Pillow Talk

In the past week, Emmett has started to only wake up ONCE a night (between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.) for a feeding which has been amazing for me.  I owe some of this progress to the fact that I am bathing him and nursing him for the last time in the evening a little later than normal around 9 p.m.  However, this means that I am bathing him and needing to dress him on the changing table in our room after Ron has gone to bed sometimes.  Since I knew Emmett would cry and wake Ron up last night, I asked Lia (who was still awake reading in her room), if I could dress Emmett on her bed after his bath.  After dressing him, I had to empty out the baby bath tub and put away a few things.  During this time, Lia moved Emmett into her bed so that they were laying side by side under her covers.  When I came back into her room, she was so excited to show me what she had done with the baby.  While laying there together, side-by-side, Emmett started making the cutest cooing noises.  Although he has started to coo a bit in the past few weeks, he has never made so many cute sounds in a short amount of time like he did last night.  We both had to pull out our cameras and get a few pictures of this cute baby being so cute.  Lia even managed to get one of his sounds on video.  Needless to say, we squealed like little school girls when this happened!  Oh, how we just love this little boy.

Lia's 11th Birthday!

It's hard to believe, but our first born turned eleven years old today.  I just don't know how this has happened.  The time has gone way too fast!  Due to having a baby last month, I told Lia that we would postpone her friend party by a month just to give myself a bit more time to recover and have the energy to put on another mega party for 20 girls.  As a result, we were able to keep things simple this weekend.  I sent her to school this morning with 27 brownies to share with her class and we hosted my parents for her birthday dinner tonight.  As always, she requested "breakfast for dinner."  So, we dined on delicious cinnamon rolls, a breakfast casserole, and bacon for dinner.  We then opened gifts before finishing off the evening with some banana cream pie (also Lia's request).  Lia got some wonderful gifts this year including some new clothes, some additional AGD items from the Blaire Wilson collection, some awesome studio lights to use while filming her AGD stop motion videos for youtube, and a bunch of items for her NEW bedroom that she will be getting this summer when she switches bedrooms with Logan.  Her new room will be decorated in an adorable mermaid theme with bedding and decor that I discovered a few months ago at Target.  Up until this evening, Lia thought she was going to be sharing her room with Ella for the next few years which was our original plan.  However, Ron and I changed our minds after I discovered this bedroom set and realized that it really would be best if Lia continued to have her own room since she is so much older and more grown up than her sister.  Needless to say, Lia was thrilled with the news which made it the perfect way to end her special day!

We started off Lia's birthday this morning with our traditional waffles with whipped cream and strawberries on top.

We sang "Happy Birthday" to her before she blew out the candles.

After school and dinner, Lia opened up her gifts in front of all of us.

Logan decided that it would be appropriate to make a pillow fort out of one of the couches in the living room before Lia started opening gifts.

He watched her open her gifts by peaking through a gap in the pillows.  Oh, this boy...

Lia opening up her miniature studio lights.

Showing off a new pair of pajamas that say, "Mermaid in Training."  Lia has LOVED mermaids ever since she was three years old when she fell in love with princess Ariel.  Eight years later, very little has changed.

Lia holding up the darling, wall canvas that will hang in her new bedroom.  It says, "You can find me in the sea, fabulous, wild, and free, splashing, swimming, water glistening, it's the mermaid life for me."

Lia reading the mermaid-themed birthday card from grandma and grandpa.

Grandma kept Emmett happy while Lia opened gifts.

Mother and daughter posing before singing to Lia.  I can't get over how tired I look in this picture.  I guess that is what six weeks of bad sleep will do to a person!

Ella and Logan posing with Lia before we sang "Happy Birthday" to her a second time today.

Blowing away!

Ella trying to help her big sister.

Papa giving Lia some attention after she told us that she didn't feel like the center of attention due to the adults being too focused on their own conversation while sitting at the table.  It was rather funny!

Our beautiful, birthday girl enjoying her pie!

Lia holding baby Emmett while taking a picture with grandma and grandpa before they left.  I can't get over how grown up she looks in this picture.  We love you, Lia!  We are so proud of the responsible, kind, intelligent, conscientious, and thoughtful girl you are becoming!  We are so grateful that you are the oldest child in our family!

Pooped Out.

