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Here's us standing in front of our house, forcing a picture out of the kids when it's soooo bitter outside.

The Young and the Restless

Wow!  The month of January was exhausting!  We moved into our new place three days after Christmas. Oh happy day!  Then, in January, Julian had 4 work trips which were each 4-6 days long.  Also, after we moved, the binky fairy came (I know, I know.  We should have done that a year ago.)  We put all the pacifiers on the front porch, shut the door, and then an awesome bike showed up at the front door.  Paige wasn't very excited about the trade, but did okay until bedtime.  It took a couple nights of crying, but after that, she's been fine ever since.

Also, when we moved, we did some bed shifting.  It was time for Abby to move from the bassinet to the crib...in her own room.  Yea!  Which meant that Paige had to move from the crib to Kaelyn's toddler bed and Kaelyn had to move from the toddler bed to...eventually a new bed.  Sidenote:  since about the time Abby was born, Kaelyn started waking up in the middle of the night and sleeping on the floor next to my mom while she was helping out.  After that, it just became a nightly ritual.  We'd find her in the living room, in Ogden's room, in our room.  I thought it was kind of cute.

Soooo...while Julian was away, I attempted to get Abby used to sleeping in a crib.  That wasn't so bad.  At the same time, I was training Paige to sleep in a toddler bed.  I don't think she was ready for this.  She did so well in the crib.  All I had to do was lay her down with her pacifier and she was good.  And we had already done this with Ogden and Kaelyn and had zippo transitioning problems.  But I had seen Super Nanny, so I knew how this could go down.  The first day I spent 2 hours at naptime repeatedly placing her in her bed and leaving the room.  She thought it was hilarious.  Since naptime was over, we tried again at bedtime and she didn't get out of bed ONCE!  Hallelujah!  The next day at naptime, same thing--she stayed in bed.  Nighttime--it was all a trick.  She was in and out, in and out.  For the next 2 weeks I would spend anywhere from 30 min. to 2 hours putting her back in bed.  AND sometimes when I would leave the room, she would go through her closet that has a tunnel into Abby's closet and go wake Abby up.  This girl is good!  She knows what buttons to push!

Fortunately, Paige just does this for me and, for the most part, will stay in bed when Julian puts her to bed.  Unfortunately, Julian wasn't here much.  Needless to say, January was a very difficult month for me.  Not accomplishing much during the day, because I had no naptime, and by the time every child was in bed it was 10:00 at night.  That's when I would collapse on the couch and turn off.  Of course Abby was still getting up 3-5 times during the night also.

It's March now, and things have gotten much better.  I sure do love having Julian home.  It helps so much and I like the time we get to spend together in the evenings, even if we just watch a stupid show together.  The fights with Paige have gotten shorter.  Abby is sleeping for longer periods of time.  Kaelyn now has a new-to-us bed that she thinks is so cool--and sleeps in all. night. long.

I figure in about 5 years, I'll look back at the cute little things 2 year olds say and all the fun baby milestones and miss it.  But it's easier to think that way when your fully rested.  I'll still miss it.

I sure love my cute kiddos.

Lesson Learned

At the beginning of the school year, Ogden and I were having some not-so-fun homework battles.  His homework usually consists of 2 pages of math or grammar or something, a spelling activity, and 20 minutes of reading.  First we decided that he could have 20 minutes of fun and a snack before doing his homework. Sounded fair to me and him.  Unfortunately, when the 20 minutes expired and he was playing outside with friends, it was not easy to get him to come inside.  Meaning, it would require me to whistle out the window, receive the accidental acknowledgment, followed by the "I didn't hear you" avoidance, followed by a couple more attempts, followed by me getting my shoes on, grabbing my babies, and trotting down three flights of stairs and bringing Ogden inside.  Soooo, we did away with the 20 minutes. Ogden was pretty good at doing his spelling and worksheets, but the reading was another story.  We tried reading outside on a blanket, taking turns reading, having him read to his sisters, but day after day we still would have struggles over the reading.  I kept thinking Ogden should come in the door, take care of his responsibilities without procrastinating, and me not even have to be a part of it.  Then it donned on me.  Do I do that?  Do I wake up and clean the bathrooms first thing in the morning?  Heck no!  Do I get my visiting teaching done the first week of the month?  Quite the opposite.  After a while, we finally figured out a routine that works.  Ogden does his worksheets and spelling right when he gets home and then at bedtime, when all the kids are in bed, he and I lay down on his bed and read books together.  It's turned out to be quite a special one-on-one for us.  He usually tells me stories about his day and we get to have little conversations together where no one interrupts us.  We don't get to do this every night, but I sure do enjoy our time together and the tension is no longer there.

