Washington getaway

First of all I want to clarify that Chris and I are from the Tri-Cities area in Washington (Chris from Connell, and me from Pasco). Not anywhere near Seattle. Its in the lower right corner (southeast) where it is a desert; similar to Utah... minus the mountains and snow. It does not rain like Seattle and is actually warmer than Utah. Spring comes at least a month sooner here and it is really green already, even with it being a desert. Not like Arizona desert, like sage brush. Grass and trees grow. Its farm land so things grow really well here. My parents own a dairy, organic apple orchard, and some crop land that is usually corn or alfalfa (hay). This is where I lived my whole life, until I graduated high school.

Ok, so I have been wanting to make a trip up here to visit my family for at least a month, but its a 10 hour drive and I was going to go alone so I never did. Two of my sisters and my dad came to Utah for my brother in-law's graduation from BYU MBA program so Amy rode with me on the way home to Washington. My little neighbor boys, practically Addysin's best friends, both had the flu on Friday and Addysin didn't get it.... until I am filling up at the gas station a few blocks from my house at 5:30 am Saturday morning on my way out! It was just a tiny tiny bit so I thought about it and decided it wouldn't be a huge deal since I had Amy to help (and Jack and Drew- the little boys with the flu only threw up a couple times and then it was over). Also I had been preparing for this trip the whole week. So Addysin threw up like 5 times in the next three hours. It really wasn't bad though since she had hardly eaten the day before. It was just like the boys, short lived. But that was the least of our problems. Caiden and Addysin had very mild colds for the week before and I warned my mom of it, but she didn't think it was a big deal and I thought they were getting over them. OOOOOH NO! Sunday, Monday, and Today have been awful! Caiden is miserable and has Croup. Caiden threw up Sunday night once before bed, and Addysin randomly threw up again monday night. They both wake up soooo much during the night, go to bed late and wake up early. And we're staying in the same room together so there's no letting them cry it out.

Oh wait, one more complaint. Its been raining so we're stuck inside and we are too sick to visit anyone. So yes, this is an AWESOME trip! Its nice to be with my family, but I am not happy that we drove so far to sit around and get everyone else sick. Nobody has gotten it, and I will be very surprised and relieved if they don't. Well, hopefully they will start getting better soon so we can get out and see people or do something fun. On the bright side, the weather is supposed to be nicer Thursday- Saturday, up to 75 degrees! YAY!

Our children's sleeping habits

Let me give an extended background on Addysin's aweful sleep habits... (feel free to skip over this, its more of a journal entry)
We'll start from day 3. Home from the hospital and up all night. The next few months consisted of me and Addysin hanging out AWAKE seriously most of the night a few times each month because she was so mixed up and I wanted to spend every waking moment (of hers) with her. I couldn't just leave her in her crib because I was an obsessive mother. She never cried. She was just happy and didn't want to sleep so I kept her company. Would I do that now? NO! At 5 months old, we moved to a single bedroom apartment in Minnesota for summer sales. She went to bed when we did at 3 am due to Chris' work schedule! And she slept with us! She has always gone to bed when we do (around midnight, at the earliest). I gave my honest effort from 13 months-24 months but failed time after time at getting her to bed earlier. Sometimes I would get her to bed around 10 and I would feel like super mom. She would do it for 3 nights and I would think "this is my big break! Thank you Heavenly Father!" Then she would snap back into her regular routine. Failure. I just couldn't handle it anymore. Seriuosly couldn't. So I devoted all my energy (which wasn't a whole lot due to lack of sleep with two terrible sleepers) in January to "fixing my children". Caiden wasn't too bad since he was only 5 months, but Addysin was work. By about the middle March (27 months old) she was going to bed at 9 and sleeping untill 7 or 8 in the morning!!!! I did it! (With a lot of help from Chris.) But that was short lived. She now wants to stay up untill 10 or later and when we put her to bed she screams out any reason she can think of to get out of it. "MOM!" "DAD!" "HUNKRY!" "TURSTY!" "SCARED!" "NO, NO, NO!" After we get her calmed down and she sings some songs, she is just wide awake and not tired. Who wants to go to bed not tired? I hate that. So I decided she might be getting too much sleep. If she does take a nap from now on, which I'm positive she still will pretty often, it wont be her usual 2 hours.

