4 MONTHS

Millie turned 4 months last week.  We have loved seeing her personality come out more each day during the last month. She is a very laid back baby and for the most part is content to just watch everything going on around her.  She is becoming more particular about her positioning and would prefer to be sitting up so she has the very best vantage point.  She gave me one of the best gifts for Christmas and giggled for the first time just before Christmas.

She weighs 13 pounds 10 ounces which puts her in the 47th percentile for weight.  She is 26 inches long which puts her in the 96th percentile for height. Like I said in my last post...this girl is long and lean.  Pants that fit her length wise are usually way too big around the waist.  She is wearing 3-6 month clothes.  She is still wearing size 1 diapers.

Millie is absolutely full of smiles and squeals these days.  She seriously thinks she is carrying on a conversation...which is so much fun.  Here are her weekly pictures from the last month...the many faces of Millie.

My mom found this vintage shawl that someone had made when she was a baby.  I think it looks adorable on Millie.  My mom also found one of my favorite baby toys this month.  I am quite sentimental and love all of the old things we have found for Millie.

We loved spending Christmas with Millie.  At this time last year we were praying so hard to have a little miracle baby and a sibling for Phin.  My favorite memory this Christmas season was holding Millie during the Christmas music program.  Tears came to my eyes as I looked down at my little miracle and could see how my prayers had been answered.

Millie met her cousin Harvey for the first time this month.  They are almost two months apart...just like their older siblings (Phin and Kate).

 

Harvey is such a handsome little guy and looks so small compared to Millie.

Millie found her feet this month.  When I put her down on her back she flips her little feet up and holds on tight.

It has been so fun to see the special relationship that Phin and Millie are developing.  She loves to watch him.  One day he put his Iron-man mask on and came up to her and she burst into tears...she must not have recognized him.  He is so protective of her and when people come up to her he often says "my Millie."  

 

Phin update:  He is officially potty trained!  WOO HOO!  I don't think anyone adequately prepared me for how hard potty training would be.  We got really serious the Sunday after Christmas.  We decided we needed to go cold turkey giving up diapers.  We had quite a bit of success the first week...until Phin woke up with the stomach flu on New Years Day.  We went back to diapers until he recovered and have never looked back.  I used to get medals for running races...and I kind of think I need a medal for potty training.  I have joked that once Phin was potty trained I was going to go out and buy myself a potty treat.  

Phin is a bit of a picky eater.  He will often come up to me and say "I hungry mom."  I seriously don't know whee he puts all of the food he eats.  He will often find food he would like to eat in our pantry and run it out to me to open for him.  He loves spaghetti, cereal, cutie oranges, string cheese, fruit snacks and granola bars.  He has a serious love and addiction for chocolate milk and treats (suckers, skittles, m&m's, cookies, ice cream, etc.)  

We figured out that Phin thinks that all kids are "cousins."  That must be one side-effect of having so many cousins close to his age.  One night we were at the gym walking around the track and Phin pointed out to all the cars in the parking lot and said "look mom cars sleeping."  We have talked quite a bit about choosing to be happy the past few months.  Now Phin will come up and in a very cute voice say "I happy."  He can seriously go from throwing a fit to being "happy" in no time flat. Phin continues to love to watch shows.  His favorites are Team Umi Zoomi, Paw Patrol and Blaze.  He also likes Fireman Sam.  Every time he sees anyone in trouble on a TV show he says "Call Fireman Sam."  One night we were at Iggy's and he looked up at the TV screens and said "look Papa's shows."

We are counting down the weeks until Spring.  We seriously need some good weather to come our way so we can spend some more time outside with our outside boy.  There is seriously not a day that goes by that we don't thank our Heavenly Father for sending us these two precious spirits...we are extremely blessed.

DECEMBER

This was our first December in our house and it was just perfect.  The tree looked great in the spot I picked out when we walked through the house for the first time last December.  It has been fun to think about how much our lives have changed in just a year.

December started off with a Relief Society dinner for me.  The theme of the night was "Oh Come Let Us Adore Him."  It was the perfect way to start off the month and I constantly made efforts to show my adoration for my Savior throughout the month.  I made a little count down chain to Christmas for our tree.  Each night Phin would tear a chain off and we would read a scripture together.  It was really fun to relate the scriptures to his Little People Nativity set.

The first Friday in December I took the kids up to my parents house.  We spent some time hanging out with cousin Aaron and set up the tree and other decorations while my parents were out of town.  Aaron and Phin loved decorating the tree...as you can see all of the ornaments were on the bottom.  Disclaimer...Phin is mostly pictured in his underpants of for this post...we worked very hard on potty training in December.

Phin started to warm up to Santa in December.  Every time that he would see Christmas decorations he would shout "Santa." Santa made a special visit to the Home Depot Kids' Clinic.  Phin went up and sang Jingle Bells...which was his favorite song of the season.  

We watched  Clemson play in a couple of big games in December.  Phin loved dressing up in his football uniform for both games.  Our Tigers won both games and we are excited to watch them play in the final game this coming Monday.

