Spring, Time to Sing Vivaldi!

It's not really time to sing Vivaldi, but that song is stuck in my head thanks to Anabelle's Baby Einstein exersaucer and the Little Einsteins show she loves!

Spring arrived early in Indiana, and we are thrilled! The 75-80 degree days have been so much fun for walks and a trip to the park. On Good Friday, we went to the park as a family and had a little photo shoot with our pretty girl, too.

More of Easter

Anabelle's first Easter was so wonderful! Her Great-Great-Grandma O'Leary surprised us with a beautiful dress in the mail. It was way too much fun getting her all dolled up and ready to go to church. We also loved shooting photos of her, pretty much all day.

Here she is devouring her basket.

Hunting for eggs in the front yard. After her cousins hunted, she made it away with two eggs: one for each hand!

The Campbell/Mack family, minus Rachie, on Easter. We were so thankful for the beautiful and warm day!

Papa & Mimi spoiled the little miss with an Easter basket filled with her favorite things, including these hot purple sunglasses. She also got a fabulous pair of pink sparkly sneaks to show off her walking skills with this summer.

Easter Weekend With the Macks

Easter weekend brought Mike's family to town to spend time with us and celebrate Jesus' resurrection! It was a whirlwind of fun, catching up and trying to coordinate activities for 11 of us. Breakfast went a little like this:

Saturday was spent at the Children's Museum. Between the 11 of us and Abby, we had 2 vehicles, 3 children, 2 wheelchairs, 1 stroller, 1 baby carrier, about 6 cameras and a partridge in a pear tree.

Connor loved checking out the dinosaurs and Bob the Builder! Chelsie patiently chased him around the entire museum.

Grandpa and Grandma were great sports, watching the kids explore each area from their luxury rides.

Abby spent most of her day with Hailey, showing her the cool stuff and distracting her from the scary dinosaurs.

Sunday morning we all put on our Easter best and went to church together. In the midst of the chaos of planning the weekend, I found myself continually trying to refocus on why we were celebrating Easter. The sacrifice of Christ dying on the cross for us is so unbelievable, I find it challenging to appreciate the meaning of it sometimes. As a mom, I feel I may grasp a tiny bit of what it meant for God to send His Son to die for us. I am thankful for Easter weekend to celebrate Good Friday when Christ dies and then Easter Sunday when he miraculously rose!

It seems silly to exchange candy and baskets in light of what we're really celebrating. But it's a tradition anyways, and it is fun to celebrate new life that spring brings!

There was no chance of getting the three kids to sit still with their Easter baskets, so here is our best shot in front of the mantle.

Little Easter bunny, Connor.

And the whole Mack/Lee clan!

Happy Easter!

Papa Love

Playing with Daddy

Anabelle is a true daddy's girl. Whatever he does or wherever he is, she wants to be right there with him. He can always get her to smile. She absolutely adores him.

It's only fitting that she try to be like him in the gym...
And on the ping pong table...

Next on her list of "to-dos" is walking! She loves to walk with someone holding her hands. She can pull herself up on any of the furniture and has started to cruise a little bit along the couch. It's amazing how quickly that happened.

Go, girly, go.

Ten Months!

Anabelle turned 10 months old last week. We can't believe we're already planning a birthday party for her! This month has brought an incredible amount of changes for all of us. Anabelle is crawling everywhere, pulling up on anything she can, standing at the couch, her toybox, her playtable, etc, and even beginning to walk along the side of the furniture. Yikes!

She is so bubbly and full of life. We love listening to her jabber nonstop! She has most of the consonants down, loves to say "dada" and has just started saying "ticka ticka." It's precious to hear her little voice. My favorite is to watch her in her carseat. She raises her eyebrows and moves her mouth like she's talking, but no sound comes out. I'm pretty sure she has imaginary friends!

She's eating every food imaginable. Although, lately, she won't eat much at any meal. She's still super "healthy" and plenty happy, so we aren't concerned. She has been through 5 rounds of antibiotics for ear infections since Christmas so we met with an ENT finally. After an evaluation, we decided she needs tubes in her ears. April 1st is the date, and we're hoping for a little girl who feels great all of the time and one who naps like an angel!! (Wishful thinking??)

On top of ear infections, she's popped out tooth #7 this month, and #8 is bursting at the seams. That makes four on the bottom and almost four on top. No wonder she can eat anything! I'm afraid we're about done with cereal and baby food because she much prefers feeding herself whole food. But that's perfectly okay, and usually much easier on me.

We are having so much fun with sweet Anabelle; which makes us so excited for whatever comes next. We're hoping to buy a bike seat and a swingset soon to teach her how fun spring can be! A baby pool and swimmies for the big pool are in store for her birthday because summer will be amazing with our little toddler!

Right now, we will just enjoy our quick crawling sweetie at 10 months old!

On The Move

Just after Anabelle turned 9 months old, she started scooting on her belly, which quickly led to full out hands and knees crawling. It's been so much fun (and work) to watch as she progresses. She's learned how much there is to explore in the new house. Fortunately, she hasn't found the stairs yet!

And, she's off!

Our ottoman has made for a great barrier between her and all of the fun electronics on our TV. It was a grand idea to think she'd hear "no" and stay away, but even with an ottoman and pillows surrounding it, she still manages to find her way to the Wii every now and then.

The glass shelves, dividing our family and living room, that once held family photos and candles now hold hard books and baby toys. But Anabelle loves pulling herself onto the lowest shelf and watching me work in the kitchen.
And the bathroom is a world of wonders! All of her bath toys are strewn about, and when she gets bored with them, she discovers mommy & daddy's fun bathroom toys.

