my girls

Chantel - my little nail biter.

My little porker

Well Alyssa got her immunizations last week (4 needles - ouch!). She did very well but I know it will get worse each time. They weighed her at 13 lbs, 7 oz and said she was 90th percentile for weight. My older girls were always 50th percentile so she is my biggest baby so far. For the past week now, I've been giving Alyssa one bottle a day to keep up with her appetite and to keep up my energy. So far it's working. She'll even take a bottle cool which is something my other girls never did. It's nice to save the bottle feed for when we're out which means that others can give it to her and because she doesn't nurse that great with others around. When she gets it at home, the girls often have a spat over whose turn it is to give it.

visits to the great-grandmothers

Yesterday we went to Langley for the day, including the 9:30 morning service which meant an early start to our day. Chantel stayed in church for the morning service and was very wiggly but quiet - thanks to lots of candies. And when Chantel comes to church, Elayna starts acting younger than her age so we had two wiggly girls - lots of fun. We went to Aunt Diane and Uncle Norman's for lunch and planned this to include Brad's cousin Sara who is here from Ontario. We had a nice visit and I hope Sara did too. Then we went to second service - this time with Chantel in the nursery (they have an outdoor slide and she didn't want to leave when I picked her up), and Elayna slept the whole service - no wiggly kids this time! After that, we made our Manoah Manor trip which is always nice because we have two grandmothers there.

Grandma Dehaas was having a good day and it was one of the better visits we've had with her in recent years. She loves seeing the girls and they were all very smiley for her (especially Alyssa!). Elayna sang Jesus Loves Me and Grandma sang along. I also brought the family scrapbook for her and she loved looking at it. Grandma usually starts getting tired by the end of the visit so Brad headed up to his Oma's with the two older girls and I stayed behind to nurse Alyssa and enjoy a little quiet time with Grandma before heading up.

As always, when visiting Oma Vanderhorst, there's usually someone else there too. This time it was Uncle Conrad & Aunt Dinah with Laura and it worked great with Laura watching out for the two older girls. Usually they get bored a little quickly and are trying to explore the bathroom and bedroom but Laura had Elayna giggling like crazy and it was a more relaxing visit for us than usual. It's always nice to see Oma and chat about the latest and we were glad we remembered the camera to get some pics for the girls scrapbooks.

Sara with Alyssa.

Grandma Dehaas with girls. Aren't my two oldest such hams?

Oma Vanderhorst with Alyssa.

We had to bribe Chantel with candies to join the picture and keep reminding Elayna to keep her panties covered so this was the only "decent" shot we got.

WOW - isn't she getting big??

Can you believe that this is Chantel already?? Just a couple months ago, she was my baby and now she's having her growth spurt and slimming down, losing all the baby fat and turning into a sweet little girl.

our smiley baby . . .

I finally got a good pic of Alyssa smiling. She smiles a lot but once the camera is in front of her she usually stops to stare at it. She loves to just lay on the floor and observe people around her or sit in her bouncy chair and watch the toys hanging in front of her. Yes, she's very easily entertained. She doesn't get held much because her older sisters usually come running and don't listen when you tell them to stop poking at her and talking so loudly in her ears. She also sleeps lots still so when she does get held she usually falls asleep and then back to the bassinet she goes.

I love this pic - it's actually Chantel singing to Alyssa. Alyssa was fussing a bit and when Chantel started singing she quieted right down and just stared at her. A great one for the scrapbook!

six weeks old today!

Alyssa is six weeks old today! She weighed in at 10 lbs, 9 oz this morning at her check-up. We tried catching a smile on camera today but it's a little difficult. She does look like quite the poser though.

Elayna's no-nap day

Elayna had a no-nap day yesterday which means lots of meltdowns. I couldn't resist taking some pics during one - she was mad because I woudn't give her the camera so she could take a picture of herself.