Blessing Day

As good as the Family Photo gets...

The Dress.

It's made out of the remaining scraps from my wedding dress. Kenzie's dress pretty much used up everything that Lynneah's didn't use. My blessing dress request is always to make it a mini wedding dress. :-)

I've always like the "My Three White Dresses" poem, and wanted it to work for any girls I had. We're definitely on the right track.

Just liked how she looked here.

What's a blessing without out jewelry? 

My sister made the white and pink rose necklace and bracelet and my niece made the blue bracelet.

 I LOVE them!! Girls are fun.

That's It! Go To Time Out.

This earns me the Mom of The Year Award. 

He managed to get into his closet and proceeded to throw books all over the floor. "Not happy Mommy" sent him to the "time out rug" and promptly forgot he was there. That tells you how good he was sitting in time out. Normally he's throwing such a fit and getting out so often it's impossible to forget what he's doing. Gabriel and Garrett ran by a while later and laughed because, "Lincoln fell asleep in time out!" oops! Although, this might solve my dilemma about where to put them all to bed when they're all here. ;-D

Little Mamas

I have friends with older girls. I couldn't really relate to a lot of the behaviors they described for a long time...you know the "Little Mama" kind of stuff. I would listen and think, "I've gotta get me one of those." Boys can be trained and helpful but they just don't come to it naturally like the girls do.

Case in Point.

This was the easiest time I've ever had leaving the park. 

Thanks Little Mamas!!

Just for me

So much is running through my mind, I just need to get some of it out to clear space for other stuff.

There have been times in life when we could see the sequence of events that need to occur to "have things work out right". Despite our best efforts to set things in motion to accomplish the above mentioned sequence it always seemed to be yanked out from under us every time we got within grasping distance...just right there...so close...a little more effort/faith/work...aaaaand it evaporated. I'm eviler (yes, that's a word) than Stephen and each time I got frustrated and angry. He always says it doesn't do any good to get mad and moves on. I AM allowed to feel emotions, by dang it, and will continue to. He does possess emotions, I've had glimpses of them, but they are definitely not the driving force in his life. Girls and boys are different...

Big life changers come along whether you're ready for them or not. I'm learning that even when you know it's coming life doesn't always allow you to prepare the way you want. That's an odd feeling, like standing on the tracks watching the train come hurtling toward you, but you can't move. Following a new life changer, a clearly defined sequence unfolded in our minds, we starting working at it...it began to evaporate again. I cried, then I prayed, then I cried and prayed. Then we started working again. After lots of phone calls and thinking and more phone calls and thinking it looks like it might work. Maybe.

Must have faith, must have faith, must have faith...

Do I dare hope? I don't know...  Hope causes trouble....LOTS of trouble. If it does work out I'll update.

P.S. No, I'm not pregnant.

Kenzie is up to 8 lbs 11 oz. She's still a pretty lousy eater but we're making it work somehow and she's growing! :-) Growing is good, although, I will miss her curled up on my chest as she grows. That girl wants to be curled into a tiny little ball and sleeping on my chest. It would be fun to just stretch out on a recliner and hold her all day. She should have pushed Gabriel out of the way if that's what she wanted, waiting till five doesn't really allow it.

Sassy took the two big boys to the book "vegetable" (festival) Saturday. While we were down two kids we got very industrious and cleaned the kitchen/dining/living room. I'm SO not a fan of the "great room" concept. We washed the curtains, cleaned the ceiling fans, and scrubbed till our hearts were content. The wall of food behind the table still needs attention though. I'll be adding a Saturday chore for the boys; it's called "Doors, Walls, and Baseboards". They get a magic eraser and can scrub their own mess off of my doors, walls, and baseboards. :-) I should specify Stephen did all of the high up stuff because the last time I climbed higher than my bed I nearly broke my neck. 

I have zero balance.

Lincoln was actually behaving pretty decently, which was a nice change from his new found identity as a 3 year old. (3 is SO SO SO much worse than 2! I'll take a "terrible 2" any day over 3.) He'd gotten a little bit quiet...

Who needs toys when an infant carrier, freshly washed curtains, and an empty paper towel tube is all the entertainment you need.

The Pitcher is Half Full...

Garrett has this infectious laugh of pure delight...

only problem is it usually means someone's getting hurt, about to get hurt, something just got broken or ruined, and he's about to get in trouble.

I LOVE his laugh...when he's in my line of sight...

As we sat down for dinner the other night "the laugh" erupted from the table. I spun around at lighting speed ready to put him in time out for whatever mess had just happened.

I was met with, "Lynneah's face is smashed! She looks SO funny!!"

Definitely had to agree with him.

Then Gabriel craned his neck around for a look at Lincoln.

He declared, "Lincoln looks like an old man!"

The fact that Lincoln always looks like an old man helped I'm sure.

Why the long face my boy?

And there you have it...the reason my pitcher is half full.

Weighty Issues

After 3 weeks of a concerted effort to put some weight on this little girly, she's finally back up to 8 lbs 4 oz. It's still not her birth weight but only an oz off so we're definitely making some progress. She's still a lousy eater and requires a full half hour of nursing every time she eats followed by an attempt to get an additional 2 oz from a pumped bottle down her. T I M E   C O N S U M I N G. She really doesn't do well nursing OR from a bottle. I'm a little worried about how the time requirement is going to work when I go back to work in a week...

After a consultation from a lactation specialist (yeah I felt a little ridiculous calling for a 5th baby) we've been able to get her to improve her eating ability...ever so slightly. The lactation lady had some good pointers and sent me several links with information on other things I can try. I'm hoping that she'll continue to improve her nursing so I can reduce the pumping. I still have to pump the minimum of 14 oz she's supposed to eat a day to make sure she meets that requirement. As a side note, Lynneah is as jealous and resentful of the pump as she is the actual baby...

These feeding efforts have led to a much brighter eyed baby when she's awake. She has eyes like Garrett's. When they're happy with life they seem to sparkle.

So now the girls will be "Dimples" and "Sparkles". :-D