7 months

What fun did Wyatt have during month 7?
Celebrated Charlotte's 7th birthday party with a soccer themed party at the park
Junior League meeting
Going everywhere for his big sisters - soccer practice, speech therapy, bell chime choir, Kumon Tutoring
Home Depot kids workshop
Spring Break
  - Uncle and Cousin visited
  - Spray Ground
  - Park
  - Beach
  - Legoland
  - Gaylord Opryland Hotel
Celebrated Easter with church and a few Easter Egg hunts

How is Wyatt sleeping?
2-3 naps during the day, not really on a schedule sad to say
Goes to bed around 9pm and wakes between 6-7am, eats and then snoozes some more

What is Wyatt eating?
Any and all stage 2 baby food.
HATES mashed bananas and avocados, and homemade peas -- I think it's a texture thing
Mixture of breast milk and formula

Major (and minor) milestones!
Sitting completely on his own
Beginning to rock back when he's on his hands and knees
Can army crawl clear across the room
Started a sippy cup
Loves looking at himself in the mirror

Plans for month 8?
More of the same - girls activities
Bible study
Playground
Maybe the splash park

Little Man is 1 month old!

What activities did Wyatt do during his 1st month?
Lots and LOTS of walks to drop off and pick up his biggest sister from school.
Open house at sissy's school
Went to church -- and stayed quiet I might add 
Went to a birthday party
Drove to Orlando and stayed in a condo with his Aunt, Uncles, and Cousins.
Went to the park a few times
Went to Chuckie Cheese
"Hung out" at the mall a few times
Celebrated big sissy's 5th birthday party at the park
Went out to dinner
Had his first baby lunch date at Panera
Accompanied mom on a girls night

How is Wyatt sleeping?
Just at the end of the month we are at 2 wake ups a night. He'll go to bed anywhere between 9:30 and 10:30. when he's out, he is out! No matter what pestering I do, he will not wake up to eat one more time.

After that I get 5-6 hours, on a good night, then another 3 hour stretch! I'm not displeased.

What "skills" has Wyatt mastered?
um... sleeping, eating, and pooping. That about sums it up!

Any milestones? 
He did move to a crib in his own room around 2 weeks
Had his first bath... and he LOVED it! I think the girls all cried during their first bath, this kid cried when I took him OUT of his bath. He was SO content!

Plans for month 2 include...
Bible study with mom
More birthday parties
Celebrating Mimi's birthday
Maybe Busch Gardens!

Christmas Book Advent Calendar

On top of our usual Advent Calendar, which by the way I had growing up and it was my FAVORITE thing to do every morning during Christmas, I have decided to add one more fun "calendar" to our holiday season. All it took was one quick walmart trip and a night of tv watching time to prepare. I had decided to do the "Christmas Book" Advent calendar that I saw all over pinterest. To make things even better... I already had 22 Christmas books (yes... crazy!), so I only had to go buy 2 new ones to make this work, thus the quick walmart trip. Score!

My favorite Advent Calendar growing up

So I wrapped all my books and then on Thanksgiving, after the big meal and naps, we set it up. I don't know about your family,  but with my 3 girls, I can foresee a nightly fight on which book gets chosen, so I decided on a different approach to figuring out which book is read on which night.

I wrote numbers 1-24 on labels and then divided the labels between each of my 3 girls. Then the girls taped their given numbers to whichever books they wanted (they obviously didn't have a number). That way each girl feels they got a say as to which book is read on which night and I avoided the nightly fight! Score 1 for mom!

Putting day numbers on the books

 By the way, Mr. Elf Elf (until the girls decide on a better name than last years decision), arrived this morning showing the girls which book was first on the list.

Pizza Night: Portobello & Pesto Pizza

It's been quite some time since the family has had a homemade pizza night, so I decided to add it to the meal plan (and ACTUALLY do it...). We decided to revisit an old favorite... Portobello Pizza Night.

As always, this was a HUGE hit (even without meat which the hubby is rarely ok with).

We actually made 2 pizzas, plain old cheese for the girls and the Portobello for us.

Southern Living's Portobello Pizza Recipe

Ingredients

2 3 (we like a lot of substance) large portobello mushroom caps, sliced
1/2 large onion, sliced 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1/2 teaspoon pepper 
Vegetable cooking spray 
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 
2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal 
1 (10-ounce) refrigerated pizza crust dough 
2 tablespoons basil pesto 
2 tablespoons plain nonfat yogurt 
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil 
6 fresh mozzarella cheese slices (6 ounces) 
5 plum tomatoes, chopped  (try to remove seeds and liquid)
2 tablespoons shredded Parmesan cheese

Preparation

Sauté first 4 ingredients in a large skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Add balsamic vinegar; cook 2 minutes or until liquid is evaporated. Set aside.
Sprinkle cornmeal over baking pan; spread out pizza dough. Bake on bottom oven rack at 425° for 5 minutes.
Stir together pesto and yogurt. Spread over pizza crust, leaving a 1-inch border. Sprinkle with mushroom mixture and fresh basil. Top with mozzarella cheese and tomatoes. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 425° on bottom oven rack for 18 minutes or until edges are golden brown and cheese is melted.

