Anna Katherine; 6-11mos

I feel so overwhelmed that I haven't done monthly posts for our sweet Anna, and updated our family blog on a regular basis. Anna is my last baby and yet with five little girls running around giggling all day, keeping me so busy, I long for nothing more than the serenity of my warm sheets and blankets at the end of each day. Blogging is the last thing on my mind, but yet it nags at me with a constant reminder of what I haven't done. I hope Anna will understand that it wasn't my lack of caring but just the lack of time in a day to write these posts. 

Without further waiting, here is what our little Anna has been up to.

Anna is 11 months, as of today, Tuesday, April 22. I cannot for the life of me believe that my littlest baby will be ONE in ONE month from now. My last little one to turn one. It is for sure, very bittersweet, as every milestone has been with Anna and I'm guessing will continue to be. I constantly struggle with the fact that she is it. She is my last baby. Our last baby to bless our family and make us a mommy and a daddy again. On one hand, it is great; I have been able to pass down lots of stuff and make room for bigger things, but on the other hand, my body already aches for another baby. Having all five girls in such a short time, my mind and body know nothing else. It knows pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and caring for babies. With my babies growing up, I already feel a sense of unsure feelings. I try to relish in the happiness when a milestone passes; no more exersaucers to trip over, no more bottles to prepare, no more pump to EVER be attached to again, no more pains from pregnancy, birth, and afterbirth, no more lots of things that I happily have put behind me. 

But who doesn't love a peaceful sleeping baby? That smell of a newborn. It is simply the best and no one could tell me otherwise.

Anna is taking her time at crawling, standing and walking, which I am fine with. She scoots/crawls and gets anywhere she wants without any assistance. She loves playing with and giggling at her big sisters. The big girls are SO helpful and always quick to help Anna if she gets "stuck" under something or bring her toys when she cries. I love that they have sweet souls that watch out for one another. It melts my heart seeing the five of them together. They are my heart and soul and everything that makes me.

Anna started boycotting baby food at around 10 months. She would just shake her head "no" from side to side. Silly girl. She loves loves loves yogurt and all fruits and her rice cereal still. She gets her yogurt in the am (9am) and then rice cereal with a container of fruit (11:15am). The rest of meals are real food.

We started out calling Anna, Anna-Kate but we really never call her that. We call her Annabelle all the time, or Belle, Belle of the ball, and of course, Baby Belle. I still love the name Anna-Kate, and maybe soon I will start calling her the name I intended to, but Tim and I have always loved the name Annabelle (and if it wasn't for our families disapproval of the name, she would have been named Annabelle) so that's what she is right now.

She has been sleeping through the night since about 3-4 months old, in her room with Natalee and Emily. She sleeps from 7pm to 8am, and only has woken up a handful of times in the middle of the night. She loves her toys in her crib and her mobile. She can pull the string to her bear that plays music in her crib all by herself (started doing it around 8 months).

She drinks 3-4 bottles a day, but I am starting this week to transition her to a sippy cup because honestly, I can barely get her to drink 2-4 ounces out of a bottle anymore. She just wants nothing to do with it and much rather eat "people food". She loves bread, cherrios, puffs, yogurt drops, cheese, veggies, fruits, rice, pasta, mac-n-cheese, ect. I have only given her a handful of meats at this point since she doesn't have many teeth, so she has had chicken and pork. I don't think there has been anything she hasn't at least attempted to eat when it's put in front of her. 

She has four teeth as of today. Two on the bottom and two (almost three) on the top. She can bite very hard too and loves to try to chew on our fingers! ;) Everything goes right in her mouth and I am sure it will be that way for awhile.

She still loves to suck your thumb. And she loves to chew on her toes too. She is almost always smiling.  She can shake her head "no" when she is done or doesn't want something. She loves to blow raspberries and of course, giggle! 

She has been saying "mama" for about a week. I have been trying to get her to say it and finally I kept hearing it a few times, but thought maybe I was just imagining it and then Tim heard her say it over and over again, so we knew it was for real! I am SO happy that I got at least one baby to say "mama" first instead of the typical "dada"! :) She now says it all.the.time! "mmamamamamamamamamamama" :)

These were all her 9 month photos...

She wears size four diapers. Size 3 shoes. Wears size 12 months in sleepers, onesies and most clothes. 4 teeth. Barely any hair, but it's brown. Bluish/brown eyes. A chunka-monka! A little short, IMO. But.....just perfect to us!!!

Anna does great in the car and in the stroller. Everyone always says how good of a baby she is, and really she is. She didn't come that way, but I've trained her to be that way. She is very easy going and I am so glad for it!

And these were taken just the other day...on Easter Sunday...my big 11 month old!!!

The Night Before Our Babies Turned ONE!

Before I get to all the Christmas Posts, I have to get through the girl's first birthday! Phew!

So, Thursday, December 22nd Aunt Christine came over to give the girls some of their birthday presents...because ya know they don't know the difference at this age anyway. I wanted to girls to be able to wear part of their gift on their actual birthday since we were going out for most of the day, so I convinced her to come over the night before!

The girls were truly less than thrilled. Whenever they are out of their "chick pen" they really just want to go for all the stuff they aren't allowed to have...and who cares what presents are in front of them!

My sister got them cute baby uggs which I LOVE and she also got all FOUR of our daughters matching Pottery Barn stockings, which I finally bought for Tim and I to match the girls.

