WE'VE MOVED!!!

Yes we've moved! If you're looking for new pictures and an update on the girls we've moved back to our family website. Our site already has some new pics and a little clip of Nyla doing her first belly laugh. 

We've loved doing this blog with all of you and we also love looking at your blogs that you've created. Keeping writing your comments and stay in touch!

Love 

Sarah, Ryan, Sophia & Nyla 

Visit up North ( Part 2)

A few more pictures of our trip. I love this one with Aunt Aim and Nyla. Of course Amy wants to just call her Rylan now since she looks just like her Daddy! :)  Love this picture.

  

Sweet Franklin with Matt and Amy and Sophia (who is trying to hide from the camera)

Big Blue Eyes in this picture. Nyla's almost 4 months old.

And Sophia and Grandma on our walk in the historic district downtown Indianapolis.  We were so exhausted but after a nice dinner we enjoyed a stroll around Cindy's neighborhood.  

Visit up North!

We had such a great visit up North. I made the decision to go up with both girls because it seemed like Mom and Dad were both falling a part at the same time and I've been missing family a lot.  So, I packed us up and took the journey home with both Sophia and Nyla. They were awesome!! I thought flying with both of them would be so much more work but honestly it wasn't. Grant it I would've loved to have had Ryan with us for some extra support and extra hands but we did it and I'm so glad we went.  Sophia was such a great listener and Nyla ..well she's so go with the flow that it makes things much easier :) 

Our first leg was to Dallas and then we had to switch plans.  After packing the girls up and going to the bathroom we started walking to our next gate and I looked at Sophia & said, " oh no..start walking fast." She looked at me and said, " why momma?" I calmly looked at her and said," because I just realized I left our tickets on the first plane." With no problem the lady at the next gate helped us out by printing out our tickets and we walked right on, whoow! I'm so glad that it didn't turn into something else. Everyone in my family knows all the stories that we have when we travel and I was just praying that this wasn't going to be another one of those. The gentleman that sat on the plane next to us chuckled a little and apologized to me for laughing while I was trying to appease Sophia and calm Nyla while she was crying and said, " sorry I'm laughing but I totally understand.  I have 4 kids." Thank you God!! It's so awesome to sit by people that understand what you're going through.  

Anyway, Grandma met us at the airport in Indy and was so awesome to provide us with car seats. Thank you Grandma! It was so nice to go to Cindy's house.  We ate pizza, read books, and ate some brownies before heading out to Mom's and Dad's house which is about an hour and 1/2 a way.  Once we jumped into the car the girls were fast asleep and Cindy and I were able to have a great talk as we drove.  After having a bite to eat with all of us and getting some fresh blackberries & tomatoes Cindy headed back to Indy. 

Our visit was soo great. We got to spend some great time with Mom & Dad and Amy & Brian and the kids, and we got to see Matt & Elizabeth & Franklin. This was the first time that my family got to meet Nyla so I was so excited for them to hold and squeeze her! Mom and Dad were here in Texas when she was born so they were excited to have us come home and just hang out.  

I loved that Sophia was able to play with her cousins and just hang out. How great! She loves them and loves being Emma's little shadow.  We weren't even there for 4 hours and Sophia wanted Emma to spend the night for a sleep over. Since we live so far away it seems like the simple things are the things that I treasure the most.  Grabbing some coffee with Amy uptown before her class, being able to take flowers to my parents, going swimming with Amy and all the kids, watching Nana and Nyla take a nap together, picking fresh blackberries at my parents, crashing at my sisters house last minute, watching the kids enjoy Papa's breakfasts',celebrating Emma's 11th Birthday with our whole family,taking Emma shopping for her Birthday and going swimming in Aim & Bri's pool..so many great moments with everyone. I'm so grateful for my family. I feel so blessed to have family that loves & supports one another. 

Mom and Dad are doing well. Mom is getting around just fine with that new knee and Dad is trying to not overdue it and rest more.  Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. 

PICTURE HAPPY

I wish I could just upload picture after picture onto this site. I love taking pictures, I just wish I could keep up with my scrapbooking with as fast as I take them.  Although I've recently gotten into digital layouts and wow what a time saver. The picture at the bottom of this series is taken by the fabulous photographer Sophia George..hilarious. She's really getting into taking pictures. Sometimes I find pictures on my camera of the trees, pictures of our walls, or even pictures of Nyla looking scared to death because Sophia is a little trigger happy. 

So Nyla has reached another milestone that happened last week.  She's rolling over! The first few times she rolled over in her crib I think it scared her half to death.  She was laying there on her back just wailing and flinging her arms. Now she does her little squeal and is a little more relaxed when it happens.  I think she's more concerned about keeping her pacy in her mouth when she rolls over more than anything. 

Okay does Nyla look like Ryan or what? Someone asked me the other day if I had anything to do with Nyla and I just started laughing. Yes, Nyla is Daddy's little clone. Especially when you see Ryan's baby pictures. I don't think she'll have his blond hair that he had as a little boy but she might be keeping these big blue eyes! It's so neat getting to know her little personality. Ryan and I were saying that the only time she really cries is to let you know that she's tired or hungry. We call her sweet girl quite a bit and we might be biased but she truly is.  

