3 Months

That's right! I'm 3 months old already! Everyone talks about how big I'm getting - I guess that's a good thing! Mommy's guessing I'm around 14ish lbs. I'm sleeping 5-6ish hours at a crack at night and still exclusively nursing (which is going well). I'm still squeezing in the size 1 diapers we have, but after these are gone we're moving on to size 2. Clothes are pretty much 3-6 mos. Sleepers I'm still wearing my 3 mos for some reason...they are still fitting.

What else about me? I take a pretty long nap in the morning and generally fall asleep when out and about in my carseat or sitting in my swing. I like to sit by and talk to my brother and sister - they sure do seem to love me! Overall - I'm still a great baby! Mommy and Daddy can't complain...so don't let them try! :)

Sesame Street LIVE!

THANKFULLY Mommy was over the flu enough that we could all head back to Milwaukee to catch Sesame Street LIVE! We figured Briana would have liked to do this as part of her birthday celebration - so we all went as a family. It was a lot of fun! Totally something for kids just our ages.

I even got to bring my Cookie Monster along in with me

Here are all of our friends singing and dancing on stage.

We all had a great time!

Happy Birthday Briana

Happy 5th Heavenly Birthday to Briana Mae!

It's sooooo hard to believe Briana would have been 5 this year! November 26, 2006 is a day that is still so fresh in my head - I can even tell you what shirt Brian was wearing at the hospital. Well - having the flu this year on her birthday wasn't so easy! I had made a cake, brought flowers, had a balloon bouquet, etc - but couldn't make it to the cemetery. Brian brought the flowers, but the rest had to wait until we came back the following weekend.

CRAZY! Like I said - I can't believe it's been 5 years. 5 seems so "old". I guess that is what it feels like though whenever your oldest gets another year older right? You've never done that year before - so it's all so new, you're not sure what to expect. Well - I wonder....what would Briana be into? Barbie? Dolls? Dancing? Music? What would Briana look like? This is one of my biggest questions (next to why?) I know I've said it before, but I do just wish that every year on her birthday I could get a glimpse of what she looks like. Dark hair or blonde? (by the kiddos I have here - I'm going with blonde! :) ) Straight or curly? Girly girl or another who doesn't like to wear dresses? Yes - I wonder!

I also wonder though - how our lives would be different. Would we have Grant? Possible, but not likely considering they were just over 11 mos apart. Would we have Alayna? Again - probably not likely. Would we have Landon? Who knows...God and only God! So - am I thankful I lost my little girl? NO! But I am thankful for how she has shaped my life and the impression she left. Our lives were forever changed by that little girl and I can't wait to meet her again in Heaven some day!

I love you Briana Mae! Happy 5th Birthday!

(pics below from the following weekend when we were back in town to celebrate Aunt Trisha's birtday)

We tried to go for sparkly princessy this year

Balloon release

Flu

YUCK! Saturday after Thanksgiving and I end up with the flu! STINKS! I RARELY ever get the flu and haven't puked (sorry!) in years! BUT - I got it this weekend! Maybe it wasn't so good on my system to skip a day of sleep to shop! :) Thanksgiving night, Brian's mom, sister and I headed out for our Black Friday shopping! 10pm Walmart in Fond du Lac, then up to Appleton to Toys R Us, then Target, then Younkers, then Kohls...by then it was after 8am and we headed back to Fond du Lac to sleep. After a few hours I wanted to head out again, but talked myself out of hitting the Oshkosh outlets. Instead I stopped a few more places in Fond du Lac and headed back to Alto where the kids were.
Saturday I was planning to shop with my Mom, but as luck would have it - ended up with the flu in the middle of the night. SO - I spent the entire DAY in bed and my Mom shopped with my sister instead. I wasn't feeling much up for traveling - so we stayed over an extra night in Alto. THANKFULLY Mommy was the only one to get this flu bug!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! WOW - do we have A LOT to be thankful for! I'm thankful for good health for me and my family, the great families we have and are surrounded by, Brian's business continuing to go well, FINALLY finding a house we will soon call HOME, the safe arrival of our newest family member - Landon, Grant and Alayna being awesome big siblings, pretty sure I have the best husband in the world, a wonderful church, great friends and knowing Jesus as my Savior! I feel so blessed!

