Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we planned a road trip to Kansas to spend some time with family.  We got a late start the morning of Tuesday the 26th.  I ended up running Bree to urgent care that morning just to make sure she didn't have an ear infection (she was running a low-grade fever for two nights) and then Kai's easily excitable stomach just got so excited for the trip.  We finally got going nearly at lunch time and so we did what Lightning McQueen would call "gas-n-go".  We ate snacks in the car, got lunch from a drive-thru, and basically just went as fast as we could.  We made the journey in 9 hours!  (Last year it took me about 10 1/2 hours, just to give you a comparison.)  We had a great 3 day visit and then on Saturday the 30th we headed back.  The return journey was a similar story of gas-n-go with pretty similar results--about 9 1/2 hours.  It was a good fun trip.  The boys love their cousins and we love visitng family, which makes for a great trip.

After 8 hours of so in the car.  They were tired but had been really good travelers.  I was sitting in the middle next to Bree.

Playing in the back yard on Thanksgiving day.  It was cold!

Bree getting ready for her first Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Dinner--it was delicious.  Bree even took some bites of turkey and roll.

The day after Thanksgiving we went to the local gymnastic center's open gym time.  The boys LOVED it.  I tried to get a picture of everyone but as you can see, they were in constant motion.

Kai enjoyed laying around in the foam pit for about a half an hour at least.  Silly kid.

The gym had a large bouncehouse with slide set-up on the floor and Finn and Isaac just couldn't get enough of it.

Kristi and I took all 4 boys in her van.  This is how Finn had to ride to get there.  He was a good sport.

That night we made gingerbread houses.  It was one of Finn's highlights.  They both had a great time.

Heading home.  I remembered to take a picture when the sun was up this time.  :)

My travel buddy drinking some juice from a sippy cup.

For lunch on the way back we stopped at a Sonic that had some outdoor seating and a play area.  It was in the 60's and so this was great.  We got fast food, ate quickly, and Bree had some alone time in the van to nurse.  Win-win-win!

Friday night we tried to take some pictures of the little girls together.  They have matching dresses and bows so we dressed them up and tried to get some good pictures.  While we didn't get any actual good poses, we have some great pictures showing the girls' personalities and their interactions.  They are pricelss pictures even if they aren't necessarily ones you would hang on a wall.  This one where Bree is pullng Maci's hair is hilarious to me.  (Bree loves pulling hair--it's comforting to her for some reason!)

Maci wasn't amused with the hair tug.

Since Maci can walk and crawl it was hard to get her to stay still.  Bree was hard to keep interested, so we threw in some toys.  This one of Bree's was a big hit.

Almost a good picture.  If only Bree would have stayed in her spot!

Too cute.  This was our attempt at a second photshoot on Saturday morning.

My baby girl is getting so big.

All of the cousins piled up on the couch for one last picture before we left.

Flashback Friday

Do you remember this summer when we were blessed to have so many cousins come visit us?  Remember how I was one day going to blog about it?  Well, the day has finally arrived.  Since I'm trying to get caught up quickly, I'm going to post pictures and tell you about them instead of my normal long diatribes.

The Perrins' Family arrived in the evening on Saturday July 20th.  We all went to church together on Sunday.  This was the group after church.  Yes, Isaac wore that shirt.  There was a mishap with a chocolate on their way out the door.  :)

On Monday afternoon we took them to our favorite toy store--Toy Station.  The older boys, Kai and Owen, took a Dino dig class and the rest of us played around with the toys.

Playing dress up in the castle

Owen and Kai at the end of class with their boxes of dinosaur "bones"

The boys get along so well.  It always amazes me when we get together how they automatically pair off and take off to play.  This night I believe they were all playing Mine Craft together.  There is a world on our iPad that is Kai and Owen's world.

On Tuesday the Perrins went to visit some friends on the north side of Denver and we got a few of our errands done.  We met them at the outlets in Castle Rock on their way back down Wednesday afternoon.  On Thursday we all went to the Cave of the Winds.  Even though it's local, it was our family's first trip as well.  I was a fun afternoon outing.

waiting for our cave tour to start--I can't even begin to tell you how nervous Kai and Finn were making me by climbing on that railing

A look at some of our group during the tour

I believe Kristi asked Finn to say "Cheese" and he decided to flash open his jacket all on his own!

