Christmas Season

I can't believe it is almost Christmas! This month has gone by so fast, I am afraid I won't be getting Christmas cards out this year, but I am going to try and do this for Valentine's. A bit of a catch up on what we have done (if I can remember).

Kevin took Roc and Ella up to get the tree this year, Callie and I stayed home. I like going but thought it would be better if Callie stayed in a warm house. Our pastor and his son (roc's best bud) joined Kevin. They went one Saturday on a bit of a time crunch and came back empty handed, but then went the next weekend and got us one.

When they got home Kevin and Ella headed to the nutcracker. Since Ella loves ballet we thought it would be fun for her to see one, so I figured it would be a good daddy-daughter date. Josh and Sadie joined them and the girls had a great time. They got to see real reindeer before and that was fun for Ella. I mentioned make sure you get your coat but somehow she left without it, so she does look a bit cold in these pictures, but had fun nonetheless. The girls had fun dancing in the aisle during some of the show. Kevin called early enough and got the front row in the first balcony So not super expensive tickets, but not so far away that they wouldn't be able to see.

Since Kevin works for the city he had the opportunity to ride in the City Bus light parade. So Roc, Ella and Kevin headed down to do this only to discover they were an hour late, They still got to check out the bus at the end but missed the parade. So Kevin drove then around to look at lights and discovered a live nativity at the Adventist church, It had actually camels and everything and Ella told me she saw the real baby Jesus. She also mentioned that it was a bit scary! I did not know about this particular live nativity, so plan to check it out next year. So since they missed out on the city light parade, they got to ride in the city but that was in Union Gap's light parade. I think they had fun. Next year Callie and I will be joining them.

Ella had a mini class recital for her dance class. It was not like the Spring recital with all the classes, but just her class with a few dances and showing what they were learning in class, then a gift exchange. She had a great time and did a great job!

Today our church had their Christmas program. Roc got to be in it and they learned the motions to Away in the Manger. Unfortunately my pictures did not turn out that great. Ella had fun,but spent most her time on stage looking around at the other kids and the people in the nativity scene. Roc did not do the motions but he still looked cute up on stage.

Ella has really been wanting to make a snow angel, so the morning after a big snowfall she and Roc headed out, they only lasted a few minutes but they did have fun making the angles.

Tomorrow I am having a small cookie decorating party for Ella, I thought it would be fun to do this but wasn't sure if I could handle it with tons of kiddos so she is only having her pre-school buddy and sister and Sadie come. Should be fun.

I definitely think Christmas is more fun when you have kiddos. Roc is old enough this year to understand ti more and it should be a good year for him, I am hoping he will not be sick, since this poor kiddo has been sick for his first two Christmas's. Ella is getting excited for Santa to come. She has seen a few Santa's but has declared to me that they were not the real Santa. just the pretend ones. Ahh too cute! She wants to leave him cookies this year so we will be doing this.

ok this is getting a bit long so I will just close with some pictures from the aforementioned events. I haven't uploaded my pictures from today, so I will get those posted here later.

Catch up

Once again I am having a hard time keeping this updated. My kiddos are keeping me very busy. As I said to Stella the other day, I was NEVER late until I had kids! I also always had a clean house! It bugs me that I can't keep my house clean like I like, but I know that the day where I am not tripping over toys will come all too soon and I will miss it! I basically keep up on the maintenance (dishes, laundry, quick pick up of clutter, etc.), but have a hard time getting the deeper cleaning done. Stella keeps promising to come and be my personal assistance, but I just can't seem to get her over here and to commit to this! Anyway enough of that.... Roc has now had enough of naps. I was hoping this would mean he would finally sleep in past 6:30 but so far not luck with that! He seems to make it fine through the day-not anymore grumpy than usual so, so far it has been ok. Callie has also decided that she wants to be in on the action all day too so she does not nap for me either, but she is such a sweet, happy, content little girl I am not really pushing it either, but by 6 she is ready for bed, we hold out till 7 and she is such a great little sleeper-usually sleeping till 9ish in the am-no waking up for a feeding either(she has actually done this for quite a while now)! (however this am it was 6:30-so I hope this was a one-time deal) I love it though-as I woke up with both Ella andRoc till they were a year. Callie and Ella are sharing a room and so far so good on that too.
Ella is having fun with pre-school and I am impressed on how she is doing. She has a great teacher and it is fun to see her learn to write her letters and numbers. She is also still enjoying dance class and having lots of fun going to Cubbies with Sadie!
Roc is really into trucks of all kinds still and puzzles. He does a great job of putting these 25 piece puzzles together, something I know Ella was not doing at this age. I got two of Drew's old truck books from my Dad and he has a great time looking at theses and learning the names of all the different kinds there all. Diggers are an all time favorite. Ella and Roc also have fun looking for American Flags when we are driving. This started because on Veteran's Day I was taking them to get their H1N1 vaccines and Ella kept asking where we were going, so to avoid answering her (till we got there) I said let's see how many American Flags we can find. So know when we are driving they search for these.
Callie had her four month appointment last week-I will do a separate post for this as I want to post some pictures and videos of her, but they are on my other computer.... but it is so cute because she has discovered her thumb and has been sucking in this lately. She really goes to town. I got some cute videos of this. Also Kevin was watching some other videos of her with her and she started to laugh at it-It was so cute. She is really such a happy laid back baby-she really is fun. She wakes up happy every morning. When I go into get her (usually Roc comes with me) She just smiles and smiles at us.
Well enough rambling-hopefully tomorrow I will post some pictures of Callie at four months!

