Sibling Love

They decided they would just nap right here next to sweet Piper instead of their own beds…

Randomness

Here are some random cute pictures that I just have to post…

 This was one afternoon in the beginning of January.  It was so nice we skipped naps this day and if you know us, we don't skip naps around here ;).  Adam and Coop were teaching Laney how to play tee ball.

 Over Christmas break the kids were rarely out of their pjs.

 Dad was behind this creation.

 She was the bad guy for the day and apparently needed arresting.

 Me and my girls.  Oh that expression on Laney's face just melts my heart.

 I have fun playing with her hair after baths.

 I swear the girl is always missing at least one article of clothing!  She is loving her pretend babies these days.

 Have I mentioned how thankful we were to have him home for 3 whole weeks!  This was the eve before he went back to work.  I may or may not have begged him to stay home just one.more.day;).  We so loved having him home with us!

This was my view one morning…how did they end up in my bed?!

Colic vs Reflux

Besides all the moving stuff and adjusting life to with 3 kids, the other reason I am so behind on blogging is this…

Our sweet baby Piper is a fussy baby!  At her 1 month appointment-we debated with our pediatrician about whether the fussiness was colic or reflux.  We talked about her symptoms...she spits up, seems discontent after eating, would wake herself up from naps soon after falling asleep and is fussy throughout day-not just at night.  However, nighttime is definitely her most fussy time.  In the end, we decided to start her on Zantac to treat reflux.  The doctor said it would take 5 days to really take affect and see a difference.  Well, it has been over a week now.  There has been no miracle fix.  She is still fussy-seems a bit more content after eating, isn't spitting up quite as much and is taking longer naps.  Who knows?  We are still trying to figure it all out…if you have the magic answer, let me know!!!

Bottle Time!

I am nursing Piper but realize the importance of getting her a bottle if I ever want to be away for longer than a couple hours at a time!  However, the reality of pumping, then giving her a bottle isn't exactly a reality with 2 other kids running around and needing my attention.  Adam gave Piper her first bottle at 3 weeks while he was still on vacation.

 She looks thrilled about it, right?

 She didn't love it but did take a couple ounces.

Cooper was excited to help!

3 Weeks!

Piper is 6 weeks today so this seems like ages ago!  

And wishing I had wrote something down about 3 weeks because-let's be honest-I don't remember much!  I do know one thing, she was just about the cutest thing ever at 3 weeks!

 These pictures sure don't show it but at 3 weeks we definitely defined Piper as our crankiest baby.  In fact, we were pretty sure she was colicky.  Every night from about 7ish-11ish she was crying unless I was holding her and rocking her just right.  Phew, that is exhausting!  

Her baby acne was out of control at 3 weeks!  

On the Road (once) Again!

There are 2 main reasons I am so behind on blogging, #1 is we are moving!  Yes, that's right, we are moving again!!!  This time Adam's job is taking us to Kansas - my first home.  He took a promotion with his current company back in November.  This move will be so bittersweet as we adore our life here in Texas but we are moving closer to family and friends that are basically family.  I am just now blogging about it as I put the whole idea of moving and all the chaos that has come with it until after our sweet Piper arrived and the holidays were over.  And chaos it is.  Much more to come on this topic - I will just scratch the surface here with this post I have been meaning to do for a week now!

My mom flew in the day after Christmas so Adam and I could start packing.  Why were we packing already you ask?  Well, we have no basements here for storage so we needed to do some major decluttering before we put our house on the market.

See my post on the last time we moved here.

Grandma did get to snuggle sweet Piper but she was sure to keep the big kids busy and 100% entertained so Adam and I could pack.

This is our dining room, it became the storage spot for all things being packed.  Side note…that room hasn't had a light the 3 years we have lived here!  We went and bought that chandelier while my mom was here and Adam installed it.  Funny the things you do to make your house more perfect for strangers coming to see it.  

 We packed a lot of stuff including well over 1/2 the kids toys, all the closets, both attics, kitchen items we don't use regularly, etc.  

I took just a few pics the week Grandma was here and this was one of them.  We were literally walking out the door to take her back to airport when I got this one.  Thanks again Mom, we never would have accomplished what we did without you here!  The kids had a blast!

 This guy showed his handyman side on his vacation and multitasked while doing some of that work ;).  That sweet baby of ours likes to be held (a lot) so we are thanking our lucky stars for that Baby Bjorn.

 Adam was headed to KC for a work meeting just after the new year.  So we loaded up all that stuff we packed and filled that 20 foot truck FULL!  It is all in a storage unit up in Overland Park awaiting us ;).

 These kids (especially Coop) thought that UHaul truck was just about the coolest thing ever.  Dad made their day with a quick trip around the block in it :).

