Sister Wives VS. Sister Friends

Have you seen the disturbing/addicting show called Sister Wives??  It's about a polygamist family that has 4 sister wives.  The dynamic is so weird and there are so many reasons why it's wrong, yet the women often try to sell the lifestyle.  Hmmm....I think that Landrie and Tatem's "sister friendship" is a MUCH better way to go!!  Let's check out all the benefits of having a Sister Friend!!

Your friend will play with you, even when you're not that into it!

She'll give you a big GRIN on days when it's hard for you to smile.

She'll share her toys with you!

She'll even give you a turn talking on the phone to Daddy!

A sweet sister friend will help you with your beauty routine and make sure you always look "Koot!"

And she'll stick close by, even when you're having a bad day!  haha!!

(This one took about 2.2 seconds to happen!!)

Isn't this one that my friend took precious?  I love that Landrie is already SO excited about having a friend!  Tatem gave away her very first smiles to Landrie, so I think she's ready to be best friends too!

Oh, and happy 1 month birthday, Tatem Rose!!

We Are FAM - I - LY!

Wow!  Tatem is 4 weeks old today, and it's been an amazing month for all of us.  Tatem has gotten snuggles from lots of our family, and today's post is an attempt to catch up on all those fun visits. :)

My parents

Mark's mom

Landrie insisted that she and Grandma pray before their picnic!

(PonPon, we are excited to see you soon!)

Aunt Christy, Uncle Kevin, Anna, Adelynn and Abbie

 

Okay, Christy made the CUTEST baby gift for us!!  Just click on the picture to make it bigger and you can read the note she made for Tatem.  I love it!  Plus, it doubled as nourishment for 2 sleep-deprived parents! (and one big sister who is really good at sneaking candy!)  Bring this to a family with a new baby (or to a baby shower) and they are guaranteed to love it.  :)

Tucker, Colson, Cade, McKinnan, Aunt Megan and Uncle Greg

Gramm, Jaxon, Aunt Beth and Uncle Rusty

Uncle Eric made the 9 hour drive from New Orleans!  T can't wait to meet Aunt Melissa and the rest of the cousins too!

Grandma Todd

Nonny

Landrie is HEAD OVER HEELS for her baby sister!  All day long she wants to hold her and give her kisses. Today, I heard Tatem start crying, looked over and Landrie had climbed IN the swing with Tatem.  She was happily sitting next to her, playing with the mobile!!  Eek!

Daddy and Mommy

Oh my goodness, I love this family!!!

ELMO Birthday Party!!

I can't believe our baby is TWO!!  

We started off her actual birthday morning with a sweet treat.  I think the pictures say it all. :)

Landrie is in LOVE with this little furry red monster.  I found cute Elmo party outfits here (could those Cookie Monster ones be any cuter??) and here, but couldn't justify spending that much for a t-shirt.  Plus, I love a good challenge. :)  A little Michael Miller polka dots, some 25 cent sheets of felt, an Elmo template and some iron on adhesive later, her shirt was ready!  It was worth it all to see her face when I showed it to her.  She gasped, said "WOW!!" and kissed it!

I do love planning a birthday party for my sweet daughter, and I was thinking about it WAY in advance.  I booked the location when I was about 6 weeks pregnant and realized that I would have a 2 week old baby on her birthday weekend!  There is a church near us that has a 2 story indoor play place.  We went to a party there before, and I loved that they include a party planner to take care of everything while you are celebrating!

This fruit plate was so easy to put together and was inspired by an idea on Pinterest!  If you pin cute stuff, follow me and I'll follow you back!  I love all the ideas I get from there!

The party favors were revamped many times as we adjusted to life with a newborn!  I ended up just drizzling white chocolate on Oreos and adding red and orange sprinkles.  They were simple and a hit with the kids and parents too!

My cupcake tower was much taller before I loaded the top layer first!  It all toppled and we lost the bottom layer.  Oops!  These cupcakes were made with ease in mind too.  I got the cute red and white polka dot wrappers at Michaels, the Elmo candy faces here, and I just added orange sprinkles.  All kids love sprinkles, right?  The table runners and cupcake tower were made with orange polka dot wrapping paper.  Here's a great tutorial on how to make a cupcake tower for your party!