Halloween

Callie and I stayed home and watched scary movies and Kevin, Ella and Roc went to a carnival at West Valley Church. I am not too into Halloween and buying costumes, but since Ella recently acquired a Snow White outfit (a nice gift for her for all the pain she endured at the dentist) she wore that and I dressed Roc up as a husky fan. Of course Callie was Eeyore, a costume I actually did buy when Ella was a baby, so I had to dress Callie in it since both Ella and Roc wore had worn it. I kinda like the idea of the carnival, the kiddos had a great time and you don't have to worry about what might be in the candy they are getting or walk around in the cold. I think this may become a nice tradition We did not get one trick or treater, which does not really surprise me, beings that we don't really live in a neighborhood. I did not get any pictures of Ella as she was hanging out with Sadie and did some trick or treating earlier with her, but here are some cute shots of Roc and Ella.

Well I know that I have been a major slacker here on the blog but don't really have much to say really. Pretty much just usual life around here these days. So I will just give an update on my kiddos.

Callie continues to be a very easy going baby. For the most part she is sleeping a good 12-13 hours at night and only waking up once, sometimes twice, to eat. She is pretty good about going back to bed after eating too. It is nice. I do hold her a bit after I feed her at night just to make sure she is good and asleep though. She loves to smile and coo a lot. It is so cute. I attempt to get this on video, but she tends to stop as soon as I get the camera going. I realized that when I am recording there is a red flashing light so I think she notices that and focus on that instead of her smiling and cooing! She really is a great baby and I am enjoying her. I remember stressing about how I would be able to handle three little ones before she was born, but so far so good. I think since I know she is my last baby I am just enjoying it more knowing I will not be doing this again. Also I am pretty sure God knew I needed this or I would go insane!! ha ha.

These days Roc still loves to help me in the kitchen and loves to play with cars, balls, puzzles, etc. He also loves trucks, tractors, diggers, cop cars, motorcycles, etc and we find as many as we can while driving or looking at the road below us. He also has decided that it is fun to tease Ella and gets her going every time...But he does love his sisters and loves to kiss Callie. This morning he was rubbing Ella's arm (which she did not like) but then declared I love you Ella. He can be such a sweet boy. He is also a pretty good helper at cleaning up toys and he loves to help me unload the dishwasher and vacuum. He went fishing with Kev the other day. I was a bit nervous about this so Kevin had him wear a life jacket and also tied a rope around him and himself so he was safe. He did have a great time doing this. He is totally talking now, and has been, but now it is really clear and he speaks in sentences. He also can count to 100 and recite the alphabet backwards. I am amazed at his abilities.

Ella is still in dance but she is also doing AWANA cubbies with her cousin Sadie, and is loving it. I also take her to my friend Katie's house one day a week for pre-school. Ella and her daughter are friends and will hopefully be going to the same school next year. Ella loves doing this and I am so glad Katie is willing! I am wondering is she will be ambidextrous (sp?), as she tends to use both hands when writing. Katie told me last week that she wrote with one had on one side of the page and then switched to the other as she moved across. So we will see where this goes...Ella recently got to go on a trip with my mom to visit the Hoefers in ID. They flew there, so I was a bit nervous about that-but the plane did not crash and Ella had a great time. She did not want to talk to me on the phone while she was there, but told me when she got home that she was having too much fun to stop and talk on the phone. For more details of this trip check out this.

