Laney at 15 Months

It's so hard to believe that Laney is already 15 months old! Crew was this age when we found out we were pregnant with her and I swear that was yesterday. 

She has already proved to us that she is quite independent...except that she is extremely clingy to me right now. That is something that we didn't go through with Crew and I'll be honest...it's not my most favorite thing. It's exhausting, but I love her for it. 

- Her babies are well loved around here. I need to take the clothes off the dolls so I can wash them! They are becoming very dirty but it's just evidence that someone loves them.

-She is loving the piano right now and always whines until I put her up on the bench. She plunks those keys so gently and smiles the whole way through. I'm just crossing my fingers that she loves that thing as much as I do. 

So a few days ago someone in our ward was giving this toddler bed away...for F R E E. Nothing makes my heart happier. I've been a little addicted to finding good deals lately...except for Christmas decor. Oops. Anyway I decided to snag the bed asap (it pays to be on my phone a lot...literally. I've been the first one to snag these deals) I knew we wouldn't need the bed for a while but decided it would be good to introduce sometime soon. (I'm actually very stressed about 3 small children and their sleeping schedules. So Laney needs to be in her crib aka cage as long as possible) She has slept in it one night, but hit her head the night after so I decided we were going back to the crib full time. I'm not wanting to give her too much freedom quite yet.  I do have to admit that she looks darn cute in it and I can't wait till she's old enough to sleep there. 

She is loving her older brother more and more these days. She wanted to hold his hand here but it took some serious bribing from me so that he would let her. She just didn't understand why he didn't want to! "ok that's enough Laney."-Crew

She is a very busy baby and a climber. Whyyyy did I get the climbers? It's so tiring and dangerous. 

She's the best and so much fun. 

I think we are all on pins and needles waiting to see how she will react to the baby. It's not lookin' too promising seeing how clingy she is to me:) We'll get there eventually!  

Early Christmas Setup

I'm sure you all wanted to see a million pictures of my Christmas Tree. 

I had envisioned a peaceful morning with Christmas music in the background while we ALL help set up the tree. 'Cause that's totally realistic right? Especially with 2 kids running around.

 But no, no that's not quite what happened. Now I know why my mom waited till we were in school to set up decorations for the Holiday's. I had forgotten how time consuming it was to put up a tree. Now I wish I was a perfectionist but I'm not. So in the last picture you will see that the Tree is lopsided. Totally fine. 

 15 month olds and Christmas Tree's do not mix. As much as I would love a full tree filled with ornaments, pinecones and other filler...I don't think it's worth me pulling her away from it constantly. She sweetly brings me ornaments throughout the day so now our tree is only decorated on the top. I don't know why I thought when she was a baby that she would be our "calm" child. That's not the case but we love her spunky attitude and independent little self. 

 She climbs on everything. It's only a matter of time before I catch her on the table. Really. 

Crew loves this tree more than anything! His face was priceless as I was setting it up. His 3 Christmas presents already came and he knows they are for him. He says, "only for me. but only to Christmas." I love his little sentences. They make sense to me. We are starting the only 3 gifts for Christmas tradition because Christ only received 3 gifts from the wise men. I heard about it and fell in love! Growing up I will say that we all counted our presents and hoped we got more than the other...but that led to many fights Christmas morning. It is very hard not to buy the kids everything. There are so many things they would love, but this little tradition is giving me some self-control. We are just all so excited for Christmas! 

Family Photos

 I think it's no secret how much I love these! I really had my doubts about them that night because of the kids and our outfit choices. (still wish I would have worn something different but too late to change that!) I'm just really happy that I have these pictures of our life right now. 

 Crew had dirt or rocks in his hand the entire time...but that makes him happy so we went with it!

 This little one has been a cute stinker lately. She is totally independent and wants to do her own thing. After my parents came to visit they said I was for sure in trouble with her! Meaning that I will be raising myself...which is good but we are both strong-willed. I love that about her though! I seriously love that we have such similar features too. I'm a little biased but I'm obsessed with her! 

