Finley's Newborn Photos

Back in September I shared the link to Sarah's blog with our newborn session for Finley, and I shared her birth announcement, but I just realized that I never shared more of our favorite pictures!

 

I first saw Sarah's work when she took pictures of Hunter for Tiffany.  She was amazing to work with and she actually came here, which was a huge plus in my book.  She had also taken pictures of our friends Chris and Ashley with their sweet baby Charlotte, and I knew I wanted her to take pictures of Finley, too!  We hadn't done anything like this with the other three, but I soooo wish we had.  These pictures are just so precious to me now, and I think it would be amazing to have shots like this of Wyatt, Reese, and Hudson.  And you know Ms. Noelle would have made a few appearances in pictures of the first two kids!

 

Anyway, here are some of my favorite pictures from our afternoon (with a bit of narration by me, of course)!

 

This is actually a baby doll cradle that I've had since I was a  little girl. We used Reese's room for some of the pictures, and I knew I wanted to incorporate this in!  Finley looks so sweet in it.

Does this one need an explanation?  Love it!

These kids were a bit rambunctious...

There was lots of jumping on  the bed!

But they did settle down for a few.  And Sarah was incredibly patient with our chaos!

 

Side note - the outtakes of this will need to be shared at a later date.  Reese was seriously mad that we let Wyatt hold Finley for a minute, and the attitude was absolutely captured on camera.  All drama, all the time!

I love, love, love this picture of my girls!

And this little guy is so rough and tumble, but he is just so sweet to his <baby> sister.

 

And this guy.. he just makes my heart happy.  Hudson is genuinely just so kind.  And gentle (you know, with the baby.  Not in "real life.") And sweet.  And cuddly.  He loves his baby sister, and he is a great big brother to her.  I know it's a weird thing to say about a two year old, but he looks after her and always wants to hold her! 

And Finley. 

She is just amazing.

I cherish every single picture of her when she was so teeny tiny.  We've She's almost doubled her weight since then (I am so taking credit for that).  She's getting bigger and she's not my sleepy newborn anymore.  And these pictures are just so precious.  I love the little outline of her face.  And that little nose!  And her eyelashes are insane!  People always say that boys get the good eyelashes (and they totally do!), but this little girl lucked out!

And here's a picture of me and my girl.  Look at her little feet.  So sweet!

I am seriously, so, so glad that we had these taken!  It's only been two months and I already love looking back at my sweet girl - I can't imagine how I'll feel about them in 20 years. 

 

Of course, we loved Sarah's work so much that we jumped at the chance to have her take our Christmas pictures last weekend, too.  I'll try to share those promptly :)

Hudson's Birthday Party

We had Hudson's second birthday party last weekend.  The 3rd was a crazy, crazy day for us!  We woke up and took the kids to their last day of soccer, rushed home to get changed for pictures with Sarah at 12:30, and then had to pick up food trays and such for Hudson's party at 3!

 

This little guy is so in love Elmo, so we really had no other choice for his party theme!

This little fellow got spoiled :).  He loved opening his presents, but I think all of the big kids liked helping him more!

His yummy birthday cake!  I forgot to buy his candle.  Fortunately Katie surprised us all by coming home from college for the weekend, and she and Stevie ran up to the grocery store for me!

"Give me my cake!"

Waiting patiently for his piece of cake (and playing with his cake topper).

Enjoying some milk with his cake!

After his party I asked him if he had fun at his party and he said, "Yes! Yes!"  Seriously, this little guy is just the sweetest, cuddliest boy!

Two Months Old!

Finley is two months old!  Seriously.  Time needs to slow down!

Here's is what Miss Finley Quinn is up to this month:

• Finley is 21 inches long (6th percentile) and weighs 12 pounds (77th percentile).  I can't believe she was 6 pounds, 7 ounces when we got discharged from the hospital.  She was soooo tiny!
• If she's in a disposable diaper, she wears a 1.  She has made the cloth "switch", and she's wearing BumGenius diapers in their smallest size.  We only have 6 in her size, but they're definitely nice to have!  Hudson is in FuzziBunz, and I definitely prefer those.
• She is still a good eater - obviously!  Look at those cheeks!  She still spits up from time to time, but the projectile spit up seems to have subsided.  Thank goodness!
• We are still working through her discomfort in the car seat.  She really doesn't like it!  The teachers at Wyatt and Reese's school have now started giving me sad faces every day at car pool.
• She was on a pretty set routine before the time change, and I'm trying to get her back to it.  She was sleeping from about 10 until 7, and it's been a bit off the last few days.  She was sleeping through the night and waking up at 6, but I kind of prefer the middle of the night wake up with her sleeping until 7:30.  It makes it a  bit easier to get the big kids ready for school.  Trust me though, I'm not bummed about her sleeping through the night!  Ha!
• She doesn't really like being left alone.  I can lay her down on her play mat for a bit, or put her in the bouncy seat for a few minutes, but that's about it.  She likes to be held.  And I love to hold her.  Her head control is good though, and she'll tolerate tummy time for a little bit.
• This is probably bad, but she still sleeps in her swing.  Like, all the time.  I'm going to break her of it.  I even brought her bassinet down, but it's broken.  The big kids leaned on it and split the wood frame and it's unstable.  So it's kind of a good thing I never returned the Rock-n-Play to Target.  And I've heard good things about it, so here's to a content, sleeping baby and saving money by not buying batteries all the time! (Although being well rested is totally worth it for me.)
• She got three shots at her two month appointment yesterday, and she did well.  She was a little fussy last night, but she's been fine today!
• She still loves when I wear her in the Moby wrap. 
• She is smiling, and she is cooing up a storm.  After our nursing sessions she makes the cutest "ooh's" and "ah's."  We have little conversations.  It's the best!

She's not always sleeping or happy, though!  Here is an "outtake" from this morning.

Sleeping in her Moby wrap at Wyatt's baseball game.

 

 She LOVES her personalized pacifiers. Thanks goodness!  I thought she was going to demand my pinky forever!

 She passed out in her bouncy seat the other day. 

She went with me to vote after parent-teacher conferences for the big kids on Tuesday.  How sweet is this little smile?!

Halloween!

I sometimes think that the hardest part of having 4 kids isn't giving them each enough attention in "real life," it's giving them each enough attention in "blog life!"  I find it so hard sometimes just to sit down and do it - to go through and narrow down pictures, find a way to make sure I document special things like Halloween equally - it can sometimes be overwhelming!

 

We had dinner with our neighbors and the grandparents on Halloween.  I ordered pizzas and we had 5 very excited big kids ready to go Trick or Treating!  We very wisely waited until after dinner to change them into their costumes.

 

These two were ready to walk out the door at 6PM!

 

Finley had no idea what was going on!  But how cute does she look in the pumpkin costume?

Watching Hudson Trick or Treat was probably one of the best parts of the night.  Watching the big kids was fun, but they ran from house to house eager to get their candy.  It was exciting to watch this little guy figure out the running to the door-getting candy-saying thank you-process.  He just had so.much.fun.  It was awesome!

And Brian had a little fun, too.  Wyatt's mask was not so easy to see out of!

 

He was so polite!  He did his best to say "Trick or Treat!," and always followed it up with "Thank you!" 

We walked around our neighborhood for about an hour and then these two, well, they got like this...

So we came home :).  An hour of Trick or Treating and our candy supply on the front porch was gone!  It was nice to be back home in the heat, though - it was cold!  Finley stayed nice and cozy in the Moby wrap, though.  Her costume also kept her extra warm :)

Us with our little bean on her first Halloween!  I love that she's actually looking at the camera.   And her chubby cheeks make my heart happy.  Okay, and I'm a little proud that they got that way from the milk I give her :).

Halloween really was a lot of fun for us this year!  Everyone was well behaved (until they got tired), and they even listened very well when we told them not to eat any candy until we checked it.  They also did really well when we only let them have one piece each.  Thank goodness we didn't have to deal with them shoveling down candy!  Ha!

Wyatt's Pumpkin Patch Parade

Wyatt's parade was originally supposed to be on Tuesday, but they had to move a lot of things around to accommodate the schedule changes.  His was actually moved to the day after Halloween!

 

He did a great job singing his Halloween songs!

My favorite was about three pumpkins, and the final one was becoming pumpkin pie!

He is so stinking cute, mixed with a dash of troublemaker, and a little bit of silly! 

The storm trooper marching in his parade!

I can't believe that this was his final pumpkin patch parade, but I feel like I'm going to say that about his Christmas program and his Spring Program, too.  The fact that he is growing up is getting a little difficult for me to cope with.

We went back to his classroom to hang out for a bit.  It was nice because I was able to put faces to names in terms of who he plays with.  Right now I know that his two buddies in class are Jacob and Alex, and I was finally able to see them.  Of course, there are only 4 boys in his class, so he had to make friends with somebody!  Ha!  Fortunately they get all get along well!