Pretty sure the kids had their version of heaven the 3 hours the movers were here loading up that UHaul.  The kids, Lola and I hung out in our bedroom to stay out of the way so they got free reign of the iPad and TV.  I could see their brain cells dying as the hours passed ;).

This was just part one of this crazy process!  Stay tuned, lots of things have happened since we started packing 3 weeks ago!!!

Princess and Pirates Tour

I do my best to not let these kids of mine watch much TV, and when I do they don't even get an option of what to watch (mean mom), they watch whatever is on Disney Junior.  Before they were really into shows, I always recorded Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  They still adore both of these shows although I think Cooper is over Mickey Mouse a bit. :(  

Before Christmas I saw that the Disney Junior Princess and Pirates tour was coming to Dallas and it was the week after Christmas.  I decided it was the perfect outing for Dad to take them on while I stayed home and snuggled my sweet baby…tough job but someone has to do it.  We surprised them with it on Christmas morning and they were so, so, so excited even though I don't think they really understood what it was.  

To say they were excited to go with Dad to the show would be an understatement, they were ecstatic!

Adam sent me this picture with the following texts... 

***Yes, he entered himself as "Your Smokin Hot Husband" on my phone :)***

 So typical that Cooper is still wearing his fleece coat inside.

 I can just see his wheels turning trying to decide what souvenir to get.

 I was sure to ask Adam to make sure someone took a pic of the 3 of them there.

This cracks me up.  Another good reason their Dad takes them to these types of things…he buys them a souvenir.  This boring (and cheap) mom would probably scoot them right on past the toy stands ;).

Our Christmas Baby at 2 weeks old

Piper was and always will be our Christmas baby!  

She was 2 weeks old the day after Christmas.  At 2 weeks, she weighed 9 lbs, 15 oz…almost 10 pounds at 2 weeks!  She was the 95%ile for both height and weight, clearly not missing any meals :).

Between Christmas and lack of sleep, I honestly can't remember details from week 2 ;).  She was definitely eating good.  As for sleep, I think she was sleeping good right around this time.  We had a few night of 11ishpm-7isham…she has since regressed ;).  I can tell you she's the cutest and sweetest 2 week old baby girl we know!

 I snapped a few pics right before we took the tree down.  Yes, our tree came down December 26th but for a good reason…more on that later.

 Love all those rolls!

 A big red bow on our Christmas gift ;)

 Oh, those teeny tiny toes!

Love this picture for all her baby body hair, flaking skin and sweet puckered lips…I can almost smell her baby scent from here.

Merry Christmas 2013

The kids were much more into the idea of Christmas morning this year than last, see it here.  Cooper was asking everyday of December how many more days until Santa Claus came with presents.  Laney usually followed with, "yeah, yeah, ho, ho, ho!"  We all slept in until about 8 that morning and then the fun began…

 Piper's stocking arrived just in time!

 This boy wasn't really asking for anything specific until about a week before Christmas.  Before that, he basically wanted any toy he put his eyes on.  Then he started getting specific…Ironman, Blue Ironman, remote control car, remote control Dusty from Planes.  These were changing everyday and sometimes every hour.  Santa made a Toys R Us run on Christmas Eve to pick up Dusty and she is sure glad she did…it was by far his favorite gift.

 Santa couldn't forget Piper - how could she be naughty in her first 12 days of life?!

Every house with kids should own that book, it's so cute!

 Sweet Piper slept right thru all the presents and made a late appearance for breakfast.

 She's not sure what to think of the pacifier...

she's happiest when she finds her thumb…uh oh!

 Mom and Dad got the kids The Little Mermaid movie.  Cooper opened and said, "ugh-this is a girls movie."  He happily watched it a few days later :).  And this will probably be the story of his life!

 Yep, this (totally lame) Dusty was his favorite gift.  It broke by dinner time-was rescued with a bit of super glue and Dad.

This girl loved it all!  Especially her new princess underwear, socks and Minnie phone…all items from her stocking.  Seriously, she talked on that phone all.day.long. 

Doodles is often pantless.  This was her Christmas evening look, new underwear-socks-Toms.  

 They loved their stockings!

 He often stops in the middle of whatever he is doing to come say hi to Piper and kiss her.  He could not be more sweet with his baby sister.

 These 2 played so well together all day-it was a Christmas miracle!  Cooper was Dad and Laney was Mom- they had lots of babies to take care of.  

 I told you-she was on that phone all day!  Our stairs are also a car most days - can't remember where they were going here.  Obviously I was interrupting.

 We were feeling extra blessed this year to have 3 kids to celebrate Christmas with!  Piper was the perfect gift.

 Oh these kids make Christmas so special and I know these magical Christmas years won't last forever so I am trying to fully soak up each one!!!

 After naps it was more pretend play.  Cooper was the only one in the family that changed out of his pajamas-he got dressed so he could take his Dusty airplane out back to fly.

Hope you all had the merriest of Christmas!