Cortney's Crew

Bumblebee's and Diego

2011-07-09T20:30:00.004-06:00

One of Scarlett's new favorite song to sing is :

She loves to sing it. But mostly she loves to have someone sing with her. The other night she asked me for Bumblebee and I'd sang it 3 times with her. Then when she asked again, I told her to sing it herself. She told me "I don't want to sing it!" So I asked her "But you want me to sing it?" "Uh-huh!"

Also that song has 3 more versus that her sisters have taught her, but I didn't think you wanted to listen to the licking up, puking up, and sweeping up verses.

And then today she was in the other room when I hear her calling "Mommy! Help! Help! Ayudeme!" (Which is Spanish for help me) Apparently she really likes her Diego books and videos.

I love listening to her talk and pick up new words and phrases every day!

Washing Hands

2011-07-07T09:44:00.002-06:00

We were at the library yesterday for a program on science and to turn in our reading logs. I had taken Scarlett into the little kids bathroom to change her diaper. I got her down off the changing table and was packing up the bag when I hear a splashing. I turned around to see her with both hands in the toilet! She looked up at me and very sweetly said "Washing my hands Mommy!"

UGH!!!

By the way the science program was awesome! Alexandra, my little scientist, loved it. And now I'm gonna have to figure out a way to hide all the diapers because they did an experiment with polymers (I hope that's how you spell it) and then told the kids how they could do it themselves if they had any diapers around the house.

1st Amusement Park rides

2011-06-28T13:41:00.002-06:00

So yesterday we took the girls to the amusement park near us that gives out tickets for summer reading at the library. We'll get to go another time (if not two more times). Yay for 3 different libraries near me!!!

We decided we would go and try with Scarlett to see if she would be okay on the little kid rides. The next time we go, we'll get a sitter for Scarlett and Dean and I will get tickets and ride the big rides with Riley and Alexandra.

Scarlett loved it! Unless we put her on a ride that had any sort of up and down motion. By the 3rd ride that went up and down she started screaming, so we avoided those from then on.

She loved the horses.

She loved the boats - and yes Alexandra loves them too, even though she doesn't look like it. She sat like that for every ride and would ask to ride again.

She loved the racing cars.

She did not like the motorcycles (they had little up and down hills.)

She liked the carousel. By this time we knew about the up and down - so we avoided all animals that moved.

She LOVED the little kids version of the Whip (which is Riley's favorite big kid ride - and unfortunately the big kid one was under maintenance so Riley didn't get to ride it.) We weren't sure about this one because it goes around pretty fast for a kids ride, but she loved it!

She rode this one over and over with Riley. It was hilarious. At first when she would want to ride stuff again we made her get off and get back in line, but by the end of the night there weren't any lines. So we tried to get her to stay on the rides, but she insisted she had to get off and get back on.

We were there for over 3 hours - which I didn't expect at all. I really thought we'd only be there an hour if we were lucky before Scarlett decided she was done. All the girls had a great time and the bigger two are looking forward to our next trip - since neither of them are big enough to drive the bumper cars. (Which is Alexandra's favorite and hopefully the Whip will be open for Riley.)

2 year check-up

2011-06-28T13:21:00.002-06:00

So we're only almost a month late getting into see the doctor. Between school ending and vacation, I just kept forgetting to call. So here's her stats - 32.5 lbs and 35 3/4" - I don't remember what the percentiles were. The doctor usually writes them down so I wasn't paying full attention. They were both somewhere in the 90's though.

She is doing great developmentally! The doctor even commented on how we didn't even have to account for her premie-ness. She is either where she is supposed to be or above.

In the little question form you fill out you're supposed to give examples of them talking in sentences and things like that. I didn't put this down but I kinda wanted to - We were on the way to the doctors office when I heard her say something that sounded like crap (cwap) so I asked her what she said. "I said cwap Mommy!" I think that also worked for the question about does she understand when you ask her questions....

Colorado Springs Vacation

2011-06-24T10:06:00.009-06:00

Back in March, Alexandra kept asking if we could go on vacation this summer. (Really she just wanted to go and stay in a hotel somewhere, like we did last year for the family reunion.) So we talked and decided that we would go to Colorado Springs! So we looked at the vacation bid for Dean's work and the ONLY time he could take off in summer was Wednesday and Thursday last week. So we booked the hotel and planned away.

On Monday we left at about nap time (hoping for a nap for the whole drive, didn't happen though.) And we went to Cave of the Winds. Alexandra had been so excited for this, but when we entered the cave she started to get a little scared. I asked her if she could be brave and be my photographer for the whole tour. Which helped her overcome her fears.

I must say - although they say it's a family friendly tour (including toddlers) it really isn't. Or at least for us it wasn't. Scarlett was fine as long as we were moving. But we had to stop in every room for the tour guide to give his info. And she hated it. Plus we couldn't let her walk on her own, because as we were told multiple times - you can't touch ANYTHING - or you'll get a $2500 fine and a years suspension of your drivers licence. Believe me I had that little quote memorized our tour guide said it so often. So of course, being a toddler, and not getting to keep moving or get down and touch she started crying. Which our tour guide then threatened (and not in a nice way) to have us escorted out. Scarlett and I found a solution though. We ignored the tour guide and I stayed at the back of the tour and would wander holding her back and forth between the room we had previously been in and the room they were currently in. As long as I was moving with her she was fine. I seriously got such a work-out. I hated the stupid tour guide. Not only did he threaten to have us escorted out when she was crying - he would say it when she was perfectly fine....not a great start for our vacation (at least for me and Dean.)

Alexandra on the other hand loved it!! When we got out of the caves, she said "This is the best vacation EVER!"
Then on Tuesday we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It was awesome!! Comparing it to the Denver Zoo - it's smaller and not as many animals, but it makes up for that by having you be super close to the animals. I loved how close you could get to all the animals. I had been warned that it was seriously a mountain and we would be walking uphill all day long, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be (it probably helped that I've been trying to keep up on my exercising.) Riley got to be in charge of the camera for most of the day, since Alexandra got to take pictures at the caves.
The girls got to pet a baby wallaby.

And get their faces painted.

But the best part had to be feeding the giraffes. We fed them when we first got there (lettuce) and then before we left (crackers). Scarlett wouldn't feed them in the morning, but by the afternoon she would. She loved it! She has always loved giraffes. The baby giraffes wouldn't stick their tongues out very much, but the adults would. It was hilarious and gross to get licked by the giraffes. We bought Scarlett a giraffe in the gift shop with some of her birthday money and the whole way back to the hotel she was trying to "feed" it saying "eat the cracker." Even now if you ask her what giraffes eat she'll tell you crackers.

Then on Wednesday we went to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings. Riley had studied a little bit about them during her Colorado History last year at school so she was super excited to see them.

It was fun to climb and explore through them. Although the girls had so much red dirt all over them afterwards.

Then that night we went to Seven Falls. The girls got to feed some rainbow trout. We watched some Indian dancing. And Dean and Alexandra climbed the stairs to the top.

She was crying when she finally came back down, she was so scared. She knew there was an elevator around and thought she'd be able to ride it down once she got to the top. Unfortunately the elevator is in a different spot, so she had to climb down. I'm very proud of her for doing it though. There is no way I could ever do it. I wish I wasn't so scared of heights. It looked like it would have been amazing to climb the staircase out over the falls.

They turn colored lights on at about 8ish. I wish we could have stayed till it got darker to really see the lights, but you could tell it was bedtime for Scarlett and we had trouble keeping her awake during the ride back to the hotel.

Then on Thursday we got all packed up and checked out of the hotel and went to the Garden of the Gods. It was super hot and really we were all tired from all the walking we'd done all week. So we didn't do much exploring there. Plus it was getting close to nap time.

The girls had saved up their allowance and report card and tooth fairy money for months. So they bought stuff at every gift shop. Here are pictures of them with their souvenirs.

Riley got a wolf necklace, wolf bookmark, wolf statue, stuffed wolf, fox hat, and a fox puppet. (Can you tell what she's interested in...)

Alexandra got a miners hat, dream catcher necklace, a carved mouse, and a stuffed mountain lion, sea otter, and bat.

The girls also got to swim everyday at the hotel and loved it. It was an awesome family vacation.

Two!!!

2011-06-01T16:10:00.003-06:00

Today is Scarlett's birthday! I can't believe 2 years have passed. It goes by so quickly. My dad was in town this weekend so we celebrated her birthday on Monday so he could watch her open her presents. We did her outdoor presents first since the weather was looking kinda iffy. She got a sand box, which she loves. Every day she asks to go play in the "box!"

She tried climbing in, but then her feet touched the sand and she wasn't so sure about that, so now she sits outside of it.

Even Riley and Alexandra love her present!

She also got a bubble blower. Because I'm lazy. And I hate bubble solution all over my fingers.

She loves ABC's. So she got a few alphabet toys. I LOVE the fridge phonics one. I love watching her dance to the song.

She wasn't too sure about the candles, but she has been singing "Happy Birthday to Scarlett" ever since Monday. It's so cute!

I'm not sure that I'm ready for the "Terrible Twos". She already throws some awesome temper tantrums. But I'm so glad that she's big enough this summer to really have some fun. Especially now that she'll have her sisters all day every day.

Fun Pictures

2011-06-01T15:55:00.003-06:00

One of the race tracks here does a reading program with schools called Race to Read. The kids read and color in pages and win prizes. One of the prizes is tickets to their race called Night of Fire and Thunder. They also have "grand prizes" for each schools top reader in K-2 and 3-6. Alexandra won the top reader prize for K-2 for her school. She got a gift bag at the race and her name in lights.

Dean took them to the race that night. I'm very proud of my little reader!!

Scarlett still loves shoes. These are Alexandra's rain boots.

Scarlett has discovered mega blocks and she loves them! She will sit forever putting them together and taking them apart.

Bridging Ceremony

2011-06-01T15:33:00.003-06:00

I love Girl Scouts. Especially the cookies!

I didn't know/have any idea how to get Riley into Girl Scouts until 2nd grade. With Alexandra though, I knew what to do. Plus I had friends that knew who was going to start a troop. So Alexandra got to join in Kindergarten. Luckily Riley has Achievement Days/Activity Girls at church. Which is almost like Girl Scouts, but more spiritual, and less cookies.

This was Alexandra's last year as a Daisy. She will be a Brownie next year. So as part of "graduating" they have a Bridging Ceremony. Her troop had theirs at a gymnastic center near us. It was awesome and the girls had a great time. They got to play first. They did some stretching.

And some floor exercises.

Scarlett loved this wedge. She would just slide down it on her belly.

Then they got to jump down a trampoline and jump into a huge foam pit. Even Scarlett got in on the fun.
I missed her first jump because I was helping set up some of the stuff. Apparently the staff member helping the girls helped Scarlett "hop" off. She picked her up and dropped her into the pit. She loved it! She did it several more times. I didn't get many pictures because I kept putting my camera away so I could help out girls. There was also a rope swing, climbing net, trapeze, and slide that went into the pit. They had a blast!

I received an Outstanding Volunteer Award for being an amazing cookie mom. (I'm also going to be the co-leader next year.) Instead of a bouquet of flowers they got me Mountain Dew. Which Denine figured I'd like better!

Alexandra's flower was the pink carnation. It means "caring thoughts for others".

This was Alexandra crossing the bridge. Scarlett crossed the bridge with almost every girl too. I couldn't keep her off because I was handing out their badges and pins for next year.

Then the girls had cake and watermelon to celebrate. It was awesome and the girls had a great time. I'm pretty sure I know where the girls are going to have birthday parties next year!

Operation Big Girls Don't Need Binkies

2011-04-16T14:03:00.003-06:00

So last Saturday I decided we were done with the binkies. I sat down with the girls and told them what we were going to do. I told Riley and Alexandra that when she asked for them we should say - "They are all gone. You're a big girl and you don't need binkies anymore!" Then I had them scour the house for binkies and throw them away.

I really figured we were in for a horrible week if not longer. Scarlett would throw huge fits when she couldn't find her binks. Especially if you didn't get up RIGHT then and find one for her. She was still waking up 2-3 times a night just for us to go in and give her a bink. She had NEVER EVER gone to sleep without one.

She has done AMAZING! Saturday we had a bad nap time - she cried for the entire hour and a half that she was in her crib. Saturday night she fell asleep, but then woke up an hour later and cried for an hour. She finally went back to sleep. Then when she woke up in the middle of the night she kinda did this whiny cry for a few minutes and then went back to sleep.

And seriously that is as hard as it has been. We've had a few moments when I've wished I had one to put in her mouth. But we haven't had any horrible tantrums because she doesn't have one. She has done so well. I'm so proud of my little girl - who's now a big girl!

Here's some last bink shots - she always closes her eyes from the flash.

Yard Work

2011-04-16T12:56:00.004-06:00

So after 5 years of letting someone else take care of it (or not as the case may be) I have decided to take over our yard/garden/patio. I figure if he doesn't like how I do it, then he should have done it himself. Plus I'm gonna nag him for all the stuff that I can't do (which I've really never done before) because there is no way I can climb a ladder to clean the gutters. Anyone who knows me knows I can't even stand on a step stool or a chair without absolute panic setting in.

Monday we cleaned up the patio and I made Dean put all the crap in the back of the Tahoe and take it to the dump. We are finally rid of the stupid couch that ARC wouldn't take!!! Then we put up the new trampoline! It is the girls Easter present (a little early!)

They love it! Scarlett has gotten braver day by day and is almost up to having the girls really bounce with her.

Yesterday my Dad brought over a bunch of raspberry canes (like 25) and some bleeding heart bushes and helped me plant them. Then he gave me some gardening tips. Which I NEED! I have a horribly brown thumb. I really wish there was a manual for gardening. Like a step by step one that is specific. I don't do so well with "water when it needs it and only give it the amount it needs" I need a "water every other day for 5 minutes" kind of instructions. Is there a "Gardening for Dummies" book??

So we got those in and I did a little weeding. Between my back and the sun liking to burn my skin I'm gonna have to take it a little bit at a time every day I think.

Today I raked the backyard to get up all the apples that didn't get picked up last fall....I didn't feel like taking charge then. And I raked out the front garden and pulled weeds out of it. I watered the lawn (the sprinklers aren't turned on yet.) And I planted some flowers. I did most of that before 9:30 this morning. It felt so good, and yet so tiring all at the same time.

I know this is kind of a complaining post, but it's a big deal for me. I am NOT an outside person. In fact if I could stay inside and never go anywhere I'd probably be perfectly fine! (Amazon does deliver groceries now I've heard.) I am TERRIFIED of bugs. And they live outside. In masses. All over the place. Especially in the weeds. Or in the apple tree (hence why I wasn't so keen on picking up apples last year.) I'm also not really into physical labor - especially outside. What can I say - I'm a wimp. I'm scared of power tools - hey the lawn mower is a power tool isn't it? I figure if you can lose limbs - it's a power tool and I should be scared (7th grade shop class was a living nightmare for me.) Plus I sunburn really easily - like in 20 minutes easily. And I hate sunscreen! It's slimy!

