Thanksgiving & more...

We've been busy as usual, no news there. We headed up to Missouri for Thanksgiving and had a fun time as usual. Traveling went okay, although not great. Kaleigh rode with Nathan's parents but we had the 3 little ones. Avery had a diaper blowout on the way there that was so bad we ended up just throwing her pants away!

The kids had soo much fun and Emory was very popular, even though she was a cranky pants.:) Or so we thought. Later we figured out that she was sick and obviously not feeling well. The twins got plenty of attention and loved it! We love seeing the family and catching up with everyone and of course ate tons of great food.


Kaleigh and the other kids were riding these bikes around in the basement. She has gotten where she loves riding her trike at home and gets that same look of intense concentration like she has in this picture. When she gets too serious I start singing the wicked witch song from the Wizard of Oz to make her giggle.

Since we've been back, Nathan's started working on insulating the basement, we went to the circus last night (so much fun) and had his work Christmas party and our Sunday School Christmas party today.

Oh, and I did get my free Christmas cards. They should be here soon. I did manage to make them, but whether they actually get distributed is a whole other story... At the very least I will post one on here!

Shutterfly photo card blog



Okay, so they want some more specific things to get the 50 free cards. I guess you sign up first on their blog at http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/ then they send an email telling what to blog to get the credits.



I don't really have one specific way to do my Christmas cards. In the past I've done whatever was cheapest, or what I could get at the last minute. Since we had Kaleigh, I've always done photo cards. But I would get some in the mail and they were so pretty, I always said "next year I'm going to put more effort into it and start earlier!" Shutterfly does have some beautiful cards and I love that they have collages. It's so hard to narrow my pictures down to One choice!



You can see their Christmas photo cards here.

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards

This was another one of my favorites -





of course my final choice will come down to what pictures I have that I want to use. This year we were fortunate to have a couple of friends who are wonderful photographers take pictures for us, so I have a lot to choose from!

They also have holiday cards for other occasions here.

Another thing I always do for our families is make a calendar. They have some here. http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

Shutterfly Photo cards

A friend had blogged about this promotion so I wanted to try it also.

If you blog about Shutterfly they will give 5o free photo cards! http://http//blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/

I love doing photo cards for Christmas so this is a great deal. They have some adorable cards and I especially love the collage cards.

Like these -

I'll let you know how it works out.

Costumes N' Candy

For some reason this year we just ended up with tons to do this week of Halloween. Kaleigh's getting older and more "into" things. And of course she's always loved dressing up! All of Kaleigh's costumes came from her dress up box & most of those came from yard sales.

Tuesday we went to the library where they had games, snacks & candy. I particularly liked the "cake walk" where you could win books. With Patti's help, we could have all the kids playing at once to fill four spots which helped us win several times! The twins really enjoyed playing with a small parachute and some beach balls. The girls were dressed as Goldilocks and the 3 bears.

Wednesday we went to a very fun & cute playdate. There were crafts, games, food & cookie decorating! The poor bears got hot though! I ended up bringing the twins home in their diapers.

Thursday night Benton had their "Spook City" which was just a bunch of vendors handing out candy. We walked around a few blocks and got lots of candy and even coupons for free stuff. Kaleigh was a cheerleader that night. They had these miniature horses and Alexis jumped up out of the stroller to pet it. She really seems to like animals. Then some people dressed up in an inflated sumo wrestler type outfit walked by & she started crying and jumped back in the stroller!

Friday night we worked our church's GSFESt which is a huge event of carnival rides & more. I took Kaleigh with me while I worked the preschool inflatables. She jumped, slid & ran around for two hours straight! Then she/we rode 4 rides before we had to leave so Nathan could work the 10 to midnight shift.

Saturday night I took Kaleigh & Emory around our neighborhood. This night she wanted to be a ballerina.

Sunday night we went to a friend's house and had a fish fry then took the kids out trick or treating around their neighborhood.

I'll post some more pictures on facebook soon if you are interested in seeing more.

Busy Sunday

I couldn't think of anything more descriptive to title this post than "Busy Sunday". Sundays are crazy anyway, getting all 4 little ones ready to go & then getting home, fixing & eating lunch, putting kids down for naps then waking them in time to be back at 5:00 for children's choir & bible studies, home at 8:00, supper then bed (for the kids).

