Weekend Recap- Branson Edition

 We took a little mini vacation to Branson this weekend. My mom found a great deal on Silver Dollar City season tickets, so we needed to use them of course :). We scheduled this trip close to Nathan's birthday so we could have an early celebration for him. Initially, I had planned for this trip to be Nathan's big birthday celebration and then just have a small family party for his birthday, but Nathan (and his mommy) love birthday parties, so we have a birthday party planned for him anyway next weekend.

Matt and I started our vacation a little early with a fun date night Thursday night. We went out to eat at a new restaurant which was delicious and then headed to see Phantom of the Opera at the Performing Arts Center. It was a great show. We didn't know anything about the show before we went, so it was fun to be surprised!

We left town Friday morning. Scott and Debbie ended up joining us for the weekend too. It's sort of a tradition to stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch on the way.

And of course vacation means dessert after lunch!

 Once we made it to Branson we spent a couple of hours at the Outlet Mall. We needed to pick up a few things. The boys were great to put up with our shopping. A stop at the Disney store helped :).

 We checked into our hotel which was an awesome two bedroom suite. With three kids, we love having extra space in hotels! Then we went to dinner at one of our favorite steak houses and came back to swim for a bit before bedtime. The boys were wired and went to bed way too late. But that's what vacations are for, right?

Saturday morning, we were all so excited to head to Silver Dollar City.

 We had a fun day. Matt, Barry, and I got ride one big roller coaster, but we focused on the kids the rest of the day. We thought the boys would love this boat ride. We didn't realize how many times they would get shot with water guns by silly teenagers. Samuel was in tears by the end, but Nathan said it was one of his favorite rides.

 Elisabeth was a sweet girl to hang out in the stroller all day.

 We rode a few rides, and then Samuel crashed about lunchtime. Too little sleep the night before caught up with him. He slept close to 90 minutes in the stroller.

 While he napped, Matt and Nathan rode a few more rides. Nathan is fearless when it comes to amusement park rides. I've never seen even a smidge of caution when he rides the rides. Matt was teaching him how to keep his hands in the air!

 Unfortunately Samuel was about an inch too short to ride a lot of the rides. It was frustrating that he wasn't tall enough to ride even the simple little kiddie rides. We did find a couple of rides he was tall enough to ride, and he rode those over and over while Nathan rode bigger rides.

He really liked this butterfly ride. If we pushed a button, he could go high. The first time I pushed it, he laughed and yelled, "I'm flying, I'm flying." That was probably my favorite memory with him of the day.

 He also loved these little frogs that hopped up and down. He yelled, "Ribbit, ribbit" the whole time!

 Nathan rode more of the kiddie rides, the big pirate ship and the giant swings. I rode the swings with him, and we talked the whole time how we were like Spiderman and Superman flying across Silver Dollar City. It was my favorite moment with Nathan of the day.

 As the afternoon wore on, the park got really crowded. We headed to another area that had more kiddie rides, but it just got too packed to enjoy it. We did ride one more ride and played in some indoor playgrounds before we left.

 We did have a fun day, but we were all disappointed in the park. The layout was so disorganized. When we took Nathan to Frontier City last year, all the kiddie rides were grouped together in one area, and it was so easy to just stay in that one section of the park. And there weren't varying height requirements that caused frustration. That was not the case at SDC. Everything was so spread out, and the lines were so long. When the kid rides were intermingled with other rides, more people (like teenagers) were riding the silly little kid rides, making the lines way too long. We were also frustrated with how inefficiently the rides were loaded and unloaded and overall how disorganized everything felt. And it was so crowded! Honestly, it left Matt and I longing for Disney World :). We kept saying, "This would never happen at Disney World." I think if we could have gotten rid of some of the crowds, it would have solved a lot of our problems. We'll try again (since we have season tickets), and maybe Samuel will grow an inch before then :). Nathan did have a fantastic day, and we all made some special memories.

We picked up some pizza for dinner and headed back to the hotel to eat.

 Samuel couldn't wait to swim after dinner. The pool was definitely his favorite part of the trip. He calls the swimming pool the beach. So he kept saying, "Go Beach! Go Beach!" He loves jumping in the pool, and had the best time.

 And this cutie tried on her bathing suit for the first time. Boys' swimsuits are way easier, but not near as cute as little girl swimsuits!

 The water was a little chilly and it was close to bedtime, so Elisabeth didn't seem to be a huge fan. But we'll try again soon. She's going to have to love the pool as often as we go during the summer!

We packed up and headed home Sunday morning. We were all exhausted from such a busy, fun weekend. I just love taking time to get away and spend time with my sweet family. The memories are priceless!

