Christmas Festival

On Saturday, we went to a small town Christmas festival. The girls had a wonderful time. Haddie got a candy cane painted on her cheek. Sierra had a gingerbread man. I was impressed with how well they stayed still.

Afterwards, we went for rides on a shetland pony named Sandy. They did a great job.



And here are our little carolers.

Finally, we took a picture with Santa (and now you can see that Brooklyn was with us, just too little for some of the other activities). I was really surprised at how well they did. Sierra was a bit nervous, but she warmed up with her sister next to her.

My favorite was after the picture when Haddie said "Mommy, santa is really big. Is he bigger than God?" This prompted a very interesting discussion. In case you are wondering, we take pictures with Santa and tell him what we want for Christmas, but presents are from mommy and daddy. He isn't magical or anything.

They also had a balloon man, which was the end of our fun because Haddie received a balloon while Sierra, being 2, was too young and could only have a little plastic whale. This was not a good substitute and there were many tears. Once we got home, we ignored Mr. Balloon Man's safety suggestion and Haddie had to share her balloon with her sister. This was somewhat better, but the balloon still didn't make it through the day. Sigh. Oh well, they had some good times with it before it popped.

Taking a break

Well, hello again! After a long rest from blogging I am ready to dig in again. Brooklyn had her 6 month check up today and we are happy that she is growing very well along her own little curve. She was 23 in. long and weighed 10 lbs, 11 ozs. The doctor says she is doing really well and we are going to start working on solids, hoping she will begin to catch up to the normal growth curve for a baby her age. She is also starting to lift her head up off the ground from her tummy really well. Her legs always come up behind her making it more difficult. It is hard work, catching up!!

Checkups

We had a marathon of doctor visits today. Brooklyn and Sierra each had a checkup. Since they both see the same doctors, we were able to make one trip and schedule them back to back.

Sierra had her 2 year checkup and weighed 25 and a half pounds (40th percentile) and was 33 inches tall (25th percentile)

Brooklyn had her 3 month checkup and weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces and was 20 inches long. She is growing well compared to her previous measurements but is still under all the growth percentiles for her age (which is normal for how premature she was for the next 3-6 months). The doctor says she is doing great for where she started. Her umbilical hernia is still present, and apparently should go away on its own but it could take anywhere from months to years.

It was hard to find pics of Sierra and Brooklyn together, but here are a couple. Sierra loves to pat Brooklyn when she fusses.

Photo Session and Braids

After the older girls went to bed, I got a chance to take some pictures that were long overdue. Brooklyn is almost too old for these "naked pictures," but I thought it was still very cute. We are blessed with each of our girls, but Brooklyn is our little miracle child! If you look back at older pictures from May especially, she has really filled out!!

Sleeping with mommy.

Wide awake

Playing with daddy

I had to include this one. Sierra's hair is just barely long enough, but I have been wanting to try it in braids for a while now. This isn't a great picture, but I thought they just turned out adorable! Of course they didn't last all night.

A day at the farm

We have been having a great time on Brendon's parents farm this summer. The girls love the animals and the room to run around. Here are some pictures from a recent day on the farm.

Liz cuddles up with Sierra and Reatha's dog, Max.

Sierra and Haddie both like to sit on the saddles and pretend they are riding a horse.

Sierra climbing the fence.

Brooklyn slept through pretty much the whole afternoon.

Brandis sitting with Haddie and Sierra on a rack full of hay.

Playground

Here are some pics from a recent day at the park. The girls love to play at the park. The swings and slide are two of their favorites, along with the teeter totter, but I help with that so no pics.

Brooklyn and the Parade

The older girls went to the parade with grandma. They had a great time, although Sierra was a bit timid after the fire engines started wailing. Her big sister, along with some other kids, helped her fill her bag with candy anyway.

Here they are at the park checking out their haul!

This didn't turn out that great, but Brooklyn is getting so big and I wanted to show her next to me for comparison.

Our purple girl. Even when she came home from the hospital, she had that double chin. It was probably the only fat on her then, but she is really starting to fill out now. We are starting to outgrow some of our preemie clothes now, although newborn stuff is still pretty big.

Old Settlers Days

So these pictures are a bit old, but while Brendon was in Washington D.C. with the youth group, my mom came out for a few days and we went to Metamora's Old Settlers Days festival. The girls had a blast, and so did we, despite the really hot weather.

Mom and the girls rode the big ferris wheel. It actually went pretty fast. Brooklyn and I stayed behind to watch, and even from the bottom I could hear Haddie yelling "Caw, caw, I'm a bird!" Grandma said they were flapping their "wings" and everything. How cute! Haddie also had to be told by the ride operator not to rock the car. Uh-oh, a troublemaker from the beginning.

