Thanksgiving '18

Thanksgiving was pretty relaxing this year, and I had the BEST helpers!

The boys got to all watch the game.

 And of course we had a big Thanksgiving Feast. 

The girls decorated us a mural of turkeys and 

all sorts of things they are grateful for.

I was most grateful for our special visitor RYAN!

I love seeing his smiling face, we miss him so much!

We had lots of fun and ate way too much...

Turkey, Mashed potatoes, Green bean casserole, Sweet potatoes, Stuffing, ROLLS, and I won't even get into dessert because I am going to make myself way too hungry just thinking about it. 

It was delish!

And as per tradition we had Thanksgiving dinner all over again with leftovers the next two nights!!

Allergic

For record purposes Piper is still allergic to eggs. Her annual allergist check up came back positive for white and yolk allergies. So with epi pen prescription and brave little girl in tow we left. And if Piper has anything to say about the experience it is, "don't go there". She was telling the lady in the waiting room as we checked out and left not to go there. It was the sweetest thing and yet so sad. We also had to get blood done so off we went to the next stop, and she was not happy but didn't cry she just kept angrily asking "Why?"

Daddy took her out afterwards for a special lunch date and spoils. 

Shea was so shocked and disappointed by the results he was so excited to give her eggs and not have that stress anymore. I was too a little. 

But I am still holding out hope that this egg allergy will get better not worse, and eventually be gone all together. 

Either way I think her dislike for eggs is only growing considering she knows she can't have them now and every time she sees them she says "ewww"  and sticks her tongue out and says "they make me sick".

Piper's Potty Trained

So let me start at the beginning. 

First off we knew this girl was getting ready to start potty training, but honestly I wasn't ready. I had hoped we would be pregnant with Baby #5 or have Baby #5 already. So my mind was just not in the game, and I didn't want to cope with the emotional toll that potty training possibly my last was going to take on me. So I was trying hard to ignore the signs and push this out as long as I could...

But after a grueling week of literally having almost every. single. diaper. leak through because she was holding her bladder till she exploded every. single. time.  I was done. I gave up the battle of waiting and on the spot decided we were going all in. So that morning off to the store we went with everyone in tow (because of course it is a day off of school) to grab undies (I totally overbought thinking she'd be like Bella and have lots of little accidents in the foreseeable future), salty snacks and drinks. I printed the first potty sheet I could find, dug up some matching-ish stickers from our stash and out came the potty and on went the potty shows. 

She was ambivalent at first. Excited for the undies and trying them on and off and very happy with the leftover Halloween treat incentive but not sure what else she was in for. 

I won't say the day went amazing or horrible. She was probably definitely on the easier side of potty training (Bella was really my only hard one, so honestly my bar is pretty high, I have been seriously lucky). At first I wasn't sure she was going to get it because like Bella she holds her bladder for long periods of time so naturally it is harder for her to learn because she doesn't have quite as many opportunities. No matter how much juice I am pumping into her. Honesty though she surprised me she was into it and just sat on the potty all morning and happily peed in the potty multiple times, and at the end of the day she even pooped in the potty, albeit unexpectedly and alarmingly. 

The day ended with 2 accidents, and they were full bladder ones... and 6 successes!

Day 2, she definitely had the peeing in the potty part down flat but was scared to go poop. 5 successes, 1 poop accident. 

Day 3, 9 successes no accidents. Still fearful of poop in the potty and pretty grossed out by it, but she went, so I was happy. 

We did another potty sheet as we continued to struggle a bit with the poop part of potty training. But all in all a couple days with a couple Mommy outbursts about poop in the pants and she was fully potty trained.

We obviously were doing pull ups for bed and outings for a while still. 

But even that luckily enough she never had a problem with and it only lasted a week, dry pull ups every night. 

And gradually going out we got more and more brave and she impressed us every time. 

Honestly I never even had to go through the really reminding her constantly stage. I will say we had our fair share of accidents as the weeks progressed with a slight regression at one point, like everyone else had. But all in all I felt like this potty training thing was easy. 

I will say the biggest struggle of the entire potty training experience was breaking Daddy and Piper from the potty = treat incentive. She was begging Daddy for treats for months, well after she was potty trained and Daddy is a sucker for her pouty face, so...

Next time around I need smaller designated treats for a specific time or no treats at all. Both other girls were just sticker driven. 

Thanksgiving was around the corner and I was pretty stoked to have this little Miss potty trained; 

and it all happened on a whim!

Mommy victory!

Hike in Catoctin

We love this trail and the fact that there is a fun playground not to far away is a huge bonus.
When the leaves are changing and falling it is the perfect time to go because it is just the absolute epitome of Autumn. So we usually go with the Martin Family too and make it a fun little day in the mountain air. You can just smell the cool Fall air and the crisp crunchy leaves, and the smoky fires in the distance. It is one of my favorite times of the year. And brings back so many memories of hiking this very trail as a kid.
I love going when it isn't very popular and we get the trail all to ourselves. Of course we didn't get that lucky, but it was still a wonderful little adventure in the land of leaves.

Bunny ears

And this playground is a hidden treasure and is always empty. 

