52 Project 2015: Week 21

"A portrait of each of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

 Jackson: This past Saturday, we went to visit my Grandparents and Aunts, Uncles and Cousins in Mt. Vernon, IL. (My Dad's Parents and siblings.) They had some kiddie bikes and a wheel chair ramp... need I say more. Jackson loved every minute of it.

 Avery: Also while visiting family that day, Avery tried on her cousin Landon's cool gold shades. Too cute!!

Avery's 13th Month

Avery,

Today, May 28th you turned 13 months old! Wow, a whole month passed the one year mark!

Size:

You seem to be slimming down now that you're walking and very mobile. At your 1 year check-up at the doctor earlier this month you weighed 21 lbs. 14 ozs. (77th percentile) and you were 31 inches tall (95th percentile)!I think that's probably still the same now.

Clothing:

You are wearing 18 month clothes with a couple 24 month things thrown in.

Shoe Size: 

Size 4 

Diapers: 

Size 4

Teeth: 

You just got a new tooth in this past month and are getting another one as well. You now have 4 on top and 3 1/2 on bottom. ;-)

Hair/Eyes: 

Light Brown Hair (it keeps getting lighter and lighter) and brown/gray eyes.

Sleep:

You usually go to sleep between 8 and 9 and you generally sleep until 9 or even 10 the next morning!You are such a great sleeper and Mommy and Daddy appreciate that. You are down to taking one long afternoon nap that usually lasts between 2-3 hours, sometimes a little longer even.

Eat: 

You love pancakes, toaster sticks, peanut butter sandwiches, macaroni, yogurt, apples... well there really isn't much you won't eat. You will try anything and depending on your mood, you will chow down or sometimes you'll spit it out. Sometimes you'd rather play with your food than eat it and you always eat better if you are able to feed yourself. You now think you need a fork or spoon no matter what you're eating, but at least it's good practice.You generally get one 10oz. bottle of whole milk right before bed and then whole milk and/or water in your sippy cup throughout the day. You drink from a sippy cup and straw very well,

Favorite Toys: 

You love your baby dolls. It's so sweet.

Milestones: 

You have been fully walking for a couple months now and can even run. You can climb the stairs (with assistance of course). You can play peek-a-boo, give high fives, clap your hands, wave bye bye, raise your hands up when we say "so big", you dance to music or just when we say dance Avery.  You try to jump when we say jump and you mimic me if I rub my hands together with lotion. You shake your head yes and no. I may or may not have taught you to shake your head yes when I ask you if you're Momma's girl. ;-) You give hugs now by laying your head on our shoulder when we say "hug".

Vocalizing:

You say Momma, Dada, Papa, Uh Oh, Nigh Night and Bye Bye/Baba and you even say Brother. This past month you also added Ball to your vocabulary and "All Done". :-)

Personality:

You're just so sweet and adorable. You're definitely a girly girl. You love to brush your hair and you love shoes!! However, you can hang with the boys too and I love that! You aren't happy when you don't get your way and definitely let us know about it. You get your feelings hurt easily and will pucker up your bottom lip. It's so pitiful.

You love to laugh at your brother. You love him lots and give him hugs when you go to pick him up from preschool. He is definitely a cheerleader for you as well and gets so excited when you do something new! It's so fun to watch you two together. You are starting to learn to play together and it was so cute the other day when he was playing swords and you had 2 hairbrushes and were following him all around. He would say "come on Avery" and you would follow right along like you knew what you were doing. SO STINKIN CUTE! He stands up for you if someone makes you cry, but if you steal his toy or cup, look out because he will snatch it right back, no questions asked. (We are working on that.)

You have stolen this mommy's heart and I can't begin to say how much I love you! I know I say it every month but you are just so much fun! We can't go anywhere without having multiple people say how adorable you are. I Love You to the Moon and Back Baby Girl!
-Mommy xoxo

52 Project 2015: Week 20

"A portrait of each of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

 Jackson: Sliding down the slide in our backyard!

 Avery: Watching the bubbles float away that Jackson was blowing. :-)

5 on Friday

Happy Friday!!

I'm linking up with Darci, Natasha, April and Christina for Five on Friday!

 Jackson's preschool has picture days twice a year. Once in the Fall and once in the Spring. He never wants me to take his picture and rarely ever cooperates, but he always smiles so good for them so I just have to buy them! Here is his Spring picture for this year. As my husband said, he looks like a teenager!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day this year! We went to church. Then after church my family went to visit my Grammy's grave at the cemetery. After that we headed over to my parents' house for a BBQ and then later that afternoon, we went to my Brother-In-Law and Sister-In-Law's house for dinner with Jake's mom. It was a nice relaxing day spent with family and the two sweets that made me a mommy!

The Girls on Mother's Day: Me, Avery, my Mom and my Sister.

Jackson made me a hat at preschool and couldn't wait til Mother's day to give it to me, so he gave it to me last Thursday (the day he made it). He was so excited about it. :-)

My mom took this adorable picture of Avery last week while they were shopping. I know I'm biased, but she is just the cutest!!

We had Avery's 1st Birthday party this past Saturday. Despite the rain, it was a great party with so many of our friends and family there to celebrate our sweet girl! Much more on the party in a post coming soon!

I hope you all have a GREAT weekend!!

Avery's 12th Month

Avery,

On April 28th you turned 1 year old! 

Size:

You are such a big girl, I can't believe it! You had your 1 year check-up at the doctor on Monday and you weighed 21 lbs. 14 ozs. (77th percentile) and you're 31 inches tall (95th percentile)! You had to get 3 shots and you handled them like a boss. You cried right when she gave them to you but didn't cry for very long. Big brother tried cheering you up by blowing raspberries for you to make you laugh and it seemed to help. SO SWEET! (He thought of that all on his own!)

