home

There's nothing like bringing a little newbie home to stay, especially when there's a cute little boy just dying to hold her, hug her, kiss her and say hi to her over and over and over (if you know Van, you wouldn't expect anything less. The overexcited, super-friendly, in-your-face, Van "hi!!!" is the cutest thing ever, and it's also quite possibly the most overused thing ever. But we love it!).

It's been so much fun to see him be so sweet with Lila. He's never once done anything to hurt her on purpose, and while we know that can't last long (or he wouldn't rightfully be a big brother) we're eating it up while it lasts. We're so excited to see them grow up together!











The holding process. It starts out by Van looking all innocent and reaching out his arms toward the baby while saying "me hold it," quickly followed be the look of triumph for getting to hold her.


Then he'll usually plant a kiss on her head and it's soooo cute. But then he promptly decides he's done about 2 seconds later, and it looks like he hasn't tactfully learned how to express that yet, because he just suddenly drops flat onto his back and starts wriggling out from under her in order to escape.


love this boy.




the crazy sleep smile


life with 2 kids. Looks like we're about to become master multi-taskers by default.




doing what newborns do best...and we're always game for any excuse to get some extra shut-eye.














One of our favorite photos ever. This is Van yelling "i doked!" (meaning = I'm stoked!")

grandma

My mom arrived in VA to help with the baby one day before her due date. That same day, my sister and her 3 girls arrived with my dad after driving 10 hours from NH to spend a couple days with us and supposedly the new baby as well.

One week later, little Lila finally decided to join the party.

But that was 4 days after my dad and sister had already left. And my mom only had 2 days until she would be leaving as well. So when I found out I could be discharged from the hospital 24 hours after the delivery, I jumped at it in order to soak up all the mom time I could get. Lila came Tuesday morning, we came home Wednesday morning, and my mom left Thursday morning.

Van had no complaints, though. He had solid week of one-on-one attention from grandma and he loved every minute of it! We owe my mom big, she cured Van from his fear of the bathtub (the natural result of having no bathtub in the home for his first 19 months of life) and now he's a rockstar bather! My mom has more energy for playing with kids and making them happy than anyone I've ever met. It's amazing to watch her in action!!

I love these photos of my mom with our kids, you can totally tell how much Van loves his grandma! Thanks so much for all you did for us when you were here mom! We miss you already!











I love that my mom and I are making the same face in this photo.

AZ {mesa temple}

The Sunday we were in AZ Jon and I had dinner plans in Mesa to go see all my extended family (no really, almost all, it was awesome. Aunts, uncles, cousins, babies, the works. I hadn't seen them in so long, so it was so great that they could all make it. The bad thing is, I totally spaced taking a picture with them, so lame, I know. But we love you all, picture or no picture!!! Thanks so so so much for getting everyone together for us!) so we wanted to drop by the temple on the way there. It was beautiful as always, and I especially love seeing the Mesa temple since my parents were married there (almost exactly 32 years ago), and my dad proposed to my mom on its temple grounds. Aww.

AZ {phoenix zoo}

We love zoos, we love animal watching, we love beautiful weather, so what's not to love about a day at the Phoenix Zoo? We were really impressed with this zoo too. Van probably didn't notice the difference between being in the zoo and being in the backyard, but someday he will, and then he'll appreciate our love of zoos.

(I think it's funny that Van is grabbing Cole's eyes in this photo)





how cute is this of Jon and Ella? This makes me so excited to have a little girl someday...



look at the size of this tortoise!!! He's HUGE!


We like making sure the dads are pulling their weight and then some. :) Jon somehow began the double stroller pushing, diaper bag carrying, cooler dragging man of the moment. We owe him big.


Jon & Eric ready to throw some carrots to the elephant during their feeding time.


the little ones doing what they do best in the afternoon