Dear Sadie Beth @ 5 Months

On another blog I read often the dad writes a letter to his son on the blog each month. I thought this would be a great way to list all the things the girls are doing each month and to help me and them remember the cute things they do.


Dear Sweet Sadie Beth,

It doesn't seem like it has been 5 months since you were born. You are starting to do so many cute things and I am falling in love with you more and more each day (didn't think that was possible).



I LOVE.....

• the way you smile all over your face




• your sweet coos (even in the middle of the night)




• the way you wake up with a smile on your face (even in the middle of the night)




• the way you and Mili laugh at each other




• the way you pull off your bib and chew on it




• the way you cross your feet




• the way you look when you are with your daddy (and the way Daddy looks when he holds you)




• the way you touch my face with your soft, fluffy hands




• the way you grab my hair as if you are trying to hug me




• the way your cool cheeks feel on my lips as I kiss them 100's of times a day




• the way your hair sticks up




• the way your long black eyelashes look on your pale skin




• the small dimple in your lower right cheek




• the way you tilt your head to one side when you get excited




• the way you hold your hands when you drink your bottle




• that you are starting to grab things



• to kiss your bare feet



• the way you hold on to my arm or hand while falling asleep




• the way you put your hands on your knees when sitting in your chair (but it looks too much like a big girl, so stop it)




• it when we sleep together (shhh don't tell Daddy since we are suppose to be training you to transision to the bed from your swing....smile)




• the way you already love me!

Love,

Mommy

Bumbo LOVE

As I mentioned in another entry, Sadie has a misshaped head and we are working on getting it back to it's original shape. In doing so we have tried many different things. While talking to one of my friends from church, she asked if we had a Bumbo (the seat Sadie is sitting in). I explained that we did not have one but the doctor had also asked me if we had one.

My friend, Michelle, had one and we are borrowing hers for a short time. The first time we sat Sadie down in this cute little seat she LOVED it. We are thankful that she is in a position that will help her head and that she likes all at the same time (Mommy's sanity is cherished most days, so this is fantastic for me). A BIG thanks to Michelle!!!

Sadie's head is already starting to improve. She turned 5 months old on the 25th and so I am hoping in another months time her head will improve and become more symmetric. Her face is already looking more symmetric.

My Birthday Weekend

My Birthday weekend started off with a bang! Brian was gracious enough to let me go to a 24 hour crop (scrapbooking, pictures below). Yes that means Brian watched the children from 7PM Friday night until 6PM Saturday night. I only slept for about 1 hour at the most at the church (hoping to get more sleep but couldn't, too wound up). I didn't get much cropping done but got a lot of conversation with adults and made a lot of new friends and connections with people I didn't know well. I need that adult contact for me to be somewhat sane.

Here are pictures of my pages I did at the crop. If you click on the picture you can see it enlarged. Sorry they are blurry but I couldn't use the flash. The first two go together as a double layout.

After a great weekend. Brian got me a card from the girls and a card from him and also an organizer for my paper for scrapbooking. I love it when he listens to me. I had mentioned after the 24 hour crop that I could get a lot more done if I had an organizer for my paper so I didn't have to go through ALL of it each time I was looking for something specific. Brian also cooked me my choice of brick chicken for dinner (YUM,YUM I had it for lunch today and plan to have it for dinner again tonite, BIG SMILE).

The best thing Brian did for my birthday was take off half a day of work to spend with me (It was a surprise to me since he normally comes home for lunch anyway but when he told me he was staying home, I was elated). Again, he had his listening ears on because I mentioned my favorite birthday was when we got snowed in, made snow dinosaurs (mommy and baby), and took a bubble bath. No presents necessary to make me happy on my birthday. Quality time is worth WAY more than something that you can buy.

Just thought I would share about my birthday weekend!!!

Love you all!

Update on Marriage Class

We had a GREAT class on Sunday. There were 3 more new couples in class this week. Our enrollment is up to 37 now. We are just blown away by the turnout. Praise God that Brian listened to Him on what kind of class to teach for our church.

Our icebreaker question was, "What is your favorite trait or characteristic of your mate." There were so many great answers and you could just see the sparks light up in each others eyes as they listened to their mates tell them what they liked about them. Brian and I always wait to share last and that is not a good thing for me. As most of you know, I am a crier. I cry when I am happy, sad, touched, spirit filled, pretty much you name it and I have probably cried about it (poor Brian married his mother). So by the time it was our turn I was already misty eyed and then Brian decided (since he is the main teacher) that he would go before me (bad idea). Brian said he loves the way I LOVE other people. I do love me some people. I try very hard to make REAL, DEEP relationships with people and not surface relationships. I said (if anyone actually heard me since I was a blubbering mess by this time) that I love Brian's SERVANT heart, not just to me but for other people as well. He is a guy that likes to set up classrooms, park as far from the door as possible to leave close places for visitors and people who need them, and he wants absolutely NO credit for what he does behind the scenes. I LOVE that SELFLESS man.

