SNOW

The snow hit us and we have been snowbound for 2 days. I love it. Staying in jammies all day, hot chocolate, snuggling, movies, games, legos...ahhh. I haven't heard any exact totals of snowfall but I'm sure it's over a foot. Even the church closed today because the parking lot had too much snow to be able to get in! Gabe and I took turns shoveling out the driveway, he lasted longer than I did. (We REALLY want a snowblower now!) Drake came out to "help" too but that mostly resulted in playing and throwing snow at each other.

So, he came in and warmed up with some hot chocolate and started in on his lego project. Here is the finished product:

5 months

Grady is now at the 5 month mark!

Five month facts:

*rolling from back to tummy every single time I lay him on his back but gets frustrated that he can't get back over to his back once on his tummy

*eating cereal twice a day and just tried his first veggie this week: squash! eating it pretty well

*starting to sit up: really well with the boppy around him, for a few seconds without support
*sleeping from 8p-8a with a feeding usually around 5a, but still experimenting with his schedule to try to get rid of those occasional wake-ups for the paci throughout the night.
*taking three naps a day now: after each day time feeding and then we keep him up until bedtime after his dinner time feeding.
*laughs the most for mommy and second-most for Drake
*eyes are still very blue so I'm hoping they will stay that way!
*still has a ridiculous amount of hair, but has a small bald-ish spot on the side but has enough hair for a combover to cover it.
*weighing in at 20lbs 4 oz...holy smokes, this kid is a beast.
*can't get him to drink any formula, not that I need him to but it would be nice to know he would at least take it if necessary, but gags if you try to give him any. even tried mixing it with the real stuff, can't fool him.
*he really is a pretty easy going baby, takes life of keeping up with two big siblings in stride and is very portable and goes with the flow. (example: last week Gabe and I went to a visitation that had a 2 hour line of waiting and we just had Grady with us. He hardly made a peep the whole time! Was content to just chew on his hands and be passed back and forth between us. Several people in the line commented on how amazing he was to last that long, especially since it went past his bedtime!)

Rolling and Reading

It's been a big week around here! Grady is officially rolling and rolls from back to tummy nearly every time he is on the floor. Neither of the older two were big rollers. They didn't really become very mobile until they were crawling at about 8 months. Not sure if I'll be able to say the same about Grady. He hasn't rolled from tummy to back yet though so we're still safe for a while at least. Here he is in action:

***And the sleep update is...Grady is sleeping all night most nights!! It took a few weeks (yeah, those who say it only take a few nights of CIO to get your baby to sleep, they're wrong!) of making the babe s t r e t c h out that night time feeding and trying a few different things but most nights he is sleeping from 8pm-5am (eats at 5) then back to sleep until about 8 or 8:30am. I will take it after the last few months of interrupted sleep! ***



And in other big news...Hadley is catching on to reading. Not that she is ready for books yet, but she is doing great at sounding out small words. This girl amazes me. I can't believe how quickly she catches on to things. Grammy had started working with her last week with some letter cards we have and since then we've been practicing several times a week. She loves doing it and gets so proud of herself! Here are a couple of shots of her in action:

Solids!

I can't believe this little man is old enough already to try solids! Here he is trying some cereal. He eats it up pretty well. Yet another attempt to try to get this turkey to sleep all night...

4 months

chunky monkey. gradester. drooler. hand chewer. thumb sucker. little sleeper. cutie pie. love.

4 month stats: 18 lbs 12 oz (99%)
26 inches long (80%)

We are still struggling with night time sleeping. He does great going to sleep on his own, in his crib but still wants to eat at least once during the night. We are going to do some experimenting this week to try to get him sleeping ALL night...

Out with the Old...

We ended 2010 with a very small bang. We stayed in for a cozy evening of chinese take-out, a riveting game of giant spoons and some italian sodas in fancy glasses. The kids went to bed by 9:00 pm and I almost made it until midnight!

Some things we are so thankful for in 2010:

• participating in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University and paying off some debt!
• a fun vacation to Wisconsin Dells during the summer
  
• our church family that blessed us in many ways
• a challenging season of growth during the campaign "Elevate"at church
• and last but certainly not least, the birth of our third munchkin, Grady

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Our Christmas started out a little rocky with Drake starting to run a fever of 100-104* for a few days. Finally, on Christmas Eve he seemed to have kicked the worst of it with a lingering cough and cold. Then, Hadley started in that evening. Luckily, we had celebrated Christmas with Nana and Papa that morning at our house, so they stayed so I could enjoy the Christmas Eve service at church and they could stay home with the sickies.

Christmas Day we headed over to the Lodge to celebrate with the Rutledge clan. ( I keep forgetting to download those pictures so I'll have to post those soon!) Hadley was a little pitiful and pretty much just laid on the couch or floor all day. Drake's legs started aching that morning and he was limping around all day. This happened after the last time he was sick too so we're not sure if it's related to the virus he had or being dehydrated while he was sick. Sunday morning the kids and I had to miss church because Hadley was still running a fever and we had to postpone the Farwell Christmas that was supposed to happen that night so she wouldn't get any of the other kids sick. Finally Monday afternoon, we made it to Lincoln and we celebrated Christmas with our big meal that everyone pitched in to make and then let the kids tear into the presents. Seven children 6 and under made for an entertaining evening!