Week of July 5 - 11

This week was the start of our second session of swim lessons.  Overall swim lessons consumed our lives.  We spent all morning either getting ready for swim lessons or being at swim lessons.  While I'm grateful my kids are learning this skill, I will say that these are rough days.  It is exhausting to get everyone ready and there, and then entertain them while they are not swimming.  Which for Max and Bree was the whole two hour block of time.  Any way, how about some pictures...

 July 6th --

I walked in this morning to find my little man doing this in his crib.  Eeps!  When did he get so big that he can pull himself up on his crib?  Guess it is time to lower his mattress.

 

July 9th --

Seriously this kid is growing too fast!  I looked over today and max had pulled himself up to the table.  I may have shed a few tears...not of joy either.  I'm happy this little guy is progressing in his physical abilities though because there has been a bit of concern about that subject.

Mustache anyone? Why yes, we may have been a tad bit bored at swim lessons this day. :D

July 11 --

Just bug bites is what the doctor said a couple weeks ago.  So tell me this.  Why would a bug bit him in the EXACT same place a few weeks later?  Maybe the doctors will believe me now that something is amiss.

I haven't had a ton of scrapping time.  But when I do get time to make things it is a huge stress relief for me.  This was a card I made for one of my LilyPad assignments.  It is hard to tell from the picture but those palm trees are actually dimensional and sit higher than the card.

Breanne's Blessing

Breanne's blessing was today!  It turned out a bit different than we had planned.  For one thing we were here in Texas for it instead of in California.  Because of the unexpected change of plans no family was able to be present for her blessing.  However, we are lucky to be surrounded by great friends in the gospel and many of them were present.

I set up the camera on the TV stand and got a few pictures of us before we went to church.

We got this semi decent picture of the girls before Charlotte wanted to hold Breanne.

She wanted Breanne so this happened...

And this...

We sent her off to her room to cool down and I set up the camera for a picture of just me, Russ, and Breanne.  As I was doing a test shot, I just happened to get this beautifully tender picture of Russ and Bree.  I love my how wonderful he is with our children.

And a picture of the three of us...

At church Russ was able to give Breanne a blessing and a name.  Those standing in the circle Russell, Joseph Stevenson, James Davis, Bishop Victor Bond, Lance Oden, and Gennaro Dicataldo.  Her blessing consisted of many promises of happiness, laughter and humor.  Apparently she is her daddy's child with the sense of humor!  Russ also told me as soon as he sat down that Breanne was so happy throughout the whole blessing.  She smiled the whole way through!

Breanne truly is a blessing in our lives.  She has brought much happiness and laughter in a time where it was greatly needed.  I'm excited to see what a wonderful young woman she becomes.

Bree's 2 Month Pictures

My pudge, pudge is growing up way too fast!  Yes, I call her pudge, pudge.  It is in reference to her middle name.  Anyway, the last two months have seriously flown by.  Our little Bree is one of the happiest babies.  It is such a relief to have a baby that is fairly calm considering everything else going on in our lives.  Heavenly Father definitely knew that I needed to have my Bree at this time to add a little bit of happiness and sanity to our family.  Here are a sampling of the pictures I took for her 2 month photo shoot.  The first few she wasn't working with me, and was giving me a bit of sass.

Oh no, mom's got the camera out again!

Maybe I'll smile just a bit for her.

Nope, she's crazy, I'm just going to spit up instead.

 Finally I got Bree to cooperate a bit better and got these cute one's of her.

This is my favorite!

Yep she's along one just like her sisters!

Lastly a bit of smile.

I smile at last!

Finally!  Yes I finally got a picture of Bree smiling!  Russ got her to smile while I stood behind and took pictures.  This girl has such a gorgeous smile and we are lucky enough to see a lot!  Bree is so very happy and smiles at us all the time.  Doesn't her smile melt your heart too? Oh and notice her hair sticking up all over the place?!  I can't over the cuteness of it either :D

Lets color!

Charlotte really has not shown much interest in coloring before.  However, recently she's been asking to have my pens or pencils when I am using them.  Today i sat her down with a pad of paper and crayons instead of yielding up my pencil.  

Turns out Charlotte really enjoys coloring.  In fact she can already hold her crayon correctly.  I was quite amazed with this considering she is so young.

She colored on several pages for about 30 mins.  This is the longest she has ever engaged in an activity before.  Normally she gets frustrated and throws a tantrum.  I guess there just wasn't anything frustrating about coloring.  She was so proud in the end to show me her drawings.  I in turn was proud of her too!

