Nora Kate is 9 Months

It's so weird to me to think that we now have a 9 month old, a 2 year old, and a 5 year old!!!  Where has the time gone?!
Nora Kate reached the 9 month mark on Wednesday!  The big deal for our baby girl from this past month has been her smile!  :) She now has two pearly whites in there to smile at us with!  Granted one is just barely through the gums, we still count both of them!  :)  We absolutely could not believe that one of our children got teeth this "early" since Dawson and Carter were both late teethers, but sure enough-there they are!  We love to watch her chew on things when she's eating-she's very dramatic about it!  :) Speaking of her eating, she is quiet the little eater!  She LOVES almost all of her baby food I have been making for her.  The only negative reactions we have had is that the first two times she had blueberries, she LOVED them...but ever since then she shudders and makes HORRIBLE faces when we offer them!  That's fine because that will just leave more blueberries for me and Carter-the only blueberry eaters in our house!  The other food that has not gone over so well:  broccoli!  It's not that she doesn't like it, she does!  But every time she's eaten it she's thrown up!  I'm not talking about just spit up either!  So, obviously, we are not giving her more broccoli for a while!  I will try to list everything she's eaten:  Cheerios, puffs (various flavors), yogurt melts (not a huge fan, like the boys were-in fact, she gags!-I agree though! They're not too good!), crackers, graham crackers, pancake, biscuit, bagel, oatmeal (unlike her brothers, she was none too happy to graduate to adult oatmeal-and much prefers the baby oatmeal), baby oatmeal, rice cereal, apples, blueberries, beef, chicken, turkey, cantaloupe, spaghetti squash, yellow squash, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, pears, zucchini, acorn squash, sweet potato, white potatoes, bananas, green beans, peas, meat loaf, blueberry muffin, avocado, biter biscuits, rolls, and I'm sure there are several more I am forgetting!  She now eats "food" for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then has a little oatmeal in her highchair about 30 minutes before bedtime.  In between all of that I also still nurse her 6/7 times. 
Nora Kate has really been struggling to sleep well at night over this past month-it's been worse than usual, but I think in this last week we seemed to be improving with only getting up 2 or 3 times a night.  The interesting thing is that I used to always blame the reason that the boys woke up at night so much around this age was because they learned they could move and roll around their cribs so much they'd wake themselves up doing it, but Nora Kate really doesn't move much at all in her crib at night!  She literally NEVER has rolled over in her crib at night (although she does roll over during the day time), really the only moving she does is just to push herself up to one end of the crib!  I can't even blame all the moving for why she wakes up! :)
So I mentioned that Nora Kate got teeth WAAAY before her big brothers, but now that she's reached the 9 month mark and isn't quiet crawling-her brothers definitely beat her to that milestone!  You win some, you loose some, Nora Kate!  In all honesty, I would be perfectly happy if she would wait until AFTER our upcoming beach vacation to start crawling!  Nora Kate has mastered the art of "booty scooting" though!  She can sit upright on her bottom and scoot around especially in attempt to get to her big brothers toys!  And just over the past week and a half she has started doing the "rock" which seems to come right before crawling!  Nora Kate LOVES to rock and booty scoot to try to get to things!
Speaking of what Nora Kate loves....it seems that nothing can make her face light up like Dawson, Carter, and John!  She LOVES to talk about her "dada" on and on and on!  And when one of the guys in her life (brothers or Daddy) look at her-she's all smiles!  In general, Nora Kate is all smiles...She's a very happy and chatty girl at this wonderfully sweet stage!  I love this age she's at now, and I wish we could just freeze her right here forever!  I feel like I'm living in the best of all worlds right now because I'm really enjoying the ages/stages that all three kids are in! 
Nora Kate has gotten really into books this month!  She loves to sit beside you or on your lap cuddled up and look at books and be read to!  Another love of Nora Kate at 9 months is being outside!  Being the younger sister to two brothers, Nora Kate spends A LOT of time outside....probably more than most 9 month olds! We are outside HOURS everyday!  When Dawson was little some friends gave us a huge black quilt and we have used it many times for picnics, etc.  It's perfect because, being black, you don't necessarily have to worry about stains.  When we go outside we spread this huge quilt under one of our shade trees and Nora Kate and I sit, play, and read board books while watching birds, leaves blowing on the trees, and most importantly her big brothers running, riding, and playing!  She's so funny when she sees them coming she gets excited and starts smiling and doing her "busy" hands and feet!
What are "busy" hands and feet?  Neither boy ever did this, but Nora Kate is constantly rotating/flexing her ankles and wrists!  It's like she's revving her motorcycle haha!  The funniest part of this is the intensity and frequency with which she does it!  Also, my parents say that is exactly what I did as a baby!  So funny!
Nora Kate, your Daddy, big brothers, and I love you dearly!!  Just please stop growing so fast, we want to keep you little forever!  :)
Nora Kate's 9 month check up went great!  At 9 months, Nora Kate weighs 22 pounds 10 ounces and is 27.5 inches tall.  (At this age Dawson was 20pounds 13 ounces and 30 inches long, and Carter was 20pounds 1oz and 28 inches long.)  At the end of the the "report" that Dr. Booher always types up to send home from the checkups he wrote, "She is a very healthy, smart, sweet little girl."
Now for a few pictures!

