TOO LONG!!!!!

Things are busy to say the least! Our new little girl is doing GREAT! She is 4 months old tomorrow and time has flown! The first 2 1/2 or so were what i would call a... lets just say test of strength! She had colic and reflux pretty bad! Oh and when I say she... Her name is Talula Pearl! She is so amazing! I cant believe we have been blessed with these two BEAUTIFUL kids! We are SOOOO lucky! And since I have not updated since she was born my next post will be nothing but pics, pics, pics!!! Jude has been doing great with her. He calls her sissy and the first thing he does in the AM is ask "is sissy still night night". He hugs and kisses her all the time. He loves her so much! we have had only about two occasions were he gets mad and takes her blanket/rattle that sort of thing. He is growing SO fast! he turned two last week and it was a blast! We had a huge bounce house and sno-cone machine and he had so much fun! He was dyed blue from the sno-cones! It was too funny! He had more fun with the sno-cones then he did the bounce house when it all started! So the actual day of his birthday we decided to take him to "birthday brunch". We went to Ihop and he had a giant meal! eggs and blueberry pancakes! He got to sit in the booth like a big boy and he loved looking out the window! Its so wonderful how kids just appreciate everything going on! then we came home and took a long nap. Once we got up daddy called and said we had dinner reservations for us and Grandma and Grandaddy. SO i proceed to ask were to? Matt says Benihanas. I proceed to say "your crazy". Matt says "no trust me". I guess he was talking to a friend of his and he has been taking his kids for their birthdays for years. So it turns out to be awesome!!! Jude had the best time!!! It was awesome! we had a whole table to ourselves and they really cater to kids there it was packed with kiddoes! So it really is a fun place to go with little ones!

So I would say jude rang in Two with a bang! He had a heck of a weekend!
Another big milestone showing that my lil man is growing fast is he is in full potty training mode! We have used the potty and we get really cool "poop badges" too! He has taken to potty training pretty good! Its still a while from completion but we are off to a good start. I guess we have been working at it all this month. we introduced the potty at 18 months so he has zero fear of it and its seemed to help us now that we have started the process. So that it another cool thing going on! :)

We are actively searching for mothers day out program for him, but it gets tricky in our area due to waiting lists and things of that nature so we are keeping our fingers crossed to get that in gear not to mention we already have to start getting on waiting lists for pre-school! Its crazy!!!

The pictures that I am posting in the next post are everything from jude goofing around to the birth of Talula. There is so much its "everything" since January till today! So its a lot. But I'm going to be posting more frequently as I am starting to get time in the evening once in a while to be able to do this.

Matt and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary in May and it was wonderful! I have learned so many things about myself in my wife/mother journey that make me a much better person, and they range from learning how to cook (good too) and learning patience, how to grow a garden both flowers and veggies, to letting your own beliefs never get in the way of doing what's right for your kids, to learning what it is like to love more that i ever ever ever thought possible, to knowing why my parents did a lot of the things they did, and knowing when you are blessed! Matt is so amazing to me! I'm super thankful I have such a great man in my life! And each time I look at my beautiful children it's just confirmation that we are meant to be and they are these amazing symbols of our love. We look at both our parents his have been married 36yrs and 35 for mine, and we see that they have all had good and bad, but they never lost love! And we are so excited that we get to spend the rest of our lives together watching our children grow! I often look at my kids and I cant imagine the day they get married and have their own families! I think to myself WOW i was a baby once too and now i have babies that must freak my folks out. I just get so sad and happy as my babies grow that its almost bitter sweet. I tell Matt when it gets hard like when we were going through Talulas colic and Judes issues be it night terrors or what have you, when we get up at 2/4/6AM or never get to sleep till 7AM... this is it! We don't get this time back! We don't get to lay in his room and rub his little face to help him sleep forever, we don't get to rock Talula forever. It all happens so fast and you have to keep reminding yourself that its never going to be this way again! You have to take EVERY moment good and bad (i'll say hard not bad) and cherish the crap out of it because when you wake up tomorrow they've grown up a little more. So I thank God everyday that i have this wonderful little family!

When it comes to my parents they are doing good! As always the prayers for my Dad as he continues his fight are very appreciated and for my Mom as she helps him through his fight! We are all grateful for the doctors that both my parents have used with their fights against cancer! A positive is that at least when dad had to find doctors my folks already had a team that my Mom used during her battle. So they know my folks well (too well, if you ask me i'd prefer they never had to meet any of these dr's!!)

I think you are pretty caught up. There isn't too much else aside from the daily fun we have! We will be doing the water park playdate next week so those pics should be fun. Jude gets to get in some more Keegan Black time! Which you will see he very much enjoys! She's his blonde bombshell! he loves KP playdates! And well lil miss Talula only has four months under her belt but i think i've already worn her out with the camera! :)
so enjoy the next post of "Jude & Talula: a photo journey"