A new addition!

I had been begging Jr for YEARS to have a puppy, and he's always said "Not right now.." for various reasons. Well, we ended up talking about it last week and found the PERFECT puppy for us. No matter how tough Jr acts, he's a softie at heart, and would do anything to make me and the kids happy. So we went and got him! YAY!

So... Meet Diesel!

I'm a firm believer that kids need to grow up around animals. I believe that it helps build character and responsibility, as well as generally makes kids better people. When Devin, Kailynn, and Leilah are old enough, they will all share different chores with taking care of him. 

Devin already loves him, although Diesel is almost as big as him! Devin says, "That MY puppy." He loves petting him, but still gets a little scared when Diesel tires to play with him. 

We are so excited for the newest addition to our family! 

We have a crawlerrrr!

Leilah is officially crawling :]... It's more of an army crawl at the moment, but it still gets her where she needs to go lol.

It still fascinates me how fast time seems to be flying lately. Maybe it's because I'm so busy with two children now at home? I still think of Leilah as a little 3/4 month old little baby, and always get a jolt of surprise when I remember, "Wow, she's already 7 months old." My baby girl is now closer to being a year old than she is to being a newborn. 

Here's a video of her army crawl :]

Something else I've been meaning to blog about: my poor plants. 

I had the bright idea this year in spring, to try to grow my own flowers in pots in the house. I love flowers and I thought, "This will be so easy.".... NOT. 

I was so excited that after a week or two after planting the flowers, I saw little sprouts shooting up! I even called Jr at work and gushed to him about it! Well, for some reason I guess I just don't have a green thumb because they all just died :[. I think maybe they needed more sunlight, or maybe I didn't water them enough... I'm not exactly sure. 

I don't really get it, because I'm EXCELLENT at taking care of animals and kids... But my plants just always die. I have the anti-green thumb. 

When I work up the courage... I will try again, and one day I'll have beautiful flowers that I can say I grew on my own. 

6 months old and 4th of July

Life has been so busy lately that I'm finding it hard to remember to update on here! I can't believe it has already been 3 weeks since I've blogged. Jeeeezz! Get it together Nancy! 

Leilah is now 6 months old! It's amazing how fast these last 6 months have really flown by. 

Gosh! She has grown so much!

At 6 months:

•  her eczema has finally ALMOST cleared up... Not completely... But we're almost there. 
• she's mobile! not quite crawling yet, but she scoots and rolls EVERYWHERE.
• she loves her big brother and is constantly watching him and following him around 
• is eating baby food, but it's a battle everyday 
• her eyes are now a greenish/hazel color instead of blue
• her hair is growing (I can't wait to be able to put it in pony tails :]) and is turning an almost auburn brown
• she loves baths and splashing in the water in our little pool
• she will only laugh for Devin, but will smile for everyone else
• she "yells" at you when you're not paying attention to her

Here are some recent pictures of her:

This is mid- "yell"

Hanging out outside after swimming in the pool

Such a pretty girl

You can see the color of her eyes in this one

Trying so hard to crawl

Rolling around on the floor

This past weekend was 4th of July, one of my favorite holidays! We went to a BBQ at our friends house and lit off fireworks. It was so nice outside and a great, relaxing, and fun day. 

"Ball broken!"

Daddy and Devin playing games with the other guys

Leilah in her 4th of July dress

Kisses for my baby

Devin sitting with Mommy to watch fireworks

helping Devin with his sparkler

Daddy helping Devin

Devin loves sparklers

Sitting with Grandma he says "Noisy fireworks Mommy!"

Worn out at the end of the night

My babies decked out for 4th of July in Red, White and Blue

We had so much fun. Devin loved the fireworks and playing with the other little boys. He even loved the BIG fireworks even though they were "NOISY" :].