Recently At The Crockett's

Here is a random and completely out of order update of our lives.  But who are we kidding, someone is going to need my attention soon and I don't have FOREVER to organize this post.  :)

I went to JoAnns recently and bought a few kids crafts for the kids so they wouldn't be super bored this summer.  (They both set a goal to make Wednesday's for this month "No TV Days.")

Anyways I bought a kits to make Perler Crafts.  Did you ever do those when you were a kid?  I loved them.   Wes didn't even know what they were.

Anyways after lunch yesterday, Wednesday,  the kids made one.  And then Novalee made another today.  I was kind of surprised at their skill.  I thought they would struggle with coming up with a design and figuring out how to place it but they did really well.

Here's Jared's:  Superman the new version with cancer on his face.  (I thought that was strange but I think he just wanted to be done already by the time he got to the face.)

Novalee on the other hand is obsessed with one person.  And her obsession runs deep.  Yesterday she made herself.  She came up and put together the dress and earrings all by herself.  She even made a cute belt to go with it.  And while she is 5 and likes herself, she isn't obsessed with herself.

But she is obsessed with a certain pop singer that wears A LOT of purple.  Any guesses?  

 Justin Bieber

And look how excited she is that her "Novalee" dolly gets to hang out with Justin Bieber.

And that they get to KISS!  

Today I would like to award myself with the "Pro-Parenting Award."

Kinsley did this while I was holding her.

And none of it got on me!  Oh ya, I'm awesome!  :)

Sadie has been really into "coloring" lately. 

However it hasn't been on paper...

You put nail polish on a girl's nails ONE time and then they become addicts.

I found Sadie doing this the other day with one of Novalee's fabric markers.

And if she gets bored of just doing her nails there is always the rest of the body.

 Kind of reminds me of the children's book. "Ain't Gonna Paint No More."

And this is one of Sadie's favorite past times and what she decided to entertain herself with this morning. 

You'd think I would learn to close the door by now. :)

 Good thing she's cute.

 Kinsley's first walk in the stroller.  

Daddy with everyone.  Sometimes I wonder why we bought new couches. 

 Here they all are piled on the loveseat.

Sleeping Kinsley

 At night both Sadie and Kinsley get needy for Mommy.  I guess that is what you get when you have two so close together.  Luckily Sadie is willing to share most of the time.

 A friend told me about this activity she found on Pinterest.  Basically you freeze a container of water full of toys and then you let the kids "dig" them out.

 I wanted it to last so I told them to go very slowly as if they were digging fossils. 

They loved it!

 Here's Kinsley at four weeks.

She looks a lot like Sadie to me.  But Wes thinks she will look different.  

He's probably right.  I don't think she has as round of a face as Sadie did.

 Sadie giving "our" baby lovin's.

 Sadie is so cute.  I love that she actually smiles when I take pictures.

Kinsley at one month old. 

Dad bought us new sleeping bags and he wanted to try them out.  Sadie wanted to help so she set up her own sleeping area at the end of the bag.  :)

Just cuz she's cute.

Happy baby with mommy.  She about three weeks old here.

 This Sunday the kids decided to build a fort outside and then asked if they could sleep in it.  I said it was fine with me which I almost immediately regretted.  Of course it was supposed to rain and of course it was cold outside.  And of course the kids are pretty little and even though the yard is fenced in what if something bad happened to them.  

Dad also didn't think it was a super great idea since he had to work in the morning.  But I figured they would give up as soon as it turned cold outside.  Novalee did give up at about 11pm.  

Jared was our brave, fearless warrior, to the chagrin of his parents.  I was nervous about him being on his own but super tired and had to take care of Kinsley.  So Dad offered to sleep on the couch with the window open to make sure he was fine.  At 3am we were both still too worried about him to get too much sleep so I went and got him.

He's in there and if I hadn't gotten him he would have been out there the whole night.  :)

  Kinsley yesterday.  She was one month, two days old.  At her doctor's appointment she weighed 10 lbs, 3 ounces.  I just love that she's getting chunky.

She's Smiling.  :)

 And that is life for us right now.  It's a little crazy.  Kinsley has turned into a needy baby and "needs" to be held almost all the time.  She goes through phases of not sleeping well at night.  We were on about three nights of little sleep until last night when she only woke up twice which made me a thankful Mommy this morning.  At least she doesn't cry when we are holding her at night.  Sadie would just cry and cry and cry regardless of what we did at night.  So we should count our blessings.  :)

A Jared Update

Finally, it's Jared's turn.

