So much for getting back on the weekly track for posting.
The past week was busy and made me question on more than one occasion if it was wise to add another baby to the mix of this craziness that I like to call daily life. Good thing I always change my mind on that issue before the baby arrives and I get to be excited about having another baby again. It has really been a week of highs and lows emotionally for me and I have found myself praying that my hormones would please just level out enough that I didn't have such extreme emotions.
Monday we had the Reedy girls over to play in the morning and the girls and I all had a blast together. I got more than enough help from the 4 toddlers with my laundry efforts. Most everything I folded was folded again by little hand and folded again by my hands and put up where no more little hands could help! haha! I love when little kids want so bad to be just like 'mommy'! The afternoon was spent hanging out at home and cleaning house so that I felt like we could continue through the rest of the week without getting stuck with a months worth of cleaning in the end! Alayna decided to let her fever get a little out of control that night.
Tuesday I buckled and took Alayna into the doctor thanks to the fever and my exhaustion level. We learned that she apparently has some kind of bacterial infection from having the cold she has had since Thanksgiving. We picked up her antibiotic and went to Loveland to get my mom to take her to the airport. Much to my dismay when we got to Loveland I realized that the antibiotic, that had fallen to the ground when coming out the drive through carrier, was broken and now spilled all over the floor of my van. Thankfully I have rubber mats so the clean up wasn't too bad and the pharmacy mixed up a new bottle for us to start her on. The drive to the airport was uneventful Alayna slept most of the time and Eliza told us all kinds of stories. I came home to a wonderful surprise from Erin Jones, a friend of mine from church. She had sent dinner over in spite of not knowing a thing about what had been going on with my day or how difficult it had been dealing with sick kids and wishing that I could somehow figure out what to do about dinner when I didn't get home until 6pm from the airport. So thank you Again Erin! You were truly a life saver that night!
Wednesday was less eventful. Alayna still didn't feel great so we mostly spent the day at home doing a lot of snuggling and resting.
Thursday we had 3 of the Mott kids over to play all morning and into the afternoon. It was a lot of fun for the kids. Lincoln (18 mo) didn't appreciate me trying to convince him he wanted a nap but the poor kid just about fell asleep sitting at the table. In the end he won that battle but I sure tried for his mommy's sake. Other than that the girls just ran around the house and played together happily all day. There were many different variations of 'family' played and school and church and boy were my kids exhausted by the end of the adventure! That evening I was exhausted and emotional, I gave Ben a kiss when he got home and then I left seeking refuge anywhere but home with the kids. That sounds kind of bad but I was very thankful for the chance to take a little break.
Friday was spent running around like a crazy person. It did not go as planned but what are you going to do!? I made a trip to Loveland to go look at JoAnn's for some silky fabric to try making a blanket for Alayna who has been twirling her hair into terrible knots. We ended up leaving that store with one kid having a huge tantrum and us buying nothing. Then we went to Grandma's to have Abby cut the girls hair. Eliza just got a little trim and Alayna got a repair job that cut off about an inch and half from the back of her hair. I was sad to see it go but at the same time she had knotted both sides off from the twirling and that was pretty much the only option we had so I'll take it! She still really looks like my little Alayna! Then we came home and Alayna had a wonderful and long nap. I did not get everything else done I needed to but that just seems to be how life goes sometimes!
Saturday Ben went snowboarding with his family again. They went for the Scout Ski days. I stayed home with the girls and we mostly just cleaned up and watched Christmas movies. We have really been watching way too much TV these days, good thing the girls love to read so much or tv would have been the only things we did this week. Thankfully we spend almost as much time reading as we do watching tv. That evening Ben came home and I went out. I was ready to kill the girls for all the fighting that was going on and I needed out. So I got to run those errands that I intentionally put off while waiting for Ben to come home. I even made it over to JcPenny to pick up one of my last Christmas gifts for the girls! Yay!
