Another tooth ... 3 now!

I noticed another tooth in Austin's mouth last night.  This time it's one of the front top teeth.  It's pressing out the gums and that probably explains why he was up twice during the night.  I am very grateful that he is happy today and took a really long nap.  No fever with this tooth and is drinking his bottle fine and still sucking on his nuk.  I sure hope the next teeth will come in easier than those first two!!!  He now has three teeth coming through!

Austin today at 8 1/2 months old!

He can now crawl on hands and knees!!!

 

Love our "little man"!!!

So much saliva with more teeth breaking through!

I stopped for a big latte today because I figured I could use the extra joe!!! 

Up with baby twice during the night = teething.

Up with Ashlyn twice during the night = ear ache!  :(

I am so grateful that both of them are feeling well today!!!

8 1/2 months old:

Austin is already 8 1/2 months old! 

He's been pulling himself up by his toy box and toys but just this week he started pulling himself up in his crib.  Now ... this is a problem because he hasn't learned yet how to get back down.  It happens often that I hear him crying and when I go see what's going on, most times he is standing somewhere and wants back down.  I hope he learns how to sit back down quickly because this is now what happens when I lay him down to sleep!  :/// 

Normally, I lay him down for his naps and he falls asleep soon after.  Yesterday, I had to keep going into his room to lay him down because he kept pulling himself up and crying! 

"Mom, help me!!!" 

He is learning how to do more and more things. 

He can hold his bottle but still doesn't feed himself.  We are all ready for him to hold his own bottle! 

He is still in a newborn car seat but I need to invest in the next stage car seat soon because he's wanting to sit up more and look around. 

His hair keeps growing and it's still blond.  I'm sure the summer sun will make him even lighter hair.

He can do patty cake after convincing him by singing the song a few times.

He is doing much better at nights!  He's ready for bed around 8:30.  Sleeps till 4.  Bottle.  Sleeps till 6:30.  Then his first morning nap around 9:30 is usually his longest nap.  A few hours.  His afternoon nap is not as long.  Most times he takes an evening nap yet but is getting out of this habit.  If he's happy, we just skip this nap.

Eating foods is still a work in progress.  I keep feeding him baby veggies and fruits.  He tries it and then eats great for about five bites.  Then he's done.  Honestly, he would much rather hold the spoon than eat the food that's on it.  He did start eating little rice cakes this week and likes them a lot.  Likes Cheerios!  He still doesn't eat near enough without his formula.  Drinking from a sippy cup is something we keep working on too.  One of these days he's gonna suck on it!!!  For now, he just plays with it.  We hope to keep expanding his menu week by week!!!

Crawling on hands and knees is right around the corner.  Austin still pulls himself around like a solider crawl but more and more he rocks on his fours and wants to go like that!  It won't be long before he will be crawling around the correct way!!!  :)  He is also getting really daring with letting go when he stands.  It was a few times when I had to literally catch him if he reached out for me.  He can't stand alone!!!  He is aggressive with getting around!!!

He loves his blanket and nuk!

Two teeth are now protruding out of his bottom gums!!!  He looks so adorable with two little white teeth in his mouth!  He was so miserable until they finally came through but is pleasant again!  Thank you Jesus!!!

We totally love our "little man"!!! 

MARCH weekend review ...

We had another eventful weekend here at home!!!  Weekends never seem to be boring for us but always filled with fun and events.  We like it like that!

Friday night, the Kauffman girls came for the evening.  Ashlyn loves to play with the twins and Morgan and so this was a fun night!  They played out in her play house and then after dark, they played in the living room.  Thanks for coming girls!  We had Adrian for a little while too until Lena got home from market.  He troops around the house and claims Austin's little play phone.  :)  We enjoyed the donuts for our dessert that we bought earlier at the Amish Farmers Market.  We were still relaxing here at home when we got more visitors!!!  John and Ruth Glick stopped in!  What a surprise!  They are serving in Colorado right now and came back home for the weekend.  We were so good to see them and our conversations are always great!!!  It made our night that they dropped by!  Then Mike went to pick up our teenager!  Hadassah was at a birthday party at Sky Zone and totally had a blast!!!

