Charlotte's First Dentist Visit

A couple weeks ago I decided Charlotte should go in for her first dentist appointment.  I've been worried that her teeth might be suffering because of all the medicine she has to take.  We've got a great pediatric dentist that the other girls have gone to.  Little did I know then, I wouldn't be able to take her.

Russ came through like a champion dad and took her there while a friend watched Breanne. I was sad to miss this first of Charlotte's so I quizzed Russ for all the details.  Charlotte apparently did very well.  She was compliant and opened right up for the dentist.  She got her teeth brushed and some fluoride put on.  The best news was that her teeth looked perfectly fine.  Russ talked to the dentist about her medicine who suggested we make sure to have Charlotte drink some water after taking it.  That she keep her teeth from being affected by it.

Charlotte was very excited to show me later that she got a "Jake" toothbrush, (Jake and the Neverland Pirates) and some other goodies from the dentist.  She also got this neat little certificate:

I'm super happy that this turned out to be a positive experience for her. 

Happy St. Paddy's Day

The girls have been looking forward to St. Patty's day for about a week.  Lily kept insisting that our Leprechaun would bring them Lucky Charms for breakfast.  He has done that for the past few years.  I tried to let Lily know over the phone that the "leprechaun" might be busy this year.  But she insisted that he would come.  Turns out that the leprechaun did pull through and brought some Lucky Charms for breakfast this year.  

Sister Rogers brought dinner over for Russ and the girls tonight.  She was very thoughtful and brought some clover shaped cookies to eat.  The girls (especially Bree) certainly enjoyed this treat.  I'm so grateful for all the little things people are doing for my girls to keep them happy at this rough time.

 

Despicable Me goes to Church

Russ went home yesterday to take care of the kids.  Today he sent me this picture of Allie.  I couldn't help but smile at it.  Allie wanted to dress up like Margo for church. He let me know that Allie wore these glasses to church and kept them on the whole time.  Russ knew that I wouldn't approve of this but he didn't have the heart to tell Allie she couldn't wear them.  He let Allie win this battle because they made her happy, and right now we need more of that!

Into Everything

All my kids have been curious and get into things.  Bree gets into everything too.  However she is much more curious about how things work.  Today Bree sat here for over 30 mins taking the crayons out and putting them back into the box.  She loves anything that has to do with this repetitive motion.  While I'm grateful she is exploring, learning, and curious, it sure is hard on this mamma to follow her around all day cleaning up one disaster area after another.

Margo

We watched Despicable Me today. About halfway through, Lily ran into her room and came back out with these glasses on. She had popped out the lenses that were already broken.  The rest of the day she wore them and insisted on being called Margo. This girl has quite the imagination!

Cookie Sandwhiches

We had some left over frosting that I was trying to get rid of.  So for a little dessert we had some cookie sandwiches.  The girls acted like they had died and gone to heaven from this little treat. In fact Allie ate hers so quickly I didn't even get a picture of her.  Silly girl! What a fun way for us to start out our Spring Break.

New Couches

When Russ and I lived in Idaho Falls my moms cousin asked if we wanted some couches. These particular ones had a hideabed and seemed to be in better shape then the current couches we had. We excitedly took them, crazy floral print and all back to our home.

Quickly we realized they were not the best couches.  They were more formal living room couches than everyday living couches. The upholstery wore thin quickly.  The hideabed wasn't very helpful either because it was very tall and uncomfortable. These poor couches traveled with us to Texas.

 New couches we're on our to buy list for a long time. It kept getting pushed down the list due to other more important things, you know like clothing for the girls! Finally though the love seat lost part of the bottom out of it and we new it was time to tell these well loved couches goodbye.

We tried out several local stores and was having very little luck at finding anything that would endure the girls beating and was in our price range. A man in our ward told Russ to give Rambos a try. I flinched at the name and the tin building when we arrived.  My judgement was too quick though.  They had a much better selection than anywhere else we had been, and their prices were fair.  After trying out several sets we found one that fit ours needs.  It was a long wait from Saturday to Monday to receive these beauties but they are here!

