Tree Farm Field Trip

We went to the tree farm for Easton's preschool field trip again this year. It was a lot warmer this year so it was actually more enjoyable than last year. They learned how a pine tree grows, took a ride on a "sleigh", planted their own pine tree, played on the haystack slides, rode on the wooden reindeer, ate snacks by the fire, and then afterwards checked out some Christmas lights.



Easton with his friend Lukess



Blair all ready for the sleigh ride.



Easton planting a pine tree.




Blair on the slide.



Easton on the slide.




Blair with Ms. Valerie



Video of kids on "sleigh ride":

Dyer at six months!

At Dyer's six month appointment he was almost 17 lbs and 27 in long. His head is still 18 in so it hasn't gotten any larger since his last appointment. We finally got a Dr. Appointment for his head all set up. It won't be until Jan. 9 so we will have more news on that then.





Dyer is now rolling from his back to his tummy! He started doing this last week and has gotten pretty good at it. He can move around in circles while on his tummy and he is also moving around a lot on his back by arching his back and digging his feet into the floor. I'm guessing it won't be long before he is army crawling. He loves grabbing and reaching for things.





He still doesn't really like tummy time so it is funny to me that he keeps rolling from his back to his tummy. I guess it is just a new thing for him that he needs to try over and over again. He used to roll from his tummy to his back but for some reason he hardly does it anymore so he gets really frustrated that he is on his tummy and can't get back on his back. As soon as I help him get back on his back he goes right back to his tummy. Its a vicious cycle...




Dyer is also sitting up really well by himself. He is really enjoying that he can sit up and watch everyone around him a lot better. He will sit for a good 10-15 minutes and entertain himself.




He still prefers to be held over anything else. Dyer has started to hold his little arms up whenever someone comes near him for them to pick him up. It's pretty cute!




Dyer is spitting up less and less now. Thank goodness! He still does it a couple times a day but most of time it is just a little bit of spit up.






We still haven't found any food that he loves just yet. He will tolerate most of the food we give him but he just doesn't seem to care much for them. He just prefers his milk!

Temple Lights, Fire, and other things

Every year the youth in our ward go to the Oakland Temple to see the Christmas lights. Last year I chickened out because I didn't want to drive and I had the kids with me. This year Nathan was supposed to go with us but unfortunately he had to work late. I had Molly lined up to watch the kids until Nathan got off work to pick them up but Valerie convinced me to bring the kids along. I'm glad I did because I told Molly that Nathan would probably pick the kids up around 6:30-7 but he actually didn't get off work until 8. Plus I think the kids enjoyed seeing the lights and getting lots of attention from all the youth. Valerie was a lot of help with the kids and she even took pictures of me with the kids. I'm usually the one taking all the pictures so I'm generally not in very many.

On top of the terrace

By the water fountain.

Nativity with temple in background.

Close up of Nativity.

We had some excitement on Thursday evening. While I was making a pumpkin cheesecake grease from the pan (and probably the crust) kept dripping. Once I pulled the cheesecake out I left the oven on to burn some of the grease away. The oven started smoking a lot so I turned off the oven, opened the sliding glass door and left the kitchen to turn on some vents to air out the house. When I came back to the kitchen I realized the oven had caught on fire! I may or may not have said a bad word! Don't judge me! I then ran and got the fire extinguisher to put out the fire (Man those things are a mess to clean up!). I called Nathan to see when he was coming home as I got the kids out the door. Nathan said he would be home soon and I told Easton to take Blair with him up to Valerie's so they wouldn't have to wait outside in the cold. The fire alarms went off as we were walking out the door. Nathan pulled up as Easton was about half way up the street to Valerie's. A few minutes later I see Valerie and her son, Will, running down the street asking if everything is okay. Valerie then told me what happened:

They hear the door bell ring and Will looks out the peep hole to see who is there but he doesn't see anyone because Easton's too short! He still decides to open the door thinking maybe the UPS guy left something at their door. Easton walks inside and sees that the TV is on and is fixated on it. Valerie keeps looking at the door waiting for me to come but I never do. Eventually she gets Easton's attention and asks where I am and if everything is okay at home. Easton says all calmly, "There's a fire..." and then walks over to the couch and sits down in front of the TV! That's when Valerie grabs Easton and tells Will to come down with her. HAHA! Apparently we can't trust Easton in an emergency because there might be a chance that a TV is on and we would never get help!

We are still waiting on Dyer's head... We got a referral to take him to another hospital since there isn't anyone at Travis that can handle this but when Nathan tried to call and set up an appointment we realized they had Dyer covered on the wrong insurance so now we are in the process of getting a new referral with the correct insurance. Hopefully Nathan can set up an appointment today if not then we will have to wait about 10 days for them to get a hold of us.

Blair helping me make persimmon cookies.

One of Blair's newest things, when she doesn't get her own way, is to say, "I'm Blair Bear!" (usually with attitude). It's as if she is saying, "Excuse me but do you know who you are saying no to? You do not say no to Blair Bear!" She apparently thinks that she is the most important person in the world and no one should tell her no. It makes me laugh anytime she says it to Easton.

