Big Day!

Lainey lost her first tooth today!  When I picked her up from school, this is what I was met with.  This and a bloody tooth in a bag. :)  She was so excited to put it under her pillow.  The Tooth Fairy was caught completely off guard and was not ready for this monumental event!  Luckily, the Tooth Fairy had some cash and a toothbrush laying around.  Lainey was so excited to wake up the next morning to a present and note under her pillow.  Cannot believe this is happening already!

Homework

Lainey's Pre-K teachers are seriously amazing!  They do SO MUCH for these kids every day, and I am constantly amazed by their dedication, creation, and organization...not to mention their love for our baby girl.  This week, they started giving homework.  Homework in Pre-K?!?!  Absolutely!  From talking with the neighbors, I know she is going to have homework next year in Kindergarten, so I'm glad her teachers are getting all of us used to it now!  They assign it each Monday and it is due Wednesday.  I wanted to document her first night, so here it is!  Coloring, cutting, and sorting the numbers from 1-10.  She did this all completely by herself with me only checking it at the end.  So proud of this sweet girl!



My favorite quote from the night: "I LOVE homework!"

Finished product

Lainey is 5!

Holy crap!  When did my baby girl get to be five. years. old?!?  These past five years have flown by, but boy have they been fun!  We have watched our spunky little baby grow into an extrememly intelligent, big-hearted, fun-loving girl!

Questions about our five year old:

1. What is your favorite color? Rainbow

2. What is your favorite toy? Minnie Mouse

3. What is your favorite fruit? Oranges

4. What is your favorite tv show? Project Runway :)

5. What is your favorite movie? Barbie Princess and the Pop Star

6. What is your favorite thing to wear? my Barbie Pop Star dress

7. What is your favorite animal? Polar bear

8. What is your favorite song? Never a Doubt from Princess and the Pop Star ( seeing a theme?!?)

9. What is your favorite book? Princess Baby by Karen Katz

10. Who is your best friend? Maggie, Alexis, and Taylor

11. What is your favorite snack? strawberries

12. What is your favorite drink? juice

13. What is your favorite breakfast? Dinosaur eggs oatmeal

14. What is your favorite lunch? Mac and cheese, oranges, tacos

15. What is your favorite dinner? Poppyseed chicken

16. What is your favorite game? Princess Memory
17. What is your favorite thing to play outside? on my swingset

18. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

19. What do you sleep with at night? Minnie Mouse
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a superhero!

On her birthday we had a nice little dinner at home with just the four of us on our upper deck.  I made Lainey's favorite, poppyseed chicken with green bean casserole.  We then celebrated with cake and ice cream.  Lainey then opened her gifts from us.  You may see a theme...

Lainey got an American Girl doll for her birthday.  We bought the Lanie doll in 2010 in Chicago when she was the Girl of the Year doll.  We have been hiding her away, just waiting for the right birthday to give it to her.  My mom, sister-in-law, Lainey and Lilly went to Kansas City a few weeks ago and took Lainey to the American Girl doll store there.  We talked up Lanie and how they didn't have her anymore and how maybe someday she would get a doll.  Mean family?  Yes! :) 

Needless to say, she was absolutely shocked when she opened this gift and saw the beloved doll that looks just like her and shares her name!

We're so blessed to have her, and I can honestly say I am loving every minute of her personality right now!  Love you, baby girl!

Lainey with two gifts she got from friends--a microphone and Hello Kitty pjs

Fair Time

We've started a new tradition since living up North.  We head to my parents every year for the Knox County Fair.  It's a good time, and it gives Nana a chance to show off her girls to all of her friends. :) 

I had never been to a county fair before my parents moved here, so it's been quite the experience.  There are your typical carnival rides, 4-H presentations of animals, and three nights of concerts.  We happened to get a cooler weekend which made it much nicer.  I am definitely looking forward to the coming years with this tradition. 

