Heffington Family Reunion

This past Saturday we had a Heffington Family reunion to celebrate my Uncle Doug's 80th Birthday. Growing up I always remember going to the annual family reunion. It was always in October to Celebrate my Granny's (my Dads's mom) birthday. Granny past away about 3 or 4 years ago, so we hadn't really kept up with the reunions well. We had lots of cousins get married within those years so that kind of replaced the reunions. I was excited that we were actually having a reunion this year and it would be here in Huntsville so no traveling for us!

My Dad's family is pretty big, most are when you start including grand-kids and great grand-kids but we legit at least can recognize everyone because we always got together through the years. Here is a quick break down of the family. Granny and PawPaw had 6 children. My Dad being the youngest and his brother Doug being the oldest. There is about 21 years between them. Those 6 children married and had a total of 24 children (the grand-kids). And of those grand-kids that are married and have children there are at least 50 great grand-kids, Lillian is the youngest at this point and the oldest is 29. Unfortunately not everyone could attend the reunion this year but there was a pretty good amount who did, about 60 people.

Going off on a tangent here but because we have so many cousins at different ages we have learned the technical relationships so I thought I would explain. Your parent's siblings are your aunts and uncles. Their kids are your cousins, no matter the age. My oldest cousin is in his late 50's which is older than my mom. When cousins have kids they are considered 2nd cousins. So my 50 something year old cousin has a son, I am his 1st cousin once removed but Lillian is his 2nd cousin. I know we are weird that it even matters but the majority of my "cousins" around my age are actually my cousin's children. It was always weird growing up because they would be calling their grandparents; Papa or Nana etc. and I called them aunt and uncle.  

We don't really do anything special for the reunions. It is pretty much a 9am-4pm deal and we have food all day long and sit around and talk. We do play are traditional game of "take a hike" (some people call it fruit basket turn over). There is usually a football game or two on in a separate room and sometimes we play a card game called pounce (nerdtz). We are pretty hard core about this game and if you don't have a partner who knows what they are doing you get left in the dust!

Here are a couple of the pictures we took this weekend:

Our immediate family and spouses

The Grandkids with the 6 Heffington siblings

The great-grandkids

The 6 siblings with their spouses

The 6 Heffington siblings

Sweet Lillian- (thanks to my awesome "1st cousin once removed", Amy, who made these adorable pants for Lillian)

Lillian's 2nd cousin Sarah-Kate who is just about 3 weeks older than Lillian. The were super cute to watch interact with each other. 

And here is a picture of the AMAZING Christian couple that started it all!

Lillian's 30th Week

30 Weeks old!

She use to hate being on her stomach and now we can't seem to keep her on her back. 

Nursing: Nothing new to report here. She has been eating great and trying any new foods we can. I try to keep it healthy so she doesn't get a sweet tooth. 

Sleep: She sleeps GREAT! All night usually on her stomach and taking naps like a champ!

Other Happenings: 

- Wearing 9 month clothes

- We went to Atlanta this weekend and visited with family and friends. I didn't remmeber to take any pictures but Gammy and Nena spoiled Lillian with new clothes (outfit above was one) and Pappy worked on teaching Lillian how to crawl.

- As far as crawling she has started the up on her hands and knees rocking a lot more lately so its only a matter of time.

- I found her sleeping like this during her naps 

- Here is a video of Lillian making her new favorite noise.

Lillian's 29th Week

Lillian is 29 Weeks old!

And below is what I went through to get her still enough to take a picture.

This is either a cheerleading move or a future hurdle jumper

and then times that by 10 and that would be the total number of pictures I took. 

Nursings/Eating: Went back to nursing every 4 hours and she has done great. I think the weeks before she was going through a growth spurt and not getting enough food. The only new food this week was some shredded chicken. She didn't really eat it but gnawed on it in her hand. I have actually been pretty bad about giving her solid foods. Usually I don't want to deal with the mess so I need to get over that so she'll get to experience more. She went about 3 days without a poopy diaper but fortunately (unfortunate for me) we are back on track and she made up for it in a BIG way, if you catch my drift. 

Sleeping: Sleeping sooo much better! Sleeping 7:30ish to about 5:30 am (I stick her in her swing and she sleeps until Kevin or I go in and wake her up around 7ish.) I did notice that when we were in Nashville this last weekend she did not go down for naps as easily. I had to hold her a couple times and she would not sleep in the crib at my parent's house unless it was night time.

