Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Toy Story IV??

In case they come out with some sort of real life version or maybe a musical of some sort?

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Abi & her buddy Owen.  They have so much fun together.  They are ridiculously cute.

(apparently the serious side of Jessie)

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(or maybe in Toy Story VI there will be Buzzetes)

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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

6 MONTHS

More to come…but our little man celebrated his 6 month birthday yesterday!  WHAT?!  I am totally speechless.  How did this happen?  To sum him up…he is a darling delight.  Happy 1/2 birthday, sweet boy.

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Friday, August 12, 2011

A WATER party…

We love parks.  We love parties.  Right now in life, I love having parties not at my house.  The three loves fit together nicely!

So,our firstborn’s birthday approached…and we thought a water party at the Spray Park would be cool.  We also thought that it’d be SUPER cool to help kiddos who needed help and clean water with her party.  I love this girl’s heart.

Check THIS out.  We love our family and community.

So, her party – she had so much fun.  The girl was so excited about it.  All of her friends in one place.  Holy Moly.  Too much goodness for one day!

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Brother thought it was a good time too…

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*Thanks to my mother-in-love for taking the pics!  I brought my camera and it never made it out of the bag…

Monday, August 8, 2011

Our girl is 37 months…

Haha, because, well I failed to celebrate ‘36 months’ in the blog-world for our dear abi – so here we are on her 37th month birthday!  Such a significant one :)

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Abi = delight.  Obvious bias, of course, but she is a special girl whom we are beyond thankful to be a part of our family.  She brings laughter, joy, thoughtfulness, and a multitude of other blessings to this house of ours!

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Her year was marked with an explosion of verbal skills – we love having insight into this mind of hers – which brought about an entire new level of joy in mothering.  We have these wonderful conversations together, she is truly such a delight for me to spend my days with.  Then there was that brother…being a new big sister has  revealed tenderness, compassion, frustration, and a whole slew of emotions that needed developing!  She has handled it like a champ!  She is thoughtful.  Often I am left being encouraged by her simple love towards others.  She is honest, not trying to hide who God made her to be or what makes her different.  I love that.  Abi is generous.  She doesn’t hoard or think about the risk to her later, but loves to share (of course, this is at times NOT the case!) and thinks about making others happy.  She embraces life fully and I am reminded to pursue my daily happenings with equal zeal!

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My darling girl – you make us so happy.  You are cherished and you are loved.  Happy 37 months!

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Sunday, August 7, 2011

Nate the Great at 5 months

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Nathanael’s 5 Month Stats

Weight: 18.7 lbs. (90%)

Length: 27 3/4 inches (>97%)

Head Circumference: 44.5 cm (90%)

Eating: 8-10 ounces every 3-4 hours during the day.  Nate is VERY interested in “big people” food.  He just stares at the fork – to the plate – to the mouth “motion.”  I’m excited for 6 months to arrive – isn’t that silly?  He would be just fine to start eating simple foods now, Lord knows he’s the same size as some 6 month olds…but I still want to wait.  I’m such a rule-follower.

Bedtime: 7-7:30pm

Awake: 6:30-7 am *Ugh, he is VERY convinced that he should start his day between 4:30 and 5:30.  For too many nights I just caved.  Because it is WAY easier to feed him for a minute or two (literally) and then he’d sleep until at least 7:30 than to rock him/calm him down and then listen to him disagree for 10-15 minutes.  And by disagree…you know what I mean.  But, not good for our family overall.  He was becoming used to that wake up call – it’d throw Abi off – she’d end up in our room…it was a bad pattern.  So, we’re trying to break that cycle currently!

Naps: Sweet buddy sleeps for about 1-1/2 hours in the morning / sometimes a quick 30 minute catnap in the car if we’re out / and then goes down for about 2 hours in the afternoon.  The Lord is SOOOOO good to me – most days Abi and Nate overlap for about 1 1/2 hours.  YAY!  Nate is boycotting an evening catnap.

Diapers: size 3, and the cloth diapers are back!  But, I need to find some new tricks for boys…cloth diapering is a bit easier with girls, in my experience!

Clothes: 9 months or  6-9 months (depending on brand)/9 or 12 month sleepers…this boy is LONG, and that makes sleepers a bit tricky, because of their cute “closed toe” feet.

Favorites: Abi (I think this will be the permenant favorite – that’s what everyone else says!), stroller-rides, sharks at the aquarium, jumping in the johnny-jump-up (nifty little contraption that hangs over the door frame), Sophie the giraffe, snuggles, and his cool bouncy chair – it doesn’t bounce…it slides, and therefore he can “kick off” and glide upwards…you just gotta see it, too hard to explain. 

Latest "tricks": Giggling, big sweet tummy laughs; feet in mouth; growing in that coordination; being really loud when he’s not being held and feels that this act is an extreme injustice; rolling over half-way…we’re still working on this one!; TEETH – his two bottom teeth came in about a week after his 4 month birthday.  PS – have you seen this boy’s mohawk?

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Looking forward to: Rolling over all on his own (he says he’s still looking forward to this!), being more understanding that his momma’s arms get tired around 5:30 PM, FOOD.

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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Those doctor visits…

May I just say that I love joint doctor visits…make life a bit easier for this one.  One and done…yes, please.

The Nate-ster:

(stats to be repeated in his 5 month post)

  • Height – 27 and 3/4”
  • Weight – 18 lbs, 7 ounces
  • Head Circumfrence – 44.5 cm
  • Poor buddy, 4 vaccines: 1 orally and 3 in the legs.  He was quick to forgive; and that made the nurses happy!

aren’t those cute little legs!

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Our Abi-girl:

  • Height – 39 and 1/4 “
  • Weight – 34 lbs, 4 ounces
  • Blood Pressure (big girl, look out!) – 90/60 (this one especially made doctor Grandpa and nurse Mimi quite happy!)
  • She also had to go #1 in a cup; which she was quite fascinated with that step the entire appointment.  Thankfully, all is well in that department too!
  • One shot – she did great – big curled lip and watery eyes.  She didn’t want to cry, bless her.

So, we decided to start a tradition.  Doctor’s Appointments = cupcakes.  A good relationship, I think!

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Sportin’ her spanish-speakin’ Elmo sticker with the cupcake remnants…

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PS – I love our pediatrician, I need to remember to grab a picture of her in action.  Not only is she a zoo member (automatic like-points from me) but she has Abi’s respect and admiration!  Abi loves to pretend to be Dr. Halsell – right down to the red stethoscope.