This Sunday Kaleigh also had a birthday party to go to for her friend Maddie and her choir was singing in church for the first time!

The party was at a riding school and she got to ride a horse. I was so proud of her. It only took a little coaxing :) They look so little on those huge horses.

We barely got home in time to change & go back to church. She did so great singing in the choir. I'm glad she's not shy & I hope it will stay that way. I was always so timid about doing things in front of people and I just hate for my kids to have to deal with that.

Pumpkin Patch

Our church had a Mommy & Me playdate to a local pumpkin patch today. It's called Mary's Place or Mary's pumpkin patch. I highly recommend it. They have a little petting zoo, tractor trikes, a swingset, a bouncy castle, a hayride, a treehouse, and a maze. And lots of little photo spots! Nathan's mom came along and helped with the kids.

Alexis really like looking at the animals. She even scared the little baby sheep b/c she was so excited and squealing!

Kaleigh had the most fun in the bouncy castle and just playing with her friends.

Alexis makes a cute sheep, don't you think?

Emory saw this adorable little cow and wanted to give her a kiss! I don't blame her, do you? Avery loved it!

Emory - 8 months!

I never did a 7 month post for Emory and she has changed a lot since 6 months! This girl is m.o.b.i.l.e. Much more so than any of our others. Here's a "time line" of recent developments:

• 6 1/2 months - started crawling, sitting pretty well & getting back into a sitting position'
• 7 months - pulling up, crawling really well, started saying "da-da"
• 7 1/2 months - perfecting pulling up skills
• 8 months - cutting two teeth on bottom & maybe more! She's fussy so I hope they come quick
• also - shakes her head from side to side, seems like "no" when she's done eating; has started doing her hand like a wave, not on command or anything; babbles quite a few more other sounds like na-na, la-la, ga-ga, & still likes her vowels a lot.

Emory is so determined. I can see in her eyes when she spots something that she wants and starts to go after it, nothing is going to deter her! She's my little Roomba right now. That girl will find every little speck on the floor and pick it up & put it in her mouth. Then she gags on it and spits up. I'll be glad when she's walking, at least she'll be further from the floor! She's so cute right now though, just follows me & her sisters around the house. She'll crawl on us if we are on the floor. Avery & Alexis get a little annoyed with her sometimes but they are still so sweet to her. She takes about 4 bottles a day and usually eats 3 times a day but we can get by with 2. Her legs are still chubby & adorable! She can almost wear 12 month clothes but is really in 6-9 month right now.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Avery & Alexis

First month
1 year

Seriously, another year has passed? Even though tons has changed, it has absolutely flown by. Our sweet little twins are two years old now. It is hard to tell that they were ever preemies. They say two years is the milestone when they catch up to other kids, and it seems to be true in their case. Here is some of what they are doing, and they are both pretty much the same:

• point to & name eyes, nose, ear, mouth, head, hair, & knee


• Use many words - love to name family members & the first friend they learned was Noah. They will repeat almost anything now but it usually comes out quite different from how we say it; can say about a three word sentence.


• Recently started undressing; like to try & dress themselves, sometimes well, sometimes not; love to put on shoes
  
• are starting to learn songs like twinkle twinkle and Elmo's song
  
• have recently started feeding themselves with a fork - we just tried & they were pretty good at it; can somewhat eat with a spoon but usually make a huge mess.
  
• can jump (& really like to)

One thing we really need to work on is drinking from a regular cup. Every time we've tried it's ended in disaster! I also don't have much time to work with them on things like I did Kaleigh, such as colors, shapes, etc. but I figure the'll learn it sooner or later - ha!

I also want to remember their likes & dislikes and personality traits at 2.

• The number 1 thing both twins like to do is eat & drink their milk. Until 3 or 4 months ago they would eat anything, but more recently they've started to get a little pickier. They still eat large portions for their size, though. You cannot eat around them and not share. They'll stand in front of you and yell "BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTE!" First thing in the morning we greet them with a sippy cup of milk.
  
