Adventures in Homeschooling!

This year we officially kicked off homeschooling full time. The previous year, Isla completed My Father's World Kindergarten with me at home and also went to Pineville Nazarene two mornings every week. I loved MFW curriculum, but being so new to the homeschool mix, I wanted to try out some other curriculum. I also didn't want to proceed fully to first grade just yet and that would have been our next step with that curriculum.

We went with The Good and the Beautiful for literature, spelling and handwriting. It has fit her interests perfectly as she has such a love for art. The curriculum is displays beautiful works of art and teaches to have an appreciation for art. Isla has really flourished since we first began. She's reading really well and so eager to learn. She has truly made homeschooling easy so far because of her constant can-do attitude.

For math, we are continuing in the MFW path and supplementing with the Complete Book of Math for K-3 and also the Complete Book of Time and Money. Right now, she says math is her favorite.

One of my favorite things we have implemented is her daily journal. In her journal, she has to write the day of the week, date and tally marks, but she also has to draw a picture of herself. Which she loves because she loves to draw. We started this to have another way for her to express to me how she was feeling that particular day. It really helps get our conversation rolling and determine what she is feeling. Nearly all the days are filled with happy faces, but occasionally there may be a sad face or a tear appear and we can talk about what it is that is making her sad, ie. missing dad, etc. I've also been dumbfounded at her creativity through this task. She draws her profile, doing an activity and even things that she has dreamed of.

It's been such a blessing to have more time with our kids through homeschooling. I've got to see her knowledge grow, but also her character. I'm growing so much through this process as well. God has blessed us beyond measure.

Kiddos Updates - Birthdays & Milestones

I've done a terrible job documenting the kids milestones lately as I'm a little more than busy. They keep my hands, feet and mind going strong all day long into the night lately as a few are fighting sleep.

Let's start with the oldest, Miss Isla Rae. Our big 5 year old!
Wow, I can't believe she is 5. Isla is my sidekick. She has the sweetest heart. Always helping, thinking of others and doing everything she can to put a smile on my face.
For our sweet girl's big birthday milestone, we visited Great Wolf Lodge on her birthday. She LOVED it! We all did. We were in the water for two straight days, celebrating with late nights, cake and yummy mac-n-cheese (one of Isla's favorites). Emery came along with us as well and it was so much fun for Isla to have a partner to do all the fun slides with.
We spent the summer going to parks, museums, libraries, pools and the Discovery place.
This week, we started her official first day of Kindergarten at home! Homeschool is our newest adventure and I can tell she is going to excel at it like she does so many things.
She has a deep love for cooking, art, singing, learning and Jesus. She makes my days so sweet!

Our little Laylin Jane just turned 3! This comes as a shock to most people we meet as she weighs a whooping 22lbs. But oh, she makes up for it in personality. There is nothing little about this girls strength, will and fierceness.
Laylin's birthday was a week+ celebration. We got to celebrate with the Jones family at the beach with a little party, then continued the celebration with the Bradbury family at one of Laylin's favorite places, Chuck-e-Cheese. On the day of her birthday, we had a small party at home, went out for ice cream and she went to Bible school where the whole VBS crowd sang happy birthday to her on stage! And guess what....she wasn't the least bit shy!
Our sweet little firecracker's favorite color is pink, she loves to change clothes 10+ times a day, she is hungry 24/7 for snacks and loves her siblings fiercely.

My little heartbreaker Jonas Finn is on the brink of taking his first step. Last week he started standing without holding on to anything. He's already improved his balance in just a few short days. He is nearly almost smiling. He recently got his first cold and even through being sick, he continues to have a smile on his face. He is such a light! He loves wrestling with Laylin, playling peek-a-boo and watching Isla. He's constantly on the go, but I love how he still loves to be snuggled by me.

These kids keep me busy and mostly crazy from sun up to sun down, but the simple blessings they pour out on me daily are irreplaceable. I thank God for calling me to be their mommy, chef, maid, caretaker, chauffeur,  nurse and teacher. It's a heavy weight some days, but such an incredible calling!

24 from my 4 yr old!

