What the Hall?!

Jillian's School Progress

2012-02-08T12:00:00.001-08:00

Last week, I attended the annual meeting for Jilly's IEP. This year was slightly different than the past couple, because she will be going to Kindergarten in the fall and the IEP needed to reflect that. It was a great meeting, all of the observations by her teachers were right on track with what Steve and I have noticed about her. I feel very good about the plan for her for next year.

For the past almost two years, she has been in a self-contained preschool program at a local elementary school (though not our 'neighborhood' school), receiving help in Social/Emotional, Communication, and Gross Motor areas. To give some perspective, when Jilly started the program, at 3 years old, she was speaking in 2-3 word sentences, could not jump, and never objected to another kid stealing a toy from her or hurting her. Now, at 5 years old, Jilly has met every goal set for her and exceeded several of them. In the Social/Emotional area, she can now identify her own emotions and those of others. She's become more assertive and taking ownership of her possessions, which is leading to using words when in a conflict with another child. In Communication, Jilly has progressed amazingly. Now she is able to answer Who, What, Where, and Why questions with 100% accuracy; she understands pronouns and prepositions; colors, shapes, etc. She maintains eye contact and and greets people appropriately. Also, she can make requests, ask questions, and has a great vocabulary. Her SLP told us how when she evaluated Jilly, Jilly used pictures of people in a classroom to narrate a very detailed story, with dialogue and everything. It was fun, because the girl is always talking and telling stories like that! In Gross Motor, she can now go up stairs alternating feet and not holding a rail. She can jump forward about 12-14 inches with feet together, jump down from about 18 inches high and jump independently on a trampoline. She can walk on the balance beam with one foot in front of the other (which she demonstrates for me on the way back up the hill from the bus stop, using the curb). She is learning to catch a ball, throw it overhand, and kick. If you saw her two years ago, this progress is just astounding.

While Jillian has made super duper progress, she still has a bit farther to go. So the IEP set new goals for the next year. There are 5 listed on the IEP paperwork.

Communication: When given structured group work and/or play activities Jillian will appropriately interact with her peers by using eye contact, asking questions/requests, and making comments improving expressive and pragmatic language from >50% of the time to 90% of the time.
Social/Emotional/Behavioral: When given the opportunity to appropriately resolve conflict Jillian will select an appropriate strategy (claiming & defending possessions, use simple strategy, and negotiating) improving her social skills from walking away and finding something else to resolving conflicts, using her words to claim and defend her possessions, and to negotiate.
Social/Emotional/Behavioral: When given free-choice time and it is time to clean up Jillian will respond to the request (time to clean up) improving her social skills from needing to be reminded, and helped to follow directions 50% of the time to responding appropriately (end playing and clean up independently) 90% of the time.
Social/Emotional/Behavioral: When given unstructured, child-directed, free-choice time Jillian will establish and maintain proximity with her peers who are playing in the same area improving her social skills from solitary play 80% of the time to establishing and maintaining proximity with her peers 75% of the time.
Social/Gross Motor: When given physical activities at recess and in the PE/motor room Jillian will increase her skills for balance activities and ball handling improving participation from needing verbal cues to participate 85% in all skills to needing no cues to participate 85-100% in all skills.

As you see, Jilly's main delay now lies in Social, not Communication. I think she will probably always be a more solitary girl; she's an introvert (she gets that from her dad). But she needs to be able to engage in conflict resolution and be able to defend herself, as well as at least be comfortable working with others and initiating that contact. Her Communication goal goes right along with her Social goals. It may seem kind of silly, or trivial, to have a goal about 'clean up time', but I will tell you this is a big struggle with Jilly. She almost never wants to clean up and often refuses to do any measure of it, even after repeated requests, demands, threats, etc, and will need someone to physically take her hand, pick up a toy, and put it in the right box. Her little brother is much better about this than she is. It goes beyond the typical willful young child resisting the end of playtime. So it was a bit of a relief for me to at least hear that it is an issue at school and something her teacher wants her to work on. Her teacher told me, she will be trying to work with Jilly one-on-one, daily, with this.

The rest of this school year will continue with her therapies the same as they have been the past two years. Most of the work is done in the classroom, with going to the motor/PE room once or twice a week. But once she starts Kindergarten, this will change a bit. Her teacher said that Jilly is definitely ready for a General Education classroom, meaning she'll no longer have to be in a separate Special Education classroom. She will be in a normal class with typical kids her own age. Academically, Jilly is soooooo ready for Kindergarten; she can read easily and is starting basic math. But she does still need some extra help. This means she'll be in the regular classroom full time, but with “pull-outs” for her therapies. The way it breaks down is Gen-Ed for about 80% of the time and the rest for her Special-Ed needs. She'll continue to have Speech & Language Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Social/Emotional/Behavioral therapy. I will register her as normal at her 'home' school next month, and then in April, her preschool teacher will get in touch with that school and hopefully we'll be able to get her teacher assigned this spring, meet them, and ease the transition into Kindergarten in the fall.

Overall, I am happy with this plan. After the Parent-Teacher Conference back in the fall, I had wondered if getting Jilly into a Special-Ed Kindergarten class would be the better choice for her. But hearing this plan, I feel like the Gen-Ed class is better. Jilly is far enough along in her progress and development, that I think being around 'typical' kids will do more to push her and encourage her, rather than making her fall behind more. I think she will thrive in the Gen-Ed setting. We have ZERO worries about her cognitively/academically, which is why I feel Gen-Ed is the best. She will get a little extra support and help with her social, language, and gross motor skills, and have lots of time to practice those skills with her peers. She is due for her next full evaluation in March 2013 (a year from now). If she continues to make progress at this rate, she might even be done with extra services and be 100% mainstream/Gen-Ed. We'll see how her progress goes over the next year. But in the meantime...

Jillian is Kindergarten bound!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-26T12:10:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family! We hope this past year has been an exciting one for you. Here is what our little family has been up to.

Jillian is now 5 years old! She started her final year of preschool this fall (she's been in preschool for a year and a half now) and has made some amazing progress. Her speech and vocabulary are spectacular and it's a delight to hear all about her imagination. She got her first haircut in January and another one in July. She loves having "fancy hair" and is usually patient enough with me. In July, she got to spend a few days at Lake Chelan with Granny, Grampa, Auntie Katie and Uncle Andy. Right around her birthday in November, she started reading! She loves to do art projects, especially with Granny, and is adept with several different mediums. She has grown about 4 inches in the last year, but hasn't put on any weight, so she's quite the slender girl nowadays. It's surprising to a lot of people, because she was such a chubby baby. She really has become a beautiful girl, inside and out.

Jason turned 2 in June and is soooo very two years old. He is crazy verbal, talking and teasing us all the time. He really loves to be silly and tease. He is strong, both physically and mentally. This kid has a will of his own and makes sure everyone knows it! He is very active, running, climbing, yelling, driving his cars all over, wrestling, and more. He has been an adorable big brother with Kayla. He gets very concerned about her if she's upset, wants to be with her when she wakes up and all together just loves her to pieces. He is very much a Mama's Boy, and prefers to be with me over anyone else, but he's warmed up to others quite a bit over last year. He even got to have a sleepover at Granny & Grampa's a couple weeks before Ducky was born; lucky dude. We gave potty training a try in August and he wasn't completely ready for it, but he still uses the toilet a couple times a day. We'll try again in a couple months. He can be a handful, but he really is a tenderhearted little boy with charm to spare.

Our newest addition, Kayla, arrived in June, blazing her own trail. She is an incredibly sweet and almost unbelievably happy baby. If you haven't heard about her birth, you should totally read this. You can't stop this girl!! She has her own timetable and it doesn't matter what you want, she's doing it her way. She has done great with nursing and actually is the first of our kids to make it to 4 months without needing to use formula. Since we're separated so much less, she's been able to be 100% breastfed (or at least, had breast milk; she's had some in bottles when I was at work or away for the evening). She got her first tooth at 4 1/2 months, after starting to teethe at 3 months. At 5 1/2 months, she started army crawling! She can get up onto her hands and knees and rock, but hasn't quite gotten it all coordinated for hands and knees crawling yet. But she sure gets around and into everything. She continues to defy expectation by being the first baby we've ever seen master Downward Facing Dog (yoga pose). I don't imagine she'll be a late walker like her older siblings. ;-) She's now 6 months old and got her first taste of food Christmas night. The mashed bananas weren't thrilling to her, but it was fun for her to get a chance to try them. I love waking up each morning to her smiles; her happiest time is right after she wakes up. She is so smiley and happy; she's a joy and a light in our lives.

