Kate's First Cereal

   Yikes, It's been over a month since I last blogged. In my defense my laptop is dying a slow and painful death. Posting anything is very time consuming, and well...painful.  But being the trooper I am, I'm going to try to catch up this week.  

   So to accompany the incredibly original and creative title of this post, I'm posting pictures of Kate's first time to eat cereal.   These are from about a month ago.  I drug my heals on feeding her the first time because I needed a day when Michael was around to take pictures.  

She is still not a very big fan on the creamy goodness!
 
Kendall's first time to eat cereal was posted here.  

 

Kate is 5 Months Old!

Kate turned five months on March 11.  I took these pictures the next day but haven't been able to post because of laptop problems.


Kate, you are five months old. 

   You are a pretty easy going baby.  Although we've seen a few "fits" this past month.  You are very attached to Momma but have also decided that you like dad alright too.  

Momma has bought cereal for you.  We are just waiting on a day that dad can be around to take pictures of you eating your first solid foods.  I think you are ready for something a little more that just milk.  

You are absolutely not a fan of naps!  You fight sleep with the best of them.  At this point, your sister was taking a couple of 2 hour naps a day.  We are lucky if you sleep 45 minutes to an hour twice a day.  You'd just rather be awake with the rest of the family.  

You are wearing size 2 diapers.  We'll be moving up to size 3 very soon.  You are wearing 12 month clothes.  And some of them are getting to small.  You are growing like a weed!

  
     This month you've gotten really good at grasping what you want.  You love playing with toys, and bringing them to your month to chew on.  You have also decided that you like sucking your thumb.  We are still swaddling you for sleep so hopefully that won't become a habit.  You will suck on a pacifier to go to sleep but not really during the day.  

     You are waking up once during the night to eat but go back to sleep during eating.  You wake up for the day between 7 and 8.  

   You love your sister and she loves you.  She loves to give you kisses and hugs several times a day.  When you are fussing, I'll tell Kendall to talk to you.  You always stop when she's giving you attention.  

     You are ticklish.  You laugh the hardest when daddy is "getting you".  

    You like the car as long as it is moving.   You are not a fan or redlights or other stops.

   We love you so much.  I can't imagine our family without you!

I promise when I get some of my computer problems resolved, I'll come back and add comparison pictures from earlier months.  

    

March Goals

Here we are at March 1st.  Time for me to post my goals for the month.  But first lets recap February goals...

1. Read 4 books--Triple check.  I finished 11 of the 12 (the 12th is a year long devotional) that I was reading and I've started a new batch.  I am on a reading kick. 

2. Finish Quiet Book-- Hanging my head on this one...I didn't even touch it..

3.  Clean out and Paint Spare bedroom--It's cleaned out and Michael has started painting.  (I'm not allowed to paint because I STINK at it). 

4.  Bless 3 people--Check

5.  Finish off "mega cleaning and organizing list"--I honestly only lack like 2 or 3 things in my utility room.  So close. 

6.  Doctors Appointment--Check

7.  Blog 2 times a week (or 8 times for the month)--I blogged 7 times.  So close.

8.  Attempt Potty Training--We attempted!  We hit it head on.  For two solid days we lived on the potty.  I even posted this picture on Instragram.  

She did use the potty a couple of times but in the end she's not ready.  So we stopped.  We may attempt it this month during the days that the farmers almanac says to.  My mom claims it's the only way to go.  We'll see.  You'll notice it's not on my march list.  :)

Ok now for my March Goals.

 

1.  Decorate and Organize Kendall's new room.  Then move Kendall and Kate into the nursery.   

2.  Organize my recipes.  They are a big mess.  I have a notebook and box full and then tons of printed out recipes from online.  I'm tired of it being so disorganized!

3.  Bless 3 people.

4.  Move more and eat better.  

5.  Take girl's Easter Pictures.  I use to be so much better at taking pictures through the week.  I want to go ahead and purpose to get some decent shots of them this month.  Hopefully we'll have a couple of warm days.  

6.  Photo Shop Course. I purchased a cheap online course that has been setting in my inbox for weeks now.  This is the month.  

Here's to a productive month.  

 

Lions and Tigers and Bears

   A few weeks back we were able to take the girls to the zoo for the first time.  It was a beautiful day but a little windy.  All my pictures ended up being mostly of Michael and Kendall because he was corralling her while I took care of Kate.  We kept her mostly in her car seat bundled up since it was chilly.  And I didn't get the family picture I was hoping for either.  But we did have a great day.  Family days are always my favorite! 