Well that is the news for now. I do have a few cute pics of Callie so once I get those uploaded I will post them for you viewing enjoyment.

My littlest jewel.

Newborn Photos of Callie Jade

ok I think most of my blog readers have facebook, but just in case you don't I want to show off the beautiful pictures Hannah took of Callie. She was just about a week old (and due to technical difficulities I just got them :)) Anyway go here to view them. Hannah did a great job and I know I am not biased when I say this but Callies is the most beautifly baby I know!!!! Now I just need to pick my favorites to put in my collage frame.

Oregon Coast Vacation 2009

Last Wednesday we headed out for a few days down on the Oregon Coast. I was not sure how travelling with three little ones would go (especially a newborn) but it actually went pretty well. The kiddos did fairly ok in the car on the way there-however by the time we got there I was relieved to get out of the car! Callie actually did really well on the way there-coming home-a different story!
We stayed down in the Depot Bay area for the first three nights and had a great view from our room-we actually even saw lots of whales in the water-this is something I have really always wanted to see and finally got to! We pretty much just spent time at the beach, letting the kiddos dig in the sand and playing at the resort pools. We had really good weather too, which was great. Friday night Rachael met us and spent the rest of the weekend with us. She is always fun to hang out with and the kiddos enjoy playing and being with her. Saturday we headed up to Seaside and on the way stopped at the famous Tillamook Cheese Factory. The highlight of that of course was the ice cream. My favorite is Black Licorice-Yum Yum. It is white in color and has a fairly mild flavor, but is delicious. So good in fact Roc traded me his bubble gum cone for mine. Being the loving mother that I am I let him do this-but he did not finish it so I did get some! I wish they sold this flavor in the stores!
Saturday night we spent at Seaside, while the beach was really nice, it was just too busy for me. I like the Depot Bay/Lincoln City area much more. Sunday the kiddos played on the beach a bit more then we headed to Washington Square for a little bit and then headed home.
I have posted my pictures here on facebook if you want to take a look. All in all we had a good time and it was really nice to get away for a while.

Callie's Two Month Appointment

Callie had her two month appointment today (not officially two months till tomorrow). She weighed 13 lbs, 23.5 in length, and 15.75 head circumference. She is in the 95th percentile for all her stats! What a little chunk. I want to compare Ella and Callie at the same age, but for some reason I don't have Ella's stats on hand-so I am going to try and get these at our next appointment.
So far Callie seems to be pretty mellow-she sleeps a ton (Dr. said that was ok -he said babies that are growing a lot sleep a lot-and she does seem to be growing a lot!), she is cooing more and more each day and smiles a lot too. She does seem to have a bit of a flare for the dramatic though. She will go from not crying to screaming, not much in between. It is kinda funny. She actually does not cry that much and is easily comforted when she does. She is way better at driving in the car than the others-she tends to just fall asleep-which is great. Ella is my helper in the car and will pat her tummy if she does start to get upset.
I can't believe my little baby is already two months! Time does go by fast. She is so precious and cute! I love her so much.
I am going to have my sister Hannah do a two month photo shoot of her with the other two kiddos-so once those are done I will post some pictures.

Huskies Littlest Cheerleader!

I tried to get Callie to happily pose for some pictures in her cheerleading outfit. She was a bit grumpy so we will try again later-but here is what we got for now. And of course a few of Ella-Roc was with Grandma at the time so that is why is he not in the shots!

My Littlest Ballerina

One of my friends from Kansas sent the girlies tutus-I was able to get Callie's to post in hers for a few minutes-isn't she precious!

