Kayla's new 'do

As you saw from the Christmas post, we gave Kayla a certificate to get her hair done by my friend Sue. And Kayla being a 12 yr old girl desperately wanted to get it done before she goes back to school next week. Fortunately we were able to get her in yesterday to do it. She has seriously changed her mind a ton of times on what she wanted to do to her hair. One of the last ideas was to put red on the tips of her hair so that if she didn't like it she could just cut it off! Rather clever I thought! But in the end she decided she wanted red "highlights" and found a picture of a hair cut and style that she liked. It turned out super cute and Sue did a great job and did it just like the picture!

Kayla (with a bonus Eli) before...

And Kayla after....it is hard to see the red in this pic (or maybe it is just my computer screen) but I think she looks like a totally different girl! And I think this fits her personality way better.

6 Months

WOW Hailey is already 6 months old. These last 6 months feel like they have just flown by! It seems like I was just dealing with a somewhat stressful, scary pregnancy! And now I have this cute, chubby, attention demanding baby. And by attention demanding I don't just mean the usual feed me, hold me, change my diaper and put me to bed baby. Oh no! She is the 4th....which means she has to make sure we all know she is here and won't let us forget it! She is by far my fussiest baby and knows how to let you know she needs attention. It took us a bit but we figured her out and she figured us out. We also got to learn alot about birth marks and how they work. Of course that will be a learning event for us for a while to come. She is so different from the other 3 kids. Right down to her slight head of blond hair. I think she will end up with Hazel eyes like JR and Kayla because they aren't as blue as they used to be.

She has 1 tooth and the 2nd well on it's way. You can see it just trying to break through the gums. She has only rolled over once so far from her back to her front. And she got stuck on her arm so it wasn't quite complete. But honestly, the longer it takes her to be mobile that happier I am! I fear the day her and Emma team up against me! :) She loves to stand up though. The girl has some strong legs! One of her favorite toys is a rattle that we put in her stocking. She will lay there and talk to it for quite a while. Then it manages to slide down her arm and away it goes! She also loves to chew on baby dolls and well anything that will fit in her mouth really. We started to give her baby food but didn't get past sweet potatoes. She really wasn't interested in it so we didn't push it. Saves on a mess and on the wallet for sure! Despite the chub, she has a small appetite compared to the other 3 when they were that age. And speaking of chub, she had her 6 month well baby check up and she weighs 20lbs 12oz! And she is 27 3/4" long! She is pretty much the size of a 1 yr old! I can't wait to see who my tallest kid is going to be. I wouldn't be surprised if she is the one!

Christmas '08

This year, Christmas actually seemed a little more relaxed than years past. Not exactly sure why since we still did the same routine. We open presents and have breakfast here at home and then sometime in the afternoon we head to Nana's house for more presents and dinner. My dad lives close to her so we usually go to his house to visit after dinner. Naturally, the kids had a blast and got lots of cool things. Emma is getting more into opening things and was trying to help Hailey with her stuff too. Anyways, here are a few pictures from the day.

The tree after Santa's visit

The stockings were laid out on the couch with care...we have a chimney but it is downstairs and we don't use that area!

Kayla's ultimate present....a gift certificate for Tangles Salon and Day Spa to get her hair done by my friend Sue

One of Eli's ultimate gifts from Darlin...it has this little alien with a UFO that sounds like the Jetsons vehicles!

Eli's ultimate, ultimate gift...a Nintendo DS. This is the first game system we have purchased for any of the kids!

Emma with her baby doll from Santa. Whenever you would ask her what Santa was going to bring her, the response was always "Santa's gonna bring me a baby doll"! So naturally that was what he had to do! The funny thing was that I went out one night to buy this thing and promptly showed JR and the big kids because I thought it was too darn cute. Eli is getting to the age now where he isn't sure if he believes in Santa or not. So he immediately looks up at me when she opens this thing and says something about me getting it but how can it be from Santa! Oops! And the really funny thing about this doll is that it says 5 different cheers and my 12 yr old has all of them memorized and moves to go along with them! I swear Kayla plays with this doll way more than Emma!

