Hunting in Orange Grove

This past weekend, Atticus and Vic made a boys trip to Orange Grove to go hunting! While they didn't actually hunt by shooting, they got to sit in the deer blind morning and night, and shoot cans with a .22, which Atticus loved! They saw both grandmothers at lunch, which was so nice for Vic. Atticus got to play with Keller and play yahtzee with Janice. They ate fried shrimp (Atticus's favorite) and just had a really nice weekend together with the Seidel's. Atticus can't wait to go hunting again!

 

 

 

 

 

And while they did that, the girls and I just hung out and played and stayed up too late each night. My favorite thing was that little Grace. On Saturday night, she decided she wanted to eat salads for dinner. She was SO proud to make her salad of lettuce, chicken and cheese and eat it with me. She's gone through phases in the past where she will just eat lettuce for her salad. But, she actually ate a real salad this time! She also told me "This is just so peaceful. I'm just so grown up!" and "This is fun just eating salads!" Oh and below you can see where Grace tried on my wedding shoes. I never wear heels but I did wear these under my dress at my wedding and she thought it was so fun to try on "high heels".

Veterans Day

Atticus was really excited about Veteran's Day this year. His school does a program every year and each grade learns a song and they honor veterans in their morning assembly. Atticus was just very interested in everyone in our family who has or still is serving in our military and loved filling out and turning in the forms to be posted on the wall. He really wished everyone lived in College Station so they could all go to the ceremony, but either way, he liked learning about Veteran's Day even more this year than in year's past. Here are the kids with their veteran's papers.

A Hazel Photoshoot

So, I love to play with my camera and do little photo shoots of the kids. Hazel is just big enough and strong enough to hold her head up and focus on me for pockets of time so I can practice taking her picture. Here are a few of those pictures! Oh and at the end, my photo assistant needed to be in the photos too. Grace LOVES to hold Hazel!

My youngest "kid"!

I love this onesie that Cecilia gave me that says "I kid you not!". And I love these memories of being with Hazel on this afternoon. She was snuggly and starting to smile! Oh my heart!

Hazel is 3 months old!

Our Hazel turned 3 months old a week ago. Here are her stats:

• At 3 months, she weighed 12 lbs. 9oz. I weighed her when I was at the doctor's office with Everly; this includes a onesie and diaper on, but it's close.

• She is in size 2 diapers. We ran out of size 1 and had some size 2, so we moved her up. She could probably still be in size 1 for a little longer though.

• She is finishing up 0-3 month clothes and moving on into 3-6 months.

• This past month was up and down for sleeping through the night. We got started off great with the 7-11 hours routine and only waking once to eat during the night a couple of times a week. Then, came a rough patch of not just waking up at night, but staying up for 2 hours. Yikes! I was getting about 4-5 hours a sleep a night, which is ok until it's 5 nights in a row. Then, she would sleep all night and then go back to this crazy routine. After a couple of weeks, she naturally came out of it and has been doing 10-11 hours a night again. However, now she has her first cold so she has been sleeping in the rock n play for the last 3 nights so she is elevated and can breathe easier. 

• She is still swaddled (except her legs) for sleeping at night.

• Also, at night, our current routine includes nursing a lot, and then once I can tell that she is ready, (strange how you just "know" when you are with them 24 hours a day), we turn out the lights and TV, turn the floor fan on high (for noise), and I nurse her until she falls off on her own and then I rock her. For the last couple of weeks, she lets me rock her to sleep most nights. She sleeps snuggled up in my arms, and I am loving it. It was hurting my heart to not get to rock her and hold her while she slept, so I'm so thankful for it. Even if I have to walk her a minute first to get her to close her eyes, after I swaddle her, I sit back down to just rock and enjoy those precious moments. Then, I lay her in her bassinet and go to bed. I love this little routine.

• If it's overcast and during Everly's nap (when I don't have to be available to attend to Everly), I have been waiting for her to fall asleep in my arms to nap too instead of putting her in her rock n play to put herself to sleep. Oh, how I love it. I cannot really express how much I love the feeling I get from holding my tiny baby in my arms.

• She is still nursing great and although sometimes her shallow latch causes pain, it usually feels better a few hours later. This only happens once a week or less. 

• She still loves her baths.

• She still does not take a paci.

• She is starting to be ok with tummy time and can push herself up on a boppy for minutes at a time. She likes hanging out in her rocker and I just bought a new chair for her to sit in. She will hang out and kick on the floor for awhile as well. However, she is starting to notice whether she is near me or not. If I leave her to do other things, she lets me know.

