2 1/2 months

Happy...
Inquisitive...

Well fed...

Adorable...

Loved...

We miss you, Grandma!

Come back soon!

Some pictures of Mareea and our day.

Smiley Baby
Painting our monkey masks

Big brother helps out

Tonight was the first night without grandma :( I was trying to bathe Thea and Landon and Mareea was in the bouncer in the door of the bathroom. Mareea was tired and started to scream and scream. Ashton came and danced for her and tried to talk to her, but she just kept on crying. I had to finish up with the kids in the tub so there was nothing I could do. Quintin came upstairs and asked if he could take mareea. Normally, he dosen't carry her around a lot, but she was really screaming so I said he could. He picked her up and she still cried. I told him to bend his knees over and over and say "shh, shh" as he did. Well, it worked! In less than 10 minutes she had fallen fast asleep on his shoulder. While I put Thea to bed, Q rocked Mareea in the rocking chair. How sweet!

Ashton makes lunch...

We were downstairs, it was lunchtime and I was tired. While trying to work up the motivation to go fix lunch, I said, "Ashton, why don't you go fix peanut butter and jelly". I was 1/2 joking, but A's face lit up and he said, "OK"! He ran upstairs and got to work. He called down once to ask me where the bread was and then came down a little later and told us lunch was ready. We came upstairs to a beautifully messy pile of Jelly and Peanut butter sandwiches! Ashton was so proud of himself and said, "Mama, anytime we have peanut butter and jelly for lunch you don't have to make it! I can!" He later told me he was walking up the stairs and "when I got to the top step I said Thank you , Lord, that Mama let me make lunch". That just melted my heart!!
I was very proud of him, too.

They were very heavy on the jelly and light on the PB!

Everyone loved them, that's for sure!

Mareea at 2 months!

A baby's smile lights up the room!! I have not been as good about taking pictures as i should. Last night I got out the camera to capture Mareea's beautiful smile! She is such a blessing and i feel so honored to be able to stay home and take care of her and my other beautiful blessings.

checking In

It's been awhile since I blogged so I thought I'd stop in and say what we're up to. Actually, I'm not really sure what we're up to...everything is so busy. I kind of feel like I'm going all day but getting nothing done. Normally that would really bother me, but I've done this new baby thing enough times to know that's just how it is for awhile and things will slow down eventually!

We gave up going out to eat for Lent. It's been hard. I now realize how bad we were about just stopping somewhere to pick up lunch instead of making an effort to eat at home. It's definitely been a sacrifice, but nothing compared to the sacrifice of Jesus!

I am feeling pretty good. At 6 weeks I suddenly felt like myself again. The same thing happened with Thea, but I had forgotten. Now I am writing it down so that next time I will remember when I'll start to feel human again. It's horrible feeling like you can't do anything!

Mareea is growing like crazy, but is getting sick. I get so scared with sickness. We've spent enough time in the ER with babies who can't breath to know how terrible it is. It's probably my biggest fear. Quintin brought home a cold from school and now all the kids but Landon have it. I am praying it does not turn into anything serious, but it's hard to know at the beginning.
I am so ready for spring to be here. I can't stand the cold weather. Dan had the last couple of days off and we couldn't do anything because it is so cold! We really like to hike and go to the park, but those things are kind of hard with freezing weather and a brand new baby!

I am off to make some dinner. Tonight we are having black beans and brown rice. The black beans are soooo yummy. Rita gave me the recipe (thank you!!) and I made a bunch and froze them in quart freezer bags. They're a very inexpensive, but super tasty dinner.

Pictures to come later!