Lyla's blessing

Bracken was able to give Lyla a name and blessing at church on June 5. Lyla Hope Longhurst. (Thankfully No sudden name changes ala Dixon style.) She was a great baby the whole day, even waited until much after the blessing to spit up all down the front of her dress. It was so great to have Bracken's parents and all of my side of the family down to celebrate with us!

Lyla's beautiful dress made by Grandma Neice! (Denise)

Mimi & Grandpa Dane

Grandpa Paul & Grandma Neice

The D & R Leavitt Fam



Just had to add this picture. Love Paul's expression, like there is no way in heck I could do that!

Pinocchio

Sunday night game of Pinocchio, Monochio, Ponopoly....Hayes is still a little confused of what to call the game but he is obsessed with playing it.

and for those of you wondering how Monopoly and Pinocchio could be confused, you need to sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer with young children more often.

2 months

Here's Lyla at 2 months and pictures of Hayes & Kamri at around 2 months. Who do you think she looks more like?

I've always thought she looked more like Hayes but lately people have been saying Kamri...maybe because she is chunking out a little more.

important

Bracken took Hayes & Kamri to the Young Men church activity tonight.

So I had an hour to get stuff done.

Somehow there is always stuff to get done.

So i started on stuff (which is now looking like an extremely odd word to me)

Then Lyla started fussing.

So I held her while I tried to get stuff done.

Then I realized holding her and getting stuff done was frustrating.

Stuff wasn't important.

So I laid down next to her on my bed.

Stared into her sweet baby blues

Her hand in a tight fist around my finger

and she slowly relaxed, knowing I was there to help her fall asleep.

Kamri is 3!

Kamri turned three last week. No huge party but she did have a fun day including ice cream and cupcakes with her friend Audrey. She has been looking forward to her birthday and since Lyla's due date was May 15th I would tell her that her birthday was around the time the baby would be born. A little confusing when the baby is born 6 weeks early! So the morning of her birthday I woke Kamri up saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! and she didn't believe me at first that it was FINALLY here! The whole week before she would practice holding up three fingers and would get so excited when she would count 1, 2, 3 fingers and then show them to me. "Look mom, free!"

A little (turned into a lot) about Kamri:
She hates having her hair done and likes to dress herself. For a few weeks she would choose crazy mixes of clothes or not want to wear pants (like her lovely ensemble in the photo below, she was helping Bracken do yard work) but currently all she wants to wear are dresses. Luckily she has plenty of cute summer ones to keep her content.

She loves, loves, loves to tease her dad. (probably because he loves to tease her). Every morning when Bracken is leaving for school she asks him where he is going, he replies "the moon" then she tilts her head, smiles, laughing "Noooo, you going to school!" Then he asks for a kiss and she refuses to give him one unless he begs sufficiently.

She loves her siblings. She follows Hayes around and tries to do everything he does. They play so well together. She gives Lyla kisses whenever she is within reach, sometimes to the point of smothering....

She loves to sit and write, she concentrates so hard, hold the pencil the correct way, and writes lines and lines of her own little symbols. Sometimes she'll fill whole pages wtih it. Looks like angry terrorist writing or reformed egyptian or something...

Kamri lives in a musical, I used to think that musicals were unrealistic but not for Kamri. She will sing and narrate what she is playing or just sing random melodies in the car. Sometimes it is an actual song she has learned, mostly it is just random things about a book, or the car next to us, or what she wants for lunch, etc. Funny line from one of her "songs" last week was "Jesus loves Jasmine and PIRATES!"

She will sit and 'read' books to herself for long amounts of time. Most of the time she is talking so fast I can't understand the stories she makes up but sometimes I catch a gem. She was looking at Cinderella and the page where the step sisters rip apart Cindrella's dress Kamri narrated 'Don't rip my dress or I'll shoot you! Cinderella said' (Yep she has a brother!)

She also loves to dance, I have soo many videos of her dancing while I was laying on the couch on bedrest. She was my entertainment:



She also loves princesses, lip gloss, nail polish, Strawberry Shortcake, granola bars, Dora, the color pink, rice, playing dress up, Ratatouille (the movie), cereal, Inspector Gadget, going to nursery, having friends over to play, swimming, fajitas, adding 'ie' to the end of any word. Right now the most common is Lylie.

Kamri has a contagious excitement for life. She smiles, laughs and gets so excited for things you can't help but smile and be happy back. I believe it will be a strength that will help those around her throughout her life. I can't come up with the words to describe how grateful I am to be her mother and to enjoy her sparkly eyed smiles every day. She can be stubborn, throw massive tantrums, and demand breakfast at 6am every morning, but the laughter and smiles she brings into our home make it all worth it!

My crazy kids...

sure do love them!

Lyla Picture Overload

I have had no motivation to blog but have had requests for more pictures, so here are a few!
Lyla came home from the NICU on April 19, so she's been home two weeks tomorrow! She still was having a hard time regulating her temperature so we have to keep her wrapped in multiple blankets. You'd think we live somewhere freezing!

Our little Eskimo

The kids were sooo excited to have Lyla home and finally get to hold her! The day Lyla got home though Hayes woke up with a fever of 102! So he had to stay in his room and we just let him look at her but he couldn't hold her. So we had one child too hot and one that we couldn't keep warm enough! He was so good about staying away from her and not touching her even though he was very disappointed. His runny nose turned into a cough and into bronchitis so we took him in to the dr and got him on antibiotics. That cleared things up quick and he was finally able to hold Lyla Sunday morning after his bath! I had major anxiety that she'd get Hayes' cough and end up back in the hospital but he was good about staying away and prayers were answered and she hasn't gotten it.

Can you tell he was excited! They have been such good older siblings!

and some more random photos of Miss Lyla.

She has been a bundle of joy..literally a bundle with all her blankets but we've been easing off wrapping her so much this week and she seems to be doing okay. The girl is going to have a fear of thermometers when she is older and not know why, she gets her temperature taken so often!

She doesn't cry much, When she is hungry she just sucks like crazy at her hands, if I don't catch on that she is hungry she will let out one little Muwah! and if I don't come she'll wait a few minutes and let out another little cry just to remind me she is still there and hungry. Guess got the memo ahead of time that she'd have to have some patience!

She hasn't slept more than 4 hours at night, she is like clockwork and starts sucking noisily on her hands as soon as the three hour mark has hit. She hasn't ever stayed awake at night though so at least it's just a quick feeding and back to bed. Although I don't remember being this exhausted with Kamri or Hayes. I probably was, just have mom amnesia so I have more babies... I'm grateful Bracken stays up for the late night feeding to give her a bottle so I can get a little more sleep!

She gets hundreds of kisses a day from Kamri and Hayes has been trying to teach her how to roll over, she wasn't catching on quick enough for him so he decided to start with just having her lift her head...slowly but surely he's happy to note she is making some progress!

We sure love Lyla, she seems like a very mellow, patient baby...we hope it stays that way!