Sunday was weird. Sacrament meeting was totally normal then the oddest thing happened. Alayna refused to go to nursery (for the first time ever!) instead she sat unmoving on my lap for 2 more hours and completely unresponsive. It was very very odd. We couldn't get any kind of reaction from her at all no matter who tried. Eventually she did just fall asleep but it was still very odd. After her little cat nap in church she seemed to be back to normal again but boy was it odd. Eliza also woke up early that morning ate breakfast and then fell asleep on the couch until I made her get up to go to church, also odd behavior. I will now be spending a good portion of the week washing sheets and sanitizing everything, wish me luck!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
The Verdict!!
Monday was the best day of the whole week!! It was also one of the longest days thank to my desire to have Ben attend the 20 week ultrasound with me! The kids and I spent the day getting things ready for Tuesday which was Eliza's birthday party we spent the morning picking out plates, and cups and other party favors at the store. The girls were very patient with my slow pace and desire to find the 'just right' hand towels to be turned into some of the cutest little aprons ever! Anyway back to Monday, we did our shopping picked out a cake flavor and then went to the Merritt's to play. I put Alayna down for a nap and ran home to get started on the party things that needed doing before the next day! Then finally 4:00 rolled around and we had our ultrasound!! and guess what! WE'RE HAVING A BOY!!! This little guy sure likes to move though! he gave the poor tech a run for her money because every time she would get one picture she would move to do the next and he'd be in a new position making it much more difficult! We even got to watch while he was kicking up a storm in there! It's like he needs to have a little wave pool happening inside of me with the way he kicks! The squeals of joy from all the family when we told the Merritt's may have been comparable to a bunch of 13 yr old girls at a sleepover... but maybe that was just my interpretation!
Tuesday was pure mayhem! I had an 8:30 Dr apt for a follow up on the ultrasound. Everything is looking great with the baby and he is even currently head down which is a great thing! I picked the girls up from the Merritt's house and did a mad dash clutter clean up before the party started. It wasn't a great cleaning job and I didn't get the dishes done that I wanted to but in the end I don't think it really mattered. 10 started the party where we had a rousing game of pin the nose on the snowman, and some free play outside, then we made some snowman aprons (as alayna is modeling hers!) most of the kids are a lot taller than Alayna so hers kind of looks too big but it isn't on the others! She just gets to stay extra clean! I was a good mom-helper and didn't let my OCD perfection get in the way of letting the kids make their snowmen look however they wanted... it was hard... really hard. But the kids were all very proud of how they turned out in the end! After that we did presents and cake and then shipped off a bunch of sugar filled kids to their own houses where their parents got to figure out how to convince them to eat something healthy right after I filled them up on cake! Eliza had a great time and was very excited about her toys I think we ended up opening everything during Alayna's nap and setting it up to make for a very fun and slightly messy afternoon. We were suppose to have missionary's for dinner that night but they ended up standing us up so they must not have been that hungry. We had a nice quiet dinner at home.
Wednesday was when Hailey and the cousins went home. We miss them already, Eliza asks on a regular basis when they are coming back and if she can go see them! I'm so glad she loves her cousins so much! We went to Loveland that day and took care of running a whole bunch of errands for myself and my mom. We got a lot accomplished but I'm confident that I can't tell you half of what we did because I can't remember it anymore! Isn't that just how life is as a Mom, you spend all day running around doing so many different things that by the time Ben comes home I can't remember what I did with my day and it has to make me sound like I really must sit around watching TV all day long!