• Her precious hair is growing back on top and now she is losing it on the back where her head rubs while she sleeps. But, I still think it is darker right now than the other kids have been.

• She is in that precious stage of smiling when she focuses on us and she just grins and grins and is so happy.  She is trying to laugh too and it's another favorite feeling to be the one to make her so happy and to smile and laugh. I even found a tickle spot the other day, under her left arm.

• She still loves to be carried around on my shoulder and she is just happy to look around.

• She has started to find her hands and will chew on them while she rocks or hangs out.

• She is a drool queen! She has kind of drooled since birth, so I am always running my finger in her mouth to check for teeth. Everly got her first tooth at 4 1/2 months and while it would be early to get one now, I always check. Well, one day, on facetime with Mom, she commented on the drool and we talked about teeth and I felt one! I could see it beneath the skin, but it had two little points sticking out and they stayed that way for about 3 weeks until all of a sudden, they are gone, as if they went back under the skin (so maybe they didn't break the skin in the beginning). I kept watching this tooth and the one on the other side in the same spot because they are the canine teeth which should not be coming in yet. Usually the top two and bottom two come in first and then they continue on, but it was strange. So, I am just watching and waiting to see what happen. She drools as if she is teething and will soak her shirt or bib. 

• My other favorite thing is kissing her. Of course, everyone loves to kiss their babies, but she will open her mouth and I will just kiss her and she is so happy. She waits for me and I do it over and over. Oh my heart. I love this little girl.

• The cutest thing Everly does right now and for the last month or so, anytime she sees Hazel, is say "Hazel so Cuteee!" and when Hazel is crying, Everly will get close to her face and scream "Stop KY-NING Hazel!" as loud as she can. Oh Everly! and Poor Hazel!
 

• She is just growing and getting more snuggly and sweet and while she is a normal baby that fusses and has bad days of gas and being tired and not knowing what she wants, she is sweet and loves us! I actually think she might be my calmest baby yet. But, at the same time, with the noise in our house, sometimes she just seems the calmest in comparison! ha!

How I am doing at 3 months postpartum:
I am doing better. But, I will be honest. Just two nights ago, Vic was out of town and Hazel was having a hard time getting to sleep because her congestion was waking her right as she would fall asleep. So, I finally had her asleep, rocking in the chair, and it was after midnight. And, out of the blue, my emotions just poured out of me. I just started crying because I was thinking about this being my last baby. Goodness, it hurts now to think about. I love my kids, as all parents do. And, with each kid before, while I knew nothing was guaranteed, I always hoped for another child to come. We love our family of 4 kids and truly feel we are complete, but to know that I will never carry another baby is hard. I just cried and cried thinking about meeting each of my babies in the hospital and knowing that we won't get to do that again. I cried thinking about how hard those first few weeks can be, even though I always look back at them fondly. I am always so proud, on the inside, of getting through those tough times. I cried thinking about the "lasts" I will have with Hazel. I will have these with the other kids too and I will be just as sad, but there will be that silver lining because I will get to go through things, good or bad, again with the sibling younger than them. I love this stage of snuggling and how Hazel fits right into my arms. I love the way she stays in that position when I pick her up and she just stretches and arches her little back until she comes out of that snuggled up ball. My heart just bursts when she looks deep into my eyes and focuses on me until she smiles as if she's the happiest baby, and I know that the only thing making her happy in that moment is seeing me. I just love being needed by my babies and love being a mama to them. Even though exhaustion makes things harder, I do not mind when she cries over and over, because when I get to her, she feels comforted by me. I love looking at her sweet, soft skin and her little legs and arms and tummy and fingers and toes. I love the way she smells and I could nuzzle my nose into her cheek and neck and hair over and over and never get tired of it. I love knowing her cues and even when I don't know what is wrong, I love knowing how to most likely fix it. I just love her and I have loved each of my babies the same. Ugh. I just want to bottle up every single second so I never forget it, because I won't get any more of these. And we forget things; we all forget these little moments and my head knows I won't remember every detail, but goodness I hope I remember. So, that is where I am at: feeling happy but so emotional sometimes. And most of the days, I don't get to dwell on thinking these things, because there is no time to reflect on them. I am busy thinking of the next thing I need to get done on my to-do list, because I have a family to take care of. But, when I do have time with only Hazel, I try to soak it in. She is my last baby and I am not handling it as well as I would like. Don't worry - I'm fine. But, it's just hard.

A Backyard Afternoon

In the summertime, we spend lots of time in the backyard. But, as the school year got underway, and with Hazel arriving, we hadn't done much of that lately. But, one afternoon filled doing exactly that.