I'm flying home with the girls this week so please pray for an uneventful and safe flight. My parents have not been in the best health so we're heading home to help & hang out. We're looking forward to seeing Grandma at the airport and spending some time with her as we travel to Ohio. Then we'll be spending time with Nana & Papa, Amy & Brian and the kids, and we'll see Matt & Elizabeth and Franklin sometime over the weekend. We're already prepping Sophia that she'll really have to be my big helper and she says," Yeah because Nyla has never been on a plane yet. " I think she's going to do great but please pray that things go smoothly. Have a great week! 

Sisters

I'm so excited that Sophia and Nyla are already friends. When I watch them interact I'm reminded of the blessing of having a sister and I pray that they'll become close friends like me and Amy. Of course they'll have tifts and stages with one another but I pray that they'll treasure each other and learn to appreciate their differences. 

Sophia loves to keep Nyla entertained and Nyla thinks she's funny so it works out well. There have been so many times that Sophia will be interacting with Nyla and Ryan and I will be on the verge of saying, "give her some space," but then we're stopped by the sound of laughter. They love making each other smile and Sophia takes great pride in making her little sister happy.  

      

Sleepy Saturday

I took these pictures the Saturday before Lollapalooza.  I couldn't believe it but everyone in the house fell asleep for an afternoon nap.  So unusual!! Ryan and Sophia were playing on the bed and next thing I knew I didn't hear anything, this is where I found them. Cuddled up and snoozing away.

As for Nyla, she's been sleeping great for the past few weeks.  Yeah!! 
She goes down to bed around 8 o'clock and then has one feeding at 4 a.m. I got this picture of her feet and legs while she was napping in the afternoon.  I love those little feet and legs! She just started sitting up in her bouncy seat last week. It's kinda funny because she pulls herself up and then it's like she doesn't know what to do so sometimes when you look over at her she's just laying on her legs. 

I can't believe she just turned 3 months old yesterday. Happy Birthday sweet Nyla!

Thank you Grandma for being with the girls while we were in Chicago.  They loved spending time with you and we're so grateful that you could come down and help us out. 

Lots of love...xoxo's 

Trying to get it out!

She's laughing. Yep and besides a smile there's nothing that could melt you more. Nyla will start to laugh and it's like she just doesn't know what to do with it. So you get one sound..maybe two but then she just stares at you grinning ear to ear. She's doing so great amidst the chaos of Lolla being next week, Ryan wrapping up all his shows & Sophia screaming or singing at the top of her lungs in the house. Beautiful chaos..this is what it's all called, right? It's so hard to believe that Nyla is going to be 12 weeks old this Tuesday. She's changed so much since she was born and she's really filling out..which we Love!! 

Well..I don't have our website updated yet but it's coming, probably after Lollapalooza.  Thanks for checking out our site. It's such a fun way to stay connected with everyone especially our family. We miss you guys, more than you know and can't wait to spend time with you.

xoxo's

Happy Fourth of July

I hope everyone had a great July 4th. Our neighborhood is definitely the place to be for fireworks but we opted out of having a party this year and decided to spend time with our good friends The Bares. They were so sweet to invite us to join their family and celebrate. 

The day started out with all of us cuddling together in bed in our pj's. This is actually how every day starts out for us. My favorite! Sophia is usually the first to wake up and then staggers downstairs. Usually she walks in and then just gets at the bottom of our bed and curls up.  She use to walk right up to me and pound on my forehead with her finger but thankfully she's stopped doing that. Now she just asks for her breakfast which is always a request for cereal or cinnamon toast.  After our morning here we headed off to the movies and took the girls to see WALL-E which is soo cute if you haven't seen it yet. Has Pixar ever done a bad film? Sophia sat in Ryan's lap the whole movie and I kept Nyla in the sling. Then we were off to Angie's parents(Beverly and Dave) house out in Liberty Hill. It was so nice to get away for the day and to get to know her family better. They're soo sweet and made us feel so welcomed.  The kids played like crazy and got their suits on and jumped into the jacuzzi together. It's so fun to watch them play because they really have become such dear friends to our Sophia. Our Sophia is called Little Sophia but the funny thing is is that she's bigger than both Soren and Sophia Bare. We're so glad that Sophia has so much fun with them and is making sweet memories.We ate great food, talked and then headed out front for some fireworks set off by their cousin.  The kids loved it! It all started with smoke bombs and they ran around chasing one another laughing while we tried to snap some good pictures.  Thanks to Ricardo and his awesome camera he got some really cute ones. We're so thankful for good friends. We've really been blessed with some neat friendships this past year and it's been such a neat answer to prayer.  

