10 Weeks Old Comparison

Sophie was 10 weeks old yesterday. I remembered this picture that I took of the boys at 10 weeks and wanted to take one of her just like it. She definitely isn't as chunky as the boys, but I love how she looks like both of them.

OH... how things have changed in a year and a half!

Thanksgiving is in 3 weeks! AH! I can't believe it! What a fun holiday season this is going to be! We sure had a blast in the month of October. We had a lot of fun trick-or-treating with our Little Miss Muffet and her two spiders!

These are the moments of our life!

8 Weeks Old!

I can't believe our Sweet Sophie is 8 weeks old this week and Shepherd and Spencer are 21 months old. My babies are just getting bigger and bigger!

Sophie is now 9 1/2 pounds. She is nursing every 3-4 hours during the day and only getting up once in the night to eat. Today is the first day she is napping in her bed and fell asleep without me walking or rocking her. I know it won't happen every time, but its a start! She is still sleeping next to our bed at night, but we will probably transition to her room in the next few weeks. I am still off dairy, and that has really seemed to help. It is so hard taking all dairy out of my diet, but it is worth it! She still cries a lot during the evening hours, but we do have some good nights. She loves her bath, so if we are having a bad night we can at least have some happy time in the tub! I asked Matt last week how long could we just leave her in there! HA! As soon as we got her out, the crying started up again! At least I know it won't last forever! Shepherd started doing better with colic when he was around 3 months old.

She is really smiling a lot more and has started cooing. I love those first few smiles and sounds from her! She is such a sweet heart! She is really noticing Shepherd and Spencer more. She will sit in her seat and just watch them. Today she even smiled at them as they were going crazy around her.

Shepherd is talking up a storm. He really can say any word you tell him too. He is saying 3 and 4 word sentences. I am so impressed with his ability to talk and comprehend things. This past weekend he told my dad, "No Papa No". Of course I didn't want him to tell my dad no, but he was trying to express himself! When I was painting Sophie's letters for her room, I showed the letters to Shep and Spence and they picked right up on identifying the letter. Shepherd can now identify all the letters in the alphabet. He loves finding the letter "X" in different places. I haven't pushed him at all. Learning just comes so easy to him. He loves working on learning more things! We have begun having "school" time during the day, and it is their favorite time! Shep can count to 10 and can identify most of the numbers too.

Handsome boy

Shep loves to gives hugs to everyone and is so sweet. He would hold Sophie all day long if I let him. I can't wait to see how their relationship grows. Shep loves to do whatever Spencer is doing. He always yells "TURN" to let me know he wants to do what Spencer is doing. He takes care of everyone and keeps people in line! He will go get diapers, blankets, etc for me when I need them for Sophie. He is such a big help! Shepherd LOVES to sing. He sings songs at church, sings Mickey, and the Wheels on the Bus. He loves the book Go Dog Go! and can read a lot of the pages to me. He can fill in a lot of the sentences. I love our story time together!

Spencer keeps us laughing all the time! We have begun calling him our Dennis the Menace. But, he has such a sweet personality. He loves to snuggle with a blanket right next to me, while I feed Sophie. He adores his sister and loves patting her. Spencer LOVES to climb. He always can find something to get into. He looks at you with his adorable smiles and then runs to get into something. Spencer is always running up to you and saying "Hand". This means he wants you to take his hand so he can lead you somewhere. Usually to the door, because he always wants to be outside. Notice that I said he runs up to you.. Spencer runs not walks! He is the real leader of the two. Spencer is creative and does stuff while Shepherd watches. Then Shepherd will do exactly what Spencer does or takes what Spencer has. Spencer is a good sport most of the time, but sometimes I think he just wants a break! Spencer will run and scream even before Shepherd takes a toy from him because he is anticipating it! I am a referee most days!

Spencer can identify most letters of the alphabet and can count to 10. He loves finding the letter "B" and "S" where ever we are. Those must be is favorite letters. He is also putting 2 and 3 word sentences together. Spencer is OBSESSED with the moon and stars and airplanes. Whenever we go outside he looks for the moon and can spot an airplane far away. His favorite books are the books where he can find the moon. I love it! Of course his favorite is Goodnight Moon!

Weeeee!!! Decorating for Halloween

Painting with apples when we studied the letter "A"

Pretty in Pink

Things have really gotten into more of a routine around our house. I am beginning to work on getting Sophie onto a schedule. I have been noticing when she likes to sleep and working that into Shep and Spence's routine. Right now she likes to go back to sleep about an hour and half after she wakes up. She is staying awake more and more every day so I am going to work on getting her to three naps a day in HER room! A napping schedule is very important for me. A rested baby is a happy baby in my opinion. She loves to be held and rocked, but I think it is crucial for her to learn to go to sleep on her own! I love to rock and hold her, but she will be happier if she can soothe herself to sleep. That is our goal over the next few months! We will see...

We had some professional pictures taken a couple weeks ago. I'm hoping we will get the disk of the rest of the pictures soon. I love the few we have so far.

This is the time of our lives

I will update a longer post soon, but things have been going really well. Sophie is a month old TOMORROW! I can't believe 4 weeks have gone by. She is a sweet baby. The past couple of weeks she has cried a lot and wanted to be held all the time. I decided to take dairy out of my diet to see if that helped and we saw a change within a DAY! I really miss my milk and cheese, but this week has been SO much better! She is giving us 4-5 hour stretch at night and sleeping well during the day. She fights sleep some, but I know how to handle that now because so did Shepherd.