This is a special note to first time parents. DONT LET YOUR CHILD DECIDE WHEN HE/SHE WANTS TO SLEEP. AFTER A YEAR, YOU'LL BE SICK OF IT AND THEY ARE HARD TO FIX AT THAT AGE. ENJOY EVERY SECOND WITH THEM DURING THE DAY AND PUT THEM TO BED AT 8.

And a HUGE thanks to a friend for suggesting the book "Twelve Hours Sleep By Twelve Weeks Old" by Suzy Giordano. Its the best and I want every mother to read it before your baby turns 8 weeks. Caiden still wakes up every four hours so obviously I didn't do it right but it taught me a lot and made his sleep habits better than if I let him do whatever he wanted. Also another really interesting sleep book for any age baby/child is "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" by Richard Ferber.

Today was Addysin's first day of NO NAP for the first time in her life! She has almost completed this feat a few times, but then falls dead asleep too early for the night so it becomes a nap and then she goes to bed REALLY late. I always get nervous that that is going to happen (because it always has) but today she stayed awake untill she was eating a waffle for dinner at 7:45. I saw her head slowly falling and her eyes closed as she chewed so I began singing "the wheels on the bus". She, with her eyes literally half shut, tried with all the energy she had to do the motions. When I finished singing, she passed out. I carried her up to her bed, put her jamies on, and that was it. So easy and sooooo nice. I am sad she doesn't need naps, but I would rather have her awake from 8 am-8 pm and sleep from 8 pm-8 am than have a nap and go to bed at 10:00. She is so easy during the day and I desperatly NEED a break at the end of the day.

As for Caiden, he is in bed 12-13 hours (about 8 am-8 pm) at night, but wakes up 2 times to eat. He goes right back to sleep so its not too bad. Its not great though, but soooo much better then Addysin ever was. He takes 1 or 2 naps totalling about 3 hours of napping. He loves his fuzzy blanket and his binky, but only for sleeping- thank goodness!

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter! I got a bunch of dollar zone stuff at Target. You can get great board books there, and they're sooo cheap! Chris and the Easter bunny got Goofy and Eeyore to add to our collection of Disney characters. Addysin loves the Disney Channel.

In this picture she was saying "Oooo!"

"Cainen and Goopy"- Addysin's language
For Breakfast Addysin ate gum and Twix.

We went to David and Kira's for Easter dinner. Addysin had just woken up from her nap so she didn't do the egg hunt.

Caiden's first tie

He rolled under the coffee table and was so excited. It was cute. I've never seen him get so excited about being in a new place.

Addysin was still in a daze from her nap.

Addysin's first time bowling!

On March 10 (Friday), it was Braxton's birthday and Rachel (my friend from hairschool) had his party at the BYU bowling alley. Braxton LOVES bowling so everything was bowling themed. Addysin loved bowling and I'm sure we will start going more now. Its so fun to have a toddler that has likes and favorites. Wait for it....

"YAY!!!" she clapped after every turn. She got a stike once, but I was really mad i lined it up so well because she only got one turn, instead of two.


"Here, have a sticker"

Every since she was 18 months, she has loved stickers on her hands. Thats the only place a sticker belongs. They paralize her arms and hands for a few minutes- untill she forgets they are there.

Look what a cute cake Rachel made! The ball holes are tea light candles.

Three dramatic haircuts

I gave Caiden his second haircut March 25 (7 1/2 months old). I just cant stand bald spots and I'm so glad I can cut his hair short because he's a boy. I sat him in his bumbo seat in front of the mirror and it worked really well.

