6 on 12-12-12

Aja is now 6 months old!

She is not crawling and she can only sit by herself for short periods of time.

She LOVES food. If you eat in front of her you better believe she is going to get upset if you aren't willing to share.

She still sleeps 10-12 hour stretches every night.

She is undeniably attached to me... so much so that if she is with someone else and she sees me she will start hollering for me to come get her.

She gets the most excited to see Devin. The biggest smile will come across her face when he walks in the room, and he will get the most giggles from her for doing absolutely nothing.

She is the happiest and easiest baby I have ever met! Her squeals of delight and big smile every morning is one of the perfect reminders of why I get myself up every morning.

The Frog Prince

The other night I went to tuck Devin in before going to bed and I found him like this:

It was too cute not to take a picture.

Look what I am learning to do...

Wishing and Hoping and Praying

for Christmas.

Considering my kids were being EXTREMELY uncooperative, I will call the Christmas card photo shoot somewhat of a success.

Aja is 5 Months

She's growing up too fast too!

She has the most amazing blue eyes.

She also almost always has a smile on her face, which is why the above picture makes me laugh.

She is really into doing this lately:

Which I know doesn't mean she is going to crawl soon but makes me want to stop her from growing up so fast!

And Ally turns Eleven

Oh, how did this day come? Why can't I keep her frozen at the age of 5 for the rest of her life?

This year has brought a lot of changes in her. She's so much more grown up. She is an amazing babysitter and her brother and sister adore her.

Her favorite look that sums her up about every day: a pair of skinny jeans, an aeropostle shirt covered by an aeropostle hoodie, a pair of converse shoes and her hair in a pony tail... yep, that's what she looks like every day. She's not sparkly or pink or girly... she's Ally. I love that she has her own style and is comfortable in her own skin... even if I do try and convince her to be a little sparkly. :o)

Elder Cameron Pickle

So, as I said our Halloween didn't end there. You see, my nephew Cameron has been waiting for his mission papers... and wouldn't you know it, he got them on Halloween.

He was going to open them that night at 8:30, and there was no way I was going to miss that!

So we packed up the kids and drove 45 minutes to Salt Lake to see where the Lord intended for this brand new missionary to go.

My guess was Chile.
Alex guessed South Africa.
Ally guessed China.
Devin guessed his favorite place on earth... Disneyland.

He immediately opened his packet and announced he would be leaving in January to Resistencia, Argentina. It was a beautiful moment.

He is the oldest and since my sister was at our house all the time with him I have the most memories of him growing up... before I got obsessed with my own life. I still remember taking him for walks in the old, ugly stroller of my parents... and I remember one time the sprinklers came on while we were walking by, he may have got 2 or 3 drops on him but he started crying and I immediately picked him up and pushed the stroller back to the house with him in my arms. He immediately stopped crying when I picked him up, and it was the first time I knew what it was like to provide that kind of comfort.

He's not little any more... infact, he's a lot taller than me. And Cam, if you are reading this I love you... and I can't wait for you to head out to Argentina and provide all those people with the kind of comfort only the Lord can bring them. I am so proud of you!

Halloween 2012

This year, Halloween was a little chaotic... but always fun!

Ally was determined in her costume choice. She wanted to be Catniss from the Hunger Games trilogy.

I have to admit that Alex and I both tried to talk her out of it, but once Ally makes up her mind at anything, it is pretty much impossible to get her to change her mind.

First thing we had to run over to Ally's school to see the Halloween parade. Devin enjoyed running around in his costume until the kids came through.

Then we had to run like crazy to get Devin to preschool on time... we were just a little late, but oh well.

He was determined for a long time to be Mario for Halloween. We waited and waited making sure that is what he wanted. We finally bought the costume and guess what? Of course he changed his mind and wanted to be Lightening McQueen. I'm not one of those moms that let their kids change costumes though... so he could wear Mario or just go in regular clothes.

Aja was the cutest little ladybug there ever was!

Alex and I have never dressed up before, but this year we decided to. We were pirates together.

The kids went trick-or-treating for a couple of hours... but our night wasn't over quite yet. But that deserves a whole new post on it's own...

Failure

This is going to be one of those brutally honest posts where I tell you how much I have failed at everything lately.

I will admit, I don't always suck, but this week... I suck.

Ally's birthday is this weekend... it's a magical, exceptional, fantastic day that I love to celebrate... except when you forget the little details. Right after school today Ally asked me what time I am bringing her birthday treat to school tommorrow... um... "remind me what you wanted again?"... "oh yeah, that's right chocolate cupcakes". And in my mind I am thinking, "Oh crap, I forgot and how am I ever going to get a grocery store to make me 30 chocolate cupcakes by tonight so she can take them to school with her tomorrow morning???" So much for the cool mom that always does something special for her special daughter. Failure.

Both of my youngest are STILL in the pj's they slept in last night at 3 pm and now it's not even worth changing them. Failure.