Finally our little hodgepodge house is starting to come together and have my/our style throughout it. Surprisingly enough we were able to sell our old ones to someone.  Hopefully they will enjoy them as much as we did ;)

Waiting for me

Every morning I take Sprinkles out to do her business. Lately I've had a little someone waiting patiently (or not) for me to come back in. She is so adorable kneeling there in her jammies with her paci and blankie. Occasionally the dog will take too long and Bree will start tapping on the window saying momma over and over. I can't get enough of her cuteness.

Faces with Charlotte

Charlotte wanted to take more pictures today. To add a bit of variety to this I had her copy my 

face. Yes I do make all these weird faces routinely with the girls. I'm weird I know! 

Charlotte Funny

Charlotte just said, "oh my peas" while playing with her dolls. I guess we watch too much Super Why!

I deserve it!

I cannot even express to how tired I've been this week with Russ gone!  Having him gone usually wears on me, but being pregnant with him traveling has been miserable.  I told the girls if they didn't annoy mommy today I would take us all out to get Sonic slushies.  The girls kept their promise of being good so we went and got slushies.  Mine was a bigger than theirs (large vs small), and Lily questioned why.  I explained it with three simple words "I deserve it!" I survived the week and so I think I did deserve it :)

Chili for Dinner

Russ has been out of town this week for work.  Whenever he is gone I try to make simple meals that the girls will eat.  Today I made some Taco Salad.  Breanne is usually really good about feeding herself so I gave her a bowl of chili to go with all her taco salad toppings. She started eating with her spoon so I wasn't too concerned about her.  I was busy eating and helping the other three girls and didn't look at Breanne until Lily said, "Uh-oh mamma!  Look at Bree!"

Uh-oh indeed!  Little girl loved her chili but when she had her fill of it she realized how fun it was to paint her chair and herself with it.  Bree got rewarded with a bath in the sink which she was unsure of at first but in the end loved it.

Snuggles with the little girls

I've been really tired lately.  I sit in the rocking chair a lot. The little girls have noticed this and have taken full advantage of that.  They bring their blankies with them in the morning and come snuggle on my lap.  I love these extra snuggles I've been getting!

Allie Reading

Allie is doing so well at reading!  She has been reading a lot of books lately.  Most days she comes home with a new book because she has passed off her book from the previous day.  I admit that sometimes it a rough process.  She is tired when she gets home from all Kindergarten and the last thing she wants to do is do homework.  We've worked out a pretty good schedule though that me and her work through the book at least once and then she gets to read it to daddy at night.  It is like a reward for her to read to daddy so it helps her through the tiredness.  I'm so proud of my gator and all her hard work!

Still obsessed...

All my girls, but particularly Charlotte are still obsessed with taking pictures using my phone.  I don't mind much.  I only mind when they start fighting over who's turn it is.  Or try and take pictures while I'm using the darn thing.  Oh well!  If they weren't so enthralled with this I would never get as many pictures of with them as I do. This picture was one of the keepers Charlotte took today.

Bottle Baby

Breanne never took a bottle as a baby.  The few times Russ tried while I was away for meetings he really had to struggle with her to get her to take one.  We never pushed the issue because I was around so she didn't need a bottle.  Lately Breanne has been exposed to baby's who do take bottles.  I can only guess this is part of the reason why I keep finding Breanne "feeding" herself with this doll bottle instead of her baby doll.

Mrs. R

I was really worried about Allie at the beginning of the school year.  She was one of the youngest in her Kindergarten class.  Luckily Allie got a pretty good teacher.  I admit we've had some rough patches with this teacher, but in general she has done a lot of good for Allie.  Allie absolutely adores Mrs. R and is always trying to please her.  At the open house tonight we had a nice little chat with Mrs. R.  She let me know Allie is doing great in class but just needs to work a little bit on getting her work done.  (Allie gets anxiety easily, so if she can't figure something out right away she'll just work herself up over it)  Mrs. R also said she hopes I don't mind that she calls her, "Alliebug or Ladybug" sometimes like me.  It took me awhile to figure out what she was talking about until I realized she has heard me call Allie by the nickname "Gatorbug".  Oh well, you can never have too many nicknames!

