5 Months!!!!!

Baby Girl is 5 months old! She is still the sweetest little baby and we can't imagine our life without her. I really think this is my favorite age because she has her little personality and smiles and giggles easily but she still isn't mobile or talking back and really only fusses if she's tired or hungry. I'm not sure how much she weighs, somewhere around 15 pounds on our scale. She's wearing 3-6 month clothes but has some 6-12 month clothes that are a little big but she can wear them. Still in size 2 diaper but think we'll try 3s soon.

The past month was filled with her first plane rides to Texas and first time to meet some family members and friends. She also had her first rice cereal and started physical therapy for torticollis. She's rolling over from tummy to back and almost from back to front, but not quite yet. She can push herself up pretty well on her tummy and scoots around. She's still not on a real schedule but goes with our schedule and naps when she can/wants to. She's sleeping 10-12 hours at night and ocassionally wakes up to eat during the night but not very often.

This picture shows her doing some of her favorite things, eating her fingers and getting ready to grab her toes. She LOVES her fingers and toes and is constantly playing with/chewing on them. She also loves to play peek a boo, ride the horsie, pat a cake, getting tickled and having her tummy blown on. Still loves the swing and watching tv and also likes her ultrasaucer. She is a screamer/squealer when she gets excited she's such a little girl with a girly squeal. It's so funny! She has mild stranger anxiety. Some days she smiles at anyone and other days she's not so sure about new people but it doesn't take too long for her to warm up and decide to flash a smile. We love you Emalyn Faith and are enjoying having you in our lives!

Texas-Dallas

We took the kids out of school for a few days and headed to Texas for Easter. Emalyn did a great job on our flight to Dallas and only fussed a bit when we were descending. Maddi and Cade were great too and didn't ask too many times how much longer! They are getting so big and helpful. They loved how we got to go in the fast and short line for security and board early because we had a baby. I made a commment to the kids that it was good that we had a baby so we could skip lines and Cade said "Mom, we love her too. Not just because she gets things for us." How sweet is that?

Our flight turned out to be very expensive because our camera lens broke and now won't stay attached to the camera, Maddi left her Nintendo DS on the plane with Cade's game in it, and Brett's computer got scratched. I have to say that I hate that the airlines charge so much to check bags because now everyone (us included)tries to bring everything on board with them and then it takes forever to board and everything gets shoved around in the overhead bins. Our camera broke because a man shoved his bag in so hard against Brett's bag. Ugh... Since the camera was pretty much broken, we didn't get many pictures in Dallas which is a bummer, but we still had a great visit with friends and family while there. Brett bought a new camera in San Antonio so we have more pictures from there.

Cade with his cousin Will. Last time we saw Will (in July) he was much more of a baby and this time Cade and him had more fun together. Will is 20 months old and he is full of energy. Makes me dread having a toddler again. Not that he's bad, he's a normal 20 month old, but it brings back memories of the struggles at that age.

While in Dallas, we went to Magic Time Machine. Here are Maddi and Grace with their bubbly drinks. We went on April Fools Day and the kids and Grammy had some tricks planned. The kids put an ice cube with a bug in it in Jesse's water and some thickening powder in Chris's margarita. Earlier that day they had decorated cupcakes with Grammy and then also decorated dog treats for a prank. Poor Jesse ate a dog treat! The kids love April Fool's Day and poor Jesse was the butt of many pranks this year.

Uncle Joel with the girls. Grace looks up to Maddi so much and copies her every move. Maddi seems to enjoy all the attention from her and is so sweet to Grace. One day Emalyn will probably adore Grace in the same way that Grace adores Maddi. It's so fun for the cousins to get together.

Grammy and Emalyn hanging out together. Grammy had eye surgery a few weeks ago and doesn't wear glasses anymore. She looks so much younger! It was so fun to see Grammy and the McDonald crazy family.

Emalyn sleeping with sweet Aunt Rebecca. It was really an easy age to take Emalyn because she just went with the flow and went along with whatever we did with her.

Here's Emalyn sleeping again. This time we're outside at Kim's house. We had a great visit with Kim and Dusti and their families. I need to get some pictures from Kim of our visit with them.

The kids had a blast jumping on the trampline, driving the car around and playing together.

