Mae is 18 months old!

Mae is 18 months old! She was a year and a half back on Nov. 20th. I can't believe how much she's grown and changed since her 12 month update!

• Mae still has a good little routine going. She wakes for the day between 6:30-7 and when she's awake, she will let you know! She'll sing or call "Dada" or "Mama". She takes a good nap around 1 (sometimes 12:30 if we have to be somewhere earlier in the afternoon) and sleeps for 1.5-2 hours. She's in bed around 7-7:30 and goes right to sleep without a peep.
• She finally has more teeth! At 12 mo, she just had the two bottom teeth. Now she has 4 on top, the 2 bottom, and all 4 of her one year molars. 

• She's a bit pickier of an eater now days. Favorites are cheese, almond milk, any fruit, pizza, green beans, chili, and any kind of cracker or cookie. 
• She has really started saying a lot in the last month. Well, she's always been a talker, but now I can understand much more. :) She likes to point to herself and say, "Nae", then point to everyone else and say their name. She also knows a bunch of animal sounds and if you ask one she doesn't know, she'll just growl.
• Mae loves to play this game where she acts like she doesn't know where Jared is, then I play along and then she'll point him out and laugh and giggle. 

• She is still fitting in a few 18 mo. outfits, but mostly all of Arabelle's old 24 mo or 2T outfits fit just right. 
• At her 18 month appointment she weighed 24lb and 14oz (75th percentile) and was 33.5 inches long (90th percentile). She's a healthy growing girl! 
• Mae still loves to go outside. Jumping on the trampoline is one of her favorite things! She always wants to ride in the wagon or stroller and slide too. She's gotten pretty good at digging in the dirt with Arabelle and Bo. 

• She still loves to play the "go night night" game where she pretends to be asleep and I wake her up, then we switch. 

• She also really loves her baby dolls right now. She will 'shhhh' them and pat their back, then throw them over into her crib and say "shhhh" and leave the room. Ha! 

• She's been going to pre-school on Monday and Wednesday mornings and LOVES it! She's always ready to go, grabs her backpack, and waves goodbye. When Jared takes Bo on Fridays, Mae will get her backpack and cry at the door after they are gong. Poor girl! 
• She likes to look at books and do anything that Arabelle and Bo are doing. 

Mae is such a sweet girl with a fun personality! 

Soccer 2014

Arabelle had a great soccer season this year! It was her first time playing rec soccer and she really enjoyed it and learned a lot. They finished up the season tonight.

As you can imagine with 5-6 year old soccer, there was a lot of crowding around the ball, which wasn't really Arabelle's thing. She LOVED playing goalie!!

Her team this year:

I'm not much for 'participation trophies', but Arabelle was SO EXCITED and I loved seeing that big smile on her face! We won't mention too much that they only won one game the whole year.

Here's a short video of Arabelle making a block at goalie: 

Christmas Tree 2014

I can't believe it's time for the Christmas tree again! Arabelle is still just as excited as ever about Christmas. Bo can be excited at times, but not as much as Arabelle. Mae has been doing a lot of 'ohhhhh' ing at all the lights!

We got our tree today and got a nice and tall one.

See how excited Arabelle is. ;)

This is the classic Bo pout. He pouts with his whole body. Ha!

 Big girl!! She's wearing a Santa shirt that Aunt Kay made for Arabelle in 2009. :)

Bo's favorite part....candy cane!

Mae enjoyed her first candy cane too!

7 years of Christmas tree pictures!!! Excited to add one more boy for the tradition next year. :)

Family Pictures

In mid-October, we had family pictures done in Pineview. they turned out so nicely! 

I know this one will be something we and our children will treasure for years! 

Pretty good for eight kids ages 6 and under!

We were TIRED by the time our little family's time came, so we just did what we could to get the pics. So, Mae was holding a Snicker bar. Ha!

All I can think of when I see this picture is how awful I felt (I was 11 weeks), but glad to have one of Jared and I together....that's rare!

There is one (I hope!) of all 5 of us, but it's not edited yet (probably requires a lot of editing for our crew!). 

Here's Mae after it was all done, with her Snicker! 

Thanks Aunt Dawn for the great pics! 

Pictures by Capture the Happiness. 

Sick babies!

We have had quite a week! Friday was a week ago, we left to go to Papaw and Mamaw's house for the weekend because Jared was gone, I needed the help, and the kids would have a blast. Well, Mae threw up in the car about 15 minutes after we left the house. Awful. It was awful. Luckily, I had an extra booster seat in the car from when a little girl rode to church with us, so I shuffled the kids around, stripped Mae down, and away we went (with the windows cracked and the heater on!). Mae made it almost to Papaw and Mamaw's house before getting sick in Bo's car seat (Bo was so mad at her! Ha!). 

She settled on down and never got sick again. Phew.

Bo woke up Sat. morning with a fever and congestion (so, Sat. was day 1 for him).

Cuddling up and making silly faces: 

Sunday Bo was still sick and I figured out that I had picked up the stomach virus from Mae. I was feeling AWFUL Sat. night, but thought it was pregnancy sickness until early Sun morning. Fortunately, it was a relatively short virus and I was back to my baseline nausea by Monday morning.

We got home Sunday afternoon. As you can see, Mae had perked up. :)

Arabelle picked up the stomach virus on Monday  (and Mamaw did too....sorry Mamaw!!!) and Bo was still feverish, congested, and coughing. Pretty pitiful! Mae went to pre-school that day and stayed through lunch and nap time so I could recover and the big kids could rest without a high energy toddler around. 

Arabelle was fine by Tue morning, Bo was still sick, and Mae woke up feverish and snotty. 

So, off to the Dr we went for Bo, who was on day 4 of the fever. His ears were beginning to get infected from all the drainage and sinus congestion, so he started his first ever antibiotic.

Big kids at the Dr office! 

Pitiful boy! His amoxicillin is pink and supposed to be bubble gum flavored. After he swallowed his first dose, Arabelle asked him what it tasted like and he said, "A hot dog with bubble gum in it....not good!". Hahaha!

Mae ran a fever from Tuesday-Friday, but was fine Saturday. She has been sleepier than usual and a bit moody. She went from this:

 to this in about a second....

So far Arabelle seems to have missed out on this fever and cold virus (not the flu, Bo's swab was negative).

I had the fever, coughing, and congestion from Wed night on to now. The fever stopped during the night Friday night, but the congestion and coughing is about to drive me nuts and I feel even more awful for how the kids must have felt!