A Decade

In January, Abbie turned 10. Double digits!

What can I say about this girl?  She is smart.  4th grade has proven to be the most difficult grade for her so far.  Straight A's aren't coming as easily as they used to, but she's been up for the challenge.  She is dedicated and loves to learn. 

She is a great friend to everyone and tries to help others feel included. She always has something nice to say to everyone and she is well liked by other kids and adults alike.

She is adventurous!  Abbie loves to hike.  She and Garrett went on a hike a few Saturdays ago.  There was a small mountain that Garrett's been wanting to check out, so he took Abbie with him and they had a great time.  He said it was really difficult but she did great and never complained.

I know I've probably talked about this before, but Abbie LOVES little kids, and they adore her right back!!  She is always making up games for them, helping them, playing with them, entertaining them.  I have never seen a little kid who didn't love Abbie once they got to know her.  She's been dying to babysit.  She still has another year or so until that happens, but she's a great mother's helper and is a huge help for me, especially with Henry.  She loves to make him smile.

She is entrepreneurial.  She is always trying to think of ways to make money.  When we got snow about a month ago, she wanted to make flyers advertising her shoveling services.  I wasn't super comfortable with her trying to charge money for something I had never seen her do and wasn't sure how well she would do it, so I told her instead to just maybe do it as a service at first.  She loved the idea and proceeded to shovel the sidewalks of every house in our row of condos.  She came back 25 minutes later with $10 from one neighbor, and a big bag of candy from another, haha.  She was thrilled.

She is patient and helpful.  She can often tell when I'm getting frustrated with Ellie or Olivia, and she swoops in to help out, either by taking over what I'm doing or just inviting them to come do something with her to give me a break.  I'm so grateful for this!  

Abbie is very flexible - literally and figuratively.  Literally, because she can do the splits, is always doing gymnastics, and trying to perfect her front walkover (or handspring I think?).  She's also flexible in the sense that she can "go with the flow" very well and doesn't get ruffled easily.  If I have to change plans on her or something doesn't work out, she takes it in stride and moves on quickly.  

She is responsible.  I can't remember the last time I gave Olivia a bath or helped Ellie in the shower... Abbie has totally taken over this job.  She also wakes herself up in the morning (with her alarm), gets all ready for school herself, and wakes Ellie and helps her pick out her clothes for the day.  She will even get breakfast (cereal) started and served up if I'm not downstairs yet.

She loves to cook and bake.  Sadly, my desire to have total control in the kitchen doesn't mesh with that too well and I don't give her many opportunities to cook/bake, but I'm trying to be better about that.

She is supportive and sweet!  I got a rower for Christmas and she wrote this cute note to me in chalk and left it under my rower one morning.  Got me through a 6k row!

Here's a picture of Abbie and Olivia from a few weeks ago.  Abbie placed first in her classroom spelling bee last Fall, so she got to participate in the school spelling bee in January.  She didn't win, but she did great and was such a good sport. I think it helped that I had told her the story of when I was in my school spelling bee in 4th grade... I missed the word "terrible" because I was so nervous! (I forgot the "e" at the end) 

She chose to have a cheesecake for her birthday... girl after my own heart!  

For her birthday, we gave her an ice cream/sweets truck for her American Girl doll(s).  It came with about a million pieces but she's pretty responsible so I don't have to worry about them getting lost all over the house, thankfully.  It's actually pretty cool and the girls have been having some fun with it.  It's the "Our Generation" brand (from Target) and seems to be really good quality.

Happy Birthday, Abbie!  We love you!

Snow Day

In early January, it snowed here in eastern Tennessee.

Why did I even bother taking this picture, you ask?  Well, I got a text from the school district saying that school was letting out early that day.  You know, because of the snow.

I totally understand when cities - especially here in the South - need to shut down, even for a small amount of snow that may seem inconsequential for this New England girl.  I get it.  Cities aren't equipped for that, plus it just makes people nervous and they don't drive well in it. Fine.  But this??  This is crazy.

