Four Months

My Sweet Little Carolena,
You are four months old now! I can't believe it! Stop growing because I want you to stay little forever. You are doing so many new things now. You are my little roly poly rolling all over the place. You are just starting to be able to hold things in your hands and love to chew on things. You are such a little goofball and do this really silly belly laugh that makes mommy smile. You are sleeping much much less during the days now, and are sleeping really well at night. Sometimes you even sleep through the whole night! I think you might be a thumb sucker because your hands are always in your mouth and you don't really like the pacifier. You love being the center of attention (as you should!) and you cried all through your baby dedication just so people would notice you. You still want to eat every three hours or less during the day, but I think you really just like being close to mommy. The brothers give you lots of attention (which you love) and you always have a big smile especially for B4. Bath time is still tons of fun and you would stay in the water all night if I would let you. Your favorite thing to do right now is to sit in your play center and push all of the buttons that make noise. I love you my sweet girl!


I couldn't do another post without a picture of my two (hooligans) boys.

More soon!
Emily

Unless You Are a Type A Personality,

don't volunteer to be a room mom in your kids preschool class. I am not organized. I am not a leader. As a matter of fact, I am much more of a follower. Give me something to do, and I will do it, but I am not good at delegating, and I certainly don't have a "take charge" sort of personality. That being said, I don't think I have done a horrible job of being room mom, but it stresses me out for sure. I feel like I am always asking people to volunteer for this or that and frankly, I don't like doing it. I cringe every time I see a class party on the calendar because I know I am going to have to ask people to do things that they don't really want to do. I will be so happy when this year is over and I don't have to ask people to volunteer to bring in store bought cupcakes and juice. I will be happy when I don't have to ask people to donate $5 each to buy lunch for the Teachers Appreciation Luncheon. But I will be really happy that I don't have to pretend like I have a Type A Personality.

Onward and Upward...we have been busy little bees around here. As I mentioned in my last post, I made some pants for the boys last week, but I also made a cute little outfit for my princess as well. What do you think?

Other than the ruffles looking more like cuffs, I think it turned out alright. I definitely need more practice, but I am starting to feel a little more comfortable with the sewing situation. On that note, check out the outfit Carolena is wearing below...it was a gift from her (really super talented) grammy.

And we had a little time on our hands yesterday so we played dress up...

and some more dress up...

and then cuddle time with Joe Finney....

My girl sure loves her brothers. They take such good care of her. I feel sorry for any boyfriends she has when she grows up. They won't stand a chance around here!

Laziness

That's what it comes down to. I have lots of things to post about, and pictures to post, I am just way too lazy to upload the pictures to the computer. Not like its a hard thing, takes about 1 minute. For some reason I am just not that motivated to do it. I need to work on that.

So, lots of things going on around our house lately. Carolena hit the three month mark last Thursday. I did take a picture of her in her crib (which I will post in a minute) but I was too busy hosting Craft Night to get around to posting on the blog. Craft Night was a huge success and a TON of fun. If I would have known that I could have that much fun crafting (and maybe drinking a little wine :)) I would have gotten a group together much sooner!! A couple of people actually completed projects, but there were some of us (I won't mention any names!) who had just as much fun talking about crafting and hanging out with other creative ladies. Again, so much fun, I can't wait until the next one! I'll have to take pictures next time.

Another big day for us was B5's eye surgery today. It was a long exhausting day and I am glad to be done with it. We had to be there at 6:45 am, which came way too early after being up most of the night with my little princess (who, by the way, has a terrible little cough). The nurses gave B5 some Verset, which they appropriately call " goofy juice" to calm him down before they took him back to surgery. He was definitely "goofy" to say the least. At one point he pulled my hair around my chin and said "mommy, you look like a boy". And then a couple of minutes later, "mommy, take a picture of my butt". Take a look at my boy in his total drunken state...

And since I was feeling so guilty about him having to go through surgery, I let the boys pick out their own outfits to wear to grammys house tonight. Don't they look fancy? They wanted to wear the pajama pants that I just made them a couple of days ago. Go figure.

And on to my little Carolena. She hasn't been feeling that great lately and has had a pretty nasty cough and cold. But I thought I would go ahead and try to get her 3 month crib picture. This is how it went

And then this

So then I tried taking her out of the crib and got this

and I thought that would have to work. So here goes:

My Sweet Little Carolena, I can't believe you are 3 months old already!! You have the most amazing smile that melts my heart every time. You are getting so vocal already and love to talk to your mommy and grammy. You are also a big fan of grandpa and Uncle Bill. I think you are starting to find your hand and have figured out how to kick things to make things move. You are starting to wake up to the world and are napping much less than before. You are so content and only really cry when you are hungry. You still love taking baths and are starting to roll around just a little bit. I have you sleeping in your chair in mommys room because you are sick right now, and need to be sleeping on an incline. Your grammy made you a really fancy Valentines Day outfit, and I made you an outfit to wear this spring. We are really having fun making you stuff! I love you to pieces my little pumpkin pie!

I have found a really great photographer who not only has been taking beautiful pictures of Carolena, but also shares my love for a things crafty. Check out her blog at sarafloydphotography.blogspot.com to see the pictures she took of Lena. Look under "Baby C @home", and "Baby C".

I will leave you with this picture of the boys on thier "Dance Party Train". I think I wanna hop on!