Steve spent the first half of the year at home with us, while going to school for his MBA, and then in July, he got a job! He was hired by a dental supply company to do accounts receivable. He's been there for a few months and it's going great. Almost everything about his job is great, the hours, the location, the management and other employees. If it just paid more, we'd be content to stay there forever. But for right now, it's fabulous. As of this month, he has completed 5 of 8 quarters for his MBA program. Everything is on track from him to graduate at the end of the summer! We're quite excited for that to happen and for us to move on to whatever is our next chapter in life.

Aimee has been busy, wearing many different hats over the year. For the first few months, I worked 20-40 hours a week, while gestating Ducky. This pregnancy was the hardest, physically, because there was a lot of pain in my right hip, which affected pretty much everything. But luckily, it resolved once the baby was born. If you ask what the highlight of the year was, I will say, without hesitation, that it was catching my own baby. It was the single coolest experience of my life. Now that Steve is working full time, I am finally getting to be a full time stay-at-home mom. For a couple months, I worked on Saturdays, but was furloughed for the winter, so I'm not working at all currently. It's been actually really really nice to get to spend the time with the kids. It's been both an adjustment to three kids and an adjustment to being home full time. For our whole marriage, excepting maternity leaves, I've worked at least part time (evenings and Saturdays). But now that I'm home full time, I've become a much better housekeeper. ;-) I am still cake decorating when I get time, and have branched out into sewing and other crafts as well.

February saw our family head to Texas for Steve's sister's wedding. We got to spend 6 days with our Texas family, which was wonderful. Some of them had not met Jason yet, and we had been missing them all. Erin & Charles were a gorgeous couple, and instead of having bridesmaids & groomsmen, they had all their nieces and nephews be their 'attendants'. The five little girls got to wear beautiful formal red dresses and the five little boys wore tuxedos. It was even cuter than it sounds.

This year has been one of big changes for our family. We've grown to a family of 5, Steve got a new job and I am staying at home now, and all the kids are learning and growing each day. It's amazing how one more kid really changes the family dynamic. We are very blessed to have such a wonderful family and life, with so many lovely friends & family. We love you all and wish you a most Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years.

October so far

2011-10-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

Since I am not very good at detailing our adventure very often, I'm just going to do a big blast of photos and the stories with them.

Steve was cuddling the big kids on the couch one night and it was so cute I had to take a picture. But I had to add Kayla in the mix too. Awww, my family is so adorable.

Kayla has been getting so strong and wanting to play and jump lately, that I pulled out the ExerSaucer to give her a test run. She's still a little too small and wobbly, but she gets the idea of it. We all look forward to when she gets big enough to play in here more.

I made homemade, totally from scratch Chicken Soup a couple weeks ago. I made the broth then the soup. It was a ton of work, I had never cut up a whole chicken before and it was really hard! But it was soooooo tasty. I'll probably do it again, just with better planning. :-)

As I've said before, Jason just adores his little sister. One morning, the big kids were up with me while Kayla was still asleep in my bed. After a bit, she woke up and started fussing. Jason heard her, jumped up and said "I go see Kayla!" and ran off to my room. I followed him a minute later and found him, having climbed up, entertaining his baby sister with his "babies".

She loves him just as much and was happy and smiling at him. When I came in, he laid down with her and told me "I take a nap with Kayla." So I got a picture of that too. :-)

My three cuties, all playing together on the floor.

In the middle of the month, my college best friend, Racine came up from Utah. We hadn't seen each other in 5 1/2 years! Since before I got pregnant with Jilly! She flew in Friday morning, the kids and I picked her up, then we spent the day with our friend Val and her son Harry. That night Racine went back down to Seattle to meet up with her husband, who had taken the train up from Portland where he'd been all week. I had to work Saturday, so we couldn't see them then, but I was determined to get more time with Racine and get to meet her husband. So Sunday morning, we were heathens and went down to Pike Place Market with them. My kids loved walking with Racine & Tony. Jilly went back and forth between them, and Jason wanted to hold Racine's hand. If she wasn't available, then he'd hold Daddy's hand, but no one else, and Racine was by far his favorite. I can't blame them for wanting to be seen with our own "Turkish Delight". ;-)

Racine pointed out this pig, which I don't remember seeing before, so I had to get a picture of it. Even though our time was short with Racine & Tony, it was super awesome seeing them! We determined not to let another 5 1/2 years go by before we see each other again.

It's been getting colder and wetter lately and the other day, it was really gross when it was time to take Jilly to the bus. I needed to keep Kayla warm and dry, but my coats aren't big enough to fit around both of us (when she's in the wrap). So I pulled out Jilly's "bunny suit" and put it on Kayla. Kayla was much happier than Jilly ever was in it. It's super soft and fuzzy and keeps my little one safe from the elements. She's about to get too tall for it (it's a 0-3 mos, so no wonder), so I bought a new pram for her to wear. Gotta keep my Ducky warm this winter!

Jilly and I went to get her Halloween costume. She has been asking to be a ballerina, so we got her a leotard and tights. It was more than I would typically spend on a costume, but I know she'll get lots of use out of it. I bought a slightly bigger size than she likely needs so that it would last a long time. Hopefully we'll be able to get her into a dance class in the next while. When we got home, she wanted to try it on, so I let her and put her hair up in a bun. She danced for us as soon as she got it put on.

Jason was playing in his room and pulled on his Cookie Monster hat. It was hilarious because he had it pulled down over his face entirely. Hehehehe.

We went to a party at Juliet's house the other night. Her husband Kelly just built a new music studio in their basement. At the party, a bunch of his musician friends were down there with him, jamming. Jilly was draw like a magnet to them. She found the ukulele and loved it. When it was time to go, she freaked out and sobbed for like 20+ minutes (even after we got home) because she refused to believe that she had her own ukulele at home. Nothing would soothe her until I finally dug it out of the closet and showed it to her. At the party, she danced and sang and played every instrument she could get her hands on. That's my musical girl. :-)

One day the kids and I had the car and while we were waiting for Steve to come out of work, I nursed Kayla. Once she finished, she played on my lap for a bit. Looks like she's ready to drive! ;-)

Jilly had a great time showing off her mad dance skills. Jason wanted in on the action too.

Jason showing off his ever expanding verbal skills.

Jilly jamming out at the party.

Kayla's Blessing

2011-09-24T16:21:00.000-07:00

We had Kayla's blessing day picked out for a couple months before she was born. The first Fast Sunday after her due date was 4th of July weekend and we knew she'd be here by then, for sure! I found out my friend Janell and her family were going to be in Washington that weekend as well and it made for the perfect time to meet up. I was even able to convince another friend of ours to come up and visit from Oregon. The plans were in the works well before Kayla herself arrived. It ended up surprising us all that she was only 2 weeks (well, 13 days) old when she was blessed, but she was still older than my sister who was 6 days old when she was blessed!

Kayla wore the same dress that me, my sister and Jilly wore for our blessings. My mom made it when she was pregnant with me and it is gorgeous. Because we waited until (chubby) Jilly was 2 1/2 months old to bless her, the dress didn't really fit and we could only do up the top button in the back. She had a big open square of her back hanging out. We figured Kayla being so little would fit perfectly in it. I hadn't changed her into the dress until we got to church because it's too fluffy for the car seat (and I wanted to minimize her chances of blowing out all over it too). We got to church right before Sacrament Meeting started, later than I had planned, so I was sitting there trying to get her in it, but it wasn't working right. I couldn't get the back snapped up, other than the top snap, just like Jilly. It was so weird, because it seemed like there was enough fabric, but one of the under layers was too tight. My mom took her out to the Mother's Room to try and fix it, but time ran out and she came back so the baby would be there for her blessing. ;-) So Kayla was also blessed with her dress open in the back. Cracked me up. (When we got home, I took the dress off of her to figure it out and realized on the the under layers had gotten pulled inside another layer and that's why it couldn't snap up.)

