April/May Update! Kacie's 6 months!

Life has been great lately but oh so crazy at the same time! :)  April started off with a 16 hour drive to Orange Beach, Alabama for Spring Break with my in-laws and our good family friends!  The drive actually went better than I thought as I had no clue what to expect with 3 seven year olds and a 6 month old baby!  But Kacie was amazing!  She loves her car seat and would stare at her rattle for a long time. :)  She slept a lot and would just cry when she would poop through her clothes.  Other than that, she's a natural traveler!! :)  We just stopped every three or four hours for me to feed her....it wasn't that bad!  And yet we are still fans of flying. :)  

We stayed on the 20th floor and the first few nights involved watching the Badgers!  Here the kids were writing "Go Bucky" in the sand....this is a zoomed in shot from the 20th floor. :)

Kacie turned 6 months old while we were there!  She now weighs 18 lbs. 11 oz (85th percentile) and is 28 inches long (97th percentile)  She started sitting up by herself a few weeks ago and does great at it!  She always rolls over if on her back or stomach and now she chooses to roll to sleep on her stomach.  She loves to sit and play with her toys and is such a happy baby.  She has her third ear infection right now but handles it pretty well!  She is such a good baby and SO MUCH FUN to have!!  I keep wanting time to slow down with her as I really really love the baby age and it is such a short period of time!  I'm savoring so many moments!  She is just so precious!!

Her big sisters continue to love on her...maybe too much as now Kacie has their colds. :)  But they like taking turns feeding her and definitely argue over who's turn it is to hold her or sit by her or whatever.  Kacie isn't sleeping through the night consistently yet.  She will usually sleep through the night once a week or twice a week if I'm lucky.  Last night she slept through the night but then Hailey didn't because she has an ear infection!  Oh the joys of four kiddos! :)  She still nurses every 3 hours during the day and then eats two or three containers of baby food a day.  

 Orange Beach!

 The grandparents watched the big kids one night so we could go out! It was great to eat in peace!  We may or may not have taken our time eating. :)

 Hailey & Tyler

 Practicing on their boogie boards

 We put all the kids at one table for dinner out one night.  Needless to say little Lukey in the top left ended up downing two root beers.  They had fun though! :)

 After our trip I started Kacie on rice cereal for a few days and then went straight to baby food!  So far she likes squash, sweet potatoes, beans, peas, carrots, pears, peaches, mango, pretty much everything!  This girl likes to eat! :)  She's growing up so fast!!

 My friend Heather from Sioux Falls who has four boys - three of them triplets :) came out to meet Kacie.  It was SO fun to catch up with her and I love how our friendship doesn't change even though we're miles away with very similar lives (four kiddos/triplets) but very different (all boys and all girls for me!)  So since Heather was here with a bunch of girls, she insisted the girls give us makeovers one night.  You can't really tell in the pic but the girls did have free reign!  They had a blast! :)

 April was also busy as I help plan the school auction.  Andrea and I are a team and we love working together on it!  Here we are at the auction - and Andrea is expecting TWINS!!  She has three girls already (her oldest is in the girls' class) and now TWINS on the way!  I just can't believe how many multiples friends I have!  SO SO excited for her!!!

 Then the end of April Ryan actually won a trip at work for Sales!  Way to go Ry!!  So we got to go to Playa Del Carmen with about 20 other co-workers.  It was SOOO relaxing there!  The place was really neat too....felt like we were in Costa Rica (even though I've never been there)... We took golf carts to get all over the resort.  It was just so quiet!  We got to play beach volleyball for hours which I love, hit up the spa, and golf!  Such a treat!   Jumping pic with co-workers. :)

 The BEST treat was all the help we got with the girls!  My friend Des watched Kacie, then my mom flew in and watched her the rest of the time, and Kim and Kathy watched the big girls!  It was a lot of prep getting all ready to leave four kiddos....but the break sure was nice!

Kacie playing with my friend Des's dog Scout :)

Addy, Em, and Hailey are loving 1st grade.  Here I went in to their class to hear them read little stories they wrote about what they want to be when they grow up.  It was TOO cute.  They are currently having fun playing soccer and we just signed them up for golf this summer so that should be fun. :)

Sweet baby snuggles

The "Kacie face"

Sitting up!!

The girls and their friend Isabelle after their school concert.  (Hailey, Emily, Addison)