highchair

One of Lullaby's favorite things to do now is sit in her highchair while we eat. I usually feed her first before getting our food ready so she will be content to just sit during the meal. She gets to play and watch her boys, which are both very entertaining things to do.

The boys are so good to share their toys with her, especially their coveted CARS if you can believe it. :)

What a lucky girl.

fancy bowling

Laurel came to visit!! It is always nice to see her and hear her crazy stories... One day, I am going to force her to publish her journals, so everyone can hear. :) One night she decided that she and I and 2 of her other friends who also live here in Georgia, were going to go "fancy bowling"...

Laurel bought me this fun dress and shrug and out we went. It was super fun. We also went to "cosmic bowling" so everything was glowing.

It reminded me of college days, doing silly things, just to be silly. Fancy bowling was a blast - minus the fact that I am actually terrible at bowling. In fact about half way through the game I started bowling left handed, because I couldn't possibly get any worse. I lost by quite a bit. :)

Lullaby is 6 months old!!!

Lullaby, if you can believe it, is 6 months old today!! She is the world's BEST baby. She hardly ever cries, but when she does, it is easy to fix. She takes 2 or 3 naps each day but one always coincides with the boys' nap. Lullaby does NOT sleep through the night yet though, in fact she is far from it. She goes to sleep at 6, wakes around 10 (sometimes nurses, but always wants to be held for a minute, then back to sleep), nurses around 2, and again around 6am, then she sleeps until the boys wake her up between 7 and 8. Lullaby can sit up by herself, but still tips easily. She is no where near crawling, tummy time is still not her favorite. She can roll to get things, but rarely gets that needy with 2 helpful brothers giving her everything she wants as soon as she gazes in that direction. She smiles and coos and wiggles all day long and LOVES attention. Lately, she chews on everything.

She loves her brothers, even when they are screaming and running in circles around her. She loves her Daddy, and will do anything to get even just eye contact from him. She is still a momma's girl, and loves to be held by me, even if all we are doing is stirring dinner. Lullaby loves taking a bath and her whole bedtime routine, except going to sleep, she hates it when I turn out the lights knowing full well what comes next. Lullaby loves music and wiggles around already when she hears something she likes. She has started eating real food too, so far just sweet potatoes and peas, she LOVED the sweet potatoes and is still deciding whether peas are alright or not...

Lullaby is very ticklish and will giggle like crazy, even when she is too tired to do much of anything else. She sleeps on her side, always. She loves her pacifier and a blankie near her face. She likes the fan on, but not blowing on her at night. She is learning to like car rides, but would probably prefer to do anything else more. Lullaby tops the growth charts, still. She has a million nicknames that we call her on a regular basis: Lullers, Lull, Lulla, Lulla Baloo, Lully, Lali... She has bright blue eyes, more like Hawken's or mine than Matix's or Paul's. She has only a thin layer of baby hair that we can't seem to pin down the color on quite yet. Her eye lashes are already long. She has rolls upon rolls and is cuter than ever. I can't believe 6 months is already here. It happened so fast. Lullaby is a parent's dream. She is perfect and we love her SO much.

flowering tree

The tree in our front yard has been flowering for the past few weeks.

It is SO beautiful. If we weren't already crazy in love with our new house, this made it better.

Now the air outside even smells sweet. We love it here.

normal

This is a very common sight in our house. Matix (and sometimes Hawken) in a cape. Hawken holding Lullaby in some way or another. Sakina near by, always. Paul, in another room studying. Me, taking pictures...

Hawken the big brother

Hawken, turns out, is a great big brother!! I had some worries at how he would be with a new baby in the house. But he has really stepped up and become quite a good brother to Lullaby and helper for me. If Lullaby cries, he runs into the room and announces, "Here I am Lullers! Don't cry, I am here now." He is very hands on too. Which she tolerates and even likes (most of the time).

cute kids

Here are some recent pics of the wee babes. They are growing so fast. Matix is 3 and 1/2 (in 4 days):

Hawken is 2 (and a few months):

Lullaby is 6 months old TODAY!:

perfect timing

My little sister is putting together a slideshow of pictures of my grandpa George for his funeral. My mom found a few good ones, scanned them and sent a few to me to see. This is one of my favorites. This is me when I was little, all snuggled up with my grandpa on his chair. He LOVED this chair. I am pretty sure it's still in his family room. :)

The funeral will be next week and Lullaby and I are making the trip out to Minnesota. Grandma Stacy had already planned to be here for a weeks for a visit, so the timing is perfect. She will stay here with the boys, that way I don't have to bring 2 toddlers with me too. I'm pretty sure there is no such thing as coincidences anymore, this worked out too perfectly.