Thankfully, we did get more snow, late that night (it was a Friday night).  We woke up on Saturday to a good 4 inches.  Most of the city was shut down and we enjoyed just hanging out at home and being cozy in the house with nowhere to go.  The kids played outside a couple times, too.

It didn't snow again that weekend, but regardless I still woke up on Monday morning to a text on my phone saying that school was cancelled that day.  The roads around us were certainly clear, but I think that there were still a few roads in the outer parts of the city that may have still had some snow on them, and busses may have had a hard time getting to them. I don't know, that's just my guess.  So we had another fun day at home together.  Garrett had the day off which was nice (post call - he had just finished up working a week of nights).  Thankfully the school district has built-in make up days, so instead of having a random day off on Feb 3, they had school.  Nice to make it up now instead of at the end of the year, I guess.

Christmas Break 2016

It was a "Woodbury" year for Christmas in 2016, which was nice since we didn't have to travel anywhere!  Everyone came here, so it was really convenient.  Garrett's 3 sisters and their families came (with their combined total of 4 big dogs), so his parents' house was quite full.  Thankfully, we got to come home and sleep in our own beds every night, which was really nice. 

Garrett's family has a tradition of getting pizza on Christmas Eve.  This year instead of getting takeout, we went out to a place called Main Street Pizza.  It was really good and they had all kinds of different pizza options for all the varying tastes (and gluten restrictions for some) for our group of 19.

After dinner, we came home and opened sibling gifts (we have a gift rotation - our family had his older sister's family this year, so we gave them a watercolor portrait of their family that I commissioned from Etsy, it turned out really well and was just $30).  His younger sister had us and they gave us a really neat wall ruler for measuring the kids' heights.  I will have to do a blog post about it because it was really neat and a unique design, not like most of the ones you see.

After that, we tucked the kids into bed and got to work.  The girls slept upstairs in the smaller media room:

I love this picture from Christmas morning... all of us adults/parents getting ready to film the kids coming down the stairs (after Mannheim Steamroller got started, of course).  And it's only one of about 3 or 4 pictures I took all morning! Whoops.  

 

We really didn't give our kids many gifts... I'm not really into getting tons of things.  We did want/wear/need/read again (plus something from Santa), like we've been doing for the last several years.  Honestly though, it was still too much.  I think next year we will just give them wear/need/read, and let Santa take care of the "want".  Even that will be plenty.  Soon I hope to move away from gifts altogether and just plan some fun trips or outings for the upcoming year or during the break.  I almost did that this year, but I didn't and wish I had.

Abbie asked Santa for the American Girl gymnastics set, which she was thrilled to get.  It comes with a balance beam, uneven bars, and a mat for her doll.  She's had lots of fun with that.  I'm glad Santa got them all American Girl dolls for Christmas the year before -- it has been easy to give them gifts over the last year because they always like getting things for their dolls.

Ellie asked Santa for a robe for Christmas.  Yep, just a robe!  Haha. So, that's what Santa brought.  He also brought a matching one for her American Girl doll.

Olivia asked for a My Little Pony necklace.  I wasn't sure if those existed or not, but thankfully they do!  She actually got a set of 4 necklaces (4 random Friendship Pony necklaces... I think we got Pinkie Pie, Apple Jack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash).

For their "wants" from us... Abbie got a bracelet making kit, Ellie got a big stuffed unicorn (she's totally into those TY stuffed animals with the big sparkly eyes... this wasn't a TY doll but it looked just like them and was about half the price.. I think it was from Justice?  She loves it).  Olivia really wanted a "My Little Pony" robe, and what do you know... we found one on Amazon.  Haha.

For their "needs" - Abbie got an alarm clock, and Ellie and Olivia got bikes.  Both of them had outgrown their old hand-me-down bikes, and I knew that by summertime they would need new ones.  I really wanted to count it for Christmas so we got them early, which has already been nice since the weather has been pretty mild this winter and they've already put them to use quite a bit.