Which is why I've always hoped that Dean would just do it all and we'd have a beautiful yard. So instead I'm learning to suck it up. I will get me some muscles, so I'm not such a wimp! I bought me some super duper leather gardening gloves so if I accidentally touch a bug, I might not notice. I'm learning to not look very closely as I weed. (If I pretend the bugs aren't there, then they disappear, right?) Last year I used the drill (all by myself) for the first time, so maybe I can work my way up to the lawn mower and weed whacker.

I'll just keep telling myself - I can do it!

A Smattering of Birthdays and Such

2011-04-08T11:25:00.016-06:00

Okay so first I'm going to blame someone else for me not posting, because it's mostly their fault! Our computer went CRAZY so we took it into Best Buy (since I bought the warranty) and after their "geeks" having it for 1 1/2 months we finally got it back with a new motherboard, but still doing the exact same thing. But since it was now "programming" why it wasn't working, it wasn't covered under the warranty. So since I hadn't made recovery discs and computers no longer come with them (ARGH!) we then had to wait until HP shipped me some discs so I could wipe the whole computer back to new status. I don't know what's wrong with it, but if we let it do the automatic Windows updates it goes back to crazy mode. So I had to redo it twice again and now I have the automatic updates completely shut off. So hopefully I don't ever need them. Then after having to load everything back up and fix it from "new" status, this was the first opportunity I've had to post.

We have a netbook, which is how I kept up with all my other stuff. But it's slow and there was no way I was loading videos and pictures onto it. Let alone trying to post on blogger....

So now I'm going to do a massive post vs. a whole bunch of little posts.

Here are some misc. pictures.

This is the baby doll Scarlett got for free from the GameStop clerk. You can't see it's ugly face, but believe me - not pretty! But she loves it.

Trying on Alexandra's Pikachu mask. It is hilarious to hear her say Pikachu.

Riley managed to score this hat at Claire's on clearance for $1. She loves it and looks so cute in it.

Just a cute picture of my girls at the mall.

And here are some pictures of my shoe/sock fiend.

She's still at it. In fact before I changed her diaper today for nap I had to pull two of Deans socks off of one foot, while trying to keep hers on.

In January we had Aric's birthday. I was so excited. I went all out for him. I made him "Sushi".

And he actually ate some too!

He had a ninja cake! (The sushi cake was a surprise!)

He tried to hide from me taking a picture of him in his Birthday Crown.

Apparently candles will melt plastic ninja swords....oops!

And this was when I surprised him with his sushi cake!

He loves Nightmare Before Christmas.

And I couldn't help myself. When I saw this at the $ store I just had to get it for him. It just screamed Aric to me.

And now you know why!

Then in February Riley turned 10. 10!!!!! Is she really that old? Am I really that old?????

For her birthday she got cookbooks, an apron, and tons of dragon stuff. She's very into dragons.

At school the 4th graders have been learning about Colorado history and they put on a performance. All of the kiddos got to either be a narrator or someone from Colorado history. Riley was a Native American basket maker (I don't remember her actual name...I'm a horrible parent).

It was an awesome program!! And I must say the costumes were amazing!!! (I was one of the two mom's that braved the county's costume trailer to get them...needless to say I won't be volunteering for that job when Alexandra's in 4th grade.)

The both girls did Oral Interpretation again this year. Although now the school is changing the name to Junior Poetry Jamm. I had issues getting my camera on, so I only got Alexandra on video. She actually did a poem by herself and then this one with her friends. I love her bow at the end!

Then we had spring break and had tons of family in town! My niece Jen and her boyfriend came from Alaska, Nan and Pop came from Idaho, and my Sister-in-law Tari and her family came in from Arizona. (Tari is Jen's mom)

So here are some random pics from that week.

Jen, Annie, and Scarlett

Scarlett playing dice with George and loving it. She'd throw them, giggle and he'd hand them back to her.

I love this one! When Riley and Alexandra were little, they always took a long time to warm up to Nan and Pop when they'd come visit. But not Scarlett. She climbed right up in Pop's lap.

We went to the museum one day and this is Dean and Alexandra on the climbing wall in Expedition Health.

Crazy hair day was the last day of school before spring break. Riley only wanted color in her hair (I think it had something to do with the fact they were going on a field trip and she didn't want to look too crazy.)

Dean had his birthday during spring break. My camera was out of batteries, and I didn't have any charged so this picture came from my mom's camera.

My mom got him a grill! This was part of the 2 day project of putting it together. We used it for the first time last night and it was awesome!!!

Alexandra also had her 7th birthday during spring break. I forgot I needed new batteries (from Dean's birthday), so I hurried and put some in. I got to take one picture and then I got the message that my memory was full....ARGH! By the time we were able to download the pictures off the card, she was done unwrapping. Mom does have pictures, but I'd have to wait till I see her again to get them, so here is her one picture -

She got mostly science stuff. The Aquasaurs are growing (and if I'd know they grow up to 2 inches long I'm not sure I'd have bought it for her) and she loves watching them. Once they get big enough I'll take a picture of them. They are supposed to have 140 legs and 3 eyes and an exoskeleton. Ew! I thought they were gonna be small and hard to see like sea monkeys....boy was I wrong. She got several mining kits and crystal growing kits. She's huge into rocks and crystals. Here is her first rock she got out of her mining kit.

It took her two days to mine that chunk and she got 5 gems/crystals. She loved it. She has another kit that has geodes to mine. She also got a moon that lights up with the different phases and a glow in the dark star kit to stick to her ceiling. Both her and Riley loved that!

Scarlett has discovered that warm weather means super fun stuff in the backyard. I'm so glad I didn't get rid of all of Alexandra's outside toys she got for her 2nd birthday when she outgrew them. Scarlett already loves them WAY more then Alexandra ever did.

Here she is in the little pink car. She hasn't quite figured out how to get it to go forward on her own, but she backs up amazingly! And she hates having to get out of it. Every time we go outside she runs for the car and hops in. So not fun when we're running late...

She has also discovered the fun of slides. Although yesterday when I got the camera out she decided to be even braver. Now she turns around on the top of the slide so she can go down on her belly. Boy does it make me nervous watching her. Usually I'm right next to her (just in case) but I had to back up to take video...oh my poor nerves.

Also I had sprayed the slide down with static cling stuff so she's only sliding at half speed because the spray slows her down. When she's not slowed down she seriously goes flying off the end. It's cute and she loves it. Her pants are going to need some serious Shout once the grass gets a little greener.

Alexandra and Riley got these horses for Christmas when Riley was 4 and Alexandra was 18 months (ish).

We had a great day outside yesterday!

Things I Don't Want to Forget

2011-02-27T16:55:00.004-07:00

So I'm sitting here in bed sick with what I'm assuming is the flu. The aches and pains and weakness kinda gave it away. Scarlett is sitting here in bed with me doing some of her funny things and I just wanted to write some of them down before they get forgotten in the craziness of life. And yes I know I have tons of other post I need to do, but even typing wears me out!

Currently she has been laying on top of me with Riley's applicator from her cell phone lip gloss and is brushing it all over my face (luckily Riley hasn't used it yet so there is no lip gloss on it) telling me to "Old Still!" It's making me laugh which is a good thing.

All buttons are called "Butts!" So her belly button is her "Belly Butt!" And I can't tell you how many times a day I have to tell her she can't push buttons, whether it's on the phone, remote, keyboard, or any other appliance that happens to have buttons.

She loves to "Hinny" (hiding). If you have a blanket she wants you to throw it on top of her so she can "Hinny". She also loves hiding things and asking you "Where'd it go?" The best is when she pulls her hand into her sleeve so you can't see it and asks "Where'd it go?" and then shoves her hand out "Der it is!"

She still calls Riley and Alexandra "Riley". Although at one point she would say "Riley" and "Not Riley". I'm not sure that was any better. We have caught her a couple of times saying "Allie", but it sounds so much like Riley it's hard to tell.

She loves to point out letters that she knows anytime she sees them. Currently those letters are C, U, S, B, G and her all time favorite of O. Seriously anytime she sees an O she has to show it to you.

Her shoe fetish has grown and now includes socks. She loves putting on socks. She will do it for hours! Especially if there is someone next to her to help her get the "stuck" socks off. I think the most she has had on one foot is 3 so far. Two of hers and one of Riley's. She loves putting Dean's and mine on because she can pull them all the way up her leg. I can no longer put socks on her in the morning. She has to do it. And then we have a big fight because she doesn't want me to put shoes on, she wants to take them off and do it again. Although once I tell her we're going Bye-Bye the shoe fight stops.

She is so good about going to bed and down for naps most days. But the cutest thing is when I tell her it's Ni-Ni time she says "Hug and Kiss!" and we have to give everyone who is home a hug and a kiss.

She loves to chase her sisters and be chased. I love hearing her little giggle as they run down the hall.

She's found she loves to push her shopping cart all over the downstairs. It's fun to watch cuz she'll just push it around and around in a circle all over the house.

She such a cutie and people love to give her things. We were walking into King Soopers the other day when one of the baggers stopped us and wanted to talk to her. For those of you who don't live in this area, most of the baggers at the big supermarkets are disabled. So Paul was talking to her and trying to get her to say "Hi Paul!" It was very cute. When he decides he wants to give her a brand new quarter. So he sorts through his change and finds a quarter for her. I felt so bad taking the quarter from him, but I knew it meant a lot for him to give it to her. He kept telling me to hold on to it, so she wouldn't lose it. Then he asked me if I had any other kids, so I told him she had 2 sisters and he gave me quarters for them too. Really he was just a sweet, sweet man. Then a couple of days later we were at Game Stop picking up Valentine's presents for the family. Scarlett of course was trying to wreak havoc on the shelves while I was trying to check out. I said something jokingly to the clerk about how they don't think about the little kids when they put shelves that low. And I also said how much fun she'd had playing with their display of Babysitting Mama games. It's a WII game that comes with a huge doll and it's in a crib for packaging. You can look at the link to see it if you want. The clerk tells me to wait just a sec and then comes around the counter and starts looking at all the packages. He then gives me their "Demo" doll that doesn't have a game for Scarlett. I couldn't believe that he just gave it to us. The other clerk though made me laugh, because he said "Yeah, get rid of it. It's creepy looking." The doll is half the size of Scarlett and she loves packing it around. She's not even 2 and is already getting presents from men.....I'm not sure that is a good sign...

She loves soup. All soup. My other girls don't even really like soup now. But Scarlett will sit and eat soup with me all the time. Her favorite is split pea or vegetable.

She loves to have pretty things like "Brett"s in her hair. (Barrettes) She loves to grab headbands and put them on and have you tell her how pretty she looks.

I love to hear her laugh. She has the best little giggle. Alexandra was making her laugh last night and I just loved it.

She loves her little shape ball that she has and is amazingly good at putting the shapes back in it. I don't remember the other two being able to put them back when they were this little. It probably helps that her ball has shapes in different colors that match the cutouts in the ball where they go....

She loves to get in the "TUBBIE!" and you have to be careful to not say that word around her, unless you are planning on putting her in.

Dean has always done what we call Jump Hugs with the girls before bed. They stand across the room and run and jump on him. She just recently started doing it like her sisters. She stands across the room and says "One, Two, Free" and then runs and jumps.

I hear a lot of "Mine" and "Let Go!" during the day, but she is getting better little bit by bit.

I can't remember if I blogged about her "Ach Knee" but that is what she says for excuse me. And recently she has figured out that she needs to say "Ach You" when it's someone else. It's super cute! She also says "Bess You!" when anyone sneezes.

I love this little girl and love being able to be a part of all her growing up! I'm glad she and her sisters love each other so much!

Scarlett's Latest

2011-01-22T13:47:00.003-07:00

So while I'm in the blogging mode, I figured I'd update on all that Scarlett's up to.

Her vocabulary continues to grow. She loves to chatter and it's fun figuring out what she means. She also understands A LOT more then she can say. I constantly find myself laughing at her.

The other day she was walking around holding the tip of her nose and then she would blow out through her nose and she would say "It's snot!!" Which it was. It was so gross, yet so funny at the same time.

She calls both of her sisters "Riley". It doesn't matter how much we try, we can't get her to say Alexandra. Some day she will....

She loves to stick her lower lip out and wiggle her jaw back and forth. It is hilarious, but she has yet to do it while I'm videotaping her.

She loves to "Go!Go!" but absolutely hates her stroller. So when she has to go on walks with me, it's horrible. But the more we do it the better she gets. Plus when we're done walking she gets to look at the puppies in the pet store window - which she loves.

She loves to dance. If there is music on - she's dancing!

Her fascination with shoes continues to grow. She will now spend literally hours sitting trying to put her shoes on her feet - or her sisters shoes....

If I'm not home, she wanders the house looking for "Mama?"

When we pick up her sisters or they come home, she runs up to them and gives them such big hugs. I love it!!

She loves pointing out body parts - especially if they are someone else's. At least she's getting better about poking my eyes out....

She loves to play with the cat. And he is getting better about letting her pet on him. But we bought him a stick with strings hanging from it for the girls to play with him. And she thinks it's great, but she uses it like a whip......poor cat!

She loves to push buttons of any kind. If it has a button she will push it. I can't tell you how many times I find that she's stopped the washing machine (front loader so the buttons are down where she can reach - and the control lock out does not lock the power button! And since she's figured out it's the only button that works - that's the one she pushes.)

That's all I can think of right now, plus the dryer is beeping at me and if I don't take care of it right away...it'll just sit there.

My New Year's Goals

2011-01-22T12:19:00.006-07:00

So even though I actually started working on these starting in December I'm just going to call them my New Year's Goals. I really feel like I'm going to accomplish a lot this year.

In December one of the moms at school decided she was going to go walking every morning at a mall near my house. I jokingly told her that I could join her because then I could walk and wouldn't be out in the cold breaking out in hives. So the next day she asked if I was serious about coming and I told her only a little bit. But I decided to try it out and I love it! We walk around this mall twice which equals about 3 miles. There are usually 2 of us but sometimes we are up to 4 moms! We just go right after we drop the kiddos off at school. It's kinda funny because it's an old mall and almost all of the shops are closed, but yet I remember when it was the only mall around and THE cool place to go. It's been great having the other mom's to talk to while we walk. Yesterday we did 3 times around and I've really been feeling great. I haven't had the nerve to weigh myself. It helps that I don't have a scale! But I know I'm in better shape then I was before. This is also the longest that I have exercised consistently. And I'm already trying to figure out in my head how to keep going during summer vacation.

Also in December a friend of mine blogged about her card box. I had heard of this idea before and decided to check out the book where the idea started from. I looked it up on Amazon first and decided I was gonna check out another book at the same time. These were the two books I checked out.

