These Days

These days we're staying busy but doing really well!  I just did an 6 year Emily post so this one will be mostly about her sisters...

I got this fun picture of Abby's biggest smile to date and her first smile on camera.  Hannah had asked to hold Abby and since Hannah looked so cute in her tutu and pigtails I thought I would get a picture of them.  Abby had been smiling some, but never this big. Abs was 6 weeks old in this picture.   

During nap time one day Hannah walked out of her room to say "I'm doing a great job staying in my room am I?!"  She replaces "aren't" with "am" almost every time.  She also replaces "do" with "did." She'll say "Did she did that by herself?"  

Bert was leaving for work the other morning and told Claire he loved her.  She had a big smile on her face and said "No, I love Mommy."  She often says the same thing to me when I tell her I love her, saying "No, I love Daddy" with a big smile.  She cracks herself up and it's so cute to see her joking with us.  

One day last week Claire was at the breakfast table and said "My Mimi, you Papa....pretend."  I was impressed she knew what the word pretend meant.  For several hours that morning she corrected me if I called her Claire, she would say "my Mimi."  Ha!  

Claire and I get some snuggle time in the morning when her big sisters are in school (H goes to school Mon and Tues morning) and Abby takes a nap.  

We've had a couple visits from some friends from church.  Jan and Sherry (next two pictures) braved the flu exposed house to keep Emily, Hannah and Claire for us while I was in labor with Abby.  At that point we didn't know if anyone else in our family was going to come down with flu and I was soooo worried about Jan or Sherry getting it, but they insisted they wanted to help and took different shifts keeping the girls.  And it was such a huge help!  Both of these ladies love our family so well!  I can always call either one if I need to take one child to an appointment and don't want to take the others. They're always happy to help! 

Jan (we call her Grangy like her grandchildren and lots of others in our church do) is in the picture below.  She was a labor and delivery nurse at the hospital for years and years where we delivered and she worked with two of our nurses that we had during our stay.  Both nurses were so excited when they found out that Jan was keeping our other girls.  They both couldn't say enough nice things about her; it was no surprise to us though, our family thinks she's great!  

Sherry and her husband Bob love us so well too!  She's always happy to help babysit when she's available and they bless us by doing things like going to Costco and buying us a huge thing of paper towels, diapers, etc..  A person probably shouldn't get so excited about paper towels, but I do....we go through soooo many around here.:)  

One afternoon last week she came by to meet our little Abby Doodle and bake cookies with her sisters.  She had promised that she would do that when she was keeping them the last time and hadn't forgotten.  We enjoyed our visit and the cookies! 

Last Sunday when we were getting ready for church I thought I would dress all three of the big girls alike in some cute matching dresses I have for them.  Emily was excited about it but Hannah ab-so-lutely refused.  She didn't want to match her sisters, she wanted to wear a "different dress."  I ended up letting her wear a different dress and letting E and C match.  When we got to church she proudly told everybody she saw that "I didn't want to match my sisters, I wanted to wear a different dress."  Later that day I texted my sister and told her the story and asked her if it reminded her of herself.  She replied with "that's my girl!!:)"  We love our independent second child!!  

I pump and we give Abby a bottle once every other day so that hopefully she will not start rejecting the bottle.  I love nursing her, but it is very freeing to know that she will take a bottle if I need/want her to.  Bert usually feeds her the bottle but one day last week he wasn't here when it was time so I did it.  I couldn't quit staring at her little hands holding the bottle. They just look so tiny and sweet.  

When Claire has finished all the drink in her sippy cup she brings it to me and says "it not working."  

Hannah doesn't nap often, maybe once every week or two, but she has rest time in her room every day with books and puzzles.  This day she gave in and and I just thought she looked precious with her big poofy Anna dress, cute pink shoes and her hands under her face.  Sweet baby girl.  

When I was changing a particularly smelly diaper of Claire's she said "Dat not nummy." She says "nummy" for yummy, and I hope she does it for a long time.  

Claire has stopped her stuttering and I haven't heard her do it in a couple weeks.  

Hannah walked out of her room during "rest time" and said "Aren't I beautiful?!?!?! I think I'm going to wear this forever."  This child loooooooves skirts and dresses.  And she wore it for about 20 minutes.  She also loves to change clothes.  

