Lucy Lou at 5 Weeks

I've decided maybe it's pointless to try and keep weekly updates on Lucy's feeding schedule since every time I think we actually have a schedule or things are going especially great I find out I am terrible wrong. 

For example, there were two nights when she had a 7 hour stretch between feeding and I got all excited about it (she ate around 8:30 & then woke up at 3:30) and then...she went back to waking up twice during the night )12:30, 3:30) . She is only 5 weeks but I sure would've loved her to only wake up once during the night, it was beautiful. 

Anyways she will get me thinking that we have a good consistent schedule or that she is doing perfectly with the eat-wake-sleep thing or that she is an excellent napper and then she'll throw in a bad day or 2  where she doesn't cooperate with anything or one that changes the whole schedule permanently. So, note to self, no permanent schedule or greatness at 5 weeks. Maybe at 8 weeks?

And here are some adorable pictures of Lucy all dressed up for her first 3 hour church day. She did so good at church and so did the boys. It was a good Sunday :)

Amazing Jake's

My parent's insurance company once again threw a Christmas party at Amazing Jake's and we were lucky  enough to be invited to it. And now that Mike & Mecca have baby Oliver, they were lucky enough to be invited as well ;). Sadly though, my mom was at the Temple and couldn't come and Tyler was working and didn't make it either. We missed having them there but somehow we were still able to have a good time.

It was nice to have my dad and Mike there to ride the rides with my boys while Rebecca and I hung out with the babies. Here they are on the high speed train ride:

Here they are pretending to play a game since this time the party didn't provide money for the games, just the rides (but hey it was free so no complaints from me):

Then they had to wait FOREVER to ride the bumper cars but it was SO worth it. Steven had fun trash talking the other drivers (he wanted to be first) and Ben looked so chill with his arm resting on the door. It was cute to watch them go around and around:

Lastly but definitely the best part, Santa came! Even Lucy got to meet him (but Santa wasn't so good at supporting her head). The boys had fun telling him what they want (both told him they want Batman toys much more doable than the DS Steven wrote to Santa about...):

Amazing Jake's is definitely amazing and fun was had by all! Pizza, candy, cookies, ice cream, train ride, roller coaster ride, bumper cars, and SANTA! Best day ever ;)

Lucy's Blessing Day

On Sunday, December 2, 2012, Lucy was blessed in the Lakeside Ward by her daddy. Her Great-Grandpa Potter, Grandpa Brady, Grandpa Hatch, Uncle Mike, Uncle Travis, Uncle Logan & Uncle Scott stood in her blessing circle. Her daddy had a hard time in the beginning and instead of saying her name only "Lucy Louise Hatch," he added one of his Grandma Peggy Louise's middle names and said "Lucy Louise Smith Hatch." He said he's not sure where it came from, he guesses he was just thinking of his grandma. Don't worry Lucy! We are not giving you 2 middle names- you are still just Lucy Louise Hatch :) After his little mistake, he did a good job with the blessing, asking for lots of good things.

After Lucy's blessing we had a get together at our house that included lots of yummy food. Most everyone was able to stick around for it.

Lucy wore the same dress that I wore on my blessing day- it was made by my mom:

We had to put the bonnet on and when I compared it to my blessing day picture- oh my goodness does she look like me! Poor thing!

The best picture we could get of all of us, Steven is not into posing anymore:

Snow Day

So I've been blogging quite a bit this past week & with a new baby girl & the holidays around the corner, I have a feeling you should expect even more posts from me.

Tyler left us this weekend for a scout camp out and I survived miraculously  Also, somehow I got brave and took my kids to a bank sponsored "Community Snow Day" Saturday morning. Rebecca & Oliver joined us and I am thankful she did, it was nice to have someone to talk to and it really helped to have her when the boys wanted to go in separate directions. Anywho, everything was free and everything was fun. The boys especially loved the huge patch of snow (so much that they had no desire to wait in line to see Santa- took away too much snow time).

