They Say It's Your Birthday!

One of Mia's favorite songs is Yellow Submarine.  She "discovered" it last summer, and we went through a phase where we listened to it pretty much every day.  Then, I saw a party by Kristy of Eleven Event Stories that she had for her son's birthday.  The theme was Yellow Submarine, and it sounded like a perfect theme for Mia's 4th birthday party.  I e-mailed Kristy, and she was kind enough to send me the printables to use for Mia.  I changed the wording on some of them to reflect the food I had for the party.  The design worked great! 

It's challenging to find a location for Mia's party each year since her birthday is in January.  We can't just go to the park (or any other outside venue) since it's usually cold.  We decided on the Children's Aquarium at Fair Park.  The party guests got to walk around the aquarium and then head to the party room for birthday cake, snacks, and even an opportunity to pet a baby alligator on the tail.  Then, all of the kids got the chance to feed the sting rays.  Mia wanted to do it until she realized that the stingrays would actually take the fish from her hand.  She opted to toss it into the tank for them instead.  Our families really pitched in and were such a huge help in getting everything ready for the party.  I couldn't have done it without all of you!  Thank you!  Mia had so much fun. I'm glad our friends and family were there to celebrate her special day!

Octopus's Garden Cake Pops

 John Lennonade

 Ringo's Drumsticks

 They Say It's Your Birthday Cake

 Yellow Submarines made by my SIL Kenda

Twist And Shout Pretzels as well as All You Need Is Love Cherry Hearts

Strawberry Fields Forever

 Uncle Darvey, Nana, and Keith

 Shayna and Quinn

Kaylee digging in to the treats

 Mia was feeling brave enough to touch the alligator's tail

 Reese, Mia, and Harper getting a few instructions before feeding the stingrays

 Mia and sweet Pearson

Q and Aunt Kenda

 

Baby Girl is 4!

Today is Mia's 4th birthday.  She has been so excited about it.  Her birthday party was last weekend (pictures to come soon), and since then it's pretty much been her birthday all week!  She took cookies to her class today to celebrate turning four.  Several of her classmates came to her party, but I still think it's nice to do something on her actual birthday.  She's growing up so fast! Mia is only four years old, but at the same time she's already four years old.  Know what I mean?  She's such a sweet girl with a tender heart and a love of laughter.  Being stubborn is a challenge for her, but I hope that means she'll grow up to be a strong and independent woman.  That girl has had my heart since the day she was born.  Love is an amazing gift.  It's hard to describe, but I love her even more every day. 

Every Friday her class has show and tell.  Each week the kids bring something that starts with the letter they are learning.  This week's letter was Q.  I'll bet you can guess what Mia wanted to bring.  That's right, her little brother.  Quinn's teacher agreed to take him down to her classroom when it was time for show and tell.  Apparently, little Q was a hit.  When I asked Mia about it as I picked her up this afternoon, she said, "Quinn came down to my class today.  Ms. Shannon thought it was so funny when I called him Q-Dog!"  This made me laugh out loud.  Wes calls him that sometimes, so that's where she got it.  It's kind of his gangster name.  Haha!

Quinn and Mia on her birthday

 

4 Month Checkup

I took Quinn for his 4 month checkup this week.  He did a great job with the shots, but I hated to see those big crocodile tears.  He recovered quickly and was fine.  His doctor said that by this age the eye color doesn't change much more, so Q will definitely have blue eyes.  He weighed 14 lb, 13 oz (35%) and was 26.5 inches in length (93%).  It seems like he's going to be tall.  Mia is tall for her age, so it's not surprising.  The other evening, I put some of Quinn's 3 month footie pajamas on him.  As soon as I finished snapping them up, he stretched his arms and legs.  I heard Pop! Pop! Pop! as the snaps came apart.  We are now moving into the 6 month clothes.  There's nothing worse than having your stretch messed up, so we'll give Q a little more room in his pjs.  Also, Quinn has discovered his feet.  It's like he's found two new toys.  He loves yanking his socks off and playing with his toes.  He works hard to get them in his mouth.  Breastfeeding is still going well which is such a blessing to me.  We haven't had to supplement yet.  I love having that special bond with him.  I wasn't able to breastfeed Mia for more than two months, so I'm really pleased with the experience this time.  I know that he would be just fine with formula, but there's no need to give him any yet.  The doctor okayed him to start baby food whenever we feel that Quinn is ready.  I'm going to be making his baby food like I did for Mia, so I guess I'll have to find all of my supplies for that soon.

Quinn at 18 weeks (4 months old)

Playing with his tootsies

 Trying to watch the iPad with Mia

Christmas Morning

We stayed at Mimi and Pa Pa's house Christmas Eve.  Thankfully, Benjamin had let Santa know that Mia, Quinn, and Zoey were at their house.  Mia and Zoey got matching baby dolls.  Despite the looks on their faces in the picture here, they were actually really excited.  We had to leave that morning to come back to Dallas.  We had intended to do that anyway so that we could spend Christmas Day with Wes, but there was an urgency because bad weather was headed to the area.  To make matters worse, I had a stomach bug on the drive home.  That was rather unpleasant.  It rained and then sleeted on us.  About halfway home, it started snowing.  It took us six hours to get home.  That's about an hour longer than usual.  Both kids behaved wonderfully though.  No fits, screaming, etc.  Quinn slept most of the way, and Mia kept asking me why people's cars were in the ditch.  I told her it was because they were driving too fast on the snowy roads, so she was okay with me driving slow.

By the time we got home, I was feeling really sick.  I had to snap a quick picture of the kids with the snow before going in the house and planting myself on the couch.  It wasn't fun to drive in, but I'm glad that Quinn's first Christmas was a white Christmas just like Mia's was.  Mia had asked Santa for a very specific list of gifts.  Anytime someone asked her what she wanted, she said, "A bike, a guitar, a flute, and a baseball shirt."  The first three items made sense, but I questioned her about what kind of baseball shirt she wanted.  She said that it had to be purple with a baseball on it with some pink and white.  Santa was quite proud of the shirt that Mia received.  She loved it, too.  When she saw the gifts from Santa, she hopped from one to the next.  She said, "I was so surprised!  I was so surprised!"  She opened her gifts from us as well, one of which was a Cinderella dress.  She put it on along with her helmet and tried to ride the bike through the dining room.  I got Quinn set up with all of his gifts for a picture, but I didn't get to do that with Mia.  She was too busy playing with all of her new toys to be bothered with posing for a picture.  Sweet memories!

Q on Christmas morning

 Q and his loot

A Down Home Christmas

Mia and Quinn had a great time in Oklahoma for Christmas.  Mia commanded attention wherever she went, and loved to play with her cousins.  Quinn was a big hit with everyone.  He was perfectly content to walk around in the arms of anyone who would carry him.  He especially loved it when my dad would sing to him.  As I've mentioned on here before, Quinn loves music.  He was mesmerized by his Papaw's voice.

Christmas Eve was spent at Papaw and Nana Bev's house, then at Nanny and Papa's, and finally at the white house with Wesley's family.  It was a wonderful, busy time, and I loved it!  

Quinn and Kaylee

Papaw and Quinn

 Christmas Eve

 Mia, Zoey, and Kennedy

 Cousins: Shaylyn, Camryn, Summer, Caleb, Mia, Collin, Kennedy, and Zoey

 Ready for Santa to come!