Seven Months (and a few days)!

Sophie turned seven months old last week!

Six days before she turned seven months old she decided to teach herself how to go from a crawling position to a sitting position.  Last week she started pulling up on my leg when I was sitting on the floor and stand (with help) for a little while at a time.  Apparently while I was gone the other night she decided to pull herself up on the windowsill so she could watch traffic (or lack thereof) go by.  Chad didn't get to the camera in time but he did take fifty several shots of her that he was proud of.  

Here are a few:

After her six month check up I got worried because she wasn't gaining weight, so I decided to start her on formula a few times a day to supplement breastmilk and solids.  After trying four different kinds of bottles we found one she will take without screaming, the Playtex Drop-ins.  I never used them with any of the others, but she is happy and that is what matters. 

We started her on Enfamil AR, which has rice starch added to it to help babies who spit up a lot.  Right away we noticed a huge difference in the amount of barfing she was doing, so after a lot of consideration (and a serious drop in my milk supply from being sick) I decided to stop nursing her.  I was a little sad at first (not to mention in a lot of pain) but she has done really well and I can now leave her with Chad or a babysitter and get a few precious hours to myself.  The results have been amazing.  She went from barfing four or five times after each feeding to spitting up once or twice a day, so we are all happier.  

Her favorite foods are...pretty much everything.

 Except green beans, but with the way the baby food green beans smell, who can blame her?!  I have yet to find the time to make her some homemade baby food...maybe when the boys are back in school.

She has mastered holding the bottle herself, when she is not being lazy, that is.

Her hair is now long enough to put in one little "sprout" on top of her head, or two little ones on the sides.  I am starting to get the hang of getting the little elastics in...when she holds still enough!  It is a dang good thing we only had one little girl, I can't imagine the amount of time it would take me to do hair on several more!

 If I don't feel like combing the boys' hair I just give them a shorter haircut!

She fits in our family so well, whether it is blowing raspberries at the boys while they are having burping contests or leaning forward in the stroller on a family frisbee golf adventure, she loves to be right in the middle of the chaos.  

I am pretty sure there are at least a few people around here who couldn't live without her!

Day Trippin

Chad was out of town from Sunday to late Thursday night last week. 

 We survived and the kids were pretty good so when Chad told me that he had to drive to Chattanooga early Friday morning for a meeting and then planned on taking the rest of the day off I suggested that we could hitch a ride with him and play downtown while he was in his meeting.  His meeting turned out to be at Coolidge Park, which is just across the river from the Aquarium, and it had a nice little fountain area for the kids to run through.  

The fact that it was free was nice too! 

I can't believe how old this one is getting!
 He spent the majority of the time feeding  goldfish crackers to the birdies that found us and complaining of being bored.

Kade was thrilled to be able to run through the fountain.
 This kid loves him some water activities!

Trevor was more adventurous than the others and kept going through that huge middle shoot of water, it knocked Blake flat on his hiney when he tried it!

Goofballs.

Apparently there was a gun show going on while we were there.

That bridge in the background used to be a railroad bridge that they turned into a walking bridge to cross the river.

This little miss was her usual happy self.

My favorite things were these big cement animals that shot water out of their mouths.
The kids liked to pretend to ride them.

After the waterworks we headed to a place called Taco Mamasitas for lunch and then headed back home in time to take Trevor to Tae Kwon Do.  

Yo Ho Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me!

 Kade's 4th birthday has come and gone.  

We partied it up pirate style this year in honor of our sweet little man. Yeah, yeah, if you look back a few years you might remember that Trevor's 4th birthday (which was actually his 1st birthday) was a pretty cool pirate party, but I think Kade's was better times ten.  Now that it is over I am reminded of why I only do parties like that for my kids every four years or so...they are a lot of work!

 I was holding a sinus infection at bay the week that I was getting ready for the party, but now that it is over I have allowed it to kick my hiney for a few days.  I promise to be back up and running around with some crazy new scheme in a few days...at least that is what the pharmacist told me when she handed me my antibiotic.

I half heartedly tried to talk Chad into dressing up like Black Beard, but he isn't in to calling that kind of attention to himself.  Instead he rose to the occasion by helping the boys clean the house and hanging some of the decorations.  He was such a huge help, I could not have done it without him.  The boys were great too.  Of course, cupcakes and party games are a major motivator and they didn't disappoint.  My sister and bro in law took Kade for the day so we could get ready a little easier.  My parents showed up and helped cut fruit and veggies for the food table.  I owe everyone who helped a huge thank you, we appreciate all of your love and support!

Here is a nice little photo recap of the big event:

The sign on the door says "Welcome Aboard".

We had fruit skewers and veggie cups with a sign that said "Prevent Scurrrvy", as well as several chips and dips to choose from.  There was also Swedish Fish and Goldfish crackers with a sign that said "Go Fish".

My homemade cupcake stand.  Would you believe that it is made out of a  box and some cans of soup?

Chad took streamer hanging duty very seriously.

The food table. The banner in the back says "Happy Birthday".

The loot table.  When the kids came in they made a bookmark that they could take home with them.  At the end they also got a goody bag with a ring pop, some smarties, a rubber snake or lizard and a little rubber cannon ball.

We broke the kids up into two groups since there were so many and had Blake lead one group and Zach lead the other around to the different party games.

They played Pin the Patch on the Pirate, Musical Chairs and Digging for Buried Treasure in the sandbox.

I took several shots before I realized that the birthday boy was hiding in the back.

