So much happening

We have had such a busy week! Lots of good stuff happening.

We started vegetables with Nicholas this week. Green beans first last Sunday. He made some funny faces the first night, but then gobbled them up the next 3 nights. We moved on to peas next on Thursday night. Hannah hated them when she was a baby, but Nicholas liked them very much! So despite what his bib says "idon'tlikepeas.com", he likes them a lot!!

Hannah got to feed Nicholas again one morning - she's such a great big sister and they love one another so much! I love the bond they've created between them and hope it strengthens and lasts forever!

Nicholas is SO ready to move!!! He's been rolling from back to tummy and tummy to back and enjoys his tummy time. He's been scooting backwards on his tummy for a few weeks and this week, he started getting up on his knees and rocking back and forth and wants SO BADLY to crawl!!! He tries, but he can't get his arms to go the same time his knees do. So what he's accomplished this week after trying so hard is that he gets on his knees, rocks back and forth and then falls forward down on his chest and then will bring his arms up. He's trying and I'm sure, he will be crawling very soon! I'm not so sure I'm ready for a baby on the move - guess I don't get much say in that though!!!

Wednesday for bathtime, Nicholas moved on to our kitchen sink. He has officially outgrown his baby tub. The sink is just the right size for him right now until he's more stable sitting on his own to go into the bathtub. It was so much easier to bathe him there since he was just too big for his other tub - there was getting to be no room for water in that thing!

After his bath, I was getting him ready for bed and his skin is so dry, so I decided to try the baby aveeno lotion again to hopefully help him. Instead, he woke up Thursday morning covered in the big giant red hives like the first day the whole allergy thing happened. So now I know, without a doubt, that the lotion was the cause of that reaction. I didn't put any lotion on his head or back, just on his tummy and that's exactly where the breakout was. So now I'm not 100% about the formula allergy, but I still think there was an issue with it - he definitely had a rash after the regular formula and has been fine on the new stuff, but the lotion is for sure a problem.

Thursday was my dad's birthday. After a little restaurant mixup, we met them for dinner. It was a very good dinner - love the steaks from Longhorn. Here's the 62 year-old Grandpa with is grandchildren!!

Friday was Hannah's "half birthday"....she's now 4 and a half! What a big girl! I'm glad she has a winter birthday so she can wait one more year before going to kindergarten! I'm not so sure I'd be ready for that just yet!

And the other big news for yesterday is that my sister got married! She did it on the beach in Florida last night at sunset. I'm so sorry I didn't get to go - it just didn't work out for me to get a plane ticket and go. I'm sure it was great and we're now looking forward to having her back home in Ohio. She'll be back next week, I think by Wednesday.

VBS Week

Last week was Hannah's first year attending Vacation Bible School! She LOVED it!!!

Monday morning, she was excited to go, although a little nervous. Here she is on the way there that morning.

And as we were walking in....this year's theme was "Son Rock, Kids Camp".

I realized I'll be a total wreck on the first day of school, because it was a little hard to leave her there the first day and she was trying with all her might not to cry. We both did great and she had a great first day. She came home with a CD of the songs, and crafts, crafts and more crafts!

I had such a busy week running her to VBS each morning, picking her up at noon, getting her lunch and running her back to daycare for the afternoon. It was really great to eat lunch with her all week!! That's something a working mom doesn't get to do and I realized how cool it is to get to do that for a week! We had Wendy's twice, she came back to my office twice and we ran home one day.

Friday, they had a close out program. It was so great. Hannah was an old pro at attending and the routine of being there. She was so excited to sing the songs for us. This is Hannah and Allie before the show began.

And here are a few pics of her singing her little heart out! Taking pictures in the church wasn't so great....sorry for the grainy pictures.

So anyway, she had a fantastic week and had so much fun! We can't wait for it again next year. I'm thinking I'll take the week off next year though.

Nicholas is sitting up on his own now!! Here he is one night last week where he was sitting on the floor. I kept a pillow behind him just in case he fell back, but he sat there playing for quite some time all by himself!!

Hannah likes it now too because she can play with him more now than when he was just a little baby lying there doing nothing!

He's also now rolling over in his bed at night....makes me crazy! I'm sort of ok when he sleeps on his side, but I'm still so nervous when he sleeps on his tummy. I know I can't stop him now, but I'm a nervous wreck!

Friday night, we went to the homecoming fair here in town....sorry, no pictures! It was super hot, but Hannah got to ride several rides before we left just before the storm rolled in.

Saturday, we went next door for Allie's birthday party. It was super hot out, but the kids enjoyed water fun outside while we stayed inside in the air condition! Here they are are as Allie opened her gifts and after singing happy birthday.

