The kiddos

nothing like brotherly love
hanging out during tummy time

my failed attempt at a shot with the four of them

big bro and lil sis

it looks like she is giving him a kiss but she was about to wail

love Jakey's look on his face

Jacob loves to have me take pictures of him and Kenna. He is such a sweet big brother!

trying to get her to laugh. He used to do the same thing with Parker...put his head on their tummy and move it back and forth. She wasn't amused by the way!

Snuggles

MaKenna and Daddy have been enjoying lots of snuggle time over the last 2 months!

This is one of my favorites- she was in the middle of a dream and I happened to snap right at the right moment. I love her little smile :-)

2 Months!

Today, MaKenna is 2 months old already. I was thinking back to when we first had Blake and how those early months seemed to go by so slow. Fast forward 7 1/2 years and I look at my baby girl and think "where has the time gone"? It seems that these past two months have gone by all too fast and I desperately wish I could slow them down at least just a bit. Life is definitely hectic with 4 kids and I try to soak in all the quiet moments (far and few between!) as much as I can. She has changed so much in these past months and I cannot even imagine how much more change is to come.

We have had a couple of big milestones over the last weeks. I think I can confidently say we are through the evening fussies. She has mastered nursing for comfort or at least her and my breasts have finally got it down ;-) So most nights we spend a good portion on the couch with her nursing for several hours before she is down for the night. Yes, that's right, she is sleeping the night! And I mean the whole night...8-9 hours! How did I get so lucky, I don't know, but she has always slept great during the night. I remember thinking she would be my worst sleeper because she was so active in the womb, but it turns out she is the best! She is also "talking" a lot more now. It turns out she likes to voice her opinion as well. Her brothers are still enjoying her as much as they did when she was first born. I love to see how gentle and sweet they are with her...they can be pretty rough with each other and I was a little worried they would carry that over with her. They are always asking to hold her when they can which comes in handy when she likes to be in arms but momma can't hold her. I feel very blessed to have such a beautiful family!

Blueberry Pickin'

kuplink! kuplank! kuplunk! The boys and I went blueberry picking with our friends last month and had such a wonderful time! We went in the evening when it wasn't too hot and stayed until the sun set. Jacob and Parker seemed to enjoy picking the blueberries the most although not many of them made it into the bucket :-) After they were done picking, they spent the rest of the time running through the fields. We were able to pick a gallon (and we went back a few weeks later with Daddy and picked another gallon) and I froze most of them. This was our first time going to this farm and I think it will become a yearly tradition so long as they have blueberries!

Reedy Creek

Family Shots

everyone having some daddy time
sportin her new frog babylegs and the little skunk Jakey got for her

whenever her hand is near her face, she is sucking on her fingers

look at that face!

enjoying a conversation with her big, big, big brother

MaKenna Girl

Sleeping Babes

I am not sure what it is about sleeping children that just puts a smile on your face. Maybe it is the innocence they portray or simply the fact that they are actually sleeping! Parker has been having some issues going to bed lately, but then again, what else is new. So tonight, I told him to crawl in our bed while I was nursing MaKenna. We had the sound machine on and wouldn't you know the sounds of the ocean put him to sleep in a matter of minutes. It was so nice sitting there and soaking in the stillness of the moment, looking at two of my beautiful children and thinking "life is good"!

The Great Sunflower

Blake's sunflowers have finally bloomed! They did so much better this year than last. We haven't officially measured the tallest one, but needless to say, it is big! The bees have been visiting often and it is so nice to look up and see this beautiful flower!

Look at the size of the leaf!

It is so tall, I barely got the whole flower and Parker in the shot.

MaKenna update

So now that she is 6 1/2 weeks old, I think we finally figured her evening meltdowns out. After a very particularily trying day (she cried on and off for almost 8 hours only to sleep for about a total of 1 hour during that!!!), I decided something needed to be done. I went out and got the book "The Happiest Baby on the Block" not really knowing what to expect or if it would really work. Let me just say that I needed this book from the beginning!!! It turns out that MaKenna has pretty bad gas. Even if she burps two or three times during/after nursing, she still can have some bubbles in her system. This led to pretty intense crying sessions which then in turn led to an overtired, cranky baby. So we now give her some Gripe Water which takes care of the gas and use Dr. Karp's 5 S's for calming: the first night I tried it, she went from screaming to sleeping in 6 minutes! And just for clarification, the 5 S's are swaddling, "sssshhhh"ing, side/stomach, swinging, and sucking. Since she refuses a pacifier (we have tried 5 different types!) and can't nurse, the sucking really doesn't come into play for her. What I found to work best is to swaddle her super tight (and I mean tight!), craddling her in my arms with her on her side and bouncing up and down on our mattress.

This book was pretty insightful. Dr. Karp is a big proponent of attachement parenting (which is the parenting style we follow) and discussed the "fourth trimester"...basically how some babies just need an extra 3 months to adjust to the outside world and thus needing to recreate the womb for comfort. All I know is it works!

Tomorrow, we have our 6 week postpartum check up and I will know how much she has gained. She definitely does not eat like the boys and even though she was a big baby, she doesn't seem to be gaining as rapidly as them. She graces us with some pretty awesome smiles which I cannot for the life of me capture on camera. They are the smiles that involve the whole face...just melts your heart. She also is starting to "talk". I love when the social interaction begins...they don't seem like sacks of potatoes anymore! And it looks like Blake got his wish...she has blue eyes! He didn't want to be the only sibling with blue eyes.

Conversations

The other day, Parker was telling us about one of the blankets he was going to give MaKenna to use. He decided he was going to let MaKenna have the "one that Aunt Robin made". Then he got this inquisitive look on his face, turned to me and asked "is Aunt Robin a bird?"...no, honey, she is a real person :-)

On the way to run errands the other day, we passed a construction site. Jacob started telling us that he wanted to be a construction worker when he got older. Then he proceeded to tell me that I needed to buy him a phone so "he can call me when I needed to come pick him up". Apparently, even though he has a job, I still need to drive him all over!

Random shots

Mrs. Greene's Visit

We had an unexpected visit from Mrs. Greene a few weeks ago. It didn't take long for the boys to warm up to her...even Parker was showing her all his cool stuff after only a few minutes. She told the boys stories of her boys (she has three as well!) and also read books to them. After a great dinner, she took the boys out to play mini golf- one of their most favorite activities. It gave me and MaKenna a nice quiet evening. The next morning, we headed over to her hotel and the boys swam in the pool for hours until it was time for her to go. We all had such a great time and the boys couldn't stop talking about her! They still ask when they are going to see her again.

Firehouse Visit

Last month one of the new fire stations had an open house. They were having free lunch as well as tours. Since the boys LOVE fire trucks, we thought this would be a great way to spend the morning! The firehouse was pretty amazing and the boys were really impressed with all the cool gear they saw. This fire station also happens to be located near the lake, so they got to check out the fire and police boats as well. We had a great time despite the heat and MaKenna slept through it all!