Jared has changed so much in these last few months and even weeks.  All in really good ways too.  I just love seeing his progress as he grows up.

On Tuesday this week I took the kids (all 4) to Novalee's gymnastics, JoAnns Fabric and Ross.  Holy cow I can't describe to you how much I was dreading the experience.  While even just a few months ago there would have been drama at every turn it was actually surprisingly uneventful.

Jared has been my boy that up until now has needed to poke or touch everything around him during shopping trips including his sister.  If that doesn't entertain him then he will find some other way.  Dancing around the cart to the elevator music, sliding on the floors, hiding behind products on the shelves, tackling his sister at the check out stand are all part of what gets Jared through a trip to the store.  And I don't even want to go into the amount of complaining about how much he hates shopping, that he does the entire time we are preparing to go and driving to the store the few times I actually take him (normally I try to do it when he is in school).

But on Tuesday he never complained.  He just asked how many stores we would go to before we would get to go home.  And even at Ross he just followed me around, including the boring clothing sections.  It was amazing and actually enjoyable.  Hallelujah!

Apart from shopping, Jared has turned into a great help at home.  One of his goals for this month is to say "please" and "thank you" more.  He has been doing wonderfully at it.  He still has his moments when his sister Novalee drives him crazy but for the most part he is showing more patience with her.  As an example, yesterday on the walk home from the park Novalee kept wacking him in the bum with a stick.  It was driving ME crazy but Jared just ignored it.  When I finally told her to stop, Jared just chuckled.  I was pretty impressed.

He's at this age where he is trying really hard to be funny.  I like that.  I remember when I just had him, a friend of mine had a boy about Jared's age now and he would always be trying to tell jokes that he made up.  Finally his mom told him that his jokes weren't funny and that they needed to have a punch line to be funny.  :) Whenever Jared tries to make up a joke I think about that and kind of chuckle inside.  He loves anything goofy or funny, especially when it's him that's making others laugh.  Right before dinner sometimes he requests that instead of eating with us, he gets to be the entertainment for the evening.  And he will either play the piano or dance or last night while eating he was telling "scary" ghost stories.  :)

Jared also just wrapped up baseball.  On Saturday he is getting a trophy.  Sometimes I think the idea of him getting a trophy has been more motivation for him to play than the actual enjoyment of the game.  :)  We will see what he thinks when he gets it.

He also came home at the end of the school year with a certificate for Student of the month!  He didn't seem too excited about it until I explained to him that Student of the Month is rare and quite the achievement (hopefully it still really is and they don't just make it a point to have each child be it at least once in a school year).  :)

Jared's report card came in the mail yesterday.  He is doing really well.  He is at or above grade level in all subjects!  I couldn't be prouder of his academic progress this year.  Hopefully it's something he keeps doing well at.

 His pretend "getting ready to catch the ball" pose.  :)

 After his last game we got ice cream to celebrate the end of the season.  Jared was really enjoying his.  Thank goodness for leather seats.  :)

Oh yes!  My little guy was Student of the Month!  

Oh how I love this kid!  

A Novalee Update

This will probably be short since Kinsley has been more demanding as of late.

But I wanted to remember a few things about  Novalee around this time.

Novalee graduated from preschool May 25th.  She missed her last day from school because her mommy was in the hospital.  I don't think she cared since she got to spend a whole day with Grandpa Larry and Grandma Lynne.

She did however make it to her graduation on May 23rd which was something I worried I would have to miss since it was around my due date.  I'm glad Kinsley waited.  Novalee was extra cute in her new dress.

As a side note: Her new dress she bought on her own.  I wanted to get her a new church dress.  She LOVED this one but I didn't think it was churchy enough and so I told her I wasn't going to get it.  She asked if she could earn it.  So I agreed.  I would split the cost of the dress with her. She would earn half and I would pay the other half.  I'm glad she pushed to have it because it is really cute.  

   Novalee with Papa Larry

                        Novalee with her good friend

 Novalee has also been vying for attention.  She always does but more than usual.  She loves to hop into any picture about to be taken.  Which is surprising because she usually ducks and hides.

 Daddy with two of his girls

                                     Novalee popped in this picture of Sadie.  She's pretty cute.

