5 Months Old

I can't believe that my baby girl is yet another month old! She's changing right before our eyes! She's enjoying solid foods, playing with baby toys now, and rolling her way across her bed, play pen, and even the floor when she gets the opportunity! She is still not sleeping very well, and has an inconsistent schedule at night. I'm not sure that this doesn't relate some way to the teeth that she may soon get. Either that, or she just enjoys the one-on-one with mommy that the night affords! Either way, while I don't "enjoy" getting interrupted sleep, I do realize that this is the last time I will have an infant to get up with. These days are precious and I cherish them, knowing that this too will pass. In many ways, I don't want them to pass. But, boy oh boy, do I have a fun future ahead. I look forward to every day and the memories we will make together!

Next time!

Ok, so I PROMISE that the next post I make will include pictures! We are just so busy, and I HAVE to use naptime to get things done. Lately, I'm exhausted after the kids go to bed. I think it is this fall weather. Lots of rain, and dreary days are taking a toll on this busy mom!

So lets see... We moved Chaille's bed to the top of the stairs. This was an effort to see if she would sleep better. She hasn't so far, but she is also battling a runny nose like the rest of the children in this family! She's congested, but otherwise really good! She's changing so fast, and lately I can't get enough of her giggles! She's such a happy girl!

And Nolan... He is over his diaper rash, thank goodness. But, he also has a runny nose. He's busy, busy, busy all the time and wants to eat nonstop lately. He's growing I know, but wow, he could eat us out of house and home and he's not even 2!

Silas... Has a runny nose and cough. Starting to see the pattern... He's doing great and can write his own name now. He's enjoying school and has started coming home telling of his friends and their stories too. He's into bugs and worms and GIRLS. Not a day goes by that he doesn't talk about "when I get married..."

Avery... Has started bringing home second grade books and is reading them and passing his comprehension tests with 100% accuracy. He's in love with reading. He had his book fair at school and bought books about sharks. He said he wasn't sure if he was allowed because the books said for ages 7+. How funny. Oh, and because he took $3 extra, he decided it was ok to spend it. And here Mommy thought the teacher would just send home the change =oP Let's just say I got a good laugh out of it!

Steve... is on week 2 of teaching. And he is probably scheduling his classes for EKU as I type. He's been accepted and is on his way! With classwork added to his schedule, I'm not sure when he will sleep??? But his family supports him, and we know that this is a GREAT thing that he is doing!!!

Me... Well, my Bible Study went great on Monday. We had 11, but are expecting several more when we meet again in 2 weeks! I'm busy keeping up, as usual, and am off now to wash the boys' wet swim clothes from school today! Love and miss everyone! And like I said... I PROMISE pictures next time!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I don't usually like to post without pictures. But, this week I'm going to anyway. I don't want to take too much time away from the kids (naptime ran SHORT today) to make a post!

Nolan and Silas (who also got strep throat) are over their illnesses! Nolan is dealing with a diaper rash caused by the antibiotic, but it is healing slowly. Avery seemed to dodge the bullet, as did Chaille, but they say that infants under one cannot get strep. And, Steve and I are still healthy as well!

My babysitting job is going well, and the kiddos are getting along great! They have been coming, on average, about 4 days a week. It is funny how different it feels when they don't come already. It's like having them here during the week is the new "normal" and when they don't come I feel out of routine. I almost feel kind of "free" when I just have my own. I'm enjoying it though, and I somehow feel more organized to have them here.

Avery is doing AWESOME in school. He is reading at a second grade level already, although his handwriting leaves a little more to be desired! :o) He sort of likes to complete his homework to just have it done, rather than to impress! I hope this someday changes... His teacher is great, and he loves her. It cracks me up because at home he called her D.D. (her name is Deb Dalley!) I told him that he had better call her Mrs. Dalley at school if he values his life! :o) I still remember when she took my skittles away in second grade!!!!

Silas LOVES preschool and we are seeing tremendous growth in him now that he's in school himself. He recognizes all of his letters and knows their sounds. I think if we can get him to put strings of sounds together, he'll be reading like Avery. He's motivated by the fact that Avery can read and he can't! Ahh, the joy of sibling rivalries....

Nolan knocks our socks off daily! He can follow multi-step instructions to a tee. He talks in complete sentences these days and can say whatever he wants. This is sometimes good, and other times not so much. His most recent love is Grandma Darlene's car. If he can see it, he wants to ride in it. The other day I asked him who he loved and his answer was "Mamaw's car!" Oh silly boy! He is also in love with yogurt these days. He eats it for breakfast and for a snack! He is most definately acting more like the big boys than like a baby these days. I guess I'll have to quit referring to he and Chaille as "the babies!"

