I'm 4 Weeks Old Today!

This precious baby girl has stolen my heart....




I cannot believe four weeks have already flown by since this sweetie joined our family! I refuse to call her 1 Month yet since the actual date (12th) is not until Sunday... so until then, she is "4 Weeks old"! Haha!

She is doing really well, falling into a more predictable eating and sleeping pattern. She consistently eats every 2-3 hours during the day and for the past three nights in a row has gone 4 to 4 & 1/2 hours during the night! I'll take that! ;-)

I heard what I thought was a coo several days ago, but I thought it must have been a fluke. Well, she did it again tonight while I was talking to her and it was obviously a coo. And I've read a few things that say babies begin cooing at around 4 weeks, so I guess she really is starting to get vocal. It is the most precious little sound! She has also given us a few smiles over the past week or so... I can't wait till she gets this trick down because she has the sweetest smile and I'm dying to see more of it!!!

It's too much fun getting to experience and look forward to all these "firsts" again.... omg, we're sooooo blessed!!!!!

Settling In to Our New "Normal"

(Disclaimer: please forgive the poor photo quality... these were all taken from my phone... it's just more convenient since it's always with me!) ;-)

Daddy went back to work this week, so it was my first official week by myself on the "new job" and I have to say, it went pretty well! He did take the kids to school on Monday and Tuesday morning to help me out, but I picked them up every afternoon. Next week, I will be back to morning drop off AND afternoon pick up... yikes!!! I'll report back next week with how many mornings we were late to school! Ha! :-)

Here's a picture of Madi and I on our first morning home together alone... I was pretty happy to have her all to myself! She's a sweetie!


On Tuesday afternoon, we played dress up. I was trying to get some pretty shots of her for her birth announcement, so I got her undressed down to her diaper and got a few different areas set up for some shots (different blankets for backdrops, even a basket to put her in). I had everything ready so I could work quickly before she got fussy. I snapped my first shot and my camera said "Card Full." Ugh. I tried my two backup memory cards and, I kid you not, they were both full too! So, needless to say, we've had to delay the photo shoot until sometime this weekend. But, here is a cute one I captured on my phone camera... she is a DOLL (if I do say so myself!) ;-)


Wednesday evening, she had her first submersion bath (since her umbilical stump had fallen off a few days before). She liked this much better than the sponge baths she had been getting - probably because she stayed warmer - but I just thought it was adorable that she fit in my bathroom sink!


And finally, Thursday morning she had her 2-week checkup. Her pediatrician was pleased with how she is growing... she was up to 7 lbs., 14 oz. so she has surpassed her birth weight and had already grown an inch since birth, up to 20 inches from 19 inches!


So, that's this week's update. We are really enjoying her. So far, she's a very sweet, content baby who soothes easily and we seem to be learning her cues and cries, which helps keep her, and everyone, happy! ;-)

Big brother and big sister adore her too... I still can't believe I have three kids, holy moly!!! They have been great helpers and they're growing up so much, taking more responsibility and have been getting better at following our directions/requests.

She's Here!

Madison Grace
7 lbs., 12 oz.
19 inches


Our little beauty arrived on Thursday, January 12 at 10:49 pm! She is precious and sweet and we have been enjoying getting to know her over the past week and a half as we transition to a family of 5.

All dressed and ready for our big trip HOME! What a blessing to have a full-term baby this time and get to take her home from the hospital... wow. God is so good!

Madi at 3 days old - she's an angel, I could just eat her up!

We are happy and blessed and our family is now COMPLETE!!! :-)

Making Room for Baby...

Our "nesting" got off to a very late start this time around! Just 4 short weeks ago, the baby's room looked like this:
Daddy started putting the crib together the first week of December and here's how it sat as we waited for the bedding I ordered to arrive. We had planned to hold off on painting the room until later in the spring once we decided what color to go with for the walls.


But, after finding inspiration from this nursery that used the same line of fabrics for their bedding, along came my sweet friend Roni, who insisted it be done ahead of time. So, the week of Christmas, she graciously came over and gave of her time to help paint the room!
And, I have to say, I am sooooo glad we went ahead and painted now instead of later! It is so nice to have it out of the way... it looks 110% better than the builder beige walls! And, my husband agreed to let me order the tree decal that I had found in that inspiration photo and it really makes the room!

Both the bedding and the decal surprised me with an earlier-than-expected arrival a few days before Christmas! So, on Christmas Day, my sweet brother and hubby worked on installing the decal for me and it all came together at once! It was a great Christmas gift. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out... it's probably my favorite room in the house now!