Say no more...this describes these two!!!

Thank you Aunt Christine for our wonderful birthday presents!!

Grammy's CNA/GNA Graduation and The National Christmas Tree in DC!

Well I guess I need to start re-capping the past two weeks! Bare with me and I'll have everything up to date in no-time.....haha!!!

On Saturday, we went to my mom's CNA/GNA Graduation! She has been taking classes since September 2-3 days a week and has loved it. We are so proud of her! She takes her National Board of Nursing test on January 7th. We will be praying for her, but I think she will have no problem and will be passing with flying colors! 

And then she starts Nursing School in just a few weeks!

After cake, we all ventured down to see the Nation Christmas tree in DC, which we do every year. This year though, as some years, it was freezing. Our SUV is too big to fit in most car garages so finding two parking spots near each other (since my parents, Christine and Nathan we in another car) is almost impossible, but finally about 5 blocks from the tree we found two right next to each other. By this time it was 5:45 pm and the girls were already very unhappy. They are used to eating promptly at 5:00pm, or very soon after, but we bundled them up in everything we had. I happened to have their sleepy-sacks with us since earlier in the day we were at Nana's house and they napped, so after the jackets, shoes, hats and gloves, we then put their sleepy sacks over top which was great!

We tried to take photos in front of the White House, like we don't already have a hundred from previous times there, but this was the girl's first visit...but my camera was acting up...and theses were the best photos we got...!

Right after these photos were taken, we had another lovely experience of someone giving us a very, very rude comment because we are parent's of multiples. SO rude, their may have been some profanity back at them. I know, not the best idea, especially in front of the kids, but when you are so completely overwhelmed by a stranger's view of your family just walking by, profanity was better than attacking this couple and gouging out their eyes as the Mother-Bear in me wanted to do. Seriously, it was bad, and mean, and completely uncalled for! But we shrugged it off  because obviously it was not the truth and laughed at it the rest of the night.

And the National Christmas Tree and all the smaller "state" trees around with four million people!

Daddy and Natalee

My mom and Madelynn and Claire

I LOVE going to DC, but this was a little much for me! The girls were very fussy and so was Mommy! It was so cold, there were 4 million people and my babies were starving...and not to mention I have 3 BABIES screaming and whining and I AM PREGNANT and had to walk uphill 6 blocks to the car!

Let's just say it was NOT a good mixture! I got VERY stressed VERY fast! By the time we got to the car, meltdowns were in FULL-FORCE! I took forever to load everything up and literally my girls were foaming at the mouth. I got in the back seat and tried so hard to get them fed, while Tim drove through traffic, pot holes and people in DC. It was about 7:15pm at this time and I was having so many contractions and a melt-down myself. I had many moments were I was asking myself questions like "what the hell did I just do?" "what the hell did I just put my babies through and myself through?" I was so overwhelmed and had to focus just on breathing and trying to get food in my children's bellies. Food was being flown in every direction, Claire was spitting at me, snot was flying...and I was smashed between two car seats. I can't blame them though, all they know how to do is scream when they want something, and I was not going fast enough! Plus, when I would feed one, the others would scream, and we just go back and forth constantly. And their outfits, bows, and jackets...lets just say, EVERYTHING went through the wash, thanks to all the spitting of purred food and pot holes of DC!

There are just "those moments" where you can just can ONLY IMAGINE what it is like with THREE BABIES! ONE baby has NO comparison to THREE, during moments like these! I'm sorry if that may offend anyone but it is the truth. It's truly only for the strong. I swear by it, when I am literally in tears and cannot breath because of them, and trying everything I can do while that is not nearly enough to them...it is SO overwhelming and you would have to be there to believe just how bad some moments can be! This was completely ONE OF THE WORST 45 minutes in the past year! NO LIE!

By the time we arrived at the restaurant, I was so ready just to hit the drive-through at MCD's and be done with the day, but since it was for my mom, I sucked it up, put a smile on my face and no one would have known the complete hell I just experienced in the back of our SUV. Pure hell.

The girl's were complete angels and played with their toys and straws during the whole time we were at dinner. It was wonderful and no one would have known what happened. It was then that it became a little comical. We had a wonderful dinner and they slept the whole way home and went right to bed. Pure bliss, from such a horrible experience.

All and all we are very proud of Grammy and can't wait until she passes her test in a few weeks!

Decorating at Grammy and Grandpa's Hosue!

Monday, December 21st we went over to my parent's house, had a wonderful family dinner and helped decorate their tree! They are always so behind on decorating...but they have good excuses!

We had a wonderful family dinner of lamb that my mom made and then decorated the tree!

Here are the girl's helping Grandpa in anyway they can! I only took a few photos of them in the beginning and then we just played!

And the finished product!

All ready for Christmas!

Madelynn, Claire and Natalee's Winter ONEderland Party: Sneak Peak!

I know I have been behind on my blogging all last week because I was knee deep in party preparations for my sweet girls!

We are recovering from a very fun and exhausting weekend of celebrating (and their first birthday is STILL a little less than two weeks away!)

But here is a little sneak peak of our Winter ONEderland celebration:

LOTS of photos and details to come throughout the week!!!!

Our First Visit with Santa!

We supported our local firehouse and had a pancake breakfast with Santa on Saturday morning! The girl's had a blast and sat on Santa's lap for a good few minutes! No tears and no screaming!

Gee, I wonder what Santa will bring them this year?!