Thursday, May 1, 2014

January-April 2014 AND Aurora's Coming Soon

Before Aurora's arrival, I've had the nesting instinct like crazy.  Thank goodness she's going to make it to 40 weeks or more because it's allowed me to get tons of projects done.  I've been pretty worn out lately so the progress has slowed down, but my big list is FINISHED!!  I wasn't sure if that was going to happen!

I've set a new goal for myself post her arrival.  I'd love to update the blog monthly with pictures and milestones of the girls- if not all 3 then at least Aurora.  As I was finishing McKenzie's and McKinley's baby books, I realized how incredibly helpful my online family journal/blog has been.

If you're new to reading this, this blog is my online journal, blog about my family and whatever is on my mind.

Here's what the Smith Family has been up to since January 2014.  I can honestly say this is the first year neither Marc nor I even made it to midnight on New Years.  We had a good family day but I was still recovering from the flu and he was also under the weather.  It wasn't worth it... so we didn't do it.

In the beginning of January, I was able to get together with my best friends from Baylor and visit Katie in Colorado!  We had a great time, snow-shoeing, drinking coffee, eating, catching up and hanging out!  I hope that we can ALWAYS keep this tradition of meeting up once a year.  We also traveled as a family to visit my dad and Molli in Arizona.

In February, Marc and I celebrated our 6th anniversary!  We were also able to celebrate my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary!  Lots of loving was happening this February.  :)

In March, my nesting instinct really kicked in and we pretty much did projects around the house every chance I could get us to!  This lasted through most of April.  I was/we were able to:
- paint Aurora's room
- paint the twins room
- paint Shiloh's room
- refinish a dresser
- repaint several picture frames (still need to hang several)
- organize Aurora's room
- organize ALL the girls clothes I have
- finish McKenzie's and McKinley's baby books

Also in March, we celebrated Aurora and Sami's little Jackson.  My class threw me a baby shower!  It was a huge blessing!!  My friends and I got together and got pedicures/manicures to celebrate Aurora/Jackson! I tried potty training M&M in March and after a few days, they told me they didn't want to use the potty anymore.  They are still telling me (and it's May 1) that they like using their diapers.  I'm hoping this will change soon. :)

In April, we celebrated Easter and Mother's Day!  At my job, I was able to celebrate Mother's Day for my class early with a special Tea for the moms.  It was a great time!  Right at the end of April, Shiloh's class had her Mother's Day Party.  It was so special and I LOVED it!!

Here are pictures from Jan-April 2014




While on duty, Dad bought all of the girls Hello Kitty shirts.
(Kinley on the left and Kenzie on the right)

Shiloh in her new Hello Kitty vest (and ski goggles?)

PJ donut date

We moved the McKenzie and McKinley into big girl beds and this was Shiloh helping.


Girls night for my birthday

  
Driving to AZ
(top left pic: Daddy and Kinley cuddling, top right pic: Kenzie asleep in the car; 
bottom left pic: Kinley asleep in the car; bottom right pic: Kenzie and Shiloh excited about the hotel bed)
 Cuddling in AZ
(Zee & Lee)



Shiloh, Kinley & Kenzie riding horses
















Daddy/Daughter Dance - February 2014



Marc & I playing basketball...I had just one this game
I lost overall though :(

Getting Pedicures with Shiloh


Spending the night with Nino
(Zee, Shiloh & Lee)

March 2014

Shiloh and Pops celebrating

Dr. Seuss Day at School
(Shiloh, Zee & Lee)

Silly dress up day-The Village People?
(Shiloh, Zee & Lee)

Getting creative with boxes
(Zee & Lee)

Kinley

(Lee, Zee & Shiloh)

Celebrating me and Sami


 Break from painting to go on a date with my man!

Watching Frozen

 I was super impressed with Shiloh's drawing of her missing necklace

 Finally, nice weather!  Enjoying the Spring

April 2014

Out to dinner with my mom 

Playing in the pool

 Refinishing a dresser

The Dallas Zoo









Bluebonnet Pictures


Kinley

Kinley

Kenzie


 Easter Egg Hunt

Our Family Easter Sunday

Loving Frozen with Evie

My girls

At McKellie's graduation party




Girls milestones:
Shiloh 4 1/2:
- she can read/sound out basic words
- she can write most letters and enjoys trying to write letters while I spell things for her
- she can count to 100
- she loves the iPad, Leap pad and most anything technology related
- she has memorized every song from Frozen and loves to perform
- she has memorized a lot of Psalm 139
- she LOVES riding her bike

McKenzie
- she speaks very clearly
- she has started following Shiloh's lead a little more (and Shiloh LOVES this)
- she is very playful and expressive;
- she tends to have greater highs and lows
- her fine motor skills are improving and she's beginning to focus more on details in her crafts
- she LOVES riding her tricycle
- we have had to really start working on throwing fits and her shouting "NO" at us

McKinley
- she speaks very clearly now
- she too has started to follow Shiloh's lead a little more (which Shiloh also LOVES)
- she likes to focus on whatever task is at hand and can be very one track minded
- she's a little more even keeled in her temperament
- her fine motor skills are very acute and she can be detailed when we do crafts
- she LOVES riding her tricycle
- we have had to really start working on throwing fits and her shouting "NO" at us


1 comment:

  1. y'all are such a cute family, reci! congratulations on your new baby girl!

    ReplyDelete