Smile!

Hailey will now smile at you when you talk to her and play around with her (as much as you can play with a 2 month old). It is very cute and, naturally, very big! She will also try to talk back to you by cooing in her throaty little way. I tried with all my might to get a picture of her smiling today but she wasn't cooperating with me. As soon as I can snap one, I will post it on here!

Fall Soccer

Eli had his first practice this evening for the fall season of soccer. His coach seems to be a really nice guy and way more on top of things than his last coach. Just the fact that they are starting practice when they should be is huge! His first game will be sometime during the week of Sept 2nd. Schedules should be out within the next week so I will have more details then. I didn't get any pictures of him practicing because I didn't take my camera! Oh well there will be lots of games to get pictures!

First day of school

I can't believe it! Today was the first day of school for the kids. Kayla started 7th grade and Eli started 3rd. Man alive! These kids grow up so fast! They both had to get hair cuts for their first day and I was even nice enough to let Kayla get highlights. So daddy took her last night to get a kit to do it at home and we did it this morning before she went.

Eli had the chance to meet his teacher last week at an ice cream social that they do every year. So he knew where to go and who to look for. I love going to those things because the kids can visit their teachers from previous years and see what has changed over the summer. One year it was the summer of weddings and divorce's. I couldn't believe the amount of name changes! But what was really funny this year was the looks as I walked by with Kayla and Eli and then Emma in her stroller and Hailey in the BabyBjorn on my chest. I was told by a couple of the teachers there that my family is giving them some job security for the future! I never thought of that but hey if it helps!



Needless to say it was a quiet day without the big kids around. The dog moped and spent half of his day on the floor of Emma's room (the cone won't allow him to get up on the bed because of a rail) and the other half near the front door waiting for them to come home. I think Emma enjoyed the one-on-one time with me while Hailey slept this morning too. She spent most of her time on my lap!

Here we go again

Well Malice did it again! He managed to break the cartilage in his other ear this time. This dog is a mess these days! He is on prednisone for allergies and hives, Cephalexin for infected hives that he has scratched until they become a sore, and an additional dose of the Cephalexin to make sure his ear doesn't get infected! Oy! So since his ear has to be doctored again, he has to wear the dreaded cone so he can't scratch at it. But don't think that stops him from trying! There is nothing like the sound of claws against that plastic at midnight! Oh and since the prednisone didn't take care of all the hives, he is probably going to have to do another round of it and then go on a regular allergy medicine. It's like having a 5th child.

For some reason he thinks it is OK to sleep on the couch all of the sudden. And not only does he just get on the couch at his leisure, he lays on the back cushion pushing it forward.

Oh and it is almost as though the cone acts as a sound barrier for him. You can yell at the top of your lungs and he still won't hear you until you get right in his face and talk INTO the cone.

Sky Sox

So apparently we haven't done our parental duty with Eli by taking him to a baseball game of our local team the Sky Sox. Let alone the Rockies! Well the kids participated in the Summer Reading Program at our local library and the final reward was 2 tickets to a Sky Sox game. So we decided to have a night with just JR and I and Kayla and Eli since that is a rare occurrence these days. I don't know that Eli would want to go back because he didn't seem to really find it very exciting. But at least now he can say he has been to a baseball game!

Kayla and Eli at the beginning of the game

Can she be any more of a teenager than this?! Talking on the phone during a baseball game!

Eli being goofy

Zoo trip with friends

We decided to meet up with my friend Valerie and her daughter, also Emma's BFF, Morgan at the zoo. It ended up being a fairly nice day, not too hot not too cold and was overcast so we didn't have to deal with the sun. It was a trip with just us girls because Eli stayed home and hung out with JR.

Emma did actually try to feed the giraffes this time but she was still a bit nervous about it. I don't know that she has a favorite exhibit because she is so quiet as we go through looking at the animals. She must be just taking it all in and one day will know what she loves the most! Of course my favorite exhibit is the primate house. The silver back gorilla is such a fascinating animal to me. I can't wait to see how Hailey will eventually react to everything at the zoo. For now, she just gets to go along for the ride in her stroller!

Kayla and Emma at the cool giraffe exhibit.

Emma checking out the big fat pig in the petting zoo exhibit. She did pet it for a split second and that was enough for her!

Emma and her BFF Morgan

Standoff

Who do you think will win?

Puppies and kids

Not sure how either of the kids managed this one since these puppies are so mobile now but they pulled it off!

