House Update Oct 26-31st!!

This week is hopefully a week of finalizing lots of little and big things. First off the rock is getting finalized! I really like the address block we decided to go with and think this looks so good on the house

They are also finalizing sheet rock, mud/tape, and texture so they can start paint in a couple weeks

Manor Care & Sure Steel Trick or Treat

After leaving Black Island Farms we headed straight to Manor Care to do trick or treating. This is another fun tradition we have been doing for the past 5 years since I quit working there. I love the interaction the kids get with the residents and that they are in a warm safe place. I think they love it because of all the candy they get. At the end they always have treats of some kind. This year it was cookies and apple cider.

After our cookies and cider we jumped in the car and headed to Matt's work for their company party. They had trick or treating, bounce houses, a pinata, and of coarse dinner. They had dutch oven catered and it was actually pretty good. 

What a fun but exhausting day. I love all these traditions but next year we will not be cramming them all into one day! It was exhausting for sure. After we left Sure Steel we went home and just relaxed on the couch from our crazy day. Saturday, actual Halloween, we spent working on the house. The girls and I headed home about 4pm everyone was tired but I felt like I should give the girls the choice as to whether or not they wanted to go trick or treating. I gave them the choice of either going trick or treating or to order pizza and watch a movie. To my surprise they picked the later. Before we went home we stopped by home depot to grab some stuff for Matt and then picked up the pizza on the way home. Home Depot was awesome no one was anywhere we went. I think I should shop more on holidays. We got home just as Matt did and we spent the remainder of our night eating pizza, watching movies, and handing out candy. When we tucked the girls into bed I asked Hallie if she wished we had gone trick or treating to which she replied she like handing out the candy more than trick or treating for herself. 

Black Island Farms 2015

Black Island Farms is always a fall favorite. We usually go with the NICU mom group but since Kimber was coming I got a group together so we could go when she came over Halloween. Although the whole plan blew up in my face when my group of 45 decreased to 10 due to a bunch of flakey people. I wont try to put something together again. But we went and had a great time with our little family. I asked Hallie if she would rather go with us or to her class party. She didn't even hesitate before saying Black Island Farms....thats my girl. Since we went so late in Oct it was a little on the cool side but the kids were super excited for the wagon ride to pick their pumpkin.

Our cute family of 5

Em was even excited about being outside. We just dressed her in her winder outfit so she would stay warm

It was nice that our group was little to go out into the field. Our "tour guide" made multiple stops to show us different things that grew on the farm and let the kids keep all that he showed us. We learned about broom corn, sunflowers, cabbage, corn, and carrots. Before we got to the pumpkin patch and learned about pumpkins before picking them.

This cute girl was one of the first to pick hers and then she would set it down to help someone else and then couldn't find her pumpkin anymore I think this is the one we ended up with but who really know..lol

Hallie loved this one since it was one of the biggest ones there. I love that they are all so little so everyone can carry their own

Em even loved the little tiny pumpkin we picked for her. She kept smiling and giggling. It was so cute.

The Pruess's joined us. We really like them and the girls love their little Hallie

Had to get a picture by the tractor and the beauty around us. I love open space like this. I don't know if its because I was raised around it or why?

I love each one of these people with all my heart. They are my world and the reason I get out of bed every morning

The driver gave Hallie this sunflower and she can't wait to plan them next spring at the new house. She even ate a few of the seeds along the way

After the hayride it was time to have some fun in the play space

I love Matt and his silly side. I'm always glad when he can take some time off and spend the day with us.

We had to feed our veggies from the hayride to the animals even though it sad not to. This is one of the girls favorite parts but I guess a little kids got bit and some family tried to sue them so they have to post the sign. We took our chances and fed them.

We spent a little time on the slide and swings before we called in quits since we were cold and we needed to get to Manor Care to go trick or treating

We all love this place and I hope will continue to do this as a tradition each year as the kids get older

Emry's 1st Time Eating Rice Cereal

Thursday Oct 29th I decided it was time to feed this girls some real food. Just shy of 6 months she was getting very interested in when we ate so we decided to give it a try. She was having a freak out that I couldn't feed her fast enough. She seemed to really like it and didn't seem to mind the what I would consider bland and ate all that I gave her.

Thanks to Hallie for taking all of the pictures including this cute on of herself.

A week into rice cereal and now Em isn't very interested so we are backing off and will try again when she is ready and interested. 