It's Christmas Time!

Wow! It's already December and I haven't blogged yet! I hate it when I get behind because then I have so much to blog about and I feel like everything is rushed just to get it all down. But it is what it is...

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with Valerie and her son, William. I just love Valerie. She is basically my kids' adoptive grandma! Easton goes to her place for preschool three times a week and recently she has let Blair stay about twice a month which Blair just LOVES! Every time we get home Easton and Blair generally jump out of the car and run up to Valerie's. Most of the time she is kind enough to let them stay for a few minutes and sometimes up to an hour. Blair loves her "Balerie!"

We got a new Christmas tree this year. We put up our old Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving but the top lights on the tree wouldn't light up. Well, I take that back...Most of the time they wouldn't light up. Every once in a while they would flicker on for a few seconds and then go off. We figured it was time to get a bigger tree so the kids get the older one up in their playroom. Dexter loves our Christmas tree especially climbing as high as he possibly can (which is almost to the very top!) and all the ball ornaments. There has to be at least 20 ornaments off the tree and the second I put them back on and leave the room they are already back off. It is so annoying. If you notice in the first picture there is a spray bottle sitting nicely next to the couch. It gets used quite a bit while we are home and can catch Dexter in the act! I heard Citronella oil is supposed to keep cats away but Dexter doesn't seem to mind it one bit. I've just come to terms that our cat is one in a million! He does a lot of things I think is not normal for cats. Besides his obsession with water he seems to love vegetables. Give him the choice between chicken and a vegetable he would probably go for the veggie! So far I have found he likes peas, asparagus, and tomato soup/ tomato sauce. He also loves strangers. He will cuddle with any new person that comes into our house. Anyways, enough about our strange cat...

Nathan went out for Black Friday and got us a new computer. It's a love/hate relationship for me. I love how fast it is and how nice it is but at the same time I hate new things because it takes me forever to figure out how to use them! I swear once I finally figure things out then it's time to get a new one and the whole process starts over again.

This handsome dude left us for almost a week because he had to go to Chicago for a radiology convention. Lets just say that I survived! Actually it wasn't that bad. Besides being told multiple times by Easton that he hated me and that he didn't want me to be his mom anymore (its just a phase....), Blair flushing a toy car down the toilet, and hitting her head on the toilet bowl, we had a pretty good week.

Blair had her first Dentist Appointment. She actually did better than I thought she would but really all they did was count her teeth. I think it helped that we took her to where our neighbor, Molly, works. Molly cleaned Easton's teeth and checked out Blair's teeth.

Valerie and Ian went with us to the Festival of Trees. We went on the last day which is kids day. They have a bunch of crafts for the kids to do.

Blair gluing Jelly Belly's onto her Christmas tree. I'm pretty sure she ate more Jelly Belly's than she put on her tree but then she even started to eat the ones off her tree!

Easton's Jelly Belly Christmas tree.

After checking out all the Christmas trees we sat down and listened to a jazz band play Christmas music. Dyer had a great time with Valerie!

Before we left Easton wanted to see Santa! We got a picture with all three kids (I'll have to see if I can get that picture on here later) and none of them cried! I really wish that I would have bought two pictures now because there was a really cute picture of Dyer with a huge smile on his face but I didn't end up buying it because Blair for some reason looked stoned in the picture. I should have just bought it anyways...

Afterwards we went out to eat at Outback. Surprisingly the kids were actually pretty well behaved. That is probably because they listen really well to Valerie.

I'll post more hopefully later today or tomorrow but for now I've got to get ready so I can take Easton to preschool...

Dyer at 5 months

I'm 10 days late for this post but better late than never...

We brought Dyer back to the doctor again this month for his head but not because of his circumference but because of his head being flat in the back. I guess when we went to Nathan's co-workers Halloween party one of the pediatricians there was concerned about his head and brought it up to Ella (Nathan's co-worker) and gave Ella her contact information to pass on to us. I knew his head was flat (flatter than Easton and Blair's) but I guess I didn't realize that it was possibly that bad until Ella brought it up to Nathan. We met with our family doctor but he wasn't sure what to think so he referred us to a specialist. We are still waiting for them to call us to set up an appointment so as of right now we don't know anything. Based on the paper our doctor had to compare Dyer's head to his head doesn't seem to fit in with what would be considered serious (i.e. things not being symmetrical-his head is pretty much symmetrical-just flat) so they might say everything is fine and just make sure he gets more tummy time, sit up time (in other words less time lying on his back. This shouldn't be too hard since he is starting to sit up better everyday. But there is also a chance that he might be put in a helmet to help reshape his head. If this is the case then he'll probably be in a helmet for 4-6 months wearing it 23 hours a day. Can we say stinky? Especially since he still spits up all the time. I can only imagine how gross that would be. I'm hoping he doesn't need a helmet because he will forever be known as "helmet head" I'm sure.

I tried to take pictures of his head so others could see how flat it is and these were the best I could get. It was harder than you would think to get the right angle.

