A precious name...Maddie Alyssa

Our sweet miracle #4 arrived on her own time yesterday at 10:10 am on 1-23-12 weighing 7 lbs and 4 oz and 21 inches long at 37 weeks and 3 days. Maddie Alyssa arrived with a successful VBAC delivery. It could not have gone any better (well, the epidural could have arrived sooner...but I'll save the delivery story for another post). I had hoped to post about our name choices for "sweet baby" before delivery day, but I ran out of time apparently!

Now that we all know it's a GIRL, I'll share how we came to choose Maddie's name. I had picked a couple C-names for a girl that I liked over the last months, Colbie or Carter. Matt wasn't completely against either one, but he wasn't immediately on board either. He said maybe they could grow on him, but I did NOT want to talk him into a name. I really wanted to find one that we both really loved. So, I abandoned those names and read lists of C-names on lots of websites both for boys and for girls. I just never found another that I loved as much. I was determined to find a name that we both loved, so I thought we may just have to abandon the C-names.

When we were engaged we always thought about the name Madison for a girl, if we ever had one (ha ha!). We would call her "Maddie" after Matt. All of our college friends call him Matty, even to this day. When we finally were expecting Campbell, Madison was a REALLY popular girl name. We wanted something different and unique, so we came up with Campbell instead. Here we are 5 years after our first baby picking a 4th name for a possible girl. I thought, "why don't we just name her Maddie after Matt like we had thought of when we were first married?" I called Matt on my way home from work to tell him my new idea. He loved it! I was so excited at his reaction! It was really sweet! He didn't really question not doing a C-name. He liked that she would be named after him, and we both agreed that Maddie was a really precious name for a possible baby girl. He suggested her middle name be Alyssa as a combination of his middle name and my name, Allan and Melissa.

A few people have been concerned that she may need therapy being the only child of 4 that doesn't have a C-name (ha ha), but I am certain that Maddie is going to feel very special to be named after her daddy and be the sweet princess baby of the family. Not to mention that Campbell, Cooper and Conley seem to be pretty obsessed with their newest sister. Maddie will not feel left out one bit!! I think she is going to be just fine, even with an M-name! Plus, we now have 3 M's and 3 C's!

Campbell had come up with her own name for the sweet baby that she felt was appropriate for a boy or a girl...Coco. We told her that could be her special name for the baby. We shared with her that the baby's name would officially be Maddie or Cody, but she could call her Maddie Coco or call him Cody Coco. She was completely fine with that idea. She insists now on calling her new sister, Maddie Coco. Cooper and Conley are following Campbell's lead, and they insist on calling her Maddie Coco as well. In fact, I think that the twins truly believe that to be her real name. It's actually really cute to hear them all say Maddie Coco EVERY time the refer to her. I've got to get them saying it on video!!

I know everyone was thinking Matt might finally "get his boy", but we could NOT be more excited to have our complete family of 4 beautiful girls! Plus, how sweet is it that our precious little princess baby Maddie is named after her proud Daddy??!!!

We are so proud to welcome Maddie Alyssa Cheatham to our family!!!

January...so far

This was our first NYE to spend with the girls. Usually we have Nannie keep the girls while Mommy and Daddy spend New Years with friends...adults only! This year we had a change of pace, and it was a lot of fun! The girls ALL stayed awake until midnight, and then they quickly crashed in the car on the way home.

Kisses at midnight

All of us awake at midnight (notice Mommy and Conley are in PJs)

Campbell celebrating with her sparkling grape juice. She agreed to hold the glass for a picture, but she insisted that she wouldn't drink it. She does NOT like carbonated drinks.

Here are some other cute pictures from our January so far.

Campbell sporting her Cowboys' jersey

and showing off her Angry Bird that she named "Angry"

Our very own Cowboys cheerleaders

Cooper cheering on her Cowboys

Conley cheering on her Cowboys

Cooper making a pizza

Conley making a pizza

Campbell very proud of her pizza dough

Conley's pizza was ready to go in the oven,

and she was not happy to have it taken away

Campbell dressed herself

Silly sisters! Mommy had off for MLK Day, so we made plans with friends to meet for breakfast at Chick Fil A. Then Campbell and Mommy went to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D and the twins went with Pops to see Happy Feet 2.