Big Sisters

Charlotte and Allie were playing ring around the rosie today.  Bree wandered over to watch.  Allie saw her and told Charlotte they needed to teach Bree how to do it.  It was so cute!  I couldn't resist taking a video of it. Pardon the poor quality.  Apparently iPhone's don't take spectacular video.

School woes

Lily brought home some papers that she had completed at school.  Most of them were practice tests for the upcoming STAAR test (State exam).  I won't get into my views on STAAR testing other than to say I don't like the way the kids are prepared for them. One thing I like to do as a parent is to go over Lily's work with her so she can see what she missed and I can explain why to her.

Today I began looking over the tests.  At first I was confused.  But the more I looked at them I went from confused to frustrated.  Lily missed some questions and again I don't care that she did, I care that she learns from her mistakes so she can do better next time.  But as I looked at the questions and saw how ambiguous the questions were I knew that I would never be able to explain to Lily why she got them wrong.  In fact there are some questions I feel like she DIDN'T get wrong. 

Russ has been at a conference out of town all week so i sent him pictures of the questions to ask what his answers were.  He agreed with me that Lily had them right. Here are a few samplings of the questions...

This one Lily's teacher made her go back and change the answer from C to B.  When we reread the passage together it was obvious that B was the correct answer.

Math questions...

Usually I let things like this go, but this time I felt that it needed to be pointed out to the teacher that these questions were indeed right.  Since it was open house tonight I took Lily's papers with me. I explained to the teacher about how I like to work through these problems with Lily but I can't because the answers were marked wrong and/or the questions were ambiguous.  I pointed the questions out to the teacher to which she responded, "Well I don't know the answers to those questions.  I'll have to get the answer key." I just stared at the teacher for a few moments.  Did she just say that?! was running through my mind.  At this point in time Bree and Char were down with their stroller and I decided to just give up and go home.  I was floored that a teacher would admit that she didn't understand the problem to know the correct answer.

I understand things have changed since I was a teacher, and teachers are under incredible amounts of pressure to teach the test to the kids.  However, if a teacher can't explain to a child how to do the work what business does a teacher have teaching?! 

Rant over...sorry :)

In daddy's footsteps

Growing up Russell's family used to call him Linus.  This was because he carried a blanket around everywhere with him like Linus from the Peanuts comic strip.  His mom even threw away his blanket in the outside garbage once and he went to retrieve it.  

It came as no surprise to me then that my girls have loved to cuddle with blankets.  Allie is quite attached to one but not nearly like her daddy.  Lily and Char like their blankets but don't carry them around too much.  

Now Bree is a different story.  

That girl LOVES her blankets and is following in her daddy's footsteps.  She gets upset if you take her out of her crib without her blankets.  Many times I've found her in her bedroom screaming in frustration as she tries to pull another blanket out of her crib. She has really grown attached to her comforter that goes in her bed. You can see it in the picture above.  We are planning on working on that.  I've got to find a blanket that I don't mind her carrying around and shredding.  I must admit I find it quite cute to see my Bree walking around paci hanging from her mouth and a blanket trailing behind her. It almost gives me a glimpse back to what Russ was like as a baby.

Spinkles gets a hair cut

Its about that time of year where Sprinkles is starting to get shaggy and needs a cut.  I suggested to Russ that we get her done professionally and then we could up keep her through the summer.  He agreed.  So our cute fluffy doggy went from this...

To this...

 

The girls were so excited to see that Sprinkles had bows in her "hair".  I admit she was pretty cute with them.  But she is a pretty rough and tumble dog and they fell out pretty quickly.

