Gigi Turns 5

Gigi had a little "garden party" with a few of her little friends.  She chose the theme so there were lots of "garden" related games, flower pot painting, flower and butterfly decor and dirt cups instead of birthday cake.  This was seriously the best kid birthday that I have ever been to and I consider myself an expert at this point in my life thanks to 6 nieces and nephews!  These children were so well behaved- there wasn't ever a disagreement and no adult ever had to raise their voice.  That's a birthday miracle!

 Baby made some adorable snacks that had crackers and grapes but looked like butterflies, there were veggie cups with ranch for dipping, popsicles and "dirt cups" that each child got to customize to his/her liking.

 The kids all seemed to enjoy painting little flower pots.  Incidentally this is the only picture that I seem to have with the birthday girl in it and it's of her backside!  Oh well, she had on a really adorable outfit!

 Munchie came up with an inventive way to paint the bottom of her pot.

Little bit enjoyed all of the attention that she received.  She stayed up for the entire party and loved getting passed from person to person.

Bab made this spider web game out in the driveway and the kids all wanted to do it over and over again. There was also a treasure hunt, the kids dug for buried treasures in the sandbox and then a game of freeze tag where E and J Man acted like bees.  If you got "stung" then you were frozen.



3 Month Photo Shoot

Here are some pictures from Lo's 3 month shoot. Little miss was quite sleepy and quite grumpy...thank heaven for a fabulous photographer. I still can't believe how many really good shots she got.

The flower dress that she is wearing in some of the pictures has a story behind it. When Hubby's Grandma died when we were 17 we started going through her sewing stuff. My Mom had the forethought to save some of her fabric and she made this dress for Lo out of one of those pieces.

As always, our favorite photographer, H. Alexandra Photography

3 Months

Lo doesn't go back to the doctor until her 4 month check up but I thought I would document a little about our girl.  I weighed her yesterday and if my scale is correct she weighs a little over 15 pounds.  She has always been a good sleeper at night but this week she has started waking around 2:00AM for a feeding.  It seems as though she's going through a growth spurt.  She brings so much joy into our lives.

 She loves to shop.  Hubby says we're in trouble because the more things we pile into the cart the more smiley she gets.  She even helped her Daddy shop for new glasses and these were the ones he ended up buying.  I guess she already has good taste!

 She's had a pretty big month on the toy front.  She is a lot more interactive now and enjoys time on her activity mat.  She's only done the exersaucer once but she enjoyed it.

 On her activity mat.  There are about 3 places that you can kick and each place plays a different song.  She is a very active girl so you never her more than 3 or 4 notes of a song before she's kicked a different spot and it starts a new song.

 She's very patient with her cousins antics...

 and with them learning how to help her.

 She's become quite the drooler!

 She is a very pleasant girl...as long as she gets her nap. She is very vocal about not getting her beauty rest although she fights it to the end.

 Loves sitting up all by herself in the bumbo.

 Water relaxes her as has been evident from her love of her white noise machine...she enjoys the rain,stream and ocean noises best.  She also loves baths.

 She's got a love of vintage cars...or at least her Daddy hopes!

She loves her Daddy!  However,with the growth spurt she prefers for her Mama to put her down for naps.

Treking

Since Bab and Roc had been away all week at the pioneer trek (week long camp where the teens reenact the pioneer trek out west. Meaning no electronic devices, sleeping under tarps, pulling handcarts, dressed in period attire, etc) I thought it would be cool for the kids to go on Saturday to see the end of the adventure. Roc labored over the planning of the trek for about a year and I thought they should go and see what he had been working so hard for.

Dad and I drove the kids the 2 and 1/2 hours to the upstate where it was held. We got there a little early and met up with Bab and then walked to the area where the trek was over. After a minor delay the carts rolled in a little after noon. I think the kids thought it was interesting.

On our way home we got lunch and stopped at a famous seed company...they make every type of seed imaginable and have acres of gardens showing them off. The kids thoroughly enjoyed walking the grounds.

Fathers Day 2012

This was a very special Fathers Day indeed. It was Robert's first official time celebrating and we tried to do it right! He got miscellaneous fun paraphernalia, some clothes, the Sleep Book by Dr. Seuss (it's sentimental) and I took pics of our little Lo with her holding the letters D-A-D and had it framed.

We stayed at my parents the night before to go to church with them because my Dad was speaking to the congregation. I made everyone stuffed French toast and even brought it to the Hubs in bed. Little Miss slept for 12 hours straight...talk about a good present! Then I was taking a bath with Lo before church and when Hubby came in to get her out she gave him her first ever giggle. The girl definitely knows how to make a guy feel special!

We had a good service at church and the Hubs was treated to "Doughnuts for Dads" afterwards.

Later we ate dinner with the fam at my parents. We had steak, Mac and cheese, salad, grilled squash and zucchini, corn in the cob and homemade yeast rolls with homemade jam. I made a diabetic coma style peanut butter chocolate pie. It was divine, but made the soda that we washed it down with seen like water...it was rich!

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful Dad, I truly couldn't ask for better. He's funny, loyal, sensitive and every other fine characteristic you would want in a man.

It goes without saying how great the Hubs is with his daughter, she absolutely adores him. She lights up when she sees or hears him and she looks exactly like him. We are very lucky girls!

A Day With The Kidlets

Since Bab and Roc were out of town I got a chance to spend the day with the littles. Luckily, my favorite teenager of all time just happened to want to spend the day with me so I had an extra set of hands. We went to the splash pad that apparently wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be, but I think the kids played for a solid hour. After that we went over to this huge covered playground...the kids seemed to enjoy that the most.

Then we got lunch. I let everyone choose where they wanted to eat, I figured that would be a real treat! Lucky for me, the boys decided on one restaurant and the girls decided on another so I only had to go to 2 places to hold up my end if the deal.

Once we got home the kids devoured their meals and then it was time for more play. The boys went off and did their own thing and the girls played in the sprinklers followed by a spa day. The spa day included a bath with cucumbers for their eyes (but they ate them instead!), facials and nail painting. Lo even got to have a bath with the big girls.

We were all pretty exhausted after all that fun...Lo slept through nail treatments. Oh well, there's always next time!

Touch

Lo sleeps great at night.  She usually goes to bed around 9:30 and then wakes around 7:00 so I can't complain at all.  She does not like to sleep during the day even though she obviously gets tired.  She needs it to be as dark as possible and then she likes to fall asleep touching someone.  Most of the time all she needs is to hold on to your finger or something.  Every time she does this it makes me think of this poem that my Grandma monogrammed for my Grandpa Charles as his wedding gift-

 It reads:

What matters most,

If I may boast

About the things we share

Is nothing much

But to feel your touch

And know you're really there.

I love that all she needs is just something as small as a finger to hold on to.  It's just that she needs to know that someone is there. She is so,so sweet.

I have no earthly idea who wrote this poem, but it's one of my treasured possessions that I have of my grandparents (other than her gigantic diamond that I inherited) and I think of it often.  It doesn't go with the decor of my home at all, in fact it's usually in a closet or banished to the guest room.  I struggle with weather or  not to re-mat and frame it so that it's updated and proudly displayed so that I can appreciate it or to leave it exactly the way it is.