April Celebrations... Grace turned 6!!

April brought my 33rd Birthday as well as Grace turned 6!  Nana was here for the Birthdays. Then we celebrated Easter.

 I worked on my Birthday but we all went out to Olive Garden and ate.  Hope did great and it was a wonderful dinner! :)

 Grace got an American Girl doll from Nana!

 The day before Grace's Birthday and party, Nana came down with a stomach virus and Grace got sick later that night and had to go to the doctor and was found to have Strep throat!! This was a total bummer!! Grace started antibiotics that night but we did let everyone we could know that Grace had strep in case any one did not want to bring their child to Grace"s birthday party. We did not want to expose other kids and not tell people.  We went ahead with the party and Grace just kind of took it easy at the party. I hated it because she could not fully enjoy it but yet still had a good turnout despite a good many decided not to come.  It was still a special day for our sweet, beautiful, and friendly big girl!!

 Momma actually got to be present for Grace's Easter Egg Hunt at her school!  I was able to take Grace home a little early after the hunt.  Grace liked Momma being there!! :)

 This is Hope over 3.5 months old. Grace got to spend the night with Kendall and Arden Smith on the Friday night before Easter and went to the Egg Hunt at their church.  The rest of us met her there at their church to be there for the hunt.

Easter 2014. Hope's first Easter :) We went to lunch at San Fransisco Bread Co. with Alina and Brian Frame and Esther. First time out with them since Esther was born!!

Me and Hope, Alina and Esther and Robyn and Avery.. sweet friends!

Grace, Charlize and Blakeley

We welcomed some outdoor warm weather walks in April!! :)

Wearing the Roll Tide onesie that Grace wore :)

pretty girl!!

Hope 2nd and 3rd month

By the end of the second month, Hope was sleeping through the night at 7 to 8 weeks old. She slept from about 10pm to 7am most night. We would walk or rock Hope to sleep. We use the swaddler every night and she was really developing at pattern. Eating about 7 times a day. Taking a 4 oz bottle and napping about 4 times a day. She loves watching her feet and reaching out for things. Still loving the blue-ear dog on her play mat! :) We got the side to side swing when we went to AL in March
 from Aunt Carey and Hope loves that! It is wonderful to have this at home now!  She also likes the swings at church! In the 2nd month Hope starts being content to just lay flat and we talked to and played with or to sit in the boppy and face Mom and Dad.  She started liking rattles and enjoying watching and listening to them.

At 2 month check up, Hope weighed 10lbs 7.8 oz. Height was 22 inches. Hope also started making all kinds of cute coos and googling sounds by the end of the 2nd month!!

The end of the 2nd month brought on some relief. Hope was now starting to have content wake times, starting sleeping and starting lighting up with her little smile! :)

By 3 months old, Hope was about 12 to 13 lbs. Was sleeping 9 to 11 hours at night. Naps about 4 x a day. Nurse and bottle 6-7 times a day.  Hope starting laughing and smiling like crazy. Now really smiles at her big sister, Grace! At this time, Hope now likes to sit facing out and watching T.V. or her surroundings. She is started to explore her surrounding. More aware and watching every thing that is going on around her and don't want to miss a thing!! :)  Hope also likes her toy singing steering wheel. At this age, she held her head up well. She even said "Mum, Mumma" which Momma just loved!! :) Daddy says she even said something that sounding like "I uv oo" hahahaha!  Still loves the side to side swing.  In her 3rd Month on April 21st, 2014 we moved her over to Kid's Day Out at Crossgate, because there is not near as many babies there and the convenience for Adam has just been great!

I was going to include some video but they all want to freeze up... 

 Sweet big Sis reading to baby sis :)

 This is Hope on the day she turned 3 months old! She is getting big!! :)

A Little Bit of Everything.. Feb to March '14

Oh my goodness, when I see I haven't updated this blog in 3 MONTHS I get a bit overwhelmed. I not only want to update it for the sake of family but also I want Grace and Hope to be able to look back at these special times.  Since I've had Hope, I feel as though I am just keeping my head above water to do every thing I need to do. I look back at these earlier pictures and it already makes me sad to see how she has grown so much and changed, that it reminds me that first and foremost I have to take advantage of my time with Hope and Grace and now as Hope naps.... I will attempt to catch some of this up! :)

So the end of February brought Daddy's birthday.  Daddy was the big 35! It happened to fall on a Wednesday this year so about the entire day he was at church but he did get to come home briefly and I had made his favorite.. chocolate cake! :)

The children's ministry volunteer's surprised Adam with balloons a very nice card and a few gift cards. It was very generous!

We got a smile this is the end of February

The picture above and below is from the Marriage Conference. The above picture is our home group life group.. the OC.  Love them all!!

The end of Feb. also brought a Marriage Conference at our church.  It started on Friday night and lasted through Saturday. It was wonderful! I was so glad we did it even though Hope had to spend her time in a nursery. She had it pretty good though because she was the only bed baby so she had one on one attention and the sweet lady spoiled her that weekend too!

Pic below.. Hope 2 months old :)

Hope's first day in childcare.. Mom is back to work after maternity leave. Off to Crossgate Learn and Play

How I found Hope when I got there to get her on her first day..

Grace has also been preparing for the upcoming dance recital and this was when they had dance pictures made..

Grace loves to hold her baby sis..

About 9 to 10 weeks.. Above pic.. in the nursery at church. I was a bit amazed at how content Hope would be in the church swings and yet HATE our swing at home! I found it amusing.. 

Sweet smile..

Our friend Alina loving on my baby while she anxiously anticipated hers :)

We spend most of our Friday night with the above group. This is the OC which is our church lifegroup. They are a lot of fun and truly encourage me in my Christian walk. We are doing David Platt's Follow Me study now.  The girls enjoy it too.. Grace get to play with some of their kids and Hope gets passed around and loved on by so many others :)

Since is has warmed up.. I have tried to take some consistent walks with this sweet girl. Hope enjoys it. Momma is still trying to lose the rest of her baby weight.. :)

Sweet sisters.. Hope about 2.5 months old

Grace got new glasses!! Below, we are at Orange Leaf enjoying some frozen yogurt. She got a free yogurt for ALL A's on her report card from her school!!

The end of March brought on more firsts for Hope..  She got to meet her Aunts and Uncles and Great Grandma and other cousins for the first time!! We took a trip to AL during Grace's spring break and visited family!!

 Hope with Aunt Carey.. almost 3 months old

 Hope with Great Grandma

 Uncle Greg and Grace

 Paw Paw and the girls

 Grace got her birthday presents from Uncle Greg and Aunt Kelly too!

 Amanda loving her new baby cousin.. Hope

 Granny with the girls..

 Hope over 2.5 months... LOVING her play mat! This thing has been a lifesaver for us! :)

 We even got to celebrate Vann's 5th Birthday while in AL!

 While in AL we got to visit a local favorite restaurant, Pruitt's and then we visited the new Trampoline Park. Grace had a blast and the big kids did too.. Adam and Greg :)  It was really a neat place!

This was in the car on the way home I believe.. I sat by Hope in the back seat and she did BEAUTIFULLY traveling!! No joke! She liked holding my hand too while she went off to sleep. It was perfect! :)

We even got to see Mom's friend Marti at the trampoline park and Dave and Mallory and they got to see Hope. 

Nana and the girls :)

Uncle Greg and Aunt Kelly with the girls.

So this is all for now.. It has been an all day occasion to get this done.. LOL. I will update more later for more detail on Hope's development and all the happenings since March.