Nora Kate is one lucky little girl to have two wonderful big brothers!  This was not posed!  I was trying to get them to all look at the camera when Carter just gave her this little snuggle and Dawson decided to hold her hand! I just love these three!!!

9 months

9 months

9 months

Nora Kate is 9 months!

She just couldn't leave that card alone!

I only thought it was out of her reach!

Got it!

Nothing goes unnoticed by Nora Kate at this age!

LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Nora Kate 9 months

Carter 2 years

Dawson 5 years

Dawson is 5

We officially have a big 5 year old living in our house!  Dawson loves to talk about being 5 now, what a big kid he is, and all the things he can do!  I've already posted Dawson's 5 year old interview with Dawson's opinions, likes, etc., so this update will just provide a little more detail on what our sweet boy is like at 5!
In the interview, you probably read that Dawson want to be a farmer when he grows up.  He talks about being a farmer ALL.THE.TIME!  He's very clear about it to.  For instance, he has told me that I can come to his farm to collect the chicken eggs and do laundry and sometimes cook.  Carter will be allowed to come to Dawson's farm when he's 11, and he can help drive a tractor.  Nora Kate can come too, if I can put her carseat in Dawson's truck.  We were behind a big F150 the other day at a stoplight, and Dawson pointed out that he was going to have a white one of those when he's a farmer.  He talks about what all kinds of animals he will have and plants he will grow.  I love how talking about this gets him so excited!  And I love what a little planner he is! :)
Dawson has always loved to read, and that has stayed the same this year too!  He loves all of his books, but he especially gets excited about us reading chapter books to him which we started about a year and a half ago.  His favorite chapter book is Mr. Popper's Penguins.  We just read our first Junie B. Jones book last week (Junie B. Jones Has a Peep in her Pocket), and now he cannot wait to read a giant stack of Junie B. Jones books we got for the summer!  He also loves to sit and read to Carter-of course, Dawson's more recounting what he remembers the story to be about than actually reading but it's so sweet!  And Carter has no clue so Carter will sit with him and listen as Dawson reads!
The biggest change for Dawson over this past year was starting preschool!  He started August 12th, and for the entire year I never once heard him say a negative word about school!  He only missed one day for being sick, and he cried on that day that we wouldn't let him go to school.  (I happened to have a VBS meeting that day at church, so I went by his classroom and got his worksheets for the day to bring home...he was thrilled!  You would have thought I brought home candy or a new toy! haha)  He has several sweet friends in his class, and he had two wonderful teachers (Ms. Libby and Ms. Nancy).  As I told his teachers numerous times, this year was the most perfect transition into school for Dawson I could ever have imagined!  Although I am in no way ready for this, next year Dawson will go to school THREE mornings a week and the following year he will begin kindergarten.  I missed Dawson so much on his school days this year, I just cannot imagine him being away 3 mornings beginning in August-but he really did love school this year, and I guess they have to go sometime! :)
This past year was the first time Dawson has gotten to enjoy organized team sports, and he has really enjoyed both sports!  In the fall he played AYSO munchkin soccer, and he had a great time!  This spring he is playing Outward WeeBall and John is helping to coach his team.  He loves this too!  It's amazing the improvement he has shown over both sports throughout both season.  He enjoys going, and I LOVE watching him play!  He's a lucky boy to have both sets of grandparents get to all his games too! It's turned into a family event going to Dawson's games, and he loves having so many people watch him!
Another big change for Dawson over this past year was becoming a big brother to Nora Kate.  He is a wonderful big brother to her as he is to Carter, and really I think having another sibling in the house wasn't as big of a change for Dawson as I thought it would be.  He adjusted quickly (having already do it once when we had Carter), and he really does love her!  Speaking of siblings, Dawson and Carter started sharing a room about 11 months ago.  It has gone so, so well (until this last month when Carter started climbing out of his crib), and I love to see how sweet those two brothers are to each other!
Dawson wakes up every morning at 7:30 and he goes to be around 8 each night.  He still takes a nap every afternoon around 1/1:30 and this nap is usually about 1.5 hours. 
A few more little things I want to remember about our sweet Dawson at age 5:
-Dawson sleeps with his panda that he's always slept with and he has recently added a giraffe that he calls "tip top."
-Dawson has gotten REALLY into building Legos lately, and he loves to build them on his own and with his Daddy! 
-Other things Dawson loves playing: kitchen, restaurant, farm, workshop, building tents/forts, riding the Gator!, doing anything outside, riding his bike, playdough, and art!
-Dawson LOVES to help me cook, and he's become a great helper in the kitchen!
-In Dawson's 4 year update I wrote, "If he had his way, we would spend every waking moment outdoors" and this is still so, so true!

