More Fall Fun and an Announcment

Attempting to "do it all" with five children is rather hard. Here are some pictures of us trying to make memories. (Let me just say there were a few times I wanted to run out of the room yelling "We are having fun DAMN IT!!", sorry for the potty mouth).

Picking out a pumpkin for our first ever pumpkin carving. "Mommy, we should get that one"

"I'll sit on this pumpkin, but I still think we should get THAT pumpkin"

"You're not going to get that pumpkin are you?"

Abby did what Abby does best...SCREAM!!!

Still worried about that pumpkin!

He had every right to be worried...I went with a different pumpkin!

Sam reading me the directions on how to carve a pumpkin. Like I mentioned before, this was our first time!

Stabbing the top!!

To say that Gabe thought the pumpkins stunk would be an under statement!

Our bat pumpkin in all it's glory. Of course we forgot to put it out on Halloween but we still had fun carving it.

On a side note, I made some FANTASTIC pumpkin seeds with it. I did some research online and combined a couple of recipes.

1. Remove seeds from pumpkin and place (goop and all) into a pot of salted water.

2. Bring water to a boil.

3. Boil for 20 minutes.

4. Strain seeds and remove any extra "goop", most will have come off during the boiling.

5. Spread seeds on a cookie sheet and allow to dry for 24 hours.

6. Melt enough butter to evenly coat your seeds. Toss seeds in butter and spread back out on a cookie sheet.

7. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

8. Crack sea salt over seeds.

9. Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15.

10. ENJOY!

Lastly, I wanted to post our baby girl's birth announcement. Greg did a fantastic job taking the picture and a special thanks to my brother for all the post processing he did to make them just right!

Aren't my kids precious! The Lord truly has done great things for us!

Halloween

Wanted to post pics from yesterday. This time of year is crazy for us. Halloween is always nuts with a five kiddos and then 2 days later is Ethan's b-day. After that everything is blur from now until Gabe's b-day in January. AGHH!!! I wanted to go ahead and post our costume pics and will try to back track later this week with pictures of fall "stuff".

Optimus prime, Bumblebee, Bumblebee and a monkey!

The two Bumblebees!

Of course Miss Abby as a 50's poodle skirt girl. Thanks to Patricia for the awesome skirt!!

You can tell Daddy took this one while Mommy was out with the boys trick or treating. "Hello Daddy, my skirt is up to my arm pits", ha! I love this BOW!! How fun to have a girl!

It poured on us, can you tell?

They didn't care that they were getting wet...I did!

Always excited about candy!

I'm glad the boys had fun. I was pretty miserable. Stay tuned for more from this weeks fall festivities!

When you are having a bad hair day...

It's best to ACCESSORIZE!!!

A Parent's Love

My parents had a full term still born before I was born. Her name was Amanda and things were different back then. My Dad was allowed to see her, they told my Mom it was best she not. I wouldn't say I was necessarily my parents "miracle baby" but I would say my birth was miraculously different from what they had gone through just 18 months before.

Today I was going through my memory box and found my baby book complete with these pictures:

Just looking at them makes me tear up. Look at my Daddy (he doesn't always look shocked like he does in that first one, ha!) he is so proud of me. Look at how thin he looks, how dark his hair is, and it's wavy. It's like looking at my brother with dark hair, and look at me, I look just like Abby. Even my boys said, "is that Uncle Gregory with Abby?". Look at his hands! I love hands, I love my Mom's hands, my Dad's hands, my boys hands, Greg's hands!

In that same box I also found my Baby Memory Book. It was neat to hear my Mom talk about the day I was born, to see my grandmother's handwriting, but especially to hear about the day I came home:

Daddy came to pick us up around noon. Julie Bennett (nurse) came to see us before we left. Mommy wore a pink carnation corsage which Aunt Judy and Uncle Jerry sent. The nurses had brought Heather and Mommy dressed her in a yellow nightgown. On the way home we stopped by McDonald's and got some lunch to bring home. When we got home there was a little lost puppy at the door and Mommy made Daddy take the puppy home before he helped us in the house. Heather slept all the way home. After we got home we put Heather to bed, ate our lunch and Mommy and Daddy took a nap, too! Later Eric and Robin Kennedy dropped by and brought chicken for supper and a bassinet for Heather to sleep in. Then Grandma and Grandpa came.

It makes me smile to think about my Mom being worried about a stray puppy. She is pretty no nonsense and I can't imagine it. It's just fun imagining them bringing me home in the same way I've brought all my babies home.

I love you Mom and Dad!

Alright, enough mush...Mom stop crying so you can look at these pics of your grandbabies:

Abby and Abby Cadabby

Abby on her one month birthday enjoying some tummy time. Don't worry I check on her about every 2 minutes when she's like this!

And to close this post...a picture of my littlest boy baby. We went to the Chick-fil-a play area the other day. When we got home he went straight for the wipes. I guess even he could tell that place is a petri dish!

Told You So

I told you we were in for it! I hate to be right. This girl can poop. Oh my heavens. I was downstairs when I heard the bath come on. My sweet husband was actually going to tackle this all by himself. I was so impressed and proud! I took over for him and he kept Joel out of my way. I should have never tried to save this onesie. I should have just cut it off of her. I kind of sat her up to take it off and she ended up with poop all the way up the side of her face and in her hair. VOMIT!! I think I used about 40 wipes. It was awful. She pooped while in the swing and when Greg took the cover off there was actually a little puddle of poo in the bottom of the plastic frame. BLEH!!

