Growing up

Every day I am reminded just fast my babies are growing up. I can't seem to find the time to journal or fill out the baby book lately so this is my outlet or record until I can play catch up.
-Pierce told me today, "Mom at Staples I saw one." When were you at Staples, "with Pop, he had to get some size D batteries." and when did he know what Staples was and start talking like an adult.
-Or "Mom, they are buy one get one free." Where did you hear that? "On the commercial."
-"Mom, this year maybe we can figure out the gingerbread house. (I guess I couldn't figure it out last year). And maybe while we are making it we should have some candy."
-Pierce had his five year checkup this week. He was 95% in height and ..ready for this...90% in weight. I'm still not real sure about that second statistic. If you have seen our boy lately, he's pretty tall and slim. I think the nurse missed the mark on the scale and added a few.
-I need some accountability this week. I've promised myself that once the Christmas decorations came out I would put up the baby swing and bouncy seat to give us some more room. I've always been so excited to put up baby items for the space but really struggling with it this time around. To think this could be the last time we would have a swing or bouncy seat sitting around brings me to tears. Camden was literally doing a handstand out of the bouncy seat the other night..it is time, like it or not.
-Camden is sitting up now, I think she ended up doing it the same day she crawled. She's eating lunch and dinner. She seems to like babyfood but when she is done, she's done. She pulls up on her knees and wants to play with anything the boys have left on the ground or they are playing with. Drumroll...she has slept through the night 4 out of the past 7 nights!!
-Holt calls many of people "bad guys." Ever since he was an army man for halloween he has grabbed on to this bad guy concept. We are not sure where it came from but we are working on it , as he calls certain friends bad guys, the pizza man a bad guy, and anyone military is a bad guy.

Lessons learned and advice to give..

So now that we have had the second throw up bug in two weeks to hit our house I thought I'd summarize what I have learned. For those of you who have a weak stomach you might not want to read :) Also most of this I learned from this week when Holt got sick in the car after eating a large breakfast and lunch..enough said.
-Rubber floor mats are one of the smartest, best investments we have made. Also the rubber seat protector came in quite handy and leather seats.
-A hose works wonderful when child has thrown up 4 plus times in the car seat and thank goodness you can wash the car seat covers.
-I knew my friend Hope was an amazing friend but she proved this once again when she stayed on the phone with me as I cleaned the car and talked to me to distract me from the task at hand and keep me from throwing up myself. I only had to pull the phone away once to gag.
-I will not be able to eat Chick-fil-a for quite a while.
-Keep large ziplock bags in the seat pockets in front of the kids seats in case they decide to get sick. I did not have these, however they are in there now!
-When your child says his stomach is hurting when leaving school. Maybe stick around just a little longer before putting him in the car.
-When the nurse tells you not to give them water until they haven't thrown up for an hour...really don't do it or know that even that water will come right back up.

And its not even officially winter yet, hopefully our household and yours can stay healthy for the holidays!

More Birthday Pictures

Five Years Old!!

Pierce got his first Panthers jersey.

I love this picture. I was taking a picture of the group and Pierce grabbed Holt and looked over at me.

Pierce turned 5 last Tuesday. Wow..we have a five year old! I can't believe that he's already five. If only I could freeze him at this age. He is so full of life, has such an imagination, and loves all of us so well. He has the biggest heart and a sharp mind like his daddy. We finally had his birthday party yesterday after is had to be rescheduled twice as daddy was out of the country for work and then Pierce had the stomach bug. But we had a beautiful day and ALL the boys had fun.

Ready or not..

She's off. Our sweet baby girl turned 6 months today and is CRAWLING!!! I'm not ready for this, she's my baby, not even quite sitting up on her own or sleeping through the night but crawling for a book. I think this is a result of Gran encouraging her all week but it certainly wasn't this mommy encouraging her to crawl this early. I had to post for daddy to see. In the background is my photographer Pierce, he got a camera for his birthday and has probaly taken 200 pictures in 24 hours. More birthday post to come.

Army Crew

We like to see how much we can fit into a night on Halloween each year. We start off going to our neighborhood parade. We then head over to our old neighborhood for our chili dinner that has become a tradition with our friends there. Then we are back to our house to trick or treat. Pop meets us and loves taking the boys out trick-or-treating. The past couple years he has come in some kind of costume. The boys were so excited all day to find out what Pop was going to be dressed up as...and look an army guy just like them. I have learned after last night I need to set a limit to how many houses they can go to as I had to get in the car at 8 to find them. They both had huge bags 2/3's of the way FULL of candy. For those of you who know me well, know that I have a 'small' candy addiction. So when I'm complaining of mouth ulcers this week you will know why.

Halloween

Has anyone noticed that our boys are yelling in most of their pictures? And I wonder why I have headaches by the end of most days lately :)

Camden had two outfits. I had bought one and my mother-in-law also bought one so of course I had to try both of them on.

Army man was getting his workout on in Lindsay's garage.

Good Treats and First Eats...

The Whites had us all over on Thursday for a fun Halloween party. Chaos would be the only word to explain getting five families together totaling 10 boys and 3 girls. Linds, thanks for being so brave and the fun time.

Camden had rice cereal for the first time this week. I was trying to hold out until 6 months but the night feedings are getting old so thought I would give this a try in hopes of more sleep at night.