Pals

Arabella has a new best friend and it’s this cute little guy.

This is Noah and he is awesome. The moment Arabella wakes up she wants to run across the street to play with him. While they are very much opposites, they actually play really well together. How are Noah and Arabella opposites?

*Arabella is VERY affectionate and Noah would prefer not to be touched.

*Arabella is a chatter box and Noah is pretty quiet and enjoys some peace and quiet.

*Arabella is stubborn and Noah is easy going.

The cool thing is that they still really love being together and spend the majority of every single day together.

Cutest little pals ever!

Eva @ 13 Months ~ Progress

Yesterday, Eva reached another milestone…

She pulled herself up!

I knew she was getting close because the day before yesterday she was doing this.

Then, while I was talking to my mom on the phone she pulled herself right up to the couch, trying to get the remote! I couldn’t believe it! I grabbed the camera and she did it again!

She did it so quickly I didn’t even have a chance to move Aidan’s dirty sock! While Eva is almost exactly 2 1/2 months behind, she keeps progressing. I’m so proud of her!

Happy Birthday Maya!

Maya turned 6 on the 22nd! We had already celebrated her birthday but we still like to make their actual birthday a special one. She wanted waffles for breakfast and was made to feel very special at school. When Rich got home from work he asked her where she wanted to go for dinner and she, of course, said Chuck-E-Cheese!

They had A BLAST!

She shoots……She scores!

 

You can’t really tell by this picture but this is Eva enjoying her very first olive. Gross!

Eva HATED Chuck-E-Cheese. Barney freaked her out.

 

After the Barney freak out, she was just terrified of everything!

Rich and I were the meanest parents ever and got pictures of her with all of the creepy rides.

We all, minus Eva, had a fun night. I consider it a success that nobody got sick at the germ infested party place! We stayed out way too late but enjoyed every minute of it.

 

Happy Birthday to the most awesome big sister there ever was! Maya is so sweet and nurturing and an incredible blessing in each of our lives. We love you Nena!

Big Girl!

Time has escaped me the last couple of months. I keep saying I’m going to take Eva’s 1 year old pictures but have I? Nope! I’ll get to it, she might be 18 months old when I do but I will eventually get to it.

 

Eva has had a growth spurt and is progressing with meeting milestones and her feeds. Its awesome! She is mostly orally fed and only has g-tube feeds twice a day. Her favorite way to drink milk is with a straw and occasionally from a sippy. She completely skipped the bottle.

She has the cutest teeth I’ve ever seen! Her smile just kills me!

She recently had her first chocolate chip cookie and inhaled it!

She was driving me crazy every time I tried to spoon feed her, she would take 2-3 bites and then be done. Last week I discovered that she LOVES sucking baby food from those squeeze pouches and it has changed my life! She will eat 2 of them a day and then fill up with biscuits, ritz crackers, puffs or cheese puffs. She has become quite the little eater and I’m in heaven.

 

Eva hangs with her sibs most of the day. Maya is the ultimate little mommy. She will take care of her while I shower, she gets her out of her crib, changes her diaper and carries her everywhere! I feel so blessed!

My baby has SO MUCH personality! She can be so funny, snuggly and grouchy. She has become a handful at church.

What she looks like in the morning and right after her naps.

Sometimes she half-way crawls out of her pj’s.

ADORES her daddy! She gets so excited every day when he comes home for lunch.

Apparently, I need to move the cereal to a higher shelf…

She can be pretty crazy sometimes too. Rich was playing with the big kids and she started doing her psycho laugh.

Time goes by so quickly and I can’t believe that at this time last year I was going through another one of the hardest experiences of my life with my little newborn. She has been worth all 6 months of sleepless nights, shingles, meds and extra pounds. Rich and I have often talked about how difficult of a decision it was for us to have a fourth and how we didn’t foresee the unique challenges that came with her but how incomplete our lives would have been without her sweet personality. She has made every single member of our family a better person and has given me more reasons to love each one of them.

Birthday Party…check!

I had been feeling like the lamest mom in the world when it came to birthday’s this year…and last year. Last year I had good reason because Eva was born the day before Aidan’s birthday and Maya was in Missouri with her aunt Julie who threw her the best party every! This year, I had no excuse, just not feeling it which is weird because usually I get so excited about their birthday parties. Anyway, I put it off and I put it off until finally it was close enough to Maya’s birthday that I could get away with making it a party for her too.

I decided to do an ice cream party and it worked out great. Rich made a little cake for each of the kids.

Eva’s cake

We had an ice cream sundae bar with tons of toppings and cookie bowls.

We let the kids loose on the ice cream bar and they went wild.

 

 

After everybody was done with their ice cream we sang happy birthday to each one of the kids.

She enjoyed everybody singing to her.

She wasn’t too hesitant to touch her cake but not too interested in tasting it.

Finally, a little taste and she didn’t like it.

Next, was Aidan!

Finally, it was Maya’s turn!

The kids had a great time and it was a blessing to be able to celebrate Eva’s first birthday, Aidan’s 7th and Maya’s 6th. Happy Birthday my little loves!