4 Months Old

I'm not sure when it's the proper time to stop counting weeks and start counting months, but I think we're there. Rachel turned 4 months old this past week! I can hardly believe she's been with us that long! She went for her 4 month doctor's appointment yesterday and got shots again. She has grown so much since her 2 month visit.

Her stats are now:
Weight - 13 pounds 14 ounces (55%)
Height - 26 inches (95%) - she's going to be a tall girl!
Head Size - 40 cm (23%)



We hit another huge milestone Monday night...she slept for 11 hours and 40 minutes from 8:30PM to 8:15AM! Then she slept for 11.5 hours again last night! I have just been beside myself...but I continue to tell myself that it might have just been a couple of unique nights (especially since she was doped up on tylenol from her shots last night!). So, I'll try not to be too disappointed if it doesn't happen again tonight...but I am always hopeful! This is truly an answered prayer for us!

It's been a pretty rainy week, so we didn't get to go on our normal 3 mile stroller rides every day. We had to improvise and come up with other activities to fill our time. Here's a pic from one morning that we made a special picture message for Adam to email him at work:o)





Here are some pics in a new outfit that was one of our yardsale freebies! I love turquoise blue!

We also celebrated Aunt Lauren's Birthday at Kabuto's (a Japanese Hibachi place) this past week. Rachel did great! She really enjoyed seeing all the fire and excitement with the Japanese cook! Here's Lauren and Nate on her special day.

...we also had a visit from Nana, Aunt Bren, and Aunt Phyllis after their Trustee's meeting in Lebanon this week. It was a nice mid-week surprise since we didn't even know they were coming until the day before! How did Nana know what color Rachel would be wearing that day?!?!? I don't know, but they're color coordinated pretty well!

Rachel is also REALLY close to rolling over from her back to her stomach. In fact, she did it yesterday while I was on the phone with Christy, but she couldn't get her hand out from under her belly after she did it and I had to help her...so I'm not sure that counts yet! She'll get it in the next couple of weeks at least though most likely! Then she'll be roly polying everywhere!

Yard Saling!!!

I have NEVER been a huge fan of going to yard sales...but now that we have Rachel and she grows so fast and even outgrows expensive toys so quickly, I'm kind of becoming a fan of yard sales. Mimi's teacher friend was having a yard sale this week and we racked up big time with ALOT of nice stuff. We ended up only spending $20 for loads of clothes, a backpack (which was $15 of the total), and a bouncer seat. Most of the stuff was free! She was just wanting to get rid of it!

Here's the free bouncer seat...


...and loads of nice clothes from jeans, to jackets, to shoes, to cordoroy pants, to cute shirts...

...and here's our favorite find of the week...a backpacking pack to carry Rachel in. For anyone who knows us very well, you'll know that we will put this to use as soon as she's big enough (about 6 months old)! We love hiking and just being outdoors.

16 Weeks Old

Looking back at all our pics, this has been a busy week!...but a FUN week! Our main events included Rachel and me taking a trip to Livingston for a play date with Cade & Laura and going back to the zoo. We had a blast, but needless to say, we were tired when we got home both nights!

Of course, Pa & Nana couldn't resist all 3 grandkids being so close, so they both stopped by to play on the play day as well. Cade thinks Pa is "all his" and doesn't like to share him much:o)...but he managed to sneak in a few minutes to spoil Laura and Rachel too!

Here's Cade and Pa with their hats on...



Cade's going 4-wheelin' already! You better watch out though...he doesn't know how to steer! So, whichever direction he's pointed when he pushes the "go" button is the way he'll keep going until someone turns him around!


Here's Christy spoilin' Rachel...(Christy has all sorts of cool things like this sling...but she said it cost her $100! WOWIE!!! I think we'll just stick to the normal carrying her in our arms for that much!)

Here's Rachel playing at Cade & Laura's...she's intrigued by all the cool new toys (well, new to her toys that they shared with her)...looks like Cade's got the cows pinned in the corral behind her:o)

Here's Laura...isn't she just adorable?!?!? I hardly recognized her without a bow in her hair!

Rachel loved their exersaucer. It was a really nice one that had lots of stuff on it and played music every time you moved practically! She's just starting to sit in these and has to be propped up with a blanket still since she gets tired of sitting easily and will just plop backwards in the seat without it.

Cade, how did you get that black eye?!? From Nana??? It's almost healed thank goodness. Cade took a fall in the bathroom and hit the edge of the bathtub at Nana's last week. Don't worry Nana, we couldn't live without you and all your help! You can still watch the kids any time you want! We know it was just an accident!

Here's the whole gang when we went for our afternoon stroller ride. We had to go see the cows or "tows" as Cade calls them!

Then, Mimi and Great Ma made a surprise visit on Friday after Ma's doctor's appointment.