It's parent/teacher conferences tonight and I forgot, so Alex is coming home early from work to help me out, since I spaced getting a babysitter. Failure.

Threw the ingredients in the bread maker so we would have homemade bread tonight with our dinner... totally spaced turning it on and it won't make it in time for dinner. Failure.

Spaced paying for Devin's preschool this month... but luckily his teacher is sweet and didn't charge the late fee. Failure.

Totally forgot about planning a fun activity for Family Home Evening... actually totally forgot about FHE all together. Failure.

Did I ever mention I am in young women's at church?... totally spaced the activity this week on Tuesday night. Failure.

I still have to find one amazing, incredible birthday present for Ally that is in an incredibly hard stage right now and I haven't got a clue... too old for toys... too young for clothes and make-up. Failure.

Devin had an apple and Halloween candy for lunch today. Failure.

Let's not even mention how messy my 2 upstairs bathrooms are... or the gigantic piles of laundry that I have yet to sort through...

Seriously, the list could go on and on, but let's just notice the reoccuring thing of forgetfullness and FAILURE. I wish I could totally blame it on the fact that I have a new baby, but I can't... she's too easy and good to blame anything on. This one's all on me.

So, time to tackle all of these failures... or call it a complete loss, lock myself in the bedroom and read a book I have been dying to open???... so, wish it was that simple... but nope, time to tackle the failure list...

Anyone know how I can get on top of things!???

Aja is Four (and a half) Months

Today, Aja had her 4 month appointment and got her 4 month shots. She may be the third child but it still breaks my heart when they have to get shots.

She weighs 13.5 lbs and is 25 inches long... just like the other two, tall and skinny.
She is still wearing size 0-3 Months in clothes, and is in size 1 diapers... but after this last pack I will move her up into 2's... not because the 1's don't fit her, but because I have a whole bunch of size 2's and I don't want to buy any more 1's.

She still can not roll over or sit unassisted, but she is always full of smiles and my favorite thing is; she has learned to laugh this past month. My kids love to do whatever they can to make her giggle... okay and me too! I love that sound!

We let her try cereal this past week.

She was definitely not a fan!!!

Luckily, Devin thought she was hilarious spitting it back out and laughed at her... any time he is willing to pay attention to her, makes her day!

About 6 weeks ago she was diagonosed with pretty severe reflux and given meds for it. She isn't your typical reflux baby though, most of them cry all the time and are always in pain. She is extrememly mellow and happy, which I like to think means she is not pain. She spits up multiple times after every meal. The worst part is she constantly spits up in her sleep, which wakes her up because let's face it, who wants to sleep in a pile of vomit? Luckily it doesn't effect her sleeping at night (she still sleeps 10-12 hours straight every night! YAY!!!) but every single nap during the day is usually shortened because of it. She takes it all in stride and while the meds have helped a little, she still struggles all the time with it. The hardest part is that cute long hair! It would be so much easier to clean her up after a nap if she was bald... of course a 4-month-old with a pony tail on top of her head is just to cute!!!

Sea World and San Diego

This last week we went to Sand Diego for Fall Break. We invited our friends, the Leishman's, to go with us. We had a great time!

We drove Tuesday night and stayed in Las Vegas that night. It reminded me why I don't really like Vegas that much.

The next day we drove to San Diego and the next day we headed to Sea World! It was supposed to rain that day which made it good and bad. Bad because it rained, but good because everyone else avoided going there and it was empty!

First we headed straight to the dolphins. The kids got to pet them and they loved it!

Petting the rays was pretty cool too!

Next the best part happened. Like I said, the place was pretty empty so when we were walking by the sea lion show one of the actors asked if we would like to come back and pet a sea otter. OF COURSE!!!

It was fun to see this same girl holding the otter in the play later on.

Next was the shark aquarium.

It was all decked out for Halloween which made it Devin and Karter's favorite place.

We bought some fish so the kids could feed the sea lions. One of the sea lions would screech every time someone would hold up a fish. Needless to say he was a well fed sea lion!

Next we headed to the Shamu show. I've been to Sea World enough times to know to bring a poncho so you don't get wet when they spray you... only we didn't get drenched by the whales... this was the time it started to rain... no rain is too mild a word, it POURED!!!

We did a few more things:

But then it started to pour again and we packed it up to come back the next day. Looking back I wish we would ahve stayed when it was empty!

The next day we headed back to Sea World for some more fun.

We went to the Sea Lion Spooktacular.

I told Devin it was going to be spooooky:

The sea lion show as the kids favorite. Ally told me she is going to be trainer at Sea World when she grows up... yep, I remember thinking that exact thing at her age when my parents brought me.

Are final day there we went to Silverstrand Beach.

It was so windy, Aja had to stay in her car seat and miss out on putting her toes in the warm sand.

After that I put her in the sling and she took an hour nap while I looked for sea shells while she slept. She was SO amazing with all the craziness of this vacation... of course, that's how she always is.

We had so much fun and we love going with the Leishman's!!!