Sweet kisses

It doesn't get much cuter than this!

They bring out the silly side in each other

Our baby girl is getting so big!

She looks like a little teenager with her Leap Pad and headphones

2012 is off to a great start!! We are excited for the new baby sister or baby brother to join in the fun!!! Happy New Year everyone!

Catch-up Post for December

OK, so this is a catch-up post for Christmas!

Campbell had her first dance recital! It was a tap and ballet recital. She did SO well! She knew all the steps and had great rhythm! She almost never looked to the teacher off to the side for guidance, and she smiled SO much more than I would have expected! She gets really embarrassed if we ask her to show us her dance at home, so I wasn't sure if she'd smile during the performance. She really impressed us!!

The girls had a pajama day at school in December. Here are a few pics of them before heading to school!

Silly Conley

Sweet Campbell

Sweet Cooper

On Christmas Eve Eve (Dec 23rd), we took the girls to see the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. It was Cooper and Conley's first movie at the theater. They were really excited and really did great! Of course each girl had popcorn, drink and candy so there were no complaints...LOL! The twins sat in our laps most of the time, or we had to hold their seat down since it kept folding up on them. They really did watch the movie though, so it was definitely a successful trip!

Sweet Campbell

Conley...being silly AGAIN

Sweet Cooper

The night before Christmas, Campbell sprinkled the reindeer food on the front lawn so the reindeer would know to come to our house. It was super cute! She had made it at school with cheerios for the reindeer to eat and glitter for the reindeer to see their way to the house. She went outside with her jacket and undies on...and it was cold! Too funny!!

Campbell also baked 2 cookies for Santa and left some carrots out for the reindeer of course accompanied by a glass of milk. Santa brought stocking goodies for the entire family and a few "big gifts" for the girls. Campbell got Cookie the Playful Pup and a Dinosaur Train Leggo set. Cooper and Conley each got a "Very Real Baby" doll that is really interactive. There were lots of smiles Christmas morning.

Cooper and Conley may have been most excited about their Dora and Tinkerbell Band-Aids and Dora and Diego tooth brushes that were in their stockings.

Here are a few other pics of the girls opening gifts Christmas night. Conley was excited to show off her new night gown with matching scrunchy and new coat. Cooper is also sporting her new night gown and holding a new bear. Campbell was thrilled to get a Wuggle Pet kit, which she of course recognized from TV commercials :-) .

We had a great 5 days off to spend with the girls over Christmas. The day after Christmas we were crazy enough to hit up the mall for a few things. Campbell took her doll and stroller for the insane trip, and the twins insisted on wearing their new coats.

It was a great Christmas for all!! Next year we are looking forward to spending Christmas together as a family of SIX!! Did you notice the extra stocking with no name??? :-)

Visit With Santa 2011

We made our annual visit to see Santa with the girls this weekend. We have always gone to NE Mall, because they always have a really cute Santa and setup. I MUST be able to take my own pictures and video, which they let you do with any purchase. We always just buy the smallest package and then take our own pictures. I frame our Santa pics every year, and I put them out as part of our Christmas decorations. The ones when the girls are crying when they are little are the funniest. Campbell really gets a kick out of “baby Campbell” in the picture when she is scared of Santa. This year we went to Bass Pro where they have a really cute Santa setup, and the picture is FREE in addition to being able to take your own photos and video. Note for next year: go to Bass Pro during the week! We went on Sunday, and they were handing out passes to come back for certain time slots. The earliest time we could get was 2 ½ hours from the time we arrived. Yikes! We headed over to Grapevine Mills instead. We were in and out in 30 minutes. The Santa was much too skinny for Santa, and the setup was a little cheesy, BUT we did get our own picture and video, and all three girls did “participate” in the picture even if they weren’t all smiles or all in Santa’s lap! I’d call it a success! Conley was the most nervous about it. I kept saying “he’s not scary, he’s nice.” She would just repeat that to us in line…”he’s not scary, he’s nice.” You could tell she was really worried but trying to convince herself that he isn’t scary. We told her many times that he had chocolate to give her if she would sit in his lap. She kept saying she wanted chocolate but she didn’t want to sit in his lap. When it came time for our turn, she REALLY didn’t want to get in his lap. Cooper didn’t either, but I was able to physically sit her in his lap and she stayed there with a worried look on her face. Conley put up more of a fight for sure! She finally was willing to stand next to him for the picture. You can see the concern in Cooper and Conley’s face, but they still did pretty good! At the end they were giving him high fives after he handed them chocolate. Now, if you ask them about Santa, they smile and tell you he gave them chocolate and high fives. It ended on a good note! I would bet money that they still won’t sit in his lap again if offered the chance, but maybe next year they’ll be more comfortable.

