Four Months

Oh Maddi Sue! You are the sweetest baby in the whole world.  How can we not just adore you!?  You are such a smiley, good-natured little thing.  It's hard to imagine what life was like before you were in our family.

 

Height: 24.5 inches (40th percentile)

Weight: 12.75 lbs. (30th percentile)

Head Circumference: 42 cm (78th percentile)

At four months you:

*Roll from front to back and back to front

*Smile at anyone who will look at you

*Giggle at your brother and sister

*Take 3-4 naps a day, about 2 hours each.

*Sleep 10-11 hours at night

*Take several bottles a day like a champ

*Are starting to play with toys

We love you, sweet girl!

Happy New Year!

We went to a Residency New Year's party this year at the Preece's house (you know, my long-lost twin sister).  They were so smart and had everyone celebrate East Coast midnight!  The kids thought it was so awesome to stay up way past bedtime.  They were really good, too.  We only had minor meltdowns on the way home from Sammi.  Then we had an after party with E, because he had taken a nap.  Totally not what I had planned on, but I'm a cool mom like that.  He got slap-happy and did lots of crazy dancing and had a blast playing Ticket to Ride and eating caramel dip with us.

This girl is bright-eyed and ready to start a new year!

Ben had a bit of time off after New Year's, so we headed up to my parents' vacation home in Midway.  We listened to the Frozen soundtrack about a hundred times, so of course the ice castles there were referred to by us as "Elsa's castle."  They were really neat, but kind of expensive, and we almost took to crippling people's camera tripods on purpose because we could hardly walk around.

We had a relaxing little time up there, and then headed home so Ben could go to work.  It's always nice to have a change of scenery, even if it's just a short trip!

We had a Family Home Evening about some goals for the year, and here is what some of those are:

Eating healthy
Sammi is going to learn to write her name and be nicer to E
E is going to keep learning to read and be nicer to Sammi
We are all going to listen to each other better

I know there are some strict criteria for establishing goals and crap, like making it specific and measurable, but I don't usually make goals anyway, so these are just great for us. :)

Christmas 2013

 Our Christmas was magical this year with the kids being so aware and excited for it.  They kept hurling the phrase, "Santa's watching!" at each other, just like my siblings and I used to.  Except we shortened it to just "SANTA!!!"

We had about a million Christensen family parties leading up to the big day, all of which were fun, but we felt a little burned out by the time the actual day rolled around.  The kids were just tired of being hauled around and all the excitement and anticipation was making them a bit emotional.

We also had Emerson's Kindergarten Christmas program to look forward to. I was looking forward to it, anyway, until I got asked the night before the practice to learn 7 hard songs on the piano because the person who was supposed to do it just decided they didn't want to anymore.  It added a ton of stress that I didn't need or want, but I felt so awful for the Kindergarten teachers that I just ended up practicing like crazy and setting all other Christmas preparations aside.  It turned out really cute, and the teachers were so appreciative.  It's not every day you get an opportunity to save Christmas! :)

I think my very favorite part of Christmas was taking our kids to the dollar store and having them pick out gifts for each other.  They were just so excited and put thought into what they gave, (after they initially tried to pick out things that were actually for them...) and it was so dang cute to watch their excitement about what they gave to each other and to Ben and Maddi and me.  It was totally something I want to do again next year.  I think they almost blurted out what they got for each other about six dozen times, but we finally made it to Christmas Eve!

It was really fun to have all the siblings together again since we are spread out all across the country.  Some of them got to meet Maddi for the first time, and we got to see our little cousin Rowan.

On Christmas Eve, we were at the Christensens' house for the morning, participating in their annual Christmas pageant, and in the afternoon we headed to the Johnsons' house.  We had to change up tradition this year since the Chinese restaurant we always go to went out of business!  We were way sad, but the fondue and treats were delish and the kids had a great time watching Elf and making sugar cookies with Grandma and Grandpa.  Then we did our traditional sibling-gift exchange and our first ever cousin-gift exchange.


We tracked Santa on the computer, and E kept running into the next room to check every few minutes to make sure we hadn't missed him coming to our house.  We gathered up our thundering herd and headed home to sleep in our own beds so Santa would know where to find us.  We opened our new Christmas pajamas and got all ready for bed.  We had some excited little fellas.  Ben and I stayed up to watch A Christmas Story, and then headed to bed so the Big Man could come!

 (Mere seconds before Maddi's massive blowout that rendered her Christmas PJs useless)

 Santa's on his way!