 So most of her naps were in my arms or on the floor. I think I have spoiled her with the swing so I am going to start working on getting her to take naps in her crib. I could tell she didn't sleep great this weekend though because on Monday she slept for 2.5 hrs. for 2 naps and her third nap about 1 hr. which is normally about 30-45 min then went down no problem for night time like normal. I have also started not going in every time she spits her paci out. I give it to her when I first put her down and then only go back in if she is screaming but the last few times she just fusses a little without it then falls asleep.

Other Happenings: 

- Mommy always gets pictures with Lillian so we took some on Sunday with Daddy.

Check out those cheeks! It is impossible to not pinch them!

- We went to Nashville to help some friends move into their new home. Congrats Jordan and Erin it is a great home for some great friends. 

- While in Nashville Kevin and I stayed at my parent's house and one morning i walked out to my car and saw this

It was so low and so close. I then started driving to get breakfast and saw another one.

I love hot air balloons. I don't plan on EVER riding in one but I think they are so beautiful against the bright blue sky with the bright colors. 

Sweet girl has got some wild and crazy hair.

- She has been super cuddly lately too which we love

- Still not crawling yet, which I am perfectly fine with. I think she has no motivation to crawl. Sometimes I'll put her toys away from her and she tries to go after them but ends up scooting backwards instead of forwards. Then gets really upset that she is now farther away from the toy.  

Lillian's 28th Week

Seems like these last few weeks have just flown by. Lillian is 28 weeks old now!

Lillian showing her support for Breast Cancer Awareness month!

Nursing/Eating: We didn't try any new foods this week but did continue to give her solids. I had mentioned the last couple of weeks I felt like my supply had one down and she wasn't sleeping solid through the night so this week we changed up her schedule and took her back to eating every 3.5 hours instead of 4, which gives her one extra feeding each day. I hate to go backwards but she was needing full feedings.

Pounding down some watermelon

Sleeping: Ever since we started the new schedule she has slept great at night. The first night she went down at 8 and woke up about 10 (I was still awake so I didn't mind) then she slept until 6:30am. The next couple of nights we similar in that she slept all night except for two nights where she woke up because she was on her tummy instead of her back. Thats' right she finally started rolling from back to tummy but would then be up against the side of the crib so she didn't know how to get back over. After two nights of getting flipped around she figured it out and I have been getting solid sleep since!

Here she is rolled over and not sure what to do. She has also started turning horizontal in her sleep and then wakes up because her head and feet are touching the crib sides. I'm not worried about her rolling on her stomach, most mornings she is on her back again but I do worry about her turning horizontal because she sticks her feet through the slats and I don't want her to get stuck then try and flip over and break her foot or something. 

Other Happenings: 

- She had been super fussy and have off weeks lately but I think she was just hitting a milestone and leaning to flip over. Plus with her eating better I think we'll have some good weeks again until the next milestone or growth spurt. 

- We had a family day at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center on saturday

- I found these Melissa and Doug bubbles at Homegoods on clearance for only $3. The little lady bug is a squeeze toy so you don't have to blow the bubbles yourself and it makes tons of bubbles compared the the cheap ones I bought at Kroger. I couldn't blow them fast enough to keep Lillian's attention. 

- We had a baby play date on Friday and then had a cookout on Saturday with the same friends so Lillian got to roll around with some other babies two days in a row. It was good for her because she sees them crawling and It'll help her understand she can do it too. Although now that she is rolling all over the place I am in no hurry for her to start crawling all over. Our house is not baby proof for that.

- Kevin tried taking a picture of us while we were snoozing but didn't realize the flash would go off. You can see my eyes start to open and Lillian is squinting. He said she looked so peaceful and her hand was touching my mouth so he couldn't resist taking a picture. I love when I'll get her out of her crib and she'll fall back asleep in the bed. 30 extra minutes for Momma is a good thing. 

- Lillian isn't talking yet but she does make an "eh" sound whenever she is trying to get your attention, especially at Kevin. I could be holding her and he'll be working on his computer and if she notices he's not looking at her she say "eh" until he does and then gives a HUGE smile. 