• they both love to dance & listen to music
  
• they love to play with each other. They fight a lot now, especially over the doll stroller, but they have so much fun together too. One day they just giggled & giggled while carrying a baby blanket around the house together.
  
• They love their big sister. They will all go in Kaleigh's room and play with the Little People toys and whatever else. They light up when they see "K-K"
  
• And of course they adore little "Emmy". Avery especially loves to "talk" to her in a little sing song voice and lay on the floor next to her (& sometimes on her) For the most part they are so sweet. They will get on the floor and crawl with her and bring her things.
  
• They both like to play with dolls & stuffed animals and push them in the stroller pretend to feed them, that kind of thing
  
• They both seem to be very compassionate. Recently I got a cold and every time that I coughed one of them would ask me "okay mommy?" Without fail, every time. And they would keep asking until I answered! If Kaleigh hurts herself or Emory fusses they get very concerned.

Personalities:

Avery is usually the more laid back one. If she's fussy, I know something's probably wrong with her. She's independent and definitely likes to do things herself. She's funny and loves to make people laugh. She's always doing it with us, making funny faces and will repeat things after she gets a laugh. She's social and likes to smile at people she doesn't know. When I tell her to "come here", Avery runs away giggling. She drives me crazy but we love her. When Kaleigh is playing with her and gets a little too physical she will usually just laugh. She does like to mess with people, especially her twins sister and she's a little bit mischevious. She adds so much fun to our family.

Alexis is the more emotional of the twins. She comes running to me many times during the day with her world crashing down b/c of a stolen toy or a stubbed toe. After a good cuddle things are usually okay until I have to put her down. She's very sweet and seems to like to take care of people. When we're walking and Avery starts to run off Alexis turns and says "come on sister". Too cute. She has this sweet little shy smile that she does when she's being bashful around people, and when she's happy about something she gives us this beautiful beaming smile that just brightens our day.

We love these two precious girls. Yes, it is hard and yes they are going through the terrible twos and can throw amazingly good kicking screaming down on the floor tantrums, but the good times more than make up for any amount of bad. To think that we almost lost them and now God has given us two wonderful years with them leaves me speechless.

Beach Day

This was a couple of weeks ago, but we got sick right after so I'm just getting around to posting these pictures. We went to the "beach" in Arkadelphia on a whim one Friday afternoon. Kaleigh is at the age where she is loving the water, sand, etc and we figured the twins would enjoy playing in the sand, which they did. Alexis liked the water but Avery wanted nothing to do with it. We got some fun pictures - it was a little bright out. It ended up being hotter than we thought but it was a fun memory!

Note: I tried to load more pictures but it just isn't working so here you go!

A New Week, A New Start (hopefully)

This past week was one of the worst in our house, aside from anyone dying. It started over a week ago with Alexis getting sick with a stomach bug. It didn't last too long and after a couple of day went by and nobody else got it, we thought we were out of the woods. Then Tuesday morning Avery started. Nathan went to work and his mom came over to help me. Since the kids are always getting sick and we don't usually catch anything I wasn't too concerned. Poor Avery had a terrible day but was a little better by that night. Then about 9:00 that night, Kaleigh started. An hour later it was me. I won't go into details, but poor Kaleigh had it about right when she said "this is the worstest ever". The next day we were exhausted but okay, not great. That night my sister who lives with us got sick, and the next morning Nathan was sick. We called his mom who was also sick. So in our whole house the only one who had not gotten sick was Emory.

We had a rafting trip planned with the Powells and Tices and contemplated calling it off seeing how contagious this thing was, and we went ahead and called my parents to come and pick up Emory and Kaleigh. At this point, I was recovering but had only gotten 2 hours of sleep the night before and besides taking care of the kids was also waiting on my sister and Nathan. And believe me when I say kids make better patients! HA! Other than the fact that the kids were extremely messy. I was also cleaning and disinfecting like crazy and doing laundry in between taking care of sick people. By that night Nathan started to feel better so we decided to go ahead with the trip.

The next day, Friday, we were packing & excited to go when Ben (one of the friends going on the trip) called. He was sick. Nathan had had lunch with him on Tuesday. We decided that we had to cancel the trip, mainly for the good of those who hadn't gotten sick. I was so depressed that night that I literally got sick all over again. No joke.