11 months old!

What fun did Lizzie have during month 10?
Halloween party and trick or treating
Visit Mommy and Daddy's Alma Mater - Go Clemson!
Stay with Gigi and Popop in Georgia
Busch Gardens

How is Lizzie sleeping?
Same as usual, bed between 8:30 and 9, then up at 7/7:30
She has 1-2 naps a day

What is Lizzie eating?
100% formula, food pouches, ANYTHING she can get her hands on
Peanut butter (oops... thanks mimi; "She can have peanut butter right?" "um... no, not til like 2". Woops!)
Loves eggs and waffles

Major milestones!
Walking like it's her job!
5th tooth is popping through (her 3rd top front tooth)
Tries to follow her sisters by climbing up slides and she loves sliding down too (with help)

10 months (like 3 weeks ago!)

Wow, so quite a bit has been going on so poor Lizzie didn't get her 10 month update :) Which, by the way, is more for myself so I know what to put in the baby book when I get around to it.

Ok... so month 10 was September 11 - October 10

What fun did Lizzie have during month 10?
Pizza nights
Busch Gardens
Birthday parties (sister Jillian's included)
1st Tampa Bay Rays baseball game
Friends baptism

How is Lizzie sleeping?
Same as usual, bed between 8:30 and 9, then up at 7/7:30
She has 1-2 naps a day

What is Lizzie eating?
100% formula, food pouches, ANYTHING she can get her hands on

Major milestones!
4 teeth popped through; top and bottom front 2
She's cruising on the furniture and walking with the help of her toys

"You're gonna hear me ROAR..."

I'm going to preface this with that fact that the hubs and I do not really listen to mainstream music, we are much more into Country (well and kids CDs if I'm being really honest).

I first heard of Katy Perry's new song "Roar" a short while ago when a fellow Clemson University Alum said, "did you guys hear Katy Perry wrote a new song and it's totally for Clemson? It's awesome and it's called Roar". You see, we are the Clemson Tigers. Roar. Tigers. Ok. Clearly, I took her literally was like, "what do you mean she wrote a song for Clemson? Did she go to Clemson?". No.

Let's jump ahead to this weekend when I'm in the family room and hubs calls me all excitedly to come over and watch the new Katy Perry video. As I am walking over (still not having heard it) I'm saying, "yeah yeah, I heard about it, it's called Roar. Someone at the Clemson club was all excited".

So we watch the video (and I'm still in the "Clemson" mindset)

To be honest, I thought the video was a little cheesy. But the hubs was ECSTATIC! No joke. He quickly rounded up the girls and watched it again... immediately.

Then I realized why he liked it so much, especially for our girls. It's totally a girl power song.
Start off a quiet girl/woman who was walked all over
I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath
Scared to rock the boat and make a mess
So I sat quietly, agreed politely
I guess that I forgot I had a choice
I let you push me past the breaking point
I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything

Then, after her guy gets taken by a tiger in the video, she starts to gain self confidence and strength
You held me down, but I got up
Already brushing off the dust
You hear my voice, your hear that sound
Like thunder, gonna shake your ground
You held me down, but I got up
Get ready 'cause I've had enough
I see it all, I see it now

THEN... she roars, gets the "eye of the tiger" and is a strong powerful woman
I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter,
dancing through the fire
Cause I am a champion and
You're gonna hear me ROAR
Louder, louder than a lion
Cause I am a champion and
You're gonna hear me ROAR
Oh oh oh oh oh oh
You're gonna hear me roar
.
.
.Katy Perry - Roar Lyrics | MetroLyrics You see my 4 year old started soccer this past spring (hubs and I were her coach). At the beginning of the season she was, well, a shy, sensitive girl who would cry when someone bumped into her or knocked her down. Not really the strong, courageous, outgoing type who would succeed at soccer.

At one of the first practices we played this game "Sleeping Giant"; the kids would dribble the ball around a "sleeping" coach and then when the kids got close the coach would "wake up" roaring/yelling and chase them and the kids would have to dribble away quickly. Hindsight this may not have been the best idea because this turned into EVERYONE running around yelling. Well, poor Charlotte had one of the older boys run up and yell directly in her face. And she got scared and started crying.