For their "wear" - all three girls got some black boots.

For their "read" - Abbie got an American Girl book about math ("smart girls' guide to math" or something), Ellie got the American Girl "Kit" books series (I totally stocked up on AG books when we lived in Madison, our library in Middleton always had tons for sale for like 25 cents each).  Olivia isn't reading yet, so I decided to buy her the My Little Pony matching game (I've realized that if I get the kids games I enjoy playing, I'm much more likely to play with them.  I like matching games... and her knowledge of My Little Pony trivia and characters always cracks me up.  We've had fun.).

And of course the kids got some fun things from their grandparents, like the My Little Pony sweatshirt that Olivia got (pictured above).

After Church, we attempted to take some family pictures on the back porch.  How many people does it take to try to get kids to smile and look the right way?  Haha.

Around the end of October, Garrett ordered himself a drone for his Christmas present.  It came just a few days before Christmas, and he spent a good amount of time figuring out his new toy.  It's been really fun so far.  Here's a picture a took from a couple hundred feet above his parents' house:

A few days after Christmas, the dads took the kids on a little hike nearby.  This is one of the reasons I love living where we do... we weren't cooped up all day because of freezing weather.  It was also nice that Garrett had the week off, for the most part.  He only had to work on the 26th, and other than that he was off from the 24th through Jan 2 (he started nights on Jan 2).  It was awesome!  Plus, I think that it counted for him "working Christmas" because the 26th was technically the holiday for working people (and he's at the bottom of the totem pole at work since he's new, so he knew he would be working over Christmas which was why it was especially nice that everyone came here! We just lucked out that he got assigned the 26th... I think next year he will be at the top of the list for getting Christmas "off" since he worked it this year.  So that's really nice.)

Anyway, so yes. The dads took the kids hiking.  My two sisters-in-law and I (one had already gone home) did a little shopping.  Mostly we just went to Cosmo prof, because my sister-in-law is an amazing hair stylist and she always tells us what products to buy and how everything works (I always need tutorials on how to do my hair, haha).  She also gave haircuts to everyone (and a balayage for me) which was awesome.  I sooo wish that she lived close to me, but of course she's the one sister who lives far away in Springville!  She works at a new salon in Lehi and loves it.

Another afternoon, we took the kids ice skating at a rink nearby (I say "we".. but I stayed home with Henry rather than going and sitting in the cold and watching.  I can't skate anyway).  The kids had a good time.... Olivia lasted for about 30 seconds and then had a good time sitting with Nana.

My parents sent us a Kubb set for Christmas, so we put that to good use.  Thank goodness for the internet because I could NOT remember the rules.. it's kind of confusing at first!  But we all got the hang of it and it was really fun.

Again...thank goodness for a mild winter!

Lots of time was also spent playing Super Smash Brothers....

Olivia sleeping in her Pony robe.... she slept until 11 a.m. the day after Christmas!

Snapped a pic of us when we were playing Kubb... or maybe this was the afternoon we walked to the neighborhood park.  I can't remember.

Playing "Sleeping Queens"... another favorite game in our family.  It's really easy, even Olivia knows how to play and she taught many of her aunts, uncles, and cousins.  It's something our whole family enjoys playing, so another win for that!

The Tuesday after Christmas, we had dinner at "White Duck Taco", which is one of my favorite places here so far.  It's a really fun atmosphere... pretty hipster, but family friendly.  On "taco Tuesday" all their arcade games are free, so we definitely took advantage of that!  And it was really quiet so we were pretty much the only people there, which was a huge plus:

Sitting on couches and comfy chairs around a coffee table... it was a little crazy but cozy!  Haha.  I seriously love this place - I usually get a pork belly taco with watermelon rind slaw, and a fish taco.

