To self soothe...

The last few weeks have been difficult with Elliana. I am trying to get her to sleep in her crib for naps during the day. Previously her swing was the only way to get her to fall asleep. Things have been slowly getting better.

Feeding her was what typically worked to get her to bed at night. Recently, this has changed. She will finish her bottle but not go to sleep... I will end up making a few more ounces just to try again. She needs that sucking comfort to settle. We have tried pacifiers since she was born. They have never really worked. We found one she would take for a few moments to settle down but the last 3 or so weeks she has stopped taking them all together.

I know that if she would allow herself to take the pacifier, it would give her the comort of sucking that she needs to help calm herself down. To be able to self soothe.

So the other day I dug out a different pacifier, ... one that is shaped more like the nipple of her bottles.

She took it right away! I was so shocked.

.... and it worked.

The pacifier helped her to settle down and she went back to sleep, peacefully.

What a relief!

I have never been so happy about one of my children accepting a pacifier!

But I feel blessed that we have a better solution for her to be able to soothe herself and get the rest she needs.

TAGS!!

Elliana has a new facination... well I supose it's been going on for some time now, she just happens to be exceling recently (: TAGS! I knew that all babies and kids loved tags of things... but I don't remember my other children this young. At 5 months Ellie will find the tag of ANYTHING she is near. As much as she loves her taggie blanket, she will still go for the official tag over the many small tags surrounding the blankie. I took some fun pictures of her in the act, check out the determination on her face!

She see's the target... and moves in

grasping quickly with both hands!...

and then moving in for the kill.... mouth!

SUCCESS!

It's the small things in life....

NOT ME! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog at http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. "I created Not Me! Monday for the purpose of confessing our shortcomings and imperfections to each other since, after all, we are all only human!" (MckMama's words) Every Monday, you can find more "Not Me! Monday" at her site.

It's 5pm and I am still trying to get this post up.. oh well better late than never! So here are a few things we have Not been doing this week....

I most certainly did Not leave my poor sleepy daughter in her jumperoo till she cried jumped herself right to sleep (face down!)... and then I did Not leave her there to finish cleaning up (and even took this picture since it looked so funny!) before putting her to bed. Nope, Not Me!

Saturday, while washing our cars with the family I did Not remove my wedding rings and put them in my pocket! Valuable precious sentimental things like that don't belong in a pair of pants... I would definitely put something that special on my dresser if I wasn't wearing them!Then I sure did Not freakout Sunday when they were nowhere to be found. Keeping my family waiting in the car as I tore the house apart searched everywhere for them. Nope, Not Me!

The wonderful driver I am also did Not get a speeding ticket for going 9 over the speed limit (a whopping 34mph!) They don't need to ticket for that craziness! Fine's are for those driving really fast! And then on my way to traffic court I definitely did Not go even a little over the speed limit again since I was running late. (that ticket would have taught me a lesson, right!) Did not have to drive 2 blocks away to find a place to park, run swiftly into the building... just to find out the judge could not do anything to help, the fine had to be paid as is. Not me!

And lastly I did not go to the dollar store and try to pay with a credit card that was declined and have to put everything back. That would be so embarrassing. (Because I would Never forget that my morgage payment came out that morning and forget to transfer money!) Nope, Not Me! I would never do that!

Ahh.. Ok, feeling a bit better now!!

So.. What did you Not do this week??

Summer Spring Time Fun!

After Nathaniel's t-ball game got rained out we made our way home... Had lunch and then the sun was back out shinning bright! Daddy got the idea to get us outside together and wash the cars...

Things quickly got out of hand very wet and the real fun began

Miss Ellie chillin, soakin in some sun.

Nathaniel LOVES playing in the water...

and had soo much fun!!

Lots of smiles and laughter were made...

and we all had a great time ... together.

With the 80's degree weather you would have thought it was mid summer... had to remind ourselves that it is still Spring! Looking forward to having so many months ahead for more fun memories outside.

5 Months

~Elliana Grace~

I wanted to post this last week... but we were away on vacation and had no internet service.. so here we go...

My sweet Elliana, You turned 5 months old last week. I can't believe how fast the time goes. You are such a part of this family already and we wouldn't be complete without you. I am so blessed to have spent this amazing time with you. You are truly a gift, Our answer to prayer. I thank God for each moment he blesses me with. To be your mommy, to hold you and kiss you, to laugh with you and pray over you... I pray we are blessed with many many more moments.

