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....

Short notice

This morning was pretty chilly outside.  I loved it!!  It was only 60 out or something and i thought it was great.  Sunny and beautiful.  Everyone here is so used to it being so hot that they acted like this 60 degrees was 30 and they needed parka's or something.  hahaha  It was actually kinda humorous when i dropped Julia off at school.  Everyone saying how cold it was over and over again..."oh my gosh, its so freezing out this morning", i heard many times in a few minute period.  It made me smile, "this is your freezing cold" i thought.  And i dont even come from an area that really gets THAT cold, but still.  60 degrees in November is pretty nice and would require a hoodie, capri's and flip flops in Oregon (if it werent raining and colder)  Another beautiful thing we saw while walking my daughter to school, was a Coyote.  Yes i said beautiful :) It just ran right past us!  No biggie, headed somewhere i guess.   People out walking, kids on their bikes...didnt matter, everyone didnt seem to care much :) 

While starting my walk home, minus one kid, a friend of mine yells from across the street " are you coming to my house later today!?"  Uh, huh?  " what are you talking about, for what?"  I say.  Come to find out, Julia has a girl scout meeting today, at her house, after school.  Lovely.  I have no car, she lives a mile from the school, which means 2 miles from me.  So almost 4 miles total to and from. 4 miles may not seem like much, and it isnt much, for me.  But to have to walk that with miss Madisen, is going to be a PAIN!  Its only supposed to be 77 here.  Which is perfect because they have barely any humidity so it will be great.  But its still the sun beating down on us which feels hot.  I thought about skipping the meeting but they are decorating Christmas tree ornaments that they are going to sell at the school holiday bizarre in a couple weeks.  Plus, she only has one meeting a month, so i'd hate for her to miss it.  The whole reason i signed her up for this girl scout troop was because it was a 'meet on friday' troup, and that worked with my schedule.  UGH.  I hate having these things thrown on me last min.

My cute little pottier in training :)

So now i have to interrupt Ella's potty training to deal with this.  Wouldnt seem like a big deal but she has been dry all day and i hate to throw her in a pull up.  But i will because im not going to be trying to take her potty in a new place, this early in her training.  Also, a home that will be packed full of strangers to her and myself and i dont need the added stress of it all.  So, after finding all this out, i come home, deal with the regular routine of snack and lunch and nap the little girls.  Fit a quick shower in, start dinner in the crockpot since i knew i wouldnt be able to have much time after walking home later, and then decided to start this blog entry :)  Ella has woken up since i started this, and she was dry, and went pee on the potty!  Maybe she isnt going to be near as stubborn as i thought she was!! :) 

Well, time to go prepare little baggies of snack for the kids after school, because we wont be returning home for snack.  I really wish i had a car during the week, or a golf cart, or even a horse and buggie at this point! lol 

Until next time...

Sleep deprived and potty training....dont mix

The way she finally passes out at night lol

 For the 4th night in a row the baby has woken me more than once a night again, like when she was a newborn.  Then right after she goes back to sleep, Ella decides its time to get up.  Even though the sun isnt even up and her room is still pitch black.  She even has black out panels on the windows to keep the light out.  Julia has some too, but hers are the Target brand and let much more light in than Ella's.   Because its not even 6 am yet and Ella has woken up Madisen, as well as myself and Julia, the whole house is up.  Are you kidding me?? Its waaaaaaay to early to start the day.  Its not like everyone is up and relaxing and i can just sit on the couch and watch tv or anything.  As everyone creeps out of their rooms, i have to remind them to go to the bathroom.  You would think a mother wouldnt have to remind her 4 and 6 year old to go pee right after they get up in the morning.  But i do.  Otherwise they both hold it until as long as possible and then they fight over who gets to go first when its a matter of seconds before someone pees their pants.  Which hasnt happend yet, or at least in a very long time.  But the fighting is the wrong way to start the day.  Especially when i've gotten little sleep.  Puts me in a bad mood!  Time to feed the baby.  In the 10 min. it takes to feed her, i will be asked about breakfast at least 3 times.  Ella will say she is "hungey" and start pulling on her high chair.  That reminds me, she needs to start transitioning out of that because i need it for Aubrey soon.  Anyways, feed the baby, put her down somewhere, or hold her and make the other girls food with one hand.  I've gotten pretty skilled at making things with one hand these days. :)  Serve the girls their breakfast while i usually dont have a chance to eat mine, or im standing and taking bites as i run around the kitchen.  Emptying the dishwasher from last nights dinner dishes so it can be stuffed full a few more times through out the day.  Sometimes i really think about just using paper plates, sure would make clean up a lot easier!

