11 months 19 days

...but who's counting? Truthfully, I'm in a little bit of a panic. My last baby is mere days away from finishing his first year. I feel like I'm trying to cram a lifetime of memories and pictures into the next week and a half and I'm not sure why. I know there are other little babies for me to love on....but MY babies are quickly trying to outgrow my lap! Okay, deep breaths, deep breaths, happy place. Here are a few quick pics I snapped in the last few days. Nothing mind-blowing, just my littlest sweetie. A picture for all the English nerds...name that caption!

My sweet sleeping baby...(and Lesley, this was taken in the pitch dark with my new external flash--very impressive!)

Feeding himself some dirty bath water

Ear infection=lots of snuggle time

oh dear. We are seriously having to be very mindful of closing the baby gate. It was about this age that Ava tumbled down the entire first group of stairs, hitting her head on the tile. Not my best parenting moment.

Three Down

We said goodbye this afternoon to one of Elle's top middle teeth . It has been slightly loose for a while but she messed with it quite a bit this afternoon and loosened it enough that it was really bothering her, but she was too scared to touch it again because she said it hurt no matter what she did. So we were in tooth fairy limbo for a while with lots of histrionics and tears and such. Finally she hesitantly gave me permission to pull her tooth. She wanted to hold something and squeeze it while I pulled the tooth so I got her a frog and just as I was about to pull it, she squeezed it and it started making frog sounds. We both started laughing and had to start over. She finally let me pull the tooth and I had to pull a little bit but it came out pretty quickly. Then after she got over the pain of it, Ava made the mistake of saying that she looked funny and talked funny and that just sent her into another hysterical fit. Once her nerves settled she wouldn't stop talking because we think she was getting a kick out of hearing herself pronounce words. All in all another eventful evening. I may have to let Shawn pull the next one though. I think I used up all my patience and kindness on this one.

Sweet Moments

I snapped these pictures this morning and they just capture so much more than words can explain. I love them :)

I love that he's looking at her while she's "reading" him a book :)

When you are 11 months old, joy is being able to pull up and then realizing that you are at eye level with the remote control!

Levi's 1st Trip to the Lost Pond

The girls have been begging to go back to the lost pond for a while now and since the weather has finally warmed up, and it's Spring Break, we thought we'd take advantage. This was Levi's first trip there and he did marvelous. Unfortunately we sold our baby carrier so we had to carry him the whole time. It really wasn't that bad though. I'm proud to say we never dropped him even once, and no one was bitten by snakes...it was a successful hike! The beginning of the trail

Freeze! You're under arrest for walking in tall grass!


So stinkin' cute! Why do hats have to up the cute factor so much that you take 7,559 pictures of the exact same pose because you just can't get enough?!

We've made it!!!

This picture is for Papaw....like the shirt? :)

Time to eat a picnic dinner

Time to head back, which means my turn to hold Levi.

He used my hair either to hold on, or like reins to make me giddy up. Either way, my head was sore when we got back to the car.

Almost back and Levi's first trip to the Lost Pond was a great success.

Spring Breakin' It

I sure do love Spring Break. I love that it's back to our pre-school days of no schedule and endless hours of fun activities. We plan things to do that aren't our usual routine and everyone looks forward to what each new day holds. On top of that, the weather has finally been warming up a little so everyone is spending more time outdoors. That makes our WHOLE family happier. Every time I carry Levi towards the back door, he starts squealing loudly and kicking his legs. He absolutely loves going outside. Here are a few pictures from our week, so far.

This picture just cracks me up

Having a good time on the "drums."

Today, the girls got the have computer time. This was a BIG deal to them and they were very excited.


Elle coaxing Levi outside

They were raccoons in their cave, according to them.

What else could this be, but communion. They insisted that I go to the store today and get grape juice instead of the fish from their game. We also got a few of the communion cups from church so we could pretend at home.

Tuesday evening, I went to a consignment sale that I was selling some things at, and was able to find lots of treasures. This was the stuff I got for Levi!

The girls' treasures. Grand total before tax $111 which I thought was a great price. I got a lot of things that the kids were in need of :)

Monday, Bunco was at my house and the theme was "Queen of Green." I loved decorating with all kinds of green things. I gave each player a little bag with a green peep in it :)

11 months...and 1 day

Always a day behind....such is my life with 3 kiddos! But, I didn't want to break my monthly tradition and not post a pic of Levi so here goes! He turned 11 months old yesterday and we are now on the big time downhill ride to the big O N E! Wow! Still can't believe we are this close! I took him Monday to his dr. to get a weight check and he was 17 lb 6.5 ounces and was 27 1/2 inches long. I'm pretty sure he's already over 18 lbs now. The dr. has been concerned with his growth both length and weight so we are working hard on gaining and growing. She is going to check him again at the 12 month appt and hopefully he will have proved that he's a growing boy. I will say that he's gained between 2 and 3 lbs just in the last month and gained an inch. He is FINALLY wearing some 6 month pants and could very well move on up to size 3 diapers the next time I have to buy some. He has spent almost his whole first year in size 2. Formula agrees with his FOR SURE! Greek yogurt helps too. If you know of any other super foods that are high in fat and/or calories and healthy for a baby, let me know! I'm trying avocado but he's not too fond (maybe I should make guacamole?) and I do some peanut butter which he likes. Anyway he says Dada, Bye Bye, something that sounds like Elle and something that sounds like Ava, All Done, and DOESN'T say Mama. Seriously? Ornery! I am just excited that he is talking and there's still only one person (most of the time) that he lights up for :) He is making the funniest gibberish noises and when we laugh for any reason, he fake laughs back, which makes all of us laugh more. He is going to be a goofball I'm pretty sure. He loves to clap and makes himself giddy when his hands actually slap together. He loves to crawl, cruise, and pull up on anything and everything. He goes to sleep happy and wakes up happy. He likes to suck his thumb but mainly only when he's tired. As soon as we go in his room to put him down for a nap, and I walk towards his sound machine, he yawns every single time. He has begun doing this weird arm thing where it almost looks like he's blessing people like the pope does and I think I've figured out that it's his way of pointing, but he'll be playing along and all the sudden stop, do that arm movement and freeze for 5-10 seconds. It's hilarious, especially when he does it to the people behind us at church. He loves to flap his arms extremely fast when he gets excited and smile so big you can't see his eyes. He has a whoppin' 3 whole teeth now and working very hard on number 4. He is such a joy and that is an understatement!

Loves to play Peek-a-Boo and will now say "Boo!"

The weird Pope-blessing-the-people arm movements

We see this smile a lot and we just can't get enough!

Sunday Sweeties

I took this right before church on Sunday...it's the only time everyone is clean, has their hair brushed, and has on clothes that match!