Lainey rode a horse for the first time.  We pulled into the parking lot, and this man was riding his horse around directing traffic.  Lainey walked up to him and asked if she could pet the horse, and he got right down and asked her if she wanted to ride it.  She jumped at the chance and was loving life!  She later asked Nana to get her one. :)

Lainey and I got wristbands so we could ride all the rides we wanted.  We learned that lesson the hard way last year, so we're now prepared for wristbands every year!  Lainey loved all the kid rides, and we attempted some big kid ones as well.

This is one of those "big kid" rides we attempted.  I am a thrill seeker for sure, but I've always been leery of rides that travel around and are thrown up and down every few nights.  I decided to get over my fear for the sake of my thrill seeking child and ride some of the "big kid" rides with her.  Big mistake!  The thing about all of these rides is that they look a lot more mild from the ground than in reality.  We decided to go on the Octopus, a ride that is named because it looks like an octopus with legs out that go up and down and round and round.  Fun, right?!? 

Well after being (very loosely) strapped into our car, the ride got started.  We quickly learned that this was not going to be fun for either one of us.  I was literally hanging onto my daughter for her dear life.  My dad finally had to ask the ride guy if he would stop it because we were all getting a little nervous.  He graciously did, and Lainey and I got off the ride swearing to never do that again!  It would have been fun riding with another adult, but I learned my lesson about riding with my four year old.  We decided we would stick to the ones that spin round and round in one place, not round and round while moving up and down in the air!



Here's my sweet girls before the Hairball concert.  Hairball is a local 70s and 80s cover band that is AMAZING!  They really do put on a fantastic show, and have now become a permanent part in the fair lineup.

When we weren't at the fairgrounds, we were hanging out on the farm. 

Lainey with the beans she had planted earlier this year.

Picking and shucking corn for the first time

  This may be one of my favorite pictures of all time because you can just see how much these two love each other!  I am a Daddy's Girl for sure, but Lainey is certainly giving me a run for my money on who is Papa's favorite, ha!

Enjoying the fruits of her labor. 

Sweet sisters hanging out on the farm, and by hanging out I mean taking a million pictures for their crazy momma!  

And finally ending the weekend at Nana & Papa's church.  Crunkle didn't plan on matching the girls, but we figured it was picture worthy.

I can't express how wonderful it is to live this close to my family.  Can't imagine ever being as far apart as we were ever again!

Farm Life

Lainey has spent a lot of time at Nana & Papa's farm this summer!  My parents live on a farm, but are nowhere near farmers!  My dad just wanted the land and the scenic view, and we love that the girls have such a fun and different place to play.  Lainey has officially spent about 3 weeks there this summer, and only one of those was with Mommy around.  She goes to my parents and doesn't think twice about her own parents.  We only get to talk to her if we call her!  She loves the room to run, and she loves being able to play outside ALL day and night!

 Lainey loves to go golfing with her buddy, Carter.  The two of them especially enjoy driving the carts. :)

Lainey was able to help her Papa plant beans earlier this summer, and this past week she got to see how much they've grown. 

My mom has an above ground pool, and Lainey has really become a little fish.  I am amazed each time she comes home at all the new pool "tricks" she has!

And who doesn't love a good slip and slide?!?

This is one of my favorite pictures.  We're slightly obsessed with having "fire camps" at Nana & Papa's, and this girl loves her some marshmallows!

I am so thankful to live only 3 hours from my parents and to have parents that are so willing to take their grandchildren for extended periods of time.  My dad has said several times lately that he would be perfectly fine if Lainey came to live with them. :)  So blessed to have them in our lives!

Catching Up

Life has, as always, been a little hectic these days.  We've been going nonstop and loving (almost) every minute of it!  I wanted to get a few pictures documented so I can somewhat be able to remember what life was like during this time.

Here's Lainey before church a few Sundays ago.  Jovan really wanted a picture in this outfit because he thought she looked so cute.  I asked her to pose, and this is what I got, ha! 

Lainey started soccer a few weeks ago.  She's taking it through a group here called "Tiny Toros".  There is a club league here, Toros, and the older girls are the "coaches" on Saturdays.  We had Lainey playing through the YMCA last year, and it was basically a complete joke.  In this program, it's a little more pricey, but I feel she is actually learning fundamentals, so it's worth the money.  They all have this lovely neon yellow shirt.  This picture is from her first game, and I'll have to add some new ones after this weekend.  We've had some changes to her wardrobe such as soccer cleats and some fabulous neon yellow soccer socks.  Not really sure why neon is so popular these days, but what can ya do?!

