No more rolly-polly-ollerson

Lizzy has finally decided she wants to sit up! She's been rolling around the floor for months now and has really had no interest in sitting up until last night! She stil takes head dives but can sit up without assistance for a good while by herself!

Here's a cute daddy story. . .We were out this morning doing errands, got home unloaded everything and Lizzy was fussing. When Lizzy fusses it's because she's either hungry, hot or needs a diaper change! Jody figured out what was wrong when he got her out of her car seat. . .she was soaked and leaking :-( He got her ready for a diaper change and freaked out when he pulled her jeans off, apparently the diaper had leaked and there was "poopy" all over the inside of the jeans and in turn got all over her and him. He was like "nuh-uh, I am not changing her I can't do it, you are mommy and mommy does it best". So of course I did like any good mom and decided it was better to dunk her in the bathtub rather than rubbing her down! Jody (after a lot of convincing) and I started stripping off her clothes (Jody holding Lizzy under her arms and I removing the clothes), just as Jody was walking to stick her in the bathtub she started peeing everywhere, all over daddy and the bathroom! I grabbed her shirt and used it to stop "pee-pee" from going all over the bathroom! Jody was completely grossed out and was like I need to take a shower, I've been pooped on twice and now peed all over! It was so funny. . .sorry I don't have any pictures!

Last night of AWANA. . .

Tonight is our last night of AWANA for this semester. We're glad to have the break but we'll be so excited to see the kids again in the fall! Both Jody and I are directors so we stay pretty busy during the AWANA semesters! Emma finished her first year in Cubbies! She was so excited at our awards ceremony Sunday night where she received more patches for her vest! She is looking forward to our AWANA store tonight. The AWANA store is where the children can buy prizes with the "AWANA Bucks" they earned throughout the year. They earn points (which translates into "AWANA bucks") for completing sections in their books (memorizing verses), bringing their dues, wearing their uniform and participating in game time! This is a picture our music minister's wife took on Sunday with some of Emma's friends from Cubbies!

Just visiting friends

We spent this week just visiting friends! We got back from Florida late Tuesday night and traveled to Kernersville, NC on Thursday to visit our good friends Matthew & Laura Hart and daughter Lindsey. Above is Matthew putting the squeeze on the girls and below is Lindsey and Emma playing together so nicely (they clashed a bit because they are so much alike)! Emma also decided to give herself a haircut while we were there. . .hardly noticeable :-)

Anna palying all by herself!

They recently moved from Delaware back to North Carolina. We went hoping we could help them get things unpacked and/or organized, but with four girls it was an impossible task! Here's Matthew holding up our little Watermelon!We were able to eat lunch with them at Taco Bell (one of my girls' favorite places to eat) and the guys were able to do some errands without the female persuasion! We had a good time and are looking forward to getting together with them more often, since they are only about 2 hours from us! On our way home we called some of our other friends Matt & Christie Hall whom we had not seen in years and ate dinner at BoJangles (another one of our favorite fast food places) with them! We had a great week spending time with friends we had not seen in a while :-)

Sunshine State Here We Come!

We spent Saint Patty's day weekend in the Sunchine State. . .Florida! We had an awesome trip visiting our very good friends Ed & Jessica Braswell and their beautiful girls Kaitlyn and Audrey! We had such a great time just hanging out and spending some time with them. It was a long drive there and back but totally worth it! Jess and I ventured out Saturday to a local Pizza place with all five girls, it was an interesting car ride and lunch to say the least. We fit all five car seats in Jess' mini-van, here's a picture from our view! Here is a picture of Kaitlyn. . .

And here's one of Audrey, aren't they cute!

Take a minute. . .

I wanted to share a story with all of you that has reminded me of how BIG God is. There is a family in our church that had found out they were expecting their second child. Months went by and the pregnancy progressed normally until around the 21st week of pregnancy. The mommy went in for a regular check-up and realized she was leaking amniotic fluid. She was immediately sent to UNC Chapel Hill on bedrest for the duration of the pregnancy. The "mommy" eventually gave birth by c-section to a baby girl at 34 weeks. "Baby girl" had a rough start, the doctors prepped the family and said she wasn't going to make it. Prayer requests were sent out and we all started praying for that tiny baby girl. To the doctors amazement she made it through the night and the next night and the next night until eventually she went home after being in the hospital only a short time! She is a few months old now and doing great!

Where a kid can be a kid!

Yesterday we took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese's in Raleigh. It had been years since Jody and I had been so it was fun to go back. We thought it wouldn't be very busy since it was cool to go there when we were kids, it was just a fad, boy were we wrong! It was packed with a new generation of Cheesers! Emma had been bugging us for a couple of weeks about going. When we asked her how she knew about Chuck E. Cheese's she said, "you play games there and eat pizza, I saw it on TV". We were driving to my parents house a few days ago and she pointed it out to us??? Jody decided she had a good week and we'd take them there plus invite the grandparents! My parents and Jody's mom met us there. We ate pizza, played games, won lots of tickets and had a lot of fun. Lizzy even had a good day being spoiled by being held the entire time! Anna had a blast playing the games where you got tickets. Emma didn't want to play the same game two times in a row and wanted to try every single game they had! She didn't figure out that the tickets meant anything until the end when we went to "Redeem" them and she got to pick out prizes! She picked out a princess coloring book, a pink pearl necklace, a princess crown ring and a pair of pink sunglasses for Anna. Anna is on a sunglasses kick right now so she was thrilled! All in all it was a good day at Chuck E. Cheese's, Emma asked me this morning if we could go back there. . .

Lizzy Update

Praise God! Lizzy went to her pediatrician today and gained 15 oz since her last check-up Monday! He saw no need for any tests at this point, formula is the ticket! They will re-check her weight in 1 month to ensure she is still gaining! We are doing combo feedings, nursing for the antibodies and formula for the calories she needs! Thank you for all your prayers, calls and emails!

Too petite

As I said in the last entry Lizzy had a doctors appointment yesterday, Monday the 5th. She was right on target (5%) with her head circumference and length, but we didn't get good news about her weight. She has actually lost quite a bit of weight (10 oz in 2 months). Her pediatrician was pretty worried about the sudden change. She has consistently been gaining weight and staying around the 5% up until this point. As of yesterday she wasn't even close to being on the chart, in fact she weighs less than I did when I was born! An average size 6 month old should weigh around 15lbs, she weighs 9lb 13oz. They tossed up a bunch of possibilities and options as to what we could do about her weight and the cause, including admitting her to a local hospital and running a panel of tests. After some discussion we eventually decided to put her on a strict diet of formula, cereal and baby food to ensure she was getting the calories she needed and to see what her body would do with the extra calories (hopefully absorb them like a normal baby). She has an appointment Friday to see if she has gained any weight and if it is enough. They may still have to run some tests, we won't know until Friday. I will hopefully still be able to breastfeed her, I am pumping now to keep my milk supply up. Please pray that our little Lizzy will gain some weight! I was very upset when I left the pediatrician's office yesterday so please pray for Jody and I as well.

Half a year already!

Lizzy turned 6 months old today! I can hardly believe it. She is still very petite. She goes Monday for her 6 month check-up, we'll see where she falls on the growth chart. She's been hanging aroung the 5%! She's so cute when she is sleeping. . .