Sydney says, "Yummy Rice Cereal!"

Sydney started sleeping though the night shortly after she was 1 month old. It's been a huge blessing. At times I have felt like she is spoiling me. She has consistently slept 8 to 10 hours at night for the past 2 months. Then about a week ago, right when she turned 4 months old, she started waking up at night. It's only gotten worse. Last night she didn't sleep more than 3 hours without waking up and at one point it was less then 2 hours between feedings. Ugh! So tonight we tried rice cereal for the first time. Mommy is really not ready for this. I don't want her to grow up this fast.

Sydney did amazingly well. She really liked it. She choked a couple of times, but I think that was only because she started talking just as I was putting the spoon into her mouth. She was trying to talk to me the whole time. It was so funny. She kept smacking, then talking, smacking, then talking. I think she is going to be a lot like her oldest sister. ;)

Now, lets hope she sleeps though the night.

I had to include this picture because it was just too funny! My silly girl!

Thanks for visiting our blog.

Danielle

All Dressed Up

Wow, I can't believe it has been 8 months since I last posted. I made a vow to myself this past week that I am going to try to post at least once a week from now on. Anyway, here are some pictures from trick or treating last night. We had fun dressing up in a Little Red Riding Hood theme. I made Reilly's cape, Spencer's wolf hat, and Sydney's embroidered onsie. Sydney got quite a few laughs, giggles and snickers.

Here is the whole gang.

Maddisen dressed up as Little Red's Grandmother.

Michael and Brenton dressed up as Woodsmen.


Reilly dressed up as Little Red.

She was so into the candy I could hardly get her to look at me. Imagine that. ROTFLOL

Spencer dressed up as the Wolf in Grandmother's clothing.

Sydney in her tee I made for her. She wouldn't stop eating her hand and drooling all over herself. Notice the drool covered neckline.

Sydney and Mommy

Thanks for looking and check back often. I really am going to try hard to post weekly.

Danielle

Powerful Stuff!

I just read an awesome post on John Piper's blog.

... if we know that the essence of our evil is not commandment-breaking, but
preferring anything to God, then our focus for change will be a change of heart.
That is hopeful, because God promised, “I will remove the heart of stone from
their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19).

Wow, powerful stuff! I just have to share the link. It is well worth the read. Check it out!

Knowing the Nature of Your Evil

MIA

I seem to have been MIA for quite sometime. We got back from Cancun earlier this week and the preparations for us to go (we left the kids home) and the chaos since we've gotten back has kept me away. We had a great time and it was well worth all the work of preparing to go, but I doubted for awhile. LOL I didn't take too many pictures since we stayed at the same resort we went to last year. And to be honest, I was lazy and just wanted to relax. Toting my heavy camera bag around wasn't high on my priority list. But I did take a few and will share those just as soon as I find time to download them off my camera.

I better run now. Brenton just reminded me that I need to help him with his book report. I think I counted yesterday that we only have 13 more weeks until summer vacation. Woo hoo! I think I am looking forward to it more than the kids. I can't wait till the weather is warm, our pool is opened, and we can spend our days swimming and sunning by the pool. It's always so hard to come back from warm and tropical Mexico this time of year to the cold and snow. I love Iowa, but the Yucatan Peninsula wouldn't be a bad place to spend the winter months if one could afford the time and money. ;)

Christmas Morning

I am really disappointed in my Christmas morning pictures. I don't know if it was the lack of sleep (less then 2 hours), the incredibly bad morning sickness, or both! My pictures stink. :(

We had so much fun this Christmas. What a joy to have little Reilly excitedly ripping open everyone's gifts. It was impossible to keep her from it once she learned what she was supposed to do with Christmas paper. LOL She was so cute!

Maddisen and Michael's big gifts were laptop computers. It is going to make school so much easier with each of them having their own. No more hearing them fighting over the computer. I don't know how many times a day I would hear, "Hurry up with science Maddisen I need the computer for Latin." or "Michael, are you done with Math yet? I need to use the computer for bible!"

Brenton's big gift was a digital camcorder. He has proven to be a pretty darn good videographer. He is quite creative. Sveinn is happy to give up the job. Sveinn has a habit of either falling asleep while recording or recording the floor for 5 solid minutes! We have some very boring home videos.

Spencer got a killer Hot Wheels race track and tons of Hot Wheels to go with it. It's pretty cool and you can set it up a bunch of different ways. Reilly received a baby and those baby bottles that look like they actually have milk and juice in them. I remember having those when I was little! I was hoping the baby would help her to learn to be gentle with her new sister or brother come July. Hmmmm? I don't think it is going to do the trick. Though she has moments of tenderness with her baby, usually she is tossing it by the leg across the room. She was actually holding the baby by the feet Christmas afternoon banging it's head on the rock fireplace. She is so rough!

Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!

The three boys were racing to get to their gifts. Maddisen had wrapped them in rubber bands, tape, etc. and made them almost impossible to open. It was a riot!

Maddisen received an iTouch for Christmas and Reilly gave her an iHome to go with it.

Reilly having a "gentle" moment feeding her new baby.

Grandpa's Christmas Gift

Well, it's been a month since Christmas and I am finally posting this. I am so lame! No, just too busy I guess. This is the tee I made for my father for Christmas. It is one of the items I did for the YCMT.com Thrifty Fifty challenge. It was my very first embroidery project I have ever completed. I've had my machine for over 9 months and the challenge finally gave me the push I needed to actually learn how to use it. The shirt isn't perfect, but I liked how it turned out. We also used the shirt as a way to tell my parents we were expecting baby number six. I think they were shocked! LOL The top two boys on the shirt belong to my brother and SIL and the bottom are our six. I think my father liked it. At least I hope he did. I have done some more embroidery and machine appliqué since then. I love it! I can see where it could get addicting if I had the time.

Here is a close up.