Sink Reflections

Sidetracked Home Executives

I loved reading them (and I'm not a self-help book person). I read both of them within like 3 days. Both books just literally spoke to me. I found myself saying "That's just like me!" I then spent a while on www.flylady.net reading through some of the stuff there. I decided to do a combination of both programs. I love how Sink Reflections does the cleaning, but I didn't like the idea of a control journal. I love my card box. Every time I file a card under done I feel so proud of myself for accomplishing something. Which is also why I have a card for every chore. I need the positive reinforcement of filing the cards every time I do something. I HATE checklists, it feels like there is always something I haven't done. I love how neither book made me feel like a complete loser for not being a good housekeeper. I'm working on my "baby steps" and have to keep reminding myself that "It didn't get dirty in a day and it's not gonna get clean in one!" But I can already feel like I'm getting better. It's only little bit by little bit, but I really think this is going to work for me. I'm working on getting my morning routine down and some of the weekly items. But mostly I'm working on decluttering. It's been freeing to get rid of some of the stuff around my house. I'm using the "If I don't love it, or if it doesn't bless my home - it's gone!" There is so much stuff I've held onto just in case we might need it. And I have to say if I haven't used it in the 10 years we've been married - I don't need it and I'm okay with giving it away! That's been hard on me - I love holding onto stuff. But I just put it in a bag and put it in the car and don't think about it again. Then I drop by ARC when I pick the girls up. Thank goodness there is a drop off near by, it helps with getting rid of everything quickly! Here are some pictures of my box.

These are my cards I have left for today!

See I even have a card for blogging (although today is the first day I've managed to get to that one!) I love that if I don't get something done, I can put it in the next days cards or I can just wait until it comes up again next week. Every day it seems like I'm getting more and more of them accomplished. Plus the decluttering just keeps adding up too. Eventually I'll be there. I even took pictures of my messy house and I'm going to take pictures in 6 months and see how I've done. And that is my huge goal for the year - to become a better housekeeper!!

While I was browsing around on blogs I found an awesome idea here for my menu planning. I always make a menu before I go grocery shopping on payday. Usually I would print up a blank calendar page and then sit and try to figure out meals. I love my new menu holder!

So to make it I picked up trading card binder pages (they were cheaper then the business card holder pages), and some blank business cards. I found out though that if you use the trading card pages you can cut a 3x5 card in half and use it instead of business cards (lots cheaper!) I sat with my recipes and cook books one afternoon and wrote a card for all the meals we like that I make. The name of the meal went on the front and the ingredients needed went on the back. Now I have a little expanding folder (picked up at Target's dollar spot) where I'm keeping all my cards. As I make the meal I take the card out of the holder and put it in the folder. That way when I ask what everyone wants for dinner, they can go look in the pantry and see what meals I have the ingredients to make. (I'm not one for planning out this meal on this date and so on, I like to be able to have what I feel like making! Because some days I don't feel like cooking, so I can pick an easy recipe that day.) Now when I need to make my menu for grocery shopping I just count up how many meals I need till the next payday (dang paydays that change all the time!) and pick out cards and place them in the holder. Then I flip them over (I use two holders) and write down my grocery list. Super easy! Now I'm not forgetting some weird ingredient when I make up my list. Then I hang them up on my little 3M Command Hooks (that were saved from the ones I bought years ago for hanging our stockings) that I put on the pantry door. I love it!!! It has seriously made menu planning/grocery list making so much quicker and easier. Plus I can set aside the cards I used and try to pick new cards, so we don't end up with the same 14+ meals over and over again.

This year I just feel like I'm becoming a better me! At least that's what I'm hoping for!

Christmas 2010 or Who was supposed to be taking pictures??

2011-01-22T11:44:00.004-07:00

So silly me. I kept thinking I had tons of photos to upload so I kept putting off blogging. Boy was I wrong! Apparently I forgot I was supposed to be taking pictures. Although I think Dean had the camera during the Christmas present part......

A few weeks before Christmas my mom usually makes sugar cookies with the girls. This year they did it at my house. Aric usually helps with the cookies, but he had to work that morning so I did the cookies and he came over later to decorate. The girls had a blast! Although Alexandra had to keep washing her hands over and over because she'd lick them anytime she got frosting or sprinkles on them.

Scarlett got to join in the fun too. Although she liked when we were making the cookies better. Mom gave her a piece of dough and at first she touched it and said "Yucky!" but then Mom shoved a little bit in her mouth and from then on she kept wanting more "Yum!Yum!" It was cute you'd give her a little piece and she'd sit and dance while she ate it.
Dean's work schedule went all crazy the week of Christmas. We had planned to do Christmas Eve Brunch with his family and then Christmas morning with mine. He was supposed to go in at 2 pm both days. But the graveyard shift had people call in and go on leave, so his shift had to rearrange to help cover. So Dean ended up working graves on Christmas Eve and then he would get off at 6am Christmas day and have to be back to work by 2 pm on Christmas. So knowing that he was going to need all that time to sleep we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve.

His family came over in the morning and we had brunch and opened presents and had a great time just visiting. Then later that afternoon I put the ham in the oven and got everything ready for dinner and then my family came over and we did stockings and then presents and then had Christmas dinner. It was a great day!

Scarlett was still down for a nap when my parents and Aric got there, so I'd let the girls open their stockings. Then when she got up she opened hers (with help). Her two favorite gifts were in the stocking. She got Super Why Sippy cups. Which she loves!!!
And this little glowworm baby. I remember having glowworms when I was little. She loves her baby! And when you press her belly her face lights up and she sings.
Scarlett's big presents were wooden puzzles. She loves to sit and take them apart and try to put them back together. She's gotten pretty good at putting them back, but she loves when someone will sit with her and help her.

Alexandra's big present was a microscope. The rest of her presents were all science-y stuff, like slides and science project kits. We had a great time on Christmas playing with all her kits (and making a mess!)
Riley's big present was a huge art kit. It's a huge storage kit that turns into an easel, plus it came PACKED with supplies. She has had a blast painting. And so far she's been really good about keeping it all cleaned up and out of reach of Scarlett. I was really worried since the kit has oil and acrylic paints in it.

It was an awesome day and I loved that we were able to spend Christmas just relaxing and playing with their new stuff.

Nan got me some toe socks....And I have to say they look super cute on me!

Riley's Awards

2010-12-03T21:04:00.003-07:00

Today was awards day for the first trimester at school. They do this for 3rd - 6th grade. (It was also pajama day....who's idea was that???)

The kids can receive an Academic Award for having B's or better on their report card, or a Principals Honor Roll Award for having all A's. Also the teachers have a few nomination awards for their class. And the specials teachers have nominations for the grades. Riley received an Academic Award. She also received a Teacher Nomination from her teacher for "showing excellent acts of kindness, good citizenship, and classroom behavior". There were only 3 kids from her class chosen for this award. She also received a Teacher Nomination from the Art teacher for "Outstanding citizenship and achievement in Art". Only 2 4th graders received an award for Art.

I'm very proud of my Riley! This report card was the best I've seen from her and I'm so glad that her teachers recognized her for all her hard work and also for being the loving and kind Riley that I know!

Our New Additions!

2010-12-03T19:35:00.002-07:00

Riley and Alexandra receive allowance twice a month (when Dean gets paid). They get an amount equal to their age, so Riley gets $9 and Alexandra gets $6. They have banks with 3 separate sections that I got from Deseret Book. So when I get their allowance from the bank I get it all funky with lots of change so they can do tithing and savings. I'm sure the bank people love to see me come in! They have to put 10% in tithing and 10% in savings and the rest is theirs to use however they want. When we first started this, I had been buying little things from the $1 spot at Target or just little toys for them. So once we started their allowance I stopped buying little things for them and they had to do it for themselves. This greatly helped our budget and we found that I spent less giving them allowance. Also we decided not to have allowance tied to their chores. The chores and work around the house they do because they are a part of the family. Also, just in case we couldn't afford to pay allowance any more, I didn't want to have to deal with the whole - "Why should I do chores if I'm not getting paid for it anymore". I know those teenage years are right around the corner.......

Our rule for them to use their savings is when they think of something they really want to spend that money on, we write it down on the calendar. If they still want it in a month and have enough money they can get it. So far Riley had used it twice and Alexandra had used it once. My goal is to teach them early how to save and pay tithing. I'm hoping that if they've never known not paying them, that it will be an easy habit for them when they grow up. I didn't want them to feel that savings was money that they put in a box and never used, so that's why we came up with the month rule. I want them to see that if they do save they can get really big things that they want. I have always been horrible at saving money, and I want to give my girls the chance to not be like me!!!

So Alexandra decided months ago that she wanted to save up all of her allowance to get a guinea pig. I was pretty sure it wasn't going to happen, but told her if she did she could have one. She'd never even managed to save more then 2 allowances and this was going to take at least 3 months worth. I told her she could even use her savings to help, since this was going to be a want she would have for more than one month. So she saved and saved (we knew that guinea pigs were about $40 at the pet store). Then last month after they received their amazing report cards (they get $5 for good report cards) we counted all of their money. Alexandra had (between savings and allowance) $58 and Riley had $64. Riley had decided to start saving up her money at the same time to see if she could buy something really cool. So we started looking online at pet stores and craigslist at guinea pigs. We found some at an animal shelter for $10. Riley decided (mostly because Alexandra wasn't going to let her play with her pet - at least that's what she told Riley) that she wanted one too. So I told them if we went down to the shelter and they had siblings we could probably do 2 guinea pigs. (They are supposedly easier if you have more than one). So we went down and fell in love with:

(He doesn't have red eyes - it's the flash!)

They are brothers and the shelter thought they were probably about 5 months old, so not as big as they are going to be. They are so cute and ALL the girls love them.

So we adopted the two of them. Riley named hers (the one with the black and brown face) Squeakers. Alexandra's (the one with the white on the face) is named Reeses. I had wanted Riley to name her's Snickers, but she wouldn't go for it. Riley's has lived up to it's name and is the louder of the two. Not that he's that loud, but when Riley pets him he has this purring squeak going on. They have adjusted quite well to my girls who want to pet them at all hours. And (speaking as someone who really didn't like guinea pigs - I think it's cuz my sister had them for pets) I'm very glad that we have them. They are super cute and the girls are loving having pets that are all their own.

The night we got them, we went to Petsmart and got all that they needed. We already had a huge cage from when our old bunny used to live inside. I told the girls I would provide the food and cage bedding, but they had to buy the rest. So they had a great time picking a house, water bottle, toys, treats, dishes, and the wire fence for letting them run around the living room in. Then the money they had left they split evenly between their savings and allowance boxes. I was very proud of them, because I left it up to them what they wanted to do with the left over money. I know as a kid I would have picked keeping it all in allowance. It makes me feel like they really are getting it. As much as any little kid gets saving up money.

November Enrichment

2010-12-03T19:02:00.002-07:00

In November we had Enrichment for our Ward's Relief Society. It was an awesome holiday party. I had a great time visiting with some of the awesome sisters in our ward while I learned how to make a "Gingerbread Nativity". It was super fun and I loved making it! And the girls loved eating it!

Halloween

2010-12-03T18:57:00.002-07:00

Okay so I was horrible with taking Halloween pictures this year. Mostly because I spent every Halloween activity that we went to chasing Scarlett. So these are two of the very few pictures I have. Alexandra wanted to be a black cat. Scarlett was a peacock. And Riley was Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon. (And yes I feel absolutely horrible that I have no pictures of Riley....)

Alexandra couldn't wear her mask at school, but when she had it on, it had this catwoman pleather look to it. And Scarlett is up in the first picture throwing a fit in the corner.

Can You Believe It?

2010-12-01T18:21:00.002-07:00

Scarlett is 18 months old today!!

I can't believe how big she's gotten, and I can't believe how quickly time has flown by!

We went to the doctors today and here are her 18 month stats:

Weight - 28 lbs .4 oz (91st %)

Height - 34.5" (99th%)

She is still a (very) little behind developmentally, but nothing that the doctor is concerned about at all.

I love being able to spend all day with her. Most days she is a joy and makes me laugh. She has 13 teeth - all 8 front top and bottom, 4 molars, and 1 canine (although the other 3 canines are trying to come in too). She loves dolls, balls, balloons, chocolate, Tiger (our cat), and her sisters "Piggies" (Guinea pigs - a post for another time). Her favorite TV shows are Super Why, Magic School Bus, and The Cat in The Hat Knows A Lot About That. In fact if I'm watching Netflix Instant Watch on the Wii, she tries to ask for Super Why - although it sounds like "U (blah blah) Fry"? I love the fact that the shows she loves are all meant for older kids (and are all about learning!!!!) Her vocabulary is getting better. Binks are no longer "Bees" they are "Binkys". Balloons are no longer "Balls" they are "Balloooooos". She loves to climb, and in fact I would not be surprised if we have broken bones sometime soon. She climbs on EVERYTHING. In fact the other day she had climbed onto the back of the couch and was trying to get to the top of the cat tree. She constantly climbs on the tables. She climbs up on the toilet to get to her sisters toothbrushes and toothpaste. If it can be climbed on - she has done it. She loves her sisters! She loves to give them kisses and hugs when we drop them off at school in the morning. And gets very excited when it's time to pick them up "Go Go Riley!" She holds very still for you to hold new clothes up to her to check sizes and LOVES shoes. I have a feeling she is going to love shopping! She loves to color, especially on herself if her sisters have left markers down. I love watching her grow and learn new things every day!

I love this little munchkin!!!

The Olive Miracle

2010-11-15T08:50:00.002-07:00

So I had my own little miracle on Sunday!

Two weeks ago in my primary class the lesson was all about keeping the Sabbath Day holy.

Yesterday we were having a family get together since Cindy's in town. I decided to make a pasta salad for the dinner. Saturday night while lying in bed I remembered I didn't have any olives. I knew I didn't have any olives because we'd had tacos last week and I had searched through the cupboards and found the last can then. So since everyone's in bed, and I'm not gonna wake them up to run to the store, I decided I would just stop at the store on the way home from church. (GASP) I know......but it was for family.....at least that was what I kept telling myself. So Sunday when I woke up all I could think was "I taught the kids they weren't supposed to shop on Sunday. I'm a horrible person." So I decided that I wasn't going to pick up any olives and my salad would just be oliveless. After I had gotten mostly ready for church, I was getting all the stuff together for the salad and guess what I found in my cupboard......That's right. A beautiful can of olives. I didn't even have to look for it. It was sitting right in the front on one shelf. I knew right away it was because I had committed to keeping the Sabbath Day. Who knew that Heavenly Father would bless me that way. Sometimes it just amazes me how much love our Heavenly Father has for us. Because a can of olives was important to me, it was important to Him!

Apparently I Taste Funny.....

2010-11-12T08:37:00.003-07:00

Scarlett's new words for yesterday and today are "YUCK!" and "EEEWWWW!" When she says them she usually laughs too. Yesterday she'd come and sit on my lap and lick my arm and then say "YUCK!" and start giggling hysterically.

She also love the show The Cat in the Hat Knows a lot About That. She loves the song they sing. In fact this morning she refused to drink her bottle because she wanted to sing along - "Go, Go, Go, Go, GO!" I'll have to see if I can get a video of her doing it.

Pumpkins

2010-10-26T10:36:00.003-06:00

Almost two weeks ago we went to the pumpkin patch with my friend Beth and her kids. Beth took some awesome photos for me! And the girls picked great pumpkins.

