Life With Two

How adorable are they??!!

This past Sunday was my first Sunday back at church in quite awhile and Finley's first time to go to church.  She liked the music, but lasted all of three minutes once the sermon started. :)  We went to "The Den" where I fed her and we watched the sermon from there.  Even though we didn't make it long in the worship service, it was nice to be back!

I thought I would do a little update about our life with two girls.  I think I can sum it up well when I say, "Two is more than one". Ha.  Some things are much easier than I expected and some things are harder.  For the most part we make it pretty well.  Before Finley was born I envisioned really long horrible days and being a crazy woman by the time Robert walked in the door.  (Yeah, I have a problem with being pessimistic.  Ha!)  Anyway, there are definitely hard moments but we make it pretty great.  I think one of the major reasons we make it through the day so successfully is that Finley takes a really great, long afternoon nap.  Even if we've had a hard morning, it helps us all reset.  

Ellington is doing really great with being a big sister!  I think being 3 and a half (almost 4!) really helped a lot.  She is usually very understanding and patient.  Thankfully she doesn't freak out when Finley cries..and cries...and cries.  Probably the hardest part is that the crying doesn't bother her much and she'll just keep on talking ninety miles an hour even when Finley is SCREAMING and I just want to yell for her to be quiet.  Ha.  Just being honest. :)  

Going places is really hard (if not impossible) right now.  Finely isn't very content in her carseat and so by the time we get somewhere she is not happy to be there.  I know it will get easier in time, but right now it's kind of hard feeling like we can't go anywhere.  

Even though we have challenges, we LOVE being a family of four and having two sweet little girls!  I am sleep deprived and don't get to shower often :) but I am so thankful that I get to be Ellington and Finley's Mama!

This and That

Hey everyone!  I really want to get better about updating so that I can remember all about this time and life with 2!  We've had a hard time with Finley.  If she isn't eating or sleeping, she is almost always crying.  She cries A.LOT.  We love her and we'll keep her :) but yeah...lots of crying!  Ellington cried a lot too so I guess we just have fussy babies?!  So, I haven't taken a ton of pictures and we don't "do" much but here is a little update!

A couple of Saturdays ago, our friend Wade turned 2!  I can't believe he is 2!!!! It really feels like he was just born!  They had an outside water party because August in Mississippi is HOT, right?!  Well, that Saturday morning it was COLD.  Ha!  What are the odds??!!  Ellington mainly stuck to the bouncy house and didn't want anything to do with the water!

Ellington and Thomas kept the bouncy house bouncing :)

This was Finley's first birthday party to attend!

And here's the birthday boy, Wade!  He cracked me up.  It was sooooo cold but he had a BLAST in the water!

I didn't get any pictures of the cake, presents, etc. because I was feeding Finley while all of that fun was going down.  It's fun watching friends have babies and then being able to watch them grow up! :)

Here's a RARE picture of Finley sitting in her little seat and NOT crying.  I think that's why I took the picture...it was a big milestone. I am pretty sure this lasted about 3 minutes though.

The dance bag that Grams ordered for Ellington came in and she was SO excited to take it to dance class last week!

Sweet sisters!  Going anywhere lately is ummm...a challenge.  It will get easier, right?! 

Thursday of last week Grams came to visit and we were so happy to have her!  She came back again on Saturday evening and brought Pappaw and Pop with her too.  They let Robert and I run out for a quick date!  Woohoo! (Finley wasn't too fond of our date plans)  Saturday night was the first time I had ever been away from Finley at all!  It was funny when I realized I hadn't even run an errand or anything by myself in almost 8 weeks!

Every now and then we get a happy baby for a few minutes! Those smiles are PRICELESS when they happen!!!

Contemplating when she should start crying ;)

Wordless Wednesday

Ballet and Preschool

Finley isn't the only one experiencing firsts around here!  Last week Ellington started ballet for the first time and she started a new year of preschool!

