The Beach

We had a very fun family trip visiting Travis and JJ in Destin a couple of weeks ago. The kids were so excited! The did great on the plane. Cade even slept most of the way there. Avery and Cade at the airport. We arrived in Destin in the early afternoon and hit the beach right away. The kids loved playing in the sand.

Avery loves her great grandma.

They liked jumping the waves and swinging in the water, but didn't last too long once they got salt water in their eyes and mouth.

Cade getting his toes wet.

We set up a beach tent for the babies to have some shane.

Sweet, sleepy boy!

The next morning we went out on a pontoon boat Travis and JJ rented. The kids had a blast!

Carson had his ear pressed up to the speaker so he could hear his favorite song...which is "Call Me Maybe"...which we have listened to at least a thousand times the last few weeks.

We rode out to a huge sand bar called "Crab Island" It was so cool. The water was only like waist deep for the kids, so they could walk around and play.

There were tons of crabs in their little shells that you could dig up in the sand.

They had a huge inflatable slide along with a bounce house and trampoline floating on a barge in the water. Carson tried out the slide then swallowed a mouth full of ocean when he landed in the water. He was done after that...poor guy...that salt water is pretty nasty!

Avery had fun on the trampoline

And made her own slide out of the ramp of the bounce house. They have the best great grandma! Hanging out on the boat Family pic

We unfortunately brought a little tummy bug with us. Carson was throwing up the first night of the trip and then Avery was throwing up the second night. It was short lived and did not stop us from having fun.

We went to ride go-carts one night. (blurry phone pics) Carson LOVED it!! We went to a gymnastics place one day while the guys were fishing.

The kids got to run off some energy.

The guys did a shrimp and crab boil one night...so yummy!

We went swimming in Travis and JJ's pool a couple of times.

And took a trip to a place called Baytown one evening. It was a cute little resort type place with lots of restaurants and fun things for kids to do.

They got to do a mini ropes course.

Ride on the carrousel,

And do the trampolines

Avery kept doing back flips

They loved it!

Avery, Barrett, and Carson

Family picture in Baytown.

Carson and Avery got to spend lots of time playing with their cousins. The Daniels have gone from 3 to 5 cousins since Christmas...so fun.

Cade and sweet baby Madison who was 6 weeks old here.

DD with all five grandkids

Shane and his sweet grandma.

Our trip went by way too fast and we finished up with one last trip to the beach the morning we had to fly out.

Sweet babies! I took Cade down to the water for a few minutes He was so relaxed. My three little beach bums!

Thank you Travis and JJ for hosting us, we had a blast and we promise not to bring anymore germs with us next time :)

Cade 4 months

This little boy is 4 months old already.

He's a happy boy!

At 4 months Cade weighs 16 lbs 3 oz (75%) and is 26 1/2 inches (90%) long. He had a rough time with his vaccines this time (lingering fever up to 102.8, fussy and clingy). He needed lots of extra snuggle time. A couple of days later he was back to his happy, smiley self.

He's still pretty bald, but the little hair he does have looks pretty blonde.

We put him in his jumper for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and he loves it! It's funny because I remember when C and A were 4 months old, I had to put a pillow under their feet in the jumper because they couldn't reach the floor. Cade already has both feet flat on the floor...big boy! I love his face in this picture

He just started reaching out and spinning the little frog last night, so cute!

At 4 months Cade is:

-generally a pretty happy baby. He mostly just cries when he's tired or hungry.

-smiling and laughing so much now. He'll smile at just about anyone and has given us several big belly laughs. It's just the sweetest sound!

-still in size 2 diapers

-wearing mostly 3-6 months and some 9 month clothes

-reaching for and starting to play with toys that are in front of him

-rolling from front to back and can almost roll from back to front.

-eating every 2-3 hours during the day and still more often in the evenings (mostly because he's tired and I think he associates sleeping with eating)

-sleeping anywhere form 4-6 hours at night before waking up. He actually slept through the night one night when we were in Florida. Then he was right back to waking up anywhere between midnight and 3:00. He still sleeps well in his pack and play until he wakes up to eat, then he usually sleeps with me the rest of the night.

-napping pretty sporadically. He will usually take a decent morning nap (like an hour) in his swing if we are actually home. Poor guy has to just go with the flow with two older siblings around. He'll also usually take a good nap in the afternoon while C and A are sleeping, if I will sit and hold him the whole time.

