Decorating Cookies

Our sweet friend, Erin, came over last week with cookies and sprinkles for the kids to decorate. They had a blast, and Will made a super deluxe cookie with sprinkles like I've never seen before :)

Santa's Workshop

When Benjamin just found our card from Bass Pro Shops that had their Santa picture inside, he yelled, "Santa's Workshop!" So that's the title of this post.

One thing I love about living in Birmingham is that there's a Bass Pro Shops so close. So that's where we go see Santa every year. Pretty successful trip this year! Scott and Bethan waited in line while Will, Kirstine, and Benjamin painted ornaments, colored, watched and drove the train, and drove the race cars. Then it was Santa time - and most importantly there were no tears this year!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 Months and Starving

Happy 6 months, Bethan! (a week late)

It has been so busy that I've not had a chance to write about Bethan's sweet 1/2 birthday yet. But here we go.

We have been hearing for a while now how petite Bethan is. But we haven't really given it much thought. All of our kids have been small. She didn't seem an exception. Plus at her 4 month checkup she was still 1 lb. bigger than Kirstine was at her 4 mo. checkup.

But last week someone commented on my facebook profile picture. The one taken right after 4th of July. So as I clicked on the picture to see the comment my jaw dropped. I barely recognized that chubby face in the picture. So we immediately realized that things weren't going as well as I thought they had.

Little background... I haven't been able to nurse any of the children "successfully". I pumped with Will for a few weeks getting barely anything at all. Kirstine I did a little more, pumping for almost 2 months. But I still don't think I ever got an ounce total at any feeding. With Benjamin I was much more hopeful. I had heard of a study with positive results for breastfeeding 7 years post breast reduction. Benjamin was born exactly 7 years post, so I was convinced it would finally work for me. No such luck. Again, I did much better than with Kirstine. This time we nursed for 2 months, but we had to supplement with 1 ounce of formula after every feeding the entire time.

Now comes Bethan. She seemed to be going the same route as Benjamin for the first 3 weeks. I went to one support group, decided to completely cut off her supplement, and all went entirely way too smoothly. She was a wonderful nurser. She was always content after feedings, she slept great, had a great # of wet and dirty diapers, she smiled, cooed, rolled over very early, and the list goes on. So after her 4 month checkup when she slowly stopped gaining weight we just didn't notice.

Back to present... I noticed this picture Wednesday night last week, the night before she turned 6 months. Her 6 mo. checkup wasn't scheduled 'til Friday, so I went to the breastfeeding support group on Thursday. I found out she was only getting about 2 1/2 ounces per feeding, and she was only nursing 4 times a day. No wonder she was so skinny!

Checkup on Friday... 12 lbs. 1 oz.

Checkup at 4 mos......12 lbs. 5 oz.

Not good. Bethan, my dear, I am so sorry I have been starving you for the past 2 months. I promise I will never do it again.

Now she is very happily taking lots and lots of formula to fatten her up.

In other news, she is almost sitting up. She is on all fours and is rocking, and she even moved both knees forward while we were in Tampa. It's just a matter of days.

Oh, and she is still the most precious thing that ever lived. And in all honesty I really really love tiny babies so I secretly want her to stay little!!!

Ice Skating in Downtown Tampa

We began our week by going downtown to iceskate at the outdoor winter skating rink. The boys had a blast. It was just me, Will, Kaden, and Blue skating. Uncle Kevin took Benjamin and Toby down to the playground by the river. They all had a GREAT time.

Here are some pictures of Blue being Blue. Super inquisitive, asking lots of questions...

And what's more fun than ice skating? Making snowballs and throwing them at Aunt Jaime of course!!!

A little confusing since both boys are wearing jeans and a navy shirt, but these first two are of Kevin holding both boys, but you can only see Benjamin, and in the 3rd Benjamin fell down and you can just see Toby.

Summer Fun

Summer fun? Isn't it November? This is us in Florida for Thanksgiving vacation. Yep, the kis have gone swimming EVERY DAY that we've been here.

 Above: Will, Kaden, and Giovanni. Below: Benjamin, Nikolle, and Kirstine. I never got any pictures of Adria. :(

The boys had a BLAST playing tackle football...

 

 

Jenn Myers' cute baby, Leah.

 Bethan with 2 of my best friends, Anne Fordyce and Kristen Lubrano