Hallie's Birthday 4 Years Old!

At this age, kids talk about their birthday for weeks ahead of time and weeks after. To say that Hallie was excited to celebrate is an understatement. It was challenging to plan a party with newly going back to work and three little ones at home but with the help of family we did it and had a blast! The moonwalk with built in slide was a hit and Hallie loved having her close friends and her new friends from preschool all together for a day of fun!

Caroline's Baptism

Caroline and her Godfather, Uncle Blake, on her Baptism Day 1.12.13

 

Before the ceremony, "I'm ready for this!" - Caroline

 

 Good thing we took some pictures before the ceremony because after the ceremony, lets just say she was a liiiitle fussy!
 

 

 Sign of the cross with Holy oil.
 

 

"Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
 

  Each daughter with their Godparent! Aunt Christy with Hallie, Aunt Steph with Annabelle and Uncle Blake with Caroline. :)
 

 

Smiling Baby!

Caroline has graced us with many smiles in the past couple days! Just talk baby talk to her in a high pitched voice and the smiles abound! In other news, she is going through a growth spurt (which is typical at 6 weeks) and wants to eat every 2 hours, yikes!

Comparing Sisters

I don't know why I have this facination with comparing the three girls but if you are interested too, you'll like this post!

 

 

Each girl at one month. Caroline on top, Annabelle bottom left and Hallie bottom right :)

Caroline One Month

We love you sweet Caroline, happy one month! We are looking forward to seeing you grow, you have blessed us so much already :)

Conroe Christmas

After a great Christmas in Dallas, we headed straight to Conroe late Christmas Day in the freezing cold and arrived with fresh snow on windshield!

 

Here are some shots from our second "Christmas Morning" :)

 

The girls had been wanting piggy banks for their new room. (Later they also got cute cross banks from Aunt Cat where they can save up money to donate each week at church) So let the saving begin!

Helping Gramps open his gift, a new picture frame for work!

 

Now Grandma's turn, a new grandmother's bracelet with the girls initials! (We left plenty of space for cousins, whenever you are ready Aunt Christ and Uncle Ian, wink ;))



 

Of course, Caroline got passed around, got to spoil them while you can :)

 

Caroline is getting big and establishing her own look :) 

 

White Christmas

After the dissapointment of having to skip Christmas in Alexandria, we were super excited to pack up and head to Dallas the night before Christmas Eve. We got to have a quick visit with our friend Eleanor who gave us these super cute matching PJs for Christmas morning!

 

 

The Night Before Christmas

Grana and Granddad took the girls to Bass Pro for a ride on the reindeer carousel!

 

 

We didn't just dream of a white Christmas, we got it! The girls are all bundled up and ready to play. Annabelle lasted longer than Hallie because of Hallie's lingering fever but they were both so excited to see snow :)

 

 

 All dressed up for Christmas Mass at St. Ann.

 

New Traditions

Growing up, my family and I (Amanda) traveled to Alexandria, LA each year to spend Christmas. We adopted a tradition of letting Santa know that he needed to come a few days early to visit us in Dallas before we packed up the car and headed to LA to see family. So we would read the Christmas story from the bible and then go look at Christmas lights the night before our road trip. While we were gone, Santa would visit! Then we headed to Alexandria where there would eventually be 13 grandchildren (10 of them girls!). We have such fond memories playing together and sleeping like sardines on Memaw and Pawpaw’s living room floor. Now there are 16 great grandchildren (13 of which are girls!). Needless to say, I was super bummed when Hallie woke up with a fever the day before we were supposed to leave and I had to accept that we would not be able to travel to Alexandria this year for Christmas.

 

Instead of sulking all day about not being able to go, Jason inspired me to think positive and establish our own family traditions right here at home with just our little family J Here are four we came up with and we hope to add more in the future years!

