Layla on the Move

Little Miss Layla Grace is breaking my heart a little how quickly she's growing already. She's 11 weeks and already developing more quickly than her siblings did. This mama doesn't think it's fair. not. fair. at. all. She's super strong; it's a challenge to give her a bath because I can't get her to sit down easily since all she wants to do it stand. She's started to smile all the time, which just makes her features seem so mature and she's no longer my newborn. ((sob!))

I took the kids to Andrea's today and Layla was feeling like a showoff - I'm sure it had absolutely nothing to do with her doting aunt ohhhing and ahhhhing over every little thing she did. I held her weight and wanted to see if she wanted to try bouncing and jumping but she was more interested in walking. Why wouldn't she at three months??

Once Upon a Time

The benefit of making babies with a rocket scientist is my children will stand a chance of being smart like daddy. They can thank me later. I read this book to Bella only a few times weeks ago and she found it in the van and told the story - albeit it altered - practically perfect to what was happening on each page. Aside from being ridiculously cute (true story) she's one smart cookie with an impressive memory!

One Small Step for my Little Man

We're consistently asked when we're out in public if Austin is always the cheerful, happy and charming baby he appears to be. While he is for the most part (when he's not crying he's smiling) it's sometimes a challenge to explain his little personality... he's the sweetest baby with an incredibly strong will. Really, he's just stubborn but I feel like "stubborn" has a negative connotation and strong willed can be a positive character trait. Thank you thesaurus.

For example, he never ate baby food - he went straight from a bottle to table food. No rice cereal, no nasty peas in a jar... straight to steak and potatoes. (or pizza. whatever.) Then it was the transition from a bottle to a sippy cup... he'll go the entire day without drinking any milk, which he loves more than anything, because it's not in a bottle. He'll be crying for milk while he's holding a sippy cup full of it, but won't drink from a cup because he doesn't want to.

Now it's walking. Justin and I thought for sure he'd be walking well before his first birthday. At nine months-old he was pulling himself up standing and climbing up the stairs. He's mastered holding your hands and walking, and walking along furniture but has no interest in walking on his own. If you let go of his hand and encourage him to take a couple steps he folds his knees in and starts crawling to the carrot held above his head. BUT today he teased us with a couple steps! Needless to say we were pretty thrilled and excited and as you'll see, Bella was stoked to get in the mix and help him along as well. I love those moments of our small family as we share milestones together. YAY!

Austin walking at 12 1/2 months:


just for fun here's Bella walking at 12 months (first birthday!):

...I see you!

a pick-me-up I get daily... I get to spend the day with his guy. Love him!!

call the docker

I have lots to post (including Austin's first birthday, a look back at his birth story, our trip to Colorado and what will likely be a long winded story about me not finding Bella after waking up from a nap and calling the sheriff...) but as per usual I am too tired - or lazy - to update all of it now so instead I want to share a video we got of Bella singing her newest favorite song: five little monkeys. She loves to sing it, but can't count down from five on her own quite yet, so we're starting at four silly monkeys, and stuck there for now. Still, so cute though, and I love how happy Austin is to be around her. One of the few things that boy loves more than music is his sister... love them.

live, laugh, dance.

We had just finished Mulan for our weekly movie night and she was loving the song that played during credits so, not entirely uncommon for Bella and I, we stopped everything for a quick dance party! She is such a nut, I love this girl!

for your viewing pleasure, there's this one showing off her 1/8 Puerto Rican passion!

Happy Birthday Baby Jesus, Timeout!

Bella loves singing happy birthday to Baby Jesus before we had my family's tradition of coffee cake breakfast. It's all super sweet and melts your heart, but my favorite part is when she goes to hit the high notes, it's so cute!

Then we had a talk about where Baby Jesus from the nativity set was, because he spent a lot of the Christmas season missing. Turns out he was currently in timeout, again. He was missing for over a week at the beginning on the month for touching the Christmas tree, and apparently on Christmas Day he had done it again. tsk tsk.

here, Joseph and the three wisemen had to have been up to something because after Bella went to bed we found them all in trouble. Timeout!

First Meal

At Austin's four-month check up his pediatrician suggested we start him on rice cereal in the upcoming month. false. I wasn't ready for him to be old enough to be able to eat, and I was still breastfeeding and wasn't interested in any chomping confusion. Too much information boys, sorry! Two months later the well dried up so I was ready to try the rice cereal. I kept the box in the cupboard for two weeks and just recently we sat down to kiss Austin's days of being an itty bitty baby behind us. (lets be honest, this kid was never itty bitty, but you know...)


We're getting ready to take some six-month pictures this weekend and I'll post those along with some updates how he's doing and what he's up to, but for now I wanted to share the video of him eating for the first time. You can see how exhausting it can be having such a smiley baby all the time... love him!

Plays Well With Others

When I was pregnant we were constantly asked how we thought Bella would be as a big sister. We quickly told them our "push 'em or pet 'em" theory - pretty self explanatory - I had no idea how she'd react... she's always been really good with animals and very cuddly, but when my niece and nephew were visiting I had Isaiah in my lap and Bella literally crawled up and tried to push him off. The question has developed into how she is as big sister. We couldn't be more proud and happy how she's reacting to Austin and how he, in turn, responds to her. She loves to love on him. She completely lights up when he laughs or watches her as she reads, or sings her songs or plays with her. She's so proud of her ability to trap his attention, and he's so content having her attention. I quite literally pray constantly that they stay confidants and friends - I tell her to be kind and always love him and I'm already telling him to look out for her and love and protect her.

when I bring Austin down in the morning to join Bella and Justin,
she insists he sits right next to her so she can hold him.

this was is fantastic - couldn't have posed it better if I tried (but totally didn't)

...occasionally she wants to try to feed him, not so effective, but really cute.

