April is 7 months old!

I'm a little late with this post but whatever!

7 months ago this little angel blessed our family with her presence. Life will never be the same. She is perfect in every way. Even when she is really sick she's happy. Her ONLY flaw is she is not the greatest sleeper. (Probably only slept through the night about 6 times in her life.) I love her sweet, smiling and curious personality. She is tolerant (a necessity in our household), so so loving and snuggly. Everyone in this house dotes on her and rightly so. She is sitting up, laughing, loves to make noise and slowly figuring out the whole crawling thing. She also has an obsession with textures. She loves "scratching" any and everything she can get her hands on.

Oh and she does not like wearing shoes. She squirms her feet out of them constantly. I can't keep them on her!

Family Picture Day

This year I'm so happy I scheduled our family pictures early in the year. It's super stressful but it's so worth it in the end. There is plenty that I would change if I could go back. For example Noah's shirt was supposed to be rolled on the sleeves (little stinker unrolled them and I didn't notice til after we took pics), Callie and I had matching bracelets that got left in the bathroom when she took it off to wash her hands, Callie's necklace was off center for quite a few of her pics, and I really wanted Ron or Noah to wear a dark gray shirt... oh well. It's DONE and I don't have to think about it anymore. I used the same photographer that did my maternity pics and April's newborn pics, Trisha Shelley. She was amazing and found exactly what I wanted for our background/scenery. Our photo session was scheduled for early morning. We needed to be up early to get the sunrise and good lighting for our pictures. This really wasn't that big of a deal considering my kids are total early birds. I got up at 4:30am got myself ready first, then woke the kids up around 5:30am and we rushed out the door around 6:10am.

 

Callie refused to put on her under shorts that I set out. It cracks me up that you can see her navy blue/stars Pajama bottoms in a couple of these pics. LOL

Trisha has a blog and she posted all about our photo shoot. I just love her and it's fun to read her perspective on how things went:
I moved to Gilbert, Arizona soon after getting my first DSLR camera and having just decided I wanted to be a photographer. But when you move to a new place, and don't know anyone, where do you start?

Lucky for me, I had one friend here. One friend who let me photograph her beautiful family for free in exchange for posting the pictures to a yardsale group and saying I was offering a deal. I was offering killer deals back then! I said--Valentines Special $25 for a session. Two people jumped on that deal. And Shelly was one of them. I'm sure she knew I was a newbie. What photographer in their right mind would charge $25 for a session? But she gave me a shot--for which I am so grateful.

Well, she must have liked me, because a few months after her maternity session, she called me to take pictures of her new little one! And since then has sent a couple friends my way. She has been one of my greatest supporters and advocates! I'm so grateful for her and I love the friendship we've built through this medium. 

About a month ago, Shelly told me she really wanted a rustic barn for her photos. If you're from Mesa or Gilbert then you might get this. It's REALLY hard to find a rustic barn around here! It's the city for one, and two, everything is pretty new. I was a little nervous we weren't going to make it happen. Thank goodness for friends because google wasn't getting me anywhere! If you ask enough people, you're bound to find something! 

We found this old pink barn that happens to belong to a friend of mine in my church! And, it happens to be less than a mile from my apartment. It was well hidden! When I heard pink, I was a little nervous. But Shelly trusted me and we made it work! Needless to say, it went wonderfully. We even got ambushed by some cows towards the end. With the beautiful morning light (my favorite!) and this gorgeous location, it made for a pretty magical session.

Hope you felt a little of the magic too!
xoxo,

She talked about getting ambushed by cows and she wasn't joking. The cows seemed to appear out of nowhere. They made Trisha nervous and she asked that we move out of the area. I declined and said they were fine and just minding their own business. I did notice that they kept inching their way closer and closer towards us. Mason of course thought this was really cool and he kept making eye contact with one of the cows. This particular black cow (bull) did NOT like when Mason looked at him. He started charging Mason 2 or 3 different times. When Ron stepped in between to intervene he was surprised that the cow continued to challenge us. So we quickly left the pasture. 

I'm really pleased with how pictures went. Sadly I felt like April didn't smile as much as her normal self. SHOCKING I know. I needed to go nurse her halfway through our session which really made my shirt wrinkly. Oh well, life of a mother.

I love this face that she makes. It's kind of "her thing"

Halloween

This is my favorite Holiday. I honestly just LOVE Halloween. I really miss the days when my kids would let me coordinate costumes as a family. Sad, sad sad. But I still really love dressing up and dressing them up. Too much fun!


Callie was dressed as Anna from the movie Frozen. (I had 4 other costumes for this girl. All of which she claimed were too "bunchy or itchy" or didn't feel right) So, I busted out a Christmas present I was saving, her Anna dress. Oh well. I'm glad I had it handy.

Noah was a Pirate. Arrrrrrrg Such a handsome pirate.

Mason was Harry Potter AGAIN. But doesn't he totally look like Harry Potter?

April got to wear Callie's costume when she was that age. Wonder Woman! Love it! I think they look so much alike.

Sadly, I couldn't talk Ron into dressing up this year. Oh well. Next year I'll have to plan more ahead and get him excited about something.

Us at our ward Trunk or Treat.

On actual Halloween I wasn't going to dress up but my friend Lindsey had an Elsa Dress and said I could borrow it. How could I pass up the opportunity to dress up as Callie's Sister?!?! Too much fun! I think she loved it, I know I did.

April is 6 months old!!!!

This baby girl is growing too fast!!! I am so sad. I just want her to stay little and perfect forever.

