Merry Christmas!

This has been an insane month for us but it was wonderful to have a very relaxing Christmas. We got up and Emily ran downstairs to see if Santa had come, which of course he had, and he brought with him a new Amazing McKayla doll. She was so excited! It was well worth the money but the doll is rather annoying, especially since Emily can't work her very well. Ally got a new rolling Dora suitcase which she loves, she likes to roll it all over the house filled with toys. She was funny because she opened one of 2 toys first and we would give her another present and she would only take one hand off of the toy guitar to open the other present so it took her forever to open her gifts. It worked in our favor that Emily wanted to help her!

One of the best parts of Christmas was that Mike made the entire dinner. I didn't cook a thing. He made prime rib, which is his specialty. He makes the best prime rib. He also helped in the cleanup afterwards so it was super easy.

After we got the girls to bed, Mike asked if I wanted to take all the decorations down, so since he was offering to help I agreed. It took almost no time and it is actually really nice to be done. The only sad part was that Emily was watching a movie and when she figured out what we were doing she sobbed. But Mike saved the day by putting up on the ceiling some of the glow in the dark stars she got for Christmas.

Overall this Christmas season was crazy but fun. It's so much better the more kids you have. I can't wait until all our girls really understand Christmas, there is nothing better than watching your kids really get into the excitment!

Oh The Drama!

Monday night, or should I say Tuesday morning, was very action packed for us. Around 1:15 Mike woke me out of a dead sleep screaming that the fire alarm was going off, he smelled smoke and to grab the girls. So I ran for Rylee and he grabbed the other two. We rushed outside, and for those of you not in Redding, it was very windy and rainy. Mike gave me the phone and told me to call 911 and he ran back in to try to find the source. It smelled like an electrical/plastic burning smell. The firemen arrive in FOUR trucks and EIGHT men, it was like the calvary had arrived. They spent about 20 minutes trying to find the source and one guy finally pulled out the fridge. It seems as though our fridge had caught on fire from the compressor and luckily had put itself out quickly. We would have never looked under there and who knows how long we would have kept it plugged in.

Emily and Rylee seemed tired and bored while Ally was crying at first. She kept standing at the door and in a pitiful voice would say, "I scare" meaning scared! It was so cute! My parents showed up just in case they made us leave but that wasn't neccessary. Everyone left around 3:15 but Mike and I got almost no sleep as the adrenaline kicked in and didn't go away. Emily got to share at group time what happened and everyone was in awe, she was pretty excited about that! So we ended up with a new fridge, not something we were hoping to get to buy, but it's nice and I love it.

On another side note, Emily's favorite phrase from school is, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit". She also wants an Amazing Mckayla REALLY bad. She reminds me of that kid from A Christmas Story who wanted a red rider bb gun so bad and knew everything about it. That's how Em is with the doll. But the doll is not cheap and if you know my girls, they aren't doll girls. That's what she asked Santa for.

So today I asked her if Santa couldn't afford an Amazing McKayla what would she like instead? She said, "nothing, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit. And I want to get an Amazing McKayla, it will be downstairs when I wake up mommy." So bascially, she won't throw a fit when she gets what she wants! LOL! What's a parent to do? I told Mike we have two choices, explain Santa to Emily or bite the bullet and get an Amazing McKayla! Mike's a sucker for her, I'm sure she'll end up with an Amazing McKayla.

Ry's new toy!

This is Rylee's new toy, she loves playing in it. She really likes being upright and watching what is going on. I was so excited because the pink one was the best price so Mike finally let me get something pink other than clothes. I've wanted a pink stroller, pink car seat, pink bouncer, etc. but Mike said if he has to carry her around he would rather not have to carry pink pink pink. I guess I can't blame him since he's been surrounded by pink with all the girls we have. Anyway, I got some cute pictures of her playing and thought you would enjoy them!

All 3 at 4 months...who's who?

