Crawling all around

Hayden has been showing a lot of signs of crawling the last few weeks. I thought she was going to start crawling when we were in Mexico to just prove a point but she luckily didn't. She would go from a sitting position to her belly, move her arms to crawl but her legs wouldn't follow. Then she would get frustrated and roll over or go back to a sitting position. I have been working with her on moving her legs behind her and this morning she proved that she was ready to go! She hasn't taken off yet but I think once she gets the hang of it, she will be everywhere before I know it! Now life in the Brown household will be crazy!

What am I going to get into now?
I just learned how to crawl so get out of my way!

Here I come!

I found out a couple weeks ago that I will be gone on Lyla's birthday this year. I have my yearly national sales meeting in Tennessee and now they moved it to the end of March instead of the beginning. Luckily I was able to get home a day earlier so even though Lyla will be in bed, I will be able to celebrate the whole day with her on Sunday. Now her birthday party will be moved to March 31st so she can have a whole week to celebrate!

With the weather getting nicer, I'm starting to get Spring fever! Organizing, getting miscellaneous things put away and planning on what I want to change with the house is just a few starters. I'm itching to get our kitchen, living room and hallway painted so I can get the wallpaper out of my house! I also want a new kitchen table, find new decorations and potentially new counter tops?? Matt doesn't know what I have all up my sleeve but maybe he will go along with it! He gets to plan his new garage out back so I get something out of it too right? Let's hope for the best!

Have a great weekend!

We survived being away...

Matt and I survived being away from the girls for 5 days and 4 nights while we suffered in Cancun last week. I was able to hit my numbers again last year for work and we got another incentive trip out of it. It was definitely a trying year to hit after being off for 3 months so this is by far was my proudest year. It was great being able to relax, sit on the beach and sleep in! We definitely missed the girls but it was nice to have a mini vacation on our own. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Brown who watched and took care of the girls for us!



Right after I wrote my last post discussing what Hayden has been up to, she has changed once again. She now sits on her own with no issues, has started to rock back and forth on her hands and knees along with rolling over like crazy. I guess whenever I post something she will show me what she's ready for!

Love my highchair!

Sitting up on my own

Play time in Hayden's crib!

Whenever I leave the room to do something for a minute and if I ask Lyla to keep Hayden company, I always come back to Lyla in Hayden's crib! Lyla loves to help out and take care of Hayden which is still wonderful.

Let's now hope for some uninterrupted sleep this week. We came home to both girls waking us up in the middle of the night, both well spaced out and Matt and I feeling like we have hardly slept! Lyla is now wearing big girl undies at night with no accidents but has decided to wake up in the middle of the night to go potty. We just don't want this to become routine for both girls!

Have a great week!

Hayden's 6 month pictures

We got Hayden's 6 month pictures taken last weekend. She again did such a great job! Enjoy!

What January Brings Us...

Daddy and his girls

6 month check-up
Hayden's 6 month check-up went well last week. She weighs 15.8 lbs (50%) and is 26.25 inches tall (75%). She still has her cold she has been trying to get over for the last month but still is hanging on. I figured it would rotate through the family again but knock on wood it hasn't yet!

Hayden has been starting to sit up on her own for up to 1 minute the last couple of weeks. She is still just rolling over here and there but continues to move around in circles on her play mat. She just likes to roll over to her side all the time. I can tell she is getting stronger by grabbing objects to pull herself closer to which is fun to see. She is definitely more content than Lyla was (who was crawling by this time) which is fine with me.

Tummy time

First rice cereal

I just started Hayden on rice cereal a couple weeks ago. I wanted to start her 1 month ago but wanted to make sure Matt was around to video tape and take pictures like we did for Lyla. Hayden was very different in her first experience than Lyla was. Even after a couple weeks of trying to feed her, she still doesn't like it. The dr suggested trying oatmeal so we will have to give that a shot. It's very different from not feeding Lyla fast enough to Hayden turning her head. It's definitely a very messy experience!

Frog towel!

I finally took pictures of Hayden in her frog towel. She just laughs at herself in the mirror when I show her all wrapped up. I also had to include a picture of Lyla when she was a baby.

Lyla when she was 9 months old

Lyla is potty trained!

I think I can safely say Lyla is potty trained. Starting on Dec 31st she has been wearing big girl undies all day long. Since then, she has only had 3 accidents during the day (all of which were in the bathroom and she didn't get her pants down on time). She still wears pull ups at night but she has been waking up dry most mornings. We are so proud of Lyla and she is getting to be such a big girl!

Also, since the last post, Lyla sings the ABC's all by herself! She only misses "J" and for "X" she says "S". I'm so amazed with how much of a sponge she is. Her new funny comment is "Good job momma" for something I said correctly. I guess you can definitely see yourself in your children. Let's hope it's all positive!