Saturday was an eventful day around here!  Gordonville Sale was and that makes tons of extra traffic for us and it makes Ginger bark so much more!!!  All the people walking by, riding scooters, trackers and buses ... I finally penned her up awhile to stop all the barking!  Sigh!

Mike was in Quakertown for the day selling sheds and working.  The kids decided to walk out to town and get ice cream from Rita's and they were disappointed when it wasn't open yet.  The Coffee Corner Shop was what they went for instead.  They had a great time together.  That night, we had Matt Lapps, Dave and Suz and Jonathon's over for snack and Acquire.  The guys love this game and it always gets so late when they play because they always just want to play one more.  Thanks for coming guys!  It was past midnight till I got to bed.

With all the lovely Spring weather we had all last week, rain is now for this week.  Sunday morning we woke up to some drizzles.  We enjoyed a great service at church and then came home for burgers and veggies for lunch.  Hadassah went to Jess's house to play volleyball but instead played some indoors games because of the weather.  :/  Mike decided to join a group of guys on a bike ride.  He's training for a long ride in May, so he needs all the exercise and training now!  Matt Lapp picked him up at 1:20 and they were off to meet the others and then bike.  It was raining but they all still went.  40 rough and tough miles!!!  Meanwhile, Marlene texted me and said that if Mike is biking, the kids and I should meet them at New Holland Rec to swim!  So we did!

All three of the children loved it!!!  It was Austin's first time to splash in water like this and enjoyed it so much!  Thanks again for the invite Marlene. 

My phone kept steaming up in the pool area ... :(.

We finished our time together at Wendy's for frosty's.  When we got back home, Mike was soaking in the tub with hot water.  He was chilled to the bone.  I made him some tea and he dosed up on Vita C.  He felt good but tired and wet!!!

Now it was time to go pick up Hadassah ... again!!!  Gerald's called and said to come eat pizza with them when we pick up Hadassah.  I hesitated because we had a busy day but why not???  The moment Austin woke up from his nap I remembered why I hesitated!  :)  We didn't stick around at Gerald's real long because Austin was a mess and it was time to get to bed at a much better time!!! 

Hadassah and her Sunday afternoon friends!

Another quick topic here ... snacks and lunches!

When we first started going to Honeybrook Church, Claudia was Ashlyn's Sunday school teacher!  I was inspired as I sat in her class often to get her used to all the new faces and church.  :)  One time, Claudia brought some apples into class and cut them in slices.  Not the way we all cut an apple.  No, cut it horizontally instead of long ways.  Then you get this look.  A star!!!  She used it as part of the Christmas story.  So neat.  Then she let the kids eat the apples for their snack.  Even neater!!!  :)  Then I saw on Pinetrest some apple snacks.  They said to cut the apples this same way, cut out the core an seeds and spread with peanut butter and sprinkle with granola. 

 When Hadassah saw this in her lunch, she thought it was so cool.  It's now an easy, fun snack for their lunches!

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Baby is sleeping and I've got piles of laundry to do yet, so I'm off!  Have a great week even though the clouds might hide out some of those sun rays!  It makes those clear sky days so much better!!!

Enjoying the warmer weather!

 

 

So much has happened since I blogged last.  It's time to catch up!

 

Mike is back from Arizona.  He had a wonderful time golfing!  We are so happy to have him back home with us again!  He is now darker than us and has a great tan from being in that Arizona heat for five days.

 

The weather just did a major flip flop here in our county!  It's warm and so "springy"!!!  We just simply can't get enough of these warmer, gorgeous days!!!  Yesterday, we made a trip to Lapp Valley Farms for our milk and eggs and Ashlyn and I both got ice cream cones!  The Yukon tempts said 80 degrees!!!  And it's on March 10!!!  Bring on an early Spring!!!

 

Shakia came for awhile the other day and they enjoyed the muddy outdoors together.  We still don't have our grass seeded!  So any rain or dampness makes for muddy boots!!!  We hope to get grass sown soon!!!

 

Austin has been a total bear this past week!!!  Each day I would pray for God's strength to get me through!  Why?  TEETHING!!!  Something fierce!!!  He got two bottom teeth and I think he's working on two more!  He has a cough and runny nose on top of it.  One morning he was running a slight fever and so miserable.  All he wants is for me to hold me.  I am so ready for his smiles and happy self back!

