5 Months!

Sammie turned 5 months old this week. She seems so big to me and I have a hard time remembering what life was like before she joined our family. I was looking back at old posts and I was re-reading the one from Clayton's first day of second grade. As I was reading about our hectic dash to drop him off at school I had a short moment where I thought, 'Uh-oh, we forgot to grab Sammie!' But no, she was in my belly. Weird.

So here's my sweet girl at 5 months:

Sammie had always had this crazy long hair so we decided it was high time this little girl got a ponytail! It's little but cute. I kept looking at it and laughing. So cute!

Sammie continues to grow and develop. She still hates tummy time (although I caught her in a good mood in these pictures) and, while she can roll over, it seems like the rolling is few and far between. I've been giving her more tummy time lately to see if she could roll more but so far it just seems to make her angry. Ah well, all in good time.

 This is my new favorite picture. Fat, happy baby. Nothing better.

Happy 5 months Sammie Sue. You light up our lives and we love you!

Deja Vu (a.k.a. - Big Brothers are the BEST)!

When we first arrived in Vegas, there were so many adults around that I had no shortage of people to ask to hold Sammie or watch her while I ran to grab a diaper, make a bottle, or get her jammies. At the end of our trip however, adults became more and more scarce (due to honeymoons, work, outings, etc.)

At one point, I had changed Sammie's diaper and needed to make her a bottle. There were no adults around, but Noah was sitting right there. I asked him, "Can you watch the baby for a sec and make sure she doesn't roll off the couch?" He said he would and when I turned back around I saw this:

I ran to grab the camera because I was having a serious deja vu moment. It reminded me of this moment over 2 years ago when I asked Clayton the same question about watching baby Josie:

I love that my boys' reaction to the question, "Will you watch the baby?" is to go and sit by her and protect her. My little ladies are lucky girls indeed to have such loving, watchful, and protective older brothers.

Man I love these wonderful boys and the sweet girls they watch out for!

Some Pics and a Product Review

Tonight me and the three littles leave for two weeks in gloriously warm Las Vegas. My gorgeous sister is getting married a little over a week and we can't wait to get there and start partying with family. I know I'm going to (try) to take tons of pictures while we're down there so I wanted to make sure I got all my posts up to date before we left (because hopefully there will be a whole slew of new things to post about after our vacation).

I'll start with what we've been up to lately:
We've had some wonderfully warm weather the past week or so (mid-40's) and we've been outside enjoying it as much as possible.
Sammie in the Beco. This was the first time she's been forward facing in it and she loved it! This is a little girl who really loves being able to see what's going on.

The kids were so excited to be outside on their bikes. We had to be careful though, there was still a good amount of ice on the road and poor Noah fell face-first off his bike at one point (think: the kid who falls off his bike delivering newspapers in the movie 'While You Were Sleeping' - once I knew he was okay, it was kind of funny).

 Josie doesn't look too thrilled here, but she was.

 I just had to throw these in. My little girl is looking so big these days.

 Love that smile.

 Such a happy girl (fingers crossed she stays that way for me on the plane tonight).

When my brother and family came out for Christmas, Jeremiah bought all the kids these huge lollipops. The had a great time eating them. It was quite messy and sticky but they loved it.

Love Clayton's face here.

Sammie was killing me the other day with how cute she looked for church. I had to get out the old box of 6-9 month clothes and I think those are my favorites. There are so many cute things in there that I have a hard time deciding what Sammie should wear every day!

I was fixing Josie's hair on Sunday and she was being a little squirly. I gave her some old make-up to play with while I continued and the next time I looked at her face she had made herself so 'pitty'. I'm thinking she should be the one to do Ashley's wedding make-up.

Just another one of my cute Sammie in her cute zebra jammies.

Okay, now to the product review. For Christmas I got a KitchenAid mixer. It's amazing. I've only had it a month and I'm not sure how exactly I survived without one. Honestly, I love it. As if that weren't good enough, Justin got me an attachment that shreds and slices. Here are my thoughts:
It's super easy to attach. It screws on to the front of any KitchenAid stand mixer. Takes about two seconds to get it on there.

There are four shredding/chopping attachments. One that slices thick slices, one for thin slices, one for a course grade, and one for a thin grade (I'm using the thin grade one in these pictures).

You put whatever it is you want to slice/grade in the compartment on top (I'm using cheese here, but I've done cucumber and carrots in here too) and use the handle to keep the item moving down. Moves really smoothly.

The wheel spins and pushes the cheese out the front.

You just have to have something there to catch it.

Best part (well, maybe not best part, but certainly a plus)? It's dishwasher safe. Yay! So if you want to cut your shredding/slicing time down considerably, you need this. I love it, and I love my hubby for getting it for me.

Now that I'm all caught up, stay tuned for all sorts of Vegas fun (probably featuring these two - I'm so excited for them)!

Let Me Hold You Longer...