Big Boy Bed

This past week we experienced a big milestone for my baby boy- a big boy bed. I was not expecting or planning on this milestone for SEVERAL more months. My philosophy on transitioning out of cribs has always been to wait as long as possible. If it's not an issue, don't make it one! We didn't transition Nathan out of his crib until he was almost three, but my feisty Samuel is constantly reminding me how different he is from his brother! He started sporadically climbing out of his crib a couple of weeks ago, and once we realized he planned to continue climbing, we knew we had to get him out of his crib.

One afternoon, Nathan came running downstairs exclaiming that nap time was over because Samuel got out of his crib and came into his room. I ran upstairs to find Samuel had not only climbed out of his bed, but then he had climbed into his sister's crib and woke her up. It was not the ending of nap time I had planned. The funniest thing to me is that Nathan NEVER climbed out of his crib, and when they were playing in Elisabeth's room one morning, he actually asked Samuel to help him to get into her crib (Samuel had already climbed in). So my two year old was standing in the crib reaching over the side and pulling his almost four year old brother up and over the side. It's a mental picture I think I'll remember forever!

Anyway, last weekend, Matt took the side off of Samuel's crib. I was really anxious about the transition just because it was new to me. Most of the parenting issues I deal with with Samuel and Elisabeth are things I've experienced before and learned from with Nathan, but this was new. Samuel seemed so young to be out of his crib, and I didn't know how hard it would be to train him to stay in his bed. One advantage was that he hasn't figured out how to open doors just yet, so we did have a way to keep him confined to his room.

Like so many of my experiences in parenting, most of my worrying was for nothing. A friend gave me advice one time that a lot of transitions and milestones are more difficult on the parents than their children, and it is so true.  Samuel has been a rock star. I'm so impressed with him. There have been like two instances in the last four nights and four nap times that he has cried at his door, yelling, "Out, Out!" and that is it (and he has settled right down when I've put him back in his bed). The rest of the time he settles right in and falls asleep. He is incredible. The first nap time I was really nervous. I laid him in his bed and he got right up. I went to put Elisabeth down and came back to check on him and he was fast asleep in his bed.

He is really proud of himself that he gets  to sleep in a big boy bed, and I'm so proud of him. He reminds me that a lot of times my kids are smarter and comprehend more than I think they do, and that they handle most transitions with relatively little stress. I need to remind myself of this when we have to say goodbye to his pacifier in the next few weeks and then start potty training sometime in the near future :).

I sure love my little monkey (and I'm glad we don't have any trees in our backyard).

And just because he is adorable and growing up way too fast:

Girls Weekend

This past weekend my mom, Elisabeth and I left all our boys and headed to Kansas City for a shopping weekend. It was partly to celebrate my thirtieth birthday, but mainly just because we love to shop. We planned it several months ago (after a quick afternoon at the outlets in Branson wasn't near enough time!) and had been looking forward to it for weeks.

We left Friday around lunchtime. I thought it was fitting that right before we left Matt came home for lunch and told me he'd gotten the paperwork for his raise for the year, and it was double what we were expecting. I was teasing him that he shouldn't have told me until we got home on Sunday :). But really, I'm so proud of his work ethic and diligence and glad that his bosses recognize and reward him for it.

We had a fantastic mother/daughter weekend. My mom is my best friend and I'm praying that as Elisabeth grows up, I'll share that same close relationship with her. It's one of the biggest reasons I'm so thankful God gave me a daughter.

We made it to Kansas City around 4:30pm and hit the stores. We spent Friday evening at the Plaza, although I'm not sure we'll spend much time there again if we go back. The stores weren't really our kind of shopping. It seemed like we would walk into a store, look at a price tag, our mouths would drop open at the price, and we would walk out. We did find a couple of stores to spend some time in and had a delicious dinner, and it was still a really fun night!

Elisabeth is already a great shopping buddy!

  I sent this picture to Matt when I took it. He was so proud that he is raising a pasta lover :)

She liked the pasta but went nuts for my mom's mashed potatoes. That girl is over baby food. She likes the big girl stuff!

Elisabeth shopped until she dropped after dinner, but my mom and I kept going!

We made it back to the hotel a little after 8:00 and rested up for the next day.

We made sure Elisabeth had a good breakfast to keep her energy up for the day ahead.

Ready for day two!! We spent all day Saturday at the outlet mall.

Elisabeth didn't last long. I think this picture was at our first store of the day, but she was so good all day putting up with sitting in the stroller. She played and napped and was just really good.

We found lots of good deals and really enjoyed the outlet mall. I commented to my mom several times how good the customer service was at all the shops. They always gave us the biggest fitting room to fit the stroller and were really helpful. My mom and I had such a good time.

