A lil bit of coloring

This is going to be a short post because K is leaving in the morning for 2 weeks.  Grace is getting so good at coloring and staying in between the lines.  We went to Famous Dave's for dinner tonight and she got to color the men.  I know the drawing is kind of hard to see but she didn't really go out of the lines at all.  She also enjoyed herself some chicken wings with Daddy.  In fact the chicken wings for dinner was her request. 

This morning I was putting Sarah down for a nap and Aaron came in from outside and I hear, "Momma, where are you????" in his sing song voice.  Oh, melt a Mommy's heart!  He is not even 2 yet and yet he seems so big!

Sarah went down for a nap around 10:30 and slept until 1:00pm.  She won't take 2 good naps a day.  She either has one really good nap or no naps.  But maybe when she starts sleeping thru the night she will be a better napper.

Watching a lil TV while the hubby packs.  We will miss him, but I am going to focus on the fact that it will probably be easier for me to count my calories and do more evening workouts with K gone.
Time to jump off the computer! Night!

G-R-A-C-E

Grace has been practicing her letters and I set up a chart on the refrigerator so we can put a sticker down whenever she learns to write a new letter and then numbers.  I told her that if she can get a sticker on everyone we can go get a special toy for her.  Well the last couple of days she hadn't really been interested in writing on the pad of paper with the pen.  But then yesterday they were playing outside and I got them some new pieces of chalk, they have a bunch and Grace went to town writing the letters she knows.  So I asked her, "Do you want to write the letters in your name, Mommy can help you?" And she was thrilled with that idea (guess writing with chalk is way more cooler).  So after lots of practicing the letters she didn't quite have all the way she finally got her name written.  She was so proud of herself! So she ran in to get daddy and show him.  She still has a little trouble with A and C, sometimes A looks like H because she learned H first and then C sometimes gets a little sideways, but she is doing great!

 Originally I was holding Sarah helping her, so I was pointing with foot to where the next letter went and she picked up on that. Ha!

 Love snuggles! Well Aaron did, I think Sarah was done with it.

 Aaron being silly walking backwards and then pretending to fall.

 She was focused!  I kept asking her to look up so I could take her picture with her name, but she just kept writing and writing and writing.

 Finally I got a smile! You can still see her black eye, but any other blue on her face is chalk.  And that's a Chuck E Cheese tattoo on her arm.

Had a busy Saturday today.  I was up a LOT with Sarah and then K had to get up early to do a job and I was up with Sarah when he left and of course Grace didn't sleep in either.  Then we had one of my girlfriends family members come by to meet us because we are going to see if she wants to house/dog sit for us in a month, when we go on vacation.  Later after lunch I packed up the kiddos on the jogging stroller and walked over to Smiths to get a couple of things I needed for dinner.  It was warm but not too hot and the kids napped good afterward and I got some steps in!
Oh an I weighed myself this morning and I am down another 1.5 lbs! So excited! That's 5 lbs in 3 weeks, so hopefully I can keep up the good/hard work.  Another cool thing is that I tried on a pair of normal jean capri's in a smaller size and they fit!  Well I hear Grace jibbering away still and its 9:10 here and K is snoring on my left.  I better wrap this up! Night!

How'd she get that Shiner???

It was about 10:30pm last night when K and I were getting ready to go to sleep when I heard a thump and then I heard Grace start crying.  I figured she fell out of bed and jumped up to go see her.  She was sitting in her bed with her back facing me but she wasn't really crying hard.  I turned her around and started consoling her but even in the dark with only a night light I could see a dark spot under her eye.  So I lightly touched under her eye and felt a hard lump there. Of course that freaked me out! (Especially since Aaron just cut underneath his eye up) Took her into our bathroom and under her eye (same place has Aaron's) she has a huge swelling and bruise already forming.  So K and I took her downstairs with an icepack (she was shrieking and freaking out, screaming bloody murder like you think we were taking her downstairs to lock her up or something, just because we had that ice pack) and turned on some Veggie Tales while we iced her eye for about 20 minutes.  It helped considerably and the swelling went down, so we came and put her back to bed.  2:20 am comes and I get up with Sarah and 2:40 comes and so does Grace, because she is scared of some shadow.  I finish up nursing Sarah and then we put her back to bed and then Grace to bed and then me to bed. Whew!