 

Her 6 month stats:
weight- 14 lbs. 5 oz -- 16th percentile
length- 26 3/4 inches -- 80th percentile
head size- 16 1/2 inches -- 31st percentile

I'm still nursing her (everyday I think to myself this is the last day). Not that I don't enjoy nursing her it's just a bit of a struggle for me. I don't produce very much milk so she still isn't sleeping through the night and nursed every 3 hours STILL (She has probably slept all night long about 6 times.) I know she's growing and getting bigger so that means she is getting enough. I just worry. When I pump I only get about 2-3 oz (which is less than I used to get about 4 oz.) I know. I'm pathetic most women pump and get at least 8oz..

I'm SHOCKED she isn't full on crawling yet. She gets from point A to point B when she wants to but it's not a very graceful or quick crawl. It's more of an army-lunge crawl. But I will admit I'm enjoying having an immobile baby.

She is still the most perfect baby ever. So happy all the time, Everyone in this house is infatuated with her. We (yes ALL of us even Ron) fight over her. We all want her attention and smiles. We are one lucky family to have such a sweet spirit in our home. I really can feel a difference in our home. She was meant to come to us and I'm so glad we have her. I thank Ron just about everyday for her.
Siblings descriptions:
Callie- "April is cute!"
Noah- "April is cute and chubby."
Mason- "April is cute, she has hair and she sucks her fingers sometimes."

She does really like her fingers. But luckily it doesn't seem to be any particular fingers. She will take a bink but I don't feel like she is super dependent on the bink like my other kids were.

Mason turned 9

I cannot believe that I have a 9 year old.

 My day to help in his class just happened to be on his actual birthday so that was fun. When it was time for me to leave he asked me to take him with me. LOL silly boy. That does make me a little sad. Up until now I have NEVER heard my kids complain about school. I know it's something other moms struggle with but my boys LOVE school. I know it won't last forever and eventually it will probably become a thing. But for now I'm enjoying happy kids skipping off to school. I should have probably let him come home with me but I was mean and made him stay. I did come back to the school at lunch time and hang out with him (brought him his favorite Chik-FilA). He is such a sweet kid. I honestly LOVE everything about him. He is smart (getting all A's), hilarious, out going (probably one of my favorite things about him), talkative (hmmm not sure where he gets that from?), friendly, kind, goofy, brave, ADVENTUROUS, polite and very thoughtful. He's been through a lot in his young life but always wears a smile. He is going to make one heck of a missionary and husband someday! I just know it.

 We went bowling that night to celebrate 9 years of awesome!

 One of his birthday gifts he got tickets to the Monday night Cardinals game with Dad! Lucky kid!

Noah is 7

Only one more year until he is baptized! That is CRAZY! This kid amazes me everyday. October is a bit of a blur for me. Between Mason and Noah's birthday and prepping for Halloween I get a little overwhelmed. This year I was happy to not do birthday party's and just spend time with mostly family. After Mason's birthday Noah was all excited and ready for his big day. He made a wish list and item number 5 still cracks me up EVERY TIME I look at it. (Math sheets for his birthday. LOL)

Noah is a pretty smart kid. He LOVES school and it comes very easily to him. I never have to ask him to do his homework, which is AMAZING. Seriously some days (most days) I think homework is more of a punishment for parents than helpful for kids. Yes that's how I feel. His favorite subject is Math and he's pretty good at it. His teacher made a really big deal out of Noah's 100% score on their timed math sheet. Telling the class she has never had a  1st grader ever achieve this this early in the school year. (Franklin is a little bit of a challenging school. Most of the school work is a grade ahead of the average elementary school). I love seeing how proud he is of himself for that accomplishment. Noah is a lot like Ron. He's very thoughtful and plans things out in his head before he makes a choice. This is an excellent quality just not always easy for his impatient fast moving mom. I'm learning though. I love how kind, polite and thoughtful Noah is. He has tons of friends and they all want to play with him. He loves sharing and is always thinking of others. If he gets candy at school or a party he ALWAYS saves some for his siblings. I really hope his generosity lasts for years and years. I'm so lucky and blessed to have my sweet, obedient, confident, reliable Noah. I am also really looking forward to next year and the big step he will be taking.

Noah's birthday fell during October Break so we had the day off. I took the kids to a bounce house place called Pump it Up (Noah got to bring a friend), Dougie from his class. Then we had pizza at the park.

We made this poster the beginning of the year for his classroom spotlight.

Some of his Favorites:

Monopoly

Mac N Cheese

Song- Rotten to the Core

Book- Avengers 

Movie- Harry Potter

Friend- Bentley

Subject- Math

"When I grow up?"- Missionary!

Everyday Noah reads to April. I LOVE how sweet he is to all his siblings.

Mason

Mason has really been amazing. I know he was my oldest for a reason. He is so helpful and so great. He can sense when I'm stressed or a little blue. This kid will just randomly give me a hug at the very moment I need it. If April is fussy and I'm busy I don't even have to ask him he immediately picks her up and takes care of her. Ron's been pretty busy lately with work and his calling. Lots of meetings and late nights. It's fine because I know our family is being blessed because of his service but it is really hard sometimes. I know that I can rely on Mason to help and somehow it makes it all better. He has such a big forgiving heart and that's just what I need with an oldest child. I'm not the greatest mom but I try. I have lots of "mom fail" moments and all of my kids are very tolerant I think. Mason is especially good at reading my mood and helping out. Lately he's been taking out the dumpsters of our elderly neighbors. It's really sweet he does it with out complaining and most of the time with out reminders. I'm not sure how I lucked out with such a great kid but I'll take it!