Even Nicholas enjoyed the party!

Saturday night, Hannah wanted to wear her KISS shirt as a nightgown (Tony soaks that up) but she wanted him to wear his shirt like hers! Too cute!

And how cute is Nicholas in his dinosaur jammies - he even has claws on his feet!!! How ferocious! We call him a snugglesauraus!

And lastly, how about this awesome sunset Saturday night outside the front of the house....well, really it's not the sunset, but really cool clouds because of the sunset!

Nicholas is 5 Months!

"Happy Birthday" little guy! Today, you're 5 months old! You're getting so big, so fast and the months just fly right on by! I'm not so sure I'm ready for you to stop being a baby, so stay little for a while longer!!!

Nicholas is doing great. He has two teeth on the bottom and I think there might be two more working their way in. He is almost sitting up on his own. He can do it pretty well if he supports himself in the front, but he usually topples over to the side and occasionally backward - that one hurts! He can roll from his back to his tummy and from his tummy to his back. He scoots backwards when he's on his tummy - he's so ready to be on the move!!! He loves to raspberry, does it all the time! He knows it's funny too!!! He still enjoys napping in his swing, playing on his activity mat and in his exersaucer. He likes to grab his toes. He is finally sleeping better. As I posted earlier, he has had one night of completely sleeping through the night and most nights only wakes a few times and easily goes back to sleep. He goes down for the night between 9:30-10:30 most nights and sleeps until we wake him around 7:15 each weekday morning (until around 8 on the (good) weekends). He does this kicking thing when he's in his bed where he lifts both legs and slams them down on his mattress. It's loud and I'm not quite sure why he does it?!?!? He's still mostly on breastmilk, we supplement with the liquid gold (aka Nutramigen formula) and he has rice cereal for dinner and a bottle. He's such a little chunk, probably around 18 pounds. He's so very happy and loves to watch his sister. He's such a blessing and we just love him!!!!

This picture is from last week - so cute!!! You can sort of see his teeth. I used this picture for his baptism invitations.

We didn't get the greatest pictures today. He wanted to move around instead of sitting still for a picture session. Here is what we came up with.

And how about this sweetness? They just adore one another! Hannah is so sweet and tender toward her brother and Nicholas just can't get enough of watching his sister. I sure hope they'll be buddies like this forever! It's funny when they pose for pictures together because Nicholas is like half the size of Hannah already!

And tonight, Nicholas joined us at the dinner table in his highchair. We just used the one that sits on a chair. I think I may continue to use this one instead of the big one since it takes up so much more room and this one, with the tray, is perfect! Anyway, it was nice to have him join us for dinner at the table - LOVE this family!

5 Months in the Waiting

Behold! After a long, 5 months, I officially got a full night sleep last night!!!
Nicholas went to bed around 10:45 last night and I didn't have to get up with him one single time last night! Of course, I woke up throughout the night checking the clock. I'd think, "wow, he hasn't woken up yet and it's 2:00"...3:30, 5:00 etc. And as much as I wanted to go in and check on him, I didn't. I have waited so long to not have to get out of bed that I just forced myself to stay put until I was called upon or until it was morning.

I got up around 6:15 and peeked in at a very restful sleeper, still catching his z's!

Thank you Nicholas, hope is still alive for being able to sleep all night long again!

A Garage Door - Who Knew?

So, we had a household repair need this week, which completely did not fit into our budget this month, but when you can't park inside your garage and you were lucky to be able to get your cars OUT, it quickly became a need that just had to happen.

And who knew getting a new garage could be so exciting???

We have been talking about getting it replaced for several months now and just never seemed to have the extra money to do it - or found other ways to use it when we did! Anyway, we were fortunate to have a quote from March from Cameron with Accurate Garage Door Service (yeah, a little shout out!!) that was still valid. We called him on Monday, he got back to us on Tuesday and was here to install our new door first thing Wednesday morning. He did a fantastic job and we are just so pleased with the new door!

It not only helps the aesthetic look of the house, but we also finally have an opener from the outside that was so needed!! I always worried about locking ourselves out of the house, but now (as long as we have power) we can get in through the keypad!

I finally remembered to take a before picture of our old rotting door (that was also now broken and wouldn't open)

And here is the new and improved door!

And really, as exciting as a new garage door is, what fun is a post without a bit of cuteness? Here are the two little buddies this morning. Hannah was reading to him before they got dressed this morning. She just adores her little brother!

And here he is tonight in all his diaper-butt cuteness hanging out on a blanket playing with his toys!