It really is fun having Sprinkles as our dog.  It is almost like we have two dogs.  Our nice furry winter dog who has the softest coat ever.  Then our Spring/Summer/Fall dog who is completely the most adorable weiner dog ever!  Lucky us!

Baby #5

Pictures...allergies...and warm weather!

Our life is quite routine.  Day after day is spent at home with me trying to not spend too much time sleeping on the couch.  Afternoons are spent with me trying to make some effort to keep the house from being a total disaster. The girls of course are wondering aimlessly around the house playing with things.

Today though I broke the norm and went to the big city with Bree and Charlotte.  We were in desperate need of professional pictures of Breanne done.  I've really struggled in getting pictures taken of the girls this year because our local portrait studio closed down.  I hate having to drive to the city get this done when I know I could take the pictures myself.  (I'm not saying I'm a pro, but my portraits are decent enough that I could be satisfied with them)  But I've also come to admit, I can't do everything just because I know how.  After driving an hour to get to the studio Breanne refused to get out of my arms for the pictures.  Seriously child?!  After much patience on the part of the photographer we were able to get a ONE cute photo of Bree.  I'll post that in a few weeks when we get them back.  When all was done, the little stinker refused to leave the studio.  She wanted to take more pictures!

Since I didn't get a morning nap I totally shunned the work that needed done around the house and took a nap while Char and Bree were taking theirs.  The big girls arrived home and we worked on some homework before we all went outside.  The weather has finally warmed up and is absolutely gorgeous!  The girls played while I wandered around taking pictures.

I had to go in pretty quickly though.  I thought it would be a good idea to take some pictures while sitting in the grass.  My allergies felt otherwise.  Allergies are really hitting us all pretty hard already and the season has just begun!  Allie, Char, and Bree all sound horrible!  Luckily Allie is the only one who has needed breathing treatments so far.  I think Char is just holding in there because she is on so many "preventative" medicines. 

2013 - list style

Hmmm...haven't been doing so well on that blogging every day thing have I?!  Oh well!  I felt kind of put out that I left 2013 behind with nothing to show for it.  I plan to get back to it someday....like that every happens...lol!  So I decided to do something about that.  I quickly ran through our pictures and picked out some of the things that we did in 2013.  To say that this list is long would be true...but it barely scratches the surface of all we did last year.  So if you don't mind reading...here is 2013 List style! (On a sidenote I started this post over a month ago.  Yeah that was a quick run through of things!LOL!)

January

• Breanne rolled over
• Charlotte and Breanne got blankies from Grandma Suzy
• Lily got "A" honor roll and perfect attendance.
• We played outside in the warm weather a lot.
• Russ saw his mission president while at a training in Houston...RANDOM!
• I started my 3 credit class to renew my certification.
• I kept creating LOTS of scrapbook stuff {Did this monthly but not going to put it on each month}
• Breanne began to laugh...alot!
• Lots of preschool and puzzles with Allie. 
• Went to the Houston Zoo

February

• Charlotte dances excitedly for baths.
• Charlotte is obsessed with dolls and glasses.  They go everywhere with us.
• Charlotte ate her first ice cream cone, before this she shared with me or Russ.

 

• Charlotte read books to Breanne.
• Girls sent homemade Valentine's to our family.
• Lily made reading team at school.
• Breanne tried solids and was unimpressed.
• We spent a lot of time having indoor picnics.
• Lily raised $100+ for Jump rope for Heart.
• More Breathing treatments for Charlotte.

• Practice hand washing for Allie to be ready for kindergarten.

•  Breanne at four months.

March

• Breanne played at the park for the first time.  Was very intrigued by the grass. Allie dug in the sand...as usual!

• We planted our garden.
• During Spring Break daddy built a playset for his girls.
• Spring Break playgroup with friends.

• Lily was in the ward talkent show.
• A leprachaun left us a Lucky breakfast.
• I began writing scrapbooking blog posts and getting paid for it. Like real money not just product. :D
• We went camping at Huntsville with many friends from our Stake.  

