Groen Pains

Friday, May 12, 2017

May Update

Sydney and Emma are growing so fast! It's hard to document everything but here's a few things that are new with our girls

Sydney (8 months next week):

She's cutting her 1st tooth finally!
Ate a whole jar of baby food, a big deal for her
She's a petite little thing, weighing 14lbs and short
Loves clapping, especially when we clap or there's a song on
Smiles all the time!!!
Taking 2 hour plus naps in her crib. Yay!
Only waking up 2 or 3 times from 8-8. Pretty good for her:)
Sitting by herself
So close to crawling, pivoting everywhere on her belly.We predict crawling in the next month

Emma (2 1/2 years old)

Sleeps all night in her toddler bed
Still takes great naps!
Knows ABC'S, some sounds, numbers,shapes, and colors
Talks like crazy about everything
Has an amazing memory (gets that from Josh). She remembers something after we say it once, kind of scary!
Loves carrying purses ( she switches between 3 different ones), and walking in my high heels. All girl this one!
Eats pretty much anything
Loves going to Walmart and says as much. "Let's go to Walmart!" We may go there a bit much.
Loves singing. She sings "Tell me Why" "Happy Birthday" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" all the time
Giving Sydney a little more time and love now that she interacts more
Has lots of little friends she loves to play with.

Friday, January 27, 2017

Christmas, Snow Days, and Fun Babies

The holiday season went by so fast!!! I can't believe it's almost February. We spent most of the winter in Oregon but we took a 2 week trip to Idaho and Utah around Thanksgiving. We saw lots of family and blessed little Sydney in Boise. Emma had so much fun playing with cousins, minus catching a cold and teething. The teething really put her over the edge in Boise but we got through it:)

I love this smiley girl! She is a calm, happy baby and has made the transition from 1 to 2 kids easier than I ever thought it would be. She's 4 months right now and loves to drool and put everything in her mouth. She can roll over but hates getting stuck on her belly. She has a quiet little laugh but loves to talk:) She's a tiny petite little thing.

Playing around in Utah at the Museum of Curiosity. Emma is obsessed with playing in water at the moment. I'm counting the days till summer when the pool opens.

My BFF Bridget and our cute babies together. Hopefully they'll be good friends someday!

Emma being a goofball...because she's a goofball.

Also Emma now sleeps with all her toys.

Sydney's Blessing Day: November 20th. Both sets of grandparents and family from both side were able to be there. We felt so blessed to be surrounded by so much family. But of course we didn't take very many pictures. Caught up in the moment! But it was a wonderful moment:) Josh gave a beautiful blessing and he spoke about Sydney being filled with peace and sharing that with those around her and being full of wisdom. We can already see that in the short 4 months we've had her in our home. We love her so much!

This cute moment I caught with my brother Daniel and Sydney. Adorable!

Also I can't get over Emma's crazy bed head. Where does this girl get her curly blonde hair from?!? We still have no idea, but we love it. I was real excited though when she could wear piggy tails.

There was a fun little Christmas village we went to with lots of shops and trees, Santa, etc. The best part is that it was free! It was fun to kick of the Christmas season.

We also went to the zoo lights here in Oregon which was awesome! I'd never been to one before and they did such a good job! We were pretty cold by the end but it was totally worth it. That light mural of the lighthouse was spectacular.

We also made a gingerbread house. Josh decorated most of it while I tended to the kiddos. Maybe next year we'll all get to participate and I'll try to make a real one...maybe...

Josh's mom bought the girls adorable matching Christmas dresses. Love! We totally had to bribe Emma with a cookie to sit still for a picture.

We had a fun but quiet Christmas by ourselves. We spent Christmas Eve with my aunt and uncle which was really fun. We did the nativity scene and Sydney was baby Jesus

Really excited on Christmas Eve!!!

Our crew on Christmas morning

SNOW! Snow was a big part of our January. This was the 1st time it snowed and we made it a big deal. Little did we know we'd get a whole lot more.

6 inches in Portland is a lot! Everything shut down for almost a week. We had an ice storm too and church was cancelled. So much for mild winters. But we had fun!

Um, babies in winter outfits are the cutest...

We got the best packing snow ever!

Emma sure loves her daddy.

She also loves getting warm by the fire:) Don't we all.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Emmisms

Emma has been talking non stop these past few weeks! She makes us laugh and laugh with all the cute and funny things she says. We're in the early stages of potty training ( just sitting on the potty, pretending to go), so some of the stuff he says is related to that ;)

Emma trying to go poop: "It's coming!"
[after a few seconds]
"It's stuck!"
[No poop]

Josh: "Mommy's cute"
Emma: " I'm cute too!"

Josh: "I'm gassy"
Emma: "I'm gassy too!"

Emma loses a toy: " I don't see it! I can't find it! Hmm [ finger tapping on her chin], where is it?" Usually looking for her binky...we have a thousand lost binkies around our apartment.

She's obsessed with "Frozen" these days and sings "Let it go!" all the time.

We had the sister missionaries over for dinner.
One sister: "What's your favorite food Emma?"
Emma: "Hmm, you!!!"

Emma in the middle of laughing: " I'm laughing, I'm laughing!!!"

I told her she couldn't mess around in the bathroom while I'm getting ready in there
Emma: " But I miss you!" And then comes in and messes around.

It's fun and entertaining being mom to a toddler:)

Thursday, December 1, 2016

October

We had such a fun October! We loved having little Sydney around with her sweet personality. She is the most peaceful baby and gives big gummy smiles that we can't get enough ot. We started out the month going to a local farm here to get pumpkins and doughnuts. They have cider doughnuts here!!! We were so excited and I made Josh buy a whole bag just for us. I'm a little obsessed...but apple and pumpkin! They had both kinds!! It was rainy and muddy but we still had a lot of fun. It was also our first official outing as a family of 4 so that made it pretty special:) Sydney was snuggled into the moby-wrap and slept the whole time.

Then we had our friend Yuri come visit us from Utah for a week. We had a ton of fun while Josh was at work. We went to the Pittock Mansion in Portland which has the most amazing view. The view of Mount Hood, wow. We went on walks around our favorite parks and enjoyed all the beautiful colors here! We also went to Blue Star doughnuts, rated the best doughnuts in the country. I have to agree, they were amazing!!! So gourmet. And it was fun to go hang out around downtown.

We went to Josh's Halloween work party on Halloween and went trick or treating there. Everyone was so sweet to Emma. She would take candy and run off as she said "thank you!" Emma and Sydney were both dressed as owls and won the work costume constest! Woot woot! I have to say they were pretty adorable but I thought I was just biased. That just proved it:)

We took Yuri down to Lincoln city and spent an amazing Saturday there. It was the end of October but warm and sunny! People had swimming suits on! It's always hit or miss when you go but it's always, always gorgeous.

Oregon is treating us pretty great so far:)