Sweet Words

Charlotte's little voice wandered into the kitchen "Mamamamama"  I peaked my head out as I saw her start to move toward my bedroom.  I called "Char-char" wondering where she was going.  Charlotte quickly turned toward me and started crawling quickly saying "mama" over and over.  She must have been looking for me in my bedroom.  It clicked with me then as she smiled at me that Charlotte had said her first real word, and how sweet it was to hear her say my name.

Lily went to doctor's and has sinus infection that moved over to her eye and gave her pink eye.  Yet another round of antibiotics.  We are thinking that it may be time to get her tested for allergies.  The fact that she is having headaches and is already getting "nasty" sinus infections {the docotr's words} it may be time.  Very wary of doing this because it is a blood draw, and guess who would get to hold her down.  Yup me.

Even though the doctor didn't feel like she was contagious the school felt she was.  So she spent most of the day at home.  It was nice having all three girls home.  They had a lot fun playing together.  Some days I wish Lily didn't have to go to school, and I could teach her at home, but that just isn't realistic for us.

Charlotte's 1st Tooth

Yep that's right, Charlotte's 1st tooth finally popped through.  She's had a white blister on her gum for about a month now, and everyone has heard about it being there.  I got a whole new perspective on what, "gnashing of teeth actually means" this past month.  Poor Charlotte was miserable!  At one point in time she would shove her hand in her mouth and rip her fingers out of her mouth while pulling on the side of it.  I was for sure she was going to rip the corner of her mouth, she did it with such force.

Last night I was joking around with Lily that the tooth fairy just might take her tooth and give it to Charlotte.  Guess the tooth fairy knows a little something about teeth, lol!  This morning I did my morning routine of checking how Charlotte's tooth was coming along when I noticed a hole in her gum on the bottom left.  I felt around and sure enough felt the hard tooth instead of the soft squishy blister!  As of yet it isn't in enough to take a picture but as soon as it I'll be capturing Charlotte's toothy grin!

PS For the most part Charlotte's disposition has improved, although at times when she hits that gum with something she does howl in pain and it takes awhile to calm her down.  She seriously is such a drama queen sometimes!

Rolley Polley

It was absolutely crazy today with all we had planned.  At one point in time I laid Charlotte down on her blanket and went in my bedroom to get dressed. {Is this sounding familiar?} I was finishing up getting ready when I heard Charlotte freaking out.  I figured that she had lost her pacifier so I told Lily to go check on her and see if Charlotte needed it.  Lily came back and reported "Charlotte is on her tummy"  

Immediately I assumed Lily had rolled her over and I started chastizing her for it.  Lily looked at me with big eyes and said, "But mom I didn't do it, Charlotte did"  

Huh?!  So I went and checked on Charlotte and sure enough she had flipped herself over in efforts to get her pacifier which she was busily still looking for.  So why can she roll over, but she can't even hold her head up while lying on her tummy?!

A "grate" achievement!

Lily loves to help me cook but she really hasn't been able to do much besides stir.  Developmentally she hasn't been ready.  Today she reached a new level of being able to help.  She can official grate things!  We were making zucchini bread and she asked if she could grate it.  Letting go of my instincts to immediately say no, I let her.   She did a "great" job with only needed help when it got down to the little stubs.  I know who is getting dubbed as the official family grater from now on!

Bye bye diapers!

Were not trying to "fool" anyone by saying today is the day that Allie gives up diapers.  I've been scared out of my mind to try and potty train her because of the awful experience I had with Lily.  But since Russ will be home all weekend with me and we won't be leaving the house for church, we are going to attempt this.   We are prepared with the little potty, some thick undies, and a WHOLE lot of gummy bears.  Wish us luck!

2 months photoshoot

After church on Sunday I took the time to snap some pictures of Charlotte to show her off at 2 months.   She was ultracooperative and all smiles.

Likes:
She would prefer to be resting cuddled against my chest over anything else.  Many times I give in to that little luxury for her and we just sit in the rocking chair.

Dislikes:

Soap and lotion.  We are unsure at this point if the soap and lotion are hurting her excema or if she just doesn't like the feel them.  As soon as we put either one on her she screems as if she is in pain.

Quirks:

Her laugh sounds like a gasp.  It can be scary when we are not nearby and she gets laughing.  But in general it is cute since it happens so often.

The past month's milestones:

Woke up and began interacting with us.  I read somewhere that babies enjoy being part of a conversation, so I've been giving Charlotte opportunities to respond to things I say to her.  We can carry on a conversation for up to five minutes sometimes before she gets bored.

