Purple Fridays

All last year in school Pierce was dying to have a Raven's jersey. Everyone here in Baltimore gets pretty fired up about their Ravens. This year Grammy and Papa Russ got the boys Raven's jerseys. They were so excited to wear them to school every friday for Purple Fridays! And it was even more perfect since this year the Ravens were awesome and won the SuperBowl. Go Ravens!

leave me alone

This poor thing gets poked and bugged pretty much all day long. Her cheeks are probably sore from all the smootching going on. At this moment she'd had enough and was just done. This was her " Leave me alone!!!" face. Luckily she has a pretty good disposition and can take quite a bit of the bugging. Truth is: It's hard being #4!

such a good helper

The other day I was running around as I usually do in the morning, like a chicken with my head cut off. Mornings are pretty crazy trying to wrangle my boys to get ready for school. They are major lolly-gaggers. I really needed to get in the shower before taking them to school but Allie was making life difficult and was wanting to be held. My sweet Pierce noticed my frustration and offered to take her so I could hop in the shower. When I returned downstairs after my shower I found him like this. He said, " Don't worry mom I fed, burped and changed her for you!" I was super impressed. Made my day!

daddy's girl

This little sweet thing has her daddy wrapped around her little finger. She can be quite a stink these days and my patience is wearing thin. Whenever she gets in trouble with me she cries and wails for her "daddy-o". Pretty much seals the deal that he will come a running to save her. It came almost instinctively the way she bats her eyes and tilts her head when she talks to him, melts his heart. I love seeing Tbird with his girls.

Moon Boots

The other day Jaida and I went to the Thrift store and found these princess moon boot gems! She wears them every single day whether or not it is snowy or cold. You can hear her a mile away stomping around in them. She is pretty proud of them. Gotta love a little girl in pink moon boots!

Mall Days

Jaida and I have still kept up our Thursday mall day tradition. we hit up story time and then play in the little play land. After we go and ride the carousel and then he always says, " Hey mommy, you wanna get a pretzel? Pretzels make me happy!" This is something I absolutely love doing with her and it is our little time together. She makes me so happy.

Meet Frank

So clear back in June, Brock began asking if he could have a pet lizard. I said NO! Trent, because he is a nice Disneyland dad, made a deal with him that if he earned the money to buy one he could get it. He has been saving and saving his money. I was really excited that it was $40, because that meant it would take a really long time for him to earn enough to buy one. Well right after Christmas, Trent took Brock on a Date to the pet store and guess what was 50% off... The leopard geckos! Brock was really excited because he had just received that much money from his grandparents for Christmas. Shoot! They came back and told us all about this gecko and he was so excited. After laying down a few rules about the gecko, I did it, I totally caved in. His face was so priceless and full of excitement. So later that night we went back to go and get the lizard and it was no where to be found. I saw his sweet face turn to worry and then sadness and it was breaking my heart. I felt like I was going to cry right there for him. After searching and searching the cage, they found him hiding under the carpet! Silly Frank! The boys have loved having him around and so far have taken really good care of him.

Treats, snacks and sweets

I am pretty sure that is all Jaida survives on. She hardly ever wants to eat our meals, but almost always asks for a snack. She loves all kinds of chips, crackers and cheese (handi-snacks), pirates booty, fruit snacks,cookies and any kind of chocolate. She is a girl after my own heart and is very hard to say no to. Here is a quality picture of her devouring a klondike bar.. yummy!

Chicken on the bone

 My cute friend, who was super sick, brought us dinner one night. She was feeling ashamed by her dinner because she picked up a rotisserie chicken from the store. Brock couldn't have been more happy with this choice. His favorite thing is "chicken on the bone" and is always begging us to have that for dinner.

I am so grateful for thoughtful friends who brought our family dinner without even being asked. We have been so lucky to have the friends that we do here.

The big 30!!

 I turned 30 December 28, 2012. Can hardly believe that I am 30! It was a great day and my cute little family made it very special for me.

 We went out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse and then had some friends over for cake.

 Don't I look absolutely thrilled?!

Truth is I wasn't very thrilled about turning thirty and was trying to have a positive attitude! Thanks for making my day simply wonderful and here's to my thirties! It's up to me to make them spectacular!

The best sleeper

Another fabulous quality that Allie has is that she is a really good sleeper. This really is so helpful. She usually goes to sleep around 10-10:30 and sleeps until 4:30, then back to sleep until at least 7. (Sometimes even later than that) She is smart and realizes how much her mommy really does need her sleep, something that I wish the other 3 would figure out!

