Olivia's Newborn Photo Session

Our wonderful photographer, Nichole, from Nichole Marie Photography took Olivia's newborn pictures when she was about 9 days old. Once again, Nichole did a fabulous job and fortunately sweet Olivia cooperated with us to get such great shots. Below are some of my favorites from the session - there were so many great ones that it was hard to choose which to share. Enjoy!

Thanks again Nichole for doing a beautiful job capturing our growing family! 

Father's Day

We spent our first full day alone as a family of four on Father's Day. I felt like it was a great day, but maybe we should let Mike be the judge of that! We started the day off with breakfast. It was more like brunch - I was up a lot the night before with Olivia so Mike let me sleep in a little before I got up to cook. I made a sausage gravy and biscuit casserole. Mike's favorite breakfast from a local restaurant is biscuit and gravy served with an egg on top, so I made him a couple of eggs to top his. We then opened a couple of presents before Mike and Jacks headed to the pool. We spent the afternoon around the house before having a delicious dinner. I tackled my first attempt at steak - dinner  was an appetizer of strawberry bruschetta, followed by filet mignon, roasted yukon potatoes, and asparagus. We had peanut butter chess pie with homemade whipped cream for dessert! Yum! Below are pictures of the food and Mike's gifts. We got Jackson to say "Happy Father's Day" but because he didn't know what it meant he would say "Happy Father's Day Mommy!" haha Overall, we had a great time celebrating daddy and feel so blessed to have him in our lives as a provider, husband, and father! We (me, Jacks, and Olivia) love you Mikey!

Breakfast! This was also my first attempt at gravy - its a southern dish so something that we didn't make growing up. It was pretty easy though!

Card and gift basket from the kiddos :) I downloaded some cute free printables from pinterest and filled a basket with some of Mike's favorite goodies. 

I also printed out a picture of Mike with each kid and added some text in picmonkey. They read "Daddy: A son's first hero and a daughter's first love." He loved it!

Bruschetta topped with honey goat cheese, basil strawberries, and balsamic. 

We get some pretty funny faces from Jacks when we ask him to smile these days. Here he couldn't even take his eyes off the TV.

Little angel - I had hoped to get a picture of daddy with both kids but it is kind of hard. 

Dinner! The filet was topped with some homemade garlic herb butter. So delicious! 

Jackson eating his dessert. Check out the chocolate in his teeth! 

I added some chocolate chips tot he peanut butter pie.

Nom nom!!! 

21 Months

Jackson turned 21 months old a few days before Olivia was born (and now he is nearly 22 months). I can't believe we will be celebrating his 2nd birthday in just two short months! Mama needs to get busy planning....:)

Anyway, he is just as busy and chatty as ever! Jackson is all boy - we've said it before and mean it more now than ever. He absolutely loves our new house and playing in our backyard. He digs in the dirt, transfers mulch from tree to tree, throws all the sand out of the sandbox, fills the pool with sand, plays with his balls, cars and basketball goal, and whatever else he can find to get in to. When in the house he loves running around wild in our new larger space. He plays more and has a bit of an imagination. It is fun to see him interacting with toys. He likes to dance with a little elmo toy and give him drinks of water - so cute! He also has an attention span long enough to watch cartoons now (I'm not proud of the amount of TV he has watched lately, but we did what we had to do to survive the end of the pregnancy and being alone with an active toddler and newborn). We've been practicing numbers, letters, and colors and he is doing pretty good job picking up on these. He continues to be very verbal and repeats everything. He talks pretty much all day! It's nice that he can express to us what is on his mind. We just love watching him learn! It's so much fun.

Jackson is still a good sleeper at night. He is usually pretty ready for sleep after playing hard with the heat we've been having. He takes one nap still. When it comes to eating he sometimes does great and others is picky. Feeding a toddler can be frustrating but we keep trying! He seems to be growing a ton though and remains healthy so we don't worry too much when he won't eat.

Jackson really seemed to catch on to what it really meant to be having a baby sister by the end of the pregnancy. He did great with the transition into the new house and we were confident he'd do great with this change too. We knew there would be some jealousy, but he is so easy going that he didn't worry us too much. We are trying to keep his life as normal as possible and still participate in activities that we did pre baby. He is still attending gymboree classes, we go on walks and to the pool or playground, and I'm braving play dates with friends this week. In another week or two we will rejoin our work out group.

As always, some pictures of our handsome little fella!

1, 2, 3.....jump!! 

With his favorite Kitty cak (how he says kitty cat now! haha). He also says, "I hold you Max!"

Out for a stroll. 

Lunch date with mommy before sissy arrived. 

Running through the fountains! 

Little reading at Barnes and Noble. :)

Water fun in the backyard!

Swinging at the playground! 

Loving on his Kylie - boy does he ever love her! 

Introducing.....Olivia Paige Modlin!

Olivia was born on May 28th at 5:15pm. She weighed 9lbs 1oz and was 21 inches long. Although she was a big baby, I was thankful that she was a little smaller than her big brother! She will be two weeks old tomorrow already - I know that's such a short time but it seems like she has been with us so much longer! We are getting a long well so far and enjoying being a family of four. Jackson is adjusting pretty well too. He has had a few moments where he wants mommy when I have her but overall he is sweet to her. We've had a lot of family in and out helping with Jackson and visiting the new addition. We look forward to our future with two kiddos!

*we are currently uploading numerous photos from out good camera. I will update the post with pictures from Olivia's first two weeks soon. I just wrote this post a week ago and needed to get it published!