3 months!

James continues to be our angel baby. He's happy, patient, quiet, and content.

At 3 months old, his typical schedule is:

bath around 7pm
nurse about 7:30
bed 8pm
cry for 15-20 min. (sometimes we have to go into help him but many times he's fallen asleep after crying 20 min. There's been 2 or 3 times this month where I've put him to bed wide awake and he puts himself to sleep. SO awesome)!!
He wakes up once at night - usually around 2:30 or 3:30am, eats and goes right back to sleep (usually only 1/2 hour). We had a couple nights this past month of sleeping till 5am! It was amazing!
His longest night sleeping stretch this month was 9 hours!
Naps are still hit or miss which I'm ok with since he's sleeping so good at night.

The earlier bedtime has been so nice - it's wonderful having a little bit of time to myself at night before bed. James continues to be loved and adored by his brother and sisters. I love hearing Calvin say things like, "Let me see James - I haven't gotten to see him yet. . . Oh he's so cute. . . . James is the sweetest baby ever."

There's usually always someone ready and willing to play with him, read to him, and hang out with him so I can get things done around the house.

When James isn't napping (crying or making noises in his bed) one of the other kids will usually go in, rock his cradle, sing him a song, read him a book, and next thing I know James will be asleep. I can always tell when Calvin's the one who got James to sleep cause he'll have all sorts of toys tucked around him! 

May 7th was James' first time in the bumbo. Love having him be able to sit up and not always laying on the floor or in our arms. 

LOVE him SO much!!

Camarillo Stake Ward boundary changes

On April 24th a stake meeting was called to discuss new ward boundaries. At the meeting our 5 Camarillo wards were condensed to 4 wards. Everyone was released from their ward callings (all stake callings stayed the same) except for 4 of the Bishops. Our Camarillo 6th ward became Santa Rosa ward. The changes were pretty crazy for most people - our ward didn't change too much though. 

It was weird being released from my calling like that. After serving as Primary President for over 3 years it seemed very sudden. I breathed a huge sign of relief though and felt a weight lifted from my shoulders! An official thank you was emailed to me later that evening. 

I was able to enjoy a full 4 days without a calling. Then Thursday evening Bishop Whetten came over  with a calling for me - Primary President! He apologized and let me know that he is very aware of our family situation with new baby and all. My name wasn't even on his list, but the feeling to call me kept coming back to him.  Ya, I had my fingers crossed for a more chill calling, but I love serving in primary and am ok with getting to serve just a little bit longer.

It's been a few busy weeks since then and we almost have our primary reorganized. Life just doesn't seem to be slowing down. It's killing me not to have my blog updated. I've got a bunch of posts to finish. James is growing so fast and I can't document all that I want to. Soon!!

2 months!

Height: 23 inches

Weight: 12 lb 4.8 oz

At 2 months old James bedtime is around 9 or 9:30, sometimes 10pm (we're trying to move it up). On a good night he wakes up once at 3am, back to bed by 3:30, then up again at 6am. He loves bath time and laying on his changing table. Spencer and I joke how it's his favorite spot in the house. James sleeps fabulously while out running errands but usually wakes up as soon as we get home. He loves being on his stomach, is super chill, and pretty much our easiest baby yet! 

James' full body baby sneezes were my absolute favorite this month. 

Speech team

Madi and Elle were both brave enough this year to join the speech team. 

Madi did a duel with her buddy Mikayla of "The Spider and the Fly" by Mary Howitt. 

It was an interesting learning experience for Madi as she is a perfectionist about how things should be done and was not happy at all when Mikayla wasn't working on memorizing her part. While Madi had her very long part memorized the first week she got it, Mikayla didn't have it completely memorized until the day of the tournament which had Madi all stressed out! 

They competed in the 3rd grade speech tournament at Las Colinas on April 18th. They did great but weren't chosen to move on to the next round. Lots of tears were shed that night. Broke my heart to see Madi so sad, but was a great experience for her. 

Elle chose to do "The Teacher's Show" by Bruce Lansky. It was a funny poem where she got to fill in the names of teachers from her school. Elle's not a fan of having the spotlight on her and was NOT interested in joining the speech team. However, she kept moving on to the next round and got to present her poem at the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade assembly on April 22nd. She did a fabulous job and I was so proud of her for being so brave and getting up in front of so many people. 

Happy 36th Birthday to me!

I woke up with nothing planned for my day (which drives me crazy - I love having a plan), but it ended up being such a wonderful day! Spencer got up with the kids, letting me get a few more minutes of sleep. He came in asking me what I wanted him to do - hold James or get the kids breakfast. My response: "I want you to do it all." And he did! Spence was a champ - he got the kids all ready for school, letting me take my time getting up. I made Elle and Cal's lunches and then he took them to school. Madi was off school for the day so she stayed with me to help rock James to sleep so I could get my work-out in. I was able to shower and wash my hair in total peace. I was planning on taking Madi out to ice cream before picking up Cal from school but we found out the ice cream place didn't open until 11am. I was bummed. Instead we just hung out at home. Madi was super sweet about it though and very helpful (a huge gift). Lindsey Bell stopped by to visit and bring me a gorgeous lemon raspberry cake (pictured above). At 10:50am we left to go pick up Cal from school. After pick up I sat at the stop light with 3 of my kids in the car, not sure where to go next. Then I quickly decided to go run errands - Bath and Body Works and onto Costco. Good decision! It was nice to get out and get errands done. Elle was home from school at 2pm and Spencer got home right after! It was a great afternoon full of lots of friends stopping by bringing flowers, treats and gifts (Joni, Francie, Heidi, Lora, Alexis, and Lindsey Newman came later that evening). I felt SO loved and very spoiled!

At 4:30 we loaded up, drove over to Spencer's parents house to drop off a birthday gift for Lindsay. Then we headed up to Thousand Oaks for dinner at Cheesecake Factory! After we headed home for dessert and to get kids ready for bed. Spencer's parents, Lindsay and Shaun all stopped later in the evening to bring presents and visit for a bit! What a fabulous birthday it turned out to be!!

Easter dinner & egg hunt

Along with James' blessing and Calvin's birthday festivities, we had our annual Easter dinner of Lamb Kebabs with flat bread, rice, and greek salad.

Then time for an egg hunt!

Ready, Set, GO!!

My kids

1 month!

Bubble bath at 16 days old:

Our baby boy is getting so big so fast! 

Amazing what a difference just a couple weeks make.

James was blessed 2 days shy of his one month mark. The next day (March 28th) we loaded up and drove to Brentwood to spend a week with Gram, Papa, Uncle Bobby, Aunt Amy, Aunt Karlee, Uncle Jeremy and cousins.