Caleb is so much fun. He has started moving around and can get anything he wants. He can almost crawl. He loves to be held, fed, and loved. He loves his “Jumper”, smiles tons, and is really fun to play with. Caleb enjoys being outside. Sage, Braxton, and Jayden love Caleb and are really good with him. They love to help him get toys, feed him, change diapers, and anything else that has to do with Caleb. Caleb is such a joy!
Every time I need to go to the mall the kids always want to ride on the carousel. Last week I needed to find some Christmas outfits for the kids so I took all four of them to the mall by myself. This is the first time in about 2 months since I have gone some where without help. I know, some of you are probably thinking “Why, four kids couldn’t be that hard to take some where.” Well, it is. I can not push the stoller and cart at the same time and letting the kids walk takes me three times as long to get anything done. Also, three kids trying the throw things in the cart, touch everything in site, and beg for anything they see with Dora, Princess, or Deigo on it gets annoying. Not the forget the countless trips to the bathroom because if one has to go then they all have to within a few minutes. So we usually take Daddy or Grandma with us and if they are not avaliable then I find someone to babysit or we just stay home. So the trip to the mall went well and the kids we are good meaning no screaming, tantrums, or fits so I let them ride on this little horse carousel. They love it. The kids and I have gond a few places alone since then and things have worked out pretty good. I still like having help better than being by myself.
Jayden found some purple lip gloss and decided to try some on. Needless to say, I was not home and Kip had to take care of it. I am glad he remembered to take some pictures.
In October, we took Jayden for her check up at Primary Children’s Medical Center. We were very excited because she was now three. Once you are over three you don’t have to take your clothes off to get weighed and measured. We made it a big deal for her since she would always cry about taking her clothes off. Kip took some pictures of her standing on the big kid scale and being measured the big kid way. This visit went great that way, but she threw up all over during her throat swab. It was even in her hair. YUCK!!! She made it through with great compliments on her growth and weight gain. We got a green light. This is only the second one since she was a baby. Usually we get yellow and have things to work on, but this time everything was great! Way to go, Jayden!!!
Yes, yes, I know it is about a month after Halloween, but I had to post these pictures of the kids from Gardner Village. We went to see the Witches for FHE. They had so much fun. We decided to let them walk even though we had their stroller. It was okay for the most part although we had to keep telling them which way to go since they would run ahead of us. They went on a witch hunt and found all the witches they needed to for a cookie. We ate some soup at the bakery and then we were off. It was fun to go as a family this year.
When Jayden was born and we found out she had Cystic Fibrosis we were devastated, but got over that quickly. She has been a joy to have in our family. She always has a smile on her face and wants to be held, cuddled, and loved. When she was about 6 weeks old her CF doctor taught us how to pound on her to help with the build up of mucus in her lungs. This was not fun. We would pound on her twice a day for 30 minutes each. This became such a routine that we could got out at night and do this in public when needed. As she got older she would move around more and make it difficult to pound in just the right places and all the positions. The doctors kept telling us that as soon as she was big enough she could get a vest that did the pounding. They said is was usually around age 2. When Jayden turned 2 we thought she was going to get her vest, but we found out she wasn’t big enough so Kip and I kept pounding away. Well, we were so excited when they tried the vest on in November of last year and it fit! We have now had the vest one year and we love it. Kip or I don’t have to do the pounding and Jayden gets a better treatment with the vest. It is nice to just hook her up and still get other things done. She loves her vest and knows how to put the hoses on and start the machine. THANK YOU to the person who invented the vest.
Here are a few pictures of Jayden in the vest. Yes, she will often fall asleep during her treatment if she didn’t get a nap that day.
So, I was doing great at updating the blog for a little bit, but then life got a little crazy. In the past week or so all the kids and Kip have taken their turn at being sick. Not just the lay around not feeling well kind of sick, but the throwing up, pooping everywhere and not sleeping well kind of sick. Lucky for me I have been fine. Sage missed two days of preschool when she was sick. Jayden, Caleb and I are now working on getting rid of a cold which caught us all at the same time.
Kip and I have also been Christmas Shopping. My mom watched the kids a couple of Saturdays ago. We have been picking things up since then and we are almost done. Although I have to take a few things back and find something else. I was trying the new Christmas clothes on the kids for our family picture and noticed someone had switched the pants on outfit I bought Braxton. Everything was size 4 except the pants were a 5 which is way too big for him. The girls shirts to their skirt won’t go over their heads and they don’t stretch, unbutton or anything like that. My kids have small heads so I have no idea what is wrong with them. O’well, I will take them back and find something else.
Kip, my mom, and I have also been trying to keep up with the business. The holidays our always so busy and we have to force ourselves to package every other day unless we want to be doing it for hours on end all in one day.
Last Tuesday, we took all the kids in to get a flu shot at the peds office. Caleb had his 6 month check up first. He is doing great. His height and weight are in the 50%. He weighed in at 17 lbs. 4 oz. and was 26.5 inches long. His head is still 75%. He took his shots like a pro and hardly cried. Sage did okay and only cried for a few minutes as well as Braxton. Jayden on the other hand screamed for 2 and a half hours. Not just any screaming, but top on the lungs screaming. Finally I put her down for a nap and when she woke up she said her leg hurt, but I sent her outside to play and she was over it. Next year I will be sure to take her by herself since having her and three other kids was a little hard. At least Kip was there to help.
Some fun things we have done in the past few weeks are: make caramel apples with the kids, play candy land, played bubbles outside, watch movies, go on walks, and just have fun as a family. Hopefully I will be able to update more often!
The kids got some dracula teeth when they were trick-or-treating. They though these were the funnest things to play with. They would try to frighten us, talk, and sing songs. We video taped them singing the Witches Brew from Wee Sing Halloween. We were actually surprised that Jayden put the teeth in her mouth, but she did and loved it.
So I decided to take some pictures of Caleb outside in his pumpkin. He thought it was okay for a little bit and then he would just cry. I guess I would to if someone put me in a pumpkin that I could barely move around in and expected me to smile about it. We did get some good shots however. Caleb will be 6 months old tomorrow. Time sure flies when I am way too busy for my own life.
What could be better than dressing up in costumes and knocking on doors for free candy? Nothing according to my kids on Halloween. It was so much fun this year to take the trick-or-treating. The weather was good (for the most part) and the kids were happy, although there were a few fights about who got to knock on the doors. We have a little system going where Sage would take a turn and then Jayden and then Braxton. Most of the time it worked, but sometimes we would be crowed in by older, bigger kids pushing their way in the get candy and the kids would whine a little. We still had so much fun and we were out trick-or-treating for almost 2 hours. The kids also get to trick-or-treat at Kip’s office. They had enough candy just from that to last until next year. Every time we go to Kip’s office they ask if they can go get candy and this will continue to get asked until next Halloween.
After getting enough candy to fill up their entire bags we came home and let them have at it. Yep, they could eat as much as they wanted as long as we okayed the candy. No gum, jawbreakers, or anything we know they wouldn’t like (hot candy). They had fun dumping it all out and searching through it. Since that night not one of the kids has asked about their candy or even wants to eat candy. Great for me because three hyper kids is way too much!