Our family with the birthday girl!!

Chowing down after playing hard!

Landrie sure does have a lot of boy friends!  

(Ashton borrowed Landrie's pink bib!)

Oh, how we love this girl!!

Pure glee!!!

"...to you!!"  Make a wish!

Of course, Landrie's birth mom Brianna and her daughter Brynn joined us for the festivities!  She was excited to meet little Tatem too!

Adorable!  I love this one!

Brianna and her girls!

Bye bye!  I wuv oooo!

The past two years have been AMAZING!!  Landrie Grace you've blessed our lives in more ways than you could ever imagine!  We love you SO, SO much!!  We can't wait to watch you grow up!

Newborn pics SNEAK PEEK!!

Ohhh!!  I am soooo excited!!  We had Tatem's newborn pictures taken, and today I got a sneak peek!!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!  Our photographer is so talented!!  I can't wait to see the rest of the shots of our precious baby girl.  Everyone loves pictures of a tiny baby, right?  You have to look at all of Jenny's baby pictures.  Click on galleries, then "Fresh from Heaven."  Love it!  Tatem's should be on there soon!!

2 year and 2 week doctor visits

Today was my first attempt at taking the girls out on my own!  Mark usually goes to the appointments with me, but he was out of town for this one.  (Did I mention that our AC went out less than an hour after he left?!?  Thankfully, 48 hours and an overnight stay with Aunt Megan and Uncle Greg later, it's back on!)

The girls are too cute and healthy too!

I am having too much fun coordinating their outfits!  We got a few at Carters since they sell matching newborn and 24 month stuff, but Landrie's about to grow out of that size.  Any ideas on where to get matching baby and toddler clothes?

I was juggling two, and I didn't quite get all their stats, but here are the basics from their visits and a few more things thrown in that I just want to remember. :)

Landrie:

-26.5 pounds

-27th% and 30th% for height and weight

-size 24 month or 2T in clothes

-Current obsession is DORA:)

Tatem:

-7 pounds, 3 ounces (up 1 pound 2 oz. from birth!)

-10th% for weight

-Still in newborn size clothes, but I think we'll graduate to 0-3month clothes in a week or two!

-Eating 20 minutes per feeding, and about every 3 hours, unless it's the evening.  The past few days she's eaten every hour!!

Two under 2!

Well, today is the last day we'll have two kids under the age of 2!  It's been a wild ride so far.  One thing is for sure...Landrie LOVES her baby sister!!

Baby!!

A few hours old and 1 year old

Hugs

A few more hours old and 1 year old

Nose...eyes...mouth...Landrie loves to point out all of Tatem's features.

1 day old and 1 year old

Twinkies on our first day home

(Yes, both girls can scream really loudly!)

2 days old and 1 year old

When I ask Landrie if she wants to hold Tatem, she stops whatever she's doing and emphatically says, "Yyyyyyyyeah!"

3 days old and 1 year old

Best friends!

3 days old and 1 year old

Giddy over holding Tay-Tay!  Landrie gave Tatem her first nickname, and she alternates between calling her simply "Baby" or "Tay-Tay."

4 days old and 1 year old

2 cuties!

1 week old and 1 year old

This mommy is hoping that this happens a lot next week when I have my first week on my own!

13 days old and 1 year old

I can't believe our first baby TURNS TWO tomorrow!  Our life sure has changed in the past 2 years.  

I love it!!  I can't wait to watch these two precious babies grow up to be friends. :)

8 day old & 1 year old on a ROAD trip!!

After WEEKS of not being able to go see my sick grandma, we decided it was time to go!  My Nonny suddenly got very, very sick when I was 38.5 weeks pregnant, and we thought we only had days or even hours left with her.  All of her kids and 13 out of her 15 grand kids went to go visit her.  Beth lives in Africa and I was really pregnant, so both of us were so upset about not being able to be with her!

