My Little Cowgirl

Adelyn has been huge into horses lately!  She loves to watch My Little Pony and play with her horse figurines.  We even made her a My Little Pony potty chart!  One of her favorite things to do is go look at the horses down the road.  We have a metro park less than 5 minutes away from us and she loves to see all the animals.  I follow them on Facebook and saw that throughout the summer they offer pony rides to the kids that aren't old enough to take the lessons.

 I knew that Adelyn would love it so we got her dressed and ready to go!  She even found Travis' hat to top off the outfit!  We had to wait in a pretty long line, but it was worth it!  Adelyn loved being on the pony!  She had a smile on her face the whole time!

I want to take her back before the summer is over!

While on the subject, look at this Beautiful horse!

This is my Aunt Libby's new horse!  Her name is Amberlyn!  She is named after me and Adelyn!  At the beach this year, Aunt Libby kept telling me how much Adelyn and this horse had similar personalities.  They are sweet and spunky at the same time!  I love that she even has beautiful blonde hair!  Now I need to find a time to go visit Amberlyn!

Lila 4 Months

Yesterday marked 4 months of Lila being part of our family!  It doesn't seem possible that it has already been that long!  I feel like I just had her!  The first little bit was really tough with her, but things are finally starting to settle down!  We finally figured our her constant screaming was due to a dairy sensitivity and we have her on a reflux medication.  She is a lot happier, so we are too! I start back to work this week so we are going to throw everything off again!

We went to her 4 month well check this morning.  Lila is trying to beat all of Adelyn's stats!
Weight: 15 pounds, 66%
Height: 24.5 inches, 40%
Head Circumference: 41.5 cm, 76%

Everyone says she looks like a baby doll.  I think it is due to her perfectly round, bald head! Or her plump body!

While Lila has definitely been a tougher baby, I still describe her as sweet!  She doesn't feel well so I can't get mad at her.  But when she is happy, she is REALLY happy!

She loves attention and will smile at anyone!  When she does, her whole face lights up and it melts your heart!

At 4 months she is giggling (my favorite!), reaching for toys, tracking with her eyes and she has recently discovered her voice!  She loves to talk/yell all the time!

Her favorite person is me!  She loves to watch Adelyn play.  She likes going in the stroller but has to be in a certain mood for the baby carrier.  She loves to sit up and face out to see what is going on.

She has been sleeping about 11 hours at night and usually only wakes up for 1 feeding (but lately it has been more).  She has been taking 3 hours naps in the afternoon with little cat naps here and there.

My dad calls her Baby Rae, my mom calls her Marshmallow, Adelyn calls her baby Lila (pronounced Why-ya), I call her Lila, Lila Baby, sweetie pie or precious and Travis calls her Baymax (from Big Hero).  We love this little baby of ours!

Emerald Isle

Every year my side of the family gets together for a family reunion in Emerald Isle, North Carolina.  We have been going since I was Adelyn's age.  This year we got to introduce Lila to a life time of memories ahead.

We spent the week playing on the beach and getting to know the cousins.  Adelyn was so happy!  She would wake up every morning and the first thing she would say was "play water."  She loved being out on the beach!

We got there on Sunday and Adelyn convinced Nathan to take her down to put her feet in the water.  They came back to the house and she was wet up to her waist!  He said she kept dragging him in further and further.  Likely story!

The next day we got her swimsuit on and she had a blast!

She thought everyone was there for her entertainment! 

 She loved playing in the sand...

 

And going for walks...

  

And collecting shells!

 Lila didn't spend much time outside since she is too young to wear sunscreen and I was worried about the heat.  Travis and I had to take turns inside with her or have other family members keep her.  We don't have many pictures of her unfortunately. 

I like doing comparisons! It's not letting me put them side by side though. :(

Let's just take a moment to realize that this was Adelyn at almost a month older than Lila in these pictures!  We used to call her a chunky monkey! (not the best pic of Adelyn!!)

 But Lila took over that nickname!  She is a lot taller than Adelyn ever was!  They look soooo different and have such different personalities!

This was right after she put her feet in the ocean for the first time.  She didn't love it!

At the end of the week, we took family pictures.  Everyone moans and groans about doing it, but I LOVE having an updated picture.  I had a hard time keeping my eyes open because it was so bright, but other than that I think it was perfect!  It wasn't too sunny with weird shadows, the sand was flat and hard from the tide and the colors were pretty.  I love how they turned out!

I chopped my hair off (9 inches) the day before we left!

My parents with all the grandkids!

Everyone minus Andrew who is on a mission.  He will be in the next one!  This is my favorite family picture to date!

With all the different families and schedules and naptimes and time zone changes, we never had the whole family all together until the last day.  That Friday the weather was perfect, the ocean was calm, the kids were in good moods and everyone was outside.  It was by far my favorite day of the week!!  I loved that we were all together and that the kids were getting along and playing so well.  I remember doing the same thing with my cousins!  I will do a separate post of cousin pictures, but here are a couple from that day!

This picture cracks me up!  Look at how she is holding her hands!  There were times that she did not like her hands to get dirty...

And other times that I could not get her away from the sand!!

We all miss the beach and all the easy entertainment it offers!  Adelyn would play outside all day, everyday!  It makes me happy to have my girls share some of the same memories I had as a child!

We have taken this picture every year!

Travis with the girls.

And me with them!

 

I love going to the beach and spending time with my family!  I am grateful everyone gets along! It will get more and more fun as the girls get older! Thanks mom and dad for making it happen!