Sleep training...bleh.

For the past few weeks we've been trying to push Audrey's bedtime closer to Nolan's at 7:30pm. Our little girl had up to this point has been quite the little night-time party animal. She would always take a nap at 7pm and then wake up from it bright eyed and bushy tailed, and ready to hang out with Kenny and I until around 10pm or so. It really wasn't too bad, it was time that we got to spend with just her, and she is always so happy and easy to be around we'd just let her play while we went about our night-time business. The problem actually became that our little party animal then would sleep in until at least 10am and I'd have to wake her up to go anywhere and that usually meant that we'd have to rush to get her dressed, and fed and we were always late for everything it seemed. So little by little we've been working on it. I hate to admit it but I am the worst at sleep training. I have THE HARDEST time listening to them cry when trying to go to sleep and I usually just cave in. After 3 years worth of struggles that we have had with Nolan, who has always struggled to go to sleep, HATED his crib and only spent maybe 2 weeks worth of sleep in it, and even now stealthy makes his way in to our bed at least every other night...only to be taken right back to his race car bed, we have decided that we will not be taking the same path with Audrey.

It's not been tons of fun, but we've been surprised at how well she is actually adjusting. It may still take several visits at night to convince her that it's time for bed, but eventually we hear her cries turn in to long moaning songs...and then it gets quiet. Hallelujah. Thankfully, SOMEHOW Nolan is able to sleep through her crying and only wakes up occasionally to come tell us that Audrey is "making him so scared". This is how I found them tonight when I went in to check...aren't they just beautiful? I think so.

Get carried away much??

With SUMMER approaching, I have realized that both of my kids are in major need of summer clothes. Nolan can't wear too much of what he had from last year, and of course Miss Audrey has nothing for this summer either. So thanks to THIS COUPON from Babies R Us, and then Crazy 8's "Crazy cash redemption" this last week, I may have...I most definitely have... gone a little overboard. But I did get some seriously great deals on EVERYTHING that I have purchased!! It's a good thing Audrey's birthday is coming up, so I can justify the quantity of clothes...I'll just say some are from the Grandma's! :) Nolan cleaned up pretty well too, just not to the extent that I felt the need to photograph the collection. Ah well. It's good to have kids that are better dressed than you right?

P.S. For anyone who may be interested in kids clothes up to size 4T, that Babies R Us coupon is good until the 22nd....just so you know!! Maybe you can go overboard too! It was quite fun.

Easter Weekend

We had one of the nicest Easter weekends that I think we've had yet here in Wisconsin. The weather was so great, we spent basically the whole weekend outside. We loved that it was also Conference weekend too, what a great excuse to sit around and play with the kids while we try to hear as much conference as we can on TV.

We had been playing outside so much that we kept putting off the egg decorating until Saturday evening...when I had realized that I had forgotten to buy more eggs at the grocery store earlier in the day. GEESH! So we had a total of 5 eggs to color, since two got cracked while cooking and Nolan started peeling those to eat right away. But at least that left one egg for each of us, and a bonus egg for Nolan to color.

Later that night the Easter Bunny made a visit, and he also delivered some goods that were sent out by Grandma Whittaker and Grandma Merrell. Needless to say our kids had a pretty decent Easter haul this year! Yikes.

Nolan was super excited to start finding the eggs that were hidden in the living room and dining room, poor kid was bouncing off the walls going from his new toys, to a newly discovered egg and back to his new toys. Good thing he had all of that sugar to keep him fueled up!

Audrey was a pretty big fan of the egg hunting as well. Especially since her eggs contained Gerber Yogurt Melts, her favorite thing in the world. She does the funniest hyperventilating laugh whenever you show her the bag.

Easter also happened to be the day that Audrey decided that she no longer needed to hold one of our hands in order to walk across the room. First thing she did after finding her second egg was toddle over to show it to me! She amazed and startled us all day by just taking off on her own all around the house. In about a month's time she's gone from just standing pretty well alone, to walking everywhere all by herself. She's really stable too, she just mostly has to contend with her brother whizzing by or running circles around her, or even better trying to help "Audgey" walk...which never ends well.