Unfortunately, the flu caught up with Ella this past Sunday morning making her the third person in our family in six days to bite the dust.  Luckily, Ron was home and able to take her to Urgent Care to get tested for Influenza A and also to pick up her Tamiflu prescription at the pharmacy.  If it hadn't been for him, I would have had to drag four kids to the doctor (including a newborn) to take care of all of this.  So, that was a blessing.  But, besides that, everything else about this flu bug raging through our family these past few days has been pretty stressful.  From washing a million loads of towels and bedding to making sure everyone is washing their hands and drying them with paper towels to banning Ron to the basement for days to making sure everyone is taking their antiviral medicine, the list goes on and one.  However, the most stressful of all of these things has been trying to protect baby Emmett from catching this flu.  I have never had a newborn baby come down with the flu before and I have no interest in starting now.  So far, we have been able to keep him away from all of the sick members of our family and he hasn't come down with it yet.  Let's hope it stays that way.
But, it appears that I pushed Ella back into her normal life a day or two early today when I found her like this on the stairs this evening.  Although she was the only one to throw up in our family, the flu seemed to hit her the least between Ron, Lia, and Ella.  She never caught an awful cough and seemed to be completely normal and fever free after three days.  As a result, I decided that it was safe to send her off to preschool this morning.  After coming home, I told her she didn't have to take a nap today (like I did on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday).  Instead, she laid on the couch and watched movies in the afternoon until her older siblings came home from school.  However, after washing all of her bedding and giving Ella her freshly washed blankets this afternoon, she curled up into them on the stairs and promptly fell asleep while I was making dinner.  She has never done this before!  My kids either take naps during the designated afternoon nap time or don't take them at all.  So, it was a total shock to go looking for her (after noticing that she had been too quiet for too long) to find her asleep on the stairs!  It's jut a good thing that she didn't attempt to roll over and go tumbling down the stairs.  Now that would have been one rude awakening!

The Baby Whisperer

Over the last few weeks, I have discovered a hidden talent of Ella's and, as a result, she has become the "baby whisperer" in our family.  It might be because she is home the most with Emmett and me during the day while everyone else is off at school/work OR it might be because she really has a knack for calming Emmett down.  Regardless, I have started calling her our baby whisperer.  There are many times during the day when I cannot hold Emmett whether it is because I am washing dishes or making a meal or folding some laundry or taking a shower.  Sometimes Emmett is content to just relax in his bouncy chair while I get something done, but lots of times he gets fussy and starts to cry.  Since I have to get certain things done during the day (like feed my family or get dressed), I some times have to just ignore his cries until I finish the task and can pick him up.  And this is where Ella has surprisingly swooped in to help me.  She has become an expert at putting Emmett's pacifier back into his mouth, bouncing his bouncy chair, and singing him songs.  She usually will say, "Give me a big ahhhh!" whenever she tries to put the ya ya back into his mouth (to get him to open up his mouth wide).  Ella made this up all by herself and I just think it is the funniest thing.  More often than not, she will just drop whatever she is doing and go and take care of Emmett without even being asked.  I was so surprised by this at first and now I really find it so touching that she cares enough about her brother that she is willing to stop playing with her toys or coloring her picture to take care of him.  I am so grateful for her help with Emmett during these challenging first few months...especially right now as both Lia and Ron have fallen prey to Influenza A and have been banned from holding or even touching Emmett.  Thank heavens for my little 4-year old helper.  I love you, Ellie B!

Ella posing with her brother after putting the ya-ya back into his mouth.  These two are so cute together!

1 Month Old!

Well, we've made it!  We have survived the first month of Emmett's life.  I don't care what anyone else says, the first month of all of my babies' lives have been some of the hardest of my life.  I love my sleep, I love routine, I love predictability, and I love not being in pain.  The first month of all of our children's lives cause the opposite of all of these things to happen.  But, even with that said, I do love our baby Emmett.  He is such a sweet and adorable baby and we are all so glad to have him in our family.  He really has not changed much since we brought him home from the hospital a month ago.  He still sleeps a lot, eats a lot, dirties his diaper a lot, and cries a lot (when he is awake and not being held).  However, in the past week, he has started to make a little progress.  Emmett now can lay awake (in his bouncy chair, the couch, or on our bed) for 10 to 20 minutes without crying.  He will just happily lay there and look around which is such a blessing.  Emmett has also has grown to love his bedtime bath.  He does not like being naked, but the second I place him in the warm baby bath tub, he immediately stops crying and is happy the entire time he is in the water.  It is really quite cute.  We have also discovered in the past week or two that Emmett does in deed have BLUE eyes which is such a surprise and so much fun!  He also loves his pacifier and will happily suck on it unless he is hungry and wants food instead.  We introduced him to the baby swing in the past week and he also will happily swing back and forth in it at times before deciding he is done with it and starts crying.  Emmett takes several naps throughout the day and wakes up 3 to 4 times a night for feeding.  There have only been a handful of nights where he has only woken up twice a night to eat.  The other thing that Emmett has been doing during the night the past week or so that I am NOT a fan of is waking up in between feedings for no apparent reason.  The pacifier will not help him fall back asleep, so I am then required to rock him back to sleep.  As a result, there are nights that I am awake every hour after midnight for the rest of the night which leaves me so tired the next day.  If it weren't for being able to take an afternoon nap every day, I would be a complete mess.  Thank heavens that Ella will quietly watch television every day while Emmett and I nap before the kids come home from school.  This has saved me.  And that is the first month of Emmett's life in a nutshell.  I am hoping that this next month will bring some more positive changes--especially in the sleeping department at night time!

Emmett hanging out on his new "monthly milestone blanket" that was a gift from Ron's brother and his wife.

