4 Months Old

4 Months...oh Hadley Hadley Hadley! 

I cannot believe you are such a little person already!

Weight:   11lbs 14oz  (10th percentile)

Length:   23 1/2 in     (50-75th percentile)

Head:    16 1/8 in      (50-75th percentile)

You are such a little peanut and still look so tiny sometimes but the things you can do amaze me!  You roll all around the floor and love flipping onto your tummy and propping your head up and just looking around.  You can sit on my hip but it makes me nervous because you throw your head back so we don't do that too often.  You can sit on my lap and hold just my fingers and I can lift up and you stand on my legs and smile away.  You love how big and strong you are getting!

You smile and laugh like crazy - seriously you are always in the best mood.  I love this age where I really do think you have major eyes for Mommy and you can spot me all the way across the room.  You light up with the hugest smile every single time you see me!  You laugh when we tickle your belly with our face and you laugh at your brothers when they act crazy and fall and trip in front of you.

EATING:

You are my first baby that has still nursed once I went back to work so that is really exciting for me!  Both Chase and Brady refused and only wanted breastmilk from bottles after I went back to work but you are doing awesome at going back and forth.  I nurse you in the morning and then Daddy leaves at 6:45am to take you to Grandma and Papa's for the day.  They feed you 4 4oz bottles of breastmilk during the day.  We had to incorporate one formula bottle about 2-3 weeks ago.  I was super sad but I am one bottle short of what you need per day with pumping.  We give you the formula at your early evening feeding (between 6-7pm).  Then I nurse you one more time before you go to sleep.  You wake up 1 time per night (last week it was twice per night but we are back to once) and I nursed you in bed and put you back in your bassinet.  During the day I pump 4 times while working to get enough milk for you for the next day!  It is A LOT of work but definitely worth it :)

SLEEPING:

You are still in the bassinet next to our bed because Mommy is not ready for you to move!  Daddy told me that we have to do it soon so we will see :)  You usually go to sleep around 8:30-9pm and lately you have been waking up a lot - yikes!  We are thinking that perhaps you are done with the swaddle because you always wake up trying to get your arms out!  We still swaddle you in a Halo Sleepsack but maybe we are about done with that.  You wake up between 5:30-6am every morning with a huge smile on your face!

You seem to take 2-3 naps a day at Grandma & Papa's house during the day.  Some days you sleep a lot, other days not very much.  You are still trying to figure out your schedule.

PLAYTIME:

You like to be held facing out at all times so that you can see what is going on! You love watching your brothers...watching them dance, mess around and horseplay makes you smile and giggle!  You like your playmat but you really just flip right on over to your belly and look around.  You put every toy in your mouth and chomp on it like crazy!  Your favorite toy is your foot and you will just sit there and chew away on your sock - lol!  I keep feeling for teeth but nothing yet!  You aren't a huge fan of the bumbo....you will sit in it but then you try to lean to the side to get out so it makes us nervous.  You will sit in your swing while we eat dinner and sometimes to take a little cat nap in the evening.  You LOVE the baby bjorn and like being worn facing out all around the house! 

MOMMY: 

I feel pretty much 100% since having you.  I am tired but I have been tired for 5 years so what's new :)  It is survival mode some days and I (and Daddy) just keep powering through.  Daddy and I go to bed pretty early though - lol!  My incision is still numb in places and if it gets kicked or hit on accident by one of your brothers it can cause a sharp pain.  I weigh 3 lbs less than I did when I got pregnant so thank you breast feeding for helping me lose the baby weight!

Some photos of cute 4 month old you :)

Napping on Mommy in the early evening

You are the best little sister Chase and Brady could ask for!

You get a TON of compliments on your eyes when we are out and about :)

 Trying out the bumbo for the first time!

Yup, you love your feet!

Love you Hadley girl!!!

Weekend Download

Had to upload some of the cute moments I captured a few weekends ago on my phone...

Hads supporting our family in Texas and Papa H's alma mater!

 

The boys love helping Craig grill by all wearing their own headlamps - lol

 

Movie Time!

 

Monsters University

 

Brady has become so much more into Hadley and he gives her hugs, reads to her and is so gentle with her - it is so precious and sweet!

