Happenings of late

Caroline got an early birthday present from Memaw and Papaw so she could practice walking! The doll blows kisses and says, "I love you!"

Memaw and Papaw love this little girl! Memaw had a tiny birthday cake with one candle in it and we all sang "Happy Birthday." Caroline didn't mind her party hat at all. :)

John Collier got his Wolf neckerchief at his Crossover Ceremony at Garland Scout Ranch on Grandad's birthday, the 24th. The five of us went, along with Nan and Grandad, and Mimi and Papa. We are so proud of him!

He had earned STRAIGHT A'S all year long! We couldn't be prouder. We don't care what grades he makes, as long as he tries his best! He tested in to the Discoveries program for next year. It's an academic enrichment-type class that he will attend 2x/week for 45 minutes.

JC with Mrs. Duty...the BEST 1st grade teacher I know! She loves him, and he loves her. She'll also be Caden's 1st grade teacher. :)

Caden with Mrs. Lewis...the BEST Kindergarten teacher I know! She taught JC, too. She has been very patient and understanding with our middle child this year! :) Caden happens to love her a lot...and she loves the Wibbens!

Caden clowing on his "Kindergarten Play Day" the Tuesday before school got out on Thursday

Sweet Caroline with MeMaw and Paw Paw the Friday I got out of school for the year. She is wearing her cupcake dress (one of her cupcake ensembles!) to celebrate her upcoming birthday. She took donut holes for her bigger friends, and Paw Paw bought her cupcakes to share. MeMaw gave her hers without the icing on top! :)

Friday night, Lindz celebrated her 29th birthday with a semi-surprise party at Mimi's. Aren't my MIL and sisters-in-law beautiful?

This weekend was also special because Ryan and Kristin came in with Dylan and Alex. Saturday Kristen and I took the 4 boys to Stan and Lisa's to swim. They had a ball! L to R: Caden, John Collier, Alex, and Dylan

Mimi and Papa at Mudbug Madness...we went Saturday night to celebrate Eric's 34th birthday. The Erwins, Ryan, Kristin, their boys, Ragan, Sharon, Avery, Anderson, Mimi, Papa, and the 5 of us went. The guys said the bugs weren't all that great, but the kids had fun playing in the jumpy things. We stood around listening to the music and visiting til it was time to head home. Alex came to spend the night with our boys. They slept on beanbags in the toy room!

Papa and his "Baby Boy" :)

Caroline being entertained by Nicholas...he is the funniest little guy I know (and has dance moves that rival anyone I know)!

Kristin with Dylan and Alex...such sweet additions to our family!

The Boys

John Collier and Caden have been busy bees! They are both playing ball. Caden's team is the Rangers, and he is playing t-ball. John Collier is on the Red Sox team, and he is playing machine pitch. That is quite the adventure for a boy who has never played baseball before! He was going to play t-ball last year but broke his arm on the way to his very first practice, so...he is having fun and striving to be the best! Caden, of course, LOVES playing. He just wants there to be more action involving him! He'd field the ball on every play if the coach would let him. :) They both had Field Day on the 7th. Eric took the day off work (mostly becasue he thought there was going to be nachos, alas, there were none) and came out to support his boys. I had to work on a specific field, so he had the duty of switching between the other fields and taking turns watching both boys. They had a great time and checked out and went home with Eric after it was over and mowed the grass and took a nap! (I know that's a lot of "ands"-oh well!)

JC earned his Tiger Badge!

Caden's team

Lefty batter

Showing off his work displayed at ArtBreak...the boy loves to draw and is really good at it!

Making veggie creations at ArtBreak

His crazy hat...he worked for a while to get it just right :)

Crazy Hair Night at church...thanks to Christy for the colored spray :) Their Nashville shirts are souveniers from Mimi and Papa's trip days before the devastating floods there.

Roll that hoop, John Collier!

No hands! Go CayCay!

Chowing down in Mama's room before heading home! Gotta love Field Day food!

Hanging with Laura and Marcus at the Greek Festival at St. George...they had a ball! Caden was so sad when he lost his "eye" necklace, but his Greek flag and olive branch headwear consoled him. :) Caroline was clowning! This was the day before the Taylors left for Italy.

Eleven months!

Sweet Caroline is 11 months old (plus a couple weeks now :))! I simply cannot believe my baby will be ONE soon. She is a blessing beyond measure, just like her brothers. We know how fortunate we are to have children at all, let alone happy, healthy ones. My heart goes out to those who long for a child or have had to watch their children suffer and even die. My family is my world, next to my Savior. Eric and I both consider our entire families to be enormous blessings. We love to spend time with just the five of us, but we also love to be with our parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, in-laws, and out-laws! I hope my children will grow up with a strong sense of family- of where they came from-and will always realize the support system they have. We are so very blessed!