Before

Ewww...

After. Ahhh, much better.
And I gave Addysin her gazillionth haircut February 18. This was a dramatic haircut with more length taken off then ever before. I Love her long hair but it never evened out from her bald spot. Hers was worse than Caiden's. You have to look closely because the next picture is so far away, but see that chunk of hair that looks like a shorter layer? That shorter chunk was always sticking up. I wish I had taken a picture of her bed head. Her long hair would be matted and straight up. So I just cut it. It'll grow back...

Evened out...

And goodbye shaggy Chris. Its a toss up. I like his hair both ways. See Easter post for the "after" picture.

Our little church goer

I LOVE his vest. Chris' sister anna gave it to him and its only 0-3 month size, but stretches :)

This is Chris' favorite way to style our babies hair while they are sleeping...

Here's a pic of Addysin at 10 days old with the same hip hair do. Addysin's hair was so black!

I AM RICH!

Last week I went to the grocery store with just Caiden while my nieghbor watched Addysin- that was so nice Sarah! So while I'm there this older woman started playing with Caiden and said he looked like me, which nobody has ever told me... ever! I was happy but wanted her to know how much he looks like chris, and not much like me. So I flipped through the pictures on my iphone to find one of Chris. I apoligized for how long it was taking me. She said something I thought was kinda funny, "dont worry, i'm old, I have no where else to be. " Anyway, I found a picture and it was this one of Addysin and Chris:

I dont think the picture was good enough for her to notice that Caiden is a Christopher JR. but she said, "Oh, you are so rich! Dont ever let that one go, he is so handsome! And your little girl is beautiful!" Well, that made my day!

I am so blessed to have such beautiful, healthy children.

1st day of spring + boyfriends

Last week was soooo nice outside. We spent a lot of hours playing on the grass with the neighbors. The kids loved it. I'm glad we soaked up the close to 70 degree weather because this week has been chilly. Its even snowed a couple/few times! Of course, and thankfully, it didn't stick. Well, here are the kids celebrating the first day of spring last friday...Addysin and Drew saying "cheeeez". Drew's expression cracks me up.

I took a picture of Drew handing the unwanted cracker back...

So of course Addysin thinks to herself "that must be cute or something, I better copy him so I can get attention too." That is really what happened, I'm not making up stories.
For some reason Addysin is ultra shy around Jack (our nieghbor) and will hardly say a word or show emotion around him. He is 7 months older than her. He is so sweet and likes to lead her around by the hand. She usually DOES NOT like to be touched by other kids because a lot of times it ends up with a push or getting a toy taken away. Wierdly enough, she lets Jack hold her hand though. I think they might have crushes on each other. He "ROARS" at her and she stands there all bashful. If any other child does that she for sure ends up crying, especially if I'm around.

So here are the love birds taking a stroll all happy...

And as I'm taking this out of focus shot, Addysin starts crying. But keep in mind she just keeps walking along, hand in hand with Jack. She is so scared to pull away or just say no. Should I be worried?

Well, it was cute. Moral of this post: Addysin likes to be copy cat and she's a follower.

Lee Weekend

On Friday March 13, Chris' parents drove down from Richland, Washington to visit for the weekend. It was really fun to have them here, especially since Chuck doesn't get much (if any) time off during the school year since he works at the High School in Connell. So Friday night we all went to dinner at Tucano's. Four of their six children were there. Anna and her family live in Ocala, FL and Melissa and her family are up in Connell, WA, but everyone else is down here (well Tony and Rachel live in Rexburg which isn't too far, but will soon be moving to Utah, YAY!). It was really fun to all get together. After dinner everyone came over to our house and we talked untill late, like midnight! The 6 kids were all wired and didn't realize how late it was. I'm sad I didn't get the pictures from Chuck's camera before he left so no pictures :( The next day Becca, Rachel, Addysin, Caiden, and I went to Olive garden for lunch while Chris and Tony were with their parents shopping around. Carol and Chuck stayed with David and Kira Saturday night and left to go home on Sunday... quick trip! That night we played Mario Cart. ha ha, this is Tony's face when jumping, turning, or basically doing anything besides going straight. Chris is in my "racing chair". I might as well not even play if I cant sit there... it does wonders for me.

