18 pictures for 18 months

Today, (September 13) our babies are 18 months old. :) 

We've made it this far! Yee-Haw! 

To celebrate I thought it would be fun to look at the last 18 months! 

March 2012

On monitors and in preemie jammies 

April 2012

May 2012

June 2012

July 2012

August 2012

September 2012

October 2012

November 2012

 December 2012

January 2013

February 2013

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013

July 2013

August 2013

 September 2013

What a blessing these two have been to us! 

Our life is so crazy right now.

I thought that life changed drastically when we had Jadyn.
It did, but then
We had twins.

Holy Moly.

Our girls are awesome and just to help me be able to look back and have something to fill in the ol baby books (because let's face it - those aren't happening right now) -

Jadyn:
Jadyn is in pre-k. She started reading books last month. She probably could before then but last month is when she sat down and read a book. We were shocked and we are so so proud!
Jadyn also started Awana's this year and is so excited to be a Cubby! She's already asked twice this week how many more days until Cubbies.
Jadyn is doing dance this year too. She loves to dance around and we are excited to be able to put her in a dance program that is God glorifying and doesn't do skimpy costumes.
Jadyn is an awesome big sister. She is having fun watching her sisters learn to play with her. She loves to play with both of her sisters and she and Jemma seem to share an extra special bond. I have a feeling it's because Jadyn and Jaycie seem to be very much alike.
Jadyn is awesome. Greg and I both love her company. She's fun to take places and shes fun to hang out with at home. She gives the best hugs and loves to cuddle.

Jaycie:
Jaycie is our talker. She is repeating many words and saying a lot on her own. In fact just tonight she pointed to Greg and said "no" when he blew her a kiss. HAHA. It was pretty cute. She is blowing kisses to us all and strangers. She really seems to have no fear. This week she is teething so she is extra cuddly when she gets up from naps and she loves to sit on our laps. She does like to stand in front of the tv to watch Mickey Mouse clubhouse. She giggles so hard on the Minnie bowtique episode when Donald shakes his backside. It is full fledged laughter and you seriously can't help but to laugh with her.
Right now Jaycie seems to be very independent. She definitely has opinions about things and isn't afraid to share them.
Jaycie gives the best hugs. She squeezes your neck and pats your back. After a long day at work it is just about the best thing in the world.

Jemma:
Jemma is happy when her tummy is full. She is just like her Daddy. Jemma is sweet. She loves to sit on my lap and currently seems to be a Mommy's girl. She gets pretty upset if she can see me but can't touch me. Jemma has been slower to talk but she seems to mean it when she does. Jemma said Jadyn for the first time this week which was pretty special because Jemma lights up when Jadyn is around. Jemma and Jadyn love to chase each other around the house.
Our Jemma is a blanket girl. She loves fuzzy blankets and almost always has one with her - especially when we are at home. She sleeps with one and during the day will pull it out of her crib to carry it around. It is so cute! She loves to wrap it around her head - we call her Mary when she does that because she looks like Mary standing at the manger.
Jemma loves to give kisses - they are big open mouth slobber kisses and we LOVE them!

As you can see the Lord has blessed us with 3 awesome girls. I can tell you that after a long day at work seeing these beauties is a beautiful thing.

First day of pre-k

I know some of you think Jadyn is in Kindergarten, but she is not. She will not be 5 until October and missed the cut off date. She was graciously allowed to attend pre-school a year yearly but that means now that this is her 3rd year of preschool!

She is officially a pre-k student this year. Yay!
She is also officially reading! Yay! (More on this later)

This is Jadyn's first day of preschool at FBC Raytown. She was 22 mths old when she started.
August 2010

Jadyn's first day of preschool at BRCS (a year early - 2 yrs old)
August 2011

Jadyn's first day of preschool at BRCS (for real - 3 years old)
August 2012

Jadyn's first day of pre-k. 4 years old
August 2013

Duck Dynasty and our end of Summer

Back on our amazing Florida vacation we were able to stop on the way home and visit Duck Commander. It was so much fun! While we were there we were able to pick up shirts for the girls. Of course I had to have a photo shoot the day they all wore them. Too cute to pass up.

