Naps are overrated

*Yaaaaawn* Im so tired today!  I didnt go to bed any later, or earlier than usual.  And yet i cant stop yawning.  It seems like no matter how early i try to fall asleep, i cant.  Until at least 10.  You'd think it would be easier with how tired i am.  But i've always been a night owl, guess that doesnt change even when my sleep has been taken away for months! lol Ella and Aubrey are sleeping and i guess i could nap, but that would leave Madie awake.  And i kinda feel like i shouldnt be sleeping when one of the kids is awake.  At least until she is older.  But then again, how much sleep would it really be?  It would be that day dream sleep when you can hear everything but just cant fully fall asleep.  Either way, its to late now.  I past the point where i'd get anything.  Aubrey has been down for over an hour, which means she could be up any min. or sleep another 2.  The minute i would close my eyes, one of them would wake up and then i would be grumpy! lol

Ella has been dry all morning today.  She didnt chug 2 sippy cups of water this am either.  When she does that, she literally needs go pee every 10 min.  NO LONGER.  12 min. and she has peed her pants!  And that will continue all morning.  Literally!  Its so hard to not just put her in a pull up.  I have her in a pull up for nap time, but most of the time she will wake up dry if she has gone potty right before nap.  

The girls are getting excited for the hay ride on friday evening.  I should hear back sometime this week as to what time slot we got.  I asked for the 6-6:30 one, i think lol  It might have been the 6:30-7 one.  Oh well.  Either one of those will work.  Aubrey has a well child check up Thursday.  As soon as that is over, we will head to ballet/tap class for Madie.  Julia will be at school and i will leave Ella home with Jeremy.  She is just toooooo busy to bring there.  Next week i will have to bring them all though, besides Julia.  Jeremy is going to be training on a tool at work and they want him working a mon-fri shift from 8-5.  So he wont have to go in this Sunday, but in exchange will be working thurs. and friday next week. :/  

Saturday Julia and i have to volunteer to run her girl scout booth at the holiday bizarre.  Its only for 30 min.  I think this weekend we will go see the Zoo lights here.  Probably Sunday, because we never get to go do things on Sundays. 

Im holding off on Santa pictures until i get the cute matching skirts my sister is sending in the mail for my girls.  I hope they are cute!  I havent seen them, but since my sister and i have the same taste in pretty much everything, im sure they will be!  If we get them this week.  I might try and get the Santa picture out of the way too because i want to add it to the Christmas card i will mail out for the holidays.  I like to get those out by the middle of the month or so :)  Next weekend, on Saturday, at 3p, Madie has her winter recital.  I cant wait!  Im sure it will be adorable!  We will take a video of course!! Then on Dec. 19th, at 6:30p, we have Julia's 1st grade musical.  Havent heard much about it, just that they are designing their own snowman shirts to wear for the musical.  They will keep them and can wear them all winter, on fridays, for school spirit day.  Then Julia is off school from the 21st of December to the 8th of January!  Nice long break!

I'll leave you with some picture of the girls i took a few days ago.

Until next time...

Our Crafty December....so far

I dont have a whole lot of time to write a nice long blog, so i'll start with showing the crafts we have been up to this last week.  Its kinda hard to find time to do these when Ella is sleeping AND Julia is home.  So sometimes, its just Madisen, then Ella when she wakes up, and then Julia later after she gets home.  Sometimes i dont even want to do ONE craft, let alone the same craft 3 times in one day! lol  But i make myself so i have some of these things to look back at, or cry at someday :)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

So one of the crafts i did, was for me :)  I saw this on Pinterest.  The person's was better, but it linked to Etsy and wanted $24 dollars.  I was trying to create things i already had at my house, on a budget here people!!  And i had choose gray and the wedding date to be light green, but my Ink in my printer is being weird and wouldnt print the green.  So i went with pink.  Its my husbands birthday, mine, our wedding date, and our kids birthdays.  

