Ho, Ho, Ho??? No! No! No!!!!

The latest tragedy in Sadie's life.... pictures with Santa.Oh, the horror!!!Me & my Logan on Thanksgiving day.

Watching the light parade from the back of the car.

Spreadin' some Christmas cheer!

A BAAAAADDD Hair day:

There's only one thing to do when the day starts off with hair like this:

...Take pictures to document the locks in all their glory...


...and catalog how they progress throughout the day, despite being wet down and brushed...
After a lady at a store said she looked like the "littlest Who in Whoville from The Grinch", I thought it best to at least throw a bow in.

It's official...we're babyless

I was secretly hoping Sadie wouldn't really have to turn one, but as it turns out, her birthday did indeed arrive.

Warning: Do not feed honey to infants under one year of age.Enjoying her Weeble from Carter
Shoveling in the cake. Mmmmmm

Her purse cake...complete with ring pop, candy necklace, chocolate coins and chocolate lipstick. What more does a girl need?

Getting a little help from her brothers with the gift-opening thing.

Taking a closer look at the book from Grandma Barb.

Big girl! Don't grow up too fast, my love.

Catching up Again

Good thing I didn't make any promises after the last post...cuz here I am over two months later, finally posting again. One of these days I'll quit thinking to myself "As soon as _______ is over, then life will slow down for a bit" because something else always comes along to take it's place.

Logan's taking off in first grade. He's very smart and always has good reports at conferences. As I sat down with his teacher at conferences a week ago, the first thing she asked was "Logan, how do you think your behavior is in school?" Without skipping a beat, Logan replied "Oh, really good!" I guess humility comes sometime after first grade. Needless to say, he's reading up a storm, working on his multiplication table like crazy, and continues to amaze me with his maturity. I remember watching my friend's girls a couple of years ago, amazed at the maturity of her 7-year-old. It's refreshing to have at least one of my children at that level. Now if only I could achieve that same level of maturity some days...

Logan with his Wii remote costume.

Please...no one ask me what my boys "NEED" for Christmas. We're looking to simplify Christmas a bit this year...

Carter's doing great as well. Since his birthday occurs during the first week of school...and he's a rather energetic boy, we elected to have him do preschool again this year. We originally started him in the same school as last year, but have since switched him to a different school and he's doing wonderfully. I guess there's something to be said for putting a kid in an enviroment where he feels he's loved rather than just pushed academically. He's starting to read things...now that he's not being pushed to READ. Go figure.

One of his more tiresome days after school. He had put his laundry in to wash and asked if he could play with his hamper. I noticed it got awfully quiet in the living room...

Carter, our PEZ dispenser. You know it's cold when this kid says he'd rather go home than get more candy. It was freezing!

Lovingly "tossing a few leaves" on his sister. She was unimpressed.

And Sadie...is off and running. Her personality continues to put me under a spell. Not sure if it's a "baby #3" thing or a "girl" thing. She's very charming and pretty easy-going as long as she's gotten some sleep and her belly is full. She says "Hi" and "What's that?"...and of course, waves bye-bye and spits upon request. If I point and say "ET phone home", she sticks out her pointer finger and touches mine. She likes to help mommy sort laundry (fling all laundry around room, whether folded or unfolded) and load the dishwasher (attempt to crawl into dishwasher). I love to watch her hug her baby dolls. She also demonstrates the classic girlish eye-batting when she decides to be shy when someone's talking to her. How do they figure that stuff out so early?

Being cheese-y for the camera.

Gotta love the first tooth gaps!

Her mother neglected to trim her nails in a timely manner, so she scratched her nose...but the silly thing wouldn't quit bleeding.

Snuggling her pillow pet from Grandma Jan.

As for Ryan and I, nothing much as changed...getting older and more boring with each day...and we like it that way. But no one wants to hear about us anyway.

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For Crying Out Loud...

Well, we did it...took the plunge....and let our baby girl "cry it out" to get to sleep. After way too many months of getting up every hour 4 or 5 nights a week (because she will ONLY go to sleep nursing), trying every technique I could possibly read about, this broken-hearted Mommy decided it wasn't fair to this family for me to be so sleep deprived (AKA: "CRABBY!!!"). Sooooo, last Friday night I fed her, rocked her, squeezed her and told her I loved her, put her in her crib, turned OFF the baby monitor and proceeded to call our babysitter to distract myself from the screams. And 25 minutes later, she was asleep. Saturday night was 10 minutes. Sunday night was less than a minute. Monday night was 5 minutes. And I haven't gotten out of bed all night long since Thursday.

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I wish I had a bed this comfy...the pillows and blankies and soft bunny. I'd never get out of bed!

If you'd like to make a donation to her future counseling sessions, just shoot me an email :)

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For a note of history, I had originally tried just not letting her nurse to sleep and just rocked her. The screaming those nights was 45 minutes. She had no voice for 2 days; she sounded like one of the muppets when she laughed.

