Happy Birthday Baby Girls!

We had a great time celebrating Lydia and Savanna's Birthdays last week.  We had a St. Patrick's/Birthday party with my family, 

I love this picture of them smiling at each other -

 

This "rainbow cake" turned out WAY better on Pinterest!

had a popcorn movie night at home on Savanna's Birthday, ate at Texas Roadhouse,

Gotta love the saddle at Texas Roadhouse!

went bowling,

 Savanna was running all over the place until the last 10 minutes, when she zonked out on Jana's lap. 

had Lydia's ears pierced,

 feeling "a little bit nervous"

No tears, but a lot of squirming and a few high-pitched "OUCH!  That hurt!" comments.  On the way home she said.  "Being 8 has been pretty tough so far, like getting my ears pierced..."  Little did she know that it was going to get even tougher because one of her earrings fell out that night, and Randall pretty much had to re-pierce her ear to get it back in.  We never found the earring back, so she's just using one of mine.  Hopefully it will hold strong for the next 6 weeks! 

and sang Karaoke with Aunt Rachel (the other Birthday girl!) on Lydia's Birthday,

and had cake and ice cream with the Stewarts the next day. 

Jackie made a DELICIOUS cake for Lydia, Savanna, Kyle, and Casey's Birthdays.

So much fun!

Savanna's Dictionary

eh dat - I want that.  Good luck guessing what "that" is.
fre-frast - breakfast
gubbles - bubbles
gobbidge - garbage
yesh - yes
tisses - kisses
e-caaause - because (Always said in a very sweet, high-pitched voice after you ask her why...)
chicken - chin; chicken
Car-der - Carter
Ia - Lydia
Mia - Meleah
Cam-in - Cameron
Samana - Savanna (She can actually say it correctly now, but this is what she used to call herself.)
Em-ma So-phi-a - Emma (Never said separately, it's either Emma Sophia or baby)
poopy tinky - Poopy Stinky/the baby needs her diaper changed/I had an accident
my pot - That's my spot!  You'd better move it, or I'm going to whack you repeatedly!
ta-da - ta-da (She says this totally clear, but I had to include it because I think it's adorable.)
I did it! - Also very clear, but SO cute!

 Music and Dancing

Savanna has always LOVED to sing and dance.  She is constantly singing "No more muh-kees jumpin' on da bed,"  "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Dar," "Round and Round," (Wheels on the Bus) "Appy an you know it," "Itsy Bitsy Pider," "Hi-Yo"(Riggedy Jig), "Do as I'm Doing," "Wok-a-by, don't you cry," and MANY others.  I even heard her singing "Oh, it's what you do to me-e-eee, Ohhh, what you do to me" (Hey There Delilah) the other day.  She loves to dance, and basically dances wherever she goes.  She never just walks anywhere.  She jumps, bounces, and even does this weird crouchy walk on occassion.  I wish I had even half of her energy! 

Bossy

I have to admit that Savanna can be a bit bossy at times.  There's nothing she likes more than to tell the kids what to do.  For a while there, Cameron used to tell me EVERY TIME he needed to go to the bathroom, to which I would ALWAYS respond "Go potty."  Savanna picked up on this, and whenever Cameron would come and make his announcement, she would loudly respond "Go potty Cam-in!"  This annoyed Cameron to no end, and he now just GOES to the bathroom when he feels the need.  (Wahoo!)  She also loves to tell the kids when it's "tine-to-eat!" (time to eat), and yell "No fighting kids!  Aright?!"  when she hears them arguing.  She even bosses me around - "Mom, wook!" (look) or "Watch dis Mom!"

Sweetheart

Savanna can also be SO sweet.  She has always LOVED her baby dolls, and will feed them, wrap them in "bankies," and tuck them in to go "nigh-night" for HOURS.  Whenever someone gets hurt she will give them hugs and say "You urt? Oh! Aw bedder!"  She also says "Sure!" in the sweetest little high-pitched voice when I ask if she wants to do something.  It's so cute! 

