Bikes and Teeth

Emily's had a big week.  She learned to ride a bike without training wheels and lost her first tooth all in the same week.  She's growing up on us! 

We got her a balance bike for her birthday back in April because we had heard that it makes learning to ride a bike without training wheels much easier.  She hadn't attempted to ride without the training wheels before getting the balance bike, so we don't have anything to compare it to, but I do know that she caught on SO quickly.  Bert worked with her at our house two different afternoons for a few minutes each time.  She did some stretches by herself, but we don't have a long enough drive way for her to really get going.  Plus they were having to dodge her sisters.  The quarters were just a little to close, so we decided to head up to the track one night and by the time they had gone half way around the track she had it.  

She wanted Bert to run beside her because she still wasn't comfortable stopping. He got a good workout that night as he did many laps by her side.  

Just before we went home she did a long stretch all by herself and did great!  Go Em! 

This little cutie did lots of laps while Bert was running with Emily and I was pushing Claire in the stroller, while holding Abby in the Ergo.  I loved this picture of her!!

She rode faster and longer than she ever has before....I was proud of her!!

On Monday Emily started saying that her tooth was loose.  It was really loose and on Tuesday and Wednesday Bert tried to pull it but couldn't get a good enough grip on it.  She was scheduled for her regular dentist cleaning on Thursday of that week so when we where there the dentist went ahead and pulled it out.  I LOVE the girls' dentist, by the way.  The girls call her Dr. Mary and her entire staff couldn't be kinder, more competent or more helpful.    

Her permanent tooth has already broken through the skin (it was peeking through before the baby tooth came out), so it won't be long before it fills the spot.

We lost the first of MANY teeth at the Watts house.  Each child looses 20 baby teeth, so we have 79 more teeth to go to be exact.  Sheesh...that is a smidge daunting to me, but I guess practice makes improvement.  I wouldn't be surprised if by the time Abby starts loosing her teeth that Bert just pulls it out with his eyes closed. :)  

Awana

We had our end of the year Awana celebration at church on Wednesday night.  Hannah is in the Cubbies group (which is for 3 and 4 year olds). 

In the picture below Hannah was saying her verse for everyone.  It was Mark 12:30..."Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."  She accidentally said "strength" before "mind" and wanted to start over.  It was precious.  

Hannah missed about a month and a half of Awana when I had Abby.  I couldn't get everyone where they needed to be....I was doing good to get everyone fed and dressed, etc.  When we got back in the swing of things Hannah worked so hard to get all her verses memorized.  Several weeks she memorized 3 verses so that she could get caught up and finish her book. She got this ribbon for finishing her book and we are SO proud of her hard work.  

Emily is in the Sparks group (I believe that goes from Kindergarten through 2nd grade).  

She also worked really hard this year.  She memorized lots of verses and learned all the books of the New Testament.

A couple of the girls said verses for everyone.  In the picture below Emily was saying Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  

Emily and Hannah had a great year!  We are thankful for all these adults who have come alongside us this year in working to teach our kids about the Bible and point them to Christ!

Hannah's Last Day of K-3

Hannah had her last day of K-3 this past week.  She has gone this year on Mondays and Tuesdays from 8:30-11:30 and she's had such a great year!  One of my favorite parts of my day is when I would pick her up from preschool and she would tell me all about all the fun things she did.  

Her class had a picnic with all the parents to celebrate the end of the year.  It was raining that day so we had an indoor picnic on the floor in their classroom.  Hannah had a specific blanket she wanted me to bring, which I brought.  She also wanted me to bring her sisters and told me so many times. They stayed with Mrs. Sherry though so that I could just enjoy the time with my Hannah.  

Mrs. Bradshaw was reading the kids a sweet poem and my cuddly Hannah was getting a hug while she read it.  

Hannah and her friend Camryn!  We heard about Camryn often. :)

Someone passed this dress along to us a month or two ago and it has been Hannah's favorite ever since.  She wanted to wear the pink dress, black tights, and her red jelly shoes on her last day of school.  My sister claims that Jacob couldn't care less what he wears.  I'm happy for her but it's hard for me to fathom because we've got opinions on clothing coming out the wazoo and I don't see that changing any time soon.  #lifewithgirls

Hannah and Mrs, Bradshaw

When we were turning in the neighborhood after leaving her end of the year picnic Hannah burst into tears out of the blue.  I asked her what was wrong and she told me between sobs that she was going to miss Mrs. Bradshaw.  We are so thankful that Hannah had such a wonderful, loving, caring teacher this year!  On to K-4!

These Days

We went to Mimi and Papa's house one weekend in May just to enjoy some different scenery for a bit.  Abby enjoyed her first visit and was a little sweetie pie.  

Mimi and the big girls had a tea party with real tea! Mimi even dressed up for the occasion...fun Mimi!  The girls looooved it!  

I vividly remember my dad saying when Emily was just a newborn that he couldn't wait until she was old enough to take his hand and pull him where she wanted him to go.  When he got home from work on the day we were there I watched her do just that for the thousandth time.  She wanted him to go up to the rock with her.  They were up there talking on the rock for 5 or 10 minutes when I decided I needed a picture of them up there.  

After we got back home, we found Hannah and Claire like this one afternoon.  Hannah was "reading" to Claire!  They may can make a mess in 2 seconds flat but they sure are cute.  

One morning it was time to go get Hannah from preschool and Claire had a bucket full of toys she wanted to bring to the car.  I told her to pick one and lets go.  (I tell her this all the time and she is usually fine.)  This time she decided to pitch a full blown temper tantrum.  The picture below was actually taken AFTER we got back from picking Hannah up.  And she was mad the whole time....who doesn't want to listen to 25-minutes of crying?  Ha!

One evening a few weeks ago everyone had been playing outside and I had come in to finish up supper.  Emily ran in behind me and ran to the office to work on something.  She came out of the office just a few minutes later with this in her hand.  The second picture below is the back of the first pic.  I could see through the first picture that there were a lot of words on the back and I asked her if her Daddy helped her write....I just assumed he had because she hadn't been in there for long at all, but she proudly told me she had done it all.  We were SO proud of her creativity and thinking of doing this all on her own.  The next day she took it to school for show and tell.  

"This is a leaf collection with a papillon that is French for butterfly.  I have 3 leafs that are green and they are pretty.  I love them.  Love, Emily"

Emily made this for me for Mother's Day this year....it's a keeper!

One afternoon a couple weeks ago we picked Emily up from school and headed to the park.  Claire did this slide about 195 times.  

If you were to just look at this picture below you would probably assume that Emily and this girl are big buddies.  They had actually just met about 5 minutes before.  Emily makes friends fast and easily.  

There was a path just to the right of where Hannah was walking but she wanted to walk along the rocks.  It made Mommy nervous.  

Emily's class took a field trip to the Greenville Zoo and Bert got to go with her.  They had fun and Em loved having her Daddy with her.  

They came across a snake on the path while walking around the zoo. He sent me this picture and I texted back and told him to "get my baby away from that snake!!!!"

Hannah had a 4 year well check a few weeks ago and she cried through the entire thing.  She was scared to death of the shots she was supposed to get.  It was stressful, but she survived and immediately stopped crying after she had the shots.  We should have done those first...lesson learned.  We love our pediatrician!!  

Claire doesn't take a nap everyday, but when she does I usually have to wake her up to go get Emily from school (because she takes awhile to fall asleep).  On this particular day I had to go get my camera...she just looked like a little angel with her hands underneath her face.  She sleeps like this often.  

We were excited to be able to make it back to Toccoa for a birthday dinner for Stanley one Saturday night.  Bert had a car wash fundraiser for our youth that day and got home about 2:30.  We got ready and were heading out by about 3.  We had a fun dinner and the girls got some great play time with their cousins and then we got back on the road about 8:15 that night to head back to Greenville (after the 7:30 feeding).  It was a long day for Bert but we were so thankful to be able to all be together as a family.  It had been since Christmas when we were all together. That night was the first time that Brett and Jacob were able to meet our little Abby.

We're thankful for Stanley...he's the best brother in the history of brothers.  We love you, Stan Wayne!  

Papa got Abby duty while we all played in the back yard, which he loved!  

We were letting the girls ride bikes one afternoon and before we all headed in for dinner Bert went to the back to water his garden.  After he finished he decided to surprise the girls by spraying them down too.  They had so much fun and were all three dripping from head to toe.  

Abby was curled up on my chest and we just enjoyed the view.  

We're loving these beautiful spring days!  

