2 months

Myla hit the two month mark right before Christmas.  She weighed in at a very healthy 11.5 lbs (up about 3.5 lbs since birth).  She is chubby and sweet.  She is smiling a lot and we've even had the pleasure of a couple of giggles out of her.  She is my angel baby.  Love her SO much!

 

 

Christmas Morning

 

 Christmas morning was full of excitement and smiles!  The girls got lots of surprises from Santa and family and we all enjoyed the magic of the morning. 

 

Ella is constantly stealing Mommy's tape and scissors for her "projects". . .which leads to some constant frustration on my part.  Santa was nice and gave her some of her own tape in her stocking.  You can see how excited she was about that . . . :)

 Fake mustaches were definitely a fun stocking surprise for Maggie. . .

 Hadley's favorite gifts were the sweets in her stocking--no surprises there!

Maggie got her favorite lemonade!

 

 The two big girls each got a doll that looked like them--what they each dubbed as their favorite present this year!  Ella's is named Kelsey and Maggie's is name Meredith.

 

Ella asked for a boy lego for Christmas... Santa was nice and gave her a whole new set with a boy in it!

Hadley got a plasma car ride-on to help her keep up with big sisters on bike rides!

 

 

 

 

Luminarias

We went out with our good friends, the Wrights to explore the luminaries on Christmas Eve.  It was such a beautiful night, so quiet and peaceful and bright and beautiful.  So glad they dragged us along. . .I think we will do this every Christmas Eve here in New Mexico from here on out.  We loved everything about it!

 

 

 

 

 

Myla's Blessing Day

 

We were lucky enough to have both of our parents join us for Myla's blessing.  Brad gave her a wonderful blessing and I was filled with such gratitude for the sweet spirit Myla has brought into our home.  We love her so much and were grateful to have her grandparents with us to celebrate her special day.

 

Tuckered Out

 

Hadley has been wanting to be a big girl and not take naps.  She fell asleep after Brad took the girls to a 3-D movie one day and this is how she stayed.  Silly girl!

Maggie's Christmas Play

Maggie had the lead role of Mary in her preschool Christmas play.  She did a great job.  She knew all of the songs and performed her parts flawlessly!  She took her role as Mary very seriously.  It was so fun for us all to watch!

 

 

 

6 weeks already

"Baby Myla" (as she is referred to in our house, she is never called by just her first name) turned 6 weeks this past weekend.  Time has flown by so quickly.  I can't believe she can already lift her head up when she is on her tummy like she is in these pictures!  We love this little one so much.  I feel like she is no longer a newborn, which makes me so sad.  I put away all of her newborn clothes this past week as she can no longer fit in them.  I already miss the teeny-tiny baby that she was.  I feel especially sad if she really is our last, I will never get to snuggle one of my perfect little babies again.  She is still perfect, of course, but no longer so little and I miss that already. 

I was thinking the other day about how we had some big concerns with her heart while she was in utero.  There were some anomalies with her heart on ultrasound that needed more examination.  Could have been a tumor, a murmur, or valves that weren't working properly.  Could have been something serious.  It wasn't.  We are lucky.  She is perfect.  I feel so blessed.  I LOVE this little one!

 

 

 

 

 

Annual Christmas Tree Hunt

We made our annual trip out to the Cibola National Forest to find our Christmas tree.  We had a lot more options for good trees this year than in years past, which ended up leading to some debate about which one to get.  Brad and I were not in agreement, I wanted a skinnier one so it would take up less space in our living room, while Brad was fond of a much wider tree.  He graciously gave up his "dream tree" for mine.  I think he still wishes he had the other one, but we ended up with this 9 ft tree that fits nicely in the corner of our living room.    Here is the family in front of our choice (you'll have to picture me with the camera and Myla in the baby bjorn and I'll have to do better about turning the camera around next time!).

 

 Ella and Daddy had to do the hard work of cutting the tree down--Brad needs a new saw for next time!  Brad carried it to the car and Ella and Maggie got to climb on top to help him tie it down (a first for them and very exciting) while Hadley snacked in the car and I fed little Myla. 

 We watched a Christmas movie on the way home and enjoyed one of our favorite holiday traditions as a family.

 

It is certainly feeling more like Christmas now after getting the tree up in our house!

Maggie's Preschool Thanksgiving Family Feast

We lucked out and Daddy had a 2-hour break in his day right at the time of Maggie's Preschool program.  He was able to come and surprise her and watch her perform her Thanksgiving songs and enjoy Thanksgiving desserts with us.  So fun!

 

One month

Myla is one month old today!   I have no idea how much she weighs right now, but I feel like she is getting so much bigger, far too quickly for my taste.  She already looks so different than she did when we first brought her home from the hospital (at least to Mommy and Daddy anyway).   She is really starting to make eye contact with us a lot more and today she gave me her first real smile!  I don't remember the other girls doing that til about 6 weeks, so maybe it was a fluke, but this was no sleepy smile. . .she looked right into my eyes and gave me a huge, happy grin.  It really made my heart skip a beat and filled me with happiness. 

She is a pretty mild-mannered baby so far, but is just starting to have more and more awake time.  We will have to see if this leads to more fussy time or if she stays the little angel that she has been thus far.  She is incredibly loved in this family and I hope she knows that even though she is our 4th girl, she holds a unique place in each of our hearts. 

 

 

I love it when the babes start to stretch out. . .I could watch her stretch for hours, I don't know why but I just find these baby stretches SO cute!

 

I realized that it was Myla's one-month mark and wanted to snap a few quick pictures when I had a calm moment, and within minutes her two big sisters who were at home, had to join in the fun!  I am glad they did (even if they were uninvited) cause I love the way these pics turned out. . .

Black Eye

Maggie got a black eye this past week after running into a boy at preschool.  She says the other boy didn't get hurt because he wasn't running as fast as she was.  I came to find out that the little boy wasn't running at all, but Maggie was running, not paying attention and smacked her face right into the back of his head.  Poor little boy and poor Maggie--she certainly got the worst of it!  Hopefully she will be better at watching where she is going while running full speed next time!  :)

 

These pics make me laugh. . .I took them with my cell phone to send to Daddy to show him the evidence of her black eye on Day 2, post swelling but bright in color. Maggie's face in the first one makes her look tough enough that she could have gotten her black eye in a fist fight!  Everyone who saw her thought she had gotten into Mommy's eye shadow and was wearing makeup for about a week.

 

Popcorn

My girls all LOVE popcorn. 

My girls (really Ella and Maggie) have been enjoying writing their own songs and singing and performing them for Brad and I as of late.  They call it singing station and always dazzle us with their wonderful performances!  This is a song they treated us to last night and it had Brad and I rolling with laughter.  Apparently they think that if they gave me $100 I still would not buy them popcorn.  Ha Ha!  (I especially love Hadley singing in the background and providing a wonderful echo.  :))

 

Mommies

Myla is lucky to have so many mommies who always want to take care of her!

If she cries for even a second, she has all 3 sisters running in a panic to take care of her, give her the binkie, or let Mama know that baby Myla is crying!  (I am sure they will have to get used to it happening more once Daddy heads back to work next week. . .)

2 weeks old

I ditched out on church today.  I was planning on going, and totally could have gone, but Brad talked me into taking one more week "off" and enjoying some quiet time home with little Myla while I still had an excuse to do it.  I am SO glad I did.  It was so nice to just enjoy being with her in a quiet house--as you can imagine that doesn't happen too often around here!  I loved the peace and quiet and, of course, I also took advantage of the chance to take some more pics of her while she is still sleepy.  She is such a sweet heart, and is already seeming to be not so little anymore!