Survival of The Fittest!

I think we are coming out of survival mode, I think.  I think that every day and then we pull an all nighter or have a completely “off” day and we are back to square one.  Rett is definitely not going to be sleeping through the night at one month like Emma did, hopefully he will be by two months like the rest of the kids.  He pretty much sleeps the first 4 hours starting at 9:30ish and then is awake every two hours after that, so like twice more, 3 times a night we are up.  Sometimes we are up for all two hours too.  It just depends on how he is feeling I guess.  I think I am just getting used to having less sleep.  We still have yet to really go anywhere either.  I can totally handle all of this if I just don’t go anywhere, no shopping, no church, no story time, no nothing!  Eventually I am going to have to get back into it though.  Rett is definitely a fussy baby, just like Justin, but thankfully he takes a binkie and he sucks it all.day.long!  Otherwise he just cries.  I think he is just not content to lay around like the girls were.  He wants to be out riding bikes and kicking balls I guess.  He seems to really be filling out all over, which is not surprising because he is eating all the time!  We are just about to finish off all of the diapers I bought before he was born:

216 diapers in 21 days = 10.28 dirty diapers per day- YUCK!  Claire and I are professional diaper changers! 

The other kids are doing well.  Justin, Claire and I have widdled our TV time down to just the morning, this is huge for us, no more TV all day long, that is a nice feeling.  I could sing every single song off of Nick Jr and Disney Channel although Justin tells me I don’t sing them right.  At least we could have been watching some chick flicks, but no luck for me.  Claire asked me if I remembered Mommy school, so yesterday we worked on ABC’s and some numbers.  We have been playing lots of games too.  Ash and I played two rounds of “Glue” (Clue) as Claire calls it.  Justin carried Rett down the hall to me (by his neck practically)  This is only the first time anyone has tried to carry him, Rett was grunting and groaning and Justin was walking as quick as he could so he didn’t drop him.  I'm sure it wont be our last close call!

We have made ourselves a two week menu so cooking has been quite easy.  I need to keep up a menu all the time, I love it!  So as long as I don’t have to go anywhere we are good, but I am afraid the groceries are going to run out soon, they seem to always do that quicker than I am ready to go back to the store!  We are happy this week, (that may change tomorrow!) I still haven't got cabin fever, I am feeling bad though about not being out and about like normal, maybe the feeling will come back and we will get out more, maybe not too! 

Easter Treats

The kids found their Easter baskets full of fun treats and candy.  Justin got army guys,

Emma got modeling clay, she is big into making things out of clay and I am tired of making it!  This kind doesn’t dry out either, she loved it!

Ashley got Yogi Bear, she is starting to get hard to shop for…not looking forward to these tween years!

Claire Bear got a mini Lalaloopsy doll.  I think they are so darling, I wanted to get her the big one but I didn’t think that was fair to everyone else, she will have to wait until her birthday, (or I will have to wait till her birthday!)

Ryan and I attempted a picture, I have a horrible double chin still and I am like a giant squishing my wittle husband, he is such a goof, thanks dear!

This one was a tiny bit better, still got some baby weight to loose!  We are such a striking couple!  HA!  Anyway I am holding my most special Easter treat, and Ryan got a cool MP3 player.

It was a fun Easter morning!

Town Easter Egg Hunt

Mom and Dad stayed Saturday morning so I could take the kids into the Easter egg hunt in town.  The weather was better then it has been in years past,  I like having Easter later in April, the snow is usually gone.  Justin wanted to take his gloves and I couldn’t figure out why.  He told me last year Dad had to pick up his eggs for him because they were in the snow!  The grass was green and growing this year!  Everyone got an egg or two so we did great!

Rett stayed home with Grandma and did ok, it is good that he takes a bottle, I need to keep giving him at least one a day so he stays used to them.  I don’t know how I am going to keep up with all of these kids and a nursing babe!  I just keep telling myself lots of people have done this I can too!

Easter at Grandmas House

We spent Sunday afternoon at Grandma Telfords.  We had a lovely ham dinner and lots of good company, although we did miss all those who weren't there.  After dinner we hunted a few eggs.  This is the first year we have been able to hunt outside!  It is always so cold and it did try to rain a little, but it was a beautiful day.  Ryan kept saying how hot it was.  (it was not hot, it was nice though)  I attempted some pictures of the kids hunting and I didn’t have much luck.  This is a true to life picture, everyone is running and I can barely keep up lately!

We just had a small group of kids this year, it was nice though.  Check out that big ol’ baby Kaleb, he is a monster baby!  We just celebrated his first birthday last week!

Aunt Sara organized some egg dying, otherwise my kids would have been deprived this year.  Good thing we have a good Aunt Sara who takes care of us!

