Celebration Time!

So much happened in the last week for us. The girls had their 1st cheer competition and both took 1st, Joldy and I celebrated our 9th anniversary, and my Jaycee turned 8 today!! We invited some of her friends over and the played Just Dance 3, ate pizza, and enjoyed a dip in the hot tub! She had a blast.......and yes her cake was OMG do I dare say it without all the screaming involved................Justin Beiber Fever cake.

Sad to say that in the midst of all the craziness, I failed to make a cake for Jayc. She seemed pretty happy with the one I ordered for her though :)

I must say that I don't know what I would do without my Jaycee. She is so much help! Even though she does EVERYTHING with a roll of the eyes and some attitude. She is still a pretty darn good kid. She dances constantly.... in grocery stores, at the mall, trying to get family pics, you name it and she is dancing. She is so determined in cheer to be the best. You can see a serious pissed look when her stunt doesn't make it up all the way. She is so competitive....wonder where she gets that?!? She is in love with Justin Bieber, but who isn't? She is sooooo smart and is even so competitive that she has to finish first with school work. This girls is out to conquer the world, and I will let her. Happy birthday my first baby girl! You are amazing and I love you so much.

I can't keep up with my littlest monster. SHE IS EVERYWHERE AND FAST! (yikes) Still no teeth yet. And I think she actually gained a pound but now has lost it since walking. Such a good sleeper and is now on regular milk. Constipation is a little bit of an issue, but nothing a little Karo syrup can't help (thanks Dr. Mom for the helpful hint).

Her cute "stick straight in the air fuzzy hair" is growing and finally lays down about an hour after her bath. She looks so much like Jaycee when she was a baby! And I can't get over the fact that they had the same due date and my water broke with both of them at 6 in the morning. I bet they are besties growing up :) Lainee will holler at the top of her lungs at the top of the stairs until Jaycee will come get her, it is so cute.

Lainee Turns 1 On Thanksgiving

As a mother, I had so many emotions going through me. My very last baby is 1.....it is my last first birthday (teardrop teardrop, snot wipe) Everybody always gives my mother-in-law so much crap for crying over EVERYTHING. Every holiday, birthday, family get together, etc. Well I am understanding that is is just the mother in her, in me, in all of us. There seems to be new emotions running through my blood. They are so indescribable and are best expressed through tears.......tears of joy, sorrow, happiness, excitement, and sadness ALL IN ONE. It is like my heart is skipping to a new beat, and I just want time to slow down so I can enjoy each moment soooo much longer.

Alright, enough with my mushy mommy stuff. Here is how we spent our Thanksgiving/Lainee's Birthday!

First of all......kids are so funny. She had a hard time understanding how to open a present. She can unroll a roll of toilet paper in about 20 seconds flat, but was so timid on tearing wrapping paper!?!

Then she tried to eat it.....

Then the sisters stepped in because THEY were impatient with her too....

Then after the first present was unwrapped.....any thereafter were obviously too boring because she just wanted the first toy.

Then when she realized that the next one was a baby doll, she was super excited!

I am on this new kick of making all the girls birthday cakes......I think I am improving one by one (slowly that is)

And this is how dirty my dainty little daughter got....yep one finger and she wouldn't even eat the cake!

Of course my other kids needed some extra attention from mom......

Thanksgiving dinner was AMAZING. My mom did all the work this year, she is such a good cook! SO MUCH FOOD!!!!!!!!!! Huge shout out to my hubby for helping my mom with dinner and the clean up, I feel like a huge slacker.

So I have decided that my game plan to run a restaurant, go to school full-time, run 5 miles a day, and take care of four kids all on some serious lack of sleep.........is taking a toll on my body. I actually barely ate turkey dinner, it took my two days to make the cake, and I think this was the only day I actually showered for the whole week ALL BECAUSE I CAUGHT THE DANG FLU AGAIN! For the second time in less then a month and lasting a whole seven days...........my body is a little (or a lot) wore down!!!!! My sister apparently thought it would be funny to take a picture of me crashing on the couch freezing and I only had enough energy to grab a baby blanket lying by me. First, I am not a napper, second we had a house FULL of screaming crying kids, a football game on, and people planning their shopping schedule for the night......I slept for 3 hours in the middle of all of it. Maybe 20 credits in one semester was a little much??

Family Photo Shoot

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!

Before the good, bad, and ugly....here is the SCARY! Okay, not really but I am proud that they did not choose princesses this year. We have La La Loopsy Aynslee, Monster High Jaycee and Sicilee, and the warmest duck costume for Lainee.

Our weekend was so full of excitement! Let me start with the good.....Nickole and her family came up from St. George. My mom's and her birthday are on the same day and since it is so close to Halloween we just wanted to celebrate. She took my mom out to dinner and I watched her kiddos. I don't know how Halley manages twins because from the cute picture on.....my weekend didn't seem to go so well.

