A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I love when the kids run off with my camera. I could comment on these, but I think I'll let you imagine your own captions.

Kendall is 4 months old

Kendall is 4 months old today, October 9th. It is so hard to believe she's been in our lives that long! Seems like just the other day we were choosing her birth day. It was about this time last year that we found out we would be adding to our family.

She weighs 16 pounds 2 ounces and is 25 1/2 inches long.

She is still taking Zantac and it is working so well. She has really turned out to be a happy baby. She happily goes with me to eat lunch with Trace and Kinsey at school, to dance class each week, baseball games, and cross country runs on Saturdays. We can even make it through the grocery store without incident now!

She is really starting to sit up on her own for longer periods of time and is looking for things to grab. Kinsey's hair is a favorite. She is laughing more and more, especially at the big kids when they sing and dance and entertain her. She has a set of fabric stacking blocks that she loves. One of them in particular is to be a favorite thing to play with.

She is eating rice cereal really well now. We will do that for a few more weeks before she gets baby food. She can sit in a restaurant high chair by herself now and is happy to do it long enough for one of us to eat!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Cross country is still going strong. The kids ran in the second one-mile fun run of the season today. The age groups were a little different; K-2nd, 3rd-4th, 5th-6th.

Trace won for his age group!!! He ran his mile in 7 mins and 30 seconds. He ran a great race and was thrilled to get that little tennis shoe trophy when he crossed the finish line. When I got to him right after the finish, he asked, "Are my legs still there?" He ran so hard to make sure he got first place.

  

Dad cheering him on the last 100 yards.

In this shot you can see the second place runner. You have to look really hard for the maroon shirt behind the soccer goal in between the man in the blue shirt and the woman in the orange.

It was very early on a Saturday morning. We all wanted to stay in bed this morning. 

Kinsey went to cross country practice last week and has decided she LOVES running! She walked in the door from practice and asked me to go running with her. Right then. We went for a short run the following night. We ran 3/10 of a mile and Kinsey talked the entire time. About running, maybe one day having braces on her teeth, why I don't like to run near strange dogs, and more about running. After a 4 minute run, she was ready to pack it in.

Kinsey and Abbie

They planned matching outfits for this race. And they decided they would stay together the whole time. Many times Kinsey stopped and waited for Abbie. And they did finish together!

The pre-race pose.

Although it may look like she is posing as a boxer, this is her running stance.

 Pre-race stretching

Here they are waiting for the starter's gun. With their ears plugged.

The home stretch!

It was a very good day at the track today!

Run Trace! Run!

Trace has decided to run Cross Country this year. It's a six week season and there are four different runs in which he will participate. The first one was tonight, a one-mile run. He ran a great race and came in 6th out of about 50 4-6 graders. They gave medals for the first 3 girls and the first 3 boys. He missed a medal by about 6 feet. (He was the 4th boy.) So for the next race, he'll kick in the afterburners a little bit sooner!

He's in the middle of the picture, black shirt, red shorts, leaning on his knee. Just to the left of the boy in the white shirt.

Rice Cereal - 15 weeks (3 1/2 months)

Kendall had her first taste of rice cereal yesterday. Let's just say she didn't love it.

I don't have any pictures of her eating because we took video. And it is FUNNY! She made faces like we were giving her pickles and lemons. And at the end of the session, her bottom lip quivered and quivered. Bless her heart, it was so precious. Trace had a taste of it, but we couldn't talk Kinsey into trying it.

I can't believe it's already time for cereal!

Forest Festival

The dancers at the studio where Kinsey dances performed a clogging routine at the Texas State Forest Festival on Sunday. Kinsey wasn't that interested in the performance, but when she found out that we weren't going to the carnival unless she danced, she changed her mind.

Here she is shooting paintballs...with Dad's help.

 Last year, Trace surprised me and rode a ride I would never consider riding. This year he was ready to ride anything! This one is the Cliffhanger. He rode it over and over and over.

Then he and Dad rode the Tornado. Another ride I would never even consider. He wanted to ride the Ferris Wheel, but when he and Chad got up to the front of the line, the man had a wrench out doing a little repair, so they passed. Whew!

Here's Kinsey's type of ride. She is just barely under the height limit. I don't know what she's going to do next year! But I can't say that I blame her. She even got a little nervous the first time she rode the carousel.

Kinsey talked Trace into riding the carousel with her once. Yep. He's hiding his face. Evidently, riding the carousel is a real step backwards after the Cliffhanger and the Tornado.

Trace stayed at the carnival with a friend and Kinsey got her face painted to make up for the fact that she couldn't stay, too. A little glitter makes it all better. She chose a purple butterfly because purple is Justin Bieber's favorite color.

Art Camp

This summer the kids went to Art Camp at our local museum. The camps ran all summer and at end of August there was an art show! Here are my proud little artists!

Kendall 3 Months

Kendall's 3 Month Photos

The photo quality isn't great because I scanned the photos I ordered from the photographer. She did so well! The whole session was only 15 minutes. And turns out, that was her limit, too!

 This is my favorite. Love those cheeks!!!

Prodigy?

Kendall and I spend a lot of time in the car each afternoon waiting on the big kids to get out of school. Since she doesn't like hanging out in her carseat, we get to chat for a while. I bought her a Halloween book to help pass the time and she LOVES it!

Look at that precious face. And those squeezable cheeks! That's one intense book!

Three Months

Kendall turned 3 months old on September 9th. She weighs 15 pounds and is 24 1/2 inches long. She generally sleeps from 9pm until around 3am each night. It's hard to believe that in one more month she'll be starting to eat rice cereal!

One major development this week is that we have figured out she has acid reflux. All those times we thought she was screaming to get out of her carseat because she didn't like it...well...it was reflux. She started taking Zantac and she was a different baby! Almost no more screaming. The ride to school and back was glorious.

She still doesn't love her infant carrier, but at least she's not screaming in pain! She is now the proud owner of a big comfy convertible big girl carseat. She was getting too heavy for me to carry around in that infant carrier, anyway.

She is starting to rub her eyes when she is tired and is laughing more and more. Her laugh used to sound more like a little fake cough, but now it sounds more like a laugh. She is moving around in her bed at night now. Until last week, when I went in her room to get her out of her bed she was in the exact spot where I put her the night before. But now she is turning 90 degrees.

She is also rolling over from her tummy to her back. She is not a fan of tummy time. And I have to admit we didn't do much tummy time because she wasn't a fan and she made sure I knew it! At least now she doesn't cry as much on her tummy, she just turns her little self right over!

She is a pre-sitter now. She enjoys being propped up in the corner of her bed and watching her mobile, or being propped up in the corner of a chair in the living room and watching Trace, Kinsey, and Katie.

 Kinsey took the next few pictures. It's a lot of work trying to get a baby to look at you and smile, and get everyone's whole head in the shot.



Cheeeeeeese!

The loves of my life...

Trace (9 yrs), Kinsey (6 yrs), Kendall (12 weeks)

Gig 'Em

What a difference a year makes!

College Day 2010

College Day 2011

12 Weeks

Kendall is growing like a weed. She will be 3 months old next week. The outfit she is wearing in these pictures is a size 9 months. She's long. And a little bit chubby, too. But who doesn't love a chubby baby?