Chloe at five months

Chloe Marie is five months old!  How did that happen so fast?!

*She smiles all the time and coos.  She seems to recognize people and she definitely knows her name.

*She can roll over, she just doesn't.  I've seen her do it.  She can go belly to back and back to belly.  I don't know if she's lazy or doesn't like to roll or what.  Ryan and Abby both rolled all over the place.  Remember Ryan?  He never even really crawled, he rolled everywhere. 

*She's started eating real food.  Rice cereal, bananas, and squash so far. 

*She's an avid thumb sucker.  It's cute sometimes.  It's not cute when we're trying to feed her solid food. 

*She sleeps about twelve hours at night.  In a perfect world she'll nap about an hour in the morning and take a three hour nap in the afternoon.  She has a five year old brother and two year old sister; it's not a perfect world.

*She thinks her feet are crazy exciting.  They are the coolest things ever.  You should be jealous that your feet aren't as awesome as hers.

PS - I posted this on time!  Aren't you proud of me?  I didn't cheat and back-date it like I've done once or twice recently :)  Perhaps a new year means a new start to my blogging.  However, I doubt it and I'm certainly not going to make any promises!  I do enjoy blogging though, especially since I'm not current at all on my scrapbooking.  And I've started printing books of my blog posts, so I really do want to do a good job with this blog and keep it up to date. 

Doctor Abby

Abby just listened to my belly with her stethoscope.  When I asked her what it sounded like she told me: "a wolf eating." What?!!  Where does she come up with these things?!

top 42 of 2012!?!

This time last year I posted my top 21 pictures of 2011.  I enjoyed doing it and hopefully all two of you that read my blog enjoyed reliving the highlights of our year in photos.  So here is 2012 in pictures.  And yes, I doubled the number of photos this year.  Hey, it was an eventful and exciting year for us.  And it's my blog so I can post as many pictures as I like.  Top Ten's are boring :)  Here's my top 42 pictures in no particular order [or at least that I can figure, you'll have to ask picasa and blogger if it bothers you]. 

our family of five in Washington DC, Nov2012
 

love this picture! NP mall, Jan2012

Chloe Marie!!  Aug7th, 2012

sweet sisters

Our family!!

daffodils, Feb2012

Happy Valentine's Day

swinging! ponytails!

Abby's new turtle

Ryan the soccer player with Assistant Coach Daddy

Things One and Thing Two :) 

biking with Cousin Maxim

beautiful Baby Girl on Easter

silly!!

the petting farm for Abby's 2nd birthday

heading out for a weekend alone to celebrate Coleson's 30th!

strawberry picking, April2012

we LOVE summer!

climbing trees is fun

Destin with our best friends!

my kids have a thing for goofy glasses

baby belly

summer fun

Happy 4th of July!

Cow Appreciation day is becoming a family tradition

fun with my baby belly and photoshop!

love these crazy kids!

girls!

we have three kids

my babies

eight kids,  love it!

go Georgia Bulldawgs

swimming, swimming, swimming

apple picking as a family of five

sweet Chloe Marie

woo-hoo!  big ole' family photo on Ryan's birthday

smiles!

Mommy's girl

meeting Great- Grandma

chillin' with Cuz Maxim on Thanksgiving

laugh!

Happy 5th birthday Buddy!  How'd you get so big so fast?!

how to shed unwanted baby weight

the flu, or at least flu-like symptoms, suck.  [to actually know if you have the flu, you'd have to go to the doctor.  but i'm the mom.  i don't have time for such silly inconveniences.  and i like to think i'm tough.  some say stubborn, but i prefer tough.  i am mom of three.  i am woman.]  a lingering cough for the past two weeks is no fun.  but none of it compares to the joy of being beaten over and over again in the chest by a baseball bat.  no wait, that's not what the doctor called it.  i think she said something more official, she called it pneumonia with a cartilage tear.  easy to say when you're on the other side of that xray table.  but in layman's terms, in plain english, what she meant to say was beaten over and over again in the chest by a baseball bat.  except of course when you cough, then they switch the baseball bat out for one of those cavemen clubs with spikes on it.  and yes, to get the doctor's diagnosis you do have to go see a doctor.  but if your stubborn, i mean tough, like me, you wait until you can barely move or breathe, and you end up in the e.r. on christmas day.  pretty rotten way to spend christmas.  but a great diet plan.  how many people can say they lost weight over the holidays?  trust me though, eating christmas dinner, even if it means gaining an extra pound or two, is much better than not remembering christmas with your babies.  so at the risk of being belated, but they do say better late then never, merry christmas to all! 

Merry Christmas 2012!!

Christmas cards

Last weekend we put together our Christmas cards.  I'm so happy with the way they turned out.  I took literally hundreds of pictures of the kids and Coleson put them all together with his mad photoshop skills.  Ryan helped us assemble the final product and we had a pretty good team going.  I'd fold the letters, Coleson put them and a picture in each envelope, and then Ryan put the stamps on.  Apparently Ryan had such a good time helping with the family Christmas cards that he asked if he could do cards for his classmates.  He knows how to write most of his friends' names, but I got him out the class list just to be sure.  He also knew how to spell Merry and then he found Christmas on a card, so he copied that.  And he can do From and Ryan as well.  So Little Man sat at the kitchen table for probably an hour writing his classmates' names on the envelopes [ten other kids plus two teachers].  Inside each card he wrote "Merry Christmas from Ryan."  He did an amazing job, especially considering he did it all by himself!  Proud Mommy here :) 

 

PS: I was helping Abby with her cards - she'd scribble on them and I'd write her friends' names and whatnot.  So as I'm writing I say outloud, "To Ms Vickie."  Abby interrupts me, "No, no two Ms Vickie's, there's only one!"