Are You Kidding Me?

I generally try to make my grocery store runs in the evening while the kids are asleep, but I often will make some quick trips in the morning while the older 2 kids are in school.  It's not too big of a deal, but I avoid going to the store with the 4 kiddos.  It's not their favorite way to spend their time, and it's not mine either. HOWEVER, the other day I had planned poorly and realized I was down to my last diaper for Paige and that I needed to make the trip.  So, we all went to KMart and grabbed the diapers and threw in some toilet paper as well.  While in line, Ogden asked if he could look at the toys while I was in line.  Think, think, think.  "Sure.  You and Kaelyn go look at the toys and I'll be there in a couple minutes."  Working my way through the line.  Then I hear this noise that sounds like some kind of battery operated device along with some Kaelyn cackling.  Yep.  It's my kids and Ogden is driving one of these bad boys through the isle and over to the check out lane.





Lovely.  "Go put that back Ogden."  Finishing my transaction.  Uh-oh.  There's that cackle again.  Here comes Kaelyn driving the same vehicle toward me, but a little less smoothly and crashing into the displays in the middle of the isle.  "Okay, do I pretend I don't know them.  Or do I handle this," I wonder.  "Kaelyn, jump out.  Ogden, go put that away."  Crazy kids!  We all go look at the toys, just for kicks, until Ogden takes one of those ginormous bouncy balls and kicks it down the lane.  "Seriously!  We're going home.  Let's go."

It's really funny now and I laugh when I picture the kids pulling up on one of those ridiculous power wheels.  But sometimes I wonder why they have such huge lapses of judgment.  And why do I?  Clearly, that was a bad choice on my part.  Sheesh.

Happy Birthday, You Old Man!

Woohoo!  Dad turns 33!  We had such a fun day with him too as he took the day off of work so we could play.  I started some slowcooker apple oatmeal the night before and when he woke up at 4:30a.m. (somebody was excited) he decided he would complete this birthday breakfast by going to the store and getting peaches, cottage cheese, and some Simply Orange juice.  It was a GREAT breakfast!

 Blowing out the birthday breakfast candle.

Present: Decorative star to hang in our NEW house someday!  We went to IKEA to get some ideas for our house.  We dropped Ogden and Kaelyn off at the Play Area, which is the smartest, coolest thing ever.  About 5 minutes later, as I was holding Paige on my hip, I felt her diaper start to leak and she was totally peeing on me!  So I took her to the bathroom, rinsed out her pants, and then tried to dry them with the hand dryer.  It kind of worked.  

 Present:  a shirt from the kids. Notice Paige's wet lap.  This was from the soda she spilled--not the aforementioned leak.

Present:  Mmmmmmm. Dinner at Red Iguana.  

"Paige.  Stop pulling off Abby's socks."  Going to a restaurant as a family is usually avoided at all costs, but we made it work and had a fun time.  Luckily, we were seated in the back by ourselves, so we didn't bother too many people.  Julian kept laughing at all of our chaos and the fact that Abby kept spitting up on me as I was trying to eat.  By the end of the night, I needed a big, bubbly bath!

And back at home for some chocolate pudding pie.  Happy Birthday Dad!  We sure love you!  Thanks for all you do for us!

No Longer a One-Box-Family

That's right.  We have hit a new stage in our lives and I'm having a hard time adjusting.  I can no longer get by with feeding my family from one box/can.  We are too big and eat too much.  The other night I served the family a can of green beans as a side to our meal, and Julian looked at me and said:  You know we need two cans now, right?  Me:  Yup.  Julian:  Okay, good.  I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.

I'm in denial though.  Our food just does not go very far and I really want it to.  We have such BIG eaters!  It takes a lot to fill a swimmer, a runner, and 3 growing kids.  And, yes, Paige can be quite the little carb-monster (just like her Mom), always looking for a snack and always knowing when the pantry door is open.

It's been kind of frustrating that I make breakfast, oatmeal for instance, everyone eats a healthy bowl full (plus seconds if you're Kaelyn) and before I can clean up the kitchen, I hear the dreaded words:  "I'm hungry."  Aaahhh!  And it's not like I can say, "Oh, that's too bad.  You should have eaten you're breakfast."  Because they totally did.  Now I have to be the mean mom that says, "Don't tell me you're hungry unless it's 10:00 or 3:00, and that's when we'll have a snack."

