January is a pretty slow month around here. Thankfully we've all been healthy during this awful flu season and have been able to to do a few fun things during this cold dreary month.
We took the kids to Stillwater one afternoon to watch the Cowgirls' bedlam basketball game. We had a really fun time! Samuel and Elisabeth enjoyed the snacks, and Daddy, Nathan and I had fun watching the game. We even came home with a free t-shirt. It was a fun way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Nathan's playing basketball this winter too, so our Saturday mornings are spent at the gym. He's enjoying it and improving every week. He made his first goal at last week's game. We were all so excited for him!! The coaches announce the players at the beginning of every game and Nathan gets to run out on the court. He always has the biggest smile. I'm pretty sure that's his favorite part of the whole game, oh and snacks at the end of the game, ha!
We've spent a lot of time at home playing too. The kids turned the couch into their ambulance one night. It makes my heart so happy when they all three are playing happily together. I love that they are all good friends (with a fair amount of fighting thrown in, ha!)
We had a play date with some of our favorite friends and these two had fun playing super heroes. Keaton has become one of Samuel's best friends.
Sweet sister cuddles. Elisabeth asks almost every morning if she can cuddle with Katherine while she watches a show.
We've had a few pajama days at home. My days at home with Samuel are starting to feel numbered as Kindergarten is approaching way too quickly. I'm trying to be intentional at making sure we have plenty of lazy days to play at home with him and his sisters.
The kids have been going through a phase of always wanting to build forts, so one Friday night Matt built them a giant fort and they had a fun snack dinner in their fort.
We even roasted marshmallows and had smores for dessert. It was a fun night!
It's not all play around here. After our fun Friday night, I put them all to work on their Saturday chores.
Samuel went to a fun birthday party for his buddies Raylan and Ryder. The pinata was his favorite part!
This girl likes to play school a lot. She's been loving her play school kit she got for Christmas. We've been playing with it a lot and playing hair stylist too all the time.
Elisabeth has been going through a phase where she wants Katherine to dress like her. She specifically asked for Katherine to wear purple because she was wearing a purple shirt. She loves her sister so much (too much at times, ha!)
My sweet babies all dressed up for church. I can't get enough of them!
Katherine Grace, you are FOUR months old! These months are flying by and I'm begging time to slow down more with you than with any of your siblings. You're growing up way too fast. I'm trying so hard to soak up everything and treasure the moments, but they just continue to whiz by me.
You have changed so much this month. You are getting bigger and more interactive, social, and stronger every single day, and you are the absolute sweetest baby. You're happy and social and cuddly, and just perfect. I want to bottle up your sweet babyness and keep it forever.
You have such an enjoyable temperament. Unless you're tired or hungry, you're usually always happy. If anyone looks at you, you'll grin at them and try and talk to them. You're such a social little bug. You're always looking around wanting to be in on the action and you eat up any attention you get from anyone. You love your mommy the most, and I don't mind at all. If you're inconsolable and upset, I can take you and you'll calm right down. You really shouldn't give your daddy as hard of a time though. In the evenings, you do always prefer me to take care of you.
You're still a tiny little peanut. At your 4 month well check you weighed 11lbs (2%) and were 23 inches long (4%). You're wearing 3 month clothes and size 1 diapers and can't seem to ever keep socks on your feet. You kick them right off, and it's cold outside Sister! We can't go without socks, but they drive me crazy that you can't seem to keep them on. You just kick your feet all the time. You've even managed to kick your pants off a few times, seriously, I don't get it!
You're talking and laughing and reaching for and grabbing toys and rolling over. You're just growing up too fast. According to your big sister, you're almost a grown up by now :).
You're super strong and have great head control. Our pediatrician told us to watch out that your motor skills are advanced and you'll be mobile before we know it. I am not ready for that!
You're still nursing, sort of. My milk supply tanked a few weeks ago, and I have no idea why. We worked to try and get it back up, but it didn't seem to help much. You don't really help either. You love your bottle and most of the time you fight me when I try and get you to nurse, so I think we're both about done, and I'm becoming okay with that. I had hoped to nurse you longer, but really I just want us both to be happy with your feedings, and if that means we just switch to bottles all the time, then that's just fine (and will probably end up being a lot easier for all of us).
