5.on.the.fly

Christmas this year was awesome, just like so many others! Paige was more interested in naps and her bottle than she was her mound of toys and clothes. Next year will be different, I am sure. Sarah has been here since the 26th and we are having a blast. We have gone down to the beach and the Winter Wonderland at Hunt Club Farm - that was fun but cold. We have visited with family, watched movies, eaten a lot, played lots of board games, etc. We have truly been blessed by God - so much so that it's hard to believe sometimes. We hope you all had a safe and wonderful Christmas, too!

Unfortunately, Paige has gotten sick. Tom and I are sick too, and we're not sure who started the whole thing but our family is under the weather for sure. Paige has an ear infection and bronchiolitis - she is taking Amoxycillin and breathing treatments for the wheezing. She sounds horrible but luckily is taking the whole thing in stride. She is sleeping well, with a humidifier in her room and is not cranky at all. Tom and I, on the other hand, we're cranky. Just kidding. I think we may be getting better but it has not been fun the last few days. Thanks for any prayers.

Tonight we had Paige dedicated at church during our monthly baptism service. She looked so sweet! (pictures to come shortly) She did beautifully with the whole thing. Mom and Dad had a small reception at their house afterwards for family and close friends. We had pizza, ice cream cake, and cookies - YUM! Oh, and we played with the baby...

I took Paige today for her 4 month well-baby checkup. She did great with everything except the shots. Even then, she only cried until the band-aids were on -- but boy did she cry! She is above average in height and weight -- 24.75" and 16 lbs. After we got home, I took this picture of her in her new Bumbo seat while we watched a little TV together. It's crazy how fast she is growing -- just Saturday she was 4 months old but she has already outgrown so many outfits and is now wearing 6 months size.

That's a good license plate, huh? Anyway, here's a video of Paige talking to whoever will listen. She is usually much more talkative in the mornings than any other time.

This has been a long time in the coming, but we finally have a short video of the new room Tom built. We are very pleased with the outcome; he did such a great job on this! We still have a little bit of decorating left to do but we are practically living out here now.

I picked up Sarah yesterday from the barn for a weekend visit. Lilly has grown so much since Sarah first got her. She is now able to ride Lilly just a little bit, and showed me some of what she has been doing. Lilly has only worn a saddle twice so far, so Sarah got on bareback! Don't they look good?

These are old pictures from Halloween. I have been saving them until Blogger's video upload is fixed but it has been so long and I just wanted to post them. Isn't she cute?

Today was a red letter day. Tom took the baby to the park today for the first time while I was running errands with Mom. The video upload is down right now so I'm posting these all as separate pictures. They are so cute! She loved the swings the best, but my favorite photo is the one of the slide and what the static did to her hair!!!

So I'm working again... We were doing fine without it but I stumbled into a great opportunity (actually my parents threw it at me). For the last few days I have been doing medical transcription from home. I never have to leave the house, which saves on gas. And I get to stay home with Paige while still contributing something to our finances. So far it's going well but definitely a learning curve trying to remember all this new stuff. Anyway, the coolest thing is just the way that God has worked all of this out. I struggled with resigning from USAA but God is so faithful and He truly answered our prayers. Romans 8:28!!!

cleaning out the camera card...

Today was my last day at USAA. It was much harder to leave than I expected; 7 years is a long time and a lot of relationships ago. My unit took me out to lunch at Max and Erma's which was fun. If you're reading this and you know what an opportunity banner is - I miss you already. I'll be spending the next few days getting back into the swing of staying at home. More to come later!

Well, today our sweet baby graduated to rice cereal. Boo-hoo! Just kidding... She did great with it, I guess. I don't really know what's great and what's not, but it sure was a lot cleaner than I expected. She still doesn't quite have the hang of the whole spoon experience but she managed to get half of what we made into her belly and then promptly fell into a deep sleep for about 2 hours. It was bitter-sweet for me, I guess. Cool that she's ready for something new, but not so cool that she's growing so fast... Oh well, I guess the rest of her life will be like this. I'll get over it, I guess. Anyway, love to all and we'll post more pictures soon.

Self-explanatory

Well, we were blessed enough to have Sarah for the weekend. We picked her up Thursday morning and took the girls to the fair in Richmond for the day. Paige did great, and we all had a blast. We didn't get home until about 10 pm and we were so pooped. I had not taken the camera so we have no pictures but we sure had a good time. We have Sarah until Sunday night but then we have to take her home so she can be back in school for Monday. I have decided to resign my position and become a stay-at-home mom. YEAH!!! Monday I am going back to work to submit my notice because I feel that is proper, but after that 2 weeks I will be at home with Paige. I can't wait! I'm praying that God will continue to bless us financially and provide for the family without my salary. Love to all, Melanie

Here is Paige's nursery furniture. We think it turned out great, even though we had to wait forever for it! I'm also including one of my recent favs - the sweetest pink dress on my little cutie...

I'm playing around with a movie-making program so enjoy my first effort. These are the latest crop of pix to come off the camera - more to come shortly!

We continue to have furniture 'issues'. The furniture we ordered for the addition is now about a month and a half late and still won't all be ready until the second week of October. The addition is complete and we are dying to get it furnished so we can start using it. We are waiting on a computer armoire, 2 sofas, an ottoman, and a chair-&-a-half. The other smaller stuff we will add as we go along. Hopefully by the next time I post something we will at least have the armoire - it should be here on Tuesday and then we can get this computer out of the bedroom. YEAH!!

So we had Paige at the pediatrician's on Thursday and she is doing beautifully. She got her first round of shots and did great with it - a little bit of crying at first but by the time the band-aids were applied she was fine. She has gained 3 pounds already; the dr. put her at 10 lbs 13 oz and 21 3/4 in. By the time we go back at Thanksgiving she should be experimenting with baby foods. She has started to smile and coo a little bit and she absolutely loves her bathtime, especially the 'rinse cycle'. I keep trying to get videos or pix of her smiling but my timing is all off so you'll have to do with these pictures for now. We will post more shortly.

So Paige's furniture FINALLY came in Friday after 14 weeks of waiting. She is sleeping in her crib right now and really seems to prefer it to the pack-n-play she's been schlepping about in for the last 5 weeks. It looks so cute - will post pictures once we get the rest of the room set up.