These Days

It's been awhile since I've done a "These Days" post, so some of the pictures in this post are from days in early January and some from last week. Life with four little ones isn't always conducive to blogging!

Emily got the game "Pie Face" for Christmas and we had so much fun playing it as a family.  When it would hit someone in the face the girls thought it was hilarious.  Emily fell in the floor laughing several times.  It was fun to see them have so much fun with it!  

Emily, Hannah and Claire have had SO much fun with their new trampoline!  They're out there on it most days.  They wanted Abs to come jump with them one day and as you can see she enjoyed herself.  

This picture popped up as a facebook memory.  I sent it to Bert and asked him "which kid?" He guessed Emily, which was correct, but I think she looks so much like her sisters did/do at this age.  It also makes me want to shed a little tear that Emily's almost 7. It goes by unbelievably fast.  

Abby likes walking around the house holding things in her hands.  She especially loves walking around holding baby dolls these days, sometimes they're about as big as she is.  

One of Emily's homework assignments was to write her word wall words in shaving cream.  Hannah and Claire definitely wanted in on that action!

"Will you take my picture with Abby?"  

The static has taken over around here.  The girls thought their hair was sooo funny!  

The night of the National Championship I wore my Clemson socks, orange leggings and my Clemson t-shirt.  I walked out of the bedroom and Claire said "Mommy, you match!!!"  Ha!  I obviously wouldn't have worn this outfit in public but I needed to be wearing as much orange as possible to help my Tigers pull out a win, which they did!  It was SUCH a fun game to watch!  Bert fell asleep during the 3rd quarter, but I woke him up during the 4th when it started getting exciting.  We were cheering and jumping all over the living room.  Thankfully the kids are hard sleepers once they are asleep.  

Just this year Emily has decided she is a big Clemson fan.  She talks about Clemson often and really wanted them to win the championship.  We let her watch some of the 1st quarter before we put her to bed.  She wore her Clemson t-shirt to bed that night so that she could cheer them on in her sleep.  The next morning I was nursing Abby when she woke up, so Bert had them go ahead and start their breakfast.  When I finished feeding Abby, Bert let me tell Em that Clemson won as he caught her reaction.  You can't hear her yell in this picture, but you can probably imagine it.  So precious!  

Snuggling with 3 of my babies.  They make me happy.  

Emily had a couple birthday parties to go to a few weekends ago.  She was so excited about the gifts we bought for her friends and wanted to write them all a sweet card.  She went to the trampoline and wrote each of her 3 friends a note like the one below and each note was so thoughtful and different.  

I let the girls paint my nails during one of Abby's morning naps.  Emily painted the first hand and I'm not sure I could have done a better job myself.  

Then it was Hannah's turn and she also did a great job!  

Claire painted my toenails on my left foot and it was so funny.  She was slinging that brush all over my toes and had paint everywhere.  When I took this picture she was only about 1/3 of the way finished with my foot so you can imagine how it looked when she was finished.  

Hannah still asks to hold Abby very regularly.  She also wants to help feed her baby food, play with her, or just keep an eye on her.  

They had "crazy hat night" at Awana one Wednesday and Emily wanted to make her own hat.  She had some help from her Daddy but she did a lot of it herself, and was proud of her creation.  

We had our annual Clemson girls weekend over MLK weekend.  It was so much fun to catch up with everyone and just spend time together.  Our yearly trip had been planned for MLK weekend for months, but it just happened to fall on the weekend after Clemson won the national championship. Clemson put on a huge celebration for the team and fans on Saturday morning and we were able to go to it since we were just staying 15 minutes away from Clemson.  It was so much fun to be there! 

 Angela and Tifany were actually with us this weekend too, but they weren't in the picture below.

Four of us out of the eleven had had babies in the last year and we were all pumping.  It was a running joke for someone to say "I've got to go pump."  Ha!  

Besides pumping, we also did a whole lot of sitting and a whole lot of talking and it was wonderful!  So thankful for their friendships!  

Bert and I have actually gotten to go on two pastors/wives retreats over the last two months with our local association of churches.  They were both just 24 hour trips, but so helpful and practical. Mom came up both times to keep the girls for the night.  We were so thankful we were able to go.  

Emily dressed up as a 100 year old on the 100th day of school.  We had to use a LOT of baby powder to get her blonde hair to look gray.  

One day I walked into the playroom and found Claire curled up in the chair feeding her baby.  I thought she looked so precious I had to run get my phone and amazingly enough she actually stayed in the exact same position.  