I wish I had Dawson's official stats for his 5 year checkup, but his checkup isn't for another couple of weeks!  I will come back and update this once we see the doctor. 

There are so many things I want to remember about Dawson from this stage!  Dawson is compassionate, talkative, kind, smart, occasionally mischievous, and loving! He loves to be silly and laugh.  We have so much fun with Dawson every day, and I cannot believe he's FIVE...but we have loved these past five years so very much!  Dawson has brought us more joy that I could have ever imagined possible, and I love this tender-hearted, funny, smart big boy you're becoming!

We had Dawson's birthday party the weekend before his birthday, so on his actual birthday we took advantage of some gorgeous weather and played in the water in the backyard ALL day! 

That evening we gave Dawson his gifts from us!

 

He was SO excited with this worm farm!

He has loved watching the worms tunnel and eat leaves over this past week!

The ONE thing Dawson said he wanted for his birthday was a new stuffed animal.  We picked out this white tiger, and he LOVED it!

He named it Tig.

The evening of Dawson's birthday, Lolly, Pop, and Uncle Logan came over to wish Dawson a happy birthday and brought a chocolate Reeces pie! YUM!  We put his candle on it and sang to him again.  Carter was really excited about it too!

Ready to blow out the candle!

Dawson was so sweet to let Carter help!

Big Brother Dawson with Nora Kate and Carter (he refers to them as "the littles" haha).

They're so sweet with each other (most of the time).  While I was taking these pictures, Carter just snuggled Nora Kate and Dawson held her hand-all unprompted!

5 Years Old!

I'm FIVE!

Dawson's main gift from us was this playhouse!

John did a great job building it (it was "A LOT of assembly required!"), and Dawson -and Carter-absolutely LOVE this house!  Dawson's started calling it his clubhouse!  :)  John was pretty proud of his handy work, so he had to get in for a picture!

 

An Interview with 5 Year Old Dawson

Every year since Dawson turned three I have done a little birthday interview with him.  It's fun to see how much some answers have changed, and how some have stayed the same.  So here's an interview with 5 year old Dawson (and I included his previous year's answers just for fun under his response this year)!

