8 weeks

This little nugget is as sweet as can be! But really, aren't all babies?

We are seeing more and more smiles these days...and it just melts my heart.

She has been cooing and every once in a while she gets so worked up that she squeals.

I think we have found a schedule and she pretty much sticks to it. She eats every 3 hours during the day and goes 8-9 hours at night. 

There are very few things that make her unhappy and one would include hunger. I think she was wondering why I was taking her picture instead of feeding her. Priorities...

She is up to 11 pounds 2 ounces putting her in the 60%. She is 50% on length and 25% on head size.

The other two still love to hold her. Evangeline doesn't ask as often as Ari but she is more aware as to where or what the baby is doing. She will often exclaim "Awake!" or "Crying!" and helps keep me informed as to what the baby needs.

the everyday

I'm not a big fan of clean up after yogurt...but she really enjoys it.

My sweet, sweet boy who is growing up way too fast. (He's going to be 5 this year!)

These two love to play together and find creative ways to stay busy during free play.

This face cracks me up. I wanted to take her picture because it was the first time I could do pig tails in her hair and she decided against it. Normally she cheeses it up for the camera but she decided to fake cry instead.

I forget how busy we get when the weather turns nice. It has been so nice to just get out and let the kids run around. Evangeline gets pretty upset though if it's cold or rainy and we can't go out. She will walk around begging for her shoes and coat.

She seems so big this year being able to go up and down the slides all by herself.

Ari saw this hill and decided it would be fun to roll down.

Evangeline did too...except she needed some assistance.

We had family over for my mom's birthday. The women stayed inside while the men went outside with all the children.

It seriously looked like a zoo. There were toys flying everywhere, children being tossed in the air or riding in wheel barrows, wooden sword fights, wrestling, and who knows what else. That's probably why I stayed inside...

Evangeline has made a habit of crashing on the floor when she's tired. Sometimes it's during the day and I will find her upstairs on the hallway floor.

Sometimes it's in the middle of the night and we find her right next to our bed. (Please ignore the mess, we were getting our bathroom worked on so everything was moved to right there...which almost makes it more funny that she was able to find a spot!)

This is my favorite picture of these two. Ari is wearing a cowboy costume that my grandmother made for my brother when he was that age. It's definitely got a lot of use!

We finally made it downtown to have lunch with daddy. They love going to see him and of course getting special treats!

And then we were extra spoiled and went to the zoo on his day off.

I love this girl in all her snugly newborn glory.

We really enjoyed our time with some sweet friends.

Easter Weekend

I really love Easter. As new life starts to grow in the springtime, it's such a great reminder of the new life we have through His death and resurrection.

We keep Easter really simple. We like to do the egg hunt at church and then just spend time with family the rest of the weekend.

Complete chaos ensued as the children were released to find the eggs after the gospel presentation. It only took about 10 minutes for them all to be found.

They were allowed to find up to 40 eggs each, but I know we didn't get that many and still had enough candy to last us the rest of the year! (Ok so maybe the candy would last a whole year if I had more self-control.)

You can see how excited they were!

You'd think this little one had never enjoyed chocolate before...

The weather was nice enough to get out for a bit before family came over that evening.

If it were up to my kids, they would never come inside.

If I got to ride in the wheelbarrow I probably wouldn't want to come inside either :)

I think the kids did a good job at coloring eggs, not too many ended up cracked.

Evangeline is always surprising us. She decided to hang out in the bathroom and once we realized where she went, she had filled the sink with water and soap and decided to wash her hair.

She looked a little terrified that we were all standing in the doorway laughing and taking pictures. There is never a dull moment when you're a parent!

We spent Resurrection Sunday  with AJ's family. I realized a few minutes after we left  for church that morning that I forgot my camera at home :( Thankfully his parents were able to snap a quick picture on their phone before the kids changed out of their clothes for nap time.

Ari's memory verse for that week was Romans 10:9 "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."  We like to keep Easter simple because salvation is simple. We want our children to really understand the work that Jesus did on the cross, that He did all the work and there's nothing we can do to earn it. We spent lots of time studying the events that lead up to Jesus' death on the cross and what it meant that He was raised from the dead. We serve a living God- a God who wants to be a part of our life so much that He sent His son to die so that we could spend eternity with Him. Now that truly is a gift!

1 month

Selah is still a very content baby. Her demeanor reminds us a lot of how Ari was as a baby. She goes for a 5-7 hour stretch at night but since she goes to bed earlier than me I usually end up waking twice to feed her.

She is not lacking attention from her siblings. They still ask to hold her and come up to love on her all the time. If Evangeline doesn't know where Selah is, she will hold her arms up in question and say "Baby? Baby?"

I try to hold her as much as I can, but with two other ones (or sometimes more) to tend to during the day I feel like she is left to sleep on her own for chunks of time. So when the older ones are sleeping I tend to sit and snuggle her instead of doing other things.

She finally took a real bath! Most of her umbilical cord fell off around 2 weeks but she still had some on there to where she couldn't get in the tub. She is much happier during bath time now.

Ari is such a big help with her. He asked to have his picture taken with her while he held her. Whenever she starts to cry he immediately goes to see what she needs. If she cries in the car he will talk to her in a sweet voice and say "It's ok, I'm right here Selah!"

I've been surprised at how many times I have seen her crack a smile while she is awake. I finally got one on camera so people will start believing me :)

People might think I'm crazy but I really enjoy the newborn stage, even if I don't get as much sleep as before. Any extra time to spend with a baby is pure joy to me, whether it's when I'm awake or suppose to be sleeping. What a blessing they are!