Baby Kiersten was 4 months old on Oct. 4th. She is such a little joy. I thought I would log some milestones. Maybe it will help me remember some things for her baby book once it gets unpacked. hmm.

To my little Kiersten, we could not have asked for a more healthy happy baby. Here are some of your new milestones:

• reaches out and grabs at things
• can roll from tummy to back and you're trying really hard to go from back to tummy
• when you are playing on your tummy, you are able to push your arms out and hold up your whole torso. we've even caught you trying to rock back on your knees! you do move around on the floor while playing, especially backwards
• you started trying out rice cereal the week you turned 4 months. within a matter of days, you were up to eating 2 tbsp. mixed with 2 oz breast or formual, whatever is on hand
• we are still nursing! during the week you get your bottles that are mixed with breast and formula. we nurse every morning around 6 am and then we nurse in the late afternoon and then evening after cereal, but sometimes you don't want to you are ready for bed. on the weekends, we nurse the whole time formula free.
• you sleep through the night!! ahh. you've done this for a good while now, but here lately i don't even have to get up to pop the pacy to you. on the weekends when you don't have to be up by 6 am, you sleep a full 10-12 hours without crying, wimpering, eating, etc. i love my sleep!
• you weighed exactly 17 lbs and 14 oz. i think its safe to round that to 18 lbs after your cereal or a feeding. :) and you were 27 inches long! you've grown 3 inches in 2 months.
• you have been wearing a size 3 diaper since you were 3 months old. i recently had to bump all your clothes to size 6-9 months. i think you will be able to wear all of Anna's 12 month sleepers this winter that Anna wore at 12 months, not 6 months!!
• you are awesome in the car. you usually just fall right to sleep. most of the time its like you are not even in the car with us.
• you are really trying to sit up all by yourself. last week you started pulling your head up while in your car seat. and now you prefer to be straight up in a sitting position rather than kicked back. and when you sit up tall all of your little rolls pop out. it's so darn cute!
• you love to goo-goo gah-gah at us and you especially love your big brother and sister. it is so sweet to watch them play and sing to you. you stare at them in amazement and then grin at them. they love you so!! our family is so blessed to always have the sound of children's laughter in the background...or Anna crying. j/k Anna. we love you too!

hanging with the big bro

eating up some yummy rice cereal

chillin at the church bizarre with family--look at you sitting up in the stroller!

there is a slab!!

I wanted to add these to the bottom of my previous blog, but it won't let me move the pictures again. It used to let me! If anyone out there knows what trick I can do, please help this lost person. Thanks.

So...while the kids and I spent the day with family from H town, Daddy-O was making sure the foundation was getting prepped for the slab. Here are a few highlights.

not sure what is going on here, but it looks different. more wire and stuff added.

big fancy truck with go-go gadget arm!

this was Tuesday evening. we went to go see our slab. this cracks me up...A with her pant leg in one boot!

Everything was set and ready to start some framework Wednesday morning before the afternoon rain arrived. However, when we woke up this morning it was already raining! I am praying that the rain is done for today and they can start the frame Thursday.

Jak Se Mas

Sunday was another day of sunshine before more rain comes our way. I took the kids to meet my dad, stepmom, aunt and uncle at my Busha and Ja-Ja's. The annual church bizarre was going on so there was something to do in their itty bitty town. Here are some highlights of the trip.

My driving/photography skills of the Fightin Texas Aggie roadside landmark outside of Reagen. The good news is that even though they widened Highway 6, they safely moved the barn! Gig 'Em Aggies!

Baby K and her Great Ja-Ja

Who is that lady? Yep, its me. I'm never in the pictures, but this really nice random lady on the hayride snapped this one for me. Baby K decided to just ride in the stroller and not on the hayride.

A and Grandma trying to win some toys!

B and his Ja-Ja. B just won and picked out some safari animal toys, just more for mommy to pick up!

Where is the big daddy? He stayed at home and got the crews working on the house...on a sunday! We had to let some things dry out from all the rain and then there is more prep work to do on the ground before the slab goes down. It should be ready for the slab on Tuesday.

big green tractor

its bugging me that this pictures are out of order, but i can't get it to let me move them around. it used to let me.

Here they are in the big green tractor on the road to the farm.

turning off of FM 5

with their Papaw leaving our lot headed back to the farm...about a 10 minute drive by car

this land is OUR land

Here's Papaw working on getting our lot smoothed out.

Here is the side/front view of our new land. Yep, we're on another corner.

Here's a back view of our acre. We were able to keep several of our mesquite trees.

This was a sunset on the way back from our lot to the farm. I was waiting to get a picture of Brady and Anna with Papaw. They rode with him in the tractor all the way back to the farm. They thought they were big shots getting to ride on FM 5 in the tractor.