Hailey with her cool Peek-a-blocks from Darlin

Eli with his Nerf Vulcan from Nana....he also has a Nerf bow (he calls it his big, bad bow) so I have seriously been dealing with not just Eli playing with this thing....his father has been playing too! They love to have wars with them and we all get stuck in the middle! I even got ambushed one day by JR when I came in the front door.

One last little gift from Santa! This was at the end of the day when we finally got home from Nana's. Hailey under the tree with a portion of loot collected throughout the day!

She has a tooth!

We had our company Christmas party last Thurs at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It was the coolest place for the party and everyone agreed that it was the best one they have had yet! Our zoo lights up a portion of the exhibits and you can go in and feed the giraffes while you are there. It does get rather cold because it is on a mountain though! Anyways, I have a friend that we swap babysitting with primarily during this time of year for shopping and parties. So she was gracious enough to come to my house at 5 so we could get to the party on time and she had to make friends with Hailey. You see, Hailey isn't friends with just anyone....the baby cries if she doesn't want you talking to her. Which is what she tends to do with my friend. So she fed her some dinner and then Hailey was cool with her. However, we got a call shortly before 8...seems Hailey was crying and she was crying good. And this wasn't your average "I'm tired and want to be rocked to sleep" types of cries. Nope, it was a cry of pain. And since my friend has 3 kids of her own then I trust her instincts! So we came home early not only to check on Hailey but to relieve my friend from a crying baby.

Friday afternoon when I am picking Hailey up from Nana's house......she has a tooth! So apparently her crying was because that tooth was finally breaking through the surface. And of course I had to call my friend to let her know what the problem was and not to take the crying personal! :)

Family game night

Kayla's school had family game night last Tues that we went to, of course! They had several different areas set up throughout the school with different activities/games going on. Of course Eli wanted to do rock band but it was way to chaotic with too many older kids (obviously) in it. So he is working on getting Nana to understand just how bad she needs that game! :) Anyways, the kids got their faces painted, bowled, did the cake walk and attempted to climb a wall! Eli decided he was going to be brave and try to climb the wall in their gym. I have no idea how tall this thing is but I would guess it to be around 15 feet. He got the lesson, climbed a couple feet and then was done! That was high enough for him! But I was proud of him for even doing that. Let's face it, the poor kid comes from a family of chickens when it comes to heights!

Eli with his spider and Kayla with her Santa hat

Eli starting his climb.....

And Eli finishing his climb!

Kayla getting ready to do the cake walk. Yeah, I made her do it which is why she has attitude. I did do it with her for 1 round but we had an extra ticket!

Pardon the photo quality...apparently I can't even remember to bring my camera anywhere anymore so I had to use my phone!

Oh Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas tree, how beautiful I think it is without ornaments! Hee hee

We put our tree up last Saturday and just before we put the ornaments on I realized I had to leave to go babysit. JR thought we should decorate as a family so he had the kids wait to do anything else. Well as I sat and looked at the tree on Sunday I really thought it would be fun to go with a color scheme on this tree since it is white. I also decided I don't like our current topper or tree skirt. However, I am not willing to buy anything until it all goes on clearance after Christmas! So the kids are protesting not decorating the tree but I am riding it out to see how long I can get away with this! :)

And yes I see the picture is blurry....couldn't really tell you what I was doing when I took it!

Still here!

So when I said not to be surprised if you don't see a post from in a bit....I didn't mean this long! Not that there haven't been blogging moments over these last 2 weeks. I just didn't do it! And because I didn't do it or even make a note on what I wanted to blog, it is all stuck in the back of the brain and it isn't coming forward. So in the meantime, I will share some cute pics with you.

Eli and Hailey sportin' the beanie caps

So sweet! She loves to cuddle!

This was Eli's bed when he was little. We had it out so that grandpa could come get it and take to my nephew Joey. My step-sister is hoping it will help motivate him to sleep in his own bed! Emma decided it would be fun to drive the car so I put Hailey's seat (it is meant for newborn to toddlers) in it and gave her Eli's wheel pillow....and away she went!

Hailey participating in her much loathed tummy time. Emma hated it too! But it's gotta be done if the girl is ever going to learn how to roll over! I know you can't really see it but I would like to point out that the blanket she is on was Kayla's when she was born!

NaBloPoMo....the end!