'

   Large elephant rump in the back ground  :)  

 Notice her 2 strands of necklaces?  Girlfriend loves her some bling!

 

 

Just to prove Kate was there also.

 

Kate is 4 months old

I had this post ready on Monday but our power went out and didn't come back on until late last night. 

   
       Happy 4 month birthday my precious Kate Alaina! 

 

     You are the best baby. Unless you are sleepy, you are pretty content. And so sweet! And you are kind of attached to your momma.

 

    At your doctor's appointment you weighed 15 lbs 13.5 oz. (>75%).  Your length was 24 3/4 inces (>50%), and your head circumference was 16 1/4 (75%).   

    The doctor gave us the go ahead to start cereal when we want.  Momma is not in any big hurry though.  

     Your schedule is the same as last month.  During the day you are awake for an hour and a half, then you sleep for about an hour.  I have still been swaddling you but you break out of it pretty easy and pretty quick so we'll probably be retiring that soon.

    You are wearing size two diapers and 9 month clothes.  





 

 
    You are still in Mom and Dad's room to sleep. We are working on getting sister's new room together so you can move into the nursery soon.  

    You have started playing with toys.  Playing as in gripping and chewing on them.  :)

    You had a cold this past month and started waking up during the night again.  You are slowly starting to wake up later and later.  We are back to a feeding at 6:30.  Momma will take that any day over 4:30AM.

 

   You have started watching and laughing at Kendall.  It is so sweet to see the two of you interact now.  You are all about one another.  
 

  
  You have started laughing at us this month.  It is the sweetest sound ever.

   We thank God daily for the privilege to be your parents.  We love you!

    
My computer is acting up so I'll have to come back later and add a comparison collage.  

 

On my mind

    I've been wanting to write a blog post all week but we are having an extremely busy week.   Then I found myself up extra early this morning and both girls are sleeping so I thought I'd make time to squeeze in a post.  Kate has her 4 month appointment in a few hours so I'll still have to make it quick because I'll need to be ready to leave for that.

    There are several random things shooting through my mind.  Mostly small little thoughts and not enough content for a coherent post....so I thought I'd bullet point them into 1 post.

• Kate turned 4 months old yesterday.  I say this every month but time is flying.  I hope to have her monthly post up later this week.  They take so much time but I love having it to look back on.  I still go back and read Kendall's.  And I'm not going to be "one of those moms" who slacks on kid #2.  Only I guess I'm already slacking because it's already late.  
• We bought a "new to us" vehicle earlier this week.  Michael started looking for one shortly after I found I was expecting.  That's been almost a whole year ago now.  I love that he is not quick to jump into major decisions especially with financial things.  (One of his many qualities that I love, but that's a whole 'nother post in itself).  There were certain things we were really hoping to find (SUV, 3rd row seat, etc.) but had a pretty low price range since we were hoping not to acquire a car payment.  We had talked recently that we'd probably just need to bite the dust and get something nicer and deal with the payment.  My Jetta was getting pretty crowded with two car seats.  Then Sunday Night he saw this car listed, we looked at it Monday evening and bought it immediately.  It has more miles then we were originally hoping for but the price was excellent and it's in excellent condition.   I love it even more because I feel like it's the car God wanted us to have.  Michael had been driving all over looking at vehicles and this one ended up being right down the road from us.  I love when God works out all the small details.  He's so good.
• I felt a little silly posting my February Goals.  I am so glad I did.  I can't tell you how many times I've thought I need to work on this or that because I'm going to have to blog about it at the end of the month.  Accountability is my friend.  I've checked off a few items already and have a good start on most of the rest of them.
• I've had the blessings and responsibilities of technology on my mind a lot recently.   It's amazing where we are today.  We recently got smart phones, I love being able to look something up anywhere.  While that is a blessing the responsibility is great too.  I find myself comfortable being more snappy in dealings online, hey, they will never see or meet me.  Just this week I had to go back and apologize for something I said in text.  I didn't mean it sound the way it sounded but forget that in text the other person can't hear my intonation or see my facial expressions.  Just on my mind that I need to watch for these things and guard against being unchristian-like through them. Sometimes I wish I had been born back in the "Laura Ingalls" days but then I remember my love for reading blogs. 

  
I like sharing my mind at times.  Although that can be dangerous letting people in on my crazy thoughts! I just may have to come back and do this again.  Now I'm off to wake two sleepy girls and drag them out into the cold....

Kendall's Photo Book

    Like last year I made Kendall a photo book for the past year.  Hopefully you can view it below.  

 

Click here to view this photo book larger

Her one year photo book can be found here.