Who let the dogs out?

Megan (our niece) had her 5th birthday party last weekend and it was an adorable dog themed party. Based on the weather that we've been having, Joy decided to have the party at the park. Of course, it hasn't rained in forEVER but it ended up raining for about 30 minutes of Megan's party. Joy had painted the kids' faces to look like little puppies - Brooks looked adorable with a circle around his eye, some spots on his cheek, and a tongue painted to look like it was hanging out of his mouth.
After the rain it looked like this:


It didn't matter to the kids...they still had a wonderful time.
Laney got passed around between family members, and had a great time watching her brother and her cousins play after the rain left.

Brooks and Brodie had a great time together. Silly Brodie (do you see Brooks behind Brodie's big smile?).

Happy Birthday, Megan!

Ft. Worth Zoo

During Spring Break we spent a little bit of time in Arlington with Gammy and Pops. Pops insisted that we spend Saturday at the zoo. Luckily it was a beautiful day! We spent the morning walking around visiting with the lions, tigers, gorillas, elephants, and birds. Brooks even got some one-on-one time with Gammy and Pops while I sat and fed Laney. I only brought the single stroller so Brooks spent most of the "walking around time" like this:

Laney spent most of the time sleeping:

We had some fun watching the giraffes together:

And of course Gammy got a good fix of "Laney time" as well:

What a great end to our week off together.

5 Months and Counting

Laney is 5 months old today. Well, technically when you consider her age based on her due date, she is only 3 1/2 months old. She has grown so much I can hardly stand it. This past week she has grown a ton developmentally. It was so nice being home with her over Spring Break to watch her grow from day to day.

First time in the saucer thing:

Here she is trying desperately to roll over. She finally mastered rolling over from her back to her tummy on Sunday, March 20th (for my records):

Just showing off her new bow and one of her famous "Laney" faces:

Laney is such a happy little girl. She sleeps well, eats well, and plays well. She is so content on her playmat, or in her swing, or just hanging out on the floor with her brother. She hardly fusses and is just an absolute joy. Plus - she is just so stinkin' cute! Brooks likes to say: "Look mom! Laney has pretty eyes like me!" He is right - both my kids have those beautiful blue eyes. I'm still wondering about Laney's hair color. Sometimes I look at it and see a hint of red. I'm looking forward to watching her grow even more this next month. She's drooling a lot and sucking on anything she can. Teeth? Maybe. For now she's just all smiles.
I love you Laney-bug!

There just aren't any words...

Literally, I tried to think of a title for this post that would capture the moment, and I just couldn't do it. I'm always talking with my first graders about crafting their titles. You know, so not every title is: "The time I went to Sea World with my Family" or "I love my dog because he's so cute". Those are the kinds of titles I see from my kids if I don't teach them anything different. So, my point is, I was trying to think of a title other than: "Laney and I took a nap together" or "I love holding my little girl in my arms while she sleeps". There are seriously no words that can capture how wonderful it was to have Laney asleep on my chest the other day. Here's how the story goes...
Brooks was already down for his nap and Laney and I were just hanging out on the floor watching some Rachel Ray. I laid her down on my chest with her paci in her mouth and it wasn't 2 seconds later that she was asleep. I thought about it for a minute and decided I should probably put her in her crib so she could have a good nap and I could get things done around the house. Then I thought about Brooks and how quickly he has grown up. He doesn't cuddle me any more or fall asleep on my chest. So instead of putting Laney down in her crib, I slowly got up and carefully walked back to my bedroom. I didn't want to wake her so I was moving at about a snail's pace trying to lay in bed with her limp body on my chest. I laid down without waking her up. Now, that's just half the battle - the other half of the battle was trying to get comfy so that maybe I could nap, too. I adjusted the pillow a bit and covered us up with the blanket. We were so cozy in bed together. I just laid there for a while listening to her breathing. I thought about how blessed I am. Let's think back: It was 15 hours after birth before I even got to see my daughter, and still another 12 hours before I got to hold her. And even then I had to schedule a time that worked for the nurses to sit and hold her...and I could only hold her for an hour. And it was never peaceful. There were always nurses chatting, alarms going off on all the NICU babies (including our little peanut), not to mention all the wires in our way. These are the memories that were going through my head while I held Laney the other day.
I am so blessed and holy cow - I love this girl so much!
I did manage to close my eyes a bit even though my arm was completely numb. We ended up laying together for about 2 hours. I would sleep a little and wake up to her little noises, and then sleep some more.
It was the most perfect 2 hours of my day.

Texas Baseball

Well, we took up half a row with all the family, and we had a blast watching UT play Brown. It was Brooks' and Delaney's first time to a UT baseball game. What fun! Brooks hung out with Birdie and his other cousins while watching the first few innings.

Laney slept.

And then she woke up to hang out with Aunt Jill.

Brodie, Megan and Brooks had fun making Delaney laugh in between innings.

Brooks and Scoops took turns making each other laugh, too.

Brooks discovered a new silly face.

Oh yeah...there was a baseball game to watch, too.

Laney watched a couple of innings from the comfort of Birdie's arms.

And what's a baseball game without crazy kids running up and down the stairs, playing in the rows of seats?!

And just for fun, here's a picture of us under the Brooks Kieschnick poster (one of the reasons we named our little boy Brooks).

All in a Day's Work

Today started with a birthday party for one of Brooks' friends. It was from 10:30-12:30 at a Bouncy House. The party had Starbucks for adults, juice boxes for the kids, and breakfast tacos, fruit and cake for all. Doesn't get much better than that! I fed Laney at the party and then we enjoyed talking with friends and eating plenty of food. She feel asleep about 12:30, just as we were leaving. We got home a little after 1:00 and she stayed asleep in her carseat. I put Brooks down and Chad and I napped as well. I set my alarm for 3:30 to wake up and feed Laney again. I went in there about 3:45 and she was still out.
Isn't she precious?

I took her out of her carseat and discovered this...Disgusting.

What a good excuse to change her outfit, put a bow in her hair, and snap some adorable photos.

There she rolls!

You'll have to excuse the fact that I say, "Roll over, Laney!" I was just trying to be the commentator, not trying to sound like a dog trainer. You'll also have to try and ignore Brooks in the background.



I know rolling over doesn't seem like a big deal...and maybe it's not. But I also know that this is my second/last child and I've decided to make a big deal out of everything. She's growing up so fast and before I know it - I'll have forgotten all of these small moments. So I'm going to try and do my best to capture as much as I can of this sweet little girl.