We were on the early flight Thurs morning and were so thankful that Miss Laurie came to stay with Deacon so we didn’t have to take him to the airport. We were trying to avoid that for 2 reasons 1.) he loves airplanes 2.) he loves going to IL so he would have not been happy if he went along to drop us off. He still doesn’t know we went to IL. Finley did great on the plane. She ended up sleeping on both flights towards the end of each one.

Our first stop was to see Landon at work on our way to Illinois.

The reason for our trip was to help host a shower for my cousin who will be arriving probably a little sooner than we thought. Her bedding is pink and zebra print which is very trendy right now so it was fun and easy to do this shower.

And how convenient, Finley had an outfit to match.

After the shower my mom, sister and I took Finley to get her ears pierced. she looks a little concerned here.

She did great, and looks absolutely as precious as ever.

This trip seemed very fast and lacked sleep but in the end we pulled off a cute, successful shower (which was the mission). We got home this afternoon but Finley did find a new favorite toy while we were there…

And my dad found it funny to sing “Red Solo Cup”.

Finley did much better with her shots this time and the Dr. said everything looked great!

Here are her stats for 4 months:

Weight: 13 lbs 13 oz (54%)

Length: 24.5″ (59%)

Head: 16″ (40%)

We are always saying she is chunkier than Deacon but today I pulled out his 4 month sheet to check out his stas.  Here is how they compare:

Weight: 14 lbs 8 oz (34%)

Length: 25.75″ (69%)

Head: 17″ (69%)

I was surprised that he was actually bigger than she was.  Also, I was surprised that his weight was a lower percentile but then I found out that they have changed how they chart the weight.  Due to fewer babies taking formula they have changed the growth chart to reflect that since breast fed babies usually weight less.

I still feel that she is chunkier than Deacon.  Deacon never had rolls and Finley does, maybe the 1.25 inch difference really makes a big difference.

We are so thankful for 2 healthy babies!  Just don’t tell Deacon I called him a baby

So here are some recent pictures from our days.

Finley loves to snuggle with her princess lovey or this baby doll.

Eating breakfast with MawMaw and PawPaw at one of Deacon’s favorite breakfast places…IHOP.

At breakfast Deacon decided to put his engineering skills to work to build a bridge to help him drink his drink.

Yes, Princess is still alive. Deacon is just now getting to the point where he will hold her, but he is still scared of her. And yes, he is sitting in a box. While holding her he lets her go a lot and there is no way I am going to risk a loose hamster in the house. And the #1 rule about holding Princess…we do not get her out of her cage unless daddy is home. I do not touch her! However, no one else seems to remember to feed her so that is my contribution to keeping her alive.

Tuesday it was such a nice day so after school we met Andrea, Reed and Graham at the park. Finley enjoyed her 1st swing time with Deacon. I foresee lots of park time in our future.

Finley had this cute little outfit on the other day and the lady at Wal-Mart checking us out informed me that she was going to be a diva for sure. Oh if she only knew.

You are wearing 3-6 month clothes and size 2 diaper.

You go for your 4 month appointment this week and I wait to see how big you are.

You have found your feet.  You love to play with them and grab them, which makes taking pictures very difficult.

Laughing.  You have such a sweet personality.  Of course your favorite person to laugh at is Deacon.

You are talking more and more every day.  You have so much to say and you can have lots of attitude personality sometimes.

Your favorite thing right now is to play in your exersaucer and on your playmat.  You love all the toys on them and will entertain yourself very well.

You still sleep great at night, but are not a very good napper unless you are in your carseat or being held.  At night you go to bed around 8 and then sometimes I will feed you again right before I go to bed.  Either way you sleep until 7 or 8 am.  You then usually take a good morning nap and the rest of day you cat nap.

You have started giving kisses and it is so sweet, slobbery with your mouth wide open, but sweet.  We find it is so funny when we go to give you a kiss and you turn your head away.

This month you started going into the nursery at church.  They say you are good every week, but you are also held most of the time too!

You have started drooling and chewing like crazy.  Anything you can get your hands on goes straight to your mouth.

You love to grab things especially Mommy’s hair.  I have found myself putting my hair up a lot because of this.

You love to watch everything going on around you.  You favorite thing is when Deacon puts on a show for you, whether it is him dancing, singing, flying his helicopter or dribbling his basketball you always think it is entertaining.

You are a rollie pollie.  You roll over both from back to front and front to back.  You also scoot.  So if I lay you down in the floor within a few seconds you are no longer in the same place.

You love to sit up but most of all you love to stand.

It is so much fun to see your new developments every day.  You are different from your brother in so many way but sometimes it is like deja vu.  We love you more and more each day.

Deacon and Finley both at 4 months.

Finley’s 1-4 month pictures

but boy is she a handful.  The last few weeks have been rough, very rough as a matter of fact.  She has always seemed to be a bit colic but it seems to come and go.  In the beginning it seemed like as long as I would hold her she would calm down quickly, but that hasn’t been the case in the last few weeks.  Lately it has been in full effect and I have felt completely helpless.  A little over a week ago she was the worst she has ever been, she had not had a bowel movement in almost a week and I knew she was in so much pain but nothing seemed to work or even give her a little bit of relief.  Finally after several late nights, I knew we had to do something.  Really the final straw was when Bryan had a midnight conference call and I was sitting in my closet with the door shut holding her while she screamed and cried.  And then he ended up going to bed before her and I that night.