Last week we told Tatem Rose that she was going to meet Nonny!  Tatem was named after Nonny.  She LOVES roses, so we chose her middle name to honor Nonny. :)  Tatem was obviously thrilled about her first car trip!

We told Landrie all of the fun people she would see on our road trip, and she couldn't stop grinning!!

With stops to feed Tatem, we figured it would take 10 hours to drive to Corpus.  That's rough!  We decided to break the trip up and go through Houston instead.  We could stay with my parents and see Mark's grandma too!

THURSDAY

We drove for almost 5 hours and made it to Houston!  We stayed the night with my parents.

We didn't take any pictures, but here's a cute one from when they stayed with us!

We packed more stuff than you can even dream about.  Can you spot Tatem's tiny sideways head in her car seat back there?  I forgot how contorted and uncomfortable newborns look in their car seats.

FRIDAY

We drove across town to visit Mark's grandma and introduce her to Tatem!

Grandma was so excited to meet her newest great- granddaughter!  

Of course, Landrie was excited to see Grandma too!  

Tatem was such a little snuggler!  

I love that Aunt Laury stopped by while we were there!  She was amazed at how much Tatem looks like Mark's side of the family! It's a good thing my honey is so cute!:)

After a sweet visit with Grandma and Laury, we hopped back in the car and took off for Corpus.  It was about a 4 hour car ride.  Nonny is out of the hospital and staying with my aunt and uncle.  

I can't tell you how precious these moments were for us!  For months, Nonny walked through pregnancy with me and couldn't wait to meet Tatem.  While I was at the end of pregnancy, there were several times when we thought it was our last day with Nonny.  She had prayed for me to be a mom and to be pregnant for so many years.  Motherhood was answered when God gave us Landrie, and He went above and beyond when he let us experience pregnancy too!  It was the same with this.  I didn't want Nonny to suffer just so she could meet Tatem, but I knew how sweet it would be if it could happen.  There was such a slim chance...and look!!  Once again, God went above and beyond and gave us this precious gift!  Thank you all for praying for Nonny!  Her recovery is truly miraculous!

 Hi, Nonny!

Tatem just laid in Nonny's arms for hours. :)

There was a piano in Nonny's room, and Landrie kept us entertained with music.  My cousin Liesl was teaching her!

After a great dinner with my aunt, uncle and lots of cousins, we headed out and spent the night at Nonny's.  I wish I would have gotten a picture with everyone!  

SATURDAY

We went back to Mark and Bernadette's for one last visit!

Landrie's cousin Kyla kept her entertained. :)

It's not possible for this picture to be any cuter!

Can you tell how excited Landrie was to be snuggling with Nonny??

Nonny and Landrie both LOVE to read!

And Tatem wasn't far from the action!

This is the precious blanket Nonny made for Tatem!  

SUNDAY

Landrie didn't get the memo that we had expertly timed all these car trips to coincide with her naps.  She stayed wide awake and the car sounded something like this: mommymommymommydaddymommymommy
We were beyond thankful for the DVD player!

Tatem was an ANGEL in the car.  I think traveling with an 8 day old may be easier than any other age.  Other than having to stop to feed her, she was so easy.  We didn't have to bring any toys, and she slept 95% of the ride!  (Please don't tell the breastfeeding police that we let Tatem use a pacifier! haha!)

Landrie cracked us up.  She went almost completely napless during the 4 day trip, but thankfully didn't get too rowdy.  We had a constant stream of movies, books, snacks and even a bit of candy.  :)  

I don't think that I've mentioned that we finally took the plunge.  We traded in our car for a VAN.  Yup, we watched all of our friends do it and swore we never would.  When we were car shopping, they were pushing the van like they made comission themselves!  So, we bought one. :)  Can I tell you how glorious it was for this car trip? 

We pulled into the garage, Mark unloaded the van and headed out to the airport to pick up his mom.  We like to stay busy around here. :)  Tatem's been getting lots of snuggles and Landrie's enjoying tea parties and M&Ms. :)  

Landrie and Tatem are loving the endless stream of doting grandparents, and we are too!  We are so thankful for our families and our amazing GOD!