Anne Elizabeth is 7 months old!

She was watching Audrey in the doorway :)



This was a couple days before she got into the crawling position for the first time. I took this picture and immedicately said, "WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?" LOL



Her blue eyes are amazing!





I wish I could give birth to a 7 month old. Seriously. This is definitely my "happy" age! I wish I could freeze her at this very moment in time.

Christopher calls her our "Bonus Baby." Annie is just so sweet...a precious, beautiful, lovely little angel. Her smile is so incredible, it lights up the room. Her laugh is the best! Chris thinks she is our happiest baby. He swears that she shows more excitement for him than the older girls did at this age, lol. She definitely loves her Dad SO much!


She has a very good routine:

wakes for the day between 6-7 am
bottle of milk, playtime for about 2 hours
nap (45 mins- 2hrs)
solid meal for breakfast, play, bottle
mid-day nap
bottle, play, bottle
final nap
solid meal for dinner, bath, play, bedtime bottle
bed between 7-8

*still wakes twice at some point during the night to eat.

It's so nice with Annie being on a schedule. Having 3 kids is not as scary as I thought. We definitely have our rough times, but mostly it's just controlled chaos (which years of teaching have helped me to embrace and manage!!) I really only get stressed when the older girls are arguing. Every once in awhile Chris brings one of them to Grandma's house for the day. And there have been a couple of times where both Audrey and Abigail have gone together, and it's just me and Annie...oh my goodness! I feel guilty with how much I LOVE that time. Having one kid is so easy! SO EASY.


That face! It gets ALLTHEKISSES!!

She's eating a few different foods: bananas, avocado, mango, oatmeal, yogurt, Mums, toast. I've been giving her stage 2 & 3 baby food. I want her to enjoy different flavors, but for the most part I give her real food so that she doesn't have a hard time transitioning like Audrey did. Audrey still has the worst time with new foods and texture :( Live and learn. We're definitely taking the middle road with Anne. I don't think I bought a single jar of baby food with Abigail! Miss Anne is getting a nice variety.













I love all the fun things she can do now! Regular bath, play with more toys, sit in a big girl high chair and enjoy the swing at the playground! She's sooo squirmy though! Changing her diaper is nearly impossible; she doesn't like to be on her back, so she'll flip over in nanosecond!

She's sitting up on her own! She went from being super wobbly to sitting perfectly within two days! I adore the look on her face as she sits and wiggles, trying to keep her balance. She has such an amused look of wonder, lol. Again, I love this stage because sitting independently is just awesome! She turned 7 months exactly one week ago...since that time she has gotten up on all fours and rocks back and forth. I am so shocked! I thought I had a good two months before that happened :(

Sleep has been really inconsistent this month! Sometimes she'll wake between 10-12, then 2-4. Other times she'll go until 1-2, then up for the day at 6:00. A couple if times she slept until 3-4, then was up for the day at normal time. It's so weird. She falls asleep perfectly on her own for bedtime, naps, and after her night feedings. When she does a really long stretch, she's more awake and vocal so it takes a lot longer for her to fall back to sleep, maybe 20 minutes max. I wish she'd start sleeping straight through, but in a way I'm cherishing the alone time with her (must be a benefit of being the last baby!) When I walk her back to bed, she lets me cradle her. I bring her super close and just breathe her in and kiss her. She gives me the sweetest, most content smiles. God I will miss that.






I wanted her to either smile really big or cry, lol. She was just kind of bewildered!


This is one of the things I will miss. She was SO tired that she fell asleep during her bedtime bottle. I never get to hold her as she sleeps anymore :(


Abigail is an amazing big sister. Annie is so lucky!



I see such a resemblance to her older sisters. At this age she is bigger than Audrey was and has more hair (darker, too!) She is smaller than Abigail was with a lot less hair (obviously, lol.) But they all have the same sweet baby face!


Audrey at 7 months:



Abigail at 7 months:





This is such a fun time for our family. The older girls are so smitten with their baby sister. She lights up when they're around and I can tell that she loves watching them. I am excited to see their relationship develop..I LOVE having girls!!

Abigail Mae is THREE!

What a year! From little to middle and handling it like a PRO :)

She is fiercely independent, focused, and so smart. The perfect mix of sweet and sassy.

More and more she's using her words to express her wants and feelings (instead of whining and crying!) I have to laugh when I hear her yell, "I'm SO MAD AT YOU, AUDREY!!" She'll say, "I'm frustrated!" or "You upset me!" and once we talk it out she's all better. I love seeing her progress! BUT, we REALLY need to work on listening. She will straight up ignore us if she's in the middle of something. If we want her to go anywhere, we have to race her or give her a horseback ride, lol. She loves competition and games.