Chaille is WONDERFUL! She is the most well-behaved, laid back, sweet little girl. She is in love with her feet and lays on her back with her toes in her hands often. She smiles and sticks out her tongue when she's happy. Oh, and she's drooling like a mad woman! Drip, drip, drip... she must be one of ours. We just have drooly babies! She occasionally makes raspberries in that drool, and also growls when she's playing with you. She's absolutely SWEET! I'm enjoying her SO much!

Steve is busy this week teaching a structural collapse course. He is teaching for the next two weeks also. He recently enrolled with Eastern Kentucky University. He will be taking online courses to get his Bachelors Degree in Fire Science. He is very excited and will be doing the entire degree online! He's already busy, so the classes will be sure to keep it that way for a while. I guess it is better now than when we have four children involved in extra-curriculars!

And me.... well, I've been busy taking care of children! And I'm planning a Bible Study that starts next Monday. We are going to do Beth Moore's study of Esther. I'm excited to DO the study, and glad to have many friends joining me in this journey (I think I'll have twenty!) I'll let you know how it goes!!!

Thank you for listening as I ramble on about our family. Hopefully I'll be back soon to update with PICTURES!!!!

4 Month Stats

I forgot to mention in my last post about Chaille's 4 month doctor's visit. She was 16 lb. 2 oz. and 26 inches long! She has grown 2 inches and almost 3 lb. in just 2 months!!! She's doing well and, according to the doctor, on track developmentally. She's starting to have such a personality lately and LOVES to make noises. She lays in bed and coos herself to sleep sometimes! She rolls over onto her back ALL the time, and I find her sleeping in some pretty funny positions.

I don't really have much else to blog about this week. We are having a fairly calm and "normal" week. I pray it stays that way :o)

Parade, Park, and Pictures...

This morning we went to the Crack-A-Way Days Parade in New Point. The boys were going to ride the cart behind Lady, the new horse. Lady, however, had something much different in mind. She did not tolerate the traffic and noise, so they were unable to put her in the parade. So... the boys rode with grandma and grandpa in the Model A. Here are some pictures of Nolan and Chaille watching the parade, and the boys riding in the parade:

Nolan was so excited to see one of his grandpas after the parade. He LOVES his papaws!

I took some pictures of the kids playing in the backyard and at the park this week. I thought I'd add some of the better pictures of them. They are growing so fast!

You can tell everyone is feeling better just by their smiles! Yay! I'm so glad to have my kiddos back to themselves!

Here are some pictures I took of Chaille this week. I can't believe how quickly the first 4 months of her life have gone! She's such a fun little girl. She's started laughing out loud at me, and is such a smiley girl most of the time. Enjoy:

Last night Chaille, Sarah Records, and I went to a Jewelry Party to support my friend Amanda, and her Weekend to End Breast Cancer Walk. I donated money to a raffle and WON a photo session with a girl named Molly Connor! I'm so excited!!! We'll get our pictures taken sometime around when Chaille is 6 months old, and that way we can have a family Christmas picture taken too! I can't wait!!!

Strep Throat!!! :o(

Little Nolan has strep throat. Poor little guy has battled this fever for 4 days and will likely struggle through one more night, and then the antibiotic should allow him some relief. Daddy was able to come home from work early and take him to see the doctor. Then, they went and got a slushie on the way to pick up his medicine. Here he is enjoying his slushie:

And then shortly after, Nolan got sleepy: He is in bed resting comfortably now. My heart is broken for him, and I just pray that no one else falls sick with strep too. God Bless you Baby Nolan, may you feel better VERY soon!

Solid Foods, Preschool Swimming, and a New Horse

Wow, a week flies by and a whole lot happens! I honestly haven't had much time to blog on here, so I'm sacrificing some naptime work so that I can update here! So, lets start with Chaille. She turned 4 months on Sunday and so we've begun feeding her cereal this week. She does very well with it (just so long as she isn't REALLY hungry when I feed her!) Here are some pictures from our first feeding:

In the last picture she has it all over her face, although it is a little hard to tell. Silas had his first swimming day at preschool on Thursday. He LOVED it. He could touch bottom, so he had a blast and was not worried at all. Here are some pictures of him playing in the pool (with his buddy, Brady always close by!):

I need to add here that the pictures were blurry because the kids were in a constant state of MOTION and my camera is not a high speed one! They were having a ball!

