Our Little Night Owl

Charlotte has always been an interesting sleeper. She never liked sleeping in our bed and she doesn't like to be held when she sleeps, she just wants to get in her bed and go to sleep, no one else is needed...we didn't mind at all, it was a nice break after sharing our bed with Timothy for so long. We began to notice, once she started talking, that she would sit in her crib for hours some nights just talking and singing and playing and sometimes she would just be up all night long, singing and playing. We were a little worried when we moved her to a big girl bed that she would just stay up and play in her room all night long (which she does, on occasion)...but we figured she would at least stay in her room. When we moved Timothy to a big bed, we put a child-proof lock on the inside door knob so that he couldn't just walk out whenever he wanted, he never figured out how to open them (he still can't open them) and after a while we just took them off and it hasn't been a problem since. Charlotte, on the other hand, figured out the first night in her new big girl bed room how to pop them off and walked right out. We would find her in the toy room playing, in Timothy's room reading his books while he was sleeping in his bed...she's a sneaky little girl!

The other problem we had been running into, was with Caroline. We had decided that, this time around, we would get a video monitor for her room so Brandon got it for me for Christmas. We hooked it up but found that the only way to put it in her room and actually still see her on the camera was to put the camera in her bed with her. I wasn't a big fan of this, but until recently she couldn't really grab things or roll so it wasn't a big deal. Lately though, she had stopped sleeping her bed and I started wondering if it was because the camera was in there with her (it has a small light on it, but it's not bad).

So last night we decided to switch the girl's monitors. Caroline slept 11 hours, it was the best night ever! Charlotte...was hilarious! We saw her get up out of bed and head to her door to pop off the child proof lock, Brandon pushed the "Talk" button on our end of the monitor and told her to go back to bed and she turned around and ran back to bed so fast!! It was so funny! She only tried a couple of times and then she was out for the night, it was great! I really don't know why it took us so long to figure this all out, but now we have good sleeping girls and a little bed time entertainment, life is good :)

Soccer Season

Timothy played soccer at the YMCA this year and LOVED it! His coach just happened to be a photographer and took some great pictures of the kids at their last practice so I thought I'd share some!

Picture Post

Four Months Old

Wow, I'm a bad blogger! Sorry about that, things around here have been a little crazy between church stuff and family stuff and I've just been so busy that it's hard to find time to sit down and think and type at the same time! Anyway, Caroline is officially four months old now. She had a big month, she learned how to roll over both ways and she found her thumb! She's grabbing at everything and loves to play on her play mat where she can roll around and grab all her toys. She loves riding in the car because she can see her big brother sitting on the row behind her (and he usually talks to her and sings to her). She's sleeping great, she usually will make it through the night, unless mommy drinks too much coffee and then she's up for a night or two! She's such a happy and content little girl, it definitely makes life fun around here!

Three Months Old

I've been trying to post on here and every time I do something has been messing up and all the pictures I try to post get deleted and it's been so frustrating that I usually just give up!! So, I'm being brave tonight and hoping that this will work!

Our sweet Caroline turned three months old on May 20, it seems like such a long time ago already and she's already half way to 4 months by now, but better late than never, right? Here's what she's been up to lately...

I'm a big girl and I grew out of all my newborn and 3 month clothes and moved into the 3-6 month sizes.

I will usually sleep from 10-6, sometimes more, sometimes less, but I usually sleep about 8 hours at night. Sometimes, though, I wake up and need someone to put my paci back in my mouth for me and then I drift right back off to sleep again :)

I'm really trying very very hard to suck my thumb...or fingers...I haven't decided which one I like better yet!

I love to laugh and smile at my family, they're so funny and they love to make funny faces at me!

I'm trying to roll over but I haven't figured out how to turn my shoulders yet. I like to play on my play mat and watch the fish and lights.

I'm trying to find my hands, sometimes I can hold things but then I don't know what to do with them.

I went to see my first movie in the theater, Pirates 4. Mommy said I slept thru the whole thing.

I'm a very happy and content baby, and now that I'm almost 4 months old, I've learned even more "tricks" that mommy will share with you all soon!!

June?

Where did this month go? I promise I had things I wanted to blog about, but we've been so busy!! I seriously have been up till 11pm or later every night working on a million things and I feel like I haven't even gotten much accomplished and I've certainly been a bad blogger :) I have three month pictures of Caroline and other random things that have been going on...but for now, I'll just post some silly pictures and leave you with that to wrap up May 2011!

Happy Birthday Brandon

Last week Brandon turned 31 (hope you don't mind me sharing your age) and for the first time that I can remember we really made the day all about him!! Anyone that knows him well knows that he's not really into celebrating much of anything or making a big deal out of holidays or anything (drives me crazy, but what can you do!), and for many years his birthdays have come and gone without much celebration, but I wanted this year to be different.

He's had a big year, he became a father again, moved his family across the country, got a much-deserved promotion at work, has taken on a lot of new responsibilities at church, and has grown into an even better husband and father, so I thought it was about time he got a present that showed him how much we all love and appreciate him! He had the day off of work, so he and Timothy got to go on Timothy's last school field trip together, then they had a daddy/son date to get an oil change on the car and grab some mexican food and ice cream for lunch. While they were gone, the girls and I (mostly I) were busy making his cake and wrapping his present. We met my mom for dinner (yummy BBQ) and watched him open his present! I was surprisingly sneaky, because I can't usually keep a secret, and had conspired with my parents and his parents to buy him a new set of golf clubs for his birthday. I think for once, I actually surprised him!!

I think he had a great day and more than anything, it was nice to get a chance to devote a whole day to him and make sure he knows how much we all love him and appreciate him! Thanks for all the phone calls and emails and cards and facebook messages, he loved them all :)