This year we spent Thanksgiving Day with Brian's family and the evening at Grandma VZ's.

Watching the Packers - everyone in their Packer gear

Great Grandma Schmidt and Grant. Grandma is 91 years old! SHE is a blessing!

Alayna and Papa

Sorry if I'm spoiling any exciting card options - but this is Take 2 of the Christmas Card Photo for Grandma and Papa

Daddy looks a bit tired!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Mommy was doing some laundry the other day and thought I could use a little tummy time. Well - I wasn't too excited about it, but instead of crying I decided I would just fix this little problem myself. I'll just roll over! So...I did. Mommy could tell I was getting ready to do it, ran for the camera and by the time she came back....

...I was like this!

"Could this really be?" Mommy thought. Landon rolling? He's not even 3 mos old yet! Surely I must have just propped him on his arms just 'so' and he toppled right over.

Since she wasn't giving me the credit I deserved for my skills...I thought I should show her again...

...this one...

...she was paying...

attention for!

Yup! I did it! A few days short of 3 mos and I officially rolled! I say "official" but Mommy wasn't so sure...so I had to show her 2 more times that I really could do it! So - finally after 4 rolls in a row - she's giving me this one for the baby book!
November 23, 2011 - Landon Rolls for the first time front to back!
WHEW! I hope I don't have to work this hard for all my milestones!

Snuggling

Pssst....I love this guy! He loves to make me smile.

More Smiles....

Chatting it up with Grandpa

This smiling thing...people just seem to love it when I do it! Man - they are so easy to please :)

Christmas Cookies

Daddy went hunting - so off to Grandma's for the weekend! HOORAY! Every year we try to get a jump start on our Christmas baking while Daddy hunts. This year Daddy went to the UP for a couple days and then opening weekend in WI, so we had lots of time to bake. We started with LOTS of cut outs and moved on to peanut butter balls, cake mix cookies, lots of pretzels, chex mix, etc. Fun stuff!

We helped decorate

Pretty good right?

This is A LOT of cookies :)

Sleeper!

I don't want to jinx anything, but last night Landon slept from b/w 10 and 10:30 until 7am! If only I had gone to sleep even close to when he did - I could call myself smart. But - I didn't! I guess I have to say - he's been sleeping in a swing for the last 5 days or so b/c he's been pretty congested and waking up full of boogies! We have been turning the music and movement off though the last 2 or 3 nights (spare those batteries!) and he still slept like that. AWESOME!

New House!

Yup - that's right - we FINALLY have a new house! Well - new to us anyway! Oct 14 we closed on a house in Brookfield that we are going to make our HOME! We rented back to the previous owners for a couple weeks - until their new house was ready. The moved out Nov 5 - so we finally have access! We are doing some work over these next few weeks and planning to move in the first or second weekend of Dec. Praying all work stays on track and no big delays so our move date sticks!

Our first lunch at our new house - picnic on the dining room floor b/c there was NOTHING else at the house.

Raking leaves. I'm sure fall clean up every year won't be so fun - but we don't get big leaf piles at our current house - so getting these big leaf piles was SO fun this year.

CHEESE!

Brian working on ripping out trim and flooring

Grandpa came to help too! THANK YOU!

Papa did too! THANK YOU!

We have A LOT to do over these next few weeks. We wouldn't be half as far as we are without the help of our parents. THANK YOU!

4 Yr Dr Appt

This week I had my 4 yr old dr appt. I'm happy to report - I'm healthy! I weigh 29 and 1/4 pounds and am 37 inches tall. Both are the 5th percentile - but hey - at least I'm consistent in my charting.