The kids were all worn out by the time we left that night. They were all hanging on by a thread on the stairs as we were gathering our things to leave. I'm not sure where Zach was in the picture, and Reese was home sick, but this is the rest of the gang.

Egg Hunt

Hard to believe it's that time again, but this morning we had the annual egg hunt at the clubhouse. None of the pictures with the bunny turned out very great. Emalyn wasn't looking in any of them and one or both of the big kids were squinting from the sun in the others. Oh well. Notice you can hardly see the bunny because Maddi and Cade are almost big enough to be in the bunny suit themselves. Ha!

After eating breakfast with 5 million people inside the clubhouse the kids went outside to wait for their age groups egg hunt. I guess the syrup from the waffles had kicked in and they were hyper and silly with their baskets.

It was pretty chilly outside so I went in the clubhouse for a while with Emalyn. I was holding her with my hand on her tummy and she was looking out and as I was talking to a friend, Emalyn's head clunked over and she was asleep. I guess that's when you know you've got a laid back baby. She didn't fuss or anything, just shut her eyes and went to sleep pretty much sitting up. Here she was sleeping in my arms when I went back out to watch the kids at the egg hunt. What a little angel!

My two big and sweet goofballs!

Let the trading begin...the kids love to open the eggs and trade treasures with friends.

The 8 and older kids were off and running for their dozen eggs. Maddi's in the green jacket.

The Easter Bunny came to visit with Emalyn. Emalyn had no idea the bunny was looking at her. Next year she'll probably be in tears if the bunny comes near her. It was another fun egg hunt.

One Year Ago....

One year ago we found out the very shocking and exciting news that we were going to become a family of 5. I couldn't imagine what our life would be like with a baby in tow and I wasn't so sure how we would all adjust. Well, I'm happy to say that Emalyn Faith has been a wonderful addition to our family and we can't imagine our lives without her. She is truely a blessing and so far she has lived up to the meaning of her name "peaceful home". I've had some cute conversations with Maddi and Cade lately about this sweet baby girl. Today Cade was talking so sweetly to Emalyn in the car and I told him I was so happy that he was such a good big brother. I said I knew he'd be a good brother but I had no idea that he'd be as wonderful as he is. He said he didn't know he would love her so much and he's not sure he would such a good brother to a boy. Last week I had lunch with Maddi after taking her to the dermatologist and Emalyn was sleeping the whole time. I asked Maddi if she liked it better before we had a baby, while I was pregnant or now that Emalyn is born. She really had to think about it and said she liked the unknown when I was pregnant and then she looked over at Emalyn and said maybe she liked it better after she was born then she thought maybe before baby and looked at her sister again and said "no, my final answer is I like it better after she's born." Gotta love that honesty Maddi girl!

So, we're on Spring Break and we're having fun staying in the area. Monday afternoon we made Augie's cookie recipe and decorated Easter cookies. We didn't make them at Christmas because things were so hectic with having a newborn and having so many visitors. It's a tradition that we all enjoy. Cade wouldn't cooperate for a picture so I told him I'd put one of his goofy faces on the blog, so here it is. He can see this for years to come. By the way, I ordered the books of our blog from blogtoprint.com and they came a few days ago and I LOVE THEM!!! Such great memories for our family.

Maddi takes her time and makes the cookies look so pretty.

So Monday we made cookies and the kids spent a lot of time outside with neighbors roller blading and riding their bikes. Tuesday we went to the mall and the kids did some shopping and we ate lunch at Cheesecake Factory. The rest of this week we'll go to the Shedd Aquarium, go rollerskating with friends, and go see the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie as well as spending time at home hanging out and playing with friends.

My 3 Munchkins

This is one of my new favorite pictures of my 3 little munchkins. I am so thankful that they all love each other so much. Of course they have their moments, but I hope all 3 will always enjoy each other this much.

See how much this boy loves his baby sister? Melts my heart....

Our neighbor is letting us use their ultrasaucer that their youngest just outgrew. The kids came home from Awanas/choir Sunday and were so excited to see Emalyn playing in the saucer. The big kids had fun showing her what all of the different things do.

This crazy face makes me laugh!

Another one that makes me laugh...it's been warmer here lately so if Emalyn is awake, we'll walk to school to pick up the kids. Somedays it's a bit chilly so I put her in the snowsuit instead of trying to keep a blanket on her. Emalyn LOVES to chew on her fingers and she was very curious to see where her little fingers went.