It was a fun, but short, weekend with lots of family!

Stephanie and Rachel

A couple weeks ago, one of my good friends from hair school came to Utah to visit. Stephanie now lives in Texas and it was SOOO fun to see her and her cute kids. Rachel still lives here so we see each other often. The three of us, plus 5 (nearly 6) kids got together a couple of times that week. The first day we let the kids make a disaster of my house while we tried to talk over the top of them and the TV. The next day we went to Olive Garden with our kids. It was a lot of work and we didn't get to talk very much but it was still so worth it. My kids were definitely the worst but I still take them everywhere with me. They don't hold me back, they just give me a workout most the time. See what I mean, how much fun does this look like? Seriously Addysin, can I have some space? (not such a good picture of me, just proving a point)Here are some fun pictures. Looking at these got me started and I got looking at all of our pictures together with our friends from hair school. I wanted to post them all, but I held back.

Here is a pic from two years ago of our first three. Braxton and Ava had just turned one, and Addysin was 4 months old... little chubby bunny. I cant believe its been that long. I still remeber that day clearly. I spent forever doing my hair in hot rollers for the first time and it didn't turn out right, I was mad... This was 2 weeks ago... wow they've grown up! Ava loved Caiden, it was so cute. And you know he loved the attention, look at his eyes gleaming...

Rachel had her baby 6 days later, a little girl named Madison Vella. Between the three of us we have Aidan, Caiden, Addysin, & Madison (and Braxton & Ava, but they don't rhyme:)! Funny huh? During dinner, a very elderly couple walked by super slowely and just smiled at us. They looked really amused. I know we look a little young to have so many kids. We looked like a day care. And I felt really bad for the people sitting around us. After the chaotic dinner...
We missed our other friends from school, but everyone has moved away :( I'm so glad Steph took the time for us from her busy vacation schedule!

Just a thought...

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."
This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals, but I do know this. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"

I love 4 seasons- and Caiden

I really love living in a place that has 4 seasons. I don't really like (slightly hate) January- March, but if it weren't for these ugly, cold months I wouldn't love the warm 60 degree weather that we have had. People else where, like my sister in Arizona, would probably say 60 degrees is chilly but once the thermostat gets up there I LOVE taking my kids, and myself, outside. Its so fun to watch the trees get buds on them outside our front door and await the white popcorn-like flowers that come in April. So tonight for FHE Chris and I took the kids on a walk around the neighborhood. Even after the sun set, it was still nice. Addysin and Caiden loved it as well and even though it was bedtime they were wide awake. In spring I love the long awaited green grass and trees growing leaves. Summer is the best for obvious reasons: warm, pools, tan skin, fun outside, vacations(unless you're a summer sales family), long days...etc. Fall is so beautiful and means the holidays are coming. Its kind of refreshing to have some cooler weather as well. We usually get our first snow once the leaves have all fallen and everything is brown. I love snow because it hides the deadness and is beautiful. Winter just isn't my favorite. I love snow until march, then its annoying because it reminds me that warm weather is not very close. Then comes spring...AHHHH! And here we are. Well on March 20- FRIDAY!
I love watching Caiden blossom as well. Caiden has changed all of the sudden. He is so interested in things. He rolls to get to toys he can see out of the corner of his eye. If he cant get what he wants he whines until I get it for him, and then he is amused for a bit. He loves attention. At church he is usually happy because there are so many people for him to look at and they are always smiling and waving at him. If I spend the whole day holding him and entertaining him, he is happy as can be. But he is also whiny as can be when I walk out of the room and try to get things done. He will definitely crawl someday (unlike Addysin). I can tell because he doesn't mind being on his stomach and is using a lot of different muscles to move around that will help him crawl. Even at a year old, Addysin would flip out if we put her on her stomach. Caiden is getting to a really fun age. He still cant sit up, but I know its due to acid reflux/spit up. He still gets stomach aches and sitting obviously isn't comfortable for him. He tenses up and lays down whenever I try to get him to sit. He can sit in a high chair, but he just cant do it on his own where the ab muscles are being worked. I'm just waiting for his stomach to develop so we can move past the spit up all over the place... its messy! He got his first two teeth a couple weeks ago, he looks so cute and a little different, to me at least.