I asked Isla these 24 questions just after her 4th birthday and here are her answers... some are hilarious including the fact that she thinks I'm 12 yrs older than Joel! Makes since that she sees him as a big kid :)

1.       How old are you? "Ummm...I am 6. Just kidding, I am 4."

2.       What do you want to be when you grow up? "But every time you tell me not to grow up!? I AM going to grow up. I want to be a nurse."

3.       What makes you happy? "Laylin"

4.       What makes you sad? "Laylin hitting me"

5.       What makes you laugh? "Daddy tickling me"

6.       How old is Mommy? "20" 

7.       How old is Daddy? "8"

8.       What is something mommy always says to you? "Don't you grow up!"

9.       What is your favorite thing to do? "Go to the Y and swim"

10.   Who is your best friend? "My cousins"

11.   What are you really good at? "Doing my princess puzzle"

12.   What is your favorite book? "Princess story book"

13.   What is your favorite food? "Noodles"

14.   What is your favorite song? "Let it Go"

15.   What is your favorite animal? "The Alligator"

16.   What is love? "Mommy snuggling with me"

17.   What does daddy do for work? "He looks on his computer and he does some work on there"

18.   What does mommy do for work? "She spells everything out"

19.   Where do you live? "North Carolina"

20.   Where is your favorite place to go? "To the store with the fishies and the tiny shrimps" (Great Wall of Chinese Restaurant)

21.   What is your favorite thing to do outside? "Throw Bella's ball"

22.   What is your favorite holiday? "Come here, it's a secret...Christmas!"

23.   What do you like to take to bed with you at night? "Baby bunny rabbit"

24.   What are do you thank God for? "My family"

Growing Up...

These two girls are growing up. Neither no longer "babies" all though they will both always be My baby.

Laylin Jane wants to do everything Isla is doing so even though she's small,  I can sense her growing up even quicker. She's starting to talk more, humming songs, dance, run and twirl and is very playful. She's also still very feisty. She has a big temper and is not afraid to show it, but at the same time she is sweet as she can be. I love how she wraps her little arms tight around me now when I'm carrying her or rocking her to sleep at night. I can really feel her love for me and it makes my heart so full. 

Isla thinks she's nearly grown up now. She announces to me everyday... "Mom, when I'm 7 and all grown up..." She tells me about what her wedding will be like. How she will continue living at home with her cousin Lawson and all the fun things she will do. Its so entertaining to hear her tell stories. She is really good at it! She loves to perform, dance, sing and be the spotlight. I, of course, love it too. She keeps my days happy and there is never a dull moment with her.

My blessings, my gifts, my challenges and accomplishments these girls teach me so much about true love, understanding, patience and our Father's love each and every day. 

Sweet blessings!

Little Miss Laylin is In.To.Everything! This full blown toddler is keeping me busy. I never had to child proof this much with Isla. Laylin finds every small thing and every big place to climb.

She LOVES to climb. Up the stairs. Up onto the potty. Up on to tables. Up on her sister. Up on Bella. She can't get enough of climbing.

Big sister, Isla loves to encourage her to climb too and get into a lot of other things she shouldn't. These two are playing very nice together lately, but also getting into lots of trouble together. Its fun to watch their bond growing and see the love and excitement they share for one another each day.

Laylin is starting to talk and communicate with signs a lot more now too. She is signing a lot.
She signs: more, all done, eat, water, bottle, milk, banana, dog, night-night, sleep, bath, clothes, shoes and a few more words.
She says: Momma, Dada, Isla (her favorite word), Bella, Poppa, Mamaw, Papaw, dog, duck, water, bye-bye, hi, night-night, ball, baby and many more.

Isla has been learning to read with Daddy at night. I love to listen to the two of them reading together as I'm rocking Laylin to sleep. I think it's my favorite part of the day. Isla loves to learn. Her enthusiasm is contagious. She is a very quick learner too. She knows many sight words and loves to practice sounding words out bit by bit. She also likes to be the teacher too. Each night she tells Daddy or I that she will read one book to us and then we can read one to her.

