Busy September

We have had a really busy month and here is a quick catch up blog.

Kate started pre-school. Here she is on her first day with some blackberry jam for her show-and-tell/teacher gift. I think Beck was more excited than Kate. He begs to walk Kate into pre-school every time we drop her off. He wants to hold Kate's hand on the way and once we get to the room he is very curious and wants to linger. He keeps saying he is five and in kindergarten. We went camping over labor day weekend. Camping with toddlers is the worst because they are constantly triping and falling in the dirt. Beck enjoyed the toys his aunt Emma brought. It didn't seem like he enjoyed camping, but he said the best part was the roasted marshmallow (he doesn't even get to have the whole s'more, but he still loves the marshmallows anyway).

In September I also had a baby shower for my sister. I decided to make one of those diaper cakes and I think it turned out pretty cute. I kind of went with things to soothe baby as the theme.

I was pleased with how everything turned out. We had a lot of people and it would have been nice if my house was just a little bigger to accomodate everyone. I was just glad to finally get my house in order. My basement is still not technically finished, but I went ahead and set up the play room anyway. I am so glad to finally get rid of all the clutter from toys in every corner.

With all of this going on I still make a lot of jams from my blackberry bush. I felt too guilty letting them go to waste. Kate loved helping mom make a blackberry pie and at the end I let her eat the dough scraps with the leftover filling.

My neighbor gave me a bunch of peaches, so we also made some peach tarts and peach pies. I am kind of relieved my neighbor cut down all the grapes and my tomatoes aren't turning out so well so I have excuses not to have to can anything else. It is too hard with the baby to have the time I need to get it all done.

We went with Kate to the fish farm for one of her pre-school field trips. Kate and Beck each got to feed the fish and catch a fish and later that night we ate the fish for dinner.

I am sure October will be just as busy as September, so I will probably be blogging once a month instead of once a week.

Funny kids

My kids love stickers and I have been using them as incentives for good behavior and to motivate Beck to use the potty. The other day as I was sweeping the kitchen floor Beck said, "mom you could get a sticker for sweeping" Then later that day he said, "you could get a mommy sticker for being nice to Kiera".

Beck has seemed so grown up with the way he has been communicating. He has been saying things like "________ makes me so mad!"

Beck has also been talking about his cousin Riley saying things like
"Riley's mom has a baby in her tummy"
"Riley says I'm a genius"

"Riley says I look like Josh"

I was thinking to myself how it has been over a month since Riley visited and I didn't realize they really conversed this much while he was here. Beck continuted with the Riley comments.

"Riley says I'm impossible" this statement caught my attention, so I asked what impossible meant and Beck responded, "It means I'm tired" Then Beck started saying Riley does this and Riley does that and it finally occured to me that Riley is his imaginary friend. I told Eli about his new friend Riley and Eli told me that he was aware of it and that he also had one named Tom.

It caught me off guard a little probably because I didn't think 2 year olds had imaginary friends. Too bad Riley can't teach him to go potty like a big boy.

Kate was sick this week and didn't get to start pre-school yet, but she has been carrying her backpack around with her everywhere saying "see ya later I'm going to school.

I asked Kate to get me a toy for the baby and this is what she brought

It is nice to have some entertainment during the days to break up the monotony

baby milestones

I haven't really posted much of the baby, so I thought it was about time. She is now 4 1/2 months old and has reach a few developmental milestones. She rolled over the day before she turned 4 months. She loves to spit and she cracks us up when she spits at her brother and sister when they get too close and she doesn't want to be bothered. she has discovered her hands and feet and loves to stare at them and play with them. She has been playing with toys for quite a while already and is very good at manipulating them.

She doesn't shreak or make a lot of noise, but she does sigh a lot when she is relaxing in the tub or when she has become bored with a toy etc. She loves watching her brother and sister run back and forth and loves when they talk to her and tell her stories. Beck is still learning how to be soft and today I caught him plugging her nose. Here are some of my favorite pictures I have taken lately.

I love this one of the sisters

Kiera loves to sleep with her arms behind her head

She sleeps from about 9pm until 4am, so I am happy with that and I think it will get even better when she finally gets to eat some solid food.

She is getting the cutest little fuzz on the top of her head. I love it. I was worried she would have nothing for her first couple years except the wierd patch on the back of her head near the nape of her neck.

