If I could save time in a bottle...

Grandma Jan shook her finger at me over the phone last week for not keeping up on my blog, so I figured I better get caught up before I get to a point where I CAN'T catch up! I've got a whole list of excuses and I figure everyone on the planet is busy, so I'll skip all the reasons why it's been a month since I've updated this and just get started.
.
So I guess I'll start with the person that people look forward to hearing about the least....ME!
.
I threw a baby shower for a friend of mine (the same one that's given me TONS of baby girl stuff; she's the reason I cannot justify buying Sadie any clothes). Her baby girl, Alexis, was born the end of July but hadn't had a shower yet. Being the youngest of 7 kids and the only girl, she is definitely the Princess. So, Princess theme is what she got.
.

My attempt at a princess cake. Baked a cake in a batter bowl, tipped it upside down and stuck a Barbie in it. The best part was the decorating. I couldn't figure out how to get the little pearl candies on there without getting a tweezers and spending an hour doing so. So, I started throwing them and about half of them stuck to the frosting pretty well. The other half...are still being found around our kitchen floor.

.And the diaper princess. She looks a little more like a football player with a crown, but she did have a scepter (spoon) and toy jewels (rattle).

.

Lastly, Sadie and I will be flying to Minnesota for a couple of weeks, mostly to see my cousin, Michelle. We leave May 28 and get back June 15. Michelle had a baby girl Dec. 21. However, baby Kylee was born at just 26 weeks (for those of you that aren't aware, a normal pregancy is around 40 weeks. The standard "cut off" for when babies even have a chance of surviving is 24 weeks). She weighed just 2 lbs 1 oz. Since then, she's had no major set backs and is showing some stubbornness. She's now in a crib, off all medications and is beginning to take a bottle a couple times a day. Hopefully she'll be home the end of February or beginning of March. Since Michelle and I have often been told we look a lot alike, it'll be neat to get pictures of our baby girls together this summer.

.

Kylee's grown from this (5 days old)

to this (7 weeks old).

So now for the update on OUR Princess...Miss Sadie Lady.

She continues to be the center of attention at our house. Both Ryan and I have said she doesn't seem to cry much...but she does YELL at us. I think she communicates very well. Ryan says she's harder to figure out than the boys were; I think she's easier. Must be the difference between boy and girl communication.

.

She smiles a lot and has a good belly laugh now. She's also quite the puker, so she remains on the skinny side with her weight. She insists on being upright at all times. Being reclined back in a chair will not do. Hence, her first accident occurred last week. I was feeding her and Carter needed a little assistance in the bathroom. So, I propped her in the recliner, walked in and helped Carter for about 15 seconds, only to return to find her face down on the floor. She landed on a pillow, but when I entered the room she was in the middle of the LONG, SILENT INHALE before the SCREAM. In those few seconds, she managed to pull herself forward and roll off the chair. The floor is her place now. We'll take our chances with Aspen running over her, I guess. There goes my "Mother of the Year" nomination.

.

She's also quite the emotional train wreck. She can go from laughing to yelling in 2.4 seconds. I think she might be even more emotionally unstable than her mother!

.

This is the "My parents are so dumb" look. She's sulking because she has been told she has to wait to be picked up. She may resent her brothers for this in the future.

.

Carter loves his sister to pieces. He cannot enter or exit the room without touching her. He cannot contain his love for his baby sister. Thus far, we haven't had a single jealousy issue with the boys and Sadie.

.

Cuddle time on the floor
Logan's in more of the motherly mode when it comes to Sadie (as opposed to Carter, who merely SMOTHERS). He's eager to help fold her homemade baby wipes or cloth diapers, likes to read to her and gets her pacifier when she's fussing. He feels bad when he can't soothe her.

.
Storytime

Showing off her tap dancing shoes.



One of the few smiles caught on camera. Sneaky little bugger.

Carter's doing well with preschool. He learns a new letter each week. Today he told me he learned "W starts with Watermelon." He's going to do preschool again next year since his birthday is the first week of school. We thought it best to give him another year to mature rather than always running to keep up with kids older than him his entire education. Plus, he still naps 2-3 hours in the afternoon, so I think full day kindergarten would really tire him out.

.

Working on his valentine envelopes for his school party. There's the infamous long tongue again...

.
Bonding over the Wii. Daddy and Logan are racing. Carter's cheering them on. And Sadie's protesting the lack of attention on HER!

.

.

A day off from school. The boys were great entertainers for Sadie. They even read to her and played with her until she fell asleep. Now if they could've just quit wiggligng and kicking her little jungle gym, she might've STAYED asleep.

Logan had his second conference a couple of weeks ago. He's doing great in school. He's figuring out multiplication. Obviously, that's not being taught in kindergarten...but he's figuring it out anyway. He was telling me that "if you have 3 things and 3 things and 3 things and 3 things, that's the same as 3 X 4, which is 12." HUH???!!

He had a friend over to play after his conference and was found crying silently on the couch after his friend went home. He missed his best friend. So...we baked a cake.
.

And licked the box.

Feeling much better.

The Bumbo seat helps a little with Sadie's desire to be vertical at all times...except that her skinny little butt moves too much, so she slumps over to the side (and then YELLS for someone to save her). But, it'll do when she merely wants to see what Mommy's doing.

Looking studious.
Got it!Prefers her fingers anyway. So much for all that work.