4 months old, Christmas Dress & Milestones

Look what Santa brought me!

Gracie turned 4 months last Sunday and I thought I ought to record some milestones and other happenings. She is spitting raspberries and if you do it she will do it back. She laughs out loud often now and without much effort and she loves laughing at the boys. She rolled over from tummy to back the day before her 4 month birthday and she's scooting all around now as you can see in the picture of her under the Christmas tree.

Scott layed her on the floor next to him while he layed on the couch and fell asleep. Well, when I went to check on her I couldn't find her until I looked under the tree. She had scooted all the way around and was facing the other direction and had scooted all the way across the floor until she was all the way under the tree.

Can I just say how much fun it was to buy a Christmas dress this year for my little Gracie. So fun that I did it twice and she ended up with two. Isn't she beautiful? This is her in one of them.

Then I keep seeing all these little girls in tutus everywhere so I decided a few weeks ago that I ought to be able to make one of those so I found a youtube tutorial and made her a little Christmas tutu. I wanted to take her pictures in front of the tree with her tutu and Santa hat on while she sat on a mirror. I took some and Dave took some. Here's a few of my favorite pictures so far.

Family Photo Shoot

So I'm a little behind on the Christmas pictures. I'd almost decided not to do them this year until I found out Dave Palmer was starting to take photos and doing a great job. He readily agreed to do a shoot for us and it was great. We got so many good ones that it was really hard to choose favorites. So beware, the next 20 or so photos are my favorites. That's as narrowed down as I could get with 80 photos to choose from. Gracie started getting tired and fussy towards the end so we didn't get many of her by herself. But we made up for it and she had her own photo shoot this morning. Those photos will be coming soon. Thanks again, Dave! We love them!

Family Home Evening

I have to confess that before we adopted Joey and Jake we were very hit and miss with FHE. It was always just the three of us anyway so we didn't always make time on Mondays. But since we've adopted the boys we've made more of an effort and are having so much fun with FHE now. We've been going strong for a year now and it's fun to have enough family members to rotate jobs and the kids love being in charge of their things.

This was an activity Jackson was in charge of. I had made some playdough that morning so Jackson wanted to use it for our activity. After our lesson I wrote words on pieces of paper and we all took turns drawing a word and then making that word while the others guessed. Jake was so proud of himself but had a very hard time not saying his word out loud each time. He finally got it about the third round because my hand was over his mouth to remind him. :o)


Can you see Joey's & Dad's car? The kids had a hard time guessing this one.

Jake with his sun

Jackson with his camera and of course I'm never in any of the pictures but this is my couch I made.

Gracie's First Hospital Trip

Right after the pictures below were taken Gracie had a very rough time of it. She's had a cold for about 3 weeks but that night Scott gave her a bath and I think it aggravated her ears. She starting crying at 10:00 and didn't stop until after midnight. If you know my baby you know we can go days without ever hearing her cry so to hear her screaming bloody murder for so long was agonizing. We felt so helpless.

We thought it was just a tummy ache at first but after an hour we started to wonder if it was her ears. Papa came over at 11:00 and helped Scott give her a blessing and right afterwards I touched her ear and she screamed. I called the doctor and asked if I could give her tylenol but he said no, she's too young and I need to take her in.

So I packed up and off Gracie and I went to the ER. It was actually a very easy trip. I think we were the only ones there and they took us right back and attended to us very quickly. We were home in an hour with guess what, tylenol and also some eardrops and a prescription for antibiotics if we felt we needed them. They said she was right on the fence between mild and moderate ear infection. With mild they like to treat the pain and let them fight it themselves. Moderate to Severe they usually do antibiotics.

We've opted not to fill the prescription because she's seemed to do much better since our stay. She's still running a bit of a fever but very low grade and it's not affecting her moods or anything. She's back to her happy self and I think she's so glad to feel better. I know mom and dad are glad and I'm just happy to be getting sleep again. Thanks to Penny for rescueing me and having the boys over for a sleepover so I could get some sleep. She's always there for me in a pinch. Love you Aunt Penny! Jake's ready to come again but I'll try to hold him off for awhile.

Because I had to!

So I was just snapping pictures today of my adorable fat baby and had to post them. So here's just cause!

Thanksgiving Pictures

We spent a nice Thanksgiving at my parents house this year. Well, I was very busy this year preparing the meal and holding Gracie while I ate so I had Jackson take pictures for me. This is what I got:

Jackson is Famous

When Scott opened the local paper Wednesday, low and behold there was Jackson on the front page wearing his costume. Someone from the paper must have been at the school parade and snapped a photo unbeknowst to us. I wish they would have found out his name and at least put that in there but we were proud that he was even chosen.

Gracie at Two Months

Well, I'm quite late with this post since Gracie actually turned 2 months on the 14th but I wanted to document it all the same. Her mile stones at 2 months are the usual one's but every parent thinks their child's is the greatest ever. She started recognizing us and smiling all the time. Even giggling at times. She loves to coo and talk to you. She's such a sweetie.

She's also started tummy time and lifting her head. She's actually been able to focus in on a toy and reach for it although it's not a priority for her. She's been trying to roll over too. She lifts her bum up with one leg and pushes off. It shouldn't be long before she's making it all the way over.

Some of my favorite things are when she wakes up and sees me and breaks out into a big grin. And when I've got everyone to bed and Gracie, Scott and I lay on our bed and talk before bedtime. And when I know she's very sleepy but she wont go to sleep until I snuggle up to her. Then she's asleep in moments. I also love when she giggles at her brothers. I think they're going to really be able to make her laugh in a few months. Here are a few pictures of her milestones for the month.

Halloween

We went all out this year and didn't do the usual store bought costumes. We wanted to save money and be creative at the same time.

Jackson wanted to be a headless guy who was carrying his head in a jar and his was by far the hardest we made but was great and everyone said he won first place at school. Joey made the perfect pirate. Nana had a Jack Sparrow wig from Disneyland so we puchased a few props and then I put together his costume with his old church clothes. Jake got the shaft and was a puppy dog which was Joey's costume from last year but he wanted to do it. And sweet Gracie was a little 50's girl. Nana made an awesome poodle skirt complete with rhinestones and black netting coming out the bottom and then I bought a onesie that she put a rhinestone G on and we finished it off with a baby boy's white shirt and black scarf around her neck. She was adorable.

If only my kids could have enjoyed the night. By the time we got to our ward Trunk-or-Treat Joey, Jackson and Gracie were all sick. Joey & Jackson with fever and the last straw that sent us home early was Gracie puking her entire bottle all over her daddy while he was trying to eat his dinner. We ended up having to leave before the trunk-or-treating even started. So now I have a ton of candy that I didn't get to pass out. So it ended as a bummer but they were all still cute. Here's some pictures: