Panama City 2016

We had a really fun week down in Panama City this year!  Hannah asks often if we can go back "tomorrow?"  My Dad's sister Renea came with us this year and we LOVED having her!  She lives in New Mexico and we get to see her about once a year, but that's not enough.  We were all so thankful she made the trip happen!  Brett and Katherine had already gone on vacation with his family earlier in the summer so he wasn't able to take off another week, so we missed him this year, but were glad that Katherine, Jacob and Ressie could come!  The kids got along so well and had so much fun together!!  

This was from our first night there. We enjoyed taking a dip in the pool after a long day in the car.  

Two years ago, when Claire was Abby's age, she used this float and would take her morning naps in it.  It was the cutest to see her so relaxed just floating around the pool with one of us, while still totally in the shade.  I thought Abby would go along with that morning nap plan too, but alas, she refused to nap while in the float.  It didn't matter how exhausted she was....if we tried to lay her back she freaked out and begin screaming like a wild child.  She didn't mind the float, but I think she preferred to just be held.  

We claimed this as our corner of the pool.  With six kids, we don't need chairs to lay out like a lot of families there....just give us a little shade and we're happy.  

Nea taking Emily and Hannah on a train ride around the pool.  

Love this smile! 

They have a splash pad beside the main pool and this was Claire and Ressie's favorite thing.  

They had so much fun playing together!  

Cousin pic before we headed out to have some fun at Pier Park! Abby wasn't happy, but look at Jacob kissing Ressie...sweet things!  

One night we took the kids out on the golf course and Stanley and Bert gave them some golf tips.  

Caught Hannah rolling down the hill...Jacob was running to the top because he thought it looked like fun. 

Nea, Abby and I supervised.  I was a beautiful night!  

We had a couple of fun beach days.  It is utterly exhausting to get everyone ready and to the beach with all the stuff we need to bring but it is so worth it! 

Mimi and Uncle Stan helping Emily boogie board.  

All the kids had fun in the sand, but especially Hannah, Ressie and Claire.  Hannah refused to go to the water until the last 5 minutes of our last day on the beach, but once she got in she loved it.  

This girl loved the water!  She was happy in the sand too, but if an adult was heading to the water, she was with them.  

Papa Stan let the kids bury him in the sand  and they thought it was sooooo fun!  

She was 4 1/2 months on this beach trip.  4 1/2 months of pure sweetness!  

Nappin' with Papa

Love bug.  

Team Watts' silly beach picture!

Ressie called Abby "Abba" and it was the cutest.  Ressie liked to help Abby play with all the toys on her exersaucer.  

Several nights after dinner we would just go down to the pool right outside our condo door instead of walking across to the big pool.  Two of  those nights we had the whole pool to ourselves, which was fun!  Mimi was telling the kids a story while they waited for the grown ups to get ready for the evening swim.  

On Thursday night Daddy, Stan, Kate, Bert and I headed to the movie theater to watch the new Jason Bourne movie.  Nea had left for New Mexico that morning and Mom stayed back with the sleeping kids. Bert and I don't get a lot of chances to go to the movies these days with such small kids, so when we get the opportunity we jump at it. We all enjoyed the movie...it was a fun night!  

Sibling love!

Uncle Stan reading to Ressie Roo and Claire Bear.  

Renea brought this huge roll of paper and the kids got to work on a mural all week.  They had so much fun with it!  Emily was the most dedicated artist, but the other kids loved drawing on it too for shorter periods of time.  

Mimi bought the kids shirts and had her friend Tomi embroider their names on them.  The shirts turned out so cute and I think the 6 kids in the picture below are pretty amazing too!  

Love my babies! So thankful for weeks like this!  I have a friend with a two year old and she said about their beach trip that there is nothing relaxing about taking a toddler to the beach.  Sometimes during the week I would dream of when the kids could get themselves ready for the pool (put on their own bathing suit and sunscreen), swim on their own (right now, we can't take our eyes off them for more than one second) - I find myself thinking that those days must be so great.  So relaxing.  But, even as those thoughts pop in my head, I know that I will miss these days of having a 6, 4, and 2-year-old and a 4 month old.  These days when they're are so little and needy.  These days are tiring, beautiful, stressful and fun.  And I wouldn't trade them for anything.  

Our family of 6.  

The whole gang minus Brett!  Thanks so much to Mimi and Papa Stan for making this week happen! 

So many great memories were made this week!  Thankful for these people and our week together!! 

Week in Toccoa

Bert took our students down to Daytona beach for Student Life Camp.  They had such a great week and learned so much from David Platt and Drew Worsham!  

While he was gone the girls and I headed over to Toccoa to spend the week with my parents and Katherine and kids!  We had a fun week too!!  

On Monday night we took the kids swimming at a neighbor's pool.  This was Abby's first time to swim.  She was a fan! 