The next day I emailed a friend who had a similar issue with her baby about a year ago and she had told me she took her to see a chiropractor.  I know a lot of people will think that is crazy but when she told me that I sympathized with her and knew that as a mom sometimes you are willing to do anything to help your baby.  So I got in touch with her and that same day I found myself taking my 3 month old baby to a chiropractor (gasp)!

I took her in last Wednesday, Friday and this Monday.  She is a million times better and has BMs every day since Saturday and so much happier!  For the first time ever I was excited about cleaning up and scrubbing clothes from a blowout diaper, her 1st one ever!  She still has her crying spells but nothing like they were before.  I know some people will judge and say, “I would never take my baby to a chiropractor.”  I will say I was skeptical at first but all that she really did was rub her back and belly and showed me a few little tips to help relieve her pain.  There is no actual adjustments like they do on adults.  I know some will still think I’m crazy and that’s okay.  Because there was a point in time when I think I might have been border line crazy!

I am always very hesitant to post anything negative about my kids because I know so many people who would want so badly to have a baby or who has lost a baby and would love more than anything to hold their baby even if it meant that baby cried all day and night.  So with all that I have said, I’m not saying any of it to complain but just to document that this is our life.  Crying nonstop or happy as can be I love this sweet little girl and even on the bad days like yesterday, she still has happy moments. Her smile lights up her whole face is absolutely contagious and makes every second of crying seem so minuscule.

There a a ton of different bow tutorials that I am trying, my bows look nothing like my friend Ashley’s but I am practicing .

One of my first Pinterest projects was to make something for Finley for baby dedication. I knew I wanted her to wear this pink smocked dress but I wasn’t sure what she was going to wear on her head. I seen this simple little ribbon flower and I knew it would be perfect. I loved the way it turned out and it was so easy.

Materials used:
25 in ribbon or lace
Felt circle
Hot glue gun

I just bought a sheet of felt material and cut out a two inch circle.

Then I start gluing on the ribbon. I glued one end to the edge of the the circle and then continued around the circle.  When I got around to the beginning I shifted up and started gluing the ribbon to the lower layer of ribbon. I continued doing that until I had covered all of the felt. I then trimmed off the excess and glued down the end.

Then I glued a pearl button in the middle.

The final step was hot gluing it onto a lace headband.

I loved the way it turned out. I have also seen this made with lace and they are super cute. I couldn’t find the color of lace I wanted so that is why I used ribbon.

As we were walking out the door to head to dedication I noticed Finley didn’t have her headband on. I yelled, “oh my goodness, where is her bow!” we would have been coming back home for that. Bryan informed me that “God would probably not accept her without a bow.” Yes he thinks I’m crazy .

This is also a time for the pastors of our church to pray for these children and their parents.  We let Deacon stay in service with us for the dedication and made the last minute decision to let him on stage.  I knew he would probably be better up there than if we left him with my parents.

One of the great highlights of Finley’s dedication was that we had several friends dedicating their children too. Somehow we missed getting the Burns in this picture.

We are so blessed.

My parents came in on Friday to be here for Finley’s dedication.  We were so happy to have them here for this special occasion.

These two crazy boys were so good on stage.  They are both such sweet big brothers.

These two sweet babies are exactly 2 months apart.  Right before this picture Finley tried to claw Graham’s eye out so that is why I am holding her hand down.

Then a few months ago when I said I was going to have someone make Finley’s bedding she was not having it and informed me that I was going to do it and she would help. Which turned out more like her coaching me all the way through it. We spent long nights and a few days while Deacon was at MDO sewing. It has been so great to spend time with her and of course sew. Finley was our supervisor.

Here is a little sneak peak.  This was taken before it was 100% done.  The bedding is mostly done, all we need now is a couple of pillows.

I can’t wait to get this all put into her bed in her room!

Overall we are doing good. These two precious kiddos absolutely adore each other and they seem to love each other more and more every day. It just melts my heart.

Finley’s favorite thing is to watch Deacon. It doesn’t matter if he is singing and dancing, showing off his cartwheels and toe touchs or playing soccer Finley just smiles and laughs like he is the greatest thing on earth. And he of course just eats up all of the attention.

The other day Finley was wanting attention and I just wanted to finish loading the dishwasher so I convinced Deacon to go entertain her for 3 minutes while I finished cleaning up the kitchen. He really wasn’t up for doing it so I convinced him that I would pay him to do so. I found a penny laying around and he was happy with that payment but informed me that babysitting Finley is hard work.

More to come soon, but for now I have to get things ready for Deacon for school tomorrow.

The Dr expects this to get better once she starts eating solids and can sit up. Most of I just want it to be over for her. I know it isn’t fun for her and I am sure she is somewhat uncomfortable.

No matter how messy she is we still love her to pieces. So precious!

She likes to hold on to something when she naps. Lately I have constantly been giving her things to hold on to, because if you are holding her she will grab your skin or in Bryan’s case hair, and she doesn’t let go. The past few days she has been a big fan of this little bear, it is so sweet. Of course Deacon calls it her princess.