smilin' girl

here's a little video of hallie "talking" tonite. she was so happy and chatty before bedtime! pardon the shaky video-- i was trying to hold the camera away from my face so she'd smile at me.


i ended the video when i did because i wanted to snap a picture of her smiling so big... but of course, i couldn't capture it. it's amazing how she can be so smiley one minute, but as soon as i pull out that big ole' camera, she's done. i did manage to take a screen shot of the video... not great quality, but you sure can see my girl and her smile. :)


i saw this smile this morning at 7 AM after hallie slept twelve hours! she woke me up with her giggling and talking-- such a pleasant way to wake up!

red, white, and belated!

well july is just a flyin' by! seems like we were just celebrating our country's independence the other day... but it was almost two weeks go! can someone just please slow this summer down a little? i didn't take a ton of pictures this 4th of july, but i did manage to snap a few in between relaxing and letting brian have the camera for his technical-on-the-tripod-fireworks pictures.

our children are not hurting for patriotic clothing. (it seems like just yesterday that these cousins were this little...)

i love how amelia always runs to get in their pictures :) she is not bothered in the least by the fact that she is not matching them or that she is the little one...


so i saw this cake on one of my favorite recipe blogs, and i thought that'd be fun to make for the 4th. my sweet mother agreed to "help me"... in other words, she agreed to cut the layers and completely ice the cake for me. my contribution was periodically testing her amazing almond buttercream icing to make sure it was indeed still amazing. it was. anyway, she did a fabulous job, and the kids were quite excited to see the plain white cake turn into a flag...


it got a little messy when we were slicing because we were trying to cut little slivers for the kids... we should've just given them big honkin' pieces so that the pictures would've turned out better! but you get the general idea...


after our cookout and dessert, we headed down the street to watch the fireworks. what did we ever do before our sit-n-stand stroller?!


brian's brother and dad went down a little early to find a spot and set up all the chairs... well, we got down there, and brian's mom and i both vetoed their set-up because it was behind a ditch, and we were sure we'd get eaten alive by mosquitoes. so we set up a little more to the left, and as soon as the fireworks started, we realized they would not be high enough to clear the trees. so we enjoyed the show with the tops of the trees in the way. (hence, no perfect fireworks pictures making it on the blog this year.) so jeff and neil, for the record, YOU WERE RIGHT! here we all are, just waiting for the show of lit-up trees to start...


right when the show was about to start, we saw some familiar faces walking toward us! ethan's buddy, drew, from classical conversations and his family were setting up right next to us! it was great to see them!


we failed to have a radio playing all the patriotic music this year, and we realized that the music really adds a lot to the show. kristie and i belted out our version of "God bless the USA", but it just wasn't the same. so the kids were not frozen in awe of the fireworks like they usually are... but they kept themselves entertained with pop-its...


(did you know that those things also make a great prank? put a couple of them under a toilet seat and wait to surprise your next potty guest... or so i've heard.)

amelia loved waving this thing around in our faces while we tried to watch the fireworks light up the trees... you can tell this was just a memorable experience. :)


gram and nana with their grandson!


i meant to get a picture of hallie sitting with pappy to watch the fireworks, but i got distracted and forgot. so here i am with my little butterball on her first 4th of july.


hope you all had a wonderful 4th!

hallie is 2 months old!

it's amazing to see and experience the changes in a baby in one short little month. since the beginning of june until now, hallie has gone from just beginning to sleep consistently to (praise the Lord!) now sleeping 9 or 10 hours at night and taking several good naps during the day. sleep is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

hallie's baby acne is finally gone, and she still has a good head of hair. i think she has lost a little of her hair, but her brother and sisters were almost bald by this point... so i wonder if she'll just start growing more now or if she's just late in losing her hair.

hallie sure is smiling and cooing now. it's so precious to see her smile when she hears her sisters' voices or sees them in front of her (especially caroline). i have yet to really capture her big smile on camera... but i almost caught it here.