Grandma with baby Rett.

Spring Cleaner

Ashley is so motivated!  I wish I could have some.  I caught her outside raking the dead grass and putting it in the sled.  She has the sled tied around her waist so she can pull it, isnt she so creative!  Funny girl!

Claire was out too, not working though!  She is headed under the tramp to check things out under there.

School Easter Parties

Ashley and Emma had their Easter parties at school Friday.  I had Sara come and stay with Rett so I could go into the school which was really nice!  Ashleys class did a treasure hunt and Emmas class dyed eggs and then hunted them.  It was a fun day at school!

Emmas class played musical chairs and Claire got included too.  She looked so cute and I wanted to get a good picture of her but do you think she would EVER hold still…..

Then a classic Emma and Serena picture:

He Is Risen!

Jesus Christ was resurrected Easter Morning!  What a beautiful day to remember our Savior and His sacrifice for us!  Click the link below for a beautiful message about his crucifixion and resurrection, I love my Savior Jesus Christ!

 

http://lds.org/pages/his-sacred-name-an-easter-declaration?lang=eng

Grandma and Grandpa Visit

Mom and Dad are going to get tired of traveling!  We are glad they are willing to keep coming to see us!  They were on the way to Utah for Sara’s graduation from Law School and so they stayed at our house on the way to and from there.  We didn’t complain!  Dad did lots of projects for me like getting my lawn mower tuned up and the lawn mowed.

He also got some more baseboard trim put up in the living room, it looks really good!  Justin was Dads right hand man and was calling him gramp, it was funny!

Mom babysat while I took the kids into the Easter egg hunt in town.  We wish they could have stayed longer, but it was great that they could come at all.

Rett and His Friend

Rett already has a best friend and he doesn’t even know it!  Our friends (and Bishop) family just had a new baby a month before we had Rett.  I cant believe how much difference a month makes!  Brooks was so awake and alert and Rett just still sleeps all the time.  It will be fun to see them grow up together!

Seen and Heard

The kids have been saying a lot of funny things lately, we have had a lot of changes bringing this new little brother to our house.  We have learned lots about diapers, nursing, binkies, bottles, wipees, lotion, and lots of other things babies need.

Claire has been my right hand man at the changing table, she always asks what do you need?  Tonight she asked if we needed to put some “powdered sugar”  (powder) on his bum.  So cute!

Justin keeps saying that Rett is 2 cuties, and then a couple days later he is 10 cuties, well this week he is up to 100 cuties!  Justin thinks his little brother is just SO cute!

Emma is just full of questions, tonight she asked where we got all of the pizzas from, I think I am going to have to go back to cooking this week, much to my dismay!  I didn’t think they would ever get sick of pizza, and I bought STOCK in frozen Costco pizzas.  I also bought stock in paper plates, I am not getting rid of all of them though, I will cook again, I don’t know that I will EVER do dishes again, paper plates are the BEST!   Emma also asked if she put some of the babies lotion on would she smell good like the baby.  They all LOVE the baby smell!

Ashley is just still my best helper, she tries hard to take care of the baby which includes a lot of shushhing.  She asks me to hold him and nurse him so she can hear the TV, she is so getting into this teenagish stuff already!  But thankfully she is sweet about it all!

It has been fun to see the kids love on their baby, they all really like him!

Rett @ Two Weeks

Rett had his two week check up today.  We were 30 minutes late getting there, this is going to take some getting used to I can tell!  Babies take A LOT of time!  Thankfully we could still get in and got him all measured and checked out.  He weighed 8.0 pounds (I lost the bet to Ryan, I didn’t think he was going to be 8 yet and he was, yeah!)  And he is 20.5 inches long, I thought he would have grown longer, he has stretched out so much, but not so much I guess.  He passed all of his tests with flying colors, he is getting too big already!

This outfit was terrible!  He was trying to nurse it all day long, it went right into his mouth!  Its too bad, first time wearing it and the last time wearing it, that is how it goes when you are growing like a weed!

Big yawn after a tiring day in town!  He did only wake once last night, I hope this is a new habit!  I would love to be up only once a night!

Tummy Time

Claire asks me to do tummy time with Rett every day.  She gets out her blankie and rolls around trying to do whatever he does on his tummy it is actually quite hard and REALLY funny to watch her try to copy him.  Well today he really got rolling and tried to flip himself right off the footstool.  I think we will be doing tummy time on the floor from now on.  This kid is tough!

Notice Justin(choco face)  in the background, all the kids thought it was SO funny to see him lift up his back legs and try to roll over they were all laughing hard!

He almost got all the way over this time, boys are tough, my girls never even tried to roll over, they just laid there and cried!

That is all for today!

Here goes Claire with her tummy time.

Yeah Claire!