 This picture of Novalee in the pool posing reminds me of a picture I have of my mom when she was younger doing the same pose on my dad's truck.  Haha. (I wonder if that is going to be awkward for my mom...) Either way I kept looking at this picture thinking Novalee reminded me of someone and then it hit me.  I would be just fine if my daughter turned out to be as selfless and kind and smiley as my mother.

 Novalee has a natural desire to nurture.  Hopefully she chooses to be a mother someday because I think she will make a great one.  She is very sensitive to everyone's feelings and tries to make people happy.  When Kinsley cries she says things like, "Oh baby, baby.  What's the matter?  What can I do?"  Then when she can't get her to stop she says, "Mom!  The baby is crying and I can't get her to stop."  It's so sweet.

 She has been the one that has struggled with the adjustment of a new sibling the most but she still just loves being a sister.  She loves helping Mommy with Sadie since Mommy has her hands full with Kinsley.  I think that is wonderful.  Without asking her to help she will hold Sadie's hand when we get out of the car.  She will help her put her shoes on in the morning or help her out of her highchair.  She is a very good big sister.  Sadie and Kinsley are lucky to have her.

She has said that she feels there are already too many rules and there are even more now that Kinsley is around.  TOO many to remember.  I had to reassure her that there were only two more added.  One: Don't do dangerous things around your baby sister.  Two: Be quieter when baby is sleeping.  Which I think made her feel better.  :)

Her she is enjoying the spoils from Jared's last baseball game.  

I can't believe how beautiful she is.  I am amazed daily by her beautiful face.  I know that is silly but she is so pretty.  I wonder how I made such a beautiful little girl.  I love that she laughs and laughs and laughs.  I love that she is so aware of her feelings and knows how to talk about them when she feels like they aren't being appreciated.  I love that she is so smart and loves to learn.  She loves to try to be as close as possible to her brother.  She will watch a TV show she thinks Jared will want to watch that day while he is at school only to watch it again with him when he gets home so they can talk about it together during the show.  She will talk to Jared about TV shows while eating lunch or breakfast and try to explain the funny parts to him just to get him to laugh.  She loves art and bold/bright colors.  She loves to dance and sing.  

I love you Novalee.  

Thank you for being such a joy.

A Sadie Update

Our little Sadie is a changing.

We were really scared about leaving her overnight when we had Kinsley.  We haven't really ever been away from her longer than a few hours and we were worried that she would feel betrayed by us when we saw her again.

Luckily she is the perfect personality to be a middle child and she accepted without much grief us leaving her with "Gamma" and "Ganpa" and "Arf Arf" in the middle of the night to go to the hospital.

AND she didn't even freak out on us or distance herself from us when we brought baby Kinsley home.

We love that she believes us no matter what.  We can say, "Not right now, we will get it in a minute" or "Hold on and you can have your ice cream" or "After dinner we will go outside" and even though she is in tears and sad she can't do or have what she wants right away she always says, "Okay."  We love that.

One thing that did change when baby came home was that Sadie's diapers became "Owie."  And so we bought her an Elmo toilet seat and an Elmo stool to step up on.  She loves "Elgo."  She loves her seat.  And she loved the idea of going potty on it, one day she will consistently...   The first few days of having it she insisted on telling Elgo night, night.  She kissed it.  And one time she tried to be alone in the bathroom and when I went in to check on her she was standing on the stool, singing to Elmo seat cover.

Sadie is 21 months old as of the 9th of this month.  She is rounding the corner to two and she is starting to show it.

She has never been super persistent on things she wants to do, she has never told us "no", or thrown a fit when something is not exactly how she is used to it being...until now.  Now we are starting to see a little more of her character.

Today she hit Novalee for the first time out of frustration..   It was sad and funny at the same time.  She immediately knew she did wrong and when Daddy told her no and put her on her first time out she puckered up her pouty lips and cried.   There is just something cute about her crumpled little pout face.

I like to read week by week updates on what to expect at each age in development and temperament for the kids.  Sadie's updates for a long time to come aren't very promising.  We are to expect stubbornness, willfulness, tantrums, crying bouts and many more lovely things.  Hopefully I don't lose sight of my sweet little Sadie during the months to come.

Yesterday coming home from church she was telling us her arm was owie.  We were trying to discover how she got her owie.  Finally I asked, "Did a baby in nursery hurt your arm and give you an owie?"  Sadie looks over at me through slitted eyes and says, "Yeah."  I said "Did you just tell your first lie?"  Sadie replied, "Yeah."   :)  And so it begins...

