Oral

For the past 6 weeks, Anna has become more and more focused on her oral sensations. She constantly has her hands and fingers in her mouth. She even has started to chew on her shirts, chew on her bunny's ears, chew on anything to get this oral fix.

Her speech teacher asked me 3 weeks ago if I have noticed this and I was so thankful that she had brought it up. Her suggestions- straws to chew on, gum, eat more chewy granola bars and chewy foods and a electric toothbrush. She says it's common for this age to be oral but Anna's need for oral stimulation is pretty high right now.

Hopefully with age this will pass. We are doing our best not to make such a big deal out of it but it is pretty gross!

Any suggestions out there beyond the ones our speech teacher suggested? She's also talking with the BV Occupational Therapist to see if she has any suggestions.

Much Love,
Jenny

PS She is improving in her speech. We just got her progress report and she isn't there yet, but she is sure making progress on individual words and certain combinations. She still have such a positive attitude about the classes and homework and loves Miss Lisa her teacher. She can't wait to do the homework everyday too. We sure got lucky on this one :)

Lucky

How did I get so lucky in finding someone so dainty and feminine to wear ladies sunglasses.......

........ and at the same time be such a strong and macho studly man????

 

Hands off ladies.... he's all mine :)

Much Love,

Jenny 

Snow? At the end of March?

So we had another snow storm this past weekend when we were in Dallas. We got back in town last night just as all the roads were cleared and has two little girls excited to play in the snow. "Tomorrow when Daddy gets home," we promised.

Well RIGHT after dinner someone hadn't forgotten that promise and is digging through the hall closet looking for her pink things (her snow pants). "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! Let's go play in the snow!!!!!"

And of course being the softy he is, they headed out into the snow 10 minutes later after they all got bundled.

This time they had a blast jumping in the snow, throwing snowballs, picking and licking icicles, tyring to catch snow in our mouth since it had started to snow again and making the largest Frosty the Snowman we have ever made. It was pretty impressive!
 

 

 

 

 

Since it's March 25, I am assuming that it is our last snow.... hoping too. Those poor little pregnant robins, bunnies and other birdies look more miserable then myself pregnant at 31 weeks. Gotta love Spring in Kansas!

Much Love,
Jenny

Dallas with Jen Hall Scott

Last Monday at 6:45 am we hopped into the car and headed to Dallas. First stop: Frisco to visit my buddy from high school, Jennifer Hall Scott.

Don't the girls look thrilled???? Yes, we woke them and they were still waking up at this point. But the girls were complete saints in the car. We made it in 8 hours exactly and I had planned for it to take more like 9. Of the 8 hours they only watched an hour and a half of DVD's' the rest of the time they were listening to books on tape, reading books, coloring, doing stickers, playing with their toys, listening to music and talking with me (Oh and Ashley maybe had a 20 min nap). We took 4 potty breaks (one at lunch and 3 on the side of the road in the potty in the mini van) and Anna and Ashley wanted to eat lunch in the car. So that saved us time like you couldn't imagine. I was stoked to see that my girls are like their momma; they don't like wasting time on car trips... they just wanna get there!!!

We stayed at Jen's house until Wednesday after naps and had a blast. We played with their son Nathan's toys, read tons of books, played with the toys we brought, took a bath at their house, went on a hike, played on a playground, went out to eat for dinner at a Mexican restaraunt, and went shopping at Target and a Mommy's home decorating store. Anna even got to sleep in a huge full bed that was high off the ground all by herself so she was super stoked to have her own room with a HUGE big girl bed!

Jen has always been a great friend and it was so great to visit her home in Texas and see her as a mommy. She is the hostess with the mostess and we can't wait to visit again. I already declared on facebook that Nathan can have any one of my girls hand in marriage because he is such a rockstar. It has been officially decided that the next visit will consist of a arm wrestling tournament to determine his wife and a quick trip to Crate and Barrel to begin the wedding registry!!!!! :)

Anna HAD to have this picture of her and Ursula the sea witch. Anna just loved going to potty in this bathroom to visit Ursula.