Lainee and Christian...

Some oreo balls that I made......I think I ate like 20 minimum.

My mom brought stuff to make the "bubble juice" it was a huge hit with the kids and adults

This is what she added to make the drink fun!

We kicked Uncle Danny out with the kids since he is one himself :)

The bad........Danny's "walk of shame" Halloween costume. He managed to show up 45 minutes late to the 1:00 lunch and still in his costume from the party he went to the night before. Naughty uncle Danny shouldn't have partied so hard the night before!

Also, directly following the cute bathtub picture....Sicilee comes running upstairs to scream that Jaycee ran into the wall (yes her words exactly) and that it was bleeding everywhere. So I grabbed the 2 babies out of the tub, managed to quickly put diapers on and ran downstairs to an entire bathroom floor covered in blood. And Jaycee with a HUGE NOSE and crying uncontrollably! Eyes already black and clothes covered in blood. She had a fat lip and it looked as though her tooth went through it. It took quite a bit to get the truth out of what happened. I just needed to know how hard she hit the wall so I could determine whether to take her to the doctor or not. Eventually, Sicilee said that she did a back handspring INTO the wall. Yep, my all star cheerleader was showing off. We iced it all night. The next day Jaycee had a b-day party to go to and conveniently her friend's dad is a doctor and her mom is a nurse. So I just asked them to look at it and see if they could tell if it was broke and if I should take her in to have it set. In the end the verdict was NOT BROKE whew!!!

The blues, greens, and purples on the whole side of her face are starting to shine through.



The ugly....

Also on Saturday my Lainee struck a fever of 102.4 and would just cry all day. She hasn't broke a tooth yet (I know right?) and I knew she was teething but the temperature was too high. Low and behold an ear infection. It takes a day or two for antibiotics to start helping so the next 2 night were sleepless. Sunday night especially. I had one of my famous "I am going to die" gallbladder attacks. I have had like 6 in the last couple of months but I am stubborn and refuse to go have it looked at. Joldy was gone the whole weekend in Mesquite running a tournament for the Rocky Mountain School of Baseball (rmsb). So I was flying solo. He was on his way home and called and said the other car full of rmsb guys just got in a horrific wreck with a semi. There was construction and the cars had come to a stop and a semi missed ALL the signs to slow down and came around and hit the back of the car which slammed into the car ahead of them going through the back seat. It was awful and so Joldy took an extra day coming back home. Everyone ended up with cuts, bruises, and serious whiplash but all okay thankfully. I was glad to have him home safe :)

Sicilee turns 6

My babies are all growing up to fast, and this one LITERALLY. Sicilee always has growing pains and I am always buying her new shoes and clothes because she is CONSTANTLY growing. People now think that she is the oldest and are super surprised when I tell them Jaycee is and by 2 years. Her birthday was kind of spread out because we got home from Texas the morning of her birthday. As tired as we were, we managed to still take the family out to eat.....Sissy's choice. Red Robin is the usual choice for our b-day dinners! I also have a tradition to take the birthday girl shopping and they get to pick out their own outfit. I smiled the WHOLE time shopping with Sissy. SHE IS SO ME! Her taste in clothes, her personality, actions, not being able to say her r's, her smile......mini-me.

Then on Sunday I finally caught up for the week and managed to finish her cake! Happy sixth Sissy, you are so special!

My little Lainee has exploded with personality, stands on her own, and will take one step before she claps for herself and then falls! So bitter-sweet for me. Each one of her milestones brings tears.......each moment is just so precious and I want to freeze time.

Yes.....Halley makes fun of her peach-fuzz hair that sticks straight up off her head!

This is her clapping for herself.....right before she falls from it.

I see so much of Jaycee in her including looks, personality, and especially their smiles (which is 100% their dad) Although, her eyes are still blue. I am sure they will change still but she is definitely the longest standing blue eyes of all my babies. No teeth yet, but feeling the pain right along with her from teething. I still am having a lot of firsts with her, the teething rash is not one that I am enjoying. Her bum was literally bleeding, it was so sad. Couldn't even wipe her, just straight baths (even in the middle of the night). The last 2 days it has finally cleared up, poor thing. Instead of chewing on her fingers and hands......she chooses her tongue, which makes her drool even more. Her best, mastered trick is giving high fives. She has that down to a T! Her one-year b-day is creeping up really fast and this little runt is only 17 lbs but eats like a tank. When we went to Red Robin....I ordered her a kids meal for herself NO JOKE. It stinks when Saturday morning rolls around after a long work-week and she is up for the day at 6:30. But the minute that I walk in her room and she smiles, waves, and says momma .... makes my tired moment all worth it!