House Progress

Almost a month ago...

Then lots of rain so we had to wait... until a week and a half ago...

Two days after that...

Four days ago...

Today...

Man we are so excited!  This is the part we are maybe most excited about... the screen porch!

Really we are just so excited for the whole thing to be done.  It was so fun to be able to walk through the actual rooms downstairs the other day.  Luckily the boys keep us so busy during the week that it's hard to find time to think about the house and we don't sit around and pine for it (too much).  Until we go out there and then we want to put up a tent inside and never leave.  Lol.  Soon enough.

Davis is 5 Months Old!

I decided to put him in a little tank-top onesie this time because it is crazy Africa hot here and we do live in the Redneck Riviera, after all.  :)  Plus you can see his rolls better.  That was the real reason.  

Oh my gosh, this baby is precious.  Seriously.  He is the most laid-back, sweetest little thing.  He will just go with the flow most days and will sleep when he feels tired, even if we're not at home, stay awake a little longer if I need him to while we're out, take naps without a fight, chill in the stroller or Baby Bjorn carrier or the car seat when he needs to, hang out in the crib in the mornings just rolling around and chatting to himself... he may fuss a little bit if he's not completely happy but doesn't ever really put up a huge complaint.  Okay, sometimes he does put up a complaint at bedtime or a few hours after bedtime when he thinks he wants to eat earlier than normal.... but that's pretty much the only time.  :)

The older boys just ADORE him... every morning when I go in to get D up they all have to come with me and will climb up onto the side of the crib and start cooing at him and talking to him in little high-pitched baby voices, "Hiiiiiii Davis!!  Good Morning, Baby!!" while rubbing his head.  It is the sweetest thing.  

His sleep is getting a little better.... He will go from about 10:30 til maybe 5:00 without eating, but he still usually wakes up around 2:30 or 3:00 and I have to go in there and put his pacifier back in to get him to fall back asleep.  Sometimes it takes a few times, but he's usually okay with not eating then.  Although I kind of wonder why I'm doing that because it would be much quicker to just feed him and have him fall back asleep... *sigh*   It's so hard to know what's best to do sometimes!

J and E were helping me make Davis smile during these pics.

He still hasn't taken to sucking a thumb or finger.  And this is how he feels about the pacifier...

Meh.  It will keep him content if he's a little fussy and help him go back to sleep sometimes but he can kind of take it or leave it.  I'm thinking we may not use it much longer.

He is rolling all over the place, scooting around on his stomach, pushing up to all fours, and attempting to crawl.  You can see how badly he wants to move... he just can't quite figure out how to move his hands forward yet.

He can kind of sit up unassisted but will plop over to the side after a few minutes.

This pic was from a few weeks ago when I first noticed him starting to get up on hands and knees.

And then a few days later he was even more confident with it and was rocking back and forth trying to lurch forward!

And also doing a lot of this... pushing up on his tip-toes.

The only thing that's kind of a pain that D still won't do is drink from a bottle.  He won't even drink breast milk from it.  Boo.  :(  That's really our fault, though, since we haven't been pushing it and we didn't start him on the bottle soon enough.  But we will start introducing food here soon and maybe that will help make him more acceptable of things other than boobies.  But he is a dude, so who knows?  Haha!

Scandalous

I apologize for the lack of blogging these past few weeks, but you can blame it on this show:

*I titled this post "scandalous" because Phil says that word in a Will Ferrel voice every time we turn on this show.*  :)  Oh my gosh... Phil and I are addicted.  My aunt and cousins told us about it on the fourth of July and since then we've watched all of season 1 on Netflix and are about halfway through season 2.  We watch at least two episodes a night and it's all we can do to stop and go to bed!  LOL!  And that's saying a lot for Phil because he usually falls asleep on the couch and goes to bed early, but he's been staying up past 11:00 with me to watch.  It's so fun!  We don't really watch that much TV anymore, so it's fun to have a show to watch and discuss together.  Phil even came home from work the other day and said, "You know, I was thinking about our show today and I think this person did that because..."  Haha!  That's when I knew he was hooked.  :)

Anyway, here are some pictures showing what we've been up to this month (other than watching Scandal... haha!)...

 (lots of smiling and laughing)

 (especially laughing at big brothers)

 (wishing we were babies again... lol!)

 (building with blocks)

 (eating ice cream at Dairy Queen after dinner)

 (not eating ice cream yet but loving sitting up and watching everyone!)

