A Few Randoms

I don't know about you, but I am really not a fan of school fundraisers. There. I said it.

While I understand the need to raise funds for various things in a classroom that there is no room for in the regular school budget, I really hate the pressure that they put on my children to sell sell sell! 

Case in point:

Last week Blake and Trevor both came home with some kind of fundraising flyer. I barely glanced at it when Blake waved it in front of me.  Then came Trevor with his big green "Puss in Boots" eyes and I took a bit more time to actually see what he was holding two inches from my face.  Before I had time to read it thoroughly he said, "Mom you don't even have to buy anything, you can just send in $15 and I will get a FREE water bottle!!" I never really did read the flyer, I was laughing too hard.  He didn't get what was so funny to me, and luckily he is used to me just throwing that stuff away so he wasn't too offended when I tossed it in the trash.

Another day last week I was picking up Chad's dry cleaning and the girl at the drive thru window forgot to give me my credit card.  As I was pulling away she came runing out of the building, waving my card.  After we were on our way again I heard Kade's little voice from the back say, "Who that Mommy?"  Not knowing really what to say I replied with, " Umm, that's the girl from the dry cleaners." His next comment was, "Oh that the girl?  Oooh she cute!"  We are going to have to lock that one up when he becomes a teenager...or maybe y'all should just lock up your daughters instead!

We Represent

the Lollipop Guild...

The boys got a big kick out of her little scrunched up munchkin legs on Friday night.  They called me in from doing the dishes to check her out.

Saturday morning I was eating my cereal when I heard sounds of mirth coming from my bedroom.  I got up to investigate and found this little scene:

Chad and all the kids hanging out on our bed.  The funny part (and of course the part that is not shown in the picture because they realized I had the camera) is that they were all talking and cooing at Sophie.  All of her loyal subjects admiring and entertaining her.  Must be nice to be so worshipped!

That night I walked into the living room to find this:

Getting Miss Sophie to take a pacifier has been no easy task, and she gets fussy at night sometimes and really needs it!  Chad was attempting to calm her down and this was the way she wanted to be held.  However, this was the funny part to me:

Check out Chad's face as he tries to "teach" her to love the plug...that is either his "I'm concentrating" face (normally only seen when he is playing an intense video game) or his "this is how I would take the pacifier" face. 

Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.

You are welcome for getting the Lollipop Guild song stuck in your head...it's been stuck in mine since I took that first picture!

Impromptu Photo Shoot

The other day I decided I needed to take pictures for Sophie's birth announcements, and while I was at it and the boys were home for a snow day I figured I could get some of them too.  I am not super thrilled with how these turned out, and probably won't use them for anything, but I am going to put them on here just to document my stupidity bravery for thinking I could singlehandedly do these portraits and have them turn out decent.

I think part of my problem is that I waited too late to do this, so by the time I wrangled all of them into white shirts and calmed Sophie down after changing her diaper and combed all of their hair the sun was really starting to go down.  I may do another run in a few days...but for now here you go!

It is soooo hard to get Trevor to smile in pictures! He always manages to look like I am torturing him...which I guess I kind of am when I make him sit still for longer than 30 seconds! Gotta love the look on Kade's face, he wanted to hold Sophie.

Kade is figuring out that he is no longer the baby of the family.

I really like this one after all and may go ahead and use it for the announcements, but I am still undecided.

What do you think? Are any of these worth printing and putting on the wall?

Snow Days

We are now on our 4th snow day in a row here in Middle Tennessee.  Last night I had a vision of myself sitting in a prison cell, making another tally mark on the wall with a toothbrush. 

 It hasn't been so bad though, at least I can sometimes sleep in after getting up with Sophie two or three times during the night.  There are definite advantages to not having to get dressed too.

I would normally like to get outside with the boys and play snowball fights (if only for the opportunity for being able to throw things at them to vent some frustration...did I just say that out loud?!), but given my current recovering-from-major-surgery state, I have opted to stay indoors.  The boys enjoyed getting out in the snow a few days ago, and I did step out on the patio (after putting on a bra...I do have some sense of decency...should have put on a hat too though, my hair was scaaaaary...my poor neighbors) to take pictures of the event. 

Kade thought they were nuts when Blake and Trevor threw themselves on the ground to make snow angels.

I tried and tried to get them to build me a big snowman...this little one with a shrunken head was the best their attention spans would do.

Three Weeks Already?

Sophie is officially three weeks old today! Here she is in all her gorgeous three week oldness:

She is still just as sweet as can be, although the past week or so she has been developing all the classic signs of reflux.  She arches her back and cries a high pitched "I am in pain why don't you do something about it?" cry, projectile barfing, curdled milk barf, hiccups several times a day, etc. She wants to suck, but she usually refuses to take the pacifier.  I am still holding out hope that she will figure out how to get her thumb in her mouth in a few days, she needs something to suck on other than poor ole Mama!  I made her an appt to see the pediatrician on Weds. so hopefully she'll get some relief (and maybe I will too!).

Chad is the best at waking her up so she'll get a full feeding...it usually involves stripping and tickling her until she is good and mad!

At her ten day old weight check appt she weighed 6.10 lbs, which was impressive considering she had gone down to 6.1 while in the hospital!  She is probably pushing 8 lbs now.  It is funny how much they change in just a few weeks!  Her hands and feet are starting to get chubby and she is starting to grow out of her newborn clothes, at least in length.  Her belly button gross thingy came off on January 5th, so we gave her a "sink bath" a few days ago.  Then we borrowed a baby bathtub from my sister so she will get her first official bath tomorrow or Weds.  I like to bathe her about twice a week because her hair is really fine and tends to get greasy fast.  (Probably because Chad likes to run his fingers through it and Kade likes to "pet" her head while I feed her!)

Chad's mom was here for a few days and we enjoyed doing some fun girly shopping. 

On Friday after we dragged poor Kade through a few stores we took pity on him and took him to the Discovery Ctr. to run off some energy.  While we were there I had to nurse Sophie so I took her out of the stroller and into the little nursing room that they have there (which is super thoughtful Discovery people!).  When I came out I almost felt like a celebrity because we were practically swarmed by other mothers who wanted to see her! While we were leaving that particular area two little girls ran after us and tried to see the baby in the stroller that my mother in law was pushing. When she told them that I had the baby they ran up to me and asked to see my baby.  After oohing and ahhing over her they asked if they could touch her.  When I told them I was worried about germs the older one said, "Well I just washed my hands!".  I told her that was great and kept walking.  As soon as I could clear the swarm of people I strapped her back in her safe and relatively germ free car seat. 

We really haven't been going out much because I still have scary memories of Kade when he got RSV at four months old. Although I am feeling [mostly] good, I am planning on staying home from Church for at least another week.  It always amazes me that people who are practically death bed sick drag themselves to church, and I really don't need Sophie getting sick at this point!