Valentine's Day

I had big plans for today...

We were going to make valentine's cookies and then take some plates of cookies to friends and family. We were going to have special valentine's meal and our entire day was just going to be fun.

So what did we actually do? None of it. I woke up and got the kids gifts out. That was about as far as we got. Slade and Madie were both so crazy that I couldn't get them to focus on anything today.

I guess some days are just like this?

What did we do instead. I did laundry and some cleaning, Slade and Madie tore the house apart, and Abbi played with her toys and blew spit bubbles.

Tonight I made pancakes - my kiddos love breakfast for dinner nights. And then I cut Slade's hair and bathed the kids.We are just super exciting - I know!

So Slade has a little issue where he doesn't watch were he is going. After his bath he went into his room and then turned around to come ask me something. As he did he walked right into his door frame. I was in my bathroom at the other end of the house and heard him start to cry. Poor kid is a danger to himself. Check out his battle wound.

Slade VS door frame

Now the big kids are passed out in my bed. Slade is grinding his teeth as usual and Madie is all sprawled out taking up the whole bed. Abbi is sleeping in her bouncer next to my bed

Talk about an uneventful Valentine's Day - hopefully next year Ben will be home to liven the day up a bit.

My Day at Church

Driving to church this morning - Put my phone on silent.

Got into Sacrament meeting - I double check my phone to make sure it is on silent (because I am OCD like that).

Sunday School - Ben texts me and my phone alerts me OUT LOUD... What the?

I put the phone on silent again.

Mind you my text message notification is a chipmunk sounding voice that says "Woo Hoo Text Message"... Thank you Madie for picking out that gem, not to mention why was I stupid enough to let my three year old pick out a sound for me.

Still Sunday School - About 30 minutes later - The alarm I have set to have Madie try to go potty goes off. This song (also picked by Madie) is the Gummy Bear Song. Have you heard it? It is pretty sweet!

It is at full volume and it won't turn off. I am frantically hitting any button that might possibly get it to stop. I am pounding on the screen. I am starting to sweat with embarrassment. I can feel myself starting to blush. Finally after the song plays TWICE I finally get the phone to turn off. Like off off - apparently my phone was possessed today. I wanted to crawl under the bench and wait for everyone to leave - unfortunately Priesthood is the the chapel too so that was not an option. As I am leaving three different people asked me if that was Ben's ring tone... It's not but I think it might be soon.

Lesson learned, from now on my phone stays at home.

Relief society - I am sitting in the back with Abbi when she farts... LOUD! Everyone turned to look and giggle. It did not sound messy so I stayed. About two minutes later she did it again... equally as loud... same response. At this point I decide that it is really in every ones best interest for me to just finish out the rest of the time in the hallway.

Did I mention that it was ward conference today?

Still debating if I will return next week. I am sure I will but I might need to have some appearance altering surgery done first.

Like Father

Like Son

Ben can't have facial hair on his chin at work. Something about safety and if he got hurt needing to be able to put a mask on him or something.

So he thinks it is super funny to shave this creepy mustache in before he leaves.

I hate it!

I like his normal facial hair. Anyway Slade ran into the living room with the Mister Potato head mustache on. Pretty funny.

I love how serious he got when I went to take his picture. 

Four Months

Ok who am I kidding? Because I am a slacker she is actually closer to four and a half months old.

I can't believe that our little Abbi is 4 1/2 months old already.

I have said it before but TIME PLEASE STOP! Preferably on a week when Dad is home though.

I also seriously need to take more pictures! I did a little photo shoot with her one night in her onsie because I don't want to forget all of her cute little rolls.

So here are her 4 month stats...

Weight: 15 lbs 12 ozs (80 %)

Height: 25.5 inches (80 %)

Head: 42.5 cm (80 %)

Abbi is a great little eater - which is evident by her weight, however she chokes on her food all the time. We are still nursing and I thought that it was a problem with me, like my milk was coming out to fast for her or something, but her doctor said that the choking was a symptom of reflux along with her super hard tight tummy, how she will rarely bend to a sit, and how she arches her back and grunts. So he put her on some medicine for Reflux. It isn't really helping. Well it did for about 3 days and now - not so much. She still chokes, has a tight tummy, is stiff and arches her back. So I am still giving gripe water and I guess I will just keep working with it until she grows out of it. I guess the only benefit from the medicine is that she isn't spitting up as much.

Other than that she is doing great.

Some other things we don't want to forget about Abbi

• Abbi yells. She loves to lay on her blanket, play with her toys and yell.
• She rarely cries, when she is upset she does this little grunt/cry instead.
• She has really good head control.
• She has not rolled yet, she will get on her side sometimes but hasn't got all the way over yet.
• She is super smiley!

Poor little thing scratched her face all up.

• The minute that I take her feet out if her jamies she tries to get her feet in her mouth, the problem is she is chunky and can't bend that far so instead she lays on the floor and kicks like this. 
  
  
• She tries to put everything in her mouth. We have a little medicine paci that she takes her medicine through and she likes to hold it and attempt to get it into her mouth.

Totally love her chubby little fingers and her wrist rolls!