 

 

Saturday night we spent the evening with all the cousins cheering for the Rams!

 

Cheering for our Broncos against the Chiefs Sunday night - victory!!!!

 

And then Chase discovered how to take selfies....great!  He was dying laughing :)

Tooth Fairy's 1st Visit!

The tooth fairy made her 1st visit to our house last Tuesday night, on November 12th!  

About a week before this Chase came home and said his tooth was loose.  I couldn't believe it!  These are the type of milestones that really make me feel like my little monkey is growing up soo fast.  Over the next few days we were just waiting for it to fall out and we even put a ziploc baggie in Chase's backpack in case he lost it at school.  That little tooth was hanging on strong though and even when we tried to pull it a few nights it just wouldn't come out!  I picked up Chase from his after school program on Tuesday and he told me it fell out!  He showed me and I asked him where his tooth was?  He told me he swallowed it!!  I was actually kind of worried about that happening and I kept asking him if he was serious because he was smiling funny when he told me.  He kept telling me yes and all the way to the car I kept saying, "Did you really swallow it?"  He kept telling me yes and he asked what would happen with the tooth fairy....  I told him he would have to just write her a note explaining what happened!  Then as we were pulling in the driveway I said "you really swallowed it?' one more time and he laughed and said "No, I was just kidding you Mama!  It fell out on the playground."  What?  What a little stinker!  Not sure why he wanted to mess with me but it was pretty cute to hear him try and joke around :)

So...the real story is it fell out on the playground (which is wood chips) so it was long gone!

 

Chase was really excited for the tooth fairy to come that night but his main concern was that Brady better sleep good so that she would come - lol!  He said, "Mom, Brady messes around so much at night so what if she doesn't come because he is awake?"  I was dying when he said that! 

Chase wrote his note to the tooth fairy and then we rolled it up and put it in his little tooth pillow that Grandma T had given him a couple years ago!  That little pillow came with a cute tooth fairy book and has been waiting in his closet for this very day.  

I was so nervous that night sneaking in to remove the note and replace it with $2...I mean, what if he woke up and saw Craig and I putting money under his pillow!  So much pressure to not ruin the belief in the tooth fairy!  Luckily Chase is the heaviest sleeper ever so we didn't have any issues :)

 

 

The next morning, I woke Chase up for school and asked him, "Did the tooth fairy come?"  His eye lit up and he threw his pillow to the side and got the BIGGEST smile on his face when he saw the dollars sticking out!  It was pure magic, I am telling you :)  I decorated the dollars with glittery puffy paint and he thought that was pretty cool too!

What a fun milestone for our family..but I have to say it makes me laugh every time he smiles and I see the missing tooth.  Kids look so funny with missing teeth - lol!

One of those weekends...

Ever have one of those weekends that is just great?  No real reason, no big plans but just a lot of fun family time where we found fun activities to do and everyone was in relatively good moods all weekend! (That's a major win with 3 little ones - haa).  Last weekend was one of those weekends!  Maybe it was the gorgeous weather, maybe it was a weekend when we weren't running around to a million events but whatever is was, it was great :)

 Friday night movie night watching The Croods

 

A typical dinner night at the Hoeltings...loud and wild and crazy!  The boys decided they wanted to yell and sing and pound on the table to make Hadley laugh...it worked!  Lol.  It was loud, but a lot more pleasant than begging and pleading them to eat and them complaining about having to eat :)

 

Hadley fit right in and was banging on the table herself!

 

 

I brought up some 3T clothes from the basement and there were some Christmas jammies in the box...Brady decided it was time to wear them :)

 

I had to take this picture Sat morning because this depicts Brady's personality so well.  He was up at 5:30am, came down in his Christmas jammies he insisted on wearing and wanted to make french toast by like 6am.  Of course he HAD to help and he HAD to do the eggs...good lord.  I could just picture the eggs falling on the floor but Craig and I were too tired to fight him :)  He actually did an awesome job helping Craig make french toast and we had a yummy EARLY breakfast!  Lol

 

 

The 2 little ones tend to get some quality time together weekend mornings because Chase is our sleeper!  I wish they all slept like him..sigh

 

Saturday afternoon Craig took Chase up to the CSU football game!  Chase was so excited he got to go because he is the "oldest" and these are the special things he gets to do :)  Craig said he did a great job and CSU won - woo hoo!