Thursday was cold. By cold I mean we woke up to a good 6 inches of snow and a very happy 4 year old who just wanted to go outside and play. I was a mean mommy and only let her out once due to the cold she already has! But it was her birthday so I really felt like I needed to let her go at least once! We spent the day cleaning up and getting dinner ready. We played all kinds of ABC games thanks to a puzzle she got on Tuesday. And we did accomplish the single most important task of the day (at least to Eliza) we set up the Christmas tree! I let the girls do almost all the ornaments this year so as you experienced parents know, the bottom half of the tree is heavily decorated and the top is basically bare... slowly but surely the ones that hit the floor are moved up but both those girls are so proud of the tree they decorated that I want to leave it just like that as long as I can! The Merritt's came over for dinner and gifts that evening and Eliza made out like a bandit with everything she got! I think the favorite toy currently is the little 'Fur real' puppy dog that barks and walks, that thing gets dragged everywhere!
Friday was spent at home staying warm. I didn't really want to go out and we didn't really have anything pressing enough to make me want to go out in the fresh snow. Eliza went out and played in it during Alayna's nap and other than that we just hung out until the evening when I had a little melt down and promptly left and went on a 'girl date' with Bethany Mott to go see the new Twighlight movie! It was very well done both of us were impressed and then we went to dinner and came home and crashed!
Saturday Ben had to work, that poor guy has been working like crazy and hasn't been home is almost 2 weeks thanks to everything that has been going on! So he worked in the morning and I bundled the girls up and took them over to the Merritt's house to do a little bit of sledding and snowboarding in the backyard on their awesome little hill! The hill is really the perfect size for toddlers because they don't have to work so hard to get back to the top and it's steep enough to have a fast and fun ride! Eliza had a blast, Alayna on the other hand got cold very quickly (I need to get her a better coat!) and let me and probably the rest of the neighborhood know that she just wanted to go inside. Grandma was nice enough to take her in and warm her up while Eliza and I finished playing. Eliza was a little rock star and tried to snowboard for the first time and managed to make it down the hill without falling by the second time she tried! She wants to go with daddy to the big mountains but she's got to prove herself on a little hill first! That afternoon Ben watched the girls while I went and served dinner for another ward's Christmas Dinner and program. That was fun madness. That evening was nice and quiet with just Ben and I! Ahh sweet peace.
Sunday has been good church was excellent and we are really looking forward to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.
Alayna and Ellie playing iPhone
Super cute snowman aprons the kids made at Eliza's party
Eliza playing with her marble works set!
playing at the park with Grandma Waite
I love it when my girls sit and read or play so nicely together!! even if one of them is basically naked...
Who knew... she fits inside that box!
decorating the Christmas Tree
Opening gifts on her actual Birthday... pretty much this face was stuck the whole night!
Snowboarding!!
SWEET!!
sledding is more fun... you don't have to work as hard to balance!
Tuesday was pure mayhem! I had an 8:30 Dr apt for a follow up on the ultrasound. Everything is looking great with the baby and he is even currently head down which is a great thing! I picked the girls up from the Merritt's house and did a mad dash clutter clean up before the party started. It wasn't a great cleaning job and I didn't get the dishes done that I wanted to but in the end I don't think it really mattered. 10 started the party where we had a rousing game of pin the nose on the snowman, and some free play outside, then we made some snowman aprons (as alayna is modeling hers!) most of the kids are a lot taller than Alayna so hers kind of looks too big but it isn't on the others! She just gets to stay extra clean! I was a good mom-helper and didn't let my OCD perfection get in the way of letting the kids make their snowmen look however they wanted... it was hard... really hard. But the kids were all very proud of how they turned out in the end! After that we did presents and cake and then shipped off a bunch of sugar filled kids to their own houses where their parents got to figure out how to convince them to eat something healthy right after I filled them up on cake! Eliza had a great time and was very excited about her toys I think we ended up opening everything during Alayna's nap and setting it up to make for a very fun and slightly messy afternoon. We were suppose to have missionary's for dinner that night but they ended up standing us up so they must not have been that hungry. We had a nice quiet dinner at home.
