3 months old

Little O, you are three months old!

I love seeing those new baby smiles and coos.  You have been such a precious gift to our family, and every single one of us loves you so much!

Your smiles are sweet as can be.

It's fun to watch you interact with your siblings.  Carter and you play a "punch" game together.  He puts his face near your hands and you wave them around.  When you connect with your brother he pretends to get punched and falls over.  I can tell that you are genuinely working on getting your hands to your brother.  When Ava loves on you she generally gets her hair in your face and you have started grabbing onto it and not letting go.  Dawson has a tendency to scare you with his loud voice and fast movements, but I can tell one day you are going to look up to him.

Play time is hard work!

You fell asleep on your tummy so I put a blanket on you to keep you warm and laid down next to you.  We've been doing a lot of laying on the floor together this past month since I'm feeling under the weather with back pain.

I don't think a cuter little sick mate could possibly be found!  This past week Aunt Pam was over at night to help me out and I lifted you up so that she could carry you upstairs for me.  Your brothers and sisters were really wound up, yelling and screaming.  All of a sudden you let out a really loud high shriek.  At first I thought you were scared, but then I realized you just didn't like all the commotion and were yelling for everyone to settle down.  Fourth baby is going to know how to use those lungs to get attention!

I'm so excited going into the holiday season to experience your first Christmas and first Thanksgiving.  We love you Little O!

Ava's First Reconciliation

Saturday was Ava had the sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time.  Unfortunately Mike's plane didn't arrive until the afternoon so he had to miss it.  But Grandma and Bo were there to help me out and see her big day.

Grandma and Ava

She was pretty proud because she got picked to help with the sermon.  She chose the "grouchy bear" which Grandma and I both felt was pretty appropriate given the morning drama over what outfit to wear.  But she looked gorgeous!

Daddy asked Carter to take pictures and he took his job seriously!  Dawson photo bomb in the background!

Thank you so much to Grandma and Bo for all your help!

Dawson and Mommy

Ava in her first confession

Sitting in a tree

Well, the kids at school have taught Dawson the old song:

Dawson and Emme sitting in a tree K I S S I N G

One day he sang this song over and over.  Then he brought me a picture he had drawn:

Dawson was upset that Emme couldn't get into a tree with him.  So he drew a picture of a ramp that he is going to put next to a tree.  On the ramp is Emme with him.  I thought this was so sweet!

Proud of Carter

Another reason to be proud of Carter:  He was chosen by his teacher as student of the month for October for Fairness.  It seems like student of the month happens frequently, but to put it into perspective only nine students are chosen during a given school year in a class out of 25 or more kids.  I'm so proud that Carter has shown outstanding character every year at school!  

So kinda funny, Carter saw a commercial for the baconator at Wendy's.  He talked about it non-stop "Mom I really want to try a baconator, when can we go get a baconator, that baconator looks really good."  Yes, we aren't perfect and the kids eat fast food from time to time.  So for his October date I took him to Wendy's so he could try son of baconator.  He loves it!  Grrr to commercials and marketing but at least now he will eat a burger with meat instead of just a bun and cheese.

Happy Halloween

We spent Halloween with our cousins and had a great time!  

Ava and Andrew were cats together.

Carter wanted to be a storm trooper.

Dawson picked to be a police officer and Daddy was the prisoner.  Dawson loved chasing around his Daddy to arrest him.

Our little guy spent the night as a little pumpkin.

Check out Uncle Jason the psychiatric patient, Aunt Tiffany the Doctor and little Abbie as Minnie Mouse.  Looking good everyone!

Ava, the writer

Here is another piece of Ava's writing:

"At night spiders creep.  You can't hear them but they are there."

This had me rolling on the floor!  I hate spiders and I have nightmares about spiders.  Poor Ava, I've never talked about it in front of her, but it appears she has the same fear! 

I especially love the drawing of the HUUUUUUGE spider with a tiny person yelling "AAAAAAAA."

Baby OX

I'm way behind, but back in October Owen had his two month check up.  He is a healthy growing little boy, and weighed in at a whopping 14 lbs and 10 oz.  Afterwards, I checked out their baby books to see how he compared to his siblings.  I was shocked to see that despite the fact he was the smallest at birth by a full pound, by two months he was the biggest!  Carter was close at 14 lbs 9.5 oz.  Dawson was the longest but Owen is only a quarter of an inch behind his brother.  This boy is growing like crazy!  We love you little baby Ox!

Another milestone that makes this Mama happy:  he slept last night from 8:30 to 4:30 in the morning!  Then after eating he went back to sleep until 8 am.  Thank you, Thank you!  I hope this is our new normal but I've done this too many times to make that assumption.