 

 

Sunday morning quality time again for our littlest monkeys!

 

 

 

Sunday morning we headed to the rec center to go swimming.  We had been telling Brady for like 4 days that if he was good we would go over the weekend.  He talked about it constantly and was looking forward to this sooo much!!!  He wanted to wear goggles on the way there and Craig and I were dying laughing at how ridiculous he looked!  They were all fogged up and he couldn't even see but he wouldn't take them off!

 

 

The rec center is amazing and it has a kids areas with buckets that dump water and fountains that spray, they have 2 big water slides, a lazy river and a family hot tub.  Craig did all the hard work since I kept Hadley out of the pool but it looked like these 3 boys were having a blast!

 

 

After lunch we had to get outside to enjoy the gorgeous 70 degree weather we were having!!!

 

 

 

We cheered on our Broncos to victory and had a nice relaxing Sunday night...more weekends like this please!

Baby Shower Palooza

What are the chances that 2 of my close friends would have a Sip and See baby shower thrown for them on the same day at the exact same time??  Well it happened, so Hadley and I spent the day with great girlfriends celebrating 2 very special brand new baby girls and their Mama's!

A Sip and See is a pretty new phenomenon I think and I absolutely love the concept!!  It is designed for your 2nd, 3rd, etc children and it is a shower thrown after the baby is born so that everyone can actually meet the baby :)  Our friends threw us one for Hadley and it was so fun to have them all be able to meet her at just 10 days old!

So a few Sundays ago, we started the morning celebrating baby Sadie and my girlfriend, Michelle.  Michelle is one of my neighbors and has become a great friend in the years we have lived here.  She watched Brady full time for us for a year from the time he was 6 month to 1 1/2.  She was so amazing with him and we have spent a lot of time over the last few years with their family.  Their first daughter, Zoey, is 4 and she and Brady have the cutest little bond from spending a year playing together.  I am so happy that they welcomed a second baby girl into their lives!!  Sadie was born Sept 19th and is such a sweetie!!  I can't believe I didn't get a picture with her or Michelle, hello!  I did get a couple pics with some of the other girls in our little neighborhood group.  I will have to add some pics with Michelle and Sadie next time I see them :)

So blessed to be surrounded by so many great friends and Mommy's right in my own backyard. 

 

While Michelle was finishing opening presents, Hadley and I hightailed it down south to one of my close college friends sip and see.  Dana is one my best friends from college and we still have a very close knit group of friends.  Baby Makayla was born just 10 days earlier, on October 22nd!  I got there right as the shower was ending so some girls had to leave right away.  I was able to stay a few more hours and chit chat with these girls below and it was so nice to get some quality time with them!  It was amazing to hold a newborn again - it is crazy how much Hadley has changed already and how quickly you forget what a true "newborn" feels like.

 

We were getting ready to leave and I was dying at how cute these sweet girls looked next to each other!!  Look at what a difference 3 1/2 months makes!!  Craziness!  The funny part is they probably aren't too far apart in weight - lol - Makayla was born at 8lbs 14oz so they are probably only a few lbs apart at this point.  But what a difference in how alert babies become in just a few short months.  I can't wait to watch these girlfriends grow up together!

Such an amazing day celebrating new babies - nothing better than that :)

Brady's Daytime Activities

Brady's daycare sends us emails throughout the day of the different activities they are participating in.  I love this because it helps me feel involved with his day even while I am working!  

A few of the pictures have cracked me up lately...

Making the girls laugh like crazy while playing with a salad spinner :)

Doing some yoga with his buddy, Julia!

(Brady was "The Rock")

 

Sleepover

These cousins always have so much fun together when they get to have sleepovers with each other!  

Such good little buddies :)

 

Hadley was pretty excited that Carson spent the night too :)

 

Trick or Treat Time!