Rockport 09

the water was really pretty. we stood knee deep and you could clearly see your toes. A didn't want to get in this time around.

the only pic i have of father & son this trip. they stayed in the water and played pretty rough. me and my girls stayed on the beach and soaked up some rays.

Baby K napping on the back porch while the big kids played in the little pool right beside her.

the trip killer--no it isn't Clark W. Griswold after they strolled through the slums of St. Louis. its my lovely flat, but not really a flat. it was the sensor in the valve that was leaking.


kids in the little pool. copano bay in the background...insert randy rogers song here. :)


very tired kids after a few hours at port A beach.

the sisters livin it up beach style. looks like they're throwin some signs.

rollin over at the beach!

takin it all in.

it was a fun little trip. our final goodbye to summertime. i will miss you dearly. we were able to hang out with old college friends and meet their kids. Kyle & Tiffani have a beautiful bay house on Copano Bay in Rockport. Our kids got along great and had fun playing! The men of course thought they were big bad fisherman, but notice...were there any pictures of some big redfish or any fish at all? ahh, no. They did catch 2 keepers, but that's it. Of course, it was all the weathers fault right. Have to wait and see whats in store for next year!

we are here

K's last pic with the sign. Their last night in our house. K helping us pack the last day.

We got one, but could have used 20!! The proud men that loaded the attic.

it's been almost a month! wow how our lives have changed. i missed several chances to blog, so let me catch you all up...

-Baby K is a chunk! at her 2 month check up she was 14 lbs, 12 oz!! i couldn't believe it. i knew she could fill out a diaper like her mom used to fill out the Rocky Mountain jeans! She was 24.5 inches long too. Needless to say it put her off the charts, over the 100th percentile in both categories. I was delighted since B&A were always somewhere between the 50th and 75th percentile. I tried weighing her at home just this week and she was just over 15 lbs. Other than not missing a meal, she is doing great. I had to start her in daycare full time just after my last blog. I cried. like a baby. for a while. But I had to do it in order to get our house packed up, plus I was already in my inservice week at school. She loves her teachers and we love them. Ms. Nelda is the best thing any mother could ask for. All of the ladies in her infant room are wonderful. I think they all secretly like Baby K the most, but I won't tell. She rarely cries...big sister still cries waaaaaaaaaaay more than Baby K has ever thought about crying. Tomorrow she will be 3 months old already. some of her milestones thus far: coos and talks to us all the time, starting to reach out for your face or objects in front of her, grasps onto her clothes/blanket and cuddles with it, blows lots of bubbles/drool, excellent head control, loves to practice sitting in her bumbo seat, sleeps and eats like a champ!

Baby K on August 6--2 months and 2 days old.

I took these on our front porch. It was the first time I put her in the bumbo to try it out. She did an exceptional job with her head. See...I was doing this kind of stuff and NOT packing like I should have been doing!

-C and I thought we had the whole move thing figured out. We thought it wouldn't take long to pack the rest of the house at the last minute. Boy were we WRONG! Thanking my lucky stars, the night before, my Dad had called to see what our moving plans were. He mentioned they might come help, but I didn't want to ask for his help. Neither of us wanted to ask for our parents help, WE are the grown-ups now and thought we totally had it under control. HA!! Thank God that Friday morning the door bell rang and there they were to help. I think we would still be packing had my Dad and Cindy not showed up. And I am very thankful for the loyal framer Chris has used during his time as a builder...Manuel. He and a few friends helped us carry and move tons of stuff. I am so thankful for them.

-it feels weird to be living in my inlaws house without them here. i feel like our stuff is everywhere and it kind of is. we've got tons of stuff in our Mobile Attic unit (they are much cheaper than pods), in the garage and dining room at my inlaws. For the first week, I had no clue where anything was. K needed a manicure, but she had to wait for a week until I could find the clippers for her! There have been several stories like that. In the meantime I thought I was going to lose my mind. Going back to work full time with a newborn, pumping schedules, nursing, crying Anna, big brother talking my ear off, laundry, dinner, cleaning, getting used to driving 35 mins one way to get to work and digging in boxes for a week--you think i'd be down at Betty Ford. Somehow I'm not. My mom came up the next weekend and occupied the kids so we could bring some peace to the boxes. I was able to do that, but still have my moments from time to time.

-big bro and sis are adjusting well. B gets it. We took him out to where the new house will be and he seems to understand that daddy is building us a new house and we cannot go back to his old house. he did have a short day or so where he seemed down, but he's ok now. after the second or third night at the inlaws, A cried and wanted to go home. she did it a few more times, but shes good now. their new dog Kopper is out at the farm and thats all she cares about...that and her new pink cowgirl boots.