I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to be with these sweet girls everyday and watch them growing, learning, changing and developing their own special personalities together.

Firsts...

Isla has had a lot of firsts lately and she has been over the moon excited about all of them.

Swimming lessons - she started swimming lessons in October. She is one of two in her class. I've been so proud of her excitement, confidence and her sweetness. The other little girl she is in the class with has been terrified of the teacher and being away from her mom. Instead of Isla getting upset
about the little girl screaming, she's been trying to calm her down. She tells her its going to be okay, shares the pool toys and smiles at her. I've been so proud to see her light shining and also proud of all her new swimming skills!

Dentist - she had her first dentist appointment this week. She was not hesitant at all to climb up in the chair and when they asked her how many teeth she thought she had, she opened her mouth and counted them one by one until she got to twenty. I was amazed at how well she did! She was super excited to get to pick out a toy from the treasure box at the end too.

Home with mommy - This is our first week of being home more. We've cut her preschool hours to just three mornings a week versus all week and she is doing school with me at home on Mondays and Fridays. Our first Monday was awesome! I had to be a little more flexible than I had planned, but overall it went well, she was excited to learn and we had fun together. This is a great trial for us to continue to explore homeschooling for the years to come.

She's growing up so fast that it often makes my chest ache. She no longer likes kisses on the mouth, she tells me - "on the cheek mom."
She calls me mom most days and if I'm super lucky, I get a mama, but hardly ever does she call me mommy.
She wants to do it all herself these days. She used to like for me to show her the way first, but now, she wants to do the first try herself too.

All these things are great and I love to see her growing smarter, stronger and more confident every day... but some days I just want time to stand still. I want to take a mental snapshot and remember her and Laylin in their thermal pajamas smiling at me before bedtime. I want to remember her silky skin and how she asks for tickles on her back over and over again. I want to remember how brushing her hair is a fight, but she jumps at the opportunity to brush mine. I want to remember her eyes lighting up when I tell her I'm going to put her to bed tonight, or snuggle with her for a little while.

I hope I remember all these things and more forever.

A note to my girls...

Isla,

You're three years old and SO.MUCH.FUN! I love everything about you... you are strong willed, full of personality, incredibly sweet and sympathetic. Every day, you wake up bursting with energy, ready to take on the day! You are adventurous, brave and determined. You love to read, learn new things and do it yourself. You're so sweet and such a great big sister. I love to see your love for your sister growing and your special bond with her growing. Laylin lights up when she sees you and I can tell the two of you will have a lasting bond. 

Laylin,

My sweet one year old baby... you are oh so cute, and oh so feisty! I love how observant you are. You carefully study and watch everyone you encounter... taking it all in before you flash your toothy smile. You are playful and vibrant. I can see your curiosity increasing as you are eager to get into everything and explore. You are getting more confident with standing and I think those first little steps will happen any day now. I love how loving you are. You are such a cuddle bug. 

My heart grows bigger every day I spend with you girls. I'm amazed with how much love and joy you two have brought to my life. 

Special times with Isla

I've been trying to do extra special outings from time to time with Isla to give her some attention outside of our normal day to day. It seems as if I have much more one on one time with Laylin as I feed her before nap time and at nights and while Isla is at school.

Isla has become such a big vibrant girl. She is full of life with the greatest imagination. This week, we took her to her very first movie. She called it "the movie station." She did so well. We watched it in 3D and she wore her glasses the whole time. She was so cute whispering little comments about the movie and looking to us to know when to laugh at the jokes. I hope it will be a special memory for her because I know it will be for me.

Yesterday I got a pedicure for the first time since before Laylin was born... I guess you can say I've been busy with other things :) I took Isla with me for a special outing of just her and me. She called the nail salon "the paint store" - makes sense right?! She got to get her toenails and finger nails painted. She did her toes red, white and silver - all with glitter. For her finger nails she wanted white - surprised me! She did white with silver glitter on top. She was so excited to have them painted special!

She is such a loving sweet girl. I just adore our one on one time together.

Happy Birthday Isla! You're Three!