You are starting to laugh and it's the best sound in the world. I do everything I can these days to hear that giggle!
You have six feedings during that day and then an extra early morning feeding. You usually wake up around 5 in the mornings and I nurse you and put you back to bed. Then your typical schedule is eating at 7:30, 10:30, 1:30, 4:30, 7:00ish and a bedtime feeding around 9:30. You're sleeping pretty good at night. You're still in our room, and I do have to reach over and stick your paci back in once or twice a night, but you usually sleep from about 10:00-5:00 and then go back to sleep until 7:00ish.
Your nap schedule is pretty inconsistent. I just put you down whenever you act tired. You still usually need a nap after every feeding, but a lot of those are car naps. When you do nap at home you usually sleep about 45 minutes. Occasionally, you'll take a longer nap but not very often. I still swaddle you for naps and bedtime and you love your paci. I love it when I get you all snuggled up for a nap and I sit down to rock you. I'll start singing to you and you'll look up at me and give me the biggest grin. Your pacifier always falls out because you're smiling so big and you melt me every time. You love when people sing to you.
You started rolling over from your tummy to your back right after you turned 4 months old. You had such a big fan club cheering you on to reach that milestone. It was cute to see how your siblings were so excited when you did it the first time!
You are such a gift to us. I still think back to how much your Daddy and I went back and forth about having a fourth baby, and all the worries and fears we had about growing our family, and God was so very gracious in giving us you even through our fears and doubts. You have the sweetest, happiest personality and you are just a joy and a delight to all five of us. I'm so very grateful for you, Baby Girl, now stop growing up, okay :)
We've had a fun winter break off from school. We stayed home a lot and just played and tried to get everything back in order after the Christmas chaos, but we also did some fun activities.
I love Christmas dresses on my little Cutie. This was one of my favorites from when Elisabeth was a baby.
This boy ended up sick the weekend before break started. He ran fever for a couple of days. I was terrified the other kids would get it too and really mess up our Christmas plans, but thankfully he was better in a couple of days and everyone else stayed well! So far, we've all been pretty healthy this season. I'm hoping it stays that way.
He was better in time for his winter party/Polar Express day. He was so excited!
He had a fun time at his party with his friends. It was crazy with my other three there too, but everyone had a good time.
Nathan and Matt were super excited to see the new Star Wars movie over Christmas break.
And we got a little snow right before Christmas. Samuel loved it the most. He kept asking why there wasn't snow when it was almost Christmas. When I told him that it doesn't snow very much in Oklahoma he asked to move to a different house that wasn't in Oklahoma, ha!
He outlasted everyone outside and played in the snow for a long time. I was excited for him to get to enjoy it.
After Christmas Nathan spent most of his time building Legos. He had finished this 1300 piece set the day after Christmas. I can't get over how fast he built it.
He had finished all the lego sets he got for Christmas within about four days.
It took Samuel and I a little longer to build his airplane, ha! But it was a fun project to do together.
The day after Christmas we took the kids to Sky Zone for the evening. We had planned to go to Sky Zone on Christmas Eve, but they closed earlier than we thought. The kids were super disappointed so we promised to take them again soon. They jumped out a lot of energy!
We had our friends over for dinner and the OSU bowl game. The kids have SO much fun playing together, and Matt and I love anytime we get to spend with Corey and Brooke. It was a super fun night, especially when root beer floats are involved.
The weekend after Christmas we went to Edmond to celebrate Christmas with Matt's family. The kids had fun playing with Bryan and Becca's dog. He was the best entertainment.
We had a fun weekend opening presents, playing and resting.
We have a New Year's Day tradition to host a lunch for the Millers. We've been doing it for years and always look forward to it. Our kids had a great time playing with their friends.
We always have broccoli cheddar soup in pretzel bread bowls for lunch and try and play board games when the kids let us, ha!
Katherine had a fun day hanging with the adults while the kids played upstairs.
Matt was able to take off work the last day of break, and we took the kids to the Children's Museum for the morning. Nathan has been asking to go for months, so I was glad we finally got to go. The kids had an awesome time. They played for 2.5 hours before we drug them out of there so we could have lunch.
We had a lot of fun while the kids were out of school, but I was ready for their school routine to start back up and excited for a new year of more fun and adventures.
