Whoa!

I haven't blogged in ages!  Too much has happened.  My brother got married.  That was an awesome time!  We are so excitied to have Lacey as a part of the family!  We went camping at Caprock Canyon with our friends the Meltons.  We hiked, cooked out, and swam at the lake.  We ran into quite a few creatures on our trip.  The first nite a freindly skunk paid us a visit and helped himself to some Chips and Hot Dog buns.  We heard some coyotes that were pretty close to our camp.  We saw lots of lizards and the boys had a grand ole time catching grasshoppers.  We even saw a couple of trantulas.   We had a great time.

It is coming that time of year again when we are trying to get organized for the new school year.  It seems like we didn't really get a break this year.  we got started late last year due to the sweet addition of the Cupcake!  Since she wasn't born until September 18th, we didn't get started til October, so we schooled for most of June.  I'm a little nervous about the upcoming year.  Teaching two children will definitly be a new challenge, but I think with lots of organization, I can do it!  I figure it will just take us a little more time to get through it all. 

Anna Kate is growing like crazy.  I couldn't beleive it a few days ago I was searching online for first birthday cake ideas.  It went by so quick!  Time to start thinking about the next little baby, *wink,wink.  She has started trying crawling on all fours now instead of the army crawl.  She is also pulling up on the furniture.  I think she'll have a fearless streak like her brother, Noah.  She tried to go over everything in her way, no going around for this girl, its over the top! 

Okay, here's Anna Kate's updates! 
~ Other names she is most often called by:  Sweet Pea, Cupcake, Sugar Pie, and Sugars.  You see a pattern?  She is just so yummy, and we loved to "eat" on her!
~ She is now 5 months old.
 She has to be the best happiest baby I've ever met.  She cries only if she's hungry.  Even when she's sick, she still has a smile. 
~ She weighs 13lbs 11 oz.  I'm not sure what her length was, but she was in the 30th percentile for both.  So, she is smaller than the boys were at this same age, but that's okay.   
~ She is totally recovered from her bout with RSV.  That was pretty scary, but I'm glad to have it behind us.   Just this last week or two has outgrown all the 3 month clothes and is on to the 6mon or larger 3-6 mon size depending on what it is.  She has a skinny tummy so the 6mon pants are a little big, but the sleepers are just perfect.  
~ Sometime while we were in the hospital, Anna Kate quit using her paci and moved on to sucking her thumb.  This is disturbs me greatly.  First, it makes me sad because she LOVED her paci, and we have so many really cute ones!  Second, thumb sucking is just gross to me, especially as she gets older and is moving around and touches things and gets dirty.  The things that could be on her thumb I don't want to think about.  Third, when she pops her thumb in, lots of times, her she pokes herself in the eye with her fingers or scratches her nose.  Lastly, I can take a paci away from her, but obviously I can't remove her thumb.   I also have no support in this matter.  Daddy, Nana, and Mimi all think its so super-de-duper cute and no big deal.  Daddy even helps her figure out how to get her thumb in there.  I am working very hard to get her to take it again.  Im hoping that right now, its a habit of convience, and that when she can manipulate putting her paci in her mouth on her own she'll choose the paci.  One can hope anyway.  
~ She has rolled from her tummy to her back a couple of times on accident, but itsn't fully rolling yet.  She can scoot around in a full circle on her back. 
~ She loves to play toys now and reaches out and grabs them.  Right now her favorite is a little stuffed dolly that her Aunt Ibby gave to her before she was born. She hugs it and rubs her face on it.   
~ She sleeps so good at night, most nights until 6am or so.  She eats and then sleeps again until 9.  I am definitly spoiled!
~ I entered her in a Baby Magazine cover photo contest.  I think she will win.  :)
This getting pretty long so I guess I should stop.  Boys are in the shower and the Cupcake is starting to wake up.