Her imagination is incredible, and yet so different from Audrey. Audrey has always liked to build and then arrange her toy figurines. Abigail likes to pretend play. Her favorite roles are: Sheriff Cali (she uses my bathrobe tie as a lasso), a puppy dog, random Disney princesses, super hero, Doc McStuffins (Audrey built her a clinic out of several large boxes, lol!)

She likes to read and work on puzzles. She LOVES going to Grandma's house. Lately she's been acting like Anna and Elsa from Frozen. She'll run around and sing the songs and be overdramatic. I love watching her, and joining in, too :) She started soccer and plays with a small group of kids. We are so impressed with how good she is at listening and following directions! We think she's going to be a great student.

I seriously underestimated how amazing she'd be as a big sister. She is so kind and caring and sweet with Annie. She plays with her and talks to her...it just warms my heart. Where Audrey was pretty indifferent towards Abigail, Abigail just loves to be around Annie. Audrey would shy away from being touched by baby Abby. Abigail actually lays on the floor next to Annie and lets her go to town, laughing the whole time! I let her hold Annie and she says, "Oh, Annie, you're getting so BIG!!"

On the flip side, she can be a rotten little sister, lol. She'll still sneak up on Audrey and take something and RUN, hahaha. When they do get along and play together, the mix of creativity and imagination is pretty incredible. I love how they talk to each other. Audrey is very helpful and matter-of-fact. Abigail pretty much goes along with whatever Audrey says. The other day I overheard her say, "FOCUS, AUDREY!" which is something we say to Audrey pretty often, lol. The dynamic between all of the sisters is so fun to watch.

She is pretty much fully potty trained. We can leave the house without fear of an accident :) However, if she gets too distracted at home, she'll have an accident.

It amazes me that after 3 years, I'm still trying to figure her out, to fully understand that she is her own person and she needs a different approach than Audrey. Perfect example: Lately we've been having a hard time at breakfast- she doesn't want any of the choices. I offer her a range of things- Cheerios, cereal bar, yogurt, pancakes, banana, oatmeal, eggs, toast...all to which she says, "No thank you!" She wants ravioli or mac and cheese...ummm, no Ma'am!! Then we both get frustrated. One morning I was venting to Chris about it. He said, "Watch this," and he peeled a banana and gave it to her. She ate it. Happily. Like it was the best thing ever. SERIOUSLY?!? Lesson learned. With Audrey I'm used to talking things out, offering choices and we're all good. With Abigail I need to be more direct. Too many choices is overwhelming.

Three years ago, I clearly remember looking at her sweet face (and being amazed at all her dark hair!) and feeling so relieved that I loved her just as much as I loved Audrey. To this day that is true, my heart has expanded so much since she came along. I've learned to be more patient and tolerant and open minded. I cherish her so much and the rle she plays in our family.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Abigail Mae!

Slideshow:

Abigail plays soccer!

Since dance class didn't really work out for her, I wanted to try something more active. I thought soccer would be a perfect fit. She loves to run!

Chris took her to get some apparel the week before her first practice. She looks so adorable in her headband!
















She was amazing! With help from Dad, she listened and followed directions. She had a great time, Audrey loved cheering her on, it was hard to keep her off the field, lol.


There was only one other kid there (another girl!) But she was so shy and didn't really want to participate. Abby was by herself for the second practice the following week, so Coach Chris invited Audrey to play along. The girls loved it, but I *really* want something Abby has for herself. Audrey has such a big personality and pretty much takes over every situation...I want Abigail to be more independent of her. Every time Audrey took a water break, Abby would follow her out. If Audrey laid on the field, so did Abby. I love that Audrey is so encouraging and that Abigail looks up to her, but I'd love to see how she does by herself.

SOOOO, we are going to try a different group. There's an earlier class on the same day and it does not require parent involvement. There are a bunch of kids Abby's age and it's with the same Coach (Abby really likes her!) I can't wait to see how she does in a group (a STRUCTURED group.) I've seen her play with other kids. She does her own thing- and other kids join in. We were at dance class last week and families were invited in to see the recital routine. Abby literally ran around the room, singing and acting out scenes from Frozen the whole time (not at all "shy" in front of all the adults and kids.) When there was downtime for the adults to talk, the dancers were chasing her around, trying to play with her. When we went to Kite Day at Audrey's school, the kids swarmed around her, showing her the toys and trying to play with her. She's pretty indifferent, though. She can take the company or leave it.






Look at that adorable jersery!! She's number 9 :)





I'm excited to see how she does and if she has fun!

Annie's 6 month photo shoot

That face! These were so much fun to take. She's such a happy little lady!





























Family pics: