giggle box

sisters

raven LOVES holding her little sister and is always trying to pick her up (giving her mother several heart attacks a day), but every once in a while i let her hold her little "hay-may" and do a little photo shoot. the hardest part is getting raven to let me "have a turn" holding hazel. pretty soon hazel will be big enough to stand up for herself, but in the meanwhile we enjoy moments like this...

a trip not quickly forgotten

our relaxing mexican family vacation was anything but relaxing. matt and i had to turn on survival mode for the 4 nights and 5 days we were traveling, and we only had a couple brief moments that felt like vacation.
when we arrived to our 2 bedroom suite we were sharing with friends, we discovered that this luxurious suite was actually a loft...no windows, no doors, 4 adults, 3 kids... we all decided to try it for one night and the children reassured us that this was not going to work. night 1: a symphony of babies crying.
in the meanwhile, raven began to act like a different little girl. many break-downs with lots of tears. she was coughing a lot, so i knew she was sick, but the lack of sleep was not helping.
the next day we went to the beach and came back to the room for a nap (by this time our friends had moved to a new room). we had the baby monitor down by the pool, and raven was supposed to be sleeping. we could hear her playing and talking, which she does a lot. she was saying "oh no," "help please," "hey you." we assumed she was playing with her baby, but when i went in there an hour and a half later, i found her with diaper and pants off...and poop everywhere! *deep breath* day 2: no nap = huge break-down tantrum at dinner in front of all our friends. she also reached over and pulled hazel's hair. very unlike her - she usually only has hugs and kisses for hazel. get me out of here.
the next day matt went on a fishing excursion with the guys. this was his turn to have a little vacation that i'm sure didn't last long enough for him...in the meanwhile i took the girls to the beach. raven put sand all in her hair, got it in her eyes, and absolutely freaked out when i tried to wash it off in the ocean...i don't remember what hazel was doing during these chaotic moments. day 3: another unsuccessful day.
day 4 was the first day of my vacation, and our last full day in sayulita. matt watched the girls so i could go to breakfast with the other ladies on the trip...and then a little shopping in the village, and a walk on the beach BY MYSELF! Raven took a long nap, and we all felt more normal. at dinner with friends she had a little relapse (hitting and kicking her friends - very unlike her), and we left that event early. raven had been asking for home all day, and by this point we are all ready to travel home the next day.
we survived this years trip to mexico, to say the least. i am already planning next years trip to ensure we have a better time (and i'll be pumping vitamins into the girls before we leave). here are a few of the finer moments captured on our trip.

my sweet hazel

well, i finally took some pics of hazel today because she was smiling and giggling, and i just had to document the moment! she has been so sweet lately (crying less and smiling more)...so here she is at 2 months!

girls

here are a couple videos of the girls. raven likes to take care of hazel as if she were one of her dolls....giving hugs and kisses...and trying to swaddle her and pick her up (so mama has to keep a close eye on her!). enjoy!

lately.

things around here have been so busy lately. raven has so much energy she is literally bouncing off the walls...and she is mimicking everything we do and say (see pic below). her personality is becoming more and more evident as she gets bigger. she is fun and very loving giving hugs and kisses to everyone all the time! she's also always talking about her friends, and i know she wishes she could play with them every day. we actually had some sunshine last week and we met some friends at the park down the street. she loved it! ...and i loved it! we are ready for summer!



hazel is growing quickly...and as is typical for a second born...we hardly have any pics of her. we will be taking some soon, i promise! :) she has been talking and making such happy noises lately. its hard to believe she is 2 months! she giggled for the first time the other night (she seems to be very ticklish), and it was music to my ears!
we are so thankful to have 2 beautiful, healthy girls who keep us on our toes on a daily basis! in 2 weeks we are traveling to mexico...praying for safe travels, and lots of pictures to come!

christmas breakfast!

This past Saturday we had our 4th annual Christmas breakfast with friends (Christmas pj's required). Last year there were only 3 little ones...the year that number doubled! There were actually 7 kids there. We tried to get a pic of all of them in front of the tree...this is the best we could do...







Raven and Hazel did really well ~ I think Raven was entertained by the chaos :) Raven also loves her baby sister so much, and she loves giving Hazel kisses. It melts my heart! *sigh*