RSV

RSV.  I really don't know what that stands for but I call it Really Sucky Virus!  I do know that it hit my sweet little Cupcake really hard.  We spent days just trying to manage her breathing with seemingly no progress.  After an ambulance ride on Monday evening when she was is respitory distress, she was admitted to the hospital for 4 days.  Thankfully, she does seem to finally be on the mend.  We still have another couple of weeks of breathing treatments and cough that could persist for another 6 weeks.  She was such a strong little trooper.  Everyone on the Pedi floor thought she was the cutest little thing.  She was definitly the princess.  She smiled at everyone, even the ones who were causing her pain.  I brought her all her own blankets.  I refused to put her in the gown they gave us.  It was brown and orange with tigers on it.  So, she hung out in her pink socks, pink hairbow, and we kept her wrapped in her favorite fuzzy blankets. 

Here's something I learned through this.  I have never really been a germaphob.  For some reason, though, when Anna Kate was born, I was a little creeped out by germs flinging sanitizer like the best of them.  I would make Thomas take off his work clothes as soon as he came home.  I was even picky about who could hold her depending on where they had been and what might be on their clothes.  I was really cautious about germs and practiced lots of handwashing! And, I really didn't take her anywhere, not even to church.  We only went to the essential places and I took the sanitizer with me.  Despite all my efforts to protect this little sweet pea, somehow she still became sick.   I have never ever doubted that God was in control of my life.  However,  no matter what I do to control MY world, I am still NOT in charge.  I'm not saying God made my baby sick. I think you all know that is not the case.  Sickness is just a part of living in this fallen world.  Although I will still try to vigilant about hand washing, I will do my best to just trust God to take care of my babies.  And, He did!  Anna Kate is doing better and will back to normal soon!

Too Much

I waited way too long to blog and there's way too much to catch up on.  i'll try to do a brief wrap up and a current "what's happening."

The first exciting thing that's happened is my brother is engaged!  We are so thrilled and can't wait to make her part of the family.  Since she teaches the boys in their classes at church, they call her Miss Lacey and they can't wait to make her Aunt Lacey! They will be getting married on June 11th, Adam's birthday.  He should never forget his anniversary, no excuses!

The night they got engaged

We had a fun Christmas with lots of family.  Here's a few of the highlights.

The boys got toy shot guns on Christmas Morning

Anna Kate isn't too sure what all the fuss is about.

We went swimming at my parent's hotel.

The baby snowman.

One of the other things I was sooooo excitied about doing was meeting our new neice Parker.  She is 7 weeks older than Anna Kate.  Tiffany and I had lots of fun playing with each others babies.  Since everyone was in town together, we had a double baby dedication.

                                     

                                      

  

                                       

                        Thomas and Parker

It's also Campaign season again.  Tom is running for re-election as County Judge.  The Head family as a whole would love and appreciate your prayers!  Campain seasons can sometimes be a time of intense warfare and spiritual attack not just against Tom but for the family as a whole.  Satan just doesn't like Godly people in leadership.  Godly leaders stand for family values and it puts a kink in satan's plan to destroy families.  We truly do covet your prayers!

                                           

              Tom at the Ballot Placement Drawing

           (he drew the 1st place!!!)

Nathan is playing basketball again.  This is his second season.  He loves competition.  He turned 7 just before Christmas and had a party with family and his buddy Trevor at Mr. Gatti's.  I can't believe he is getting so big.  He loves going to Joyful Heart tuesday school.  He's been learning about levers, music, and doing lots of art projects.

Noah is still on some restrictions while his arm is growing and healing.  He still has a little bit of a curve to his arm but the doctor expects that it will continue to straighten out as he grows. It could still take several more months.  We go back for another appointment in early March to see if he will be allowed to play soccer.  The curve in his arm makes the bones more apt to break again, but if there is lots of new bone then he should be able to play with the aid of a brace just in case.  The other day in the car he asked me, "Mom, can we please go to the park so I can just LOOK at the slide?"  This little boy is soo active and it breaks me heart to see him slowed down.  I am still pretty nervous about another break.  I try not to let it show, but Noah knows I worry.  If he falls down in another room, he comes and tells me.  "Mom, I feel down, but it was soft and I'm okay."  Such a sweet heart.

Anna Kate is 4 months old today.  She is the joy of our home these days.  She giggled for the first time a couple of days ago.  Now, everyone is making a fool of themself making silly faces and goofy talk to get her to do it again.  She doesn't go for her check up for a couple more weeks.  I will post more of her updates when I get her weighed.  Until then, here's a peek at the Cupcake.

                              

Don't you just want to eat her up?  I sure do!