So, another successful Christmas break on the record.  I wish I had some pictures of the kids with all their cousins, or at least a picture of all 4 of my kids with their Christmas jammies on, but... I don't.  Not on my phone, anyway.  I think Garrett got some on his nice camera so I will have to find them.  So glad we got to spend the holidays with some of our favorite people, relaxing and making memories!  

Henry, 2.5 months

Henry is 2.5 months old!  He weighed around 11 lbs at his 2 month appt and was pretty average for his head size and height as well.  It's a blessing to see him growing and progressing the way that he's supposed to, considering the rough start we had.

He has his smiley and happy moments.  Sometimes he laughs (or, tries to laugh.. it's more like a little shriek/gasp) and it's absolutely heartwarming to hear.  I love when he's happy.  

He's not the greatest napper, usually. He's certainly not the baby who will fall asleep in his carseat and then take a full 1-2 hour nap while I cart him around on errands, or even when I get home and try to put him (in his carseat still) in a quiet room.  He wakes up right away!  Some days he will take a couple long naps, and he will be happy for most of the day.  Other days, he cries a lot and doesn't nap at all or just takes very short naps, which makes it really difficult for me to get anything done!

He loves to be swaddles - loves it!  He could be crying and fussing but as soon as I lay him down and start swaddling him, he calms down for a few seconds and even gives me a little smile sometimes.  Then he usually starts crying again, haha.  But I do know he likes to be swaddled, and he sleeps so much better when he is swaddled.  If he's not swaddled, his arms move around while he sleeps and then he startles himself and it wakes him up.

Thankfully, he does usually give me a decent night's sleep.  He is generally pretty fussy in the evenings, no matter how his day went, but he will usually calm down around 9 or so (but really anywhere from 8-11pm).  He sleeps in his rock & play rocker every night, next to the couch, where I still am sleeping.  Honestly I'm not really too sure why we are still sleeping in the living room.  Well I kind of do - Henry still wakes up around 3:30-ish, and I don't want to disturb Garrett.  It's just easier and less stressful for me to deal with him downstairs, and I don't want to be carrying him up and down the stairs when I'm tired. Thankfully he's never awake for long, most nights he just eats and then goes right back to sleep.  Usually I'll make his bottle right before I go to sleep around 11, so when he wakes up at 3:30 I just pop the bottle in (not even getting him out of his bed next to me), and we eats and falls right back to sleep.  So really I only wake up for about 10 minutes (but WHY does it feel like I'm still lacking so much sleep??  I really need to get to bed earlier.. says the girl who is up blogging at 1:40 am).

(Just a note about the picture above... I just noticed that he's wearing my Florida hat, I'm wearing a Wisconsin tee, and I'm also wearing a New Hampshire necklace!  I feel lucky that I have lived in so many fun places!  Also... those Target pj's that Henry is wearing are the best.  They are cheap (3-pack for $12 I think?), they are cute, and they zip down from the top, which is genius.  I bought a 3-pack in newborn sizes, then a different 3-pack in 3 month size, and another 3-pack in size 6-9 month.  I love them) 

Nursing never got any better after that first month.  In fact, I stopped nursing altogether and just started pumping.  Even that wasn't enough, though.  We were supplementing 50/50 with formula.  To be honest, I was really bummed it didn't work out.  Nursing is so convenient and I do believe that it's the best way to go for the baby.  It's also free!  Instead, I'm paying $75 a month to rent a hospital-grade breast pump, spending about $60 a month on formula, and feeling guilty that it's still not working.  Every day I feel like my supply gets worse.  Right now I'm only able to pump about 6-8 ounces a DAY (split between 3-4 sessions).  Pretty pathetic!  Sure, it's partly my fault. I suppose I could force myself to attempt pumping every 3 hours around the clock, I could take some supplements, I could meet (again) with the lactation specialist.  But I'm so tired.  I just can't pump every 3 hours on top of bottle feeding him, and taking care of 3 other kids.  I was running myself ragged. As soon as I accepted the fact that nursing wasn't working, a weight lifted off my shoulders and things got better for both of us. He was still getting breast milk, but we were both less frustrated and I had more time to get other things done. But, I think that after this month I will return the breast pump and accept the fact that it's just not working this time around.  It's not ideal, and not what I would have chosen - especially since he's my last baby.  This certainly isn't what I imagined.  But I'm trying to see the silver lining.  I have more freedom since I'm not nursing.  Garrett has taken a "night shift" here and there, letting me sleep up in our bedroom while he slept in the living room with Henry.  I slept for 10 hours one night, by myself in our king bed, with a white noise fan on and blackout curtains.  It was glorious.  Couldn't do that if I was nursing!  So, trying to see the positives.  And being soo grateful for formula. 

