Thursday, November 29, 2007

Soooo Big!

SJ is 3 months old today! She is doing great, thankfully. She's still sleeping in our room (which will probably not be the case next week, since the crib has now been vacated...more about that later) and often serenades us with coos in the early morning. She is a pretty smiley, easygoing baby, as I've heard most 3rd babies tend to be. She certainly has to go with the flow alot more than her big sisters did. Several people have asked me if she's tracking with her sisters as far as size goes, and I finally got out AG's baby book to check that out. I knew it seemed like SJ was getting big so fast, and according to my records that is the case! At SJ's 2 month check-up she weighed 12'10"...which is just 2 ounces less than AG weighed at her 4 month check-up! Now she is over 14 pounds! AG didn't break 14 pounds until she was 6 months old. I am not used to having a plump baby, but those little rolls on her legs are pretty cute, I must admit. Here are some recent pics of our biggest baby girl. Hanging out with Nana at Thanksgiving

Watching the MSU/UM game with PopPop. Doesn't it look like she's flexing her muscles like a body builder? Check out that intensity! (This was at the beginning of the game, before our Bulldogs got their act together and came back to WIN!)

Meeting "Aunt Jess" for the first time!

And finally, another first for us...looks like we have a budding thumb-sucker this time. AG and LL never did this, but just in the last few days SJ has discovered it and it seems to work for her!

Monday, November 19, 2007

Morals and Manners

A few nights ago, T disciplined LL for doing something we'd told her not to do several times over the previous week. He talked with her about how God says children should obey their parents. Soon after that, during supper, LL was apparently still thinking it through. Out of the blue, she said, "God says 'Don't hang on the dishwasher.'"

AG has been telling LL (and me) that we should tell her "thank you" for random things lately. Yesterday she told me I should tell her "thank you" for her calling me to help her finish up her potty-time, if you know what I mean!

LL just brought me the skirt I wore to church yesterday, saying, "It's so cute, Mommy!" I'm glad she thinks so, though it didn't stop her from wiping her nose on it before she handed it over!

*****
I may not post much this week, as we are getting ready for Thanksgiving with family, as I'm sure many of you are! We hope you all have a wonderful holiday with those you love, and may we all be reminded of how much we have to give thanks for every day.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Where It All Began...

On Saturday, Gran and PopPop treated us all with a trip to a place I consider one of the most special in our family's history, since it is where my parents met and where T and I met. And you probably guessed that we went there for a very special event, since it is mid-November and we were all due for a dose of SEC football LIVE AND IN PERSON. We have watched our Bulldogs come a long way since that unfortunate opener against LSU (which we watched in our hospital room since SJ was 1 day old and, yeah, we were probably the only people in the building who would have cheered IF we'd actually had anything to cheer about). But TV can't give you that sensation of truly experiencing game day in the midst of your team's fellow faithful fans, so we had been looking forward to this, hoping we would beat Alabama, and WE WERE NOT DISAPPOINTED! It was a fun game and the girls were troopers through it all.

LL hung out with PopPop most of the time, then ended up in T's lap at a crucial turning point in the game...when we intercepted the ball in Bama's endzone and ran it back for a Bulldog TD! Needless to say there was quite a bit of noise with all the cheering and cowbell ringing, and LL was a little overwhelmed by that, but she made a quick recovery and was soon waving her pompom again. Her summary of the game when she saw her Nana and Grandpa later that night, however, was "It was loud." Here she is with PopPop in a more peaceful moment:



AG and Gran loved every minute of it!

A nice Alabama fan sitting in front of us took this at halftime, at which time SJ was still asleep in the sling I was wearing. This was pretty amazing, since it was right after the big TD which compelled me to scream and jump around as wildly as a sleeping-baby-in-a-sling-wearing mama can.

And here we are in yet another rare whole-family photo. We realized that day that in the last four years, we've gone to three games, and each time another baby girl has been added to our family! It is really special to get to take these little ones back there with us. We have been truly blessed beyond what we imagined when we were there as students!

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

A Weekend Away

We took a little trip "home" over the weekend...something we'd been looking forward to for a long time. It was this little one's first time to go to Nana and Grandpa's house... and we all had a little business we wanted to take care of while we were there... T played golf with his Dad, I got a haircut, and AG and LL spent a lot of time and effort doing their grocery shopping in Nana's pantry (see the picture below!). Plus T and I got to go on a little date to DQ (Thanks to Nana and Grandpa for babysitting, especially for SJ!).
The girls always love to get into the books and games that were T's and Matthew's when they were younger (AG likes to give her Uncle Matthew a run for his money at Memory!), and they also like to check out the box of jewelry that belonged to Nana's mother. This time Nana brought out another fun accessory from years ago that just might have come back into style... If they had a fashion magazine for hip toddlers, don't you think LL could be the covergirl in these?

