{1.30.17 - 2.5.17}

I realize Lyla's head is off of her pillow...but just barely, really. I'm thinking it's about time for bigger beds.  

I have so much love for this happy little boy! // I am pretty sure I have a picture of Lyla making this face.  

The girls love to paint! They can't pause long enough to look at the camera for a picture.  

We took the kids ice fishing! It was pretty cold but they all did awesome! 

Look how red Lyla's nose is! // Alya patiently (or not so patiently-this picture is deceiving) waiting for the fish to bite.  

We had to go hide out in the tent to keep warm. (Alya) 

 Alya may have fallen one or two times while we were out, so of course it was a huge ordeal for her to walk anywhere without help. (Lyla, too!) // My little man posing for me!

Beautiful Lyla with powdered donut lips. 

My sweet Axel even napped while we were out. I don't think the girls would have ever done that...even at 5 months old.  

He is just getting so big! // Little monster! 

My sweet Elsa (Alya). Napping. Right before dinner.  

The girls could paint all day every day if I let them. They always want to print pictures off the computer, but Axel sleeps in the same room as the printer, so I started drawing some of their pictures. I can't keep them all, so I took a picture. Now I don't feel as bad throwing them out! 

Alya and I played a little dress up. I think it might be fun for the girls to put my dress on every now and then! 

Mo's bone makes a pretty good unicorn horn. She was being King Sambra from My Little Pony. // Pretty little Lyla!

{1.23.17 - 1.29.17}

(Alya & Axel) The girls LOVE to play with their brother. They fetch his toys and run up and down the hall making funny noises just to entertain him! // He sure is getting big! 

He still hates tummy time, so he doesn't do these tricks often, but sometimes he will spin himself around and end up at least perpendicular to how he started.  

Alya has been so interested in helping me with dinner these days. It's been pretty fun.

Both girls have been wanting to buy groceries with their money, so we found an opportunity to let them buy something. They have been needing new slippers so we gave them some cash and they got to go buy new slippers and pick out something else that they wanted (star hair ties) to spend their money on. It was fun!

Lyla still loves to help with the chores like dusting and mopping, but heaven forbid she have to clean up any of her toys! ("But that will take me a long time!")

Both girls LOVE to help me decorate! We look forward to a new month because they want to help take down old decorations and put up new ones. Although Lyla is still a little bummed that we don't have a Christmas tree anymore.

Sledding around the yard. Lyla was mad at me for making them stop for a picture. 

This picture sums up Lyla's recent attitude. She has been super sassy. Her favorite word for her dad and I is "no" and it's been so much fun. (I hope you can sense my sarcasm!) She wants to be her own boss and her sister's boss and it's been a constant battle lately. Are most three year olds like this!?  

Axel's tongue. I love that he does this!

He still loves his toes and has recently become flexible enough to actually get them in his mouth enough to suck on them.

.five months.

1.25.2017

Five months.

Axel can roll from his front to his back and from his back to his front. He doesn't do either often because he still hates to be on his tummy.

He loves to suck on his toes. They are currently his favorite "toy." We can almost always distract him with his toes and socks!

He has his moments where he is pretty good at sitting up by himself-even without supporting his weight on his hands sometimes. It's kind of hit and miss these days, though. He just gets so excited and wants to be standing, so it's kind of hard to get him to bend at the waist sometimes.

He loves to play in his exersaucer and he really LOVES his jumper! He is so good at jumping and can get his feet like three inches off the ground sometimes!

His ribs and thighs are ticklish. He usually laughs when I tickle his thighs. When I tickle his ribs he just makes a little squealy sound...almost like it takes his breath away.

He loves to give me kisses! He will grab a chunk of my cheek or neck and pull himself to me with a wide, open mouth, slobbery kiss. I love it...even though I feel like he should have a chunk of my skin in his hand when he is done. He has a very good grip!

He knows his name and will sometimes turn to look at me when I address him.

He thinks his sisters are hilarious! He loves watching the girls run around and play. He laughs mostly at them...and mostly at Alya as she loves to interact with him. Lyla is too busy in her own world most of the time!