Friday morning my boys had soccer.  So, we took the cousins as guests.  It turned out that a coach was missing that day and there were lots of kids trying it out.  I've never seen a soccer class this big before or since.  There were over 20 kids.  But the coach handled it amazingly well!

Aren't our nieces beautiful?

Kai is in the back in this picture.  Finn is in the green shorts by the coach.  And see that kid bending over to pick up the ball?  That's Isaac.  We decided he's more of a football player!  His brother, Owen, is next to him in the red shorts.

Finn wouldn't go to soccer unless I let him be Super Finn complete with goggles that day.

Maci makes the funniest faces.  I just love it!

Me and Bree.  Poor girl.  Mom doesn't dress her, mom doesn't do her hair.  Poor thing.

This picture reminds me of one I have from Finn's 3 month pictures.  Except he didn't have any hair in it.

While Kristi was taking her picture, Bree noticed her hand.  Honestly, this is the first time I ever saw her notice her hands.  It was fun to get that moment of discovery in pictures. 

Friday afternoon we all went out for frozen yogurt at In The Moo, a new yogurt bar in town.

I don't reemember what day this was, but this happened every day--twice a day.  It touched me to see his cousins support him as he had to stop playing and sit for his treatments.  See Isaac right next to him?  So glad my kids have such amazing cousins!

 Saturday was their last day here.  We didn't do anything exciting, just sat around and visited.  The kids played XBox a bit.  We all ordered Chinese food for dinner.

It was a great visit.  We love the Perrins family dearly!  We look forward to each and every visit.  It was hard to say goodbye, but we knew would see them again soon........

The first few weeks in November in pictures

In early November we missed the delivery of a certified letter.  The next time the post office was open, the two kids and I stood in a half-hour line (at least) to collect our letter.  After all of that wait, I was hoping it was really important.  Well, it sort of was.  The state of Colorado sends out letters now, I guess, in response to newborn screening that is abnormal.  We already knew that Bree did not have CF, but it was interesting to see this letter.

Finn and I played marble track quite a bit for a few days.

Bree enjoyed playing with a real baby doll for the first time.

Finn bundled up and wore his "special" glasses to go to the bus stop.

The kids and I went to school to eat Thanksgiving lunch with Kai (the week before Thanksgiving).  Finn was on periactin and was actually hungry.  That's my lunch that you see him eating.  I got to eat the leftovers after the boys were done.

Periactin-Finn also means tired Finn.  He curled up on the couch with a blankie, pillow, and Lambie for a "nap".  (it only lasted about 2 minutes!)

Bree tried banana bread.....

and she liked it!

The kids got a package from their Aunt Kara.  She sent Finn some new underwear that he immediately had to try on and show off to Kai.

Halloween

Yep, it's a week before Christmas and I'm just now getting Halloween up.  Oh well!

For Halloween this year the boys were set on being Octonauts.  I had no idea how I was going to pull this off and spent several hours on the internet researching homemade Octonauts costumes.  I tried several times to talk them into other costumes, but failed miserably.  Until one morning about 10 days before Halloween (or somewhere in there) Kai woke up and decided he wanted a store-bought costume instead.  And thankfully, whatever Kai does, Finn will do, too.  So, my problem was solved with a trip to CostCo and two new store-bought costumes.

Kai picked a knight's costume (he called himself a "knight in shining armor') and Finn picked a pirate.  Both costumes were great for the boys and received compliments.  The both enjoyed that the swords that came with each costume and the love playing pretend in their costumes.

Our pirate

Our Knight

Trying on their costumes for the first time

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and forgot to take pictures on Halloween.  It was a pretty basic evening with a trip to the ward trunk or treat for our trick-or-treating.  It was pretty cold and because it was held on the actual night of Halloween, we had a pretty low turn out.  The boys went to every car twice and still maanged to finish their rounds in 20 minutes.  Bree and I hung out in the back of the van.  I brought Bree's activity center and the boys' pumpkins and set us up to hand out candy.  Everyone loved our trunk "decorations" (basically Bree!) and we got lots of comments on what a good idea it was.  Bree was bundled up since the trunk was open but she was happy most of the time just bouncing in her seat and playing.

