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!