The boys love Sophie and have to know where she is at all times. Here are some cute things that the sweet big brothers have done.

Brotherly Love

~Spence saw Sophie raising her arm and shaking her fist. He ran over to her, put his fist on hers and said, "Nucks, Nucks". He gave her her first fist bump!

~Spence tried to pick her up 2 days ago. Luckily I was right there.

~Shep loves to give her hugs and hold her. He follows me around where ever I go.

~ Shep loves to stand and peek through at Sophie while I am changing her diaper.

I love to see how all my children interact. God has truly blessed me so much! What a wonderful life I have!

Sophie has arrived!

Sophie Lynn

Our sweet Sophie came by c-section on Wednesday, August 24. She weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces and was 19 1/2 inches long. She came out with a beautiful full head of dark hair. I am loving the bows already!!

I missed my sweet Shepherd and Spencer while in the hospital. They came and saw us twice. I think they were more interested in the gadgets of the room instead of their sister! I guess I am glad about that now, because they ended up getting colds and ear infections while I was still in the hospital. I was so upset, because I knew they wouldn't be able to get close to Sophie for a while. Before she was born I did everything I could to keep them well. They didn't go to bible class and we didn't go to restaurants the whole week and 1/2 before. There was a lot of sickness going around. But I am learning I can't plan for everything! :) At least they were able to come see us before they got sick. So glad to have these sweet memories!

Sweet Spence getting a look at his new sister! I love how his little hand is on me!

Shepherd is taking everything in! I love how he is looking at her!

Things are going pretty well at home. The hardest part is not being able to pick the boys up. I knew this would be the hardest part emotionally for me. It breaks my heart when they call for momma and I have to lead them to the couch and have them climb up to me. Luckily my mom or Matt has been with me the whole time so they can hand them to me. Sophie will be two weeks old on Wednesday so I will be able to resume my normal activities (hopefully) :). This recovery has been SO MUCH BETTER than with the twins! I am so thankful for that! I was still not doing what I am doing now at 3 and 4 weeks after they were born. It has been great!

This next week, I will probably have all 3 kiddos by myself for the first time, wish me luck! I know the hardest part will be when all three of them are crying. Last night, we were getting the boys' pjs on after their baths and Sophie started screaming. (This little girl has a shrill!) Shepherd looked at me and then pointed to her and said "OFF". He may be saying that a lot over the next few weeks! HAHA!

First picture with her mommy and daddy! We haven't been able to get a full family picture yet with success...now that they boys are getting better we will try again.

I love my sweet family of 5!

Practice WILL Make Perfect

As we continue the waiting game (1 1/2 weeks...), mom brought down an old baby doll for me to "practice" with the boys on how to treat Sophie. (I saw it on the Duggars. LOVE them!) I know that this will in no way compare to a moving baby with grunts and noises that will perk their interest more, but I think we have come a long way today. I am getting out all the baby gear, so it will not be a new "toy" to Shepherd and Spencer. They are learning that the "seat" and "swing" is for Sophie. It is amazing to me all the words they are associating with her already! They are going to love their "Fefe".

Shepherd loved to identify all the baby's parts on her face. While Spencer watched over her. He likes to think about his next move. We talked about not touching her face and only her toes. Now they are obsessed with her toes! Words they said during these pictures: nose, mouth, eyes, hat, toes, hair, baby's seat, FeFe, my turn, night night, and easy. We are really learning what the word easy means!

Here are some pictures from playing baby today. Please excuse their hair! We have been in the pool this morning and then slept with damp hair. :)

Shep has located her mouth and eyes. They are obsessed with sticking their fingers in her eyes. Glad we are working on that now!!

Yes, just pat the baby. EASY!

Baby he kept saying

And the whole reason for this practice session....

Again...she is going to be a tough little girl!

We can't wait for her to get here! They are absolutely going to love her! I can't wait to see how they all grow up together. What a blessing from God this is! Here they are loving on the baby...

Told them to hug the baby..so Shep hugged Spencer. LOVE this picture!!

There we go!

Sweet Spence giving her a hug and kiss! He was being so easy!

Now for the Waiting Game

Sophie's room is complete! I wanted to make a few more things and I finally finished it all. My goal was to just have a sweet girly room. I am not a huge fan of a lot of busy things in a nursery. We were very fortunate that Julie kept Caroline's bedding in such good shape, so we are using Sweet Caroline's stuff for Sweet Sophie! :) I still can't believe that she is going to be here within the next two weeks. WOW!

We are ready!

The frame I made for over her changing table. Pictures will be added when she is born.

My sweet baby girl's name

Her bed with Caroline's cute bedding

To hang all the bows! I just hope she has hair!

Ready to rock my sweet girl

Her dresser that mom and I got at an estate sale and added Hobby Lobby knobs.

Now for the big question.....when will she come??

Past and Present

The boys are very excited about all the new "toys" that we have been working on around the house. They don't understand all the new things that are going on as we prepare for Sophie. They say baby all the time and "Fefe" for Sophie, but they don't understand the change that is about to occur. It is going to be so fun seeing their faces about what they think of sweet Sophie when she arrives!

Here are a few videos of the boys experiencing Sophie's baby bed and bassinet. I remember when they were first using these items. How times have changed!

Here is my sweet little baby boy in his bed.

Here are two videos of them enjoying Sophie's bed. HAHA!

Two little angels snuggling in the bassinet.

Two little monkeys playing in the bassinet for Sophie.

This is going to have to be ONE TOUGH LITTLE GIRL!!