Feuz Family Reunion

After our trip to Disneyland, we got to spend a couple of weeks with my family in Utah. First, I dropped Nate off at the Salt Lake airport so he could come home to work, and then the girls and I headed to Mimi's house! We had so much fun. The girls loved being with their grandparents and playing with their cousins. I was afraid the girls would be tired of vacation and ready to come home, but they had a blast! 

Riding Papa Horse

Uncle Shane was so nice to take the girls on donkey rides

Helping Mimi make pizza

There is always ice cream at Mimi and Papa's house

My parents had to go out of town for a few days, so we got to spend some time at Brianne's house. We loved playing at the splash pad, riding some little indoor rides at a fun center, running in the backyard, eating slushies, visiting the park, and just spending time together. Jaxton and Grace were the sweetest playmates for my girls and my cousins Betsy and Cori Lynn brought their kids for a visit one day as well.

Grace, Lydia, Eden, Jaxton, and Adeline had so much fun together!

We stayed busy every day at Mimi and Papa's house. Activities included swimming, playing on the swing set, eating ice cream, jumping on the trampoline, riding the donkeys, petting/chasing the cats, and running around with cousins. Time seemed to fly by and before we knew it, Dad was flying back from Arkansas to stay for a few days before we all drove home.

Nate got there just on time for the First Annual Feuz Family Reunion! It was so nice to get together with all my siblings and their kids for a long weekend. The only thing we don't like about living in Arkansas is being so far away from family, and I really want our girls to know their aunts, uncles, and cousins. We had our reunion over the 4th of July weekend. My mom did a great job organizing fun things for us to do every day balanced with enough down time to just sit and visit. Highlights from the reunion included a pie baking contest, variety show, shirt painting, badminton tournament, giant water blob, Jump Zone, fireworks, marching in a parade, soccer match, swimming, go kart riding, family pictures, and of course eating lots of delicious food!  I won the Best Tasting Pie award for my Raspberry Cream Pie and Shane and I pulled off a classic dance number to Single Ladies for the variety show. You'll have to check out the video for one minute of pure entertainment. (Admittedly, I need a bit more practice before our next dance duo!)

The BLOB!

Sweet little Adeline was worn out from all the fun.

Nate was one of the distinguished judges on the pie contest panel.  

The girls sang Twinkle Little Star for the variety show

Mike and Em were probably the most talented number of the night with their Oklahoma song 

The whole family together

Our trip was over all too soon and we made the long trek home. The girls all did great on the drive and we even decided to make a little detour and stop at the Omaha Zoo on the way. They absolutely loved seeing all the animals! Plus, walking around several hours in the sun wore them out enough that they pretty much slept the whole rest of the way home.

We are already looking forward to the 2nd Annual Reunion next year!

Adeline's Half Birthday

Can you believe we had a baby 6 months ago!?!? (Well, almost 7 months now since I'm late in posting this.) I swear time slowed down when our twins were babies but it is flying by this time. I get a little jealous when I see people with their tiny newborns and realize how much Adeline has grown already. We love this little lady so much!

At her 6 Month checkup she was 27 inches long and 14 pounds. I can't remember percentiles but I think she was quite long for her age and but also pretty light. We think she's perfect, of course! She has two teeth on the bottom and likes to bite Mom now. She started sitting up when she was 5 months old so I thought she may be starting to be more mobile by now, but she has zero interest in crawling. She just wants mom to pick her up and move her from place to place. Well, lets be honest, she just wants mom to pick her up and hold her most of the time. I actually love that she wants to be held and snuggled and hugged and kissed all the time. It does make it difficult to get things done so I do wish I could hire a housekeeper and chef.  She's only going to be in this baby phase once, so I'm truly enjoying it.

Speaking of phases, one phase I would be ok with leaving behind is the waking up in the middle of the night phase. To be fair, she has gone from waking up multiple times a night to just once a night so things are much better! Adeline and I usually have an early morning rendezvous about 4:30 AM. Sometimes I think she's probably just waking up out of habit and not hunger, but since she is pretty small, I feed her anyway. She goes to bed about 7:30 so after 9 hours, she could legitimately be hungry. Eventually, I hope she just figures it out as I have no desire to "sleep train." I'm still recovering from sleep training the twins!

Adeline is an adventurous eater, just like her sisters were. She detests baby food and will literally just swat the spoon away and make a giant mess. But hand her a watermelon slice or a slice of french toast, and she will go to town! She just wants to feed herself and have nothing to do with purees. I'm fine with her skipping baby food, the trick is just finding foods that she can hold herself and not choke on.

Adeline may be a momma's girl, but she is also a daddy's girl and a sisters' girl. She gets so excited when Dad comes home and I can't nurse her while Nate is around because she just squirms around until she can see him. She also loves to just sit and play with her sisters. Lydia and Eden are so sweet with her. I was worried we were crazy to have another baby when the girls were still so young, but I'm so happy we did and I hope the three of them will always be close friends! 

Disneyland!!!!

This year, Nate's (immediate) family decided to have their first annual reunion.What better place to do that than the Happiest Place on Earth? So we packed our bags and headed cross country to Disneyland!