We saved Ellington's money that she got for Christmas to pay for ballet this year.  I knew she would LOVE it.  The whole signing up process was a little stressful because I didn't think about the fact that it would be time for a new semester of ballet to start until the Friday before the week that classes started.  And, we were at the fair then!  So on Monday afternoon before her class started on Tuesday I took both girls with me to sign her up.  Then we had to go through the whole process of attempting to acquire everything she needed at the last minute.  The dance school had a leotard and tights in her size but did not have ballet slippers or tap shoes.  They directed us to Payless (Starkville has almost ZERO options for shopping for this kind of thing!).  Of course Payless didn't have her size in either.  The whole ordeal was stressful because it was my first time to do multiple errands with both girls and it was rainy.  Also, I felt like I was totally out of my element and didn't know what we needed, especially since it was so last minute.  The school ordered her ballet and tap shoes and she had to do the first class without them.  My Mom also sent me a text during all of this saying that if she needed a dance bag that she wanted to get her one.  Well, I had no idea if she needed one because quite frankly, I had no idea what I was doing!  When we got to class the first day I sent my Mom a message: "All of the girls have a bag but us.  Yes, we need one." :)  I mean, who knew?  Apparently my Mom.  Anyway, we had one VERY EXCITED ballerina on our hands!  

Look at that face!

Ellington has been extremely disappointed that they haven't learned to leap yet, but otherwise is loving her dance class. :)

We also started school last week.  To add to the stress of the day that I signed her up for dance and attempted to acquire everything she needed, we also had room visits at school.  It was a big day for this new Mama of two!  Wednesday she started school.  I am actually going to end up being her teacher this year.  It wasn't something we really wanted, but it's just how it worked out.  I won't start back until October.  She has a WONDERFUL substitute in the meantime!

First day of three year old preschool!

The first two weeks of school have been a little different because the air wasn't working at school so they had to meet in a different room with another class. 

Thankfully they were able to be back in their regular room today!  

We've been having a ton of changes around here, but hopefully we will settle into a routine now!  All of that will change when I have to start back to work :( but for now I think we have a good little system going.  Ellington goes to school on MWF mornings and dance class on Tuesday mornings.  It's great for her to have these fun things to do away from home because Finley's screaming was starting to wear on her nerves. :)  

Finley {One Month}

Finley, you turned one month old on August 2nd!

What are you up to at one month old?

You wear newborn and 0-3 month clothes

You wear newborn diapers

You are a great nighttime sleeper!  You can do long stretches...sometimes 5 or 6 hours!

You nurse frequently during the day.  You don't do long stretches between feedings.  If we go 2 hours between feedings, we are doing good. :)  

You don't like when the vehicle stops, just like your big sister when she was a baby.  Red lights are not our friend!

You don't like being put down anywhere!  

You love bath time!!!  

You are tough to put down for a nap, but once you get good and asleep you will sleep for awhile.  It's just tricky getting you to that point.

You look just like Ellington when she was a baby

Happy one month baby Finley!

The Fair {Part 3}

Monday night we went back to the midway and this time Bryant, LeAnna, and Emerson came too!  Emerson and Ellington played the pick-up-ducks game for the first time.  They both LOVED it! :)

Here they are with the prizes that they picked out.  Ellington picked the biggest, pinkest thing she could find!

View from the ferris wheel.

The dads were brave and took the kids on the big slide for the first time.  Ellington LOVED it!!! Before they had stopped completely I heard her asking Robert if they could do it again.

I can't remember what night this was...maybe Wednesday night?!..Reagan did her annual bumblebee ride with her niece and nephew.

We visited the goats and the sheep!

Ellington and Emerson had some glow stick fun on our last night!

Being at the fair with a newborn was definitely a different experience.  There were lots of things that I normally do that I didn't get a chance to do and I felt like I spent half of the time upstairs feeding Finley.  But, I am SO glad we went and glad that we stayed even after Robert left.  My family helped so much and we enjoyed our time!  

The Fair {Part 2}

Sunday evening was our first time to hit the midway.  This little girl was SUPER excited!

Finley stayed with Grams while Robert, Ellington, Pop, and I had fun on the rides!

Monday morning was the clotheline art show for the kids at the pavilion.  This is a favorite activity of Ellington's!

Monday afternoon we got to go back and find Ellington and Emerson's artwork on display.

You might wonder how much help your older brother might be with your newborn.  The answer would be....A LOT!  Bryant and Finley spent lots of time together.

These sweet cousins had a BLAST together!