I gave him a cucumber slice the other day to see if he would eat it because he refuses his bottle and nuk at times because of his sore gums.  Guess what?  He's just like the others and likes cucumbers!

 

Hadassah is liking the 'shorts and tee shirt' weather too!  Basketball outside ... yes, please!

Matthew found his little wonder spot for right now outside.  We have a pile of left over scraps for the house and he plays around it.  Shorts and tanks for him too!

We need to move our garden and so Mike started the plowing process!  I'm not sure how big I want to go with it yet but it will be time to plant some veggies soon!!!  Ashlyn and I are so excited!  :)

Like I said ... muddy boots!

On Tuesday we had sisters day and went HomeGoods, Marshals and Hobby Lobby!!!  We all love these stores!!!  Then we went to Applebees to eat lunch.  Austin was a total mess ALL day long and whining!  We took turns holding him so we can all eat some food.  Some of the ladies got cheeseburger quesadillas and I thought that sounds like a great idea to make for supper.  I had 'burgers on the grill' on for our supper menu but instead ... I made cheeseburger quesadillas for my family.  Everyone liked them!!!!  I will be doing this some more!

With the spring/summer tempts with us all week long, things are blooming and sprouting fast!!!  Today, I saw trees with pink blooms on them and getting ready to bud spring flowers.  Ashlyn loves dandelions and she is usually so disappointed that we don't have any growing in our lawn.  (ha ha ... thank goodness.)  She already found two growing midst our unseeded and torn up lawn.  I have a feeling she will find plenty this year around here!  Her and baby Kate were enjoying the lovely weather on the front porch!!!

 

And mentioning the front porch, the holiday greens were taken away and replaced with spring wreaths and spring flowers.  I just love spring time!!!

 I went back to the greenhouses and bought us some of these!!! 

Ashlyn pushed Austin around on the stroller while I planted my pots.

This little man is trying to get through this teething thing all week long and I finally went for some teething tablets.

Ashlyn was supper excited when I told her she can pick out some seeds for us to plant!

Front porch flowers ...

 

Gotta love those pussy willows!

 

This little man wants to stand up all the time!

This is a quick peek of our day out on Tuesday with mom and sisters!!!  Austin was such a mess and when we were at Marshals he liked the mirror for a few minutes.  :)))

Here's another peek at an outing with my little ones.  I tried Starbucks Smoked Butterscotch Latte and ... it's sweet but yummy!  :)  I was so happy to let the window down a bit while we got groceries so the Yukon wouldn't be so warm we got back into it to go home.  It's the beginning of March and we are having record high tempts!!!  Love it!!!

Another peek ... we went for milk and eggs at Lapp Valley and got ice cream cones because the Yukon said 80 degrees and because wanted to eat ice cream!  :)

Hadassah is our busy teenager!  She just finished in 4th place with her volleyball team in a league.  Volleyball evening games are now over.  She is on Year Book Staff at school.  She is mastering algebra after many determined moments to figure it all out!  She loves to be with her friends and hang out!  She comes home from school and digs into her homework so she can do other events.  Her first soccer practice was on Thursday.  I can't wait to watch her play this sport!

And this was our event for today ... going to a Amish Farmer's Market.  In West Chester.  Not too far.  With cousins.  We ate good.  Pretzels.  Donuts.  Watermelon.  We saw big chocolate bunnies.  We ate chicken wings.  The whole afternoon was fun even when our babies were tired!  :)  Thanks Mindy for inviting us to go with you today!

 

 

Austin's two little teeth!

He sits beside Ashlyn while she plays games on the iPad.  So cute!

Ashlyn wanted to plant some of our seeds we got the other day, so we put some dirt in the containers that my pansies came in and we planted some.

She loves this kind of stuff!!!  Me too.  :)

We now have our seeds in the garage right inside a window.  We can't wait to see them grow!!!

One more thing before I go to bed ... I am so happy to have fresh basil on my kitchen counter!  It's an herb that I can't ever get enough of.  I can't wait to plant some in the garden!  I will be so happy when I cut this herb and mix it into our foods!  It's so tasty and yummy.  I love the smell too!!!  I love basil!!!