Phin loves to help me in the kitchen.  His favorite thing is to scoop the flour when I am mixing up things.  He put our paper towel holder on top of the flour bucket and proudly declared it a temple.

I have started taking the kids out to the Rec Center to walk around the track.  It is a nice option when the sidewalks are covered in snow and the air quality is poor.  Phin loves to watch other people exercising, ice skating, and playing basketball.

I had a hard time working up the courage to give Phin a haircut...so I broke down and took him to Cookie Cutters.  He still threw quite a fit...but the stylist has quite a bit more experience cutting a wiggly kids hair than me. He loved leaving the shop with a balloon and a sucker.

We  headed up to This is the Place Heritage Park for a gingerbread festival in December.  Phin got to play in a couple of large gingerbread houses.

We also toured the gingerbread houses in the competition.  Peanuts, Minions and Frozen were the major themes.  Phin's favorite gingerbread house had a fireman scaling the side of the wall..which I forgot to take a picture of.  Phin has become quite obsessed with firemen.  He loves to watch Fireman Sam.  Several times this month if he saw someone was in trouble he would say "Call Fireman Sam."  

Phin also got to decorate a cookie at the Gingerbread Festival and complete a handful of little crafts.  He had a wonderful time...

until we headed to get a picture with Santa.  He didn't want to sit on Santa's lap...so Santa graciously let me sit on his lap with Phin on my lap. 

One day we returned a few items to Home Depot and Phin insisted that I take his picture as the Grinch.

We headed down to Temple Square one night and the weather was absolutely perfect.  We were very comfortable in just our sweatshirts.

I think Phin's favorite part was the fountain at City Creek Center.  

I headed back to work on December 11th.  Technically I didn't have to go back until the following week but that Friday was full of meetings and I thought it would be a good way to ease myself back. All of my students were excited to see me back and have given me big hugs. The staff and administration at my school told me I was missed and how grateful they were to have me back on board.

Our ward had a breakfast in December.  All of the kids were able to decorate snowmen that covered the walls.  Phin and Zoey had a wonderful time decorating one together.

After our ward party we headed over to Lowe's where Seth and Phin built a cute little Christmas train engine.

One day while we were at the store Phin yelled "Robots" and ran over to greet R2D2 and C3PO.

We also fingerprinted a few Popsicle sticks that we made into sled ornaments for Nona and Grandma Jo.  I thought Phin would be much more excited to get his fingers dirty...not so much.

We spent the weekend before Christmas up in Cache Valley.  It was fun to spend time with Grandma Jo and Grandad.  We took Phin to his first movie in the theater...Pan.  He loved all the parts with pirates.

He also loved playing with cousin Jameson.

One morning we made hot chocolate to go with our breakfast.  Grandma Jo always includes a little Snowman soup packet in the bag of Christmas goodies she gives us.  Phin was so excited to have some "chocolate milk," 

Our family Christmas gift was a Smart TV for our basement.  I spent quite a bit of time down there in December tying a quilt for Seth for Christmas.  One night I looked over and found that Phin had fallen asleep in quite the strange position.

For FHE the Monday before Christmas we decorated a gingerbread train.

Phin's favorite part was eating the decorations.

Uncle Jeff came to visit with Diesel and Teeny. He left the dogs at Nona and Papa's while he went to New Jersey for Christmas.  

Phin had such a wonderful time with Uncle Jeffy...and his dogs.  

Phin especially loved the LoveSac that Jeff had brought up for Sarah and Joe.

One day at Nona and Papa's I found that Phin had lined up all of the Teddy Bears for a snack.

We spent Christmas Eve at our house.  We had homemade pizza and acted out the Nativity.  Phin was so excited to open up pajamas from Nona.

We also let him open up a movie which we watched together that night.

I should post the outtakes for this picture...but here is the good one.

My heart is full with these two cuties.

Phin slept in on Christmas morning and we opened presents very slowly.  He would open one and play for a while and then open another.  Phin wanted to open all of our presents and for the most part we obliged.

Phin got a couple of Hot Wheels tracks which he loved. Seth got a few boardgames, a calendar that I made him and other odds and ends.  I was spoiled with the new Pioneer Woman cookbook, a growth chart for the kids and a large canvas from Millie's newborn photo shoot.

Millie got lots of hair-bows.

We headed over to Nona and Papa's around noon and went to the traditional Christmas movie with the gang.  This year we got to see Star Wars and we loved it.  

We had a yummy dinner when we got back and spent some time trying to fish Phin's Hot Wheels out from under the couch.

One of my favorite things happened the day after Christmas. Phin woke up and ran out to the tree...he seemed quite bummed when there weren't presents waiting for him. That evening we had friends over to play some of our new board games.  It is so nice to have room to host friends.

We spent quite a bit of time the following week hanging out at Nona's once Jeff and Kim came back from New Jersey.  

We also got to see my family's former foreign exchanged student Victor.  He was here from Brazil with his gorgeous wife, Ariana.  

We had friends over again on New Years Eve and realized that we are getting OLD...it is quite hard to stay up until midnight these days.  Thank you to everyone that made 2015 so memorable.  We feel incredibly blessed to have you in our lives.