One of my nightly rituals before I go to bed is to go into each one of my kids' rooms and check on them as they sleep, tuck them in, and kiss them goodnight. Occasionally I talk to them. I whisper things to them that I want them to know. Things that I hope sneak into their subconscious and stay there forever. Things that will perhaps snake their way into their dreams.

One of my favorite parts of this is that sometimes they talk back to me. I'll say, 'I love you' and they'll say, 'I love you, too' or ' I know'. Sometimes I'll tell them silly little stories and they'll laugh in their dreams. Sometimes I'll apologize for something I've done that may have hurt their feelings and they'll forgive me. Sometimes we're able to carry on small simple conversations. Hands down, this is one of my most favorite and cherished things in life.
Tonight Clayton and I had a conversation:

Me: I love you.
Clayton: I love you, too.
Me: You are such a good boy.
Clayton: I know I'm a good boy.
Me: I'm really glad you're my son.
Clayton (smiles in his sleep): Me too.
Me: I never want you to grow up, I want you to stay like this always.
Clayton (small sleepy laugh): No.
Me: Fine then, but you have to promise never to get too old or too big for your mom.
Clayton (small sigh - even in dreams he gets exasperated with me): Mom, I could never get to old for you. You never get too old for a mom.

I had to leave the room after that. I told him once more that I loved him and then bailed before I started to cry. I have such an amazing kid and even though he won't remember this conversation in the morning, it is one that I will probably think back on often as he gets older. As his desire for independence grows I'll be able to remind myself that - deep down - he knows that he's a good boy, he knows that I love him, and he knows that he'll never get too old for me.

There's a book by Karen Kingsbury called 'Let Me Hold You Longer' which I think every mother should have on her shelf (seriously, buy it - you'll cry for sure, but you won't regret it). It is a sweet poem about what you might do if you knew it would be the last time your child crawled in your lap with a book, asked for help with homework, needed a ride somewhere, etc. It's a very sweet and tender book. One of the lines goes:

Precious, simple moments and
Bright flashes from your past-
Would I have held on longer if
I'd known they were your last?

I feel like this sums up exactly how I feel about Clayton right now. I'm desperately trying to hold on to the little boy he used to be while allowing him to mature and grow. It's tricky and a little hard for me at times but after tonight, after hearing him admit that he'll never outgrow me, I think I can get one step closer to accepting the growth and independence that's coming.

Four Months!

Last week, Sammie turned four months old. I can't believe how fast time seems to be flying by with this sweet little babe. She continues to be an angel, we all absolutely adore her and she gives us very little reason not to! She sleeps from about 9-8, takes two good naps during the day (in her crib), self soothes with the best of 'em, rarely cries, smiles frequently, coos often, tracks the voices of her parents and siblings, and loves being in the middle of all the action (she doesn't last long alone in a quiet room - it's too boring for her). Let's look back, shall we?
In the hospital:

 One day old:

 One month:

Two months:

Three Months:

Three Months:

Four Months (holy cow, can you believe those cheeks!?! I would be lying if I said I don't enjoy chewing on them a little.)

She's starting to develop more core strength. I can get her to sit in the chair for a while. It makes her seem so big! Things that she's doing now are: following us with her eyes/head when we move, responding to our voices, cooing a ton, laughing a little, trying (oh how she's trying) to get those dang hands under control, enjoying a little Baby Einstein, and working her core strength. Things she enjoys right now: when her big sibs get really up in her face and smile at her, the dog, when you start far away and get closer to her face, peek-a-boo, baths, riding in the car (but only if it's actually in motion), singing and dancing, and being tickled by her daddy.

Crooked, but cute. I love that sweet smile, those blue eyes, those chubby cheeks and thighs, her lack of a neck, wrists, and ankles, her lovely elbow and knee dimples, and that long hair!

Fingers up by her mouth. Classic Sammie.

Her nicknames right now are: Sammich, Samma Sue, Sam-Sam, and Peanut.

Sucking those fingers rock-star style seems to have stuck. If this continues she'll be our first ever 'non-thumb' sucker. While I do think that thumb sucking is delightfully cute (we've never really had a problem breaking our kids of the habit so I don't have the problem with it that some other people do) I kind of like that she's a little different.

She went to the doctor today for her four month well check. She weighed in at a hefty 15 lbs. 15 oz. (80th percentile) and, while I forget the exact numbers, she was in the 80th percentile for length and 50th percentile for head circumference. She's perfectly healthy and doing everything she's supposed to be doing for her age.

Unfortunately, she had to get shots. She took the first one like a champ, even smiling at the nurse the entire time! However, when that second one came, she realized what was happening and got really sad. Poor sad girl!

Fortunately that car ride home knocked her right out for a two hour nap. When she woke up she'd forgotten all about those nasty shots!

I love this baby! While I do miss how tiny and cuddly she used to be I must admit I'm loving this interactive stage so much! This is my first 'favorite' age and I know I'm going to miss it a ton when it's gone (a.k.a. - once the mobility starts).

Love you Samma Sue! Happy four months!