Like father like daughter (nice hat)

Lyla is sledding with daddy today. I bet she will never want to leave the hill!

What has Lyla been up to?

Now it's time to update you on Lyla and what she has been up to.

• Can count to 20 pretty much on her own


• Loves to sing ABC's....even though some of the letters in the middle are hard to understand! Can go A-G and M-Z.


• Song she loves"Country Girl" and she loves to sing and dance to this


• Still loves "Frosty the Snowman" and would sing this even in the summer!


• Doing much better potty training lately...on Dec 18th she wore big girl undies all day with no accidents! For daycare purposes, we put her back in pull-ups but she went a little backwards. Hopefully with me being home with her this last week will help get her in big girl undies all the time!


• Very competitive and doesn't like to lose. She tries to compete on various things like eating, getting upstairs first and etc. Not sure where this came from!


• Still continues to love being with Hayden and is such a big helper. She is also a big protector at daycare and doesn't want anyone to get too close to Hayden!


• Continues to have a great memory and remembers things from many months ago.


• Her sitter is amazed with how well she can communicate and just hold a conversation...she is getting too big!


• Word she made up: "tacoway" At first she would say this when she saw pictures of a crocodile but when we say "tacoway" she tells us we are silly.

I can't wait to look back at the blog when Lyla and Hayden are older to show them the things they used to do when they were little.

What has Hayden been up to?

I really haven't updated eveyone on what Hayden has been up to lately. Here are her updates:

• Still such a happy baby...very content and stays on her 3-3 1/2 hour schedule very well


• At 4 months, she was at 50% for height (25 inches) and weight (13 lbs 15 oz)....we will see what her 6 month appointment has in store for us in mid January


• Rolled over on December 2nd...of course I put her on her playmat, walk away and then she is on her back 1 minute later! Hasn't rolled over too many time since but she loves moving around her playmat. A lot of times she is in a totally different direction than you put her in.


• Has been fussy with her bottles and had to change to a totally different brand


• Gets really excited when she sees daddy and momma. Gets a big smile on her face and starts moving her legs a lot.


• Very interested in her hands and really looks at objects that are in her hands


• Loves to grab your face, nose, mouth when she is looking at you


• Every time we put on her Packer onesie for the Packer games, she always has a blow out! I'm not sure what she is trying to tell us!


• Loves to watch Lyla


• Big drooler like her sister Lyla was but still no teeth

Happy Holidays 2011 from the Brown's

I will try and recap what has been happening the last 1 1/2 months before 2011 is over. We have been here, there and everywhere so I'm looking forward to a couple weekends at home to relax with the family.

Our PJ girls

Thanksgiving
We had a great Thanksgiving this year, being able to celebrate with my brother, Megan and Colin. They were able to make it out to IL this year and it was great to see them! My mom and I did our annual Black Friday shopping and Megan came out with us to brave the crowds. We got so much shopping done that I think Megan needs to come every year! Brett and my dad watched the girls and Colin so they had fun as well. Let's see what we can do for next year!

Grandma Knox

My Grandma, Helen Knox, just passed away December 8th, a couple days away from being 92. She had long, healthy life and we are so grateful to have spent so many memorable times together. She is going to be greatly missed and it was a hard Christmas to be without her. I'm so grateful for everything she has done for me and my family along with being such a great role model. Even when she was sick the last couple of months, you would ask how she was feeling and she would just say "fine." She didn't want to be a bother to anyone and just loved spending time with family. The picture above was one of our visits back in October. I'm so glad I was able to brighten her day seeing her great grandchildren a few more times before she passed. Grandma we love you.

Christmas Eve

This was the year we traveled back and forth for our Christmas celebrations. Christmas Eve lunch was in IL with the Knox extended family and Christmas Eve night was with the Brown extended family. We love seeing so much family in one day, we just wish we could spend more time with everyone.
The stomach flu was spreading around this holiday with affecting over half of the family on the Knox side and a couple on the Brown side. We luckily have not caught that bug yet but Hayden has come down with a bad cold and I feel myself getting it as well. Welcome winter and all the sickness!

Hayden with Reagan (my cousin Jaime's daughter)

Family picture

Family picture with Grandma and Grandpa Knox

Lyla in her Christmas dress

Our beautiful girls

Ella and Lyla

Christmas

This was a great Christmas with Lyla this year. She was excited for Santa to come and give her a lot of presents for being such a good girl. It's so much fun seeing Christmas from a child's eyes...makes you want to go back in time. Christmas gets so busy with trying to decorate, get the tree, buy all the presents and I just need to stop and remind myself that this is a time for family. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and I just appreciate everyone around me.

Our PJ girls before they opened their presents

Lots of presents to open from Santa!

Smiley girl in her Christmas dress

Now we will be welcoming 2012 at midnight and can't wait to see what this year has in store for us!