And so this is her eye this morning.

 And actually it looks worse now.  Especially looking at it again once K got home because he hadn't seen her since last night.  Yeah she has a nice shiner.  Luckily the nice cashier at the grocery asked me what happened to her and didn't immediately call CPS.  I think what happened is that she sat up while she was sleeping and then fell back down hitting her eye on the railing of her toddler bed.

 And then there was Aaron, my sweet second child, who is constantly checking to make sure gravity is turned on, as my husband likes to say.  Our days are filled with the pitter patter of little feet and then...WHAM!...CRY!. And today at the grocery he managed (for the second time) to get his middle fingernail pinched underneath the gripping thing on the handle bar of the grocery cart, where it says the stores name.  I use one of the big carts that has 2 red plastic seats in front and then a big space before it attaches to a regular cart.  That way I can stick the big kids in the seats and Sarah in her car seat up front and have lots of room for my groceries and even an easy to reach spot for the diaper bag.  It's a wide load but it works.

 Yeah so he hurt himself at the store then managed to stand up underneath our kitchen table which is oak this afternoon.  Poor kid was a mess today.

 But he ate a really good dinner, ground turkey tacos, which makes this momma happy.  It's hard to get protein in this boy!

 And then there is the precious Sarah and her many faces I love.

 This is a K face, totally reminds me of her daddy.

 And this is the scrunched up nosey face I love.

 Such a big girl in her little exersaucer. 

Well I can't believe this week is almost over.  I have been trying to get back on track with my eating and exercising after being sick.  And have been having a hard time, I think it was that banana split that we all shared that did me in! ;) But hopefully I have done enough, we will see in a few days!

Just a lil bit of painting

I did have pictures that I took the other day, they were just on my camera still! Ha!! I had the kids 'help' me paint some letters for the girls room.  I think Aaron had a blast, in fact I still have to clean yellow paint off my table.  But I just adore these kids, and their mine!

 Sweet girl.

 Can you see the yellow paint all over his mouth?  He even had it in his hair...you look away for a minute...

Time to go log my food for yesterday and today, I have been behind! Nighty night!

Sick

Thought that I had more pictures of the kids that I hadn't posted yet, but I don't. 

This morning K and I both woke up feeling terrible!  K was up a few times early this morning and I was up with Sarah at 5:50 for an hour.  Then she fell asleep.  After K got up and got in the shower I tried falling asleep again and kept chilling.

K came home after lunch so we could help each other.  The hard thing about today was that Sarah only took like 2 30 minute naps. 

We finally both started feeling better at dinner time and took the kids out to a local hamburger place where Aaron ate a ton of food.  He is such a picky eater normally, but he just kept eating and eating and then we all shared a banana split.  Then he came home and wanted to "Eat! Eat!" I gave him a couple of  Nilla Wafers but he wanted back up in his high chair and eat his leftover Craisins and sandwich.  Can we say growth spurt???

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and I can get some steps/exercise in.  

Some pictures

Just some pictures of my kiddos.  Sarah wearing some of her new 6 month clothes.

 I love those smiling chubba cheeks!

 Sweet boy having a banana.

 Three kiddos wearing their footed pj's, watching a lil Sesame Street in mommys bed.

