Sarah At Five Months

Stats
Weight: Guessing 16lb 8oz
Height: Guessing 27.5"

Sleeping
Still such a boss in the sleep department.  Night time tuck in happens after the 8:00pm bottle so about 8:20, and she sleeps til 8:00am.  Occasionally, she'll wake at 7:30 but is happy to play and wake up slowly til 8:00.  She will also occasionally sleep til 8:30.  A typical day of naps looks like 45 minutes in the morning, two hours in the afternoon, and an hour in the evening.  That makes for a total of 15+ hours of sleep each day.  She's started sleeping in a sleep sack with absolutely no swaddling at night, and she sleeps in a swaddle sack with her arms out for naps.  She has started being able to fall asleep in the car on her own without a pacifier, she takes naps in people's arms with a pacifier, and falls asleep at night without a pacifier.  Out nighttime routine is pajamas, night time cloth diaper, bottle, sleep sack, sound machine, humidifier, prayers, kiss, and good night.  She falls asleep without any crying within 10 minutes.  Thank you, God!

Didn't make it til midnight on New Years Eve

First night in her crib in the new house

Eating
Sarah eats four 8oz. bottles a day at 8:00, 12:00, 4:00, and 8:00.  She started the month with eating rice cereal at the 8:00am bottle, and two weeks later she started eating rice cereal with the 8:00, 12:00, and 4:00 bottles.  She likes it!  She has gotten really good at opening wide and keeps a good amount of it in her mouth.

Personality
She's really good about being passed around which is good because everybody always wants some Sarah snuggles!  She has started laughing some and gets more vocal every day.  She does the cutest bashful smile and buries her head in my shoulder.  She has started dropping things on purpose and letting us pick them up for her.  Such a fun game!

Health and Physical Ability
Sarah's first tooth bud has popped!  Woohoo!  It's her front, bottom, left.  I first felt it on December 29.  You can even see it a little bit!  Her gums had been swollen for about 6 weeks, so it was about time!  She has started rolling up on her side while on her back.  She rolled from back to tummy for the first time on January 2, and I missed it!  She still loves tummy time.  She has great head control and enjoys sitting on people's laps.  She acts like she wants to do a crunch and sit up when she lays on her back.  She's so strong!

See the dot of tooth?

Superficial
She's getting more hair, and it's very blonde and straight.  She has adorable rosy cheeks, the longest eye lashes, and big, blue eyes.  I'd say her most frequent superficial compliment is on her eye lashes.

Highlights of the month
December 5 - My first time to be sick as a mommy.  Daddy took great care of Sarah!
December 8 - Closed on our first house.

December 11-13 - Grandma Serina and Aunt Bethany came for a visit and to help with the house.
December 14 - PAT appointment.  Sarah got her annual evaluation and passed with flying colors!
December 17 - Sarah made her debut as Santa for a Christmas party for Grandpa.

December 20 - First night in our new house.
December 24 - Christmas Eve service
December 25 - First Christmas

December 26-31 - Papa and Babi came to visit from Alabama.

December 31-January 2 - Trip to KC to see Robert's mom and company

January 2- Mittens' first night at our new house
January 4 - Story time at the library resumed

Dear Sarah
You are such a ray of sunshine!  People can't help but smile when you smile at them or let them hold you.  I hope you know that you don't need to strive to win people's approval, but I hope you always enjoy bringing a smile to others.  If you have the joy of the LORD in your heart then it will permeate your being, and others will see Jesus in you.  Your sweet smile can brighten anyone's day, and the world needs more friendly, kindhearted people like you.  Don't let the ickiness of the world get you down,  but let it prompt you and compel you to spread the Gospel to a dark and weary world.  "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will."  Romans 12:2

Sarah's First Christmas

What a fun first Christmas for Sarah!  I know she won't remember this Christmas, and I'm definitely looking forward to the coming years when Sarah really gets into it, but this year was still a lot of fun!  We kicked off the festivities with a Christmas Eve service at church.  There wasn't any childcare.  Sarah made it through one song, and then as Pastor John was saying, "Listen to the silence," Sarah let out a scream, and John continued with, "Except for maybe a baby."  That was our cue to exit.  I was thankful yet again to be able to just go to Robert's office to care for Sarah a bit.  We hung out, changed a diaper, and walked around for a bit.  We weren't the only ones out in the halls!  I really wanted to make it back in time to hear Robert sing a song he wrote.  I slipped in at the back, and Sarah fell asleep while her Daddy sang.  It was such a sweet moment.  I was able to make it back to my seat in order to partake in the Lord's Supper.  Sarah was cashed out and majorly slumped over after the service, so of course that was a hit with everybody.  

