Spring

I love Spring. I love the weather, the clothes and the flowers! This week our mom's group went to the Arboretum to walk around and enjoy the tulips and other pretty blooming flowers. The weather was perfect and we got some great pictures of the babes.

A great excuse to wear one of our new spring outfits

Some of the beautiful flowers

Okay, so I totally think that Emily and Hadley know they are cousins. As soon as Hadley sat down Emily went straight to her! This happens all the time! It is so precious.

Trying to give Hadley a hug

"Somebody help meeee!!"

Pretty babies. Hadley is still a little sketchy about Em

Pure bliss

I think she looks like daddy here.

And speaking of loving spring clothes, check out these two new outfits. I think Daddy needs to take his girls on a date so she has a reason to wear these fancy outfits!

Baptism

Hadley was baptized this past Sunday. It was such a special day, and Derek and I were so proud to have her baptized at our church by Don and to have lots of our families there. The Ross family came all the way from North Carolina and Momu and Popu came from San Antonio. My grandmother is such a spiritual role model to me and it meant the world to have her there. There was so many loved ones there celebrating Hadley that we took up 3 pews! What a lucky girl. Thank you to everyone there! (Sitting with us or not!)

I have been looking forward to this day for so long and I loved that Hadley wore the dress I was baptized in 25 years ago by Don Underwood, the same pastor that baptized Hadley (and all the Euting kids and Emily!!) It was a beautiful day and Hadley did great throughout the service.

Don said such special things when he was holding Hadley. He has married Derek and I, Jessica and Tim, Jenny and Erik and Caroline and Mark! We are so honored to have Hadley be a member of CUMC. What a beautiful church community to be apart of. 

 The flowers at the church were beautiful and they were in honor of Hadley from her Mimi and Pa!

After the service everyone went to my parents house for brunch. It was a beautiful day and as usual, my mom outdid herself! We took took lots of family pictures...

The Johnson Family

The Kelly/Gilmore Family

 Momu and Popu

Cousins- yes, Tanner is still one of the kids even though he's taller than his Uncle Bar!

Beautiful flowers

Hadley had an outfit change

  I wish these pictures weren't blurry, but Emily had a great time beating up on Hads!! Haha. 

Then Hadley was passed around by all the people that love her. She was in Heaven!

Thank you to everyone who were there for Hadley's big day. We are so grateful for the love and support you give to Hadley. God is so good! 

4 Months!

Where does the time go?? Hadley is already 4 months old and we are loving her more than ever! This is such a fun age and I hear it only gets better! We had her well baby check this afternoon and as usual, the doctor had great things to say about Miss Hadley. In fact, she said she's perfect! She had her shots and screamed for what seemed like 5 minutes. She is napping now and I think she'll be out for awhile! Here are her stats:

Weight: 12 lbs. 6 oz- 29%
Height: 24.5 inches- 61%
Head Circumference: 15.68 inches- 20%

Here is a little about our four month old:

Sleep: You love sleeping and are sleeping great in your crib! We start our bedtime routine at about 8:30 and you usually get up at 6 for a feeding but go right back to sleep until 9:45 or so. Some mornings you skip the 6 am feeding all together! You are still sleeping swaddled and the doctor said to keep it up as long as you want it! You nap in the swing everyday but we are working on you napping in your crib. You HAVE to have the noise machine on and I'm glad I found one that plugs into the wall...we were going through a lot of batteries!

Eating: This month you ate every 2 hours and I don't think that is stopping anytime soon. You take 4 ounces during the day and your last feeding of the day you will take up to 6 ounces. We will introduce solids in a month or so and I'm sure you will love that! You still spit up after every feeding and it looks like that isn't stopping soon :)

Sizes: You are STILL wearing 0-3 months but we might be making the switch in the next few weeks. Some of your sleepers are getting a little short, but your rompers and onesies fit perfectly! You're still wearing size 1 diapers.

Things you love: You love the song "You are my sunshine", you love your paci and you love taking baths with mommy!

Activities: You love playing on your playmat and will kick the bars for hours if I would let you! You sit on your bumbo and watch Baby Einstein, sit in your swing, go on walks, Mamaroo, e.t.c. You love to play!

New things you do: You just started laughing and I love when you do that!! You kick your feet all the time when you lay on your back and you put everything in your mouth...especially your hands! You sometimes will find your thumb and will suck on it, but I wouldn't call you a thumb sucker!

Schedule: Your schedule during the day is very repetitive. You eat, play for about an hour and then sleep for about hour. This happens every three hours and you are very predictable. We don't go off this schedule during the day. Your nighttime routine starts at about 8:30-9:00. We cuddle and wind down and after your last feeding I swaddle you and most night you will fall asleep while I am taking a shower and you are in your bouncer. I put you in your crib and you are out for the night!

We love you so much baby girl. I am so proud to be your mommy!

Taking pictures of babies is hard. I swear the girl smiles all day long and out of the 100 pictures I took, those two were the best ones! I thought I'd share some of the outtakes. They are hilarious!!

I tell her to smile and this is what I get...

 The best one for last... What a silly girl! Photo sessions DONE!

First Giggle!!

At our last well-baby visit my doctor told me that by our 4 month check (which is tomorrow!) Hadley needed to be rolling and laughing. Those are two milestones that should be met around 4 months. Well, Hadley has been rolling for awhile and I've been dying for her to giggle! This evening after her bath she started laughing so I grabbed my camera and filmed and kept doing what I was doing....

Please excuse my voice! I was willing to do anything to make this sweet girl giggle!

Email Subscribers, you'll have to go to the blog to see the video. Sorry for the inconvenience!!

Lucky

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, here is an Irish Blessing I like...

I'm looking over a four leaf clover
That I overlooked before

One leaf is sunshine, the second is rain,

Third is the roses that grow in the lane.