Best Friends...almost... ok, not really

Addysin is not very affectionate or loving towards Caiden. In no way, though, is she mean. She has never ever hurt him or even tried, but she also has never wanted to hold him or hug him. She just doesn't acknowledge that he is her brother. She will say cute things like "where's Caiden?" or "He's sleepin'?" or "OH NO!" when he's crying. So, you would think she just doesn't like affection, but she loves hugs, kisses, and cuddling with me and Chris. I'm pretty sure she just wants to be the baby, as shown in the picture below. I dont think she is laying beside him so she can be close, I think its because it looks cool to lay on the blanket and she wants to be baby-ed so she'll do what the baby is doing. She has her moments though when she shows her love and I just have to take pictures whenever she is paying attention to him.

.....So that is why this little photoshoot is soooo adorable.

My precious babies

In the next pictures Addysin didn't actually say those things, its just funny to imagine what they are thinking at that moment.

"So anyways, then I said..."

Addysin: You know I'm just doing this because you are and I dont want you to get all the attention, right?

Caiden: Still dont know what you're saying..

I'm sure when Caiden is able to play and get around, Addysin and Caiden will have tons of fun together. Right now he is just an attention stealing baby.

1:00 Church

When we moved times at the beginning of the new year, we got the much despised 1:00 time. My mother in-law says she loves it so I am choosing to embrace it as well. I do love how getting ready is so easy and you have 1/2 the day to do it. I love spending family time and I enjoy Sunday mornings at home with no worries. I don't rush around getting things done like my typical day, I just pay full attention to my children and husband, try to read the lessons if Caiden will let me, and one time I even had time to make bread for dinner. If I had the choice though, I would pick 11:00... but I don't. One thing that is so hard is nap time for Addysin (Caiden will just sleep in our arms or his car seat so its not a big deal for him). A few times she has held off until after church and then crashes at 4:30. She'll be eating a snack in her high chair one second and then the next she'll be asleep. Its hilarious. Or sometimes she'll get a partial nap before church and she'll be ultra grouchy for sacrament meeting because she's still tired. Thank goodness for nursery! No matter how angry she is, she will always be a little angel for the whole two hours in nursery. She always says "play" and "kids". I'm so thankful for the nursery leaders that put up with all the two and three year olds that desperately need a nap.

Sometimes I have to really slow down to notice how much Addysin and Caiden are growing up, learning and developing. A couple of Sundays ago I was bathing Addysin and she has bath toys that are foam letters and numbers. I started asking her, "what is this?" and to my HUGE surprise she knows most of the alphabet!!!! If she gets it wrong, its usually because she said the sound it makes (which I think is OK), or she just gets it confused because they look so similar or sound the same as another (Like 'E' and 'D', or 'X' and 'K' look alike). I'm just a really good mom! Actually I didn't teach her, I bought the fridge magnet from Leap Frog. Its obviously the best. It teaches the letter and what sound it makes. It also sings the alphabet song. We got it for her this passed Christmas. (And here is her FAVORITE stool. She loves standing on it for no reason, or to get things- like cookies- off the pantry shelf.)

All ready for church and just hangin' out...

I got this table and the chairs from IKEA for $25. I painted it white before I assembled it. It looks really cute in her room and she loves using it.