Sammi woke up Christmas morning at the usual 7:00ish hour, and we were able to put her off while I fed Maddi and waited for E to wake up.  We finally had to wake him just before 8:00 so we could get started!  Santa was good to us.  He knows just what we like!

The kids were extremely pleased with their gifts, and mostly got what they wanted with some surprises thrown in.  Some favorites for E were his Tinkertoys, Car assembly set, Aggie hat, and Planes movie.  Some of Sammi's favorites were her Bitty Baby (complete with crib that Ben made), Princess Cupcake Party game, and Frozen playset.  They got spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa J when they and Nat, Brad, and Steph came for Christmas breakfast a few short hours later.  E got Jake's Tiki Hideout, and Sammi got some outfits for her Bitty Baby, and they both got subscriptions to Disney magazines.  We also got a lot of board games and some movies.  (I think Santa knew it would be a long winter inside.)  We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast that only threatened to be ruined because my dang breakfast casserole was still runny in the middle.  Thanks to the innovation that is the microwave, we were able to eat it within a reasonable amount of time and it could still be associated with the rest of the breakfast.

We took it easy the rest of the day and let the kids play, play, play and Ben was the one that ended up cooking a festive Christmas ham dinner.  It was a good day to enjoy being together, especially since Ben didn't have much time off during the holidays.

We really tried hard to remember Christ this Christmas, and had a little manger with baby Jesus in it.  Every time the kids would do something nice for each other, we told them it was like doing something for Jesus.  It got to the point where they would do something good and then say, "Do I get straw!?"  It made me smile.

3 Months

 Somewhere amongst all the holiday craziness, our sweet little Madeline turned 3 months old.  She is the sweetest little baby.  She is so good-natured and puts up with a lot of tormenting from her older siblings.  She has gotten to be a really good sleeper; it just took her a little longer than her brother and sister.  She is sleeping about 9-10 hours straight at night, and takes two 2-21/2 hour naps during the day.  She has the biggest beaming smiles that will melt any heart.

She has at least one bottle of formula a day, and switches easily between nursing and a bottle (thankfully!).  For some reason, I keep thinking she is a lot younger than she is, where with my older two I thought they were ready to be left with a babysitter a lot earlier.  Maybe I am just appreciating the portable stage since it passes so quickly by.

This is how the girl likes to sleep:

Sweet little burrito

And this is her little arched back with her big stretches when she wakes up.

A lot of my days are just so busy with three kids that it's all a blur, but I am trying so hard to drink in every second of my snuggly, precious baby!

November

Some happenings in November:

                           

We ate with Daddy at Cafe West at the hospital, a lot.  But I don't complain because I love not having to cook, and they have AMAZING grilled cheese and strawberry buttermilk shakes.

Our sweet neighbor, Kay, from Ohio sent us all Buckeye gear!  We love it, and miss her. :(

Sweet Maddi smile.

Hanging out on Saturday mornings.  This doesn't get to happen any other day since we have to be at Kindergarten so early!

E thought he was so hilarious lounging with Maddi on his stomach.

Sammi thought she was so big because we could finally pull her hair up.

Her preschool had an adorable Thanksgiving party where they made these feathered headbands and garbage-sack Indian-vest things...

She IS loved.

Sammi works so hard on her "homework" that she sometimes can't stay awake.  You'd be tired too if you scribbled that intensely.

E was imitating Maddi on the floor.  Again, so hilarious. (*Insert eye-roll.)

Sammi loves to hold Maddi, and Maddi hates it, or rather hates feeling insecure.  You would too if a three-year-old were holding you.

Sammi with her toothpick legs inserted into giant boots.

Best beaming smile.

Our three sillies.

We also had two fabulous Thanksgiving dinners (one for each side of the family) and we stuffed ourselves silly.  When the kids asked about Thanksgiving during the month, they burst into tears and said they didn't like turkey.  I'm not sure why, but I think we are all still emotional from our big life change of adding a new sibling to the family?  I don't know.  We have been bursting into tears a lot around here.  Maybe they really do passionately hate turkey.  But when they actually ate it on Thanksgiving they both liked it.  Go figure.

Blessing Day

Little Sweetie had quite the special blessing day.  We were so glad that both sets of grandparents could come and that we had so many aunts and uncles here.  (We missed those that couldn't come!)  Ben gave Maddi a beautiful blessing.  I didn't write it down since that's discouraged, but the main thing I remember from her blessing is that she will be a peacemaker in our home.  We need a little more of that around here. :)

 Dressed up all fancy

So exhausted from being so beautiful

 Grandma and Grandpa J

With Aunt Steph

With Uncle Brad

 Sweet little face

 Our two "beeful" girls

 Handsome E loves being a big brother

Our family of 5.  It still shocks me every time I say it.

