Nine Years and the Boiler Room

We had our 9th anniversary on the 22nd. As any parents of 4 little kids, we celebrated over the weekend when we had some time and the grandparents could help keep our kiddos--well most of them :) 

Our weekend started like this 

 and then we had to clean out the garage.  i know, not too exciting, but we did find some "treasures".  Like this unsent letter from my hubs about 15 years ago before he was my hubs, a sweet polaroid from a deployment (he's holding a bird) and his glasses from Basic (they call them BCG's or birth control glasses :) 

 

The fun part of the weekend came with a trip to Kinston to eat with our favorite "foodie friends".  Of course we would have like to eat at Chef and the Farmer one more time before we move, it was prom weekend in Kinston and there were no reservations to be had.  So we "settled" for Ben and Vivian's other restaurant, Boiler Room.  It's an oyster bar/burger joint with a fun atmosphere and pretty great food.  

Us and the Bennets 

 

The babies did okay.  It was loud in there, a little warm and late by the time we got a table but they hung in there and slept like champs on the ride to and from Kinston. 

 

The Menu...to entice you to go try it out.  The #3 burger was the crowd favorite, but we tried 5 of them and all were pretty great.  The oysters were also quite yummy, we tried the Boilerfeller, but the showstopper was the amazing banana pudding.

It was nice to have some quiet together time with this man even if we were working around the house, and it was also a lot of fun hanging out with friends.  No matter what we're doing i'm always glad to be with guy.  Love him so much. 

Month.Three

Just look at my sweet little baby! He brings so much joy to our home with that big smile. 

 and then there's this look...basically the same from last month, just with wider eyes and a slightly bigger body! 

At 3 months Macky is still such a joy.  He rarely cries other than when he's tired or hungry.  He tolerates quite a bit from his siblings--like hugging too hard, making lots of noise, getting all in his personal space.  None of that stuff really seems to bother him.  He smiles all the time and just loves to be near his family.  Thankfully there are lots of people in the house so he almost always has a buddy ready to sit and talk with him. Things i remember to be an issue with the other three kiddos don't really happen with Macky.  I don't have to get ready to the sound of a crying baby--he's usually pretty happy just sitting in his chair and watching. That dinner time crankiness hasn't started up yet either--he either easily takes a nap in his swing or sits on the counter and watches us cook/eat.  He goes to sleep pretty easily in the evenings and still rides in the car like a champ napping wherever we may be.  Really.  It's been pretty great.

Sleep:  He's still sleeping really well.  Bedtime around 8 pm and sleeps until about 4-6am, eats and then goes back to sleep until 7-730am.  About once a week he wakes up around midnight to eat.  He sleeps best in a warm room, all swaddled in his woombie and with the crickets playing on the sound machine.  If not there, the swing is a close second and where he does the majority of his naps.  Speaking of naps, we get about 3 really good ones a day.  He's pretty predictable and already on a good schedule!

Eating: Nursing is still going well too and nothing has changed much from last month.  He obviously knows what he's doing and has the cheeks to show it!

Motor Development:  Macky has started rolling from his tummy to his back during tummy time.  He also goes in circles and scoots himself off his play mat by pushing the floor with his feet.  He hasn't quite gotten control of his hands yet but he's swinging for things trying to work out how to get a grasp on his toys.

His LIKES include:
his family
being swaddled
his pacifier

His DISLIKES include:
being alone
cold hands
really loud places


and here are some pictures with his best buddy Leah, they are nine weeks apart :) 

Little Builders

speaking of building... Papaw came to hang out and brought fun things to do for the big kids.  

 Proud of what they built!

Daddy and Davis Day

Mike had a day off last month and the twins were at a sleepover at their friend's house so Davis got to have a morning just him and Daddy.  They were both so excited.  Just look at these happy faces!

 

  

They had lots of fun stops on the agenda like pancakes at Davis' favorite, Cracker Barrel, but the best stop was at a local Lego play place called Bricks4Kidz.  Davis and Mike had lots of fun and worked hard building a pirate ship and pirate hideout. Of course our little superhero wooed the owners of bricks4kidz.  He was on the facebook page by the end of the day! 

 Daddy and Davis had lunch at cookout before coming home for nap.  Hotdogs and Hush Puppies! mmm.mmm.good!

and here's a cute video of them before leaving the house :)

Burns and Bennetts Backyard Camping

We've been planning a backyard camping adventure since last summer--all sorts of reasons kept putting it off--the main one being weather.  It seemed every time we planned to do something like this the rain would come.  Well, our weekend fun finally happened and it was the perfect weather and we were able to spend it with the perfect people too! 

The big kids eating dinner

Captain America Chips!

the "littles"

these four are just perfect together--they will definitely be missed!

all the kiddos 

We played until dark, watched The Little Rascals on the big screen outside, had s'mores and then jumped on the trampoline until everyone was thoroughly worn out :) 

those are some tired eyes from our birdie! 

the adults? 

these kids were SO EXCITED about sleeping in the tent

and Daniel brough glo sticks to make it even more fun!

i think the boys were asleep pretty fast.  the girls giggled until around 11pm.  us parents stayed up and played catch phrase until way too late.  Then of course everyone was back up and going by 7.  We cheated and came in for breakfast--eggs and cinnamon rolls!  

 

these well rested babies slept inside with the mommies.... we'll leave their first camping adventure for another year or two! 

Easter Sunday

We had a nice Easter weekend with family and friends.  Nana and Poppy spent the weekend with us-- while they were here, they joined us at Hop in the Park, we ate at yummy Sherefe's, had a nice Easter dinner on Saturday night and the joined us for church on Sunday.  Sunday evening we invited our neighborhood family friends, the Lopez Family to join us for a backyard egg hunt and pizza.  It was definitely a good weekend! 

On Sunday morning the kids came downstairs first thing to see their Easter baskets. It was Macky's first Easter and as you can see he was very excited about it.  He was the first one to his basket!

the big 3 making their way down the stairs 

Birdie and her basket.  She was most excited about her new Elsa PJ's. 

 

and the boys

 

so glad the Easter Bunny knew exactly what we needed....PJ's and Undies! 

Nora helped Macky see what was in his basket--new soft toys because i'm not quite sure where all the soft baby toys went after Davis! That's cool though, a third boy gets mostly hand-me-downs anyway--he totally deserves some new toys that are all his to drool all over :) 

my beautiful lovies

after all that fun we had cinnamon rolls and then got ready to go to church.  here's all my loves in their new Easter outfits :) 

    

Thankful for a beautiful weekend, family and most importantly our Risen King.  In the words of our LittleD, "Jesus is Alive, YAY!"