Clothing:

You are wearing 18 month clothes with a couple 24 month things thrown in.

Shoe Size: 

Size 4 

Diapers: 

Size 4

Teeth: 

You still have 6 teeth total. 4 on top and 2 on bottom.

Hair/Eyes: 

Light Brown Hair (it keeps getting lighter and lighter) and brown/gray eyes.

Sleep:

You had been waking up once during the night for a bottle, but in the last two weeks or so, you have been sleeping straight through the night and it's been wonderful. You usually go to sleep between 8 and 9 and you generally sleep until 9 or even 10 the next morning! Heaven!!

Eat: 

You seem to have gotten your appetite back this last week or so. You have been eating all table food now. No more baby food for you big girl. You love pancakes, toaster sticks, peanut butter sandwiches, macaroni, yogurt, apples... well there really isn't much you won't eat. You will try anything and depending on your mood, you will chow down or sometimes you'll spit it out. Sometimes you'd rather play with your food than eat it and you always eat better if you are able to feed yourself. You generally get one 10oz. bottle of whole milk right before bed and then whole milk and/or water in your sippy cup throughout the day. You drink from a sippy cup and straw very well for only just turning one.

Favorite Toys: 

You got a baby doll for your birthday and that has been a favorite these past couple days. You love on her and pat her on the back. It's the cutest thing ever!

Milestones: 

You have been fully walking for a couple months now and even try to run. You can climb the stairs (with assistance of course). You can play peek-a-boo, give high fives, clap your hands, wave bye bye, raise your hands up when we say "so big", you dance to music or just when we say dance Avery.  You try to jump when we say jump and you mimic me if I rub my hands together with lotion. You shake your head yes and no. I may or may not have taught you to shake your head yes when I ask you if you're Momma's girl. ;-)

Vocalizing:

You say Momma, Dada, Papa, Uh Oh, Nigh Night and Bye Bye/Baba and you even say Brother.

Personality:

You have a sweet and silly personality, but you don't shy away from letting us know what you want. You are a bit spoiled, so if you don't get what you want you tend to throw a fit. Ha. We really need to work on nipping that right away. You can be so sweet though. You are a momma's girl for sure and you don't really like to be left alone for even a minute or two.  You also adore your big brother. When you go with Maw Maw to pick him up from school, you always run over to him when he comes out of his classroom and you give him a big hug. You make me laugh all the time and can make some of the silliest faces! (Like the one below!)

Well I think that about covers your 12 month update! I love you more than words can say Pretty Girl.
-Mommy xoxo

52 Project 2015: Week 19

"A portrait of each of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Jackson: Jackson was swinging on our play set last Monday and when I went to take his picture, he kept turning his head away because he doesn't like his picture taken. So what does Mommy do, she does whatever it takes to get a smile... and I got a great one out of him. :-)

 Avery: Avery loves being outside now that the weather is warm. I think she wants to be outside even more than Jackson. She loves swinging on our play set.

 (Linking up here at Practising Simplicity)

Avery's First Year Book

I've made an 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch book of Jackson for each year of his life. So now with Avery's first birthday last week, it was time to get her book all finished up and printed. I use mixbook.com for the kids year books. I love these books and cherish them. They are so fun to look back through and I know it will be fun for them to look back through as they get older as well. I envision us looking at them together and smiling and laughing about fun times we've had. Hopefully they appreciate them as much as I do.

There is just something about physical picture books that you can hold in your hand as opposed to digital prints on your computer. While I love the idea of having them digitally and being able to share them on social media, nothing beats having physical pictures to look at whether they be in a book or hanging on your walls.

I try to start on the kids books early on in the year and then add to them as the year progresses. I usually start at their birthday and go all the way up to right before their birthday the following year. I have a layout that I try to stick to and just go with that. With mixbook.com, you can start a project and then save it and go back to it later. This makes it easy to work on a book like this throughout the year as opposed to being overwhelmed at the end of the year and having to do it all in one sitting.

I usually do a 2 page spread for each month that includes 4 pictures per page. Then I add in all the holidays and any major events (their birthday party, etc.). This has worked well for me. I do a mixture of DSLR photos and iPhone photos for these 8 pictures a month. Then I do a 2 page spread for each holiday and use some of the Mixbook's fun stickers and backgrounds.

Then right around their birthday, I finish up the book and have it printed so it's at their party for family and friends to look at. I ordered Avery's book last week and it got to my house in less than a weeks time! Mixbook, and many of the other similar companies have coupon codes you can use, so I never pay full price for these books.  I really think it's a great alternative to scrapbooking (like I used to be able to do before I had kids and had more time to myself).

So for anyone looking for a way to get your photos printed and in a physical book to look at, I highly recommend these books. I use Mixbook because I've had such a great experience with them and they have excellent customer service, but I'm sure several other companies that offer these type of books are great as well. I used Shutterfly for my pregnancy books and was very happy with them too, but I love the 8 1/2" square size that Mixbook offers as opposed to the standard 8x8, and the quality is great as well.

If you'd like to view the full book, click here. :-)

*I did not receive compensation or free product in exchange for this post. All thoughts and opinions included were honest and my own. *

52 Project 2015: Week 18

"A portrait of each of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Jackson: Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of Jackson this week with my DSLR. :-( I brought my camera to the park with us on Monday, but forgot a memory stick. So I took a few with my phone. I intended to get the camera out again later in the week but just never got around to it. We had a great time at the park on Monday though!!

 Avery: Saturday we had a birthday party to go to and then on the way home both kids fell asleep. Jackson stayed asleep when we got home, but Avery woke up. She wanted to stay outside so bad so I took her out in the back yard and brought my camera out with us for a few pictures. :-)