Charlie is 9 Months

Wow!  9 months old!!!  I can't believe Charlie is only 3 months away from being 1.  He continues to be such a delight!!  He weighs 17 lbs and 14 oz and is 28 inches long.  That puts him around the 25th percentile, which is awesome considering he was below the 10th at 6 months.  He LOVES to eat and eats 1/2 of an avocado every night (among other things) at dinner.  So he is definitely getting some good fat which is evident in his growth.  He has bumped up to eating 3 meals a day and he still nurses 5 times a day most days.  Occasionally a long nap will put him at only 4.  He naps 2x a day with an occasional catnap in the late afternoon, and he has continued to sleep all night long.  He loves his paci.  Just this month, Charlie started to love baths!!  He used to scream and scream, but now he splashes and just has the best time!!  Charlie still does the army crawl, and has really started to enjoy toys a lot.  He loves to throw balls and then crawl after them.  He also started trying to pull up to stand this past month.  It's pretty cute.  He gets up on his knees on a low basket and then slowly get up to his feet before promptly falling over.  Luckily he only tries on very short surfaces and we have not had any big tumbles yet!  Charlie adores Hannah and Ethan and laughs at them a lot!!

January 2016

January started with a bang with our final 2 days on the cruise ship.  It was so fun to be there, but i think we were all ready to be back on land!!!  The big kids had a fun weekend with Dad while Charlie and I went to visit my friend, Lauren and her little boy, Cooper.  We had so much in Jackson, MS and are so thankful that we were able to take a few days!  The big kids had a great time with Daddy.  They went hiking and to Discovery Place Kids and spent lots of time just hanging out.  Then it was my birthday. I love seeing the excitement of  birthdays through my kids eyes.  As I get older, and birthdays get less exciting, it's fun to see the thrill that even someone else's birthday is for little ones.  We also had a big snow and the kids were able to sled for the first time!

Charlie is 8 months!

At 8 months, we are aren't sure how much Charlie weighs, but his 6-9 month clothes are getting a little short in the arms.  He is moving into 12 month clothes for pajamas and shirts, but the pants are still way too big in the waist.  He continues to be a delight and so so happy!  Not much has changed developmentally with Charlie.  He is babbling a little more, mostly saying "dada". And getting into more stuff as he is becoming more and more proficient at the army crawl....which is adapting a little bit more into a real crawl.  He follows his brother and sister everywhere and loved chasing balls!  He has also begun to wave.  

December 2015

What a whirlwind was December!!  The kids had a lot of fun decorating the house this year and were much more talkative about Christmas than they have been in years past.  Ethan was not a big fan of Santa, but Hannah loved him and talked about him all the time.  We also were able to get deeper this December into the true meaning of Christmas.  We loved going through Ann Voskamp's advent book for Children each night and talking through all of the wonderful aspects of God's promise to us, and look towards the birth of Jesus.  We had a great time at my parents for the "Branen" Family Christmas.  We are so thankful that the cousins love to play with each other, and as always it was great to be around my siblings and parents.  Then we had my parents for Christmas Eve/Christmas morning and again that was so fun!  While it was so fun to watch the kids excitement over their gifts, it was also amazing watching Hannah's excitement to give!!  Before reaching for a present with her name, she reached for the one that she had helped Daddy wrap for me!  We had a wonderful Christmas, and loved the hectic excitement of Christmas with three littles!  After Christmas, we drove down to the Florida and boarded our first ever cruise!!!  It was so fun and the kids just loved their time on the big boat!  We stopped at two ports in the bahamas, and had fun days exploring and playing at the beach.  The kids loved the water slides on the boat and had a great time in the kids club.  Matt and I enjoyed the warm weather and hanging out on our balcony at night.  It was overall a fun, relaxing vacation!!