It is definitely harder to keep up with the picture taking with the third. I see why a lot of middle children don't have many baby pictures and I don't want to let that happen.

Finished basement

I was going to wait to post pictures of our newly finished basement because we still have to finish the bathroom and we still need to furnish it as well. It is so nice to be able to walk down stairs and feel brand new soft carpet on my feet instead of the cold cement. I am very happy with how it turned out and the colors we picked. It is a small addition, but it will allow my son to have an actual bedroom instead of a crib shoved into our messy office. We will have one room be the office and wash room since that is where the washer and dryer have to be and the other room will be a playroom for now. Then eventually we will have a bathroom finished as well. We still have some touch up painting and need to put everything back together before we can actually use it and I am getty antsy about being able to use the space. Eli worked so hard and learned a lot. He did great work especially considering it was his first time and he really didn't have much help.

Before:

During:

After:

I think it is a pretty dramatic transformation. The red is called Mexican Chili pepper which took 3 coats and the orange which took two coats (not including primer) is called copper river both Behr paint. Too bad the nicest and cleanest spot in the house is the basement that no one sees.

Family Reunions

We have had a lot of fun family time lately with cousins from Arizona and Colorado and then going with my family to Lava Hot Springs.They really did have fun at the Dinosaur Park even though they don't look thrilled in this picture.

Beck loves hanging out with the boys. I think he drove Riley crazy following him around constantly. I can't believe how big he is getting.

The 700 calorie plus sucker. People might think Beck goes without because of his allergies, but he probably eats more sweets than other kids without allergies. We had his blood tested and his milk allergy and cashew allergy have increased which is frustrating. His peanut allergy did go down as well as the egg. He is still positive on all of them and we will retest in another six months.

The family does more than just commemorating Pioneer Day, we tried to re-live it. I think the stick pull was pretty fun, but I was too busy trying to nurse the baby in the 100 degree heat. At least I didn't have to do that while wearing a dress like Amy's or in the back of a bumpy wagon.

This is the only picture I got of our trip to Lava. The kids loved swimming with their dad. I am glad he had some one on one time with the kids since he has been so swamped with work and finishing the basement lately. As we were leaving, Beck kept asking to see where the Hot Lava was probably because Kate kept calling the place Hot Lava instead of Lava Hot Springs.
I am starting to get a little bit of burn out from summer. I probably just need to do more of what these babies are doing and get more sleep, so I have the energy to keep up with the pace of all the summer activities.

July 4th finally

I finally found my camera which had been missing since the 4th of July.

Here is a picture with Kate and her cousins anxiously awaiting the parade to start.

Then Beck begging for candy. I spaced off the fact that salt water taffy has egg whites which he is allergic to and shared several pieces with him. Luckily he didn't have a reaction that I noticed, so maybe it will be good news when he gets his blood test later this month.

After the parade, we went to the carnaval at the park where Kate got seperated from us for a few minutes. I was standing next to the bounce house waiting for her and then I looked in and she was gone. She decided to get out and wandered off. Luckily we found her fairly quickly. I was really worried for a second because there were so many people.

Kate seems to have this checklist in her head of all the things she wants to accomplish this summer. Attend a parade on the 4th was one of them as was swim in the kiddie pool and have popcicles. So I think she was pretty happy about the day. Her next item we haven't yet checked off the list is to have a lemonade stand.

She is also always asking if we can have a "pignic". I think that is a pretty funny description since in some cases it is probably pretty acurate. One of Beck's funny saying is when he gets excited he will confuse holy cow and oh my gosh which comes out "oh my cow".

Well now that I have my camera back I can continue taking more pictures. I need to take lots more of the baby since she is getting so cute with all her smiles and giggles.

nap time

I am having a little bit of a dilema with Kate lately. She is four and should not really have to take naps anymore. she fights me about taking them and sometimes if I make her take one she will keep getting out of bed at night until around 11:00 am. Then other times I let her stay up and I find her like this

or this

or this

A lot of the time we are driving in the car she also falls asleep. Yesterday, I let her stay up and she turned into a little poltergeist. It seems like I can't win. I think I will have to keep giving her naps for now since it is much easier to put up with Kate getting out of bed at 11:00 to ask silly questions than to put up with rabid Kate. I hope she is able to transition from truely not needing a nap because it would be a nice time for Kate and mom to hang out and have some one on one time while Beck and sometimes Kiera are taking their naps. I think we both need that and right now we don't get much of it.