4 months old

Graham is 4 months old today. Where has the time gone? I *tried* to take some pics today. Our house is a wreck with boxes (empty, half filled, and taped and ready), baskets of stuff to sort, clothes needing to be washed, you get the picture. So I finally decided to take him outside to get some pics. He was cracking me up. It wasn't even that sunny out (mostly cloudy) but he would not open his eyes when I laid him down. And he would not look at the camera. He just kept trying to eat the blanket lol.






Soaking up the Sun



Mmmmmmmmm, hand!


I think I'll try some blanket now.




Mmmmmmmm blanket!



He can sit tripod for a few seconds


Until he goes for the blanket lol


At 4 months old Graham:
eats 6-8 times a day (formula in a bottle)
sleeps 8 hours straight at night, then usually wakes up to eat, and then sleeps another 2-4 hours
is transitioning from 3-6 months clothes to 6-9 months
wears a size 2 diaper
still babbles, but not as much as he used to, I think he's over it lol
has learned to blow raspberries and does it nonstop some days
hasn't had anymore fluke rollovers
is doing better about riding in the car, he pretty much only hates it at night now
starts the night off in his crib, and sleeps his last stretch with me in my bed
chews on his hands all.the.time, and drools buckets (still no sign of any teeth)
sometimes gags himself by sticking his finger down his throat
is spitting up a lot less, he still has his days though
likes his jumperoo first thing in the morning, but not really any other time of the day
doesn't care much about sitting in his swing, bouncy seat, exersaucer, or bumbo unless someone is right there entertaining him at all times
still loves to be carried in the mobywrap
is still bald up front
currently has the sniffles and will not sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time during the day................

For you Carrie...

After your comment on my last entry, I had to go back and look at pics of Natalie to see her smiles. And while there were plenty of her with big smiles, there were definitely some with THAT smile. lol

I am so behind

I have been a bad blogger. We are just soooo super busy getting the house ready that I only get a few minutes at a time at the computer. I usually check my email, read blogs, check my message boards etc. And there hasn't been much to blog about lately. Eric is now in San Antonio. Today is his first day of work. He'll be back here Thursday night, through the weekend, then back to San Antonio next week. Then, he'll be back the next weekend, and we plan on moving on the 7th. He is going to check with the guy we're leasing the house from today, to make sure that his family is going to be out next weekend as planned. We've been working everyday to get things packed and cleaned up. We've definitely made a huge dent in it, but there is still more to do. We were hoping to have it on the market this week, but we just haven't gotten enough done yet. We still have boxes piled up everywhere, a few closets to clean out, walls that need touch up paint, and the floors need a good cleaning. So I'm going to work on what I can this week and then when Eric gets here this weekend, we'll hopefully get the rest done and get it up on the market by Monday.

The last time we moved was when Natalie was 9 months old.





Here is our house, when we bought it.

This is why he has trouble sleeping

And YES he's on the pink striped sheets again! LOL I had to change his sheets 4 times yesterday! Luckily I did a lot of laundry today so he'll be back in his manly sheets by bedtime I'm sure. :)

Graham loves to chew on his hand. But he can't fall asleep without sucking on his pacifier. It's such a struggle for him sometimes! lol

Squeak Toy

Just a couple videos of my growing little man.



He sounds like a squeak toy. (sorry it's so dark)





He has just learned how to blow raspberries and I think that's what he's done for 80% of his awake time today lol. And of course, there's a special treat at the end. :)

Nothing new

Still packing, sorting, cleaning... yay

which also means no new pics.

Here's Natalie at 20 months old. We went to take pics of her in the bluebonnets, but we went too late in the season and most of them were gone. We did manage to find this patch that had some bluebonnets mixed with some other wildflowers.

Not quite there yet

We're still working hard to get the house done.

When we moved into this house both bathrooms were adorned with UGLY 70s/80s??? wallpaper. After a couple years we finally took it down and painted in the hall bathroom. But we never did anything with the master bathroom. Now it's time.


Some funny things from the past couple days:
I got each of the girls a little box of chocolates for Valentine's Day yesterday. While Erica was taking her nap Eric caught Natalie eating some chocolate's from her box. He asked her why she was eating Erica's chocolates and she said she just wanted to check to make sure they were good. Then he told her she better put 2 of hers back in Erica's box. Then she said she'd already eaten all of hers! LOL

This morning I painted Erica's toenails red. She was sooo happy about that! Then this evening I was putting cream on her feet/ankles like I do everynight, to help her eczema flareups. She told me not to put any on her toes because it might make the red go away. lol

We went to Incredible Pizza today for my bil Micah's bday. Eric and I took the girls on the gokarts. Natalie rode with Eric, and Erica rode with me. While we waited in line, the girls kept going back and forth talking smack, "We're gonna beat you!" "No, WE'RE gonna beat YOU!" etc. etc. Well, naturally Erica and I wiped the floor with them LOL and Erica has been going on and on all night. WE BEAT YOU HAHA, We are fast and you are slow! LOL It's too funny to see a 3 year old gloat!