A favorite memory:
Watching Lily begin playing her electircal guitar for Charlotte because she was crying.  Charlotte calmed down and actually went to sleep.  Lily was so proud that she was able to help take care of Charlotte.

Clothes size:
3-6 mo and some 6 mo

Diaper Size:
1

Full on smile! I finally got it!

 

So serious.

Snuggling with Rocker Bear

Yum, yum, yum hands.

Classic baby shot.

There is nothing fabulous about this shot, but I wanted to include it because it shows how long Charlotte is.  She is so very tall!

Skipping away....

Just like most other Monday's I took Lily to ballet.  We were running late because of construction{They just opened up the new high way and people were going slow on it because it was a bit confusing}.  When I pulled into the parking lot I saw Miss Daniel walking in the door.  I parked and started to open Allie's door to get her and Charlotte out.  Then I stopped and thought for a moment.  The only reason I normally haul all three girls into dance class is because Miss Daniel isn't there when we arrive.  Why haul all three in, when Lily is getting old enough to go in by herself?  

I let out a deep breath then turned to Lily and gave her a few instructions like don't run, put your shoes on when you get there, listen to Miss Daniel, no goofing off, etc...As I related this to her she couldn't hide the huge smile spreading across her face.  I then sent her off to the front doors of the gym, and she skipped happily away.  It took a lot of deep breathing on my accord not to start crying.  It is so hard to send your first off on a new adventure, even if it is something as simple as going to dance class by herself for the first time.  Pretty soon she won't be skipping away to dance, but skipping away to college.  Seriously where is the time going?

Finding her voice...

Charlotte has been such a quiet baby.  She does the normal grunting in her sleep, but it isn't much, and she cries for the typical things like hunger, dirty diaper, gas, etc.  But she doesn't coo at all, that is until today.  I had just finished feeding her and she was quite content sitting on my bent legs.  I was pulling silly faces at her to get her to smile{which she does quite often} when she smiled, laughed at me, then started to coo.  I cooed back at her, and it went back forth like that 3 or 4 more times.  My heart was bursting with love at this point, I was so happy!  Since then I've gotten her to coo two more times.  I love just listening to her and hearing how content she is.

Braid

Lily has friend at school {her name escapes me right now} that braids her hair almost everyday.  Apparently Lily has been eyeing this new hairdo.  She asked me this morning if I would braid her hair like so-and-so’s hair.  I agreed to give it a try, not quite sure if her hair was long enough to braid it.  The end result…I think it looked pretty good even if I did have to hairspray down a few of her shorter hairs!

Lil' Reader

  Allie loved her caterpillar book {The Hungry Caterpillar} since she was young., but she has never enjoyed looking at other books.  Recently Allie has become very involved in reading books.  Many times it will be quiet and look around for Allie and she is in some little corner reading a book she's pulled off the shelf.  Today I loved watching Allie read this book.  It was so interesting to watch her point at the pictures and look at them intently before whispering to herself what it might.  I loved that she was interacting with the book as if I was right there by her side.  Sigh...just another proof to me that my baby is growing up right before my eye.

Oink, oink!

Taking a risk today, I asked Allie if she would like pigtails in her hair.  She responded with a hearty, "YEAH!"  Allie has never liked getting her one pony tail done, so I was nervous about doing two.  She did sit down well but screamed when I put in the hair things.  I swear I wasn't pulling on her hair , but apparently it was hurting her.  We got through the experience and Allie was the proud owner of pigtails for church. 

Front

 

Side

Back, and yes I know they are crooked but I wasn't about ready to redo them once I noticed.  Oh and look at her little curls in the back.  Just like Lily's started out!

18 Months

Over the past few visits to the doctors Allie has displayed how much she loathes them.  Doesn't matter whether it is a man or woman, old or young, she strongly dislikes them.  Imagine my surprise when today things were relatively calm when we went in.  I could actually hear what the doctor was telling me, instead of reading his lips between wails from Allie.  Don't fool yourself into thinking that it was perfectly peaceful though.  Oh no, Allie let us know that she didn't like the stethoscope, or the light/magnifying thing the doctor uses.  That produced some pretty good sobs and thrashing, but the usual gusto wasn't there.  It was as if she was grudgingly admitting that the doctors wasn't TOO bad, but that she wasn't a 100% convinced yet.

Allie's stats were quite interesting today.  I was fully prepared to hear that I have a tall thin baby, considering everyone and their dog has been telling me how tall Allie is.  Alas, that wasn't to be....