Sleeping Giant eventually got reversed so the kids were the "sleeping giants"
Here we have the kids getting up and "roaring" at coach

So we tell her that if someone gets all in her face roaring, she can just roar back. So we practiced. In the next few weeks (and still now) we would be places, like the Chik-fil-A indoor play area and I would hear a "Roar" from somewhere up in the slide because a boy wasn't letting her down the slide, or maybe at the playground, pretty much anywhere she may have felt threatened, she would roar.

Knocked down, but got right back up... and no tears!

By the end of the season, this little girl who was shying away from kids was fighting for the ball, getting knocked down, and getting right back up again. Of course, I attribute this to skills and self-confidence she learned through playing a sport, but we also gave her a tool to use when she was in a situation that scared her where she needed to stand up for herself. She would roar.

Running and fighting for the ball with the big boys

So thank you, Katy Perry, for this awesome empowerment song for girls. This song, with the empowering lyrics, along with the fun video (yes, the video is totally no longer cheesy in my opinion) is exactly what I want my 3 young daughters to be listening to.

On the road again...

The girls and I head out this morning for our whirlwind road trip from Florida up to my parents house in Georgia for half a day to pick up my mom (and sleep), then on to Illinois to see my 95 year old Grandma on the farm for a few days, then we hit Kentucky for a day to see my "Grandma Martha", then back to Georgia to drop mom back off and rest for a day... and then we will make it back home to Florida a short week before school starts.

Where DID the summer go? Sheesh. I'm not ready for Charlotte to be going to school 5 days a week for VPK.

Here are the girls showing daddy where we are going on the first leg of the trip.

We stopped by the AAA office the other day to get a USA, Southeastern states, and Northeastern states map so we could track our progress. The girls are really excited about the maps.

On the way to the grocery yesterday, Charlotte had out the Southeastern states map and said, "Is the grocery on this map? I want to track us". I told her, no, the map was a little too big to see our neighborhood so I had to get on google and print out a few maps to show her our planned route for the day. She got a kick out of it.

I could be totally wrong here... but I highly doubt many kids have any clue how to read a map. I like that Charlotte is so interested! I used to love to follow along on the map during my own childhood road trips to Illinois and Kentucky.

Wish us luck on our LOOOOOONG road trip with the 3 girls!

{Summer Activities} #83 Feed the Ducks

The girls got the opportunity to Feed the Ducks at Busch Gardens the other day.

 It's such a small thing but the girls get a kick out of it. I love that they can interact with nature in this way and the girls love checking out the different ducks and fish that come over.

Check out our progress as we make our way through the 101 almost free things to do with kids this summer from stay-a-stay-at-home-mom.com

For all other posts in this category go here: {Summer Fun}

A half a year old! :D

"Happy Half birthday to you, Happy Half birthday to...."

Ok just kidding :D We don't celebrate half birthdays in the Moore Household... yet. What age does that start? I would have to say soon for my oldest daughter. We'll see....

Like I say every month, "I can't believe Lizzie is {insert month} months old!! ". But seriously, 6 months? I should start planning her 1st birthday (again kidding... I have like 2 months before I start, lol).

What fun did Lizzie have during month 6?
- Gigi and Pop pop visited
- Went to the Spray park
- Lots of time in the pool
- Celebrated Mother's Day
- Went to her 1st ballet recital
- Became a soccer fan (sissy's practices and games)
- Went to a birthday party
- Survived her 1st tropical storm (Andrea :D )

How is Lizzie sleeping?
- Goes to bed between 8 and 9 and wakes up once around 5-6 (sometimes earlier, bleh), eats, and sleeps a little longer until maybe 8 or 9

What is Lizzie eating?
- Mommy milk
- Homemade - peas, mixed vegetables, squash, green beans, peaches
- store bought - handy dandy mixed fruit pouches for the go, prunes, carrots

What "skills" has Lizzie mastered (or working on)?
- Sits for a short while on her own
- still LOVES the jumperoo and exersaucer
- has started rocking back to her knees (crawling soon?! not yet!!)
- rolling ALL. OVER. THE. PLACE.
- She is very good at getting where she wants, she will turn herself in a 360* circle, and then roll to where she wants to go
- babbling, ""mmm ba" and "mmm blah"... is what have so far :D.

Plans for month 7 include...
Busch Gardens
Georgia for the 4th of July
Go on her first boat!
More pool, splash park fun
Beach visit

Happy 6 months Lizzie!

4 months down...

Well, Happy 4 months Lizzie!

What activities did Lizzie do during month 3?
- Went to Busch Gardens... TWICE!
- Celebrated St. Patty's Day
- Hosted a house warming playdate at the new house
- Celebrated Easter with Gigi, Pop pop, Aunt and Uncle and cousin
- Birthday parties!

