Salem Lucille: 1 Month

Dearest Salem Lucille,

Oh my sweet girl how you complete our family! You are such a joy in every way imaginable. You are true to your name (meaning peace) and such a go with the flow baby.  You love the cuddles and kisses from your big sister and big brothers. And boy do they love you! They are always looking for you as soon as they get up in the morning and they have to kiss you goodnight before bedtime. They each love you in their own way and you are navigating that well!

You are a growing girl and have already had two growth spurts. Typically you take 5 ounces of formula each feeding with the exception of the middle of the night (that one is kept to 4 ounces). You are on a pretty good schedule and spend about 1 1/2 hours to 2 1.2 hours awake at a time. I held onto the last newborn diaper even though you outgrew them so quickly. Not having another baby to save them for, I wanted to savor the very last one. So now you are fitting into the size 1 diapers and I am holding back the tears of my last newborn in newborn diapers!

You have graced us with your first smile at 3 weeks old and your dimple is the cutest thing I've ever seen! You are bright eyed and love to peek at things around the house. Your eyes get so big at the Christmas tree lights and the mobile on the swing. I have a feeling that you will always take in the world around you!

In your first month, you have already experienced to big holidays! You were the cutest DJ Suki around for Halloween...joining your siblings as Poppy, Branch, & Guy Diamond! You had a few Halloween outfits courtesy of big sister Adelaide as well as my shopping habit. When it came time to fold them and put them away, I couldn't bring myself to get rid of them. The emotions were just too high to give away the first few days of outfits of my last newborn. So they are in a pile in the basement closet just so I can hold on a little longer...

You also celebrated your first Thanksgiving and phew do we have so much to be thankful for! You are such a blessing to my life, to our family (both intermediate & extended). You will never know just how thankful I am that God gave you to us. You, of course, had a plethora of Thanksgiving outfits too! Some old and some new but all just as cute as the next!

You already had your first trip! We spent Thanksgiving in French Lick complete with a horse & carriage ride, a turkey feast, lots of holiday activities, and a ride on the Polar Express! Checking off those states you've traveled to one at a time...and fitting right in with our crazy crew!

  

 

Sweet girl, I cannot wait to see what the next month brings with you and to see how you grow! 

I love you!

Love,

Mommy

Aspen Michael: 3 1/2 Years Old

Dearest Aspen Michael,

So much has happened over the last six months of life for you! With a major surgery under your belt, we were hopeful that better sleep & better attitude would come. At first we saw progress and then some severe regression during the summer months. At the start of August, I was beside myself with your behavior and how to address/fix/help with it. 

While your sleep became better and you only were waking once in the night and then able to fall back to sleep quickly, your demeanor changed as I found you throwing toys and objects all the time. At people, in the house, at things, and so on. The more I asked you/begged you/yelled at you to stop, the more you kept at it. You began hitting other kids especially little kids (those who were younger than you) and your cousin Boston. I could see that someone would say something that hurt your feelings but instead of trying to talk, you would hit them. It was painful to watch and I cried many frustrated tears over it.

We ended up meeting with a behavioral therapist who helped give us some tools and tricks to combat your negative-attention seeking behavior. We put these to work and things have been so, so much better. 

Around the same time, you began sleeping through the night FINALLY! After a year of not sleeping through the night, we both woke up completely different people. I began using lavender on your pillowcase in a desperate attempt to get you to sleep before your baby sister arrived. I have no idea if its the lavender or just your REM cycle came full circle, but I can see the change in us both with this new found sleep!

You are beginning to come into your own a bit and gain some independence. You are able to get yourself dressed from the waist down...shirts are still a struggle for you but we are working on it! You take your dishes to the sink, rinse them, and put them in the dishwasher. You are brushing your teeth and hair by yourself & you love setting up your nightlights for bedtime.

You are taking your big brother duties more seriously now with Brighton and Salem. You have begun to show empathy towards them, asking if they need your help. You also want to be the line leader and be in charge.

You are into sports and loving every minute of them. You have been taking weekly golf lessons for a few months and are already playing full holes on the Exec course. You are back to tennis and hitting backhands like a champ. You started swimming without floaties at the end of the summer which had you going off the diving board with no fear!

