Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Party Baby


Caiters went to her first friend party this weekend. 
Here she is with her friend Azraia the birthday girl and all their dollies.


Cait was very interested in her friend's bottle...



Awe, aren't they cute?  It is hard to believe our baby is getting big enough to interact with friends and soon we will be singing happy birthday to her!!

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Cait's Baby Dedication



Today was Caitlyn's baby dedication at church.  They do it on Saturdays so all the family can come.  There were 7 babies getting dedicated and lots of family.  It was great!


This week has been really rough in Banmaland.  We went 3 nights with no sleep while Cait struggled to get 4 new teeth, then Maddie's stomach bug caught on like wildfire and ran thru the rest of the house.  We are all feeling "better" in terms of the stomach bug but with all the sleepless nights, most of us are exhausted and congested.  You can see it on Cait in this photo.  She is just not herself. 


There we are in the lineup of families, vowing to raise our little lady  to love Jesus.




Family prayer time.  It was a really nice event.
I loved that it was a separate thing and not just put on at the beginning of the church service.  




There we are. 
I forgot to get the entire family.  I'm pretty disappointed about that.  Although this little group of 7 is important, the real treasure is in the huge support system that we have beyond this. 

Anyways, these are the photos I have, so the event has been documented :)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Sink Bath!


Because we "nakify the baby" when she eats, she often gets VERY messy.  This is how she gets clean.  Knowing that my girl will be bathing in the sink helps me to keep my sink clean and free of dishes.  (I said it HELPS, I'm not sayin it's always clean, but this is a good motivator!)

Monday, January 18, 2010

Little Model


Caiters is my little Fig & Ruby hairbow model.  She doesn't seem to mind most of the time.  On Saturday I dressed her up and everything started out really well... Here she is saying hi to the baby in the mirror.


"hi baby!"

She posed happily for a bunch of hairbow photos (which you can check out over at Fig & Ruby Kids)...



Then she did this!!!



And this!  I hope this little strike is due to the 4 teeth she is miserably trying to get and not a sign of the end of my cute free baby model!!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Blankies and Lovies


Not sure if I ever shared Cait's blankie and my new little favorite baby gift...

Here is her big blankie.  It is super soft minky on one side and satin giraffe pink on the other.  I used felt to make the monogram.  I love that finishing touch!  I made a matching one for Gretchen's baby Sophia.  Cait and Soph ended up being born 1 day apart!


I also made each girl a matching taggie blankie.  I have changed the name of this to a "lovie" because that is what it has become!  The lovie has the same giraffe satin on the back.



Cute coordinating ribbons all around the edge.  So many fun ribbons.  I have quite the collection so it was fun to use up a few scraps and also add some of my personal favorites! (This is a horrible picture...hello?  White balance anyone? Geez!)


My favorite feature- a personalized tag!
I made Sopie's to say "you are loved".  This is my best attempt at embroidery:)



I have gotten so many compliments on the lovie and the babies both really love them so I started making them for special baby gifts.  Here is a blue and pink one.  It is minky zebra on one side and hot pink satin on the other.  I kinda dig animal prints!



Pink and grey!

I love the loops because I can hook her toys to the blankie or hook the blankie to the stroller...It is so versatile and a really great size!




I have thought about putting a few up on ETSY.  Hmm...perhaps one day.  I'll add this to the list of things I dream of doing once the kiddies get a little bit older and I have a second to breathe!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Random Happenings In Our House


This is Caleb playing Disney Sing It on the PS3.  He has one song that he chooses every time, it's "get your head in the game" from High School Musical.  He sings "getcha head in the game, getcha head in the game" over and over through the entire song and usually ends up scoring pretty well.  He is hilarious cause he dances through his whole turn too!


Here is Cait peeking around the corner.  She got caught going into Caleb's room...it's not safe for her in his room with all the little pieces and never-ending MESS!  Our little girl loves to crawl around the house exploring all the rooms and looking for random treasures to put in her mouth.




"peek a boo Mommy, I see you too!"




