Summer Grillin'

The Barrons made the journey from Southlake to spend the first Saturday in May grilling out at our house. Haven LOVED the Bs! We always have too much fun with Eliza and Troy, and Benjamin and Brooke are the cutest, most well behaved kids. The Bs are almost 7 and so sweet - they both wanted to hold and help with Haven. I see lots of babysitting in Brooke's future (possibly Benjamin's too, but I have a feeling he will outgrow it)!

Benjamin, Haven, and Brooke

Brooke helping Benton with bathtime

Brooke and Haven

The Bs ate dinner on our balcony, so they could experience the riffraff of Greenville

After dusting off the PS3, messing up the surround sound, a lot of frustration, and finally getting it setup, we ended the night with some Rockband. We had not played in so long, I forgot how fun it can be.

SUCH a FUN day!! If only we lived closer to each other...

Unemployed

The post title is somewhat misleading. My official last day with Deloitte was May 3rd, but I actually started doing some contract work in mid-June. I am only working 10-15 hours per week, from home, during Haven's morning nap. I did not intend to go back (and definitely not so quickly), but the opportunity was perfect even though the timing wasn't (since I had just quit). I had a list of what I thought were unrealistic qualifications in order for me to agree to go back, and they were willing to accommodate, so I thought I should at least give it a try. I choose when and how much I work, so I am able to devote 100% of my attention to Haven when she is awake and get to make some additional income when she is napping. It's only been about two weeks, but so far so good!

Haven went up to the Deloitte office with me for a couple of hours during my unemployment and hammed it up for Eliza and her camera.

Aunt B's Wedding Weekend

Aunt B became Betsy Johnson on April 24th and we had lots of fun celebrating! The Thursday night before the wedding, Sarah came from Houston, Bianca came from Santa Fe, and Catherine came from NYC to spend the night with us. We spent most of the night around the dining room table, drank lots of wine and laughed even more. I love all those girls and we don't get to see any of them very often, so it was such a fun night.

Bianca and Catherine went to be with Betsy on Friday, so we spent the day with just Auntie Sarah which was great because she had not seen Haven since the week she was born. After Haven's morning nap on Saturday we loaded up and raced out to Weatherford to meet our New Mexico family and friends for lunch at Rosa's, my most favorite "fast food" in the world. Haven did great in the car (another perk of a well rested baby!), even despite the blow out I discovered after we got to Rosa's. She also did great at the wedding. She and I ended up sitting and standing in the back during the ceremony and she babbled and squealed through the whole thing, but there were not any meltdowns and she actually fell asleep in Sarah's arms which was precious! I wish I had taken a picture of that...I wish I had taken a lot of pictures that I didn't. I also don't have any pictures of Betsy, who was absolutely stunning!

During the ceremony

Hannah is Betsy's niece and LOVED Haven. She's not as vocal about it, but I think the feeling was mutual :) Haven was giving lots of kisses to Hannah on Sunday morning.

Pop, Haven, Brinley, and Nana Nancy

Haven is about 5 weeks older than Brinley.

Pop and Haven

The morning after...

Haven and Hannah

Hannah is Brinley's oldest sister and came up to me on Sunday morning (after caring Haven around all morning), "Carli, I want to switch babies with you."

All the little girls with sweet Charla

Notice how happy Hannah is to be holding her sister :)

Betsy, Catherine, Bianca, and Gam

Giddy, Pop, Benton, Connie, Haven, Sarah, Grandpa, Amy, and Grammy

Bianca and me

We got to take Bianca home with us on Sunday and spend an extra night with her. Such a fun weekend with great friends!

Thank you Nancy for the pictures :)

Five Months

April 20th - A sleeping-thru-the-night and happy girl :)

Tough Love

That was the theme in our house for the second week in April. We were simultaneously looking forward to and dreading the sleep training process. I read a couple of books and talked to quite a few people, but I could have found excuses forever to postpone the day we bit the bullet and started. Fortunately, Benton pushed me into it and in hindsight, I am SO thankful that we did it and we will probably start on the 4 month "birthday" for all subsequent children!

The first night was Sunday, April 11th and to our pleasant surprise, Haven only cried for about 45 minutes before she went to sleep. She is a stubborn little one who has always fought sleep, so we were trying to mentally prepare for about two hours of initial crying. She woke up about 3-4am and cried for 30-45 minutes for a few nights, which was brutal to listen to, but by Sunday the 18th, she was going down without a fight and the night wakings were less frequent and shorter. Initially, she was going to bed around 7-7:30pm and waking up about 8:15am, but now she typically goes to bed closer to 6pm and usually sleeps until 6-7am. The earlier wake time came with the solid foods. She typically wakes up closer to 6 if she has a dirty diaper...I can't say I blame her. So, Haven is sleeping about 12-13 hours straight at night and as an added bonus, Benton and I get to spend some quality time together in the evenings now. Everybody wins and it is AWESOME!

Naps are a different story. Until a few weeks ago, she would fight just about every nap. Now they are hit and miss, but Haven currently takes three naps a day and they range anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours. It definitely makes it harder to do things outside of the house, but it is totally worth it for her to get her beauty sleep!

I know there are some other advocates out there, but the Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child book literally changed our life! Haven is a different baby - she is happier, more adaptable, more predictable, etc., etc. My mom actually bought this book for me while I was pregnant and I tried to read it cover to cover, but it was too boring and hard to read because it is so clinical. I had given up on it, but heard encouraging results from a couple of other moms and decided to give it another try. I am SO glad that I did because it has worked beautifully for us.

Birthdays and Bachelorettes

This picture was much harder to capture than I thought. A 5 month old and paper really don't mix very well.

Gorgeous bride-to-be with the hostesses

The day after we got back from Destin, I celebrated my 28th birthday with my two favorite loves. Benton brought home lunch, dinner, and a cupcake for each - boy does he know the way to my heart :) On Friday, Haven spent the night with Grammy and Grandpa so we could have a date night. Benton and I had dinner at Tillman's Roadhouse in the Bishop Arts District and then he showed me a part of Dallas I've never seen when we went to Lee Harvey's. Saying it is not in the nicest area of Dallas is an understatement, but it is a fun atmosphere - outside, picnic tables on the grass and a live band. I think we were home by 10:30 (maybe 10) and it was a perfect evening! Oh how things have changed!

Benton had a work day for ALC, so Haven got to spend all day at Grammy's on Saturday while I went to Betsy's bachelorette party in Grapevine. We spent the afternoon at a winery, went back to the Gaylord to change and headed to Glass Cactus for dinner and drinks. It was a gorgeous day to spend out on the patio at the winery and the Glass Cactus is always entertaining! I got home about 10:30 (once again) so that I could feed Haven during the night and we could all make it to church on Sunday.

The next Sunday was Aunt Amy's birthday. Haven LOVES her Aunt Amy. Amy is a pretty incredible sister and has been an awesome aunt. I know she and Haven will always be close and I am so grateful that she lives so close. Hopefully Aunt Amy will still be cool when mom and dad are not! We didn't get to see her on her birthday because we were in the midst of sleep training (more on that next), so were trying to stick to a pretty strict schedule.

Reallly?

Has it really been over two months since I last updated? We have definitely been busy and time has flown by. I wish I would have documented more as we were experiencing it, but I'll do my best to recap instead. Here's to a marathon of blogging...