I knew that potty training Ella would take, patience, time and consistency as when you're potty training any child.  She reminds me of Julia in many ways and Julia was by far my most stubborn child when it came to potty training.  I would have started 2 months ago, like i normally do, when they are 18 months old.  But as most of you know, i kinda had A LOT going on :)  Now dont get me wrong, she is being stubborn, but not as bad as i thought.  I've had her pullups the last couple weeks.  Yesterday i decided to just go all in and put her in undies.  Sure doesnt make my day any less stressful or easy.  I thought i could do the once an hour potty time, but i have to work up to that.  This girls pees all the time!!  I take her every 30 min. and she still has a few accidents a day.  Oh well, we will get there.  This is my first kid to potty train. Or even my 4th or 5th.  I used to do it for a living when i was a early preschool teacher at Kindercare for the 2-3 year old room.  I always had a class of ten, 2 year olds by myself.  They had to be potty trained and turn 3 to go into the preschool room.  My turn over rate was pretty fast cause i would have them potty trained pretty quickly.  I would get on average a new set of 10 kids every few months.  So just estimating, i've potty trained about 60 kids.  Well more like 65 kids including the ones i've nannied and my own.  Not counting Ella or Aubrey yet :)...  Goodness thats a lot of kids.  Surely i was not paid enough! lol The ones in the daycare i had fully trained by 2.5, they werent coming to my room until sometime after their 2nd birthday.  The ones i nannied and my own have all been fully trained by their 2nd birthday.  I've learned very specific ways of potty training all types of kids.  Some work best with rewards, like M&M's, others do just fine with stickers, a sticker chart, or nothing but praise and a hive five.  Just depends on the kid :)  Consistency is definitely the main focus for me.  Once i start them in undies, theres no going back, or they will not potty train as quickly.  Of course i still use pull-ups for nap and overnight.  At least for now, and until they start to be dry, i will continue to use them.  Also, in this early stage of training, i will still put a pull-up on when i leave the house.  At least until she starts to hold it for a couple hours at a time.  Even with all my training,  it is still HARD.  And requires a lot of hard work on my part.   And it sucks!  Not having enough sleep, being grumpy, and trying to keep calm isnt easy.  I still havent had my coffee!  

Madie reading

 Ok, enough about potty training.  Im so proud of my 4 year old daughter, Madisen.  Who is now reading!  She literally can read almost every word in the book "Green Eggs and Ham".  I have a video of it that i would post here, except for some reason the add video part of this blog isnt working. So a picture will have to do.  She amazes me!!  All my mommy hard work is paying off :)  

On a side note..i have a killer headache today :/  Bleh.  And still need to give Julia and Madisen a shower.  I cant wait until they are able to do that themselves! 

 A couple baby pictures to leave you smiling :) 

 Until Next time...

I DID IT! plus "WINTER" wonderland FUN

I did it! I did it! I finally tackled my closet.  Phew!  Feels so good to walk in there and not have 2 huge boxes with hangers and clothes i never wear draping all over the boxes lol.  Also cleaned the bathroom tub and counters, sink, etc.  Found a spider in the process of putting clothes away.  Those that know me, know i HATE spiders with a passion.  It boarders on arachnophobia but not quite so bad.  Since Aubrey was napping in her crib and Ella was napping in her room, which is on the other side of my closet wall, i had to be quiet.  And i was :)  I calmly walked my shirt over to the tub where i turned on the faucet and rinsed it down the drain.  Which of course i then closed to make sure it didnt crawl back out! lol  The spiders here have different markings than the spiders im used to back home, so they creep me out a little more than usual.  Anyways...mission accomplished!!  Closet and bathroom FINALLY organized.  Now its time for a ton of laundry.  Bleh.

Last saturday we attended the winter wonderland thing that Intel put on at one of the farms out here.  It was a lot of fun!  We spent 3 hours there and that was plenty! lol  Free food, but of course all the food lines were always crazy long, and since this is Arizona, it was hot standing in the sun.  Good thing we got there when it opened, and lunch was the first we got.  Barely had to wait in line for that and most of the stuff the kids went on were short lines too.  As we walked around and more people showed up, the lines were ridiculous!  The whole 'eat as much as you want thing' went out the window because there was no way either of us was going to go through a line like that more than once with 4 kids.  