Daddy's Girl

All of my kids tend to like their Daddy a little bit more once I stop nursing them for some reason, but this little girl takes it to a whole new level.  She YELLS "Daddy home!" and RUNS to her Dad the minute he steps through the door.  She usually won't let him put her down for at least 30 minutes.  Randall's getting really good at eating while distracted because at meal time Savanna sits at her own seat for about 3 minutes, then moves over to Daddy's lap and says "uh bite!"  (I want a bite!)  Apparently his food tastes better.  She always comes up to me and says "Where's Ran-ull?  (Randall) At work?"  I think I would be offended by how much she loves him if it wasn't so dang adorable. 

Belly Button

Savanna's always been a little obsessed with her belly button.  She HATES it when I put her in a onesie, because then she has no access to her belly button, and she LOVES when Grandma Stewart sings "Belly, belly, full of Jelly" while tickling her tummy.  She also loves to show off Mommy's belly button - even when she's 8 months pregnant and in a room full of people.  ;)

 

Favorites

Color - "uh know" (I don't know)  She hasn't really shown a preference yet.
Food - "um eat"  She eats everything pretty well, but she LOVES tomatoes, strawberries, kiwi, Clementines, cheese, and chocolate.
Movie - "um, upstairs" (They have movie nights in their rooms upstairs sometimes) She loves  "Swa-berry Sho-cake", any "Princesh" movie, or "Bobbie" (Barbie). 
TV Show - "show" (Maybe she's still a little young for theses questions...) She asks for "Do-Do Do-wa" (Dora), "My Big Big Fwend," "goos coos" (Blue's Clues), "Bo on da Go," "Dan-el Tiger," "pat-pat-pat" (Little Einsteins), and "Zoom-iny" (Team Umizoomi)

"Even you know"

There aren't as many mispronunciations when kids get older, but Lydia still has one funny little thing that she says all the time.  (As usual, I don't correct her because I want my kids to stay little forever!)  Instead of saying "Even though,"  she says "Even you know."  For example: "I still like Bubble Guppies, even you know it's a preschool show."  It actually kinda makes sense, so I guess I can see why she's confused...   

Peacemaker

Lydia's my little peacemaker.  Not because she NEVER fights with anyone (although she doesn't seem to be inolved in arguments NEARLY as much as Meleah some of my children...), but because she's always trying to make everyone happy.  She tries to help the kids compromise so that it's fair for everyone, and is quick to comfort anyone that is upset.  She's SO sweet-natured and easy-going...most of the time.  ;)

 

Optimist

This year's been a little bit more difficult for Lydia.  She's been teased a couple of times, and she sometimes gets frustrated when she can't do something that other kids her age, or even younger than her can do.  She wants to run, ride a bike, do the splits, and play soccer like all the other kids, and now that she is doing so well physically (she walks nearly as fast as I do with her canes), it's actually more difficult for her to see that there are still some things that she can't do.  However, she NEVER dwells on it.  She may feel sad for a minute, but then she comes up with something that she CAN do, or some way to adapt an activity so that she can have fun too.  She's really easy to please, and generally just an all-around happy kid.  She rarely feels sorry for herself, and when she does it's really easy to pull her out of it.  Her happy, optimistic attitude has pulled me out of the grumps on many occassions, and I'm so grateful that I get to spend time with her every day. 

Lydia's Birthday present.  Now she CAN ride a bike! 

Favorites

Food:  "uhhhhh, pizza"

Movie:  "Wreck it Ralph, and Princess movies, and Barbie"

TV Show:  "Signing Time"

Toy:  "It's something that ran out of gum,  (Hello Kitty gumball machine) and my tablet"

Book:  "Princess Bedtime Stories"

Color:  "Pink and purple and blue"

School Subject:  "PE and art"

Justin Bieber

Carter:  Justin Bieber started to smoke to make his voice lower.

Lydia:  Nuh-uh!  Why do people don't like Justin Bieber?!

Meleah:  The thing that I DON'T like about Justin Beaver is that he sounds like a girl.  The thing that I DO like is that he's really handsome! 

Double Digits!

I can't believe it, but my little baby Carter turned TEN last month!  Crazy!  He's so excited to be in the "double digits" and closer to being a teenager. (gasp!)  We had lots of fun celebrating with our families and going to Jump On It and Chuckarama on his Birthday.