I love to compare pictures of my girls at certain stages along with their growth. So usually after a doctors appointment after I write in that childs height/weight, I usually pull out the other books to see what the other girls were. Might sound dumb and pointless but I think it's fun to remember! At 4 mo. Emily weighed in at 13lbs. 6oz. and was 25.5 inches. Allyson was my chunker at 14lbs. 8oz. and 26 inches. And Rylee was 12 lbs. 0oz. 25 1/4 inches. So Height wise, they were all similar. What's funny is Ally was actually weighed 12lbs 4oz. at 2 months, no wonder she seemed to fly by the newborn stage. It was so depressing, especially since Bella was so small! I hope you all have fun figuring out who was who, they aren't in any order. They all have one thing in common for sure...they all need some hair!

Rylee Is 4 Months!

Rylee will be four months on Saturday so we went and had her four month checkup today. She weighed in at 12 lbs. 0oz. and was 25 1/4 inches long. My girls are tall and skinny. She's 25-30th percentile in weight but 70th in height. She is looking more and more like Emily every day, I think if we want to know what she'll look like we'll just have to look at Em and we'll know. It's funny because not only does she look like her but they are similar weight and height. If we had a fourth would they be like Ally? I guess we'll never know!

Rylee had her shots too, she didn't like those! It was funny because the nurse always feels so terrible so after a few seconds of comforting her I let the nurse hold her so she would feel better. And if a four month old could hold her arms out and reach for their mom, then Rylee did that. It was crazy. She started screaming again, turned locked onto my eyes, put her hands out and lunged forward. It was so cute! She just wanted mommy, I felt bad for the nurse though, she's really sweet. And I love all of them there, the other nurse took Allyson on a walk while the shots were being given so she wouldn't be scared.

Allyson also saw the doctor today for her constant runny nose. I wanted to make sure she didn't have a sinus problem. Unfortunately we found that she is a happy, healthy almost 2 year old who is just going to be prone to drippy noses. Lucky me.

Blue Eyes

I love this picture, it makes her eyes look so blue! To see a true view click on it to enlarge! I'm sure she has a pretty little mouth too, we just never get to see it as she always has her fingers stuffed in there!

Christmas Pictures and More...

You would think having an extra child this year that I would be further behind than I normally am for he holiday season, usually I'm finishing up last minute. But this year, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we had all our Christmas shopping done, wrapped and under the tree. Mike and I had a lot of fun shopping this year and went organized and ready to take on black Friday.

And as you can see, we even managed to get our Christmas pictures done. We haven't taken a family picture since before Allyson. I always feel bad about that, we have family pictures of Emily, Mike and I and now of all five of us, but we never got one taken with the four of us pre Rylee. I'm not sure why, everytime we talked about it we would put it off. I guess she'll have middle child amunition now!

Emily looks so grown up to me in these pictures. She'll be five on the 8th, it's so hard to believe. After the pictures they got to go visit Santa with nana and papa while Mike and I picked out pictures and she asked Santa for an Amazing McKayla doll. I looked at those at Wal-Mart and they are expensive! She doesn't even play with dolls. Luckily Santa said he would see what he could do, not a definite yes! Allyson and Rylee just screamed, they didn't care to see Santa. I have pictures but my camera is in the car so I"ll post those another time.

I again got the CD from Sears and there are a lot more so there will be pics coming your way soon, hopefully, who knows when my organized self will slow down!

This Is Why I Love Kohls...

This was my camera phone so it's a little blurry, but all three little girls in one cart is worth a picture. It was probably one of the easiest shopping days in years. Unfortunately I only had a return and exchange so we weren't there long. It was so tempting to continue to shop with everyone contained and happy! And as a side note, it was a good workout too, they aren't as little as you think!

Independence

Allyson is in the process of asserting her independence. Overall she is super easy but occasionally she'll stand her ground with me which results in a time out. So the above picture was her with her nose on the wall for refusing to do something. She was really good about staying there, better than her sister. Luckily I could snap some pictures while she still learned a lesson because her eyes were shut and she wasn't looking. She looked so cute standing there sobbing with her nose on the wall!

The other ones are of Rylee, which, as I always say is getting way too big! Overall she is very happy, as long as I don't eat dairy then she is happy as a clam. Her tummy doesn't like dairy, didn't anyone mention to her that ice cream has dairy? That's just not fair!