1. What is your favorite color? BLACK, BUT I WILL SWITCH TO ANOTHER COLOR SOON
at 4 years old: Green
at 3 years old: Green
2. What is your favorite toy? MY JOHN DEERE GATOR 
at 4 years old: My Gator, Mower, Trailer, Campfire (we had a fire in the firepit the previous night and he calls this campfire), and my horse hospital-a new birthday gift. 
at 3 years old: My trailer and my John Deere!!
3. What is your favorite fruit? GRAPES-BOTH COLOR GRAPES!
at 4 years old: Red and green apples
at 3 years old: strawberry
4. What is your favorite tv show? BANANAS IN PAJAMAS and BUSYTOWN MYSTERIES
at 4 years old:Word World!!!
at 3 years old: I don't know!
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICH
at 4 years old:Macaroni and Cheese
at 3 years old: Chicken Salad
6. What is your favorite outfit or things to wear? SHORT SLEEVES AND SHORTS
at 4 years old: My Ninja Turtle Shirt from Target (we purchased this the day before), shorts NOT PANTS, I really like khaki and white shorts the best!
at 3 years old: Gym Shorts, boat shoes, bow ties (hopefully he doesn't want to wear these three together!)
7. What is your favorite game? CANDY LAND
at 4 years old: Candy Land and playing Temple Run on Mommy's Phone
at 3 years old: playing ROWDY with Daddy (laughing!)
8. What is your favorite snack? GOLDFISH and PIRATES BOOTY
at 4 years old:Goldfish
at 3 years old: Suckers!
9. What is your favorite animal? ELEPHANT
at 4 years old: Kittycat
at 3 years old: owl
10. What is your favorite song? JINGLE BELLS
at 4 years old:Wagon Wheel
at 3 years old: Veggie Tales
11. What is your favorite book? MR POPPERS PENGUINS
at 4 years old:The Cat in the Hat and Charlotte's Web
at 3 years old: The Three Little Pigs by Dr. Seuss (any book title he talks about right now, he always says it's by Dr. Seuss)
12. Who is your best friend? BAILEY!  SHE'S MY FRIEND AND SHE'S A GIRL! 
at 4 years old:Wait a second, Mommy, I'm trying to tell you something about working in the yard and you asked me another question!  -proceeds to tell me about how he needs to mow the grass, then answers the question:  Colt, Charlie, Carter, and some more like all the ones that were at my party
at 3 years old: Charlie Gibson, Daddy, and Jude
13. What is your favorite cereal? CHEERIOS
at 4 years old:Lucky Charms
at 3 years old: I don't know!
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? RIDE MY GATOR, PLAY IN MY NEW PLAYHOUSE, AND WORK IN THE YARD, AND PLAY IN THE POOL 
at 4 years old:Swing and ride the John Deere Gator
at 3 years old: Ride mine John Deere and chase the birdies
15. What is your favorite drink? APPLE JUICE and THOSE KOOLAID SQUEEZES I GET AT THE GAS STATION SOMETIMES
at 4 years old:Apple juice
at 3 years old: Juice
16. What is your favorite holiday?  CHRISTMAS! I LOVE ADVENT GIFTS!!!!! AND I LOVE CHRISTMAS TREES!
at 4 years old: Christmas!  Hey, do you think Charlie the Elf will hid in our house again at the next Christmas?
at 3 years old: I don't know!
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? TIG THE TIGER, PANDA, AND TIP TOP THE GIRAFFE
at 4 years old:Panda
at 3 years old: Panda! Panda Doggie and Panda Turtle and BBB (big brown blanket)
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? SAUSAGE IN A BISCUIT
at 4 years old:Cereal
at 3 years old: Biscuit with the butter not melted (??)
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?  MEAT MUFFINS (this is what Carter and Dawson started calling the mini-meatloaves I've been making lately from turkey and oatmeal-I am so glad they like these because they're healthy-and easy!)
at 4 years old:Corn (?!)
at 3 years old: Mac and Cheese
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A FARMER!
at 4 years old: I'm going to be a farmer!
at 3 years old: Bentley!

Dawson's 5th Birthday PARRRRRty

Dawson's 5th birthday party was last weekend, and it was SO much fun!!  Dawson is just like his Mommy in that he is a planner, so it was no surprise when in September (yes, 8 months before his birthday) he announced that he wanted his party to have a pirate theme!  He stuck with his desire for a pirate party for the whole 8 months leading up to the party.  It was great! I had a ton of time to plan games and decoration ideas!  Dawson LOVED talking about his party for months and what different things he wanted to do!  Anticipation was most definitely part of the fun for he and I both on this party! 

So for his previous 4 birthdays, we have always been very lucky and been able to have his parties in our backyard without ever being rained out!  This year we had to push the party back from Saturday to Sunday afternoon because they were calling for a lot of rain.  Wouldn't you know it, it actually ended up being sunny during the time we were going to have the party after we had moved it!  It worked out well though because it was warmer on Sunday which meant the kids enjoyed the water games even more!

On to the party!

 

Here Dawson is in his party outfit.  His 5th  birthday shirt with his pirate swim shorts, pirate hat, and eye patch!

I had used the giant chalkboard signs for Carter's party, and I hadn't intended on using them for Dawson's until he asked what I was going to write on them for him.  So, he got signs too!

This sign was our menu!  We had Buccaneer Burgers, Fish and Chips (goldfish crackers and potato chips), Polly's Crackers and Cheese, Fruit Loot (sliced fresh fruit on sword toothpicks0), Pirates Booty, Sunken Treasure (clear cups full of blue jello with Swedish Fish candies swimming inside), the Cap'n's Cake, and Sea Water (bottled water), Jolly Roger's Juice (apple juice), and Sunken Sodas.

A special request by Dawson was for me to draw a pirate ship on this sign.  :)

Each kid got a little bag of treasure (gold coin toys, gold coin candy, and a necklace), a pirates hat, and an eye patch, so this sign reminded them to take their LOOT!

Dawson was SOOO excited about the part of the party where they got to Walk the Plank!  This was probably the aspect of the party he talked about THE MOST leading up to it!

We had this hanging up for photo ops for our little pirates!

My big 5 year old pirate at the food table!

Now that's a serious pirate face!

Pirate Dawson holding a gold coin.

You can also see our treasure chest piñata in the background!

Arrrgh!

All about my big 5 year old!