Today is the last day of November. That means it is also the last day of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month)! I made it! I managed to only miss 1 day which I think is pretty darn good!

Not a whole lot going on in Trumbull's World today. Except that it FINALLY snowed here! We actually got a tad on Friday morning and a tad on Saturday. But it has been snowing all day long today. It was a slow snowfall so it didn't accumulate too bad but it was enough for shoveling! Yippee!

Oh and don't be surprised if you don't see a post for several days. I will probably just be so glad to not feel like I HAVE to do it! :)

Oops

I can't believe it. I made it 27 days. 27 days of posting, some painful, some fun and some just fillers. Then last night I shut the computer down so that I could go read and go to sleep and totally spaced posting. 3 days from the end! Oh well! At least now I know that I have no interest in doing daily posts unless something actually happens! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was a nice relaxing, laid back day like any Thanksgiving should be! We went to Nana's house for dinner. She cooked all the food with the exception of the green bean casserole which was what we brought. And my step-sister Ayrah brought a pumpkin pie.

Yep...that's an H on her head...you see when you have 4 children it gets hard to remember who is who..... :)

So naturally we all stuffed ourselves silly and then the kids got out Nana's Wii to play for a bit. She has had this thing for over a year and this was actually the first time I had ever played! I can see why the kids love it so much!

Kayla and Eli playing Mario Kart....and Emma with her Dora game thinking that is going to allow her to play too!

And now, Emma is sleeping at Nana's house tonight so that JR and I can go shopping in the morning! Yep, you read that right, we are braving the crowds. His idea...not mine if you can believe that!


Oh yeah and the good news, it is FINALLY snowing here! It's coming down pretty slow so we will just have to see what it does overnight. But maybe there is hope that JR will have to plow at least once this winter! :)

Day 26

Yay I am on the home stretch of this NaBloPoMo! I have to say, it has been kinda painful at times. I am so not the blog everyday type of person!

I had a really cool picture that I wanted to put on here but I cannot get into hotmail this evening for some reason. So I will have to save it for later. In the meantime, I came across a couple cute Hailey pics and wanted to share those with you!

Colorado Parrot Rescue

So I figured I would share with everyone our experience with giving Chica a new home. The guy that runs Colorado Parrot Rescue is doing all of this out his home. He does have a partner that helps him and also runs it out of her home. I was already feeling good about the guy with the phone conversations we had.

As soon as we pull up to his house we get Chica unloaded and her cage wheeled into his downstairs bird room. This room is awesome! It is basically a sun room at the back of his house that has windows all over and is heated so it's the best of both worlds for these birds. Chica always loved having her cage near a window in the summer time. There are 6 other birds in their own cages in this one room so Chica has lots of friends...including one other African Grey. Their cages are all FULL of toys so that they don't get bored. He even has a baby toy that attaches to a crib and plays music in one of the cages! So once everything was a little settled, JR took Chica out and she was sitting on his finger so he could say good-bye to her. She then willingly went to Bob's hand! Whoa! That NEVER happens! She obviously knew there was zero threat there and that this man was going to be her friend. Then Bob fixed up a bowl for her food. He cooks up veggies and stuff for the birds to eat! So she got some broccoli and other veggies mixed in with her seeds. He also has a room upstairs with all of his little birds in there. That was one loud house but it didn't even phase he and his wife! They must be quite used to it by now. But I can say that JR and I walked out knowing that we made the right decision for Chica and for us. And I would definitly recommend this place for anyone looking for a bird or a good home for their bird!

Turkey hands

Kayla decided that it would be fun to trace her and her siblings hands yesterday to make a bunch of turkeys and make a cute little sign for Thanksgiving. She traced everyone's hands and had them color their own turkey. Well everyone but Hailey anyways. Kayla colored hers for her. Then she made up a little sign to stick them on and hang on our front door. It turned out really cute!