• Charlotte had a BAD asthma attack/allergy attack while camping.  Good thing we had electricity and had brought her nebulizer.
• Eater bunny left us some cool baskets.
• Sprinkles got her first professional haircut.  We took in a Shih-Tzu and left with a Dachshund.

April

• Breanne and Sprinkles are good friends.  Bree loves on her and Sprinkles lets her.
• i finished MY HUGE project for my class.  And got an A in the class :D
• We played at the park a lot.
• Breanne learned to crawl.

• Charlotte wore her first ponies in her hair.
• Russ and I had our 9th anniversary.
• Lillian is becoming a book worm!
• Started my 2nd class for my certification.

May

• Russ put together his coin collection.  It used to be in a shoe box. Now it is in a binder.
• We spent lots of FHE weeding our front garden.

 

• Went to the library more often.
• Went to the LEGO convention.  The girls were in HEAVEN...as was Russell.  If you have a child that likes LEGOS you should look into going to a convention near you.  It is worth the $$$.

 

• Breanne sat up in the bathtub by herself.
• I had an awesome Mother's day.  Spoiled rotten as usual!

 

• Lily showed of her SEARCH portfolio.  She loved this year since it was all about art.

 

• Lily got a black eye playing softball with dad.

• Breanne began to get curious.  She is into everything!
• I removed a tick from Charlotte's side.  EEEKS!
• Charlotte is obsessed with Doc McStuffins.
• We had lots of bubble parties outside.
• Breanne began to self feed.
• Allie always want to paint.  Huge step for her since she does not like getting messy.

June

• We went to the Galveston Sandcastle competition.  A favorite tradition.

• Lily received A honor roll and 100% attendance award.  Seriously, how did we accomplish that?!
• Lots of swimming in our kiddy pool.

• Playdates at water splash parks.
• Russ enjoyed Father's day getting new Legos and a old school Ninja turtle shirt.

• Allie had a Snow White birthday party.

• Spent many Sundays putting together Legos.

• Swim lessons for Allie and Lily.
• Charlotte got hand, foot, mouth.

July

• Watched firewrks at the mall.
• Allergy testing for Charlotte.

• Saw Despicable Me 2 in theaters.
• All the girls except Breanne got 5th disease.
• The girls enjoy dressing up Breanne.

• Charlotte found the novelty of chapstick.  All chapstick has to be hidden!
• Russ had a birthday.
• Russ and I wore mustaches for Easton.
• More swim lessons.

• Lots of dress up parties.
• More playdates at water parks.
• Allie and Lily got birthday bounces at gymnastics.
• I finished my class and received an A :D
• Russ traveled to Vegas for a conference.
• Art party for Lily.  She received a "fake" American girl doll from Russ and I.  She was VERY excited.

August

• Tyler, my mom and dad, and Russell's mom and dad came to visit....at the same time!
• Lily chose to be baptized!

• We tried to see alligators at a park...no dice.
• Went to the beach with the family.

• Noticed something on my back...more on that later.
• Lily got impetigo on her nose.
• Took the Galveston Ferry and saw dolphins. The girls were so excited to spend so much time with Tyler.

• Explored Ft...Travis I think. Played at the playground there.

• Went to the railroad museum. It was really neat.  The girls even enjoyed it.

• Said goodbye to our babysitter Cheyenne.  Poor Charlotte lost her best friend :(

• Played a lot of card games.
• Built indoor forts.
• I painted all the girls fingernails in preparation for school.

• Allie began Kindergarten...sniff...sniff.
• Lily began 3rd grade.

• Allie was admitted to the hospital for difficulty breathing.

September

• Breanne and Charlotte spend lot time playing together.
• Breanne claps hands.
• Allie is released from hospital.
• Lots of blood testing for Allie.
• Playtime outside enjoying the "cooler" weather.  By this I mean low 90's high 80's. LOL!
• Breanne decides she likes to eat dirt.
• We did a lot of art projects together.
• We had an Avatar party at a friends house to celebrate the beginning of Season 2 of The Legend of Kora.
• Lily cuts of her LONG hair for shoulder length hair.