We love having Henry in our family!  The girls just love playing with him, talking to him, entertaining him.  I love to hear his coos and see his smiles, and I can't keep myself from constantly kissing those chubby cheeks. Such a little sweetie.

Walking trails

One thing we really loved about living in Wisconsin was the wide variety of walking trails in the city and near our house.  Nearly every weeknight in the summer, we would get in the car and drive to a nearby trail or down to the lake to enjoy the fresh air and gorgeous weather.  Tennessee doesn't have quite the same amenities as Madison, though.  We did manage to find one trail not too far away, and we went a couple times after Henry was born while the weather was still nice in the evenings.

I don't think this picture quite captures just how steep this hill was!  The whole trail was very hilly and very steep at some points.  I'm not going to complain, though, because my glutes could use it and it felt good to put in the effort after being pregnant and sore for so long.  Sadly, the evening light and warm weather didn't last too long after Henry was born so we've put our evening walks on hiatus for a while.  Hopefully we can pick things up again when the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, which should hopefully be by March or so here.  Maybe even by this summer we will live in a house, in a neighborhood with sidewalks.  Then we can just walk out our door and go walking every night like we did in Florida, if we don't want to drive to a trail.  Here's hoping!

Henry's baby quilt

My mom always makes a baby quilt for her new grandchildren, and it's something we treasure!  For Henry, I actually came across this quilt on instagram over a year ago and always had it in the back of my mind in case I ever had a boy.  Thankfully, Mom was happy to make it for me exactly like I wanted it! (she usually chooses out the fabrics and patterns)  She brought it to us when she and my dad came down for Thanksgiving.

 For now it's just a tummy time/snuggling quilt.  It's a big size, though, and will be perfect on a toddler bed someday.

Henry certainly won't suffer from any lack of attention at our house-

Future pilot, perhaps?  

Thanks, Mom, for the beautiful quilt.  We will treasure it always!

Hands On Museum

Something fun we have found to do is the Hands On museum downtown.  I took Olivia a couple times before Henry was born (we bought an annual pass), and Garrett took all the girls a couple times after Henry was born while I stayed home with the baby.

Probably the neatest part is the huge "Make it, Take it" room.  They have all sorts of crafting supplies that you can use to make pretty much anything you want.  Then you can take it home.

On this day, Garrett helped Ellie build a house for one of her little stuffed pigs (his name is Bacon)-

We came across another little art room with some easels downstairs, so the girls set to work on some masterpieces:

Shopping at the "grocery store":

Digging for fossils and shark teeth:

There's also lots of other things.. a pretend "bank", one of those shadow rooms that takes pictures of yours shadows on the wall, a black light room, huge building blocks, a stage for "performances", dress ups, lots of bubble stations, a big water feature for floating little boats down a river, etc.

I'm glad we have found something fun to do while the weather is cold or rainy.  The best part is that there's hardly ever anyone else there, as you can tell from the pictures - even though we mostly go on Saturdays (with all 3 girls, anyway... I've been a couple times with just Olivia during the weekdays and it's just as quiet).  I hear that it gets pretty busy in the summertime so we probably won't go then, but I'd prefer to be hiking or just outside anyway so I don't see that being an issue.  Now we just need some friends to meet up with there!