The last couple of weeks before school started the weather turned absolutely gorgeous here. Now, you need to know that I like it hot. I like pool weather and it's almost been a little too chilly for that, but it has still been beautiful.
Jadyn and I got to spend the twins nap time outside. We got to read, do chalk, ride bike, and lot of other fun things. It was so nice to just be outside with my girl! We had half days yesterday and today so we've been able to go outside again. I will miss that when we are back in school full time next week. Boo!

This is Jaycie. She had a graham cracker. It's mostly on her face and ground up in her DD shirt. We had to wash it at Nana's because there was no way for it to be worn home. :)

Jadyn - playing outside with me. We were doing chalk this day. Yay for beautiful weather and SUPER YAY for SUMMER!!!

Our Eiffel Tower chalk art. Jadyn loves all things Paris.

17 months

Our babies are 17 months old. 

In 17 months(ish) we've gone from this:

to this: 

Thankful for these two (three)blessings!! 

Tubes

I have fought long and hard.
I fought long and hard with Jadyn and I won (no tubes, allergy medicine did the trick). I did not win with Jaycie.
On August 21, Jaycie will get tubes for her ears to help reduce and hopefully eliminate the ear infection battle we've been up against. The poor thing just cannot drain fluid out of her ears! It just stays in there and gets icky. She's a trooper and it doesn't usually seem to bother her but nevertheless she has an ear infection every time we get to the doctor. Who knows how many she's had that we haven't caught.

Anyway we visited a highly recommend ENT and he said she was definitely a candidate for tubes. Unfortunately we were not able to get in before school starts. (I think it has something to do with the fact that he only does the procedure 1 day a week). It's a bummer but Greg and I should both be able to arrange to be there with her. They will not put her completely under with an IV she will be put under with laughing gas.

Anyway, would you mark you calendar and pray for my sweet girl? We haven't been told a time yet but we do know they do the surgery in order of youngest to oldest so I'm pretty sure she will be fairly early in the day. She will be in the hospital for a few hours and then should be back to her normal self later that day. Pray for this Mama and Daddy too as we are dreading the whole hospital/surgery/recovery thing.

We are thankful to find a solution to all the ear infections though.
I will remind you.
I will keep you posted.
Thank you!

Our Vacation

Our vacation was awesome. We stayed at Seashells of Sanibel and have already book our condo again for next year. I will let the pictures do the talking.
Feel free to ask questions if you need clarification on anything.

Our awesome beach!

Our first night there!

The gang hanging out in the water! Have I mentioned how grateful we are for Bailey!

Love splashing pictures!

Mom, I LOVE THE BEACH!

My sweet girls!

Somewhere my Mom has a picture of Kyle and I under a palm tree. I wish we had a closer picture. Maybe next year!

Jaycie was needing some love. Isn't this great. So incredible.

Jadyn - sunset - with her seashell.

We found a crab. So of course I took a picture of everyone looking at the crab.

Fun place to eat on the island. We had not so good service so our experience wasn't as good as usual.

Jemma bean

The girls watching us shell hunt.

I love this picture. The rain looks so cool.

We just couldn't get a good picture of the girls on beach...

...especially since Jaycie wouldn't stop eating sand.

This picture of Bailey and the girls is awesome! We love Bailey!

This is one of my favorites of Daddy and Jadyn.

Jaycie.

Jaycie flying in the air. I love this picture. She was squealing. It was awesome.

Babies and sunset. Awesome.

We had a blast. Here are a few facts:
1. The other "pictured" girl is Bailey. She is a former student of mine who went with us as our Nanny. It was 2000x easier to be 3 on 3 with the girls than 2 on 3. We have already asked Bailey to go with us again next year.

2. Because of the way Sanibel Island is aligned in the ocean it is one of the top 7 places in the world to get sea shells. Unless you've been there it's hard to describe. There are millions of shells everywhere and fresh ones wash up with every wave. Sanibel may not be a perfectly clear sand/beach but shell hunting is AWESOME! We feel like we get the best of both worlds! Greg and I found 39 sand dollars one night.

3. We went to the beach 3 times a day. It was so much fun. I think the best time was in the evening because we didn't have to worry about sun screen.

4. Bailey and I saw a shark one day on the beach. They guy next to us caught it on a fishing pole and reeled it in. Then he left it go. It was AWESOME.

5. If I could move there tomorrow I would.

We love Sanibel.
A lot.