at herself in the mirror... as you can tell. She smiles really big and will talk to her reflection.

This girl gives some of the best kisses, although super wet and sloppy. She'll just open her mouth wide and put her lips on your face and push up against you until she's finished. It's kind of gross and kind of the cutest thing ever.

Jane also started scooting around to get what she wants. She will get up on her hands and tippy toes and push herself forward.

Matthew's already training her...

Some of Jane's favorite things right now:

her singing remote

pacifiers

sing, sing a letter spin toy

mom's key lanyard

"Janey Marinky Dinky Dink"

Books

kisses

8 Years Old!

2014-04-22T23:24:00.001-05:00

Happy 8th Birthday to our William Rigdon!

We're so lucky to have this little guy! I can't believe he's already 8. He has a big year ahead!

Happy Easter!

2014-04-20T21:53:00.003-05:00

Happy Easter!

William in General

2014-04-17T12:42:00.003-05:00

While I was going through the pictures to post for William in the month of March, I realized that I've been a slacker at updating a lot of things! I figured that I can just update William in general. He has been busy, after all.

William did his very first research paper. He had to research a famous American and he chose Michael Phelps. They did the research at school and when he brought his paper home, I was really surprised at how well he did! Part of the project was to dress up like the person he'd researched. So, instead of speedos, he wore an Olympic t shirt, swim cap, and a gold medal! He was pretty embarrassed about the cap and took it off right after he was finished speaking in front of his class. It was hilarious to see that a lot of people didn't mess around! There were kids that had full on Benjamin Franklin costumes. It was the best.

William also recently wrapped up playing basketball in Smyrna. The Ragin Cajuns played hard and made it to the semi finals, but the Bulldogs took it all. He's wanting to play again next season, but we'll see!

William had his second grade program in March. It was all about Dr. Seuss. He was assigned the role of Sam I Am. He told me that he had a solo part. William was so excited. I was too because he had to dress up and I got to make his costume! Thank goodness for Pinterest and an old Indian tunic pattern my Mom had.

The name of the program was Oh, the Places You'll Go! It was pretty much adorable! All of the kids wore these little hats. When it was the song about Green Eggs and Ham, we all got excited and I even moved to get a better view of William's solo...

Only to find out he didn't sing by himself at all. He just offered the Cat in the Hat the green eggs and ham until she finally tried them. William did a very convincing job of being persistent!

I later asked him why he told me he had a solo. He replied that he did... along with the whole 2nd grade student body that sang that night.

Sweet William.

Lily in March

2014-04-16T11:39:00.001-05:00

This girl just turned 7!

Lily is all about Frozen and My Little Pony, so of course that's what her birthday was full of! She wanted a Frozen vanilla cake and raspberry sherbet.

Lily had fun celebrating with her cousins and has had a blast with all of the fun presents that she got.

So, if you can't tell, I like to take pictures! Of course I had to take Lily's 7 year old pictures! She wanted Elsa hair and it's a little crazy because she had her hair like that all day!

Lily is one of the coolest girls that I know. She's funny and she can take a joke too. Depending on her mood, of course, like a true girl.

She pretends to be shy, but this little lady is probably one of the spunkiest girls you'll meet. She loves jewelry, pink, and getting her nails done, but then she also likes exercising her awesome muscles and shooting guns in the backyard. With Lily, it makes sense!

Lily is also a wonderful chef. She loves to help out in the kitchen and loves to try new foods. Lily has also become the best big sister ever! She is definitely a little mom and she enjoys it. I know that to her nothing is more important than Jane. Lily always makes time for her and hasn't lost patience with her yet!

Lily also started playing for the Lady Rapids in March. They had their first game on Murfreesboro against a team that is 2 years older than theirs!

It was the first time their team had a goalie and Lily was chosen to play that position for a quarter. For the first time playing goalie, she did pretty well! Since then, they've had some goalie training and played a "defending the goal"(not a goalie) position added to the rec team. Lily has quickly become one of the best goal defenders! She's awesome at charging the people coming to score.

With playing a team that has had more experience... yeah... they got creamed their first game. But, overall, the girls had a lot of fun playing and they were good sports.

Lily is such a wonderful little soul. We love this girl so much!

Jane in March

2014-04-04T15:21:00.002-05:00

Jane turned 7 months in March! I seems like she's grown up over night. Just in the blink of an eye she started rolling over and scooting all over the place, she started eating snacks, talking more (in a jabbering kind of way), she gives kisses, and started to sit up! What?

Oh yeah, and she started making this super silly grin. And I'm pretty sure you're crazy if you don't smile right back at this face!

Jane had her first curler! I did Lily's hair like this all the time when she was a baby and I've just now tried it on Jane.

She's pretty cute!

Some of Jane's favorite toys are bead necklaces and a bath toy that's a turtle. She likes to bite his head!

