January 22, 2014: Another year :)

This year Nick did a great job hosting my birthday dinner.  He. made. meatloaf.  Not just any meatloaf, my Grannie's recipe...WITH mashed potatoes, corn succotash, and green beans.  It was delicious! 

Amelia and Mallie made my favorite dessert, crepes!

Liam let me have 10 kisses for my birthday present and serenaded me on the piano.  He wrote the sweetest card telling me I was the "beet mom in the world".  Bryn signed her card "mom love you bryn" and snuggled me in her bed with her arm wrapped around my neck till she almost fell asleep. Nora nursed at midnight on 1/22 and midnight on 1/23 so she really celebrated all 24 hours with me...plus she actually let us all eat dinner together while playing in her high chair.  Couldn't ask for more from these guys!

 And although Nick didn't make it in any of the pictures last night (he was the photographer for a change), I have to mention what he's been up to lately.  Ha, I joked I would do a "Nick 32 years old" update like I did for the kids :)  Nick is crushing it at work.  Not sure if I'm cool enough to say that phrase anymore, but he is doing awesome. This job has been one of his hardest, but he's doing great and people are def noticing.  He has been rewarded well for his efforts and I couldn't be prouder!  Feeling very blessed and grateful for all that I have.

January 21, 2014: Nora at 8 months

Guess who is 8 months old today?!

My baby is growing up way too fast!  She is finally sitting up well, and FINALLY rolling over both ways although mostly in duress and against her will.  Nora babbles a ton saying 'dadada' and 'bababa'.  She definitely also says 'mamamama' and it's usually the one noise I can make out when she is just starting to cry.  I don't like my name being associated with sadness, but I do love that I think she is making the connection between calling for me when she needs me.  Nora is now reaching for and into everything...including phones.  Urgh, I hate the selfie trend but since it's Nora's first one (that she pushed the button herself) I guess I need to document it :)

Nora is sleeping so much better.   She goes down around 7, eats once overnight and wakes up for good around 6am.   Since her night feeding is around midnight, I'm usually still up anyway and love feeding and rocking her in the glider.   Nora's still a mommy's girl right now, but daddy is trying to share more of his hobbies with her and she loves her weekend morning time with him.

We have no teeth but lots of chewing.  Nora loves this yucky bright orange cat lovey to teeth on.  It was Liam's, it's very weird looking, and we call if Garfield.  I'm sure it will turn up in pictures soon as it goes to school with her every day and has now started turning up in bed too.   Her other FAVORITE thing to chew on is her socks.  She almost never has both socks on because one is in her mouth...

Nora wants to be wherever the kids are.  If they are playing outside and I try to keep her inside with me, she squawks and squawks until she gets to go outside too.  She loves for Nick or I to play soccer while carrying her and giggles as we run across the yard...

We are still working on our solid foods.  She eats much better with us at the table then on her own, but she still eats just handful of bites each meal.  Today was a record at school of 16 spoonfuls and her teachers were so excited to tell me.  I love that her teachers get so excited out of all her little triumphs like I do :)  She has also learned to blow raspberries with food in her mouth which is so much fun for her and so much to clean up for me :)

She still maintains a pretty serious demeanor, but I can tell she is just very observant and takes her time to decide before giving a reaction... 

All it takes is a little bit of Liam saying "ah bah, ah bah" or Bryn speaking in a high squeaky voice to get the grins out of her...

Precious baby, you have no idea how much joy you bring us all every day!  I love you Nora, and despite the lack of sleep, I am truly cherishing this time with you.

January 20, 2014: Bryn at 3

Okay it's Bryn's turn!  I am having so much fun with Bryn at this age.  She is (finally) becoming kind of girly, especially after 3 weeks with Presley...and I love it!  She loves to do "fashion show" where she announces herself coming downstairs every morning so we can see the outfit she picked out, her jewelry (always a necklace), and her hair bow.  And then we all have to ooh and aahh her ;)

She is also just now getting really into her dress-up clothes, as evidenced by playing Cootie with Liam dressed as Belle...

Don't let the girly clothes fool you though, because she's still a tough cookie :)

Still no haircut, just can't bring myself to do it.  I'm still so jealous of her beautiful curls...

We did her 3 year check up a few weeks ago and Bryn is right on track at 29.5 pounds (31%) and 37 inches (39%).  She even impressed her doctor by singing all the states in alphabetical order (thank you Liam)...

Bryn has the appetite of a teenage boy.  She eats 2 bowls of oatmeal with agave, an english muffin, and yogurt for breakfast every day...and then starts asking for snacks about half an hour later!  She will eat anything I put in front of her and is always the first one to thank me for her meal.  She does has a sweet tooth, so when I gave her fruit to dip in Nutella, I was not surprised to see she had gotten out a spoon to try and scrape off the last few bites.  We waste no food with Bryn around :)

She burns it all off though with her ballet/tap (Dallie came for her last recital), scootering around the neighborhood, and of course soccer in the back yard with Daddy and Liam...