- In clothes she is wearing some 6months but they are showing to be a little small especially the onesies. Everything else is either 9 month or 6-12month. Her torso is so long but some of the clothes swallow her up because they are so wide. 

- Lillian started using her shopping cart cover about 2 weeks ago (i posted a picture on facebook) but I forgot to mention it on here. We use it way more often now. It's great for high chairs at restaurants and small carts like hobby lobby or TJ Maxx, but Kroger's seem to be so wide she leans to the side too easily. It is nice not having to lug in the infant carrier though and gives me more room in the cart for the groceries. 

And here is one more picture from this week of me and my sweet girl!

U.S. Space and Rocket Center

We moved to Huntsville, AL about 6 months ago and we finally made it to the U.S. Space and Rocket center thanks to Smithsonian Magazine Museum Day Live! The Museum Day Live provided free admission to one person plus a guest. I had heard about it on a local mom's site and there were actually two museums in Huntsville participating. The other one is called Sci-Quest which is a hands on childrens museum, sounds like fun but maybe not for another year or two for Lillian. At the Space and Rocket Center Children 5 and under are free so it was completely free for us to go. Normally tickets for adults are  $20 and children are $15, but that's just general admission. They have an IMAX and 3D theater that costs extra. Military families do get a discount.

I decided to get the tickets for the U.S. Space and Rocket center and surprise Kevin because he has never been and with the missile defense work he does I knew he'd enjoy it. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would since Kevin was able to explain things and tell how he has worked on certain projects talked about in the different exhibits. This is actually a missile project called THAAD kevin worked on.

One of the cool exhibits was the Red Bull Stratos Exhibit. This is about Felix Baumgartner who broke the speed of sound reaching an estimated speed of 833.9 mph jumping from the stratosphere, which when certified will make him the first man to break the speed of sound in freefall. Very cool. Unfortunately the exhibits final day is today.

We didn't have our nice camera so all the pictures are from my phone but they turned out good enough for the memories.

I made Kevin take a picture with the Astronaut

This is the Saturn 5.  Below is a 1/10 scale model. 

I never realized that majority of this rocket falls off and the astronauts sit in a teeny tiny portion at the top.

No wonder they switched to shuttles where the astronauts could actually float around

F-1 engines of the Saturn 5. Hard to tell actual size but they were HUGE. 

Don't remember exactly what this was but i'm assuming one of the engines.

Space Shuttle 

Lillian the future astronaut (if they ever let people go back into space again)

 We had a good time as a little family even if Lillian had no clue what was going on. If anyone ever wants to go you have a free place to stay. (Only one bed for now though) We live literally across the street interstate from it.

Lillian's 27th Week

I'm late on this post because I had better posts I wanted to share. lol. Lillian turned 27 weeks old on September 24th.

Sleep/Eating: Lillian has done okay this week. A few days she was off as far as waking early from naps and waking during the night often. It's disheartening at times when she's off her sleep schedule but she seems to always still be a happy baby so I can't complain. The doctor thought she may be waking at night because she is hungry so we added more rice cereal to her last bottle and have been giving her solids still but only occasionally. She eats for about the same amount of time she has been the last month but I think she just isn't getting the quality of milk she needs. I'm still taking the fenugreek and if i drink any more water during the day i'll be pottying every 5 minutes.

Other Happenings:
-Lillian is becoming more clingy lately. I don't hold her very often but after 20 minutes or so playing by herself she just starts to fuss and will not stop unless I pick her up then she has the biggest smile. If I am out and Kevin is watching her at home she is fine but as soon as she sees me and I walk into another room she starts to fuss. Kevin says she it seems like she is worried that her source of food is leaving so she cries.  We have never missed a feeding so you would think she knows she'll get fed. (side note after telling a friend of mine this, she pointed out that isn't that how we seem to be with God sometimes. We worry something won't happen and forget he has always provided for our needs and will continue to do so.)
- We introduced a couple more solid foods to Lillian and so far she loves apples the best and chowed down on some watermelon. Celery is a good teething toy but not easy to actually eat. She has gagged a couple times with the apple but works it out herself just fine.

- I decided to not buy her any toys because the newspaper kept her pretty content for about 20 minutes.

- Aunt Nina sent Lillian a half birthday present. I love her new little jeans but Lillian loves her new dalmation toy. 

- Kevin's parents came to visit this last weekend and we had a good visit.

Nena

and Poppa.