Easter weekend brought us so many fun memories, and we were so thankful to have the time to spend together-homework and hospital call free. This year is really cruising by, and our kids are growing up so fast I can't believe that we're going to be celebrating Audrey's first birthday on the 30th. We have so much to be thankful for, and we have so much that the Lord has blessed us with. On a side note, we have a Catholic church about a block away from our house that has wonderful church bells that ring every day on the hour and especially on Sundays and holidays to announce mass. This year I did a little reading about Easter and what different cultures practice and celebrate during Maudy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. It really made a big impression on me. I know that I paid a lot more attention to the sacred events on each of those days, and I was so glad for the opportunity to reflect on our beliefs and to also have the ability to listen to our Prophet and Apostles teach us about the things that the Lord needs us to know in these latter days. I am so thankful for all that I have and for all of the wonderful people that are in our lives. I think Easter has definitely moved up on my favorite holidays list for good.

"Let's take Daddy to the Park"

Nolan has been wanting to take his Daddy to the park to play soccer for a while, so after the egg hunt, we grabbed a quick lunch and a nap (well Audrey did) and headed to Hawthorn Glen. The temperature gauge in the van said it was 84 degrees...we heart 84 degrees. The boys kicked the ball around for a bit, and then it was time for the tire swing. Which we probably rode on for a good 30 minutes between the two of us. The kids LOVED it and it was so nice to go play as a family. That park feels so familiar to us now, we spent MANY days there last year especially after Audrey was born and I just had to get Nolan out of the house to run off some energy. I pretty much consider that our backyard...it's just a quick 4 minute drive away.

Check out Audrey's tounge-it is usually curled up like that when she's having fun or squealing. I hope I remember that forever.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood....

We had some seriously gorgeous weather last week and spent more time outside in those few days than we probably had in the last 2 months!! We took the plastic off of the windows & balcony door (this is an annual ritual that lets our house and our spirits know that the worst of winter must be over) and I could swear that I could hear our house suck a deep breath of fresh air in for the first time since November! :) We let the kids out on the balcony and they rediscovered the sandbox, and Audrey got to play with sand for the first time. To my surprise she has yet to stick it in her mouth...yet.

We also enjoyed an Egg hunt with our play group, I look at this picture and am so happy that I have literally watched these sweet kids grow up. I can't believe that we'll be losing a few of them next month so that the daddies can start their residency programs. Sigh.

Thanks John, for holding Audrey while I snapped pictures. She was quite content munching on this car and watching from your vantage point.

Here is Amy, Nolan, Isabel and Grace.

Nolan is always 'girl trapped' by these adorable little princesses-but he doesn't mind.

The three of us...LOOK WE'RE ALL WEARING SANDALS! HOORAY!

This was actually right before Nolan had a "nature freak out" as I like to call it. He was overwhelmed with the grass touching his toes, the breeze trying to blow him away, or the bugs trying to get him. I swear that we've been outside more than just this day, but for whatever reason it was all just too much for him.

He finally convinced me to let him go back inside, where he shared his spoils with his sister.

She was thrilled.

An Audrey update

Someone please tell me that my baby girl is not really 11 months old!!

Audrey's hair has been growing so much that we can actually get a little piggy in there. Well, that is until she notices and starts yanking it out.

She has a thing for Nolan's Batman cave as well, but she has learned that the best time to play with it is after he's gone to bed!

We've been purposely taking pictures and movies of her crawling, because we're quite sure she won't be doing it for long. She started out backwards, and it took her a few weeks to figure out her forward gear, but it wasn't long until she was full steam ahead!

Audrey's mobility has increased SO FAST! She's been crawling since January, and started cruzin along the couch and things about the same time. She quickly moved on from just holding our fingers and walking around the house to taking multiple steps on her own and as of a few days ago-March 24th or so she just takes off on her own. She's confident enough with her walking that she'll go from one side of our living room, to the door of the dining room with a big grin and a giggle on her lips the whole time. She loves it. We love her.

I spend a lot of time doing this around the house with Drey. Yeah, I've got lots of other things that I could be doing, but I know that this phase won't last too much longer, and I'm going to enjoy it while it's here.

I was, however, surprised to see this the other day. Kenny is a very safety concious guy when it comes to our kids, but her balance IS really good-she's even been trying to do it on ONE foot lately!! Crazy little girl is a cheerleader in training I guess!

Audrey and Nolan share a bedroom and I think that has really helped them grow closer. I have found them numerous times sharing little giggles and hearing Nolan invite her to come play with him on his race car bed. I'm sure she'll always look up to her big brother...no matter how many times he snatches away a toy from her slobbery mouth!

