Fall outings

So I've neglected my blog the past few months. So much for my goal of updating at least once a week.:-/

Anyway, I'll pick up where I left off.  :-) 

One cold night the end of October Bridget, Carter and I bundled up and went to see my cousin Eric, who plays in the Morton high school matching band, practice. It was super impressive and fun to watch! 

On a much warmer day, we headed out to the field for a morning with my brother, uncle and cousin. Carter got to ride with "uncle Lukey" and thought it was the greatest thing ever. He would have stayed out all day. The girls and I rode in the combine with Nate. Bridget kept asking me when we could go back home.  :-)

Carter turns 3!

For Carter's birthday he also got to pick an activity to do. His pick was to go swimming at 5 Points and then to Firehouse Pizza for lunch. Since 5 Points only has open swim on at certain times, we went two days before his birthday. He had been sick that Monday and was still recovering, but he had lots of fun anyway. 

Elise and her kids went with us. I only have one picture, and Carter isn't even looking. :-( Being in a pool isn't very conducive to picture taking. 

On Friday (his actual birthday) we had his party. He picked Planes (as in the movie) for his theme. We had pizza, chips, salad, and apples and caramel. We had ice cream for dessert, as well as a ding dong cake.

 He also got a balloon and a huge bag of m&m's from Luke, but I didn't take a picture. 

Very ready to open his presents! 

He got lots of little vehicles for his birthday! Motorcycles, a semi and trailer, a digger, an airplane and helicopter, and a car from Bridget.

He also got a new bike and helmet from the grandparents. He looks so big on it! 

Mostly Alison :-)

Alison is just our sweet, social little baby. She loves people and action. She is a happy baby for the most part, but definitely has a temper and knows what she wants. 

Alison meets Henry. She Looks huge, and quite pale.  :-)

She is 5 months now, gets pretty much wherever she wants to go. Between rolling, slowly army crawling, and spinning in circles, she really gets around! I came into the living  room one day to check on her, and she had scooted off the carpet and had rolled herself up in the blanket budget had laid out on the floor. 

She loves her "lovey" and is always snuggling with it. 

I keep thinking there is a tooth on the way, because this child drools like crazy! But so far, nothing seems to be moving up. 

Bridget's birthday day

Since Bridget's actual birthday was on Tuesday, I gave her a few options of things to do on her birthday. Her pick was to go to Jumping Jax,and then to Firehouse Pizza for lunch. 

Her favorite evening activity is to watch movies and have popcorn, so that what we did in the evening. Luke and I weren't super excited about her pick of a movie.  

Luke brought home flowers and a balloon for her, and she was so thrilled! 

A new nephew!

On Monday, October 6 I wad woken up early in the morning by a text from Wendi saying she thought her water might be leaking! Well, no more sleep was going to happen after that! A little over an hour later I got a text that her water had fully broke and that they were headed to the hospital. 

The rest of the day was spent in anxious/excited anticipation, and many many texts were sent. About 3:30 Wendi went silent, although my mom still sent lots of texts wondering what was going on. :-) Then finally about 5pm I was notified that Henry Daniel had finally arrived! 

Since all the kids had colds, Luke stayed home with them and I tagged along with my mom and dad to the hospital to meet the little guy. 

He has hair! 

New family of three! 

Bridget's birthday party

Bridget was SO excited for her party! She picked "Frozen" as her theme, and requested streamers to be hung for decorations. 

She also picked her meal, and she picked taco salad! I suggested pizza a few times, but she'd always respond with "mom, I already told you I want taco salad!" So that's what we had. I suggested brownies for her dessert. I have a hard time doing cakes when they only end up eating the frosting, and since she loves brownies it wasn't hard to convince her to go with that. 

Ready to open gifts

She got the Ana and Elsa barbies she'd been asking for!

From both sets of grandparents she got a new bike and helmet! She enjoyed riding the bike around the house for the evening! 

Leaves!

We have a tree in our front yard that drops it's leaves super early every year. Note the neighbor's yard across the road - no leaves. And then our yard - lots of leaves. This fevers means we spend a lot of time taking, bagging, or mowing leaves. The kids think it's so fun to jump in the piles! 

Hard working kids. We'll take the free labor while we can get it.  :-)

Little Lady and I hung out on the front stoop to watch the workers.  She's generally thrilled to be outside. 

I tried to get a picture of the three of them, but I couldn't get Bridget's head in the right spot, and Alison was more interested in eating leaves than looking at me. After about 20 seconds Bridget informed me that she was done and that I could take Alison back. 

One rainy afternoon Luke stopped by and played with the kids for a while. He has perfect timing as I was just ready to clean the floors! He kept Bridget and Carter occupied while I got all the floors done! He definitely win the brother of the month award for that! 

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It suddenly occurred to me not very long ago that with 2 girls, I could dress them in matching clothes! This was very exciting, but I had a hard time finding matching infant and toddler clothes. Then I entered the Carter's store for the first time and there I found them matching dresses! They wore them the next Sunday, and surprisingly, we were even ray for church early enough to snap a picture! And it even is a semi good one!   :-)

Once in a rare while I'll find these two reading books. Must of the time Bridget is "reading" to Carter. 

Alison has been having a hard time with nursing lately, so she's been getting most her milk from a bottle. After 2 weeks of pumping like crazy, I'm hoping that we're on the upswing of getting back to nursing! We've been to the lactation consultant several times, and last time she informed me that Alison stumps her. She has the ability to nurse (she did it just fine for 4 months) and she gets plenty when she does nurse, she simply doesn't want to nurse.

She seems to enjoy throwing us curve balls, because she also is suddenly refusing to sleep on her tummy now, which she has been doing since she was born! 

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Saturday afternoon movies on dad's tablet. Alison gets in on the action sometimes to.  :-)

The kids love getting new books at the library, and the morning after our visit is usually pretty quiet as the kids are busy looking at them all. 

At care group a couple weeks ago Carter's head got in the way of a flying toy and resulted in a large gash on his hairline. We were so thankful to at the Leman's, and that "Dr Jeff" was willing to glue it for us. 

Sometimes in the evenings Alison will get over tired and become inconsolable. This night we were out wandering the streets at 10pm. 

4 month check up! Alison was 13 pounds and 24.5 inches long.  

It's not a rare occurrence to find her several feet removed off her blanket and under the coffee table. 

One Friday after mops I was super tired, and since all the kids were actually sleeping at the same time, I laid down for a nap. An hour later I was woken from a very sound sleep by these two peeking over the edge of the bed at me.  

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Sibling powow - when they're doing this in 3 years they'll probably be up to no good! However, I love seeing Bridget and Carter pay more attention to Alison now that she's older and more responsive. It was nice that they kind of ignored her when she was a newborn, but now she just loves it when they talk to her! 

"You ready thought I'd want to eat at 5am and then go back to sleep? Funny mom, very funny." 

Alison has been kind of a stinker about sleeping the part couple weeks. She had been doing a good 12 hours, but now will only go about 7 hours, and getting up two or three times in that 7 hours.

4 months old! At 4 months Alison:

- rolls all over, both back to tummy and tummy to back. 

- chews on everything

- wants to be in the same room as everyone else

-likes to be outside

- has replaced her sweet cooing with a loud, sick parrot sounding squawk

Watching something on dad's tablet - his lap is running out of room! (And Alison this thrilled to be in the middle of all the action)

Bridget finally got her hair cut! It looks so much better! She was pretty thrilled with the experience!  :-)