for this, I am thankful

I was especially excited for thanksgiving this year after being very nauseas from pregnancy last year, I knew I could actually enjoy the food this time! And having a baby makes everything more fun :)

for the third weekend in a row we were out of town and whew, that is exhausting! first we traveled for cody's grandaddy's funeral then early christmas then thanksgiving. Luckily Evynn is a great traveler!  But I am ready to not live out of a suitcase and actually have a day at home in-between working.

We went to my parents house for thanksgiving and enjoyed being cozy, eating lots of food and squeezing in a little shopping.

I am so thankful for my family, my wonderful husband, our sweet baby girl who brings us so much joy, our jobs, our community and church, and mostly our Lord and Savior!

Evynn got to wear her thanksgiving onesie (then had a blow out, then we washed it to re-wear it for the thanksgiving festivities ;))

 gimme all the pumpkin pie

^uncle Cody being super silly with Evynn

cuddling with grandpa

great grandma!

the boys and stephanie went outside before we ate on thanksgiving for some yard golf

the first one asleep after the big meal ;)

unfortunately the entire weekend was constant downpour of rain so we didn't get to do as much as we would've liked. we did manage to go through target and old navy. (50% the entire story of old navy, what?! thats my love language.)

Evynn did very good waiting on long lines with nana and I

then aunt CC came over to see miss Evynn Claire ;) The day after thanksgiving last year claire came over and I subtly asked "do you know who all is pregnant?!" referring to everyone that posted it on social media that day but surprise, I was telling her. This year she got to play with and feed miss evynn. 

this new flat, closed mouth smile... my heart.

that night I ate my weight in pumpkin pie and tortilla soup and we watched football. I decided it would be fun to get out the video camera to watch parts of my pregnancy that my dad caught on camera. We watched more than that and went back to previous Christmas and laughed until we cried at some of the funny/embarrassing things caught on camera ;) 

I so wish we could've taken some outdoorsy pictures but the 30 degrees pouring rain just wouldn't allow :(

We left early today expecting an icy drive but actually didn't hit any ice at all! Evynn fell asleep before we left Sherman and slept till Seymour. I fed and changed her then and then she slept from seymour to lubbock. She was the.best.baby today and is still happy and playing as we speak :)

first comes Christmas..

..not really, but this year we celebrated Christmas early, due to crazy schedules, a pregnant sister-in-law, and trying to find time to spend christmas with all the extensions of family.

We went to Cody's parents house wednesday the 18th and spent the next few days being super lazy and resting. That friday night we had "Christmas" and opened presents. Cody and I got all kinds of goodies but Evynn was really spoiled ;) we are so thankful for family to spoil our baby!

Saturday before we left we took family pictures. Let's just say it was nap time for the kiddos ;)

'

^"pop pop" and "this" with the sleepy grandkids

evynn claire | four months

How many months old? 4 months

Weight?  14 lbs 8 oz (69^th %)

Length? 25 ½ in (90^th %)

Head? 16 in (48^th %)

Any teeth? Nope but definitely in the drooling stage. Wet, slobbery kisses all day, everyday.

Sleep? Yes yes and yes! Naps still aren’t our thing, she’s doing great if she takes 2 naps a day 1-2 hours each. But at bedtime, usually around 8 we do the bath, jammies routine then I nurse her and we rock or walk around until she’s really sleepy. She’s usually started to rub her eyes or rub her head in our chest by this point (I love the sleepy eye rubs! So sweet!). once she’s tired enough we lay her in her crib with the lights off and off we go! Some nights we turn on her mobile, or the sound machine for 30 minutes. Some nights she cries for a few minutes, other nights she doesn’t at all. Some nights she wakes up at 4 for a quick snack, other nights she sleeps straight till 6 or 7. We’re so thankful for this!! I was worried about weaning from her swaddle last week but we took out one arm, then both, then eventually stopped with the swaddle all together and she’s sleeping great sprawled out in her fleece jammies. Oh, she’s also rolling from back to belly like it ain’t no thing, she did that in her sleep the other day and I think it scared her haha!

Feeding? Eating like a champ (see chimpmunk cheeks and those thunder thighs for further). She still takes her time to eat on occasion but overall much much faster! She still eats every 2-4 hours depending, I let her nurse on demand when I’m at home with her. When she’s at her babysittters/I’m at work I provide 4 5oz bottles and she usually drinks 3 during the day (I pack an extra because, who knows when she’ll need it!). She’s definitely started to get more distracted while nursing and will pop off to look at me and smile or look around then go back to eating, then get distracted again.

Eating anything? Mommys milk!

Developmental milestones? Her new thing is rolling over back to belly. I was not expecting this quite yet but I’ve actually seen her roll back to belly more often than belly to back! Anytime we lay her on a play mat she rolls onto her belly and stays there for awhile. She has started doing this in her sleep too and just stays sleeping on her belly. She will hold toys if you put them in her hand, and is starting to grab them on her own. She loves talking and laughing at us and giving us faces when we interact with her. She so desperately wants to sit and stand, she’ll straighten those legs out when we have her against our shoulders and flex her feet, ha! She has one of the toys you pull down and it vibrates back up in her carseat and if we show her how to do it, she’ll start pulling on it. She also wants to hold her own bottle!

Favorite toy? We like reading books, holding rattles, talking. She has an extra saucer that she likes to sit in and look at. And she loves her sophie the giraffe of course!

 Speech and language? She has lots to say! I love when she’s trying really hard and she flexes her nostrils and really stretches out her lips. I asked her how church was the other day and she cracked up laughing. Guess mom wasn’t in on that joke ;)

Loves? Nursing, playing with her hands, rolling over, working on sit ups, walking around being held. She still has some big, dramatic stretches that we love. She gives big, wet kisses especially if she’s hungry, haha! And she’s really into her feet right now and is always pulling on her socks and toes!After every bath cody wraps her up in her towel and squeezes her and says "so warm! so warm! so warm!" and she just giggles and laughs so much.

Dislikes? When her food gets taken away,  when she needs to burp, and rarely takes a pacifier (at least not for me), anything having to do with her nose-suction, wiping, etc.

Firsts: first big holiday! We had Halloween but didn’t do anything, we went out to eat and I put everything pink on her with a tutu to be a “ballerina”. We just had Christmas last weekend and thanksgiving a few days ago.

We love: her sweet and cuddly yet sassy and demanding personality coming through. She has the sweetest giggle that we could listen to all day long!

i feel like all of our sudden our newborn is a big girl! she's growing and developing so much every single day!

storybook shower

While we were out of town at cody's grandaddy's funeral, my girlfriends had a baby shower that we had been planning for weeks/months. If you know me, you know I love planning parties and so planning this shower had brought me so much joy and letting me get so creative over the last few weeks. I hate that everything hit on the same weekend but I was able to be with family and my friends pulled off a great shower. 

So, I'm going to show off my friends great work!

The theme was storybook for Mr. Rhodes and we chose the colors light blue, light yellow and red. Everything pulled together so perfectly. We asked guests to bring a children's book and coordinating food and it looks like everything worked perfectly!

About 2 weeks before the shower when I returned to work I found out that one of my new coworkers bakes and decorates beautiful cookies. So of course I asked her for some cookies for the shower and I cannot believe how great they turned out! If you're in the Lubbock area, look up Sweet Caroline's ;)

I had found a few cute baby boy poems on pinterest. I thought they would be cute to frame for added decor and because most children books rhyme anyways. Then I needed one more poem but wanted to incorporate Rhodes' name so I created my own, thanks rhymingzone.com haha!

so proud of my friends for pulling off a great shower! so happy for brooke, trey, and baby rhodes!