I've had multiple failed attempts at posting the video for this, but if you are on Facebook, you've probably already seen it.

Happy 5th Birthday Campbell Kay!

We celebrated Campbell’s 5^th birthday at Main Event with a bowling party. She requested a bowling party “just like her cousin Channing’s birthday” the year before. It really was a lot of fun! She had a LOT of friends and family come for an hour of bowling followed by cake and games. We even let Cooper, Conley and few other little ones bowl. That was interesting for sure, but they all seemed to have a good time. My sweet friend April did the yummy cupcakes in pink and white with zebra print liners to go with the theme. My sweet friend Amy designed the birthday invitations and some fun labels for the goodie bags that we gave to the kids with candied popcorn (watermelon was pink, vanilla was white and blackberry was black…made for an interesting flavor combination!). It all turned out so cute!! Main Event did a great job hosting and coordinating (although you definitely pay for it!).

Cooper and Campbell bowling with Pops at the party

Campbell's friends at the party

Birthday girl is ready for cupcakes!

Mommy and Daddy with their birthday girl

Playing games with cousin Channing

Also, for her 5^th birthday, Campbell got her ears pierced! I definitely prompted the idea asking her if she’d want to have them done since turning 5 was such a big deal. She said yes and seemed excited about it. Of course when we got to Sweet and Sassy to have them done, she started to get nervous. She seemed pretty anxious when they actually started to get the guns ready, and then she was really upset once the pinch happened. She cried and pouted for a while as if she had no idea it was going to be like that. It really did turn humorous, because we kept trying to talk to her about it and she finally said, “I don’t want to talk about it anymore!” She wouldn’t let us buy her any other earrings either. Once she got over the shock of what had happened, she proudly would show them off. Now that we are over a week past the trauma, she is starting to twist them on her own when we need to clean them. She’s definitely more and more comfortable with them and can finally talk about them J . She has specifically said she thinks pink guitars and red hearts would be her next earrings. I hope we can find them! She gets to change them out in January. If anyone has a daughter that wants to get their ears pierced, don’t have her talk to Campbell! She does not really encourage others to do it…LOL! She says, “it hurts a lot!” We’ll follow up with a question like, “but it only hurts for a second, right?” She’ll correct you that “it hurts for 6 seconds!”

Sweet Campbell showing off her new earrings

Mommy and Daddy with their sweet FIVE year old!

We’ve also started straightening Campbell’s hair recently. We only do it when she wants it straight AND when it’s not going to be raining outside. If she sweats or is exposed to pretty much any humidity, that curl is coming right back! It’s been fun to change it up between straight and curly! She seems to really like it! It doesn’t take long to straighten since her hair is so thin. People have been surprised at how long it is when it’s straightened. We think she is totally adorable either way, but Mommy is not always confident in fixing those crazy curls!

A cute picture of Campbell opening a present with her straight hair

Campbell and Jayden flirting away while having birthday cupcakes at school

Mommy and Campbell having cupcakes at school for Campbell's birthday

It has been so much fun for me to look back at how much she has changed over the last 5 years…here are just a few pics that I wanted to share!

We love you Campbell Kay! You have provided us with SO much joy the last 5 years, and you always keep us laughing and smiling! We thank God for making us your Mommy and Daddy! You will always be our baby girl! Don’t tell Cooper and Conley, but I told Daddy that I hope this next baby looks just like you ;-) !