Sammy at 8 and 9 months old

My baby is 9 months old and I haven't updated on here since Christmas!  So, it's time.  At 8 months I feel like Sam took off on a lot of things.  It was during that month that she started to solidly sit up, crawl, pull herself up and stand against furniture, consistently says mamama, dadadada, bababa, etc. and hold her own bottle(at least when she feels like it), opens and closes drawers and cabinet doors, clap her hands and wave hello.  At 9 months she started playing peek a boo behind the couch and chairs and it is the cutest thing ever.  Like, she literally went from a baby who would lay down and entertain herself on her playmat to being a baby that is always. on. the. move.  Always talking, always moving, won't hold still when we hold her-even if we're trying to jump her on our laps, twists and practically throws herself out of your arms if your standing still while holding her...so much energy.  She's still super happy and makes us laugh and smile everyday.  Her little personality is starting to come out and she's a girl that knows what she wants.  We all are obsessed with her.  That's all there is to it.  She smiles all the way up through her eyes and those smiles come easily.  She laughs easily.  She loves her brothers so much and is completely content just being around them and watching them play.  As long as they hand her a little toy, she is most content examining their toys and watching them.  I love watching their relationship with her.  Of course, she loves her mom and dad as well and she is really good at making us feel like she thinks we're the funniest human beings on earth.

She's slept well for the last couple of months since we increased her solids.  She's never been one to drink a ton of milk and I was slow to introduce a ton of solids(thinking she would just get more full and really not drink any milk), but really she's consistently drunk the same amount of milk while eating more and more solids.  She sleeps, usually, from 8:30 to somewhere between 7:30 and 8:00 which has been super nice.  She still takes 2 naps which are anywhere from 1 1/2 hrs. to 2 hrs.  Or if she woke up early, she'll take an extra long nap in the morning.  Sam definitely loves her fruits but we are working on the veggies.  I don't think there's a veggie that's she's eaten more than a couple bites of
 but she's stubborn so if she doesn't like it she is quick to spit it out.  Her disgusted face is pretty hilarious.

Here are a couple pictures that I took when she was a little over 8 months old:

And since we have General Conference on Easter, I decided to take pictures of her in her Easter dress this past Sunday when she was almost 9 months old.  I still love the idea that I get to buy little girl dresses.  I would seriously rather shop for Sam than for myself because the baby clothes are cuter and she looks cuter in the clothes. ;)

I know that's a lot of pictures but I'm obsessed with her and I'm obsessed with her sweet little Easter dress and I'm especially obsessed with her in the Easter dress.  Anyway, she is seriously the sweetest little thing.  She's a huge blessing in our lives and brings us joy everyday.  Not gonna lie, she exhausts me.  Her energy is overwhelming, exhausting and adorable.  But whenever she falls asleep I breathe a sigh of relief.  I think she's the most active of all our children so far and that makes me a little scared.  I love that she has life and energy and fire in her.  But heaven help us when she gets older...;)  

Aiden turns five

This week Aiden turned five.  He's old enough for kindergarten now and more than ready to go.  He loves being home and has a hard time being away from his family, but academically he's going to be so prepared.  He already knows his letters and their sounds, writes out his names, writes all the letters, reads and writes three letter words, does addition and subtraction with his brother and loves to try to rhyme his words.  He's a smart kid and even though I know he'll miss being home, he's also really social and I know he'll excel when he's in class making friends.  Writing that makes me want to cry because Aiden has always been my little buddy.  As he's gotten older, Patrick and him have definitely become best friends and spend most of their day together, but I still think of him as my baby and my sweet little Aiden(even though he has a younger sister!).  I don't know if I'll ever be able to let go of that but I'm so proud of the little man he's growing up to be.  He's so kind, tender-hearted, sweet and loving.  He's a peacemaker.  He passes out compliments like they're candy.  He gives the sweetest hugs and kisses just because he likes to.  He helps watch out for his sister and he continually makes us laugh.  He's smart and witty and I love his sense of humor.  I wish I had written down more of some of the things he's said.  His spirit gives me comfort and I kind of wish he could stay my little boy a lot longer than I know he's going to.

For his birthday we went with a PJ Mask theme because that was one of the ideas he mentioned.  He's really into cartoon that "have no bad guys."  He can't stand tension or any type of sadness in movies or books so he prefers stories or movies like, "Daniel the Tiger," "Paw Patrol," or "PJ Mask."  Although his brother has gotten him into all of the Pokemon characters, especially Pikachu, but I think he's more interested in it because he thinks some of the little animals are cute.  Anyway, here's some pictures of the day.