Happy happy happy happiest of birthdays Isla Rae!! I love you so much. Watching you grow has been an unimaginable blessing to me. My love for you is unlike anything I could have ever dreamed of.

You are such a BRIGHT LIGHT! Your imagination carries us to amazing places and on comical adventures daily. You love to sing songs and stories and even just plain sentences. Singing has been one of your favorite things to do lately. You also love to twirl, dance and especially jump. You are such a climber and risk taker. There aren't many things that you are scared of. You have really become a brave girl... Yes, girl, you are no longer a baby (although, you will always be my baby).

You love to play lion and hide-n-seek. You also still love to be chased, explore outside and paint.

You've become quiet the girly girl, although you aren't afraid of getting dirty. In fact, you love to play in the dirt and make 'dirt cakes.' Your favorite thing to wear is a dress or swimsuit. You like to get your nails and toenails painted, but hate having your hair fixed. You also really like to play with mommy's make-up. In fact, you got into my blue eye shadow the other day and most of it was left crumbled in the bathroom floor (that's okay though, because I really shouldn't be wearing blue eye shadow anyways :) )

You love to read books and run through the sprinklers. Water play is on your list of favorites too. Your favorite colors are pink and purple. You love all the Disney princesses, but recently, Sofia the First has been your favorite.

You are incredibly smart and love talking. I love having conversations with you and hearing your sweet little voice. You are so sweet and loving. I cannot believe it has been three wonderful years already. You've grown so fast. You are my sunshine.

I love you so very much.

Mama.

Isla says...

Isla has had the cutest sayings lately and has been telling lots of stories! I wanted to jot these down so I don't forget...

cob on the corn (for corn on the cop)
cop corn (for pop corn)
I love you so much.... FOR EVERYTHING (she pulls the "for everything" from Cinderella and tells me this at least twice a day)
Happy Mother's Day (we're two weeks past mother's day, but she still tells me happy mother's day everyday... I love it!)
Booty shake (this girl loves to shake her booty... and be naked!)
Rarrr (she loves scaring people)


She has the best imagination, loves to sing... even normal conversations... and has had the best attitude lately! I'm so grateful for her sweet heart and the strong bond we share.

The differences...

Love watching these girls and seeing the differences and growth, development and especially personality. They are both so uniquely special! I love how God crafts each one of to be special in our own way.

Happy birthday... in advance!

Isla has been to several of her friends birthday parties recently. This has led to her asking me if it is her birthday, every single day! Sometimes she asks multiple times. Its almost as if she is dreaming about her very own birthday party because she usually asks me as soon as she wakes up in the morning and after nap time.

Some days she doesn't even ask. She just wakes up and proclaims, "I'm ready to go to my birthday party now, mama."

I've been trying to explain to her how long she has to wait, and what month her birthday is in. It's so hard to explain time frames at this age though. If I have something exciting planned, I usually wait until day of to tell her because she will get so upset if she finds out its not happening on that very day.

Our every day birthday conversation has been going something like this...

Isla: Is it my birthday today mama?
Me: No, not yet.
Isla: Ok, my birthday is on Saturday.
Me: Your birthday is still 3 months away. It's in June.
Isla: Ok, when it's my birthday, I'm going to have an Elsa party!

Some days she says Ana party, but most days she tells me she wants an Elsa party. I've been contemplating having a (family) Elsa party for her, just because. It's hard for me to wait too! She is really into birthdays this year and parties all together.

I can't believe my little firecracker will be turning 3! The days are long, but the years are short -- so true!

Isla Rae, I love you the purplest

Isla is bursting with personality at two years old. She is already telling people she is three and what she is going to do as a three-year-old and most importantly, what her party will be like.

Every day she asks me, "Mama, is it time to go to my party now?"

I say, "No, Isla, not yet. We have to wait until your birthday."

Her birthday is a long way off and we don't even have a party planned at this point. This little girl is expecting a big bash this year though. Good thing, she gets so excited over the simplest things in life.

She has been so much fun lately. She is talking so much and her vocabulary has grown a lot over the past six months. Now, she's in to telling stories, "reading" and singing. Her favorite song to sing is still, "Let It Go", but she also sings, "Jesus Loves The Little Children", a lot too.

