Devynee - 2 months

It's hard to believe two months have already passed since little Devynee joined our family! At two months:

• She is a really sweet baby that rarely cries (a blessing I am not taking for granted, believe me!).
• She loves when her older brother and sister pay attention to her as long as they are more than 1 inch from her face and not hurting her. :)
• She spends most of her day in the bassinet in our living room and naps and plays as she chooses.  When she is in the bassinet she is so much more protected from her siblings.  If I put her on the floor it is instant and constant baby mauling time. 
• She also enjoys the swing throughout the day. 
• Devynee is my best sleeper by FAR!  She sleeps from 10 or 11 p.m. until about 6:30 a.m. on a very consistent basis right now.  I know that will be interrupted by new teeth etc. in coming months, but for now I will take it for sure! 
• Devynee sleeps wrapped up like a burrito at night, but freely during the day.
• Most of the time she prefers to look to her left, so I always try to counter that when she is asleep by having her look to the right.  I did have the doctor check her head yesterday and all still looks symmetrical, so I'll just continue to monitor it.
• She grunts all through tummy time, but doesn't scream bloody murder until about 5 minutes in.
• Speaking of grunting.  She grunts all night long!  It led to Easton and Kendree now sharing a room so that she could have a place to sleep away from mama and daddy.  I'm not kidding either.  Imagine a grunt every 30 seconds to 1 minute for 3-5 hours at a time.  Yet, she is totally asleep and doesn't need a thing.  Crazy.
• At her doctor's appointment, she weighed 10 lbs. 8 oz. (50th %tile) and was 23 inches long (80th %tile).  Her head circumference was 37 cm which they said was normal but didn't give me a %tile for.
• Her feedings are starting to lengthen out (thank goodness) and she eats every 2.5 to 3 hours now (instead of every two hours on the dot).  She also is getting to be a faster eater (it used to take her a good 30-40 minutes) and eats in 20-30 minutes.  Although, she will eat for as long as I let her.
• She is taking a bottle just fine with Ronnie in the evenings (to keep her practiced) and with my mom when she babysits while I work.  This is such a change from Kendree who fought the bottle every single day. 
• Devynee will take a binky when we need her to, but doesn't need it to sleep, etc.
• She smiled for the first time on January 4th (for her daddy) and now smiles several times a day at me, daddy, or her siblings.

I think that about does it for updates!  Now on to some pictures! You can see lots more on the blessing post.

Smiling at Grandpa Cali:

 Easton "love."

 Sleeping.

 Drama sleeping.

 Official 2 month shots:

 And for comparison sake: Easton at 2 months on the left and Kendree at 2 months on the right.

Devynee's Blessing

On Sunday, January 15th, Devynee was blessed by her father.  It was a beautiful blessing and I cried (of course). We had a lot of family that was able to make it for the blessing (but would have loved to have everyone-alas, life is not perfect). 

Prepare yourself for a LOT of pictures.  Feel free to skip this post if you aren't family and probably don't care to see pictures of every single person who came.

My great-uncle Jerre and great-aunt Jean (and they really are great!) drove up from Greeley but weren't able to make it to the house after church so we took some quick pictures after sacrament meeting.

 After church, a meal and some football, we all got gussied up again (you know, kids back in suits, boys tied their ties again). Easton loves to help with Devynee.

 And Kendree likes to get her kisses in as well.

 Our little family.

 Proud mama and daddy.

 Those crazy kids of ours.

 Grandma and Grandpa Wyo.

 The Wyo side of the family.

 Grandma and Grandpa with the three kids.

 The Cali side of the family.

 Grandma and Grandpa with the three kids.

 Devynee letting us know she was done!  With Grandma and Grandpa Cali

 And now LOTS of shots of our little girl.  The dress was made by my Grammy (my dad's mom) and is the same one that I wore when I was blessed way back when. The gorgeous blanket was made by Ronnie's sister Alisa.  I LOVE it!

 My sister Sarah, Devynee and I.  We all wore this dress when we were blessed.

 Three generation picture.

We are so thankful to all who made the trip.  We sure love this little Devynee girl!

The item in my basement that gets the most comments...

First, let's ignore the thumb in this picture.

Second, as sad as a local business going out of business is, it was a great thing when it came to my paper storage. 

Third, anyone need me to make them some cards? (Aside from you, Val, I'm working on them!) Seeing all that paper out makes we want to get to work (what with all the extra time I have in my life :) ).