Fall Festivities

 First, let us start this post off right.  Behold, the sweetest little face in the history of mankind:

 I love her so much, eyebrow dandruff and all.

We had a great fall.  (It's pathetic that I have to update according to seasons, now.  Having three kids is just so busy.  It's wonderful and hard.)  We did a number of fun activities with the kids because Ben had a pretty good schedule, the weather was beautiful, and I've been recovering just great.  We went to a fun little pumpkin patch in Spanish Fork one evening and let the kids play around.

 And where was Sammi in the first two pictures, you ask?  Why, she was sitting on time-out missing out on all the fun.  She has had quite the difficult transition to having a new sister.  She loves the baby so much, but she hates her mother now.  She tells me every day that she doesn't like me, doesn't want to be my friend, wants me to live in a different house, and wants me to be another little girl's mom.  This is usually accompanied by a pinch or a hit.  She sat on the stairs on time-out every time she said this to me, but it didn't seem to be very effective or make her repentant at all.  So instead we threatened to not let her go to the pumpkin patch and made her sit and watch Emerson play and have fun for 20 minutes or so.  She felt it.  She was sorry.  And then luckily all was forgiven and we had a great evening together.

 The next fun activity was going to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point with Grandma J.  The kids had an absolute blast, and my mom and I were so tired by the end.  They had a dress up tent in Pumpkin Princess Playland, and I bet you can't guess who loved every minute of that...Here she is pictured singing the Ariel song on the little stage, thinking she is pretty big stuff.

 

Grandma and Grandpa J hosted the First Annual Grandkid Halloween Party.  They had the kids dress up in their costumes and we made cute little festive treats like witch hats, Oreo spiders, and dirt and worms.  Then we played fun games like Halloween Bingo and Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin.  The kids had a great time and said they wished every day was a Halloween party.  We finished the evening with a festive little dinner of witch fingers, mummy dogs, monster mouths, candy corn colored fruit cups, and homemade root beer.

 Do you see Sammi's wig?  I made it.  I made it out of yellow yarn and one would think that would be pretty quick and easy.  Not so.  A Rapunzel-length wig takes approximately one thousand hours to make.  She was thrilled with it though, so it was all worth it.

ON TO THE NEXT ACTIVITY!

Daddy was home a bit the week of Halloween. He was working nights and was a good sport to do stuff with us during the day after a four hour-ish nap.  He spearheaded carving pumpkins which was fine by me!  We tried carving the tiny pumpkins we grew in our own garden, but some were a bit too small to do any kind of recognizable design.  I had an Ariel template printed out for Sammi, but there was no way to fit it on there, so I just freehanded a mermaid silhouette.  Those of you that know me know that I am NOT an artist, but I did at least make the tail recognizable, so a three-year-old girl ended up happy with her mermaid pumpkin.  (Again, I always think pumpkin carving sounds a lot more exciting than it ends up being...unless you are cool with letting your 3 and 5-year-old handle knives.  In that case, I bet your pumpkin carving experience is extremely exciting.  Also, fraught with danger.)

 We were so cuted out to be able to attend Emerson's school costume parade.  We set our chairs up lining the sidewalk and watched for him in his unique costume.  After about 50 other Iron Mans (Men?) passed by, we spotted our boy.  He's the one rocking the goatee.  It took some convincing that he should let Mom draw on his face with eyebrow pencil, but he was happy with the result at the end.  Also, does that awkward My Little Pony costume make anyone else happy?

 Finally, the big night!  We had our festive spooky dinner of chili, monster claw breadsticks, and witch's brew.  The kids were so excited to go trick-or-treating.

Maddi especially was thrilled.

We foolishly left our candy bowl unattended for 5 minutes and it was promptly dumped.  Greedy little teenagers.  Too bad for them that I laced my candy with hypodermic needles.  Ha! Joke's on them.  (But seriously, has anyone ever found candy that has been contaminated?  They always warn you to inspect your candy, but I feel like it's a myth.  But please share if you have!)

After feeling extremely bitter about our candy bowl, I remained at the house to distribute candy the rest of the night.  We actually had very few trick-or-treaters, and the ones that came by I didn't even know.  It was kind of lame.  Our kids didn't last very long, but still bragged about how much candy they got.  As long as they were happy, I was happy.  They even thought they were out past their bedtime!  They didn't know that I got them to bed at the regular hour because they were back so soon.  Cute little naive kids.  I love 'em to pieces.