One more of sweet SJ sitting up, sort of.
We had a great time hanging out at Nana and Grandpa's, but that was not all the weekend held. We made another drive on Saturday to a very special place for a very special event, but I'll leave you in suspense til tomorrow because for now, my pillow is calling my name. Goodnight!

Zoo Crew

Well, I am still catching up on posting photos! Seems we've been doing lots more fun things these last few weeks since T's schedule has opened up. After skipping a few months due to the heat and other major events, we went to the zoo again weekend before last. The girls enjoyed seeing all their old animal friends.

The elephants didn't do their show that morning, but they were swaying side by side when we saw them.
Checking out the "noceros"
A passerby offered to take a picture of all of us as we watched the giraffes. We don't have many of these!
Weeeee! LL loved the fast slides.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Little Mamas

AG started this little pretend game last week and of course LL wanted to do the same thing ("Put the baby in my tummy, Mommy!"). It was a hoot!

Comparing tummies...

Hey! Look at me! I can't see my feet but I can still march and dance just like always!

Who knew this dress had so much growing room?!

BuzzzzBuzzzzGrrrrrr!!!

We all ventured around the block on Halloween night. Here are AG and LL as we were just setting out. LL was cracking me up when I was taking this picture because she couldn't turn her head very well in that costume!

Trick or Treat!!!

Getting pretty good at the routine...

I had to include a view of the bumble bee's little stinger (even though you can't see it very well here)!

Wasting no time getting into the goodies after we got home!

Monday, November 05, 2007

Fall "Festible"

On Wednesday morning we had a treat...we all got to go to the fall festival at AG's preschool. It was really fun to see her in school mode: walking in a line, interacting with classmates and teachers, playing games, doing art projects, singing songs learned in music class, and having a snack in the snack room. And all the precious costumes were just a bonus! T was able to leave work and come by for a while. Here he is with his happy little tiger. (And no, this does not mean that we have already decided where AG is headed for college...sorry Nana! Would you believe this is the first time that even crossed my mind?)
Catching the jumping spider (this is an activity they do in PE with beanbags)...this was fun to watch!

LL had a good time, too, especially when she was released from her stoller and got in on the action.

Here's the bouncing tiger in mid-air!

We got to hear AG's class sing along to several songs they'd been working on in music class. Her teacher told us that AG seems to really like music and gets into the motions. Here's a peek at that:

Two Months

A week ago today SJ was officially two months old. Look how big she's grown!For the record, she was 12 pounds, 10 ounces that morning. And she'd grown a few inches, though I can't remember exactly how many at the moment.

Here she is with her teddy bear from Mimi and PawPaw. These are some of the first smiles I've caught on camera.
She's just as sweet as she looks! Which is a good thing, because we're still having multiple nightly "appointments" at this point. God knows what He's doing by making them so precious and snuggly.
And here she is, displaying her "spicy" side ( I just realized I really should have uploaded the ones where she is screaming in this suit...) in the chili pepper costume she ended up not wearing on Halloween. I was all excited about dressing her up, but then just before we headed out trick-or-treating she needed a nap, and this fleecy suit would have been a bit much since it was pretty warm and she was hidden in the sling anyway! So we played dress up yesterday instead...what cute little pepper!
Doesn't she look like she knows she's "hot stuff"?

Fall Fun

We've been pretty busy this last week, which means lots of good photo ops but not much time to post the results! So, again, I'll be trying to catch up over the next few days. Here are a few just for starters...

The proud big sisters hanging out with SJ
A few days before Halloween T carved this jack-o-lantern with the girls. It was his first, and he did a "great job!" as AG would say. AG was most interested in makng sure it had a forehead, and LL (who was eating supper while T carved) kept asking for some "jack-o-lantern on [her] plate." AG painted the other little pumpkin at school after our pumpkin patch outing.

The Monday before Halloween AG got to wear a costume to dance. She picked out this one from her dress-up clothes instead of wearing her Halloween costume. She said she was wearing "a wedding dress."
We went to a birthday party the day before Halloween and the girls had fun playing with their friends at the park. The weather has been wonderful for the last week... sunny and clear and just the right temperature for playing outside!