John Paul isms of the week.

At Great Wolf Lodge with godfather Patrick aka Paddy. We go over to the snack bar for lunch.

Jp: Mommy is daddy here?

Me: no, daddy's at work.

Jp, loud enough for everyone sitting eating lunch to hear: No, I mean my other daddy I just met today!

Me: That's PADDY!

At vbs when I picked him up after volunteering for the day.

Jp: Mommy, in your classroom do you let people pet Sarah?

First solid food

I mashed up a banana ;)

Happy Half Birthday!

Sarah Gianna is 6 months today!  I can't believe it.  It seems like she's been here forever but also that she just got here, if that makes any sense at all.  I looked back over Madeleine's and John Paul's 6 month posts and they were both sitting up on their own!  Sarah is nowhere close, although I know she could get it any day now.  In fact yesterday was the first time she rolled across the floor.  Let me say for the record I do not mind one bit that she isn't crazy mobile yet.  :)

Sarah is either tied with Leo for the best sleeper so for or THE best sleeper so far.  She is a fantastic napper, takes 2 two hour naps a day.  Whenever she is tired, I just put her in her bed with her paci and turn on her mobile and give her her special silky blanket and she puts herself right to sleep.  She goes to bed for the night around 7:30 or 8 and sometimes wakes up around 4 to eat, but sometimes makes it to 6 or 7.  She is so sweet and easy going.  She only likes her mommy though! (Has that in common with M and JP and L at 6 months!)  I love to wear her in wraps and wrap her every day.  She can see over my shoulder and I can get things done and have hands free for the other kids.  Lately she has started to enjoy hanging out on the floor with her siblings and some toys.  Everything she reaches goes straight in her mouth.

She is the first kid I haven't fed any solid food by now.  She doesn't seem very interested yet but I'm sure I will give her something here soon.  She is definitely not wasting away!  She is a champion nurser and is pretty quick about it too!

She absolutely loves her siblings.  They can always make her smile.  They all love her so much and fight over who gets to talk to her/ watch her/ play with her/ give her toys.  Madeleine thinks everything she does is hilarious (especially grabbing people's hands and trying to eat them!)  

She was a fantastic traveler last weekend.  I found myself looking back several times to make sure she was in the car!  She was so quiet and slept through both nights of our trip.  I remember being scared to take Madeleine anywhere at this age and get her out of her routine, but times is changed over here.  Tomorrow we are going on a one day road trip - just me and the kids.  I'm not worried about her one single bit.  

We are so blessed to have this beautiful sweet baby girl.  I heard that once you have 3 kids, adding more is no big deal.  So far that seems to be the case.  Ask me about that again when she starts crawling and getting into everything!

Family reunion 2013

Pretty much everyone who reads this is also my fb friend so I won't post many pics, just a few stories.

So we headed down to Mammoth Cave Kentucky on Friday to get together with most of mom's (7) siblings and several of their kids and their kids.  Ken decided he didn't want to stay in the park with everyone else (small room with 2 beds and 4 kids didn't sound that much fun) so he got us a suite in the Marriott in Bowling Green about 30 minutes away.  It's a good thing too because Leo would have woken everyone up if we weren't able to keep him separate.  Who knew HE was gonna be the difficult one on the trip?  I guess I should've had some suspicions.  I asked for 2 cribs and we had a bed in one room and a pull out couch in the other.  We put Sarah to bed in one of the pack n plays in the bedroom, then when she was asleep we put John Paul in the bed and instructed him to BE QUIET and if Sarah woke up he was in BIG TROUBLE.  (He did fabulous both nights with this set up - we totally wore him out!)  THEN..... we tried to put Leo in the pack n play in the little kitchenette where he could see us.  Wow that was not happening.  He freaked out so much he almost made himself throw up.  He was, for some reason, genuinely terrified to sleep in there.  Then we pulled the couch into a bed and tried to get him to lay down.  He would not. stop. talking.  I have never heard anything like it.  The kid who takes a 2 hour nap and is asleep by 8 every night wouldn't go to sleep both nights until after 11:30 when he crashed.  He was pretty cute with his talking though.
"Piwwow!  Right DERE."  "Hi Mommy!"  "Nice Mommy."  "Hi Daddy!"  "BIG bed!"  etc etc etc

And here's how he slept. With me.

His feet are on my pillow.  

Madeleine was in heaven.  She got to stay with Grandma and Papa and she caught frogs, caterpillars, inch worms and bugs to her heart's content.  We saw deer, wild turkeys, and all kinds of birds.  We went on trails, in a cave, saw waterfalls, played frisbee and catch with lots of cousins, and had a great picnic.  These are some of my favorite memories growing up and I hope the kids have that too.

2 pairs of little boy underwear got thrown in the dumpster.  

They had a great time taking a bath in a hotel.  

We went on an awesome hike on Sunday with Uncle B and Aunt F, and we couldn't have done it without them for sure :)

Leo kept saying, "Want Bob!  Shoulders!"  And he loved it up there.

And on the way home we stopped at this beautiful little church in Louisville just in time for 5:15 mass.  Leo was a hellion as usual and at one point ran out in the aisle and started running toward the altar.  Ken had taken John Paul to the bathroom and I had Sarah in the sling so I had to get out and chase him.  There were two sweet older ladies behind us who kept smiling at their antics, and at the end of mass they said they love seeing families like us, and we are so blessed.  That is for sure.