Wednesday was when Hailey and the cousins went home. We miss them already, Eliza asks on a regular basis when they are coming back and if she can go see them! I'm so glad she loves her cousins so much! We went to Loveland that day and took care of running a whole bunch of errands for myself and my mom. We got a lot accomplished but I'm confident that I can't tell you half of what we did because I can't remember it anymore! Isn't that just how life is as a Mom, you spend all day running around doing so many different things that by the time Ben comes home I can't remember what I did with my day and it has to make me sound like I really must sit around watching TV all day long!
Thursday was cold. By cold I mean we woke up to a good 6 inches of snow and a very happy 4 year old who just wanted to go outside and play. I was a mean mommy and only let her out once due to the cold she already has! But it was her birthday so I really felt like I needed to let her go at least once! We spent the day cleaning up and getting dinner ready. We played all kinds of ABC games thanks to a puzzle she got on Tuesday. And we did accomplish the single most important task of the day (at least to Eliza) we set up the Christmas tree! I let the girls do almost all the ornaments this year so as you experienced parents know, the bottom half of the tree is heavily decorated and the top is basically bare... slowly but surely the ones that hit the floor are moved up but both those girls are so proud of the tree they decorated that I want to leave it just like that as long as I can! The Merritt's came over for dinner and gifts that evening and Eliza made out like a bandit with everything she got! I think the favorite toy currently is the little 'Fur real' puppy dog that barks and walks, that thing gets dragged everywhere!
Friday was spent at home staying warm. I didn't really want to go out and we didn't really have anything pressing enough to make me want to go out in the fresh snow. Eliza went out and played in it during Alayna's nap and other than that we just hung out until the evening when I had a little melt down and promptly left and went on a 'girl date' with Bethany Mott to go see the new Twighlight movie! It was very well done both of us were impressed and then we went to dinner and came home and crashed!
Saturday Ben had to work, that poor guy has been working like crazy and hasn't been home is almost 2 weeks thanks to everything that has been going on! So he worked in the morning and I bundled the girls up and took them over to the Merritt's house to do a little bit of sledding and snowboarding in the backyard on their awesome little hill! The hill is really the perfect size for toddlers because they don't have to work so hard to get back to the top and it's steep enough to have a fast and fun ride! Eliza had a blast, Alayna on the other hand got cold very quickly (I need to get her a better coat!) and let me and probably the rest of the neighborhood know that she just wanted to go inside. Grandma was nice enough to take her in and warm her up while Eliza and I finished playing. Eliza was a little rock star and tried to snowboard for the first time and managed to make it down the hill without falling by the second time she tried! She wants to go with daddy to the big mountains but she's got to prove herself on a little hill first! That afternoon Ben watched the girls while I went and served dinner for another ward's Christmas Dinner and program. That was fun madness. That evening was nice and quiet with just Ben and I! Ahh sweet peace.
Sunday has been good church was excellent and we are really looking forward to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.
Eliza at Children's Museum... cutest firefighter I've ever seen!
Happy Thanksgiving!
The past two weeks are not some that I should have allowed any scrimping on my blog posting! so much happened that there is not a hope or prayer of my remebering everything so I am going to hit up the highlights from the week and utilize my photos for the sake of jogging my memory on at least some parts of the events!
Starting with the week before last! We had so much fun I still feel like I am trying to recover from all the adventures we had. Monday started nice and early at the Merritt's house playing with the cousins. Mallory and Evan were able to bring their neice and nephew out as well to play with the kids. Everyone had a great time just running around and being excited that they had family to play with! Throughout the week we were able to do lots of fun things! One day was an 'indian day' where the kids all got to make hats, play in grandma's teepee and watch Pocohantus. The different variations of idian games that went on throughout the day were very entertaining to watch I was lucky enough to be able to have all the kids to myself for a few hours that day while all the other adults (who weren't at work) went to go see the new Twighlight movie. I had a blast with the kids and they were all so well behaved that I would do it again in a heart beat! I took over a lego set for Jackson to play with one of those days and I don't remember the last time I saw so many different 'weapons' created. It made it extra cool that there is a little motor with the lego set so Jackson could make all of his weapons do all kinds of things on their own!