Today I got Sarah to take a paci! YAY! Normally she gags and acts like I am torturing her. She had a short nap, but I did manage to get on 17 minutes of intervals and a mile on the treadmill.  So feeling pretty good, plus I ate a low calorie dinner, so I had calories leftover for a sweet treat tonight.
K's thinking about getting a FitBit now too! Going to bed

Friday

Yesterday, K watched the kiddos and I went out with my girlfriends.  We went out to a nice Italian restaurant called Biaggi's and had dinner first.  Since we were downtown we decided to walk and found a martini bar where we just had a few drinks and laughed and talked into the wee hours of the night.  We all had a blast, and the kids were great for K.  Aaron was fussy yesterday and K told me he went to bed a little early despite having a really good nap.  And this morning he slept late but is still kind of cranky, so I am not sure what his deal is.    

Lunch on Thursday, the kids were cracking up about something.

 Sarah yesterday wearing a new outfit.  I have broken out a lot of new 6 month clothes and this outfit is so cute. Fits pretty good.  Crazy that my newly turned 3 month old is wearing 6 month clothing.

 This was this morning in 6 month pjs that fit perfect! She is getting so big.

I weighed myself this morning and lost another 1/2 pound.  I ate out a couple times this week and tried to estimate my calories, but I may have underestimated a bit.  Good to know and I am learning more and more about how to count calories and make good eating choices.
Still loving my FitBit, and thought it was great that I got to walk around and count steps while I went out with my friends last night!
Time to go log some food!

3 Months Old Today!

Sarah is 3 months old today! Ha Ha...I don't normally put a little sign up like this when I do pictures and probably for this very reason.  I was too lazy to go downstairs and get a piece of printer paper, so I just used a paper plate.  Sarah is doing so well and I want to finally let everyone know that she can roll over.  I kept forgetting to mention it, she has been able to do it for a few weeks now, but since I don't really give her a lot of tummy time I kept forgetting. And she is working hard to go from her back to her stomach.  I think it's because she is so strong and active, she is just always going. 

 She wears a size 2 diaper and she wears a range of clothing from 3 months to 3-6 month clothes.  Although I did just dig out of the 6-9 month tub of Grace's clothes the cutest lil tank top and blue shorts.  I have to have her wear them this summer, they were one of my favorite little outfits of Grace's.  Maybe tomorrow.  Also I think I will have to be digging in that tub for bigger pajamas, some of her 3 month ones are getting too small, especially in the arms.  She had terrible naps today and I didn't get a thing done.  Well only 1 thing to be exact...vacuum.  She still loves to be held and walked around and will almost fall asleep in my arms.  Tonight we went out to dinner with friends and I nursed her right before we left hoping she could be chill and fall asleep, but as soon as we got seated she wanted to be held.  So I held her while I ate and she was happy just watching the conversation and then passed out.  She is drooling a lot these days and it occurred to me, that she might be teething.  That would be a shocker, because both of the big kids didn't get teeth until about 9 months I think.  But of course both the big kids were early too and she was right on time! Every kid is different! But as far as temperament she is still just as happy as can be.  She is waking up more often to nurse, so maybe a growth spurt?
She will sleep in the car but usually when we arrive at our destination she will wake up. She has lost most of her hair and she reminds me of a little Marine because its long on top and nothing on the sides and some in the back.  And her hair is getting lighter.  It used to be so dark and long and now I have to wait to see it again! 
She is a very sweet happy easy going girl!
Just a quick mention for Grace because I keep forgetting this, but it is so cute.  When we went hiking up in the mountains several weeks ago one Sunday we taught Grace about making an echo sound.  Since then whenever she is somewhere that can echo her voice (mainly a parking garage) she yells.  At first she shouted, "Mango!" and I was so confused.  Then I got it that she was trying to remember how to say Echo! She now says Echo, but it was so cute!
Another thing Grace is becoming kind of dramatic lately.  Which is weird because she was always so chill easy going.  I think it may be an attention thing because Sarah is here.  But some days it is drama city with her!
Anyways I wanted to get that posted and I got to get to bed early tonight! Love Yous!

 Sitting up with Mommy's and Grace's help.

 Getting her sun.

Tuesday

I thought I had more pictures that I hadn't uploaded from a little while ago but I didn't have as many as I thought.The first 2 are from before the 4th of July, and the Grace holding Sarah is right after the 4th I think. 

