Highlight

It's been soooo long since I've done updates on the kiddos, so I just wanted to take some time to highlight how each child is doing.

Ogden
Ogden is a fun, fun kid.  I love how resourceful and friendly he is.  He turned the big 8 the end of September.  Phew!  He was so glad to finally be old enough to throw that booster seat out the window!  He was also happy to get baptized.  Our families were so supportive and Ogden was the only child from our ward to get baptized this month, so it was nice and personal.  Thanks to everyone who came!  Since he turned 8, he also gets to start boy scouts and LOVES it.  What a cool program.  I love that scouting focuses on so many values:  hard work, respect, service, responsibility, etc.  So far he's made a bird house and a pretty impressive marshmallow gun.

Kaelyn
Kaelyn is loving Kindergarten.  We skipped the whole preschool thing, so school has been very new to her this year.  She really enjoys learning and is such a sponge.  She loves to draw and write and I often have to hide my important papers before they get doodled on.  She's also a little mommy and helps me out a ton with Paige and Abby and even housework.  She's growing like a weed, along with Ogden.  Their school pants have lasted a whole 2 months and are already coming dangerously close to flooding.  Sheesh!  I thought I was so on the ball with their wardrobes and was ecstatic to get all their jeans for about 5 or 6 dollars with the help of Old Navy sales and Aunt C.C.'s  awesomeness at Gap.  Oh well!  I guess they'll still be in great shape for Paige!


Paige
Paige is a blast and keeps us on our toes with some of the funny things she does.  She has a special relationship with her dad.  Dad can be veg-ing on the couch watching a show or working on the computer and Paige will bring a book to him and Dad will stop everything right away to read with her.    She attempts to repeat a lot of the things we say and I am loving that we can communicate a tad bit better.  I'm pretty sure Paige wishes she were an only child.  Sometimes when she gets up in the morning, she'll come out of her room with a smile, one of the kids will walk up to her, and she will growl (her new way of expressing disapproval) at them and then she's grumpy for a little while.  Eventually she will warm back up though.  Classic Paige!  We have yet to take the binky away from her even though we totally should have by now.  My plan was to throw them out after we got back from our trip to Disneyland back in May, but then she was teething and sick and I just couldn't stand all the crying so I put it off for a little bit and soon after Abby was born, which I figured it would just be cruel to take it away at that point.  We're moving in a month, so I figure after we get our big transitions out of the way, then we'll deal with it.  Heck!  Maybe I'll get overzealous and throw Abby's out too!

Abby
Abby is our smiley Riley!  I'm so glad she is in our family.  Even though we figured our family was pretty full and blessed a year ago, little Abby has proven to us that we needed her in our family.  She has such a pleasant disposition and will brighten your day with all of her smiles.  We blessed Abby right after Ogden's baptism.  It was a pretty cool day and we enjoyed all the time we got to spend with family.  A couple days ago she started rolling over.  With my other kids, it seemed like they would roll over, but no one would believe me because they would rarely do it.  Not Miss Abbo.  She is a rolling machine and gets frustrated every time she ends up on her belly.  I've feel so lucky to have Abby be such an easy-going baby.  At almost 5 months, she is a great napper and USUALLY only cries a little bit after I lay her down and then falls asleep.  Now if we could just master the sleeping through the night thing.  We're still up about 4-5 times/night.  Advice accepted.






Julian
I guess I could write a little bit about Julian too.  Afterall, he is one of the kids, right?  Just kidding.  Julian has been working like crazy since football season started.  This is the first year BYU has really been able to broadcast their football games now that they've gone independent.  It keeps him pretty busy.  He loves it though!  He's also been very occupied with the building of our house.  I've pretty much stepped out of the picture and let Julian take over.  He thinks of everything!  Julian accomplished something pretty cool this summer by swimming a whoppin' 10 miles open water.  I was very impressed!  Later that night he was in so much pain with his shoulder that he took a trip to the emergency room to find out if he injured it.  After some good pain meds and a few days to loosen up, it turned out to be a severe case of lactic acid.  Phew!




Before I had Abby, I would ask other people with 4+ kids, how it was to have that many children.  Most would say that it really wasn't that bad and that once you have 3, it's not much different.  Ha!  I would like to disagree!  It is definitely not easy and is quite a bit different.  It's getting better though.  Maybe the reason I disagree could have something to do with having the last two kids 17 months apart.  Or maybe it's because we have sold a house, moved twice, had a baby in the NICU, and are building a house all in the last year.  Or maybe it's because we live on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex and I have to carry a toddler and baby with carrier down and up those stairs any time we leave the house.  Probably a combo of all three.  And I wouldn't change my life for anything.  I think we have it pretty good and I'm excited for what's in store.