Okay, enough about us. I just wanted to update everyone on our marvelous class. We had serious discussion but also lots of laughs this week (also some killer orange/ peach/ mango juice, my fav now). Can't wait to see what next week brings.

Love to All

We are barefooted...

...because God knocked our socks off Sunday at church.

Brian has planned for a while to start a life group on Sunday Mornings at church. He decided (with a lot of help from God) that it should start out as a marriage class. I agreed to "help" (usually running my mouth when I shouldn't...smile, I like to show the members of the class how the Spaghetti really works). Brian decided on this study and we actually fit the description perfectly. Men can only communicate in one box at a time (waffle square). Women are "everywhere" when they talk. Their spaghetti touches other subjects and they transition smoothly from one thing to another. I tend to try to open all Brian's boxes at one time with my spaghetti speaking self.

When Brian ordered books, we agreed that our goal of 8 books (8 couples) was a good number. We thought we were being optimistic with that goal. We (Brian) baked muffins the night before while I took care of children (bathing, feeding, putting them to bed, and picking out clothing for Sunday). We went to church on Sunday Morning with GREAT excitement for the new opportunities to meet new people and learn about their lives and marriages. Brian was so excited he could hardly sleep (I never have trouble sleeping).

We arrived early on Sunday morning (8 AM, Brian had praise team practice). While he was practicing, I traipsed all over the church with two children (one on foot the other in her huge, heavy car seat) getting the classroom ready and making copies of the first lesson "in case" we had more than the 8 couples we were hoping for.

At 9:10 AM Brian went to pray with praise team and I stayed in the room in case their were some early arrivers. Brian came back in at about 9:20 AM and no one was in the classroom except me and two little ones (the look on his face was that of a tad bit of disappointment). I took the kiddos downstairs to their respective classrooms and came back upstairs to class to find a classroom full of people standing around talking. I didn't realize how many people were in the room until people started to sit down and they filled up all the chairs. We had to go get more chairs and I had to go run more copies (I was praising God all the way down the hall).

While I was making copies I saw at least another three couples that were headed to our classroom. I couldn't hardly contain myself. We ended up with 31 people (some came without their spouse). We were totally shocked. God proves himself again and again to us. I don't know why we are so surprised when He gives us more than what we expected. It just shows us how small we think and how BIG God does things.

We have couples in the class from young to older (don't want to say old). Their is an engaged couple to a couple that has been married for 30 years and everything in between. Our first assignment in class was for each couple to explain "their" story, where they met and how long they have been married. We have relationships that sparked from Jr. high school (Brian and I), to church relationships, co-worker relationship, gym relationship, Internet relationships (several), and at least one bar romance.

We look forward to getting to know these couples and hopefully direct them in the path of what God wants for their marriages and how we should communicate with one another.

Wow!!! It is GREAT that God cares so much for our marriages.

Disclaimer: I want you all to understand that Brian and I don't pretend to have a perfect marriage (there are none). We do, however, have a PASSION to see couples LOVE to be married. There is nowhere I would rather be than to be married to Brian. I hope we can teach people to want to communicate and LOVE being married (not just live together).


You will probably hear more about our lovely life group in the coming weeks.
Love to ALL!!!

My little Tigger and Zebra

Mili's imagination runs wild on most days. Today she decided she wanted a tail and that she could then become Tigger. She went to our bedroom and found one of Brian's ties that was laying on the dresser (low enough for her to reach) and she was off into character land.

She spun about playing with that for a while and then, of course, it was on to something different. The blue mat is back in the floor not because of potty training (that is going very well). It is located in the living room again because Mommy is too lazy to get the kids dressed to go out to blow bubbles. I just let her blow bubbles inside on the mat (I also HATE being cold).

Take a look at my little Zebra. We rec'd this cute Old Navy outfit when Sadie was born but unfortunately the size did not match the right season (who knew we would have another amazon woman with height). I decided I wanted her to wear it anyway so I put a long sleeve shirt under it and I am glad I did. She is getting to long for it already. This is what she wore last night to church.

You all would have gotten more pictures of the kids but I have been uploading pictures (over 100 to be exact) so that I could print them for my over night crop this weekend (yes, I will be scrapbooking from Friday night 7PM to Saturday 9PM). I am excited and had to get tons of pictures done before going so I am sick of loading pictures.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland!

We enjoyed a nice "dusting" of snow here yesterday. It measured out at about 5 inches. It was great snowball/snowman snow. It came down really fast. Brian was in the store for about 25 minutes and had to brush off an inch of snow off the car. After Brian came home for lunch he decided to work from home and not go back to work.