 

Halloween

Our Halloween was so much fun this year! Atticus and Grace were most excited because they knew what to expect: CANDY! Atticus started out wanting to be a baseball player but then switched to wanting to be a football player. Last year he was an Aggie Football player, but this year he chose University of Illinois (Fighting Illinis) as his team. He is so funny! He loves almost every team (except t.u., Michigan, and LSU he says) so he took a long time choosing which team. His final choices came down to Illinois, BYU, UCLA, and Notre Dame. What a combo! He also REALLY wanted to see our neighbors (who we don't see often because they have high school kids) during trick or treating because they moved from Illinois. Although he never saw them that night, he was excited when a house they went to, had a person who graduated form U of I! It made his night!

Grace decided early in the month that she wanted to be a Rainbow Mermaid. So, as much as I want to make the kids costumes and be creative, I also know my limits lately. So, I was perfectly prepared to buy a costume on amazon. But, surprise - there were no "rainbow" mermaid costumes. So, earlier in the month, I got proactive and went to the fabric store and came home with colorful fabrics and a DIY plan from pinterest to make her mermaid tail. And do you know when I did this costume? 4 nights before. Now, I am proud I wasn't doing it the night before Halloween. But, every time I thought I would find time during the day that month, I didn't. I didn't know exactly how it would go, so trying to find an hour or more to figure it out during the day just didn't happen. So, the Saturday night before Halloween, I decided to stay up late. I was up until 5:30 am making this costume. It wasn't hard and only took about 5 hours to plan, cut and sew, but Hazel also decided to wake up and nurse/hang out for another two hours in the middle of the night. So, it was a long night. But, I got it done! And, I thought it turned out really cute!

Everly wasn't really understanding the whole Halloween thing. I was so excited to take her trick or treating because this is just a really cute age to do that. I knew she would love going to houses and getting candy. But, when I would ask her what she wanted to be for halloween, she just said "Spooky!" I kept having ideas to make her Minnie Mouse or a bunny or a pop star (she loves her sequin hat and accessories), but finally decided one day to just play it by ear and see what she picked from teh dress up box. A few days prior she talked all about being a cowboy and that stuck and on Halloween, we got her in some boots and a hat and a pink flannel shirt and pulled out a rope and we were set. She wouldn't wear a bandana or a belt, but she was so precious anyways because she loved being a cowboy (not a cowgirl, mind you - she just knows the term cowboy). :)

And our sweet Hazel was a cabbage patch kid. She lasted in her hat long enough to take photos and then she was done.

So, the entire week before, the weather projection was great, except for Halloween Day. It was expected to thunderstorm and rain all day long. The day came and we prepped the kids for possibly not trick or treating. And, honestly, it stinks to think you might not get to when you are little. I mean - it's one day and if it doesn't work, then all of the excitement to wear costumes and get candy is for nothing. So, I had some backup ideas in my pocket, but also hoped all day it would clear out by night time. (Remember - last year, it rained and by trick or treating time, it was just drizzling, so everyone went out; that's what I was hoping for again).

So all day long, it held off minus a few 10 minute showers here and there. It was looking promising, but then it all went south. Vic got home, we took pictures and at 5:45 we headed out with our neighbors. 5 minutes later, the wind was blowing and it was lightning and starting to rain. We came inside after they made it to only one house. And it rained and thundered and lightning for 2 hours. So, in the meantime, we played Halloween bingo, wrapped them up like mummies, did apple bobbing in the bathtub (this was all Atticus's ides and the most fun thing we did!), ate mummy pizza and decorated cookies. Atticus was my toughest sale, but he perked up and enjoyed it, and Grace kept saying that this was the best Halloween ever and better than trick or treating! (I'm not sure she really thought that, but she was so sweet to say it). Then, finally a little before 8:00, Vic and the 3 big kids headed out into light rain to finally trick or treat. Our neighbors (Steve, Kelly, Luc & Ellie) went as well. I stayed behind with Hazel to nurse and Vic took our precious Everly out with everyone. Well, Everly walks slower so it wasn't long before the big kids were trick or treating with our neighbors, (bless them!) and it was just Vic and Everly for a few houses. Vic said she loved it and was so cute. She would walk up and say Happy Halloween and Trick or Treat and I just know it must have been adorable.

Vic and Everly came home after a few houses and Everly was so happy. She told me about it and was the cutest thing ever! Atticus and Grace filled their buckets and came home as well. I was just so glad that they got to trick or treat this year, even though it was a rainy mess. Hopefully, next year is great weather because I love to watch them have so much fun!