The kids loved Jump On It.  I did too, except for when some punk kid made fun of Lydia for wearing a diaper.  It totally made me cry to see her upset, and I couldn't stop tearing up the rest of the time. (For the record,  I DID just have a baby 5 days earlier!)  Fortunately, Lydia gets over things quickly, and was bouncing around again in no time.  On the way home she said, "Daddy taught me a lesson today:  If someone says something mean to me, then that's THEIR problem!"

The girls LOVED getting super-bounced by Bre!  I wish I would have gotten a pic of them catching air, but I wasn't fast enough.  It was pretty hard to get any pictures at all with how fast the kids were jumping around the place!

 

Grandpa Stewart made Carter his all-time favorite - chicken fettuccini with mashed potatoes, or what Carter likes to call NBGR (He named it that before he learned the necessity of vowels).  And yes, he does mix the mashed potatoes and fettuccine together.  :)  He also made his famous chocolate cake with delicious home-made chocolate frosting.

 

 My Mom made him this cool Candy bar cake when we were in Vegas for Grayson's blessing -

 

Favorites -
Food: "NBGR" (pronounced Nub-ger, in case you were wondering).
Color:  "Blue and Black"
Movie:  "The Avengers"
TV Show:  "Iron Man Armored Adventures"
Book:  "Doublefudge by Judy Blume"
School Subject: "Nothing"
Toy:  "Lego Lord of the Rings"

Carter has always been so calm and mature for his age, so I guess it's a good thing that his age is starting to catch up to his personality a little bit more.  He still HATES to get in trouble, and can be a little bit whiny negative woe is me Debbie Downer sensitive when he's had a bad day, or is tired.  He's constantly making radom funny comments, and seriously makes me smile every single day...whether he means to or not.  I love to watch him play with Cameron, help Lydia out of the car, hold the baby, etc.  He's always been such a GOOD boy (I didn't realize HOW good until I had several children that are, shall we say... a little LESS afraid of getting into trouble), and I'm SO grateful that he was my intro into this wonderfully crazy world of motherhood.  It makes him blush to hear me say it, but I LOVE my little Carter-Cutie SO much, and I'm so happy that he's mine!

The Name

I forgot to mention how we came up with little Emma's name.  We had a pretty hard time deciding this time (Seriously don't know how my parents named SEVEN girls!).  I really liked Julia, Cayla, and Shayla, and Randall wanted Sophia or Sariah.  I personally thought those two names were too close to Savanna... The kids really liked the name Julia, but one morning a few weeks before she was born, Meleah came downstairs and said that she had a dream that the baby's name was Emma.  From then on, she just started calling her Emma - like that was just what it was going to be.  I actually liked the name Emma, but Randall was still holding out.  While I was in labor, he caved (something about seeing me in intense pain makes him give in, apparently) and we decided that her name would be Emma.  I let him choose if it would be Emma Tami (my older sister that passed away when she was 2 months old from birth defects), or Emma Grace and he chose...Emma Sophia (his great-great-grandma's name).  I loved it!  Hopefully she will too.  :)

Emma Sophia

Our little Emma just turned 2 weeks old, so I guess I'd better share her birth story and what's been going on around here since her arrival.  AND post some adorable pictures, of course.  Emma's delivery was not my favorite of all time, only because I had some issues with irregular contractions/false labor, not to mention KIDNEY STONES.  That's right, I had kidney stones when I was 38 weeks pregnant.  Yes, for all of you that have never had them, the pain IS similar to labor, although mine actually brought on contractions that contributed to the pain. After a long sleepless night (Seriously, worst night of my life...which includes the 4th year hike at girls camp where we fell asleep under a tarp to protect us from the rain. The only problem was, I was on the end at the bottom of the hill so after about 20 minutes everyone had slid down to the point that I was no longer under the tarp.  I laid there in the rain ALL NIGHT watching the water make puddles on my sleeping bag.)  Anyway, where was I?  After a long sleepless night, I was really worried because it didn't feel like regular labor.  I thought something might be wrong with the baby, so I called my doctor and he told me to go to labor and delivery.  After sitting there for over 3 hours, they discovered that I had kidney stones, gave me some painkillers, and sent me home. 

I continued to have pain for a few days, and then I felt good for almost a week.  Then, I started having contractions again (without the kidney stone pain thank goodness).  I had them all day and through the night about 7 minutes apart so we headed out to the hospital at about 5 am.  Unfortunately, on the way to the hospital the contractions started slowing down, and by the time we got there they were 10 minutes apart.  I was dilated to a 4, 2 days overdue, with regular contractions, but since the hospital was busy that morning, and I am a VBAC...I was sent home. 

