6 Months Already!

This week, I took Jessalyn in for her 6 month appointment (sniff, sniff).  Her stats?

26" long
15.15 lbs

EXACTLY the same as Kehlton at that age.  Which is kinda crazy, because Kehlton seemed SO small with nowhere near the amount of delightful rolls that Jessalyn has.  Jessa is in the 90% for her height (thank you Stander genes!) and 50% for her weight (again - what?!?!  Have you seen her chub??).  After 4 shots she was not a happy camper and she let me know about it all the way home.  She was super sad during the shots, and then the rest of it was more of a "I'm not about to let you forget I'm upset with you for doing this to me" little yell.

A little about Jessa?

The girl LOVES to sing.  Seriously.  She wakes up singing every single morning.  And then she continues throughout the day.  Many times at church we have to take her out into the hallway not because she's fussy (because she never is) but because she just won't stop singing!!  It's the cutest thing EVER.

She LOVES to eat, but is already a super picky eater.  Formula only when absolutely necessary and with a lot of coaxing.  Plain cereal?  Don't even think about it.   She will NOT swallow it, but just hold her mouth open with the cereal just sitting there (see photo below).  It has to have fruit mixed in with it.  We tried the little puff snacks this week, and she loves the idea of putting them in her mouth by herself, but doesn't seem to care for the texture at all.  Green beans?  Absolutely.  Peas? No way.  But so far, any type of fruit is perfectly acceptable.  As is Cool Whip.

Jessa is amazingly patient with her brothers.  They maul her all the time.  ALL the time.  To the point where it looks like it should hurt or at least be super annoying (Case in point: the headphones in the first photo? Courtesy of big brothers).  But she never complains about it.  The exact opposite, actually.  She is always smiling and beaming at them; regardless of what they are dishing out to her.  She LOVES her boys!!  Which is good, because they love her just as much.  If not more.  You should have seen the little puddles they both melted into when they saw all her band-aids from her shots.  She will have fierce protectors for life.

All in all, she is still a super happy, extremely easy, laid back, easy going little girl.  We love and adore her!

Easter 2013

Saturday afternoon (after the egg hunt), I had to run to the store to buy eggs (which they were just about sold out of) because I had forgotten about dying eggs. 

The boys had fun making a massive mess.  

I'm not sure which got more dye; Kehlton's eggs or his hands!

Jessa had fun just being outside!

From the sounds and the level of excitement in our house Sunday morning, you would have thought it was Christmas rather than Easter!  The boys were very excited that the Easter bunny had visited in middle of the night.

Sharing their fun with Jessa, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

I kind of spaced doing photos before church, and Brychan had every stitch of clothing off within 20 seconds of walking in the front door once we got home.  So, Easter photos this year are mostly of Jessa, with a few of Kehlton thrown in.  

She was more interested in playing with the grass than taking photos.

I LOVE this photo! And Kehlton's outfit?  He did have a nice, Easter appropriate outfit on before church.  Unfortunately, it ended up completely covered in chocolate before we made it out the door.  This shirt and tie combo was what he absolutely insisted on wearing.  Between the boys there are several other ties he could have chosen from, but it had to be this tie with this shirt.  Gotta love him!!!

And finally?  Jessa just being Jessa.  We see this face all the time.  She loves making the noise that comes from sucking on her bottom lip.  I absolutely love this little baby doll of mine!!  And I have to admit, I had way too much fun having a girl to dress up for Easter!

On the way home from church, we asked the boys what they had talked about in Primary that day.  Brychan's class evidently skipped an Easter lesson and talked about the Holy Ghost.  But Kehlton surprised us all by telling us every detail about the crucifixion and Christ's resurrection.  I am always amazed at what they pick up and retain when you think they aren't paying any attention! I am so in love with my little ones and love that I get to be their mom.  I am so grateful for my husband and our beautiful family.  We hope your Easter was as wonderful as ours!

Easter Tradition

As per our normal family tradition, we spent the Saturday before Easter at the baseball fields for the City of Peoria's Annual Easter Egg Hunt. And, as always, we had so much fun!

The boys got to "drive" a fire truck (I promise they were much more excited about it than Brychan's face would lead you to believe!),

We played lots of different carnival games (this one they're flipping fish into a basket.  And, by the way, don't you love Jessalyn's rolls on her thighs??),

And waited patiently for our turn to hunt eggs!

Kehlton actually participated this year (last year the huge crowds freaked him out and he refused to do anything other than hold David's leg) and was very proud of his loot.

Hangin' out with Sparky

Our weather was gorgeous!  In years past it's been a little toasty, but this year was absolutely perfect. I was feeling bad for all our friends who were posting Easter egg hunt photos from various different states all bundled up in coats, mittens and hats.  Phoenix may have horrendously hot summers, but the rest of the year MORE than makes up for that! :)

Creative Juices

For the last day of our Spring Break, I took the kids over to Scottsdale to visit Lala at work.  Lala is a manager at a super fun place called Make Meaning, where you can make all sorts of fun things.  Soap, jewelry, candles, ceramics, cakes...it really is a fun place to spend a day.  It had been awhile since we had been there, so we made an afternoon of it!

The boys were spoiled rotten.  They started off making soap.  I think in all, we came home with 6 different soaps; all full of fun little trinkets and toys for the boys to keep once they use up all their soap.

We finally made Jessalyn's "Baby's 1st Christmas Ornament" while we were there (with her little footprints on it).  It's been on our to-do list since the beginning of December, but since our Christmas season kind of got derailed, the ornament was one of the many things that got put on the back burner.  But.  It's now finished and I love it, so that's all that matters, right?

After the boys finished with their soaps, and after an unplanned visit to the cute little candy shop across the courtyard, the boys moved on to make a cake.  They got to spray "paint" their base fondant...

And then decorated it with a lovely assortment of treasures.  Kehlton's side of the cake was Easter themed, and Brychan's side was all dinosaurs.

It was a fun afternoon!  Daddy had a scout campout that night, so we grabbed some dinner and a movie, ate the boys' yummy cake and had a slumber party in the family room (where Mommy was reminded that sleeping on the floor is way more fun when you're 3 and 5).