That morning, my friends had come over to my house to meet up before church. It was so fun to see them! Because we were all having such a fun time chatting, I lost track of time and we made it out the door just in the time to get to church right before the meeting started. I had wanted to be there early, but oh well. Janell, her husband Ira, and her two little boys, Anthony and Drew were staying with family in Poulsbo and came over on the ferry that morning. Cammie and her husband Ethan decided to turn it into a long weekend vacation. My cousins Bailey and Elise drove up from Seattle for the blessing and my mom and step-dad Paul came too. It was awesome having so many people there, because they love Kayla and us. It was also way fun because during the meeting itself, my kids got to sit with everyone else and I got to pay attention! Kayla was held by Bailey and Granny, Jason and Jilly went back and forth between Granny, Grampa, Daddy and Bailey and Elise. It was kind of weird to sit all by myself, but definitely nice. :-) After the meeting, we decided to head back to my house to hang out and eat and visit, since Janell, Cammie and I only had that day to spend together.

We, of course, had to take pictures to commemorate the day. We'd forgotten our camera before church, so we just took them at home.

Kayla and Mama on the balcony. Such a pretty girl.

Mama and her sweet girls. (Jilly wasn't that in to pictures, she wanted to play with the boys.)

Our cute little family of 5. It is crazy how much more difficult it gets to take pictures with each kid you have! To get all of us looking even remotely towards the camera seems like an impossible feat.

Cammie, Janell, and me (and Kayla, gotta love a yawning baby). Such awesome friends! I love you guys!

I wish I had gotten some pictures with the kids playing or the husbands, but I didn't. Janell and Cammie put together an awesome meal, Cafe Rio pork with yummy rice (was it the cilantro lime rice?). They made the meal and cleaned it up! These are good friends to have come visit you. ;-) We got to spend so much time talking and enjoying each other. The kids got along really well, Janell's boys are about the same ages as my kids. The husbands had a ton of fun talking and goofing around too. Janell & her guys had to leave to catch the ferry back, but Cammie and Ethan stayed later. It was awesome.

It was a wonderful day to share with our friends and family. Steve gave Kayla a beautiful blessing. We felt so honored that so many people wanted to be there with us and celebrate our sweet Ducky. :-)

Adventures in Potty Training

2011-09-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Jason's potty training....

Jason is proving to be quite a bit different from Jilly in so many ways. One of the most surprising is that he has been asking to go potty since before Kayla was born. We decided after she was born and he turned two, we'd give him a shot at potty training. My philosophy was if he caught on and trained, then WAHOO! Only one kid in diapers! But if he didn't, then no biggie, I wasn't planning on potty training until 3 anyway. So I waited until we had a week without anything going on and decided we'd go with the naked method. It was what worked with Jilly, so I thought it'd be a good way to go.

Monday morning, we got up and took off his diaper, not replacing it with anything else. Throughout the day, I set an alarm for every 30 minutes and took him to the frog potty each time it went off. There were a few successes which were awesome, but there were puddles to clean up too. Over the next couple days, he would go when I took him, even pooped once, but there were a lot of messes to clean up. It didn't seem to be getting much better. So after Thursday, I decided to be done. He wasn't progressing enough, so I decided to save us both the hassle and stress. We'll wait until he's a little older. For now, he's in Pull-Ups and almost every time we change it, we take him to the potty and 95% of the time, he pees in the potty (even though he still pees & poops in the Pull-Up).

I'm glad we tried it. It gave me more insight to where he is at developmentally and what his capabilities and limitations are. He's growing and talking SO MUCH these days (new sentences every day), it can be easy to overestimate him. All that said, I don't think it will be long until he's ready and I think once he is, it will be an easy process. I think it really helped (same thing with his speech) that he's grown up watching us really coach and teach Jilly; he's soaked up a lot of those lessons. He's such a cute little boy.

First Day of School!

2011-09-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Jilly started her final year of preschool this week. She goes 5 days a week now, still afternoons. The bus picks up her about 12:30pm and drops her off about 4:00pm. The first day of school was supposed to be a hot day, so I had to pick out a different outfit than originally planned.

She was SO excited to wear her new light up Skechers shoes. They are pretty awesome.

Waiting for the bus! It was extra special because Daddy came home on his lunch break to see her get on the bus (and drive us down the hill, so I didn't have to walk down with all the kids the first day).

Here's the bus! She's such a pro, she knows just what to do.

Jason was all excited and wanted special hair too. So I gave him his "spike".

She has the same pick-up driver as last year. Marcy watched me last spring as I got bigger and bigger and kept waiting for the baby to arrive, but of course Kayla didn't come until after school ended. She was excited to meet Kayla, even offered to hold her while I buckled Jilly in. :-)

All buckled in and on her way!

Here's to a great school year! :-D

Fancy Hair

2011-09-15T14:31:00.000-07:00

I've gotten really bored with doing Jilly's hair lately, so I've been looking for inspiration and branching out. We've done some really cute styles. I'm still working on my proficiency, making things even and straight, but so far I'm happy. Here's a sampling of some of the styles we've done recently.

I got the idea for this from PrincessHairstyles.com. It was originally a baby hair style, so I modified a little and turned it into a ponytail for Jilly.

This is another from PrincessHairstyles.com. It was the first time I've done twists. I have some ideas of how I'll do them better next time, but I still like how they turned out.

I think I just thought this one up on my own. It was slightly complicated with all of the criss-crossing, but it turned out really cool!

I've seen this one a few places. I really like it because it holds all of her hair back and in the big ponytail. It's not that hard either. We've done it a few times since, and better each time (it's a little crooked the first time I tried).

This one was inspired by a friend of mine. She does some amazing things with her daughter's hair and I had seen a cool criss-cross braid pigtails style. I didn't do it right (only did 4 braids, it needed 6), but it was still fun. The messy buns were falling out by the evening when I finally took a picture.

This is how I can get her to sit still for some of the styles. Let her watch TV, watch a video or play with PhotoBooth on my laptop.

This one I thought up on my own, zig zag parted pigtails with twisty bun braids. It's actually simpler than it looks and sounds. I made two parts straight back creating a column of hair in the middle. I took the two sides and put them in pony tails to keep them out of the way. Then I just did a series of angled parts from one side to the other, then back again, creating the zig zag. I pulled them into pigtails, put in the hair bands, then braided them. Once I had the braids done, I just twisted them around the hairband and used a bobby pin to hold them. I think next time I do them, I'll twist them a little different and tuck the tail in more.

(This picture is a off center, so it looks more uneven than it was.)

Jilly has enjoyed doing "fancy hair". Hopefully, we'll start doing more things. I need to teach myself how to French braid properly. Right now I only know how to inside-out braid, so I'd like to learn the other way too. It's a lot of fun! This is why I've always wanted a girl. :-D (It probably won't be too long until I can do stuff with Kayla's crazy hair too! See!)

The Goo turned TWO!

2011-08-06T15:32:00.000-07:00

Our little Jason has turned TWO! His birthday is exactly one week after Kayla's and two days after my mom's. It's quite a week of birthdays in our family! Mom has had her birthday all to herself up until Jason arrived and now she gets to share the partying with two grandkids! She was actually rather excited about it. :-) On the Sunday between Mom's & Jason's birthdays, we had a party for them. It was fun to have Jason so excited to open presents this year!

Of course, Jilly couldn't restrain herself from wanting to help. She got relocated to sitting with Mama, so Jason could open his own presents in peace. ;-)

BOOKS! Really cool Eric Carle board books! Perfect for the two year old who LOVES to read, but is a little less than delicate. :-) Thanks Granny & Grampa!

Opening his present from Bailey & Elise. A coloring book and crayons! He was ecstatic!

Granny got to open her presents too. A dinner out with the lovely ladies, Bailey & Elise. Lucky!!

And then it was time for his present from Mama & Daddy. I have to be honest here, I think Steve was most excited for Jason's birthday party. He had the inspiration for it about two or three months before and helped plan a ton of it.

YAY TISSUE PAPER!!! OOOOOOOOH!!!!

What is that blue fur?!