I know I haven't blogged lately but Emily had 6 days off, yes I said 6 days. I think I got 2.5 days off max. So we have been busy busy with family, friends and the holiday. The girls got to hang out with their uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amy for a few days and then grandma and papa John came for Thanksgiving. They had a blast, but I'm now ready for school to resume, as is Emily. I didn't know there wasn't school Monday a.m. until Sunday night so Emily, unlike Tessa, was very upset she couldn't go to school. But we got to hang out all day with Jenn, Tessa, Bella and Jack so it wasn't too bad for her!

Update on Jamie...

Phew, it was a close one. Jamie is ok but our car has some damage. The victim is coping well. They have damage to their new car just recently purchased. She did hit our friends car "The Wilburn's".

Jamie is doing well... but I thought I would give some history of her past accidents.

September 2001 - Jamie was driving her new car and hit my garage at the apartment.

July 2003 - Jamie was backing up the vehicle and hit a pile of dirt

October 2006 - Jamie backed up in our driveway and hit a parked car.

November 2007 - Jamie backed up in our driveway again and hit a parked car in the same location as the accident in October of 2006.

Jamie has now had 4 accidents in 6 years... but there is a clear pattern. She always seems to want to hit cars that are either parked or cause damages to buildings.

I am so happy that Jamie is ok this time but I would please ask everyone to please park their cars 50 feet away from Jamie. Just a note for the church people.... she does have a favorite parking spot... please leave a two parking spot buffer.

This could have been a lot worse today :) Jamie will appreciate this posting as she would enjoy some accountability... please comment before she hits another car.

Jamie got in an Accident...

Jamie got in an accident today hitting another car.... more details to come later. I'm trying to get some details to make sure that she is ok. She did have the kids in the car. I'm making arrangements to meet her so I can access the situation. I'll update the family status later...

-Mike

Western Love

This is a picture of cowboy Weston kissing Cowgirl Ally! They looked SO cute together! Weston is 3 weeks older than Ally, way to go Ally girl, older is better! Mike's reaction? "WHAAAAT?"

Sneak Preview of Halloween

Today we took our cowgirl, indian and their horse and went over to the Raley's shopping center where they were having a Halloween Day with mini trick or treating and games. The pizza place was even giving away a free slice of pizza to all of the kids who dressed up so they got to sit and eat a free lunch, I always appreciate that! Emily loved putting on her costume and it was fun to dress them up. And Raley's gave away free pumpkins. I like going to different things each year that allows them to wear their costumes because they get so excited about them only to wear it for a few hours. Ally didn't like her boots when I put them on, (a girl after my own heart, I'm not really a country girl), but she eventually got used to them. It was a lot of fun. Ally reminded me of Emily at this age, the candy would go in the bucket and right back out as she wanted to eat it. I'm hoping today taught her that we can't stop after each door and eat what they gave us. The best part about their costumes was that combined, they only cost us $14! Thanks to Jenn letting us borrow the indian costume and the $2 second hand store western shirt Allyson wore. Always love a good bargain!

Pumpkin Patch

Fall is here because pretty much every blog I look at has a post about the pumpkin patch. So I couldn't let our trip to the pumpkin patch go by without posting. The girls had a blast. Emily loved the big slide they had, she went over and over and over. She could have cared less about anything else. Ally was never super thrilled to go down. We bought them the unlimited times on the slide as it was only $2 more. We were laughing that Ally's unlimited slides was really for the adults because we got to "help" her down. Mike, Joel, and I all took her down the slide. It was also the cheapest pumpkin patch year, we didn't buy anything. They weren't selling half the stuff they usually do, like fudge, lemonades, candy, etc. So we spent a total of $10. We didn't even buy any pumpkins. The girls didn't seem interested so we didn't bother. We figured they were probably cheaper at the store, and a lot nicer so we'll take them on another outing later when they care.

It's Freezing In Here!

If you have not already read Joel's blog, Mike and he have a contest to see who can last the longest without turning on their heater. So far, no one has turned it on but let me tell you, it's FREEZING. Leslie says she's been close to turning hers on and so have I. This morning the girls and I came home after church and it was 64 degrees downstairs and 65 upstairs. I was on the phone with Leslie and we decided it would be a good idea to get on the phone together one day, count to three, and turn on our heaters at the same time resulting in a draw. I think that sounds pretty good. To me, I think the guys must be pretty bored to fixate on the heater this much, but this is the third year they've done it. Check Joel's blog if you haven't already, it has all the rules... yes, I said rules. They've really thought this out. Anyways, hopefully someone will have a weak moment and turn their heat on so the torture can end!

