Sammy at 4 months

Samantha, Sammers, Sammy, Sam, babe, baby girl, babers, Jojo...she has quite a few names we call her.  Some things to remember from this month:
 -She has started rolling from front to back at the first of the month and this past week she is constantly going from back to front. 
---She's also sitting up better in her Bumbo seat and is insanely responsive and talkative with us.
 She's reaching for things and noticing her hands and movements more.
 She watches everything around her and there is no way she wants to be curled into us when we're walking around or sitting.  She wants to see the world.  And smile at the world.  And laugh at people who give her attention...which is a lot
-Total momma's girl
-She's not completely into the stranger danger phase but she has started to get more picky about who holds her.  If she's not completely comfortable with them or they don't hold her how she's used to, she starts to get fussy.
-She loves to suck on things, whether it's her hand, a blanket, or a binky
-Not my greatest eater.  Definitely not.  The boys would eat if I fed them.  She won't eat any closer than every 4 hours and then she still isn't that interested in it.  By 3:30 AM, she's starving and drinks more than she will all day.  It's lovely.  So yeah, she has to be starving or nothing.  Karma.   

He smile is contagious and I can't help but be grateful for her, and all my children every single day.  You'd think having a third would be more overwhelming, but mainly I feel more love for all my children since having her.  Granted, moving with three kids, and one being a baby, hasn't gone as quickly but I wouldn't trade having Sam for anything.  She's truly brought another light to our family.  Even as I'm typing this, she's looking at me, smiling, and drooling all over her fingers while also trying to talk to me.  She feels like a little angel on earth.  Here are a few pictures that I took of her the other night when I was doing some family pictures in front of our house before we leave it(bring on the tears).

And some of the many faces of Sam:

And her 4 month stats:  

weight-14 lbs 1 oz.(45%)

height-25.5 in.(87%)

head-16.3 in.(71%)

Sammers, your brothers are obsessed with you, your dad and mom are obsessed with you.  I can't imagine a world without you in it.  We love you.

 

Family Pictures

Having a nicer camera and being able to take our family pictures whenever I want has been amazing.  My boys would completely disagree with the amazing part because in one week I made them go out three times(one to test the location, one when I took pictures for my sister-in-law and one more time when I took pictures with my mom and siblings) but I'm glad they were troopers.  And we picked a spot that had sticks and rocks and a river so really, they enjoyed it as well.  I have a long way to go before my pictures start turning out exactly how they are in my head(which I learned is mostly produced by photoshop, although there are still settings on the camera I'm figuring out as well) but I'm still happy with them and I love having updated pictures of our little family.

This location is literally 2 minutes from our house.  And this first picture isn't the river I was talking about.  I learned A LOT about lighting and the sun during these little photo sessions so by the time we got around to doing pictures by the river, the kids were DONE.  And I know we went three times but the first time was mainly to scout it out and take a couple pictures with different settings, the second time I just took pictures of my kids between taking pictures for my sister-in-law and the third time was with my extended family and I sneaked in some pictures of us in the middle.  Anyway, here are our 2017 family pictures.

                            

                                             

                             

I realize these three pictures are very similar but her little face just kills me and I don't know which expression is my favorite

                             

 Real life right there...except I'm the one crying and Sam is usually smiling

                           

Yesterday was the primary program and I teared up a few times over the littlest things but yesterday, watching my boys up at the stand, and today, looking through all these pictures, I just feel gratitude.  I'm so grateful for this little family of mine and they are truly special to me.  My family is the best part about me and I can't imagine losing any of them, in this life or the next.  

Sam's baby blessing and 3 month old pictures

Sammy is changing soo much and it's hard to keep up on this blog.  I realized I hadn't even posted pictures from her baby blessing and we blessed her when she was almost 2 months old.  It also happened to be Patrick's 6th birthday so we had a baby blessing and a birthday party!   Here are some pictures from that day:

Sam wore my baby blessing dress and a bow made by my friend, Lyndsee.  And Jon gave the perfect, sweet blessing.  Looking at these pictures, I can't help but feel soo blessed for an amazing family and for such amazing kids.  Life is good.

Sam also turned 3 months old on the 27th.  Ahh!!!  She doesn't look like a newborn to me anymore and it makes me a little sad.  But her personality is coming out more and more and I love her more than I can say.  Other than when it's food time or nap time(because she does get fussy at those times), she is such an easy baby.  She smiles all. the. time. at me and tries talking all the time and her little voice is the cutest thing I've ever heard.  So is her laugh.  I try to get her to laugh and talk all day long because I live for those moments.  She's a good sleeper and wakes up once within a 12 hour stretch.  So we either start with her sleeping 8 hours and then 4 more or she starts with 6 and goes 6 more.  Either way, I'm not complaining. :)  Here are a few pictures I've taken over the last couple weeks.

I feel like I say this with each child, but the bond to this little baby is soo special.  And I guess that's how it's supposed to be.  Every time we have a new baby it feels like there's a special bond and I love it.  Little children are so precious.

 I know there are a lot of similar pictures...I just can't delete them.  Her little face is so precious to me.

Those cheeks and blue eyes.

 She has been discovering her hands and is so intent on them all the time

 I love her little baby feet