A Cookie Monster doll!!! And just the right size for squeezing! Jason just loves Cookie Monster to death, so the party was a Cookie Monster theme. We also got him a t-shirt that says "Varsity Squad" with Cookie Monster, Oscar and Elmo, but it didn't arrive until the next day. ;-)

After presents, it was time for the dessert!

A Cookie Monster birthday is not complete without COOKIES!!!

A traditional cake just didn't seem right, so we went with a cookie cake with Cookie Monster on it! It turned out great! (We ordered this from Albertson's because at 6 days postpartum, I was not going to try and make a giant cookie and decorate it in a way I'd never done before. This was much safer and quite tasty!)

Time to blow out candles! Again, Jilly wanted to help. Granny and Jason did a great job. Jason looked super styling in the birthday hat.

Bloooowww!

YAY! This is such a cute pic of my happy little guy.

Bailey is my cousin and pretty much the best ever! She loves my kids so much and gobbles up any chance to hold them. This was the first time she met Kayla (having been on vacation the week before).

Bailey & Elise are just awesome. We love having them over and a part of our family!

Granny squeezing her Ducky. Kayla wore the perfect outfit with a cupcake on it for the birthday party. Granny bought this outfit for her the day we had the ultrasound and found out she was a girl. In fact, it was on the table when we showed up that evening for Paul & Bailey's birthday party. ;-)

We are so excited our little guy is two now. He is adorable and sweet and adventurous and happy and enthusiastic and playful and mischievous and utterly delightful. We love you Gooey Man!

Our "summer" so far

2011-07-30T16:05:00.000-07:00

Whew! A month has gone by already and I feel like we need to document some of the big changes we've gone through.

First of all, momentous news:

STEVE GOT A JOB!!!

After almost 21 months of unemployment, hundreds of applications, thousands of hours spent searching, unquantifiable worry and stress, and one surprise baby, Steve was interviewed & hired for a new job. He started two weeks ago and it is going very well thus far. He is doing Accounts Receivable for a dental supply company. We wouldn't necessarily qualify this as a big step in his career path, but it is a job and a very convenient one right now. His hours are pretty set, Monday thru Friday, 8:30am-5pm, and he can take up to an hour for lunch too. The best thing about it is that the office is only 10 minutes from our house!! It is very easy for the kids and me to take him to work in the morning and pick him up in the evening, if we need the car that day. Also, he can come home for lunch if he wants to (and has a couple of times!). Another awesome thing about this job? It means I only have to go back to work on Saturdays!!! That is a major blessing, probably my favorite of all the awesome things. I had been stressing about having to work full time, especially since I am breastfeeding a newborn and pumping is a big hassle. Now I only have to work Saturdays, so pumping one day a week isn't bad at all. The job itself is one he's well suited for and won't be really taxing while he's still going to school for another year. We feel so blessed by this! Thank you to everyone who offered prayers and help during this frustrating period of unemployment. We are truly grateful for the love and service that was given so willingly to us. :-)

So now that Steve has started working again, that means I am a stay-at-home mom. Not only am I adjusting to having three kids in general, but adjusting to taking care of three kids by myself and then the house too. After two weeks, I think it's going well. I'm not quite Suzy Homemaker, Steve still cooks dinner at least half the time and helps with a lot of the housework. And when he's home, he does just as much of the child care as I do. But, I'm getting stuff done and so far, all the kids are still alive and unbruised when he gets home. Really, I've only had a few times where I've wanted to lose it, and those are mostly when we're in a hurry to get somewhere and the kids are taking their time and Kayla is screaming and I can't help everyone at the same time. I'm learning how to better plan enough time to get ready, even if that means I have to get up a couple hours early so I can get myself completely ready before the kids get up (and Steve is still home to help with Kayla). We're not quite as regimented with the schedule as it they were when Steve was running the show, but it's summer, so no big deal. I'm glad I get this period right now to adjust before school starts and we have to be at the bus stop at a specific time.

Kayla is growing like crazy! She is now about 6 weeks old and moving out of the newborn stage. She has really good neck strength and can hold her head up really well. She is getting chubbier and looking less scrawny. I'd say the best thing is that she is smiling now! It's usually the best right after she's woken up, she'll have a ton of big, beautiful smiles. So cute! And the other night, she giggled!! I've heard her make some coos like she was trying to laugh, but Tuesday night she was laying on my chest, asleep, and let out this big giggle. So adorable. :-D We've settled into a decent routine with her. We've chosen to co-sleep, so it makes nights much easier. Before we go to bed, I nurse her and get her full, then Steve takes her for the first couple hours of the night. It's nice to get a couple hours of sleep all by myself. Then when she wakes up to eat, I take her for the rest of the night. It works pretty well, so we all get some good sleep!

Jason turned 2 a month ago, and oh my! He is definitely a two year old boy!!! It's a lot of fun to see him so exuberant and energetic, but it gets a little tough and tiring to have him running all of the place so much. I've been saying lately that we need a new place to live, with a fenced backyard, just for him! He loves being outside and playing and climbing and running around with his big sister. This boy has quite the mischievous streak too. He likes to play with stuff he's not allowed to, like the computers and cell phones and lamps and DVDs, etc. But he's so freaking cute! It's hard to be mad at him when he gives you that smile that melts your heart. Something that surprised us a little bit is how much he loves Kayla. He is the sweet big brother! He is always worried about her, wanting to hug and kiss her, asking to hold her, tries to help with her pacifier and everything. The first words I usually hear from him are "Baby sleeping, Mama? Baby okay, Mama?" If he hears her cry, he gets worried and runs over to her. In the car, she cries fairly often (this is getting better though, luckily), and he is the only one that has ever gotten her to quiet down. He'll reach over and hold her hand and say "Kay-yah! Kay-yah! It's okay!" She may not calm down completely, but she does for a minute or so when her big brother talks to her. He also is SUCH a smarty-pants! He knows probably 20 of the 26 letters, maybe more. He talks so well and is asking complex and complete sentences. Really, I think he's saying more than we realize, we just can't understand his pronunciation all the time. It's quite a different world, from when Jilly was barely 2. He's ahead on his speech and she was quite behind, so it's fun to see him progressing so fast!

Jilly has surprised us a little too, with her adjustment to the new baby. She is very sweet with Kayla and will hold her and want to help too, but she's not quite as excited as Jason. She has also gotten a little needier and clingier. This started happening right before Kayla was born and has gotten a little more intense since. She is scared of a lot of stuff and needs someone with her when she goes to the bathroom or even back to her bedroom sometimes. I think she just needs more from us right now, to make sure we're not forgetting about her and she's not getting pushed out. To be honest, we expected these reactions but from the opposite kids. I thought Jilly would be very motherly and involved with Kayla and that Jason would be more stand-offish or act out. So it's been a little surprising. But now that we're getting into a better routine, I can devote some more attention to Jilly and hopefully, this will pass in a while. Jilly tells the funniest stories! She is always talking about what is going on, then gives it her own little twist. Sometimes it seems to come out of nowhere, but often we can tell where her inspiration has come from, like a book or TV show. Right now she is pretty much obsessed with a Breaking Benjamin song, "I Will Not Bow". She asks for it ALL. THE. TIME. She squeals and jumps and dances when we turn it on for her. I think she would listen to it on repeat for hours, if we let her. Steve is teaching her all the different Breaking Benjamin songs and she picks up on them amazingly quickly. We're also working with her a little bit on reading. She knows all the letters and the sounds they make, so now we're working on sounding them out. She can get frustrated quickly and doesn't want to focus, so we're not pushing it too hard (she's only 4 1/2!), but when she does focus, she does really well. I think once she realizes the power of reading, she'll take right off with it and amaze us. School starts in a few weeks and she'll be going 5 days a week for her last year of preschool.

Summer has been fun for the most part. We try hard to get the kids outside and playing, so we go to a lot of parks. The weather has been quite cool, which is frustrating. We're used to the mid to high 80s consistently and we've been lucky to get into the low 70s this year! Needless to say, we've barely been in the pool, which is a major bummer. We're hoping August will be better.

Well, there you go. An update on the last month or so, as we adjust to a family of five. I need to post more about Jason's birthday, Kayla's blessing and get some pictures up. But the baby is waking up and needs me, so those will have to wait. Until then, my friends!