Ella got moved to the table, since we need the high chair for Aubrey soon.  Ella thinks she is soooo big now.  I do have to admit that i have put her back in the high chair for breakfast and lunch sometimes, its easier! :)

Cutting out circles

Cutting her circles out

There is two pieces of paper here.  The girls made their own snowman, and cut them out and glued them onto paper.  This kept them busy for awhile!  Julia's is on top, she added clouds to hers.  Madisen's is the bottom, didnt she do great on cutting her circles and the snowman arms?!! :)

Made this the other night as a dessert for the kids.  They loved it!!  We didnt have ice cream, but this was healthier anyways :)

By Madie

Julia added snowflakes to hers

The other day i had them draw a Merry Christmas picture.  Madie draws her durning the nap time of the others and while Julia is at school.  It kinda funny that Julia's usually look pretty similar to what Madie chose to draw.  Which is true on almost everything she makes while Julia is at school lol.

100 squats by the 31st!

Decided to join a Squat-a-thon this month.  Someone posted it on facebook so i was like, why not? lol  Then i posted it.  So a few of my friends, including my mom, are going to do it with me this month.  Woohoo!! 

4 months old!

Aubrey turned 4 months old yesterday!!!  Shes getting big!!  Which also mean that tomorrow, Ella will be 21 months old.  Time is flying!  I cant believe in a few months i'll have a 7, 5, and a 2 year old.  Plus a 7 month old! 

I had to cut a lot of little hand prints out!

All my girls little hands :)

Instead of 4 wreaths, i made it into ONE!

My almost finished project!

The wreath looks good i think!  I have been debating on changing the little hand prints that are acting as the bow of the wreath to a different color.  Ive gotten the suggestion for White, i think i'll go with that.  Thank you Darlene! :)

Our wall Christmas Tree

The girls adding Ornaments

Yes we are going to get a REAL tree too!! lol  I just thought about this idea yesterday and went with it!  My idea was to have this tree on the wall and the girls would make ornaments to hang on it.  They made like 5 or something yesterday, and then i decided instead of trying to make a ton right then, why not make it more of a game that goes all month long.  So i told them they could each make an ornament every day and hang (stick) on the tree.  And by Christmas Day, they would have each made 25!! Not including the ones they made the day i put it up.  They are so excited!!  We are also excited to find out that my Nana is sending the older girls an advent calendar.  She tends to get them one every year and they so look forward to it!  So they were over joyed when i told them Nana is sending them one this year.  Julia was just asking about when we were going to go get one this year.  Now i dont have to!!  Thanks Nana!! You rock!!

On top of all the other things we are managing to do and keep up on this month,  we have our Elf on the Shelf too!  This is where he decided to be this morning when the girls woke up :)  I always like this idea until a week or two into december and then im like, Why did i start this?? lol  Sometimes i forget to move him until the am and have to hurry...or i'll remember right as im falling alseep. haha

Ok i smell a dirty diaper that needs changing.  Thanks Aubrey! lol  
Until next time....

Holiday prep

Made Shepard pie last night for dinner.  I dont recall ever having it before, and i definitely have never made it.  Its pretty easy!  And it was such a hit!  I found a couple recipes on pinterest and then just went with my own, combining a couple different recipes.

I didnt have block cheese to shred so i just broke up some of my pre-sliced Tillamook cheddar cheese.  Turned out great!

 Last Sunday, my friend Rachel came over.  We enjoyed just hanging out with the kiddo's.  Watched a movie and made some snowflakes to decorate the front windows with.  Now you would think with us being grown up women that we would be able to make snowflakes with no problem.  WRONG! lol  Rachel couldnt even make full ones, she kept opening them to be half snowflakes LOL, and mine were always messed up too.  They looked like rectangles or werent cut very good.  Finally after finding a couple different directions on Pinterest, on how to fold the paper, we got it!  By then it was already a couple hours into cutting them.  I let the girls help but it was to hard for Madisen to make little cuts on folded paper.  Julia figured it out right away though and will soon be better than Rachel and I! lol  Here are some of Julia's creations!

Add caption

This one is mine, once i figured out how to fold it the right way lol

Kinda hard to see, but here they are on the windows :)

So now the winter season is apon us.  Im getting into the holiday spirit, especially because we have a house to decorate now and not a townhouse that was 3 floors.  Not that i like this house very much, but it is, none the less, a house.