These are a few pictures I took when I was taking pictures for one of the walls in our house.  It was hard to pick because he's such a cutie and a ham.  All of these capture his personality.

We love you, Aiden!

Christmas

Oh hey, I'm finally getting around to posting about Christmas!  Really, I finally got out my camera yesterday and realized I had a bunch of Christmas photos and then I realized I never updated this blog with Sammy's first Christmas!  We had, obviously, already moved out of our own home so we celebrated at Grandma Clifford's house and it was great.  It was great to be around family so much since we were moving right after and looking back over these pictures brought back some really good memories.  Here's a few from Christmas Eve, because I have to include Sam's first Christmas dress, and a couple of the boys on Christmas day.

Someday we will get a picture with all of us looking at the camera.  But that won't be today...or for the next 10 years.

I love this girl so so much

This guy will always be my man.  My mini me where I understand all of his quirks and love him that much more because of them.  He makes me smile every single day.

Our big man.  Definitely our oldest and the leader over his siblings.  He is such a strong kid and will always have a special place in my heart.

Quick to smile.  She's also about a month ahead of what I'm ready for.  She wants to crawl and I'm like, "No!  We're not there yet!"  I'm also slow with introducing the solids cause, my brain is just not there yet.

 These were my shoes when I was a baby and I LOVE them.  They barely fit her for Christmas because she has feet on the larger side but I was so happy that she was able to wear them. 

Ok, so she's stolen all of our hearts.

And the boys on Christmas day.  Best day of their life. ;)

Sammy at 6 months and a little life update

I feel like I get worse at updating this blog with each child that we have.  I know it's normal.  More kids=less time or maybe it's just because life has been crazy.  Maybe I'll write a separate post about it, sometime, but it's mainly been crazy because we moved!  We're in North Carolina.  I live on the east coast.  That still seems so weird and even though I'm over here, it's still hard to believe.  So far, we have met a lot of people that I can see us being great friends with and I can already tell this will be a good experience.  For however long it lasts, we will enjoy it.  Jon enjoys his job, I enjoy the weather and surrounding activities, we live in a nice quiet neighborhood, the beach is an hour and a half away, the craziness of 2017 is over and there is new craziness to look forward to this year.  Life is good.

So, back to Sammy. :)  Our little piece of heaven on earth.  Seriously, I think with each kid I relax more and understand more how precious a little baby is.  They are as pure and as close to heaven as we can get.  And seeing Sammy smile and laugh and discover this new world is, honestly, one of the greatest joys in my life right now.  As well as all of my family.  But I seriously think we are blessed with these pure little spirits to remind us of how heaven felt.  I'm obsessed with her and obsessed with her little spirit.  Our little Sammers is such a happy baby and I feel grateful everyday that she is.  She smiles easily, she laughs easily, she loves to cuddle, she gets wiggly and wants to crawl soo badly but she also has the times of just being still.

Sammy has found the joy of blowing bubbles with her mouth and blowing raspberries(is that even what it's called???).  She is constantly talking and babbling and makes the dadadad, mamama, bababa sounds.  When she's happy she says dadadada and when she's wanting things she says mamamama.  Typical.:)

Stats from her doctor's appointment15:
17" head circumference(76.69%)
15lbs 11oz.(41.74%)
27.75"(98.04%)

She's tall and skinny.  I feel like she's grown so much in the last month, physically and mentally.  She reaches out for us now, she's started picking up little cereal and putting it into her mouth on her own, she's tried peaches, bananas, rice cereal, potatoes(hated those), and sucked and lemons, oranges and limes(loooved them).  She is super aware of her surroundings and she's my only child that will still stay content on her playmat or in her jumperoo for any length of time.  She has a long attention span so it's cute to see her study all of the little toys.

She is still our worst eater.  I don't even know if she's going to want 3 ounces every 6 hours or 8 ounces every 4 hours or sometimes she randomly gets hungry every 2.  I'm trying to create a schedule.  I really am.  But she's my child that is bound to prove that she will have no schedule.  She mostly sleeps through the night but on days she doesn't eat very well, she wakes up in the middle of the night and will drink 12 ounces.  I would think she'd be moodier with all of her ups and downs in eating but she seems completely content so that area baffles me.

Anyway, we love her so much that it hurts.  I honestly have missed her when she sleeps longer at nap time.  Her brothers love her.  She has her daddy wrapped around her little finger.  I'm not even exaggerating.  I already can't imagine a life without her.