Then yesterday we carved our pumpkins. I was lazy this year and just looked up free stencils on the internet. Alexandra picked:

And had Dean carve it for her. Riley picked:

And she carved it all by herself (and mostly cleaned it by herself.) And I thought I'd try something a little bit more difficult:

I had to glue part of the "O" back in! We had a huge scare though when we went to light the candles. Dean started on Alexandra's pumpkin and apparently the lighter had a fluid leak so when he pulled the lighter out it started a huge fireball around his hand. Luckily only the fluid burned up. Dean is okay (other then a few singed arm hairs) and the carpet where he dropped the lighter didn't get burned at all. So Dean has learned if you feel the fluid coming out stop lighting it!! We found another lighter and then used it to make the pictures brighter. The little tealight candles weren't giving off much light.

Leaves!

2010-10-26T09:50:00.003-06:00

When we first bought the house we were "warned" by the previous owners that we would have a lot of leaves to rake....little did we know....

The first year we thought - How beautiful! How fun! We spent hours raking the leaves into piles and then let the girls jump in them. Because we were tired from the hours of raking we unfortunately left the piles on the lawn and it snowed....which resulted in several dead spots of grass when spring came. Needless to say we learned our lesson.

The next year we were very tempted to take up the little kid who knocked on the door when he offered to rake our lawn for $10. Unfortunately I didn't have any cash, plus I would have felt horrible making him rake it all for only $10. Eventually it either got raked or mowed up, I don't remember. Plus I have avoided the leaves since I learned my lesson the first year.

Last year I had my mom get Dean a leaf blower (I'm pretty sure it was his birthday present). So last year he vacuumed up the leaves. The girls were very disappointed. They loved being able to jump in leaves.

So this year, the girls asked me if I could make leaf piles for them. And they must have caught me in a good mood because I said yes. So Saturday I pulled out the leaf blower and figured out how to make it work and blew all the leaves in our front yard into a huge pile. The pile was huge and the trees were really only about half empty. The girls had a blast. I learned that while the leaf blower is WAY easier then raking - it still takes muscles that I apparently don't have. (My forearms have hurt for the past two days!)

I love you!

2010-10-25T10:48:00.004-06:00

Scarlett can now say "I love you!" It's super cute even when she's screaming it because she's upset. I tried to get some video of it. The first she's just being super cute, but I get her to say it in the 2nd video! In fact as I was sitting here looking through the videos on the computer she keeps saying it, but I know if I get the camera out she'll clam up!

Red Ribbon Week

2010-10-25T09:45:00.011-06:00

The last week in October is Red Ribbon Week. This is a week that schools promote being drug free in remembrance of a DEA agent who was tortured and killed while undercover in Mexico investigating drug cartels. Last year I was in charge of the weeks activities and handouts. I had heard about this assembly that the CO National Guard would do for schools, but it was past the deadline for us to sign up. I asked the principal if I could try for it this year and he told me yes. So during September I contacted the CO National Guard and got the application and sent it back in. Luckily we have a big field so we were able to pick having a helicopter come to the school. If you can't have a helicopter you can get a Humvee instead.

The entire school gathered on the field while we waited. At first the helicopter flew over. And then the two National Guard members who were on the ground held the radio up to the PA system and the kids got to hear the pilot say he was lost and ask if the kids could make a lot of noise so they could find us. I have to say even though you knew it was scripted it was awesome!

When the helicopter landed, 2 DEA officers climbed out and then gave a presentation on what Red Ribbon Week is about. Then they talked about how if you stay drug free you can grow up to be whatever you want. The helicopter pilot talked about how being drug free helped him to become a pilot. Then they had some kids come up and talk about what they wanted to be when they grew up and had them make a promise to not use drugs. Then the kids got to line up and see/touch the helicopter.

I felt like the awesomest mom ever! I'm so glad that I'm involved in PTA and with my girls school.

Field Day

2010-10-25T09:26:00.003-06:00

So time to play catch up again. Although from now on I'm not going to say anything about catching up...it makes me feel like a slacker.

Our school does field day at the beginning of the year. Because the girls are far enough apart grade-wise I end up being at the school all day long. Riley's was in the morning.

I loved watching the Omnikin. So did Scarlett. She kept trying to crawl down to get the "BALL!"

Then we ate lunch in Alexandra's classroom and got to watch her in the afternoon.

She loved the hurdles. She was so proud of herself for not knocking any down at all.

They played Omnikin too, but with a much smaller ball.

By this point in the afternoon Scarlett was beyond exhausted but I couldn't get her to take a nap. Every time the kids would jump she would laugh hysterically at them. Some of the kids loved it and then others were trying to figure out why she was laughing at them.

It was a very long day, but I always love to watch the girls participate.

Bouncing Zebra

2010-09-08T11:16:00.003-06:00

This is her new favorite toy!

Thanks to one of my VT for giving it to me! She loves it so much! She has learned how to get off and on all by herself. I tried to get a video of that, but she wouldn't get off last night while I had the camera out. (Also on a side note about the video - she loves the girls Aquafresh toothpaste. So if it gets left on the counter where she can reach it, she tries to eat it. Hence the toothpaste on her chin.)

Another phrase she is saying is good girl "gud grrr"! And she is learning to go down stairs - which is hilarious to watch. She lays down on the floor (a few steps away from the stairs) and then pushes herself backwards on the floor till she reaches the steps. Yay for arm muscles!!!

Getting So Big!

2010-09-04T08:47:00.004-06:00

Sometimes it amazes me how quickly Scarlett is growing up. I know it shouldn't shock me since I have 2 other kids, but it does.

This week her vocabulary has grown tons. She says thank you (tank oo), bink (bee), up (a very breathy UUUHHHH), kitty (keykey), dancing (danin), ball and cookie (which both sound exactly like they should). No still mostly means yes, although Alexandra was being a little rough the other day and Scarlett gave her this mean look and said NO! So she's sort of starting to use it correctly. Grammy was over for dinner on Wednesday and I was feeding Scarlett and she said "no tank oo" which really meant give me more faster!! It had us all laughing.

Scarlett has also decided that she is too big for baby food. I knew she was starting to hate cereal, but this week I had several jars that she would take one bite and then tell me she was all done ("no" with big wavy hands). Really it's a good thing I understand her language! So now I have to plan meals that have stuff she can eat as well. Which is actually helping me be good and cook instead of wanting to eat out. She was eating a banana yesterday and when it was gone I told her it was all done and she looked at me and said "Cookie?" What can I say she knows what she likes!

She is trying to walk everywhere now. She really makes a conscious effort to walk instead of crawl. But you can tell she gets frustrated by not going fast enough. She has also discovered all her toys that she can push while walking and LOVES it!

Here is a picture of her playing PS with Riley. It was so cute! She would wave the controller all around.

School has been great so far for Riley and Alexandra. Alexandra absolutely loves being at school all day. When she gets home she just sits and chatters on and on about what they did during the day. I'm so glad that she is liking school so much! Riley is enjoying her class (thank goodness!) much more then I thought she was going too. She started to panic when she found out 2 girls that she doesn't like were in her class. But it hasn't been as bad as she thought it would be. Plus her teacher is keeping an eye out for her! (I love that both girls have teachers I know and trust!) Riley is also very proud of her planner that they have this year. They write down goals for the day and what they did and then bring it home to show us. You can tell she feels so grown-up. She almost went out for student council (4th graders can be class representatives) but she decided not too since they meet on Mondays and that's one of the few days she gets to spend time with Dean. I almost cried when she told me - it was such a big decision and she really thought about it. It just amazes me how much she has grown up this year.

I really think this is going to be a great year for us!

4th Grade and 1st Grade

2010-08-24T12:54:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was the girls first day of school. I can't believe how big they are getting! Time goes by WAY too quickly.

I had the evening before and the morning all planned and ready to go - and like most plans - it got completely screwed.

Sunday night I got the girls all in bed - including Scarlett!! When about 10 pm we hear Scarlett fussing. She apparently got a stomach bug (or she Chicken Teriyaki doesn't agree with her). She had thrown up. So Dean got her in the tub and I cleaned her bed and got the laundry going. Then we were sitting with her in our bed when she threw up again. Luckily hardly any got on her. So I changed her clothes and Dean took our comforter downstairs. She finally went back to bed at 11:30 (far from my Mommy in bed by 9:30 plan).

We all woke up at 6:30 and started getting everyone ready. (Scarlett was acting fine at this point) The girls were completely dressed. I had done their hair and was working on Scarlett's hair when she proceeded to throw up her entire bottle all over my lap. Dean grabbed her and headed to the tub and I hurried and cleaned myself off and scrubbed the carpet. Then Riley, Alexandra and I ran out the door.

I had planned on having Dean or I stay with Riley at her class door while the other went with Alexandra. So I asked the girls who needed me most (they were both super nervous) and Riley told me to go with Alexandra since she was littler. We walked Riley to her class and took a picture and gave her hugs and then hurried to Alexandra's class in time for another picture.

Alexandra has Riley's old teacher from Kindergarten and 1st grade. Which I am SO excited about. I love her! Riley has Alexandra's Kindergarten teacher - which again - I love her too!!! So I am very excited about the teachers. Both girls are excited about the teachers, but Riley is having issues because "all of my friends are in the other class". There are only 2 4th grade classes so she had a 50/50 shot, but apparently she has luck like mine. She also has 2 girls in her class that she has had issues with in the past. So she's a little scared. Ah the joy of being the mom of girls - what is it with the whole "I'm not your friend anymore!" deal.....especially since Riley is so tender-hearted and takes everything personally. I'm hoping that it will all work out - plus there are girls in her class that she hasn't been in class with before and so I'm hoping that she will be able to find herself some new friends.

After school Alexandra told me she had a great day! And Riley told me it was a good day except she was sad they didn't do any "subjects". They worked on class rules and getting all of the class stuff and their supplies together and getting to know you stuff - but apparently Riley was ready to learn!

Anxiety

2010-08-18T10:02:00.002-06:00

So apparently I must be having some back to school anxiety - and I'm not even the one going back to school!!! The last couple of days I've had these CRAZY dreams about the girls being back in school. Mostly it's about us being late or having forgotten to taken the girls to school for 3 days. Hopefully the dreams stop next week when they start school!

Dean and I took Riley to Water World yesterday. I had won a free ticket last year at the community celebration at the girls school. Grammy watched Alexandra and Scarlett for us. Scarlett is just way too little and Alexandra is just way too scaredy cat to go. There was no way I was paying that much to just sit with Alexandra while Dean and Riley went on rides. But in the end Alexandra was the one who said she'd rather stay with Grammy. Riley was funny though. After each ride she'd say "Alexandra would have hated that one!" We had an awesome time there. Riley went on several slides that I won't go on. She went on one called Screamin' Mimi. It's this huge slide that you go down on a board with wheels and then you hydroplane across the pool at the bottom. Her face the whole way down was "I'm so scared" and then when she got off I asked her if she liked it and she said "Yes once it was over." She had a blast and was disappointed when we had to leave (although there was only 30 minutes until the park was going to close anyway.) Her favorite rides were the Colorado rapids one and Thunder Bay (it's a huge wave pool). Poor Dean got stuck carrying all the big rafts for the family rides. I was still getting over the cold I've had since Saturday and had trouble breathing while helping carry the tubes up the hills. Riley at one point said "This is the biggest workout I've ever had!" There was one hill that was so steep I was literally sliding out of my sandals every step I took. Granted they were soaking wet, but still. I must say it was fun doing something with just Riley. It's not very often that we get to do something that is more fun for kids her age. Usually she gets stuck going to playgrounds and places for her little sisters. Not that she ever complains, but you could tell she felt so grown up. Plus it was nice for it to be just us and her. We probably don't have too many years left until she doesn't want to do things with us (hopefully not, but I'm realistic about the teenage years.) Also - I barely sunburned!!! Which is amazing for me!! I sunscreened so much yesterday and I'm only a little pink on my shoulders and back. It only takes me 5 minutes in the sun to burn so this truly was amazing!

Monday Scarlett started saying Riley (RIII-Weee). It's so cute. It is the strongest word I've heard her say besides no. But with no she really doesn't get what it means. Half the time when she says no she means yes. You can tell that it makes Riley so happy when she says her name.

Games She Likes To Play

2010-08-09T17:15:00.004-06:00

Peek-a-boo! (We were at the bowling alley.)

Pat-a-cake. The first video is awesome because halfway through she starts saying pat-ca. And she's just super cute in the second.

Playing Catch Up Again!

2010-08-06T19:47:00.003-06:00

So the next several posts will be me catching up. I know you'd think I would have more time in the summer.....so not true!!! Although I'm not really sure where the time went....especially since they start school in 3 weeks. Some of the posts will seem kind of short, but hey I only have so much time before I get pinched by a little one wanting me to pick her "UH!" (up) And yes she does pinch to get your attention. I suppose it's better then biting, but it still hurts horribly!

Just a quick Scarlett update. She is almost walking. She will do a couple of steps and then decide that crawling is much quicker. She has 8 teeth that are definitely though, and 2 more that I can see edges. I think she's getting some molars though...her gums have these huge swollen lumps that I'm assuming are molars, plus she cries if I try to touch them. She has gotten much better about eating. The last two weeks we have been braver and let her eat what we are eating some of the time. Tonight she had some fries, and while she gagged at one point she didn't throw up, so she's getting better!! She is determined to eat whatever I have though. If I am eating there must be something there for her. I have found that she loves Almond Joy candy bars (minus the Almonds). She still hasn't figured out the whole sippy cup thing, but I'm sure one day it'll click. She has several words, but she usually only says them once or twice and then won't say them again for a while. Her favorite phrase is "Wat dis?" as she points at stuff.

Enjoy the reading!

Lakeside 2010

2010-08-06T18:19:00.004-06:00

Thanks to our libraries summer reading program we had free tickets to one of the amusement parks here again. There are several other posts about this park - since we go at least once a summer. Some of you may remember my I'm A Dork post....

Anyways - yay for free things!!

This year Alexandra was still as wimpy as ever. She hardly rode any rides at all. Thank goodness it was free......

Riley on the other hand was finally brave and went on several of the bigger rides. She did have a blast in kiddie land, but I'm afraid she's getting very close to being too big for most of those rides. She went on The Whip and found that it is her new favorite ride.

She went on the scrambler again with me (she tried this a couple of years ago and hated it), but this time she loved it.

She went on a couple of rides with Dean that I wouldn't go on (since they leave the ground). She had a total blast and can't wait to go again.

I would have taken more pictures but it was sprinkling on and off the whole night and I can't handle and umbrella and a camera at the same time.

On a side note - the rain made it awesome! Since it was mostly only sprinkling and very rarely, the temperature was PERFECT!!! No standing and roasting in lines!!! Plus since it wasn't hot I didn't have the girls begging for drinks and ice cream!

Playing

2010-08-06T18:12:00.003-06:00

Just some cute shots.

The girls put some angel wings on Scarlett.

She loved it until she couldn't crawl with them snagging on things.

She loves to help Dean with the dishes!!

Family Reunion

2010-08-06T17:59:00.007-06:00

We went to a family reunion for my dad's side of the family. I find as I'm getting older that I appreciate and enjoy these so much. As a teenager I would have hated it (but then again what things don't teenagers hate....) I love hearing the stories and just listening to the family catching up with each other.

This is the oldest generation that was there.

