AAAHHH Spring!

FINALLY, it seems to be here to stay!  These are a few pics from a fun picnic playdate with our community group friends a few weeks ago.  I LOVE seeing Liv and Bo starting to already form a friendship.  They are going to be SUCH fun cousin-friends!  Oh and I haven't even officially shared the news on our blog, our sweet Liv is going to be a big sister!  Yes, Hal and Ash are expecting again and will have 2 sweet little ones 15 months apart!  We couldn't be more excited.
Just for a few little updates.  I got back from my trip yesterday and had an absolute BALL.  Bo did wonderfully so thank you so much for all your advice.  My sweet mother in law, sister in law and niece all came to help Bobby and I know they are all exhausted.  I SO SO SO appreciate my precious family.  Though it was hard to leave on Thursday, it was SO needed and spending time with such precious friends revived my spirit and made me return home a better Mom and wife.  And as an added bonus, Bo started sleeping a ton better while I was gone, revealing that he must not have been getting enough milk so I began pumping and adding fomula to get an 8 oz. bottle to which he gobbles down within minutes.  He seems so much more content so I am SO thankful we figured that out.  I feel TERRIBLE but really could not try before the trip due to trying to save every spare ounce.  I can still pump about 5-6 oz. but it helps that he is taking the formula.
We are getting his tubes on Thursday which we are SO ready for...after his visit to the ENT last week, we found he has moderate hearing loss due to the fluid which will prayerfully be resolved after the tubes. He also has no ear drum movement which indicates a ton of fluid behind the ear drum so the tubes should help it all.  Our sweet doctor said it should help his sleeping, eating, balance and hearing so we are so excited to see him feeling well.  He has been crawling everywhere and is pulling up on everything.  He even stood on his own for several seconds today.  I cannot imagine what normal balance will do to his mobility (which I am so not ready for!).  He is just growing so quickly but we are loving every second.  He just gets us all so tickled.  His top tooth is so stinking cute and makes him look so old. At dinner tonight, he just sat in his highchair and grinned at us all and we just all laughed at how cute he is...we truly are so thankful.
And sweet Abby Kate is literally maturing faster than she has at any other point.  She is asking millions of questions and constantly wants to role play, which is by far her favorite thing to do.  She has an incredible imagination and continues to get more dramatic by the day.  I brought her home a few presents from my trip (all clothes, headband, shoes) and she was so excited.  She kept exclaiming, "OH MY WORD!  Mom!  That is SO nice!"  And today, we went for a walk and she fell and skinned her knee pretty badly.  She cried and then seriously asked, "Mom, how long is this going to hurt?"  And I told her it would heal and she asked me to pray for it.  So I did and after saying Amen she said, "PLEASE, PLEASE Jesus, PLEASE!"  It so cracked me up.  And when we got home, I asked her if she was going to be okay and she said, "No, no not really."  She is so my child.  But we are so entralled with her and the things that come out of her mouth.  She delights us to no end.  So hope each of you are doing well!

A New Cut...

Debuting her new adorable short cut!  WE LOVE IT!  And she has already spent hours (literally) looking at herself in the mirror.  :)

8 months (a few days early!)

Since I am going to have just returned from a trip when this sweet little guy turns 8 months, I wanted to ge the post finished.  How in the world has 8 months already passed?!
Our sweet little guy has proven what a champ he is...he has been dealing with ear infections since he was 4 months old and we are FINALLY getting tubes.  From what everyone says, it will make a WORLD of difference in his little life.  He is still on sleeping through the night and due to all the illness, I am still nursing when he wakes to prevent too many tears and congestion.  He is eating every 4 hours and takes 2 great naps a day.  He eats solids super well and LOVES veggies over fruit (shocking to me).  His favorite so far seems to be green peas.  He puts himself to sleep easily for both naps and wakes happy almost every time.  He has started to truly crawl, not just the army crawl he began a few weeks ago.  He is pulling up on everything though is still super wobbly which makes Momma a nervous wreck on the wood floors.  He started pulling up in his crib so we lowered the matress last week.  He is literally the busiest child I have ever met (with the exception of our oldest :)).  But he is truly so hard to hold because he is constantly wiggling and exploring.  He tries to grab everything in sight which keeps us constantly on our toes.  He now has 3 teeth and the 4th is about to pop through any second.  He has really had a rough time cutting his upper teeth.  His first upper I thought was sore for days until the tiny white tooth started to show.  He has drooled and been congested awfully lately and am so ready for this next one to come through.  But he truly is such a happy, contented baby.  We are constantly amazed at the smiles he offers all day long, even when he is exhausted or in pain.  He is so so sweet and we are daily reminded of the precious blessing that God gave us in him!

Family Fun

Abby Kate got invited by our precious cousin Haylee to come to a princess party at her sorority house (that was mine as well :) last weekend and she literally had a BALL.  When I asked her what she did she said, and I quote, "We put on make-up and played on Haylee's bed and practiced our names and had a FASHION SHOW!"  She loved every second!  Thanks Hay for including her.  You are now famous in her book (and mine).  Bo and I got to hang out with our sweet, sweet Nannie.  We had a ball eating mexican food and visiting.  We got to play all day Saturday and Nannie broke out her super cool wagon and the kids LOVED it.  Also Abby Kate got to do her favorite thing at Nannie's and roll down the hill 500 times.  We are so thankful for precious family!

Finally Spring!

We have LOVED the weather getting a little warmer.  We love looking at the blossoms on the trees and looking for flowers.  It has literally been the hardest winter of my life so I am so so so ready for the warmer weather.  Bring on the 100 degree heat, sweat, bugs....just get rid of the germs that have clung to my children this entire season!

Our beautiful girl....

Here she is in her new glasses!  BEAUTIFUL if I do say so myself.  She LOVES them (and may love hte glasses case more!).

New Specs...

I think most of you are on facebook but for those of you that read and aren't, we found out Monday that Abby Kate and Bo both have astigmatism and very poor vision and will have to be in glasses for full-time.  Prayerfully, by being aggressive, they will outgrow their need for glasses.  We went for Abby Kate and while we were there, they checked Bo whose vision is a TON worse than his sisters!  They even told me that had to order his glasses because they didn't carry prescriptions this strong.  Bless his heart!  We picked up his glasses today and literally, he hasn't touched them once!  The lady that helped us said that is usually a sign that they really need them.  He has been checking everything out.  After putting them on, he looked and me and grinned so big and just got so excited.  It literally took my breath away when I thought that it may be the first time he could see my face clearly.  We adored our doctor, who took the time to pray for us and are just so thankful we can do this so they may not have to deal with it later in life.  So here is the first look at our beautiful boy's face with his new glasses!