Another first....

 Our home will be experiencing another round of many firsts... recently we had Westin's first tast of solids. At our 4 month check up, our pediatrician said it was time to start solids whenever we were ready. With Wesin being our last baby, this has been the case so far and the hubs thinks it's hilarious:

1. Will (our oldest) turns 4 months old - I leave the doctor's appointment to go buy him baby food, try it that night. 

2. Luke (our middle child) - I already had some at the house after his 4 month check up, I may or may not admit to starting him early. 

3. Westin is our last, it took me 2 weeks from his 4 month check up to even buy food for him. I want him to stay our baby forever!!! :( 

To say that Westin loves food is a understatment. He has not tried anything he does not like and from his first bite of food he eats each bite up like a champ!! He makes the sweetest noises while he's eating food and I think he thinks he is SOMETHING else eating!!! He looks at his big brother like "I'm a big boy now, what you got to say about that?" 

This is his first bite of food, he's asking me right now why he has deprived all this time! 

He is not eating a ton right now, about 2 oz once a day. When I know he's done is when he starts playing with his bib and fingers. He is such a smart boy and he knows now when it's time to eat, too funny!!

I thought about making his own baby food. The hubs was supportive but then the other night, when we were discussing it again he asked me if I had lost my mind. Y'all honestly Westin is lucky to even eat food each night, our nights and days are beyond crazy. After school we are doing homework, cooking dinner, I'm nursing Westin, I'm trying to get the house in order before Daddy comes home, then we eat, take baths, kids off to bed and then we get ready/prepared to do it all over again the next day. It is literally a roller coaster each night, plus we have football practice now twice a week. I'm not complaining, this is exactly how I planned my life but I refuse to put that pressure on myself to make Westin's baby food. He will be just as healthy with me buying his food, as I did with the two older boys! End of discussion, I'm not thinking about it again! I have worried myself for months over this topic, the mommy guilt again comes into play. Once I realized I have no desire to make his food, I only felt pressured to do so, that's when I felt comfortable with my decision. This whole mommy guilt thing is a whole other post!

I hope y'all are having a blessed week! Westin has his first cold and ear infection, poor bubbies! (maybe it's the store bought food, lol!) So I'm taking in all of the cuddles I can get from this little rolly polly, love bug!!

Westin is 4 months old!!!

Height: 23.5 in.

Weight: 14 lbs. 8 oz.

Sleeping Pattern: Takes two 2 hour naps during the day, sleeps from 8pm til 7am each night, no lie!!!

Eating Habits: Breastmilk - 5 bottles or straight from the tap 5 times a day. We also introduced cereal and a few foods this week, I've got a whole post dedicated to food coming up this week!

Development: Grabs his toys on his play mat, holding his upper body up very well, ROLLING OVER!! He's my rolly polly!!

Cuteness: He just figured out his big brothers and just how hilarious they can be! He thinks they are the best thing EVER! Melts this Momma's heart!

Talking: He is cooing and trying to talk all the time - especially to his Daddy. :)

Favorites: Mr. Fan and his Mr. Giraffe are his best friends!

Firsts: Bite of cereal and first time to roll over!

Concerns: He might be eating too much, ha! The boy loves his food and gets so made when it's gone.
 

A Day in the Life: (not much has changed since month 3, I do add in some cereal usually around 6pm)Wakes up at 7am, smiling like a cutie pie. Change diaper, eats, plays for a little while. Around 8:30a he naps for 2 hours. Eats again at 11a, plays a little bit more, goes down for afternoon nap around 1p. Wakes up at 3p starving, plays til 5p, then always wants to eat again and takes a small 30 minute cat nap while Mommy finishes up dinner. He eats cereal or fruit around 6pm then has a bath around 7p and is asleep before 8pm each night.

 

The love we feel for this child is undescribable. Westin, you have changed our lives and made our family more complete. We love you so much sweet boy! We all are enjoying watching you grow and become a handsome perfect baby boy!!

Memories being made...

 J and I believe that as parents, one of our jobs is to give our children wonderful memories. We have always felt this way but for awhile got lazy about it. We got stuck in a rut called life and got really busy with non sense things. A few months ago we had a heart to heart talk about how important it is to make memories with our children, they are getting bigger and we are missing great opportunities. Here we are living life and are we making an impact in their lives, will they remember these days as fun memories or just boring life? We want them to always remember fun things and everything does not need to cost a fortune. Heck just going on a walk with your kids can make great memories for them.

This summer a new park opened up right around the corner from our house. We live in an area that could use something nice, it seems lately lots of "not so nice" has been moving in so we were thrilled to get a new, fancy park. The city really out did themselves. They made nature walking trails and a really nice picnic area with a great playground. So last weekend we went to check it out.

My 3 older boys on the trail, Luke passed Daddy and Will, he is in the front.  

