Remember me?

Hey friends.  Sorry for being a stranger lately.  Tonight the house is quiet.  The hubs is out with friends.  The babies are down.  I tidied the house, emptied the dishwasher, put away toys and now I am sitting drinking hot coffee (a rarity these days), ready to update you on our lives!

LYLA:
I cannot believe Lyla has been with us for 6 weeks!  It seems like it's flown by, but it seems like we were at the hospital welcoming her so long ago.  This girl is a sweetie and I love her.  She does wake me up 2-3 times a night to eat.  And she has removed my diet of chocolate (!), caffeine (!), beans, and DAIRY as of yesterday!  What can I eat, I ask :(  She has been a big spit upper from day 1 and still deals with tummy/gas issues.  But she is becoming more and more content.  She has the best sheepish smile sticking her tongue out.

And she loves to be talked to.  She takes good naps and sleeps til 7:30 or 8 in the morning, which is a nice treat for us, since Emerson has been such an early bird.  She is petite and when I pound on her little back to burp her, I just feel like her back and rib cage are so TINY!  Of course, I'm used to the "hearty" boy God gave us first :)  Most people say she looks like mama.  Nana says she feels like she is looking at me when I was a baby.  I'm not sure how much she weighs now, but she grew out of newborn clothes around the 1 month mark.  We started having her sleep in her own room this week, so around the 6 week mark.  Sorry, I'm just splurging all the info I want to remember :) 

We took our first road trip with 2 kiddies this past weekend to KC and are now in search of a mini van!  I don't want to go on another long drive until we have one!  lol.. but seriously. 

EMERSON:
Emerson is doing well these days.  I have to say we had a few rough weeks in there.  He has had an adjustment with all the shared attention.  He has always been very sweet with Lyla and has never taken any of his frustration out on her.  But he had a few weeks where he acted out and disobeyed constantly.  It was SO hard, because I wanted to love on him and have sweet time with him when the opportunity arose, but we ended up having to constantly discipline him.  I have to admit, it was very hard for my mama's heart to see him struggle with the biggest change he's ever had to go through.  Thank God, this past week has been better.  There are definitely still those "twos" moments.  Sometimes I even wonder why I thought having a baby when my other child was entering his "terrible twos" was such a good idea.  But most of the time I feel very blessed and I know it will just keep getting easier from here.  I've started praising him abundantly over the good things he does, like helping or obeying, to encourage him to do those things more.  A little positive reinforcement :)  And he's been doing much better.  I think he's getting used to our new life.

CALEB:
Caleb is doing well.  He has been at his job for a year now and still loves it.  We still see it as such a provision from God.  His dad and grandpa came down a few weeks ago to build us a breakfast nook!  I am so excited about it.  It was pretty neat because, if you count Emerson's help, there were 4 generations that helped build these benches!  If we ever move from this house, I'm sure they will be hard to leave behind.  I can't wait to show you pictures of the finished product.  We are still varnishing and painting :)  And we plan to add bead board for the back.  Eventually Caleb wants to build a table to match it.

We are still loving our house.  We are enjoying watching all the new plants sprout up... a patch of daffodils in the backyard, big white iris blooms in the front, the trees are filling up with green.  I love the sweet spring surprises that come with owning a new house. 

We did get some newborn and family pictures when Lyla was 1 week old, and I plan to post some of them on the blog soon, so check back!  I adore them and am excited to share them with you!