Despite the tragic bedtime, Sadie's doing great. She crawled for only 4 days before pulling up on furniture and getting into everything. She now stands for a good 10 seconds or longer without holding onto anything. We predict she'll be walking by October.

Who gives their drooly kid blueberries??? I guess that would be the same person that shampooed the carpet...

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Sadie lounging.

Since it's been forever since I've sat down to blog, I better get somewhat caught up with a recap: .

June & July:

Sadie and I took a trip to Minnesota to see my cousin, Michelle and her baby, Kylee. Kylee was born Dec. 21 but wasn't due until mid March. So, she and Sadie are only 5 weeks apart in age, but 4 months apart in development. In this picture, Kylee's on the left, then Logan (my friend, Julie's baby) and Sadie's on the right. Kylee and Logan are developmentally the same age. Kylee and Sadie are technically about the same age. BUT, Logan weighed as much as Sadie!

Michelle and I

While the girls were relaxing in Minnesota, the boys were tearin' it up in Alaska. Of course, Daddy had to work so my folks had the boys quite a bit. My mom took them to the little carnival that visits Kenai each year. I love this picture of Carter. He's absolutely screaming with excitement!

Tball rules changed this year, which means Carter got to play even though he was only 4 years old. He seemed to like the first practice or two but quickly got bored with the rest of the season. We'll see what next year brings.

Carter up to bat.

Logan taking off for first.
Grandma Jan came to visit the end of June. As usual, her visit ends all too quickly. But, the kiddos look forward to seeing her every time. They call our spare room "Grandma Jan's room" all year 'round.

Sadie's wondering what kind of freak family she was born into...

Cousins Caitlyn and Madyson also visited this summer. Hard to believe a year ago we visited them in Montana. Madyson was the age Sadie is now...and we were expecting a boy!!! Funny how things have changed in a year.

Of course, a typical picture with all the cousins...not a single kid looking at the camera.

We started off July with a parting of ways with the old washing machine. We opted for the top loading variety for the new one (still high efficiency, though). As you can see, it has a clear lid for your viewing enjoyment. Logan actually chose to watch the washing machine instead of playing the Wii one day. Yikes.

August:

Of course our main news in August is Carter turning 5!!! We had a carnival theme for his birthday, including Logan putting on a magic show with his trusty assistant, Joshua.

Hopefully I won't let myself get this behind again. I'm not making any promises.

Greetings from Minnesota

Since I've been such a slacker updating our blog at home, I figured I'd maybe add a few pics from Minnesota (with only one kiddo along, I actually have time). I'll try to get up to date on the boys when we get home next week. No promises, though.
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Miss Sadie showing off her swimsuit

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Sleeping soundly...on MY bed.
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Breaking in Kylee's new toy.

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An afternoon with my cousin Dan, his wife Rachel and their "baby" Annie.

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Kylee asleep in the swing.

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Visiting with Great Grandma Liz

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Visiting Uncle Chad's burial site.

Fame in her future

Our baby girl just might be made for Hollywood if she continues to resemble stars such as these...
Sadie vs. Master Yoda: The ears are the biggest resemblance, but the lack of hair is another comparable feature.




Sadie vs. Al Bundy: I don't think I need to point out the resemblance here.


So Miss Sadie is officially 5 months old today...and Mommy's officially tired. On a positive note, I made it much further before I reached the point of exhaustion with this baby than I did with the previous two! Who needs sleep, right?

You might recall that many months ago I noted that this baby (boy) #3 was the most active in utero...and that has not changed in the outside world. She's a big fan of immediately rolling over onto her belly and then protesting the fact that she's "stuck." Lots of yelling going on at the Magee house. She also digs her feet into the carpet and has managed to push herself forward a couple of times. I have a feeling the gate will be going back up at the top of our stairs very soon.

She's also quite nosey, constantly wanting to know what's going on. I'm afraid some things Mommy simply cannot do one-handed, so Sadie gets put in her chair to supervise. God help me when she can actually bark orders at me!

She remains the emotional basketcase she was several months ago. However, she rarely fusses or truly cries. She just yells...all day long...And if Mommy thinks for one second she's allowed to turn her back on Miss Sadie (i.e., to hang up her coat when we get home), Sadie manages to go from smiling to screaming in exactly 0.3 seconds! Until Mommy turns around again - THEN we're happy. I feel sooooo loved.

She's remained a healthy baby, other than a little runny nose here and there. Not sure how much of that is teething, cold, or her GERD. But, it doesn't seem to bother her. Her GERD seems stable with her medicine (and for what that medication costs, it OUGHT to be!). And now that cold & flu season is coming to a close and the boys will stop bringing home school germs, I'm hoping she'll be good throughout the summer.

The boys are plenty busy, finishing up the school year and playing indoor soccer. Logan's convinced that Carter can read now because he can recognize which of his cars are "Hot Wheels" as opposed to some other brand. Little League changed their rules for this year, so Carter will get to play t-ball with Logan. Yikes. That kid with a baseball bat might not be such a grand idea. Helmets will probably be mandatory in the dugout after this season.