My little beauty.

I took these when our little Jovi was about two weeks old. I had plans for a newborn shoot but my little dear had some plans of her own and stayed wide awake the entire afternoon. These are about the only ones that turned out and I just haven't had the time or energy to do another one.

I can't believe she's almost one month old. Time has flown by! Things are starting to settle down and Jovi's on a great schedule and some nights even going 5 hours (which makes the biggest difference). I can't wait for the day when she'll sleep through the night. I'm definitely starting to feel the effects of the sleep deprivation, especially since I rarely get a nap during the day... welcome to the wonderful life of having more then one child!

Jovi is a very pleasant baby. She's been smiling since day one and on a good day she'll just look around and smile at everything. I love it! She's been a little fussy off and on lately and we think it's due to a  sensitivity to dairy. She's super gassy and pulls her legs up in pain quite a bit. Nolan had a lot of that but way more severe. It's killing me going with out my cheese and greek yogurt but it's definitely worth it to have a happy baby.

She's a great sleeper but has to be put to sleep by bouncing up and down on an exercise ball. Seriously, nothing else will put her to sleep and I still can't bring myself to let her cry herself to sleep. It kills my back but I get a little workout every time.

Nolan's been so great with her. He call's her "Pretty Girl". He points to every part of her body and says "Look at her little nose...look at her little toes...."on and on and on. He doesn't have a whole lot to do with her yet but will want to hold her a few times a day and when he does he's super gentle and soft. He's adjusted really well, something I was quite nervous about.

I still can't believe we have two kids. It's hard work but so amazing!

Birthing pictures and delivery story to come. Just waiting on some pictures.

Sweet is life.

Jovi Grey Haynes

April 22,2011

3:17pm

7 lbs, 15 oz

Completely and utterly adored.

Many more pictures to come.

That's right, we're doing it!

I finally decided to take this parenting thing seriously and potty train my 3 year old. Surprisingly, it hasn't been nearly as difficult as I had thought it would be. The biggest challenge was just getting him to put a pair of underwear on. I spent all day bribing, manipulating, begging....seriously, everything and anything I could thing of. We tried candy...nope. A trip to McDonalds....nope. Pizza (his favorite)....nope. Notice how they are all food bribes? What can I say the kid takes after me and loves food. We even went as far as to tell him we could go to the store and get a new train...nope. Keep in mind, this is just to get him to try the dang underwear on! Finally we surrendered and I thought I'd just have to potty train him after the baby was born. Then later that night after his night-time shower, Rob just put a pair of unders on him without making it a big deal and it worked. Nolan didn't say a word and he walked right out to show me, as proud as he could be. Who knew it could have been that simple from the beginning. So that night we started and it's been great ever since. He's had his accidents but he's definitely getting the hang of it.

I just can't get over how stinkin' cute he looks in them. I seriously can't stop pinching his bum. It's so adorable. My baby's growing up and, although, I love it and this age is definitely my favorite, it really does make me sad.

Thank goodness for our beloved Iphones. Mines been snapping a lot more pictures these days, due to my camera breaking. We got a quote to fix it and we're still trying to decide if I should just get a new one, it's that bad. Yes, I'm devastated!

Basketball & Airplanes

Last week was a fun one. Thanks to Rob's company seats we got to go to the Suns game. It was the perfect evening for me. We went to dinner at Cibo (the best pizza and crepe dessert I've ever had in my life!!) and since it took a bit longer then expected we didn't get to the game until half time. Perfect! Plus it was a much needed date with my hubby. Something we haven't done in months.

Then on Saturday Rob took Nolan and my brother to the air show at Williams gateway airport. They all had a blast! And of course, Nolan had to wear his aviators, despite them being a few sizes too big. Rob did an awesome job getting some great pics of the day, guess I'm not the only photographer in the family.

 Thanks to our trustee i-phones for these images.

I do adore.

This boy is finally letting me take pictures of him again. I think he actually enjoys it. He's become quite obsessed with pictures lately. We are always looking at the pictures and videos I have saved on my phone and I constantly find him on the computer looking at the pictures on my blog. Even though it does get a little tiresome having him beg for pictures all day long, I secretly love it.

We are still trying to get settled in our new house. Mostly everything is unpacked but I had forgotten how much stuff I got rid of when we moved from our house. I'm slowly finding things here and there but as for decorations and furniture I've found nothin! I'm sure it will come. I'm just extremely anxious to get it all done before the baby comes, which I'm coming to realize probably won't happen. We still have a list a mile long that we need to do for this baby and we are running out of time. Only 8 weeks left. I go through mixed emotions all throughout the day. At times I wish I was due next week but then when I get overwhelmed with all that we still need to do I wish she wasn't due for months. No matter how stressed or exhausted I am, I am always extremely excited. A little nervous (it's been quite a long time since we've had a newborn. I feel like I've forgotten everything), but very excited.

Nolan couldn't be cuter about all of this. He loves to talk about the baby. When we go shopping for her he'll often pull out an outfit and say "Mom, this is so cute!" It's adorable! He's always pointing out babies to us wherever we go. I'm sure he's going to be a wonderful big brother.

Now off I go to hopefully cross a couple things off our never-ending list.

Cookies = Love

My mom was sweet and planned a fun Valentines morning of decorating cookies. 

We then took some cookies to Rob's work and also enjoyed some lunch at the park. This was our "big date" since Rob had to work at Apple that night. Poor guy has had 15 hour days this whole week. 

I sure do love my boys.

The Party

We are in our new home and mostly settled! It's a wonderful feeling to be on our own again, not that we aren't so eternally grateful for Rob's parents' generosity these last two years but there's nothing like being independent.

It was definitely an extremely crazy week! Packing all of our stuff (I'm still can't believe how much we crammed into just two rooms) and having a birthday party in the same week is tough enough but then add being 6 months pregnant to the mix. I was definitely running off of stress. It helped immensely that I seriously hardly put an ounce of time into Nolan's party (and also my amazing mother that came over when I was too brain dead to do anymore packing). It was really a challenge for me to let go of all the fun details, decorations and food I was originally going to do but I knew it would put me over the edge and let's be honest, he's 3 years old, like he cares.

When we first found out that we could move in to our new place Saturday (which was the same day as his party) I was going to just cancel it but Nolan would not stop talking about his "Party with all the kids". It almost broke my heart at the thought of telling him there wouldn't be a party, so we moved it to Friday morning. I'm not kidding when I say I kept things simple. We ordered pizza and played at the park. I did make cupcakes, however, and also gave out little goody-bags to all of his friends, but that was it.

They all had a great time. Sadly, I took very few pictures (as usual). This time I had an excuse. A party with 10 three year olds running around can be a bit hectic.

I forgot the candles. That's his favorite part, too. 

The only bite he ate. I guess he's more of a cake fan.

I love the huddle of kids surrounding the presents. It gets me everytime.

This is a good as it gets when we ask for a smile. Usually he won't even try to move his mouth.

We are making progress.

Some things we hope to accomplish now that he's three is getting rid of that blasted binky. Even though it is strictly for bedtime...it's time. I'm also hoping he'll come around to the potty. He's starting to want to go before baths, which is a huge step since he used to scream no at us. I would love for both of these to be done before the baby comes so I have a little over 13 weeks. 

We do so love our boy. He really is such a sweet little guy. He's matured so much and is such a good little helper. He understands so much and I love the fun conversations we have throughout the day. 

Nolan's never really had a nickname but I do often call him "My Sunshine". It's been our little song ever since he was born (as I'm sure it is for most parents). That song is so fitting. He truly is the light of our lives.