Abby - 2 Months

Abby had her 2 month old check up last Friday.  She was 23 inches long and in the 67th percentile for her length and she was 12 lbs and 14 oz and in the 88th percentile for her weight. She's such a sweet lovable little thing.  I loved her little expression in the picture below...so alert!  

A Few Things I Love About Our 2-Month-Old:

-She's smiling more these days, often in response to our voices, although it's not just "all the time" yet.  

-She's still sleeping about 8 1/2 hours every night and she naps between every feeding.  I try to do the eat, wake, sleep cycle, so she usually has about an hour of awake time after each feeding and then is ready for a nap. The naps range in length between an hour to thirty minutes

-She's not a big fan of tummy time and often lets us hear about it.  

Although when she's in the mood for tummy time she's doing great with her neck muscles.  Workin' hard!

-At the 2 month appointment we found out Claire was starting to get a flat spot on the back of her head so we had to keep her off of her back as much as possible; thankfully Abby didn't have that issue.  

-She loves her play mat and all those lights maker her smile faster than anything.  

-Abby nurses 6 times a day.  

-She went through a week or a little more where every time we offered her a bottle she absolutely refused....I'm talking screaming, screaming, gagging herself, screaming, more screaming.  She was furious we were even offering that thing to her. It was stressful to hear her so upset and I was sad because we had tried so hard to keep her acclimated with the bottle so that she would take it when I needed her to.  After a few days break Bert tried to give her a bottle again and that sweet baby took it.  I was sooooo proud.  We were giving her a bottle every other day, but since her little one week stunt of not taking it we have upped her bottle intake to once a day.  She started taking a bottle again about a week and a half ago and so far so good since then.

-Our only real issue has been with nursing.  She's doing just fine, but I keeeeep getting plugged duct after plugged duct.  Last week I had 2 days of mastitis symptoms (VERY painful, fever, chills, weakness and extreme fatigue).  My fever was low grade and went away over night and didn't come back.  That episode ended up resolving itself without antibiotics, but it wasn't enjoyable.  I've talked to the lactation consultants and they seem to think my issues of so many plugged ducts are stemming from an oversupply.  I agree with them so I'm working on trying to get my body more regulated to producing what Abby needs/wants.  We'll see.  

Claire said this morning "Abby loes (she leaves out the v) me, I loe Abby."  Abby, you are one loved 2 month old, loved by so many!

Mother's Day 2016

I really do feel like this was the best Mother's Day yet.  Maybe I say that every year, I'm not sure, but it was a great day!  I felt so loved and loved having all of my babies in my arms. 

The Play and Praise choir sang two songs at church on Mother's Day morning and did a great job!  At one point during their performance Hannah started waving and Emily reached over (across Seth) and pulled Hannah's hand down.  Ha!  

We also took part in a special time of dedicating our Abigail along with our friends Chase and Jacinta's son Hunter to the Lord.  It's really encouraging to us to stand before our church, making a promise to teach her about Jesus and His sacrifice for her while our church promises to help us to raise her to know, trust and follow Him. I loved having our whole family up there together as we made this commitment.   

This is both our families standing up front. Hunter is one month and one day older than Abby and I'm sure they're going to be big buddies.  

Abby wore the dress that my sister and I wore as infants when we were christened (I grew up in a Methodist church).  Emily, Hannah and Claire didn't wear the dress for their dedications because I didn't know we still had it.  My mom didn't think about it either. We're so glad that my sister found it packed away just before Ressie's dedication a year ago, so Ressie and Abby got to wear it!  

Emily was making her smile in the picture below.  The dress is white I'm not sure why it looks yellowish in the picture below, but I liked her sweet smile so I included it. 

We're so thankful that Mimi and Papa got to come over for Abby's dedication.  We loved having them here!  

I also loved being with my mom on Mother's day!  She's absolutely the best mom ever and I'm so thankful for her and all that she has taught me.  

This family picture may not be a framer, but it's real life.  Claire wanted down, Emily was giving us a forced smile, Hannah wasn't about to crack a smile and Abby was screaming her head off.  Good times!  

Bert and I love this little girl in our arms and we're thankful that God blessed us with her in our family! 

We had a relaxing afternoon and evening...snuggling on the couch, playing in the back yard, and taking a walk around our neighborhood.  

These girls are some of my greatest blessings...one of my greatest joys in life is being their Mommy!