Spring Fever

It has been incredibly beautiful weather here the last few days. So Katy has been wearing capris, and not long pants. She loves to be outside, but the new feeling of grass on her legs is not one that she enjoys. I just have to laugh when I see her holding her feet in the air for minutes at a time.


Another spring discovery...sand does not taste so good.
but swinging is still fun!
Here's a video of Katy in the grass...it's just from my digital camera, so it's not stellar quality, but it's cute! I love how it shows how she won't put her leg down, but it also shows how much those girls love each other! The orange dress girl is Hannah, in case you were wondering!

Adventures in Food

I was uploading some pictures of messy Katy eating a little pasta and veggies tonight, and realized that I have quite a few pictures of Little Lady eating away! Many of them have never made it to the blog...so enjoy! (I also realized that the pictures I find funny are usually of her eating things she's not supposed to be eating...but I suppose therein lies the adventure, right?)

First food...she seems unimpressed.

Sort of the opposite reaction when she had her first sucker...
She is definitely Rick's child. Munching on some beef jerky...
Asleep while eating...sure would be a time saver!
Cannibalism at it's finest!
Pasta...everywhere!

Got to love that girl!

So Helpful

MaKaty is so helpful. She is at that lovely stage where she takes care of all crumbs on the floor, follows me everywhere, and opens all things that should not be opened. And she is quite pleased with herself. Check her out.

And she's so helpful when I'm cleaning up dinner. This is what she does while I do the dishes.
Don't you wish you had such a helpful child at your house?

More Weekend Fun

Here are some more pictures of the fun weekend. Rick took the kids out to Sand Hollow with some friends. They looked at the areas that are being prepared for a new subdivision. Apparently there were helicopter rides, but only for 18 year olds and older. So when Rick was putting Seth to bed that night, Seth said,



"that was sure dang rude that they wouldn't let people who were 3 years old and older, huh dad?"


Ah, wouldn't it be nice if we could all get away with being so blunt?




At any rate, here are the promised pictures of their fun time!

OH, and in answer to the "WHAT DOES SETH'S SHIRT SAY?" question...it says:

I'M WITH HANDSOME, and the arrow points straight up.




Cute!
Cuter!

Weird.
Weirder.

Weirdest.

A perfectly full day...

We have family in town, and so we spent the day enjoying the beautiful weather. The kids loved having their cousins to play with. It felt great to be out exercising and getting some sunshine. It was a long, full day, but the kids were happy, despite the fact that they were missing naps. We hiked around on the red hill for a while, then went to Charlie's for some sandwiches and ice cream. We found a fun park for the kids to run around in. Then we went to Grandma and Papa's and played for a while. After that, the dad's and kids went home, and the grown-up girls went out on the town. We went to dinner, and then to a movie. It was good times, even if Melanie and Chrissi were fading before the movie...they revived themselves, and we had a good time!

Thanks guys!

So here's a little photographic journey through the big day. I warn you, it is a long journey, so if you have something against insanely cute children, I would suggest that you look no further.

All photos, except for the last one, were taken by Rick. He had the camera because I had the baby, so here is proof that I really do exist on these little outings, it's just that usually I'm the one behind the camera...so thanks, babe!

Brandon and Jaxon looking out over the city. Sort of a cool shot, I thought.
Look at Hannah, the leader of the pack. I mean, who wouldn't blindlessly follow the cute chick with rose colored glasses?
Katy is saying Hi to Bria and Brandon. It's a new skill. The other kids all learned to wave "bye bye" Apparently, Katy prefers Hellos, to Bye Byes.
Yes, I am aware that I have a completely dorky look on my face here, but it was so cute of Katy, and I had the dorky look while trying to get her to smile, so at least I was a dork with a purpose.
"We are the champions" music is playing on the soundtrack to his life...

I am endlessly happy that we live here. It's so beautiful.

The kid is constantly singing.

I am addicted to these kinds of shirts. I bought him this one the other day...if it isn't perfect for him, I don't know what is...this was a natural pose. Not staged.


The one shot from later on in the day. Kate loves to swing!

The end.

February 12, 2008

Here is installment #2 of the 12 for 12 series. I expect that it will be lengthy. You get special appreciation if you actually make it to the end of it!

For those who don't know what 12 for 12 is...it's a challenge to take 12 random pictures on the 12th of each month for 12 months. It's sort of an attempt to capture everyday life. If today doesn't capture it, I don't know what does. It was a very average day in my life.