Kendree - 23 months

Don't worry, you only have to suffer through one more "monthly" update for Kendree, Devynee on the other hand, is just getting started! :)

At 23 months Kendree:

• Is loving to twirl!  Randomly throughout the day, I will find her twirling about.
• Loves all food except when she doesn't, she is a moody 23 month old after all.
• Recites "A" "E" "I" "O" in no particular order when she wants to point out letters.
• Counts "One, two, three, two, four" That's about as far as we currently go.
• Is starting to say the funniest phrases.  Like the other day when she got right in Ronnie's face, pointed her finger and said "No, No, No!  Right, Daddy?"
• Loves to play with mama's wet hair.  If I sit on the floor after my shower and before I've done anything with my hair for the day, she will want to me stay still for at least 10 minutes while she moves hair around and runs her fingers through it.  She is not as excited about my dry hair.
• Is so good about getting her hair done, as long as you ask her first and she answers yes.  If she says that she doesn't want her hair done, it is not worth the fight at that time, I just wait a few minutes and then she'll say yes.
• Is very polite.  Anytime you give her something, she will say "Tank too, (insert name here)."
• Takes one nap a day for 2-4 hours and sleeps through the night.
• Is in 24 month clothes and wears a size 5 shoe.
• Needs to know where baby "Devy" is at all times.
• Expresses if something is hers very loudly, "MINE!" or "MY ____!"
• Knows a few shapes (heart, circle, flower--yes, flower is a shape!)

And now some pictures:

She loves clomping around in dad or mama's shoes.  Dad's are actually usually easier because she can get her entire shoe inside.  This particular day, it was right before bed when she was "performing."

 Loves to carry any purse around. Or random snowman flowerpot.  This day it was Sequence game pieces that were serving as her "money."

 If she gets in trouble, okay, WHEN she gets in trouble, she marches over to the time out spot as soon as you tell her to, but she let's you know that she is not happy about it the entire time she is there.  I took a picture this day because it felt like she was in time out all afternoon long. :)

 She loves to read to herself, and I don't stop her at all, even when it does leave a big mess.

 All in all, she is the cutest little 23 month old around!

And now a video of her skill in daddy's shoes:

THAT list

You know the one.

The one you start the instant that you purchase a home.  If you are like me it has two sides.  One side consists of things you want to fix (ahem, you want your husband to fix) and one side consists of things you want to purchase.

Ronnie and I were able to take a pretty good crack at the list while he had a few days off to help at home shortly after Devynee was born. Not to mention the many things that Ronnie and his dad were able to tackle while I sat around and snuggled a newborn. And we can't forget about the things that my dad drove over to do as well.

Things like a medicine cabinet for our bathroom,

 shelves set up (and organized) in the basement

a humidifier installed on the heater (LOVE this one! Humidified air in my entire house?  Heck yeah!)

and an over-the-range microwave

and other things that would just be boring to take pictures of (sealed grout, fixed screens, etc.).

Gotta love a few good work days and willing workers!

Now, if that list would get any shorter, we could really be getting somewhere!

The things our aunts make...

The kids were spoiled with handmade gifts for Christmas...

Like these dinosaur hats from Aunt Alisa (how I managed to capture both kids eyes in the exact same position of "roll back," I have no idea).

And Aunt Aubrey made the kids these awesome (and WELL used) robes! My favorite thing about the robes?  I can use them to get the kids out of the tub whenever I want.  Wearing the robes is as fun as playing in the tub.

Aubrey also made our family an entire matching ensemble to wear to church, but we took pictures in genders, to make things easier.

The boys sporting their matching ties.

 And the girls with their pillowcase dresses and mama's pin.

I'm just excited that someone has time to be crafty (even if I don't). :)

Wasn't quite what I thought

I should preface this story by saying that we moved Kendree and Easton into the same room last night (which went surprisingly well, but that is a story for another time).  So, today was the first day that Easton's room was "off limits" during Kendree's nap. I anticipated that this would be hard, so I had him pull some toys out beforehand and braced myself for some more whining.

Shortly after Kendree went down, Easton came over to me and stood quietly (normally when he wants something he just asks and usually quite loudly).  I turned to him and he had the "look."  The look that normally means he wants something he can't normally have, or that he has done something that he knows I won't be happy about. 

I braced myself for a question/whining about something in his room (toys, books, games, etc.) that he couldn't access. Instead, I heard,

"Mama? Can I have some ice cream?"

It caught me so off guard that I started laughing, and then found that I couldn't say no (he had eaten a very good lunch about an hour before).

As I gave him a hug and continued to laugh, he held up the ice cream scoop that he had been hiding behind his back.

And then I laughed even harder.

Gotta love a four year old.