A Nolan update

Here's a little bit about what our Nolan boy has been up to lately...

He's growing and learning stuff so quickly we are having a hard time keeping up with ALL of his questions. I never new there could be SO many questions about what EACH sign says as we're driving down the street. For example, "what do those arrows say? why does it say don't go that way? why are those people walking on those two lines?" You get the picture...actually I'm not sure that you can get the picture until you're trapped in the car with him! :)

He attends preschool at the YMCA on Mondays & Wednesdays, and he LOVES it. He insisted that if he had to wear green to school on St. Patrick's Day, then so did Audrey and I since his teachers would see us drop him off.

He has been noticing the letters in his name on signs or any store front and saying, "Hey Mom-there's N for Nolan, etc." but on March 15th he surprised us by writing his name out on this little whiteboard. We had NO idea that he could do that yet!! Now he does it all the time, with what ever he can, finger in the air, finger in the sand, finger in the yogurt he spilled on the table. He's quite proud of his new skill, and now he's working on the rest of our names.

It's been easier convincing him that he needs to get in the tub now that we've discovered homemade tub paints. Hallelujah! If you're wondering about the baby tub that he's in, yep we still use that for both kids, our tub doesn't hold the water in very well and he has never liked taking baths in our tub (we don't have a clue why).

If you're ever looking for him and it's awfully quite in the house, this is usually where he can be found. He loves to play his PBSkids.org and Nickjr.com games SO much-literally he can go for hours if we let him. Since this captures his attention for so long, and he seems to learn quite a bit from them, I decided to move our old PC (he refers to it as his "new puter") in to his room, so when Audrey is napping and I have to do some work with my at-home scheduling assistant job, he can usually be found doing this. Judge me all you want, we have to do what works for us!

Nolan still plays in Rubbermaid tubs whenever they are available, but he does include Audrey in the fun now!

He's also trying to teach her how to play super heros, and is quite patient when he finds yet another toy of his in her mouth.

The best part about Nolan is that he tells us numerous times a day that he loves each one of us. I counted one day and got up to 23 times that he said, "Mom, I love you". That doesn't even count how many times he tells Kenny or Audrey. He is also the first to say "I missed you!!" when we pick up from preschool or Kenny comes home from work. He's our reminder that no matter what the days bring, those three little words make it all worth while.

OK I give up...

I've been hanging on to the idea that I would post all of our Christmas endeavors on our blog so that the friends and family that we visited would have a record of all of the fun pictures that we snapped while out playing with them in December. But since blogging is not something that I have a ton of time to catch up on right now, we purchased a journaling program that can serve as a journal for our family and it will post to our blog if I'd like it to. So instead of me worrying so much about getting it up on the blog so I can print out a blog book of our year in review, I can worry about updating the blog with more up to date information and recording more of the fun things that happen like when Nolan says or does something funny or when Audrey starts taking more than 8 steps at a time on her own...important stuff like that!

So here's to recording the here and now...I know most of you do that already but I'm pretty excited about it!

So here's a most recent picture of everyone...and then we'll go from there! :)

Audrey showing off her new big girl booster chair.

Kenny & Nolan at the frozen Geneva Lake

Me, sporting my Happy Birthday to me-new 'do!

Still testing the new software...

Our little bathing beauty

The "bunking beds" that Nolan enjoyed during our trip to the Dells in January...more about that later I guess.

The 5 Highlights of November 2009

Here's my quick Five point photo based recap of November:

First: Batman and Iron Man still reign supreme in our house-even when we're feeding the missionaries.

Second: Audrey has now turned 7 months and starts teething on everything...that first tooth finally popped in on November 14th. The next one was a week later.

Third: We had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving dinner hosted by Katie & Ricky Irion, and enjoyed spending the afternoon with Chelsea & Matt Rowan, and Jenny & Richard Leake...and all of our children who mostly spent the time playing in their bless-ed basement! :)

Fourth: The influence of having mostly little girls his age finally overcame Nolan and he happily experienced the joy of being a Princess with the girls for a change. This made Kenny squirm quite a bit, but I just laughed and encouraged it-why should the girls have all of the dress up fun? Besides, the other 29 days of the month he spent in his Batman, Buzz Lightyear, Train conductor, or ninja costume-I think he'll be okay.

Fifth:The rest of the month was spent anticipating, preparing and waiting for Christmas vacation to begin! Hooray! Utah and Washington here we come!