Her favorite book right now is "I Love You The Purplest". Joel has been reading it to her every night and sometimes changes out the brothers names to be Isla and Laylin. It's about two boys' adventure with their mama and the boys trying to uncover who their mom loves the best. The mom always responds so beautifully explaining her love for them in colors. I love you the bluest, or I love you the reddest and then expanding on the differences each boys character has, but how she loves them the same. I love Isla's love for books and reading. Story time with her is my favorite time of the day. I love to hear Joel reading to her and making up silly voices to go along with the characters or those off nights when I get Laylin down early and can read to her myself. Her new thing is wanting to sit in our laps until the story is over, and then get in bed. I think its her last ditch effort to try to stay up as long as possible.

Since she is so in to books right now, we took her to get her very own library card today. She LOVED the library. She shed a few tears when it was time to go. She got to pick out four books to put into our rotation during story time everyday.

She's been going to a lot of birthday parties and celebrations lately too, which is probably the reason she is inquiring about her own birthday so much. We've been letting her pick out the gift for her friends/cousins celebrating a birthday. It's been so fun to watch what toy or item she selects. The most challenging thing has been trying to teach her she can't keep the gift. We did this for Christmas too. After we got Harleigh's gift, Isla fell in love with Barbies.

She would say, "Mama, I'll just hold it for one more minute", as I tried to explain to her we can't take it out of the box.

This week was Harleigh and Lawson's birthday week and we let Isla pick out the gifts again. She was so hilarious this time around. She got a Elsa shopping bag and was going through the store putting everything she could find Frozen related in the bag for Harleigh. As fast as she was putting it in, Joel and I were trying to take it out. We had to explain to her our limitations this time around and how mommy and daddy had to pay for everything she was putting in her bag. As she was frantically grabbing everything with Elsa's face on it, she was twisting her butt and exclaiming how much fun it was shopping. (uh-oh)

Lately, she has been so into princesses. To the point of wanting to wear a princess dress every single day. She's even shed some tears when I made her wear pants under her dress. We've been trying to reinforce true beauty with her and teaching her that her smile and attitude is what makes her pretty, not the clothes we wear.

Isla has such a sweet heart and its been the best two and a half years of my life watching her grow and develop. I just wish I could bottle some of her energy and use it myself! She's a firecracker and she makes our lives so much more fun everyday.

Feisty growing girls...

My two girls are such firecrackers... both in their own unique way. Isla Rae has so much energy, love and zeal every day. From sun rise to sunset she is raring to go, ready to face each day with a roar! My sweet Laylin Jane wakes up happy and calm, but don't let that foul you.... she's become so feisty.  She likes to yell and be heard and she likes for her momma to stay where she can see her!

Both girls are growing up so quickly.

Isla has become quiet the artist. She loves to do crafts. She has mastered drawing circles and just recently has started to draw "people" or "guys" as she calls them. Its so sweet to see her drawing. She is so invested in each little mark she makes and she wants every line to be perfect. I love to hear her say, "Mom, look! I made this for you!".... yes she calls me mom already at two.... so grown up.

Laylin has started sitting up on her own for longer periods of time. It won't be long until she's doing it for 5-10 minutes at a time. She loves to sit up too! She's also started to show interest in rolling over and we think she'll be rolling in another week or two. We know our lives are about to change in a whole new way once our little peanut becomes mobile.

Each day is fun, sweet and challenging, but I wouldn't change any of it for the world (well maybe a few things...). I've learned so much in the past two years and prayed more consistently than I have my entire life. These girls have made me grow, pushed me to my limits and shown me a love so deep it makes my heart feel like its going to burst.

Growing girls.... can't wait to see what the next month holds for these two feisty gals!

An update on my loves...

Laylin Jane is off of the monitor! We're so thrilled that she is growing and thriving. She is still such a peanut, only weighing in at 12lbs and 8oz at just over 4 months, but never the less, she is chunking up at her own rate. She's so tiny, but still has little rolls and its so cute to see her putting on weight. We had her 4 month check up last week. She did great with her shots, got a great report and stayed around the 10th percentile for all her measurements (8% for head circumference, 9% for weight and 11% for height).