Mr. Lumps and his ideas

It seems that Mr. Lumps, Brock, was concerned that Allie didn't have a proper bed down in the family room. Well, not to worry he solved that problem! Nothing a box and a little bit of tape cant fix! He also furnished it with his fluffy pillows. This is a bed no girl should go without. I love the way his brain works sometimes. In case you were wondering Allie slept beautifully in it, which gave Mr. Lumps all the happiness he could imagine. He absolutely loves his baby sister.

We can't get enough of this little thing

 Allie, you have brought this family so much happiness and joy. We simply cannot get enough of you. Your bright eyes, your simple smile, the Way you have captured all of our hearts.

 You really are such an important part of our family. I cannot imagine life without you, I am in Love!

 You have your Daddy's heart wrapped around your little finger. He is a softy for his little girls.

We love you, THE END

Sisters

Nothing much cuter in life than seeing two sisters snuggled up watching cartoons in their pajamas on the iPad. Everyone is always asking how Jaida is taking to Allie. The truth is Jaida loves her. She hasn't shown one bit of hostility or jealousy toward her at all. We are usually more afraid that she will hug her to death. I hope that this continues and that they can have that strong bond for their whole lives. I know that I cherish my sisterly bond with my sister Whitney and hope that they have many amazing memories together as I do with my sister.

Teaching her the ropes

Pierce one day while I was holding Allie brought over his iPod and turned on some Ne-yo for Allie to listen too. He then proceeded to dance and sing to her. He said," Mom, I'm just showing her some of my moves." She appreciated it. Every girl needs some Ne-yo in her life right? Her big brother just wanted to make sure she wasn't left out, he loves her so much.

Allie's first few days of life

 I don't think we could have got any more lucky/blessed with this baby Allie than we have. She truly has been such a joy in our lives. Trent and I prayed and prayed our little hearts out for another baby and she was worth every minute. She is a happy content baby. She is THE BEST SLEEPER, this makes a mom really happy. Her eating was really the only thing that she seemed to struggle with. in the first few weeks she wasn't gaining weight and I was really having a hard time with this. I really wanted to be able to nurse her and was bound and determined to make this happen. Her problem was that she was just such a sleepy baby that she just would not stay awake for the life of her. So her feedings would take over an hour. This was extremely frustrating and time consuming to this mom who also was trying to juggle her 3 other children and various obligations. She also had some jaundice problems that my breast milk was also not helping. ( I had never heard of this, breast milk jaundice) So we, our pediatrician, Trent and I, decided that the best course of action was pumping and supplementing with formula. After doing this and finally seeing some improvement and getting over the initial hormonal break down of not breast feeding things are now going great!

 Those first few weeks are always hard and the hormones just don't help at all. I felt more crazy though with her. My baby blues so to speak were definitely elevated this time. I'm glad we pulled through and came out on the sane side! It's a dang good thing she is such a good baby too because it made things go a lot more smooth.

 Pierce is absolutely in love with her and helps out so much. He really make it so easy for me and is always volunteering to help as long as her diaper is clean and she doesn't barf on him. He isn't a fan of bodily fluids I guess.

One thing this little girly has is some ski feet. They are super long and skinny, just like mine. She loves to have them rubbed. Love you Miss Allie.

Papa came too

 We were extremely excited that after Allie was born Papa Russ got to come out and visit too. Not that we weren't thrilled with Grammy too, just that he doesn't get to come as often as her. He brings a totally different element. He had a rough time getting here... traveling all night, missing flights, taking a crappy (no pun intended) bus, you get the picture. But boy were we happy to have him, even if it was for just a short time. My dad is an amazing chef, I mean AMAZING!! So not only did I have my mom, who is a self proclaimed neat freak, I got to have my dad come too and cook his heart out for us. After having a baby this my friends, was music to my ears.

 Brock loved spending time with Papa in the kitchen. My dad is so cute that he realized that every year since we have moved here we have missed our families special Christmas dinner, so what did he do? This amazing dad of mine recreated this super amazing dinner and spoiled us with it. It was truly heavenly. He didn't stop there either, because every year around Christmas my dad make some of his famous fudge. I mean our neighbors growing up made sure they did everything they could to be on the Christmas Fudge List. So yummy.

 One morning Brock and my dad made pancakes together. He is also famous for his pancakes. Here is a Wall-e one.

 Manny, from Ice Age.

 and Jaida's Mickey. Pretty much my dad is a celebrity when it comes to cooking.

 Also what would a visit from Papa be with out some sort of shananigans? This guy s crazy. Brock planned out for Gracie to pull them in this make-shift box sled. But Gracie is no dummy and didn't want anything to do with it. Don't worry Papa filled in as the reindeer. The kids had a blast and we hated to see him go. Love you Daddy. (Papa)