After lunch the first thing the girls wanted to do, was ride a pony.  No problem, short line and it was right next to the lunch area.  SWEET! :) 

Then off we went to see and do everything there was to offer.  There was a few little kid rides like you would find at a fair.  Julia willingly went on these, but did NOT like how high they went.  Madie of course, loved it!  They got to control if it went up or down, and madie is smiling and making it go up.  And we see Julia, with huge eyes and yelling at madie that they are high enough and to make it go down!  We couldnt help but laugh.  These are rides are for 5 and under!  But she got to go on anyways lol.  

Then we spot the roller coaster.  I was sure Julia did not want to ride that!  It reminded me of the one at Oaks Park in Portland, but this shorter in height and was made of metal.  Thank goodness, that wooden one scares me! lol  Jeremy convinces the girls to sit in front, i did not think this was such a good idea, knowing how Julia feels about rides and heights and everything.  So of course after the roller coaster goes up, it must go down.  It starts it decent and i hear Julia screaming, not from excitement or joy, but from pure horror.  Then i see her face as they go around and she is balling her eyes out and her face is all red and i feel awful!  I should have told them not to sit in the front.  At this point i realize she has to go around two more times.  Here comes round two, she screams again and is kinda crying this time when i see them go around.  Im almost in tears now knowing she has to go around again.  She doesnt seem as bad as they start the 3rd go around.  Still, I hear her scream as they start to decent but this time no tears and actually as smile on her face as it comes to a stop.  She said she had fun, so i guess i can feel a little bit better about her being scared to death for the first half of it lol.  She points to the swings that a fair would have, and says i am NOT riding those.  Too bad, the swings were always one of my favorite rides!  Oh well.  As for Madie and the roller coaster... she was stoked to get on, she was happy riding it, and would definitely do it again.  Thats my girl! :)

Thumbs UP!  We did it!

Next was a petting zoo, some huge ground pillows to jump on, watched some pig races, got a tiny scoop of ice cream, but passed on the corn maze.  We were going to ride the train but the line was long, as well as the line for the hayride.  I didnt want to leave the stroller, and by this time we had already been there over 2.5 hours and it was getting pretty warm out.  

Had a baby chicken using this pig as a pillow lol

They started head butting after i took this

Started to relieve its massive bladder while i was taking this picture..haha

These things were awesome!

I wanted to go on it too!

The pig race was adorable! :)

Before we headed home, we had to make sure and stop at the pumpkin patch!!  They tried to make it like you were walking around where the pumpkins grew, but there were no vines attached to them and the small field was a little to perfect to have grown pumpkins in it.  No biggie, still had some pumpkins and the girls liked walking around and picking them up.   At least we didnt have to worry about tripping over a vine or stepping on a rotting pumpkin!  Although i do still love the Oregon pumpkin patches better :) 

Madisen

pretty empty pumpkin patch

Julia 

One more stop before it was time to leave.  The big tube slides!  The girls walked the mini hike to get up to these things while we waited at the bottom to take pictures and stay with the stroller full of sleeping kids lol

Yay for free Intel activities!  The girls had a blast!!!  

The girls loved the pumpkin ice cream! :)

The train we never rode but wanted to!

Until next time...

