a few from the iphone stash....

the majority of these pictures are joy doing what she does best. 

playing dress up.  as you know, she has been dressing herself from head to toe since she was about 10 months old.  by far one of her most impressive talents ;) she's just always loved to put on her own  clothes. and does NOT want any help.  but it doesn't stop there. once evy arrived she wanted to wear all of evy's clothes...and dress evy.  she would play in evy's drawers all day long pulling out different outfits, putting them on, and running out with this huge grin just waiting for trey and i's response.  we'd typically laugh at her latest ensemble in which she would respond, "take a peeek-ture"!!

so here are a few phone pics

this first one is joy putting her shoes on evy. (oh, i failed to mention that she enjoys dressing evy almost as much as dressing herself)

"i go running like mommy!"

evy's dress

squeezing into 6 month apparel

found a diaper cream streak on this little lady. hilarious placement.

this was actually a recent pic. sporting evy's 0-3 month tank top, double-fisting evy's diapers (on her way to the trash can), while taking a quick moment to do a gymnast salute inspired by gaby douglas. 

while sorting evy's clothes she came across an old onesie. she was in heaven because this thing has SNAPS! of course, doing it all by herself.

just another day at the house. backward size 6 month swim top 

she says, "i get piper's leash on so she can potty outside!!"

this was also the day that after piper did her potty business joy looks at me and says, "OH NO, mommy!! piper needs to wipe"!

and one day i found puppy chillin in the fridge in his bloomers.

i'm not allowed to change evy's diapers most days. it's joys job. and she's very proud of it.

this was the day that i was trying to figure out how much evy weighed.  joy became super fascinated "i weigh myself!"  not sure why the heels and evy's jammies (coupling as a dress, seen here) were necessary!

the day that we potty trained i walked into joys room and found everyone dressed in panties.  apparently "bitty-baby" got socks too.

mardi gras year round at our house. piper got beads...

and so did evy

"we doing tummy time like EVY!"

that's all i've got for now. more coming.

evy grace -- 4 MONTHS!

well, little miss evelyn is actually 5 months now...never posted my 4 month post because i was waiting on pictures. oops! here it is, still picture-less...

i LOVE me a 4 month old!! she's sturdy, she sleeps like a champ, and she laughs at all my jokes. ;) let the real fun begin...
our doctor is out of town until evy's nearly 5 months old so we'll have to wait on the stats.... i believe she's just about 14 pounds and perhaps tracking to be a bit shorter than her sister joy.
** okay, stats are in -- she weighs and measures EXACTLY what here mama jules did at 4 months
14lbs 6 oz and 24 inches. (joy weighed 12 lbs at 4 mo. guess evy and i really love our milk)
eye color -- TBD. they still have a lot of blue pigment but i'm going to go with a light brown like her mom.

what we're doing?

• well, loving life for starters. smiling and laughing constantly.  if anyone happens to make eye contact with her, she grins from ear to ear. and then she does flirty little look-away that has become her signature expression. it is to die for.
• this little one is super ACTIVE... already scooting across the floor for toys and getting up on all 4's.
• she's making all sorts of noises..oohs/aahs coo's/caahs?..gurgling, squealing.
• she really enjoys watching joy and piper. they get the biggest laughs
• she loves her time in the bjorn with trey.
• still a huge fan of tummy-time. and still rolling over-- especially while sleeping which has put a slight damper on our sleep routine.
• she can now sit up and balance with her hands in front of her... she plays a lot like this now
• enjoys her jenny jumper. a lot!
• takes 3 naps a day (typically, 9a, noon, and 3p-- bedtime falling somewhere between 7 and 8; and morning wake-time between 6:30 and 7:30)
• sleeps on her tummy. most always in a "sleepy-sack"
• still drinking straight milk. starting solids @ 6 months.
• pretty much always gets dressed by joy and has her diaper changed by joy.
• did i mention that joy is actually evy's mom, not me? she really thinks so. all day long she asks me if we can change evy's clothes, changer her diaper, give her a bath, push her in the stroller, give her some snacks, etc...
• and i believe that most of her affection comes from joybird. she'll randomly walk up to evy and say "oh hey evy!! and give her a kiss" evy is in NO way starved for affection between the three of us. and she loves every second!
• working on a top tooth, i believe?
• almost sitting w/o assistance. still doing the forward lean.

a note on self-soothing.  i've never been one to let the babies cry. i hate it. if a baby is crying, i want to fix it and do whatever i can to make them happy.  we rocked little joybird to sleep for quite sometime and those were some of the sweetest moments for both trey and I.  There's something special about having your little baby asleep in your arms, or snuggled up breathing sweet little baby breaths on your neck.  i will never forget  those moments....we wanted those with evy, although  it's a LOT harder to rock or hold her to sleep when you have a little side-kick named joy.  so i finally gave in and decided that i was just going to have to put her in her bed, crying or no crying...i did this for about a week and all was going well and THEN, guinn was off work again (this time for 3 months) he came home and was going to put evy down while i hung with joy...i said, "okay, just put her in her bed awake" (as we were right in the middle of sleep training). of course he comes out 45 minutes later explaining how much he enjoys her falling asleep in his arms and that he just didn't want to put her down. so we continued on this way...one of us snuggling with baby evs while the other played with joy.   those are the sweetest moments and i'm thankful that we were able to make it happen.   although, that ship has sailed...work has resumed so it's back to self-soothing. ;)

pictures and videos to come-- no time to blog these days! i'll get on that.