Pictures from Kai's class party at school (his teacher emailed them to me)

Kai and his friend Kaelyn

It was a fun night and I'm glad the boys loved their costumes so much!

Half-Way

I can't believe we are half-way through Bree's first year with us.  This past month for her (from 5 to 6 months old) was a big month with a couple of big changes.

The day she turned five months old we began solids with her.  We started with really milky rice cereal and progressed from there.  She wasn't initally a fan of solids, but once we discovered applesauce she was sold!  One month in and solids are still hit or miss for her.  Some days she loves them and can't get enough of her cereal and fruits/veggies and other days she won't open her mouth at all.  It seems she is a bit of a moody little one.

First rice cereal

More dinner cuteness

Also on her five month day we moved her from her cradle to her crib.  This was another interesting transition for Bree.  She has never been a huge fan of sleeping on her back and so she was trying to roll over in her cradle.  She needed to make the move, but the crib is very different from what she was used to.  By about two weeks in we had come to a compromise--I would put her down to sleep on her tummy with a blanket and in exchange, I would get sleep.  Umm....yeah.  She was that opinionated.  For several weeks, though, she would go to sleep while laying on her tummy in her crib.  I just put her down and would stay next to the crib and pat her back and she would go to sleep.  That worked great until one day she rememberd that she knew how to roll off of her tummy.  And then we had to figure it all out again.  She currently goes to sleep while laying down in my arms and bouncing.  It generally doesn't take very long, but I will admit, I wish she'd go back to falling asleep in her crib.  That's something to work on in the coming months.  The good thing, though, is that at night she can fall back asleep in her crib on her own.  She doesn't do it all the time but can do it fairly often and that's helpful for me with our pumping schedule.

The compromise--while it still worked

I still continue to pump for her.  Currently, I have a two-a-day schedule--after she goes to bed and once in the middle of the night.  With her less than stellar sleeping habits, this means that I rarely get more than 3 consecutive hours of sleep.  (About once a week I will get 4 hours or so.)  I'll admit--I'm exhausted.  I'm looking forward to her learning to eat solids better so that her tummy will stay full and help her sleep longer.  And one of these days I am going to have to play hardball with her and just let her cry for a while until she starts sleeping for longer stretches.

One of our other changes this month was that Kai started riding the bus.  This actually is turning into a great thing for Bree because now she can actually get on a good sleeping schedule.  The times that we had to drop off and pick up Kai from school always seemed to mess with her naps.  Having Kai on the bus moves those times just enough that she is actually starting to form a schedule that works with everyone else.  This makes me hopeful that there are some good things to come--soon.

At her 6 month well-check she weighed 13 pounds 6 ounces.  This number was actually the exact number I was hoping to see (or higher!) for two reasons.  The first is that it represents that she is gaining at exactly the desired rate--a half an ounce per day.  Between her 5 month weight and 6 month check if she had gained a half an ounce a day she would weigh 13 pounds 6 ounces.  This also is the number that is double her birth weight.  It was a relief for me to see this number on the scale for her.  She hadn't been gaining at the correct rate since her 1 month well-check.  It's nice to be back on the weight gaining train!  Other than weight, she was 25 inches long and she got 5 immunizations--1 oral, Pentacil (which is a 3-in-1 type of thing), and a flu shot.  She is still quite behind because of everything that happened after her two month immunizations, so we will go back at 7 months old to finish off her Prevnar series and get her flu shot booster.  And then at 9 months she will finish her Hepatitis B (I think?) and Pentacil series.  Whew!  Poor thing.

Finn's 4 year old well-check and Bree's 6 month well-check.  Look, do you see some chub on both of them??!!!

It's been a busy month for all of us.  We're looking forward to the winter and little more down time as we try to get Bree settled into a happy schedule!

My daytime play buddies

6 months old and rockin' her first ponytail!