She has taken on a new interest in toys lately. She reaches for objects now and is starting to hold on to them better too. We're still working on her reaching for me, but that will come soon enough. She is a mama's girl for sure, just like her big sister. She's not quiet rolling over yet, but I can tell that will come soon too as she is eager to roll over on her belly. She is drooling a lot and like to chew on everything she can get to her mouth. She's smiling a lot and laughing out loud. Look at these cute faces!!

Isla Rae is a ball of energy as always. One of her favorite things to do right now is play hide n seek, we play every night before bedtime. Its so funny to watch her "hide". She usually picks a spot in plain site and I have to pretend like I don't see her. She gets so excited. The funniest thing though is most of the time when Joel or I go to hide she will forget to come find us and we'll be hiding for several minutes or have to come out and find her...then she'll excitedly tell us to go hide again, lol. 

She also LOVES to sing. She recently had a school play and sang three songs in the play. She practiced for weeks at home and I taught her some other Christmas songs in addition to those. three. She has a lot of Christmas Spirit and loves to pretend like she is giving gifts. Such a sweet heart. She'll hand me one of her toys and say, "Here mommy, I made this for you. Merry Christmas." So sweet.

She also loves gymnastics, or "nastics" as she calls it, while wrinkling her nose up as she says it. She just started this month and is already doing really good tumbles! She's got great form. She loves to dance too so that will be the next activity to come... maybe when she is 3.

I've been having so much fun with these two and wallowing in this period in my life. Everyone tells me I will look back when I'm older and these will be the best years of my life. I believe that's true and I can already tell how precious each day we're gifted with really is. These girls are the light of my world. I'm so blessed they call me mama. 

The Adventures of Isla...

In the words of Isla...."Oh my goodness!"

What a fun and FUNNY weekend we had with our beautiful energetic girl. She was simply hilarious this weekend.

First of all, we're potty training...which makes every day exciting and lots of unexpected 'treats' happen for everyone.

On Friday, Isla walked in her room and noticed the mess had magically disappeared. I told her I had cleaned her room for her. She said..."ooooh, thank you mommy!" excitedly. 

I was feeling so appreciated until she went behind the curtains (while naked) and peed everywhere. 

On Saturday, Joel went to help some family members with some home projects and it was just me and the girls. We had been taking Isla to potty every 30 minutes. When it was time to go, I noticed she was 'hiding' behind the chair. I asked her to come out and it looked as if her diaper was about to fall off. I asked her to come over to me so I could fix it, and then I noticed it was still intact... it was just so full of poop it was about to fall off! She had been hiding, doing her business. 

She looked at me with her head hanging down and said, "I didn't poop mommy."

I replied, "well, who pooped in your diaper then?"

She said, "daddy, did it."  (reminder: he wasn't even home)

I said, "your dad pooped in your diaper?"

She said, "yes, hurry lets hide it!"

On Sunday, we were sitting at the table eating our sandwiches. She ate all of hers so she got to eat some pretzel mix. I was tending to Laylin and noticed Isla was having a full blown conversation with herself at the table... all by herself. So I started listening in.... she was holding a tiny pretzel up close to her face, talking to it... Here is what she was saying...

Isla (talking to her pretzel): Ooohhh I'm so sorry. Shh, shhh, it's okay. 

Me: "Isla what's wrong with your pretzel?"

Isla: "It's sad." 

Me: "Why is your pretzel sad?"

Isla: "Because it misses its mommy."

Me: "Where is its mommy?"

Isla: "I ate it" 

and then she eats the 'baby' pretzel, haha.

And besides all the funny things she said this weekend, she cracked us up with her funny actions too. We play hide n seek a lot at home and do lots of chasing each other. She has always loved to be chased. We've been working on hiding a lot because she normally either doesn't wait for you to come find her or when you say, ready or not here I come... she replies with, Here I am, hiding under the table.... or Here I am behind the curtains. haha. Joel and I laughed at her until we were both crying last night. Joel was playing hide n seek with her and she kept telling Joel to go hide, in which he did, but she would get distracted and forget to go find him. Poor Joel would be scrunched down in an uncomfortable spot hiding forever until he would finally give up and come out because Isla would have forgot to come find him. 