Jane is still just a fun baby to have! She is the sweetest little girl and still has everyone, even William and Lily, wrapped around her little dimpled fingers!

7 Years Old!

2014-03-31T21:55:00.002-05:00

Happy 7th Birthday to our Lily Ava!

Life sure would be dull without this girl.

Rah Rah Ree!

2014-02-24T16:33:00.002-06:00

At the end of January we signed Lily up for a Cheer Camp at Cane Ridge High School. Keaven gave me the heads up about it and she signed Taylor and Maddie up for it as well so Lily had a lot of fun. They were there for a Saturday and then performed at the next Friday night's basketball halftime. Oh my goodness. It was adorable.

Lily, of course, has already made plans to go next year!

Half Birthday

2014-02-12T21:36:00.002-06:00

Um.. Jane is six months today. What? And honestly we spent her half birthday hanging out. She pretty much did what she does every day. Eat, play, diaper change, sleep, repeat. I definitely snuck cuddles and kisses in there too.

What can I say about this little girl that I haven't already? Our whole family is still just as smitten with her as the day she was born. Jane has just brought a whole new element to our family. Now, I'm not going to say that I don't remember what life was like before we had her because we loved being the awesome Townsend Family of Four. But since we had Jane, somehow I feel like we have rounder edges than we used to. Does that even make sense?

Jane spreads so much joy to us. She makes us smile and laugh and love even more! It's been so great to see William and Lily love and serve and sacrifice more than I have ever seen. They're amazing siblings and have stepped up more than I could have ever imagined.

This month Jane has been progressing. We got her a bouncy chair that she loves and we all have learned the little tune it plays. I switched the music and William commented that it was different.

I started making baby food and she seems to like it. She eats like a champ, which makes feeding her more pleasurable. I have to say that fruits win by a landslide.

Jane is still not a big fan of rolling over, but she is a pro at rocking on all fours! Crawling will be soon upon us. She's almost sitting up by herself also. I think she'll be a lot happier when that's accomplished.

Jane still "talks" and makes all kinds of noises. She's especially chatty in the mornings.

Jane is a beautiful little soul. I feel lucky that I get to squeeze her little body and kiss her cheeks every day.

Next six months, you have my permission to slow down a bit.

If William was 100

2014-02-04T16:24:00.000-06:00

So, last week the kid's school celebrated their 100th day of the school year. William told me that he didn't want me to see a picture of him that his teacher sent home. I didn't really think about it until I went through his folder that night and found this gem..

What William will look like when he's 100. Thank you Ms. Byrd for this awesomeness. I'm not going to lie, I laughed until I cried. I got it all out before I talked to him before school the next day and told him that his picture was silly. He then told me that it wasn't anything compared to another boy's in class. I wonder what that one looked like!

Speaking of my dear William Rigdon, he started basketball this season! He's on the Ragin' Cajuns team and he's absolutely loving it. His team has won 4 games and lost 4, I believe. He was excited because his friend from his first grade class is also on his team.

Isaac is also playing in the same league but for the sharks. Our games ended up being back to back one Saturday. It was awesome and I totally stole Krystin's cute picture of them both.

Christmas

2014-01-24T14:02:00.001-06:00

Our Christmas seemed like it came and went too quickly! It was full of our traditions. Red came to visit. We picked out our ornaments for the year and made our tree look even more trinket-y than ever. I think we might have to upgrade our tree this year! I love picking out our new ornaments and looking through all of the ornaments we've picked out through the years. We still have some existing from our first Christmas together.

On Christmas Eve, my kids got to open their new pajama pants that I made for them. They also put out reindeer food and saw Rudolph's nose in the backyard. He did a back flip this year when the kids sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" at the top of their lungs.

Our three kids were the only ones at Grandma and Grandpa's house Christmas morning. We did the stair line-up, but it was mostly a grouping. An adorable grouping!

The highlight for William and Lily were definitely the Santa gifts! They both got a Nintendo 3Ds. I've had a hard time getting them to do something else since!

It was Jane's first Christmas! What do you get a 4 month old for Christmas? Well, clothes and spoons and rattle toys, of course!

Christmas was amazing in 2013! I can't believe how fast it went and it will be around here again before you know it!

5 Months!

2014-01-15T12:21:00.000-06:00

Jane was 5 months on Sunday. She has definitely grown through the month and she had a lot of firsts!

Jane laughed for the first time and Matthew. He was making a fake laugh and she thought it was hilarious. We've loved hearing her little laugh!

Jane has us all wrapped around her little dimpled fingers. She loves to sing and talk.

Jane had her first Christmas. I absolutely loved having her be a part of our family traditions and see her enjoy her toys.

Jane also tried cereal for the very first time. She was happy about it until she tried it..

She's doing awesome with pushing up. Jane can roll over, but she's not the biggest fan of it. I'm pretty sure she likes to be in everyone's business!

I finally got a picture of her awesome Chris Farley face. That's definitely a highlight of this past month!