It's Black and White

Growing up I was lucky enough to know both sets of my grandparents. We never really lived close to either of them, but I remember getting to see them quite often. For some reason we got started referring to them as the "Black Grandma", and the "White Grandma". I think my dad must have come up with that. And no, it has nothing to do with race :). My Grandma Derby had white hair, and my Grandma Mula had black hair. So whenever my parents would tell us that we were going to grandma's house, we would always ask, "the black grandma or the white grandma?" I still laugh about that. Probably isn't politically correct, but still funny to me! Anyways, the white grandma was very crafty. She would always be working on something, and really got me excited about crafting. I remember sitting with her and working on Christmas ornaments that opened up so you could put Hershey Kisses in them. I also remember her teaching me how to play cards at a very early age. I have some really great memories of time spent with her. So, since I am feeling nostalgic, I am going to start a series of blogs called Then and Now. Since my mom is so great, she saved me a lot of the clothes that I wore when I was a baby, and I have started putting Carolena in them. I am going to start posting a picture of myself as a baby wearing the outfit (Then), and a picture of Carolena wearing the outfit (Now). This first outfit is one that my White Grandma made for me as a baby. It is a white crocheted dress with little blue lines at the top. I didn't have a picture of myself wearing this one, but it was so cute on Carolena that I had to post it. I can just see my grammy smiling down on us!



A couple of more pictures of the princess since I can't help myself! Look at this sassy little girl!



I promise to post more pictures of the boys soon. We had a playhouse built in the basement this week so they have been spending a lot of time down there. I will show it off once we get finished with the painting.

Emily

Sort Of

I sort of love how Joe Finney can't say his L's, so he says things like "mommy I yuv you", "hoj me" and "turn out the yights". I sort of love how B5 climbs into bed with me in the morning to cuddle. I sort of love how Baby Sister sleeps with her mouth open and how she has the sweetest little burps followed by a fountain of spit up. I sort of love snow days, but I also sort of hate them because of all the cleanup involved. I sort of love to have something sweet to eat after a meal...and I'm not picky. I sort of hate listening to voice mails and usually let them build up for a while before I actually listen to them. I sort of love living in Louisville but would jump at the chance to spend a month in Florida every summer. I sort of hate lightening and loud noises. I am sort of scared to fly right now, but would do it anyway to get somewhere faster. I am sort of anxious about the future because I don't know what I will do when the kids grow up and leave the house. But I sort of don't want to think about that now, I just want to enjoy every minute they are here.

And I REALLY love this...

And this...

And this...

Two Months

My sweet little Carolena,
I can't believe you are already two months old! Time gets faster and faster with each child. You have blessed my life beyond words and my heart is full. You completed our family and bring us amazing joy each and every day. You are the "sweet little beautiful princess" according to your brothers and Mommy's little angel. You are growing so fast that sometimes I have to take a deep breath and remind myself to take it all in. This month you weighed in at 10 lbs 2 oz. and you are in the 50th percentile for height weight and head (but mommy thinks you are way more than average). You have started laughing and smiling, and even cooing when your grandma talks to you. You love taking baths and would stay in there for a long time if mommy would let you. Whenever you get excited about something, you kick your little right leg like crazy, and mommy thinks it's hilarious. We are still working on the sleeping situation, but we did have two nights in a row where you slept for 6 or 7 hours straight. You love to eat many many times a day, way more than every three hours. But I think it's just because you like to be close to your mom. In general, you are a very happy baby and very content to be held all day long. You love when your brothers get close and talk to you and love having all of the attention on you. But we do have our moments when you just feel like crying. Like, for example, when mommy was trying to take your two month picture...

My sweet girl, we love you more and more every single minute.

In other news, we took a short trip with the husbands sister and her family to Indianapolis this weekend. The boys loved the Indianapolis Children's Museum and we could have gotten some great pictures if only we had remembered to take the camera out of the car. You really need more than one day to go through this museum, there was so much to do and look at. After the museum, we checked in to the hotel and then sent the boys to the pool with the husband, and I went shopping with the sister in law. It wouldn't be a proper trip to Indy without the customary stop at H&M. I picked up some cute sweaters for the boys and some cute sweaters for myself (Sorry B4) and then went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. By the way, going out to a restaurant and potty training are not really the best idea. And then after dinner we spent a lot of time doing this:

The boys thought it was so cool staying in a hotel and riding on the elevator. So easily entertained!

Back to Louisville (and reality) on Monday, and the boys finally got to get into some of their Christmas presents that we hadn't been able to take out yet. Needless to say, they were pretty happy. Check out my little cheeseballs:

I can't sign off without at least one more picture of my "sweet little princess".

Have a safe and happy New Year everyone!!!

Emily

What We've Been Up To

Well I guess the adjustment to three kids hasn't been as easy as I had hoped. But then again, we really have had a lot of things going on ever since the princess was born. Halloween, then B5's Birthday Party, then Thanksgiving, and now Christmas. Add in the responsibilities of being Joe Finneys class room mom and shopping and baking and trying to fit in a workout, and making hair bows and sewing (yes really, I made a sweet little Teepee for the boys for Christmas) and I guess maybe that's why I feel like I don't really have it all together yet. But it will come, in time. I promise to be better with keeping up with this blog, as the husband and mom keep reminding me that it has been a while since I have posted. So for now, some pictures of what we have been up to the past 8 weeks (Yes its been 8 weeks since she was born, can you believe it!!).

Here is B5's Birthday Party:

The cousins making "snowman" pretzals:

Aunt Ang spending time with the princess:

Baby Sisters 1 month picture:

Christmas Picture take #42...

Merry Christmas!