Here are some pics of our sweet girl around her 11 month milestone:

Sweet, smiley girl

With fave girl cousin, Anne Michele

Daddy stealing kisses!

At ArtBreak...big, blue eyes

One of her constantly-changing, silly faces...this girl has got some personality!

Sup?

With Cuz Clint at one of Caden's t-ball games...she wanted those glasses!

Belly sugar!

What's our girl up to at eleven months?

-She has 7 teeth (she got the last one the night she got grounded!).

-She will say, "Tweet, tweet!" for a bird or her green rubber ducky.

-She will make Indian noises by patting her mouth...Memaw taught her that trick!

-She is funny about the texture of some things...and does NOT like some representations of objects that don't look/feel like the real thing!

-No one makes her laugh like Caden...seriously!

-She still nurses in the morning, then goes back to sleep til time to go to MeMaw and PawPaw's.

-She gets a 7 ounce bottle and rice or oatmeal cereal for breakfast then takes an am nap.

-She sleeps well!:)

-She gets a veggie and another bottle at lunch, after which she naps again. Dinner is a meat and a fruit, followed by a bottle closer to bedtime.

-She is usually in bed around 7 and will sleep 12 hours most of the time.

-She is very mobile...crawling aroung and pulling up on the furniture, my pants leg, the bathtub, or whatever she can grab on to!

-She has not had separtaion anxiety yet...and I hope she doesn't. I hate leaving a crying baby!

-Her brothers and Daddy love her!

-Her Daddy can make her cry like no one else. It's really pitiful! She cries so hard, she starts snubbing and can't catch her breath. He's only done it a few times, and never on purpose. Something about her Daddy fussing at her just sends her over the edge! Maybe she's gonna be a Daddy's girl like her Mama! :)

-She is still a sweet, happy girl most of the time. We are so blessed!

Grounded

Well, our Sweet Caroline may have a little TOO much personality. She decided that she wasn't sleepy last night right around midnight (when I had been in the bed for 1 1/2 hours). For the next three and a half hours, she had two diaper changes, nursed, had a bottle, rocked, played in my bed, cried in her bed (with my door and her door shut and a pillow over my head), sat in the living room and my room and her room, and yet did not go to sleep. She was fine as long as I was holding her! If I laid her in her bed, forget it. So, at 3:30 we went for a drive. Good ole' Port City sure is a different place at that time of night. We drove until she fell asleep, and then we drove some more. I was NOT taking any chances! Around 4:00, we went home and I put her (sleeping!) in her crib and crawled to my bedroom where Eric was happily snoring. My alarm went off less than 2 hours later. So, today I feel like I've been hit by a truck (and look like it too, no doubt). Meanwhile, Caroline's eyes were a bit puffy when she woke up again this morning, but I told her I didn't want to hear about it! Ha! I called and checked on her, and MeMaw Brenda said she's doing just fine. I'm glad to hear that, but I am going to bed EARLY tonight...and so is she , since she's GROUNDED. :)

Little Miss Personality~10 months!

Sweet Caroline turned ten months old on April 2nd! I CANNOT believe that much time has passed since we met our sweet girl. These pictures show her little personality pretty well. She is a sweet, smiley, happy girl, and we all love her! Her rocker is courtesy of Nan. She found it at an antique store, painted it, and reupholstered the seat to match Caroline's room. It is a treasure. Caroline thinks it's perfect!

Cheese! See my two teeth?! I have 5 now, including three on the top!

Modeling her Carter's (my absolute favorite baby store EVER!) Easter oufit. Nan found it when we went shopping during Spring Break...for less than $5! Woohoo! It has a bunny and an Easter egg on the left side. She also graduated to bigger bows this past week. She can now wear the ones with an alligator clip...although we are holding on to our collection of the itty bitty snap-clippies for now!

Sweetest girl in the world!

So happy!

She gets her eyebrow skills from her Grandad!

