Cuter by the minute

Somehow this little girl keeps getting cuter all the time.  She has been so much fun lately.  She is always making cute sounds and she gets so excited that she will squeal and kick her legs.  It is so cute.

She is happy and smiling all of the time. The kids love that they can make her smile so easily.

It is crazy to look back at pictures and see how much she has already changed.

She always gives Keith big smiles.

She has been sleeping pretty well.  She usually goes down around 8 or 8:30 PM and sleeps until 3:00 or 4:00 AM.  My other kids were sleeping through the night by now, but at least she is getting closer.

Yesterday she had her two-month check-up and she was 13 lbs 9 ozs and 24  1/2 inches long.  That is 99% for height and 95% for weight.  She is growing too fast.

Her doctor couldn't hear her heart murmur anymore, which is a big relief.  She is a healthy, happy littler girl and we are so grateful for that.

Every Day Life

I always take pictures when we are doing something fun or out of the ordinary, but I want to remember the every day things too.  Wyatt loves to lay next to Hallee.  They always look so cute.

It is fun to be back to two little ones during the day.  They are both at fun ages. 

The other day we had Rockwell over to play and the boys had a blast running around playing.

The kids love to run into the great room from the kitchen and do tricks.  Wyatt says, "The amazing Wyatt."  After that he runs in the great room and does a trick.

He does a little head stand for a trick.

Jonah loves to do headstands and flips.

Caitlyn does a running somersault. After that they like to turn on our Disneyland CD and they dance around.  They love to dance and do tricks.  Wyatt asks to turn on the music and dance almost every night.  I love to sit back and watch them have fun.

We had a crazy day on Tuesday. Our power went out around 10 AM. No power is never fun. I had to manually open the garage to go pick Jonah up from school. We came home and I got Hallee and Wyatt down for naps and I was waiting for a friend to come over for lunch so I looked out the window and noticed that our street was being barricaded in by police officers and there were a bunch of cops with guns drawn pointing at the house three doors down.  I just sat there staring out the front window. After a little while an officer came to our house and told me not to sit by the window.  He was really nice and told me that me and the kids needed to go to basement and stay away from windows.  He said there was a guy in the house that they were surrounding and they were on the phone with him, but they didn't know how long it would be.  I asked if we could leave and he said we needed to stay.  I told him I had no power and three children, one asleep upstairs one asleep downstairs and I really wanted to just leave.  He said we should stay and took my cell phone number. It was really stressful, but I didn't feel like we were in immediate danger so I just kept peeking out Hallee's window trying to decide what to do.  It wouldn't have been so bad if I could have turned on the TV for Jonah, but the thought of waking up Hallee and Wyatt and all of us sitting in the dark in the basement just seemed overwhelming. I also hated that Keith and Caitlyn weren't here and couldn't come home.  After about an hour the officer called me and asked if I still wanted to leave.  I told him I did and he told me to pack up and get everyone in the car and he would be waiting outside the garage.  Jonah and I worked together and woke up Hallee and Wyatt and got them in the car.  The officer told me to leave quickly and he would shut the garage after we left. We gladly got out of there as quickly as we could.  We headed over to Allison's for a while and then we got Keith and Caitlyn and headed to parent teacher conferences.  After, we hung out at my mom's  until the cops called at 7:30 PM and said we could come home.  The kids were disappointed that we didn't get to spend the night at grandma's.  Apparently the man they eventually arrested threatened his roommates with a knife and they locked themselves in a room and called the cops.  The cops got them out of the window safely, but the man barricaded himself in the house.  He sent his pit bull on the cops and an officer was bitten before they shot the dog (thank goodness we weren't home for the shots). Anyway, he eventually came out. Currently all the tenants are moving out of the house.  I'm so glad, I think we need a fresh start in that house!  I hope the landlord is a little more careful when they rent it out this time. It was a very long, stressful day.  I am glad that is not our every day life!

More smiles

We just can't get enough of Hallee's smile.  She has been pretty mellow lately.  She still has her fussy times, but they seem to be less frequent. 