Kayla: The Unauthorized Version

2011-06-24T20:35:00.000-07:00

If Jack Bauer could be pregnant and deliver a baby (and lets face it: if his country needed it, he could), it would pretty closely resemble how Aimee delivered Kayla (read the entry below for details).

~~Jack Bauer~~ Aimee after nearly ten months of torture

Aimee gave the story of Kayla's birth, so I thought I'd share the story of her conception. Kayla's mortal journey began roughly after this happened:

Pictured: People notified of a wife left bored at home in Lynnwood, WA

But enough inappropriate inside jokes. When the midwife arrived, a half hour after Aimee did her job for her, she mentioned that this was a feather in my cap. But to be clear, I did nothing. I answered/made phone calls, got some towels and sheets, and later mopped, making me the secretary-janitor of this birth. Aimee refused my offer to call EMTs, like Allen Iverson waving off a would-be screener so he could demolish his competition solo. Many of you have not actually seen what it looks like when the water breaks, but I'll describe it in one term: Sci-Fi.

When I called the midwife to tell her she needed to redirect to our place, she gave me all these instructions to relay to Aimee, but I didn't bother. Did Ryan Chapelle or Bill Buchanan ever really need to tell Jack Bauer what to do? Heeeeeeeeeeeelllll naw. After we got Aimee laid down, I asked her if she wanted me to take some crime scene photos (she declined). That may seem crazy for me to ask, but there was one picture from Jason's home birth that I was surprised she published.

She curled her hair before the birth

Needless to say, Aimee is awesome and has given me three awesome kids. And now a photo gallery.

Before

After

Already posing

Another reason to have kids: they can babysit each other

See above

Surprise, surprise! The Ducky Story

2011-06-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

The long story of Ducky's birthday:

We had made plans with the midwives to meet Monday (today) in the morning, at the birth center, to rupture my membranes. Sunday night, the midwife called to see if we could move the time up a little because she had another patient who was possibly in early labor and wanted to make sure she could attend both of us. With the plan in place and a feeling of peace, I cleaned up the house while Steve finished his last assignment of the quarter. I went to bed, but was having a hard time settling down, despite being very tired. Steve came to bed later too, but tossed and turned as well. A little after 2am, I decided to get up and go to the bathroom. Before I got up, I had a painful but not unmanageable contraction, which was nothing new. After I used the bathroom, I had another contraction which was close but not super weird. I went out to the family room and kneeled on the floor, draping myself over the ottoman. It was really comfortable and let me stretch my belly out. I wasn't feeling very tired, but figured I should go back to bed anyway, since I would need my strength later. As I was walking back, Steve came out and said that even though he'd taken a Unisom an hour before, he couldn't sleep either! It was about 2:15am. We both stayed up for a few minutes, just chatting.

I kept feeling the need to go to the bathroom, and every time I would go, I'd have another couple contractions. Steve was watching this and decided he should shower. I couldn't argue with him, but I still wasn't completely convinced I was in labor. But all the contractions were hurting, so I started timing them. To my surprise, they were about 3 minutes apart. Oh. That changes things. I wasn't feeling like I needed to go anywhere yet, but my brother was coming down from Bellingham, so he was my first call. I called him just before 3am and he hadn't even gotten to sleep yet! I told him I was in labor and to start driving down (he really wanted to be there for the birth). After that I called my mom & step-dad. My step-dad answered, so I told him I was in labor and if Mom wanted to take a shower, she should do that now, but I didn't need her to come over right that second. I had to hang up because another contraction was starting. I realized that I needed to call the midwives too, so I paged them, leaving a voicemail, telling them what I was dealing with. Steve came out of the bathroom and started gathering up what needed to go with us. While I was in the middle of a contraction, my mom called back and Steve talked to her. By this point, I realized things were intense and I needed her to get over now. He relayed that and she said she'd be leaving soon. While he was talking to her, the midwife called back and I was able to talk to her by then. It was about 3:05am and she said the soonest she could be at the birth center was 3:45am, but she was rushing as fast as she could. I figured that would be fine, since my mom was still on her way over to come be with the kids.

I kept contracting close and man, they hurt so bad! There wasn't a ton I could do to make them feel better and every few contractions, I'd have one where I wanted to push a little bit. It wasn't a full blown need-to-push feeling, just letting me know it wouldn't be very long. Steve started taking our bags down to the car, so we could leave as soon as Mom got there. I still wasn't that stressed about leaving, because I would rather be at home than in the car or worse, waiting outside the birth center for the midwives to get there. I kept going to the toilet, needing to use it a lot. It sucked because the contractions hurt so bad when I was there, but I needed to be there. I had moments where the pain was so bad I wanted to cry and scream, but also had moments when it wasn't bad and I was handling it. Steve kept reminding me "You're in control. You know what you're doing. You're okay." When I could start the contraction repeating that mantra, it helped me handle the pain a lot better. During this time, I realized I had told Mom to come over to be with the kids, but hadn't thought about her wanting to see the birth itself! Oh no! Luckily, she thought of that and called again, telling Steve that my step-dad was coming as well, in a separate car so he could stay with the kids and she could go with us.

I had stripped down and was going to put on a dress before heading out the door, but felt the familiar transition-diarrhea feeling (sorry, TMI). I went to the toilet and got that need taken care of and as I was finishing up, a new contraction hit. This one was different. This one just took over and the only thing I could do was push for all I was worth. I just bore down and PUSHED. There may or may not have been a few swear words mentioned here. It was at that moment I just knew we weren't going anywhere and the baby was coming NOW. I just kept pushing like crazy, taking a couple quick breaths as needed. I yelled to Steve that I was pushing and just roared again. That freaked him out a little bit, because it came out of nowhere. He asked me, a bit panicked "Should I call the EMTs?!" "NO!! I'll just catch her myself!" At that moment, my water broke. I felt a little pop, a small bit of fluid and then SPLASH a huge gush all over the place. I instinctively reached down and her head was halfway out. The rest of her just slid right out and I caught my own baby, while standing over the toilet.

Holy crap. I just caught my own baby, with only my husband there. Dude.

Steve had both phones in his hand, so I quickly asked him what time it was. 3:24am. Then he right away called the midwives to tell them to divert to our house, we weren't going anywhere. Mel didn't seem to quite believe him at first that the crying was Kayla and not the other kids. But he convinced her and she gave him a bunch of instructions. Turned out he didn't even bother relaying most of them, because I was already doing them. I asked him for a towel to keep her warm, keeping her skin to skin on my chest. I had pulled her cord from around the back of her neck (just looped behind her, not actually around her neck) so it was more comfortable for both of us. She had started crying immediately, so I knew she was doing well. We sat there for a couple minutes and were still there when my mom walked in. She was not expecting to see me sitting there, with a baby in my arms! She was probably 5 minutes after the birth, and was able to quickly assess Kayla and rated her Apgar at 10! Woohoo! (Can I just say how awesome it is to have a mom, who not only gave birth three times herself, but is an ARNP and former L&D nurse- who has caught & cared for babies herself!) Steve said Mel said to lay down, which was perfect to me, because I wanted to. Mom and Steve laid down towels and sheets and helped me walk to the couch. Mom checked to make sure I wasn't hemorraghing or anything (nope, not too much blood loss) and that I was comfortable. Paul got there a few minutes after her and she met him at the door, telling him to come in and meet his new granddaughter.

While we were waiting for the midwives to arrive, I got Kayla latched on and she started nursing. Mom called Katie and Andy to spread the news (and tell Andy to come to our apt, not the birth center). Steve started cleaning up a bit in the bathroom. The midwives got there about 25 minutes after the birth and set up right away. It was lovely seeing them. Mel is the licensed midwife and Jen is her apprentice. They also had an assistant midwife, Amanda, come and she had gotten my chart from the office. Mel & Jen did almost all the clinical stuff, examining me and the baby, checking for the placenta, etc, while Amanda mostly did charting and taking vitals. I'm not sure what time it was, but it was a bit after they arrived, they helped me deliver the placenta. My mom got to cut Kayla's cord (she also cut Jason's) and held her while I squatted and got it out. Man, I felt SO MUCH better! During the exam they saw that I tore again, ended up being another 2nd degree tear that required a few stitches. ::sigh:: But what can you expect when you push a baby out in 2 minutes?! I just kept saying to everyone, "It feels so good to not be pregnant anymore! I'm so glad I'm not pregnant or in labor anymore!" Hahaha. We went over the delivery, how it all happened, etc. They took care of the repair, which sucked (one thing the epidural is really really handy for), but wasn't completely awful. Stitches just suck, right?

