Stone Mountain Laser Show!

This summer some friends from church all got together and headed to Stone Mountain for the laser show! I always love going as it just kind of feels like summer when you go to Stone Mountain!

We swung by KFC on the way and picked up some dinner for a picnic at the park while we waited for the show to begin! We also brought some outdoor games to keep us occupied till then.

Our friend Derek is CRAY. Not like he needs to be in a mental hospital kind of crazy ;-). But just wacky! Which came in SUPER handy when we asked him to take one pic of our family together! He got BOTH of the kids not only looking, but smiling!!

Rhyan loved the show! Mack, on the other hand, sat in the stroller with his fingers in his ears because it was "too loud". Of course the last time we attempted the laser show, Mack was a few months old and I ended up standing in the parking lot with him (alone. in the dark) b/c he cried so much. So we will call this progress! ;-)

I did remember, however, why we usually dont go in June. The laser show didnt start till about 9:15 or so and we didnt get home till after 11. We were all exhausted! Especially my kiddos who, for them, a late night is 9pm! HA! But we did enjoy it and I'm so glad we took the opportunity this summer to go do some things with the kids before becoming a family of 5!

Lainey: 4 Months

Do you remember how hard it is to be 3-4 months old? Well Lainey would like to remind you!

This is the summary of Lainey's life from 3-4 months old. First up, her stats!!!

Height: 24.5" (57%)
Weight: 15lbs (77%)
Head: 16" (39%)

At 4 Months Lainey is:

• In 0-3 month clothes
• In Size 2 diapers
• On the HEAVENLY 4 hour schedule! Eating 5-6oz at 7, 11, 3, 7 (started this right at 16 weeks)
• Sleeping from 8:45-11, 1-3 and 5-6:30 then in bed at 7:30 or so
• On 3.5mL of Prilosec twice a day for reflux
• Down to monthly appointments with the chiropractor
• Smiling, Laughing and Cooing. All quietly :-) She is the quietest baby!!!! Its just precious!
• Right after she turned 3 months old we had a few HUGE changes!... 
• Up to size 2 nipples on the mam bottle
• Started mixing her goat milk formula with Baby's Only Organic formula (started at a 5/1 ratio and every 3 or so days we would increase the mix...) By the middle of the month we were on 100%  baby's only organic which is honestly just SO much easier. The nightly making of formula was wearing on Jeff and I and while we would have done it every day for the entire first year if we needed to, I'll admit that I'm grateful that we didnt :-)
• We dropped the swaddle!!! I was pretty sure it was time (and I always try to drop it by around 14 weeks) because she was waking MOTN trying to get to her hands. I had suspected that she was going to be a thumb sucker and sure enough, as sure as we dropped the swaddle, she found her thumb! When we dropped it we started with night time first and she woke early a couple of mornings and we let her CIO (she fussed but never really cried till desired wake time... off and on for maybe 20 min or so). Not bad at all! I was amazed at how well she did! 
• Started batting at toys around 15 weeks. She loves her floor mat/gym!

I always dread transitions and this month was FULL of them! And I've been amazed and so grateful for how smoothly she handled all of the transitions! She really is such a little "Angel Baby!"

OH! And she has definitely found her tongue! She loves sticking it out and I think its adorable!

Some of Lainey's favorite things are to play patty cake, sing and do the wheels on the bus, read a book or two... she loves tummy time although she tends to look around a while and then just lay and suck her thumb a minute or two. HA!
And my absolute FAVORITE thing that Lainey does right now is that she makes this long sound when she yawns... its just like what my Mommie used to do :-)

Gah, we are just soaking up this little girl! I have enjoyed watching all 3 of our kids grow but I can tell that I am savoring Lainey's milestones a little more than I did with Rhyan and Mack becaues I know she's our last baby. And while I look forward to the future where we'll be able to go places and do things and not be bound by a baby's schedule, I really am loving having her! Its so much easier (for me!) with Lainey than it was with mack... I think that because Rhyan and Mack were only 2 years apart it was just harder, period. Rhyan was awesome and a super easy toddler but 2 that are so dependent on you at the same time is just hard! But this go round, mack and rhyan are both fairly independent! So I feel like we are all enjoying having Lainey as a part of the family and she definitely completes us :-)

Lainey: 3 Months

Oh my! This is a summary of Lainey from month 2-3 and wow, we had some changes!