WE LOVE YOU EVELYN GRACE!!! 

 Before you came into our lives we missed you SO BAD! ;)

i go to starbucks with mommy!!!!

 evy has some kind of cold so she was up more than normal in the middle of the night. somewhere around 4am i told myself that i will treat myself to a coffee from starbucks as soon as the sun comes up!


of course little miss bird, who does not skip a beat, overhears me telling trey that i want starbucks and she's on the move....


jammies flying off, SPRINTS to her bedroom saying, "i go to starbucks with mommy!" 
...and then proceeds to call out every thing that needs to happen in order for her to be ready while simultaneously doing what she says.... "get on my shorts, and my shoesies, get my purse" we hear her in her bedroom calling out all her little tasks... and we're like "i guess she's going with me!"  then she starts telling me what to do, "mommy change shirts, mommy get keys, mommy put piggy in joybirds hair"... "i go byebye in our car with mommy!!!" oh my gosh, you'd of thought this girl had never left our house. she gets SO excited!!


"byebye daddy!" and we're out the door...oh but wait, someone forgot to kiss piper and to kiss daddy... "uh oh! i kiss daddy" back in we go for kisses. 
gone for real this time....
stop to take a pic because she's too darn cute...
meanwhile, i'm wondering what on earth is in her purse...i know she was throwing things in as i was getting ready (and by getting ready i mean brushing my teeth and perhaps changing t-shirts)

all the way to the car, "i see a bird...oooooooohhhhh birdy flying!!" "i see a truck. i see a car"

"yaaaaaaaaaaayyyy our car!!!" she always gets really excited when she spots our car.

a cinnamon dulce late for me and vanilla-milk for joybird.

two happy little ladies.

i new it wouldn't be long before she revealed her necessities.... a compact, puppies bottle, three crayons, pretend lipstick, pretend moolah, a tea-cup just in case, and the best-- trey's iphone?

oh.my.guinness!!

homeward bound... 

feeling all amped up and ready to take on this day with trey and baby evy!!

stay tuned for evy's 4 month update!

father's day

oops...apparently this was saved as a draft. better late than never-- fathers day.

there's no better dad. in the entire world. 

seriously.

lucky little guinn girls...they are loved and adored beyond words!!

great convo's with joy

joy-- kiss evy, night nike...

jules-- okay kiss her cheek.

joy (in whiny voice) no kiss her lips!!

jules -- she has a cold. kiss her cheek

joy ... ( in even whiny-er voice).. no no mommy. i kiss her lips!!!

jules -- okay joy kiss her lips.

joy (kisses evy's lips)-- thank you, mama!

joy -- i go poo-poo

jules -- (while nursing evy) you need to go poopoo?  okay go.

joy-- -- no, go poopoo on the toilet?

jules -- ummm, you know what, you have on a diaper... so just go in your diaper.

joy-- no, i sit on the potty!

mom of the year.

it's been a while since we dropped joy off at church nursery, with evy being born and all.
trey stayed home with evy this past sunday and i took joy.... i dropped her off and kept telling her, "you're going to stay here and play with all your little friends, and then mommy is going to come back"
when we get home from church, joy told trey at least 5 times....
"i go to church with mommy, and mommy CAME BACK!!"
"i will ALWAYS come back little birdie".


recently she's really gotten in to telling everyone hi at the grocery store.  we call all the baggers by name and thank them for their services...the only awkward part is that joy wants to kiss them...and on the lips.
as we're leaving she keeps asking me, "KISS ELVIA, KISS ELVIA".... and i have to explain that we don't kiss strangers. and if you saw elvia's mouth/teeth region....you wouldn't think twice about letting your daughter kiss her. yikes!


and the best scenario (happened yesterday) was our trip to the dentist!!!  i was all worried about how it would go down...would joy really let random people brush and clean her teeth?
turns out, she's obsessed with dentistry.  she loved when they "scratched her teeth"  and "painted them with flouride".  after the dentist came in to check her out, she asked him if he could clean her teeth again. and he said she'd have to wait 6 months ;)

joy puts puppy to bed

she could do this all day long.  she is a definitely a little-mama at heart. she spent about 15 minutes getting puppy ready for bed.  she put on his diaper, applied desitin, zipped up his "sleepy sack", is what she calls it since evy wears one....and then i heard her singing amazing grace to puppy from the other room...of course, i interrupted with my video recording.... but she gets back on track ;)




now that we're on the video roll, here's two more...
reading books is our thing.  she reads them to herself, to me, to puppy, and to evy.  she likes to tell the real story and also loves to make up her own.





