Jocelyn is 6 Months!

Well dear readers, we last left off with Jocelyn teething, being able to roll from belly to back, and an emerging fondness for MOVING. She is actually closer to 7 months now, but what can I say? I am doing my best!

Jojo can now roll from back to belly and ALMOST sit up on her own. She puts some serious effort into it because at this point, she basically hates to be lying down unless she is asleep. There is too much to see and do! She still has two teeth, but the top two are getting close to breaking through and she is still drooling like crazy.

I took her to the doctor for her 6 month check-up on the 3rd and here are her stats:

She is 18 lb 11 oz (of pure determination!) which puts her in the 87th percentile
27.75 inches long - 97th percentile
17.5" head circumference - 95th percentile

Surprise, surprise, I have big children ;)

But what she lacks in daintiness, she makes up for with fun, giggles, and all around cuteness. She has been such a fun addition to our family!

Her first time rolling from back to belly! Look at that proud smile!

Their sweet Daddy reading to them. LOVE

I just threw these in because they make me laugh. She isn't even looking, but still wreaking havoc on the cat!

Jocelyn's First Feeding

I cannot believe that I forgot to post pictures about this! After JoJo went to her four month doctor's appointment, our doctor said that she was big enough, strong enough and healthy enough that we could offer her rice cereal if we wanted. It was basically to see if she was ready to start solids, or if she would just keep pushing it out with her tongue. What ensued was some of the funniest pictures I have ever seen. Her faces! Her hair! She is just wild!

 Needless to say, she was NOT thrilled with the rice cereal. She did love to hold the spoon though, and already, at four months, felt like she should be feeding herself. Thanks, Jared, for catching this on the camera! Slowly but surely she is getting a little better at keeping the food in her mouth, and she does get a little more excited these days when she sees me bring out the rice cereal. All I can do is hope and pray that she will like eating baby food more than her sister! Tomorrow is her 6 month doctor's appointment, so I will post her 6 month update when I have some of her stats (spoiler, she is ginormous still! lol).

JoJo is 5 Months

I feel like so much has happened this past month! Jocelyn is now trying to scoot around on her back as she pushes off things and can definitely roll over from belly to back. She can ALMOST roll from back to belly, so that should happen soon, I am sure! She has also had not one, but TWO teeth break through this month, and man-oh-man can she use those suckers. Luckily for me, she hasn't done it while nursing, but if she gets a hold of one of your fingers WATCH OUT! Girlfriend can use those chompers. Teething has definitely messed up her routine a little bit, and she stopped being an amazing sleeper, and has moved to being a pretty good sleeper. I think that having me gone working has also impacted that as well. It's hard to stay on her schedule when there are pick ups and drop offs to worry about all the time, but we are doing our best. A big thank you to my parents for picking up so much of my slack during the craziness that is tax season.

She is still a giant, and I am constantly amazed by how big and strong she is. She loves to jump in her jumper and can get some serious height. She just loves MOVING. We (and when I say we, I mean Jared) also gave JoJo her first haircut! Mostly Jared just trimmed off the back to give the top and sides time to grow in some more so it doesn't look so much like a mullet. Every once in a while she will have a day where her hair lays down, but I have to admit that I love when it is up and crazy! I always think of Kramer from Seinfeld. Since she is starting to sit up more, I am happy to report that the hair loss on the back of her head is finally stopping and will hopefully fill in soon!

Gotta love his technique!

When I picked her up after work one day I was just overwhelmed by the cuteness!

Leila crowned her Princess JoJo

 These next pictures were taken right after we dropped Christian off to preschool. I was getting JoJo back into her seat and...everything was perfect! She looked cute, her hair was uncharacteristically tame, her outfit was adorbs, and the lighting made her baby blues just SHINE.

Jared's Aunt Terri said that Leila and JoJo look so much alike (all the kids do!), that I did a side-by-side comparison of them at similar ages. They have their differences, but the cute nose, bright eyes and pillow cheeks are definitely a trademark!

I couldn't find one of CJ at 5 months, but here he is at 6 months and...you get the idea!