I wake up at 4:46 am, gave Katy a bottle and we both go back to sleep. But Rick went to the gym until 6:15am. However, his phone alarm started going off at 5:45 am. Don't even get me started on that. Grrrrrrr!

The big kids got up when Rick got home at 6:15, I stayed in bed. Seth woke up with dry underwear. Go team!

I get up at 7:00 am, with a headache no less. Not to mention that I had that horrid Amy Winehouse rehab song in my head. I'm probably the only person on earth who isn't a fan of Amy Winehouses body of work (and by body of work, I am not referring to the artwork all over her body) but alas, I can honestly say, I'm not a fan.

Rick had already fed the kids oatmeal. (oh, and apparently, Seth's mustache came off in his oatmeal. I was informed of this later...so, sorry kids, no new stache pictures!)

Katy had just woken up as well.

I got Hannah and Seth dressed and ready for school. I made sure that Hannah had a box and valentine stickers for a school project, and made sure Seth had his show and tell.I gave Katy her antibiotic and a bottle.
We walked Hannah and the neighbor girl to the bus stop at 8:20

Came back home and made Katy some oatmeal and apples.

I sent Seth to preschool with Shelly at 8:50.

I did a quick photoshoot with Katy that I had been meaning to do for a while now. I put Katy down for her morning nap at 9:15

I took a shower. Put away laundry. I called for the portable nebulizer to be picked up by the medical delivery people. I paid the cell phone bill. I listened to Jack Johnson while sweeping and mopping the kitchen/bathroom/laundry room floors. While the floors were drying, I folded the last loads of laundry.

11:00, I left to pick up the boys from preschool. I dropped off a letter at the mail, got gas, and picked them up at 11:20. I dropped Frank off at his house.

I let Katy and Seth play outside before we walked up to the bus stop to pick up Hannah at 12:10

12:11pm: I was informed by Hannah that "I didn't hurt a single person at school today" (good news, considering she pulled hair yesterday) and also that "I'm pretty sure that Fox and I almost fell in love today." (yikes!) Let the kids color the driveway with chalk while I made tuna sandwiches for lunch. They ate outside. I made Katy some banana squash, sweet potatoes and chicken. She also ate outside.

After lunch, I made Katy a bottle and put her down for her nap. She didn't settle well. It was 1:00 pm.

I sent Hannah and Seth to their beds and read them a book. Hannah had already read a book to Seth while I was putting Katy down. I read them "Zin Zin Zin, A Violin."

1:15, I check on Katy. She is not asleep. But she is poopy. Nice. So I change her and put her down again.

I eat lunch. (I'm not a big tuna fan, so I had a quesadilla).

I loaded the dishwasher, started it, and checked my messages on the internet.

My head is still hurting, so I decide to try to nap it off. It's 2:00.

3:00, no rest for the wicked. Hannah decided that if she wasn't tired, she might as well wake up her brother. Grrrrrr! After fighting with her for an hour, I finally give up and make her clean her room.

Seth and I go downstairs and he works on his valentines.

3:15, all three kids are now awake.

I let the kids play outside again. It's truly a beautiful day. They make chalk masterpieces galore.

I added to my Amish Friendship Bread starter.
I walked up to a neighbor's house to give her a flyer about preschool.

4:30, I started dinner...BYOB, that's Build Your Own Burritos, not Bring Your Own Beer, for the record.

Rick got home at 5:15

Ate dinner at 5:30

Baths at 6:00

6:30, the kids are watching a movie while I clean up dinner and Rick gets ready for Young Men's. It's the first time the kids have watched TV all day

7:00, RIck heads to YM's, and I put all three kids to bed. Due to the no nap thing, they all go down without a fight. Thank goodness

7:15, I watch Biggest Loser. During the commercials, I clean up the front room, unload and reload the dishwasher.

8:30, Rick gets home, but is tired, so he heads pretty much straight to bed.

I watch TV, while periodically playing on the computer...uploading pictures, editing pictures, etc.

10:30 pm, I am blogging, and anticipate sleep in the next half hour. Good night.

Coming Along Nicely

Seth's "stache" is coming along nicely, don't you think? Hehehe, just kidding. Who knows what goes on in that cute little head of his? Beka asked him on Thursday how the "stache" was coming, and he simply rubbed his upper lip and said completely straightfaced... "good." Seriously, that boy is odd. But I love it. This picture is actually from Halloween 2006, when he was a cowboy. (obviously). I really do think the handlebar look works for him...

9 months of pure goodness...