Reese's Pumpkin Patch Parade!

So I'm running a little behind on the blog...oops!  I have good intentions, I just feel like I don't have two seconds to do it some days.  And we were super busy last week!

 

Sandy hit us last Saturday afternoon, all day Sunday, and most of the day on Monday.  We never lost power and didn't really have any damage around us. Unfortunately New Jersey and New York took direct hits and we got the outskirts.  There was a lot of flooding and school was canceled on Monday because of high winds and waters, but other than that we were spared.

 

Because there was no school on Monday, Reese's Pumpkin Patch Parade was moved to Wednesday.  She was not happy when I told her that she wasn't going to dress up on Monday, but she seemed to feel better once we knew it was going to be rescheduled.  She chose to dress up as Tinkerbell this year, and her costume was adorable. The temperature dropped after the storm, so we had to turn her into a winter fairy with her fleece!  Ha!

She is my talker.  She gets in the car after school and tells me all about her day.  What she did in her phonics book.  Who was bad.  Who she played with.  She always says that she played with everybody, but I know she mainly plays with her friends Emma, Ava, Darby, and Porter. 

She has such a fun time singing "Witches Brew!"  She and Wyatt sing it around the house while they're picking up the playroom.  Even Hudson gets in on the "We've got maaaaaaaaagic" line in the song!

After her "performance" the kids had a little parade around the parents.  They have so much fun showing off their costumes to their parents and grandparents!  We went back to her classroom for a bit of her party - you know, to watch them eat.  Ha! 

 

Kelly (Emma's mom) was able to take this gorgeous picture of my girl!  Love it!

After her parade we were able to peek in on Wyatt in his classroom to see what he was up  to.  It's still crazy to me that he's in kindergarten!  He had a parade too, so you'll be sure to read about that tomorrow!

 

There's no school today because of the election, but we do have parent-teacher conferences for both kids this morning.  It's probably odd that I'm weirdly excited and nervous about them.  I'm sure Reese is fine, but I know kindergarten has been an adjustment for my boy!   Of course we'll also be fitting in some time to vote at some point, although I am hoping it doesn't take 80 minutes this year (and I think I might miss being able to walk  to my polling station).  It's been an interesting few months living in a "battleground state," and I am soooo ready for it to be OVER!

Happy Birthday, Hudson!!!

Hudson Ellsworth Baker is two years old today!

 

 

It seems like just yesterday I was holding this handsome, sweet baby boy in my arms.

He was (and is) such an absolute blessing.  If I had to describe Hudson in 5 words I would say that he is adorable, easygoing, mischevious, loving, and funny!  He goes with the flow of our hectic family so well, and never complains about anything, even though we are almost always on the go.  Swim lessons, baseball, soccer, whatever it is, he literally just kind of hangs back and takes it in.  People used to ask what it was like adding a third to the family, and with this little guy it was a breeze!

 

ONE

As he gets older, more of his personality is just beginning to shine!  While he's fine taking a "backseat" when it comes to the big kids' activities, he doesn't around the house!  He's in the thick of things, playing with his toys (and sometimes fighting the big kids to get them), asking for the shows he likes on the TV, and letting us know in no uncertain terms that when it comes to his diapering, he prefers cloth!

His current loves include Elmo ("Melmo"), Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ("Mouse"), Caillou ("Cashew") and Doc McStuffins ("Doc!").  His most frequent words are "Oh no," "Wow," "Yay!," "Wy Wy and Eesie.""No," and "Yes!"  He likes to repeat what we say, but isn't stringing together too many sentences right now.  His biggest obsession right now is doing everything "SELF!"  This includes getting himself dressed, and also his favorite activity, which is to buckle.  He likes to buckle himself into his booster seat at the table, he likes to do his own chest strap (which we check, of course), and he is getting a kick out of Reese's buckle bunny!

 

We have all taken to calling him "Hud-doo" mainly because that's what he calls himself, and the nickname stuck!  He loves to kick around the soccer ball and throw the baseball with his brother and Daddy.  And it's so fun to watch him play quietly and independently while the big kids are at school.  If I'm feeding Finley, he can sit down in the playroom and do imaginative play all by himself.  Watching him line up his animals or build with his blocks just makes my heart happy!  But I also cherish the little moments I get with him just to myself.  When they're at school and Finley is napping, we're able to sit down and talk about colors and shapes and do puzzles - it's the best!

 

Happy Birthday, Huddoo!  We love you so much!