Chica is movin on up

JR and I had been debating for some time now as to whether we should keep Chica - our African Grey Parrot - or try to find a parrot rescue to take her to. It was a very hard decision because we did chose to take on the bird and we weren't exactly smart about it. Like learning all about the birds before we made such a big decision. Most parrot's are "will" birds....in other words they will have to be passed down to another family member when you pass away because they live so darn long! And since all we had owned before were parakeets and cockatiels, we really had no idea just how much work she would take. And then we added a couple extra babies into the mix (Kayla and Eli were about 7 & 4 when we got her) and it just really didn't make sense that we continue to keep her. I really feel like we got her out of a less than ideal situation when we got her when she was just over a yr old. Now it is our turn to make sure she lives in an ideal situation and let her get some rehab and love. She needs the rehab because she is a feather plucker/shredder. She really isn't pretty so I knew nobody would be interested in buying her or adopting her from the pound. African Grey Parrot's are known to have emotional issues and love to pluck their feathers. And sometimes, once they start, just like nail biters, they can't stop! She also bit JR's mother, bruising her arm. And she bit Emma, though not hard enough to draw blood. I don't really want to risk that happening again with Emma or with anyone else for that matter. So we found a place in Littleton, CO that is a parrot rescue and this guy is excited to get her and start working with her. He already has lots of plans for her and he has lots of friends for her waiting. He was actually taking in a bird this evening that is a feather plucker so maybe she and Chica will become the best of friends! :) He also has a lady all the way up in Washington state that works with "troubled" birds! After many, many conversations with this guy I feel pretty good about him and his organization and trust he will do what is best for Chica. That was the hardest part of all, making sure she didn't end up on some bird "farm" where she was just as ignored there as she was here! So tomorrow morning we will load her and her cage up in the van and take her to her new home where she can be much happier!

Twilight and drinks

I went with a friend and some of her friends to see the movie tonight. Yep, that's right, on opening weekend. BUT our show wasn't sold out thank goodness! I liked the movie. Didn't LOVE it. Just liked it. I really don't like the guy they picked to play Edward. He just doesn't match what I had pictured in my mind. They did do a good job of keeping with the book though. And with getting that 1st book in a 2 hour movie.

Afterwards we went for dinner and then drinks. I think I have found my new drink of choice....chocolate martini. Yum!

Hailey's birthmark

Today was Hailey's appt with the dermatologist up at The Children's Hospital in Denver. First of all, that place was HUGE! It's actually part of a gigantic campus of University Hospital so it takes up quite a bit of land. When you walk in the front door it's a bit like being in the food court of a mall or airport. Yeah, like the airport. Between the parking garage and entrances to the cars constantly pulling up to the front door to pick up or drop off someone or some family. So it was a little overwhelming in a sense when you walk in but I was immediately greeted by a lady asking what I was needing and pointing me to the correct desk to go to so that I could check in and get my parking validated so that I didn't have to pay for it. Then she sent us on our merry way to the 2nd floor where there are several specialists and their offices. They have this system of letters corresponding to each specialty and each letter has it's own waiting area. What's funny is as I am typing this it makes me think of one of those surreal movies where everything is controlled by robots and very exact. But it didn't actually feel that way! Anyways, they called us back almost immediately after we sat down. There were 2 nurses to check us in and get vitals and they were both very gracious. The nurse that took us back to the room actually pushed the stroller for me and asked where I wanted it parked. And then the best part, just before she left the room she asked me if there was anything I needed her to get or do so that I could be totally comfortable! WOW! For all the doctor offices I have been in I have never had that kind of service! And this is just for skin! I can only imagine how great they are with some of the patients in the scarier areas! Since this is a university hospital, we actually had a resident come in first to take a look at her. And then the regular doc came in. He was great too! So I guess it's safe to say that I have a great feeling about this place and Hailey going here.

So the diagnosis is that we are just going to leave it be. They took a picture of it to put in her file so that they have a baseline and can just watch it. I have to take her back when she is 1 yr old so they can see what it is or isn't doing at that point. They don't like to mess with birthmarks unless they absolutely have to. Those scenarios are if it is going to start forcing her eye shut or threatening the structure of her face. And once it has "gone away" if there is anything left in there, they may do something to get rid of that. So for now, we just wait. I am glad to at least have someone in this field to keep an eye on it in the long run but I am also glad that they don't just take these things off without thinking long term and what this thing is all about. I can see why my pediatrician recommended this office even though it is a drive!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Today is my mom's birthday. I won't tell you how old she is because a lady never tells. :) Of course, we didn't get to do anything with her because she spent the day traveling to CA to go celebrate my uncles retirement. But we all got to wish her a happy birthday on the phone this evening. We will just have to do something nice for her when she gets back next week!

