Drew or Ava

Drew definitely favors Ava.

Naggy & Pappy Do Kindergarten Snacks!

Naggy and Pappy came to spend a long weekend with us.  We had a great time visiting and doing some small projects.  The girls absolutely LOVE to have Naggy and Pappy at their house!  They just eat up the lovin'!  I may have snuck in at least one nap while there were extra hands on board to help with Drew!  :)

Ava was in charge of snacks for her class on Monday and she begged Naggy to make her class some cinnamon rolls.  If you have met Ava it is really, really hard to say no to her!  But Naggy's famous cinnamon rolls take an awful lot of time and we weren't prepared to invest that much time.  We found a compromise and decided to use a dough recipe that could be done in the bread machine and then Naggy and Pappy could use their cinnamon rolling expertise to make the rolls. 

I was on clean up crew and let Naggy and Pappy do their thing!  They made over 70 mini cinnamon rolls for Ava's class on Sunday night.  We put them in the fridge that night and took them out on Monday morning.  They did a slow rise and we cooked them just before Naggy and Pappy had to head home.  They turned out really good!

Ava was so proud to tell everyone her Naggy and Pappy made her snacks for the class.  And they were ALL eaten.  The kids begged for more!  Ava just beamed. 

I was prepared for the rolls to be a hit and made sure to save a few for Carli at home!  :)  She was very relieved that she did not get left out!  :)

We Got a Virus

We headed back to school on last Monday and I had great intentions of starting Drew on a schedule and working on his naps.  Then the school called.  Carli was sick, dry heaving and I needed to go rescue her.  So I woke Drew up from his nap, put him in some decent warm clothes and off we went.  Carli was miserable.  She had a really weird virus in that she'd get sick 4 to 5 hours after she ate.  The time between when she ate and when she got sick she act perfectly fine.  But then her fever would spike and she'd start moaning, groaning and putting on a serious pitiful show before she got sick.  This went on for two days.  So for two nights, she slept in our room on an air mattress for Keith to see after and I slept with Ava in Carli's bed and took care of Drew. 

Carli was feeling much better by Tuesday evening but she had had fever at 3 that afternoon so she had to stay home again on Wednesday.  We spent the day doing her homework and making Drew's Thank You cards. 

The rest of the family had been guzzling Welch's Grape Juice and doubling up on ProEM-1, and crossing our fingers we'd be spared.  The week went ended with no one else getting sick and we sighed in relief.

The next week the girls had Monday off, so we were getting ready for school on Tuesday and all was normal.  Everyone was just about ready for school and I was fixing Ava's hair when she suddenly said, "I think I need to go potty."  I asked if she could wait just a minute b/c I was almost done with her hair.  She said sure thing.  But then she started doing the potty dance and looked up at me and said she really had to go.  So I am holding her hair and start to walk her to the bathroom when she looks up at me and her eyes got really big and said, "Momma, I gotta go!" and she fainted.  Just fell to the floor.  Smacked her head really good on the wall before I caught her from hitting the floor.  Scared the living day lights out of me.  I scooped her up and laid her on the bed and she came too pretty quickly and the first thing she said was she still needed to potty.  So I rushed her to the bathroom and she got sick.  :(

Ava had not been spared and was staying home.  The entire day she begged for food and acted just fine.  She stayed home two days but after her initial fainting episode she never got sick again.  Weirdest thing ever!  While she was home, she took full advantage and took hour long bubble baths both days.  :)

She got to watch lots of Disney and cuddle with her Whitey Tighty.  We did her school work and some coloring and game playing.

 

She went back to school on Thursday and was just fine.  Drew is still not on a good napping schedule...

 



Little Dribblers

The girls played their first Little Dribblers game last Saturday.  For a group of 9 little girls having never played before, I thought they did awesome.  Ava is playing up in the 8 and under league with Carli b/c I had no desire to go to four practices a week plus 4 games every Saturday!  Thankfully, Ava is my carefree kid, and just goes with the flow!  She is obviously the smallest, but she plays a mean game of defense and we are working hard on our dribbling at home.  It's pretty tough for her to shot the ball...being short and all.  :)

Our first game was at 8 am on Saturday morning against Arp.  We anticipated complete chaos but actually it was a nice controlled chaos!  :)  The girls did great and we lost in overtime by one point.

Our second game was at noon, so we got to come home and rest a bit.  We played Overton and we won!  :)  Ava pretty much played defense no matter who had the ball, BUT she smiled the whole time and had fun!  Carli struggles b/c she does not like chaos and she wants to know and understand the rules.  It frustrates her to not understand everything all at once.  She did steal the ball twice and played a mean game of defense!  :)

 

 

Blessings

Ya'll, I'm a Daddy's Girl through and through.  I have the best job in the world b/c I get to work with my Daddy every single day.  So when I captured this picture the other night at church, my heart just exploded with pride.  My Daddy and my little man - I just can't express how much I love this picture!