Sometimes we go on walks.  Caleb loves this, Cait doesn't mind unless it's cold.  She had no interest in being bundled up.  It just rubs her the wrong way.  She is NOT a fan!  My happy little content-all-the-time baby turns into a big sucky-poo whenever I put her in her snow gear.  Here is the evidence.  Look, that's what she looks like when she is MAD!  Caleb is saying "MOOOOM!  Get her off of me!!!!"


There's my boy at the top of the hill!  He was quite proud.

Please note: he is wearing two different mitts...both for the right hand.


Caity bear thinks her sucky fingers are oh so tasty.  She wants her sisters to think so too...Here she is offering her other fingers to Mikayla to have a try.  Notice Maddie is holding baby and Mailee is across the table watching.  This is a common occurrence, as if there is nothing else going on...babies are great entertainment!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

A Portrait Of A Baby


Little Caitlyn is growing and changing daily.  Her 4 top teeth are inching down and I am sure they will pop through any day.  I wanted to get a few close ups of her with her two little chompers before the rest arrive.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Miss Maddie


Maddie is half way through Kindergarten!  I can not believe it.  In a lot of ways she seems so grown up but she still has her moments of throwing out of control tantrums and that is when I remember that she is only 5.  I miss her around the house during the day.  She is my little helper girl.  She always follows me around and wants to do what I am doing!

Her birthday is in March and she wants a Hello Kitty party.  I try to stay away from the character birthdays but I love Hello Kitty so I am on board!  I welcome all ideas and tips on where to find Hello Kitty anything!!

This photo was taken the same day as the one of Caleb...more practice with the manual function on my camera.  I am really really pleased with this one, I didn't edit it at all and it is just perfect, in my opinion although I am a bit biased cause I really really love the little subject:)

Thursday, January 7, 2010

My Boy

Today I pulled out an old CD of mine and introduced Caleb to Puff the Magic Dragon.  He loved the song and had lots of questions:

"so did the dragon kill the boy?  he sounds sad."

"oh mom, so he went in his cave cause he was sad?"

"who made this song mom, it's a good one for me!"

What a sweet little boy.  I am enjoying engaging in these little conversations with him during the day when the girls are not around!

P.S  I took this photo of Caleb today and I am soo happy with it.  I feel like it captures him perfectly, I'm happy I got him in a cute "handsome shirt", and the right stuff is in focus!  Woo Hoo!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Standing Baby, Standing!

Little Caiter Gaiter has a new trick...she loves to stand up!  Just look how proud she is of herself in this lil photo!  What a fun girl we have.  I can not believe how quickly she is growing up right before our eyes!

Monday, January 4, 2010

Snow Day











It dumped snow all day today!  Everything is white and so beautiful.  I took Caleb and Cait outside this morning to enjoy the snow a bit.  Cait was not impressed but Caleb loves it.  He was enjoying taking the snow off the trees and eating it.  I told him about the importance of not eating yellow snow and he responded "ya okay, what about brown snow, what do you think that could be?" ha ha.  such a boy!!!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Teeth


Our family is going through tooth issues. Cait is working on getting 4 teeth in at once all along the top of her mouth. Meanwhile Maddie is losing teeth at a rapid rate. Mailee seems to have tapered off but I am sure her molars will begin to be an issue soon. Mikayla has been losing molars like it's going out of style. Molars are a lot of work to get out...eeps, creeps me right out. I am not a fan of tooth issues of any kind! As if all this is not enough, Mikayla smiled yesterday and I noticed that up in her gums there are MORE teeth! They are rapidly approaching their destination and the "babies" have not yet come out. Soon they'll be vying for those positions and oooh, eeew, I remember what that looked like in MY mouth 20 years ago! YIKES!
To top it all off, we have a VERY lazy and forgetful and rather "change poor" tooth fairy in our home. She never seems to be able to find the quarters or get them under the pillow in time. Sometimes she leaves the tooth on the bathroom counter and it gets found. Oops. Can you blame me? Remember, I said I do not enjoy all this tooth business to begin with!
Thanks for listening, I just needed a safe place to voice my tooth troubles :)
And now what you all came her for in the first place....... pictures!
This is my little Caiters in her most comfy position, with her sucky fingers in and holding a lock of my hair. AWE, too cute!


Happy New Year!