It seems like I've read many articles about kids not eating or kids being picky, but didn't realize I would be faced with the exact opposite.  I'm glad we have good, healthy, nonpicky kids though.  Our kids love artichoke, split pea & sausage soup, zucchini, sweet potatoes, etc.  It's awesome!  I thought it was hilarious when Kaelyn was filling out her "All About Me" poster at the beginning of the year and instead of putting pizza for her favorite food, she put grits.

The last couple of years I've been trying to stick to a grocery budget of $200/month.  Many months I go over, but lately I've really been sticking to the plan so we can hunker down on those medical bills before we move.  Mission accomplished!  The $200 covers food, toilet paper, diapers, soap, razors, etc.  I think it's time to up the budget now that our family is growing and especially since we have 2 in diapers.  The funny thing is, I'm pretty sure I spend less now on a family of 6 than when it was just me and Julian.  In case you didn't already guess it, I'm a couponer.  But not one of THOSE couponers.  If I was one of THOSE couponers, I would only be spending $14 and I would have 42 bottles of mustard and 350 sticks of deodorant.  I'm just a moderate couponer/price-matcher and it's saved us sooooo much money.  It's helped pay off those student loans and even stash some cash.

I guess it's time to just face the fact that 1 box/can isn't going to cut it anymore.  Blast!

Speaking of food, I feel sooo lucky to have married a man who ENJOYS cooking and is amazing at it. While it stinks that he is so much better at it than me, I love not having to make all the meals.  Do you realize that we make 21 meals and 14 snacks a week!?  Ugg!  That's so much!  I remember serving with someone in Primary who had 6 kids, and she said when her kids were younger she used to wish we could just take a pill in place of a whole meal.  Two kids ago, I didn't quite agree, but now I definitely have those moments.  Ironically, now this wonderful mom owns a restaurant and catering business with her husband and I would much rather eat one of their meals than take a pill.

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.

What a Day!

Paige is a funny gal.  I've noticed that she has 2 modes:  I'm not feeling well and I'm going to cry at you all day, or I am happy and very busy.  I prefer the latter.  A couple weeks ago some of her chores (she comes up with these on her own) included cleaning up some water she spilled with dad's clean work shirt,  putting the remote in the dirty clothes, grabbing sandwich bags from the drawer and wear them as shoes, and on and on.  She is such a ham.  Unfortunately, the last couple days she has kicked back in to fussy mode and today began the runny nose.  Cry, cry, cry.  On my leg.  Cry, cry, cry.  After getting Ogden and Kaelyn off to school, I decided we were going to leave the house and get some birthday shopping done, rather than fight the monster all morning.  We were off to WinCo to pick up some bulk foods by 9:15 and then headed over to Target.  Paige was very pleasant after we left the house.  When we arrived in the parking lot, Abby was getting fussy.  I turned off the car, unbuckled Paige, and brought Abby up front with me so I could feed her.  Paige LOVES playing in the van, sitting in the back in the booster seats, roaming around.  Play, play, play.  I finished feeding Abby and then hopped out and put her in her carrier and loaded her in the shopping cart.  I closed the sliding door and grabbed the handle for the driver's door to get Paige, and lock.  She was playing with the buttons.  Lock again.  "Pull up Paige.  Pull the button up."  Lock.  Of course a 1 year-old can't pull the button up.  And of course I left the keys sitting in the van.  Think, think.  Check all the doors.  Yep, all locked.  I'll just call a locksmith on my....phone, which is in my purse...in the van.

Well, thirty minutes later, with the help of a nice gentlemen I flagged down in the parking lot who was willing to let me borrow his cell phone, and a helpful police officer with some handy breaking-in tools, the doors were unlocked.  And now it was time to go pick up Kaelyn from school.

Some days are just funner than others.

Ogden Loses Tooth #5

The other day Ogden came home from school with a teeny tiny tooth in his hand.  Another bottom tooth had fallen out.  I told him to throw it in the garbage because the Tooth Fairy doesn't come for the 5th tooth.  Hehe.  He didn't fall for it.  The next morning when he looked under his pillow, a $1 gold coin replaced his tooth.  He threw it in his pocket just before leaving for school.  That night when he went to bed he brought out a pencil to me and said he had written the Tooth Fairy a note.  I didn't think much of it, until I went in to kiss him goodnight just before I went to bed.  I felt under his pillow and there was the gold coin with a note that read:  Dear Tooth Fairy, can I have a 3D DS for wii?  Ha!  He is such a negotiator!  Well, that Tooth Fairy wrote him back in some shaky cursive writing:  Sorry Little Man that's Santa's Job!  --T.F.

That Ogden!  He is so funny!

1st Day of School!