Thanks again Jen!

Much Love,
Jenny

PS Anna just looked at this post and said, "I had so much fun there. I just love that Ursula house!"

PSS Here are some fun pictures with Anna! It was hilarious trying to get to her take one of Jen and I on the iphone. But I'd say she did a pretty good job!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk KU

Sweet Sixteen Baby!!!! Can this future generation of Jayhawks be much cuter??? When we were in Dallas this past week my friend Ashley came over with her kids (Laney and Cooper- far left) to hang out with us and the Fimmen cousins (middle three- Tom, Matt and Meghan) and have a little pregame pizza party since the game didn't start until 9 that evening. Luckily we pulled out a W and then played the best second half of basketball again Roy and UNC to take us to the Sweet Sixteen!! Anna and Ashley's cheers of Rock Chalk Jayhawk KU throughout the second half really were the keys to the victory! Keep on cheering girls!!

Happy Sweet Sixteen Baby! Fingers crossed these hawks keep on rollin :)

Much Love,
Jenny

And now she dresses Ashley....

Anna has loved dressing herself for over a year now and that includes picking out her own clothes.

Well, this morning I walk into Ashley's closet to see the two of them debating about what Ashley should wear. Anna let her pick out the main shirt and then she picked out pants and a long sleeved dress to go under the shirt (just like mommy used to for Anna).

And here's the result.... in case you can't tell, Anna likes to layer. We have a long sleeved dress, a doc mcstuffin tshirt and a puffy vest with thick sweat pants. Awesome, just awesome.Oh yes, please check out Ashley;s flip flops with the socks- classic!

Much Love,
Jenny

Cutting

One of their favorite things to do is cut. They have really taken a liking to cutting pictures out of coloring books and cutting out Anna's book orders that she gets from school. Anna has a pretty good grasp on cutting and Ashley is just trying to figure it all out. But don't get me wrong, Ashley can cut. Just look at the floor!!! They will literally sit and cut for 30 minutes at a time.

Much Love,
Jenny

Happy St Patricks Day

Take 1

 Take 2

 Take 3

 Take 4

 Take 5

 Take 6

 Take 7

 Take 8

 Take 9

 Take 10

 Then I bribed them with candy....... MAGIC!

And afterwards we polished the day off with corned beef and cabbage at Grama and Papa's house. Both girls liked the corned beef; Ashley LOVED it just like her momma!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Much Love,
Jenny

PS Bye Bye dirty beige walls!!!! We have a painted coming this week to knock out out entryway, upstairs hallway and the rest of our main floor. I can not wait!!!!!

Big 12 Champs!

Big 12 Co-Champs and Big 12 Tournament Champions in 2013!!!! What a fun year and can't wait for the next couple of weeks... March Madness BABY!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk Go KU!!!!!

Much Love,
The Stilley Girls

It feels like Spring!

And we are loving every minute of it! This past Thursday and Friday we were in skirts and t-shirts. It was pure Spring heaven. I think Rob was telling me that we hit an all time record high for March 15 at over 80 degrees. It was pure marvelous. So of course we took advantage of every possible minute that we could outside.

We went to Geyser Park with Grama, went on small walks, went on runs with Daddy, ate lunch outside on our picnic table, had dinner outside twice in a row (and failed miserably at cooking pizza on the grill- any helpful hints?!?!?), played with the colored rice, gave all our babies and miniature dolls baths in the water table, played with chalk, rode our bikes, went on a wagon ride, played on the swing set, blew bubbles, played with our new bubble machine, played golf, played baseball, took some hints from daddy about how to play baseball, played with Peanut, rolled down our front hill and probably did some more stuff that mommy is forgetting. 

My favorite quote from those two days happened while I was getting the step stool out to get water table. Anna looks at me and says, "Wow mommy... you a very strong lady!"

But we had a blast and can't wait for everyday to be like this!

 This makes me laugh :)

 I love this one... had to get a close up!

YUMMMM. I love chicken from the grill :)

Much Love,

Jenny

PS Parenting is much easier when you have the option of outside to just let your children run wild in :)