When I was pregnant, I don't know how many times I would rue the fact that it took nine whole months to grow a baby. I mean seriously, we have been able to make cars more fuel efficient...couldn't we be doing something about accelerating the human gestation period? It just felt so looooooooooooong. So much longer than the amount of time that we have had Katy in our arms. The last 9 months have flown by, and I am constantly amazed at how in that short period, she has gone from being completely helpless, to having her own little personality, and figuring things out for herself. She is starting to use words. I watch as she experiments with a toy, to see a) how it tastes, b) what noise it makes, c) what it will do when she pounds it into the floor, and d) how far it will fly. She has learned to "dance" to music, by bobbing up and down. She will raise her arms in the air when you say "yay, Katy." If she enjoys having her head rubbed, she will grab your hand, and place it back on her head after you stop. She doesn't just mouth every toy she sees... she mouths it, and then plays with it. Isolating one finger to spin a ring here...pushing a button to hear a noise there...placing items in a box, and then pulling them back out again. She is at such a fun age. I'm grateful that she is well again, and able to enjoy it! Here are a few pictures from yesterday and today, which really show Katy, at nine months. It's hard to believe that this smiling kid is the same one who was listless and sickly as recently as Monday evening.

Anyone hungry for peas?Some of my favorite things about Katy at nine months are:

Her little two tooth smile. Her laugh. Finally, I got a kid to say "mama" first! Her chunky little legs. Her little bobbing head dance. Our quiet storytimes...when we get them. The sparkle that is back in those blue eyes. The way she truly enjoys a "dum dum" sucker. The way she laughs when I walk into a room. The way she grabs my chin to turn my head to look at her if I am looking away. Her sweet little jabber...that is becoming more and more constant. The way she crosses her ankles. Yes, still. The way she plays with the fringe on her blanket as she falls asleep. The way she watches us eat "big people" food, complete with opening her mouth as we take every bite. Her giggle as she hears me preparing her food in the kitchen. Her shoe obsession. Her piano playing skills. Her big, full, wide mouthed smile. The way she gives "tastes" and "kisses" on demand. Yes, kisses had to be in quotes, because it's more like being mauled by a friendly St. Bernard than a real kiss, but at least the drool is less nasty than dog drool, right?

and while these next Katy skills are not my favorite things, as they cause some minor distress daily...they are still important for the sake of showing her growth and development.

She is very skilled at removing both shoes and socks withing minutes of them being put on. This goes for ANY type of shoe or sock. She is also very skilled at climbing stairs. Shoot. I really need to buy that second gate. She is even faster at removing hats than she is removing shoes and socks. She has reached a truce with her prior nemesis, the laundry basket. Now she is just fabulous at unloading it. Her new nemesis...the dishwasher. NOw if only I could teach her to "properly" unload that! She opens the cabinet underneath the TV, and spreads everything. So we put a rubber band over the two knobs, to keep her out. She has figured out how to pull herself up to the knobs, then lean back, stretching the rubber band until it either breaks, or stretches enough for her to reach in and pull something out. She also knows how to open the box of wipes, and has managed to remove nearly an entire box onto the living room floor. She is also fabulous at finding exposed cords. She nearly gave herself a "hair cut" by pulling on the cord to the hair clippers while they were charging. I caught that one just in the nick of time.

I realize that I forgot to take a picture with her bear, so I will add that tomorrow.

And by the way, Seth just informed me that he is growing a mustache. We'll let you know how it goes.

I love my kids...

of course I do. I never stop, but sometimes it's easy to get caught up in all the stress of raising them, and keeping them healthy, and you forget to really just enjoy them. So here are three reasons why I do what I do.

1. I looked at my baby today, and I cried. She is coming back. She sat on the living room floor, unloading the laundry basket as quickly as I could load it. Smiling when she caught my eye. Bobbing up and down when music would come on the TV. I cried because it is so good to see her feeling like herself again. It's like a part of me is whole again, too.

2. Seth looked at me today and said, "Mom, is that a new shirt? (it was). I really like it. You look really pretty today. You should wear that shirt everyday." Be still my heart.

3. I watched Hannah last night, at the play place at Del Taco. Seth was too short to climb from one platform to the next. So I watched as, without being asked, she crouched down on her hands and knees, and became a human step for Seth to get the the next platform.

And that, my friends, is a small sample of what being a mom is all about.

a turn for the worse

Katy took a little turn yesterday. She went from doing better to doing much much worse. She became listless and wouldn't eat. She cried for hours on end. And she didn't sleep more than 1 1/2 hours at a time for more than 24 hours. It was horrible. Thankfully, I got her into her doctor this morning. She has RSV, and an ear infection in both ears. Poor poor girl. She is in so much pain. But we got some motrin and a dose of antibiotics in her, so hopefully we will see some improvement soon. Thank you everyone for the prayers and well wishes. I assure you, we feel them.