At the end of the walking trail is a paved cove that leads to this river. I stayed back with Westin since he was in his stroller and the boys headed down the "cliff" to check out the river.

Westin and Mommy waiting on them to get back.

Mommy was ready to head back to the park, so I told them to come on. Luke runs up and does this... he has been doing this lately, silly boy! 

Nice cold water on a hot summer day! 

Love me some Will, he is my wise child. He is my buddy and a huge helper!!



Making memories with your family has done nothing but made our strong bond, even stronger!

Luke is SIX!

 Our sweet Lukie turned SIX while we were at the beach!!! Needless to say he had one heck of a party! We did not do a big friends party for him this year, just because we thought the beach was a lot and we did have my whole family with us. Plus J's family came over the weekend before to celebrate so he had a nice week full of celebrations.

Since Luke joined our family 6 years ago he has changed our lives. He was my baby for 5 years and 9 months, I always tell him he will always be my baby. Luke is fun, silly, spontaneous, wild, spiritual, mischieveous, fearless and so sweet. Luke is a ball of energy but that is what I love about him. He deals with situations and life head on, with no worries. My prayer is for him to always have that thought about life. Will worries enough for all of us and I love that about Will too, but having a child that lives life with no worries, it is a sweet thing to watch. Luke is such an amazing child, my life would be boring without him in it!

Here is his cake we got him, we thought the beach theme was perfect and it was YUMMY! :) 

My angel boy made a wish and blew his candles out! He told me his wish came true! :)

I love this picture of Luke in the sand. This is his real smile, no faking. This child has my heart forever and I thank the Lord for him each day!



Sweet Luke, these past 6 years have been the best of our lives. You are our little firecracker and we love every ounce of you!

Thank you for being you and always stay true to yourself! Mommy and Daddy love you more than words could ever describe.

Happy 6th Birthday sweet child!

Pillow Talk

In the evenings, I always enjoy pillow talk with all of my boys. First with Will and Luke. They are the sweetest right before bed time (sometimes super wild) and that is when we really talk about their lives. Luke seems to talk about Jesus a lot during this time so I just let him talk all he wants. Saying good night and praying with them each night is such a fond memory. The only pillow talk Westin and I have is me praying over him before I head to bed. Staring at that sweet sleeping baby is just pure joy. He is such a joy!

The hubs and I have a totally different pillow talk. Usually by bed time our phones are turned off and it is just he and I, talking about whatever is on our minds. Last night we got on the subject of winning the lottery. J is in a lottery pool at work so we do dream about what we would do if we won the lottery. We are not big, flashy people, we would never be that way with tons of money either. We simply would just live a normal life and allow our children to have a really good life. Not to mention our extended family as well! :)

This morning at work the hubs and I were emailing back and forth and again wanted to make sure each other knew that winning the lottery is more than likely never to happen. We are content with our lives right now. We are blessed to have all of the things we do have and look forward to so much more in the near future.

BUT, who ever said a little dreaming would hurt?? Do you enjoy your pillow talk? I find we learn so much more about each other each night, during our pillow talk.

Blessings!

Our experience with Breastfeeding

* On the front end I want to say that I am a firm believer in you do what is best for your family. I am NOT saying whether or not formula is right or wrong, this post will just simply be on MY personal experience. I was a formula fed baby and I'm pretty darn healthy! *

Before I ever got pregnant with the boys, I always knew I wanted to try breastfeeding. I was not going to be a stickler about it, but definitely try it. When Will came along, breastfeeding became so easy for us. We had no issues, both Will and my breast worked well together, ha. I was pretty young when I had him so by 2 months I was tired of it. Plus I started to supplement formula some and lost my supply. When Luke came around, the same thing happened with a pleasant experience in the beginning, we nursed until he was almost 4 months. Again, I was young and very modest so it did not work out as well as I wanted it to.

This pregnancy I was much older, wiser and could care less what others thought. (I'm so thankful with age comes security, at least with me it does). I was determined to nurse for as long as I wanted and not care what other's thought. Westin came along and he would not latch on. We believe it was due to him coming early and really not knowing what to do with it, each feeding lasted an hour. After 3 weeks of this, we were at a weight check at the pediatrician and he was encouraging me to go to formula. He said I had tried hard to get him to latch on and with him coming early, he just might not get it. Our Dr. saying that put some serious determination in me and I was determined to get it right. After about 4 weeks he got it and it has been a breeze since. I have had a few issues with pumps, he and I both got thrush and I did go back to work part time so getting in a good schedule was hard but once we got it, it has been wonderful. He is growing like a weed and I'm such a happy Mommy! Seeing him so healthy and a chunky monkey, makes me so happy knowing it has all come from me. It is a wonderful experience!

I never imagined nursing would be so easy and wonderful for the both of us. I regret giving up so early with Will and Luke. Breastfeeding is a special time and with Westin being my last bambino, I could not be more pleased with how perfect it has worked out.