Too Cute!

As most of you know, Mike and I, (especially Mike), are huge fans of candles. We always have them going. Well recently, I've been noticing Ally blowing on the wall and running to the back door when we are getting ready to leave. For some reason, I didn't really pay too much attention to what she was doing until one day I said, "time to go bye bye" and she blew on the closest wall to her right as I blew out a candle. That's when it dawned on me that she was copying our habit of blowing out the candle. Since she is so short, she doesn't realize we are blowing out candles and not just randomly blowing on the counter before we leave. I guess in her little almost 2 mind, she thinks this is some bye bye ritual. So cute!

Last night we put Allyson down a little early and let Em play a computer game for a while so When Emily went to bed Allyson was already asleep, nothing unusual there. So I checked on them a couple of times, ( I do that a lot, they are so cute and QUIET while they sleep), and they were both sound asleep. Well when Mike and Iwent to bed around 10, I went to make sure they were tucked in and I found Allyson curled up next to Emily on the top bunk sound asleep. I know she had to crawl up there half asleep because we always hear them when they goof off and they had been asleep the entire time. I guess she just loves her big sis and wants to be near her. But mean mommy was a little worried about her falling if she tried to get up in the middle of the night so she was moved back to her lower bed.

Little girls are the best, but I'm just saying that because we've never had boys before! I'm sure they are fun too.

Rylee's New Ride

The girls and I were at Jenn's the other day and Rylee got to try out Jack's swing while he slept and she loved it. So last night, even during the down pour, Mike, the girls and I all went to wal-mart and got Rylee her own swing. It's a floor swing that is portable, it folds up really flat. It doesn't take up a lot of space and she absolutely loves it. Even though she is at Allyson's level and is somewhat tortured by her when she is in it. Hopefully Allyson will get bored and move on. Isn't she pretty? I know i'm biased but I think she's really sweet! I just wished she looked this happy in her car seat, she isn't too keen on her car seat!

Rylee's First Smile For The Camera

I finally was able to capture Rylee's smile on the camera. It was so cute. She smiles a lot but whenever we try to snap the picture she is too busy watching the camera to smile anymore. You also get the added advantage of seeing her little buddy, Jack, in the picture too! Sorry it is on it's side, it didn't want to move for me.

Rylee-8 Weeks

Rylee turned 8 weeks yesterday, hard to believe! Time flys. She had her two month checkup yesterday and the doctor said she looked great. She weighed in at 10lbs. 0oz. she's the smallest of our three so far. Emily and she are pretty close though, Em was 10lbs 10 oz. when she was 2 months. Ally was on a whole other level at almost 13lbs. That was a sad day for mommy, she didn't stay little for long! Anyway, Rylee was full of smiles for him, but not for the nurses. They are the ones who give the shots. She had three, two in one leg and one in the other. She doesn't cry all that much, mostly fusses. So when they gave her the shots she screamed like I've never heard her. It was so sad, but well worth it in the long run. It's just hard to watch. Who ever said protecting your kids was easy? But she soon got over it as they always do and since she isn't used to crying that hard, she literally fell asleep the second her head hit the car seat. It's like she passed out or something! It was funny to watch.
She is really fun right now. She smiles when you just look at her and is starting to talk a little, not a lot though. And she's really fun because she still sleeps a lot. Any mom can appreciate that, but let me tell you, a mom of three REALLY appreciates it. She is also sleeping 8-10 hours at night. What more could we ask for? She's an angel!