Finally!

Guess where I am typing this from......that's right...my laptop! It got fixed tonight! I actually wasn't expecting it since I never go the call from the tech to schedule the appt but of course I told him to come right over! He didn't have to anything but replace the ac adapter. So it was a nice quick fix. Of course he didn't leave without trying to sell me on some computer upgrades and what not!

And now a cute little conversation between Emma and I this morning. I was in the bathroom getting ready and she comes in there whining and tells me "he spanka me!". I asked who and she tells me Eli. So I said "Eli spanka you?". And her response......"yeah, ovously!" (obviously). I clarified that I had really just heard that and then kind of stared at her for a minute in awe. Like how dare I not just know that! I guess we must say that word alot around here!

Carrots!

Hailey got to try carrots for the first time. She isn't giving us the classic reaction to ANY food! But she is still cute and Kayla snapped a couple cute pictures of her with carrot all over her mouth so I still have to share. Call me crazy, but I love this part about babies, introducing new foods and slowly transitioning from bottle to solid food.

My laptop

Today was a pretty bad day for me all the way around. But I did get one small bit of good news. I called Dell about my computer and since I had an extended warranty they are going to send a tech out to come replace my motherboard and AC adapter. I am really glad I opted for that warranty now! So I should hopefully be up and running sometime this week! And then maybe I can do some posts with some pictures since that is the computer I store them all on.

She's rockin.....but not rollin

One of Hailey's favorite thing to do these days is sit up on my lap and rock. It is too funny to watch her do it. She has figured out how to make herself lean forward and push backward. At first I thought she was doing it on accident! That is about all the movement you get out of that baby right now though! She isn't even close to rolling over. Which, really, I am ok with. I have 3 mobile children. To have the 4th stay put in one spot is a great thing for now! :)

Taking back my room

Finally.....I can finally have my room back after almost 5 months! Now that Emma is sleeping in her big girl bed, the crib is down and the pack-n-play is in her room I have started putting Hailey to bed in there. Well, tonight is actually only the 2nd night but I still think it's worth celebrating. Not sure how many out there feel the same way I do but my room is MY space. It's my little sanctuary in the home. Obviously it isn't off limits to the kids but I do enjoy winding down in the comfort of my own space! So now I can get it organized (it became the catch all over the last 6+ months). I can also go back to reading in bed before I go back to sleep! Yep, it's the little things in life that make me happy.......

Uh oh

So tonight when I plugged my laptop in and powered it up I got a message saying something to the effect of my battery is going to die soon. And not in the way of just plugging it in and playing some more. Oh no, it means that I will have to replace the battery. Yep, right before the holidays. And then, my dear sweet Emma (totally not her attitude tonight) decided to unplug the cord from the back. Well when I plugged it back in I heard a noise and thought I had just brushed a diaper laying right there. Nope! Eli saw what he calls sparks. I didn't see anything but considering that I did hear it that was enough for me to not let it be plugged in! SO, I guess I will be calling Dell tomorrow.

Should

Emma's newest word is "should". It is quite cute to hear her use it. She will ask "Should Emma have milk?" and then promptly answer herself with a yes and a mmm-hmmm. Or she will say we should do something. I love hearing toddlers use these "big" words as they learn them!

What Eli Would Do

Eli had to write a story in school called "If I Was President". I got a kick out of this one so I had to share. I figured I would type it out here so you all could enjoy it too well and because I don't have a scanner!

If I Was President by Eli Trumbull

I will do my best for the people in America. As president I will lower taxes. Next I will keep the people in America safe that are at and not at war. I will also lower gas prices. And create new jobs. I will protect animals. Also I will create new businesses. That's what I would do if I were president.

Hmmm do you suppose the kid has been paying attention during this last campaign?! I didn't realize just how much he knew about current hot ticket items on the political agenda! And the cool thing is that he came up with this on his own! Very little of this would have been influenced by JR and I because some of these issues are not necessarily on the top of our lists!