I attempted to take a nap, walked to the school with my Mom to pick up Meleah, and then started having REALLY painful contractions every 7 minutes.  After a couple of hours we headed back to the hospital AGAIN.  I started to get worried because they were still 7 minutes apart, so we went to get a drink at Sonic in hopes of getting closer to 5 minutes.  However, instead of getting closer together, they started getting further apart.  I was NOT going to get rejected from the hospital again, so we dropped some paperwork off at Randall's work, washed the truck, walked around the mall, ate spicy food at PF Chang's...and STILL no regular contractions.  At this point it was probably around 9:00 at night, and I was totally exhausted.  I decided to call the doctor and tell him what was going on.  He said to go ahead and come in, and he would see if the contractions had done anything.  We came in, and when they checked me I was still only a 4!  I couldn't believe it, after a full day of painful contractions!  At that point I thought they would send me home again, but the doctor told me that he would break my water and they could even put me on the lowest dose of pitocin if I needed it, even though I'm a VBAC.  That was the best news EVER!  They started my IV, gave me my epidural, and about an hour later he came and broke my water.  I dozed for about an hour and my contractions never got regular so they thought they would have to do the pitocin.  Fortunately, even without regular contractions, I was dilated to a 7 so we didn't need to.  About a half an hour later I was a ten, and half a push later she was born.  Not the worst delivery in the world, all things considered, but not the best either.  That would be Savanna's delivery.  ;) 

Emma is the sweetest little baby.  She's a bit of a night-owl, so I'm going to have to turn that around, but when she's awake she's usually pretty happy and calm.  The kids LOVE to hold her and everyone fell in love with her instantly.  Even Savanna, although she's not the softest toddler I've ever met, says: "Oh, tute baby!" EVERY TIME she sees Emma (which is pretty frequently, since we live together after all).  She also LOVES to give her high fives and knuckles.  It's been a little bit of a battle because she likes to hold the baby, and sometimes tries to rip her out of other people's arms.  She does NOT like to wait for Mommy to finish nursing the baby before refilling her sippy, taking her potty, getting her snack, etc.  Savanna is also under the assumption that babies should only have blankies when they're going nigh-night.  So, if Emma is awake, she rips off her blanket, and doesn't let anyone put it back on.  She also has had a bit of a hard time with some of Emma's habits.  Every time she sees her sucking on her fingers or nursing she says "No bite!"  I've tried to teach her that it's okay, but she doesn't understand.  At least now instead of yelling at her every time, she goes up and softly whispers "no bite baby," so that she won't have to hear me explain ONCE AGAIN that babies are supposed to do that. 

Savanna has also discovered that Mommy nursing = at least 15 minutes of uninterrupted get-into-everything-you-know-dang-well-you're-not-supposed-to-touch time.  Like markers for example -

Ironically, the shirt I threw on her that day says "Help!  Mom's having a bad day! Call 1-800-GRANDMA"  Sadly, Grandma Brown had already just been here for two weeks.  She has to go home some time!  I actually did call Grandma Stewart to watch my kids while I went to a doctor's appointment the next day... What would we do without Grandmas?

SO happy to finally have her here!

 Grandma Brown brought the kids to the hospital so they could meet their new baby sister.

Cameron was admittedly a little disappointed when he found out that we were having a girl, but he has told me several times since she's been born that he's SO happy that she's a girl because she's "SO cute!" He and Meleah argue daily because Cameron always says "My baby sister..." and Meleah informs him that she's not just HIS sister! 

So excited that she has enough hair to make a "mohawk."  The kids think I'm crazy, but I'm the Mom, and I can do whatever I want!  ;)

All ready to go home -

We were able to check out of the hospital just in time to make it to Lydia's Dolphin project presentation. (Thanks Mom, for helping her finish the project and get to school so she wouldn't miss it!) -

The last couple of weeks have just flown by, and I've been LOVING all my snuggle time with baby Emma.  Thanks to everyone for all your support and love.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends that take care of our kids, bring us meals, send sweet facebook messages, call to check up on us...  We couldn't have done it without all of you!