• Allie got her first hair trim EVER.

• I noticed the spot on my back had gotten larger...
• Lily gave herself a hickey on her forehead
• Bike rides for FHE.
• Breanne learns to walk!
• Dermatologist removes the spot on my back to do testing.
• Breanne gets a swing for her birthday.  Completely in love with it!

October

• Daddy gave lots of laundry basket rides to the girls.
• Lots of evening spent in the backyard...the girls playing...Russ mowing the lawn...me trying to keep Breanne out of the way.

• I started to work out at the gym every day again.  The girls love to go the the kid area there.
• Spot came back with poor results...not quite cancer but close enough they were concerned about it.  Decided to more aggressively remove it.  10 - 15 stitches on the inside, 10 - 15 stitches on the outside.
• Pajama day and dress what you want to be day at school.

• Charlotte has new obsession -- trains.

• Went to the local pumpkin patch.

• Girls ran in the Monster Dash.  Allie somehow got stuck with the big kids and ran the whole thing!
• Painted and carved pumpkins.

• Made spider cookies.
• Trunk or treat and trick or treating on Halloween.  Lily - princess. Allie - Raspberry Torte. Charlotte - Strawberry Shortcake. Breanne - Spider.

November

• I am going INSANE.  Breanne is into everything and soooo super stealthy about it!

• Daddy lets the girls do his hair sometimes.

• Tried to go the Christmas Light Parade but it was too cold.  It was actually snowing! We did manage to get our yummy fair food though :D

• Lily and daddy play chess.  Lily spends the rest of the month trying to teach Allie and Charlotte how to play. LOL!

• Had a nice Thanksgiving here at home.

• Bought our Christmas tree.

December

• Everyone got flu shots in effort to keep Charlotte healthy.
• Allie cut a chunk of her hair because it was "bothering her"  Good news...you couldn't even tell.

• Watched the Christmas devotional. 

• Wrote letters to Santa.
• Found out that I was expecting Baby jones #5.
• Found out that I was allergic to the stitches inside of me.  Medicine for now...shots when I get cleared from my doctor.
• Picture day at gymnastics. 

• Hot chocolate on cold days.  Texas should not be this cold! In the 20's and 30's if you are wondering.
• Allie found my lipstick and used it all over her face...nice.
• Lily and the other 3rd graders sang at the city Christmas Festival. We saw Santa there too! Breanne was mad at us for giving her to a strange man.

• I tried to make Christmas goodies for friends.
• Russ got the flu even with his flu shot.
• Charlotte had a BAD asthma attack.
• Breanne had RSV again!
• Charlotte, Breanne, and Allie all had breathing treatments...at the same time!
• Breanne loves popcorn -- discovered on our Sunday Christmas movie nights.
• I got a Silhouette for my birthday. YAY!!!
• Breanne had her first ice cream cone.  Would not let anyone get near it.  Funniest thing to watch!
• Had to get THREE ultrasounds to find out if the baby was ok.  He/she was...just very tiny.

• Russ and I bit the bullet and got iPhones. The girls love taking pictures with them.

• We cancelled cable.  We now have no TV except netflix.  Best decision EVER!
• Cookie the Elf came to visit.
• Enjoyed a quite Christmas at home.

• Charlotte got Doc Mcstuffins dress up and doctors kits.  Everyone and everything is getting a checkup!

• Charlotte got crazy sick again!!! She spent several days sleeping on our floor as we tried to combat her asthma.
• Played Headbanz for FHE.  Crazy fun game.

• Celebrated the new year at 8:00 with strawberry shakes.

Well there you go.  Our year in a nutshell.  There were quite a few big events, and quite a few small events.  Overall our year was stressful, happy, and crazy busy.