I think the caption for this picture is "Busted!"

mommaEmack's Boutique

I've been working hard these past two months to "start a business." I have been making and selling nursing covers and burp cloths for about 8 months now. My nursing cover was my favorite baby gift that I was surprised with by my friend and sorority daughter, Katie. I have been able to nurse in every imaginable place thanks to it: baseball games, restaurants, the mall, by the pool, any place we go. It's been a huge blessing! As a result, I decided that others needed to experience this fantastic item. So I started making and selling them.

Next came these incredibly cute and amazingly absorbent burp cloths another dear friend and sorority sister, Karla, made me. I loved having cute prints on my shoulder when burping Anabelle, or pulling out a trendy cloth to wipe up the million spills and "urps" that are unavoidable with a little one.

And finally, hair bows! I think Anabelle's pictures speak for themselves. I. Love. Bows. And now I love selling them! Thanks to yet another wonderful sorority sister, Lindsey, for referring me my biggest piece of business in February!! It gave me the boost I needed to launch my business.

So, without further adieu, I introduce you to mommaEmack's Boutique. The site isn't perfectly finished, but it's out there. I still prefer to sell my items off the internet, to avoid the restrictions and costs involved with the website, but you can easily refer someone to my site to see what I can do!

Stay tuned for ruffled socks to make their appearance in the shop next.

She is on the Move!

It's not much of a video, but I captured a few seconds of Anabelle's latest achievements on my cell phone while in our bathroom. She is crawling! She has been scooting on her tummy for a few weeks, but as of Monday, she is a full out crawler. She still doesn't go far. I don't know if it's because she doesn't know she can, or because there's nothing really interesting outside of our living room. Either way, I'm okay with keeping her contained for now.

It's amazing to see the transformation of her from an immobile baby to a grown up little crawler. She gets so excited, too, when she is on her hands and knees. It's a whole new world from her new perspective, and it is a great one!

Nine Months Old!

Anabelle's caption: "I can't believe I am NINE MONTHS OLD!!!"

We can't believe it either, baby. But you sure are pretty! And growing so quickly.
And mommy & daddy finally got smart. We put the sign in a plastic display holder so you can't crumble it up and eat it.

Miss Anabelle turned 9 months old last week. At her well baby visit (this week), she weight 24.6 lbs and was 30 inches long. We asked where that put her on the charts, and she is off of them. Dr. Miles said "above 95th percentile" and showed us the chart where her dot was nowhere near the shaded area.

She's a big girl! People tell us that all the time... "Wow, she's a healthy girl!" "She doesn't miss a meal, does she?" "Look at those cheeks!" "What are you feeding her, mom?" The list goes on. She started off big (almost 9.5lbs) and has maintained a healthy gain. Her pjs are now 18 months. But she is awesome. We wouldn't ask for anything different. She makes our faces and our hearts smile on a daily, usually hourly, basis. We love her laugh, her smile, her silly faces, her intelligence, her squeals, her chubby baby thighs, her kisses and on and on. Happy nine months, baby, to all of us!

Euchre Nights

Once a month for we get together with our friends, the Harberts, Lands and Jameses to play Euchre. We look forward to it each month even though we have only gotten to play Euchre about 1/4 of the time in the past year. It's mostly because we have added four babies to the crew since May. There are now six kids to look after, under the age of 2 1/2! It's a wonder we even have played one game of Euchre.

It's also funny to realize that throughout our foursome friendship, at least one of us has been pregnant or nursing the entire time. At one point, we all were!

While the girls and I got food set up and were standing around chatting, here's what the daddies were doing...

And this photo was so exciting to get! All six kids ready for bed, all sitting still, all happy, all looking at the camera. I don't know when it will happen again, but it is priceless!

Left to Right: Abby (4mos), Sarah (2yrs), Anabelle (9mos), Lily (2yrs), Violet (6wks), Connor (5mos)

...After reading Heather's blog, I realized ages would be nice to add...

Life with my Baby

Our nap times are so short, as you already now. And a fourth ear infection has increased Anabelle's need for me to be near her right now. My mom reminded Katie and me of this sweet poem. And now it's my life theme:

I hope my child looks back on today
and remembers a Mom who had time to play
There will be years for cleaning and cooking
But children grow up when we are not looking
Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
Cuz babies grow fast, we learn to our sorrow
So settle down cobwebs, dust go to sleep
I'm cuddling my baby, and babies don't keep

I'm off to cuddle, play and love on my girl.

If you give a baby a toy...

she'll play for 5 minutes.



If you give a baby and entire toy box, she'll play by herself forever.

Well, maybe not forever, but for a much longer time! Since she doesn't nap well, I've been trying to figure out ways for her to stay entertained for longer so I can get things done during the day. She's also going through a clingy phase, so I need to be in sight often. I could keep her occupied for a while with different toys or a video, but after 5-10 minutes she needed interaction.

After watching her continually crawl to our "toy box" (or wire cubby thing we're using temporarily) multiple times, I decided to bring the toy box to her. I set it on its side so she could get to every toy inside and VOILA, she was happy for an hour! I was in and out, hanging nearby, but she loved having access to so many fun things. And I was happy to have extra freedom.

These PJs Were Made for Walkin

and that's just what they'll do.

Not Just for Kids

We snuck in a few minutes of play time in the snow, too.

Baseball...

And snow angels...

Snowy Day

We were so thankful to be home together on Presidents' Day! Mike, being a kid at heart, could not resist staying out of the snow any longer. So, we made it a play day and introduced Anabelle to the fun that can be had in the snow.



Daddy sat her down in the snow first. She really wasn't sure what to think.
Checkin out the cold stuff while nobody was looking...

All in all, she had a good snow day. If we could just get a sled, we know we, I mean she, would have even more fun!