And of course we cant forget about my Santa mug to fully be in the spirit of Christmas! :)  As well as Julia's school doing a number of holiday inspired activities.  Which of course we just find out about and they are all really really soon.  One of which is the giving tree.  They want you to bring in gift cards from a selected number of stores to go to families in need.  If you do that, then you can pick an ornament off the tree in the front office. They are also having a book fair the same week.  As well as horse drawn carriages around the neighborhood for a small price, that includes hot chocolate and cookies.  Jer doesnt really care to do that one but said i could take the girls, so im just going to pay for me and the two oldest.  Kinda a fun little mom and daughter time, so im all for it!  Then also in the same week, we are to bring a white shirt in for Julia to make for her 1st grade musical they are putting on in 2 weeks.  But the shirt has to be in by monday.  So lots going on here for us!  To add to the chaos, Madie has a ballet recital Dec.15th, which is the same day as Julia's soccer orientation.  Which was also a day i was invited to a gathering at my friends house that i have to pass on because we are so busy.  Life of a mom i guess.  On a side note, Julia has a girl scout meeting this friday that i know nothing about yet, but i know she will have fun like she always does!

When the next few weekends finally slow down, i think we will go see the zoo lights here.  Thats a tradition we have done since Julia was born, and even though its a different zoo, we can keep the tradition :)  We are even thinking about taking a couple hour drive up to where there is SNOW and letting the kids play in it for awhile.  They really really really want to make a snow man!  I still need to find the time to make some winter/christmas crafts with the kids.  SOON!

A note on Ella's potty training.  She is doing really great!  We are still training obviously though.  She has many days where she stays dry all day!  I take her hourly, sometimes longer than an hour.  Im working on her telling me when she has to go.  She tells me a couple times a day she needs to potty.  But everytime i ask her, she says "no".  Even if she just said " i needa go potty" and then i say, "what? you need to go potty?" and she immediately says "no" lol.   Um whatever, im taking you to the potty, and she goes right away.  Guess i should be working on what NO and YES mean lol.  Only got her to go #2 on the potty once.  She still likes to disappear and concentrate really hard on going in her underwear with out being caught.  Hahaha.  Then she comes and finds me and says "eeeeww, P-U, uh-oh and NO NO" followed by some jumbled words while she grabs the back of her pants and says "poopoo goes on potty"...YES, YES it does! lol

not so sure about a singing Christmas decoration

Silly face!

Aubrey is getting so big!  She can roll all over the floor now, she grabs at her toys and pulls them off her play gym.  She loves her exersaucer and is totally outgrowing the swing already, just out of boredom! lol  I swear i give birth to toddlers and not babies.  She wont even be 4 months until Dec.1st!  She is teething like crazy, so shes constantly drooling, putting her hands in her mouth and making crazy faces because she likes to bite her tongue haha.

Was supposed to be sleeping!

Silly face!

 I have to add a little about Madisen because she has been such a helper these days!  While Julia is at school she has gotten to be quite the big sister!  Always helping with Aubrey and Ella and picking up toys, even though Ella is the main one that has dragged them all over the house.  Ella likes to clean up most of the time though, shes going to be a good cleaner upper like Julia was when she was little :)  Also, the lazy walker that madie used to be, is No more! lol  The walking to Julia's school and back and really gotten her muscles up lol.  She jogs half way there and back now.  Unless of course, i want to jog too, then she stops behind me and whines so we end up walking lol. 

Julia is julia.  Emotional, loving, smart, beautiful and did i mention emotional? lol  She is doing great though, all the kids in her class want her number to have play dates.  Oh joy. lol  And all the boys like her too, GREEEEAT. haha.   

Well mom duties are calling...more like whining.  So until next time...

Our first Thanksgiving here

Mmmm Margarita

Happy Thanksgiving!! 

Im going to apologize now for any errors you may come across i dont catch to fix.  Thanksgiving cooking is done at my place and i've started on my margarita's :)  Since this is our first Thanksgiving in a whole new state with no family/friends.  I've taken it apon myself to cook the traditional feast.  I wanted to take this time "alone" as a chance to see if i could do it, but also to took a whole turkey on my own.  Maybe if i learn how to cook a great turkey, having Thanksgiving at my house wont be such a big deal someday :)  I think it turned out great!!  The turkey was a little dry, but throwing some gravy on it, fixed that lol  The girls ate great~  And since it was finished early and eaten for lunch, we will have the left overs for dinner, followed by some pumpkin pie.  YUM!

My first turkey~

Looks great to me!

The girls made us some place settings :) 

aww i love my place setting :)

Good job girls!