And here is probably the 60% of us that were still around when it got around to the group shot. (It took forever to get pictures started)

While we were there we took Riley horseback riding. Here is her admiring horses.

We had to wait for our tour while they were hooking up this wagon. Dean wanted me to take a picture to show that the horses were taller then our van (that's not our van in the picture, but this was the better picture of the two).

Here is my horse. He looked like he would be very good....he was not. He was just the naughtiest horse on the trail. I spent most of the time pulling (with all my weight) on the reins trying to keep him from snacking the whole time.

One of the times he was being good! By the way no helmet for me. I wasn't looking like a dork like everyone else. Plus it wouldn't fit over my ponytail. Plus I wasn't scared of the horses.

Riley got her pick of all the little kid horses since she was the only kid on our ride. She told the guy she wanted a pinto!

I know it looks like I took a bunch of pictures, but these were really the only ones. Most of the trails we were on I couldn't handle my horse and a camera at the same time. At one point we went down this steep hill through the woods - off of the trail. When we got done our guide asked us if we felt like real cowboys. Riley replied "or cowgirls!" It was the most fun I've had on a ride. The scenery was beautiful. It was an awesome ride! And I was only sort of sore afterward!

1st Pony and Ponytails

2010-08-06T17:52:00.004-06:00

This is her first pony!! Dean called her his little Indian all day long.

But then her hair got long enough for 2!!!!!

It's so stinking cute. Even with her totally upset over the camera. It's even more funny, because sometimes when she crawls toward me she puts her head down right when she gets to me and rams into me. So now it looks like she's a little bull with horns!!

Riley's Last Award of the Year

2010-08-06T17:47:00.005-06:00

Riley's last award ceremony for the year. With one of her best friends! 3rd grade is the first year they start handing out awards. Next year they start handing them out for grades as well as citizenship.

Alexandra's Last Kindergarten Field Trip

2010-08-06T17:29:00.005-06:00

Because our school district is stupid - they didn't put ANY snow days in the school calendar. And since we had 3 snow days, the kids had to make them up after the year "officially" ended. Yeah, it was stupid. She'd already had kindergarten graduation, but had to go back. In order to make sure they had more kids come back, a lot of the classes saved their last field trip for those last 2 days.

Alexandra's class went to the Butterfly Pavillion. This year she has decided that she is terrified of bugs - so it was a "great" field trip for her. You'll notice there are no pictures of any bugs or butterflies.

It was Scarlett's actual birthday this day though!! Check out her shirt!!

Happy 1st Birthday my girl!

Her teacher holding Rosie the tarantula.

Cutest kindergarten girls EVER!

Look at those busy bees!

Scarlett's First Birthday

2010-08-06T17:11:00.007-06:00

She's 1!!!!! Has it really been a whole year???? We had a great celebration for her birthday on the Sunday before. Grandpa was actually in town so we had family and a few friends over for dinner and presents and cake!!

Ok - so I'm not a professional cake decorator. Good thing 1 year olds aren't picky!!

I loved this hat! She did not....

She did like opening presents though!

She loves this tea set! I love that even though it talks, it's not annoying!

She was there when I bought this ball and kept trying to turn around in the cart to play with it. Needless to say she was very upset when it went right upstairs without her getting to play with it. This is one of her favorite presents.

The other two have horses outside to ride on, so she gets one for inside.

I saw this old school puppy and couldn't resist. I almost bought the old rotary dial phone too, but then realized she'd have no idea what it was....

~Happy Birthday~

What is this? (This is also the first time she'd ever fed herself! I wasn't sure how well she was going to do - I was just hoping she wouldn't gag.)

Hey! This is yummy!!!!

Very yummy!

Oh yeah!

She kept sticking her finger up her nose. If that wasn't fun to clean out....thank goodness for Q-tips!

WHERE'S MY CAKE??????

It was a great day. I'm so grateful to have this little girl in my life. She is amazing and makes my day better EVERY day. She is truly a joy.

Kindergarten Graduation

2010-08-06T16:37:00.006-06:00

Alexandra is a GRADUATE!! She was so excited for this day. She picked out her own brand new graduation dress.

Really Class of '22???

All of the kids in the class and the teachers put their hand prints up on the wall. It was so cute!

She was not very comfortable on the risers.

Mrs. Lowry cried during her speech. This was her very first year teaching, so a very special time for her.

Getting her diploma!

There's my graduate!

Oh yeah, she's cheezy!

And here are some videos:

My favorite part of Kindergarten -

And the class singing the schools "traditional" graduation song. All of the kindergarten classes sing it and I love it!

I can't believe she's all done with kindergarten! It makes me sad to think of her in school all day next year (but happy as well - yeah for more time for me!)

New Milestones

2010-05-19T18:59:00.003-06:00

So last night Scarlett figured out how to pull herself up to standing. It was hilarious. She did it during family prayer and we found out as she pulled everything off the couch. She was so proud of herself. And she has continued to figure out what all she can use to stand up.

This week she has also finally figured out how to roll from her back to her belly. (It's like she's all of the sudden catching up!) And it has made trying to change her diaper quite the event. It was hilarious, she was like a little turtle. If you laid her on her back she was stuck there and couldn't go anywhere. The girls loved it once she started crawling and getting into stuff - they would just lay her down. (Which is probably why she finally learned how to roll over...)

I have to say, I was kinda worried about how far she was behind in some of the development stuff....but now I think of all the things we haven't had to do (lowering the crib, lots of baby proofing) and it was kind of a blessing.

Although now Dean and I are going to go upstairs and fix her crib. We haven't had to lower it at all since she was born. And now we're going to have to lower it almost all the way......

Say No in a Mean Voice

2010-05-15T08:36:00.002-06:00

Last night Scarlett became quite the fiend about shutting the TV off. Riley and Alexandra were getting very upset, so we talked about how we needed to teach Scarlett "No!". I told the girls that they needed to say it to her in a mean voice, so that she would be able to tell the difference. After a while Riley started crying because she didn't want to be mean to Scarlett, so we then had a long talk. We talked about how parents have to sometimes be mean in order to teach their children and that it hurts our feelings to do that, but because we know our children will be better off in the long run we put up with feeling bad. It was kind of amazing to see Riley realize that parents don't like to punish their kids.

Scarlett has been a little better this morning about the TV. She now looks around to see if anyone is watching her before she pushes the button. If she's being watched she'll sit back down and give you this cute smile that says "I wasn't doing anything!" I have to admit though, her cutie little smiles makes it very hard to keep my mean voice going.

A New Holiday!

2010-05-14T11:23:00.002-06:00

Today on the way home from Kindergarten, Alexandra and I were talking about how she has a field trip on June 1st - which is also Scarlett's birthday. Alexandra got very excited and then asked me "Is she born on June Fool's day just like me?"

For those that don't recall - Alexandra's birthday is April 1st.

Attitude

2010-05-13T16:40:00.004-06:00

So a few weeks ago when I posted that Alexandra was not going through a preteen phase, I must have jinxed myself. If the last few weeks are any prediction of what she's gonna be like as a teenager, I'm not sure she's gonna survive...or that I will....

She has just had this horrible attitude lately. She doesn't want to listen to me and she questions everything I say.

The worst that has happened was when we were at school one day setting up the lunch for teacher appreciation week. Scarlett was in her stroller and I was watching a baby for a friend and she was in her carrier. Alexandra kept pushing the stroller and moving it all over the place. So I'd spent 20 minutes telling her to leave the stroller alone. When we left, I parked the stroller on the sidewalk in front of the van and went to put the carrier in the van. Alexandra was again screwing around with the stroller and I told her to stop it. She gave me this look and then gave the stroller a push. Then as if in slow motion I watched the stroller roll forward down the sidewalk and then fall off the curb and tip over. Luckily Scarlett has only a few scrapes and a bruise, but oh I could've beat Alexandra. (I'm not a spanking person either, but that was the closest I've ever been to doing it). So Scarlett is screaming and Alexandra is hysterical screaming "I'm so sorry!". I know she didn't mean for Scarlett to get hurt, but I'm so tired of her not listening to me or asking me "Why?" I now know why parents say "Because I said so!". I'm so tired of having to explain to her why I tell her things. ARGH!!!!

And since that day, she has just gotten worse about not listening or questioning what I ask her to do. (Okay maybe not worse, I think I'm just noticing it more.) It's just been very frustrating.

On a happier note, Alexandra lost her very first tooth. She was very proud that she was able to pull it out all by herself.

Scarlett has just been growing and growing. I can't believe how big she acts now. Since she started crawling she is into everything! And she's started doing more new things.

She plays peek-a-boo!

She has learned to turn the TV off (and sometimes back on).

It was funny this morning. She'd turn off the TV and then look at me and make complaining noises that it was off.

Riley has been a huge help now that Scarlett is everywhere. She is the one who will chase her down for me and rip whatever she has that she shouldn't from her little hands. It has truly been a blessing in disguise to have Riley be so much older then Scarlett.

Crawling, Science Fair, and "The Talk"

2010-04-30T11:34:00.008-06:00

This past week the girls had Monday off, so we went to Jumping Jordy's (an indoor inflatables place). They had a blast. I tried to climb in and jump with Scarlett and soon found out that it is one more thing I cannot do with a broken tailbone. Just trying to keep my balance was super painful. So after about 30 secs I handed her off to Dean and got out as quickly as I could. The girls had a blast though. We were there for over 3 hours. They had a couple of friends that came as well, and Dean would also get up in the things and jump with them and play tag. It was a great time watching them have fun!

Tuesday we had the science fair at the school and both girls decided to participate. Alexandra did a project to see if oil and water mix and Riley wanted to see if cats had fingerprints.

This is the first year we've done the science fair and the girls had so much fun. It will definitely be an activity that we do again!

Scarlett started crawling this week too. Once she figured it out, she has really just taken off. She loves that she can follow us when she wants too.

The first video is just something that she's been doing lately that makes me laugh and then the next is her crawling.

So the last 2 years we've had mini "Talks" with Riley (couldn't avoid it since I was pregnant) and the last few weeks she has really been asking questions (mostly about bras - apparently it's a huge thing in her class). I asked her if she would like me to buy her some books that would help explain some of the questions that she had. So I spent an hour going through books at the bookstore and found two that I really liked. She read them and then we had a LONG talk. It's one of those scary Mom moments - but I'd like to say I think I did a great job. Well, at least I think I didn't traumatize her....I'm hoping.....

The book I liked the best was The Care & Keeping of You: The Body Book for Girls (American Girl Library) by Valorie Schaefer. It is awesome! It talks about everything like taking care of your hair, your skin, your teeth, nutrition and of course all the things she has to look forward to like periods and shaving. Riley has been reading it the last two days and it has made it so much easier for her to ask me questions. She also has been telling me all the things I do wrong...."you shouldn't bite your nails....you shouldn't pick zits....you shouldn't use cotton swabs in your ears..." It's been funny being schooled by my 3rd grader. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who has a preteen girl!!!

Has It Really Been 4 Months?

2010-04-19T14:47:00.003-06:00

Well....apparently I fell off the face of the earth....because I don't really have any better excuse than that.....okay I do have better excuses.

1. We were sick for a long time (it seemed like).
2. Because we were sick, I was horrible about taking my Prozac, so my Post-Partum (heck I could be back to just my regular old depression) has been acting up - just in the "didn't want to do anything" symptoms.
3. We got a new computer and I didn't feel like loading all the programs on it so I could download the pictures off of my camera (let alone any other programs, my poor finances....ahh, but I will catch up with that another day). see #2
4. I kept getting further and further behind in needing to blog so I just kept putting it off. see #2 yet again

And then I posted on Facebook and my aunt asked me for pics/videos and I thought. I have some of those...I guess I should get my butt in gear and update my blog. So here I am! (And I have to say I've been trying to do this since Saturday)

So since I haven't blogged in FOREVER I thought I'd just do a quick recap on how everyone is doing. And then since I'll be all caught up I should be able to keep up with my blogging!

Well, mostly my excuses say what I've been up to - pretty much nothing! Not really, I feel like I've been so busy, yet I really can't say with what....

A few weeks ago I took the girls roller skating and managed to fall horribly while trying to miss a little kid. I broke my tailbone and sprained my wrist. My bum is starting to feel better little bit by little bit (until I do anything - which reminds me I should probably be doing laundry right now), but my wrist is still killing me. If I take off my splint, I find myself putting it right back on within 15 minutes because of the pain.

I've been struggling to accomplish all I feel I need to be doing - at first it was just because I'd gotten off my meds (not completely but enough that it wasn't at full strength) but now it's because it physically hurts to do a lot of stuff. Stupid roller skating...

And even though I feel like doing nothing, I find myself enjoying time with the girls. They can usually make my day better. And I find myself laughing more and more at the things they do. I feel like I'm getting better - I just need to remember to take my meds EVERYDAY!!!

DEAN

Work, Work, and more Work (at least that's probably what he'd say he's been up to).

Although he did take 2 weeks off during March and the beginning of April. We didn't really do anything major. Just played with the girls, went swimming, went roller skating.....yeah went downhill from there....

We celebrated our 10 year anniversary on the 25th. He turned 33 on the 29th. (Hence the vacation)

RILEY

She turned 9 in February!! Although with this birthday she seems to have hit that pre-teen phase. She has an attitude that I've never seen before....which is making me wonder where my sweet Riley has gone - although sometimes it makes me laugh!

She is doing great at school and is in Art Club which she loves. She has participated in the school's Oral Interpretation Festival (they read poems they have memorized - it's on the video page) and also the Young Writers Conference (which the elementary schools in this area do at the high school). She is currently planning on doing the Science Fair. Yep she keeps me busy!

ALEXANDRA

She turned 6 in April!! And thank goodness no pre-teen phase for her! (I don't think I could handle two of them at once.) She really is growing up so fast. Although lately my brave little girl has seemed to developed many new fears. She is terrified to go outside because there might be bees out there. Her compromise is to wear her winter coat - somehow this will protect her from the bees. She also is scared to go to sleep without me. Which I'm hoping is a phase!! We bought an air mattress for her to sleep on in our room, because there is not room in my bed, plus I can't sleep if she's right next to me. It feels almost like she's having some sort of separation anxiety.

She's doing great in school as well and has enjoyed participating in all the activities with Riley. This is the first year she's been able to do any of them. All of the previous years she's been a spectator with the rest of us!

SCARLETT

Wow! 4 months for her is like huge!!! She is finally eating baby food. She still can't eat any normal food. No matter how small I cut it she seems to gag on it, which leads to her throwing up. She is getting so close to crawling. Any day now I think she'll finally figure it out. She has figured out how to move around though without it. She has figured out how to push herself up into a sitting position when she is sprawled out on the floor. Which is fun to watch when her pants are slippery against the carpet, because she just ends up scooting backwards across the floor.

We had to buy a new car seat for her since she outgrew the infant one. We are having to start getting 18 month clothes for her as well.

She loves her sisters and loves to play with them!! And thankfully they love to play with her too!

Well hopefully that helps get everyone caught up and I hope everyone enjoys the pictures and videos in the next posts. I promise to try to be better about blogging!

The Last 4 Months in Pictures Part 2

2010-04-19T14:47:00.000-06:00

Here are some more. Click on them to enlarge them!