He likes to play peek-a-boo and he loves to look at himself in the mirror. It's Dad's favorite distraction technique!

Axel loves the tub! He has figured out how to splash when he's laying in his sling by getting his feet over the edge and kicking. He likes to sit in his sling, too and look at the design, and of course he likes to slap the water to make a splash!

Some days he takes great naps! Mostly we get at least 45 minutes to an hour out of him, but some days he will sleep for almost 2 hours. He is taking three naps these days.

He has also started eating solids pretty consistently. He eats his oatmeal cereal and we have also given him applesauce and pears...and whipped cream.* I think the whipped cream is his favorite!.

One of my favorite things that Axel does right now, is he will stick the tip of his tongue out and curl it around his lip...so just the tip is sticking straight up out of the side of his mouth. It's so cute...and lately when he does that he has been making a little slurping noise and it's so funny!

He also likes to sleep with his blanket over his face. Axel was given a soft minky-like blanket when he was born. We both love it! And it's obviously his favorite because no other blanket on his face works like this soft blanket works. It makes me so nervous that he sleeps with a blanket over his face (we are working on just having it touch his cheeks rather than cover his whole face) but he loves it!

*Side note, because I just think this is too cute:

I usually mix strawberry powder of chocolate syrup in the girls' milk. We keep the chocolate syrup in the door next to Matthew's can of whipped cream. He likes to spray the whipped cream straight into his and the girls' mouths, but we have never really told them the name of this substance. Anyway...one day Lyla asked me if she could have some white chocolate. It took me a minute but I figured out that she was talking about the whipped cream. I may just have to refer to whipped cream as whipped white chocolate from now on!

{1.16.17 - 1.22.17}

This boy is my favorite boy! He loves to stick his tongue out! 

Rub-a-dub-dub, three babies in the tub. The girls were scared that Axel was going to pee! 

Daddy's scouting buddies! These girls love their binoculars and any opportunity they get to use them! 

In December I turned 30. Eek! Matthew's sisters put together a paint night for me to celebrate! It was so much fun! I think I might have to turn 30 again next year!

{1.9.17 - 1.15.17}

Alya and Lyla. My beautiful little girls! 

As much as this scares me, I also think it's so cute that he likes to sleep with his soft (no other blanket is good enough for this job) blanket on his face. We've been working on having it just touch his cheek, instead of letting him cover his whole face! 

Naked baby tummy time! // He is getting better at sitting up by himself, and of course, he still loves to see himself in the mirror. 

Even though these are blurry, they are adorable! This boy sure loves his sisters, and they sure love their brother! They are starting to interact more with each other! Alya has even been including him in their play lately! "Come on Little Man!" and he's been assigned characters in their play. When the girls are Princess Twilight, he gets to be Spike the baby dragon! 

Axel had his four month doctor's appointment this week. He is doing great and we have permission to start him on solids whenever we feel like it! He is 15.7 lbs and 26.5 inches long.

Bunny Lyla // Axel holding on to his favorite portable source of entertainment. He LOVES his toes!

We've been having some fun with SnapChat lately! Axel // Bunny Alya.

{1.2.17 - 1.8.17}

We tried giving Axel some oatmeal for the first time. He was very unsure about what he was supposed to be doing, but he thought it was pretty cool!

It's been hard for me to get the kids and myself bundled up and outside to play in the snow, but we managed it, finally! The girls had a lot of fun climbing the snow hill that's been piled up in front of our house! 

I was excited that Alya was willing to throw some snow for me as I attempted a fun picture... 

Obviously one of Axel's favorite things to do is look at himself in the mirror!

{12.26.16 - 1.1.17}

I love it when these two get along! This coloring book has been a source of much contention on occasion because it's really hard to share, but when they work things out and work together on their own, without any prompting from their dad or me, it's wonderful! 

The kids in their Christmas jammies. Christmas Eve was a bit of a nightmare at our house for a few reasons that I won't get into. All I will say is that I was SO sad the kids didn't get to open their jammies on Christmas Eve! But when they were finally able to wear them, we had to take a picture! Even though Lyla wasn't really feeling it. 

This boy loves his toes these days!