Height: 31" {30%}

Weight: 23 lbs {60%}

Head:  46 1/2 cm

What?!  She's short?  Hmmm...she must be surrounded by EXTRA short friends/family then because she is taller than all of them! LOL!  Isn't it funny how these percentages change with each doctors appointment?  Yet our doctor insists that she is doing well, and following her own growth curve.  That is all that matters to me!

Allie also got two shots.  We got the "not so nice" shot nurse.  This lady has absolutely no compassion for the kids.  How I miss our nurse in Idaho who would talk the kids through it so that they hardly even noticed they were getting a shot.  Guess you can't get everything you want.

First Day of Nursery

Allie turns 18 mo. next Sunday.  Since we are going to be traveling, I decided to send Allie into the nursery a week early.  I was bit nervous that she wouldn't stay because she is sooooo attatched to Russ and I.  She is very skeptical of people she hasn't been around much.  But my fears were in vain.  I asked her if she wanted to go to nursery and she nodded her head yes.  I let go of her hand and she ran in and started playing. I snuck out the door after explaining to the nursery leaders what was going on.

It was nice that I was able to take care of my primary duties without having to entertain Allie, and keep her from distracting the kids.  But a part of me missed her, and worried that she was upset.  Every cry that came from the nursery next door I listened to intently to see if it was her.  It never was....When church was over and she saw me, she came running into my arms.  I asked her if she had enjoyed nursery and I got enthusiastic nodding of the head. It is comforting to know that Allie will love nursery and be at ease in there as much as Lily was, but that she loves seeing her mommy and daddy afterwards.

The Family is Ordained of God and Central to His Plan

The Primary Program was today in our ward.  Because we simply don't have enough teachers, I got to sit on the stand and help out with it.  Allie was handed off to my visiting teacher, and she made quite a racket at first.  She hates being separated from me when daddy is gone.  But soon after she quieted down.  I was assigned to sit in the back with some of the older kids.  This spot gave me a birdseye view of Lily and all the antics she pulled throughout the program.  I just reminded myself through out the whole thing, that it could be worse.  For example, she could have pulled her dress over her head and showed off the fact that mommy forgot to buy her new tights, therefore showing off her Strawberry Shortcake underwear.  But to my great pleasure THAT ONE didn't happen.

I really enjoyed listening to Lily get up and give her two little lines.  On one she turned to Sis Curl and told her, "I can do it! The family is ordained of God and Central to His Plan"  We had worked hard on memorizing that line that had REALLY big words for a three year old to say.  Lily beamed at me as she walked down the stairs from the microphone.  I was so happy for her.

The only sad thing about the day was that Russ had to miss it.  I felt bad for him.  Then he told me that in the ward he attends in San Jose, they had their primary program the same day.  Talk about pouring salt in the wound!  Hopefully next year all this traveling will be over and he will get to see Lily recite her lines and maybe even sing! {She didn't sing one word this year, even though she knows the words to a lot of the song!  That stinker!}

Lily's first talk

Lily gave her first talk in church today.  This is what she said...

There are many prophets in the Book of Mormon that I like very much.  One prophet that is very speical is the porphet Nephi.  Nephi is one of the first prophets in the Book of Mormon.  Nephi was asked to get the brass plates.  This was very hard to do.  HIs brothers did not really help him and they told him that he could not get the brass plates.  This is what Nephi said to brothers.  1 Nephi 3:7 " I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them tath they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them,"  Nephi taught us that Heavenly Father will helpe us keep his commandments.   There are many  commandments that Heavenly Father wants us to keep and he promises us that he will help us keep them.  Ome commandment tat is very importand is service.  Heavenly Father wants us to seve others.  Service means that we help others when they need help.  sometimes it might be hard to figure out how to serve others.  But we need to remember that the Heavenly Father will help us figure it out.  If we pay atteintion every day we will see that we can do service every day.  One example is that I get to do service for my Mommy and DAddy.  I help them take the groceries from the car into the house.  I help them cook dinner.  I set the dinner table.  I also help them whin I picu upall my toys.  I love to help my family.  I know that Heavenly Father wants us to serv others.  I also know that he will help us find wasy to seve others.  I say the things in the hame of Jesus Crhist, Amen.

She did an awesome job with Russ helping her.  I wish I had got to hear it a little more, but I was ouside trying to keep Allie quiet.  Lily was very excited to give the talk.  Her general attitude toward anything related to church is VERY ENTHUSIASTIC.  I hope she can always be this enthusiastic about the gosple.