After that, we got settled in my comfy chair, and I nursed her again. Oy, the afterpains are awful. We did the newborn exam and found out she was 8lbs 2oz and 19.5 inches long. That's over a half pound heavier than the other two, and the same length as Jilly! She is chubbier than the others were as well. I lost track of time here, but it was just a nice, social time. My parents and brother were there, the midwives, and Steve, me, and the baby. Our two big kids slept through everything! Seriously, they did not make a peep!! Everyone got a chance to hold her and snuggle her, the bathroom got cleaned, and we just chatted and caught our breath while all the paperwork and exams were done. Andy tried to run out and get my prescription for me, but the 24 hr pharmacy didn't take my insurance. Drat! Eventually, my parents had to leave to go get ready for work (after a very abbreviated night of sleep!) and my brother went back to their house very shortly after, so he could sleep too (remember, he hadn't gotten any sleep yet). We had a nice chuckle when my cell phone started ringing. It was my alarm, telling me to get up so I could get ready to go meet them at the birth center. The midwives finished everything they needed to do, paperwork, exams, monitoring, etc. We were both doing just fine, Kayla was settling down for a long nap, and I was getting tired too. So they packed up and went home, needing to take care of their own families. Right about this time (around 6:30am or so), the sleeping pill Steve had taken hours earlier kicked in hard. In all the excitement, the adrenaline had kept him going, but now that everything was calming down, he was crashing. Off he went to bed as well, and it was just me and my baby in the living room, enjoying the very quiet and still morning.

I couldn't help myself, I took advantage of the quiet time (knowing I wouldn't really be able to sleep that well) and started uploading pictures onto Facebook and the blog, and texting lots of people to let them know about her arrival. That's how the next couple hours went. I had my laptop and my baby, I dozed in and out a little, and played on the internet. It was already starting to seem surreal and very dream-like. It definitely feels like that now! One thing the midwife, Mel, said to me before she left was "Do you know the term precipitous birth?" "Yes....it means a really fast labor and birth." "Right. It's defined as 3 hours from first contraction to birth. You've now had TWO of those." Oh. Wow. I hadn't thought about that quite yet. Really and truly, I am glad we ended up having Kayla at our house. The idea of getting into the car was the scariest part to me. I didn't want to be in the car, feeling like I was. Once I realized I was going to have her right there, without anyone but Steve present, I wasn't scared at all. I just knew what needed to be done and I had complete faith she and I would be just fine. If we had left any earlier, then that all would have hit while I was in the car, which would have been infinitely more scary for all of us. The night before, when I went to bed, I had a great feeling of peace about having the baby the next morning. I believe Heavenly Father knew what was about to happen and was giving me the assurance that I was going to be just fine. Steve had given me a blessing the week before, and in it, told me, we would both be healthy and I would be able to remember all of my studies and my body would be able to handle it. How true that was.

Now the fun stuff! Here are all the pictures from throughout the day:

Kayla & Mama that morning, about 3 hours old.

My beautiful Ducky.

The kiddos checking her out. They met her that morning when they got up for the day. This was right before they went over to a friend's house to play for the afternoon.

Wrapped up in her Duck blanket.

This may be my favorite picture. They were so excited to hold the baby all by themselves and Jason just wanted to love on her so much.

Then of course, he realized his picture was being taken and started hamming it up.

Such a grown up and proud big sister. (Haha- I love Kayla's look in this one. Yup, definitely Steve's kid. ;-))

I cannot believe he's a big brother! He is so happy and in love with her.

All three of my beautiful children together.

Proud Granny!

You can't help but snuggle and nuzzle this sweet, content, super soft little baby girl.

Look close at her head. See all that hair!! After two very bald babies, I was so excited to see all the hair on this one. I guess that's the last thing to grow (for my kids) and when you're 8 days past your due date, you have time to devote energy to growing hair. ;-) It is darker than the picture shows too.

We cannot express enough thanks to all of those who have been so wonderful to us. Our family for sacrificing time and sleep to come be with us. Midwives who were so reassuring, attentive and kind, and gave us exemplary care. Friends who brought us food, took the kids for a playdate, offered kind thoughts and congratulations throughout the day. Even strangers who offered their congratulations through other friends. We are truly a very blessed family!

She's here!

2011-06-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

Baby Ducky arrived this morning, at home, surprise unassisted birth! I'll post the full story later.

Kayla Elisabeth. June 20th, 2011, 3:24am. 8lbs 2oz, 19/5 inches long. Breathtakingly beautiful.

Just thought I'd let you know...

2011-06-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

...this is what I still look like. This was taken Monday, but nothing has changed, except maybe the belly has gotten bigger. So here we are, 40 weeks and 4 days pregnant, the longest I have ever been pregnant. We're still waiting on the little Duck to decide to come out. I'm 5cm dilated, baby is super low and engaged, but also has her feet up in my ribs all the time. Because of how dilated I am, the midwives and I have come up with a plan; none of us feel that comfortable with me walking around much more dilated than I currently am without being in labor. We're already expecting this labor to be pretty quick once it starts. So next week we've got some plans to help her come out.

Hopefully in a few days, this image will be a memory, something in the past, not representative of the present. ;-)

But in the meantime, enjoy this sweet picture of our handsome Goo, asleep on the couch after church this last Sunday. He didn't get a nap and passed out while the kids were watching Beauty & The Beast. I heart him.

What We've Been Up To

2011-06-07T12:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I actually made it to maternity leave, still pregnant. I am 39 weeks and 2 days pregnant, and as the ticker over there ---> says, Ducky is "launch ready". Yet, the little lady is still hanging out. Honestly, I didn't expect to still be pregnant at this point. I thought she would be born at the end of May or maybe the first couple days of June. But the second week of June, or later? Did not occur to me in any sort of realistic way. I keep surprising people, at work, at church, Jilly's bus drivers, when I show up with my big belly. I have heard "You're STILL pregnant?! When is that baby going to come out?!" at least 673 times in the past week. I usually respond with "I wish I knew!" or "Any time now!" Last Saturday was my last day of work until August, and it is such a relief to be done! It was getting busier and I cared less and less each day because I knew I'd be out of there soon. I also had that extra little bit of stress in the back of my mind "Can I go into labor tonight? I really don't want to go to work tomorrow. But wait, will I be able to text/call my boss in time for him to call someone else in?" Now I'm off the hook. They aren't planning on me being there anyway. Phew!

Surprisingly, I'm emotionally okay with still being pregnant. I thought I would be a wreck and frustrated and grumpy with everyone, but overall, I'm okay with it. This baby will come when she is ready, and from what my midwives told me, it shouldn't be too long. I was 3 cm dilated at 37 weeks and now at 39, I'm 4-5 cm dilated. When labor finally kicks in, no one's anticipating it taking too long. But then again, you can never be sure. As many people told me in the beginning- the third kid is the wild card! I think the most frustrating part of this, other than physically, is other people's expectations and the implied pressure from them. Everyone is very good-natured about it and it all comes from a place of good intentions, but I still feel it anyway. But overall, especially now that I'm not at work, it's okay and I'm fine with taking some time.

So other that awaiting Ducky's imminent arrival, here is what we are up to:

Jason is turning TWO in just a couple weeks!! He is soooooooo just about two years old. He is constantly busy and talking and playing and messing with stuff and running around like a crazy person. He is a pretty darn happy boy most of the time, but when he is upset, especially angry- watch out! He tends to throw things and lash out and scream at you when he's mad. He's had a cold for over a week now, it's mostly manifested in his eyes, which copious amounts of eye gunk, but after two horrible nights of sleep, I took him to the doctor yesterday, just to make sure he didn't have an ear infection or anything worse. He checked out fine, just a virus that is causing the eye gunk, combined with getting his two year molars, resulting in pain and discomfort for the Goo, and long nights for all of us. But while we were at the doctor, he was nuts. Spent most of the time howling and moaning, trying to run out the front door while I chased him down, throwing anything I handed him onto the floor/my foot, when I did hold him he'd try to hit me or pull out my earrings, and so on. I worked up a sweat in the waiting room alone! His behavior (the crankiness mostly) was a little extreme because he was so tired, but that experience is a good indicator of just how active he is! His verbal skills are really coming along amazingly! He asks for things in sentences often "I need help!" and multiple words a lot "Juice, drink, Daddy! Juice, drink!". He has really bonded with Granny & Grampa lately and LOVES going to their house to see them. He's really developed a penchant for talking on the phone and tries to wrestle it out of my hand every time he sees me on it. ;-) He has shown some interest in the potty lately, so we're thinking later this summer, after the baby is born and his birthday, we'll give him a shot at potty training. If it works, then sweet! If it doesn't then, no big deal.

