Seesters!!

Oh how they adore each other so much! It's such a blessing to watch the three of them grow together!

Can I hold her?

A question we hear A LOT!  I love it though...that must mean they really like her!

Seriously...

This kid is loving having all Eden's baby gear around.  She will not only put her babies in them, but she will sit and relax herself too!

A Tradition!

This is something we do every year when we take down the Christmas tree!  It took A LOT of convincing to get Austin to do it.  I am thinking I am going to lose him one of these years!  He continues to be my goofy kid though and appease him momma!

The girls just had to get in on the fun too!  So here goes the first year for Keziah...

and Adah!  They are both just too cute!  I guess you can call this one of our family traditions (as strange as it is)!

One December Day...

I don't know what the temperature was yesterday, but it was nice enough for us to go outside and play and be comfortable!!  Adah got this new scooter for Christmas from Gma and Pa Smith so she was dying to try it out!  I love warm weather, but being that it's winter, I wish we would get some snow!!  Soon enough, I'm sure!

A slight fettish?

Adah is loving our car seat since it came back out of storage.  These are the first pictures I have taken of her with it though.  She even grunts when she is carrying it around!  She loves to buckle the buckles and often climbs in it to relax, but mostly she likes to put her babies in it!  So much for her using the doll carrier we got her for Christmas!  This is way more entertaining anyway!

 

 

 

 

Our Family Christmas!

We had such a wonderful Christmas!  I can't imagine anything better then having Eden home and not being away from our family for Christmas!  We woke up early Christmas Eve.  Eden needed to have her jaundice checked which meant a trip to the hospital for some blood work.  Brian took her to do that while I stayed and made homemade donuts with my new donut pan from Mat and Steph.  When Brian got back with Eden we opened presents.   The kids all got many things they are going to enjoy for days to come.  One thing we got for the family was a used Wii.  I am super excited to have this around to spend time doing with the kids.  We have some fun games to go with it and I got Austin and Brian the wii game Wipe Out (a game show they like to watch).  This year I had the pleasure of seeing Austin give his sisters gifts that he bought with his own money and picked out at the store for them.  They were so happy and will probably never forget where those gifts came from.  Keziah got a hippo webkin and Adah got a doll that talks.  I know I have said it many times before, but Austin has such a caring heart!  I love that kid!  And the girls adore him too!

I feel like this year has been so much more stressful with our pregnancy and then Eden's birth, that I have somewhat forgotten what Christmas is about.  I feel like I have just been trying to 'get things done' and have sort of gotten lost in the busyness of life.  When Eden was born and I was alone in the NICU I had time to reflect on what a gift she is and what a gift God's son was and still is. The Bible is real. Jesus is real.  It's that simple.  We all know the story...He was brought here as a little baby born to the virgin Mary.  He grew up as a man like all of us and then hung on a cross to die for US so our sins could be forgiven so that we can live.  I can never imagine giving my child to die for anybody like Jesus did for us.  What an amazing story!  God is so good and has such an amazing plan for all of us just like he did his own son.  I am grateful Eden got to be a part of it this year and many years to come!  God bless everyone!  Merry Christmas!

Lovin' our littles!

We are thoroughly enjoying being home and being parents of four kids!  Everyone is adjusting well.  I am sure if you asked each kid individually how they were doing they would each tell you they were feeling a little neglected (maybe that's just how I feel), but we are figuring things out more and more every day!  The girls adore Eden and ask constantly if they can hold her.  Adah is always giving her kisses on the head and hugs on the belly!  If she cries Adah always wants to make it better and says, 'it's ok baby, it's ok.'  Baby Eden gets a lot of mom's attention as I am trying to eat all this babyness up as much as possible since she is our last...yep, you heard that right (I'd take another, but...I'm only half of the equation!).  Eden is growing so fast, I don't want to miss a minute of it!  I got a book series from a friend and have learned a lot from it.  One of the things in there is a schedule of how to divide your time and teach your kids how to play alone, together and with a parent.  This has allowed each of the older girls (and Austin when he wants it) undivided attention at some point during the day.  It has been a tremendous tool in making me feel better about cuddling Eden in the chair sometimes from one feeding to the next!!