No need explaining the one remaining
Is somebody I adore.

I'm looking over a four leaf clover
That I overlooked before.

I'm not really Irish, I'm Irishish as my friend Amanda would say. And to be honest I'm not really sure what St. Patrick's Day celebrates (don't tell my dad!), but I'll take the day to think of how lucky I am. I also will always remember this day because St. Patrick's day last year was when my doctor called me to confirm I was pregnant. I cannot believe its been a year. What a year it has been! 

So, Happy St. Patrick's Day. I hope you take some time to think about how lucky you are!

Sleep

Except for a few nights, Hadley is a perfect sleeper! It's been a process, but Hadley sleeps through the night in her crib and everyone is happy.

 The first two weeks of her life she didn't sleep great and only slept at night on my chest. Then, she slept in the bed with me for about a month and at this point she was sleeping about 5 hour stretches. That worked great until I got sick of not moving when I slept in fear of waking her up! For the next 6 weeks or so she slept in the bassinet next to our bed and I loved having her so close to us. It looked for a while that she was going to sleep with us until she went to Kindergarten! After her three month birthday Derek and I decided she needed to go to her crib. We chose a Saturday night and did our nighttime routine and just put her in the crib cold-turkey! She did great and slept until 8 am. I compulsively checked the video monitor all night!

Since that night she has slept perfectly in her crib and will sleep from about 9 pm- 8:45 am. Some mornings she will wake up at about 7 and those are my favorite mornings. I'll go get her and bring her back to our room. I'll feed her and put her in bed with me like when she was weeks old. We both sleep for a bit more. I love nothing more than waking up with her.

so peaceful when she wakes up

sleepy profile

wide awake

watching The View with mommy

perfecting her pout 

Papa

The world lost a great man, my grandfather Clayton Monroe Kelly on Sunday February 27th.  My parents and aunt and uncle were there with him this weekend. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday in San Antonio for his services. They were perfect and I know he would have loved it. 

I have so many memories with my Papa. When Hadley was about a month old my phone rang late in the evening. When I looked at the caller ID it read Papa. My first thought was something was wrong and I was scared to answer the phone, but I'm so glad I did. Papa was just calling to chat. We talked for 30 minutes and it is a conversation I will remember and cherish forever. He wanted to know all about how Hadley was doing and he was reminiscing about bringing home my dad from the hospital. He said the first night they were home he and Mimi took turns walking up and down the short, narrow hallway in their home. He remembered it being a long and hard night but when he and Clara would pass each other in the hall all they could do was smile at each other. Papa told me he didn't sleep a wink that night because he finally told my grandmother to go to sleep and he would take care of the baby the rest of the night. Papa chuckled when he said this because he remembers being shocked Clara agreed to this because he had no idea what he was doing! Derek and I had a very similar experience and he loved hearing that. Being a new mom is scary and I mentioned that I was scared. Papa simply said no reason to be scared because God knows what he's doing.

I'll take that advice now, Pop. I love you, miss you and will think of you always.

It was a hard week, but yesterday the flag at the K4 ranch flew at half mast for our Papa...

Picture my mom sent me

And last night, he painted a beautiful sunset.

Picture my dad sent from the ranch

And today I have this little one to put a smile on my face.

Papa sure did love Hadley, even though he never could get her name right! I'll make sure sweet Hadley knows all about her great-grandpa. 

Thank you to all our friends and family for coming and supporting our family and honoring Papa. A special thank you to Betty for holding Hadley at the funeral. It made it easier sitting through it knowing my sweet baby was there with me. 

Click here to read his obituary- Clayton Monroe Kelly

Clayton M. Kelly passed away peacefully February 27, 2011, surrounded by his family. He was 87. He was born November 6, 1923, in Ranger, Texas to Clay and Florence Kelly. 

Clayton was a graduate of Beeville High School, Beeville, Texas. Upon graduation in June 1941, he joined the United States Navy. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and went on to serve in the Pacific theater throughout World War II. After the War, he returned to Texas, settling in San Antonio, where he met his wife of 34 years, Clara DeLany Kelly. Most of his San Antonio years were spent in the automobile business. After Clara's untimely death in 1984, Clayton moved to the family ranch near Belmont, Texas, in Gonzales County, where he raised cattle and managed wildlife. He had a life-long passion for the outdoors and spent countless hours improving and enjoying his beloved ranch with his family. He transformed it into a family treasure. He is a charter member of the Belmont Philosophical Society. 

Clayton is survived by his sons, Gary C. Kelly and wife Carol of Plano and Roger L. Kelly and wife Stacy of Boerne; grandchildren, Caroline Kelly Pfeiffer of Dallas, Elizabeth (Lizzy) Kelly Johnson of Frisco, Kyle Ethan Kelly of Boerne, Laurelyn Jewel Kelly of Boerne, and Delany Rose Kelly of Boerne; grandsons-in-law, Mark Pfeiffer and Derek Johnson; great grandchildren, Emily Delany Pfeiffer of Dallas and Hadley Carol Johnson of Frisco; brother, Virgil H. Kelly of Aquilla; sister, Charlotte Kelly Mendel and husband Dan of San Antonio; and sister-in-law, Myrtle DeLany Grisham of San Antonio. More than anything, Clayton was a devoted brother, husband, father, grandfather, and great grandfather.

Clayton was a devout Christian and member of several Methodist churches in San Antonio. More recently, Clayton attended the First Baptist Church in Seguin, Texas, where he had many friends.

The family would like to thank Seguin Assisted Living, Morningside Ministries at Menger Springs in Boerne, and Vitas Innovative Hospice Care for all the wonderful loving care and attention they provided. In lieu of flowers, tribute contributions may be made to the Morningside Ministries at www.mmliving.org.