2017

2017 Highlights:

Finding out we were going to have a boy!

Weird to think I was pregnant exactly 1/2 of the year!

more here

Our vacation to Arizona

My 29th birthday in Arizona at Bahama Buck's.

Maisie turned 7 on Mother's Day!

8 year anniversary

spent with spicy Indian food and an overly air conditioned movie theatre watching "Wonder Woman" an amazing date while almost 37 weeks pregnant.

Katie came to the rescue before Evan was born.

4th of July (last day of pregnancy and last picture as a family of 4).

Evan arrived safely!

more here

more here and here

Ellie turned 3!

 more here

Watching the Great American Eclipse smack dab in the path of totality from our backyard.

Austin turned THIRTY 3-0!!

Grandma, Grandpa, Miranda, Andrew, Camille, Emerson, Jane and Arthur visited Labor day weekend.

Nana visited in October

Halloween

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Christmas

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2017 Lowlights: 

Austin's gallbladder surgery. This picture is of Austin's gallbladder function test where he was injected with contrast and with what was affectionately called a "liquid hamburger" to see if his gallbladder produced or excreted bile- it hardly did, so they scheduled to take it out less than a week later.

Austin and Maisie's both had surgeries on their ears. 

Austin had two surgeries in a matter of 4 days.

My high risk pregnancy and delivery because of Evan's cord abnormality:

 Velamentous Cord Insertion (VCI) 

more here

(Great) Grandpa Sprague's passing.

I am blind as a bat thanks to Evan's pregnancy. 

2017 Honorable mentions:

-Ellie is potty trained, pacifier weaned and sleeping in a "big girl bed".

-Maisie learned how to swim, has her own room and is learning to sew.

-Evan is a big, healthy boy who is super smiley and happy almost 24/7. Oh and he just figured out he is flexible enough to suck on his toes- so there's that!

Outstanding achievment of 2017:
Hitting our out of pocket deductible for medical costs 5 months into the year. 😬 3 surgeries and a high risk pregnancy is crazy expensive!

Christmas 2017

Christmas Eve family photo

Traditional family recipe

Ellie's crossed leg haha!

Santa

Our first real tree since living in Idaho- a Nordman fir.

All lit up

Maisie's Christmas list:

Lava lamp & stuffed swan

Ellie's Christmas list:

Zebra & fake make up

Evan's Christmas list:

anything to chew on or drool on

When I imagined Christmas with our kids I thought it would be stressful because of all the new toys we would have to hunt down not unlike "Tickle me Elmos" "Furbys" or "Hatchimals". But since our kids don't see commercials like ever, they don't even know what the current toys are. Instead they think of something they really want (despite its popularity) and a lot of the time they are the most humble requests. Maisie upped it this year with the request of a lava lamp, but still compared to the things I begged for as a child, it seems so small. We tried to have intention with our gifts this year, we didn't want junky toys that would break or be forgotten within a couple weeks, so we stuck with activities that could be enjoyed by the whole family, or activities the girls could do while cooped up for the winter. Painting/art supplies, board games, Floof, and books. 

For the last couple of months we have been limiting their screen time to about 30 minutes per day, with opportunities to earn screen time throughout the day, by reading a certain amount of books or with extra chores and it has been going pretty well, but now that we are stocked up on new activities I think we will be golden for awhile.

Favorite toys? Maisie loves her lava lamp and swan, but the surprising favorite has been a little sewing kit- she has been loving making little stuffed owls for everyone. Ellie's favorites- oh her love for her makeup kit, she takes it everywhere and does everyone and every things makeup, it's super cute! We also got her packs of Disney Princesses that she adores. Grandma and Grandpa got her a lego set and a Calico Critter cottage which have been huge hits as well.

Austin got me one of a kind art prints from art students at the university and they are amazing, a nursing dress that I have wanted/needed and I love it- so comfy and cute! He also got me new pots and pans and a coupon promising to do the dishes more. 😍 Austin got a few new games and a Playstation plus account- its what he wanted and he seems pretty happy about them. 

It was a low key Christmas spent with friends the rest of the evening. 

Oh and then the day after Christmas we took Maisie to Star Wars episode VIII "The Last Jedi" as a part of a Christmas gift (a new R2D2 shirt). She loved the movie- we all did.

Merlin's Magic Sleepsuit take 2

The 4 month sleep regression is a very real thing folks. After about a week of almost no sleep due to a baby who now knows how to work his hands in a more coordinated manner- I.E breaking out of his swaddle, loudly gagging/sucking on his fingers, scratching the mesh siding of his bedside bassinet, and overall unable to fall back to sleep because he's just too busy practicing his new skills. Thankfully, he wasn't upset and awake crying all night. His sisters during their sleep regressions were both very fussy and spent a good portion of the night overtired and cranky, but Evan was as happy as a clam, but still kept me up regardless. Out of desperation to clear the sleepless fog I was in, I decided to bust the sleepsuit out of it's long hibernation and give it a try on Evan. No joke the first night we used it, Evan was back to his pre-sleep regression sleep schedule. What is this thing!? I have always been skeptical of baby miracle workers, but this thing has no joke worked miracles for two of my babies now. We bought the suit for Ellie when she was 8 months old (read about the reasons we tried it with Ellie here and also look how cute she was) and it fits Evan the same way now at 4 months as it did for Ellie at 8! Another plus to the sleepsuit? It's adorably puffy- think Ralphie and Randy from "A Christmas Story". The beauty of it is to make it so puffy the kids can't move very easily or bend their joints- Evan is able to strong arm his hands to his mouth for a minute or two, but quickly gives up and falls asleep and stays asleep until his early morning (around 3am) nursing session. It's been glorious catching up on missed sleep! Take that 4 month sleep regression! Man, I wish I would have had this thing for the girls during their 4 month sleep regressions because for both of them that was the beginning of the end of their good sleep cycles! I am hoping we staved off Evan's potentially bad sleeping habits, before it became normal! 🙏🏻