On Halloween day I got to keep this sweet girl home because my mother in law had jury duty for the day.  I was so excited to get to have Hadley home with me and spend some quality time with her.  I miss her!!  She is so sweet and happy that I was still able to jump on all my conference calls and keep up with work email all day.  Then we went to Chase's class party together and got ready to have a bunch of our neighbors over for our Trick or Treat Happy Hour!

 

Rolling from her back to her tummy

Hello Hadley Girl!  

I love this age :-)

After Chase's class party we ran home to get set up to have all of our neighbors over for a pre trick-or-treat happy hour.  We have done this for the last 3 years in a row and it is always such a fun time!  We have some of the best neighbors you could ask for and we have become such good friends with a bunch of them since we have moved in!  We had 8 families over and I think around 40 people...it was a madhouse, but a fun one!  It was so hectic I only snapped a few pictures...

Some of the goodies...

Lots of appetizers and plenty of adult beverages :)

 

A group shot of the kids as we were heading out!

In typical Brady fashion, he wouldn't get in the picture but you can see him off on the very left side of the picture, lol!

 

I can't believe it but I didn't take any pictures of the kids actually trick or treating...but here are a few things I want to remember about this year:

1) It was freezing and windy out so Hadley was snuggled in her carseat and stroller and we didn't take her out of it or she would have freaked out.  It would have been cute to get a picture of her "trick-or-treating" and we would have if she was our first kid but honestly we were both running up and down the streets keeping up with Chase and Brady that I didn't even get a picture of her in her costume!

2) Chase was running at LIGHTNING speed with our 11 and 8 year old boy neighbors sprinting from house to house.  Craig and I had to separate so that one could stay with Chase and the other could stay back with Brady.  

3)  Chase requested a pillowcase instead of his plastic pumpkin at the last second to go collect candy in because that is what the older boys had :)

4)  Brady was LOVING going up to houses and he was so into it this year.  He would run up and say "Trick or Treat" and then yell thank you and run to the next house.  He might be my favorite age this year for trick-or-treating!

5) The very first house Brady went to was our neighbor 2 houses down.  I heard a huge crash and I ran up the driveway to the front door to see what happened.  There he was standing next to a giant white glass elephant that had fallen over and broken.  They had one on each side of their front door.  Brady was crying and saying "I'm sorry Mama" over and over again - I felt so bad for him!  The couple was super sweet and said not to worry about it but I still feel bad and hope it wasn't expensive!  They are Indian and I am pretty sure the elephant holds a religious value...hopefully Brady didn't just get bad kharma for the next year -oops!!!

6)  People thought Brady was a girl....hmmmm...didn't see that coming but I kept hearing "she's so cute" all night - lol!  I guess the whiskers looked girly with his big blue eyes :)

7) Brady tired out after 2 streets and asked to go home.  Craig took him and Hads home and passed out candy the rest of the night.

8)  Chase kept going on mock speed for about another hour - we headed in about 7:45.  One of our friends brought a huge stereo out with us and he was pushing it in a stroller so we had music as we trick-or-treated, lol!  The boys were still running so fast but we finally told them they couldn't go in front of the music.  Worked like a charm!  They would do a few houses and then meet at the stroller and dance a little and then run off to a few more houses.  

9)  It seemed a lot more dead in our neighborhood this year than years past.  The past 3 Halloween's our streets have been packed and I feel like I am in a movie with how many people are out...this year it felt very sparse...I think it was too cold!  I think kids went a few houses and then went home.  There were a ton of houses lit up, decorated and handing out candy but not as many trick-or-treaters.  Chase didn't think it was cold at all - running at lightning speed will do that to you :)

Chase busy separating and sorting after he got back from trick-or-treating!

 

Our exhausted tiger!  

We tried to wash the whiskers off but it didn't work too well :)  It cracked me up how sweet and peaceful and silly he looked all at the same time.

Another successful Halloween in the books!

We were watching Grey's Anatomy last night and there was a line that said, "you only get 10 Halloween's with your kids before they want to go off with their friends."  I literally teared up hearing that and realizing we are halfway there with Chase!  Definitely makes me want to enjoy every single second of every holiday while they are my tiny toddlers!!!