Back into the Swing of Things

Well I think I am finally getting back to normal life-other than sleep of course. Callie actually doesn't do too bad at night, but she does like to be held to sleep at night more than in the day-not sure why. I actually think adjusting from two to three is way easier than one to two-for me anyway! She will be one month on Sunday-wow! I have braved the doctor (Callie's two week) and dentist with all three in two-but have yet to brave the grocery store with all three! Ella and Roc both had their four and two checkups last week My mom came with me which helped a ton! Also I have been using a sling for Callie-which is extremely helpful. Ella is in normal height (39.75 in) and weight(34.4 lbs) range, but Roc is still in only the 10th percentile for weight (25.2 lbs now!) but is normal for height (33.5 in). Today was Ella's follow up dentist appointment so I also scheduled Roc for his first. He did great! I am still lacking in the picture department but did get some shots of Ella (she wanted me to take pictures of her doing different poses in her new dress). I think she is quite cute.
I can't believe summer is about over-Roc and Ella got to spend a lot of time at my parents pool swimming and Roc actually was quite brave. He loved to jump from the stairs to someone and would not always wait till we were ready so we really had to watch him. He also got brave last weekend and jumped off the diving board to Kevin. Once he did it once he thought it was great and would jump, get out, run to the board and do it again and again! Of course I never had my camera so did not get to capture this. If we go swimming this weekend I will be sure to bring my camera!
Oh and one more thing just in case you did not know. The reason we named Callie -Callie Jade is Ella is Ella Ruby and Roc is Joseph Roc-so we thought another "stone" would be perfect for our new little princess. Now we have a Ruby a Roc and a Jade!

Life these days

So far so good around here. The kiddos really do love their new sister. They love to give her lots of kisses and hugs! We are working with Roc on being gentle with her and he is doing pretty good. Callie is doing pretty well at night-only waking up every few hours-so hopefully that will continue-She sleeps really well in the bouncy seat so that is where I put her at night. I have yet to brave the grocery store by myself with three kiddos-but did manage to get to her two week checkup and Ella and Roc were very good-so that made it very easy! Callie had already gained a pound and is in the 95th percentile for height, weight and head circumference!
My wonderful church family and sister in law Katie provided us with dinner for a whole week and this made my life so much easier and I am so thankful for all of them!
Hannah came over and did a new born photo shoot of just Callie and is going to do one of all three soon. I am excited for that. I have not looked at the pictures yet as my computer screen does not work (basically it is just very dark-i am debating over getting a new monitor or a whole new computer)-but I am sure they are great.
I am realizing I have not taken many pictures of Callie-but here is a cute one of her peacefully sleeping in the swing-as both Ella and Roc are gone now so can't bother her !! ha ha. And one of my two little girls!

Miss Callie Jade

ok I know this has taken me a while but I have been a little preoccupied-in a good way of course. We are so excited that Callie Jade is here and she is a healthy little girl. I thank the Lord for the miracle of this precious little girl and the safety of her delivery. Ella was right-after all Jesus did tell her it was a girl. I was induced on Thursday and was expecting it to go pretty fast but it actually took longer than I thought but it still went pretty well. As she was coming out Kevin, my Doctor and the Student doctor all were saying the face looked like a boy and it seemed forever for them to turn her over and declare she was a girl. I was thrilled. She has dark hair and it is mostly on the back of her head. Not sure if it will stay dark or not. She weighed in at 8 lbs 9.6 oz. 21.5 inches, 14.25 head and was born at 5:16 pm. I calculated the contest results (hopefully correctly) and there were actually three winners: Kaitlen, Katie F and Janette. I will contact you regarding your prize. Ella was pretty convinced that her name was Dora and actually told me that her name was not Callie but Dora, then she heard me tell someone her name was Callie and she said no it is Dora. However after leaving the hospital she and Rachael were talking and she called her Callie and called her Callie the next day-so we have made it through that little confusion! My sister Rachael took care of the kiddos for me and was a ton of help and I am so thankful to her for that. Hannah also came in right after Callie was born and took pictures. I have yet to see them and am excited too-for now these are the unprofessional ones that we took :) Check them out here. Ella and Roc are both doing pretty well and really do love Callie. They love to kiss her, look at her and hold her. (you may have already seen some on Kevin's facebook) Roc got her going pretty fast in the swing and the bouncy seat so we are working on that!
Well that is it for now-Callie likes to keep me up at night so I need to get all the rest I can get when I can get it!

Contest Info

Well Thursday is getting closer and closer! You still have time to enter if you want and the contest does not officially close till Thursday morning (early) or when I actually head to the hospital-whichever is sooner. This is how I will be determining the winner. If you are the closest answer to stat you get a point. If you hit it right on the mark you get three points (although sex is only worth two). If you are correct on the name that is worth five-since it was a bonus stat. The person with the most points in the end wins! Anyone who changes their answers is officially disqualified (Kevin...) ha ha-that was for you Raquele.

Roc is Two!!