By day Three I was wearing down some. Alayna had been sporting a cold for a few days and of course she was kind enough to share with me! But it didn't stop the fun or really even slow us down, the kids made sure of that! Wednesday morning we went to the Denver Children's Museum to let the kids play. I had looked into a number of other places and this sure seemed to be the best choice based on how much fun the kids seemed to have while we were there! I could hardly believe it when Eliza, in spite of desperate hunger and exhaustion still begged to go right back in after we fed her! Silly girl! She loved it so I think that she will be even more excited when she realizes/ finds out that Grandma got her a year pass so that I can take the girls any time we want!! That afternoon was spent with the big kids playing and the convincing the little ones that they really NEEDED to take naps!
Thanksgiving was wonderful! The entire day was well planned and well spent. I missed my family but had a wonderful time with my other family. We did family pictures in the morning that turned out very nicely (as you can see). I will post the Christmas card that Hailey designed later after Grandma has a chance to send them out! Then we had a fantastic dinner where I was agian reminded just how much of a blessing it is for us to live so close together that these big family dinners aren't the least bit filled with uncomfortable small talk, instead it is full of memories and laughter! We also got to have some delicious pie courtacy of Bethany Mott in my ward who 'sold' 3 thanksgiving pies at a service auction last month!
Black Friday... it has transitioned. It made a HUGE change this year and I am fairly disappointed with the results. This year for the first time in my memory the major stores that do big black friday sales opened at 10PM Thanksgiving night. Normally I wouldn't be so bothered by that but honestly I am NOT a night person, and being pregnant makes me even less of a night person. That said I took my sister-in-law out for her very first Black Friday experience to WalMart knowing there were a few little things that I wanted to get. That was a mistake. I don't think I have ever been to such a crazy store. We were forced to park in the neighboring sports park parking lot and then getting through the crowds was enough to just about push me over into a full blown panic attack. Whoa! But being a faithful black friday shopper I went to the one store and then got up at 5am the next morning to do a little bit more shopping. Much to my dismay there were no crazy shoppers to watch, no fights, no long lines to wait forever in (ok I didn't really miss that part). But it sure did take a lot of my 'lets get up and shop at 5am' drive out of me for next year. I did get almost everything on my list of 'deals' that I wanted and hopefully I wont have much more shopping to do after this!
Ben went skiing that morning with all the boys and Jackson went for his first time! Ben spent the day teaching Jackson and apparently he did very well because Jackson was doing awesome by the end! Grandma Merritt was nice enough to watch the girls for a little bit between me getting home and the guys leaving for skiing. I attempted a nap, failed and went to Loveland instead to go play with my sisters and mom! We had so much fun managed to find Heather the shoes she wanted and discovered a new love called "Charming Charlies" an accessories store which is awesome! We went to Toys-R-Us in the middle of the day thinking it would have calmed down, we were wrong! it was still crazy so we didn't last long! But I was thrilled to get a little bit of time with my family!
Saturday was spent at home cleaning house and taking a little break from the family. This seemed like the best solution to prevent too much bickering between the cousins because too much of a good thing isn't a good thing anymore! Our house looked 100x better by the end of the day and the girls were both ready and begging to go play with cousins again!
Sunday went well. We had Jackson and Grant over after church while Hailey was driving Brian to the airport.
That was that week. I think I am going to do another post for this past week!...
Family Photo shoot! It really rocks when you have so many excellent photographers in your family!