The Relocation Preparation Begins

So... we're putting our house on the market next week. Which means we have been working like mad to get it cleaned up, somewhat packed up, fixed up, and ready to sell. We had the carpet cleaner come today, so we had to get as much as possible picked up off the floors. Now it's on to sorting through all the crap in our house and deciding what needs to be thrown away, what we're going to garage sale, what we can pack up and put in storage for showing the house, and what we need until we move. I must give Eric MAJOR props as he's been the one doing almost all of the hard dirty work, while I try to keep the kids fed, happy, and out of his hair. He has been working insanely hard and I appreciate every ounce of it. I seriously have the most unbelievable husband in the entire world. I'm definitely one lucky girl!

Since I haven't taken any pics in the past few days, I'm going to post this one. I was just telling my sil about this pic today because it's always cracked me up. This is Erica at 5 mos, and her friend Asher (who I used to babysit).

Totally Stolen Idea

So I am totally stealing this idea from my friend Jordan. There are some days when I just don't take any pics worth posting (or any pics at all) and don't have a whole lot to blog about. So on those days, I am going to just post one random picture from my photo archives. I'll just close my eyes and click!

So here's my pic for today. This is Natalie when she was 9 months old. We had *just* moved into our house and hadn't set up her bed or unpacked much of anything yet. She decided to take a nap in the middle of the living room floor. That girl's sleeping habits have always cracked me up!


And I just remembered I do have one humorous thing to blog about. So this evening, I was sitting on the couch holding a sleeping Graham while Eric and Natalie were sorting through and packing up all the movies and stuff from the entertainment center when I hear Erica crying in her room. I asked Eric to go check on her. He came back and told me about their conversation.
"Erica, what's wrong?"
"There's a button in my nose."
"There's a booger in your nose?"
"No, a button."
"A button???"
"Yes, up there." (pointing to her left nostril)
---Eric looks and can't see anything so he covers her right nostril and tells her to blow out her nose. Sure enough she snuffs a button out across the room!---

Said button


I do not know what possesses children to stick objects up their noses!

McSpitty

He was so happy to have barfed all over himself

Happy

Just a couple quick snaps of Graham smiling :)



And I don't know why, but I just really LOVED this pic of Graham that I took a couple weeks ago. But I hate that he's on pink sheets. So I tried my hand at changing it. I still need to tweak a few things, but I'm happy with it for now.

Graham's Dedication

We had Graham dedicated at church last Sunday. He pretty much screamed through the whole thing. But that's about par as Natalie and Erica both screamed through most of theirs also. The poor little man does great at home, but lately, anytime we go out around a lot of other people (like at church) he completely freaks out. I hope it's just a phase, and that it ends soon! lol

During the ceremony, just as the pastor handed him back to us.


The cake my mom made for the lunch afterwards. Isn't it sooooooo cute!!!! The frame is wrapped in saran wrap, so it's giving off a little glare in the pic. She used his hospital pic because it matched perfectly!


We finally got him to sleep after the ceremony.

New Friends

Graham loves looking up at his mobile and we refer to the little animals on it as his friends. I found the girls' old crib aquarium as I was cleaning out a closet and put it in his crib for him. I'm almost regretting it now. He loves it, but now when I try to lay him down for a nap in there, he keeps popping his head up looking for his new friends!

Controlled Chaos

6 kids 5 and under, THAT is controlled chaos. You'd think that spending 4 hours at my friend Jessica's house with 6 kids underfoot would have seemed like a long time, but the time always flies by when we're over there.


Well, Eric got the official offer from the job in San Antonio. He still has to look it over good and respond, but it's pretty much a done deal now. He will be starting there in about 3 weeks (he's still working that out with them). It has not hit me yet that by this time next month we'll be living in another city, away from our family and friends. I am excited about a fresh start, but not looking forward to packing, moving, and leaving. It is definitely going to be a very sad next few weeks for me.

Multi-tasking

Not much to blog about today. I'm waiting for the pictures my mom took at Graham's dedication to blog about that. I'm *this close* to calling Erica potty trained. She's been in panties all day long for 6 days now with no accidents (she's still in a pull-up at night), BUT... she hasn't pooped. At all. I think she is holding it on purpose. Tomorrow afternoon I plan on giving her a Kid's Laxative tongue strip. She almost always does this when we go out of town too. I've tried prune juice with her, but it doesn't work. These things work great, but she hates them. Once she poops in the potty, we're gonna have a Potty Party for her! And I haven't taken many other pictures lately. But here is one Natalie took of me the other day. Graham woke up just as I was in the middle of making dinner. So I threw him in the sling, popped his bottle in his mouth, and got dinner on the table just as Eric came walking through the door!