Steven also decided he wanted to taste the snow and then started pigging out on it- it was quite gross!

Are you surprised to see Lucy sleeping? Of course she slept through all the fun!

Steven LOVED the bouncy obstacle course! This was the one thing he was more than willing to wait in line for (bouncing as he waited). He went on it a handful of times...

They also sat on a fire truck and got balloons and lots of cinnamon rolls and all and all had a great time for the cost of $0 and there were no melt downs. Perfect morning! If they have this again next year, we will definitely be there!

4 Weeks

Lucy is 4 weeks old today! I hope I don't jinx things but the last 4 nights have been really great- so much better than before. She does her last feeding around 8:30/9:30 & then doesn't wake up until about 12:30/1:30 & then 3:30/4:30 & then she's up officially around 6:30/7:30. So officially she only wakes up about twice in the night.

And the best part of nights now is that when I put her down after feeding her, she sleeps! Before I had to rock her forever to get her to sleep without whining but now as long as she's swaddled really well I can just hold her for a few minutes after nursing her, put her down, and she's out with no tears. So nice and I hope this continues and we don't regress at all. 

During the day Lucy is doing better at the eat-wake-sleep thing. She is never awake long after eating (usually just 30 minutes) but at least she's awake after eating without me having to hassle her too much. However, she tends to be fussy during the wake part which I'm not so happy about. I'm thinking she may have gas issues so that's definitely something I will talk to the dr about if it doesn't improve soon....And like at night, the sleep thing has gotten better. No more rocking, just swaddling and then down in her bed for a nap. Unlike night though, she does fuss sometimes but usually no more than 10 minutes of fussing and she's asleep.

As I said, hopefully I haven't jinxed all the good things that are happening because she really is doing so much better with everything and I would like things to continue that way.

And after a crazy day yesterday ( I took all 3 kids grocery shopping with me- I must be nuts!), I decided we needed to go somewhere that calms me so I took my 3 little ones to see the Mesa Temple Lights. It was such a great idea- Lucy slept the whole time and the boys had so much fun- they kept pointing to different lights and saying "Look!"  I so needed to spend some time with my boys where I was not yelling at them and just enjoying being with them. It was a great night!

Black Friday

I'm posting things a little out of order but let's just blame that on lack of sleep.... 

On the Friday after Thanksgiving, affectionately called Black Friday by some, me & Lucy left the house at 6am to do some shopping. The stores are getting crazier this year and most of them opened on Thanksgiving day for all their crazy sales but I just wasn't up for spending my Thanksgiving day shopping. Thanksgiving is supposed to be my lazy day. Plus I didn't want any electronics or any of the other major door busters so I thought 6am would be the perfect timing to get the things I wanted and avoid crowds. It was!! I got all the deals I wanted and Lucy & I barely spent anytime waiting in live. It was great fun! I am now just about done with my holiday shopping- wahoo!

After my shopping, I picked up Steven & Ben and we met up with my brother Mike & his family at the Riparian Preserve. I thought it would be a fun outing but neither of my boys had napped the previous 2 days and they were very cranky & emotional. It wasn't exactly fun for anyone involved :( But both my boys did take amazing naps afterwards....

This is the duck my children have affectionately named the Poppy duck- I think it has to do with it's crazy "hair"

My boys in a rare calm moment...

 

 Mike's golden child, Oliver

And this picture pretty much defines the afternoon...

Putting Up the Tree

Saturday night me and the boys decorated the tree while daddy & Lucy watched from the couch. I was not too much in the Christmas spirit thanks to a bad news visit from my boss that morning  and a messy house but the boys had fun despite my lousy attitude. And the tree also turned out really nice. The only problem is that the boys seem to think that the unbreakable ornaments are toys and are constantly taking them off. Oh well, boys will be boys...

Below is the best picture we could get of all 3 of us. Note the star and how it looks like it is going to fall on our heads. Thankfully, Tyler was able to fix that.