8 Weeks!

Lily girl is now 8 weeks old! Thursday she’ll be 2 months! Time sure flies! She is getting so big. I’m anxious to see how much she weighs at her appointment on Friday. Here is a picture of her I took today- she is starting to wear some of her smaller 3-6 month clothes already.

She is a good baby. Of course she still fusses at times but she goes with the flow most of the time pretty well. Her new favorite (and mine too) is this baby gym. She will play under it for a half an hour sometimes. She can hit one of the toys that hang down and jingle and she likes that. It’s nice to have her entertain herself.

Here is is a week ago dressed up for Sunday.

And here are my girls with their daddy after he got back from his trip to NYC. I was on my own with all three girls from Sunday – Wednesday. There were a few times when I was pretty stressed but for the most part everything went smoothly.

It’s nice that Lily nurses much quicker and only every three hours now so I’m not spending 4 hours a day nursing like I was at the beginning. She never liked a pacifier, which is different for us since the other two loved their binkies. But I think in the long run it will be good for her to learn to self soothe without a pacifier. Overall, life with three kids is a little different but we’re managing things pretty well so far, I think. We love having Lily in our family!

Family in Town!

 

Last weekend we had a bunch of family come into town for Lily’s baby blessing day. My sister from Iowa and her family were the first to arrive. We had a nice evening Friday with some serious crazy cousin time. After we ate dinner, someone suggested my sister and I go see The Help at the movie theatre. 5 minutes later we were in the car, driving away! The dads got to watch all 6 kids ages 7, 5, 4, 3, 17 months, and 1 month, while we enjoyed a great 2 1/2 hour break! The movie was awesome, by the way.

The next day we drove through downtown to show them the city a little and then set up at McKinley Park to play on the beach. The kids had a blast.

We left just in time for it to pour down rain. Next stop was butterburgers and custard at Kopp’s (yum!). Then we headed back home to get ready for the next round of company to arrive – my parents and my youngest sister Katie.

The kids loved piling on Grandpa Haws! Lily was sleeping otherwise she might have been squeezed in for the picture. We had a nice time eating homemade pizza and watching the BYU football game. Then everyone (except me and the baby) went over to their hotel and did some swimming. My mom and my sister said even though there were 5 adults to 5 kids it was pretty intense to try to keep track of them all!

Saturday night late Merrick’s parents arrived and Sunday morning was the baby blessing. This is not a good picture.

We took about 5 pictures and I think each of us looks good in one of them. I’d have to photoshop to get a decent picture.

Anyways, the baby blessing was nice. Someone wrote it down for us, which was sweet – I didn’t have that for Avery or Camryn. My aunt and uncle that live in Delafield, WI also came. It was so nice to have everyone there!

Sunday afternoon I made a yummy lunch of Café Rio style pork salads, thanks to the Our Best Bites cookbook! So delish and a hit with everyone. Then we had a relaxing afternoon with everyone and that night we said goodbye to Katie and my parents who had to head back home the next morning.

Monday morning men did a little of this:

And then we went out to lunch at the Friday’s Front Row Grill at Miller Park. There weren’t any Brewers game that weekend so we thought it would be fun to eat right next to the field. It was pretty cool.

Then we said goodbye to Britney and her family. Merrick’s parents were able to stay a couple extra days. So Monday afternoon we drove down to the lakefront again. It was a chilly day that felt a lot like fall.

We wanted to go check out the Wisconsin Cheese Factory and the Public Market but both were closed due to Labor Day. Luckily Leon’s was still open. They have arguably Milwaukee’s best custard. And butter pecan every single day. My kind of place! (Good thing it’s a good 35 minute drive away!)

Somehow we ended up bringing a half gallon of strawberry custard home. Best.idea.ever. It was sooo good.

The rest of Grandma and Grandpa Smith’s stay was filled with Kohl’s shopping, walks to the park, and lots of cooing with Lily. I haven’t mentioned her much in this post, but she was a trooper getting driven all around town everywhere!

Thanks so much for coming everyone! We had so much fun entertaining and sightseeing! We love visitors!

Kindergarten!

Avery started five year old kindergarten last week!! It’s full day so she has to bring a lunch and a snack and she has 2 recesses every day. She’s growing up so fast!! Here are some pics we snapped before she got on the bus the first day.

She misses Lily while she’s at school!

And here are all three girls together. (Cam was not in the mood for a pic that early in the morning.)