But we decided to go to Branson with the Powells and make the best of it. A holiday weekend is just about the worst time to go to Branson. We didn't want to go to Silver Dollar City and not get to ride anything so we just picked some other things to do. We shopped and played put-put, ate out at some fun places and jumped off a tower.

Yes, you heard me right. We saw the brochure for this Extreme ZipRider and thought it looked fun so we did it. There was a moment of fear just as we were let loose off the tower, but once we got going it was just fun. And beautiful. I would recommend it.

Please help us out & vote for Nathan in this photo contest at Parent's magazine. Help me show him some love! Just click on the link and click vote then enter the phrase they show you. Thanks! http://photos.parents.com/category/vote/photo/476855

6 month photo shoot & family pictures

We recently did another shoot with Elizabeth Crump for Emory's 6 month pictures and to get a family picture. With it being over 100 degrees outside we did most of them inside and just a few outside at the end. Of course I just love the ones outside the best. Liz does a great job and she is easy and fun to work with. She recently quit her full time job to focus on photography so if you want some pictures, keep her in mind. http://www.elcphotography.smugmug.com/

She sells the digitals which I prefer. What would be the point in getting great pictures and then not be able to blog them!? I love making albums online too. I'm always finding great deals for those.

Here are a few of my favorites and there are more on facebook. I wish I could put more, but it's just so hard to load them on blogger. The family pictures make me laugh. We are just not at a stage in our lives where everyone will sit and look at a camera and smile! And getting one of just the kids is even harder. Kaleigh just decided to stop holding Emory at one point and down she went! Isn't that what pictures are though? Just a memory captured and preserved. I will always love the memories of this time in our lives.

SUMMER FUN

Kaleigh constantly asks if she can invite her best friend Maddie over to play. It's been forever (at least since before we moved here) so finally one Saturday I said okay, we're gonna do this. Maddie is so sweet and easygoing and she and Kaleigh play wonderfully together. They spent most of the time together playing in the swimming pool on the deck.

I also let Avery & Alexis get in on the fun.

I recently read a magazine article that convinced me I needed to do more artistic endeavors with the kids, so I bit the bullet and let them (yikes, gasp) finger paint! I waited until my mom was here to help. The fun lasted about 5 minutes. It was so much messier than I imagined and it ended with tears for all of us. HA! I hope those 5 minutes were enough to inspire their creativity and fine tune motor skills and all the other wonderful things it was supposed to do! Of course we were outside but I was trying not to get paint on our new deck. I had this giant piece of paper that was working great until they started running through the paint and all over the deck.

Of course many times mealtimes are artistic endeavors in themselves...

Sweetest Emory,
It was just over a year ago that we found out you were on the way and today you are 6 months old!
I think of God's omniscience every time I see you. Because although we may have planned our family out a little differently, He knew you were exactly what we needed. Right away you were precious to us but every day you grow more & more so. You are at the sweetest little age right now, flashing that huge grin left and right. It's so wide I think it will just stretch right off your face sometimes! Your Daddy just gets a goofy look when he's holding you and you cuddle up on him. He's smitten. Your sisters love you too. They give you little kisses and go "awww" when they see you. You just smile right back at them.

You giggle and squeal when I bounce you on the bed or couch.

You're almost sitting, still needing to prop yourself a little bit.

You're very mobile - rolling, scooting, whatever it takes to get you where you need to go. I'm constantly pulling you out from under a piece of furniture that you've wedged yourself under. You are almost crawling - getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth.

You rarely cry now around people, but you do sometimes when I lay you down for bed. You will smile up until you can't see anyone then it turns to tears. Sometimes you switch straight from crying to laughing then back again! You know Mommy's a sucker and hates to hear you cry.

You drool tons and everything you get your hands on goes straight to your mouth. You're really amusing when you're hungry. One of the nursery workers told me one day "I thought she was going to eat me!"

Speaking of nursery workers, they are always commenting on what a happy smiling baby you are. Usually followed by "she spit up everywhere". Yes, you do have one flaw. That's okay, nobody's perfect.

We love you darling girl. Thanks for adding even more joy to our lives.