Miss Independent

Turns out Sassy McMuffins, Sass for short, is a perfect name for our newly independent 7 1/2 month old.  Once she started pulling up to a standing position, she thinks she can do everything on her own, including feeding herself baby food.  As I was feeding her carrots tonight, she would grab the spoon from me after she took a bite, and when I tried to pull it away to get another spoon full, she started crying loudly.  Once I gave in and gave her the spoon, she was perfectly content as you can see in the pics below.

Response to taking the spoon away.

Response to Mommy giving in.

Halloween 2013

This Halloween was super fun, and extremely busy. I am the room mom this year at Asbury, so I was in charge of their Halloween party.  It was a success and the kids had a wonderful time. A few days before Halloween the weather was predicted to be rainy on Halloween night so many surrounding Youngsville/Milton neighborhoods decided to have Trick or Treating a night early. So, we decided to head down the street to Miramar so the kids could get a little Trick or Treating in. Thank goodness we did, as it literally rained hard all day and through trick or treating time on Halloween night. Since it was raining, we decided to make the best of it and carved pumpkins instead.

One of the games I created for Will's class.  (Thanks Pinterest).

Will eating some Halloween grub.

Sweet Bug.

Nonna enjoying the class party with her babies.

Trick or Treating in Miramar.  By the way, this was one of three costumes Will wore throughout the week, none of which were a Ninja Turtle which he originally wanted to be.  Thank goodness Grammy and Grampup gave him some superhero costumes last year for Christmas.

The scary zombie.

Waiting for Will's class to come through at Asbury's Halloween Parade.  She's giving me the "You want a piece of me?" look.

She loved carving pumpkins.  She especially liked pulling the
slimy pumpkin guts out and tried to eat the seeds.

Not wanting to share with brother.

Who needs Trick or Treating when you can carve pumpkins with Daddy?

The end result. Will designed the one on the left. 
Daddy's design was on the back of that one, and mine was on the right.

Toledo Bend Weekend

We decided to join my family for a last minute trip to Toledo Bend.  It was the Hoover kids fall break, and everyone wanted to take advantage of it.  Ben has been working super hard, and I have had my hands full with the kids so it was a much needed, albeit short, break.

Our humble weekend abode, "The Y Knott Lodge"  Yes, that's Ben up there waving.

Enjoying a nice family paddle.

The BB Monster got him!

Snuggle time with Nonna.

Enjoying the great outdoors and the fire.

Mommy and Will time!

If you look straight ahead, you can see "skull island," aptly named by Ben, Will, Eli, and Ez.

Enjoying the view and time with the fam.

Snuggling up on a chilly night on the lake.  (Love this pic!)

What's Lily Been Up To?

The question should really be, what hasn't she been up to?  She has been blabbering more and more trying to say Momma and Dada.  Yesterday we were at the shop and I said hey to Poppa and she actually tried to mimic that as well.  It definitely won't be long until she is talking.

She has officially started crawling.  No more army crawl for this girl.

She is now pulling up to stand.

And last but not least, her bottom two middle teeth have decided to pop through her gums.

Where does all the time go?

Just as suspected, it's not near as easy to consistently blog with Lily, as it was with Will.  I feel like we recorded every smile and movement with him, then there's Lily, who didn't even get her official 6 or 7 month pictures taken.  Typical second baby I guess.  I always laugh when I think about my mom and our baby books.  Missy's is filled out front to back, with every little detail.  Corey's is somewhat filled out with a few pics here and there.  Then there's mine with a few things written and the rest of the items sitting in the middle of the book.  Ha!  My mom and I always have a good laugh over it and now that we have a second child, I totally get it.  There are just not enough hours in the day.  Plus, just like me as a child, it's not like Lily is lacking in any way shape or form for love and attention.

With that said, the next few posts will be brief and mainly told with pictures ;)

Round 2 with the Byrd's

As most of you know we had Will while living up in Alexandria, LA and while there we met the Byrd Family who had their son, Ayden just 13 days before Will.  Ever since our boys' births and even after we moved back to Lafayette, we have made it a point to get together often so our boys can continue the bond they developed since birth.  And now, with the addition of our Lily, and their Eli, we continue the tradition.

Back in July, early August of 2012 Ben and I were extremely excited to learn of our second pregnancy (after nearly a year of trying and no luck).  Being very excited, but only being 5 weeks, Ben and I knew it was just too early to tell anybody.  However, it just so happens that night Gaynell and I were texting back and forth about the day to day goings on in our lives and towards the end of the conversation she mentioned she really wanted to talk to us.  Knowing that they were also wanting to have another baby, the thought popped into our heads..."Oh my goodness.  They're pregnant too!"  And sure enough, I asked her if she had something to tell me and she said they were 5 weeks or so pregnant and I was like, "Me too!!!"

And so was the beginning of pregnancy number two for both of us.  Gaynell was definitely the lucky one this go round as she had a seemingly seamless pregnancy with the few typical issues here and there while I had to have an ultrasound practically every other week in the first trimester as well as a couple trips to the er and numerous scares with bleeding.  Anyhoo, as time rolled on, we eventually found out they were having another boy and we were having a girl, which we discussed at length over one of our traditional weekend dinners at Coyote Blues.

Before you know it, our nine months were up and unlike last time, we were the ones to deliver first.  Lily, born on March 26, 2012 and Eli Luke born April 3, 2013, 8 days later.  And it wasn't until May 5th that things finally settled down for both of us enough that our second sweet babies got to meet each other.  As you can see from the pictures they are both beautiful and will definitely be life long friends (we have ruled out them being boyfriend and girlfriend as we don't want it to get complicated ;)  We look forward to them developing a close friendship like their older brothers have with each other.  And I am still holding out hope for convincing Ben to have a third child and hope they follow suit ;)  I guess only time will tell.

Proud Mommas

Proud big brothers

Chunky Monkey

Sweet girl loves to eat.  By 3 or 4 weeks she was already drinking 4 oz bottles at a feeding and once she started solids it was on.  From rice cereal to oatmeal to all of the veggies, she loves it all and opens her mouth like a little bird as soon as she sees the spoon.  During the first week of solid foods she was only supposed to eat 1/2 a jar and gradually work up to a full jar by day 5.  Instead, she ate an entire jar on day 1 and by day 2 ate 2 jars at a sitting plus a 5 oz bottle.  One would think she would last longer between feedings after that much food, but after her regular 3 hours, she was hungry again.  Even though I'm not supposed to give her fruits until 6 months old, I have already let her taste cantelope and she eats grapes and bananas thru food strainers.  She is definitely our good eater.  I think it's because she uses so much energy trying to keep up with her crazy big brother.

Carrots are yummy!

She loves her oatmeal.