Big Stuff

(Ignore the mess in the background, please!) Biggen' weighed 10 pounds 4.5 ounces at the dr. yesterday! Posting from my phone, so I'm keeping it short. More soon!

Emmy's Baptism

Emmy Love was baptized this last Sunday!

Emmy was baptized by her Aunt Andrea (Also known as Aa Aa,) which was so very special. However, somehow I did not get a picture of the two of them together, and I am just sick about it! We will have to do a reenactment at Thanksgiving! I would love to write more about the day, but right now, Mimi is dying to see the pictures, so the stories will have to wait! It was a very special day!

One of my favorite things

When I was pregnant with Hope, my mom invested in a beautiful baptism gown in the hopes that many babies in our family would be baptized in the same gown. The gown was already gorgeous, but Mimi also added some special pearls to the gown as well. She also had an idea to embroider each baby's name and baptism date in white on the slip that goes under the gown. We also knew we wanted the fonts on each name to be different. For one, so it would be unique, but also so we didn't have to try to match the font on down the road! She just emailed me the picture of the gown with the latest addition to the gown...

So special to me. Emmy will be baptized this weekend surrounded by her friends and family. It will be such a special day!

Lookin' Up!

Sweetness

Haircut

Noah got a new do. It was time! They cut it a bit shorter than I would have liked, but, it's just hair, right?! He could pick to sit in a yellow Hummer, a red convertible, or a pink Barbie Jeep. Of course he chose the Barbie Jeep! On the way home, he would touch the spiky part and say "Ouch! My hair hurt Noah!"

Pumpkins!

Even though we have moved back to the Dallas area, we are still about 45 minutes to an hour away from our friends here. The Walkers offered to come this way this weekend and go to a Pumpkin Patch near us. We were really excited to get to see them and spend some time hanging out. Life is a little different for all of us now since the last time we lived here! We went from a total of 5 to a total of 8, soon to be NINE when they soon bring home little Logan!

Sophie is a doll baby. And she has totally been camera trained! Look at how precious she is! Looks and smiles right on cue!

 Sadly, my children do this when the camera comes out...

 Let's look again...

Sophie...

 My Kiddos...

Why do they do that to me?! Ugh!

Noah and Sophie did love riding in the wagon together! Hope kept bringing pumpkins and loading the wagon. We had to limit the number of pumpkins or we would have been broke!

And finally, now for my new favorite picture... I love every single one of their expressions! Love it. Makes me giggle....

Look What Mimi Made!!

Go Hogs!

It really hasn't sucked!

 Just in case you were wondering...

We do love her. A lot.

I always tell people, "no one tells you that when your baby is born, the first 12 weeks suck." They do. I love Dr. Harvey Karp's book, The Happiest Baby on the Block. It is how I survived Hope's first 12 weeks, and I have brushed up on it with both Noah and Emmy.He just sums up the newborn baby so perfectly, and provides new parents with great instructions for those first 12 weeks. He taught me how to perfect my swaddle! And surely you know, I am a professional swaddler! :) (No really, people should bring me their fussy newborn and pay me like, I don't know, $5 bucks to swaddle them up really tight, and then send them on their way.) But then, on the day they turn 12 weeks, something magical happens and life gets easier. Now as Emmy is approaching the magical 12 week mark, I can say, this time around, it really hasn't sucked. Even with the scares we have had with her, she has still been the easiest baby we have had. Now, is that because she is an easier baby, or because she is my third, who knows. But, I have loved these first (almost) 12 weeks!

( I do feel a smidge guilty that I have been posting more pics of Emmy than I have of the other two lately. I have justified it to myself by saying she is the only one who can't run from my camera yet! But also, I have way more pics of the older two as babies than I can ever possibly have time to take of Emmy!)

0-3

I have talked to a few of my mommy friends on the phone the last few days, and we all have newborns 3 months and younger. They were surprised to hear that Emmy can still wear all her newborn clothes. She is gaining some weight (up to 9.7 at last weeks weigh in, but she is still tiny! I just put her in the next size onesie (0-3 months) and um, it still swallows her! She is sporting her other pair of newborn Babylegs as well. Love them. So, to answer the question, yes, Emmy is still in newborn clothes. She has officially outgrown everything premie. And there are a couple newborn one piece outfits that she is getting a bit too long for. But the 0-3 are just way too big! Soon, baby girl, soon!

Funnies

A couple of funny things that the kids have said lately that I don't want to forget:

Hope was pretending with dolls and was talking to herself Sunday morning and I overheard her say, "Well, perhaps..." I have never heard her say this before and I found it funny, so I asked, "Did you just say 'perhaps'?!" She quickly responded, "Perhaps."

I was reading a book about colors to Noah before bedtime. I would turn each page and ask him what color is that? He knows red, blue, green, purple, orange, yellow... when we got to brown and I asked him what color it was, he said, "Chocolate Milk!"

My Girls

Bless you, my darling, and remember you are always in the heart - oh tucked so close there is no chance of escape - of your sister. ~Katherine Mansfield



There were 4 in the bed and the little one said...

I promise this is not how we sleep!We took the kids to parents night out Friday night (the big ones, not Emmy just yet!) We got home late and started getting everyone ready for bed. Hope wanted me to read her the new book she picked out from the school library Friday. I was holding Emmy so I suggested we go lay in my bed. Next thing we know, here comes Noah all ready to snuggle in for the night. John came in and laughed and left the room. He reappeared with the camera. It was a fun book and a fun memory. We read to our kids every night, but separately in their own rooms before their respective bedtimes. However, this might be a new weekend ritual.

As far as Parents Night Out... It was a success! We tried last month, but as soon as we sat down to eat at The Cheesec@ke Factory, we got a call that Hope had a tummy ache. We suspected she was faking (she has just figured out how to play that card!) but what can you do? We went and got her. She was miraculously healed as soon as we got home, and thought she could even stay up late. Nope, sick kids go straight to bed, darlin'!

So, we were eager to try again. Noah loves our new church. He was so excited when we pulled up he said "This is MY SCHOOL!" We tried to explain that no, but this was "HIS church" and he loved that. "This is NOAH'S church!" So cute, that one. We did think about leaving Emmy, but the baby room was crowded, so we opted to take her with us. Our little "third wheel!" So, that meant no movie. We didn't want to spend a lot of money on a fancy meal while we still had a kiddo present for date night. Once we are able to leave her at PNO, I will be a little more willing to drop a little more dough. We decided to eat at the mall and walk around it for a while. We tried C@lifornia Pizza Kitchen for the first time. It was soooo good! We loved it. I had the Spinach and Artichoke Pizza. It was the best ever. We also had fried artichoke hearts and butter cake. Delish. I might have finally had the strawberry margarita I have been craving for a while now as well. Anyway, good good food. I don't try new things often, but this was worth it. Then we just walked the mall, played with the ip@ds at the Apple store, and hung out in B@rnes and Noble until it was time to go get the bigs. I missed them, but oh, it was the nicest kind of miss! ;)