These days are busy but sweet, messy but beautiful, and we're thankful for them!

Enjoying Spring

This past weekend was so beautiful, so Bert and I decided we had to go do something outside on Saturday afternoon.  Most of the time when we decide that we head to Falls Park or downtown Greenville because it's just so beautiful and we just love being down there, but this day we decided to switch things up and headed up to Travelers Rest.  

We started out with a walk down the Swamp Rabbit Trail.  There were a lot of bikers on the trail that day so we had to keep the girls really close.  

Emily asked to have her picture taken in front of this golfer-statue-thing.  She's decided she wants to learn how to play golf.  Her Uncle Stanley is getting her a couple clubs (cutting off some old ones he doesn't use anymore) and he and Bert and going to "teach" her how to play while we're at the beach this summer.  She's excited!  

After our walk was stopped by an ice cream shop.  Emily and Hannah both requested cones instead of cups for the first time.  They were a little messy, but thoroughly enjoyed their ice cream.   

I loved this picture of Hannah just admiring her ice cream before she took her first bite.  

  

Abby is seriously sooooo laid back.  She let us enjoy our walk and our ice cream, even though it was getting close to her feeding time.  She was watching and listening to Hannah in the picture below.  

After that we headed over to a local park and I nursed Abby in the car while Bert let the big girls play on the playground.  Claire did this slide about 224 times.  She loved it, but it was super fast and Bert had to stand at the bottom to catch her or she would have hit the ground every single time.  

I love the carefree-ness (is that a word?) you can see on her face and the ice cream stains all down her shirt.  That's how you know good times were had.  :)  

Loving being outside with our girls this Spring!

Emily - 6 years old

Emily turned 6 years old on April 8th.   I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday...It's hard to believe she's already 6! It's so much fun having a 6 year old! She's getting more and more independent and it is so fun to watch her learn new things (especially learning to read).  She is doing so well, working so hard and we are so proud of our baby girl.

A few things I treasure about my 6 year old:  
-She wants long hair so bad. (It's currently down below her shoulders.)  She says she wants to grow it out to her feet. Ha!
-She doesn't love to play outside (or anywhere really) by herself. The other day she started to go outside, but quickly came back in when she realized her sisters weren't out there anymore.  I told her she could go out without them and she gave me a very confused look and said "But who will I play with?!?!"
-She's in Ms. Powell's class in Kindergarten this year and having such a great year.
-She loves to ride her bike, but still uses training wheels.  We're hoping to try to teach her without training wheels this summer.  She also loves to swing and ride her scooter.
-She likes to watch the Brady Bunch from 7 - 7:30 in the mornings while she is waking up and eating her breakfast before school. She gets so excited about it and thinks it is so fun that Bert and I used to watch it when we were kids.
-She's also in her second year of dance class and loving that too!  She gets excited about going each week.
-Emily loves to be with people--she's our little social butterfly. She loooooves to play with her friends at school, on play dates or a church.
-Our biggest disagreements are over clothes.  It was warm for a few weeks and then it got cool again for several weeks during late March.  It was difficult for her to understand why she needed to wear pants when she had all these cute summer clothes in her closet.  This sounds like no big deal but the struggle was real.
-She is very creative and loves to do art projects, color and draw.
-She thought of making a leash for stuffed animal the other day and she just used tape, paper, and scissors.  It was an impressive leash....I couldn't have done better myself.
-When she gets nervous about something her stomach will hurt.
-She is very precocious.  I had someone else mention to me last weekend that she talks/acts like a little adult.
-She started having trouble with eczema about 6 months ago.  She's had 3 flare ups in that time.  We're working to trying to get it under control.  It's mostly on both of her upper legs although it sometimes shows up on her torso.
-She goes to bed between 7:30 and 8 on school nights and wakes up a little before 7am.
-She is very responsible and we can trust her to let us know if her sisters are doing something they shouldn't be.  This is helpful, but there's a fine line between that and tattle-telling.  We're working on helping her to know the difference.
-She is a great eater.  She eats most anything we give her, fairly quickly (especially compared to her sister Hannah) and without complaining.  She's not a big sweets lover.  She'll eat them, but she can take it or leave it.
-Emily looooves to listen to Toby Mac.  Her favorite song is "Backseat Driver" and she (and Hannah) request it at least once a day.  There is this one part where Toby just really belts out "Yeahhhhhhhh" with voice inflections (typing it out is obviously not doing it justice)....it lasts for about 3 or 4 seconds.  Anyway, that is her favorite part of the song and when we get to that part Emily literally lets loose.  She throws her head back, closes her eyes and belts out those "yeah's" SO loud--and on key I might add.  It's makes me smile so big every time.
-A few days ago she came home from school with this to say to Bert: "Dad, did you know today is earth day?!?!?!?!  From now on we are not going to throw away ANYTHING, we are going to reuse EVERYTHING!!"
-She doesn't have many words that she mispronounces anymore....she's kind of out of that stage, but she says immediantly instead of immediately.
-Emily couldn't decide what to wear to school one morning and she really needed to go so I picked something out for her.  It was a cute shorts and shirt outfit.  She didn't want to wear it and said "I don't like shorts, noooooo one wears shorts mom.  I will be the only one in the whole school wearing shorts."  *It was supposed to be about 87 degrees that day and I highly doubt she was the only one wearing shorts.  :)
-She loves to make cards for people and is very thoughtful.
-We probably call her "Emmy" about as much as we call her Emily, especially when we are at home.  She also gets called "Lou" a lot, from calling her "Emmy-Lou" when she was younger.
-She has very good handwriting and loves to write.  I love to see her sound out words and just write the word how she thinks it is spelled.