Lainey's 3 month stats (at home guesses):

Height: 23"
Weight: 12.5 lbs

At 3 months Lainey is:

• In 0-3 month clothes (finally!)
• In size 1 diapers (still)
• Eating 5-6oz at 7, 10:30, 2, 5, 8 (combo 3-3.5 hour schedule... this happened around 12 weeks)
• We tackled CIO full on this month at around the 9-10 week mark... it was a rough couple of days but after a weekend (friday and saturday mostly) of a good bit of crying at naps, she started going down for naps great and making it till the next waketime/bottle!
• We also went ahead and started CIO at night around 9 weeks. This was super hard but we KNEW she wasnt needing to eat because she would literally see my face and stop crying and start smiling. Booger! So after we had naps going well, we set up a box fan in the hallway and supported each other as we had to listen to some crying for about 2 nights. It broke my heart. But after 3 nights there has been NO MORE middle of the night wakings and we are all sleeping GREAT! :-)
• On 3mL of prilosec twice a day for reflux
• Still seeing the chiropractor and maintaining adjustments well!
• Smiling Tons and...
• LAUGHING!!! Her first laugh was on Nov 8th at just shy of 3 months old! It was the sweetest thing! Lainey is a very quiet baby and doesnt really "jabber" much and so waiting SO long for her first laugh was killing me! And literally it was the quietest little laugh! It cracked me up!
• COOING! Lainey started cooing at 10 weeks and it is so so precious! And quiet :-) I remember with Rhyan and Mack that when they started cooing we literally couldnt hear ppl if we were talking on the phone because they were both SO loud! But Lainey is such an observer!
• ROLLING OVER! Lainey Rolled over for the first time on her 10 week bday! (There were lots of firsts in her 10th week... she had just come out of a wonder week leap in development and you can always tell when its over because they start showing their newly acquired skills!)
• Still taking the homemade goat milk formula
• Still on a size 1 nipple and mam bottle
• Still swaddled for naps and nighttime using the miracle blanket

"who is this monkey in my chair?!"

EEK! I'm THREE months old!!!

Rhyan and Mack have adjusted SO well and so easily to having Lainey as a part of our family and we are tremendously blessed to be a family of 5 :-)

Fathers Day 2014

I LOVE our yearly tradition of hibachi Japanese for lunch on Mothers Day and Fathers Day. Its a DELICIOUS way to celebrate! And, our kids are no longer completely freaked out by the fire so thats what we call a WIN! :-) This year was no exception... we loved our lunch at the Kani House!

Unfortunately, I was not able to get any great group shots... for whatever reason, I didnt even get ANY pics with Jason/Liz/Avery!?! But I did get a few of the guys!

Our Ford Boys!

LOL! Youknow, our life was chaos at this point so I'm just gonna say this pic accurately represents!

Happy Fathers day to my hubby (who is truly an amazing daddy! Our kids are so so very blessed to have him!) and to Grandad who is just the most fun grandad ever. I have some blessed kiddos!

Birthday Party Fun

For Mack's 3rd birthday "party" we decided to have a few friends over and have some fun outdoor water games/toys! I thought it would be fun for the kids to get to enjoy the yard and of course its always nice to not have to worry about cleaning the house before and after a party :-)

There was one slight issue with Mack's birthday party... Mack was sleeping when everyone started to arrive and was NOT in the mood to be done with his nap. Gotta love a 3 year old's complete lack of desire to make anyone other than his self happy. HA!

So we went ahead and let the kids play... while Mack sat (fully clothed) and watched. Luckily, the rest of the kids seem to enjoy it!

Mack was more interested in the food table! HA!

As you can see in the background, the construction on our house had literally started that week!

I was SO SO happy to have gotten this sweet pic with all the kids. The only one missing at this point was Avery who arrived pretty late... with hand foot and mouth. EEK!  Poor baby was pitiful!

Rhyan had found a dinosaur cake at publix back around her birthday and was SO excited for Mack to have this cake at his birthday! So i was super stoked that was the cake he picked!

For food, I decided to do all of Mack's favorite snacks. I think i REALLY like this idea because as strange as the food was, its COMPLETELY reflective of the birthday boy which is the best part of any birthday party... So we had cheeto's and mints and fruit snacks and a fruit bowl with mixed fruit. And cake!

After snacking on all the goodies, Mack opened his gifts! He was super cute opening everything. 3 yrs old is such fun b/c they give a genuine reaction to each gift!

How many men does it take to get a dino water gun out of the package?!

He was super excited about his new bat and ball/tee!

Avery got there about an hour into the party (she had been at the urgent care place to get checked out... poor baby!) but we were SO glad she was able to make it! She was pretty sad when she first got there but some fun toys helped her perk up! (annnnnd i pretty much washed this pirate ship with bleach! lol!)

The most exciting part of the day was finding out that Liz and Jason were EXPECTING!!! I had suspected for a bit but of course didnt want to ask so I was THRILLED to find out that there was another baby on the way! We had to take a pic of the 3 preggos :-) Melissa and I both due in August (well maybe she was the 1st week of Sept) and Liz due Dec 3!

Can i just say... dang. He. Is. Handsome!

Oh my word! This SCRUMPTIOUS little boy!

 

Happiest of Birthdays to the cutest, (can be) sweetest, funniest 3 year old I know!