Evan normally wakes up as I am getting ready to go downstairs to help Maisie get ready for school, make breakfast and pack lunches- but this morning he didn't. Instead of waking him up by stripping off the sleep suit (I imagine that wouldn't have gone over well) I decided to take him downstairs still suited up. He slept for another hour before finally waking up for the day. When Ellie saw him she said "Aw it's Baymax!" 😂

His little toes peaking out 😍

If you are needing a sleep miracle I highly recommend giving this bad boy a try get yours here.

Evan - 4 months

Remember in this post how I mentioned that Evan was not an easy baby? Well, that couldn't be further from the truth now. Baby boy mellowed out BIG TIME. Mostly because he started using a pacifier. When he figured out the pacifier it put a quick stop to the vicious catch 22 we were in- which looked a little like this:

1) Nurse a lot.
2) Nurse more for comfort because the reflux pains would be worse when he would over eat.
3) Projectile vomit because he ate too much.
4) Nurse some more because he was now empty and hungry.
5)And repeat steps 1-4 6x a day.

But within the week of him deciding the pacifier was a good thing, the madness stopped completely. He is truly such a sweet and easy baby now. He smiles almost 24/7- even on the occasion that he's grumpy and upset you can still almost always get him to smile.

likes:
-Diaper changes
-Morning time
-The swing on level 4 with the music on
-The bumbo especially on the table at dinner. He loves being included.
-Chatting/dragon yell
-His sisters- but he has an especially soft spot for Maisie. I think Ellie is too eager and loud haha!
-Baths (finally! This one took awhile to win him over!)
-Being swaddled
-Chewing/sucking/gagging on his fists and fingers
Any toy or object he can grab and stuff into his mouth- his Nuby, rattle and handfuls of hair seem to be his favorite
-Trying to watch tv
-Pluggie (pacifier)

dislikes:
-The car. He doesn't mind his carseat, just being in the car.
-Austin's coughs or sneezes- it startles Evan every time!
-The hiccups
-Having his neck cleaned out- I don't blame him for this one.
-Scratching himself
-Nursing under a cover
-Not being apart of the action
-Not being able to see anyone-especially me.
-When I eat something too spicy

My favorite things:
-The way he insists on holding my hand and he's very particular about how the grip is-he will readjust his grip and positioning until it's just right. If I don't automatically grab his hand when I am holding him (especially when I am nursing him) he will stretch out his arm and frantically search for my hand. It's so sweet! Sometimes when he needs a little comfort at night or while in the car all he needs is to hold hands.

-The way he pretends to chew when he watches everyone eat dinner.

-How he opens his mouth wide open when we make him dance or bounce on our laps.

-His determination to watch tv- Maisie and Ellie didn't care about the tv as babies, but Evan will crane his neck and get himself into funny positions trying to get a glimpse of the tv.

Evan's baby stats!

Birth:

weight: 7 lbs 2 oz

height: 20 inches

2 days:

weight: 6 lbs 10 oz  (24th percentile)

height: 20 inches (69th percentile)

head circumference: 13.7 inches (64th percentile) 

2 weeks:

weight: 7 lbs 8 oz (50th/51st percentile)

height: 21.5 inches (98th percentile)

head circumference: 14 inches (67th percentile)

2 months:

weight: 12 pounds 8 oz pounds (58th percentile)

height: 24 inches (91st percentile)

4 months:

weight: 15 pounds 2 oz (60th percentile)

height: 26 1/2 inches (95th percentile)

As you can see Evan is huge! He is awesomely chunky, but is height is unreal! He's going to be taller than Ellie before we know it! I feel like he lost his smallness so quick- he took no time at all to beef up. When I look at Austin holding him he doesn't look small anymore, but when the girls hold him? He looks like a beast! It's so fun to finally have a big baby- the girls were always on the petite side, so this chunky man is incredible! Breastfeeding has always been a rewarding experience with all my kids, but I sure am proud that my body is capable of growing and sustaining such a big boy!

Evan is oh so loved by our family and have I mentioned kissable? Because heaven knows this boy doesn't have a shortage of kisses!

Pumpkin Patch

Our traditional fall-time adventure to the pumpkin patch.  👍🏻🎃

Halloween 2017

Maybe mimes weren't what we originally planned to be this Halloween, but I think this has been my favorite family costume to date. If only I could have painted little Evan's face as well- I think it would have been hilarious, but it wasn't worth the risk of irritating his skin, but guys can you imagine a little baby mime!? He was donned in all black and white stripes though, which was a feat! I can't tell you how hard it is to find black and white striped things for babies or men. Navy? Yes. Gray? Yes. Black and white? Insanity inducing difficulty! The best part about our costume is that nothing is a "costume" (apart from the face paint) it's all real clothes that can be worn again, win-win! I only wish the girls took the part of mime a tad more seriously because I'm pretty sure we're the loudest mime family in history. Oh well, they sure look cute!

Photo bombed by some sort of creepy creature

This was taken the Friday before Halloween. Maisie's class took a field trip to a Halloween festival and so we last minute put together this skeleton look because a few items that I had ordered for our mime costumes hadn't been delivered yet. Maisie LOVED it! She was channeling her inner Emily (Corpse Bride) all day,