Logan's 7th Birthday

It's not every day that you wake up on your birthday to find church cancelled and ten inches of snow still waiting for you to play in...but that is what Logan got today!  Since I was so busy getting ready for his friend party yesterday, the children only went out once to play in the snow and they chose to sled on the neighbor's hill across the street.  As a result, the backyard was still totally perfect and completely untouched!  So after eating our traditional birthday breakfast of waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, the kids and I headed out on this cold, but sunny, day to frolic in the 10 inches of untouched snow in the backyard.  After awhile, we ventured to the front yard where I discovered that our road was the perfect sledding hill as it was completely covered in compact snow!  After explaining to my kids  what a rare and special treat this was, I convinced them to make the long walk up the hill to try sledding down our road in our plastic, toboggan sleds.  As I had hoped, it totally worked and the kids and I flew down our hill over and over again.  I enjoyed taking turns sledding down with all of the kids one at a time while the two others would go down on their own.  It was so much fun!  While the baby napped, Ron was able to come out and watch us from the driveway and even get some pictures and video.  Our neighbor, Lou, was out shoveling his driveway during this time and told Ron and me that this is only the second time in the twenty years that he has lived here when he has seen our road covered in compact snow like this.  As a result, I am so glad that we were able to go outside and take advantage of it!
After playing in the snow most of the morning, we all came back inside for lunch and a quiet afternoon of naps, TV time, or Lego building before grandma and grandpa arrived around 4:30 for for Logan's birthday celebrations.  After a long session of playing with the Lionel trains with grandpa and Ron while I finished making dinner, we sat down in the dining room and feasted on a dinner completely requested by Logan of ham, rice, broccoli, rolls, lumpia, and "fancy apple juice" (Martinelli's sparkling cider).  After eating, we watched Logan open up his family, birthday gifts and enjoyed seeing the smile on his face with every packaged he unwrapped.  Highlights included more pirate books, the 4th Pirates of the Caribbean movie, a large, Harry Potter Lego set, some cool accessories for his Logan doll, and more magnetic tiles and an awesome one dollar coin collection (from grandma and grandpa).  We finished off the evening's celebrations by eating chocolate cake made by grandma with vanilla ice cream just as the first snowflakes began to fall from storm #2 that had been predicted.  By the time we finished dessert at 7:15, the snow was coming down fast and furious!  My parents quickly gathered up their belongings and literally ran out the door to try to make their drive home in this second storm before the roads got crazy.  We were so grateful for this break in between the two storms that gave my parents the chance to make the drive down to join us for Logan's birthday.  After they left, it continued to snow very hard until after we went to bed providing over a foot of snow outside for us to play in tomorrow!

Logan getting ready to blow out the candles on his birthday waffles.

Blowing away!

Papa and baby Emmett looking on.

A close-up of our cutie!

The ten inches of snow I measured on our deck this morning.

All three kids standing in the untouched snow before running off to play in it.

Making snow angels.

Trying to sit up in that deep snow.

Ella knocking off the massive amount of snow from one of our bushes.

And down it goes!

Since it was his birthday, Logan got 'first dibs' on sledding down the slide.  Here he is getting ready to go down.

For the first time since the kids have been sledding down our slide, Logan actually got stuck because there was too much snow!

The birthday boy giving me a smile after tumbling down the rest of the slide.

Ella sliding down on her bottom.

And Lia, too!

After awhile, we ventured to the front yard so that the kids could sled down the neighbor's little hill.  This year they have perfected the art of standing on their sleds while going down the hill.  Here is Lia showing off her new skill!

Ella sledding down the hill the 'old school' way.

Logan showing off his mad, sledding-down-the-hill-while-standing skills.

Ron came out to watch us after we had started sledding down our road.  Here is Logan coming down the hill with Ella and me way up at the top.

Cute Logan giving dad a birthday smile.

Here comes Ella and mama!

Waving to daddy...

while having such a good time.

A mommy-kiddo picture in the front yard.

Mama and her birthday boy.  It's so hard to believe that he came into the world seven years ago today.  Where has the time gone?

Logan getting ready to open his presents after eating the birthday dinner.

A quick sibling photo before the unwrapping began.

Logan chose to open up his biggest present first...

which was an awesome and huge, Harry Potter Lego castle set complete with the whomping willow and Ron's flying car.

Logan opening up another gift.

Proudly showing off his new pirate books with his sister at his side.

Logan neatly lined up all of his gifts afterwards which is totally something he would do.  Here he is posing with all of his 'loot.'

Our second family photo since Emmett joined us.

Logan smiling next to his birthday cake that I decorated with miniature, pirate toys.

The birthday boy blowing out his seven candles...

and enjoying his cake!

Happy Birthday, Logan!  I am so grateful that Heavenly Father sent you to us seven years ago.  You have added so much joy, laughter, and energy to our family and I couldn't imagine life without you.  I hope you know how much we love and treasure you!