Here's my sweet girl waiting for some cereal. She likes her cereal now!

One of her other favorite things...playing with her toes! She can't get them in her mouth yet, but I'm sure she will munch her toes all the time like Maddi did.

Another favorite thing...scratching her head. VERY strange! She has scab-like area on the back of her head from scratching it. She seems to rub it more when she's tired. What a goof ball! Notice she's wearing short sleeves...it was 62 today. Yee haw!

In preparation for St. Patrick's Day, Cade made a trap to try and catch a leprechaun. I hate that he always has those weird eyes in pictures. He loves his holidays/celebrations and he's been talking about St. Pat's day for a while now. He really hopes to catch a leprechaun and then he wants to keep him until our elf, Cody, comes back at Thanksgiving. What a wild imagination he has!

Love his sign on the trap..."Leprechaun come and take the gold!"

Fort

My husband and his extension cords. Seriously...he uses them for everything! When we were in college he "found" a few dogs and didn't have a dog leash and would walk the dogs on an extention cord. It seems like he's always going to the store to buy more extention cords. I have no idea what he does with all of them. Well, his latest use was for building a fort with the kids.

Here is their fort. It was built very quickly, but the kids thought it was awesome.

Maddi and Cade slept in the fort and we were saying goodnight and they wanted Emalyn to come play in the fort for a bit. Emalyn wasn't so sure about that idea. Ha!

They are all snuggled up and ready for bed. Maddi told Brett "Mommy always calls you and enginerd but I'm glad you're an enginerd so you can build good forts." Precious!

4 months

Emalyn Faith at 4 months old making her funny face. She is developing her personality and it's so cute.

This is one of her favorite things to do...sleep with daddy! Brett and Emma love to spend Saturday and Sunday afternoons snuggling. It's a good excuse for Brett to veg in front of the tv and Emalyn will sleep and sleep all nestled in Daddy's arms. She was crashed out cold and snoring! Love how she only had one sock on too. If she's not in Daddy's arms napping, she'll usually only sleep for 30-45 minutes at a time in her crib, swing or carseat (if we're out). She's not really on a schedule which works fine because we're always running here or there and on the occasion that she naps a little longer, we'll usually have to wake her up to go somewhere. She just goes with the flow and does whatever we do which is great for us for now.

This is how she responds to seeing her sister, Maddi. I was taking her pictures and then Maddi walked in the room and Emalyn lit up with a big grin and turned her head to see her favorite little girl. Some of Emalyn's favorite things are her brother, sister, mom, dad, playing pat a cake, watching tv, cooing and talking, eating her fingers, and rubbing her head with her left hand.

I don't know what happened on the edge of this picture, but this shows how big she is growing. At her 4 month visit today she weighed 13 pounds 10 ounces (50th%) and was 25 1/4 inches long (90th%) Head was 50th%too. I truely wish I could freeze her at this age and not let her get mobile or grow any bigger. I just love babies and wish she could stay like this forever!!!

So she's wearing 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diapers. She sleeps from 9-7 but lately she's been going to sleep more around 8:15 or 8:30 and waking up around 6:00 but I sure like when she sleeps til 7:00. She has learned to roll from her tummy to back and when she wakes up she's on her back kicking her legs and staring at her fingers with her hands held together. I love to watch her on her monitor, she's just so sweet!

She loves to grab her clothes and chew on it. (Mom, I hope she doesn't continue this like Cody!)

Making herself cross eyed to get a better look at what was so tastey in her mouth.

To celebrate her turning 4 months, we let her try rice cereal. She was just hanging out with the big kids at the table waiting for her food.

Grabbing her dress to eat it again since her food didn't come yet!

First taste of cereal...she's not so sure about what just happened in her mouth.

Look at that look of digust. LOVE IT!

I think she's thinking of gagging here. Hilarious!

She's looking at me, like "what in the wide world????" Let's just say she's not a fan of rice cereal....yet!!! She had 2 tastes the first night and then would turn her head practically all the way around to avoid the spoon. A few night later I tried again and I got one spoon in willingly and then she would not let the spoon anywhere near her. She used to make a face like we were poisoning her when she'd get formula and now she'll drink it with no problem, so I think she just has to taste it several times before she'll like it. Happy 4 month Birthday baby girl!