The Last 4 Months in Pictures Part 1

2010-04-19T12:58:00.002-06:00

Here are some of the pictures I've taken.

The Last 4 Months in Videos

2010-04-19T12:14:00.014-06:00

Here are the videos that I have taken over the last 4 months.

Stealing From A Friend

2010-01-14T08:45:00.003-07:00

So a few days ago I was reading through my stalking list - yes I consider myself to be a stalker of peoples blogs....when I read this great post on my friend Jami's blog. I loved it and asked if I could post it on my blog and she graciously said I could!

How's your GPS signal?
The newest book I'm reading, "Might As Well Laugh About It Now", by Marie Osmond, is very, very good so far. I'm just a couple chapters in, and this quote stops me dead in my tracks:(Her daughter's telling her about a GPS she bought for her.) "I knew it would rock your world. It talks to you. Tells you exactly where to go. All you have to do is listen."How often to we go through life, those of us who allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Ghost, the thing that some refer to as "the Spirit" or even our conscience, forgetting to listen? Such simple words, "All you have to do is listen", yet so powerful. How much easier would our lives be if we always remembered to listen? Sure, we'd still have our trials, but wouldn't simply "listening" make them easier to bear? So many times, when I'm facing something difficult in my life, do I pray and then just as quickly move on to something else, forgetting to be still and wait for the answer to a question, or the guidance that I was so desperately seeking.And what a wonderful gift we've been given! Our very own GPS system to guide us throughout our lives! My son was baptized recently and one thing I made sure he knew was that once we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, we have to use it or we lose it. Even more recently, I realized I've gotten too comfortable in my life and started to be lax in the things that make it comfortable in the first place. At that moment, when I stood still long enough to realize I was forgetting to do the most simple yet most important things, I realized I was losing something... my "GPS batteries" were "dying", causing my clear signal to fade. I've been getting too caught up in other things to even notice. What would've happened had they faded completely? Where would my life lead, unguided? That's a scary thought, as I've seen many lives lead the wrong direction because they thought they could find their way without their GPS system, relying on their own sense of direction. And by the time that happens, one is usually so lost, they don't care to be found again. I don't want that to happen. I love that my GPS knows this about me and led me to a book that would subtly, yet, profoundly, remind me to charge my batteries before any listening I might remember to do would be too late.

Jami, I would just like to thank you for reminding me to check my batteries! You are truly an amazing example for me. I'm so grateful to have been roommates with you!

Well I Probably Screwed Up The Baby Food Thing...

2010-01-12T21:57:00.002-07:00

So we finally find a baby food that she will eat and I think I messed it up....

Tonight we went out to CiCi's Pizza for dinner (for the first and last time). The cinnamon rolls were not that bad, but the rest....hmmmm.....yeah......

So as I'm eating cinnamon rolls, I decide to give Scarlett a teeny, tiny bite. Yep, you guessed it - she LOVED it!! I couldn't pinch off pieces fast enough for her. And she would get mad if I tried to feed myself. It was super cute, but I think she might not ever eat baby food for me again.....I guess I'll see tomorrow!

First Word???

2010-01-11T12:09:00.002-07:00

So today as I'm trying to do all my usual computer stuff, I'm holding Scarlett. I know that she's hungry, but I'm trying to get as much done before I have to feed her. She starts fussing, and I ignore her thinking 2 more minutes. Then she turns around and babbles "Ba Ba Ba Ba" at me. Now I know that it most likely isn't her asking for her "ba-ba" as we've called it, but maybe she was! We'll have to see if she does it again. She really has turned into quite the chatterbox the last few days. She sits and chatters baby talk all the time. Last night I was sitting with her teaching her * Who do you want to change your diaper - Da Da * Who do you want to feed you - Da Da * Who do you love - Ma Ma * Both of the other girls said Da Da before they said Ma Ma, so I'm just going with the odds and trying to work it to my advantage!

This week we also found a food she will actually try to eat - Sweet Potatoes! We tried cereal (rice and oatmeal) no luck. We tried bananas - she actually clamped her mouth shut after the first bite and wouldn't take any more. We tried applesauce - she made horrible faces with each bite. Sweet Potatoes she tries to slurp off the spoon (she really hasn't figured out the whole getting her tongue to work yet). Plus she licks her lips and makes a smacking sound. She really does want to eat people food though. She keeps reaching for my plate and gives me these looks. So hopefully now that we've found something she likes, she'll figure out the whole eating thing.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-07T09:42:00.005-07:00

Ah, so finally they are back in school and I have some time to blog...ok really I've just been too lazy to do it, but now I have no excuses. Christmas was great! Even if I was dealing with a sick child (more on that later).

Christmas Eve we went over to Annie and Elias' for the family get together. Dean's parents came and gave the girls their presents first because there was no way we could get both bikes into the back of the Tahoe to bring home. They were very excited and I keep being asked when they can ride them. Alexandra was very happy the last time it snowed that her bike was still "safe in the house". We also got a new toaster oven, which we needed desperately - the old one smoked when you used it.... It was a great time being with all the kids and seeing them have fun playing together.

When we got home the girls got to open their Christmas Eve presents - pajamas and this year they got Zums too (Webkinz). And yes Alexandra's pj's are Pokemon. Riley just requested some feety jammies this year.

Scarlett didn't get to open hers though since she fell asleep on the way home. But she did wake up at 4 in the morning, so after she had her bottle I helped her to open hers. She loved ripping the paper and trying to stuff it in her mouth. She didn't go back to sleep until 5:30 - so knowing that my parents were coming over at 7, I decided to just stay up and get everything ready. (Also I hadn't gone to bed until midnight because I was so excited, so I was going on less then 4 hours of sleep.)

My parents and brother came over at 7 and Aric got to go upstairs to wake the girls up. Which surprised me, I had been expecting Alexandra at about 5 in the morning she was so excited. She kept telling me that she was going to jump on my bed and wake me up. So when Aric woke her up she ran into my room and was very disappointed that we were already awake.

Our tradition is to take turns while we open presents. It was awesome. This video is of Alexandra opening her Webkinz that she wanted the most. It was all she really asked for.

You know it's good, when they are so happy they cry.

I have been teasing Dean about getting him a Snuggie for a long time, so what was the best and most hilarious present......

a Snuggie!! I laughed so hard watching him try to get it undone to put on.

We took a break about half-way through presents to have breakfast. I'd made some Butter Braids I'd ordered earlier in the year and breakfast pizza. So yummy!!

Then we went back and the girls got to open their main present.

My parents got us a Wii as a family gift and then the rest of the girls presents were Wii related gifts, Fit Plus, controllers, and a couple other games. We then spent the rest of the day playing Wii. Even Grandpa played. (He NEVER played video games with us when we were kids.) In fact my parents and Aric had so much fun, they went out on Saturday and bought a Wii for their house.

We had the sister missionaries over for dinner too. It was awesome, even though by this point in time I was dying from the very little sleep I had gotten.

It has been a good Christmas break, even if Scarlett has been sick most of the time. It started the first week of break. She got the stomach flu which turned my little vominator into a massive vominator. And then the aggravation from that ended up making her reflux tons worse. She couldn't keep formula down at all and had lost over one pound. But after multiple doctor appointments and adding rice cereal to her bottles, she is finally better. And she's actually much better reflux-wise then she was to begin with. I used to have to almost count on having to change at least some part of my clothes (if not the whole outfit) every day from being spit up on, and this last week I've only had to change my clothes once! She's getting pretty good at sitting up, she only falls over every once in a while (thank goodness for her boppy!) In fact today she found if she throws or pushes her toys out of her range, her poor Mommy has to stop what she's doing and get them for her. It was when she laughed at me the 2nd time that I realized she was doing it on purpose.

New Years Eve was fun. We had some friends over and ate snacks and played Wii and had dinner together. They left when their two little ones got super tired, it was sometime after 10 I think. The girls tried to stay up till midnight, but about 11:10 Alexandra was beyond needing to go to bed. So I was a mean mommy and we had a pretend count down and made them go to bed.

Monday we had the sister missionaries over for dinner (have I mentioned that I LOVE these two!! They are my favorite missionaries ever!) And then we had Family Home Evening and the sisters helped us put away all the Christmas decorations and then we played Scattergories.

I will miss them when they have to leave....and although I know they won't see this till they go home I just have to say - Sister Long and Sister Spence you have truly blessed our lives by being a part of it!!! You are amazing missionaries and always bring the spirit into our home.

I know it's a long shot and you'd have to do it today, but....

2009-12-24T11:11:00.002-07:00

A drawing for an HP Touchsmart Computer!! Yeah it's got a lot of comments already and you have to enter today before 5pm pacific time, but I figure it's worth a shot!

http://totallytogetherreviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/hp-touchsmart-computer-review-and-give.html

My Genetic Awesomeness Lives on!!!!

2009-12-23T14:42:00.002-07:00

In my entire life I have never met someone who has my awesome talent of having double-jointed thumbs. Until a few days ago when Riley discovered she has it too!!! Only one of her thumbs does it though...so she's half a freak like Dean still (although he says it's the other way around).

Some of the cool things I can do are:

1. Place my hands on a flat surface and point my thumb straight up!

This was a harder angle to get it straight up, since my arm was bent weird.

2. Bend my thumb all the way BACKWARDS to touch my arm.

And Riley can do it too!

Oh yes, my incredible DNA will live on....even if none of them have my cool longer 2nd toe.... (I'm still hoping for Scarlett on that one, but we can't tell yet, she curls her toes too much)

Christmas Break

2009-12-23T13:58:00.004-07:00

Ah, the joys of Christmas break! Why does it always seem that someone has to get sick right now? Can't I just have 2 weeks off with nothing to do???

Scarlett has been puking since Monday night. We took her into the doctor this morning and he thinks she just has the stomach flu. So pretty much we just keep doing what we were doing (little amounts of fluid at a time) only we use Pedialyte instead of formula. She doesn't get to have any formula until she keeps the Pedialyte down for 6 hours, and even then she only gets watered down formula. She has lost a pound since her check up a few weeks ago though, so that makes me a little worried. But her doctor said she looks good, she's not listless or running a temp. So as long as we can keep getting some fluids in her hopefully she'll get better and we'll avoid the ER on Christmas. So far she's only been able to keep anything down if she drinks it then takes a nap. But on her new 5ml of Pedialyte every 5 mins, she's been doing good for almost an hour....although she's napping right now and has been for 20 mins...so I don't know if that really counts.

I have also been sick since Sunday night. Some sort of laryngitis thing, but I'm feeling better today thank goodness!

Quick update since we've been super busy lately.

Riley had another class presentation this month. It was a "Book Talk" or in other words a book report where they had to do some sort of project with it. Riley read a book called "Sheep". It's a book about a border collie who loses his home and is trying to find a new one. So for her project she conned Grammy into bringing Maro into her class so they could see a real border collie. She got a 4 (which is the highest grade she could get)! Riley also had a choir concert, which was very cute, but my pictures didn't turn out at all.....

Both girls went caroling on a combined girl scout troop field trip. We managed to find a nursing home that would let us come. Most of them didn't want any kids there because of the H1N1 thing. It was awesome. We had the Kindergarten, 2nd grade, and 3rd grade troops there. They had the girls sing in 3 different dining areas. The place was huge! They did a great job and had a great time.

We had their class parties on Friday. It was a crazy day and I was so glad when it was over!! Both girls had a blast, but were VERY excited for Christmas break.

Saturday we had our ward Christmas party and the girls got to see "Santa". It's kind of hilarious to watch the girls with this, since we have never done "Santa Claus". In fact Alexandra told me this morning "You and Daddy are my Santa Claus aren't you?"

And no post would be complete without some weird picture from Alexandra!

6th Month Appointment

2009-12-12T10:57:00.004-07:00

Well, my girl is growing and growing! She weighed in on Thursday at 17 lbs 5.4 oz (72%) and she is 26.5"long (68%). She is just getting so big!!!

You have to fill out this survey thing before the appointment so they can gage whether your baby is doing everything they are supposed to be. As I already knew, she is right on with all of her vocal/hearing milestones. Her physical milestones are a little behind. When her doctor was charting everything he started to get a little concerned about some of the things she's not doing yet (rolling over, grabbing stuff with one hand), but then I said something about her being a preemie and he said "Oh I forgot she was early, she's just so big and healthy!" So she is right on development wise for being 6 weeks early. She's about 3-4 weeks behind a normal 6 month old (except for her vocal skills!)

I had been receiving emails from one of the parenting websites every week that listed all of the things your 18 week-old, 19 week-old, etc...was supposed to be doing. A little while ago I had to unsubscribe to it because it was just depressing me. I totally know in my head that she could be a little behind, but my heart couldn't take seeing it every week. Plus then when she'd accomplish something I would think "oh, you should have been doing this 3 weeks ago..." instead of having joy in her accomplishments. I must say I'm much better off without those emails. I never realized how hard it is for mothers whose babies are not right on schedule or ahead. Even with Alexandra they had told me not to expect her to be on schedule development wise since she was 5 weeks early, but she was always there or ahead. So that has definitely been a challenge for me. The nurses in the NICU did tell me though, that if you have a preemie and they have older siblings it helps them to hit those milestones sooner because they are always trying to do what their siblings are doing, which I can see in her already. She loves to talk to Riley. She will sit and mimic Riley making sounds for long periods of time. In fact Riley was the one who taught her how to shriek.

Yesterday Riley's class did presentations of stories they had written. They were called Slice of Life stories. So they were about something that happened in real life to them. Riley went first and did great! Her story was about when she got her Arctic Fox webkinz. I'm so glad that they got to bring the stories home with them. I love seeing her pictures. These are two of the pages I loved.

She was actually wearing this shirt on the day she drew it!

And then after Riley's presentation, I went on a field trip with Alexandra. Originally my mom was going to go, but I checked with her teacher and one of the other parents had cancelled, so I thought I'd try taking Scarlett and see how she would do, while I had someone there to back me up! We went and saw a play called The Christmas Rescue. It was dorky, but still funny. The kids had a great time. The place they take them uses 5-6 actors and then they fill in with volunteers from the audience. Alexandra got to be part of the good army to rescue Santa and ended up being on stage having a snowball fight with the evil minions who were hiding in the audience. Mom got some pictures, I had my hands full with Scarlett. I'm so glad Alexandra got picked, plus she got picked for one of the funner parts. Scarlett did GREAT! She actually sat and watched most of the play. Even when I was feeding her bottle to her, she had to have her head turned so she could watch. There was one part where Santa asks all the kids if they have been good and of course all the kids answer yes. I was watching Alexandra and when she said yes she gave me this sideways look as if to see if I was going to correct her. It was hilarious!

This morning I made oatmeal for me and Alexandra. Alexandra is my super picky eater, so this was her first time (that she can remember - she had it when she was a baby) trying oatmeal. I put brown sugar on it and then when I asked her how it tasted she said "Awesome! It blew my socks off and I'm not even wearing any socks!"

The Fireplace is Finished!

2009-12-06T17:55:00.002-07:00

Friday for School Spirit day the girls got to dress up like their favorite Holiday character. Alexandra decided she wanted to be Rudolph, so we went to the dollar store and bought her some antlers.