And on to the new horse... Grandpa Frye purchased a new horse last weekend. It is a horse that has been used to pull a cart by the Amish. It is full grown, and will stay smaller in size. It is perfect for the boys, so Steve saddled it up and the boys all three rode! Yep, even Nolan. He was a little terrified at first, but he rode her. I can't believe how he is growing up! Here are some pictures of the boys riding Grandpa's new horse, Lady:

And I have a few more pictures from "down on the farm." I love to capture them doing fun thing with their Great-Grandparents! Here are a few with Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Frye:

Finally, before I go, I want to update on Nolan. He has had a fever since Saturday around noon. It has been very high and, at night, we have had trouble getting it to come down. I had assumed it was Roseola because it was so high and uncontrollable AND because no one else has any of the same symptoms. However, the fever is still high today and there is no sign of a rash. Plus, I noticed a lot of bright red spots on the back of his throat today. So, Steve is taking him to the doctor right now. I pray that whatever poor Nolan has, that we can get over this awful fever and get him feeling good again soon! I'll update soon with the diagnosis! Here is my poor baby this morning:

Thanks for sticking with me for this LONG post! Blessings to you and your family!

Girls Weekend / Boys Weekend

What a fun weekend we had! Chaille and I went to Illinois with my mom to visit her twin sister, Sharlene. We had a fun "girls weekend" or "gayle's weekend" as Silas and Avery called it! While we were gone, the boys celebrated a "boys weekend" too. The boys camped out on Friday night and hung out together all weekend. They ended their time by attending Lily's 5th Birthday party. I found it funny that Steve and the 3 boys had to go to a little girl's Hannah Montana birthday party alone. They had fun though!

While we were gone, we did a lot of things. We went shopping, had a cook-out, I got my hair cut, Chaille got her EARS PIERCED, and so much more (including me getting my flu shot!) It was a nice, relaxing weekend, but fun at the same time. There were a lot of fun times, and I took a few pictures to share. I'll start with when Chaille got her ears pierced:

My aunt, Cindy, holding Chaille after the piercing. Cindy cried harder than Chaille did, but you can see the tears on Shay's face here.

See my new earrings? Don't talk about it, I tear up whenever I think about it!

Resting peacefully (within 5 minutes of having them done!)

My cousin, Michelle, trying on the "Granny Panties" that we were giving my other cousin, Katie for an early 40th Birthday gift!

Chaille's painted piggies :O)

Katie wearing her "40" glasses trying on her panties :o) He son, Nathan is pointing at them!

Katie reading her card from us.

I had to add video here too, of my cousin's son, Nate, golfing. He was 2 in May and has been golfing since he could walk! Watch his form, it's AWESOME!!!

A Great Week!

We have had a wonderful week so far! Silas LOVES his new school, and the babysitting job is going great! The kids get along very well and I have only had a few moments where it has been challenging, and those moments were caused by my own children! =O) I expected that there would be challenging moments, but I thought they would be more frequent than they have. God has surely had His hand in this! So far I consider this job a real blessing!

Here are the pictures that I promised of our new friends, Brady and Maddie:

Playin' in the dirt! What a beautiful day!


Nolan swinging. He and Maddie LOVE to be pushed on the swings!

Playing "Hullabaloo" outside. It's a GREAT game for learning colors, shapes, etc.

The boys all wait to hear who the winner is.

They really had a fun time playing together!

More Hullabaloo fun!

Maddie LOVES playing with Chaille. She's a great helper when it comes to taking care of Chaille too!

Maddie wanted me to take her picture. "Cheese!"

Me too, Mommy! "Cheese!" Isn't he getting SO big???

Fun in the bathtub at Grandma Darlene's tonight!

Avery and Silas were able to go with Steve down to Grandma and Grandpa Frye's this evening to go squirrel hunting. Steve texted me that they got one, which he said was not to bad for a herd of hyperactive elephants! =O) I laughed and responded that they must get their hunting abilities from their mother, Momma Elephant! I have the same trouble in the woods!

We have an exciting weekend ahead of us! Chaille and I are going to Illinois with my mom to visit her twin sister, Sharlene. My aunts Cindy and Ginger are going along with a few of my cousins. While Shay and I are gone on our "girls" weekend, the boys will have their own "boys" weekend. Steve is planning to take them camping tomorrow night and then to visit at Grandma and Grandpa Frye's on Saturday. I'm sure they will have a blast! And I'm sure I will enjoy not having to chase anyone around for a couple days.

I'm definately tired from adjusting to our new routine this week. But I'm so glad that I've chosen to watch Brady and Maddie. I'm able to help some friends with their child care, and I am making money doing it! I told Steve tonight too that I'm surprised at how quickly I'm becoming attached to the new children already! I saw something tonight that made me think of them, and I just smiled! I'm starting to really know their personalities and I think it is going to seem like less and less of a job the longer I have them here! It'll be more like they just "belong" here!

I hope all of our friends and family who are reading this will have a WONDERFUL and relaxing Labor Day Weekend!