Since I have the picture...notice her socks. These are the socks I love. They are hard to find but they stay on better then any others!!

Keeping my fingers crossed that she won't ever do this when we are out in public!!

**This is not a reflection of what LUVS can handle. No diaper on the planet could handle this much poo. The diaper was FULL, FULL, FULL!!**

Baby Essentials

Back when Joel was born I did a post about baby "stuff". It included the things I wouldn't want to live without. It wasn't a very detailed list, and having Abby got me thinking it might be fun to do the list again and maybe do it every couple of weeks depending on the stuff I'm using a ton at the time. Last week a sorority sister of mine asked me for some baby advice so Heather (no I'm not talking about myself in the third person) this post is for you!

Pretty much all Abby does right now is eat, sleep and empty her bladder. She has decided to only poop every couple of days but when she does, OH MY HEAVENS they are HUGE!! She hasn't pooped since Thursday, we are in for it!! When I was in high school and college I babysat for a lady who had five boys. She always used Luvs diapers, I'm thinking that is where my "love" affair with them started.

Luvs smell so good (pre-baby bottom), they work well (if my baby leaks it's typically just because I need to go up a size) and they are CHEAP! I buy them at BJ's wholesale or often I order them on Amazon! We have Amazon prime, we pay $75 a year to get free two day shipping on anything sold directly by Amazon. I order them and 2 days later they are on my doorstep! Perfect for new Moms or Moms like me with a TON of kids.

So far Abby has been a fabulous nurser. That girl came out rooting. I do supplement her at night. I nurse her at 10pm and then offer her a 2 oz. bottle. When she wakes at 4am I nurse again and give her another bottle. If you are going to be bottle feeding I have found the best nipples are the nipples they give you at the hospital for the pre-made formula. I'm not sure why they don't sell these in stores! They are super easy for your baby to get formula out of. I took about 10 home with me from the hospital. I'm not sure why they say, "for single use only", we wash them and use them over and over. You can always tell when they go bad they get kind of sticky, if you squeeze it together and it sticks to itself toss it!

One of the reasons I have enjoyed nursing has been because I've found awesome nursing camis at Target. I couldn't live without these things. I cannot stand nursing bras. They make me itch like crazy and I hate the feeling of "feeling" my bra all the time. They don't offer a ton of support but they do come in a ton of colors online and they have black, white and grey in the store. So far I've bought four and wear them constantly. I wear them with these:

Lansinoh nursing pads are wonderful. I don't know if they had these with Sam. Maybe I was too cheap to buy them, but no joke I used the washable kind. They were MISERABLE!! I think after a couple of weeks I did find some sort of disposable but they weren't as good as the Lansinoh ones! I go thru a lot of these. At least 4 a day. My sorority sister Heather was asking me how to prevent sore, cracked nipples. Unfortunately there is no perfect solution. I always want to slap the nursing specialists who tells you "if you are nursing correctly it won't hurt". I'm calling a huge FIB on that one. Nursing hurts, it's inevitable. I have found that it hurts less with every baby but it still hurts. My advice, change your nursing pads often, and use lanolin a lot! OH ~ and on a side note, these nursing pads are also on Amazon for cheaper then you can buy them at Target!!

Now to sleeping, Abby's favorite thing to do! I can't imagine living without this:

It's a Halo SleepSack Swaddle. I love, love, love this thing. We use it constantly. I wish I had known to swaddle Sam. He was kind of a fussy baby and I think it would have really helped. Greg became an expert swaddler with our other boys. This SleepSack makes it super simple to swaddle them. I put Abby in the sleep sack, hold her arms by her side and then velcro the flaps across her. So simple and it puts her right to sleep, plus I know she is warm and cozy. If you are new Mom, add this to your registry!

Abby also sleeps really well in our swing (only during the day, she sleeps in her crib at night)! I don't know how anyone could live without a swing. I love the one we have because of the way it swings in two directions. We also have a more basic swing that PLUGS IN!! No more waisted batteries. I have been told that you can get a swing that swings two directions and plugs in, my idea of heaven!!

Well, that's all I have time for today...I want to tell you about my car seat cover and my favorite infant socks, but I need to take pictures first. Stay tuned!!

2 weeks old!

Today is Abby's due date! I'm so glad she came 2 weeks early. Here are some pics from the last week:

I love to watch her sleep!

I've never had ruffles or bows before!! I had to take pictures!

Her "tag" fell off (AKA: her umbilical cord), so we had to keep her...I love that first bath after the cord comes off!

Not sure about the water

Gigi washing her hair...looks like a scalp massage...I could use one of those!

Baths make a girl MAD!

Abby and I both doing are best chipmunk interpretation...Once my body let go of all those fluids I lost 10 lbs! Now to get rid of the rest of the preggo weight!

Abby loves hanging out on her Daddy's chest!

I think we have another blue eyed baby!! Gabe is thrilled, he's decided he would like to keep his eyes now after all!!

So far Abby has been an absolutely perfect baby. She has been getting up once during the night and hardly ever fusses or cries. Nursing has been going beautifully, keeping my fingers crossed that it stays as easy as it has been!

Stay tuned...a sorority sister of mine asked for baby essentials and I'm going to blog about what I can't live without!