• She loves to watch her brother and sister.
• She is super cuddly.
• She is totally mellow.
• She is not sleeping through the night, but I am sure that is my fault because I jump to get her everytime she makes a peep.
• She is still in our room. I know that I should really get her into her own bedroom but lets face it - I should probably work on getting Madie into her own bed first.
• When you hold her laying down she will lift up her head to try to sit up.
• We call her Abbi, Abs, and Abers. I also call her lady sometimes and when I do Madie reminds me that her name is Abbigail.

We sure love this little lady.

She has such a sweet spirit and we can't figure out how we lived without her.

Saved

I write blog posts in my head all the time. Unfortunately I rarely take the time to write them down. I wish that there was a way that I could just plug my brain into my computer and the post would be written, but that is not the case.

Ben has been gone for a week now and we have one more to go. This has been a really hard trip. The kids are really struggling this time and so am I. Every night this past week Madie has cried herself to sleep, amongst her sobs was "I miss Daddy, I hate Kota (North Dakota)". Slade has really struggled to listen and has also done a fair amount of crying. As for me I've just felt overwhelmed. I have not wanted to do anything, I've had no motivation, my house has turned into a dump. If I would have written the post that was in my head yesterday it would have gone something like this...

I am the worst Mom in the world. I don't even deserve the title Mom. I hate the Mom that I am, I never wanted to be the Mom that yells at there kids all of the time and never wants to do anything fun with them. And here I am - That Mom. My kids deserve better than me. I feel so alone!

But today that all changed. What happened that changed my entire emotional state? Nothing huge, life changing or drastic. I went to lunch with some friends. Not just any friends - good friends. Friends that have hard days like me. That simple hour and a half sitting in that restaurant totally saved me this week. That  hour and half was Huge, Life Changing, Drastic.

And guess what. I am not alone. I am not the only one that has days that they want to be a different Mom than they are. I am OK. And you know what else? I have a GREAT life. I have an amazing husband and incredible kids. Sure some days are hard, some days I want to rip my hair out and that is OK.

So thank you Ladies. You two have literally saved me this week. Not to mention possibly saving my kids lives :).

Love you guys!

Kids

Do you ever hear your kids talking and think "where do they get that from... oh yeah, ME".

I always have to laugh when I hear it.

Me: Slade, why did you ________?

Slade: Because.

Me: Because is not a reason, I want to know why.

Slade: Madie why did you break my lego truck?

Madie: Because.

Slade: Because is not a reason, why did you break my lego truck?

...

Madie to Ben: No more juice Daddy, it will make your bum hurt.

 ...

And then there are those comments that you have to turn your head because they are in trouble and you are trying not to let them know how funny they are being.

The girls and I came home from Idaho Falls. Madie walked right into the kitchen with her muddy boots on. I asked her to take them off. She screamed "NO" at me. I grabbed the water bottle and squirted her in the face (my new attempt at curbing her sassiness). She put her hands on her hips and screamed back "My Grandma is going to spank your bum!"

I happened to be on the phone with my mom when she said this, I had to walk away to wipe the tears and inform my mom that apparently she owed her 32 year old (shudder) daughter a spanking.  Madie continued to yell this at me a couple more times. Little Turd!

Man these kids sure are entertaining!

All Things Christmas

I am only a month late posting anything about Christmas... I know I am a slacker. In my defense our Internet wasn't working at home and typing a blog post on my phone just did not seem appealing to me.

While Ben was gone working and Slade was with his mom the girls and I made Christmas cookies. We were able to send some to Ben in North Dakota to help him get in the Christmas spirit as well.



Madie thinks that helping me in the kitchen is the best thing ever. The minute that I get my apron out she has to have hers on as well. Of course aside from her apron she is only in her usual at home attire...

t-shirt and underwear/pull-up.

And what did Abbi do to help out?

Well she hung out in her highchair and eventually fell asleep. She is such a good baby!

Christmas Eve

My parents neighbor in Wisconsin sent our kiddos Reindeer food from Santa.

For about two weeks before Christmas Madie constantly asked me if it was time to put the reindeer food out yet.

The kids were careful to spread it as evenly as they could all over our front and back lawn.

It was so fun!

I definately think this will become one of our traditions even if Santa doesn't mail it to the kids.

Ben was able to come home for Christmas. He was home for almost 3 weeks. So awesome!

A little bit of Christmas around our home.

I hadn't planned to put everything up this year. I just wasn't feeling it. While I was putting the tree up Madie kept saying "Oh Mommy, you made Christmas". That totally changed everything for me... she was so excited, how could I not put it all out?

Our tree Christmas morning... can you say SPOILED.

Look at those smiles.

 

Madie with her Ruppunzel barbie.

Slade and his Beyblades.

Well this pretty much summed up Abbi's  reaction to all the chaos.

Aside from the kids Ben totally spoiled me this ye

ar. He got me a one hour massage, one hour facial, and a one hour  facial at Sage day spa... LOVE HIM! He also got me new pots and pans that I totally love!

The kids and I made Ben a blanket with a bunch of pictures of us on it so that he could have us with him while he is away at work.

What a great Christmas!