Half Birthday

 Um.. Jane is six months today. What? And honestly we spent her half birthday hanging out. She pretty much did what she does every day. Eat, play, diaper change, sleep, repeat. I definitely snuck cuddles and kisses in there too.

 What can I say about this little girl that I haven't already? Our whole family is still just as smitten with her as the day she was born. Jane has just brought a whole new element to our family. Now, I'm not going to say that I don't remember what life was like before we had her because we loved being the awesome Townsend Family of Four. But since we had Jane, somehow I feel like we have rounder edges than we used to. Does that even make sense?

 Jane spreads so much joy to us. She makes us smile and laugh and love even more! It's been so great to see William and Lily love and serve and sacrifice more than I have ever seen. They're amazing siblings and have stepped up more than I could have ever imagined.

 This month Jane has been progressing. We got her a bouncy chair that she loves and we all have learned the little tune it plays. I switched the music and William commented that it was different.

 I started making baby food and she seems to like it. She eats like a champ, which makes feeding her more pleasurable. I have to say that fruits win by a landslide.

 Jane is still not a big fan of rolling over, but she is a pro at rocking on all fours! Crawling will be soon upon us. She's almost sitting up by herself also. I think she'll be a lot happier when that's accomplished.

 Jane still "talks" and makes all kinds of noises. She's especially chatty in the mornings.

 

Jane is a beautiful little soul. I feel lucky that I get to squeeze her little body and kiss her cheeks every day.

Next six months, you have my permission to slow down a bit. 

If William was 100

So, last week the kid's school celebrated their 100th day of the school year. William told me that he didn't want me to see a picture of him that his teacher sent home. I didn't really think about it until I went through his folder that night and found this gem..

 

 What William will look like when he's 100. Thank you Ms. Byrd for this awesomeness. I'm not going to lie, I laughed until I cried. I got it all out before I talked to him before school the next day and told him that his picture was silly. He then told me that it wasn't anything compared to another boy's in class. I wonder what that one looked like!

 

Speaking of my dear William Rigdon, he started basketball this season! He's on the Ragin' Cajuns team and he's absolutely loving it. His team has won 4 games and lost 4, I believe. He was excited because his friend from his first grade class is also on his team.

 Isaac is also playing in the same league but for the sharks. Our games ended up being back to back one Saturday. It was awesome and I totally stole Krystin's cute picture of them both.

Christmas

 Our Christmas seemed like it came and went too quickly! It was full of our traditions. Red came to visit. We picked out our ornaments for the year and made our tree look even more trinket-y than ever. I think we might have to upgrade our tree this year! I love picking out our new ornaments and looking through all of the ornaments we've picked out through the years. We still have some existing from our first Christmas together.  

On Christmas Eve, my kids got to open their new pajama pants that I made for them. They also put out reindeer food and saw Rudolph's nose in the backyard. He did a back flip this year when the kids sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" at the top of their lungs.

Our three kids were the only ones at Grandma and Grandpa's house Christmas morning. We did the stair line-up, but it was mostly a grouping. An adorable grouping!

 The highlight for William and Lily were definitely the Santa gifts! They both got a Nintendo 3Ds. I've had a hard time getting them to do something else since!

 It was Jane's first Christmas! What do you get a 4 month old for Christmas? Well, clothes and spoons and rattle toys, of course!

Christmas was amazing in 2013! I can't believe how fast it went and it will be around here again before you know it!

5 Months!

Jane was 5 months on Sunday. She has definitely grown through the month and she had a lot of firsts!

Jane laughed for the first time and Matthew. He was making a fake laugh and she thought it was hilarious. We've loved hearing her little laugh!

Jane has us all wrapped around her little dimpled fingers. She loves to sing and talk.

Jane had her first Christmas. I absolutely loved having her be a part of our family traditions and see her enjoy her toys. 

Jane also tried cereal for the very first time. She was happy about it until she tried it..

 

 She's doing awesome with pushing up. Jane can roll over,  but she's not the biggest fan of it. I'm pretty sure she likes to be in everyone's business!

 

 

I finally got a picture of her awesome Chris Farley face. That's definitely a highlight of this past month!

Jane also had her very first New Year's Eve party. As you can tell from the picture, she didn't make it until midnight.

This little girl is awesome.

Our Anniversary

This year Matthew and I had our 8th Anniversary! Since we just had a newborn, we waited until the beginning of November to celebrate. We took a small family vacay over a weekend to Chattanooga. We stayed at the Chattanooga Choo Choo. It was an awesome atmosphere and there were some pretty cool things to see. We walked around the train terminal and we got to eat in a train car called the Silver Diner. I had WAY too many pictures for this post, so I just made some collages to not overwhelm!

 

 We also SAW ROCK CITY! We followed the advice of those bright red bird houses. It was absolutely beautiful. Not to mention a little nerve racking trying to squeeze through the tiny tunnels with a baby strapped to your chest! But, obviously we're alive, so all is well. I had a lot of fun taking pictures throughout the gardens. We saw a couple being married on top of Lover's Leap. Matthew, William, and Lily all went across Swing a Long Bridge while Jane and I stayed on the solid ground!

 The kids all loved going through all of the different caves and tunnels and thought that the fairyland was cool. I had wanted to see the top of Lookout Mountain where you can see 7 states. I think I ended up getting William excited, but when he and Lily saw the view they were a little disappointed the states weren't different colors.

I feel bad that in all of the pictures of our family Jane is facing me, but she did sleep most of the time! Memories, right? Our trip was so much fun and it was great to get out of the normal routine for a time and be together as a family. 

Flat Stanley

 This fall, we had so much fun with our Flat Stanley that Aiden sent to us. He was here for a couple of weeks and we took him around Nashville and had him with us at some family events. He saw the

 He went to Lily's soccer game and the pumpkin patch.

 We took him to the zoo and showed him downtown.

 The capital building.

 Nashville skyline.

 Walking Bridge.

 The LP Stadium where the Titans play.

Flat Stanley saw the Grand Ole Opry.

 He was with us at the Fun Run too.

It was a lot of fun trying to position Flat Stanley in our pictures. I think my favorites are from the pumpkin patch. I'm so glad that Aiden thought of us and I'm hoping he enjoyed our pictures!

Jane is 4 months!

 Can you believe it? Jane is already four months old. Here are some pictures from the month of November.

 

This month little Miss Jane had her first Thanksgiving. She has moved into her crib in the kid's room. She had her first ear infection (and antibiotic). She rolls from her tummy to her back. Jane has also found her hands and feet! She loves to play, talk, and sing. So pretty much, this has been a big month! I'm having so much fun with this girl and we're very excited to have her very first Christmas this month!