Bryn is a great babysitter.  She is very attentive to Nora, talking to her in a cute baby voice and helping her with her toys...

She is still our star bowler and had 3 spares at our last bowing with playgroup...in her minion hat no less :)

Her favorite bedtime book is Press Here...she can recite it from reading it so many times!  Even though she still loves Nick to do her bedtime, as soon as he puts her down she now calls for me to come snuggle her too (which I LOVE!). She is the first to come running when I ask for help with Nora or chores.  She has the best manners as far as please/thank you/mam and sirs.  She still takes a nap everyday, thank goodness!  

She loves pop music, including her beloved Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Justin Timberlake.  Thankfully there's a Kids Bop version of most of her favorite songs.  She loves dancing to the radio especially when Nick lets her dance in his car in the driveway...out the sunroof no less.  I told him he is responsible for this coming back to bite him in 13 years...

Bryn is too cute and KNOWS it!  We love this sweet little girl so much, and yes she has us all wrapped around her little finger :)

January 20, 2014: Liam at 5

I have been meaning to update what the kids are all up to at this age, so I'll start with Liam.  Liam continues to surprise, amaze, and keep us on our toes :)  He is literally growing too fast in front of my eyes.

 Lately with this randomly warm weather, I can't keep this kid inside.  He still loves to play soccer and baseball in the back yard.  But lately if he's outside he's on his scooter!

Special picnic at the Train park with Liam's lunch pick, In And Out...or Out and In as Bryn calls it :)

I still love to see how his mind works...

His favorite new art project is making designs...

His newest hobbies are word searches and sudoku...

I'm so glad that he is in such a wonderful school program that is able to keep him stimulated and challenged.  Here is his math work sheet from school this week...not long now till he passes mommy up!

It's so nice that Liam is old enough to do more around the house.  He loves washing dishes (weird I know) and changing the laundry (because he gets to pushes the buttons).   I get free help and he earns time to play ipad.  It's win-win!  He still has to set his timer to play although after turning 5 he negotiated his time up to 35 minutes :)

He plays so well with Bryn and although they have their sibling fights, they have so much fun together.  He loves to get up and play with Nora in the morning, singing her silly songs to make her laugh.  He loves juicing with me and lately I've let him create his own.  Today was kale, broccoli, apple and raspberry...actually pretty tasty but because it's a green sludge we call it ninja turtle juice.

Liam enjoys cooking and has recently learned to toast and butter english muffins himself.  He is so proud and "cooks" this dish for us all on the weekends :)  On this day,  he set an "adult table" and made muffins for himself and Bryn.

His appetite has definitely increased but surprisingly he's only 38 lbs pounds and 45 inches.  (Sleep deprived mom of 3 means I forgot the percentiles and am too tired to calculate them myself)  His teachers told me he eats two full plates of food at lunch and I believe them!  He's still to smart for his own britches.  When I told the kids they only had 3 minutes left to play and Bryn started whining, Liam quickly placated her by saying "It's okay Bryn, you have 180 seconds left".  Liam's music tastes right now include Maroon 5 and "What does the fox say?".  I mistakenly taught him the Fifty Nifty state song where you sing every state in alphabetical order.  He sang it a million times over the holidays to anyone who would listen.  Then a couple weeks ago he came home from school telling us he made up a new state song.  It was the capital of every state in alphabetical order of the states...I couldn't believe it because I still can't think of the capitals as quickly as he can.  Now that he knows all the state capitals, he's working on countries...again passing mommy up already!  Good thing he has Nick's love of geography and math.  Thankfully for me, he still loves to read every night before bed.  He especially loves his big kid books (no pictures) like Where the Sidewalk Ends and Boxcar Children and I adore getting to share my passion with him too.

We could not be more proud or more in love with this bright, fun little boy!  I'm trying to soak up every minute with him before he goes to kindergarten later this year.

January 1-11, 2014: Christmas part 3

Even though we were back to our routine, it still felt like Christmas because Rachel and the kids came to stay for almost 2 weeks!  I have almost no pictures from this entire time, but honestly we were all just running around to keep up with the 6 kids :)

One day I took these 4 to jump with playgroup, which was exhausting for me and super fun for them...

Rachel and Cameron went to watch Auburn play in the National Championship leaving the kids with us and Mal/Dal for 3 days.  We ended up treating the babies like twins and sharing everything...well trying to teach Nora how to share...

 Anna became attached to me while Rach was gone so she spent the nights at our house and Nora went to Mallie's.  Anna was a great sleeper and an easy baby to care for...and the bonus of the baby switch was that Nora sleep-trained herself while away from me (hallelujah!)

Nick took his goddaughter on a special bonding activity...after seeing the movie Frozen they went ice skating!  I know he doesn't get to see her as much he would like, but he loved getting one-one time with Pres :)

Pres had a couple of sleepovers with Liam and Bryn as well.  Even though she and Bryn are becoming much closer, I think she'll always be Liam's first girl :)

Finally before the Smiths left, we tried to get some cute pics of all the kids...

We miss you already Smith family, love these sweet memories!!