Jane also had her very first New Year's Eve party. As you can tell from the picture, she didn't make it until midnight.

This little girl is awesome.

Our Anniversary

2013-12-28T11:13:00.003-06:00

This year Matthew and I had our 8th Anniversary! Since we just had a newborn, we waited until the beginning of November to celebrate. We took a small family vacay over a weekend to Chattanooga. We stayed at the Chattanooga Choo Choo. It was an awesome atmosphere and there were some pretty cool things to see. We walked around the train terminal and we got to eat in a train car called the Silver Diner. I had WAY too many pictures for this post, so I just made some collages to not overwhelm!

We also SAW ROCK CITY! We followed the advice of those bright red bird houses. It was absolutely beautiful. Not to mention a little nerve racking trying to squeeze through the tiny tunnels with a baby strapped to your chest! But, obviously we're alive, so all is well. I had a lot of fun taking pictures throughout the gardens. We saw a couple being married on top of Lover's Leap. Matthew, William, and Lily all went across Swing a Long Bridge while Jane and I stayed on the solid ground!

The kids all loved going through all of the different caves and tunnels and thought that the fairyland was cool. I had wanted to see the top of Lookout Mountain where you can see 7 states. I think I ended up getting William excited, but when he and Lily saw the view they were a little disappointed the states weren't different colors.

I feel bad that in all of the pictures of our family Jane is facing me, but she did sleep most of the time! Memories, right? Our trip was so much fun and it was great to get out of the normal routine for a time and be together as a family.

Flat Stanley

2013-12-27T09:50:00.001-06:00

This fall, we had so much fun with our Flat Stanley that Aiden sent to us. He was here for a couple of weeks and we took him around Nashville and had him with us at some family events. He saw the

He went to Lily's soccer game and the pumpkin patch.

We took him to the zoo and showed him downtown.

The capital building.

Nashville skyline.

Walking Bridge.

The LP Stadium where the Titans play.

Flat Stanley saw the Grand Ole Opry.

He was with us at the Fun Run too.

It was a lot of fun trying to position Flat Stanley in our pictures. I think my favorites are from the pumpkin patch. I'm so glad that Aiden thought of us and I'm hoping he enjoyed our pictures!

Jane is 4 months!

2013-12-12T12:22:00.001-06:00

Can you believe it? Jane is already four months old. Here are some pictures from the month of November.

This month little Miss Jane had her first Thanksgiving. She has moved into her crib in the kid's room. She had her first ear infection (and antibiotic). She rolls from her tummy to her back. Jane has also found her hands and feet! She loves to play, talk, and sing. So pretty much, this has been a big month! I'm having so much fun with this girl and we're very excited to have her very first Christmas this month!

3 months!

2013-11-12T14:17:00.000-06:00

Jane is 3 months! Can you believe it? This little miss is growing so much and so fast. We just keep falling more and more in love with her.

Jane is a smiley girl and is super eager to talk! She will smile and coo at me all day long. She makes total cliché baby noises and it just melts my heart. Carrie said she sounds like the baby in that Aaliyah song and I'm pretty sure she hit the nail right on the head with that.

Jane is also sleeping through the nights now! She goes to bed a little after William and Lily go to bed and wakes up a few minutes before they do the next morning. She is an awesome sleeper. Jane also LOVES her bath time and she's a breastfeeding pro. She is just everything you could ask for in a baby.

We just love baby Jane!

All 3

2013-11-08T10:54:00.001-06:00

The biggest thing that I loved about having William and Lily home for fall break was that I could take pictures of all three of my children! I've been wanting to do this for a while now, but I haven't been able to.

It was a lot of fun and I had to be super careful to not make William and Lily look like Jane's mom and dad. They kind of do in that picture above.

William and Lily LOVE having Jane. Lily has adjusted to being a big sister and I don't think she would have it any other way now. She loves Jane and Jane definitely loves her!

William (as always) is a wonderful big brother. He makes sure he gives Jane a kiss goodbye every morning before school and every night before bed.

William and Lily are both such great helpers and want to do things with Jane.

Having all three little ones home for two weeks for the first time was a lot of fun. A lot of work, but the fun out weighed anything else. I can't wait for more!

End of Soccer

2013-11-07T13:46:00.001-06:00

The soccer season has ended and Lily's team rocked it out! They only lost one game and even then it was only by one point. They're a good team and have excellent coaches. We're excited for the Spring season of rec soccer.

Lily absolutely loves soccer. Mostly when she's on the field though. Otherwise, she doesn't care too much as you can tell from this picture! Lily's coach is going to be coaching the girls travel soccer team called the Lady Rapids next fall and he's been wanting Lily to come to the practices. So right now, even though there isn't soccer, we still have practices twice a week! It's worth it if Lily loves it though. She's learning so much and her confidence has boosted so much! We're so proud of little Lily!