Puke and Pictures

My 4 beautiful girls

My 20th month old picked up the stomach bug from somewhere.  In the middle of the night i hear *cough cough* followed by screaming and crying.  Which was odd cause she NEVER does that.  I head to her room to see whats the matter and comfort her, reach to pick her up and realize she is soaked.  At that instant, i knew she had puked.  "OH GREAT, OH CRAP!!" and maybe some other not so appropriate words came out of my mouth.  On goes the light, "sorry Madie" i say to my other daughter who shares a room with Ella.  The puke was EVERYWHERE!  The kid had barely eaten anything all day, obviously now i realize it was because she didnt feel well.  I have no idea how she could throw up this much liquid when she hadnt even consumed that in over 12 hours.  Anyways, back to it, it was everywhere, and i mean everywhere!  All over her face, hair and pj's, down the side of her dresser and onto the floor, all over her mattress, blankets, pillow and carpet.  Needless to say, i had to give her a quick "bath", which was really just a quick wash down and shampoo of the hair.  Handed her off to the hubby who held her while changed her sheets and got her some clean blankets to sleep with.  All of this taking no more than 20 min. prob.  And wouldnt ya know...6:30a and she's wide awake!! Which didnt matter much because for some reason my 3 month old, Aubrey, has decided that 4:45 or if im lucky, 5:15 is her new wake up time.  She wakes up so freaking happy and adorable and cooing, but still...shes awake!! And im tired....
11 am rolls around and i start making the girls lunch.  I can see Ella is tired and wants to go take a nap, but i like her to go after 11:30 at least.  She has refused food and has only drank water the whole day.  Remember, she didnt eat the day before and puked up a gallon in the middle of the night and has once again not eaten and has only had water and ONE bite of banana at about 10.  She didnt want in her high chair for lunch, so only Madisen is eating.  I sat down to nurse the baby.  Here comes Ella all tired and kinda whinny and lays her head next Aubrey on the nursing pillow.   No signs of anything about to erupt out of her again, but by golly it sure does.  This time, covering ME, aubrey, my nursing pillow, chair, and the living room carpet.  So i yell for Julia to come quickly so she can sit and take the baby for a min. Meanwhile i grab Ella, who managed to only get a little bit on herself.   How nice, thank you Ella :)  So i strip her down and clean up her face, then go get aubrey who, thankfully, didnt have but a little on her hair, most of it was on my nursing pillow and me.  Joy.  Cleaned up Aubrey and put her in the swing.  Im surprised at how calm Ella is being while i shuffle around as fast as i can so i can eventually get to cleaning ME off.  I can tell she is feeling better, well of course she is!  She just projectile vomited all over the place, i bet her tummy feels better! lol  Off she goes for a nap, im so nervous the rest of the day and all through the night that she would throw up again.  She didnt!  She even had some of her appetite back in the am, which made me nervous it would come flying up again too, but it hasnt.  She has kept it all down since monday afternoon.  

Today is election day!  But i am more excited that its my Nana and Papa's 63rd anniversary!!  They are such amazing people.  My nana has to be the nicest person ever, i dont think she has a mean bone or thought in her body.  She truly is a saint.  And i miss her everyday that im in AZ and cant see her.  I called her today and wished them a happy anniversary.  It just makes my heart smile when i talk to her, hug her or see her.  I Love you Nana!! 

So our whole house is organized and things are all put away from moving.  This doesnt count the normal mess in the kitchen from mail and/or school stuff.  And it most certainly does not count my bedroom.  Why is it so hard for me to get in there and clean that room!  Its like i look the other way everytime i go in there or i will freak out about how messy it is.  Aubrey is going to share our room.  She has her own little corner area and a whole wall that has her crib, dresser, etc. over there.  And we have baby clothes all over my dresser, boxes of stuff that have yet to find a place to be emptied too, and a closet full of boxes that have hangers, clothes, bathroom towels or whatever in them.  I just cant seem to get the energy or the want to go through all those and put them away.  I actually started to today when Aubrey was taking a little cat nap.  But then after lunch when Ella and Aubrey go down for a good nap, i tried to tackle it again but just couldnt finish it.  It is the only time of day i can get a shower in, unless its a day my husband isnt working.  Then i can get one in at any time really.  But the days its just me and the kids, nap time is the only time.  Then i did laundry and other house things before starting this.  I think i'll tackle it later this week.  Im thinking once i get the closet all organized, i can move in the boxes that are in my room that really have no place to be emptied and i can store them in the closet and out of my view.   Anyways...thats boring for everyone, sorry! lol

Maybe a few pictures will catch your attention again :)  I love taking pictures of my girls.  I wish i had a better camera.  There are much more updated ones now, and mine always makes a gray spot appear in all the pictures and i have to go through them one by one to take it out.  Its annoying. The other morning i took a few pictures of all of my girls together and then a few random ones.  Aubrey thinks she is like 6 months old or something!  She just turned 3 months old about a week ago! lol

Aubrey's 1st time in her exersaucer!

She likes it!

Silly Ella :)

My girls of course are still making me tons of cards and drawings.  I love them!  They are soooo cute!  Julia is old enough now that hers are turning more into stories but she still whips out a card or two, or twenty over the weekend.  Here is one from Julia and Madisen yesterday.

"i love you so so so much Mommy, and myself" by Julia

By Madie

Until next time...