44 Days

I learned earlier today (thank you Jerrie for your countdown widget) that we have only 44 days until Christmas! I don't know how that happened. My friend Valerie says it must be because we have had such nice weather. We really have. Up until this week it has been warmer than usual. As I said before, we didn't even have to wear jackets on Halloween! I obviously knew it was coming but I didn't realize just how quick! The funny thing was that a friend and I were just giving another friend a hard time for having her tree up already. Well geez, if I had realized just how close we were I wouldn't have said anything! I guess I better get busy......

Sad dog

The dog got in trouble the other day for doing what he does best.....eating cookies. Yep almost a whole batch of chocolate chocolate chip cookies that Kayla had made. He doesn't get sick from doing this which just blows my mind! But apparently he was mad at JR for busting him. So instead of trying to get luvin' from him, he had to come to me. Which, just for the record, I am not his "go-to" person for that. But check out these pictures and you can see what a baby he was being!

Yep he squeezed his butt up on the chair with me and hung on for dear life until I had to get up! And where is his face pointing? To JR! I think he was trying to rub it in his face!

Busy day

Man! Today ended up being a not so lazy Sunday for us. It did at least start out slow. But then we went to Eddie and Carla's house and had him cut Eli's hair and Kayla hung out with her friend Janae there. We also got the opportunity to visit with Rosie, who is the lady that babysat Kayla and Eli for 6 yrs! She unfortunately broke her back a few weeks ago so she is staying with them (he is her son). Her first comment when she saw Hailey was "She looks just like Eli"! No surprise there! The girl does look just like her brother! Anyways, Kayla stayed at their house to hang out for a bit. In the meantime, we went to lunch.

After lunch we came home and put Emma down for a nap. She only got to sleep for about an hour before we had to wake her up so that we could go pick Kayla up. We then had to go pick up her friend Kadejah so she could borrow our computer and printer to do her homework. While the girls were working, JR and Eli were grocery shopping. Then we had to take Kadejah back home so we could get home and finish up cooking dinner (pot of beans) and actually eat it! After all was said and done, I didn't actually get to sit and relax until about 9:45! Phew! I think we were all worn out and ready for bed! :)

Cereal

The Dr. gave us the go ahead to start feeding Hailey solids. So, as usual, we started with rice cereal. She doesn't get super excited about it but she seems to know what to do with it because very little ends up getting pushed back out of her mouth. Soon we will get to add the fun foods aka yellow/orange veggies. Those are the ones that my kids always loved!

NaBloPoMo Day 7

So is it bad that I am already pooping out on this plan?! Of course it is Friday and this is my tired day. It's the end of the work week. The week wears me out. I do good to stay awake past 9! So maybe that is why this is the best I am going to give you today! I hope I can be a bit more creative and/or inspired tomorrow. :)

Helmets and snowsuits

The guy across the street from us is in the process of doing a huge move and selling a ton of stuff in a garage sale. Yes people, it was that warm around here. There were garage sales happening last weekend! Anyways, he is a motorcyclist and must have had a spare helmet or two. Eli spent the entire weekend helping them with their garage sale and periodically came home with things they had given him. One of the things was a helmet. I walked into the living room to find him watching TV like this.......
And this is Hailey in her new winter coat/suit. I love putting babies in these things because they just look so darn cute in them! After I put it on her she kind of gave me this look like I was crazy for doing that to her.

It's a real life deer!

Yesterday after I picked Eli up and we headed to go get the girls, we took a slight detour down the street one block west of us. We saw a lady with a camera in her hand so naturally we had to look around to see if we could figure out what she was looking at. It was a deer! The poor thing must have wandered away from the bluffs that are about a half mile east of us or the bluffs that are a half mile north of us! But the best part was Eli's reaction. He says "It's a real live deer!". It is a rare siting smack in the middle of the city! Typically the closest we get to any sort of wildlife in this particular neighborhood is a fox! Unfortunately we didn't get to stick around to see where the deer went since we had to get Kayla from school. I do hope it got out of the neighborhood and back to where it was safe. Either direction towards the bluffs were picking up traffic because of rush hour!

