General Kid Update....

I thought I would post some pictures for you, especially of Rylee. I don't take nearly as many pictures of her as I should. Something about her being my third, I guess we don't need too many pictures though...we can just look at Em's old pictures and there's Rylee!

She is getting fun right now. She is a rolling machine. She never stays in one spot anymore. She is also a good eater, although you would never know it. The funny thing about her is that when you give her something new, there is no expression on her face at all. You know how most babies are, they give you looks like, gross or excited or tart, etc. But not Rylee. She's the first baby to give you a blank stare when she's eating. No matter what it is. That is why you never saw her first taste of baby food picture, it wouldn't be that exciting!

Ally, on the other hand, is starting to test the limits a little. It's only taken her 2 years and one month, but it's finally surfacing. Now, when I tell her to do something, she acts like I'm not even talking. She calmly continues on with what she's doing. She's very good at it. The other thing she'll do is say, "OK" and then completely do her own thing. It's like she's just pacifing us, making us think she's obeying but really she's not. She is so cute doing it, but alas, we have to be parents and reprimand! She's also really cute while Rylee is playing on the floor. As you can see in the picures, as soon as the blanket goes down, she gets on her tummy for "tummy time" just like Rylee. But hey, she's happy and not following me around. If she wants to act like a baby who am I to stop her?

Other than those things...there isn't much else going on. They keep me hopping that's for sure! Rylee still has no teeth, isn't sitting up, crawling ect. She truly is staying my baby for a long time. No complaints!

My Parenting Advice...Like You Really Want It

My Parenting advice is for every parent to have a timer. Yes, you read correctly, a timer. And no, I haven't lost my mind. I'll explain...

As most of you know, Emily was "formally" diagnosed with ADHD. So she's been on the mildest form of medication for about 4-5 weeks. I think she is much much better. She is doing great in school. When I picked her up today her teacher says she's been amazed at her progress lately. All of a sudden she's writing not only her two names, (Emily and Ariel), but other kids names as well. She was impressed. It's always fun to hear! So, on to the timer. After her doctors appointment we decided to get serious and get her organized as that is what ADHD kids respond well to. Anyway, I had a thought on the way home. The reason she gets so out of control during time out is because she keeps asking over and over to get up. So we bought a timer and when she has time outs, we set her timer for 5 minutes. The first time we did it, she was quiet as a mouse. When the time was up, she quietly came and we discussed it and moved on. She loved to visually see her time. It was SOOO nice, for her and us. There is now no more whining and crying. She is responsible for turning it off and coming to find us. So we now use it for other things, like we set it a half hour before bedtime, and we're discussing using it for Ally and Bella when they each want the same toy. Setting it for five mins. and then they give the toy to the other person. They all seem to respond really well to it.

So, there you have it. My parenting 101. Definitly not an expert but hey, if something works great, might as well pass it on!

Have You Ever Seen A Chuncky Tink?

This was the Tinkerbell from disney princesses on ice. She was very good, just not what we're excpecting I guess...click image for better view.

Here and there stuff....

Monday morning Mike decided to take us to breakfast so he told Emily to go get dressed. She started jumping up and down and saying, "at the rainforest cafe?" So Mike said, what the heck and we loaded up and went to San Francisco for the day. It was so much fun. The girls were amazing all day. When we ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe Rylee slept almost the entire meal. It was so enjoyable. Then we walked the pier and then took a walk across part of the Golden Gate bridge. Emily liked that as long as she was in the stroller and buckled in the whole time. She did declare that next time we went to the bridge that nana and papa would watch her. I guess she didn't like being that high!

Another funny thing about Emily right now is not only is she calling herself Ariel, but she writes her name now as Ariel. I made the mistake of spelling it for her the other day and it stuck. We were in church Sunday and Tessa needed to sit with us so she brought over her pencil but no paper. Emily had paper but no pencil. So I told them to take turns writing their names. After they had each done this, I look down and written on the top: Ariel... and on the bottom: Tessa. So I told my mom that I hoped she would write Emily on her papers at school. Lo and behold I pick her up today and out of her cubby comes her pictures with the name Ariel written on the bottom. I asked the teacher and she said she's been doing that for a while. LOL!

Her teacher played a game today where she wrote all the kids name on a white board and they were to go up there erase their name and rewrite it. She went up on her turn, erased Emily and wrote Ariel!

Valentines Day

So the guys have started this trend every Valentines where they all get together and do something fun for the ladies. It's very secretive and a lot of fun to try to figure out. This year, Mike told me to go and get a dress I had seen and admired in a dress shop window. Then he told me Thursday morning to be ready by 6:00. The guys had planned a nice wine/appetizer tasting at a really nice restaurant. It was a lot of fun and very nice, they even had some live music. Then we went out to dinner afterwards as a couple of us didn't have time to eat before.