They love having the free reign on it when our hike is over and we are ready to exhaust all the leftover energy and when we are wiped we head out for a Friendly dinner on the way home.
Definitely one of those perfect days.

Love Mommy

Bell,

You are getting to be such a little lady. And it scares me to death! Every now and then I get a glimpse of you in ten years and it totally makes me crazy. The way you toss your hair or put your hand on your hip, your bossy little-tude that drives Con especially a little crazy! Your smarty smirk when you do something just right. Your manipulative daring eyes that are just constantly testing us to see if things work out just the way you have planned. It drives even me a little insane sometimes and makes me fear for that ten years down the road; when it all will be too real and then the finger on my lips and the point to bed or the clip moving down wont solve the meltdowns or fighting. But in the very same moment when your absolutely sassy your tender heart will break and I'll again realize how little and simple all these moments are and how even though they may drive me nuts within seconds they will be gone in just a few years and I know it wont be long before I am yearning for them all over again!

So let me never forget how much you beam when you are praised or how quietly you seek attention but don't outwardly ask. It is always a balancing act with 4 kids and if I'm not watching you closely I'll sometimes miss it. And when I find you huddled in a corner or playing alone, I know you wanted a little but didn't have the heart to ask. Fortunately, it just takes a second to wrap you in my arms and ask you about your day, for you to get a big grin and burst with all the tellings you have of the day. The details, the wants and the wishes, the hurts that you felt and the longings; it all spills out and some I can't even catch. But I love that your heart is so big and that your heart is so big; your teacher tells me you do the same to her and when you get to school you tell her E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G! She warned me in fact to be careful because you, MISS BELLA tell it all! Ha! Can't say I am surprised. I love how you want and need to tell, tell, tell. And I can't wait to hear it all and if anything I hope you'll always tell me it all. Never stop babe! I will always be here, never keep it in. Just Spill!

One of my all time favorite things about you is your ever growing love for learning. You are a natural and as silly as that sounds it truly is true. You just get it. You learn something once and latch instantly, your driven to know more and feel frustrated when someone is ahead. I hope you can keep that in check and remember always how proud we are of you and how smart we know you are. You come home and do your homework in minutes and then sometimes even ask to do a workbook just because it is fun! Loving learning is contagious and you are an amazing example to your siblings even Connor does a little better everyday just to keep up with you. And when you think it is fun it is hard for everybody else to see any different. What a blessing you are to me and your Daddy and your siblings. I can't wait to see where that big brain takes you someday! My Mom was just like that and I must say I felt so immensely blessed to have that in my home, leading us and guiding us and pushing us in all the right ways. I know what a blessing that will be in your own family one day too. 

I think it wasn't until your Kindergarten teacher told me in a conference how empathetic you are, I truly realized how true that is. She said one day it was Club Day and you were so excited and a couple people in class hadn't done well that day and couldn't go. You were so upset and mad about that, that well you refused to go. You were so worried about them and just didn't think it was fair. And you told your teacher she was being MEAN! She said it was the principals decision and you replied with "Well we have a MEAN principal". Satisfied that it wasn't your beloved teacher that had done this you moved on but your teacher found it so endearing that you just couldn't have fun when someone else was left out. She laughed as she told us this and all through the conference she just bragged about how awesome you are and how you have so many friends and are nice to everyone and want everyone to be happy and are always the first to see what is wrong when someone is upset. You hate to see others in pain you are just kind of amazing and are so empathetic it makes me so proud. And it doesn't stop at school I can see that in all you do at home, at church, at play. You are always wanting to help put babies to bed, and help with dinner and tell me how you liked it to make me happy. One day you even told Daddy to not make your cheese sandwich with mayo because you don't like it, but then you turned around the next day to tell me you just told Dad that because he doesn't like it and you wanted him not to have to touch it. My heart melts with all you do and say. I love you so much!

Your all time favorite thing to do is have one on one time with Dad or Mom or really anyone bigger and older. You thrive off independent time. Lately you have been into Daddy time and when he gets home you ask him to watch you do basketball drills just to have some of that time. Sometimes I have to remind Dad how important it is to you and he always does his best to take you out on the errands or give you that 10 extra minutes at bedtime to babble away about your day. I know how important that story time is at the end of the night because it is just me and you, and you hate having someone come listen too. I try my best to show you how nice it is to share that time but also I completely realize that for you that time, just us, is really special to you; I hope you'll never let me forget it!

You are very in tune with your emotions and you wear them right where everyone can see and usually voice exactly what they are. Some may call that moody but I try to see it as a gift. There is no hiding it and you don't keep it in, it is just simply there and you usually voice it, "I'm angry. I'm jealous. You made me sad. She is frustrating me." I love that, but at the same time at the drop of a hat they can change. I hate that. It is exhausting, especially when one second your elated and the next second your slamming the door. I wish I could keep you happy always but trying to keep a 7 year old happy, always, is quite a feat. Sometimes I wish you voiced your want for attention as much as you did all your ever-changing emotions but that just wouldn't make you, you!

Some days I am left hoping you'll grow out of the erratic moods and emotional struggles but I am thinking this may just be the beginning of a life of girls. I hope that despite all that craziness emotionally as you grow, you never change and always want and need me as much as you do now. 

Love,

Mommy