(He claimed his favorite color was black when I quizzed him for this board, but he then told me "it will probably change soon.  I have do switch to all the colors."  Haha!

Dawson's special request for the cake was a cake shaped like a pirate ship!  Which I made (see the two pictures below), but I got worried that it was going to not fare so well in the heat, so I also made this treasure map cake!  Luckily both cakes worked out perfectly, and we just had a lot of cake!

He was SOOOO happy with his pirate ship cake!

Happy 5th birthday to our big pirate!

 

Nora Kate enjoyed the party in her swim suit!  She relaxed on a blanket in the yard with her Lolly most of the time!

Another major request and thing Dawson was REALLY looking forward to was a treasure hunt!  I made the treasure map above from scrapbook paper and then burned the edges!  Dawson LOVED it!  The pictures below are a little out of order, but the first stop on our treasure hunt was to SWAB the DECK!  This meant spraying and washing the sidewalk chalk from the driveway!  The next stop was to SPY a PIRATES FLAG and say ARRRGH!  We had hung a pirates flag from a pole on a tree in the backyard!  Next we had to DEFEAT the PIRATE with RED CANNONS!  This meant going to the shed where a pirate was on the door.  There were 175 red cannons (water balloons) that the kids got to throw at the pirate!  They LOVED this!  Let me tell you though, filling 175 water balloons takes about 2 hours...using them at the party took less than 5 minutes!  :)  The next step on the treasure hunt was to walk the plank!  The kids LOVED this too!

Finally the big hint was that the treasure box was BURIED UNDER WATER!  The kids first suggested we look under the pools or the water table but I suggested we look under the bottled waters!  :) John buried a treasure box in the ground for me (hard work!), and it was full of gold coins, gold coin candy, and necklaces!  The kids LOVED digging in the ground to find this!

Defeating the pirate at the shed!

Swabbing the Deck!

Every good pirate has a tattoo!  So the kids could get tattoos at this little station if they wanted!

We had cannon bean bag balls to throw through this to sink these ships!

Defeating the pirate at the shed.

Defeating the pirate at the shed!

For some reason the kids decided to drink from the slip n slide?!

This little guy (Jackson) was SO HAPPY in the water!

Hayden wanted to drink the water too!

On our treasure hunt!

Dawson also requested we have a piñata shaped like a treasure chest!

Make a wish!

Carter had to have a turn too!  :)

We filled the piñata FULL of candy!  I think we actually (is it possible?!) had too much candy because the kids didn't grab it all! HAHA!

This is the front of the thank you notes Dawson sent.  He and I worked together to write a personal thank you on the back.

We also played pin the eye patch on the pirate!

 

After the party was over we let the kids get their baths and put on pajamas to wind down a little.  Then we let Dawson open his gifts from his sweet and generous friends!  It was like another party for him!  He loved looking at each card, bag/wrapping paper, and present!  He was a good sport and let his brother help him too!

This is the invitation.  I covered our address with this white paper for posting on the blog!

 

Yo ho, Matey! 

 

Lining up to begin the treasure hunt!

Treasure Hunt Time!

Swab the deck!

Swab the deck!

Treasure Hunt!

Defeating the pirate at the shed with red cannons!

Headed to walk the plank!

(I think this is the only picture I managed to get-somehow-of adorable Olivia in her two piece standing at the pool!)

All good pirates walk the plank! Arg!

Digging up treasure!

Digging up treasure!

Opening the treasure box!  Look! There's treasure for everyone!

Pin the patch on the pirate!

Pin the patch on the pirate!

 

 

Dawson said he had "the best party ever!" which made us smile and know it was completely worth all the time and energy we put into the party!  :)  Dawson and Carter have been talking about the party A LOT over the past few days, and I'm so glad they enjoyed it! 

I always like to record who was at each birthday, so guests at Dawson's 5th birthday pirate parrrrrty included the following:  Daddy, Mommy, Carter, Nora Kate, Lolly, Pop, Uncle Logan, Grandad, Nana, Aunt Emily, Uncle Eric, Cousin Drew, Cousin Hailey, Tim, Sara, and Lennox; Chris, Alana, and Colt; Fred, Andrea, Charlie, and Olivia; Ryan, Darcie, Dustin and Blake; Tanya and Bailey; Michelle, Cheyenne, and her Dad; Daniel, Patty, and Hayden; David, Sarah, Alexa, Connor, William; Laura and Jackson.  (I think that got everyone!) Yes, we had 40-something people to help celebrate Dawson's big 5th birthday!  John and I are so very grateful to everyone who came to help us celebrate Dawson!  He had a blast getting to play with all of his friends!