Jilly is just about to finish preschool for the year and has made amazing progress. Even things she wasn't doing at her IEP meeting a few months ago, she is doing now. Her imagination is exploding! She loves playing with her finger puppets from Granny and sits and narrates stories with them, complete with voices and dialogue, for hours. Her latest obsession is with mermaids. Everyone cool is a mermaid and all her favorite characters are mermaids. She loves Ariel (from The Little Mermaid) and Mariana (from Dora the Explorer) and asks me to draw her a 'mermaid picture' on her MagnaDoodle many times a day. She also loves her Granny & Grampa and has gotten to have a few sleepovers at their house lately. Last weekend when she was there, she spent 45 minutes helping Granny water the flowers and work in the garden! Potty training has mostly been a success. She's had very few accidents in the grand scheme of things. For awhile, she was doing really awesome and would go all by herself (go into the bathroom, use the potty, wipe, flush and wash without any assistance or supervision). Then a couple weeks ago, she regressed a bit. She will sometimes come out of the bathroom, pants around ankles, and start wandering around and need a lot of coaching to go back in a finish the process, step by step. It's frustrating for us, but it's still better than dealing with changing a pull-up. And sometimes she's just fine, so it's kind of odd. But oh well. I'm hoping this summer we'll get her swimming on her own and really be able to enjoy the pool at our apartment. I wanted to do swimming lessons, but now I'm less sure I want to rigidity of the class schedule and spending the money on it. We'll see.

Steve is finishing the 3rd of eight quarters in his MBA program. After next week, he'll have a couple weeks off before starting summer quarter. That will be nice, since it will coincide with Jilly getting out of school and the baby's arrival. School is going well for him and he's enjoying it. Still working on finding a job. He's started creating a website to promote himself and hopefully help with the job-finding. As soon as it's finished, we'll share it and maybe one of you can pass it along and get him hired! Until then, he's a super awesome husband and father and does almost everything around the house. I know that on those days when I am physically in pain or just have no energy, I can depend on him to take care of the kids and let me rest. He is so loving and talks to Ducky all the time, telling her all the awesome things about the outside world and how much we all love her and how much he can't wait to snuggle and hold her. It's really really awesome.

I had been working full-time for most of May and some of April. It was exhausting, but worth it to get as many hours in as possible before maternity leave. My new manager started at the beginning of April (we've been without one since middle of November) and I've been helping get him up to speed, filling him in on all the little things I do that need to be maintained while I'm gone, and training both new agents and other agents to fill in for me. It's been quite the process getting used to a new management style, but it has gone well and he's been very understanding with me and how uncertain my situation is. On my days off, my mom and I would get together and we sewed the quilt tops for both Jason & Ducky's quilts! Next on the list is to re-make Jilly's (fixing the squares that got burned last year and adding a new border). Once her top is finished, we'll tie all three quilts and all my babies will have beautiful, soft and cozy quilts to snuggle with. They are all SO CUTE!! I will get pictures up when they're finished, I promise! We have all the supplies to finish them, it's just a matter of figuring out exactly what to do with Jilly's, then assembling. I've been working on other little projects to get ready for Ducky. We re-arranged our room a bit to make room for a new storage/shelving unit where all of her stuff is going to be. She's pretty much going to be in our room completely, clothes, diapers, shoes, cradle, etc. Even her dresses are hanging up in my closet. There is just no room in the kids' room for her, plus since she'll be co-sleeping, either in our bed or in the cradle right next to me, it makes sense to have her stuff nearby. I have gone to a couple Physical Therapy appts as well, to deal with the awful hip pain I've been having during this pregnancy. The therapist helped me by doing some stretches to balance out my pelvis again and showed me some exercises and other suggestions to help me with the pain. They have helped and now that the baby has moved farther down into the pelvis, the pain has gotten somewhat better. There still are issues, but it's not as bad and hopefully will resolve once she comes out!

So for now, we're just waiting for Ducky to come out. The kids are both very excited to meet her; they love kissing my belly and said Hi to her. We'll all ready to relax and thoroughly enjoy this summer as a family of 5, especially before I go back to work. I can't believe we're going to have three kids, but it is going to happen soon and we really are quite thrilled about it. Hopefully, the next post up here will be about Ducky's birth and will have cute pictures of her. Feel free to guess away on when that blessed date may be, as well as her length & weight. Anyone want to guess her hair color? Remember, even though both our babies had dark hair when they were born, Steve had red hair as a baby, so that may happen here too. ;-)

The Long Awaited Reward

2011-04-12T12:58:00.000-07:00

Jilly is not the kid who begs for everything in the store. It's one of my favorite things about her. But this beautiful, big Mylar butterfly balloon in the floral section at Safeway caught her eye a few months ago and she has asked for it several times. I like to indulge my kids once in awhile (especially because she doesn't beg for anything and everything) but the balloon was fairly expensive, so I wanted her to earn it. I didn't go the "do chores and earn spare change" route, as she wasn't yet 4 and doesn't really get money/costs. So I set a goal for her and told her when she did X, she could have the balloon. I promised her I would go out at any time of day or night to get it for her immediately, if she would just do this one thing. Whenever we'd go to Safeway and she'd see it, she would ask for it again, very politely "Mama, I want the butterfly balloon. Can I have the balloon?" And I would remind her, "Jilly when you do X, I will happily get you that balloon." Sometimes she'll ask again, but she never fights about it, or gets upset. It's a routine we've kept up for months, not sure of when it would ever come to fruition.

This past week was Spring Break and being the resourceful (read: desperate) parents we are, we decided to use that time for something useful. Potty training. As some of you may recall, we did a round of potty training back in August. It was semi-successful once we figured out the right verbal cues to use with her (being told to squeeze/push her pee out was just what she needed to hear) and she's been able to pee in the potty since then. Rarely will she suggest it, we usually have to prompt her, and honestly we get lazy when she's in a pull-up and don't always remember to take her. But with Ducky's imminent arrival and seeing the progress Jilly has made communication wise over the past few months, we decided to try again. We knew that the key would be consistency and a big block of time without interruption.

Each day we tried to keep her either naked or only in panties and take her potty every hour or less. We set a timer to remind us and we'd ask her frequently too. For the most part, we got quite a few successes for pee, but a few accidents with poop. It was discouraging, but on Thursday, Steve was extra vigilant about keeping her naked all day. That evening, I got the text that Jilly had earned her balloon. :-D Steve says she was a little surprised by how much he was celebrating, and then she asked, "Is Mama going to get me TEN balloons?!" He laughed and told her, "No, I think just one." She was okay with it. I got home a little while later and we decided to go out to dinner. I let Jilly pick between Macaroni Grill and Red Robin and she chose Red Robin, quite emphatically. We had a super fun meal, Jilly was even in panties and went to the bathroom with me at one point! After dinner, even though it was late, we definitely had to get the balloon. We stopped by Safeway, leaving the boys in the car, and I got to take Jilly in to find her balloon. We came in and looked at all the balloons, there were so many options! Bumblebees, dragonflies, a frog and the beautiful butterfly. I pointed them all out to her and asked which one she wanted. It was still the butterfly. As I picked it up, I saw that the ribbon was purple and came with not only a weight, but a purple clip too. So I clipped in on her jacket and had her carry it around the store while I grabbed a couple things. She was SO PROUD of her balloon and of herself!

She really liked pulling on it and making the wings flap, like it was flying. Jilly really really wanted to take it to bed, but I saw that as a recipe for disaster, both for the balloon and for the kids! So I made her leave it outside her bedroom for nighttime. The next day she was thrilled when she got up and it was still there.