Dyer was 16 lbs and 25 in long and his head was 18 in (96%). They only gave me estimates so it could be more or less.

Just this last Sunday Dyer has finally started to get the hang of solids. I started him on them a few days after he turned 4 months but he just didn't seem to care much for them. I would put a bite in his mouth and he would just sit there with his mouth open and look at me like, "What am I supposed to do now?" He wouldn't really swallow it but he wouldn't push it out with his tongue either. It would just sit in his mouth until enough drool collected and would spill out of his mouth.

It seemed as though he might be allergic to rice cereal because he would break out with a little rash on his tummy. I stopped the rice and switched to oatmeal. When I started him on peas I gave him some rice cereal with them and sure enough he got another rash. So rice cereal is out for now. When I gave him green beans with oatmeal he seemed to break out with a rash so I was concerned he might be allergic to oatmeal as well but I tried oatmeal with carrots and there have been no signs. Could he be allergic to green beans? I've never had to deal with food allergies with the other kids so this is all new to me.

Dyer won't take a bottle so things can get a bit tricky. I have to plan things out just right if I need to be away from him and then I have to make sure I get home in time for his next feeding.

Just the last two weeks Dyer has been waking up really early to eat but the two nights (Sunday and Monday) that he finally ate his carrots and oatmeal he has slept all through the night. It was great. Last night he didn't eat very well because he was so tired. He got up a little after 5 and then puked all over my sheets so once I got him back to sleep I went down stairs and slept on the couch.

Dyer is such a happy little guy and is often caught just smiling away at who ever he can see even if they aren't looking and smiling at him.

He is talking and laughing more and more each day. He especially loves his siblings. Almost anything they do he finds funny. They can just walk past him or just look at him and he will generally start laughing. I just love baby laughs and smiles. They are the best!

Dyer loves to stick everything in his mouth especially those little toes of his.

Halloween Fun!

The kids got to do a lot of Halloween stuff. Trick or treating and parties!

Preschool Party and Trick or Treating:

Blair got to tag along and go to preschool with Easton that day. She was in heaven!

Blair (bee) and Easton (wolverine).

About two weeks before Halloween we were at the hospital and some elderly lady asked the kids what they were going to be for Halloween. Easton told her he was going to be Wolverine. She seemed weirded out. She asked Easton if he knew what that was and he told her no (He's never seen X-men movies-Easton tells everyone he is a superhero). Anyways, the lady told Easton that it looks kind of like a wolf. Easton then seemed weirded out because he had seen his costume and it didn't look much like a wolf.

Easton's preschool class

Action shot! Easton always has to be first! Running to get in front of everyone.

Blair Bear all by herself.

Easton showing me everything he got from preschool!

When the kids got back from preschool I kept smelling a fishy smell. Eventually I realized the smell was coming from Blair and what seemed like her costume. She had worn her costume to a different party the weekend before so I thought it was weird that it was all the sudden smelling. I asked both Easton and Blair what they ate at preschool and if Blair spilled anything on her. They said they didn't eat anything and that they only had water. WEIRD! I took her costume off and hand washed it in hopes that the smell would come out...It didn't! Later that day after Blair got up from her nap she smelled even worse of fish. It wasn't until a little later that I finally figured it out. Blair had gotten into Nathan's fish oil pills the day before. She must have eaten some and was sweating it out! It was disgusting! I've washed her costume about 5 times and it still smells of dead fish!

Ward Halloween Party:

I wasn't able to get many pictures because I was in charge of a room (activity) so I didn't really get to go around with the kids that night. I probably will try to get out of doing a room next year if I'm still in Young Womens because none of us really got to enjoy ourselves. I thought I needed more apples for bobbing for apples so I sent Nathan out to buy some more. He took Blair and Easton and Dyer were stuck with me until Nathan got back. It turned out that I didn't even need any of the apples I made Nathan get.

Easton mini golfing.

I didn't have time to give Blair a bath after she woke up from her nap so she really stunk at the party. I could always tell when she walked into my room because of her stench.

Wolverine

Miss Stinky Pants!

This was actually the only picture I took of Dyer in his costume for all the festivities. I ended up taking more of him after Halloween because I was so sad that this was the only picture.

I get the bad mom award!

Dyer was a frog!

We also went to a Halloween party at one of Nathan's co-workers house.

Teddys Party/Hospital Trick or Treating:

Teddy's kids

Dyer before trick or treating.

Easton showing me all his candy/goodies!

Blair with her new stuffed kitty cat.

After trick or treating at the hospital we went downtown to trick or treat for a while.

Trick or Treating around the neighborhood:

Easton and Blair got so much candy that I told them I would only take them trick or treating on our street. They still came home with a lot of candy.

Dad and Dyer stayed home to pass out candy!

Here are some more pictures of my cute little frog!

Dyer is starting to sit up a little by himself! He can sit up for about 5-10 sec before he tumbles over. It won't be long before he is doing this all the time.

I put him against the wall for some extra support.

Happy Late Halloween!!!

I updated another post earlier today