Just the Five of Us

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Happy Easter!

Last year Easter was in late March - I was overdue, emotional and exhausted. I have to say, this year was sunny and I wasn't 41 weeks pregnant...so I was in a much better state of mind. We had so much fun with the kids during the week leading up to Easter - decorating eggs, going to the big Easter egg hunt in New London with friends, talking about Jesus' death and resurrection (not an easy one to understand for any of us, but so fun to dig into this stuff with our kids), attending a great service (and another Easter egg hunt) at our wonderful church followed by an afternoon of family at my in-law's. I was definitely missing my sister's family, and my Dad of course, but it was a beautiful warm day and it was so good to be reminded of the joy of the resurrection and the promise of new life in Him!

Our annual Easter egg hunt in New London took place the weekend before Easter - and it was freezing! The kids had a blast though!

Meeting the Easter Bunny...

Our good friend Audrey joined us!

An action shot...

Sadie will enjoy this a lot more next year, but she had fun tagging along...

Decorating Easter eggs...

We had an Easter egg hunt before church on Sunday morning...

Eating their loot - Camden was SO excited there were honey-nut cheerios instead of just plain cheerios in his eggs! Easy to please!

Pretty colors...

Our three little ones at Church on Easter morning...

On Easter afternoon we finally got a good family picture! Thanks Brian!

Love how Camden is looking at Sadie in this one. Such a good big brother!

Co-Mother-in-Laws!

The grandparents really wanted a photo with the kids...unfortunately, they were done with the picture taking by this point. Oops! (This is the only one with Camden actually smiling - he's either crying or had run out of the photo in the others!) :)

My Girl...

Ami invented a fun game...

How's this for an awkward family photo?!?! Should I send it in to the website?!

Cousins!

Happy Easter, everyone!

Friday, April 11, 2014

Sadie Grace Turns One!

Our little girl is ONE! I don't know how this is possible, but it's true! I just spent hours putting together her baby book and wrote a long note to her in the back of the book - documenting her year and how much she means to us. I've included it below with some pictures of her special day...Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!
It's so fun to see how much she's grown since the beginning!

Dear Sadie,
It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since you made your entrance into this world! You were due to be born on March 25^th, which was your Bepa’s birthday, but just like your brothers, you weren’t quite ready on your due date.

Even though you were born eight days later, you’ll always have that special bond with your Bepa. He never got to meet you or hold you in his arms because he passed away just two months before your birth, but he was so excited for our family and to know that a little girl was going to enter our lives. He knew you and loved you before you were even born and he will always be a special part of your story as his death and your life are so intertwined.

You were born at 7:11pm on April 2, 2013 and weighed 9 lb 1oz (after pooping twice!) and were 20.5 inches long. Your Daddy, of course, and Ami and Nan all were able to witness your water birth and it was a truly miraculous moment for all of us to experience. From the very beginning your

brothers have showered you with love. They love to hold you, play with you, make you laugh and now that you’re getting bigger they like to “wrestle” with you. They’re not always happy when you mess up the toys that they’re playing with, which you seem to thoroughly enjoy, but overall the three of you have a very special relationship.

You flashed your first big smile at five weeks old and rolled over in both directions just a couple days after you turned three months old. You learned your very first sign, “nurse” at only 5 ½ months old which was very early and completely melted our hearts and you started sitting up independently around the same time. On your six month birthday you shocked us when we watched you pull yourself up to standing in your crib and by seven months you had learned to crawl, were pulling yourself up on everything and had cut your first two teeth! You started taking your first independent steps at 10 months and were walking at 11 months.

You are spunky, silly and full of life. If you want something, you make sure to let us know! You have many signs that you use to communicate with – by your first birthday you could sign night night, more, all done, nurse, grapes, cheese, water, book, diaper change, shower/tubby, gentle and thank you – but if for some reason we don’t see you using your signs you just start yelling to get our attention! You can also say Mama (first word!), hi, banana, water, apple, cheese, Dada, Micah (Ika), Bubba (Ubba), Ami, Pop, Mylah, again and uh-oh!

You love to read Goodnight Moon and Pat the Bunny. You’re always getting into mischief and love to pull on and try to eat electrical cords. You love climbing up and down the stairs and like to throw things into the toilet bowl if someone leaves the top open! It’s impossible to empty the dishwasher without you climbing up on the open door to “help,” and when you hear the door open you yell “Hi, Hi, Hi, Hi” at the top of your lungs until whoever arrived comes to give you a hug! You aren’t a very good sleeper and although you fall asleep in your crib, you spend the majority of the night in bed with Mama and Daddy. You are still nursing every 2-4 hours (or more often) around the clock and although nursing you is one of my favorite joys in life you have a habit of pulling at my hair really hard and/our scratching at my eyes. Somehow, we both still love those moments together and I’m so glad you still connect with your Mama in that way. If you wake up at night, I’ll lift you from your bed and you put your head on my shoulder and start gently stroking the hair on the back of my neck. It’s a memory that I don’t ever want to forget.
You have brought more joy to our lives than we ever thought possible. You brought light to our home in a time of darkness and your bright smile has helped to dry so many tears. You are a little spitfire who is destined for great things. We love you, sweet little Sadie Grace!

Saturday, March 22, 2014

North Shore

Since things aren't very springy around here in NH, we headed just a bit south last weekend to our old stomping grounds on the North Shore of Boston. My cousins were having a gender reveal party to share the news of who this next little baby to join the family will be, and we enjoyed a day trip visiting with family and playing at one of our favorite ocean parks. Jon and Mere were thrilled to cut into their cake and find out that they're having another girl to join big sister E!

Camden helped entertain all the little ones by reading to them. It was precious...

After the party, we headed to Ocean Lawn to get some energy out with my Mom before hopping back in the car to head home. It felt a little springy, but still windy and chilly! At least it was warmer than New Hampshire - Camden hopped out of the car and ran around in circles yelling, "Grass! I see grass!" It was awesome! :)