Jillian is 4 months old

My last day of work also marked Jillian's 4 month birthday - all while Bubbie is out in Alabama celebrating Anny Annie's 80th birthday! So we all want to wish her a very happy birthday and can't wait to celebrate in October (better late than never, right?)

This month has again flown by - Neal and I were talking about how the days seemed to last so much longer while we were waiting for Meredith to learn to roll over, etc but we just seemed to look down and suddenly Jillian was already doing it! And she LOVES to roll - her rolling skill has also helped her to enjoy tummy time more - she just seems to love to be able to look all around at her toys and her big sister, the dog, us, the TV, or whatever happens to be in her gaze. She has also started sneaking in rolls even when I try to change her diaper, giving us these pictures that I know Daddy will love that I share...

I'll spare you from seeing the one of just her cute little bottom, though.

We also introduced Jillian to the exersaucer, which at first just gave her a fun alternative seat to her swing, but day-by-day she is discovering all the toys, noises and lights.

This was her first time in the exersaucer, so she just looks a tiny bit confused!

We also broke out the highchair which has been a great way to let her be a part of family dinners while still letting me or Dad have both hands available for eating. Meredith insisted it be as close to her as possible and always talks about Jillian eating whatever she is enjoying when she gets bigger.

For now, dinner in the highchair just consists of a paci with a side of a paci (just in case the other falls, of course!)

Jillian's personality just keeps popping out day-by-day. She loves to talk and squeal and still loves being kissed more than anyone I have ever met. Her new favorite toy this past week is her foot. She loves to grab it, pull it, push it, and just play, play, play!

Look at this happy girl with her cute little feet!

Our four month check-up isn't until the end of the month, so I will post the official stats soon!

Goodbye AA!

Yesterday was a very bittersweet day for me. After over 7 years, I left American Airlines so that I could be a full-time stay-at-home mom.

I started at American just a few months after I graduated from college, working on email marketing campaigns. A few years later, I started on a new team, marketing our frequent flyer credit card. That role was followed by another email campaign job, then an account manager position and then finally my most recent position working on marketing plans. I was incredibly blessed with everything from fantastic friends, bosses that taught me so much with each role, opportunities to travel to new places, and roles that I enjoyed all along the way. It is also fun for me to think about being at American doing everything from planning a wedding, adopting a dog, buying two different houses, and welcoming two beautiful little girls into our lives.

This has been a long-thought-out decision full of lots of prayers and financial spreadsheets and scrimping at the grocery store! And today we are all excited to see what next week will bring with me devoted 100% to the most important job I could imagine. I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband that works so hard every day to make this work for our family!

This will beat those grey cubed walls anyday! :)

Tuba Fest

This weekend we went to Tuba Fest- this is an event we have been lucky enough to be a part of for 6 of the 7 years it has been going in existence! Our good friend's dad puts on this event every year at the German restuarant, Henk's, and he plays the tuba and is accompanied by a guy that plays the accordian and sings some fun Polka songs. Okay, that maybe doesn't sound like as much fun as it is. But really - good German food, good German music, good German beer and we have some good German friends to add into the mix, so we have a great time! Neal even calls Tuba Fest his favorite night of the year! Meredith was equally as excited - she asked if she could play the tuba and then decided she needed to take her piano so that she could play along. Sadly we forgot the piano, but she brought it up on the car ride. I was bracing myself for tears when i told her we forgot, but instead she just said "I'll just have to shake my bottom!"

We had fun watching all the kids play, but after chasing them the whole time, we made a pact to hire a babysitter next year to really get the full effect. Plus, throughout the first round of songs and along the way home, Meredith was singing "In Heaven There Is No Beer" although we thought it was perfect at the time, we were hoping she would stick to some other songs this morning at church!

Which one of these things is not like the other? Lucky for Neal and Matt, the wives were on kid patrol. Not sure how I got stuck with two kids so Neal could hold a beer, but whatever.
The three girls - Meredith, Anna, and Matelyn. They are an adorable stair-step of cuties! Every year, Anna's grandma (Julie's mom) makes the kids matching dresses. We tried really hard to get a picture of all of them, but getting a 3 year old to hold her 3 month old sister, plus get a 2 year old and 1 year old to sit still wasn't very successful - here is the best we got!

Here was our brilliant idea to have the moms hold all the girls - this was less successful but still fun.

Daddy with his girls and sweet Anna
This year, Julie's mom got to try her hand at matching boy outfits since Joey and his friend Caden were joining us - baby lederhosen!

The tuba man, himself, Don



Julie and I with our littlest ones - look at them cuddling!
Aunt Julie and Jillian

Jillian wasn't sure about Don - our featured entertainer.
Daddy and Meredith dancing to a song that is without a doubt about beer somehow.
The girls favorite part was playing in the German grocery store and bakery at the back - here they are pretending to be puppies...

We turned around when we hadn't heard our puppies for a few seconds to find that the girls had opened a bag of bread loaves and were chowing down! They chewed on these things the rest of the night and the Spitzenbergers went home with the rest of the bag.

Matty came up a gave Meredith a big hug in the middle of the girls running wild through the store.
What's not to love about a girl and her bread.

The chicken dance was a big hit

Rolling!

Jillian has been so close to rolling for a week or so now and even accomplished it twice on Saturday - the first time in her swaddle in her bed (which freaked Mommy out just a bit!) and then in the midst of crying because we had put her down. But today, she finally did it where I say that it 'counts' - she wasn't mad or asleep, so it feels more like she did it on purpose!

I had just put her down on a blanket on her back and then turned around to see -


I was talking to Neal on the phone and broke into loud cheers (great thing to do right after putting Meredith to sleep right?) But she didn't want to stop there - just a few minutes later, I looked back to see -

Yep, I let her roll herself right off of the blanket onto our tile floor, luckily she did it gracefully and it didn't seem to bother her!