This sweet nugget turned 11 months on Feb 6th.  She's eating more solids, but has figured out that she can reject some of the veggies I've been giving her at supper.  She pushes them out of her mouth as fast as the spoon touches her tongue.  She's sleeping a little later these days.  Still goes to bed about 8 pm and sleeps until around 7:30.  Takes 2 naps a day.  Sleeps with a lovie.  Loves her bath and being with her sisters. Just before she turned 11 months I had to switch her to bottles because my milk supply took a nose dive.  I am still pumping throughout the day and I give her what I pump but we are having supplement with formula, big time.  She usually gets one bottle of breastmilk a day and the other 3 bottles are formula.  In just a few weeks we'll switch her to whole milk, but I wanted to keep giving he what breastmilk I had left for the next month or so to try to protect her against some of the sicknesses going around.  She's still having issues with a clogged tear duct on her right eye and they have decided to refer us to a pediatric ophthalmologist to talk about possibly probing that eye.  They'll have to put her to sleep so Bert and I will hate that, but it also breaks our heart when she wakes up and her eye is stuck together, so we'll happily have it done if he thinks it is time.  This year has flown by.  We couldn't be more thankful for this sweet baby of ours. 

I got to go to Hannah's Valentine's party at her school and I enjoyed it so much!  She introduced me to all her friends (again) and then we got to go out to the playground and she showed me all the slides she likes to play on.  She was precious and I loved getting to spend that one on one time with her! 

Hannah passing out her Valentine's to her friends!  She worked hard on them and was really excited to give them out.  

Emily won a Terrific Kid award again this year.  Each quarter a girl and a boy from each class get the award.  She was the girl for the second quarter in Mrs. Poe's class.  

Team Watts was there with bells on to cheer on Emily!  Emily's program started at the exact time Hannah is supposed to be at preschool, so we had to take her a few minutes late that day so that Bert and I could both be there.  

Mimi bought our family and Katherine's family tickets to the circus several months ago.  We were literally on the front row....such amazing seats!  

One of the acts made Em a little nervous and I caught her peeking through her fingers.  Cutie! 

This sweet thing curled up in my lap and fell asleep for a good portion of the first half.  She doesn't like taking naps these days and as long as she keeps moving she doesn't usually fall asleep but if she is still too long she's out.  Love my sweet 3 year old that thinks she's 6.  

We had such a fun time at the show!  It was so good, and we were especially glad we got to see it since it was the last tour for the Ringling Bros circus.  Afterward we met up with Mimi and Papa and Abby (Mimi was keeping Abby) for dinner to celebrate Brett's birthday.  It was a fun afternoon/evening spending time with family.  

Bert came down with the flu (he did have a flu shot) a couple weeks ago and it was rough.  He had never had it and spent days quarantined inside our room.  We are very thankful no one else got it!  

Claire visited him one morning while he was in quarantine.  He enjoyed seeing her cute face and hearing her talk even if he couldn't hug her.  

When he finally came out after almost 3 days in the room Abby would not let him put her down.  She missed her Daddy.  I DID TOO! Single parenting 4 small kids is no joke.  

Last Sunday afternoon Bert left for a meeting at church and Claire was standing at the storm door looking out at the yard after he left.  I didn't think anything of it and went into the kitchen to fix Abby a bottle.  After just a minute Claire started crying and I went to check on her because I could tell it was a "hurt cry."  I was in shock when I saw what she had done.  After I tried to pull her arm out and realized it wasn't budging AT ALL I started running around trying to find my phone. Her arm was stuck almost halfway between her wrist and elbow.  Thankfully, Bert answered and I told him in a panicked voice that he needed to "COME HOME RIGHT NOW!!"  He said that I said Hannah's arm was stuck...I thought I said Claire, but I was obviously freaked out so I surely wouldn't put it past me to call the kid by the wrong name.  He wasn't quite to the church yet when I called and turned right around and was back home in less than five minutes. As soon as he got home he started taking the door off the hinges and got her arm out in no time.  So thankful God worked it out so that he could get home quickly and get her arm out.  It definitely shook me up, but all was well. Claire is our adventurer.  She likes to push the limits and keep us on our toes even at 3.  And we love her. 

Abby's newest skill is to climb up on and stand in the kids plastic chairs.  Half the time I just have to keep the chairs put up because once she does it she's relentless.  She'll do it 6 times in a row and doesn't care that I tell her "no-no" and pop her hand.  

We've been having beautiful 70 degree weather for several days each week and we're enjoying it so much.  It's technically still winter but it's beginning to feel more like Spring.  Either way, we're enjoying these Winter/Spring days over at the Watts house!