Today my sweet little boy turned two. I can't believe it! What a precious boy he is to us! We started out his celebrations by doing a combo little party for Ella and him with my Grandma Ruby and parents last week (and Uncle Mike made an appearance-thank you!). Grandma Ruby loves a party so I thought it would be fun to have her over for some cake to celebrate. The kiddos had fun opening their gifts from my parents and Grandma Ruby and eating cake. Then today I had Roc's party. We had the cousins over and also his little buddy, Ian, from church. The kids had a great time and he got some fun gifts. Roc is a little fast and blew out his candles before we sang and before I was ready to take a picture so we had a re-do (this happened at both his party's) so he has gotten to blow out plenty of candles. He has been saying Birthday Party a lot and mainly connecting it with Ella, but I was finally able to convince him that today the party was just for him. Tonight we have him is gift from us-A baseball hitting game. He and Ella had fun giving it a try tonight-with Kevin's help of course.
Roc also had fun helping me make his cupcakes yesterday and kept saying birthday party while we were making them. Cute. He actually got a chef outfit and cake mix from his friend Ian, since his mama knows that Roc is an aspiring chef-so we will be sure to be having more fun in the kitchen! Thanks to all who came to his party's and made is birthday more special.
Rather than just a pick a few pictures I am just going to post them on facebook. If you don't have facebook just go here to view.

Baby Guessing Contest

I thought it would be kinda fun to have a contest about the baby-especially since we don't know the sex. We are just about two and a half weeks away from due date-so now is the time to start guessing. Just leave me a comment-on this blog- with your guesses to the following stats and the closest one will be the winner. (if you are not a registered blogger just do an anonymous comment and leave your name so I know who you are) This contest is open to all who read my blog-but one entry per person-and it open till we head to the hospital. Also just to be fair to everyone, as I have told some people, my doctor plans to induce me on the 23rd if I am ready-but you never know...

Sex:
Date of birth:
Time of birth:
Length:
Weight:
Head Circumference:
Bonus Stat: The Name!

So have some fun and start guessing!

More of Ella's birthday

Ella had a great time at her first sleepover-they managed to sleep through the night after falling asleep around 9:30, but were up at 6 am-needless to say Ella was wiped out. A few weeks ago her Aunt Connie (my SIL) came for a visit and gave Ella a Tinkerbell cooler. When she opened it I said oh that is a cute suitcase. So even though it isn't Ella thinks it is and has had it packed for this sleepover ever since. She also made sure this doll Aunt Connie gave her was in it (you will see it in the pictures on my sisters blog. I thought that was pretty cute. (for pictures and details go here to my sister's blog) She slept almost the entire way back from Ellensburg, but woke up the second I pulled into the garage. She lost it a bit, but finally fell back asleep on my bed for a few hours. We then went to Red Robin for dinner. She was still a bit tired but managed to have fun-and was thrilled to see the bird and get a sundae. We met up with my parents and Rach/Rogeilo and Rogeilo's sister so it was fun. Ella got some really cool water toys at her party and we pulled one out this evening. It is a whale/sprinkler toy. They had fun running and playing on it.

Ella's Birthday

My precious little girl turned four on Friday. I can't believe it!! My mom recently discovered that Stop and Go has really good big soft serve ice cream. So Friday afternoon she, my grandma, Hannah, Emmett, Ella, Roc and I went there for a cone for Ella's birthday. They have a great shaded grassy area with picnic tables so it was fun for the kiddos to run around and eat and we could sit and enjoy our cone. Then when Kevin got home from work Ella opened her gifts from us. Today was her party and it was a great time. She invited her cousins and some friends (and mom's) from church. Auntie Rach and her fiancee and sister also came. There was also a special surprise visit from Strawberry Shortcake herself. A few years ago my friend Stella made a Strawberry Shortcake costume for Halloween so I thought it would be fun to borrow this and Hannah graciously said she would be honored to fill the role. She did a great job and all the girls got to have a picture with her. I am going to develop them and have Strawberry Shortcake autograph them so each girl will get their own picture. Now Ella is at her first sleepover ever. She went up to spend the night in Ellensburg with her cousins. She was thrilled about this. I am only slightly nervous, but she is in good hands I know. I just hope she sleeps ok. Tomorrow we are taking Ella to her birthday dinner at Red Robin (or as she sometimes calls it McRobins). We took her last year and the RR bird just happened to be there and Ella has talked about it ever since. So we are going on Tuesday as the bird is there Tuesdays and Thursdays. Plus she is signed up with them so she gets a free meal! Yeah! Here are a few pictures from her gift opening and party.