New Goal

Keith and I debated about investing in a basketball goal but we weren't sure we wanted to commit b/c the girls were still unsure about basketball.  We had MLK day off from school so the girls were home all day.  They played in the creek and changed clothes at least three time b/c they kept accidently falling in, they played with their buddy Branson and when they decided to go jump on the trampoline they forgot to shut the gate and Sadie went for a joy run.  So with baby Drew on my hip and frustration I headed out to try to catch her.  She ended up across the street at our neighbors house visiting their dog.  As I was slowly easing towards her I noticed they had a basketball goal laid up beside their garage.  Our neighbor came out to see if I needed help and she held Drew for me so I could drag my 90+lb dog back home. 

After Sadie was safe and worn out back in her yard, I had a good visit with our sweet neighbor.  I asked her if they weren't using the goal would they mind letting the girls play with it for about six weeks or so while they were playing Little Dribblers.  She immediately insisted that we just take it and keep it!  She said they did not ever use it and it would be gift enough to be able to sit on their front porch and watch the girls play.  She only asked if the girls did not take to basketball that we gift it to someone else who might want it.  Done!  The girls were so excited and have played on it almost every day since!  What an amazing blessing...all because my dog escaped the back yard.  :)

Compromises

We wanted ice cream today - real Blue Bell Ice Cream.  So after Drew and I got the girls from school, we went to the store and bought some ice cream.  Only Carli, Ava and I could not agree on what flavor, so we compromised.  :)

 

A Load of Love and Thanks

Every year for Christmas and birthdays we try hard to make sure the girls write their thank you notes for the gifts they received.  This year we have Drew who had lots of gifts that needed proper thanking for and since he obviously can't write or draw we helped make his Thank You cards.  Carli was home sick from school - she was actually better but it had not been 24 hrs fever free - so she helped in making Drew's notes. 

First we painted Drew, and he was such a good sport!  :)

Carli put herself in charge of taking pictures of our little art project.  I have about 100 pictures on my phone from the 10 minutes it took us to do foot prints...I got two that weren't blurry!  :)

Here's our end product.  The inside says "Sending Loads of Love and Thanks!"  Carli drew all the hearts and I added the "truck" detail.  :)

No Really, I'm not sleepy

So the past month and half has been pretty rough in the sleeping department for Drew.  In his defense, our schedule with the girls having been home for break and such did not help.  He would only nap if nursing, we sometimes even resorted to a car ride just to get in some rest for him.  Yes, he did on a 180 on that front and will sleep in the car if you stack your cards just right!  One day, he was so tired but refused to lay his head on my shoulder and this is how he fell asleep!

 

If you go to church with us, you will know that I often spend services walking in the back of the auditorium because Drew is much quieter when I stand and walk vs sitting and trying to keep him still.  One Wednesday night, he fell asleep in the car and stayed asleep through services.  This is so not the normal so we had to document!  Ha!  :)

 

 

The last week of the girls break, Drew was waking up every two hours at a minimum and I'd resort at 3 am to putting him in our bed to nurse so I could get a few hours sleep.  He'd then wake up at 5 am and Keith would take him.  Keith said one morning, after he got up, Drew went back to sleep in the bouncer in the bathroom while Keith showered.  Drew stayed asleep until Keith was prepping his breakfast, then promptly woke up to "discuss" things over breakfast with his dad.  Keith captioned this picture - "The Puppet Master."

 

 

With the girls back in school, and our schedule somewhat more predictable we are starting to seriously work on some good naps and sleeping in general.  We put the cradle up.  We moved Drew's crib to the playroom for now because it is further away from the girls room, so if he cries at night he won't wake the girls.  And for the last three nights, Drew has slept on average four hours at a time.  We are still working on not nursing to sleep, and taking a nap longer than 45 minutes but hey, it's progress...we will take it!  :)

 



Drew at 6 Months

Mr Drew Bennett turned 6 months old on New Years day. He is 19 lbs 1 oz (75%) and 27.75 inches long (88%), surpassing his sisters by 4 lbs and 2 inches when they were 6 mths old! He has almost mastered sitting up and will actually sleep in the car seat but his max is 45 minutes then he will loudly vocalize his objections! Our night sleeping went out the window last month as did naps so Drew's New Year's resolution is to learn to sleep!! We started solids but when he got his 1st ear infection on New Years Eve he won't touch the stuff! Still a Momma's boy, but can flirt with everyone else from a distance. Gives the best kisses, loves his sisters and thinks his daddy is one funny dude!

These monthly pictures are getting a lot more difficult to take!  :) 

Open the Flood Gates

Turns out...we've gotten a lot of run...and we have a drainage problem!  :/

 

Blast from the Past

Carli insisted on wearing my pea coat jacket to church.  It's too small but I let her wear it, cap in all b/c I had tried for two years to get it on her...

A Bit too Big

We are outgrowing our bath seat...and our infant car seat and now our PJs...getting way to big, way too fast!