 

New tradition #1: Playroom Clean-Up: We decided that since we were about to get plenty of new toys for Christmas, we should go through our playroom and identify every toy we rarely or no longer play with. That way we can save those toys for Caroline or give them away to a family that might need them. We evaluated the “fun-factor” of each toy and let the girls keep only their favorites. Now the playroom is clean, organized, and ready for some new toys!

New tradition #2: Acting out the Nativity: Thanks to my good friend Lindsay, we own a super cute nativity scene and a board book called “The Story of Christmas”. While mommy read the book aloud, the girls moved the figurines around to act out all the parts of the story of Jesus’ birth. It was super easy and a great way for the girls to realize the reason for the season and be a part of it!

 

New tradition #3: Build a Gingerbread House with Daddy the Architect: While mommy took care of Caroline, Hallie and Annabelle built a gingerbread house with daddy. They loved decorating their own parts of the house and taking ownership in them. Then daddy put the house together making sure it was nice and sturdy (and while telling Belle every 5 seconds to stop eating the candy pieces) and then they stood back to admire their work!

 

New tradition #4: Advent Calendar: We started this one on December 1^st. Each night (that we remembered to ;)) we sat around the living room as a family, read something from the daily readings (usually the Psalm) and then went to each person and said aloud what we were thankful for. Next, one girl would take baby Jesus out of one pocket and the other daughter would put him back in the next pocket. (what are we going to do when there are three girls to fight over Jesus!?)

New Sister

 Kathlyn Dragna Photography

What an adventure! Sweet Caroline joined our family on November 29^th 2012. We are delighted by our newest addition, Caroline Paige. So far, we think she is a mix of Hallie and Annabelle; maybe a “blue-eyed Hallie”. She was 7lbs 6oz (Hallie was 6lbs6oz and Annabelle was 8lbs6oz, right in the middle!) and 19.5 inches long at birth. So far we know that she loves being talked to (especially by her grandmas) and hates getting her diaper changed (or being cold in general, good thing you were born in Texas sweet one!). Her sisters are very excited that she is finally here (9 months is a long time in toddler world!). Both girls are very helpful with getting pacis, grabbing a blanket, or handing us wipes during a diaper change. Things are quite hectic with 3 kids under four (like just getting ready for and traveling on a 30 min car ride is a feat!) but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

Kathlyn Dragna Photography

Birth Story:

I have always wanted to go into labor on my own since I was induced with Hallie and Annabelle. But after going to the doctor on my due date and hearing I was still only 2cm dilated, I gave up hope and scheduled an appointment for induction the following morning at 7am. (My doctor only induces on Thursdays and I didn’t want to chance waiting till the next Thursday which would put me 8 days late) We all know that God has greater plans than ours and apparently He had already decided that Nov. 29^th would be the day! I woke up around 5am with what I thought were contractions. They were much more mild than pitocin induced contractions though so I thought it might be false labor. Nevertheless, since they were so mild, I laid in bed until it was time to get ready to be at our 7am appointment at the hospital. The contractions kept coming but they were 15-20 min apart and still very very mild. Jason and I arrived at the hospital at 6:45, checked in, changed into my hospital robe, and as soon as I sat down on the bed my water broke! I really was in labor and this day was meant to be Caroline’s birthday after all J 5 or so hours later after lots and lots of exhausting pushing (worse than the other two believe it or not) she was here and we were elated!

Photos from the newborn photoshoot with Kathlyn Dragna:

 

Our First Family Photo  

Visit to Santa at the Mall

Chillin with Caroline at Ian and Christy's Christmas Party

The Day the Girls Met Caroline (Nov 30th)

 

Trick Or Treat

Big Girl Room

We are officially sharing a room now :) I moved into Annabelle's room a few weeks ago to make room for Caroline. At first it was hard to fall asleep because all we wanted to do was play and giggle and wreak havoc in our room, but we are getting better about going to sleep within an hour of the time mommy and daddy tuck us in. We love our new beds and decor and are almost done, just need the perfect tall white dresser to complete the look!