Sarah seriously loves Lamb Chop.

It's Christmas morning!!!  We started our day like normal with a bottle and cereal at 8:00.  Sarah enjoyed looking at the tree and watching the fire.  We didn't really go all out for her presents since 1. She won't remember and 2. We just bought a house, so...I re-wrapped a few baby shower presents Sarah received that we hadn't used yet: high chair, bouncer, convertible car seat.  We bought her a couple of new things: size 3 diapers, long sleeved onesies, and an ornament.

Overwhelmed as a bring out the high chair

Smiling at Daddy.  She loves him so much!

For me?

Love that little toothless grin

Carrying on the Christmas wrapping paper tradition

After opened presents at our house we hit the road to go to my parents' house.  While we waited for Jim & Taylor and Memaw & Pepaw to arrive Robert carried on the dad tradition of putting together toys.  This one was very easy!

Once everyone arrived we enjoyed brunch together - grits, egg casserole, potato casserole, eclairs, and coffee.  It was delish!  Pepaw read the Christmas story from Luke before we opened presents.

Sarah was spoiled big time in the present department!  She slept in my mom's arms for about 80% of the event, so it was a good time in her book.  We dispersed for a bit to nap and relax and joined back up with Memaw and Pepaw for chicken gumbo dinner.  Santa Baby made another appearance at dinner.

We really enjoyed our time with everybody, and we headed back home after dinner and games.  We went to sleep happy and content and ready for Ray and Terri to arrive the next morning.  Sarah seriously loves the tummy time car that Aunt Taylor and Uncle Jim gave her!

Ray and Terri arrive on Saturday night after Sarah was already asleep.  We chatted for a bit and hit the hay.  Robert was able to preach on Sunday since John was on vacation.  The church also had a pancake and sausage breakfast.  Yum!  We celebrated Christmas that afternoon, and Sarah enjoyed hearing two stories from Papa and Babi about kittens - her favorite subject.  One of the books was a Christmas present from my parents.  It was a touch a feel kitten book.  Does it get any better than that?

Ray and Terri helped us with some house projects while they were here - painting furniture, working on a step to our garage, organizing the garage, and working on our cars.  We enjoyed their visit here.  It was Terri's first time through Arkansas and Missouri.  She even got to go sledding in Kansas with Jason and Bethany!

We headed to KC on New Years Eve so we could see Serina and Mark, Grandma and Grandpa (June and Gary), Bethany and Jason, and Robert's cousin and family.  Serina made sure we weren't short on delicious food!  Appetizers for NYE, Mi Ranchito, lasagna.  Sarah slept in the guest room with us, and it went pretty well.  She's had a snotty nose from teething, and she woke up a bit early each day breathing in and out snot bubbles.  She's silly!  Moose was very interested in Sarah, and she actually seemed semi-interested in him.  They did pretty well together!  We got to see Robert's great friend Harrison and met his fiance.  They're a great pair!

This was seriously Moose every time Sarah was awake

While we were in KC Sarah had the funniest play date in the history of mankind.  Robert's cousin Todd and his wife, Ryan, had a baby on my birthday (September 8), about 5 weeks after Sarah was born.  Sarah and Estelle met briefly at their great grandpa's 80th birthday party, but this was their first real play date.  It was awesome!  They examined each other a lot.  I think it was so mind-blowing for them.  They even held hands on their own!

Okay okay okay, Sarah is Robert's twin.  There - I said it!

 Is there anything better than grandma snuggles?

What a fun Christmas and New Year!  Hope 2016 is off to a good start for you!

House Projects: Part 1

By no means would I say that we bought a fixer upper, but Robert and I would officially say that move in ready is only true if you've custom built a new house for yourself. HA!  There wasn't anything that had to happen in order for us to survive, but it definitely wasn't all to our liking, and it was fairly obvious that the previous owners hadn't been into taking good care of the home.  We found a lot of things where they just kind of took the easy way out to survive.  We closed on the house on December 8 and immediately went  to Home Depot to purchase some laminate flooring.  There was already laminate in the living room and hallway, and we were able to purchase an exact match to install in the three bedrooms and closets.