Here are some Sadie pictures.

 She has decided that crossing your arms in pictures is posing. 

 At Jared's baseball game.  She is lovely.

 I love how proper she is sitting on the couch.  :)

 Spaghetti night.  

  Dad didn't even want to mess with washing hands and just put her, plunk, into the sink, diaper and all.  

Please stay sweet Sadie because we kind of love that about you. 

A Kinsley Update

Kinsley is 2 and a half weeks old today.  Time has flown by.

I have zero complaints about her.  She isn't much of a spitter upper.  She doesn't need to be held ALL the time like Novalee and Sadie needed but she definitely has her moments.  She doesn't keep "me" up ALL night long, thankfully I have a great husband that takes her at least once a night when she decides it's hang out time instead of sleep time.

So far she has been my easiest baby which is awesome since she was my easiest pregnancy.

(Sometimes I think about if we will have more children.  I honestly don't know.  But I do know that I wonder sometimes if I really want to have another one, who might be difficult, when I could end on this really great note.)

We love her.  Though I have to admit that for the first little while Wes, and I struggled with remembering she was Kinsley and not Sadie.  I think it might be because she looked similar at first to Sadie but the more time we've spent with Kinsley the more we have discovered her own unique personality.

She loves the calm. (Which is kind of a given since she is a Crockett.)  She is a happy baby and already loves to smile, whether it's gas or not, we'll take it.  :)  She is pretty smart and has already started trying to reach out and touch things.  And I think she might have a little bit of my independent personality and willfulness.  Just this morning Wesley told me to hold her head but she doesn't really prefer that.  Most of the time she is craning her neck to see things or trying to hold up her head on her own.  And as I said before she doesn't need to be held all the time but can be perfectly content awake and out of our arms.

We still can't tell what the color of her eyes are.  They look brown sometimes, sometimes they have a hint of green (like today) and sometimes they just look really gray.  She is the first baby I wasn't able to tell the color of the eyes before leaving the hospital.  We will see...

Here are some stats.

When she was born she weighed 7 lbs 14 oz.
When she left the hospital she weighed 7 lbs 7 or 8 oz.
When she went in for her first doctors appointment
at five days old she weighed 8 lbs.
At 14 days old she weighed 8 lbs 14 oz.

I like that she is gaining weight well.  I love the chunky babies. :)

Here are some pictures. 

 Wesley is so handsome. 

 Years from now we are going to look back at these pictures and laugh about how young he looks even though he's 29 and that feels old now.

 

 She is such a pretty little thing.  She always seems to have her eyes wide open when she is awake watching everything. 

 Babies first "bathtime." Boy did she need it.

 Just a picture to remember her fluffy hair after bathtime.  

(Yes that is spit up.  All my babies seem to enjoy waiting until after their baths to spit up.)

 She is so small.

 At about a week old I realized that there weren't any pictures of Kinsley with me besides the ones at the hospital.  So I had Wes take this one really quickly.  It might have been better with a little more personal prep.  :)

 Let me set the scene for this above picture.  It is late.  The house is quiet.  It's Friday night, Wesley has just come home from dutifully going to 11 year old scout camp for the evening.  He had spent the whole afternoon rushing around getting ready for scout camp.  He has been helping me all week long as soon as he walks into the door from work with everything so that I can rest and recover before he has to go to work the next day.  He is tired.  He finally had a personal moment to rest and relax himself.  And instead of doing something for himself or going straight to bed, there is this moment.  He is softly talking to Kinsley, telling her that he loves her and that she is special.  She is falling asleep and he is lovingly holding her.  How sweet and precious this moment is.  Moments like this one make my heart melt and I realize that even though I thought I couldn't possibly love my husband more than I already do, I love him more than ever before.  

Baby at two weeks.

Now let me tell you a little secret on how to become my favorite person quickly and with little effort on your part.  All you have to say is, "Wow, Brandy, she looks so much like you!"  And I will hold you in affection forever. :)  

Yesterday at church so many people said that and it made me so happy!  

FINALLY, on the fourth try, one that looks like me from the beginning!  :)

Photos of Kinsley Alice

My talented friend, Kaylea Stoddard, took some beautiful pictures of Kinsley over the weekend.  (You can check out her other work here.)

I love them and am so happy that we got them done! 

 I wanted to share them with our friends and family.

We love our little Kinsley!