Mike also got me those beautiful flowers. Unfortunately, for the second year in a row, they didn't arrive on time. They came about 5:45-6:00. They missed us by about 15 minutes but it was fun to come home and see them. I felt bad because Mike was very disappointed. Unlike last years order over the internet he had ordered locally so they would arrive on time. I guess it's just very difficult to get flowers on Valentines Day.

Thanks to all the guys and especially my hubby!

The Girl Loves Clean Ears!

Rylee's six months!

Rylee turns 6 months on Friday. As usual, it's so hard to believe. Its gone by so fast. She is such a sweet baby. She is a big mommies girl, (which I can't say I hate!). She does the sweetest thing when someone hands her back to me after holding her. She grabs a fistful of hair from each side of my head and brings her head to my forehead. Kind of an "I love you" hug. It's so sweet. I love them at this age. Mike says to enjoy my time because in another 6 months or so he starts the take over.

Rylee didn't have a great day today. She had her 6 month check up and had her scheduled 3 shots plus a flu shot to boot. So a total of four torturous shots. She didn't care for those! She also got weighed, (I always love this part, it's fun to see). She didn't tip the scales this time. She weighted 12 lbs. 8oz and was 26 inches long. She's gained a whole 8 ounces in two months and 3/4 of an inch. A little birdy told her mommy wanted her to stay little forever! It was funny because the doctor always charts her growth and she's always had a slight downward curve on her weight but today she didn't even make the curve, she fell off. But her doctor didn't seem concerned. She just has to come back in 3 months instead of the six month break she was supposed to get.

Overall, she's a happy healthy almost six month old!

Just because I thought it was cute!

I checked on Rylee yesterday during her nap and found her asleep, totally covered except for her little feet sticking out and she had them crossed. It looked so sweet so I had to take a picture and just thought it turned out cute!

Just Stuff...

As most of you know, it snowed on Monday. So these pictures are for our out of town family! It was a lot of fun to watch, we had massive flakes falling from the sky. We told Emily it looked like we might get enough for her to play in a little but it melted fairly fast after it stopped, but it was pretty white in our neighborhood for a while. She was a little disappointed. I know the mushroom is a funny picture but it looked nice with it's little white covering!

Ally is super into hats right now. She puts her coat on in the morning and isn't satisified until she has her hood on! The other night she asked to put the pink baseball hat on and wore it all night, it was so cute.

Excuse me while I gush for a minute but Ally is so stinkin cute right now. She is so fun. What happened to terrible 2's? I haven't experienced them with her yet. The most she does is get into things, mostly my makeup, lotion and her love affair with toothpaste! But other than that she is so cute. I just love when she talks and sings. She STILL loves "Holy Is The Lord" That is all I get to listen to. But hey, it's an awesome worship song for an awesome God so I can't complain! If I get the itch to move to the next song I just tell her, "mommy is going to listen to this song now" and she says, "Kay" and we're happy! If you want to have a fun day, borrow Ally, she won't disappoint!

She's also potty training right now. Someone please pinch me, because I must be dreaming. This has been so easy so far. In a couple of days she's done so so well. Asking to go, mostly staying dry, dry after her nap yesterday and today after an hour in the gym playing she had waited until I came back and asked to go. After Emily who could have cared less, she's so easy. I'm loving it, (if you could love to potty train, which I think is impossible. Most of you know how I feel about this task ).

That's all for now! Hope you enjoy the few pictures! We'll have some new ones of our big girl Rylee when she turns 6 months in a couple weeks.

Toes and Makeup

Here are a couple of cute pictures of Allyson and Rylee. Rylee loves her toes right now. She'll lay on her back forever eating her toes. It's the cheapest entertainment! I also included a couple of other cute photos of her lying on the floor.

Allyson, on the other hand, likes to play with my makeup and after her bath I was helping Emily and she came out of my room with mascara all over her forhead. She did actually manage to get some on her eyelashes. She didn't however, like the taking off process and since she had already had her bath, she got a baby wipe instead.

Happy Birthday Allyson!

Ally turned 2 yesterday. I would love to say I can't believe she's two already but to be honest it feels like she's been 2 for six months. So now we can officially say she's two.

We spent part of her birthday going to Sacramento with Mike, who had a business trip. I took the girls to the Arden Fair mall and let them ride the merry go round, which she loved, go to the disney store and toy store, and then shared an ice cream and a cookie. After Mike got done we went to IKEA, where we bought nothing but had fun. For those of you who know us that's a big thing not to buy a picture frame or something there!

On the way home Ally was a little cranky and the only thing that would make her happy was listening to the same song, Holy Is The Lord, for the last hour home. She finally fell asleep in Cottonwood and we were able to move on to the next song!

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!