Jocelyn, I love your laugh, I love the way you kick your legs with such vigor that you surprise even yourself! I love the way you coo and your smile lights up your face when you see me. I love that, even now, you constantly want to be up so that you can see the world and not miss a moment. I am having so much fun with you right now and I am grateful you picked our family! XOXO

Easter 2016 and picture overload

 Easter this year was very different in many ways, but it was seriously SUCH a great day. For the few weeks leading up to Easter, the kids and I spent time reading stories about Jesus's life, the miracles performed, and details about the resurrection. We read scriptures, watched videos and talked about it. My mom also helped them make "Resurrection rolls" to help demonstrate the idea of an empty tomb. I feel like going into it Christian had a way better understanding of what Easter meant, and Leila was starting to catch on too!

The kids woke up to individual Easter baskets and new outfits. I tried to keep it more simple this year. Each kid got an outfit, a pair of shoes, a movie they have asked for (Christian has been begging for two so JoJo very selflessly let her movie pick be one of the ones he wanted! lol), and a little candy. Much to my surprise Christian didn't throw a fit about wearing his vest or bow tie at all!

After they looked through their baskets, we all got showered and dressed and headed over to my parent's house for an Easter egg hunt and brunch. This year my mom had the brilliant idea to dye eggs four different colors. 8 orange, 8 pink, 8 purple and 4 blue. Christian's were orange, Leila's pink, Elaine's purple, and JoJo's blue. That way, each kid got to look for only their color to ensure that Leila got to play along! And the blue eggs were fair game! All of the kids "helped" JoJo find hers and put them in her basket. It was WAY too cute. Afterward we celebrated with our traditional creamed eggs brunch and then headed home to get ready for church.

Cousin love

Those two are seriously hilarious together

Showing off her egg

Christian was SUPER good at finding other people's eggs, but...not so much his own!

Proud of his "golden" eggs

I am not sure what face she is making here!

Before I go much further I should explain that the Tuesday before Easter Leila fell running on the sidewalk and completely busted open her lip and scratched up her nose! She is still cute, but it definitely made for some memorable Easter pictures.

Church was wonderful, and even though we only had one YW there and 5 leaders, it was still a very beautiful and spiritual meeting.

My dapper man

I love his genuine smile!

Be still my heart!!!

Big Brother and Big Sister loving on JoJo

I LOVE this picture!

I was making funny faces at them so, of course, they stuck out their tongues too

So close - stop scrunching your face CJ!

Look up, Leila!

Come on guys! Smile! Look at me!

JoJooooooooooooo stop eating your dress!

Another funny face by mom, gone wrong

Such a nerdy face

I am sure she was directing me to do something

Who can photoshop the scabs out of this one???

I get this a lot. Stop acting coy you cute little manipulator!

She puts EVERYTHING in her mouth right now. Trying to get a picture without her hand or dress in her mouth was basically impossible.

Is she licking her dress??? I think she may be!

Those shoes were way too big for her

Love her crooked smile

Daddy trying to get her to smile

She's thinking about it....

These pictures are blurry, but so cute! He was holding her in the air.

A true, genuine, JoJo smile.

She loves her Daddy

Leila wanted to hold the camera

She actually took this picture. Girl has a definite eye

Still trying to figure out what her true eye color will be.

After church, while dinner was cooking, Leila fell asleep with little cereal dribbles on her dress and her hand IN the bag!! lol

 Usually, we go to Jared's mom's house for Easter dinner, but this year we decided that we would attempt to make our own Easter dinner the way we wanted to do it! After talking at length, Jared and I both decided that we didn't really like ham all that much, and so we broke tradition and bought STEAK! We wanted to do something fancier...and an item that we didn't have regularly, but that we both enjoyed. So when we got home from church, we got to work! We ended up with funeral potatoes, rib eye and new york strips on the grill, grilled asparagus, orange jello salad, and King's Hawaiian rolls. We even brought out some Martinelli's and used the champagne flutes that Jared got from my parents (amongst other things!) for his birthday. Oh! And lemon poke cake for dessert, but I didn't get a picture of that. Suffice to say that it was delicious!

It was such a wonderful meal and a perfect day spent together as family. I am grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He made so that we may all live with our Father in Heaven again. Happy Easter!