The stroller was overloaded with bags. We had to make several trips to the car to unload. I hadn't been shopping in a long time. With two pregnancies in two years, I hadn't consistently been in the same size in a long time, so I hadn't bought many clothes, and it was fun to finally get some new things (that weren't maternity).

Our haul at the end of the day. I think our guys were a little scared when we sent them this picture. But we found some great deals and some really cute stuff. The boys are set for summer, and Elisabeth got some darling new outfits too.

My mom and I noticed that Elisabeth was feeling a little warm Saturday afternoon, so after an early dinner we went back to the hotel to rest and give her a break. She ran fever all night, but still was in a good mood on Sunday morning, so we continued on with our plans, and Little Girl got some extra spoiling since she was feeling under the weather.

Ready for Day three!

Our first stop on Sunday morning was Target to find some comfortable shoes because our feet were so sore from Saturday :). Then we drove to Ikea. We spent a couple of hours walking through Ikea and found some cute things. Honestly though, we weren't super impressed. Maybe it was because neither of us needed a lot, but it wasn't as neat as I was expecting.

Elisabeth wasn't too impressed either, I guess.

We grabbed a quick lunch after Ikea and ran to one more store before making the drive home. We made it home around 7:00 Sunday night. We were exhausted (especially our sick little girl) but we were so glad we went!

The funny thing is we got reward dollars at several stores that we have to spend in a couple of weeks, so we are already looking forward to another shopping trip. It's good timing that we'll be in Branson the weekend we need to redeem them, so it will be another trip to the Outlets. My mom is my favorite person to shop with.

I was excited to see my boys again. Matt and Barry were so sweet to watch them so we could have a fun weekend away. Nathan was really looking forward to his boys weekend. They ate at Chick-Fil-A, went to the mall to play, flew a kite and had a soccer game. He said he didn't miss me at all, but after he gave me a big hug he said, "I didn't miss you, I just gave you a big hug because I was so excited to see you."

My mom and I have already decided we are making a girls weekend an annual tradition!

Eight Months Old

Sweet Baby Girl, you are eight months old! You change so much every month, but this month in particular, it seems that you've grown and changed significantly

You are mostly weaned from nursing. I still nurse you in the mornings, but you get formula the rest of the day. I sort of made a sudden decision to wean you, and it took me a few days to really process it (thinking that I may never nurse a baby again has been a bit hard to accept). I had been thinking about when to wean you for a few weeks because we have a lot of travel in the next few weeks (Four trips in the next eight weeks), and you're not invited on one of the trips, so I've known for several months you'd be weaned by the middle of May at the latest. And then one day while I was feeding you a bottle last week, I realized that you prefer to drink a bottle than to nurse, and I also thought about it and realized that since you're getting older I really prefer to feed you a bottle instead of nurse you. We're past cold and flu season now, so I don't feel that it's as vital that I pass on my immunities to you, and my milk supply has continued to decrease in the last few weeks (probably some of the reason we both prefer you to have a bottle) and so I just thought "Why are we still doing this?" and decided to stop. Figuring out how much to formula you need and getting into a new routine took a few days, but we're doing great now, and I do think it was the best decision for you and me. We both enjoy the early morning nursing, so we'll keep that up for a little while longer. And can I just add, that it's been a bigger adjustment than I thought to finally be at a point where no baby is dependent on my body? It's been almost three years since I haven't been pregnant or breastfeeding. Crazy! And even though I'm so grateful for the gift of pregnancy and breastfeeding, it feels freeing to be back to normal for now.

You're actually a bit of a picky eater. It's a battle sometimes to get you to eat purees. When you're really hungry, you'll eat better, and you still prefer thicker foods like cereals and peas. And actually, I think you prefer vegetables over fruit. You're messy too. You usually try and grab the spoon while I'm feeding you, or you'll want to play and shake your head back and forth. Maybe that's why I've been trying to find more finger foods that you can feed yourself. You're a big fan of cheerios and puffs. You love yogurt melts too, but they usually get stuck to the roof of your mouth and that makes you SO mad. To avoid a meltdown, I don't give those to you very often. You like peas, but the texture of the skin of blueberries and grapes aren't your favorite. We've tried pieces of carrot, strawberries, and bananas and you like those okay. You inhale waffle and pancakes. We're figuring it out, and aside from the mess you make, finger foods are easier since you can do it yourself.