I caught this when they weren't paying attention to anyone other than each other.

LOVE it.

((that's it Jenn, I'm committing to a blog re-design. my videos don't fit anymore!))

To Jesus, with care.

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to the Lord; for his whole life he will be given to the Lord." 1 Samuel 1:27-28.

We dedicated Austin at church this morning. I am so blessed and thankful for the opportunity to give the Lord what is His. We were surrounded by a small group of friends and family that gathered to support us and Austin. It was such a special moment - one of the first of truly relinquishing ownership of my child and recognizing that he is the Lord's. We are blessed with the ridiculous pressure to raise him and Bella in a way that encourages them and prepares them to be servant leaders.

We were challenged the other week at church to find life verses for each of our kids... pressure! I don't have one yet, I want to pick something that I think will challenge each and play to the strengths in their personalities that are already coming through. Austin's would use his tender heart and joy he brings everyone around him. Bella's would be about her ability to reach people and bring them together with her humor and personality. and something in leadership, her fierce independent personality will certainly aid to that.

Singing Bee

I know I need a post that consists of more than a picture or video - but for now I leave you with Bella singing "bringing home a baby bumblebee". she's obsessed with this song, she sings it over and over and over again! Justin and I aren't even almost sick of hearing it either, she's just so cute and precious and reminds us how blessed we are to get to spend every day with her!


we took this on my phone so unfortunately the quality isn't great.

Love Me My Children

perhaps a real post to come soon... for now I wanted to share some vidoes of the babies since my aunt has questioned their existence with my lack of posts lately, especially with my obvious bragging rights and responsibilities! :)

I was trying to get Austin smiling - he is the smiliest baby ever - until Bella attempted to steal the spot light. I had to give her some face time too because this girl is just hilarious with the games she plays and makes up.

Justin and I showed her how to do a cartwheel, she's probably going to be an Olympic gymnast and they'll use this in a montage of her childhood. not that I'm scripting anything...

juggling life. no seriously.

disclaimer: this is a lot of juggling and you'll never get these minutes back... but if you have time you can catch a little glimpse of daily life with us. I'm stressed, I'm overwhelmed, I'm tired but moments like this and hearing her laugh over and over make it completely worth it. seriously, this girl brings us so much joy, we are extremely blessed!

don't judge me for my circus singing - for some reason it's not funny without it. wait, maybe that's what really makes it funny. crap.

After 20 times I finally had to sneak away so Bell thougt she'd pick up my slack...

LOVE her singing, she's awesome!

baila Bella baila!

Here Bella proves she's got some "Rozum" in her and the Puerto Rican passion is all bottled up! The girl went crazy when we were flipping through some of the music channels on TV and we passed the salsa music channel! she loved it! She's going to teach her Uncle Alex a thing or two! she said it Brother, not me!! :)

One Piece at a Time

More to come on Christmas and our trip to Orlando for the holidays... but we did enjoy a sunny Christmas day in Florida and a Cavs win over the Lakers! I had to share this video of Bella opening one of her presents from my parents - her concentration cracks me up!

Can't Wait for Reading Rainbow

I had to catch video of Bell reading her book outloud this morning - it's become a ritual each morning while I finish getting ready for the day... she either plops on the stairs or finds her special chair in her bedroom and I *usually* get five uninterrupted minutes. it's a win win!

We Heart America (and Fireworks)

Every year since I've moved to Ohio we've celebrated the Fourth of July by hosting a bbq for friends and family and consequently I've missed fireworks for four years in a row because no one's "well" enough to drive to a park to see the action... we've climbed on the roof each year to try to see something, but nothing. ever. four years. Did I mention 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays? There is quite literally nothing like seeing them at home in Loveland - the entire city goes to the lake and the show is awesome - complete with heart-shaped fireworks (what would you expect from the land of love?!)

This year I really wanted to see fireworks so Justin packed everything up and drove us to Columbus to stay with some of his high-school friends and watch Red White and Boom at the state's capital. Their show is rated in the top-ten in the entire nation (I still liked Loveland's better, expect the finale, theirs was phenomenal). Bella did great the entire day and woke up in the park just in time for the show that started at 10:00. I was nervous she was going to be scared and I'd still miss the fireworks because I'd be walking around with her, but she absolutely loved it. She was clapping and bouncing and completley giddy! Granted, we paid for it the next day keeping her up so late, but it was worth it. Happy Independence Day, God Bless America!

my new favorite picture of Belly Bean - and she's rockin' her first ponytail!
it's kind of a long video, but I love the end, you can literally see her face light up!

Ready to Run - almost

I love this girl - she rocks my world.

I can't believe how quickly she's grown up, ugh.

Talking Crawling Climbing

on the move!

For about five weeks Bella has been crawling - but only backward. if she had to get something in front of her she would just lunge forward and roll the rest of the way. it was hilarious! when she ran into something crawling backward she would just butt bump against it for a solid 30 seconds and sit down. our girl cracks us up! yesterday when I dropped her off at day care I turned to see her once more before leaving but had a hard time spotting her in the midst of all the crawling kids. it took a minute to realize she was one of them!! I freaked out with excitement, teared up and spent the next five minutes taking her toys away from her so she'd crawl to me to get them! the workers at day care were laughing because apparently she's been crawling for a little while, just never at home, and they were under strict instructions not to tell me any milestones that happen at day care so I never feel like I'm missing anything, and we'll be there for all her firsts. haha! it was so awesome - I love her smile at the end of this video, so proud of herself!

it goes without saying that Bella crawling is the highlight of the video, but I loved that we
caught this while she was on the blanket I made Justin four years ago...
just a little bit of past and present.