Lexi's 4th Birthday

Yesterday, my big girl turned 4! 

And since she still has more toys than we know what to do with, she just got a bike. And she was perfectly fine with that. With daddy's schedule being reversed, we did some hanging out at home all morning (with a quick trip to the store in there).

Small "tea" party in the kitchen

 After he woke up, we took her to get a happy meal... I only recently discovered that she'll actually eat their Chicken McNuggets due to a desperate pregnant hunger urge while Father's day shopping at the mall. Then she got to play for a while in the [sad excuse of a] play place there. Then we headed to the movies to see Cars 2. And finished off the outing by "playing" at the arcade...yeah, we just let them run around and push the buttons since they wouldn't have gotten their money's worth if we actually played them :-) Afterwards, we went to a farewell potluck for several families that are moving in the next couple weeks...and our girls were beyond tired and cranky when we left. 

This year, as per request by Lexi, I decided to do a little birthday party for her. She's not had a birthday where she had friends that she picked come and bring presents...but she's gone to them. So I think she was feeling left out. So I invited 5 friends from church for a small party at our house today. 3 showed up... oh well. And I think I put too much thought into planning this thing since all they really wanted to do was play with her toys. They did enjoy the activities (I think) but it all felt like a glamourized playdate. I guess if Lexi thought it was fun, then it was a success, right?

The only reason I was really for a party was so that I could have some more people to help eat the cake. That kinda happened. I couldn't NOT make a cake for Lexi since she's been asking about her birthday cake since her LAST BIRTHDAY...

 So here's the cake I made for her...she insisted that is be Rapunzel... and I had to do some heavy convincing for her to let me do this particular picture since everything else was just too hard.

At the actual party, we had each of the kids make their own pizzas:

 Ed did the "Sink or Float" guessing game with them:

 Then we had them build little volcanoes with playdough:

 They were all really excited when they actually erupted... I think it was a surprise to them!

Then we enjoyed our pizzas and had some cake:

 Lexi was excited to get her presents and I hardly had time to get pictures because she had unwrapped all 3 in less than 30 seconds!

 Sharing some candy she got

 The aftermath...well, from the eating part. I had to do constant cleaning as we went.

I don't think it was really worth all the effort. I think we'll stick to family birthday stuff for a while and maybe do bowling or something (if we do want to do something). I way overplanned this thing and made enough food so that parents who stayed would have food too... so planned for 10, plus our family of 4...and had 3, in addition to us. Oh well.

"Mom, I coloring!"-Carissa

Several times a day, I see this:

It's so nice to have quiet sometimes :-)

Healthy Little Guy

We finally had our ultrasound to see our new little bundle and this time, it's a boy! 

He looked very good. He was right on target for his weight and the tech kept looking at his heart because she liked how nice it looked. You could clearly see all 4 chambers. Here's a nice little profile of him... looks like his sisters :-)

Eddie was happy to finally be able to call him by his name. It's going to be Hunter, which is a little too common for me at this point (why do all my friends like this name too?! j/k), but Ed has always wanted that for a boy's name for a long time, so I guess we can name our first born son that :-P 

I think he's more excited that now he can dress his kid in superhero, Star Wars, all boy clothes. He doesn't stand a chance... his father will ultimately turn him into a geek! But I tell ya, the day that kid whacks me with his toy light saber, it will be right on the top shelf of the closet.

...right next to his sisters' light sabers.

The Story of Ammon - Sock Puppet Style

Ed had this great idea a couple of weeks ago. He said we should make sock puppets to teach the girls a scripture story. And he thought about the story of Ammon, which is a perfect story. 

Why? 

Oh you will see why...

We started by making arms for each of our puppets (4 puppets total: Ammon, King Lamoni, and 2 bandits)

 I opted for hot gluing everything since projects which include a 4 and a 2 year old need to be done quicker ;-) While I was gluing the arms onto our socks, Ed was busy picking out "clothing" for our puppets... and the girls decided they needed their dresses they found in the laundry room ON... so no, this is not another day (below).

Then we taught the girls the story of Ammon while our dinner was in the oven.

Ammon, King Lamoni, and bandits

Lexi was our "Ammon"

Carissa was "King Lamoni"

Ed was a bandit
"...behold, a certain number of the Lamanites, who had been with their flocks to water, stood and ^ascattered the flocks of Ammon and the servants of the king, and they scattered them insomuch that they fled many ways." Alma 17:27

"But behold, every man that lifted his club to smite Ammon, he smote off their arms with his sword; for he did withstand their blows by smiting their arms with the edge of his sword,

 insomuch that they began to be astonished,

 and began to flee before him; yea, and they were not few in number; and he caused them to flee by the strength of his arm." Alma 17:37

See Ammon's sword with all those arms? Lexi LOVED chopping them off!

