6 Months

Little Mouse will be 6 months old in 2 days. That means she's old enough to start solids in our book. However, I had a really really long work/real estate day on Friday so Alex started her just a few days early. Here's some photos of her first experience with baby food. Apples, I think.

Princess M begs me to let her feed Little Mouse several times a day now.  We'll see how long that lasts.  She could be quite helpful in that way now.

6 months is probably a good time to record some thoughts on Little Mouse.  She's been my most contented baby for the most part.  As long as she's in a dry diaper and fed she's happy to sit in her play station and suck on the baubles.  She LOVES attention though, and will give big smiles to anyone who will look at her and talk to her a little.  She loves her older sisters and they adore her (sometimes a little too roughly, but loving all the same.)  She's very patient most of the time with their dressing her and playing with her. 

She's rolling over like a champ these days and we had to set up the crib in our room because she's rolling too much to sleep on the bed anymore.  She's also pushing herself up on her tummy, and is getting so close to learning how to crawl and sit up.  She has the desire to be moving around, she just hasn't figured out the mechanics quite yet.  (And I have not tried to hurry it at all.  We're going to have to install all those child locks on the cupboards soon.)

She has always been very friendly with other people, but recently she has figured out that babysitters mean that Mom will be leaving; and she has decided to punish them for it.  The last 3 times we've tried a babysitter, she has screamed the ENTIRE time!  The last 2 times, the babysitters couldn't take it anymore and had to call us to come home early.  And yet she doesn't scream when others hold her at any other time.  Smart girl!

She's my first baby that doesn't laugh when she's tickled.  She still clenches up and holds her breath in shock; but it looks more like torture to her than fun.  She does however laugh at things she thinks are funny or startling.  How I love to hear her beautiful laugh too.

And last night she slept the entire night non-stop in her crib for the first time!!!  I got the best nights sleep than I've had in a long time.  

How I love my little Mouse!  I love to hold her and squeeze her and kiss her fat little cheeks.  I love kissing the top of her head and breathing in that wonderful baby smell from her.  I love the way she smiles so big every time I look at her.  I just love being her mother!

A little catch up

Is August really over?  Wow time is flying by!  Between working real estate, unpacking a house, repairing same house (it was a real wreck when we moved in) taking care of 3 princesses, and starting a new job, time has really flown.  Here's the few pictures I found on my camera from the last month:

Princess M started Kindergarten the beginning of August.  She's doing great.  Here's a photo of her first day of school in her new uniform.

She's practicing to be a professional model photographer.  I found her in the kitchen with the camera, showing her little sister how to pose (she would place her hands, lift her arms, and tilt her head to get exactly what she wanted from her sister,) and then step back to take a picture of her subject.  Here are some of her shots:

All she needs now is to drop a few lines like, "work it baby" and "love the camera"  and she'll be a true professional.

Sweet Moments

Wow, so much has happened in that past couple weeks.  (Hence the lapse in blogging.)

First of all, we had our bi-annual Sherwood family reunion this year in Bozeman, Montana.  Unfortunately, I was not able to locate my camera the entire week, so I don't have any photos to post here.  However; fortunately, I have 2 sisters who are amazing at taking pictures, and taking lots of them, so I'll post some of the photos they took of our family in the next post.  We took the opportunity to have my amazing sister, Rachael, take some professional photos of the kids and our family.  She found this beautiful meadow of wildflowers for us to photo in.  So far this is the only photo she has posted of the "sitting."

Isn't it wonderful?  I can't wait to see the rest.

Anyway, with or without pictures, we had a great time hanging out with family for a whole week, without the distractions of cell phones or the Internet.  The girls had a ball playing with their cousins all week!  It's amazing how much everyone grows up in 2 years.  A great big "Thank You!" to Kurt and Sandy for planning the reunion this year. 

Almost immediately after returning back to Arizona from Montana, we found out that one of our rentals here in Sierra Vista had actually been vacant for a month, unbeknown to us.  After thinking it through, and doing the math, we decided it would be a good idea to move into it ourselves for a while.  So the past week, we've been packing, moving across town, and unpacking again. 

The girls have been troopers all week, but the whole process is just exhausting.  I came across these two sleeping side by side in the bed one evening.  It was just so sweet, thinking of how I can remember when my oldest girl on the left, used to be the baby sleeping in the bed, and how much and how fast she has grown up.  

We moved far enough across town to need to change schools where Princess M will attend Kindergarten.  Since school started the Monday after our move, the Kindergarten classes were full in the school just around the corner, so we put her on the waiting list in the 3rd spot.  So while all the other kids started school, Princess M stayed home.  After 2 days of trying to unpack amidst constant bickering between her and Banana Girl, I went ahead and put her in a school across town until we could get a call from the school we wanted.  The drive across town twice a day was worth the peace in the house during the day though.  And she absolutely loved being in school! 

It's amazing how a little distance has helped the girls' relationship too.  Banana Girl misses Princess M during the day, and they play much more nicely together at home now.  And 2 days ago I got the call from the charter school, that they are creating a new Kindergarten class for all the kids on the waiting list.  In the process, they are pulling some of the kids out of the existing classes to put in the new class, including 2 of Princess M's good friends from Preschool.  Class starts tomorrow, and Princess M can't wait!  I need to remember to take a "First Day of School" photo of her in the morning. 

