We are still alive

Hands down! This has been the craziest summer of my life.  We had about a 2 week notice to move out of our house because we had renters wanting to move in.  Mark spent the summer in Mississippi and the kids and I stayed with my parents in Tennessee.  We were finally able to find a place to live in Mississippi so we could finally be a family again.  Two days after we moved in, school started.  Now we are all getting adjusted to living in a new place, a new job, new schools, and a new ward.  We had to juggle the move with birthdays, family reunion, fun trips, business trips and a wedding.  Someone needs to give me a medal.  Let's see one of those Olympians do this!

What's going on

Things have been crazy around here. Mark and I decided on a career change and move. We have been scrambling around since March trying to get our home ready to be put on the market. We decided to lease it out instead of trying to sell it right now. This has been an especially hard task because Mark is travelling out of town with his new job and four children never make anything very easy. We have been trying to chip away at the massive list we have to do and we finally got the house on the market last weekend. Yay!!

Sitting up

It only took 8 months. Kate can now sit up without nose diving to the floor. She rolls over from her back to her stomach but will not roll from her stomach to her back. I still swaddle her when she sleeps and I am currently working on moving her out of my room into her own room. She loves the snuggness of her bassinet and is having a hard time getting used to the pack-n-play. I have noticed that as I have more children I am becoming less concerned about them completing milestones on my time schedule. Kate is progressing well enough and I'm actually pretty happy she is not crawling or getting into stuff yet.

My 6 month old

This little girl is growing too fast. She's almost sitting up and she's almost rolling over. I think she is holding back a bit because I want her to. I would like to keep her my baby for as long as possible.

We're so glad when Gramma and Grandad come

Mark's parents came down to visit. The kids have been having a great time.
They love to play.





Thay love to bring gifts.

RSV

Because Kate was a preemie, she was approved for the Synagis vaccination. I guess it's pretty expensive because we had to get lots of approvals in order to get her started on it. Well, a fat lot of good. Katie was diagnosed with RSV in January. With my limited experience, it seemed to be a pretty mild case. However, we still had to do breathing treatments every day and night for a few weeks. I couldn't resist the cuteness of Kate with her mask on. She hated it unless she was being held and rocked at the same time.

5 month-old Kafrin

My little "Kafrin Grace Flo" (that's what Spencer calls her) is growing up so fast. I found some pictures on my camera of her shortly after she came home from the hospital.

This was her first bath at home--September 3, 2011. I can't believe how small she is.


She barely took up any room in her bassinet and she could fit into my hands.





Now................She's huge.


At 5 months she's a whopping 15lbs 5oz. She has moved into the 50th percentile for her weight and 70th for her height. She is very LOUD. She loves to laugh and scream and giggle. She'll talk to herself for hours. It wasn't so long ago that we were able to easily swaddle her but now she breaks loose every chance she gets. She won't take a binky so she resorts to sticking her fingers in her mouth. She has found her hands and likes to reach for people and hold toys. She is sleeping through the night most nights until about 4 or 5 am. She lets her sibling waggle her around, kiss her and play with her. She used to cry alot at night. But now she is pretty good about putting herself to sleep or being rocked to sleep in her bassinet. She is such a good, happy baby. I have already talked to her about "not growing up". She's not listening. Come to think of it, none of my kids do.