Just to give you an idea of how tiny these guys are, my mother put up gates at both entrances to her kitchen so the puppies can play on the linoleum floor for easier clean-up. One of the gates goes between counters and the puppies are so little that they can go underneath the counter and escape. So she puts a can of beans in that hole to block them in! Too cute!

Lovin' It

Nana, the kids and I all went up to the Outlets at Castle Rock on Tues to check out the Carters store to see if they had anything good on sale and because Nana had never been there. Of course she couldn't resist buying cute outfits for her grand kids either! 1 of the outfits that she bought from Carters for Emma and Hailey were the same. I can't resist matching outfits for the girls and obviously neither can Nana! Kayla is lucky they don't have the same thing in her size because I would make her match too! :) And since we had cooler weather for a couple of days, they got to wear the outfits since they were pants. Oh and Nana has found a new place to Christmas shop now! She found herself some great deals at a kitchenwares store. It started to rain quite hard so our trip was cut short (plus we had already been there for 3 hrs or so) so I sent a map home so she could see all the stores that are up there. I think we only went into 5 stores so we hardly brushed the surface of what they have!

That look on Emma's face is just too cute! And see that mini mohawk of Hailey's....her hair does that on it's own after her bath.

Emma loves her little sister and I think Hailey is gonna dig Emma too

It's so funny to look at these pictures and see Emma look so big next to little Hailey

All the kids....it was hard to get a good picture because Emma wasn't happy that she couldn't hold Hailey anymore.

Busy!

It has been a while since I have had the chance to do a post because we have apparently been a little more busy than I realized!

On Friday the 25th was JR's birthday. We took him out to dinner and made him birthday brownies. Though his dad gave him a homemade cheesecake which tasted way better than our box brownies so that really ended up being his birthday cake!

In the meantime, my step brother and his family came home from Alaska (he was in the Army) and was spending the week here before moving on to Delta to live there. So we spent some time with them and went to a couple of parks so the kids could all play together along with his mom and my nephew. My step brother's birthday was the 28th so the entire family plus a couple family friends all went out to dinner. Was fun times for sure!

So now we are just going to take it easy for the next couple of weeks before school starts here. Kayla is very much excited for it, Eli, not so much!

Hailey is getting fatter by the day. I took a couple of pictures that I would have loved to share last night but for some reason my other camera is starting to act up so I lost the pictures! Ugh! She is still waking up twice a night but she is doing good on her routine/schedule. And Emma is still doing great with her. Hailey loves to lay on her brothers chest in the morning after her bottle while I eat breakfast with Emma. And of course Kayla is always a HUGE help with both the girls! I don't know what I would do without her!

Emma is pretty much talking in full sentences now. It is sometimes entertaining to listen to her try to form it. She will repeat the words until they come out sounding just right to her. It may take her 5 tries but until it's perfect she will not quit! And for the most part, you can understand what she is saying. Of course there is still the occasional word that you just can't make out though.

A day at the park with friends

I met up with my friend Jessica at our favorite park here in town, America the Beautiful, so that our kids could play and cool off in the fountain. We have been friends since we were in 5th grade so not only did we basically watch each other grow up but we have watched our children grow up. Jessica has 5 children of her own plus my 4 kids so it makes it a little bit of a challenge to try to coordinate our schedules and get the kids together to play. But we were able to do it on Tuesday afternoon. And boy was it a scorcher! Phew I am done with this heat. It has been in the 90's all week long here which seems too hot for me!

Emma on the big girl swing

Allorah hanging out in her stroller....she doesn't like cold water so she wouldn't play in the fountain

Gabby, Zander and Christian playing in the water

Zander, Kayla, Emma, Christian and Eli playing in the water....not really sure why it is fun because they basically just run around and around the fountain kicking the water...guess you gotta be a kid to appreciate it!

Emma followed Zander every where he went! Made it nice to keep track of her since I just had to look for him and she would be right there!

Ready or Not?!

So as I said last night, I was going to work on potty training Emma this whole week. Well that plan came to a screeching halt today. She had a few accidents and either told me after the fact, or went to her potty after the fact. And she would get a bit stressed out every time I asked her if she needed to use the potty. So with those 2 things alone, I feel like she must not be as ready as I had hoped. So we will wait for a while longer before trying it again. In the meantime, it is still 2 sets of diapers for us! :)