That's better. Sort of.

He had been waiting all day to dig in to one of these bad boys.

Of course Alyssa chose chocolate.
Girlfren's got opinions!

I don't know which is more scrumptious, the redhead or the cupcake!

I think his bliss just says it all.

Ashleigh and Kade, cousins born on the same day two years apart.

The Three Muskateers, all born in July in three consecutive years.

Reagan found his happy place right below the cupcake stand.

We've entered into the 4 year old weird photo expression  phase.
yay.

He had so much fun, he insisted on sleeping with some of his presents.

Trevor has never left the weird photo expression phase.

This one was pretty impressed when he bit into his vanilla cupcake to find an Oreo buried in the center.
He is my kind of kid.

He insisted that I take another shot with his patch  on correctly.

Apparently this was the big boy table.

It is so funny to listen in on the conversations that little kids have with each other.
 I wish I could remember what the two on the right are laughing about.

I confiscated the wooden skewers before anyone had to go home with a reason  to wear an eye patch.
Safety first you know.


Kade has always been such a bright spot in our world.  It was fun to celebrate him and to see the joy on his face.  And it will be fun when we do it again in another four years next year!


Happy Birthday Kade!

Dolly

A few nights ago I walked in to check on Mademoiselle Pineapple and found her like this:

I knew that would bring a smile to your face!

*No we did not put her down for the night in the corner of her crib, nor did we hand her Dolly.  

She is just that awesome.

El Quatro del Julio...Dos

On the actual 4th Chad took the boys disc golfing and to get fireworks while Sophie and I went grocery shopping.  Then I came home and made brownies for the party we were headed to that night.  

In the afternoon we took the kids to get ice cream and then went over to a park to let them run off the sugar before we took them home to get ready for the party.  I was able to get some pictures of the clothes that I slaved over made for them to wear for the holiday.  

I made Kade's plaid shorts and Sophie's sundress using tutorials from online...I can't use a pattern to save my life  yet!  The boys' flag shirts I made using this tutorial:

 http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2010/06/4th-of-july-shirts.html 

 I love her site and have made a few things from it.  She is helping me get over my fear of sewing.  

Of course, after I spent hours making the shirts Chad had to go and point out like a real smart aleck that I had managed to merge the three stars on the Tennessee state flag with the American flag.  If you look at that tutorial though you will see that I wasn't the first!  

We headed out to the boonies during the evening and enjoyed spending time with friends, good food and Chad and the boys shot off the fireworks that he spent way too much money on. 

Someone on facebook (who was probably quoting somebody else) put it best when they said something to the effect of:

 "The 4th of July, the holiday that millions of Americans willingly blow up their own money. So what is the federal govt's excuse for the other 364 days of the year?".  

All in all I deem the holiday weekend a success.  We saw blood, we saw sweat, we saw a few tears...ooh and did I mention that I saw a little bear cub just outside of Cade's Cove?  Well I did.  Of course, you'll just have to take my word for it since my camera was dead at the time!  

Fourth Festivities

We were able to get away this weekend to East Tennessee for a few days.  For those who have never been to the Smoky Mountains I am sorry, but you are missing out!  It was nice to spend a few days marveling at the beauty of God's creations, and the fact that I got to spend it with a few of my favorite people didn't hurt either.

We spent the majority of our time in the car...I think it took us twice as long to get there as it should have since we had to make five or six potty/feed Sophie stops.  We forgot how much fun it is to travel with a newly potty trained kid and a baby!  The kids were all really well behaved and didn't grumble too much in the car.

 I think the highlight of our trip was driving through Cade's Cove.  When we heard about it we figured it was a must see.  It was Kade's favorite since we told him they named it after him but just got the spelling wrong.  It is a 6,800 acre valley in the Smoky Mountains National Park with an eleven mile scenic drive.  Along the way there were places to pull off and take pictures and if our camera hadn't died while we were letting the kids wade at a river I would have had many more pictures of the deer and cool old cabins and churches that were sprinkled along the way.  We spent probably close to three hours there on Saturday and plan to go back someday to do a two mile hike down to a place called Abram's Falls.

Kade standing in front of the only sign I got a picture of before our camera died.

My favorite people

There were deer all over the place...we were part of a long line of cars that kept having to stop when  people would want to take pictures. That's probably why it took us three hours to go 11 miles!

We told the boys to roll up their shorts and not get too wet.  Famous last words.

Another shot of our great little swimming hole.

Kade decided to get a little more wet and ended up being swept a little bit downstream.  Chad jumped in to get him and had to deal with soaked tennis shoes the rest of the trip.  Good times!

Sophie getting her first feel of the cold water.

She really loved it...that was a surprise!

We didn't see too much in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg...other than the back of the car in front of us since the traffic was crazy!  Apparently everyone else had the same idea of getting away for the holiday weekend.    We ate at a little Mexican place called Jose's before heading to the river with the crazy expensive beach towels that we had to buy since we didn't have the foresight to bring our own.

Sophie was thrilled not to be in her car seat or a highchair.

After lunch we headed out of Gatlinburg to wade in the river...after another two potty stops and waiting in a crazy line of traffic, that is!  Within five minutes of getting in the water Kade cut his foot on some sharp rocks but was willing to tough it out since he loves the water so much.  A few minutes later Trevor announced that he needed to find a bathroom and not of the tree variety...so off we went to battle our way thru traffic once again.  We decided to cut our losses after that and just head home!

Stay tuned for Part II of our weekend festivities!