Going Under

Going under and loving it. We've got goggles now because Sophia is now going under the water. That was her reward for when she put her head all the way under. I meant to post this a long time ago when she was doing swim lessons. She had such a great time doing lessons and is now jumping into the pool by herself and going under.  Daddy took her out a couple of weeks ago and they purchased some new pink goggles.  So fun! This was such a good thing for her after Nyla was born.  She had her own thing to look forward to every afternoon for two weeks. Thank you God for swimming pools in hot Texas!!

All SMILES

Look at these smiles! Nyla started smiling and of course it makes us just glow, there's nothing better.  When that little one looks at you and grins it reminds you that everything is worth it. Nyla will usually flash us her smiles right after she has a full tummy and is getting a fresh clean diaper on.  She loves getting her diaper changed. This is one area that she and Sophia are different. Sophia would just scream at us while we changed her and ..well...it's quite different with our little Nyla Byla. Nyla's squeals continue to make us laugh. She sounds like a little girl out on the playground running. I'm hoping we'll be able to catch it on the video camera  so that we won't forget her little squeals. 

I hope all of you are doing well and probably in the next week we'll wrap this blog up and go back to our family website.  So, that'll be the place you'll want to go to for updates and new pictures. 

We love all of you and can't wait for you to meet Nyla if you haven't already. She's doing so great and is such a sweet gift to us all!   

Happy Happy

The past few days have been so wonderful.We went through a stretch that was pretty hard with Nyla screaming and crying at us for hours. Whooo..that was exhausting and probably even more so since we were trying to figure out what was wrong.  With lots of reading, Ryan and I came to the conclusion that our Sweet Girl had colic.  They say that babies usually out grow it by 3 months which is great news, but what are we suppose to do in the meantime? Starting this past Monday I took dairy completely out of my diet and I'm not eating any onions and garlic. What would you know...a totally different baby!! YEAH!!! She's been happy, content, and she started smiling at us this week. It's so amazing to see that big smile come across her little face.  Maybe she's ecstatic about feeling better now.  :)  Sophia loves when Nyla talks and smiles at her.  Nyla will squeal & smile then Sophia just starts laughing. Thank you Lord for a Happy Happy Baby!

10 lbs. and growing

Can you believe it? Nyla's growing like crazy and was 10 lbs. at her one month appointment.  Her squeals are quite funny and she loves her Big Sis. At times Sophia will sit down beside her and sing or talk to her and she just calms down. Nyla just watches her and takes it all in.  It's so sweet.  It already seems like they have a special bond which is something we continue to pray for for them. 

Sleep is very minimal but it's so amazing to have Nyla with us now. She's such a gift and we love her to death! Isn't it amazing the love you have as a parent for your children? Undescribable. 

Sophia continues to surprise us with her role as Big Sister. She loves having more responsibility and has been super flexible.  Sophia and I have been doing swim lessons in the afternoons for the past couple of weeks and its been really good.  I'll post pictures of her swimming soon.

Nyla's Nursery

Thank you to sweet Karen and Angie for helping with Nyla's room.  

It was great having an extra pair of hands for painting and putting furniture together.  We kinda had to move fast since Ryan's studio had just been completed but we did it!! Yeah!!

Nana, Papa & Grandma...oh my

It was so nice having help at our house for two weeks.  Mom and Dad came down for Nyla's birth and stayed with Big Sister Sophia while we were at the hospital. 

For Mother's Day we made brunch and ate outside on the deck since the weather was so great.  We're experiencing temps in the 90's now so we can say goodbye to cool days and nights. 

Grandma and Sophia went out to the wilderness and camped outside in our backyard before Grandma headed back to Indianapolis. They had a great time reading books by flashlight & waking up to the sounds of tons of birds in the neighborhood.   

We love you Nana, Papa & Grandma and we pray that our girls will be able to spend more fun time with you soon.

Life at Home

With the request of several of you I'm finally sitting down to update our blog and send out some new pictures. It's amazing how all the little extra time you had goes out the door once your baby is born.  (ha,ha)

We're enjoying life at home with Nyla and Sophia and sleeping very little- only normal though right?  If you're a parent you totally understand what we're talking about.  
Sophia has surprised us in so many ways.  She has embraced being Nyla's Big Sister and has been a huge help. From handing us diapers and burp rags to comforting Nyla when she got her newborn screening she's really transitioning well.  It's neat to watch her love and concern for Nyla.  

Nyla is growing and changing daily.  At her two week appointment she was already past her birth weight and was 8 lbs, this would explain why I feel like I'm nursing all the time.  She's amazing though and such a miracle.  I can't wait to get to know her little personality better.  It seems like with your second one you start to enjoy and relish the small things even more than you did with your first. Maybe it's because you realize how fast the seasons come and go. 

Thank you for all your support,prayers, telephone calls and food.  It's amazing how loved we feel and we can't wait for everyone to meet Nyla.  Here are some new pictures so enjoy !! Love all of you!

Homeward Bound

So we're out of here. Sarah and Nyla both look great so we should be headed home sometime this afternoon. 

This was a great experience... much different than the last time. Thank you all for being apart of it and for those of you who stopped in to see us. Here is a pic of Nyla this morning and one with her and our OBGyn Patrick Pevoto.