Here are some things you have been up to this month:

*Started cooing and talking a lot!
*Smiles all the time
*Found your feet!... and discovered how to reach them!
*Started Rice cereal .. and love to eat it!
*Began reaching, learned to grab and began “playing” with toys

* You were Dedicated to the Lord
*Began sleeping on Your own room in your crib!
*wearing size 1 diapers (barely, were about to move up!)
*Finally grew into your 3-6 month clothes
*Went into playground swing for first time
*Started enjoying your jumperoo
*You Still Love your baby swing, especially when sleepy
*You have completely refused to take your pacifier any longer

You are such a joy to our lives. Can't wait to see what you will show and share with us next! We Love you more than you could ever know!!

"God is able to make all Grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work."

2 Corinthians 9:8

Sweet Kayleigh

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My heart is broken for this sweet family...Please join me in prayer for them. They have a long hard journey ahead of them. Kayleigh is a precious miracle baby who was born almost 12 weeks early weighing only 1lb 1oz. She overcame so much in her early months and went through hundreds of surgeries and On Monday night, Kayleigh went to Heaven... to rest in the arms of Jesus. For 11 months this family spent endless hours by her side in the NICU and were never able to bring there little girl home. Click on the button above to read her story. It has been a long road for them but we can rest in peace knowing that she has been made new.. and is pain free and whole in her eternal home.

I love to picture what that must be like... running down the streets of gold... all the precious little ones who left this earth what feels like too soon. My precious Brayden was able to meet Kayleigh before I was! I hope they are enjoying being in the presence of our Heavenly father, and believe they are watching us from above.

Their journey has just begun. They will need our prayers for days, weeks, and years to come. Pray for Adam and Amiee, their marriage, their 2 older children. For a peace that passes all understanding, strength to make it through each step, and comfort that comes from the arms of our Heavenly Father who is holding them tight.

We can't wait to see you again one day sweet Kayleigh... Let Jesus Hold you till Mommy and Daddy can hold you again...

NOT ME! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog at http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. "I created Not Me! Monday for the purpose of confessing our shortcomings and imperfections to each other since, after all, we are all only human!" (MckMama's words) Every Monday, you can find more "Not Me! Monday" at her site.

So.. Here it goes! ...

What a week it has been...

I most certainly did Not let the bills pile up for weeks and spend the time I should have been getting ready for our trip playing catch up! Not Me!

In turn, I did Not wait till the last possible moment to do laundry and pack for vacation... resulting in a living room looking like this at midnight.. when we were suposed to leave at 7am the next morning! Nope, Not me!

I also did Not notice ahead of time that the office to check in our condo at closed at 6.. when we arrived at 6:40... and I surely did Not forget to bring the lock box code with me to get our keys! Nope! So before our vacation was even able to begin I did Not have to call my mom to check my email for me and get the code so that we could get in... and have a placve to stay for the night! Not me!
I also did Not spend too many unnecessary trips driving around Kissimee trying to find discount trickets ...just to save a couple bucks for Disney...Not Me!
(Lesson learned... next trip will be much different! lol)
We did have a wonderful time.. the kids enjoyed Disney and we made lots of memories! Which of course was Not captured on about 400 pictures in just 4 days! No way!

After spending the week in Florida, with no internet... I did Not stay up till 2am saturday night online playing catch up with all my blog's and getting filled in with the week I had missed! Not me!

I also did Not buy this new rocker for Ellie ... (that we truly don't have room for or need!) just because it was such a good deal off craigslist! and then I did Not put her on it at 5 months when she can't even sit up... just so I could get this cute picture! Not me! (She also did Not end up falling off since she has no sence of balance or security on this thing yet! ..oops! Since I did Not let go of her and allow her to get all excited... Definately Not me!)


What a week.. we made it! So thankful for all the good moments that made up for all my terrible un-researched, and unprepared vacation plans! Let the new week begin!

(Yay! I slashed out a word! (for the first time! lol) .. BTW... I definately did NOT just read through several books days worth of tweets from MckMama to find the one that explained how to do that, whew! I missed alot of tweets this week being away MckMama! (:

Thankful

On This Mother's Day I wanted to reflect on how Thankful I am for my 3 precious gifts. Thankful to be called "Mommy"
Thankful for this incredible love
Thankful for the hugs and kisses
Thankful for the memories
Thankful for each moment...

~ Nathaniel Miller~


~Brayden Russell~

~Elliana Grace~

Happy Mother's Day!! Hope all the Mommy's in my life have a wonderful and blessed day.