Here are some more pics of the room:
We have been very blessed not to have to purchase any furniture this time (with the exception of the glider/ottoman). This changing dresser was given to us by friends and I embellished it with new drawer pulls and backed all the glass-front drawers with the different fabrics in the bedding to give it a custom feel. It turned out really cute. I found the blue changing table topper at a garage sale for $10 and, after living with it for awhile, think I would still like to paint it white to match the dresser. Don't know when I'll get to that project though! ;)

Here is the glider and ottoman I bought at a garage sale for... wait for it... $75!!!!!! It is supposedly a $900 set from Magic Moon, a high-dollar baby boutique with stores in the Southlake and Dallas areas. It had some slight staining so I had originally planned to get it reupholstered or slip-covered. However, once I started getting quotes for that, I soon realized that was out of the question for now and just borrowed a friend's upholstery cleaner and got it as clean as I could with a couple of cleaning sessions. It's not perfect by any means, but it's a lot better than it was when I bought it and with a blanket and pillow covering it, it helps to hide some of those imperfections. We will most likely have it recovered once it is finished being used in the nursery with a nice neutral/kid-friendly fabric to be used upstairs in the kids' playroom.


So, that's a tour of little Maddie's room.
Now, all we're missing is a beautiful baby girl in that crib!
(and some curtains for the windows... I'm just kind of stuck on that project, not sure whether to get panels made from one of the bedding fabrics or go with a solid)




38 Weeks and counting... won't be long now!

Merry Christmas from Our Family To Yours!

And now, I leave you with Tori's rendition of Jingle Bells:

"Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, jingle all the way! Oh what fine it is to ride in a one-oh ho-fen flay!" ~Tori

I kindly explained to her that it is actually "oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh" but to no avail... she prefers her version and, quite frankly, it cracks me up every time!


Hope everyone has had a very blessed and fun Christmas!

“For to us a child is born, to us a savior is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

Dear Santa...

This morning, as I was cleaning out the kids' school folders, I found some letters to Santa that they worked on at school yesterday.... they were too cute not to share!




Dear Santa,
I would like some Star Wars legos, a train set, trains, Star Wars costumes, and lots of Star Wars toys. Bring Mommy a book and Daddy a bathtub. Bring my sister a babydoll.

Love,
Tanner




Dear Santa,
Bring me a diaper changing thingy and a baby. I want a snuggly pillow pet, paper and glitter. Bring my brother Tanner i-Cars. Bring my Daddy a cartoon for the TVs in his car. My mom wants a lot of necklaces.

Love,
Tori



They crack me up! Tanner: "Bring Daddy a bathtub"?!?!! HA! and Tori: "Bring Daddy cartoons for his TVs in his car"!!!! (yes, so YOU can watch them! HA!)

So cute to see what their little minds are dreaming up! Can't believe Christmas is next week!

WHOA.... November flew by!

So... wow. It's already December! I cannot believe how quickly November flew by. I will catch you up on a few highlights from the month:

We started out the first weekend with a sweet baby shower that some girlfriends of mine threw for me and Baby M. It also happened to be my birthday weekend, so it turned out to be one of the best weekends I've had in a long time, as I got to spend it surrounded by lots of my favorite people!

My sweet hostesses and I (L to R: Roni, myself, Sarah & Sadie)

Three generations

Big sister was such an eager helper with gifts... she is getting so excited!


Then, after continuing to have several dreams about delivering an adorable baby boy with lots of dark, spiky hair, we decided to go have a 3D sonogram (since I am not scheduled to have any more with my doctor). This was such a NEAT experience, I'm so glad we did it. And, for the record, it's still a girl! ;)

Big brother and big sister, along with Grammy, were in attendance, which made for a memorable family event!

We had a hard time getting a shot of her face straight on, but here's the best one we got of her face. She's sucking on her arm.

And here's the sweet little grin she gave us after her daddy played some music on my belly to try to get her to move.

So, after seeing her in 3D, we're thinking she looks like her big sister... only 6 more weeks to go and we'll find out for sure!


And then it was Thanksgiving...

We had a great couple of days off, which were spent relaxing down at our family ranch with my dad and stepmom. The highlight of the trip had to be Tanner's excitement on his first duck hunting adventure with the big-boys! He had a blast!

He is all boy... here is my sweet little boy, holding a dead duck by the neck, excitedly saying, "Mom, Mom, you wanna touch it? Touch it, Mom, it's fluffy!" as he pets it on the head for the picture. LOL! gross...

Being silly with Daddy and Josh (Uncle Chris's friend and pro hunter / hunting guide)

He was so excited to get to be the helper and hold all the ducks they shot... 6 in all. He even came home with duck blood on his neck and pants... oy!


Well, what a great month it was! Now we're in the full swing of the Christmas holidays. I absolutely cannot believe Christmas is already upon us in the next couple of weeks because that means that shortly after that is BABY TIME... it will be here before we know it! I will be 34 weeks this week, so only 6 weeks (or less!) to go! Better get my hospital bag packed... :-)