Here is Eden having her first bath here at home (12/22/11).  She loves it!

Adah is 24 MONTHS! TWO!!!

When did this happen?  When did she get so big?!

Adah is so sweet and incredibly laid back.  Her hair is adorable and she is to the point where she will let me do whatever it takes to keep it out of her face!  I had to keep the lower left picture because Kezzie took that one and it was so cute with her hair in her face. 

Adah got two new teeth this month:  her L top molar 10/29 and her R top molar 11/1.  It did bother her quite a bit too.  She was restless at night and had a hard time falling asleep.  Otherwise she has still been pretty happy during the day.

Adah hit a huge milestone this month.  I guess I don't know if you would consider it a milestone but it is a HUGE deal!  She gave up the paci!  I was planning on cutting her off cold turkey but when I took it away for nap on Halloween day and then we went out trick-or-treating, she was pretty traumatized from that (she did not like anything with a mask).  I decided she could have it that night but that the next day she was done.  And she was okay with that.  She hasn't gone back since!!  I am so proud of my big girl and yet it makes me a little sad because it's the last babyish thing left!  I guess it's a good thing we are having another baby!!  Adah is far from acting like a baby...she is very polite always saying her please and thank-yous!  One of her favorite things to say is think after every sentence!  I don't know what she is trying to say sometimes because it usually doesn't make sense.

Adah continues to have zero interest in watching anything on TV.  I'm ok with this, I just think it's strange!  She would much rather be off playing by herself!

Adah loves to jump downstairs.  This is like a newly discovered thing for the girls.  They figured out that if they take the cushions off the couch downstairs they can pretend they are at the bouncy place.  They go downstairs daily now and have so much fun!  Adah will often ask Kezzie if she wants to go downstairs with her!  They will also do somersaults off the couch onto the cushions on the floor.

Adah's favorite foods I would have to say are spaghetti and mac-n-cheese.  She gets SUPER excited about mac-n-cheese!  The kids loves it!  I have noticed Adah does a lot left handed.  She uses both hands, but I would say she uses her left hand more.

Our Adah is just so funny!  I wish I could be a fly on the wall watching her all the time because she is hilarious with her expressions and pretend play.  She loves life and loves her family (especially Keziah and daddy)!  And I can't get enough of her!  I am excited to see what God has planned for her this year!

On a side note, being that it is her second birthday today, I want to mention that since she is so young we didn't really do anything to celebrate today.  We had her birthday party yesterday and I think that was enough excitement for her and to do something today probably just would have confused her!  I'm sure we will have plenty of other years to make up for it!

UPDATE: We  had Adah's 2year well-child visit today (12/8/11).  She weighed in at 27.2 lbs. and was 34.5" tall!

The Girls' Birthday Party!!

I can't believe we are celebrating our girls' fourth and second birthdays!  Where does the time go?  We had so much fun at their party with family and a couple friends.  We went with a butterfly theme this year.  I didn't do a whole lot of decorations like last year, but did print off some butterflies and had them hanging around the house.  I also ordered a flower arrangement that had some butterflies in it.  It was beautiful!  And it's never a party without balloons!  The girls never stopped smiling.  We had thirteen kids under the age of five and Austin.  It was pretty crazy and I was really thankful for our newly reorganized toy room in the basement!  We had a wonderful meal of baked ziti, bread sticks, seven layer salad and fruit!  I let each of the girls pick out the kind of cake they wanted and made each of their cakes and cupcakes in their kind.  Kezzie picked strawberry and Adah picked confetti.  Perfect for their personalities!!  This year we actually sang to each of them individually.  I think they both felt special!  They are both so special!  I am so thankful for each of them and how they have changed our family!  Happy Birthday Keziah and Adah!  Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

Moments in time...

