After bath......

Last post of the day! Can you tell I just recently downloaded pictures, so I couldn't resist posting some of these cute ones as well!

Again Happy Wednesday!!

Bruiser and big girl!

After spending a few days out of town with our staff team at conference we come home and found this.........
Nice shiner isn't it! Her brother (as my mom didn't actually witness the incident) used a golf club to give this nice eye color to his sister...poor thing!

Baby girl is in motion! Found her lately up on her knees, she also is doing in the crib as she pulls herself up holding onto the rails.
Then after leaving the room and instantly re-entering I found the below...........

oh my!! Ready or not, mobile days are ahead to make this household of 5 A.LOT crazier!!!!!!

Tea Party

I think the pictures say it all! Happy Wednesday!!

9 Months of Mary Etta

Well, once again I'm over a week late updating how our girl, is once again, another month older! I cannot slow this down and I know in what feels like seconds we'll be celebrating her first birthday! I thought for grandparents and just my own documentation (by #3 it's harder and harder to make sure you are keeping up with "everything" about your youngest baby for sure!!) So here are 9 things we know and LOVE about our Mary Etta.......

1) She may be #3--and does appear as a sweet and easy baby to some, but she's not always "go with the flow" as you would expect a 3rd child to be.
2) She has 2 teeth (middle, bottom ones) and I think appears to be the most affected by teething---and I know this is normal for most parents, but I don't think I ever "experienced" teething with the first 2. They were just happy-go-lucky and it never affected their sleep. She naps and sleeps well at night more than not...but on her off cycles I can only gather it must be teething???? But how does one ever know?!
3) She LOVES her brother and sister! This is so fun about having older children is watching the baby just get so excited to see the older ones and really enjoy interacting with them daily! It truly is the sweetest thing!
4) Cuddler; yes she is a cuddler--which I so love! Not that I can hold and cuddle her all day long--I have 3 children 3 and under! So I savor when she wants to and really can't get enough of it!
5) She absolutely loves her Jumper!! A friend loaned me one this time around (I really don't know why I haven't ever bought one before now) but it excites her so much to jump and bounce---I hope no PTs and OTs will tell me this is horrible for bone/muscle development?!
6) Crawling---oh I believe we are on our way to a very mobile household! Not that it wasn't already active and mobile around here....but in the past week she is beginning to move forward with more and more "steps" (well hand movements forward--as before she was just sometimes sliding herself backwards). She is moving towards objects (slowly) she wants....here we go!!!
7) Fingerfeeding--Mary Etta loves to feed herself. I sometimes think she started quicker than the other two, or maybe I just forgot that was something do and then when I remembered she already was motor ready to do it?! I guess you do that with #3. Breads, avocados, bananas, puffs, mum mums......anything soft and mushy---she's ready to do it!
8) Stroller rides---we've found in the evenings (often all babies fussy times) now that it's warm if we take family walks she is so happy! Great way for us all to end then day!
9) Still the sweetest, smiliest, and best baby girl (as equal as her spunky big sis :)! We love her oh so much!! And to think I was freaking out about a year and a half ago when I found out I was pregnant (as Emmie was just 5 months old at the time)....but we sure can't imagine our family without her! The Lord has blessed us abundantly...so much more than we deserve! I'm in awe at His goodness and mercy upon our family!

First bike!

Look at him go!

Casey decided it was time for our big boy to get his first bike! So he here is so proud and doing so well on it! He just looks so big to me! I can't believe our little guy is 3 1/2 years old now!

So proud!

Sisters

Last of my 3 "Easter" posts for the day! I just love these pictures of the girls so I had to make a separate post for just them!

So as most of you know I have worked and worked and WORKED on these dresses for the girls! Last spring I took a smocking and bishop dress class, and some of you may remember the dress I made for EC last Easter. So last summer before Mary Etta was born I thought I'd try another one, for the sake of practice and putting my skills to use without being in the class. Well, I did it, but got very frustrated in the process. My notes weren't as good as they should have been, and I did manage to put the dress together with a few "add-ons" of my own. Though no one would really see them unless they knew how to sew a bishop and inspected my dress. So seriously after all that what was I thinking trying it again....but yet I wanted to see if a year later I could indeed do it again. I did, and again made many mistakes. So here they are in all their glory I suppose. I know I say this every time, but I don't know if I can/will do it again. I really do enjoy the smocking part, but the assembly of the dress itself has some tricky parts---so I either need another class to take better notes or just some more one-on-one instruction in person and not on the phone!

Always my little ham!

Easter morning

The Easter buckets! Full of goodies and treats! Thanks for our adorable buckets Gigi, we love them!

Daddy and his girl

My two favorite men!


Happy Easter! Hope you all had a wonderful Easter celebrating our risen Lord and Savior!

The hunt

Sunday after church, and after our lunch, we headed over with some friends for an Easter Egg hunt. What I realized maybe 10 minutes into the hunt.....way too much and too long of a day for a not quite 2-year-old, and infant! We were supposed to have dessert after the hunt, but needless to say it was very much time to head home for late afternoon naps! But at least they got to go on an official "egg hunt" besides our many in the house and backyard the past couple weeks! And for next year we definitely need to do one Friday or Saturday BEFORE Easter, so we can enjoy and rest more on Easter.

I think she bucketed a total of 4 or 5 eggs while all the other kids found the rest. She had to stop and look inside each one to take out what was in them. And many had chocolate which was melting.....so unusual to have such a warm and sunny Easter for us! But it was wonderful!

Reed actually gathered more than his sister!

Someone having her meltdown as the kid group picture was the end of the afternoon for her! So off home we went!

8 months old

It's been well over 2 weeks ago now that our girl turned 8 months old, sigh. I still can't believe we are here; seems like just yesterday we were preparing for Easter with my 10 month old Emmie and Reed and pregnant, and now I have this 8 month old! I wanted just to remember here some fun things she's began doing this past month!

• officially in 7-8 month weaned the swaddle blanket! I never imagined one of my children LOVING swaddling so much as she has! But we have moved on to sleep sacks, and she really rolls all directions so ends up lots on her belly or side to sleep!
• she has used a cup! she mostly chews on the spout, but i have seen her hold it and actually drink some water from it. such a big girl!
• lots and lots of babbling! dada, mama, baba, lala--so fun!
• had 2 bottom teeth come in!
• eating so many fruits and veggies, and even some finger foods--love rice mumums, puffs and even tiny bites of bread!
• sitting up all by herself, and loves playing on the floor with toys
  

Mary Etta you are the sweetest baby and such a joy in our lives! How blessed we are to have you and thankful for you each and every day as I see that sweet, precious smile looking up at me! We love you so much baby girl!

Friends and Eggs

Last week we went to go visit some friends and have lunch with them. Mary Etta and Drew are just about 3 months apart. They basically just stared at each other, but I thought it looked like in the first picture (though funny face expression) she is trying to hold his hand. I think us 4 parents would approve of an arranged marriage between the Hardins and the Willis families---they are on our staff team, so we think that could work out just perfect!

We had fun dying eggs this year.