Starting with the week before last! We had so much fun I still feel like I am trying to recover from all the adventures we had. Monday started nice and early at the Merritt's house playing with the cousins. Mallory and Evan were able to bring their neice and nephew out as well to play with the kids. Everyone had a great time just running around and being excited that they had family to play with! Throughout the week we were able to do lots of fun things! One day was an 'indian day' where the kids all got to make hats, play in grandma's teepee and watch Pocohantus. The different variations of idian games that went on throughout the day were very entertaining to watch I was lucky enough to be able to have all the kids to myself for a few hours that day while all the other adults (who weren't at work) went to go see the new Twighlight movie. I had a blast with the kids and they were all so well behaved that I would do it again in a heart beat! I took over a lego set for Jackson to play with one of those days and I don't remember the last time I saw so many different 'weapons' created. It made it extra cool that there is a little motor with the lego set so Jackson could make all of his weapons do all kinds of things on their own!
By day Three I was wearing down some. Alayna had been sporting a cold for a few days and of course she was kind enough to share with me! But it didn't stop the fun or really even slow us down, the kids made sure of that! Wednesday morning we went to the Denver Children's Museum to let the kids play. I had looked into a number of other places and this sure seemed to be the best choice based on how much fun the kids seemed to have while we were there! I could hardly believe it when Eliza, in spite of desperate hunger and exhaustion still begged to go right back in after we fed her! Silly girl! She loved it so I think that she will be even more excited when she realizes/ finds out that Grandma got her a year pass so that I can take the girls any time we want!! That afternoon was spent with the big kids playing and the convincing the little ones that they really NEEDED to take naps!
Thanksgiving was wonderful! The entire day was well planned and well spent. I missed my family but had a wonderful time with my other family. We did family pictures in the morning that turned out very nicely (as you can see). I will post the Christmas card that Hailey designed later after Grandma has a chance to send them out! Then we had a fantastic dinner where I was agian reminded just how much of a blessing it is for us to live so close together that these big family dinners aren't the least bit filled with uncomfortable small talk, instead it is full of memories and laughter! We also got to have some delicious pie courtacy of Bethany Mott in my ward who 'sold' 3 thanksgiving pies at a service auction last month!
Black Friday... it has transitioned. It made a HUGE change this year and I am fairly disappointed with the results. This year for the first time in my memory the major stores that do big black friday sales opened at 10PM Thanksgiving night. Normally I wouldn't be so bothered by that but honestly I am NOT a night person, and being pregnant makes me even less of a night person. That said I took my sister-in-law out for her very first Black Friday experience to WalMart knowing there were a few little things that I wanted to get. That was a mistake. I don't think I have ever been to such a crazy store. We were forced to park in the neighboring sports park parking lot and then getting through the crowds was enough to just about push me over into a full blown panic attack. Whoa! But being a faithful black friday shopper I went to the one store and then got up at 5am the next morning to do a little bit more shopping. Much to my dismay there were no crazy shoppers to watch, no fights, no long lines to wait forever in (ok I didn't really miss that part). But it sure did take a lot of my 'lets get up and shop at 5am' drive out of me for next year. I did get almost everything on my list of 'deals' that I wanted and hopefully I wont have much more shopping to do after this!
Ben went skiing that morning with all the boys and Jackson went for his first time! Ben spent the day teaching Jackson and apparently he did very well because Jackson was doing awesome by the end! Grandma Merritt was nice enough to watch the girls for a little bit between me getting home and the guys leaving for skiing. I attempted a nap, failed and went to Loveland instead to go play with my sisters and mom! We had so much fun managed to find Heather the shoes she wanted and discovered a new love called "Charming Charlies" an accessories store which is awesome! We went to Toys-R-Us in the middle of the day thinking it would have calmed down, we were wrong! it was still crazy so we didn't last long! But I was thrilled to get a little bit of time with my family!
Saturday was spent at home cleaning house and taking a little break from the family. This seemed like the best solution to prevent too much bickering between the cousins because too much of a good thing isn't a good thing anymore! Our house looked 100x better by the end of the day and the girls were both ready and begging to go play with cousins again!
Sunday went well. We had Jackson and Grant over after church while Hailey was driving Brian to the airport.
That was that week. I think I am going to do another post for this past week!...
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