This morning I want to remember a couple things...Kezzie and Austin woke up with excitement to find there was snow on the ground.  Kezzie was pounding the bathroom door to get daddy's attention so she could tell  him about it.  Austin was at first frustrated to see that every school around here had a two hour delay except his.  Come to find out his did too but it just wasn't being posted online or on tv (we got a text on our phone instead).  So once he realized he had an extra two hours to kill he quickly fed himself and Kezzie (he was motivated) some cereal and they were headed outside.  I was left to eat breakfast with my little Adah and I began to reflect on how blessed I was to have time with Adah (even though she was protesting the fact that she didn't get to go out!) and on how fast time has gone by for the other two.  I found myself really enjoying the time alone with Adah, and realizing how quickly Kezzie and Austin have grown and become buddies.  What an exciting day to wake up to a ground full of wet snow (perfect for snow balls) and then to have the two of them go out and play together and to get to enjoy breakfast with only my youngest before the baby comes...I feel so blessed.  God has blessed me so much!  So, even though it's only 33 degrees outside, I am definitely thankful for this day!
A funny story...
I took Austin to school this morning since it was so slushy and wet out and I didn't want him walking in his shoes.  I had to run to the post office so I decided to do that at the same time.  I didn't bother dressing the girls since they didn't need to get out of the car.  I dropped Austin off and headed to the post office.  I was running in really quick and the girls are in full view the whole time so they just stayed in the car.  As I paid to have my package sent off I noticed Kezzie get out of her car seat.  No big deal, she does this and it's usually to help Adah get a book or something.  BUT, when I got back out to the car and came around the corner, I got quite the sight!  Kezzie was standing with her jammie pants pulled down, she was butt naked with the side door wide open declaring she had to pee (we travel with a little potty in our car so apparently she was going to pee in it but I have no idea why the door had to be open to do it).  Adah was looking at a book, so I was right about that part, but I was completely shocked to see Kezzie just standing there naked with the door open.  I quickly closed the door and told her never to open it when I am not there and explained to her how dangerous this was (I guess I know now that the doors open from the inside if the car is off, even when all the doors are locked) and then we also had to have a talk about how much older she is getting and how she needs to have a little modesty when we are out in public.  I really wonder how many people got to see that!

Adah is 23 MONTHS!!

Look at that sweet smile!  The pictures of her in the red are when I took Keziah's month pictures (four days ago).  Adah just can't resist having her picture taken when big sis is and I can't resist using them in her month pictures!  Kezzie snuck her way into some of Adah's pictures also!  They are just so cute together!

Adah has had some problems with sleep this month.  Something in her room has scared her or so it seems.  She will lay in her bed and cry and cry until one of us comforts her.  She is definitely scared.  For four nights in a row we (mostly Brian) would go up to her room and rock her or stand holding her for a little while until she calmed down.  She would usually do fine after that and go to sleep.  But the fifth night I think both Brian and I had decided that it couldn't continue and we needed to do something about it. Aside from rocking her I tried several different things over the course of that five days...I spent time in her room with her with the door closed, looking around and talking about the different shadows, etc. I talked to her about leaving the door open and she didn't want to. I talked to her about no night light so there weren't any shadows and she didn't like that and lastly, we moved her night light to a different outlet that created less shadows.  We were spending a good half hour calming her down.  So I decided to try something that I remember worked on Keziah (you will think I am harsh) when she went through this.  I just put her to bed as lovingly as usual, when she started crying I didn't wait more then a couple minutes and then I went in there and told her in a stern voice there was nothing to cry about and that she needed to go to sleep.  She said, 'okayy' in a whiny voice, but when I closed the door again she was quiet.  It worked.  I was worried it wouldn't because Adah's personality is a lot more sensitive then Kezzie's and I didn't want to make things worse, but she was a big girl about it.  For a couple nights she still whimpered after the initial closing of her door, but I would just peek my head in and remind her that she was alright and didn't have any reason to cry.  She would sweetly respond by saying, 'okayyy'.  It was around that same time that I discovered her two bottom 2 yr. molars coming in (October 7).  I felt bad because I am sure that was part of what was going on with her when she was having trouble sleeping.  I put orajel on for a couple nights but for the most part she was done having her crying spells so I just didn't worry about it.  She is so tough!

Adah really loves her daddy!  She loves to lay in our bed with us/him and cuddle.  She will rub his head, give him kisses and scoot as close to him as she can.  She will also continually say, 'Hi dad'.  It's the sweetest thing ever and I am so glad that they share those moments!

Adah also loves to color, count as best as she can saying, 'two, two. Two, two, twee'.  She loves playing independently too.  We will often find her off somewhere with a toy, sitting on the floor with her legs out-stretched, just playing contently.  It is fun to watch her enjoy being by herself sometimes! 