Cutie (monogrammed, of course!) booty

Precious profile

Happily playing :)

At 10 months, Sweet Caroline is showing lots of personality! She loves to be held, but will happily play on the floor with some toys for a while. She has just begun to crawl...she probably would have done it sooner, but being on the floor with her two big brothers is sometimes dangerous! ;) She will wave bye-bye and hi! She claps for herself when someone says, "YAY!" She can also pat-a-cake with the best of 'em. She says "Dada" way more than "Mama," but she prefers me (for now!). I know she will be a Daddy's girl before long...it runs in the family! She wakes up happy. She nurses first thing in the morning, then usually goes back to sleep for a hour or so. She has a 6-ounce bottle and cereal for breakfast (then naps) and another bottle and a veggie for lunch. She eats a 4-ounce snack bottle after her pm nap, then has a meat and a fruit for supper followed by another 6-ounce bottle closer to bedtime. She weighed 16 pounds and 15 ounces a couple weeks ago at her pneumonia follow-up appointment. She is growing more and more, and I cannot believe we will be celebrating her first birthday before long! Thank you, Lord, for our precious baby girl.

Spring fever!

Well, our Spring has been rather eventful! Spring Brask was March 12th-16th. We had a ball doing all sorts of fun things! The first two pics are of the boys outside Kid City...one of their favorite places on earth.

7 years old

5 1/2 years old

Sweet Caroline had pneumonia over Spring Break. She was diagnosed on Monday and had to do breathing treatments 3x/day (which she DID NOT enjoy) for a week, then she was weaned down to two...then one...then NONE! We never would have guessed she was that sick...she is just such a sweet girl all the time.

Caden got a horrible bacterial infection at the end of March and was hospitalized for dehydration and a high white count. After several bags of fluids, he was much better but is still on antibiotics and has to have follow-up testing done to be sure it is gone. It was the sickest he has ever been...his fever got to 104 and he was delusional. It scared this Mama to death! In this picture, he had just gotten his IV, and Laura and I made a huge deal about it because he didn't even cry! Such a big boy!

The bear is "Cooper." Caden has had him since he got his tonsils and adeniods out in November 2007...he was a gift from Memaw and Papaw along with a doctor kit! The Care Bear is "my lellow teddy." Caden has had him and been attached to him since he was really little. He was from Nan and has been a constant favorite among Caden's "babies." And the bunny is "Puppy," because when Laura brought it to him in the hospital, we decided it's face looked like a dog. These three stayed in the bed with our little trooper for his whole hospital stay, and he sleeps with them every night. He covers them up or wraps them in his "woobie," a cowboy pillow case that he also loves to sleep with.

John Collier HAD to put on his doctor outfit when we ran home for a few minutes to feed Caroline! He loves his brother and was very concerned when I called him on his teacher's phone and told him Caden had been admitted. He felt better once I sent him a picture message to show him Caden was okay! Caden is plaing with the monster truck Nan and Grandad brought him. That poor truck must have driven miles on that hospital bed!

Moving on to happier times...Caden got to pick up 16 eggs at his Kindergarten egg hunt on the Thursday before Good Friday. The kids had a ball!

My artist! John Collier had to search through a couple hundred eggs to find the 4 with his name on them to put in his bag. He had so much fun. Don't you wish you could draw like that?!

Valentine's Day, Mardi Gras, and a 9 month check up!

Eric and the boys with their Valentine cookie cake

Caden, John Collier, and Morgan at the Krewe of Gemini Parade

Not sure what Eric and I are doing here...or why neither of us is looking at the camera!

Mama and Sweet Caroline at her 9 month check up today. She weighs 16 pounds and 5 ounces and is 28 inches long! She is still in the 25th percentile for weight and the 75th for length.

Somebody loves being naked!

Caden loves Caroline and wants to hold her all the time!

John Collier loves her too!

I want that camera, Mama! :)

Sweet Caroline at 9 months old:

*You will clap when someone says, "Yay!"

*You are still on the same eating schedule as at 8 months.

*You will start getting 8 ounces in your 2 bottles each day beginning tomorrow. We just want to make sure you are getting enough milk since that is your main source of nutrition!

*You will definitely let us know when you don't like something or want something RIGHT NOW. Your latest thing is pitching a fit when Daddy won't let you have the remote! (Get used to it, sister!) You do this because PawPaw lets you play with one during the day at MeMaw's house!

*You are fascinated with my cell phone, your timer, the tv remote, basically anything REAL. You do like your toys, but you'd rather have the things you aren't supposed to!

*You LOVE your puffs and yogurt melts. Thank you, Gerber! You got some for Valentine's Day from us and Memaw and Papaw.

* You have been doing this huge "cheese" grin (see naked pic above)...it is hilarious! Nan says you smile so big your ears touch in the back. :)

*You have started patting my shoulder when I get you up in the mornings...so sweet! I guess it's because I pat your back when you are snuggling with me when I first get you out of your crib. I hope you will always like to snuggle with me!

* You are our sweet baby girl...and always will be. 

I love you~Mama