Riley decided that since she wasn't able to wear her Ice Fairy costume at Halloween, that she'd wear it and be a ballerina from the Nutcracker.

Dean and the girls finished our "fireplace" today and I think it looks awesome!

Here they are warming their hands!

Riley did the flames on the fireplace and Alexandra did the 3-D logs and flame. They both worked on their own versions and this is what they came up with. I was amazed when I saw what Alexandra had created without any help!

I love that they did this together and it's so stinking cute! They are working on ornaments to hang around it too. I believe I've heard Alexandra say she wants to make a Pikachu one.

My Lucky Number is....

2009-12-06T12:29:00.002-07:00

3!!!

This kinda goes with my last post, as this is what I was laying there thinking of last night as I was waiting for my medicine to start working.

And here are my reasons (the first two are really what made me think of the others):

When I have a headache, it usually takes 3 advil to make it go away.

To combat my post-partum depression I'm taking 3 prozac capsules every day.

I have 3 girls.

I was married in March (3!).

The 3rd cat we got lived!! (the first two had serious medical problems and died or had to be put to sleep)

My birthday is 9 (3x3=9)/14 (4-1=3)

Okay maybe that last one is a bit of a stretch, but it's just the inner mathematician in me coming out. I like looking for patterns, especially number patterns. I've determined that Alexandra's lucky number is 4 - she was born on 4-1-04 @ 4:16. Yeah I'm a geek!

Things I Learned About My Migraines Yesterday

2009-12-06T08:52:00.002-07:00

Ahhh, so apparently I can bring on a migraine with just a lot of stress and not eating very well. Who knew????

Friday was a horrible crazy day. It would have been just a crazy day anyway....but....

Thursday night Dean calls from work saying that they need Scarlett's social security number right away. Apparently they are going to be charged $1000 a day for every day they don't have it. (No idea, don't ask) Well after tearing the house apart at 9:00 pm trying to find her card and being very unsuccessful, I determine I'm going to have to go down to SS to get her a new card - cuz you know they ain't giving me the number over the phone.

So here is how my Friday went. Got up at 5:45, got ready (didn't have time for breakfast - first bad decision of the day), got all the girls up at 6:30 and fed Scarlett and got them all ready for the day. Left at 7:25 to take the girls to school. Went to Wal-Mart to do grocery shopping (this had already been planned for my day - it was payday, and we need to eat and the next place I was headed didn't open till 9 anyway). Went home and dropped the grocery's off as fast as I could, fixed a bottle, and then drove to Human Services to get Scarlett's birth certificate (yeah I hadn't gotten one yet, and knew I would need it for SS). Sat and fed Scarlett her bottle while I waited for her certificate. I didn't have to wait too long there (thank goodness). Grabbed me some breakfast at Burger King and ate it on the way to pick Alexandra up from Kindergarten. In the parking lot at the school I realize that the cashier didn't give me my 2 books of stamps! ARGH!!!!!!!! So after I got Alexandra, I ran back to the Wal-Mart and went to customer service. When the clerk asked me how I was doing, I replied "Could be better if someone had remembered to give me my stamps" (and it was not in a friendly voice either). He hurriedly handed me 2 books of stamps and I left very pleased he hadn't given me any grief over it. Then we grabbed lunch for Alexandra at the Wendy's. I didn't get anything (2nd bad choice) because I'd just barely ate breakfast. We then drove FOREVER to the SS office. And then we had the pleasure of sitting in chairs and waiting for 2 1/2 hours for our turn. Finally we get to head up to the window. I hand them her birth certificate and tell them I need a new card for her. The clerk asks me for a 2nd ID for her. REALLY????? I tell them she's only 6 months old, what more could she have????? He asks for anything that has her birth date on it, insurance card, doctors visit papers. Luckily when she left the NICU we'd been given a printout with everything they had done in the NICU with her in case we'd needed to bring her back to the ER or anything. They told me to just keep it in the diaper bag, which I did!! So I very luckily had it with me that day. (Her insurance card just has the month and year not her actual birth date). We got a verification of her number - we'll receive her new card in a few weeks. And we left. It was 1:00 at this time and I was supposed to be at the school with the cash box for the Santa Shop before it opened at 2:30. So I drive and hit EVERY red light on the way home. I got home at 1:55, grabbed the cash box, and drove to the school. Then I helped out at the shop till a little after 4:00. At that point I should have probably headed home, but silly me, I had promised the girls if they were good while I was helping at the shop we would go to Target afterwards and they would get to spend their allowance and report card money. (Plus I did need some stuff from there too.) So we spend forever at Target (mostly because my brain was very tired, and that makes me shop SLOW). We pick up TV dinners, because I'm not up for making dinner and it's cheaper then fast food. And then we head home - it's almost 6:00 at this time. I get the girls their dinners made and feed Scarlett. Then I finally get to eat dinner! I relax for about an hour and then set about putting the girls in bed. I then hurry and get some of the other stuff I needed to do done that I hadn't been able to accomplish that day.

I finally get ready to go to bed at 11:00. As I'm sitting on my bed I notice that I can see an aura. For those of you who have no idea what that's like, it looks like wavy lines that I can't focus on around the edge of my vision, and because they are there my eyes are trying to focus on them and have trouble focusing on anything else. It's a VERY weird feeling. So EVERY time I've ever seen an aura I've gotten a migraine. Although I've always waited until the migraine hit to make sure I was getting one. Well Friday night I was not going to wait till I was in absolute pain (plus I had a busy Saturday planned so I was hoping maybe I could stop it before it even started.) So I hurried and took 2 Percocet before I went to bed. I woke up at 2am with a dull headache, but with all the other symptoms of a migraine. I was nauseous, I had trouble speaking (finding words), and lights were not my friend. Which I must say surprised me, I always figured the other stuff happened because of the intense pain. Dean got home right then, so he got me another Percocet and some Zofran and a cold washrag for my head. I eventually managed to go back to sleep (around the time the Percocet started working). I woke up still with nausea and a regular headache (which is still very painful, but no where near migraine painful), but I was determined to get the stuff planned for Saturday accomplished. So since I can't drive when I take Percocet or Vicodin, I had to get by on just the Zofran and Advil. We went to Elias' baptism at 10 and then over to Annie's for lunch afterward. Then Riley had a Girl Scout field trip to watch a musical called "Honk". I had bought tickets for Alexandra and I also, so I didn't want to waste those. So that's where we went next. "Honk" was great. It was the story of "The Ugly Duckling", but put to music. The 2nd graders really liked it, but Alexandra LOVED it!!!! I would say it is the perfect show for Kindergartners! She was dancing in her seat, trying to sing along. My favorite part was when the girl swan (who was very beautiful) was talking to the Ugly Duckling. When she left the stage, she honked! Alexandra turned to me and very excitedly told me "She's the same as him!!!!!!" It was awesome to see her as she figured out the story on her own. At the end, she asked me if we could watch it again and told me it was her very favoritest! She told Rebecca that it was "Awesome!".

So then we went home where Grammy was watching Scarlett so that Dean could go to work on time. Grammy told me I looked horrible and asked if it would help if she took the older two with her for an overnight. I gratefully accepted her help and then proceeded to crash. I was able to take care of Scarlett, really if I just hold her she's perfectly content. And when she went to bed at 7:30 I followed her.

Today I'm feeling better, just really weak. Still a little tiny headache, but no nausea, so it's something I can handle. I feel really shaky though, my hands are having trouble holding anything, let alone typing.

Here is what I have learned - I can cause a migraine to happen with stress (we've never been able to determine what causes my migraines at all) and if I take Percocet with the aura I can avoid most of the HORRIBLE pain! And I'm way over scheduled! So I would just like to apologize to all those who would normally get Christmas treat plates, you're not getting them this year. I've decided I'm not going to push and try to make all of the goodies with everything else that is scheduled right now. And I am glad that my Christmas shopping is all done and almost everything is wrapped. One less thing on my plate!

2009-12-03T10:03:00.002-07:00

What I wouldn't give for another week off from school. I was amazed at all I was able to accomplish Thanksgiving week, and I now know that it was not only my medicine working, it was also not having to drive to the school 3 times a day!!!! I just start to get stuff done, and look it's time to pick up Alexandra. We get home and have lunch, and between wishing I could get anything done and feeding/taking care of Scarlett - it's already time to go back and pick up Riley. Good thing Christmas break will be here soon!

We did get the tree and decorations up. Dean and the girls haven't gotten the fireplace up, so I might take that over....although the girls really want to do it with Daddy....so maybe if they haven't done it by next week.

Our poor LITTLE tree! I think this year I might scout the clearance sales after Christmas and get us a full size tree and the lights we'd need for it!

Tuesday Scarlett turned 6 months old! I can't believe how time has flown!! She's just getting so big! Her bottom teeth haven't come in yet, although I'm hoping they will soon. I'm hoping that all of the spitting up lately is just a symptom of teething. Her hair is finally long enough that I can put a teeny tiny barrette in it.

She's getting so that she loves to play - especially with Riley. Riley will pick her up and take her into their TV room and they will sit and play together for quite a while. She has found if she shrieks really loud, people turn and pay attention to her. So that is her new form of talking!

And she still hates the camera.....

Pickle or Mimi

2009-11-28T20:53:00.002-07:00

So on Thanksgiving, Aric decided he was going to call Scarlett "Pickle". His reasoning is that she looks pickle shaped when she is laying on the floor....

Her nickname so far has been Mimi. It started out as My Baby and somehow with "baby talk" has turned into Mimi. She responds to it or Scarlett, so I guess she's safe unless she starts responding to Pickle.

He also gave her a super hero name...I think is was vominator (not positive - it had something to do with vomiting). She was quite the spitter upper that day! She did really like Aric though. She kept staring at him all day. She's become quite the mimic too. She blows raspberries all the time especially if you do it first. When you shake her baby doll at her, she shakes her head the same way - Dean said she's gonna give herself shaken baby syndrome. And then on Thursday Aric was laying down and he'd raise one leg up and then lower it. She would watch him for a while and then she'd start trying to move her legs like him too. I don't remember the other girls being like that at all.

We did get the Christmas tree up yesterday! And most of the other decorations (not that we have a lot). I'm gonna wait to post pictures until Dean and the girls get done making their fireplace. We don't have one and Dean told the girls that they would all make a pretend one out of construction paper and hang it on the wall under the stockings. I'm excited to see how it all turns out in the end!

My New Project

2009-11-27T20:05:00.001-07:00

I have been wanting to do this for a while now, but hadn't felt up to doing it. I guess you can say my meds are definitely working!! I'm even amazed at all I'm getting done. Feel free to click on the link and follow my new blog!

http://cortneysjournaljar.blogspot.com/

Family Pictures

2009-11-27T11:31:00.004-07:00

This week has been a busy yet super fun week! We had the whole week off of school! YAY!

On Monday we had a planned play date for the mall. We were there when it opened and they have story time with Santa right when it opens. It was cool. He read them 2 stories and sat and talked to them. Then they all got back in line (in the order they'd been in, so we were #1!!) and they got to go sit on Santa's lap. It's so funny with the girls, because we've never played Santa, so I don't really know what they think about him. But he was a GREAT Santa. When they would say what they wanted he would repeat it loudly so the parents could hear. Alexandra wants a Webkinz (check) and Riley said a German Shepherd Puppy. She told Santa that it would be able to help out her Daddy at work. When he asked what her Daddy did and she told him he was a Deputy, he told her to make sure she told him that Santa says thanks for all that he does. I thought that was cool. They wouldn't let us take pictures - you had to buy them, but they would let me take pictures during story time. Also I told Riley she should have asked Santa for a fixed fence, because we can't have a puppy till we get the fence fixed.

Then we went and the girls and their friends played on the indoor play area. And then we went window shopping at Justice, Build-a-Bear, Disney, and the Pet Store.

Tuesday we had family pictures done. The photographer did a GREAT job. She had her work cut out for her. Trying to get Scarlett to smile and still have Alexandra looking at the camera....it was quite the performance on her part. We got a CD with all the pics on it, so here is a sample of what we bought.

I love this one of the two of them!

This one is Dean's favorite! I can't believe she smiled while on her belly...she hates tummy time!

Scarlett actually managed to make it the whole way through pictures without spitting up. Although the second we were done she was like a fountain. We've been calling her "the yak monster". She's getting better about it, but I swear she spits up all day long.

Then on Wednesday I spent the day putting our pictures up!! And cleaning and making rolls for Thanksgiving. I have to say I am feeling so much better. I wake up and just want to get things done around the house. For example the pictures - I haven't put up pictures since we bought the house, and Wednesday the house got decorated! When my mom and brother came over on Thursday, my mom asked me how much they had upped my medicine by and Aric kept commenting on how they must be in the wrong house. (I haven't been the best housekeeper for a while - little did I know that I really like to clean. I just need to be medicated for it to surface!)

Then that afternoon the girls made place mats for everyone for Thanksgiving. They had a great time and decorated each of them with little pictures.

I have to say my favorite is the one Alexandra made for Aric with Pokeballs on it. She loves Pokemon and loves that Aric loves them too. (Click on the picture to make it larger)

"Somehow" Scarlett "accidentally" got purple marker all over her head.

Thursday we had Mom and Aric over for dinner. I got up to put the turkey in at 5:30, so we could have it for lunch before Dean had to leave for work. It was super yummy! I love Thanksgiving. Then when Dean went to work, I watched Angels & Demons with Mom and Aric while the girls played with stuff that Radhika sent to them during Mom's visit (She spent last week in Seattle for Kulwant's birthday and Radhika's graduation). Then we all played Monopoly Deal. And Mom who HATES Monopoly with a passion, said "It's tolerable" and when Aric won I told him "This is probably the first time you've ever won anything called Monopoly with me". Riley still hasn't won yet, but she still loves this game. Everyday she wants to play (me too!)

Radhika sent Scarlett this rattle - only it's not really a rattle, it's supposed to be a game where you try to get all the orange balls on one side and the blue on the other. Looks like a rattle to me! And Scarlett loved it!! She played with for quite a while.

Today I'm gonna work on getting the Christmas decorations up. So hopefully I get pictures taken and I'll post them soon!

My Little Injun

2009-11-22T09:20:00.007-07:00

This week was incredibly busy. I have still been on my clean/organize kick! I'm definitely starting to feel more like myself. In fact on Saturday I woke up thinking of all the things I wanted to get done....not that most of them happened, but I woke up planning!

Tuesday Dean went in for the big "snip-snip". It was actually a really short appointment, and he has healed super fast. Dean decided that he was going to be the one to be "fixed" instead of me. I just seem to have so many complications with anything, that we decided not to risk it. We are definitely done, per my doctor. And we feel extremely lucky to have the 3 healthy girls that we have. I just have WAY TOO MANY complications, and really should have been done after Alexandra, but now it's official!