 (loving on Davis)

 (playing our new Kindles)

 (jumping, jumping, jumping)

 (and then falling asleep)

 (taking naps together in Mommy's bed)

 (practicing with our new Dustbuster (or supervising in Reid's case)... thanks to Kristen for the idea!)

 (fresh out of the bath with new PJs!)

 (donuts at Krispy Kreme... which no one really ate except Emmett and Mommy.)  :)

 (meeting Daddy for lunch by the water)

(and "washing our hands"... aka "climbing up on the sink and playing in the water")  :)

I have more posts in the works to be published soon!

Jackson is 6!!

This beautiful, sweet boy just turned 6 years old...

How did that happen so fast??  Wasn't he just turning 3??

 

And then I got stuck looking at these old pictures and I wanted to cry.  Look at how little and cute Jackson was... and how thin I was... *sigh*...

And how many sweet friends were at J's party back then...

Both his friends, and our friends.  :( And how pretty those mountains look in the distance...

And we still had a dog then!  A smelly, poop-eating dog, but still!

And oh, my gosh, look at little Emmett...  those fat hands and feet and those chubby cheeks!  I die!

*sniff-sniff* Okay, okay... enough reminiscing.  Those days were wonderful and I am so thankful for them.  But this birthday was really good, too.  We got to be Grandy and Popeye's house...

And J spent an amazing day putting together all of his new Legos and swimming, swimming, swimming with that chunky baby in the previous picture that is now his best friend (Emmett), and with another brother to boot!  (Reid) 

And got to hang out with a different, but wonderful, dog...

And Mommy has some extra pounds on her, but that just makes her softer to snuggle with for the time being... right?  LOL! (And yes, J does still suck his thumb, but we never see it because it's only right before he falls asleep, which was what was happening here.)

And we had Jackson's special request for dinner... spaghetti and meatballs!

And, again, most importantly... we got to spend this birthday with our family!

Oh, and J had a much more amazing cake this year... Aunt Leslie bought him an Angry Birds cake from our favorite bakery!  Tasted (and looked) much, much better than that Thomas cake from 3 years ago.  :)

Oh, how we treasure and love this sweet little boy... the best biggest brother and first-born boy we could have ever imagined.  He has such a fun, happy personality and has really been overcoming some of his shyness and timidity these past few months.  He's been more willing to try new things and do some things that he was previously afraid to do, like these sparklers (last year wouldn't touch them), jumping in and swimming across the deep end of the pool (and very recently swimming down to the bottom to pick up rings), and killing bugs for Mommy.  I will always remember the time a few weeks ago when he caught and picked up a spider with a pair of plastic toy pliers.  I had unfolded a lawn chair to sit in it and there was a spider on the seat.  J said, "Let me get him with these pliers!" and lo and behold he did!  He walked over to me with the spider in the pinchers and I almost died inside, but on the outside I said something like, "Wow!!  That's awesome!!  Can you please put him on the ground and step on him??" and J did.  :)

He is so very patient with his little brothers, and is always so sweet and loving to them, especially to Davis.  I am so thankful that God blessed us with J as the oldest brother.  And I don't know what I would have done without his help since Davis arrived... even just with little things like entertaining the little ones for a few minutes or bringing me something while I'm nursing.  He really is so affectionate and full of love... always willing to snuggle and give kisses and hugs.  Favorite things right now?  Swimming, playing Angry Birds, and building Legos.  We love you, Jackson!

Speaking of Legos... This series of pictures happened in about 15 seconds when we got back home...

    

He was SO excited for his Lego mine!!  Thank you, Nana and Papa Swoop!!

Some more pictures from our Fourth of July/birthday weekend...

(Popeye's little farmhands)

 (Davis tried out the high chair and liked it!)

 (Daddy and #4)

 (Emmett finally giving in and napping on the couch)

 

 (Olivia is Davis's biggest fan.  She LOVES him.  :)

 (I just loved this pic with the clouds and the beautiful horses and green field)

Emmett was out at the barn "helping" my Dad one evening and when I came outside he was riding the horse bareback.  I couldn't believe it!

IMG 2611 from Heather G on Vimeo.

At the end of that video you could hear Reid saying, "Now it's my turn now!" so of course he got a turn, too. It's hard to say no to Reid.  :)

And here's just another video of Reid on his favorite tractor and Emmett golfing.  :)

IMG 2619 from Heather G on Vimeo.