The Weekend Review

We had a pretty good extended weekend. Friday night we had the suite at the Kernels Stadium so we took the whole family for their first minor league baseball game. It went pretty well, but by 8:00 I had to have my mom take the babies home. They were starting to get a little cranky since it was an hour past bed time. Olivia on the other hand had the time of her life! We invited some other friends to join us so their were lots of kids to play with. And of course I forgot my camera. I tried to take pictures with my new phone but it's just not the same.

On Saturday Adam's 9th graders had a baseball scrimmage in the morning and then we he got home he offered to watch the kids so that my mom and I could get out for a while. Of course I immediately took him up on this offer, and mom and I went to Williamsburg to find some sun hats for the kiddos.

Sunday, we took Olivia to church, grilled hot dogs and brats for lunch, and then that night Olivia went to Nana and Papa's to spend the night. After the kids went to bed we set up Liv's new sandbox on the deck. (We weren't sure if we should put it up there or in the back yard by the swing set, but I figured she would use it more if it were on the deck and then I can keep a better eye on her.)

Monday, Olivia came home and my sister, Theresa, and her kids, Rachel and Matthew, came over. Liv loves her new sandbox and has already played many hours in it! (And I'm glad we put it on the deck!)

Hannah playing with the wiggle ball. She thinks it feels funny!

Jonathan

Rachel and Hayden

Olivia and Matthew playing with bubbles.

Liv's new "picnic and sandals".

Liv and Matt's Fun in the Sun

Since it was really nice out last weekend Olivia wanted to see if her cousin, Matt, could come over and play in the sprinkler with her. And as luck would have it, he was free!


Matt and Liv going down the steps to the back yard.

Matthew watching Olivia, wondering if she is actually going to run through it.

Wait, are they going through it? Nope! They are just running around it.

I love Matt's diaper in this picture. My sister, Theresa, kept asking if he would let her change it, but he wouldn't have it. When it was time for our sprinkler party to end and he finally let her change him, I swear that diaper weighed 10 lbs. It was definitely absorbent!

Liv and Matt had a great time, and we are looking forward to many more sprinkler party's this summer!

And where were the babies during all this fun you ask? Nap time!

Oompa-Loompas...No, Those are My Kids!

This is what happens when you let your kids eat spaghetti by themselves!


Notice how clean Jonathan is compared to the girls. He is a very neat eater and... prefers that his food be fed to him.

Buh-Bye Bottles

Okay, It's official. The bottles are all packed up and sippy cups are now taking their spots in the dishwasher! But wait! But wait that's not even the best part! I got to throw out my bottle warmer!

For those of you who don't know what my warmer looked like, it was a crock-pot. And for those of you with one child you may laugh at that, but if you have multiples it is a must if you want to warm up more then one bottle at a time and not use your microwave. (No one likes to be last in line for food, not even a baby!) So anyways, this little, white, cheapo, Chefmate, crock-pot had been plugged in for ONE YEAR! Yes, plugged into my wall for one whole year. The only time it got a break is if we were out of town for the night, which I think happened twice.

I mean, don't get me wrong I would have been excited even if there were no crock-pot involved, but now that I get to dispose of that nasty little thing it makes this milestone even sweeter!

So it's official. 14 months old and everyone is off the bottle!

(Oh, and in this photo, Jonathan, Hayden, and Hannah are eating REAL blueberry pancakes that I made for breakfast. And they even like them!)

Good Bye Diapers...well kind of!

(Olivia showing off her new underpants!)

For the past few years (okay maybe not years, but months) we have been working with Liv on going potty on the potty chair. And I think she is finally ready to kick the diapers. She loves wearing big girl "underpants" and has gone from wearing them just in the mornings to all day. The only time I put a diaper on her now is at nighttime. She still wakes up wet every morning and I'm just not brave enough to try it without right now. Honestly, I think when wakes up in the morning she knows that she has a diaper on and can go in them, and she would probably do fine. But here are a couple of things that I have found out about potty training. 1) Your child needs to be ready, and forcing them is not going to help, and 2) You, as the parent have to be in the right mind set as well. Olivia may have been ready before hand, but I was not! It was just too easy to let her run in a diaper. I mean with three other kids in diapers, what's one more!

