Happy 4 months, Charlotte!

Happy 4 months baby Charlotte!  It's hard to believe that we are in 2017 already and that our sweet little baby is a third of the way into her first birthday!!  

She may be our biggest social butterfly yet as she loves watching everyone and honestly always smiles when someone engages with her.  She still doesn't like to face in when being held or in the carrier because she just wants to see the world!! She has the best belly laugh and the biggest wide mouthed smiles!  Joseph, Ella and Julia continue to dote on her and shower her with attention.  They all love holding her (more Ella than anyone) and really still haven't shown any signs of trouble with having her around.  Jules still refers to her as "Baby Lar Lar" which is too cute.  

She hs found her feet this past month and loves holding on to them!  I have noticed though that she rarely will grab them if she has socks on or feet pajamas-I guess she prefers to really feel them but honestly the minute that she is in bare feet her hands find them!  

 She likes being on her stomach these days and can hang like this for a good amount of time. I just love all of the different expressions that she has from the following photos.

 This past month was pretty much awful for sleeping!!  She totally hit a regression stage and seemed to be up every few hours again every single night!!  Once I would feed her she would fall right back to sleep but often wouldn't stay down for long-some nights she would fall asleep for only 20 or os minutes and then be crying again and it would take a few cycles of feeding her, having her fall asleep for 20 minutes and then back up again until she'd finally go down for a longer stretch.  Not fun but we  are getting through it and in the next few weeks plan on moving her into her own bedroom and doing some sleep training.  I knew that I wasn't setting her up for success by having her sleep in the swing the first month or two but hoping that once she gets in her own space she does better...we'll see what the next month brings!!  It's a good thing that she's so cute and so happy during the day!!  

 She isn't rolling yet but is getting close!  Soon enough for sure!  

 Today was actually the first day that we used the bumbo with her and she seemed to like it!!  She definitely has the head control to sit up so now just needs to strengthen that core-soon enough and she'll be on her own!  

 
Charlotte had her 4 month checkup on January 16th and is a perfect, healthy baby girl!  She weighs 17 pounds, 2.2 ounces (90th percentile) and is 24 inches long (50th percentile.)  Her head is 42 cm and is in the 80th percentile.  She is right on track for development and actually rolled at the doctor's office on the table to show off her newly learned skill!

Happy 4 months sweet baby girl.  We love you!  

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!  2016 was quite the year for our family...moved into our new home, had a baby, traveled to the east coast, lost a job...we pretty much covered all of our bases!   More specifically we celebrated a lot of amazing things in life with the greatest being Charlotte being born healthy and safely, Rich qualifying for the Boston marathon, watching Joseph, Ella and Julia continue to grow into kind, inquisitive and thoughtful little people, and working hard on our house to turn it into our home.  We did also experience some tougher things this year with losing Grandma D as well as my very special Aunt Gloria and Uncle Dennis way too early in life.  Rich also did get laid off from his job three days before the new year but we are optimistic that 2017 will bring bigger and better things for his career and we are hopeful that 2017 will continue to bring good health and happiness for our family and all of our loved ones. 

After a very fun but busy two weeks of festivities for Christmas we just relaxed on New Year's Eve and hung at home.  The kids were all in bed by 7:30 and I'm pretty sure Rich and I were asleep on the couch by 8:45.  Charlotte wanted to party a little bit through the night but I managed to keep her partying relatively quiet so the rest of the house got a good night's sleep!  

Joseph and Charlotte were up early on New Year's Day and were excited to kick off 2017 together!  

We actually celebrated New Year's in the morning with some streamers, balloons, pots and pans and watched the ball drop from the night before (which nobody seemed to mind!)  

 Our sweetest little gift from 2016

 She has found her toes!!

After a big New Year's breakfast we hiked Torrey Pines which I think has now become a New Year's tradition.  Street parking for this hike is very limited and to park in the lot costs $20.00, which we have done before but definitely do not love doing,  but we were lucky enough to find street parking so we took that as a sign that 2017 will be a great year!!  

Joseph and Ella did awesome hiking, Julia loved the ride and Charlotte slept for the first half hour and then wanted out which is why she is turned around in the ergo (even though this ergo they should only be facing in...gotta do what you gotta do!)  

Jules enjoying the ride!

Jules walked the entire beach back to the car and did awesome.  It was a bit windy but a beautiful, sunny start to January.  

Happy 2017!  

More Holiday Fun!

We had a great last week of December enjoying another week of vacation from school, lots of family time with the Zicklers still visiting and getting ready to ring in the New Year.  Here is how we spent the last week of December:

Joseph was a lego building machine during the month in December after receiving a variety of sets from his birthday and Christmas.  He sent Nani and Poppa a picture on December 26th once he finished the police unit that he received from them for Christmas just the day before!

On December 27th we headed downtown with Nani, Poppa, and the Zickler crew for the Holiday Bowl parade.  Laura was working the event but we also were able to meet up with Dave, Syd and Cole.  It was a gorgeous day downtown!

Running at the park downtown after the parade.

A little bit of craziness in between the holidays!

Hanging with Charlotte while the older kids were busy in the cul de sac!

Some fort building...

and just hanging out

On December 29th everyone came over for dinner to celebrate Poppa's birthday!

The Ozecks spent the night since we all had to be at Nani and Poppa's the next morning early for Finn's baptism which was so much fun!  Everyone slept great and we loved having them over.  

After breakfast at our house we drove to Nani and Poppa's house.  Finn's baptism was supposed to take place at the beach at Del Mar but crazy enough it rained (the only day in December, I think!) so they moved it to Nani and Poppa's house.  It was very intimate and the pastor did a great job.

After Finn's baptism, Laura and I took the kids over to the mall to get some energy out at the play area since it was raining outside and we were hanging at Nani and Poppa's all day.  

I like how I caught half of Julia crawling out of the picture!  

They definitely kept busy at Nani and Poppa's, too, though.  

That night we celebrated Poppa's birthday at their house and had one last dinner all together before the Zicklers headed back to NY the following morning.  It was such a great week with them!  

I didn't get any pictures from New Year's Eve since we had a very low key day.  It was a rainy day so it was perfect for taking down Christmas decorations and just hanging out.  And, we actually celebrated New Year's Eve the following morning with the kids (more of a New Year's Day morning celebration) and Rich and I were asleep on the couch by 9:00 p.m. on New Year's Eve!  We were all pretty wiped from all of the festivities from the past week so it was nice just to relax and to have some downtime after a very busy but very fun month!