 

We've been busy like usual since my last post.  Ella is doing great with her potty training and has moved up from the every 20 min. potty trip, to hourly or a little over an hour.  We are getting there!  She is mostly dry and has anything from no peepee accidents, to only one or two.  What we are working on is #2 in the potty and also telling us when she needs to pee.   She comes up to me AFTER she pees or poo's her pants, but hasnt said anything before hand yet.  She stays dry at nap already though! :)  I started in her in underwear almost 2 weeks ago.  Such a big girl!! 

Aubrey is getting so big, and such a smart girl!!  Ive been working on crib training her.  She has gotten better.  And i think i'll be packing up the co-sleeper tonight or tomorrow.  Her crib is in our room on my side of the bed anyways, so she wont be far.  But she needs her own space that is bigger than the co-sleeper.   I would keep her there forever if i could.  But i want the transition to the crib to be easy on her, even if its hard on me cause shes my baby.  I'd rather her get used to it now when its no big deal, than to have her scream and cry later just because i wanted her with me.  Makes me kinda sad though that she is already gonna be 4 months old on Dec.1st.  She is taking a really good nap in her crib as i type this.  Shes gotten on the schedule of taking a good 2-3 hour nap in the middle of the day.  Such a good baby!!

While Ella took her hour nap or so.  Usually longer, but since potty training, she will wake after an hour or so, to use the potty.  The other night she slept for 2 hours and woke dry.  So eventually she will train her bladder to hold it longer and hopefully her naps will increase in time too.  But since we are talking about Ella, who has always been a cat napper.  They probably wont get longer lol

Julia's girl scout meeting went good.  They made ornaments to sell at the holiday bizarre the school puts on.  Ive signed her up for soccer that will start here for their winter season of Jan-Mar.  She's excited!!  Madie is still in ballet and will be until June, when it ends the term or whatever.  She must of had a growth spurt cause her ballet shoes fit a few weeks ago, and then last week were soooooo tight.  So i ordered her another pair that are bigger, and some new tights.  

Yesterday was the Thanksgiving feast at Julia schools for all of the 1st graders.  I showed up early to help for that, and i stayed late to help clean up.  I know her teacher has 3 kids of her own and prob. wanted to leave when school was out.  As i was done doing some dishes and cleaning up, i went back to Julia's room to grab my coffee and over heard her (during circle time) say "today was the best day ever"!  hehe so cute! I got to eat next to her for lunch and the kids thought it was so cool to eat in the courtyard with some parents.  They've eaten out there before, but with the teacher, so this was new for them :)    They also got their shirts.  I guess every year the school lets the teacher make class room shirts that all the kids get.  They say the teacher's name, whatever design she or the class chooses, color, and the school mascots.  

She wore this hat ALL day! lol Insisted on wearing it to Costco and Target after school too :)
I made some Thanksgiving day crafts with the kids the other day too.  Used their foot prints for the turkey's body and their hand prints for the turkey feathers.  It turned out sooooo cute!  Something for me to keep, thats for sure!

getting ready to work on our turkey craft :)

The mornings are pretty cool here.  For a about a week it was in the 30s overnight.  Now its been in the 40's and by the time the girls and i walk Julia to school. Its in the high 40's or low 50's.  So we need coats, and the girls in the stroller need a blanket, coat and hat.  I LOVE IT! lol  Its usually sunny, and by the end of the day has been in the 70/80s with a chill in the air. So its perfect!!  I miss the fall colors though, and since im Oregon born and raised.  I do miss the rain.  I miss the stormy days when a fire and movies is on the agenda :)   While this time of year is PERFECT here, it wont be long until the heat returns.  Im told by locals that it starts getting hot again in March.  Since its October by the time it cools down, thats 6-7 months of heat.  Way to hot, HEAT.  Half the year perfect, to be ruined by the other half of the year heat.  Something that would get old, pretty fast.  Especially with no extra car and no in-ground pool.  

My beautiful girls!

 Football is on, the weather is great and we have tons to be Thankful for!  We made the girls say what they are thankful for before we ate tonight.  So cute!  Julia said she was thankful for being born, etc.  And Madie said she was thankful for food.  This is kinda funny cause she is our most difficult eater. haha.  The baby has woken from her 3 hour nap in her crib, so we are going to take advantage of going to the park for a bit before the sun sets and then its dinner time (again)! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!
Until next time....