Happy 4th Birthday, Miss A!

Our first born turned 4 years old yesterday. She was blessed with phone calls from family members, text messages sent to me from friends, birthday wishes on my facebook page and gifts and cards from family and friends.

I ran out the night before to Wegman's to pick up some cupcakes and balloons and waffles and ended up getting a few more things too.

Miss A really likes fresh flowers and asked for them recently so I bought some in her honor-

I gave in and indulged her love of Disney Princesses and Tinkerbelle and bought her some balloons with those characters-

Her special place at the table with a special birthday plate all of us can use-

She started the day with a yummy chocolate chip waffle (Thanks Eggo!) topped with Cool Whip, blueberries and strawberries. We serenaded her with "Happy Birthday" and she made a wish. It's so fun to see her wearing her birthday crown we worked so hard on two years ago-

 FJ got to enjoy it too and Rosie-Rose was able to enjoy it vicariously-

Afterwards, she opened her gift from us while E was ironing his clothes for work in the basement...I'm pretty sure she opened her presents in the same spot last year-

 We got her a sleeping bag with fairies on it-

I had her stand under the bunting/banner I made for her-

Yep, that's the same skirt she wore for her first, second and third birthday-

I found those letters for free on a PDF download on a blog and printed them out the day before and cut them out. My dear husband punched holes in the letters and threaded them for me and hung it up the night before. He's so good at that stuff.

After dinner, she got a cupcake with another candle and another rendition of Happy Birthday. Thankfully Wegman's sells a pack of just 4 cupcakes so we didn't have lots of leftovers.

 4 years ago on a very cold day in January, Miss A, was born to us. Our first child. She arrived 9 days early after about 6 1/2 hours of labor. She likes fresh flowers, dancing, princesses, hugs, kisses, drawing, painting, reading and playing. She is her mother's daughter-she gets totally glued to the television. She is her father's daughter-she can clean up her room in no time and does it without prompting.

She is very funny and likes to be silly.
She's our left-handed, blue-eyed, spirited child!
Her teachers love her and her friends enjoy her creativity and make-believe that she brings to playdates.
We enjoy hearing her sing songs about our Savior and her ABC's.
She counts to 13 and then skips to 16.
She identifies letters and likes to make some of the sounds...all pretty much learned from SuperWhy and Word World and just us reading to her every day.
She write part of her name on her own and then needs my help writing the rest...again that was self-taught for the most part.
When I pull out the preschool books we got from Amazon, she gets excited and likes to work in her workbooks...which we need to get more of as she has completed them.
We continue to pray for her each night and each day that she will be healthy and safe and that she will grow up to love the Lord and have the compassion of Jesus.
She's our "bubby girl", our "pumpkin piesers", our "gorgeous girl".
She loves her brother, she loves her sister and she loves her mommy and daddy.
She was our first teacher in Welcome to Parenthood 101. She continues to teach us about how to be better parents and how to be better people.

You are our happy day, our sunshine and we love you more than words can say, Miss A!
Happy 4th Birthday!

Miss A's Birthday Interview

 Our little lady is almost 4 years old!

I did a birthday interview, like I did last year with her, and here are her answers:

Favorite food: cupcakes

Favorite vegetable: celery

Favorite fruit: apples

Favorite toy: Aurora (Sleeping Beauty doll)

favorite game: "Hi Ho Cheerios"

favorite book: Disney Princess Book

Favorite color: red

Favorite song: Jesus Loves the Little Children

Favorite Bible story:Noah's Ark

Favorite animal: ponies because elephants don't fly but ponies do (!)

Favorite phrase: Her answer: I love you (Aww!) My answer: Aw, Man!

favorite show: Ni Hao Kai Lan

what do you want for your birthday: Chuck E. Cheese Walkie Talkie so I can talk to Chuck E. Cheese [every year]

what does mommy always say to you? I love you.

What makes mommy happy? Cleaning up

What makes mommy sad? Throwing toys.

What do mommy and daddy do after you go to bed? Do a fireplace (make a fire in the fireplace) downstairs and you clean up too.

What makes daddy happy? Hugging him.

What makes daddy sad?Not hugging him.

What do you want to be when you grow up: a ballerina (a stark difference to the answer of trash man that she told me last year)

Who are your friends? Jaron, Chaya, Jovie, Payton, Selah, Isaac, Finley...Finley is my best friend, Violet

what do you like about mommy?Your big kisses

what do you like about daddy? He gives me piggy back rides.

What do you like about your brother? He hugs me.

What do you like about your sister? She smiles and talks.

What is something you would like to do this year? I would like to do ice skating.

Coming Home!

These are a few of the pics we took the day and night we got to bring our dear third child home from the hospital.

 Her leads-

That night-

She was released at 10:00 at night right after they gave her the last antibiotic dosage. She had been receiving it through IV but the last dose was given in two shots. Two nurses took a needle and injected at the same time on each leg. It was an intramuscular shot so it was extremely painful. She cried so hard and I immediately nursed her to comfort her. After that, we put her in her carseat-

Went out into the hallway and took some pictures in front of the room I had stayed in a week earlier-

A picture of her in the car rockin' a lovely faux hawk-

 The next morning!!!! It was like Christmas morning in our house! Miss A came in first and was delighted to see who was sleeping in the co-sleeper. She tried to give R her new doll that our doula had given her as a gift.

 

 I love FJ's face in this pic-

 FJ checking out his new baby sister-

 

We went in for her first doctor's appointment that first day home and Miss A went with me-

 Sleeping while we wait for the doc-

 Loved seeing her in this onesie-

3 Months Old Today

 

I appliqued this onesie for her on New Year's Eve-

Working on tummy time and lifting her head-

 Rosie is wearing some outfits that belonged to her sister here-

Miss Rosie-Rose is 3 months old today! She weighs 13.8 pounds according to our scale at home.
Height-25 inches
Head-42 cm
New stuff-
She's lifting her head up a lot when she is on her tummy.
She has now rolled over twice from her belly to her back!
She's even giggled a few times!


She had some projectile vomiting a few times so I took her in to see the pediatrician. They increased her Zantac dosage.

She still isn't turning her head towards sounds. If she doesn't do that by the time she is 4 months old, she will go in for hearing testing.

She is the happiest and easiest baby!
Thank you Lord for our third blessing!!

Newborn Photos with Appleseed Photography

These are a few of the beautiful pics that my friend, Lindsley, took of our baby girl-

NICU Photos

I took so many pictures while Rosie-Rose was in the NICU. I had E take pics of me to show what a NICU mommy looks like...the fatigue, the sadness, the worry...I don't want to forget so I can one day help someone else through it.
Rosie's monitor-

 These are the eyes of a mother who has recently learned that her newborn daughter is in the NICU only 8 hours after her birth...someone who has been crying and is exhausted and hasn't slept since her baby was born...it's about 1:00 a.m....NICU eyes-

 IV in her foot

 Leads on her belly-

 IV moved to her hand now after it was put in her head-

 No more IV's in her feet!

**There are many more pics than this but I cannot get them to load so this will have to do for now until I can get more loaded.