Interview with our 6 year old: 
What is your name?  Emily
How old are you? 6
Where do you live? Greenville
What is your favorite color?  Pink, P-I-N-K
What is your favorite toy?  Bunny
What is your favorite food?  This is hard, cherry.
What is your favorite drink?  This is hard, pineapple drink. (What?)
What is your favorite things to do ?  Go outside to recess and play with my friends.
What do you want to be when you grow up?  A nurse, not a doctor.  Like a nurse that works at a hospital.
Who is your teacher?  Ms Powell and Mrs. Merritt
Who is your best friend?  Ella (friend from school)
What is your favorite song?  This Snow White song that I like 
What is your favorite book?  The Fancy Nancy books
What is your favorite movie?  Dora Saves the Mermaids
Who is the funniest person you know?  Mommy
Where is your favorite place to go?  Going to the park with the green and the white slides
What does your Mommy always say to you?  I love you.
What does your Daddy always say to you?  I love you.

We DO love you, Emily Jean Watts!  You are beautiful inside and out. You are such a fun person to be around and you are a gift and blessing to Team Watts!

Emily's 6th and My 33rd

What better way to kick off your birthday week than with an ice cream cake?!  We decided that my mom would get a different cake for us this year for our birthday dinner on Friday night, but I was not about to let my birthday slip by without getting an ice cream cake, so I decided we would just go get one on Monday and enjoy it all week.  And that's just what we did.  

Emily and I had a great birthday week and felt very loved the entire week.  On Thursday (my birthday) Bert went by Ingles on the way home for lunch and bought me an Ingles salad.  I LOVE salad and especially an Ingles salad....they have the best salad bar, but I definitely can't do it often because it is quite pricey the way I load up my salad.  It was a fun birthday surprise.  Then Bert and the girls went in the office after he got home from work that afternoon and they worked so hard on making cards for me.  After dinner they gave me their gifts and cards.  It was a fun night! They made me smile over and over!  

Emily was so excited about her birthday falling on a school day so that she could celebrate with her friends on her actual day.  On Friday Bert went to school and ate lunch with her and then I took strawberry cupcakes to her class that afternoon.  In the picture below she was listening to her friends and teachers sing happy birthday! 

She wanted to wear a "dress from her closet" (also known as a church dress), she wanted her hair in a pony tail, and had a specific bow picked out for her birthday at school.  

The other day she wrote a word that had a p-h in it.  I was surprised that she had spelled it correctly because the word made the "f" sound.  I told her I was impressed and asked her how she knew how to spell that particular word.  She shrugged and said "Sophia has a p-h in her name it makes the same sound."  We love having a little reader.  

Emily with her friend Sophia.  

Emily loves that our birthdays are so close together.  She's tells everyone that we have "twin birthdays!!"  She was so excited about having a joint family party this year and said a couple times "We've never had a birthday party together, Mama!!"   