And on to the big girl bed

We have figured out in Emma's short little life that she is one of those people that will do the job....once she is darn good and ready to do it. She won't warn you, tell you that she is ready to do the job. She will just do it. I decided this weekend that we needed to push this issue of getting Emma out of her crib because Hailey shouldn't be in her bassinet anymore because she is a chunky monkey. So the crib came down on Saturday. I let her take part. Though she wasn't really interested. But she did hang out in her room while Kayla and I took it all down. Saturday night, the girl cried for close to an hour. JR asked at one point how long I thought it would take her to figure out she could get out of the bed. But she never did! The girl stayed in her bed and cried. She fell asleep, and stayed that way until early Sunday morning (thank you stupid daylight savings time for coming to an end!) when she did get out of bed on her own. Sunday night, she went to bed just fine and did fine last night. When she wakes up in the morning, if you ask her where her crib is, she tells you it went bye-bye. We will leave it down for at least a month and let Hailey sleep in her pack-n-play. We haven't actually put Hailey in their room yet just to make sure Emma will continue to do good every night.

Potty training take 2

For the last week we have been working on potty training Emma again. And it has worked much better this time around! She obviously just wasn't ready a few months ago when we tried. She has done awesome! She did have a rough day on Fri and Sat but came out of that beautifully Sun and today. We do still put her in a diaper if we are leaving the house and for bedtime at night. She won't let us put one on her for her nap time though. Which is fine. She is really embracing the potty training and I think she likes being a big girl now! Yay Emma!

Leaves!

Today was yet another gorgeous day here in beautiful Colorado! According to my computer the high was 72. Remember, this is Nov 2nd! The only way you can even tell it's fall around here is because the yards and now streets are starting to fill up with leaves. So the kids decided to make the most of it and went outside to play in the leaves. I swear this is the only time of year you will find kids everywhere WILLING to do some yard work! The kids would rake the leaves into a pile and then jump into them or throw them at each other. I think I will be picking leaves out of Emma's hair days! And you should have seen the tub at bath time! I don't know where she was hiding them!

Kayla jumping in

Emma "jumping" in. She is a little too short to jump so it was more like a run.

Eli jumping in. I LOVE this picture. It shows his care-free nature and the smile on his face is priceless.

Eli, Cassidy (lives next door), Kailey (lives across the street and I'm not entirely sure I spelled her name right!), Emma, Kayla and Hailey. The were taking a candy break here!

While this nice weather was good for Halloween and this whole weekend....enough already! We need snow!

NaBloPoMo

So last year a fellow blogger friend of mine Crystal participated in Na(tional) Blo(g) Po(sting) Mo(nth) and I was interested in it, but not quite ready to play along. This year, I am going to do it! For the entire month of November, I have to do a post a day. This shouldn't be a problem considering I am now a family of 6! And yeah, I am using this one as my first post for Nov. But I know I have other stuff to post for tomorrow! :)

Anyone else wanna play along?

Happy Halloween!

So despite the fact that I live in Colorado, have lived in Colorado for almost 31 yrs now (I was around 5 mo old when my family moved here) I just didn't feel like it was truly Halloween in Colorado. You see, Halloween to me always meant that it was either snowing, had been snowing or there was still ice on the ground from a snow fall a couple of days prior. Heck for years we would have had a snow fall by my birthday on the 18th! This year, we haven't even had a single snowflake hit the ground yet! Weird, very weird. As a matter of fact, it was so nice last night that JR and I only had to wear sweatshirts (matching I might add!) and the kids were fine without having to have layers on underneath the costumes! And typically, here in Colorado, we have to plan costumes for getting at least one warm layer under whatever you wear!

We usually trick-or-treat down our street and then one other street to the east of us. Don't know how we started going to the east except for maybe that you have to tackle a hill, albeit a small one, to go that direction and we didn't want to bother! Anyways, we obviously had Hailey in the stroller because I wasn't too interested in carrying her in the Bjorn. I debated on whether Emma should even participate since is only 2 and won't be eating most of the candy she gets. But I figured since she was able to say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" that she could go ahead and do it. We started her out in her stroller but as soon as she got out at the first house, she didn't get back in! I think she walked about 3/4 of a mile once all was said and done! And we didn't even do both sides of the other street because it was so late! Of course, Kayla and Eli could have kept going. But every year we go to Nana's house so she can see the kids all dressed up.

