Janessa Faith...6 months old!

Happy 1/2 Birthday to my baby girl! Janessa has got to be one of the EASIEST babies to take care of. On our trip to North Carolina a couple of weeks ago, she barely fussed at all in the car. She sleeps like a champ and eats like a champ. She just adores her big sisters (although she may fear Libby a little more than Keira!). Oh how I love to just watch my girls as they develop their own little relationships with each other.

Janessa looks more like Keira most of the time...and sometimes like Libby...and sometimes just like my sister, Jessie...and sometimes just like my dad.....and sometimes yet, just like my papa. So strange how genetics can work that way. 

Janessa is now mostly sitting by herself (with pillows around just in case) and love to play on her tummy and scoot herself around in circles. She rolls both ways (FINALLY!) and I have been finding her sleeping in some interesting positions. So cute and sweet. She can squeal the highest pitch squeal I have ever heard (may have something to do with her cleft palate) and does it whenever someone is not paying attention to her...almost her way of saying, "hey...I'm over here!" Also...it seems she has been saying "mama". I know it seems a bit crazy and I will admit, I am skeptical. However, whenever I walk away from her....we hear it! "mamamamamama" in a whine. When I come back, she just smiles and squeals. haha.

Love this little peanut!

Janessa weighs in at 15lbs. 10oz (50%) and is 27 inchest tall (90%!) with her head being in the 50th percentile.

I could have guessed since she keeps growing out of her clothes lengthwise!

Still weighs the least of any of my babes at this age!

Family Summer Fun & Precious Moments

So most of our big fun has had to wait until the end of the summer due to Tom's schoolwork, a small baby and a HUGE house re-organizing project (which is still in progress but the end is near!). Next weekend we head to the Outer Banks for a week with my parents, sister and her family and a few friends! I am sure we will have fun and I will post about it but for now, I will catch up with Seabreeze and Niagara Falls/Buffalo. Also, I REALLY want to be a mom who captures every moment with the camera. I LOVE to look back at fun pictures, but I find that I get lost in enjoying and soaking in the moments so often that I forget to take a picture. Trying to get better at that!

 Last Saturday, we took Keira and Libby to Seabreeze (an amusement park about 25 minutes from our house)...here are a few pictures. Janessa enjoyed a day with my Grandma, Aunt and any cousins or other family that stopped by their house that day...I am sure she was much happier there than in a hot stroller with no naps! Also, we spent 3 hours of our day in the water park (though I have no pictures of that) which we would not have been able to do with our sweet babe!

At the start of the day, Libby was a little unsure of whether she liked rides or not. Keira loved all but the ride pictured above in the bottom right corner. She said it made her tummy tickle too much. I think that if she had tried it later in the day, she would have liked it much more! By the end of the day, they couldn't get enough. I thought we'd leave Seabreeze by 5pm and we ended up staying until past 8! We had a blast though!

Mommy gets to ride with Kiddos on anything that goes in circles so daddy doesn't get sick! Keira LOVED the acrobatic show that they did (picture above with gymnasts who she now aspires to be).  She LOVED going on the log ride with daddy and is still talking about how brave she was. Libby got to ride on the train many times while Keira was going on some bigger rides, but she loved it!

We will definitely be making seabreeze (or some other amusement park) part of our summer each year!

Today, we were headed to visit Tom's grandparents who live in Buffalo, as well as some of his cousins...one of whom was visiting and is in the Air Force and headed to England for the next 4 years! So, we wanted to catch him before he left. We decided to leave earlier than anticipated and stop in Niagara Falls to show the girls and have a picnic lunch. The kids were great and Keira was sooo cooperative with eating a lunch that she didn't love and her willingness to walk so that I didn't have to carry the baby (It was REALLY hot!) They don't quite understand the enormity of Niagara Falls but I just love to reflect on how God gave us such amazing things to enjoy. Also, it is amazing to me how many different countries and states are represented there in the tourists. I think we take it all a little for granted living so close.

Then we headed to Buffalo. Keira and Libby had a blast with their second cousin, Autumn who turns 5 tomorrow! They took turns on the swing and slide, jumped on the trampoline and took some rides on a kid size (and speed) 4 wheeler! Janessa hung out mostly with mommy and daddy and rolled around on a blanket!

On our way home tonight, we were looking at how amazing the moon was (it was HUGE), and out of nowhere, Keira said, "When I am big, I want to be a gymnastics like the girls at Seabreeze." (We giggled of course at her lack of knowing the word "gymnast." She went on and on about how she just loved how they jumped and did tricks and how when she was big, she wouldn't be scared if it tickled her tummy. She said that the girl "gymnastics" were so pretty.

Then she prayed. "God, please let me be a gymnastics when I get big...etc."

After she was done praying, she said, "God liked my idea."

I said, "Did you hear Him tell you that."

Keira said, "No, I just...know that He liked it. I can feel it."

Precious moments!

Keira Marie 4 years 3 months

Officially 4 1/4 years old, Keira  is a little miss sassy pants. We have had to do a LOT of "training" this month in terms of how she is allowed to talk to not only Mommy and Daddy but also to her sisters! Really, most of the time, Keira is a sweetheart but they all go through these testing phases and Tom and I find it really important to nip it in the bud before it turns into a bigger problem Hopefully, it is working out. I guess only time will tell because right now it doesn't ever seem to be working! haha.

Anyways, Keira has started Irish Step Dancing Class this summer and last week, the teacher allowed us to come in and watch at the end of rehearsal. She is absolutely loving this and we are going to try to keep it going. Not only is it really fun for her, but it is also some seriously good exercise!

No matter what she is doing, she is usually singing and/or dancing while doing it....here is the song we sang for Pre-school last week...

Also....the big news for Keira this month is that she decided to get her hair cut! I think this was harder for mommy and daddy to deal with than Keira but I am honestly still shocked she wanted it. For the past 2 years she has been patiently waiting for her hair to touch her bottom and her life goal was to be Repunzel. Anyways...here are the before and afters!

Before, very excited!

After...feeling very cool!

Sassy pants and all...I just love this kid.

Janessa Faith 5 Months Old

Janessa is five months old today...I really can't believe it! I still remember how uncomfortable I was in March like it was yesterday.

Libby and Her "new baby" as she fondly refers to Janessa!

This month, Janessa has started to sleep through the night consistently. She sleeps from 8:30pm(ish) to 7:00am(ish) and better than that...she has joined the girls bedroom! I will not complain about this child's sleeping because we can literally walk into the bedroom lay her down and she goes to sleep all while the light is on and Keira and Libby are running around [loudly] getting ready for bed! She is an angel baby.

Janessa seems to be happy wherever she is as long as she can see what is going on. The only time she actually gets a little cranky is when she wants to sleep, eat or be changed and as soon as said thing is done, she is happy again.

Right now, this child seems to want to shove EVERYTHING in her mouth...including but not limited to, her shirts, burp cloths, bibs, MY shirt, toys, rattles...etc.

She still is not even trying to roll from back to front although she has been rolling the other way for 2 months now...but she loves grabbing her feet and trying to eat them! She also really wants to sit up but isn't quite there yet!

Janessa is a sweet little doll....yesterday, when Keira was having a rough moment with Libby, she said, "Libby needs to find a new family, but I want to keep Janessa.". No worries, we talked about how that wasn't nice to Libby and all that, but I was still happy that she at least wanted to keep one of her sisters=)