How is Lizzie sleeping?
- Goes to bed between 8 and 9 and wakes up once around 4/5, eats, and sleeps a little longer until maybe 8 or 9

What am I eating?
- Mommy milk

What "skills" has Lizzie mastered?
- Rolls from back to front... nonstop!
- Stopped swaddling
- "stands up"... ok, puts weight on her legs while I hold her hands
- Tries to crunch up
- Enjoys the bumbo seat... for a short while

Plans for month 4 include...
Day trip to SeaWorld
Watching sissy's 1st soccer games
Starting food!
Going in the pool
Busch Gardens
Spray Park

Happy 3 months Lizzie!

Pizza Night #17: 1st Pizza Night in the NEW House!

We have officially been in the new house for 5 weeks and I think I am starting to get myself into a routine... which has been kind of hard because IN those 5 weeks we had house guests 3 times (ok, so it was just my parents for 2 times but STILL... a house guest is a house guest), went to Busch Gardens twice, celebrated Easter, and had my daughters 4th birthday party. Phew!

We did manage to start up on of our old traditions, Homemade Pizza Night, which was so fun! The girls love to watch daddy toss the pizza dough and help put on all the toppings. We didn't try a new pizza recipe, we just stuck with good old premade publix dough, fresh mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, and mushroom.

 

 

 And Voila...

3 months :)

What activities did Lizzie do during month 3?
- Celebrated Valentine's Day
- Officially moved into our new house
- Got a new playground and went on her first swing
- Celebrated sissy Charlotte's 4th birthday party at the park

- Went to Junior league meetings
- Went to the Y "kidzone"
- Went to the park
- Went to a birthday party
- Gigi & Pop pop visited

How is Lizzie sleeping?
- Goes to bed between 9 and 10 and wakes up once around 5/6, eats, and sleeps a little longer until maybe 8 or 9

What am I eating?
- Mommy milk

What "skills" has Lizzie mastered?
- She laughed out loud on the swing in the backyard

- Rolled over from front to back... once
- Sitting in her high chair for dinner instead of in the bouncy seat - she loves being up with all the action

Plans for month 3 include...
- Going to Busch Gardens
- Hosting a house warming playdate at the new house
- Celebrate Easter with Gigi, Pop pop, Aunt and Uncle and cousin
- Birthday parties!
Happy 3 months Lizzie!

2 months!... seriously?!

Clearly moving and having 3 kids under 4 (one of whom is a 2 month old) is not conducive to frequent blog posting. :) oh well!

So Lizzie is 2 months now (well, if we're being truthful, she's 10 weeks now, but lets pretend I actually posted this 2 weeks ago).

 

What activities did Lizzie do during month 2?
Attended her first wedding! (and rehearsal dinner)
Visited the new house (MANY TIMES)
Went to Disney World
Attended 3 birthday parties and one surprise baby shower
Went to Busch Gardens
Stayed in the YMCA's "Kidzone" while I returned to the gym
Attended a Junior League Meeting

How is Lizzie sleeping?
Goes to bed between 9 and 10 and wakes up between 5-6... this mama is quite pleased!

What "skills" has Lizzie mastered?
Smiling
drinking from a bottle (yay for date nights!!)

Plans for month 3 include...
Officially moving into the new house
Going to Busch Gardens again
celebrating sissy Charlotte's 4th birthday at the park

1 month already?!

It's funny, when you have your first child, your life revolves around them and you change your schedule to suit theirs. "Oh no, we have to be at xxx time, it's nap time" or "it's lunch time". BUT when you add more kids to the mix, they just have to fit right in. Sure, it may be nap time for baby, but it's also time to pick big sis up from school OR drive her to ballet OR it's the absolute only time to get to the grocery. That's what the snap n go's are for anyway, right?  I swear, Jillie lived (and mainly napped) in my Ergo baby carrier (which is awesome by the way).

That all being said, I can not believe Lizzie is a month old already!! I ask myself where the time went... but I know exactly; the holidays. She was born, then 10 days later we drove up to Georgia and had Christmas, then drove home, then it was New Years, and now we are trying to get a routine going.
 
Speaking of "fitting right in" to the schedule, at 1 month Lizzie has already:
- been to her first ballet practice AND recital
- been to TWO birthday parties
- celebrated TWO holidays; Christmas and New Years
- been on a 9 hour road trip and visited another state
- visited the park 5 times
- "played" at the mall (ok, so I use "played" a bit roughly)
Not to mention all the grocery, walmart, target...

She's doing pretty well and the girls LOVE "their little sissy" so much. She's beginning to be more alert and awake just in the past few days which is awesome; however her being awake around 7 is interfering with dinner making (we're going to have a little talk... lol).

Her night time sleeping is hit or miss, but last night she DID sleep from 11ish to 5:30am -- Go Lizzie!

1 week

2 weeks

3 weeks

 4 weeks

 

Plans for month 2 include some of the same PLUS Junior League meetings, Busch Gardens and Disney World, AND move into our NEW HOUSE!!