They checked my blood pressure too and that was good. Then the nurse asked if I would like to play some games. Hey - who wouldn't!?! First we played a game where she held something up to my ear and when it beeped I had to put my hand up and then put it down. I did well on that one - which means my ears are working well. (So Mommy says I have no excuses now when I'm not listening!) Then we looked at an eye chart and I had to tell the nurse what pictures I saw from standing further back. I saw things like a horse, car, a birthday cake, etc

When you turn 4, you have to get a whole mess of shots. Mommy told me about this ahead of time and I told her I wasn't going to cry. Well - I got one in each are and one in each leg...I tried really hard not to cry, but it really did hurt! I cried a little, but I still did a good job. Now I don't have to get any more until I'm 11!

That night after dinner Aunt Sheila took me on our ice cream date for my birthday. It was a good treat for having to go through all those shots. Thanks Aunt Sheila! I had lots of fun!

Birthday Continued

After going to Ted's for breakfast on my birthday I wanted to go to Cranky Al's for a donut as well. At least that is what I thought I would want to do. But after eating that great pancake at Ted's I decided I would wait on Cranky Al's donut until Saturday. So Mommy, Landon and I went to Cranky's. I had a chocolate donut with sprinkles.

Big Brother Helping

Grant helping feed Landon a bottle while at the mall

Happy 4th Birthday!

Today I'm 4! November 4, 2011 - my Golden Birthday! It was a super fun day! First I opened a couple of presents before we left home.

Then we headed out and had a birthday breakfast at Ted's Diner

Mine and Alayna's pancake with strawberries and whipped cream. It sure was good! It was HUGE though - that's why we shared it! See...Curious George even made it out again this year!

Blowing out my candles. The whole diner sang Happy Birthday to me

Alayna enjoyed it!

So did I! After everyone sang to me - one of the diner "regulars" gave both Alayna and I a silver dollar because it was my birthday. Wasn't that SOOOO nice!

Then...off to Flabbergast for a morning of jumping in bounce houses and going down big slides. FUN!

Hooray!

Then after a short rest time in the afternoon Daddy and I played baseball in the backyard. I used the new METAL bat and bases I got from my aunt, uncle and cousins at my birthday party a few weeks ago.

Here I missed the ball. "Daddy, you're not so much of a good pitcher. You keep missing my bat!" (ok buddy!)

Here I CRUSHED IT!

Then I ran the bases...this time Daddy caught me.

Birthday cupcakes Mommy made. She made enough for me to take to my class for my birthday treat and there were 5 left for our family to celebrate with on my birthday.

Whew! Got 'em all. It was a really fun day!

Grant at 4

- size 3T pants, 4T shirts

- in preschool - loves it

- would watch TV/movies all day if I let him

- favorite tv show - Wild Krats on PBS

- favorite color - orange

- has been eating better lately. Although he is a SLOW eater - he has generally be eating everything on his plate the last month or so.

- LOVES to play outside - ride his bike, play baseball, ride 4-wheeler, dig up worms

- loves swimming

- knows 75% of his letters by sight

- writes his "G" backwards :) - but that's the only letter of his name he can sorta write if you ask him to

- likes to sing in Sunday School

- cries easy when he's tired

- waits til the last possible second to go to the bathroom - especially when watching TV

- LOVES his little brother - asks to hold him and tells him he misses him when he's gone

- thinks chewing gum is the coolest thing

- got his first cavity at age 4 - filling to come in Dec :( His teeth (baby teeth) are very crowded and the cavity appeared b/w some lower back teeth

- typically eats cereal for breakfast

- seems to have a hard time staying focused. "Grant please change your clothes" is typically repeated 4 or 6 times and finally his shirt might be changed :)

- thinks new tennis shoes make him run WAY faster

- is an all-around very sweet and loving boy!

I love you Grant Arthur!