Bad Luck Chuck

Mike and I just got back from a wedding we went to in L.A. We had a wonderful time but the weather was kind of rainy and cold so we decided to go and see a movie Sat. night. We both decided on Good Luck Chuck so we walked across the street to City Walk at Universal Studios, which is a fairly good walk, especially when you are carrying a baby. Anyway, we got in line and when we started purchasing the tickets we were told that we couldn't bring Rylee in because children were not allowed in pg13 or up movies after 6, even a 6 week old. So after getting a refund we walked back to our hotel, looked up directions to another theater and literally raced to hollywood to catch the next showing. There was a ton of traffic but we managed to make it. When we got there, they made us buy a full priced ticket for Rylee too, it cost us $42.00 just to get in. But since we had gone to so much trouble to go to the movies we decided it's vacation we'll just do it, but let me tell you it took every ounce of my willpower not to walk away. So we get in the theater and the movie premise is good but man, it is really like watching an adult film, (I'm assuming anyway, never seen one myself!). Then on top of it, this buzzer keeps going off and on for about 10 mins. So Mike and I said this movie is too graphic and the alarm was annoying, we weren't paying that much to listen to that. So just as we get up to leave, they were coming in to evacuate the building. There were probably close to 2000 people in this huge theater and they all had to leave. I guess they thought there was a fire, we never found out. So Mike insisted we find a line to get a refund but we never did get one as they were just shoving people out the door. He is going to dispute it with our credit card so it should be fine. At the end of the night we were just laughing. So, don't go see Good Luck Chuck!! I said I think God really didn't want us to see it either.

Emily's First Field Trip

Emily had a great time on her first field trip, thank you to all who helped fund her way there! They went to a farm and learned where healthy food comes from. They also had a huge trampoline to jump on and she had a blast doing that. Mike took a few hours off and went with her so I didn't have to drag around a newborn and a 1.5 year old with me, did I mention I have an awesome husband? They had a really good time and Mike found out why they call her the next Celine Dion. I guess every day she makes the kids sit in a circle and she sings to them. And the funny part is that they all do it! The other funny thing is that her BEST friend at preschool is Bryndon. She loves him. So after the field trip Mike dropped her off at Applebee's where we were eating lunch. My mom asked her who was there and he was the first person she mentioned. Here is their conversation. And a quick background, Emily says Elijah from church is her husband and she is going to mary him.

nana: Since Bryndon is your best friend who are you going to marry?

Em: both Elijah and Bryndon.

nana: but you can only have one husband.

Em: Well, I'll marry Bryndon.

nana: What about Elijah?

Em: He has his own life to live.

My mom and I started cracking up. Where did she pick up that line?

First Photo's Of The Three

Here are the first photo's of the three girls together. These are just some of the poses. I went to pick up the pictures today and the lady offered me a cd of the pictures plus a signed piece of paper giving me the rights to them so I can get copies wherever I want. I'm SO excited as I wasn't able to get all of the poses so now I can, and for much cheaper. I was so excited I called up Mike. Do you know what he said? "That's very nice" So you know what I said? "I'm calling my mom" she was much more enthusiastic!! Anyway, I have the disk if anyone wants pictures. You will most likely be finding some coming you way anyway as I bought enough to pass around. By they way, it took almost 2 hours from start to finish and my girls were angels. I was so proud of them. Picture taking can usually wear a person out!

Rylee and the girls

Well, life never seems to go as I think it will. Ally just loves her baby sister and I would have bet money that she was going to really dislike her presence. But as you can see, she loves to look at Rylee, kiss her, hug her, watch her, etc. The other day I caught her with her baby doll, (which she never used to play with), on the changing table with her clothes off and one of her diapers trying to change her baby. It was really cute. And when Rylee is in bed she tries to climb up so she can look at her and kiss her. Both girls also love it when Rylee is in the bouncer, which hasn't been but twice. And the main reason is they love to bounce her, and especially Allyson, they aren't that gentle when they bounce her. They are both very good with her for the most part. The only thing Allyson is trying to do right now is get into everything that's Rylee's. She's tried to get into Rylee's car seat with her in it, and just now as I type this I've already had to pull her out of Rylee's crib and stop her from getting into Rylee's bouncer with her. I'm sure they all just look like fun to her and she wants to imitate. But other than those small things, they really love their sister.

Small bizaare fact: Do you realize that 20 months ago, just over a year and a half, we were the parents of just one child, now we have 3. I find that weird to think about!

Already??!!

