Kinley You're 3 Months Old

One year ago, Thanksgiving looked a little different to me. Don't get me wrong, I was beyond thankful for my family and friends; a good job and so many other blessings. But, something seemed to be missing - something that we know now to be a certain little girl. This time last year we had just finished another round of fertility treatments and were faced with the decision to continue with further treatments or stop all together. It's hard to know how to even approach a decision like that. We decided to pursue one more round of medications, one more procedure and then be done. It was a wing and a prayer kind of thing. More prayer though!

We all know how it worked out. All those prayers worked and this Thanksgiving we will be celebrating with our new little turkey. Our three month old little turkey.

This little girl continues to grow by leaps and bounds. She has recently started eating between 4 and 6 ounces at a feeding. That sometimes makes us question whether or not she is really ours because I have NEVER had a baby who finished a 6 ounce bottle. She's continued to sleep well also. One short nap in the morning, one long nap in the afternoon, another little cat nap in the evening and then down for the night around 8:30. We are blessed by the fact that she falls asleep quickly and easily whether she's being held or if we simply lay her down in her pack n' play. She has taken to the bumbo seat and loves to sit on the counter and watch me cook or the kids color and do homework. She's still not so fond of lying on the floor but it's slowly, very slowly growing on her. And tummy time, well forget it. Kinley hates it.

This past month Kinley has really started to coo and smile at us. She is the happiest baby. She cries when she is hungry or when she is tired and very rarely in between. Her smiles and little giggles bring all of us so, so much joy. I like to tell her that she's my little miracle and that always makes her smile.

Kinley, we are thankful for you, your brother and your sister every single day. But Thanksgiving give us one more reason to give thanks for having each of you in our lives. We are truly blessed.

I Can See It Coming

I know I should be happy...and I am. Really. I am. I think. Life continues to move along at an astonishing pace as we enter into the holiday season. I don't think that it will slow down any time soon. I don't really like it.

It's hard to believe that this week Kinley will be turning 3 months old. When I was pregnant I remember wondering what the holidays would look like with a new baby. Some days she doesn't seem so "new" anymore. Frankly, I can hardly remember what it was like without her.

Last night she hit her first big milestone...

That's right...Miss Kinley slept all night long. For the past four days she's been going to sleep around 8:30pm and sleeping consistently until about 3am. I thought for sure that I was in for a sleepless night on the fourth night. However, just to prove me wrong, this little cutie slept until 5 AM!!! I was actually happy to get up and feed her, see her smiling face and celebrate a full night sleep. Kinley on the other hand downed 5 ounces of formula, rewarded me with a couple killer grins and promptly snuggled back in for another 2 hour nap on the couch with her mama. And so, I see it coming...the end of our late nights together, huddled up under the glow of the TV or the iphone, Kinley sipping a bottle, the two of us snuggling. I'm beyond happy to have a good night sleep myself, but I can't help being a bit sad that our alone time is drawing to an end. I used to remind myself during the sleepless nights that it was just a season of life and someday it would be over. I never anticipated that it might be over so soon.

Kinley also continues to camp out in our room, secure in the pack n' play at the end of our bed. I've kept her there this long at the urging of all those SIDS experts that encourage babies to sleep in their parents rooms for the first two months. I've also kept her there longer out of convenience for me. I only need to walk a few steps to get to her, as opposed to all the way across the hall. I love her nursery but hate that it's all the way across the house from our room. I can see it coming though...the day that I finally have to move her to her crib. You know, the one I begged my husband to put up way back in July. The one that has been used a few times for a quick 45 minute nap or to hold clean baby clothes that need folding. Yes, soon I will need to move Kinley in there for good. And I'm not sure I'm looking forward to it. I'm not good at endings, especially when they involve my very.last.baby.

But, I do know that there are still sweet times to come. Last night McKenna and Kinley "hung out" and watched a movie together. It was cute to look at them all snuggled up together on the couch clearly enjoying one another and the TV too.

I pray that they will always love each other this much. I can see it coming...and that, I like.

National Education Week

This week was filled with lots of fun activities for the kids. But I had to share this picture of Kinley.

McKenna recently wrote a story about her sister. One part read, "My sister has big blue eyes, blackish hair and you just can't ignore her smile." That is certainly the truth, at least in this momma's eyes. I just love that toothless grin. My smile was almost as big this morning because a certain little girl slept for 5 straight hours last night. That's a record in this house in recent months.

In celebration of education, both McKenna and Cooper's school's hosted special events this week. Earl joined Cooper on Wednesday for a fall festival. They played games, made a special turkey together and had a dress up parade.

McKenna's school had a dress up theme for each day this week. Wednesday was history day and McKenna dressed as a Native American. Thursday was science day and my big girl was eager to sport her scrubs and follow in mom and dad's footsteps.

We have to say we were pretty proud!

We are eagerly anticipating a busy weekend filled with Christmas pictures, a Penn State party, church and whatever else might come our way. What we really are excited about is Thanksgiving break and the big Turkey Day that will soon be upon us. The thought of sleeping in, spending time with family, eating turkey and continuing Christmas preparations has put a twinkle in everyone's eye.

Busy Week

Halloween came and went in a bit of a whirlwind and the week that followed was not much different. We were busy, busy, busy...

"The Girls" got some new hair bows.

Kinley went to her first Bible study with Mimi on Wednesday morning while I got my hair cut. I hear that there was lots of spoiling of one cute little girl. It was a good way to lead up to Thursday when Kinley had her 2 month check up....complete with the dreaded first shots.

Our little princess officially weighed in at 10lbs 10oz. Not so little anymore. And she's now 23 inches long. When plotted on the growth charts she is the biggest of our babies so far.

Since then she's been working on learning to hold her head up. As you can see she's doing a pretty good job! She looks like such a big girl in this picture.

On Friday we packed up and headed to Lewistown for a visit with Aunt Carol, Mom-mom and Pappy and Nicole.

Cooper always has fun when Nicole is around! We arrived home Friday evening just in time to welcome Aunt Loretta, Rachel and James for a quick overnight visit.

Saturday morning we saw Loretta, Rachel and James head off to Hershey early in the morning. Later that day we welcomed Jen, Dylan and Alyssa for a visit. They made the trip from Brookville to see Kinley and to just hang out. Regretably I don't have any pictures. I guess we were too busy playing and catching up.

Sunday Kinley and I headed to church while McKenna, Cooper and Earl had a relaxing morning at home. I spent the rest of Sunday preparing everyone's things for Monday, my first day back at work since July. Mimi and Pappy were arriving early Monday morning so they came Sunday night for a yummy dinner of Italian snack and for dessert - their instructions for Monday! Just kidding. When McKenna came down with a fever Sunday evening I was not surprised. Why would I think that things would go exactly as planned Monday? Luckily, my mom and dad have done this parenting thing before and were not scared away by a little fever.

I have no idea what is wrong with blogger lately - it won't let me fix this picture nor will it let me remove it. I happen to think it's cute anyway but I'm a little biased.

Happily, everyone survived Monday and really we all had a great day. The end of this week finds everyone feeling like themselves and ready for a fun filled weekend. Stay tuned !