I will say we have a few family members that frankly think it's silly for me to be nursing. It doesn't bother me, it just makes me realize they don't fully know about breastfeeding. It is not for everyone. If you want to be your own person then nursing is not for you. When you nurse, you still have to be with your baby most of the time and still take very good care of yourself. Like I said, some people just can't and some people would rather not and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. For me, I simply said since I'm blessed to be able to nurse and God gives my baby a natural supply of milk to feed him, I would be foolish to not do it. My goal is to nurse until  he is 1, I know in a few months when we start introducing food he will be nursing less and less, formula might even come into play then but until I will continue to nurse, God willing until he is 1.

I hope you all are having a blessed week! Realize that I'm not judging either way, I'm just wanting other's to know that breastfeeding can be a pleasant experience and you don't have to be shy about it. I'm a very modest person and I work with that. I don't nurse in public and if we are out I just go to the car. I'm also blessed with a very supportive husband, heck he is happy we have not had to spend $40 a week on formula! :)

Beach Trip 2012

 A few weeks ago we headed off to the beach for several days. We have not had a family vacation in years and this year we felt like it was the year we felt confident in taking several trips with the boys. My Mom met us at the beach so she could join in on the fun! I never knew how much getting out of town with your children and husband could be so important for your family, until this trip. Things lately have been hard: our marriage has been tested, my emotional state has not been the best and life goes so fast all the time, we needed to be gone for 5 days and enjoy each other again. We did not even watch T.V. while gone, nor did we miss it!

This post is major picture overload. The whole time I could not stop praising the Lord. I was in constant prayer. It was a perfect trip, we will never forget these memories we made with each other! It was definitley a memory making trip, not necessarily a relaxing kind of trip with all the kids being there, but we were there to make memories with our boys. We want them growing up with fun memories and this was a huge success!

Our first morning, a little storm rolling in.  

 Our first day at the beach, it was cloudy but perfect for us all!

 Luke buried Will's legs. :)

 A perfect nap on the beach!

 Getting ready to hit the town for dinner.

 Me and my beautiful Momma, she is my best friend!!

 Daddy and his sweet, smiley Westin!

Luke buried with his thumbs up. I love this picture because it is so Luke's personality. With everything in life he handles it with the "thumb's up" mentality. No worries... I pray he keeps this wonderful characteristic!

 My wittle beach bum! The cutest one I've ever seen!

 Mommy and her 3 boys!

Our 3 perfect boys! God's greatest blessings!



My sweet little love bug, he is our angel!

A beach trip would not be complete without catching crabs. This was Will's first time and he was estatic! Luke feel asleep in the condo before we went "crabbing" so we went on with out Luke. We did try to wake him up but he was not getting up. It ended up being a wonderful memory for Daddy, Mommy and Will! 

Like I have said a million times, this trip was amazing. We are already planning our next trip. We love our boys more than life and want them to have a fun childhood. Life is about memories and we are making plenty of them!

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend. We will talk soon!

Westin is 3 months!!!

 This sweet wittle angel boy is 3 months and actually ALMOST 4 months old. Better late than never right?? :)

• Date: July 3, 2012 (not today's date, the date he turned 3 months, ha!)
• Height: Maybe 23 in.
• Weight: I would say between 13.5 and 14 lbs.
• Sleeping Pattern: Takes two 2 hour naps during the day, sleeps from 8pm til 7am each night, no lie!!!
• Eating Habits: Breastmilk only! If he takes a bottle he takes 5 oz of breastmilk every 3-4 hours.
• Development: Grabs his toys on his play mat, holding his upper body up very well
• Cuteness: He just figured out his big brothers and just how hilarious they can be! He thinks they are the best thing EVER! Melts this Momma's heart!
• Talking: He is cooing all the time - especially to his Daddy. :)
• Favorites: Mr. Fan is his best friend!
• Firsts: First chuckle out loud was a few weeks ago.
• Concerns: He is not rolling over yet, I'm thinking he should be by now?
• A Day in the Life: Wakes up at 7am, smiling like a cutie pie. Change diaper, eats, plays for a little while. Around 8:30a he naps for 2 hours. Eats again at 11a, plays a little bit more, goes down for afternoon nap around 1p. Wakes up at 3p starving, plays til 5p, then always wants to eat again and takes a small 30 minute cat nap while Mommy finishes up dinner. He has a bath around 7:30p and is asleep before 8pm each night.

Yes I truly know just how special this sweet boy is to us. He is such a perfect baby and has completely stolen everyone's heart in our family. He is such a joy and we love him more than his sweet self will ever know!

Thank you Lord for my many blessings!!!

Katie

A new look!

I just did a new look, do you like it? I'm back to blogging regularly. I have so many things to catch you all up on. I have been unable to upload pictures on the new blogger, so I had to switch back to the old. Now that I have that figured out I will post recent pictures.

I have missed you all and I hope you have a blessed day!

Katie