Poor Baby, Indoor S'mores, and Robots

It's been an eventful couple of days.

Poor Katy has been so sick. It started out as just a cold, then the cough started to get really bad. A couple of nights in a row she was up a lot, trying to breathe. So, on Friday night, I took the dreaded trip to Instacare, and Katy was given a breathing treatment. The good news is, we only waited about 45 minutes before being seen. The bad news was, she didn't respond to the breathing treatment, and was still wheezing as much as ever. So they gave her an oral steroid, and ordered a portable nebulizer to be sent to our home. Despite the sadly adorable little dinosaur mask, MaKaty HATES her breathing treatments. She has learned to tolerate them over the past couple of days, but they always end the same way. Tears. However, she is finally starting to respond. She no longer wheezes when she breathes, and her coughing has decreased. There is a light in her eyes that I haven't seen in days. So I am grateful. I think she is finally on the mend!

Also Friday night, Rick and the kids had an indoor camping party. The kids had been looking forward to it all week. Rick set up the tent in the garage, and also set up the camping stove. The kids had s'mores and hot chocolate, and lay their sleeping bags out in the tent for a couple of hours. The garage is still really cold at night, so they came in and slept in their beds, but they still felt like pretty big shots getting to camp in the middle of winter.
The set up:

Right before I took Wheezy to the doctor...
oooey, gooey, goodness
yum!

Saturday, Rick took Hannah and Seth to Grandma's so that Mommy and MaKaty could rest. Hannah and Seth have been really into robots lately. Seth's robots are pretty awesome. They can do just about anything. In the past week, I have heard the following fun facts about Seth's Robots:

My robots can ride motorcycles faster than those guys.

My robots blood is made of crushed up cars, and grass, and bricks.

It's OK if my robots spill moon sand on the floor because they don't have any moms.

My robots have a black jeep wrangler like that.

My robots don't ever have to take naps.

My robots drink pepsi whenever they want.

I could go on.

So here is a robot that Hannah and Seth built at Grandma's house. I'm not sure that there are any crushed cars or grass inside the robot, but there was a rock, and a marker without a lid.

Life is good.

She May Look Like the Gerber Baby

but the truth is, this girl and gerber foods do not get along well. I had to document this aspect of our lives before it becomes a fuzzy memory. Hannah and Seth were not fussy eaters. Still aren't. And neither is Katy, to be fair. So far, she has not met a food that she didn't like. But...........her gut is another matter entirely. She has always been more sensitive. More prone to diaper rash. More likely to spit up. More sensitive to new brands of diapers. More likely to break out in spots. She has no severe allergies, but seems to react to things differently than my other kids. When her daily spit up increased from about 15 times a day to nearly 50, I attributed it to the fact that we had recently switched to formula, after she wouldn't nurse anymore. However, the formula, we would later learn, was NOT the problem. The problem was Gerber and/or the generic equivalent. Her starting foods happened to be about the same time as the switching to formula, so I had just assumed. When the thought occurred to me that her foods might be bothering her, I didn't want to deal with it. What a pain?! Making my own baby foods? Ugh. Just one more thing. But the truth is, I love it. Sure, it is a pain, and it requires more frequent trips to the grocery store, and more hand washing of appliances, but the difference is staggering! She is a much happier child! She spits up maybe 4 or 5 times a day now, at most. And even then, its just a dribble. Previously, it was... well... think volcano erupting. My living room floor suffered immensely in that time! She loves her new foods. To the point that if she hears the sound of the Rocket pureeing her food, she comes crawling at baby lightning speed, and sits, waving her arms excitedly at my feet. So I am the puree queen, now. My mom got me "THE ROCKET" for Christmas, and I have used it nearly every other day since. I love that thing! I freeze the foods in ice cube trays, and then put the cubes into baggies, labeled with the food and the date, and we are good to go. When we are eating something that I can't puree and feed to her, then I pop a couple of ice cubes in the microwave, and voila! A real baby meal! We have done everything from mango to green beans. From chicken noodle soup with carrots, to apples with peach juice! And, what do you know? We are eating better as well. We have a fresh vegetable with every meal, now, and our fruit bowl is always full! The kids are loving it! Next to try, baby cereal pancakes...I'll let you know how it goes!

My new best friend:

And this is what my freezer looks like today:

Chicken and corn puree, anyone?