Christmas

We spent a wonderful Christmas in Dallas with my family this year. My sister was able to fly in and we were in town for five days. It was just perfect...the kids were well behaved and there were no major meltdowns:) They were both angels on the drive there. I give it an A! The way home gets a B-. We took Avery to Indoor Safari Park to play one morning and she had a blast. I wish we had one here in Houston. After opening presents and relaxing on Christmas day, Mom, Avery and I went to see The Muppets in the afternoon. Other than that, we just relaxed and enjoyed each other. Cate did better than I expected and was very enjoyable. It was just perfect!

Christmas Eve
The girls got to open one present on Christmas Eve
Santa brought LOTS of gifts to two sweet little girls! The girls received many, many, too many cute things and have enjoyed them all. It was fun to watch Cate because she was actually interested in the paper and bows and all the flashy lights from her new toys. Six months is a fun age! Santa brought Avery this beautiful castle and she loves it...now. At first she wouldn't even look at it. I think she was overwhelmed by all that was going on. It's a lot to take in for a three year old. She warmed up to it and really enjoys using her characters from the movie Tangled in the castle.
Grammie and Grandpa got the girls a two seater wagon and we can't wait to use it. Cate is still too little for it though. We padded the bottom of it and she took a little ride around the house in it. Avery loves it and is looking forward to taking a walk in it. While we were in Dallas, Cate perfected her sitting and started showing signs of pulling up into the crawling position on her knees. She also started putting her paci in herself while in her crib...PRAISE the Lord! Seriously.We got home from Dallas the day after Christmas and then had round two the next day with the Shelfers. We went over to Nana and Pops' house in the morning to open presents with them, Brian, Catherine and Brooks, and GiGi. The babies were hilarious together. Brooks just started crawling recently and he and Cate were so funny as them studied each other and tried to figure out the other. Avery loves, loves, loves her chef set. She asks no less than a dozen times a day to be a chef and cook for me. Go for it little girl! You can take over the cooking anytime:)Later that afternoon, we went over to GiGi's house to celebrate Christmas with the rest of the family. It's always fun to get together with Mark's family because there are so many people. It was always just my parents and my sister and I growing up. We never did big family celebrations, so it's fun spending time with the extended family too. Avery loves all her big, grown up cousins. Overall, we had a wonderful Christmas with all of our family and I loved every minute of it. It was so special seeing Christmas through my children's eyes. That is truly what makes it magical.2011 was a great year for us...it brought us our sweet little peanut Cate! And while it's been a big shift in what our lives were before, it's been the absolute best shift. I love my sweet family and pray that 2012 brings great things as well. May God bless you all in the new year!

{ 6 months }

Has it really been half a year since this peanut joined our family?!?! It has been a wild, chaotic six months but she is worth every bit of it. Cate has improved so much on her special formula and is such a happy girl now. Hopefully this will continue and she wont have any negative reactions to solids once we really get into them.
Her 6 month check up isn't until after the new year, but a couple of weeks ago she weighed just over 17 pounds. So I will guess that she's about 17 1/2 pounds now. She's a big girl:) She weighs a good pound, if not more, than Avery did at 6 months. She's wearing mostly 9 month clothes and is in a size 3 diaper. She is taking 5 bottles a day, every 4 hours, of 6-7 ounces per feeding. She "naps" two, sometimes three, times a day. The days follow the same routine, but the times are a bit off sometimes. Her sleeping has improved greatly but she goes back and forth between being a good napper/night sleeper. Right now, her nights are going great. She's been sleeping until about 6 am without any middle of the night wakings. Her naps are awful- in fact she's fighting one as I type this. She was napping good last week though- who knows. This parenthood thing is a roller coaster. Just when you think you have it figured out...

She is officially a sitter! She needs some spotting and does flop over or backwards but she is steady most of the time. She is very curious and tries to wiggle away when you're holding her. I can tell she wants to explore and it's starting to frustrate her. Cate is spunky for sure! She's stubborn and sweet. She's been a challenge but her smile is worth it all. She smiles with her entire face and it is heart melting. This first half of the year was rough and a bit of a blur, but I know this second half will be full of fun, new milestones. You've come a long way Cate and we love you so, so, so much!

Cate's Baptism

Sweet Cate Madeline was baptized on December 11, 2011 at Memorial Drive Presbyterian by our beloved pastor Dave Peterson. It was a beautiful day and I was amazed at all the love Cate received. Our family took up an entire pew and consisted of two sets of grandparents, two great grandmothers, a great aunt (all the way from San Antonio), a great-GREAT aunt and uncle, an aunt and uncle and one cousin (who traveled from Baton Rouge:). And our course our family of four! It meant so much to us to have so many family members there, especially the ones that travelled to be there. Avery sat in church and was well behaved thanks to some extra TLC along with crayons and stickers. It couldn't have gone better.
Cate wore the same dress that I was baptized in as well as Avery! She was a bit under the weather with her first cold and had a really rough night before, but she did great and was quite the social butterfly. After church, Nana and Pops put together a wonderful lunch at their house for our giant group.

Our prayer for Cate is the same prayer all parents pray over their children. We want her to grow up healthy and happy while leading a life pleasing to God. The tricky part to this is that it is OUR responsibility to make all this happen and that's a big task. So more so, our prayer is that God shows us how to raise this precious girl the way he intends. Cate is an enormous blessing to us and we are so very thankful for her precious life. We love you more than words Cate Madeline!!!

December Recap

Not all of these pictures are from December, but close enough. I need to catch up with what's been going on before what I'm sure will be an enormous number of pictures from the Christmas festivities. Avery turned 3 on November 30th and enjoyed a morning of Daddy going to work late, donuts and a new playhouse for the backyard. We met up with our very good friends at Monkey Joe's later that morning and she jumped her little 3 year old heart out. I still can't believe I have a 3 year old...she looks and acts more like a preteen! Yikes!!!

We had started Cate on solids a few weeks ago but stopped after a few troublesome signs. I realized that we really aren't in a hurry and that we should really give her tummy more time to even out on her formula. That was probably the best idea because a week or so later, she came down with her first virus/head cold and was running a fever for a few days. We gave her Tylenol which has always messed her up. Well this time was no different...she turned back into the old crying, fussing, NO sleeping, mess of a baby. At this point, we're not really sure if she is intolerant to acetaminophen or if she's intolerant to the sugar and flavoring found in these medications such as sorbitol or sucrose. We'll have to try Motrin next time now that she's old enough. We plan to start up with solids again after the new year and after her 6 month pediatrician appointment and next GI appointment. Avery is LOVING the holiday season! She loves seasonal clothes, crafts, songs, movies, decorations etc. So it was no surprise that she had a blast with Nana when they decorated a gingerbread house at an event our church put together.The girls are doing wonderfully together. Cate is enamored with her big sister and thinks she is just the coolest thing ever. And Avery is really great with Cate too. Naturally, there are some attention issues for Avery. They have actually shown up later that we originally thought. Only recently has she shown some extra clingy-ness and desire for my attention when I'm dealing with Cate. It's really only at night once Mark is home and we have to "choose" a kid to tackle. When it's just me with the girls during the day, she's fine with me dealing with Cate. But when she is "handed off" to Mark, she gets a bit upset. I'm sure a lot of it is being a dramatic three year old now:) But she loves to make Cate smile and laugh and is the best big sister. She has been so adaptable through all of this and I am thankful for that trait in her. These girls are so awesome and I love being their momma! Without making it sound like the "Cate Show", Cate's baptism and 6 MONTH posts are coming up soon. Of course, soon might be more like several weeks. I'm trying to keep up, I really am:)