The drive was an adventure in and of itself. It's about a 23 hour drive, but that doesn't include the many stops you have to make when you have two toddlers and a nursing baby. I was pretty stressed and thought the drive would be pretty miserable, but by some miracle it wasn't! Don't get me wrong, there were miserable moments/hours. But the vast majority of the time we were able to keep the kids entertained, fed, and happy. We listened to music, colored, played with stickers, ate snacks, watched movies, and opened little surprises from Grandma all along the way. Even Adeline did well. She's pretty notorious for screaming her head off while in her car seat but she really started to grow out of that a bit this trip. We took our time and even stopped in Albuquerque so Nate could go to the temple and I could meet up with my old roommate Jayrin.

Our first day there, we were able to go to the beach. This was the first time any of our girls had been in the ocean. They were a little nervous at first but I think they had so much fun playing with their cousins at the beach.

We walked around the the temple ground at Newport Beach before hitting the beach. 

Adeline was not so sure about dipping her toes in the water. 

Sand wrestling 

We had 5 days to visit Disneyland and California Adventure. I thought it might be too many, but we were busy every day. It was a good time to be there as well. The new Frozen show just opened (which we all really LOVED) and the new Soarin' ride was opened while we were there.

My little Anna, Elsa, and Olaf ready for our first day in the park! 

Before our trip, we made sure to do our research and watch lots of Disney movies so the girls would know the characters. That was one of the best parts actually! They loved meeting all their favorite characters from the movies and they just thought it was so magical. 

Anna and Elsa were of course their favorite princesses to meet. Immediately, our two Elsa's ran straight to Elsa and our two Anna's ran to Anna. It was so cute!

The girls (and adults) really enjoyed the rides as well. Both Eden and Lydia conquered their first roller coaster and informed me they were so proud! The nice thing with going with a large group is you get to trade off with who has the kids and get a good mix of adult rides and kiddie rides. 

Tower of Terror

Splash Mountain

Even Adeline enjoyed the rides

Adeline did great on this adventure. I wore her in the carrier a lot and she would sleep or snuggle. When she would wake up I would feed her (sometimes on a ride or during a show; you gotta do what you gotta do!). Then someone would take a turn holding her so I could go on some adult rides. Then when she would get fussy, I'd just put her back in the carrier and she'd go back to sleep. She was relatively easy throughout the trip. 

Adeline is snoozing on the ride in her carrier

Public breastfeeding! How scandalous! 

I love, love, love my carrier. Adeline could face in or out depending on her mood, and it was so comfortable for me to wear. 

 We stayed at a hotel directly across the street from the park which was really convenient for taking a break during the day for naps and swimming.

Papa and Adeline had a grand time together! Lydia crashed before we made it back to the hotel that day

Eden and her Funcle (fun uncle Brady)

What's a family reunion without matching shirts???? I made and embroidered these. Man, it was A LOT of work, but they turned out so cute. It was so much fun to spend time with all the family.

Adeline's update- 4 Months

I loved that I kept monthly updates of Eden and Lydia for their first year. They changed so much in that time, and I honestly don't remember most of it! So while it's great having those blog entries to look back on, it also makes me feel sad and guilty that I'm already falling behind on Adeline's updates! I'm the third child and I always gave my mom a hard time that my older siblings have more pictures than me, and their baby books are more finished, and they had fancier birthday cakes when they were little, etc. Now I totally understand it! It just gets really hard to keep up. But I'm going to try my best. I missed Adeline's 2 and 3 month updates and we're closer to 5 months than 4 at this point but I'm going to call this her 4 month update.

After having my twins, I was afraid to have another baby because I just didn't think I could love another one as much. Boy, was I wrong. I LOVE Adeline so much and she has brought such joy to our family! She is constantly smiling and chatting and giggling. She loves watching her older sisters and they love hugging and squishing her! She still likes to be held quite a bit (which I love!) but she's also getting really good at playing by herself on the floor with her toys. She loves her swing and takes most of her naps in their. Her other naps are usually in the carrier or her car seat while we're on the go. She rarely naps in her crib, which may be a problem down the road, but for now this works. At nights, she's been in a Pack N Play in our room, but we've moved her to her crib in her room.Eden and Lydia were only in our room for a few weeks because none of us were getting any sleep! But with Adeline, I've liked having her close by. Also we now live in a two story house, and I haven't wanted to get up in the middle of the night and go up the stairs.  Call me lazy, but it's true! She was doing really great and sleeping through the night quite often, but then we went on a month long vacation that totally threw her off. She now thinks she's a newborn and likes to get up every 3 hours to eat. Hopefully, as we get back into our groove, she'll start sleeping better again.

Loving my cuddle time!

Daddy got his cuddles (and nap) in the foyer at church. 

 We had her checkup earlier this week and she weighed in at 13 lbs 15 oz. I can't remember her length for sure, but I'm thinking it was 25 inches. Whatever it is, she is definitely taller and bigger than my other two were. It's crazy that she is wearing outfits right now that they didn't wear until they were probably 9 months old. She is growing so fast, but I think she is just perfect! Her doctor commented again at how crazy strong she is. She rolls both directions and scoots and rolls herself all around the floor when she plays. She is definitely not safe on the bed or couch and even the bumbo any more. (She just arches her back and practically tips the bumbo over now.)

She doesn't take a bottle which is fine most of the time. I'm pretty much with her 24/7. However, I do go and play soccer once a week and it would be really nice if Nate could give her a bottle while I'm gone, or maybe we could even go on a kid-free date someday, gasp! If anyone has any tips I'd love to hear it. She doesn't take a pacifier either but she's rarely fussy so I'm not that concerned about that.

I can't think of anything else important to update on at the moment. Basically, she is loved so much by us and is just changing so rapidly!