Keith loves making her smile.  Hallee's sleeping is all over the place.  She has slept for over 8 hours a few nights and then she will go back to 3 all of the sudden.  The most frustrating thing is when I wake up when she is asleep. I don't know why I have such a hard time sleeping when I'm so tired. 

I love that sweet face! We get a lot of comments about her red hair.  Caitlyn started out with red hair, but I don't think it was quite as red as Hallee's.  It will be interesting to see what color she ends up with.  You can't tell in the pictures how red it really is.

She is growing so fast.  She will be two months old tomorrow.  I don't have her check up for another week so I will have to wait to see what her measurements are, but I'm sure she will be big.  She feels so heavy and is outgrowing a lot of her clothes.

The other night I was giving her kisses and she leaned in and gave me one back.  It was so sweet!

I love having a baby again.  It is exhausting, but it is so much fun. 

On Friday night Kristin got us free tickets to see Paul Reiser at Wiseguys.  I have always liked Paul Reiser, so I was really excited.  We went to the late show so I could feed Hallee and have all the kids in bed so Keith could work on homework. It felt really strange to be out so late and to not have my baby with me.

I couldn't get a good picture because I couldn't use my flash.  It was a good show. He was really funny.  It is funny to see people freak out around celebrities.  The lady in front of me grabbed him as he was walking by.  Really?  You think it is okay to just grab people. Crazy people aside, it was nice to have a night out.

8 weeks

Hallee will be 8 weeks tomorrow.  It has gone so fast, but seems so long ago at the same time.  It seems like she has been here forever and my memories of her birth are already fading.  It could be due to lack of sleep.  I can't remember anything right now!

This last  week she has been such a good baby (this is not counting yesterday). She has been so much happier.  She has been sleeping better.  She slept for over 8 hours two nights in a row. 

I was going to blog these pictures yesterday so I was thinking about what a great baby she has been and she was awake and fussy all day yesterday!  I didn't get anything done because I was holding her trying to get her to sleep all day.  Last night when I finally got her to sleep (in her swing) at 10:30 I realized I had been trying to get her to go to sleep for 11 hours.  She took some cat naps, but that was it.  It is so hard to understand why babies do that.  If you are tired, just sleep!

That seems to be the routine with Hallee, she has a few good days where she sleeps a ton and then one or two bad days where I can't get her to stay asleep to save my life!

Overall she seems to be getting better though.  She sleeps for longer stretches and seems more content.  I feel like I am finally used to four kids.  We are getting into good routines (even if those routines start too early in the morning for my taste). 

Hallee loves to smile and coo.  She is definetly a mommy's girl right now.  As soon as I pick her up she will smile and make adorable sounds.  I love this interaction with her.  It is amazing how fast newborns change.  It is even more amazing that they keep getting cuter.

New Rooms

We have been debating about moving rooms around for the last few weeks.  We decided we wanted all the kids to have their own rooms.  Since Wyatt was in a bed we decided it was time to move things around.  Here is Wyatt's room.  I love that we can put all of his toys in his room now.

Jonah has been sleeping in the den ever since we moved Wyatt downstairs.  We decided it was time to move everything out and let this be his room now. It felt so good to go through everything and get rid of junk.

Caitlyn got the big room.  This used to be our family room downstairs, but we turned it into a bedroom because we have the great room and living room upstairs.  Caitlyn has so much stuff. I can't believe she filled this room up.  She was so excited about moving that she let me throw away a lot of her junk.  This girl is a pack rat.

Now she has the kitchen and table in her room.  She has so many fun toys in here.  The kids have all spent a lot more time playing in their rooms.  It has been great.  I feel like our house is so much more organized.  Now if we can just get them to keep their rooms clean.

Say Cheese

Poor Hallee spends way too much time in her car seat.  After I feed her in the morning I put her in the car seat to go back to sleep so she is ready to go when it is time to take the kids to school.  After her next feeding she goes back in the car seat so she is ready to pick up Jonah from school.  She is usually a good sport about it and gets some good naps in there.  The kids all love to talk to her and try and make her smile.