We had her in this little float thing, but she doesn't quite have enough upper body strength yet to hold herself up so we were holding her up the whole time.  I liked her little chubby cheeks in the picture below.  

Love my little snuggle bug.  Just over 4 months.  

The big kids had fun jumping in!  They wanted me to count and then just as it was time to go Hannah shouted that she wanted to go by herself.  She did this every time. :)  

Hannah jumping in once everyone was cleared out.  

Claire was just being extra cute one morning and I had to take her picture.  Good gracious.  2 year olds are so stinking adorable, especially when they're not in the middle of a tantrum, and sometimes even then.  

Ressie Roo and Claire Bear pulling out all of Mimi's spices.  

My parents have been in their house for about 16 years or so and they've been talking about having a pond and driveway put in in front of their house ever since (the driveway they poured when we moved in comes up to the side of their house).  It's finally happening.  They were pouring the front driveway while we were there. They started pouring both days at 6:30 in the morning and the kids  looooved watching the action.  It really is an interesting process.  I can see how they were so fascinated. 

They made a fort with Mimi and Papa's bedspread every.single.day during rest time. We were impressed with their fort making skills.  

My mom took off on Tuesday and spent the day with us.  She had a fun scavenger hunt planned for them.  The first stop on the scavenger hunt was the park.  

Jacob was at a swimming camp in the mornings all week so he missed out on the scavenger hunt but we got to have lots of fun with him in the afternoons and evenings.  

Emily was our clue reader and she did a great job.  

After the park our next stop was the Java Station where we enjoyed lemonade and muffins.  

The last stop on the scavenger hunt was the library for story time.  Claire stood like this for a long time...she was standing right by the door, with her hand over her mouth.  She wasn't too sure about all the activity.  She finally warmed up enough to walk across the room and sit in Mimi's lap.  

This is what the big kids were doing while Claire was standing in the back.  They had fun!!  

On Thursday evening we took the kids out to ride bikes on the new driveway.  

Mimi and I took turns running along with Emily.  It had been about a month and a half or so since she last rode her bike and she was needing a littler refresher.  Running along with a little person while they are learning to ride a bike is harder than you might think. It requires focus and using muscles that I don't usually use....thankfully it's usually Bert's job.  

Hannah was loving life on her little bike.  Cutie! 

Papa got home from work and Emily wanted him to help her ride one time before we headed in.  Only the best Papa's chase down their granddaughters on bikes in 90+ degree weather while they still have on their work clothes. 

Before we headed in for the night we went over to check out the dock on their new pond.  We all gave it a thumbs up.  Their front yard is looking so great!  

Thanks to Mimi and Papa for letting us invade!!  We all had a fun week in Toccoa!  

Abby - 4 months

Abby turned 4 moths old yesterday and had her 4 month well-check today.  She weighed 15 pounds even and was in the 79th percentile for her weight. She was 24.5 inches long and in the 60th percentile for her height.  

Comparison of the other girls at 4 months:  

Emily - 15 lbs 2 oz / 85th percentile and 24.5 inches / 55th percentile

Hannah - 17 lbs 1 oz / 97th + percentile and 24 inches / 37th percentile 

Claire - 16 lbs 4 oz / 93rd percentile and 24.5 inches / 58th percentile

I actually said this morning (before looking back up their stats) that I thought Hannah and Claire were both chunkier than her at this age.  Abby's our smallest, although being in the 79th percentile isn't what most people call itty bitty. :) 

Abby at Four Months:

-She's rolling from her back to stomach and stomach to back.

-She prefers to sleep on her side with her left ear down.   

-Just in the last few days I've started putting her in her sleep sack for naps as well because she she kept breaking out of her swaddle (I have been putting her in the sleep sack at night for awhile now). 

-She smiles at us when we look at her, and she especially gets a huge grin when we are leaning down to pick her up.

-She's happy in her exersaucer for about 15 minutes but then she's ready to get out.  She'll tolerate the bumbo for about the same about of time before she starts letting us hear about it.  

-She still loves her swing and playmat.

-When she's fussy she likes for you to stand up (don't even think about sitting down because then she will really crank it up) and hold her vertically.  She does not appreciate being held horizontally at any time.  

-She loves her bath time.

-She has the sweetest, most precious little laugh.  When she is laughing you literally cannot help but smile.  

-She has never been swimming in any body of water bigger than her little bathtub but that will change in a couple weeks when we head down to Panama City.

-She sleeps in her pack-n-play, in our room, in a sleep sack, with her sound machine on. 

-She nurses 5 times a day. No solids.  

-She sleeps about 9 1/2 hours each night.  She sleeps from about 10:30pm to 8:00am.  I often have to wake her up in the morning and tell her to rise and shine.  

-She naps 3 (sometimes 4) times a day.  The late morning nap and early afternoon nap are her best naps, usually lasting at least an hour and a half each.  

