Christmas Day

Christmas Day started out quite early for me. Miss Lila woke up at 5:30 and I never got to get back to sleep. We got up and went to church at 8:30, seriously early for Christmas day, but so worth it. Our ward choir director arranged a beautiful program, that I blessed to be able to be a part of. The closing hymn was O Holy Night. I played the piano for it but there was also organ and a cello. It was pretty powerful and certainly brought home the spirit of Christmas. After church we headed home to finally open presents, yes we were so mean and made the girls wait till after church. They were of course excited that Santa brought them exactly what they wanted. Ellie got a Barbie wedding set she has been wanting for almost a year now. Lexie got a Little People fariy tree house, this girl LOVES little people. Lila got an Elefun ball popper, which ended up a huge hit with the older girls. I most have been very good this year because Santa brought me a new camera. I am loving it and can't wait to figure it all out. We went over and spent the rest of the day with Nicks family, minus a few brothers. We sure missed Uncle Chris who is in Columbia wooing a girl, we also not so secretly hope he brings her home with him. We also missed Robin and his family. I personally cant wait till we get to have a Christmas with all the cousins. The highlight of the day was probably watching Nicks Grandpa play the Kinnect with Lexie. She sure loves him and had a blast playing. The girls were of course completely spoiled and all the things they were wanting from Papa and JuJu. We sure are lucky to have such wonderful family.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent with my family. The kids ran around like crazy, we ate delicious food, opened presents and had a great time. I have to say the highlight of the night was acting out the nativity story complete with costumes. My brothers new girlfriend, who we had never met, showed up right when we were starting. We had towels on our heads, capes on backs, and one adult on the floor acting like a donkey. It was actually pretty fun, and the kids loved it. Hopefully she doesn't think we are to crazy.

Lila and my nephew sat together and "played" with her present. It was actually pretty funny to watch. He wanted it and kept trying to take it, Lila was not giving it up without a fight.

Matt with his gift. When did we get so old that kitchen appliances are considered a good gift?

Santa

Christmas Wish

All I want for Christmas is a silent night!

4 Months

4 months

12 lbs 5oz
21.5 in

Still loves Daddy more than anyone.
Completey refuses the bottle.
Starting to like the binky but more for a chew toy than to suck on.
Sleeps 10-11 hours at night.
Adores her big sisters and loves to squeal in delight when Lexie plays with her.
Bath time is her favorite, she would stay in the tub all day.
She only looks so chubby because she is so short.
Rolled over for the first time Nov. 9.
Explodes every diaper she poops in.
Her favorite toy is her hands, they are always in her mouth.
She still likes to spend the majority of her awake time in her swing.
Starting to take naps in her crib, but must be swaddled.

I can't believe 4 months has already gone by. Lila is such a blessing to our family. I know it is so cliche but we really can't imagine life without her.

Redondo

Since we had such a beautiful weekend last week we decided to take the kids to Redondo. It is one of their favorite places to go, and I like that it is free. On Saturdays there is a little aquarium that is open to the public. The girls absolutely love going and touching the starfish. They even get to feed them. After the aquarium we went down to the water and let the girls play. They were in heaven!

Shenanigans

This is the kind of stuff that happens while I'm feeding Lila. At first I was mad and sent them straight to their rooms. the more I thought about it the funnier it became. At least it wasn't my walls.

Many faces of Lila

2 months

2 Month Stats
9 lbs 8 oz (10%)
20 3/4 in (5%)

A few things about Miss Lila Jean-
She rarely cries
She grunts ALOT
She sleeps for 8-10 hours at night, eats, then goes right back to sleep for another 2-4 hours
She LOVES to take baths and showers
She adores her Daddy and always gives him the best smiles, he adores her
She still spends most of the day sleeping
She seems to really like Ellie and is usually happy if Ellie holds her
She is a very happy baby, but I fear she may be a little dramatic
She only sleeps at night if she's tightly swaddled, but she hates having her hands swaddled
She doesn't like the pacifier unless Daddy gives it to her, the same goes for bottles

We are truly loving every minute of Lila. Ellie and Lexie think that everything she does is so cute. I personally am completely in love with this little girl and don't even want to remember what life was like without her. She has brought so much love into our family and has changed our family dynamic in a wonderful way. I am so grateful Heavenly Father gave us yet another miracle baby.

Preschool

Lexie's first day of Preschool was today. I don't think there was anyone more excited to go than she was. I couldn't even get a good picture of her. She ran around all morning singing, first day of school, first day of school. I'm glad she loved it and didn't have any problems being left there.

Kindergarten

How can it be that my sweet tiny little girl is grown up enough to go to Kindergarten? It doesn't seem possible that Ellie is old enough, it feels like yesterday she was born. The whole idea of Kindergarten caused a lot of anxiety in our house for the entire summer. Anytime we talked about it Ellie said she wasn't going. She would just miss me to much and she wasn't going. It didn't matter what I said I couldn't convince her that it was going to be great. Ellie doesn't do well with change and she really hates having to meet new people. Going into things that she isn't familiar with causes a lot of anxiety in her and she gets really nervous. As the grew closer to start school she started saying she was excited, until the week before. When I asked her what she was scared of she told me that she was afraid that people won't like her because she doesn't always make good choices. It broke my heart that these are the things that she worries about at 5. She went to her orientation day and found out the one of her friends from church was going to be in her class. That was such a blessing! She wasn't so scared anymore because she had a friend. The morning of the first day came and she was up early and dressed for school. She was excited! We drove her to school and I'm happy to say there were no tears, not even from me. She was excited to ride the bus home, and I was excited to have her home and hear about her day. Off to the bus stop we went and we waited, and waited, and waited. Finally her bus came down the rode. The driver stopped, asked me who I was waiting for, and told me she hadn't been put on her bus. After a quick call she found out the she had been put on the wrong bus. The other driver was going to bring home. I had a moment of panic and concern. I was just picturing more poor little girl scared. Boy was I wrong. She happily got off the bus and told me how fun the ride had been, bumpy and long was her description. I was so happy to have her back and glad that she enjoyed her first day

Labor Day

For Labor Day we were supposed to go to the beach, but I was having major anxiety about doing it. So I chickened out and we went to Mud Mountain Dam instead. We had a great time swimming, playing on the playground and checking out the view point. We barbecued and had tons of yummy food.

This is where Lila was for most of the time. Hanging out in her carseat.

They climbed a few trees, which was fun until Lexie fell out.



Our futile attempt at getting a picture of all the grand kids together.

Lila and Nanny. She was very happy to be being held.