Here are the girls in their matchy-matchy zebra dresses.  Bless their hearts!  They were both sick in this picture!  We have been battling some illness here in the Tosic house this past week, and we're hoping there is an end in sight.  Lainey had strep throat last week, Lilly had a fever paired with an awful ear infection, and I had the stomach flu this week.  Lainey was great once the antibiotics kicked in, but her little sister has had a ROUGH time lately!  She weighed almost 14 lbs. at her 4 month check-up, and she has since lost a pound this month because she has had so many eating issues. :(  Her poor ears just haven't allowed her to do much.  We got to the point where she had to have three days of shots...hoping these ear infections don't become a regular occurance!

This picture was taken of the girls yesterday.  Getting a good one of both of them is nearly impossible, so this was the best we could get.  I still think they're pretty cute! :)  We're looking forward to a weekend home to recover and relax!

Rough Week

This has been a crazy week in our house.  We recently started Lainey in swim lessons, dance, and tumbling, so that takes up three different nights in our week in addition to small group and the day-to-day responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, and lesson planning.  This past week we also got to throw in two nights of conferences for me in which I worked 13 hour days.  Needless to say, I was EXHAUSTED by the time Friday rolled around.  Luckily we had a staff development day Friday so we didn't have to teach all day after our lovely meetings with parents! 

Besides being exhausted, Friday was a big day for us.  Our best friends here in Nebraska, Bryce and Tina,  had Match Day for residency placement.  Bryce is going into the field of pathology, and we were absolutely certain that they were going to be here for residency.  We were able to watch Match Day on a live feed, so we knew right when they did where Bryce had been placed.  Our worst fears came true, and we found out that Tina and Bryce will be moving to Denver for the next 4 years.  We are absolutely devastated, but we know God has a plan for them.  After LOTS of tears yesterday, we've been able to come up with several positives about the move----like the fact that we've never been to Denver, and that Jovan's region is Denver so he gets to travel there.  It's going to be hard to lose them for 4 years, but we're hopeful they will make the return home when it's over! :)

Lainey helping Ms. Tina blow out the candles on her birthday cake

Lainey loves Tina and Bryce!  We're waiting to tell her about the move,,,not looking forward to that one!

And after a completely crazy week, I can look at the following pictures and realize how completely blessed my life is.  I am so thankful to have these girls!!!

Old

It's official...Lainey is old.  We try to stop her from growing, but it's just not working!  We've now officially started what is sure to be the first of many years of activities, activities, activities!  As of this week, our schedule will be swim lessons on Sundays, dance on Mondays, and tumbling on Wednesdays.  We'll be adding soccer on Saturdays here in a few weeks.  Insane, but I wouldn't have it any other way!  Looking forward to some fun times ahead! 

And here is Lainey this morning hating my guts as I was trying to get a picture of her in her shirt for Dr. Seuss' birthday.  We had quite an adventure trying to make it last night.  Lainey was great, but Lilly was not so thrilled about having her hands painted when she was hungry and trying to patiently wait for a bottle.   We did get it done, though, and I must say I kind of love it! :)

What we've been up to...

Well I have officially survived two weeks back at work.  Survived being the key word.  This whole working and being a mom of two kids is HARD!!!  I know being a stay at home mom is hard...I did it for 2 years, but I didn't think life was going to be this busy.  Oh well!  We will adjust!

That said, we've been busy lately therefore not leaving me time to document what's been going on.  My brother and I went to a Creighton University baskeyball game last week.  I tend to have basketball withdrawls and thought this would give me a good little "fix".  It did!  Creighton plays in our huge arena here, and it is just like a Memphis game...lots of blue everywhere!  We had amazing seats courtesy of our friend Wes, and my brother and I went and screamed our heads off.  We both love basketball and will take our fix where we can get it! 