But now I think WE are ALL ready. I have found that a sticker chart with smiley faces and frowny faces work really well for motivation. And when it comes to her going poopy in the potty, well what's more motivating then chocolate! Every time she goes poopy in the potty she gets a small piece of chocolate. Sounds kind of gross, poop and chocolate, but it works. As soon as I started rewarding her with it she has only had a couple little accidents.

I'm sure she is going to hate me for posting this picture someday, but it was too funny not too. Here she is eating her jelly toast on the potty. And I promise she is just saying, "cheese", and not trying to earn some chocolate! Haha!

Fair Well Mimi

For those of you that don't know what a "mimi" is, it's Olivia's pacifier. She got the term from her cousin Mabry, and how she decided to call it that I'm not sure. But the point of this story is that it is no longer in her mouth.

The beginning of this story starts at 3 weeks old, when she fall in love with a green Soothie Pacifier. They dated exclusively for over a year. Then after that she tried a few other kinds, but for some reason she would always come back to that mimi. She loved it so much she was taking it everywhere. And then finally after she turned two, her father and I decided that their relationship may be becoming unhealthy. So we started limiting their time together to just naps and nighttime. It even had it's own home, a pink jewelry box, that it had to stay in when they were not aloud to be together. Then, these last couple of months she would say she wanted to take a nap in the middle of the morning just so she could be with it. Now as a parent, I know that if I let this go on too much longer Adam and I could be facing some serious problems down the road, so we were trying to come up with some ideas on ways of getting rid of the mimi. But then an opportunity presented itself to me. This last Tuesday, our friend Liz came over with her soon-to-be 5 month old son, Connor. When it was time for Connor to go home and to go to bed I asked Olivia if we should give Connor her mimi so that he would calm down and go to sleep for Liz. She surprisingly said yes, and ran and got her mimi and gave it to Connor. Now once Liz left and it was time for Olivia to go to bed, she of course asked for it. But I just reminded her that she had given it to Connor and that he had it at his house. So then she very calmly asked for the extra one. :) So smart! So trying to think quickly I told her that her other ones were gone and that Connor had the only one left. She whimpered and cried a little about that but eventually went to sleep on her own without her mimi. So it's been almost a week now, and every once in a while she will ask about her "mimi", but then she remembers, "Baby Connor has it. It's at his house."

So, so far it's going pretty good, and she is handling their separation better then I thought she would. After all, they had been together for over 2 years! I just hope she will handle all her breakups this well!

Here is some pictures of her over the years with her mimi.

Big Boy's First Big Boy Hair Cut

So the day finally came when it was time for Jonathan to get his first Big Boy hair cut.

Mom and Jonathan

Big Boy having his first tastes of Baked Cheetos while he waited for his Aunt Aubrey to finish with another client! He thought they were really good!

He did a really good job, a little squirmy, but never cried. And Aunt Aubrey was very quick!

Isn't he so cute!

Kids!

Hannah seems to have a thing for beads these days. I'll take them off her and then two seconds later she will have them on again.

I liked this picture because Hayden looks so cute with her big blue eyes, but also if you look in the back ground you will find Hannah wearing her beads again, and Jonathan under the laundry basket. And yes, he put it over himself. I think he was trying to hide with his rattle from the girls. That is something that I have found that he is always carrying.

Here is how it started. Jonathan is finishing his bottle (always the last one!), and the laundry basket was laying next to. He proceeds to pull it over himself and play for awhile before sitting up like in the picture above. You can see Hayden sitting on the fireplace ledge watching him. She thinks he's silly.

In this picture is Jonathan, Hayden, and Olivia. Jonathan is putting the little people in and out of the tipped over house, and Hayden is trying to crawl out of the stuffed animal basket onto the ledge. She got there from climbing into the toy box first!

These kids never slow down!

Oh, and have I mentioned, Jonathan is walking now!