I have been worried about how I was going to have us all ready to take the kids to school in the morning, but it hasn't been a problem.  Unfortunately, this little stinker gets up at 5:30 or 6:00 AM all of the sudden.  He won't go back to bed without screaming and I don't want him to wake up Caitlyn and Jonah so I try to get him to lay down with me, but that doesn't work either.  Since I'm awake so early I have plenty of time to get everyone ready.  I would much rather be sleeping, but at least we are on time every morning!  I hope he starts sleeping better soon.

Monday is the only day that I pick the kids up from school instead of dropping them off.  While we were waiting for the kid's ride to come Wyatt insisted on putting a back pack on.  I love this picture, we have some good looking kids!  When their ride came Wyatt was crying and begging to go with them.

I decided he needed a fun day so we went to the park that morning.  We have a little compromise.  He sits in the stroller while I walk and get some exercise and then he gets to play at the park.  He had a great time playing on all the slides.  I love the cooler weather.  It feels so good. 

Caitlyn and Jonah have been enjoying the cooler weather lately too.  They have been practicing roller blading.  I'm not sure how Caitlyn uses my roller blades, but it seems to work.

They are so proud of themselves when they don't fall.

Wyatt loves to make people laugh.  He will say something funny and then start laughing to try and get everyone else to laugh.  He always puts his hand over his mouth when he is laughing. It is so cute. 

No more crib

Wyatt has been asking to sleep in a bed and we finally gave in.  Actually, it was Keith who gave in.  Keith put him to bed and came up and told me that he let him sleep in his bed.  Of course I had to run downstairs and see him and take pictures.  Wyatt was so excited.

He looked so little in that big bed.  I was really worried that he wouldn't stay in bed, but he didn't come out at all that night.

I love sleeping kids. They look so sweet.  Wyatt is a handful right now, so it is nice to look at him sleeping and remember what a sweetheart he is.  He is throwing some major fits lately.  He is so opinionated and stubborn.  He will not back down easily.  I forgot how difficult young kids are when you can't reason with them.  He has to do everything by himself now.  He loves to say prayers and wants to say it every time.  It is so sweet.  He says, "Heavenly Father, this day, bless ... (then he usually names some of his cousins) Amen." 

We ended up switching Wyatt's bed when we moved rooms around.  He loves having all of his books right there.  He has done pretty well in the bed.  One night he just kept coming upstairs over and over.  I finally set up the porta crib and put him in it.  He didn't like that and stayed in his bed after that.  He has been waking up early though.  Usually around 6AM.  He was starting to do this in his crib.  I think he hears Keith getting ready in the morning.  Early mornings do not help with his fits!  It is fun to see him in his bed.  My little boy is growing up!

Cute pictures

I have a few cute random pictures that I have to post. Wyatt looked so adorable on Sunday in his suit. 

Wyatt and Grandpa looked so cute talking on the couch.

On Sunday the Beck's stayed for dinner.  It was fun to visit.  The kids had a blast playing all afternoon.   

On Monday we went to my parent's house for a barbecue. Wyatt loved jumping on the trampoline with grandma.  He had fun jumping with Keith too.

Hallee holds her head up so well.  I love over the shoulder pictures.

Jonah took this picture of Hallee smiling at me today.  I'm glad we finally have a picture of her smiling.  After I feed her she will coo and smile for us.  I love it!

Kindergarten

Jonah had his first day of Kindergarten yesterday.  He has been really excited since his assessment last week.  This boy is definitely ready!  I talked to his teacher about how far ahead he is in reading and math and she said she will try and work with him.  He amazes me with how smart he is and how quickly he picks things up.  His teacher seems really nice.  It is her first year teaching and I think she will do great.

We walked him up to his class and watched him go into class.  They didn't want any parents inside the class room.  Jonah seemed a little nervous because he kept snapping at me about getting his pictures taken, but he walked right in with no problem. 

He had a huge smile on his face when I picked up him after school.  He said, "I love school, it is so fun."  Today he wouldn't admit it, but he wanted me to walk him up to his class room again.  To be honest I was hoping to drop him off, but he kept saying, "you can walk me up there if you want mom."  I'm glad I did though because I got to see him and Caitlyn give each other a hug before they parted ways.  It was so sweet.  Jonah didn't want to give me a hug, but at least he got a hug before school.