Adah and Austin also have a bond.  He loves to make her laugh and teach her things.  She loves to cuddle him and watch him do things that she can learn!

Adah does seem to have sensitive skin like Keziah.  Her skin around her mouth gets very irritated and red sometimes and although she is potty trained, she still wears a diaper at nap and bed which causes some redness on her bottom too.

My baby girl isn't such a baby anymore.  She talks so well and I can easily have a conversation with her.  I am amazed at how fast time has gone this year...she will be two next month!!!

Fall is Here!!

October 6, 2011  A great opportunity to get some fun fall shots.  The weather was beautiful so it was a nice day to spend outside.  Who can resist these sweeties?!  Can you find them in all those leaves?

October 16, 2011  Another great day!  It was a bit more chilly but we had to get outside while we can because it's going to get a lot colder then this!  The girls were thrilled to have their big brother outside with them!  He always comes up with fun ideas!  Like this first picture...he built a nest for them all to sit in like little birds!  He also put a huge pile at the end of our slide, which the girls thought was really fun!  Austin went and got his sled out too and used it to scoop up leaves and throw them into the air.  It looked pretty cool when they were coming down around us!  What great pictures of three of my favorite people!  We are incredibly blessed!!

And fall isn't complete without a very delicious squash pie!

'Painting' and playing!

The girls have a really good time doing this! I am not a huge fan of actual paint but these paint cups are also really good for water! Adah will pretty much do anything Keziah does so Kezzie is the brains behind this idea! They will often make it their goal to get the whole aquadoodle board wet before it starts to dry!  If they work as a team they are usually successful!

The girls love it when I clean my sheets...I don't know what it is about this white mattress cover but it must scream 'come play on me and roll around!'  They love it!  They like to sit on the foot board with the blankets draped over it and then push off for a nice somersault!  So sweet!

A"maze"d by Grace Corn Maze!

We had a really good time today with some great friends.  I recently heard about a corn maze in Charles City that is in the shape of Noah's Ark.  Click here for their website if you are interested.  They had a petting zoo too!  It was pretty pricey for our family to get it ($8 each for Austin, Brian and myself) but would have been more worth that money if we had more time to stay.  There were three different mazes you could choose from and they gave you a map to help you find your way.  One maze took 1/2 hour, another 1.5 hours, and the other took 2 hours.  One of the longer ones actually had a 'farm scene investigation' that looked really cool.  We only did the half hour one since we had other plans later that evening.  The petting zoo wasn't to die for, but the girls liked it well enough!  There were a couple llamas, a horse, a mean turkey, a couple bunnies, and some mature baby chicks-none of which you could really even pet.  On our maze we let the kids lead mostly!  We were there with our friends the Epperlys and McQuillens.  Kezzie has friends from both families so she was in heaven!  Along the path of the maze the three kids (Beau, Abby and Kez) pretended they were on a lion hunt searching for a lion.  They actually thought they were going to find a lion because the maze we were in was in the shape of a lion!  They kept stopping along the path and pointing out lion prints.  It was really sweet!  Abby carried around a map as if she knew where to go!  The kids all had a blast with the exception of Austin as his allergies were going very crazy.  I think we spent the time we wanted to there and headed home after a long 2 hours!!! It was a good thing we were in the company of friends or else I think we all would have been miserable!

Adah is 21 MONTHS!!

Here's my Adah!  She is getting so big!  She's goofy, lovable, cuddly and very opinionated!  And her curls are to die for!  Not much has changed since last month.  Adah is a big talker, although you wouldn't know it unless you hung out in her environment and were around her for a longer period of time.  She is also shy in some ways so you may not see that side of her until she gets to know you!  It might be that she feels a little overshadowed by Kezzie's talking!  She is putting together a couple words to get her point across and will even mimic a whole sentence after someone.  She copies everything Keziah does.  She just thinks she is the coolest person on the planet.  I have noticed her try to get Kezzie's goat a few times too though (ie: putting her foot in Kezzie's way to irritate her). 