She is the sweetest, most adorable little blessing in my life and I have so so so much fun with her! Oh my goodness.... I wish I could stop time. 

My girls...

My girls have been keeping me busier than ever lately. Since Laylin's choking incident right before she turned two months old, we've all been in overdrive and I've mostly been unplugged from writing. We're getting back to normal, or I should say our new normal and Laylin is doing well. She's on a cardio-respiratory monitor which both keeps me up and night and gives me peace of mind at the same time. We're not sure how long she'll have to be on this or her medication at this point, but likely for at least another month if not longer. 

At 9 1/2 weeks old she finally tipped the scales over 10lbs. At two months she was still coming in under 10lbs at 9lbs 10oz. Our little peanut is in either the 20th percentile or below on the charts, but is growing proportionally from where she started at 6lbs, 9oz. I could really tell a difference in her weight while we were in the hospital. I could see her chunking up and her little rolls forming on her thighs and under her chin. I love a chunky baby! Isla had rolls like that too, even more so. 

Laylin is so so sweet. I look at her in awe every day. She has the tiniest dainty features. Small face and head, tiny hands and sweetest expressions. She even looks precious when she cries (which before this recent incident, she didn't cry much at all). I feel like God has blessed me with the best baby! 

She loves to cuddle, take baths, suck on her paci, swing, coo and she is even starting to laugh out now. I've noticed she really hates to wear hats, but other than that I haven't noticed anything that she notably dislikes. She is, for the most part, a vesry content baby. 

My other "baby" has really taken off growing a lot recently too. Isla loves to sing, dance, tell stories, color and anything princess or Tinkerbell related. But her most favorite thing in the whole wide world right now is SHOES! She loves shoes. She probably changes shoes at least ten times a day. I'm forever picking up tiny shoes all over the house and find them stashed all over the place. I think little Miss Isla is going to be a girly girl. She is so much fun and each day these two girls bring more joy to my life than I ever thought imaginable. I seriously feel like the richest person on this earth to be their Mommy!

Favorites of the Bradbury girls...

My girls are growing and changing so much every day. There are so many things I love about each of their stages/ages.

I'll start with Isla who is 2 years and nearly 4 months old...

• She calls popcorn, "copcorn"
• How she shouts "fireman" every time the fireworks display over the castle before a Disney movie
• The way she says yellow, "llellow" using no y at all 
• Her favorite word is, marvelous and she throws her hand over her head with a big expression when she says it.
• She loves wearing her dress up high heels. Its usually the first thing she does when she gets home... takes her normal shoes off and puts on her heels. She LOVES shoes!
• She tells me, "I love you sooooooooo much" often. She will point to her little eye, then cross her arms over her chest and then point to me. She did this the other morning when Joel was taking her to school. I watched her through the window pointing to her little eye, crossing her arms then pointing to me all while mouthing, "I love you."
• The way she plays with her babydolls and calls them all Laylin.
• How she rubs her earlobes when she gets sleepy or tired to soothe herself. She started doing this after we stopped nursing and hasn't stopped yet. Its so sweet.
• Her excitement and sweetness for life every morning. She brings so much pure joy to my life.

And our little peanut Laylin, who is 7 weeks new...

• I love her smiles while she is sleeping
• The soft "Ohhhs" that she coos back to me
• Her daintiness and petite little features
• The softness of her skin and little dimples on her hands
• The way she loves to snuggle and be warm. She loves to be swaddled
• How she loves to lay on my chest with her legs tucked up and around me like a little frog
• Her sweet whispy hair

My girls bring us so much love and laughter. I seriously never knew my heart could be this swollen with love and contentment. God has blessed me beyond measurement with their beating hearts!

Isla's got a BIG personality!

Isla's BIG personality has really been shining lately. She is such a talker. She enunciates really well, doesn't shy away from big words and repeats EVERYTHING. She'll even sing the last lyrics of a song right after it goes off.