-is doing a little better in his carseat and is starting to sleep some in it, especially in the mornings when we are driving to the church to drop off the kids for school.

-still not into the paci (I've given up) and still fights with the bottle. He'll drink it after like 15-30 min of screaming, so that's a little progress....but still stressful for the person trying to give it to him.

-still likes being swaddled at night.

I love the "post swaddle stretch" he does when he wakes up in the morning. His arms immediately go straight up in the air. I love it! Love his little yawns too! He's showing me more and more that he's going to be a finger sucker. It's pretty consistently these two fingers on his right hand.

He's even fallen asleep sucking them a couple of times
He's definitely a very active baby. I'm not great about buckling him into his bouncy seat, but apparently I need to be better about it because he can just about flip himself over in it.

He's starting to use his feet to move himself around when he's in the play gym. He doesn't stay in one place for long.

And like I said, he's almost rolling onto his tummy. He can't quite get over that arm though. Happy 4 month sweet boy!

My not so little baby girl

This girl loves to pretend like she's a baby! Especially now that there is a baby in the house! I let her keep some of her old baby clothes to dress her dolls in. I didn't think she'd try to wear them again. She came down stairs a few weeks ago wearing this newborn onesie. She thought she was pretty cute!

My mom bought her this bottle. She wants to use it ALL the time. We've had to limit it to only when Mimi comes over (its getting a little out if control).

And of course every baby needs a paci. It's funny, I asked her if she remembered her 'pie' and she didn't...that was just last summer too.

She even brings Carson in on the fun! She found this pull-up in her room (we've been done with pull-ups for a while) and said she was wearing her diaper and needed to be swaddled. Carson was more than happy to hold this big baby!

And feed her too!

I'm sure some of this is attention seeking and some of it is just imaginative play. I try not to read too much into it and just let her have fun! Sweet girl!
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Little boys!!

I look at Carson just about everyday and ask him "why?" Why are you climbing up the outside of the stairs? Why did you think it was a good idea to rub toothpaste all over your legs?Why is the toilet tank lid laying on the bathroom floor? And why oh why would you want to shave your tongue?


He walks out of my bathroom Friday with blood dripping out of his mouth. He said, "I used daddy's razor to shave my tongue." Why, you might ask, would he do something like that? The only reason I can think of is that he's a little boy!! Bless his little adventurous, mischievous heart!!

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Cade 3 months

This sweet boy was 3 months old on 5/23.

He's getting so big!

He's starting to enjoy sitting in the bumbo seat for short little stretches.

He's also getting much better with his tummy time. He's holding his head up really well now.

But he still prefers his back.

He found his hands several weeks ago and they are in his mouth ALL of the time. He puts his fingers so far in his mouth that he gags himself. It's kind of funny.

We are doing a little better with sleep. Cade pretty consistently falls asleep around 9:00 every night and usually sleeps until around 3am. He's had a couple of nights where he slept from 9-5, woohoo! Then this past week he started waking up at midnight, 3am, and 5am again, not sure why, maybe he's having a growth spurt? He sleeps really well in the pack and play for the first stretch of the night, but after he wakes up to eat I have a hard time getting him to lay back down so he usually ends up sleeping with me the rest of the night. Nap time is still really hit or miss. Some days he will nap 3 hours at a time and other days he just catnaps all day. He still wants to nurse to sleep and then I usually transfer him to the swing. Sometimes he stays asleep and sometimes he doesn't, it can be very frustrating. He will still sleep really well in the Moby wrap or Ergo carrier, so I will still strap him on when I really want him to take a nap.

 We haven't made much progress with the bottle. There is much screaming and fighting from Cade when someone is trying to him a bottle. And I've given up on the paci, I have a feeling he might be a finger or thumb sucker... he's really interested in those hands.

His sissy accessorized him with these bead bracelets. Cade is her personal little baby doll.

He's still in size 2 diapers and is mostly wearing size 3-6 months.

He's a pretty happy baby most of the time, well when he's had a good nap that is. He gets pretty fussy when he's overtired and he still screams (more like screeches) when he's in his carseat. I think he's going to be a social baby. He wants to be able to see someone and have people talking to him all the time. He just smiles and coos, it's so sweet. And he started laughing this past month. I love it!!

Happy 3 months baby boy!