 Her daddy is quite a fan of her too. He would literally give this girl anything she wanted. (except last night he forgot to give her a binky before putting her to sleep...well she slept 12 hours without that thing! Wahoo)

 I just adore this sweet husband of mine. I'm not one for public affection and what not...but I feel like I've gotten better over the years...ha ha But really, I love him so darn much. We make a good team. I feel lucky that we were able to start our family so young because we will have so much time together after they are all grown up. It will be like dating all over again! It will... only if we make it that way. 

 I could just go on and on about this one right here. He's the best. 

I never want to forget:

-his spiderman and despicable me underwear that he loves so much. So much innocence comes along with a pair of little boy underwear and I just never want them to go away. 

-the way he manages to sneak into our bed every.single.night but in the morning get's upset at me for letting him. "mom, why you let me sleep in your bed? I told you no." 

-his sales skills. He can convince us to give him anything with his cute dimples and eyebrows. He is now at an age where he can reason with us and it is quite funny. 

-the way he loves his sister. Sure they have their days and moments where it seems like all they do is fight, but then he turns around and love her. He will randomly go up to her and kiss the top of her head and say, "I love you so bad Laney." 

 I have so much love for these two and I cannot wait to love another. 

 Laney Kate is just a dolly around here. Quite literally. She is still tiny and is my real life doll! She is her happiest in the morning during breakfast and it sort of goes down from there haha Maybe it's the age but she is just done with life around 4pm. So we try to keep her busy until her 6:30pm bedtime. She sleeps all night till 7am. I'm not sure how life is going to be when I have to wake up again multiple times a night but it will be alright if I can have her sleeping through it all. (I'm actually excited to have quiet time during the night with the baby.) I LOVE checking on her through the camera in her room. She is so funny when she wakes up. 

I just love being a wife and mother! We are all so excited to meet the new little one coming soon. We can't wait to have a fuzzy, squishy, wrinkly newborn around again. I'm sure the kids will love it. 

Madeline & Batman

I've been looking forward to this holiday for a while and I cannot believe it's over. It was so good to get together with both sides of our family this year. My family came down for a couple days and it was so needed! They just adore the kids (a little too much...buying them whatever they want!) and they made this holiday even more fun. I am totally not a huge fan of Halloween. It can get pretty scary & evil out there with all of the costumes...so I'm hoping I can keep helping telling my cute kids what to be every year. I wonder how long it will last. Crew has wanted to be Batman or Tarzan for a while...but when we found a Batman costume at Costco he was sold on that. Easy. With Laney she was either going to be "boo" from monsters inc. or some sort of fairy tale character but I wanted it to be unique. So I came up with Madeline! Scoured Pinterest for tutorials and that was that. Luckily her cousin Hazel was the same thing so Mariah and I carved out a few hours to crank these dresses out and we couldn't be more in love! I kept telling Alex how badly I wanted Laney to wear dresses and capes like this everyday...or at least for church. :) We had dinner at the Martinsen's house with my family there too before we set out for the candy! Before dinner Mariah pulled out a darling cake that said, "baby" on it and that made the night! They are having a little girl in April and we all so happy for them! Now we even have more of a reason to hang on to these little Madeline costumes! 

*disclaimer: Laney is not my favorite child...Crew was just too darn busy running around being Batman to take a picture. And I am picture happy so I followed this girl around for a bit until I was satisfied.*

 She knew exactly what to do with that pumpkin bucket. 

 Getting Laney to stand by Hazel for one picture was quite the task!

 Grandma Tara pulled out her Batman pajamas and Crew was in heaven with that! Grateful Mariah takes pictures too because I know that at least one of us will be able to take pictures family events. It's seriously so nice sharing that hobby together! 

It was such a fun night filled with way too much candy. I am kicking myself for not getting pictures of the kids with Alex and I or the grandparents. I am so bad at that. New year's goal for next year!

Now I am already trying to plan out ideas for next Halloween with 3 little kids in tow...3 blind mice? haha maybe not that...but I am so excited for it!