Growing Baby

Wow. Has it really been 4 months since my last post? I have so much to catch you up on! In the coming days, I'll probably do a bit of backtracking and fill in the gaps with what we've been up to all summer, but for now, I just wanted to do a simple, month-by-month catch-up post on Madi.

Madi celebrated her half-birthday in July (already?!!). Here's a look at how she has grown over the months:

1 Month ~ 9lbs.

2 Months ~ 10lbs., 9oz.

3 Months

4 Months ~ 11lbs., 2oz.

5 Months

6 Months ~ 16lbs., 8oz.

Between months 4 and 6, she really filled out and put on the pounds, but did you notice what else happened? The beautiful head full of dark brown hair she was born with started to fall out at the beginning of June and has been replaced with auburn red hair! I call her my little Irish baby now with her red hair and blue eyes. We don't know where in the world she came from but we're pretty smitten with her... she is the sweetest, best-natured baby (thank God!) and we are enjoying her immensely!

We have 5-year-olds!!!

I can't believe these big kids are FIVE!!! They are such sweet, intelligent, lovable individuals and we are so blessed to have them in our lives. They're so grown up in so many ways now, and yet not in so many other ways.... ha!! With both beginning to assert their independence and test boundaries (and one of them amazingly strong-willed on top of that), it feels like a milestone for us too; to be able to say we've survived five years with twins! LOL ;-)

They are still super tall, too. Their 5 year checkup was a couple of days ago and here are their current stats:

Tanner~ 48.6lbs (88% weight) 47.25in (98% height)

Tori~ 44.8lbs (76% weight) 47.5in (99% height)

We celebrated their birthday the weekend before last with a fun swim party at Emler Swim School in Southlake. All the kids had a blast, especially the birthday kids, so I'd say it was a success! Here are some pics from the event:

And now for my favorite part... our Silly Pics! I found this little kit with backdrop and silly face props at Walmart the day of the party as I was grabbing some last-minute items. I was so glad I got it because it really made for some fun party memories!

The countdown to Kindergarten is officially on, with only a week and a half to go!!! The first day of school is August 27th and, while it is a bittersweet milestone and I'm sure I'll be a bit emotional that day, it cannot come soon enough!!! It has been a LOOOOOONNNNGGG summer - don't get me wrong - a fun summer, full of great memories and quality time together, but a LOOOOOOONNNNGGGG summer nonetheless! I am ready to get everyone back into a routine and I look forward to some much-needed "think time" for myself and time to get some very overdue projects done around the house. Hopefully I'm not being too optimistic about my productivity since I will still have a baby with me 24/7. She's pretty easygoing though, so I hope to still be able to accomplish some goals... I'll keep ya posted! ;-)

Dallas Arboretum

The kids and I enjoyed a glorious Sunday at the Arboretum last week with friends! Here are some favorites from our time in the beautiful blooms:








It's hard to believe Madi will be 3 months old next Thursday (4/12)! To my delight, she is still a little bitty thing, weighing around 10-1/2 pounds (25%-percentile for weight), and she is happy and healthy. She smiles and coos often now and is generally a very happy and content baby. Big brother and sister are still doing very well, although they have their emotional outbursts for attention from time to time. I suspect it's all normal as they adjust to the reality that Madi is here to stay and is now a permanent fixture in our family! That, and a realization of all the attention she requires. It seems to really help when we separate them for individual time (i.e. sending one at a time on errands with Mom or Dad, or for special time with Grammy).

The big news of this week is.... I got them both registered for KINDERGARTEN on Monday! Wow, this is really happening! They are excited, although I'm sure they have no idea what they're excited for. We all get to go to Kindergarten orientation on the evening of May 8th, so we're looking forward to learning more about what's to come and hopefully getting to tour the school.

Preschool is going great and they're doing so well! We really have a couple of very bright kiddos on our hands and I'm excited to see how they will grow in Kindergarten next year. Preschool ends May 17th and school starts August 27th. In case you didn't get out your calendar to count, that's FOURTEEN WEEKS. Oh. My. Word. !!! I still have no idea how I'm going to keep them happy/entertained all summer by myself AND keep my own sanity intact.... so, wish me luck! And please offer any and all suggestions for cheap/free entertainment! HA!

I'll probably be shipping them off to Camp Nana (in Denver) and Camp Honey (in Shreveport)!!! And hopefully Camp Grammy will be an every weekend occurrence... hint, hint! HA!

It really does take a village...... :-)

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!