-She doesn't take a pacifier and hasn't started sucking her thumb, although she sucks on her hand often.  Still hoping she won't become a thumb sucker but we'll see.  

-Nursing is still going really well.  I haven't had trouble with plugged ducts or mastitis in a while, but she still won't take a bottle.  

I love this age!  4-month-olds are soft and cuddly and sweet and smiling and sleeping through the night and are just fun to have around!  You are so loved, Abby Doodle!

These Days

Life around the Watts Casa these days....

We usually swaddle Abby or put her in her sleep sack when we're putting her down, but on this day we just laid her down and she fell right asleep.  She was reeee-laxed.  

A couple weeks ago Katherine brought Jacob and Ressie over to spend the day with us and we loved having them! It made for a fun Monday!  This was the first picture we had gotten with all 6 of them together.  On the couch, in age order, of course.  Love it! 

I snapped a pic of our lunch time....organized chaos.  

Jacob might be Hannah's favorite person.  He swatted some bug off of her leg when they were playing outside and Hannah kept saying he was her hero.  

Bert took the girls on a Daddy/Emily/Hannah date to see Finding Dory at the movie theater.  This was Hannah's first time getting to go to the movie theater and only Emily's second.  They were sooo excited about seeing the movie on the big screen.  As he was walking out the door I told him to take a picture and the following two pictures are the only two he got. Not his best work, but it will record the memory.:)  

We had VBS at our church a few weeks ago and had such a great week! We had between 175 and 200 kids each night. The next few pictures are from the Friday night family night!

Emily's classmate, Ella, from her kindergarten class came to VBS and Emily was so excited to see her there.  I heard lots about Ella throughout the year last year!  

Sophie has been coming over as a "mother's helper" this summer while she is out of school.  She comes over once a week for a few hours each time and plays with E, H and C while I get some extra things done around the house. Sophie is such a huge help to me and the girls love playing with her so much!  I'm thankful the girls have her to look up to.  

Last week my friend Jacinta and her little boy, Hunter came over for a playdate. Abby loved having one of her friends over!:)  Cute little things!  

July is going to be a fun, busy month and we're looking forward to it!  

4th of July Weekend

Team Watts had a fun 4th of July weekend!  We started it off with a bang with a minor hand surgery for Hannah at 8 am on July 1st.  Thankfully that went very well and she bounced back in no time and we were all ready for a weekend with family and friends.  

On Friday afternoon we headed to Lake Hartwell!  We were only there for 24 hours but we made the most of it.  We got to see my cousins Kristi and Mike and their families and spend time with my Mom, Dad and Katherine and her fam.  

Uncle Jimmy took us on a pontoon ride after dinner.  After we got back we were ready for the homemade peach ice cream that my dad made.  Yummmm! 

Emily, Claire and Collins.  Claire and Collins are about a month apart in age.  Sweet things!  

The Sanders had VBS at their church on Friday night so we didn't see them  until Saturday morning. The girls were so excited to have them there!  

We had fun at the lake!  It was really great to see everyone, but poor Hannah couldn't get in the lake water because of her hand surgery on Friday so she was a little disappointed about that.  

On Saturday afternoon we headed back to Greenville to spend time with Bert's parents who drove up to spend a couple days with us.  

We had a yummy dinner that Bert grilled on Saturday night and we enjoyed catching up with his parents after the kids went to bed.  On Sunday we went to church and then they treated us to lunch AND dinner out that night.  After 7 out of 8 of us took at Sunday afternoon nap (I would have but Abby woke up just as I was about to) we headed out to do some bowling.  None of our girls had ever bowled before and they were so excited!  

They used this contraption in the picture below to help the girls get the ball all the way to the pins and keep it relatively straight.  It was great for their age!  

Grandmama and Pawpaw with the girls after a fun two games of bowling!  

They headed back home about 9pm on Sunday night.  We had a fun visit and we're thankful that they came up!  

On the 4th of July we started the day off with pancakes and a parade.   The girls had fun doing the parade.   

For lunch Bert grilled and we had a picnic in our backyard with just the 6 of us. There was actually a nice breeze and even though it was a great day with lots of fun stuff packed in, the family picnic was probably my favorite part.  

That night we headed over to our friends Josh and Dawnielle's for dinner, games and fireworks.  The girls loved getting to play with their friends and and we enjoyed getting to catch up with ours.  

Here are some of the kids getting ready for the firework show put on by the dads.  

11 kids in all and Emily was the oldest at 6.  

I think the dads enjoyed getting to set off the fireworks as much as the kids liked watching them.  

Emily was our biggest firework fan, but Claire was a close second.  Hannah thought they were too loud (Abby did too) and decided to go inside for a few minutes.  She watched a couple fireworks from inside and then decided to come back out and join us for the rest. 

Happy 4th of July!