Thursday was the last day of Junior Achievement. I've been helping one of the other mom's in Riley's class teach it. It is 5 interactive lessons that volunteers teach in classrooms (if the teacher signs up for it). This year it was about "Our City". The kids got to learn about city planning, and zones. They got to build buildings for their city, run businesses, run a newspaper, get a paycheck and "deposit it" into a bank and learn how to write checks. It actually was a lot of fun, although I've decided that I would be the "mean teacher". I can't stand chaos, and so I was the one that tried to keep them calm and quiet...in fact Kristen once whispered to me to clap so they would be quiet. (I even sent kids out in the hallway for a time out!) And even though I was the "mean" one, they were still super excited to see us come for our 5 visits and they were super sad when we told them it was the last Junior Achievement day.

Friday was the Thanksgiving feast in Kindergarten. The kids have been working all week learning about thanksgiving and making their Indian costumes. Then Friday they made cornbread, butter, fruit salad, popcorn and made "turkeys" (turkey with an olive for the head and carrots and celery for the feathers). Then they got to put their costumes on and have a feast! I was in charge of helping make the cornbread. The kids were great. Although I did have a hard time letting them crack the eggs all by themselves, but they did a great job! When Riley was in Kindergarten I helped with the butter - and I'm so glad I didn't have that job again this year. They just shake whipping cream in little jars till it turns to butter, but Kindergartners get tired and so I was the one that ended up with most of the shaking.

Then they went around and said what they were thankful for.

Saturday I got to go and see my friend Denisha's baby. She is a doll!!!! Plus being in the same hospital where Scarlett was born, brought back some good memories. I was glad I was there, I was able to help them take family pictures with the new baby. It was awesome.

And this last picture was while I was changing Scarlett's clothes. It just looked really cute so I had to take a picture. While I was posting this morning, Riley walked by and said "she looks like Eeyore" and I have to say that she does!

Also a while back I had bought the Monopoly game Deal.

It's a Monopoly card game. Now I love Monopoly the game, absolutely love it! I haven't felt up to playing any games in a while, but yesterday Riley wanted to try it. So for the first round Dean played with the girls while I was on the computer. Then after listening to them, I decided that I wanted to play. It was a blast. It is probably my new favorite game for the next little while. Dean really dislikes Monopoly, and he really liked this game. So I would recommend it for Monopoly lovers and haters!!! It's kind of a mix between Rummy and Monopoly. Dean likes the fact that you're never out of the game, no matter what anyone does to you. And it's really not about the money. You can have all the money in the game and still lose. To win you need 3 complete sets of property. It's a great family game, and I'm actually thinking of getting another deck so you can play with more then 5 players, because it would be even funner to have more people!!!! If you are looking for a great stocking stuffer for Christmas, I would pick this!! It was like $5 at Wal-Mart. I also bought Scrabble Slam, but we haven't played that one yet. And Slamwich - which the girls love!

A Month of Pictures

2009-11-15T11:32:00.013-07:00

Here is my update of all the pictures I have taken since I posted last.

Alexandra had a field trip to the zoo.

Trying to get Scarlett to smile for the camera....she's getting to really not like the camera.

Field Day

First Laugh! I only managed to get the camera on at the very end.

Riley had a field trip to the butterfly pavilion.

She's much braver then me, there is no way I'd let a spider crawl on me!

New hair cut!

Alexandra had a field trip to the pumpkin patch.

This is what she did to make me laugh on the bus.

Some of the cutest girls in Kindergarten!

Some of the cutest boys in Kindergarten!

Halloween - well the ward Trunk-or-Treat. Everyone was sick on Halloween, so no trick-or-treating.

Just a random picture Riley took.

Alexandra's pikachu pumpkin

Riley's vampire cat pumpkin

Our big snow storm. I think the total was 22 inches. The girls were out of school for 2 days.

Alexandra's class Halloween party. Riley was running a temp of 102 that day, so no party for her..

Best Mario EVER!

Here's her bumpo! Best invention EVER!

Also this is the day before she turned 5 months!

We found this hat with an outfit that was given us and had a great time laughing and taking pictures of Scarlett.

Riley was able to capture a smile. We're having a hard time with that cuz she hates the camera....

Post-partum depression

2009-11-15T10:11:00.002-07:00

Well it's been over a month since I posted last. I've just really been struggling with life and trying to make myself accomplish/do ANYTHING!!

I would definitely say I am suffering from PPD. I can't imagine how bad it would be if I wasn't already medicated to begin with. We have upped my dosage on my Prozac twice now, and finally I think I see some sort of difference. I'm hoping that I don't have to up it again, that this last change will be all I need, but I guess if I do need more...oh well, mostly I just really want to feel like myself and the sooner the better! I'm very glad for Prozac because right now most of what I'm dealing with is just a lack of interest and lack of motivation. A little depression, but really not much. When I had it with Alexandra it was horrible. It had gotten to the point of crazy lady gonna kill people, when I was finally diagnosed (finally asked for help!) and they put me on medication. I think if I had not been on the meds already I would probably have been even worse this time. So I am VERY grateful for the makers of Prozac and the psychiatrists that write my prescriptions!!!

Mostly I haven't wanted to do anything...well ok not completely true...when I'm depressed I shop...so pretty much the only thing I have felt like doing is spending money that we don't have. It has been 4 years since I even touched a credit card, and the last few months I have not been quite so good. I guess the good thing about the depression is I don't feel any guilt at all, but then again that doesn't help to stop the shopping obsession. But a little bit of good news - my Christmas shopping is almost all done!!!

The past few months my jaw has hurt so bad when I would wake up in the morning. I was clenching my teeth in the night in my sleep. I would do it during the day too when I would get frustrated, but when I would start to do it, I would stop myself - mostly because my jaw already hurt so bad. But I could not figure out how to stop it during the night. When we upped my dosage this last time, about a week later I woke up with very little pain (I would say it's mostly just residual pain from the previous clenching). It was the first sign that I was starting to feel better. And now I only have occasional pain when I'm eating or yawning!

This past week I have also been on a clean my house and organize it obsession! Another sign that I'm starting to feel better....although organizing has not helped my shopping spree either, I have found many items that I have HAD to have to make my house better (a cupboard for the food that didn't fit in my pantry, a new coat rack, a broom/mop holder, new storage for some of the girls stuff, and that's just what I can think of off the top of my head - there is still some stuff I want too and then I will be completely done I think...) And I have found many items to give away. I think I am currently at 6 huge garbage bags of stuff for ______ (I'd say ARC, but we are never giving to them again - long story - so I have to pick some charity!) And that doesn't include all the boxes and bags that currently sitting outside waiting for our next garbage day. Granted it has been over a year since I was able to really clean since it was about this time last year that I was put on restricted activity. But it's been so nice to actually feel like not only cleaning, but going through EVERYTHING and making it look nice! The girls were not so excited about this though, every day after school they would ask what we were doing and I would reply "Cleaning!". At first I was letting Alexandra tell me what toys she wanted to give away or keep....but then when I asked her why she wanted to keep this HUGE Dora doll that she NEVER plays with and she told me "I do play with it. Just only on specific months like December and January." She lost her vote on what was going in the give away bags!

Another good sign that the meds are working, is that Scarlett is teething horribly. She is extremely grumpy and yet I am still able to sit through most of her screaming fits without the "teeth clenching-Dean you have to take her now" feelings. I still have like 2 weeks till the meds are at full strength, so hopefully I get to feeling even better and get to be the person I like that I know is hidden somewhere deep inside.

So some updates about people other then myself...

Scarlett is 5 months old now. She is getting so big!! We've tried to give her rice cereal and she wants none of it. If I wait till she's really hungry she gets mad because she's really hungry and just wants a bottle. If I wait till she's partially hungry, she's not hungry enough to want to eat it. She just screams at me and looks at me like "What the heck are you putting in my mouth!" She loves to sit up (not quite on her own yet) but she tries all the time. She's constantly falling over onto her face when we sit her on the couch, just because we try to put her at an angle and she tries to sit up straight. We got her a bumpo (you'll see pictures on my next post) and she loves it. She gets to sit in the kitchen and stare at me when I'm making dinner, or just sit wherever I happen to be. She has decided she is a mommy's girl, which is even worse this week with her teething. She will sit in Dean's lap and cry for me. If I'm busy and I turn and look at her, she gives me this huge smile, and then when I turn back around she starts crying again. In fact this week she wouldn't even eat for Grammy and screamed at her when she picked her up from a nap. She's getting to love her exersaucer, although she will not play in it if I am anywhere near her. She sits and looks at me and cries and the only time she ever gets it to spin is when she's trying to find me. She will play on her floor mat in the other room with the girls while they are watching TV. She will even watch some of the shows if they have bright colors or music. She learned this week how to blow raspberries, and so now she spits at you to get your attention too! It really is so cute. I don't remember the other two girls learning how to do this, they just eventually knew how to. But she will sit and stare at you and you can just see her little brain working trying to figure out how to make her tongue do what she wants it too. She also is trying to get her tongue to make a clicking sound, but that one isn't as easy as raspberries.

Riley is doing as amazing as ever at school. She is getting so grown-up. It really is kinda scary to see the preteen starting to emerge in her. She still works on her drawing every possible moment. And she is becoming a little mommy with Scarlett. She will take her for me and try to help me out whenever possible. She loves carrying her around and making her laugh. Riley has this gorilla sound she makes and Scarlett thinks it's hilarious. Riley is still in Brownies this year and she is having a great time. I must say I'm looking forward to cookie time again, although this year I don't have a great excuse to eat as much as I want. Riley has found she loves audio books. She will sit and read the book while listening to it. We've had to check several different books out from the library for her, because we had the audio book, but not the book. I think this year she is finally starting to love reading. She's had several books that we've checked out and she gets so excited and just wants to sit and read them. She's always loved to have books read to her, but she just wasn't as fond of reading on her own. I hope that she just continues to grow and have a great love a reading! She is becoming very independent and has learned how to microwave her own meals whenever she wants. Although this has led to very creative things coming out of the microwave. Her favorite thing is to take a tortilla and put cheese and ham on it and nuke it. One day Alexandra wanted one too, so she put them both together one on top of the other thinking she would only have to use the microwave once. When they came out stuck together she was quite upset that it didn't work the way she wanted it too. She has also learned that metal doesn't go into the microwave too. "Mom! There's a fire in the microwave!!" She tried to microwave an Arby's sandwich that was in it's bag. The bag caught on fire.

Alexandra is loving school! She has really grown so much this year. It has really helped her to be with kids at her level with drawing and other activities. She has been used to comparing herself to Riley her whole life and of course she's never gonna be able to do the same things as Riley. So it has really helped her self esteem to see other kids that draw the same, and color the same. She is quite the little social butterfly and has many friends. I'm excited now that they've really started reading to see how she does. She has taught herself to read and I think she is just going to grow so much with all that she will learn at school. Alexandra loves Scarlett and loves to get her to laugh. Although she really doesn't laugh very much for Alexandra. Alexandra is just way too grabby-in her face-won't leave her alone, that Scarlett just sits and watches her waiting for her to pounce (that's the best way to describe it). Alexandra is getting better, and so Scarlett isn't quite as wary of her as she had been. I just have to keep telling Alexandra that she has to stay back a little bit because Scarlett likes to see her whole face. Alexandra is doing Daisy's this year. I'm so glad that there is a troop for her. I was worried that Riley might be the only one to get to do girl scouts and didn't want Alexandra to feel left out. But I also had no desire to be a troop leader again....

So that's all I can think of for right now, although I know that there has been more that has happened lately. My next post that I will hopefully get done today is pictures from the last little bit.

The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans

2009-10-01T16:15:00.002-06:00

My friend Jami is starting a new blog with book reviews. I think it's a great idea! I read way too much and sometimes run out of books, and now I'll have a new place to find new authors! She is having a give-away for the start of her new blog. It is The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans. She's going to do the drawing Monday morning, so if you'd like to enter, or just want another blog to follow click here.

A Month in Review

2009-09-26T16:09:00.008-06:00

Wow! I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post. Ok, I can believe it because I know how crazy my month has been.

A few weeks ago I had some moles removed. They ended up being benign!! Thank goodness! I was pretty worried especially about one of them. And now I'm just waiting for the stinking spots to heal. It's getting there but they are still itching, and it seems I'm allergic to band-aids. (I have huge itchy red spots around the edges of where the band-aids touch my skin. I keep trying to reposition the band-aids in different spots, so now I have a huge, itchy, red, round circle around where the band-aids have been.

I also started getting some symptoms of PPD. So they have upped my Prozac and I've been in to see the psychiatrist once already. It hasn't been bad like with Alexandra, but I'm just glad I caught it before it got that bad. My doctor said they can up it again if we need to if I don't feel like I'm at 100% in a few more weeks. Mostly it's just been the tired, and irritability, and not feeling like doing ANYTHING that I normally love. (Hence why it's been so long since I've posted). But I can feel it working already - hey I'm trying to write a post - so it MUST be getting better!

We got an awesome new exersaucer for Scarlett (and once she's big enough to sit in it I'll post pictures). Alexandra thought the box was awesome! It was her cave until Dean threw it out (and she was very upset the day she came home from school and it wasn't here anymore).

We had the community celebration again this year at the school. Only this time I was just a volunteer, not one of the people in charge. I didn't get too many pictures because I had my arms full of all of their stuff! They did get to climb through a fire truck, sit on the police motorcycle, and sit in an ambulance. They got to play tons of games and won some prizes! I even won a few things in the drawing - tickets to Skate City and Waterworld! I also won a GREAT sunburn - and no there aren't any pictures, but those who saw me at the end of the day will always remember!

I also had my 31st birthday this month. It was a good day. I had a Mary Kay party in the morning with some of my friends, and it was a fun time!! Then Dean took me out to the movies and dinner. We saw The Time Traveler's Wife and I loved it!!! I was still crying when the lights came on at the end. It's always a good movie if it can make me cry! Although I do have to admit it did have some weird parts too. Then we tried to go to dinner, but just as we sat down our babysitters called. Scarlett had been screaming for an hour and they couldn't get her to calm down. We're not sure what happened, but I think it was just being over at a house she didn't know and Mommy and Daddy weren't there to calm her down when she got upset. Once we got her home she calmed right down and was good the rest of the night.

I had my first day of volunteering in Alexandra's classroom. I really like her teacher. She does very well with the Kindergartners. I'm looking forward to this year!

Also Alexandra had her first Kindergarten field trip to the zoo. It was a blast. They had to do an animal scavenger hunt and find an animal that started with each letter of the alphabet. We were able to find all but X. She has some great kids in her class. And she has found a best friend! If I had to imagine a little kid to be Alexandra's best friend it would be Taylor. They get along so well!!!

Her teacher is wearing the green shirt!

I really didn't have this many kids with me. I was with two other moms. We had a great time!

The girls are doing great. Both Riley and Alexandra love their classes and their teachers. I think they are going to do awesome this year in school. Scarlett is just growing and growing. She is a little chatterbox. She will sit and "talk" to me for hours. She still doesn't nap very well, but she's sleeping through the night almost every night now, and I will take that over naps any day! She's getting more coordinated so almost everything she can grab goes in her mouth. She's still trying to figure out how to get her thumb in her mouth and it's fun to watch her because she goes cross-eyed as she's looking at her hands.

I took some more videos of her. I swear she can smile! But you pull the camera out and away they go.... I did get a brief one in the second video.