The snow soon turned into rain. Mili and I could only play out in the snow for a short time due to the rainfall, but we were able to get a tiny snowman out of the deal (the rain was soaking us in the process).

This is Fred. Mili asked all day to make a snowman.

Take my picture with Fred.

Patting Fred on the head.

Very proud of "her" creation.

4 Month Check-Up

Here is the story.....

Since Sadie's birthday is on the 25th (that fell on Christmas day and we were in AR anyway) we couldn't schedule her check up during that time of the year. We didn't get back until the 31st and I couldn't get an appointment until the 11th. Sadie then came down with a terrible virus with a horrid cough and we canceled the wellness visit and had two sick visits in the same week. Sadie finally had her 4 month check-up this week. We still have to go back to get her shots because the doctor said she was still wheezing too much to administer vaccinations on that day. I hope to get that accomplished early part of next week which will be when Sadie is almost 5 months.

Anyway...
Here are the stats.
Height: 25 in. (95-97%)
Weight: 13 lbs. 12.5 oz. (50%)

The doc and I had a chat about Sadie's head shape. She has a flat head in the back and it is misshaped on one side of the back of her head. We think this is due to the fact that she has slept sitting up in a swing her entire little bitty life. I guess it is my fault it looks like that because I was scared of her choking from reflux and I was tired of changing sheets after naps (or any time I laid her down) because of the massive amount of liquid under her head after laying flat. I also was tired of giving baths because I couldn't handle the stinch from her hair after an episode like that (sorry about the graphic details). Anyway, after all these excused, it IS still my fault and I feel guilty about it. Moving right along before I tear up.

We are trying different things to help it go back to it's original shape. If these things don't work by our 6 month visit then we will probably have to get one of those "bands" that go on the head to help shape it up. He called it a band but I think it looks like a helmet. Anyway here is a link to the website that I know about http://www.cranialtech.com/. Understand my doctor did not give me this site, it is just I site I got from another blogger mom who has her quads in these helmets.

Here are some pictures of my flat headed, sweet baby.

We have tried to switch her position but she automatically goes back to the head tilt like in this picture. It is usually worse than this.

We are being creative with tummy time since she normally screams and I can't take it very long.

She likes the walker pretty good. Notice how crooked her smile and chin look.

Happy to be in her walker AND someone in her face.

She sits up pretty straight in this chair and her head doesn't touch the back often so we are also giving her time in this each day.

Tummy time is great for the first 5 minutes or so and then it usually becomes a screaming match. If it is not the screaming match, it is a game to see how many times Mommy will turn me back over on my tummy. She is doing a great job rolling over.

Thanks for "listening" to all my head concerns of our sweet Sadie Beth.

Love you ALL!!!

The Caboose

Well here are the last of the Arkansas pictures.



Sadie giving kisses to Victoria. So Sweet!


Hugs from Sadie, she must really love that Victoria.



Uncle Jon (Brian's brother) doing his favorite thing, reading with a lap full of kids.

Aimee (my sister) leaving the house as a packed mule.

Nanny and Nate enjoying some playtime.

Abby reading to Bella and Mili.

I don't know if you can see it, but Nate has a snot bubble.

Aimee having some quality Sadie time.

Pawpaw (my dad) with sadie.

Brian playing with the Nater.

Victoria reading to Mili and Bella.

The brothers with their girls.

Erin (my sister) with Sadie.

My sweetpeas in their matching Christmas dresses.

Jon and I switched babies so I could sit down. Sadie was so fussy that day.

The only picture of Erin's face I got the entire time we were there.

Mili loved Nanny's baby aprons. All the kids use them like bibs at the table. Especially on Sunday when they have to go back to church that night.

The End of the picture train.

Back at the TOP of the List....

I don't know which list I will be at the top of after this post. My father-in-law left a few comments about him not being on any of the posts with his grandchildren. I thought I would just dedicate this whole post t him.

I apologize ahead of time for those of you that are in the pictures with him because I used every picture I could find to make sure he is a happy camper.



Reading books to both Mili and Bella. Everyone took part in this task through out the two weeks we were in AR.


The back shot.



Helping Nate with his new toy. Leann, I have no idea what you and Aunt Bec are doing but Maburn is supervisor or looking on with the same question mark I am...smile.

Top of the head shot!

Watching as Nanny, Bella and Mili play with this cute little Christmas tree.

Helping one of the kids with their presents. Side shot!

Leg shot....taking a picture of someone else.

Playing with Nate.

I hope you enjoyed all the views of my wonderful father-in-law. Now he can not say I didn't post about him.....SMILE.

I LOVE YOU BRO. JOE (yes, I still call him that)