So for now, here's a typical feeding/sleep schedule

7:00am- Nurse and bottle
7:30-7:45am- Breakfast- rice cereal or oatmeal and some baby food fruit. I've been giving you pieces of toast some at breakfast, and you love it!
9:00am- Morning nap (usually 1-1.5hours)
11:00am- 6oz bottle
11:30-12:00- Lunch- jar of baby food and some table food (usually some of what your brothers eat- You go crazy for chicken nuggets!)
1:00pm Afternoon nap (usually 1.5-2 hours)
3:00pm- 6oz bottle
5:30pm- Dinner- Baby food and cereal usually
6:00-6:30- Sometimes an evening nap. It's hit or miss these days and usually only lasts about 30 minutes
8:00pm- 6oz bottle and bedtime.

Your physical development made big progress this month. You figured out how to sit up (from lying on your belly), and you're finally consistently rolling over both ways (which adds to your mobility). We've also seen you pull up to standing several times (Daddy had to lower your crib a few days ago). And crawling, well it's hard to describe it. I asked your daddy last night if I should write that you are crawling, and he said just to take a video and post it and let everyone decide for themselves. I would probably say that you aren't "crawling", but you are "mobile" and you are really close to crawling. You sort of get on your knees, reach forward, then sit up and scoot a bit, and then keep repeating that until you can reach for what you're wanting. Every day, I think, you are going to start crawling tomorrow. I'm just waiting for you to take off, and then I probably be wishing you would just sit still :).

You've outgrown your baby bath tub, so I bathe you with your brothers now. To avoid their crazy bathtime play, I usually bathe them, then add you to the tub, wash you and take you out and then get them out. You would love to play in the bath tub forever though. The other night I just bathed them (you didn't really need a bath), and when you spotted them in the bathtub you cried and cried. I know you wanted to be in there too!

Your hair is growing enough that I can put it in a teeny little ponytail (with a bow of course), and it's adorable. You had started pulling your head bands off in the last month, so this seems like a good solution. You do look so much older to me, with your hair pulled back!

You got a new friend this month! We all love baby Quinn and can't wait for lunch dates with her and her sweet Mommy! I'm hoping you two will be sweet friends!

You still basically "play" by chewing on all your toys. You're working on your two top teeth, so you especially have been gnawing on a lot of things this month. You do seem to particularly enjoy your little picnic basket. the pretend food is just the right size for your I think.

You are still a Mommy's girl (and still have a really hard time in the church nursery- nap time in the middle of church makes it especially difficult too), but you love your daddy. You grin and reach for him when he comes home.

You have been sleeping really, really good! Samuel never slept all night as a baby, so I'm still a little shocked that you do. For the last three weeks or so, you have been consistently sleeping all night long from about 8:00pm-7:00am. I'm surprised now if I hear you over the monitor in the middle of the night. For the last few days though, you've had trouble falling asleep. Usually, I would rock you and put you to bed awake, and you would fuss for a minute and fall right asleep, but since you learned to sit up, now you seem to have forgotten how to put yourself to sleep. Instead you sit up and scream. I know you'll figure it out soon. But for now, after you've cried for a bit (and really worn yourself out), I've been getting you out of your bed and rocking you until you're sound asleep.

At eight months old, you and Samuel are already pestering each other in the car. You'll reach over and grab his arm and I will hear him scream and then hear you laughing at him. Oh goodness, it's a little scary thinking how early it's starting! He'll grab your arm too, and you'll scream (and I'll have to intervene since unlike him, you can't move your arm out of his reach). I've had to pull over before to stop him.

You learned to wave this month, and it's adorable!!!
You're wearing 6-9 and 9 month clothes and a size 3 diaper. 

You have the biggest smile and it's so easy to photograph you. You can turn on the smiles easily. We just have to smile at you.

I've been thinking that in the last month I've noticed that I'm coming out of the fog a little bit of the whirlwind of adding you to our family. I seem able to get my bearings better and feel more on top of things these days. And I've been trying to figure out what's changed that life with you and your brothers seems a little easier these days. Sleep is one thing that I'm sure is helping. Being able to depend on a full night's sleep each night makes everything better, and I think you're just growing up and getting into a good schedule. In the early months with an infant it seems like as soon as we figure out one feeding/sleeping schedule, it's about time to drop a feeding or a nap and figure out a new schedule. But at eight months I think we are set for awhile with your feeding/napping schedule, and that helps me to plan our days and do a little more even though with your older brothers, there is still a lot of flexibility in your schedule. I know your brothers have grown up too in the last few months which helps make life easier, but I do think easier days are ahead. When you were a newborn, I know I looked forward to you being older and life being less chaotic, and now we're here! It's fun to watch you grow, even though looking back now, those early days weren't so bad ;). We love you and are so very grateful you joined our family eight months ago!