Eli's costume from the front view.

And then the side view. That is a green glow stick in the jar to make it look like his head is in formaldehyde. However, it fell out a couple of houses down the street so it was in his candy bag the rest of the time.

Here are all 4 of them all dressed up and ready to start walking! Or riding! Kayla is dressed up as one of those High Voltage boxes, Eli is a man carrying his head in a jar, Emma is a dalmation and Hailey is Tigger.

This was some hard work for Hailey! She had to take a nap after a while!

All in all, it was a good night. Nice weather. Happy kids. Well until the end of the night and Emma was up past 8! JR did have to run back home halfway through to poke some more holes in Eli's costume because it was fogging up from him breathing!

She's a ch-ch-ch-chunky monkey!

Hailey had her 4 month well-baby check-up this morning. I was really curious to know how much she weighed since she is such a chunk! So her stats are:

Weight: 17lbs 4.6oz (99th percentile)

Height: 26-1/4" long (99th percentile)

That just confirmed what I thought! She is not just a chunk....she is a TALL chunk! And it confirmed the fact that I will be shorter than all 4 of my kids. Don't you think I would have had better odds? Nope!

As for the birth mark, the Dr. feels like it has grown very fast in a short amount of time. At first, he was just going to have us go to a plastic surgeon here in town. But then he decided that it would be better to take her to Children's Hospital in Denver. Get this....they have a dept called The Birth Mark Center! So that is where we will take her simply because they should really know their stuff since that is their specialty! Now I just have to pray our insurance doesn't change in a couple of months!

Update on Emma and the big girl bed

Desperate times call for desperate measures....

For the last several days, I have moved Emma while she is sleeping from the crib into her big girl bed. She does wake up when I move her, but for the most part she will just accept where she is and go right back to sleep. So her track record so far is from 10:30pm-5:00am the 1st night, refusal the 2nd night, from 12:00am(ish)-6:30am the 3rd night and then from 10:30-12:30 last night. The nice thing about her waking up at normal time that 3rd night was that I was the one to actually wake her up (as opposed to her waking on her own) and pump her full of praise for sleeping there. And then she gets to brag to everyone at home and then to Nana about her accomplishment.

Tonight, before she fell asleep, I removed the drop rail from the side of her crib and put her rail from the big girl bed on it. I mainly did this to see if she would even try to escape her crib. NOPE! The girl loves her bed! As I said before, I don't know how to deal with this because Kayla and Eli both couldn't wait to get out of their crib or bed! It also made it much easier on me to move her because I just slide one arm under her pillow and one under her knees and scoop and move! Not easy when working around a crib railing!

So she has been in her big girl bed for almost 2 hrs now! I'm hoping I only have a week or two of this before she finally decides to sleep in the bed for good. Poor Hailey is too big for her little bassinet!

I think it's safe to say that I get less sleep because of Emma than Hailey! Thank God Hailey sleeps through the night! Not sure what I would do if she didn't!

Halloween Partay!

We had our annual Halloween party at work last night and as usual it was a blast. The kids always have such a great time at these things. They had a dessert contest again this year so naturally Kayla and I had to participate in that! The sad part is that Kayla made a cake that dropped right as she was about to put it on the table at the party! So I let her submit my ice cream cake. See what a nice mom I am?! My original intention was to compete against her! :) So she took 2nd place again. She rocks! And I rock! :) The girl that won made these really yummy chocolate chip pumpkin bars. They didn't do the costume contest like they have done in the past. But all the kids ended up in some kind of ribbon.

I forgot to get a picture before we left the house so this was the best I was going to get at the office. As you can see, Emma was a little distracted. This picture doesn't really do Eli's costume justice. I will try to get better pictures on Halloween. Emma is a Dalmatian from 101 Dalmatians, Kayla was a fairy, Hailey was Tigger and Eli was a headless science project!

Mrs. Claus put Hailey to sleep! Eileen is who we can thank for doing these parties.

Emma's bff Morgan as a giraffe. Emma just loves to see Morgan and that was all she could talk about until we finally left the house last night!Eli getting ready to hit the pinata. He had to shed his entire costume just so he could play games. Trick-or-treating will be fun for him!