Adah is such a sleeper.  She typically sleeps until 8 and takes about a 2.5/3 hour nap around 1ish.  She goes to bed by 8 most nights too!  Most days Adah wakes up from her nap dry, but there is never a night she doesn't wet her diaper.  She is doing great going potty and hasn't had an accident in a long long time (knock on wood).

Adah is finally getting into reading books.  It used to be that she would pick out a book for 'you to read' and then she would sit up on your lap and refuse to let you touch the book.  She would just want to flip through the pages or find her favorite page to look at it.

Adah loves waking up in the morning and says 'mo-ning' when you walk into her room.  She gives her paci and blankie a kiss and nicely places them on her pillow.  As we pass Keziah's room she always asks, in her own way, where Kezzie is.  We get down stairs and she says "Hi Ziah" about a hundred times!  The girls play while I get their juice/breakfast.  Adah loves to eat cereal and bagels.  But she really doesn't care much for her juice right away in the morning like Kezzie does.  She typically doesn't drink it until snack time.  She just isn't that ready for liquids in the morning.

Adah loves to sing "Happy Birthday."  She is so cute when she sings it!  We have a little cake that has candles that light up on it and you can blow them out and it sings happy birthday to you so she has come to know the song well.  Of course, you only catch a few words here and there, but it is adorable!  She also loves the clean up song!  Here is a video of her singing while she picks up some beads she purposely threw on the floor!

That's our sweet Adah!  I can't believe we are so close to celebrating her 2nd birthday!

Adah, Austin and a little Kez!

I got these pictures taken in July.   I wanted to do something for when Adah turned 18 months (in May) because we don't get many chances to do outdoor summer pictures since the girls' birthdays are in November.  Austin turns into a teenager this month so I really wanted to get pictures of him too.  July seemed like a good compromise time-wise and the weather was beautiful!  I couldn't resist her snapping a few shots of Kezzie too while we were at it!  They are all so good!  How will I ever choose?!!

Jumping Place!

I have been hearing about this place for a while now and actually have attempted to find time while in CF to go before but it never worked out.  So today we got to go!  As we were driving by the building Kezzie said, "do we have time today? are we going to do our special thing?"  The last time we were in CF I drove by the building and looked at the hours and she asked me what I was doing and I told her it was a special place but I wasn't sure we were going to have time to go there.  After running our other errands, we didn't have time that day and apparently she remembered exactly what that building looked like!  I was kind of surprised!  It was so much fun!  I was even more surprised to find out that Austin (almost 13) enjoyed it the most out of the three of them.  You pay to jump for 2 hours but we only had 1.5 before they had to close.  I thought that would be plenty of time but he wasn't ready to go home!  Keziah and Austin had a really good time together and Adah and I did our own thing.  They have an area for 3 and under and that is pretty much where we stayed.  They also had a bunch of beach balls laying around and Adah had a lot of fun with them.  It wasn't until the end that she actually got into one of the jumping castles and started enjoying it!  I guess we will just have to go back again sometime!  Austin is already asking when we can go back!

One last Hoorah!

School is scheduled to start tomorrow :(  We thought we better celebrate good and hard one last time! After a good time in the pool we went inside for quick baths and jammies and then headed out for a fire. The girls had a long nap so I let them stay up and enjoy a 'shmarshmallow' (as Kezzie says).  I think Kezzie had a s'moore and Austin enjoyed one too! Adah just had a plain marshmallow!  I love these kids to pieces!  They are so much fun to watch play and hang out with.  The top left picture Austin is helping Adah jump in the pool, the next one Austin is making it into a wave pool, next he is helping her jump again.  The second one in from the left on the bottom is of Adah trying to make a basket into the pool.  Each kid took their turn at this and she had to try too.  She was getting so frustrated because she couldn't get her arms just right to throw it far enough.  The rest are pretty self explanatory!   So long summer break!  It was nice knowing ya!

iPad Fun!

There's nothing better than sitting snuggled next to daddy and playing the iPad!  She hardly knows what she is doing but she knows enough to enjoy the few games that we have for her age.  She really loves listening to animal sounds and equally enjoys the interactive animals such as the dinosaur, kitty cat, dog and bunny!  She frequently asks to play the 'iPad' which she says in her own little sweet way!  And throws a fit screaming when she doesn't get her way (which is often)!!