Hallie

Hallie is just the cutest and smartest little 6 year old I know! She is so coordinated and athletic. She is good at anything she wants to be good at. She is a little artist and is always making cards, pictures or crafts for her friends. She loves coloring things in rainbow colors. She loves planning parties and has already started planning her birthday as well as Mother's Day and Father's Day, oh and a summer party with her friends when covid is over! 

She has adjusted pretty well to having a new baby in the family. She absolutely loves Stockton and always comments on "how cute" he is. The weather is still a little chilly to bring a baby out in, and he is still on oxygen and only 1 month old, but we don't get out as much as she would like. She wants to do a play date every day with her friends and that is just not reasonable for me right now. 

Every once in awhile she will make breakfast for the entire family. She is always the first one in the family to wake up for the day. 

Hallie planned dessert one night for dinner. She spent all of quiet time that day making this. She put marshmallows on toothpicks. She was so excited for us all to eat them!

When the kids were at Shelli's house, she made them "butterfly" sandwiches for lunch. Hallie taught Russ how to make them one day. 

She went to a birthday party and they did face painting. She chose a reindeer. 

This is the card she made for her friends birthday. Too cute!

Brooks

Brooks is such a sweet, happy and chill dude! I have quite the soft spot in my heart for this little man. I have so many sweet moments with him and I am just so grateful he is mine. 

A few things about Brooks I want to document: 

-He never gets out of his bed unless we go get him. He can get in and out of his bed without problems but when he wakes up from sleeping, both for naps or bedtime, he quietly plays/talks in his bed until we go get him. Sometimes I let him stay in there for awhile before I go get him.  
-Loves cars. I'm not sure I know another kid that loves his cars as much as he does. We probably have a hundred cars at home and still that isn't enough for him. He plays with them all but his favorites right now are his "blue truck" and "gray car" that Grandpa Joe gave him recently. He loves driving his cars on pretend "dirt roads," to car washes, to McDonalds or parking in garages. 
-He comments on every truck that has a trailer hitch connected to it. He also points out every trailer he sees on the road too. This kid is obsessed with daddy's truck and the fact that it can pull a trailer. He is beyond excited for us to go on a "dirt road" again with our trailer when we go camping. 
-Loves to snuggle still but has been requesting it less lately. I wonder if it is because he knows we are busy attending to the baby and his needs right now. Hopefully he never loses his want to snuggle.
-Hallie is his best frenemy. They play great together but sometimes Hallie knows just the thing to make him mad. 

Snuggling with all the blankets and pillows. The more, the better. 

He calls this "his truck" and wants to bring it from the backyard to the front yard anytime we are out front. 

Brooks loves looking out the window at the cars/trucks parked on the street, especially if one of those trucks is attached to a trailer. He also loves watching visitors leave our house in their cars. 

Russ loves that Brooks is his little meat eater. 

Play Date

Grandma Becky and Grandpa Joe took Hallie and Brooks for the entire day today! It was nice to be able to go to Stockton's photo shoot without the other 2 kids and also get a little nap at home with Stocton while they were away.

Brooks played with lots of cars and even got sent home with some of Joe's cars/trucks that he played with when he was little. Brooks now sleeps with those cars every night. 

Hallie got to do crafts, play tons of games, eat donuts and even lost a tooth while eating one!

They both had the best time and felt so special to be able to spend the whole day with their grandparents!

Brooks hooking up his new trucks to trailers when he got home. He is obsessed with trailers!

Newborn Photo Shoot

Stockton was in the NICU his entire hospital stay so we weren't able to do a hospital photo shoot with him. I feel sad about it. Also, because of his NICU stay we weren't able to do newborn photos when we wanted (within the first week of life, when babies are so sleepy and less alert and aware). But, I'm so grateful Amber was still able to capture some sweet pictures of Stockton. There aren't many sleeping photos because he is more alert now that he is older but he's oh so cute and adorable nonetheless! 

Birth announcement