ONE MORE---
i know you're not supposed to keep a babe up past their bedtime just to play with them but last night we could not resist.  everything i did was straight up hilarious to evy.... i could have played all night long.
love this girl!!!

"before she came into our life...

we missed her so bad, we missed her so bad, we missed her SO SO BAD!!!"
thanks, carly rae.
this has been our family anthem around here lately. 
song below for my top blog followers -- coco and bud (who may not know the tune) --



anyway, we are all a little obsessed with miss evy grace....
the past three months have been, well, lots of things. but most importantly, exciting, eventful, and full of joy and evy.


we've all been running at a super fast pace around here (not literally...oh how i wish literally).  from march to mid-may it was all about learning to be a mother/father of two, infanthood, holding a job, trey holding a few-- while trying to find time to wrap up the ol' dissertation. we didn't have time for anything else..including life documentation of any kind.  i snapped a few iphone pics and videos when i could... 


we are oh so grateful to both have the entire summer off!!!  getting to spend every waking moment with each other and with our babes.  we have this entire little piece of UT heaven, known as duren to ourselves and have been living it up.


anyway, i'm going to try to upload some pictures, some stats, some check-ins, and a note or two on what the girls are doing these days.  i'd like to think this blog will be around in years to come and dream about looking back with them on all the memories... so here's to the girls. the guinnsters, as trey calls them.


don't have time for much BUT, here's the quick.
joybird guinn is 2 years old; weight 25.4 lbs  31st%/ height 34.75in 72% 
she talks more than anyone i know. non stop. there's not a thought that crosses her mind that she doesn't say out loud. i'm serious.  she feels the need to announce every move that anyone in the house makes. for example, "daddy take his shirt off and go outside", "evy's going night night in the back", "daddy's washing his hands", you get my drift.
she's super affectionate, loves to be held and sang to.  she sings a lot too! hello, little mama, twinkle twinkle, you don't have to call me darlin, darlin, you are my sunshine, just to name a few.
she walks around this house all day long dressing and undressing, diping and wiping-- puppy, evy, and anyone else that will let her. but mainly puppy and evy.  
favorite color is, without a doubt, YELLOW!!!
still loves to play dress up! puts on my clothes, trey's clothes...and has a serious love for evy's clothes. she squeezes into anything she can.
she refers to herself as joybird.
my favorite is when she says "thank you, mommy!" after i give her something..."bless you mommy" after i sneeze, or "i'm sorry, mommy" anytime she thinks she's done something wrong. sweetest little girl around.
she's amazing.


evelyn grace-- 3 months old--
super smiley and would chose to interact and coo and babble with us over anything else.
loves tummy time. prefers to be on her tummy over her back, and is quite physical....
started rolling over at 1 month.
is pretty independent-- doesn't need or like to be rocked to sleep..she's all cuddles and kisses until it's bedtime and then just wants to be put down and do her thing.
is waking once or twice in the night to eat....and can seriously take down some milk!!
recently learned to grab at and hold onto objects, and now puts them in her mouth
enjoys sitting in her bumbo and observing all that's going on. 
she's extra interested in joy!  just watches her and smiles and laughs
has started making those "bird call" kind of squeals that joy used to make. so cute!
laughs back if you laugh at her.
this girl is perfect. 
i will embrace each little day as i know from joys early days-- they fly by. next thing you know, she's two ;)


it's 10:30p...cranberry walnut cookies and a glass of milk await us. no more time to chat here but i'm going to get more serious about these check-ins! oh, and def no time to make cookies from scratch. let me tell you about these little gems we discovered from central market... cranberry walnut. made by the c.market themselves. just pop that goodness in the oven and oh.my.guinness! you've never tasted a better cookie.


the guinnsters:

3.5.12

Nothing compares to delivery day, and, for that reason, 5.19.10 and 3.5.12 will always be my most favorite days!

The c-section went perfectly. Truthfully, it was quite the party in there, as I made it my mission to get the medical staff relaxed (probably an attempt to just relax myself). Each time someone walked in, I welcomed them to the party, and asked my anesthesiologist to keep me informed of exactly what they were doing at each moment. She kept asking trey, "is she serious?" Of course I was, I didn't want to miss a beat on this miraculous event! Would you?

And just like that, Evy went from my stomach to my arms. healthy, happy...and beautiful. An answer to prayer.

Trey introduces Evelyn to Papa Joe and Bebe

Papa Bud and Coco bring Joy to meet Evy

our hospital stay was great, but really we were so eager to get home, be with Joy, and start this family of four gig!!

My amazing doctor released me early! we were so thankful.

A couple more pics from the hospital:

A few nights before the big day, Guinn and I made the sign above for Evelyn. He got really into it, as you can probably imagine ;)

A dissertating dad. Go get 'em Papa-Guinn!

bright-eyed and loving life!

The Guinn family is doing fantastic!! We are loving every minute.... well, except those sleepless middle of the night minutes ;)

we love you, evelyn grace!!!!