Here's our little 6 year old.  

It's gone by so fast, but it's so fun having a 6 year old!  I love this new phase.  

We played some fun games during the party.  One of the games was a nature scavenger hunt.  Emily and I were on a team, Papa Stan and Hannah, and Bert and Claire.  The birthday girls won this game, although Bert thought we were a little too liberal in a few of our picks (for example, the scavenger hunt sheet said to find a pine cone and we couldn't so we used a sweet gum ball instead). Ha...he was probably right.:)  

We also played "Mother May I" and Freeze Tag. We had a great time!  

This is what Abby did during a lot the party.  She was out.  

We had such a yummy dinner provided by Mimi and Papa Stan!  Bert was the grill master and our salmon was unbelievable, although our kids didn't totally appreciate it.  Bert and I decided next time we'd get salmon for us and get them hotdogs.  Win, win for everyone.  

After dinner we opened some presents and Emily had help from her sisters as usual.  Her number one request this year was chewing gum. She didn't even specify what kind.  We definitely made that happen along with a few other "bigger" items.  

Abby decided to wake up and join in the fun.  Cutie.

This was the yummy cake that Mimi had made for us... I think it's called a "Reece's Peanut Butter Explosion"!  I may not have the name exactly right but you get the idea....it was as good as it looks!  

Birthday party people.  

It was a small and low key family party, but that's kind of what you need when you have a 5-week-old.  It was perfect for us.  Emily and I both felt very loved and celebrated!!  I love sharing a birthday week with you, Emmy!  

Abby - 1 month

Abby had her 1 month checkup on Wednesday and she got a great report! She weighed 11 lbs 4 oz and was in the 90th percentile for her weight.  She was 21.5 inches and in the 54th percentile for her height.  She held onto her umbilical cord for dear life and kept it for 5 1/2 weeks. It came off when I took off her clothes to change her diaper at the doctor's office at this 1-month checkup.  My doctor said the longest she's every heard of a baby keeping it is 7 weeks, and I appreciate her not breaking that record. I was excited to see that thing gone!  

A few things that I am treasuring about my 1 month old....

-She is SUCH a laid back baby.  

-She has a small fussy time from about 9-10ish or so at night, but as long as you are holding her while standing up she is usually good to go. 

-All of our girls have been good sleepers but Abby wins the award.  She is now sleeping 8 hours a night, but she started sleeping 7 hours a  night by 4 weeks old.  She decided she liked getting 7-8 hours a night and hasn't missed a night since.  (Emily started doing this by about 5 weeks, Hannah - 7 weeks and Claire - 8 1/2 weeks).  Go Abby!  

-She's smiling at us some, but not often yet.  

-Hannah has started calling her "Ab."  No one else calls her this and I like that Hannah has her own little nick-name for her baby sister.  Claire still calls her "A'gail" and Emily usually calls her "Abby." 

-She will follow us around the room with her head and eyes.  She's started really paying attention to her family, especially in the last week or so. 

-She doesn't seem to mind tummy time too bad, but she will often just fall asleep after a few minutes of being on her tummy.  

-She sleeps at night in her pack-n-play, swaddled, on her back, with a sound machine on, in our room. She doesn't nap that great in her pack-n-play though.  She's still napping between most every feeding, and naps the best in her swing which is in the living room.  I guess she doesn't want to miss out on anything.  

-She is a jittery little thing when we change her diaper or change her clothes, but this is very normal for newborns and she will outgrow this as her nervous system continues to develop.  

-She nurses 6 times a day.  Usually about every 3 hours during the day. 

-She will take a bottle and we try to give her a bottle about once every other day so that she will stay familiar with it and not reject it like her sisters, Claire and Hannah.  

Happy 1 month, Abby Kate!!! You are loved!

Abby's Newborn Photo Sessions

Libby Wright took Abby's newborn pictures for us.  She did such a great job and we are so thankful to have them! 

Watts, party of 6.  

Our 4 girls, 5 years old and under (at least, they were when we took these pictures....Emily is now 6).

I love this picture.  Claire looks like she is being traumatized by having Abby plopped into her lap.  

Bert and I know all to well how fast this newborn phase passes.  We're soaking up our snuggles and thanking the One who made her.  Abby is the absolute perfect addition to our family, and we're so thankful for her!