Calling all family and friends. I wasn't expecting to have to hit people up until much later in Emily's school career, but she is already having a fundraiser. Yup, in preschool. They are doing a bike-a-thon. Which I'll definitly have to post pictures of that day. Anyway, it's this Monday and I just got the form. It's either a flat rate or a per lap rate. And she says on there that they won't accept below a $1 per lap so I'm assuming since they are preschoolers they won't get very far. Anyway, I have the form if you are interested. This is really the only time I'm mentioning this, I'm not big on asking people so if you aren't interested then you don't have to say no, I hate doing that. It should be pretty interesting to watch all of them on their little bikes! Emily is actually really good at riding, she rode over a mile the other day. So be careful if you pledge instead of the flat rate. You do have the fact that there are other kids to distract her so she might no last long for that reason. Oh, and in case you are wondering, the money is for field trips. And guess what, it's 100% parent participation for every field trip, which means we get to haul all of our kids there! Yay! And the teacher says she LOVES to go on lots of field trips.

Just A Few Pictures...

Betunia Sandwiches

When I picked Em up from school on Wednesday, one of the aides in the class informed me that Emily helped make the sandwhiches for lunch today. So in the car I was asking her about it. Here is our conversation...

J: Em, I heard you helped make lunch today.
E: Yup, I served the kids their fruit with my hands and the teacher said not to.
J: Yeah, you have to use a spoon, so what kind of sandwiches did you make?
E: Betunia.
J: You mean tuna fish?
E: NO! Betunia, you know, like we had that one time. Remember?
J: Yeah, we had tuna fish sandwhiches.
E: NO MOMMY! BETUNIA SANDWICHES!! NOT TUNA!
(At this point she is getting annoyed).
J: I'm sorry, Em, I'm not sure what a betunia sandwich is.
subject dropped, and actually we went around and around with that a lot longer. Later in the day our friend Leslie came over to watch them so I could run some fast errands, so I was telling her the betunia story. So she asked Emily, "what did it taste like?" Emily said, "like fish" so she said, "so it was tuna" emily: "yup, it was tuna." I couldn't believe it, I mention tuna and get the third degree for thinking betunia was tuna fish. I guess Leslie has the magic touch! At least we know for sure what it was because she still asks for betunia sandwiches.

Growing Up

Emily: Emily started her first day of school this week. She officially started Tuesday, Monday was just an orientation day. She is doing really well so far, not too tired when she gets home and is doing well during school. I think she was really ready for preschool. We have her at the local elementary school and she is going five days a week from 8-11:30. It's gone smooth in the a.m. thanks to Mike dropping her off, it's a little hard to get her in with three kids. She is doing great as a big sister, she is super helpful, always getting me the things I need when I can't get up.

Allyson: Ally loves baby Rylee, what she doesn't love is mommy paying attention to Rylee! She's doing a lot better than expected but has started throwing screaming kicking tantrums. And bewitching hour is not 4-5 anymore, it's basically sunup to sundown. But in her defense we were very active pre-Rylee and now we've parked ourselves at home and sissy isn't around as a distraction as much. But overall she's doing great!

Rylee: Rylee is two weeks old today. She is a dream baby! She sleeps all day and pretty much all night, last night she slept uninterupted for 8.5 hours. She is so sweet and we are asked a lot about if all our girls had that much hair, I thought so but I guess not because no one really commented with them but they sure do with Rylee. I know it's probably the darkest so far, our girls seem to get darker hair each time. She had her 2 wk checkup today and is the smallest of our girls at that age. She weighed 8lbs even. Em was 8.4, Ally a huge 9! I think Rylee would have weighed less after her appt. though because she had a major diaper explosion when we got home, soaking her third blanket for the day! Rylee was also the only one to lose any weight at the beginning and it wasn't much! But since she is our last for SURE, sorry grandparents, I want her to stay small for a while. That's about it for Rylee, I'm sure with a newborn you can fill in the blanks with the rest of her life.

That's it on our girls for now, it's amazing how fast they grow up and how fast the years go by once you have more than one. If anyone figures out how to stop time let me know. These years are going by way too fast! Also, scroll down a little to hear about Rylee and Jackson, her first little friend!