and then i panned over to the right to snap a shot of her entertainment... how could you not smile at these two silly things?! :)


they sure do love their baby sister. they have not stopped marveling over her every time she gives them a huge grin or "talks" to them.

here is hallie with her three biggest fans...


her "floppy airway" still makes hallie quite a squeaky baby, but i think the squeakiness is getting quieter and not so often. her doctor said the cartilage would harden by 6 months or so, so maybe it's beginning to harden. (i probably learned about this during grad school, but umm... 10 years and 4 babies later, no recollection!) it has also been at least a couple of weeks since she's gotten choked up during nursing (and then losing her lunch all over me!), which i think is related to the squeakiness...in my--ahem--professional opinion! all that to say, my baby's growin' up, not throwin' up!

(updated 7/11/12: we just got home from hallie's check-up, and the doctor said the technical term for her "floppy airway" is tracheomalacia. it goes away when you put her on her tummy... interesting! her projectile vomiting has nothing to do with the tracheomalacia. just in case y'all were wondering. and it may be a year or 15 months before it goes away. so why did he tell me 6 months before??)

ok, moving on... hallie has found her thumb, as i mentioned recently. this is a monumental occasion in our family. our kids are apparently wired to be thumbsuckers-- we could see their hands by their faces in almost all their sonograms. and frankly, it's fine with me! i have nothing against pacifiers, but my babies usually don't care for one once they've found their thumb. the perk of the thumb? it is always available and ready for soothing. i can't guarantee its level of sanitariness (is that a word?), but i never have to run out to walmart at midnight to buy another thumb! i agree that ridding a child of a pacifier is probably much easier than stopping thumb sucking, but that's really not my concern with a 2-month-old. so just let me enjoy my baby enjoying her thumb! :)

besides thumbsucking, hallie's favorite pasttimes right now are watching the ceiling fan and swatting at her toys in her gym. a quick poll: have any of you had a baby who did not lovingly gaze at a ceiling fan? just curious because my babies have all loved their friend the fan.

this past month, hallie had her first trip to the beach and first out of town trip to see family. here she is with two of brian's precious aunts.


with two months under our belt, i'd say that we are in a pretty good routine with hallie at home. the kids do their best to be quiet while she's napping, and she is the center of their attention when she's awake. some days she requires more attention than others, and we just go with it. some days we get some (catch-up) school work done, and some days we don't. some days i get some house work done, and some days i don't. i usually don't accomplish a lot of both in one day! but what is always guaranteed is a busy home full of little people learning how to love each other and their Lord... and lots of snuggles from this scrumptious doll! God is good!


now that hallie is sleeping so wonderfully, i can move on to other goals... like taking more pictures and video of her and bathing her more often. yes, such is life with the 4th child!! (and seriously, is she really all that dirty? well, she is definitely the least dirty member of this household!) i really will be back soon with pictures from ethan's birthday and the 4th of july!

happy 4th!

happy fourth of july from our little firecracker!! (hopefully this will make up for the mad baby picture.)


if the rain will stop, we are planning on having a family cookout and a short walk down to the fireworks tonite! the big kids stayed at nana and pappy's last night, and they watched the parade this morning. nana snapped this picture with her iphone after the parade...


i guess they're sort of having a good time! (note that amelia already has a popsicle in hand at 10:45 AM!)

be back soon with birthday and fireworks pictures!

july is here!

hallie looks a little upset about saying good-bye to june, but don't worry... she was just a little hot and tired. while i much prefer happy baby pictures, i must say that there is something strangely cute about mad baby pictures. please tell me i'm not alone!

before i start getting hate mail from all the grandmas out there for posting a picture of my baby screaming, here is a happier hallie less than a minute later...


and here's what helps hallie be such a happy baby.... the thumb! yay for hallie finding her thumb!!!


i love these silly kiddos! doesn't it look like hallie is intentionally being goofy?


the beginning of july is a busy time for us! ethan turns 7 years old tomorrow, quickly followed by wednesday's celebration of america's independence. we are looking forward to lots of family time this week! have a great week!