Robert removed the carpet, Dad removed the tack strips, and I removed the staples.  The sellers had two large indoor dogs and three kids (1, 2, and 3 years old).  Needless to say, the carpet was very worn and smelled awful.  Robert and Pepaw worked on the floors for a whole day together, and then Robert took it from there.  The two of them could barely move for several days.  It was incredibly time-consuming, and I couldn't help because I had to keep Sarah away from the loud sawing and hammering.  It was a tedious task, but Robert would say it was work it to save $1000+.

Next came painting.  We picked Magical for Sarah's room and our bathroom, Upward for everything else, except for Naval for an accent wall in our kitchen and an accent wall in our bathroom.

The lady at Lowe's was disillusion (and so were we) for thinking that we could get by with one coat and only 4 gallons.  2 coats and 9 gallons later, we were finished.  We had lots of good help with painting!  Robert painting the popcorn ceiling in several rooms.  Initially, I wanted to remove and re-texture the ceilings, but because we have a vaulted ceiling the quotes were very expensive and ranged from $2,500-4,000.  No, thank you.  The ceilings were dingy and not bright white.  Painting them stunk for Robert, but again, he agrees that they look so much better!  I think the ceiling took 4 gallons of paint.

See the difference?

The sellers had a small hood over the range and a microwave on the counter.  I wanted a mounted micro-hood, so we ordered one, and Pepaw was going to help us install it.  It was kind of time-consuming (notice a theme here?), and in the end they realized we were missing one little nut.  They went to exchange the micro-hood, but there wasn't another one in stock, so we had to order one and wait a few days for it to arrive.  Once we got the new one it was installed quite quickly.

The connection for the fireplace had been shut off, so Pepaw got it cranking for us again.  Sarah loves staring at the fire...and at Pepaw!

In keeping with the fact that the sellers liked to do things halfway, they had nice wood custom-cut blinds in half the windows, and the other half had broken, brown mini blinds, so we ordered more matching wooden blinds for the four remaining windows.  Love it!

Again with the halfway thing, there was a leak with the kitchen sink.  They fixed the leak but didn't fix the rotten wood under the sink.  Ugh.  Pepaw to the rescue!

This is how you get work done with a baby.

 Enjoying our new fridge!  This was the one easy thing to install.

We replaced the locks and door knobs on all interior and exterior doors.  No more brass.  Hello, oil rubbed bronze!

We did some big time furniture painting and painted a bedside table, end table, and a hutch.  I'm excited to finally have a handy place to store Robert's Mamaw's china so we can get to it more easily and use it more often.

Robert organized the garage.  I think the cold weather motivated him to clear up the garage so that both cars can be parked in it.

We also installed a new ceiling fan in the living room.  The old set up was a track light shining on some artwork, a fan with no light, and two brass recessed lights by the fireplace.  We removed and patched the ceiling where the track light was, installed a fan with lights, and replaced the brass cases on the recessed lights with white cases.

Other tiny tasks included:

• Switch fans in Sarah's room and guest room - We thought the lighter one would go better in Sarah's room.  One fan was also missing a pull to turn off and on the fan so every time you turned on the switch the light and fan both came on.  Pepaw and Robert remedied that.
• Fix storm door - It wasn't hanging straight so the door knob couldn't engage and fully close the door.  They had tried to fix it by gluing some stuff together, but it didn't work.  Robert and Pepaw fixed it.
• Close outside crawl space vents to prepare for winter
• Straightened out accordion doors on laundry closet so they open and close more easily.
• Draino all the slow drains.  I found a shoe lace in one drain!
• Wash windows - Inside and outside - They were beyond dirty.
• Install shower rod in Sarah's bathroom
• Attic ladder - shorten, tighten bolts - The ladder was seriously about a foot too long so it couldn't extend safely.
• Install kitchen sink light - The old light kind of looked like a ceramic seashell - picture something from a hotel lobby.
• Put up curtain rods and curtains in the living room, Sarah's bedroom, and our bedroom
• Hang pictures

The to do list never ends, right?  Here are the remaining projects for the winter:

• Chalk paint the tray ceiling in the master bedroom and write a quote or scripture on it
• Patch a hole in the garage wall
• Caulk around sinks and tubs
• Touch up some spots with paint

Spring projects:

• Paint front door
• Power wash and stain the deck and bench swing
• Install clothes line for cloth diapers
• Extend down spouts and do some grading
• Remove satellite - Anybody ever done this before?
• Landscape - Rake (I don't think they'd done that since they bought the house 8 years ago.  For real.), clear out the garden, trim bushes
• Clean the gutters

I'll do an indoor before and after at once we've done those last few things, and then I'll do an outdoor before and after this spring.