Rachel "surfing" on her surfboard playmat this week...

Wasn't the weather this past weekend just absolutely gorgeous!!! You know we were outside! We went back to the zoo for a couple of hours on Saturday. Here are some of the animals we saw on this trip...

Monkeys...

Zebras...

A Giant Anteater...

Lynx...

Here's Adam and Rachel just chillin' at the zoo when we took a break...

...and me and Rachel at the zoo...

More animals...I don't remember what this is, but it was pretty wild looking!

Rachel got all dressed up for Sunday morning. Sorry there's a bib covering the pretty part of her dress...but we couldn't take any chances on getting spit up on it before we even got to church!

Here's Rachel in her exersaucer at our house. It was free from one of Mimi's friends. It's not quite as nice as Cade & Laura's and doesn't play music...but we improvise and just put some of her music making toys on it for her to play with. Works just as good and saved us from having to buy one since she'll probably only use it for a few months anyways. Is it possible to play and pay attention to Baby Einstein DVD?!?!? I guess so...that's what Rachel is turned around looking at!

Me & Rachel after our greenway stroll on Sunday afternoon...

15 Weeks Old

This has been a great week! Rachel is getting better day by day with fewer and fewer screaming/crying attacks...so that's good:o) She's pretty content most of the time and has been sleeping great! We're still getting up one time during the night, but one night she slept for 9 hours! Crazy! I think it was the Nana transe. Mom was here and just wore her out playing on Sunday.

Nimbus got a new bed this week. He was WAY past due getting a new one...here he is just soaking up the softness of it!



Here's Rachel playing this week...



She's really been focusing on her toys lately...

And the finger sucking has begun...she cannot keep her hands out of the mouth!

Even when given a ring to chew on, she prefers her fingers...

Here are just some cute pics we took this week...aren't those eyes just gorgeous?!?!

Rachel hangin' with Adam on the couch...how cute is that?

Ah, finally, putting a toy in her mouth instead of her hands!

We got out one of the many "new" toys for Rachel this week. This is a little lamb that Kassidy brought to her when she came to see her for the first time. We were given so many stuffed toys for her, we just get her out one a week so she has something new to play with. By the time we're finished...she'll never remember the first toy and we can start the cycle over again!

We got to go to Nate & Lauren's on Saturday night to watch the UFC 100 fight. Alot of our friends were there and we had a great time!

Then we hosted our first LifeGroup since Rachel has been with us on Sunday night. We had 10 people and it was also alot of fun. Our friend Aubrey from class watched Rachel pretty much the entire night, so we got a nice break!

14 Weeks Old

We started our week by going to Cookeville to pick up my cousin Ashley who was going to spend the week with us. Donnie and Christy were vacationing in Miami so my mom had the kids. We spent the day with them on Tuesday. Cade of course wanted to play exactly where Rachel was playing:o)

Laura joined them when she woke up from her nap...

It worked out great becuase we had a ratio of one person per baby while Ashley and I were at mom's. Here's Ashley with Laura...

Laura loves her exersaucer at Nana's...a yard sale special!

Ashley spent the week with us and helped out with Rachel. Here they are hangin' out on the couch...I actually got to take a long shower on a couple of days that Ashley was visiting! It was great! She watched Rachel while I got ready!

We wanted to do a little something fun with Ashley while she was visiting...as taking care of a baby all day probably wasn't too terribly exciting for her. So, we went bowling. Here we are at the bowling alley. Ashley, did you steal that bow from Laura...shame on you!

Here's Adam with the bowling ball he picked strictly based on the pretty color:o)

We went back up to Cookeville on Friday for a big July 3 get together with my family. We decided to see if Rachel was big enough to play in the bouncer at Nana's. The seat almost swallowed her up, but I think she liked it...the back of the seat was a perfect head rest! She looks zoned out with excitement in this pic!

Of course, we had to get a pic of Nana and Rachel...

Here's Rachel playing at Nana's. We brought some toys the second time around along with some rings to hook them on the playgym Christy gave mom for Rachel to have at her house since Cade and Laura had outgrown it. We only had one ring/one toy from Rachel's carseat on Tuesday when we went up...so we came more prepared this time...

On the way home we stopped by Lebanon to visit Mama Elaine (Adam's grandma) at the Rehab Center. Rachel wasn't too happy about getting her pic made...but in her defense, it was bottle time! It sure makes Mama Elaine's day every time we take Rachel to visit. Her favorite part is her little toes:o)

Here's Rachel just hangin' out on her playmat at home one day...

Rachel's 3 month pics were not very good that we had made at JCP. I attempted to take some of her this morning, but alas, it's hard to do by yourself! Getting her positioned, smiling, and taking the picture all at the same time was very challenging. We're going to try again on Saturday when Adam's home to help. Here's one that was kind of cute anyways...