Grandpa George

Well, today I had an interesting experience. I was making lunch for everyone, and I suddenly smelled my Grandpa. I checked everything around me to see if it smelled like him, but it was just in the air, in and out for a little while. I called my mom right away to see how Grandpa was doing, and in fact he had been in and out of consciousness since this morning. I have a feeling that when a person is unconscious, their spirit can separate from their body, which is why so many people can explain their "out of body" experiences after they awaken from being unconscious. Anyway, I think, somehow, he was able to be near me, even if only in spirit, and even if only for a few moments. It made me tear up a little but I was happy to be able to say good bye when I really felt like he heard me. My Grandpa died a few hours later in his bed with my Grandma by his side. I will miss him, and will always think of him when I play cribbage, or eat kringle, or have house guests that stay too long :) I love you Grandpa.

freebies

So I am getting pretty good at this couponing thing... Not amazing, but good. Today was actually the first time I got paid to take items out of a store. I got cans of wet dog food (which I will never pay for, I only get this when I can for free) and toothpaste. We have a ridiculous amount of free toothpaste. No pictures of today's haul, but I left with bags in hand AND 15 cents BACK. The cashier was super confused and called over a manager, but everything was correct, so I handed over my coupons, and they handed me MONEY. It was amazing. Here are two more pics of other free things. These hauls were from stores that don't do overage though, so no change back. Free is fine with me though. Gum anyone? :)

The got2b glue's are for any nephews attempting a mohawk. So hit me up, and I will send them your way. :)

Lullaby eats rice cereal

Since I got to feed Lullaby her first sips of milk, it was only fair that Paul got to feed her the first bites of food. After Paul, then the rest of us took turns feeding her. I love it when it's still fun to feed the baby and not a chore yet. :)

She started eating rice cereal in the middle of January (she was about 4 and 1/2 months old). Although, I don't think anyone could possibly like the taste of rice cereal, Lullaby certainly enjoys the social parts of eating... all eyes on her, more people to coo at, etc. She loves that part of it all. :)

Here she is, tummy filled with rice cereal for the first time. Happy, like always.

grandpa george

This sweet little Matix man makes my heart so happy.

My grandpa George is very sick right now, and will probably not make it much longer. We just received this news earlier in the week, and he is deteriorating fast. It's sad for me that I can't go to say good bye in person, but really, there is nothing more that he or I would say to each other. He knows I love him, and I know he loves me.

He has been slipping in and out of lucidity and will ask about the kids or Paul or myself, which makes me happy. My grandpa and I have never been super close, but he is my grandpa, and I love and respect him very much. I hope that with whatever time he has left, he can be at peace and not in pain. Matix came to give me kisses when I was sad today, and Hawken said he would give me a blessing. :)

OBGYN - done!!!

This post is dedicated to Paul. My ever hardworking husband. The devoted father of my children. The future doctor. The goofball that he is. Paul. These pictures were taken 5 weeks ago when Paul had just finished the dreaded OBGYN rotation.

Here I am, at almost the end of his pediatrics rotation finally posting them. I am such a slacker lately.... But anyway, he finished OBGYN. He had a BILLION 24 hour shifts, regular hospital and office days, weekends ON... Not either of our favorites, by far. Although it was amazing for him to be able to help babies come into the world, the long hours and cranky doctors = not great. I am happy that Paul could remain his normal happy self (most of the time) despite all of that. Good job Paul.

planting the tree

In the beginning of February, it finally got warm enough to bring our Christmas tree out and plant it in the yard. Paul and I have done this before, but never successfully. :( It's true. All the live trees (still potted) we had purchased in the past, have died after we planted them. Neither Paul or I really have a green thumb....

So hopefully this year's tree will be different. We waited extra long and always said nice things to it, so hopefully our little tree can make it.

So far so good, it's already showing signs of growth...

After replanting the tree in the yard, we spent the rest of the day together. Racing bikes and skateboards down the driveway, snuggling with willing babies, picking flowers and looking for bugs. It was a very good day.

juicer

Thanks to our credit card points, we bought a juicer. Paul had one before and loved it. I wasn't too sure about the idea of drinking my vegetables... but I was willing to try in order to be healthier. We still eat lots of raw and cooked veggies in our meals and snacks, but now each day we also drink 2 LARGE glasses of juiced fruits and vegetables.

Our favorite combination so far has been cucumbers, carrots, celery, apples and an orange. Sounds questionable, but it's pretty good tasting, and more importantly, good for you. The boys want to try it every once in a while, but they don't like it as much as these pictures suggest. :)

They usually only have a sip. Paul had done some research on the vitamins from vegetables and how our bodies break them down, and apparently, it's easier for our bodies to utilize all that good stuff when it has been juiced. We also now eat mostly organic produce, thanks to a very well priced farmers market. We're slowly becoming hippies.