You amaze me with how much you love going to school now! The first day you gave Mrs. Evans & Mrs. Kinney the biggest hugs and shed zero tears. You just nonchalantly waved goodbye to me. Such a difference from last year! Thank you Lord!

You are enjoying Sunday School at St. Margaret Mary so much. You are in the class without Adelaide which I think makes it special for you. You are learning about God and so many wonderful life lessons which makes me happy.

We have our own special Tuesdays where we get to spend some one-on-one time together. We have been to House of Boom, road animals at the mall, enjoyed the park, or just hung out talking. I think we are both enjoying that time together.

I am excited to see what the next six months bring as you inch closer to being four years old!

I love you!


Love,

Mommy
 

Celebrating Our Sixth Year

This year we spent our anniversary relaxing and enjoying a low key day & night. We took the kids to the Festival of Lights at Louisville Slugger in the late morning. Neither of us had ever been and it was such a great way to kick off the day. The trees are absolutely gorgeous; there are plenty of activities for kids; the entire atmosphere is pure joy.

 

Later, Ryan & I enjoyed a nice, adult dinner out at La Chasse. It is a French restaurant in the Highlands. Toting a very unique menu with a twist of francais, we enjoyed the ambiance of the quaint space.

We dined on escargot, gnocchi, steak, and banana pudding while sipping on the Veuve Cliquot champagne!

We also cracked open our "5" year bottle from the wine box that Ryan gave me as a wedding gift. Since we were in Sedona last year and in the midst of moving/having most of our things in storage, we decided to save it for this year.  A Lincourt wine, Cabernet Sauvignon, was the perfect ending to the night paired with some of our chocolates to celebrate year 6!

 

 

Whitney & Ryan: Wedding Anniversary #6

Last weekend Ryan & I celebrated our 6th year of marriage. This year has seen highs and lows from a family perspective. We have battled some issues with extended family which has had an affect on many family dynamics. We welcomed our beautiful baby girl, Salem Lucille, just over 2 weeks prior to 11/11/17 which has been the sweetest gift. 6 years of marriage, 8 years together, 4 cities, 2 houses, 4 kids, and 1 angel baby. We have experienced a lot of love and life in these 6 years!

You might recall when we celebrated our first anniversary and the gift that kept on giving all year long. We had a great time on our monthly dates and continued to enjoy our passion for exploring. For year two, I combined cotton & china into a beautiful Thanksgiving week getaway up in Mont Tremblant, Canada. In year three, a traditional leather gift came in the form of a TUMI travel wallet while the modern crystal gift included a Thanksgiving dinner at The Crystal Hotel in Portland, OR. Year four brought "tropical" fruits & flowers together with a trip to Bermuda followed by an upgraded {appliance} TV for our bedroom. Our fifth year was about "wood" and "silver which included a bamboo sushi set for two, wine cork cuff links with the year 2011, and a trip to the Greenbrier.

This year I wanted to *again* stick with tradition and put a spin on the modern gift. Traditionally iron is the gift of choice for year #6. Iron is thought to indicate strength. Candy is the modern gift due to representing sweetness.

Ryan loves biking; mountain, trail rides, or cycling. I can remember as a kid in the summers we would take family bike rides around the neighborhood. Kendahl & I would ride our own bikes while mom & dad toted Shane & Taylor in little kid carriers behind their bikes. It was such a fun family time that I thought what better way to incorporate "iron" into a gift. *Bikes have some pieces made from iron in them so I got creative here ;) * With Adelaide riding her bike and Aspen hot on the trail, I figured spring will be a great time for Brighton & Salem to hitch rides with mom & dad! So we have two new shiny casual, cruisin' bikes and two baby carriers to boot!

 


For candy,I had a box of personalized M&M's made with sayings like: 11/11/11, Happy Anniversary, I love you, & Year 6. We are also going to make a pit stop at Schimpff's Confectionery in Indiana on the way to your annual Thanksgiving trip! It is one of the oldest, family-owned candy businesses in the United States. It boasts a 1950's soda fountain, a confectionery, a candy museum, and a candy demonstration area. I can't wait for the kids to see what it was like in the olden days!

I truly love following the traditional and modern celebrations of each year. I hope when we look back on all of the years we can enjoy the way we celebrated as well as the special moments of each passing year!