As I mentioned, the older girls are playing much nicer together now.  This afternoon, Princess M pulled out her ballet costumes, dressed up Banana Girl, and proceeded to teach her ballet.  It was adorably cute. 

My 3 princesses sitting side by side.

No Pics

I really need to start pulling out my camera again.  I haven't taken a picture in ages.  We went to Colorado for Alex's job for two weeks, visiting family, watching the fireworks for the 4th, and just having a great time; and I didn't ever touch the camera.  Little mouse is now 4 months old, and I didn't take a single picture of her 3rd month of life. 

What a joy she is though.  Overall, she's been a very content baby.  She's just now starting to giggle at certain things, and the older girls just love making funny faces, trying to coax out a laugh.  They're all really sweet to her.  In general, she's happy as long as someone is paying her attention and talking to her.  Now that I've said that though, I should mention that late nights are not good for her.  Alex and I went to see Harry Potter last night (very good!) and she screamed the whole time we were gone.  I felt really bad for the poor babysitter.  She just will not go to sleep without me there with her.  I do really love laying beside her while she sleeps though.  It's so sweet to gaze at a sleeping baby. 

The people we've been staying with bought a fairly good sized swimming pool while we were gone.  The girls have been enjoying having a place to swim nearly every day.  Little Princess and Banana Girl got to attend the Vacation Bible School that our friend was in charge of this past week.  They really enjoyed all the activities, and I enjoyed having a few hours to get things done in the morning.

Oh, other great news is that I got my first listing, after starting up real estate again in Sierra Vista.  This next week will be plenty busy getting everything going  and self sustaining before we leave for a week to our family reunion in a week.  (of course that's sure to be the week that everything goes haywire.)  We're very grateful to the Lord and good friends for looking out for us.

Home Sweet Home

Just an update:

The fires are still blazing, but the powers that be have determined that it is ok for us to return to our homes now.  I'm writing this post from the computer that is located right next to the bed with my mother's quilt on it.  Hooray! 
I want to send a big thank you to everyone who expressed their concern and have offered their prayers up in our behalf.  We are truly blessed to be surrounded by so many who care for us.  We love you all!

Lesson learned:

Update your renters insurance as soon as you move.  Had anything happened, we may just have been out of luck, since our renter's policy still has our old address associated with it... I have a phonecall I better make right now.

Awesome Photo of the Fire!

Check out this photo our friend, Nate Gray, took of the fire:

Be sure to click on the photo to see it full size.

We're Very Grateful Today!

So upon leaving church today we ran into a roadblock on the way home, diverting traffic off of the highway.  The patrolman let us through when we told him we lived beyond the checkpoint.  Pretty soon it was apparent why the highway was closed.  Here are some pictures we took along the highway.  

 Apparently someone lost control of a fire in Coronado National Memorial that has now burned over half of the 4750 acre forest.  It was pretty cool to see from a distance, until we turned onto our street and got pulled over by a border patrolman.  We were only allowed home to gather any pets and check on the people we're living with and then he told us we were being asked to evacuate our homes.  Here's a view of the fire from our front porch.  Still pretty far away, but close enough to fill the sky with smoke and to get an evacuation order.  

We walked through the house, took pictures of our stuff for insurance purposes (just in case) and gathered a change of clothes and any precious, non-replaceable items we could think of, and then we were off to stay at a friend's house on the north side of Sierra Vista.  (A great BIG "Thank You" to Nate and Cindy Gray for taking us in on a moment's notice!!!)

news link we're following the update on

It's a wild experience to have to walk through your home and have to decide what is important enough to save and what you can allow to burn if the worst happened.  I tell you what; most everything is not important enough to save.  There is one thing I forgot to grab that I wish I had.  My mom made me a gorgeous quilt when I first left home for collage, which is currently laying on my bed.  I do wish I had grabbed that.

Back to the title of my post... I have sooooo much to be grateful for today:

• We're all safe!
• Once again the Grays for taking us into their already full home for who knows how long  
• Time to walk through our house and grab a few things
• The firefighters, and border patrolmen, and all those who are working so hard to contain the fire and protect the people in the area
• The church for encouraging us to always be prepared and have important papers and other essential items gathered and ready to grab in an emergency
• A Wonderful teaching moment with Princess M!  We've been talking with her about everything that's going on, all the how's, why's, and what we need to learn from this.  She's learning to stay calm in an emergency, to decide what is really important, fire safety, gratitude for all the servicemen involved, her ability to pray and ask for help for us and for everyone else in harm's way, (she said the sweetest prayer on our drive away from the house), and so much more.  You can't pay for a teaching opportunity like this!
• Princess M's sweet heart.  She wants to bake cookies tomorrow and take them to the firemen and policemen to say thank you.  I think it's a great idea!  She also wants to track down the airports where the airplanes came from (that are dropping the fire retardant) and take them cookies too.  I'm not sure we'll make that happen, but it's really neat to see her thinking of others.
• Everyone's concern.  Thank you.  
• A loving Heavenly Father, who we know is looking out for us and our family!

We'll post an update as soon as we know anything.