 "And when he had driven them afar off, he returned and they watered their flocks and returned them to the pasture of the king, and then went in unto the king, 

bearing the arms which had been smitten off by the sword of Ammon, of those who sought to slay him; and they were carried in unto the king for a testimony of the things which they had done." Alma 17:39

(I imagine Lamoni was just as astonished ;-)

That's right! Our bandits arms come off! 

This is what the bandits would be like if they were 2, I suppose...

 This was such a hit with the girls! They continued to chase each other and Lexi would chop off the arms over and over again... hee hee! My little morbid children...

Stubborn: Part II

Do you remember this post?

Well, despite her unwillingness to admit she was tired, she still stayed in her bed and went to sleep.
Carissa has always been good about that... Nap time, bed time... If I laid her down and tucked her in with her blanket, she was good. Sometimes her and Lexi would chat for a minute or longer, but eventually they would fall asleep. She would even grab my hand and walk with me upstairs, crawl in bed, get tucked in and go to sleep for a nap. It was gold!

Then we went on vacation.

The final week did something to her. Instead of being able to lay her down for naps, we had to hold her and let her fall asleep before she was laid down due to her unfamiliarity with Ed's family's home. And lack of places to lay her down at. And other things being scheduled during nap time. And then combined with staying up a little later those nights... she usually crashed in the ride back to my parents' house.

I don't know why, but since then, she has decided that she no longer can sleep without Mom or Dad beside her. Good thing she is still little and sleeps on a twin bed, since our routine as of late either consists of me rocking in the glider by her, with her sitting up every minute to check that I'm still there...OR... laying in bed with her until she is out COLD. I tried sneaking away before her eyes were completely closed...and she follows me right out the door. Even if she's dead tired. She will lay down halfway down the hall, but stay in her bed? Nope!

Nap time is not any better. I've resorted to turning off the majority of the lights and either reading til she crashes on my lap, turning on a quiet video til she crashes on the couch, or yesterday...soooo tired, but I had to drive her to one side of the base and back home (a grand total of 5 minutes, in which she fell asleep before we made it half way). But try to lay her down... nope! Won't have it!

In fact, here is some photos of the ways she would rather sleep than in her bed:

After 3 attempts to put her to bed, she crawled up on the computer chair and this is how I found her a minute later.

We were talking on the webcam to Gma and Gpa...and look over... out!

Took a walk home from gymnastics, I was beat and so I put on Meet the Robinsons while I rested...woke up to this :-)

This is today. Had some primary music playing, she came and laid by me on the couch while I was finishing a headband for her. I figured she'd fall asleep pretty fast. I got up to use the hot glue and SHE FOLLOWED ME...then laid on the floor... Just like that. Out Cold!

I'm telling myself that this is just a phase. And if you are wondering why I don't just leave her in her room to cry herself to sleep... that has never EVER worked for my girls. In fact, it usually makes it worse, (especially since being put in their rooms with the door shut is what happens when they are in BIG trouble and Mommy needs her space to cool off). Lexi actually got nosebleeds when I attempted it a few times. So hopefully this phase ends soon. Until then... I'll just do whatever I can :-)

Saving a few dollars, yet solving a couple problems :-)

Problem #1: Lexi has switched to a booster without a back in attempt to make more room in the backseat for the baby seat that will be joining it in October, so now the seatbelt rubs on her neck more.

Solution: Some scrap fabric, batting, and velcro.... Seat belt guard. All stuff I already had! :-D

One side

other side

roll up and...

seatbelt guard!

Problem #2: My changing pad is falling apart. I've never had to actually buy them due to their inclusion in diaper bags and friends' hand-me-downs... the last one had duct tape pieces but eventually met the garbage can... I just didn't want to do that again. I'm lazy...but not that lazy.

last surviving changing pad...you can't see the cracks and holes in this picture, but they are there :-/

Solution: Scrap fabric and fleece, including plastic I got on clearance like 3 years ago for a cover for a high chair I no longer own. New changing pad :-)

New one.

Double Baby Shower

So two friends from my ward were given a baby shower last weekend, but since they were both having the 3rd of the same gender, it was either give them diapers or something for them. And I felt like doing something different, so I remembered an idea of my good friend, Lisa, back in Colorado. She made something like this for her girls while pregnant with her 3rd daughter:

It took some trial and error before deciding on the iron-on shirt labels... I'm sooo glad I still had them from 3 years ago! This was NOT a freezer paper project and I couldn't locate iron-on letters...and it would've gotten expensive if you pay attention to how many of each letter there are!