Well, not too much as been going on here. But, in a way, a lot has happened. Weird I know.

Devin
I'm not sure I blogged about his struggles this year. He still has significant speech delays and is going to speech twice a week for that. But he has also really struggled with basically everything else this year--around Christmas he only knew about half the letters (identification only. He didn't know any sounds) and he couldn't count to 20. It has kept me up at night wondering first of all what I did wrong and second what I needed to do to help him. I never struggled in school and I taught before I had kids so I just never thought I would have a child that was so far behind. Since Christmas I have been dedicating a lot of time and energy to helping him catch up and I am so happy to say he has come a long ways and has made so much progress. He now knows all the letters and the sounds they make and can pretty much count to 100. He is sounding out and writing words and is just doing so much better. One of my friends told me they did reading comprehension tests on all the kids the other day and of the kids she worked with he was the only one that got all the answers correct. I know most of you are thinking, "So what? My little Timmy is 2 and can do all those things." For us, we are excited and pleased that he is making progress and even though we still have such a long ways to go, I just know he is going to be just fine.
Devin was very excited about Valentines Day this year. Here he is checking out his valentines after his school party.
My mom sent the kids their Valentines package and the kids were so excited! This egg was Devin's favorite. You put it in water and it hatched into a flamingo. Devin loved it.
Adalynn
I guess I am sticking to a school/development post here. I had Adalynn evaluated the other day to see if she needs or qualifies for speech therapy. She is very hard to understand. So two weeks ago we had her tested and the speech therapist told me she does qualify. So starting sometime in the next month I will be taking her to speech therapy twice a week. Other than that she is doing very well in preschool.

Another little treasure from my mom

Lyla
My sweet Lyla will be 8 months tomorrow. 8 months! Already! She is still the favorite around here. As soon as Devin and Adalyn wake up they get in the crib with Lyla and play with her and sing to her until I come and get her. Addie won't let her take a nap or go to bed until she kisses and hugs her and Devin tells me all the time, "Lyla is the cutest one in our family." They love her so much.
She has been so different from Devin and Adalynn. She will still not eat solid foods. I have almost stopped trying because she might take 2 or 3 bites but then she is done. I guess I just keep trying right? I have never had any eating issues with the other two so this is different for us. And speaking of different, she doesn't move around yet. Jared calls her our "lazy baby" because by 8 months Devin was crawling and pulling himself up to stand and Addie was walking by 9 months. Lyla seriously just sits there (and she isn't even sitting 100% yet). She doesn't roll over or crawl and isn't even close. I LOVE it. It makes her seem like a baby still and I want her to be a baby for as long as possible.

She also has two new teeth. You forget how exciting new teeth are!





I love those cheeks!

We survived our first sickness. Poor little girl had a bad cough that lasted about a week. Nights were rough. It only took one day of antibiotics and a breathing treatment and she was so much better.
I've added a few new things to Lyla's room. My sister made this in photoshop. Thanks Jen!

I made this banner when I still had my silhouette. I found this scrapbook paper that was perfect for her room.
I re-did the pennant banner in her room with the paper I found. I wish you could see it in real life...it is so cute!
And I added some pictures.

Lyla--7 Months

Our little Lyla is now 7 months! She was 15 pounds 2 ounces at her 6 month well check and she is such a chunk. Everyone started calling her Chunka- Cheeks at Christmas because she is just all cheeks. Which I love! I seriously can't stop kissing them all day long!

Here is a little bit about Lyla. She is so happy and mellow all the time. She just goes with the flow--which is nice since we are always running around getting kids to and from school and playgroups. She rarely gets a "real" nap because as soon as she falls asleep I have to get her in the car seat to pick Devin up or take Addie to preschool.

She HATES solid food. She will not even let me put the spoon in her mouth--she clasps her lips together so tight and then if I happen to get some in her mouth she gags and cries like she is being tortured. She will not eat it. Period.

She was sleeping pretty well, but starting around Christmas she started waking up much more. Last night she woke up 4 times. The Dr. told me she is probably hungry and eating solids would help, but like I must mentioned she will not eat.

Unlike Devin and Adalynn she doesn't move around a lot. By 7 months Adalynn was sitting, crawling, and pulling herself up to stand and she was full on walking by 9 months. Lyla is just barely learning how to sit up by herself. It will be a long time before she is crawling or walking--which is fine with me. It makes me feel like I have my baby for a while longer.

Here are a few pictures from the last month...


She has 2 teeth! I hate this bib. "Looking good is better than being good" Really? The kids still think she is the greatest thing ever. As soon as they wake up in the morning they run to her room to see if she is awake. And they always want to hold her and be with her.
And even though this is a Lyla post, I had to throw a few in of Adalynn and Devin.
Can you guess what his newest obsession is?

Tule Springs

I took the kids out to Tule Springs in November and never posted any of these. I tried to get a good one of all three (and failed). But I got one at Thanksgiving in AZ so it was all good.

Lyla Sitting

I need to dedicate a whole post to Lyla, because she is 7 months tomorrow (crazy!) and there are so many things I want to remember. But for now, here is a video of her sitting...still not 100% (hence the pillows behind her).

Love

I love them!

New Years

We ended up staying in AZ for New Years because Sean and Sam came to visit (which was really nice since it had been over a year since we last saw them!)

Taking the kids on a tour to see the goats, chickens, cow, and pig

We pulled out the bubble wand again--Devin got pretty good at making some big bubbles.
Gosh, I love Lexi!
Lyla with hair
It was really cute watching the girls play barbies and dress up.

Sam and I made the boys take a break from watching football and squirrel hunting to get pedicures. We took Lexi and Addie and they both did really well and loved it.
I'm sorry--I had to post this. These guys were obsessed with hunting squirrels the whole time. And you don't even know how proud they were when they finally got one.
Going on a walk..


New Years Eve we made dinner and played Imaginiff. The kids went to bed early and we didn't do anything special that night...so the next night my dad pulled out his fireworks stash and we set some off. We ended the night with blizzards and a movie for the kids--It was a fun way to end the vacation.
Oh Sean!