My little mimicker is so fun at nearly 28 months old. She loves playing with her baby dolls, making us lay down and play like she is our mommy, tinker bell, wearing her wings and high heel shoes, stickers, stamps and going outside. Oh, she also LOVES her little sister Laylin. She can't stand for Laylin to sleep. She wants her to be awake and be two inches from her face at all time. She loves to help out when Laylin needs a diaper change or if Laylin is crying she will try to sooth her by saying "it's okay Laylin" and giving her the paci.

My little Isla Rae has finally become a good sleeper. She sleeps in her big girl bed all through the night now with no fuss about going to bed. We have a great routine down now and she looks forward to story time. One change recently is that she likes to "read" to us now since she has many of her favorite books memorized.

She doesn't like brushing her teeth, so this is always a battle. She also doesn't like a ton of veggies, but she is starting to try more. Most recently she started liking broccoli (score!). She's still crazy about her staple foods, oatmeal, noodles and cheese. It could be worse I guess. At least I can sneak berries into the oatmeal and veggies into the noodles.

Besides talking a lot, she is also singing a lot now too. She loves to sing the songs she has learned at school, church songs and "let it go" of course. She also loves to dance. Fridays have become "Dance party nights" at our house. Joel and I pick a Pandora station and we all dance together for about an hour or so. I love these fun, goofy Friday nights!

Now that Isla is getting older, we also started game night on Wednesdays and movie night on Thursdays. I love these little traditions in our household. It gives us all little simple things to look forward to and its such great family time.

Isla has such a fun sweet heart. I'm so thankful for all the time I've been able to spend with my two sweet girls lately! So far the terrible twos haven't been terrible at all!

It's been a while...

Since I'm also blogging over at The Mommies, it has been a little more challenging to post my thoughts on here. I've had so many precious moments with Isla lately that I've wanted to jot down on paper so that I don't forget, but between work, motherhood, being a wifey and just plain being 40 weeks pregnant, I haven't had the time.

Isla is in the cutest stage now if I haven't told you already. She is having big girl conversations and saying the sweetest things. She has been praying for her pink ball nearly every night for a week now. I think she is concerned because it is dirty and I keep telling her I need to clean it. She also started praying for her paci since we have been trying to slowly persuade her to give it up. She prays for Joel and I, her sissy... (which we aren't sure where the phrase "sissy" came from because we have been calling baby #2 her little sister) and her cousins at night too.

She likes to talk to her sissy in my belly right now too. This morning she even disciplined her for the first time. I was walking around and the baby kicked me in an uncomfortable spot so I yelled out..."Ohhh!"

Isla responded, "You okay, mommy?" In a very concerning voice. I told her I was fine that it was just her baby sister moving around and kicking. Isla then lifted up my t-shirt, looked straight at my stretched belly and said... "No, no baby <insert baby's name>. Don't kick my mommy. That's not nice. Time-out!"

It was all I could do to keep from laughing. I squeezed her so tight. She has been giving the best hugs and squeezes lately and always so excited to see her dad and I if she has been away from us for any length of time.

I think she is going to do really well with the baby. She loves babies and doesn't seem to mind when I hold other children. I know there will be an adjustment period, but she is already so excited about the thought of a baby.

We have decked out the nook under our stairs with babydolls and babydoll furniture along with her other play things. We turned the unused space into a play area for her and she loves it! Of course, she always wants me to go in the tight space with her and sit down in the floor to play... or even lay down in the floor so that she can pretend to be my mommy and pat my back.

She's a constant reminder of one of my greatest purposes on this earth and we feel so blessed He entrusted us with such an awesome toddler!

Baby #2 is officially due tomorrow. We are as ready as we'll ever be and I'm looking forward to it finally being time as I've had so many false alarms in the past few weeks. These last weeks have been hard for me. I can't seem to get comfortable and sleep is no where to be found, but I'm trying to enjoy these last few days of pregnancy in case this happens to be our last child. We don't know what the future holds for our family, but we sure are grateful for today and the growth He has blessed us with!