9 Months!

This girl is spectacular! We absolutely love our little Fifi blessing! Just look at her! Need I say more?! She is 9 months now and has definitely developed her own personality. She is so funny and loved by her siblings. She can sit, crawl (she does a full crawl and then flops to a soldier crawl when she wants to go really fast), she can pull up and stand (which was quite a surprise when she did it for the first time in her bed - needless to say, her crib got lowered pronto), she can eat cheerios and poofs, and she can do her first sign - more! She is a very happy baby and goes with the flow! Her affection towards hair has not stopped. She has to fall asleep sucking her right thumb and twirling her hair. Sometimes I feel a little bad for the girl. Being the youngest of 4 kids has its advantages and disadvantages. 1 advantage is having lots of extra hands to take care of her. One day she was in her "cage" (sectioned off area in our room that is Fifi safe) and she was crying. I told the girls to help her out. She immediately was quiet and I finished what I was doing. I went in to check on her and they said Fifi wanted to snuggle. Somehow they had hoisted the baby up into my bed and there was a twin on each side of her. Oh poor Finley!! She obviously wasn't hurt, but it was still dangerous and I can only imagine what kind of positions they had her in. That is one thing that is hard with bigger kids around - they want to hold her alot and they think she is a baby doll! She brings so much joy to all of us! We love our little Finley!
Crawling to get me!

Finley's other 2 mothers!

Here is a video of her doing more today. Carly, Chloe, and Harper love to feed her. Her favorite thing to eat are these little cheesy poof things - she inhales them!

My Addiction

Yes, I was the crazy wife that called her husband on his way home from work Tuesday to stop and pick up some milk - it was the last day of the $1.99/gallon sale. I am shamed to admit how many I asked him to pick up - 7!! Yes, 7! I figured I could freeze a gallon, but when I looked at the dates, we can so handle downing all 7 of those gallons. We usually drink 5-6 a week. I know that is an obsessive amount, but when I look at it, at least my addiction to milk helps my body not harms it. I have been trying so hard to "clean up" my life. Meaning: save money, spend less, use lots of coupons, eating better, no more TV (we did exclude Survivor and 24 from this but 24 is now over so hopefully we just stick to Survivor night), and have quiet time daily - I have been doing this for a while but I have yet to find the perfect "quiet time"! Anyways, looking at the milk numbers (this is excluding the hershey syrup that I use for 2 of my milk glasses a day) - I spend around $15 a week on milk. That is $780 a year on just a beverage!!! Now we need some milk so I will chop off half of that for required for our health - that makes it a $390 addiction. Man, that is alot of money! When you think about it all beverages are pretty much a waste!! Think of how much money we would all save just by drinking water - no sodas, coffee, bottled water, juice, or if you drink alcoholic beverages. Hmm - maybe I should substitute a cup of milk for a glass of water. . . . .

No more thumb - AGAIN!

So here is my last picture of my boy and his thumb and elephant!! Sunday night, May 23rd, I told him it was time to say goodbye (if the kid would stay dry all night I wouldn't have had to do it, but he has been potty trained for a year and he still wears a pull up at night - too comfortable in my mind!) So he was rather excited about being a big boy.
When we put elephant in his memory box, he saw this bear in there and quick snatched it out to sleep with instead - it was from his exploratory surgery when he was a baby and did that awful loud man snoring. We then put a glove on his hand (Carly talked him through this because she sleeps with a glove). That night, we checked on his thumb, glove was off and it was wet!! Well, the next day at nap time, I fixed him right up! I put some no sucking polish on his thumb. He ended up trying to suck it, but it was NASTY!! He was drooling like a nasty dog. So needless to say, he has totally quit sucking his thumb!!

This is just a random picture, but it was cute. I walk into the kitchen and I see this. He was just sitting here as cute as he could be. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "Watching the show!" Carly and Chloe were dancing so he was just sitting there and whenever they were done, we would yell WOOOO! It was so cute (I can't say that enough about this boy).

Happy 5th Birthday!

THEY ARE 5!!!!!

I can not believe my babies are growing so fast. So much has changed/happened in 5 years and these 2 sweet angels have been apart of everything! They are such sweet girls and I am so proud of them. I never would have thought I would have 5 year olds as my best buddies, but they are and we have such a great time together. This year we decided to have the PRINCESS PARTY~ I mean how could we not since we just got back from Disney World! We went to Mint Hill park and they had such a good time (once they woke up from their nap - unfortunately we had to have it the day after the recital so they were worn out)!

They dressed up as Ariel (we had to borrow one costume from their friend). All the little girls dressed up and they did a mini parade - it started to rain, but we had just enough time to snap some pictures of all the princesses.

Here is the cake - it was a castle of course!

We decided to give each one of them their own cake seeing as how each year it is a combined thing. They even wanted us to sing to them separate. This was Carly's Ariel cake.

Chloe choose Tinker Bell.

And here are all the little Princesses! So cute!

May 14th

I didn't get to post this May 14th, but I just wanted to note the day as Harper's 1 yr. anniversary with the swing set accident! I must say, this year was great and he is such a wonderful little boy. I can't get enough hugs and kisses from the little monkey! Oh how our lives could have been different if the Lord didn't have other plans for Mr. Harper. I am so thankful for every day I have with each of these precious angels. Thank you Lord for blessing our lives with Carly, Chloe, Harper and Finley. We are ever so grateful!

Recital Time

The time has come for Carly and Chloe's 3rd recital! We were so proud of them! They did 2 dances this year - ballet (to a Tinker Bell song) and tap (to Put on a Happy Face). They actually smiled this year! At the rehearsal they got a little mixed up with their lines, but they did it again and it was smooth sailing. They looked so big this year. I guess the slicked back buns made them look older, but it was bittersweet to see! They loved every part about the big event. The make up, the lights, the loud music, etc. I really enjoy watching them do their dances (I guess I know exactly what they are feeling inside and I know how excited they are). So May 15th, revolved around this special event!
Backstage! I took them out there to see everything. They were in awe.

2 of their friends - Annsley on the right has been dancing with them every year. This year they met Ragan. They are such sweet girls. There were 14 kids total in their class this year. They were all so cute.

One of their favorite moves: arabesque.

Make up is the greatest! They got blush, eyeshadow, and lipstick. They loved looking in the mirrors at themselves. (And if they didn't have a mirror, they just looked at each other and admired their make up!)

Happy Face Pose - one of my favorite parts!

Oh Chloe

Yesterday I took the kids to Concord Mills, came home and ate lunch, and then I made them all take a nap. Carly and Chloe don't really take naps too much anymore, so I just made them lay on the couches. Well, Chloe fell asleep. When she woke up, Carly and I were in the living room too and she was all smiles. I asked her if she wanted to come snuggle and she did. She started making weird noises and wiggling her feet. She said she was hot. So I told her she could play or lay on the brown couch. She goes to the brown couch and then proceeds to just cry. I told her I wasn't going to listen to it and she needed to go into my room, close the door, and come out when she was all done. Well, after about 1 1/2 hour I had taken Carly, Harper and Finley out front and Matt came home. He asked where she was. I told him, "She is in our room and it sounds like there is an exorcism going on in there." Carly pipes up, "Yeah, she is doing her exercises!"

Side note: She finally stopped her howling and was in a great mood the rest of the evening. Needless to say, she didn't get the nickname "hound dog" for no reason!