Working Full Time

The past 2 weeks have been hard...really hard. With the hospital going to computer charting all of us were required to work full time for 2 weeks. After having the last 6 months off and working 1 shift during that time going back to work was a real shock for all of us in the family. We were luck enough to work out babysitting so that wasn't a huge stress. Matt was able to go to work late and get Hallie to get her ready for school and to the bus so our babysitter just had the 2 kids. Em didn't take to kindly to me being gone. She woke up multiple time in the night for Matt and for the babysitters she stopped napping and was super fussy. One of the days I had texted our babysitter to check in and she let me know that Em was super sad, spitty, and refusing to sleep that she didn't know what to do for her. I had a break down. I told my pod partners I needed a minute and locked myself in the bathroom and just bawled my eyes out. I called Matt to see if he could go home and see if he could get her to settle in but he was in Salt Lake for the next couple hours so he couldn't help immediately. I felt terrible, frustrated, and was at a total loss at what to do. I could pretty much see my house out the pod window but yet I couldn't do anything to help the situation. Once I had my break down I pulled myself  together and tried to walk the babysitter through some things she could try. Luckily one of them worked and she took a short nap for her that got her through when I came home form work. I would never choose to work full time the stress that comes from little sleep, lack of babysitters, and littles struggles is not worth any amount of money to me. I don't mind working a couple times a month but that is plenty for me.

Now after the fact we are having some problems with Hallie. She is struggling with anxiety. It has started to manifest in bad stomach aches. She has had problems here and there but the day I started back to work she called me crying that she was really sick and needed me to come get her. I was able to talk her thru it and she made it thru the rest of the day. But since then the tummy aches are almost a daily occurrence. I talked to her teacher and she had noticed the same thing and was planning on talking to me to see if I was noticing the same thing. She gave me and suggested some books to read and help me talk to her. So we will address that and try to help her find a way to cope with that. Anxiety is no stranger at this house and it is no fun. As for now Im back to working a couple times a month so we will see if we can settle back into a "normal" routine for us.

Emery 6 Months...Growing & Changing

Weight-15lbs 9.5oz(40%)
Height-25.5 inches(30%)
Head 16 5/8 in(45%)
I'm not really sure where the last 6 months have gone but they have flown by. Im sure building a house and other various things in life don't help the situation though. This little girl is so special to us. She has brought so much joy and fun to our family. Sometimes you just don't want your picture taken! In this one I had waited just a little to long to decide to take her picture and she was tired and done. But she still looked really cute

This cute girl has started rolling. Mostly tummy to back. I don't think she has quite found the desire to go from back to tummy but all in due time. Im fine with her not being mobile and would like her to stay that way at least until we move to the new house.

Her two sisters adore her and have found the perfect balance between ignoring her and mauling her. They are both super helpful and do a great job holding and helping me with Emery. I know several people warned me about how hard 3 kids would be but it hasn't been anymore of an adjustment than having 2. We love these 3 little blessings in our lives.

She is pretty go with the flow but really likes to sleep in her bed. When she is tired she just wants to be put in her crib so she can sleep Now that she has started sleeping on her tummy she no longer naps super great in her car seat which sucks some days since we are on the run. She has been sleeping through the night consistently for a while but we have had a few hiccups that we have had to work thru but she has since found her groove again. If she does wake up she just needs her binki and then goes back to sleep. Most times she can find her binki herself since she isn't bundled. Funny thing is she often rolls over to her back sometime during the night although she wont go to sleep if you put her on her back

Gracie likes to have Em watch a show with her in the morning after we get Hallie on the bus. Its fun to watch how Em reacts to her sisters. I think she adores them just as much as they adore her.

Getting Hallie to the bus in the morning is still and will probably always be a challenge. I miss letting my kids sleepin until they wake up and I hate dragging all 3 of them out in the cold to get to the bus. With Em sleeping on her belly it has helped in some ways. Most mornings I wrap the blanket around her, flip her over, and put her in her carseat without her even knowing. Luckily the bus stop is just down the street. I think in the new house I will buy a monitor with a great range so I can leave them home in bed while I run Hallie ot the bus!

This girl eat/chews/sucks on most things She loves her hands, feet, and someone elses hands. Hopefully she stays that flexible. 

Chewing away until she realized I was taking pictures of her. 

She is such a perfect mix of Hallie and Grace. She has Hallie's eyes and Gracie's chubby cheeks. Just last week we changed her to size 2 diapers and 6-9 month clothes. She is staying pretty true to size. For the last month she has only been nursing in the mornings but has since decided she doesn't want to do that either so I have resorted to pumping so she is getting some of my milk but it is getting less and less all the time as well. I can usually pump about 8-10 ounces in a day and will probably shortly stop pumping. She seems to do ok on formula. She is by far my spittiest baby ever but it seems to be with both formula and breast milk. She usually eats about 6 oz every 3 hours during the day and has started to find a real interest when we are eating...baby food to come shortly.