Riding the little ferris wheel all by themselves. Looking down apprehensively.

Feeding and petting the fawns. They absolutely loved this; I could hardly get them out of the pen.


Haddie rode the big slide all by herself. I offered to go with her, but she marched right up the stairs and came down like a pro. She is so indepedent these days. Sigh, growing up so fast...

I Get Around

Mom found a great deal at a garage sale and I got some wheels! I've been practicing and am ready to show everyone my bike riding skills. I can go really fast, but I'm not ready to take of the training wheels just yet. Look at me go...

I am so happy to be able to get around on my own, and now Sierra and I don't fight over the tricycle!

Look at me go!

I learned that you can even ride with the handlebars backwards!

A lot going on!

We are adjusting to life with 3 little ones. Haddie loves to give Brooklyn (supervised, of course) rides in her baby stroller. She and Sierra also push each other around from time to time, usually to the "doctor," where, I am sorry to say, someone is usually getting "cut up so they can take the baby out." It is kind of disturbing to me, but they are both very interested in my scar and what happened. Hopefully they will remember the whole experience without too much trauma.

Cheesin'

I let each girl pick one flower (hopefully that doesn't backfire), and Haddie took the task very seriously. She had to show me which one she picked.

Sierra loves to smell the flowers. She gets right down next to them and blows air out her nose loudly instead of in. It is pretty funny to watch.

My mom was in town last week and we took my Grandma out for breakfast for her birthday. Happy Birthday, Grandma! Here is Brooklyn in her first four generation picture. We are blessed with a wonderful extended family!!

Haddie and my cousin, Johnathon were having fun making towers with the jellies. Boy was my Aunt Carol in trouble. She had strawberry jam on her toast, making the stacks uneven, which Haddie explained to her in great detail.


Afterwards, Haddie went to Johnathon's house to play while mommy and grandma bought paint to get Haddie and Sierra's big girl room ready. Pictures will be coming soon. It is looking really good so far, although painting with 3 little ones in the house is no easy task. I couldn't do it without you, mom!

Cowgirls like us

One of our favorite things to do is riding horses. Although it is a bit of an ordeal now that we have 3 children, Haddie and Sierra never get tired of the horses, and are both very respectful of and careful with the animals. Heather's rehearsal supper included a square dance in a barn, for which Heather got the girls these adorable cowboy hats.

Riding double with daddy. Hang on tight.

What a big girl, all by myself.

Cheese, I love the hats! Reatha's new puppy, Max in the background.

I finally got a picture of all 3 girls.

We are so thankful for our 3 wonderful blessings!

A day at the park

Today was the first time I ventured out to the park with all 3 girls. Haddie has been asking to go for a while, and today it all fell into place. The weather was nice, we met some friends from our MOMS group (yeah, reinforcements :), and we were all feeling pretty good today.

Here are some pictures of Brooklyn and Evan who was born shortly after her. His mom and I have been wanting to do a picture together for a while, and you can see that they were both very cooperative (aka sound asleep). How cute!

I love this one. What a difference being full term (and 9 pounds) makes. Baby feet are so precious!

Haddie playing on the digger. It was almost too heavy for her.

Sierra loved the horse. They both had a great time and I would call our first park outing with 3 girls an overall success.

Swim Time

We went to an indoor preschool swim at Five Points in Washington. They have a great zero depth pool with toys that are perfect for the girls.

Sierra and Haddie are both getting pretty good with floaties. Haddie always says that she swims like a fish and grandpa swims like a whale (he told her that).

Sierra is so brave. She loves to be out in the deeper end where she can't touch. I think we have two brave little swimmers.

Our Three Princesses

We found adorable dresses for the girls to wear as flower girls in Heather's wedding. Of course, when we bought them, no one expected us to have a 3rd little girl. So we put the doll dress that came with Sierra's dress away for later. How special that we were able to bring it out and it actually fit Brooklyn. Now we have 3 beautiful princesses. They wore their matching dresses to church on Sunday to celebrate mommy's birthday.

As adorable as they are, it was worth the bribe of fruit snacks to get everyone to sit together for a picture. This was the only way to get them to pose this close together, both smiling. Oh, well.

Haddie is a wonderful big sister. She is so careful with Brooklyn. Such a little mother.

Sierra loves being a big sister, too. She just requires a little extra supervision. Doesn't Brooklyn look like a little doll here?

Proud big sister again. Brooklyn looks a lot like Haddie's baby pictures here.

Cousin love. We found that Brooklyn liked being close to David for pictures. As soon as we snuggled them together, she stopped crying.