My first Creighton game


Our sweet girl is almost 3 months old.  I cannot believe it!  I was trying to get pictures of her smiling,  but she's no dummy!  She stops as soon as I try to take pictures, fixating on the vinyl J on my phone. 

To say that Lainey has been a "hot mess" lately would be an understatement.  We have been dealing with some unfavorable behaviors for the last couple weeks, which just happen to coincide with when I went back to work.  She's a smart one, as most kids are, and fully realizes the stress Mommy is under and how life got a little more hectic for our family of four after my return to the workforce.  We're thinking she is feeling left out and having a little sibling rivalry due to the fact that Lilly is now in a REALLY cute stage.  Lainey has never been ill towards her sister, but she's starting to take it out on us and getting attention where she can--including negative attention.  We're trying to make a conscious effort to spend quality time together.  That being said, I decided Lainey and I needed to go on a date to Disney on Ice.  We went Sunday afternoon, and I'm not sure who had more fun! :)  We had a blast, and I look forward to going next time they come back! 

And here's my two girls in this little leopard number from Gap.  It's been fun putting Lilly in Lainey's old clothes and doing some comparison pics!  I think they look nothing alike in these pictures, but everyone always comments on how much Lilly looks like her big sister!

Sisters are sweet

This is a phrase I heard a lot once finding out we were having another girl.  I was absolutely thrilled to find out we were having a Lilly, and of course once we found that out we started talking about all the fun these two girls were going to have.  I pray daily that these girls will always love each other, and I pray that they will be the best of friends.  I don't know what it is like to have a sister, but I do know what it is like to have your sibling as a best friend.  I'm hoping these girls will be as close as Jake and me.  I'm sure we are in for lots of fights, yelling, and drama, but I know we will have several sweet moments as well...like this one...

My heart was so happy today as I got to spend time with my two favorite girls and watch them just laugh and "talk" with each other.  Lainey was so excited to have Lilly in her bed and be reading to her, and Lilly was equally excited to hang out with her big sis!  I look forward to many more memories like this!

**Completely Random Thought**
As I was taking Lilly into her room today to change her diaper I just confirmed for the millionth time the answer to the question that plagues parents when they find out they are expecting another child--"Can I ever love someone as much ???"  ABSOLUTELY!  I really was worried about it because I couldn't imagine having that feeling again, but of course I did, and I am just as in love with this sweet miracle as I am with her sister.  Feeling very blessed that God has given me two amazing daughters!

Happy Valentine's Day!

**I added some more at the end now that I've finally gotten a few pictures off my camera.

I've always liked Valentine's Day.  It's always been a big holiday for me, but not for the mushy lovey dovey reasons it's probably supposed to.  I've had the same Valentine for 29 years, with some others thrown in here and there, and of course a tall, Serbian Valentine for the past 10 years! :)  My Daddy has and always will be my Valentine.  He has gotten me something for every single Valentine's Day my entire life, and I don't see that changing ever!  Because he did this for me, I have encouraged Jovan to do the same for his girls.  It goes with that whole "Dad's should show their daughters what a man should treat them like" thing that I find SO important.  So, Jovan has gotten Lainey something every year, and now has another girl to add into the mix!  We tried to take some pictures of the girls in their Valentine's gear.  We are finding it near impossible at this point to get "good" pictures of them, but we're sure having fun trying!

Bless Lainey's heart.  She usually loves her baby sister, but she was NOT feeling it this day! 

This is what this girl looks like 90% of the time.  She is such a sweet, happy baby!

Lainey got this lovely dress from her Daddy to play dress up in.

Lilly's Valentine's gift from us

Each Valentine's Day Jovan is supposed to give the girls a charm.  We had planned for him to do this for Lainey, but we had never really found ones we liked or Pandora ones that cost a minimum of $60, so long story short--we found some and he had to play catch up!  Now both girls each have one for the number of Valentine's days they've had with their Daddy.  Each one has a story behind it, and it was really sweet hearing him tell Lainey about each one and why he chose it for her.  I hope both of these girls realize how special this is someday.  I pray that they will have the same relationship with Jovan that I have with my daddy, and I am thankful that Jovan has the example of my dad to learn from.  Such a blessing!