 We found this little lawn mower while out for a walk around our neighborhood, it has a free sign on it.  This makes popping noises when you push it.  Aaron seems to enjoy it, dontcha think?

 Grace is still enjoying being a big sister and asked to hold Sarah again today.  She is so cute the way almost every morning that Sarah is awake before Grace, she will come in and just talk and talk to her and make her smile.  Sarah loves Grace just as much as Grace loves her I think.  Sarah also loves her hand and sucking on her little fingers. She is getting so big!

 We had such a good long weekend.  On Saturday we walked around the dog park like I said.  Then Sunday we got in touch with some of our family that had come out for a week vacation up in Park City.  They had Sunday free so we started figuring out how to stay a night up in Park City.  K had some points with Hilton and Marriot from all of his traveling and we ended up getting a totally sweet suite (ha ha) at the Marriot Mountainside.  We had a king bed in our room with this huge deep bathtub and then there was an adjoining living room/kitchen and then another room with a king bed.  It was so nice, wish we could have stayed their longer! Especially because they had a bunch of fun activities for kids and families to do.  Like finger painting, and tie dyed shirts, junk food bingo and on and on.  They also had a huge heated pool and like 6 hot tubs, BBQs for grilling out by the pool and fire pits for the kids to make smores. 
Another thing that was going on in Park City was a street fair and we chose to walk to that.  I was glad for it because it meant again I could get a bunch of steps and exercise in and spend time with my family.  First thing we did was get the kids faces painted.  Grace loved her purple butterfly (favorite color of course) although not so sure about Aaron.  But they did enjoy the walking and people watching and riding in the jogging stroller.  And of course they were thrilled to see their family later on that night for dinner.  We met them up in their condo and shared their dinner before heading back up to our suite.  Then the kids got put to bed in their king bed to share.  Not so sure if Aaron liked sleeping in a big bed or with his very active sister.  Well actually they are both active sleepers.  At first they kept getting out of bed and coming to see us.  Then finally they fell asleep, but twice Aaron woke up and K went in to check on him and he was sitting crossed legged with his back against the headboard just zoned out staring. 
We brought Sarah's little cosleeper travel bed and she uses that at home.  It was a good test because I was planning on having the big kids sleep in twin beds when we go on vacation to Angels Camp but wasn't sure how Aaron will do.  Still not sure if he or Sarah will use the pack n play for our vacation because Sarah may outgrow the cosleeper before then!
Anyway it was great and then Monday morning we kicked back and made egg on toast for breakfast in our kitchen and relaxed, before checking out and getting some lunch.  After lunch we met up the family at the Olympic Park to cruise around and watched the people practice doing their ski jumps into a pool.  It was a great day and it only started to rain right as we were leaving back down the hill for home.

Today we had playgroup and it was great that my friend Jessie was back from Cali with her kiddos to host playgroup at her house.  She had the biggest heart and was missed very much while she was gone visiting her family. After playgroup it was lunch on the go and then groceries because we didn't have any food!
I also got in an interval workout in and about half a mile on the treadmill before all the babes started waking from their late naps. 
Then it was time to make dinner, hamburgers and corn on the cob and french fries.  I was going to attempt to use the BBQ for my burgers since K got home late....but...he screwed the propane knob so tightly I couldn't open it.  Oh well I made my burgers on the stove top and they were delish! And he wasn't home so late that he couldn't help with the kids and see them.  The only bummer was that Sarah wanted to be held while I cooked and that wasn't happening, so she was pretty made by the time I sat down to eat and hold her.  She was probably tired she had bad naps today.  She falls asleep in the car but tends to wake up when I stop the car.  It usually isn't a big deal because it refreshes her and she is good for a little while. 
Well its getting late and I need to go shower and get the sweat off from my working out! So far I am still loving my FitBit and if I lose more weight this week I will be even more thrilled!
Night!