In the days since, we've had quite a few more successes. Friday night, Jilly spent the night with her grandparents. They took her out to dinner, and even though she was in a pull-up, she asked Granny to go potty. Granny took her, had her pee, and then Jilly pooped for her too! At a restaurant! WOOHOO!!! Saturday, she did it again for Daddy later in the day. In fact, since then she's really only had one (poop) accident and that was Sunday evening. I put her in panties and didn't keep up with taking her potty very often. So we discovered a bit of a mess when it was time to get in jammies. Monday, she did everything in the potty, including at school!!! We are still putting her in pull-ups when she goes out, especially if she won't be with one of us and/or it could be hard to get her to the potty quickly and often. So that includes school and church. But we've found, if we stay up on it, taking her every hour or so, she stays clean and dry in between quite often.

It's still work, still not perfect, but we're making progress. To some it may seem ridiculous that she's 4 1/2 and not potty trained yet, but for our girl, she's coming along right as she is able to. She's made such progress in the past year with all her other delays, that we took our time with this one. And look, she's doing great! Our goal (dream) is to have this processed completely finished before Ducky arrives. So we've got about 6-9 weeks to get this down. Based on how well she's been doing lately, I don't think that's crazy. We're proud of our Birdie Girl!!!

C is for Cookie

2011-04-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

My kid is in love with a blue, plush puppet. IN LOVE. At least 6,752 times a day, Jason climbs up next to me in the chair, lays his head sweetly on my chest and relentlessly asks "Cookie, Mama? Cookie, Mama?" until I finally give in and hit the bookmark for the Cookie Monster video. He never gets angry or yells about it, just asks over and over and over and over again, "Cookie, Mama?" It's all very sweet and adorable and one of the ways I can actually get him to sit quietly with me, for even a few minutes. So we watch it, a lot. Steve came up with the brilliant idea of having a Cookie Monster themed birthday party for Goo's 2nd birthday, complete with a cookie cake. Not only was this an adorable idea, but it also sounded delightfully simple and do-able to someone who will be 2-4 weeks postpartum. :-D

So, because I like to share things that my kids love, here is the C is for Cookie video. May another 'Cookie Monster' monster be created in your house. ;-) Jason's gotta have something to talk to the other kids about in Nursery, right?

The same, yet different.

2011-04-03T16:33:00.000-07:00

As the mother of two kids, I can't help but compare and contrast their personalities often. Wednesday night was a great example of the ways these two are similar, but quite different. We went to the mall so the kids could play and I could do a little shopping for Jason. In the play area, there are a bunch of cool things to climb on and slide down, such as a mountain, rocks with an octopus on it, a ferry, and a few orca whales. The kids immediately took to them and played around. Jilly was especially adept and climbing up and down by herself (woohoo!). Jason still needed help, but was pretty good for being smaller than most of the kids there. We've been taking them to play at parks lately, so they've been getting practice at that type of stuff. But there is one behavior we can't seem to get Jason to stop.

Like most kids his age, he hangs out right at the bottom of the slide, where he's either in the way of the kids coming down or he gets knocked over by them. I don't fault any kid that comes down the slide and knocks him over; it's his own fault, because we repeatedly tell him to move and physically move him. He persists nonetheless. In fact, he tries to climb up the slide from the bottom. Again, I know it's pretty typical of kids his age, but it drives me batty nonetheless. So last night, he was doing that again, even after he figured out how to climb up to the top of the slide himself. We would pick him up and move him to the side so he could climb up, he'd climb, turn himself and slide down, giggling hysterically as he hits the floor, then would look at us and try to climb up the slide! Every single time we'd tell him "No, Jason. You can't climb up the bottom of the slide; you need to go around," and we'd motion with our hands. His response? To smile at us and, while maintaining eye contact, try to climb up the bottom. So every time we had to physically pick him up and move him to where he could climb again. The cycle repeated itself for 30+ minutes, with both Steve and me taking turns moving him.

Here is where Jilly is different. She is usually pretty good about not climbing up the bottom, but once in awhile she'd forget and try it. We could call across the play area and tell her to go around. As long as she heard us (sometimes we'd have to call her name a couple times to get her attention), she would immediately respond and run around to the correct side.

The difference here is pretty indicative of how these two work most often. There certainly is something to be said for their age difference. At 4 years old, Jilly definitely is more mature and able to process and respond to verbal instructions much better than 21-month-old Jason. I totally get that. But I think it has more to do with their personalities than anything. We don't get a lot of willful, intentional disobedience from Jilly. Certainly, she has her moments, but most often if she is doing something she shouldn't be, it's because she got busy and forgot and as soon as we verbally correct her, she'll stop. Jason on the other hand, will make eye contact with us, hear us tell him not to do something, then smile and do it anyway! While looking at us straight in the face and laughing! The little turkey! And of course, he does it with such charm you can't help but giggle with him.

You could certainly ascribe this behavior to the difference in their ages and sure, that is part of it. But when you really watch these two, you see the personality differences. I would definitely describe both of our kids as charming, but they are very different forms of charming. From a very young age, nay, I'd say since birth, Jilly has been able to charm people into loving her. Being around Jilly just brings joy into your life. If she's in a good mood (which is 80% of the time), you can't stay grumpy around her. She is just Joy embodied, smiling, laughing, giggling, being goofy, etc. However, her charm isn't an intentional thing. It's just how she is and it infects those around her. It's a very cherubic, innocent, child-like charm. Jason is also incredibly charming, but he knows it. He has this twinkle in his eye and he uses it. Like I said earlier, he looks you in the eye and makes sure you're watching him when he does something (both good & bad things), all the while flashing his charming grin and twinkling, mischievous eyes. He charms you because he wants to, and it's a more adult, intentional charm. I just hope as he gets older he uses that charm for good and not selfish manipulation. Jilly cannot tell an intentional lie (at least not yet), she just doesn't think to lie. While Jason doesn't have enough words to outright lie yet, I can tell with the way he uses his words that it's not that long until he starts using them to manipulate and if not outright lie, at least spin things for his benefit.

These two little monkeys keep us on our toe, for sure!! The older they get, the more their personalities come out, the more you see how they work with and against each other. It's rather fascinating to watch their dynamic. I love watching them do a lot of the same things, yet they each have their own spin on it. And come on, they're just the freaking cutest things EVER! :-D

Houston Trip - including the wedding!

2011-03-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

Catch up - February

2011-03-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

February saw us sick again, crafting and making all sorts of preparations. To start out, Jilly got a pretty raging ear infection. The poor girl was clearly not feeling good at all! She would lay around, moaning about her ear hurting, fever going up and down, and overall just crummy. We tried some garlic oil drops, which definitely soothed her, but didn't quite kick the infection. A few days later she had her 4 year well-child check up and the NP said it was very red and inflamed and prescribed antibiotics. I had some mixed feelings on filling the prescription, because I don't want to overdose my kids with them, I was worried about some of the side effects, but in the end Jilly was miserable and anything else we were doing for her only provided comfort for a few hours at most. I decided to fill it and I'm glad I did. It was an appropriate situation to use them and she perked right up in a day or two.

You can see how bad she felt, because this was taken at like 3pm! She fell asleep on the couch after crying about her hurting ear and getting some juice and ibuprofen. Poor thing.

This is just a fun picture Steve took while playing with the black and white setting on our computer. I heart my Goo.

These are what Jilly calls her "Jesus wheel". A couple years ago in Sharing Time, I had the kids make these with cardstock. As you turn the top wheel, you see a total of 5 pictures, helping you to remember Jesus during the Sacrament. I'd made probably 3 for Jilly because they keep getting ripped or chewed on. I decided to make another one and laminate it, since my mom got us a laminator for Christmas. I thought then it was sure to stand up to the abuse of both the 4 year old and her little brother. I had told a friend about it and she thought it was a neat idea, so I made one for her daughter too. I colored the pictures of the girls with their hair color and favorite color of dress, so they could make it more personal. They turned out great!

(I must add though, that ours lasted only about 3 weeks before Jason grabbed it, pulled off the top wheel and then ripped it in half! I'll have to either find something stronger, give up on the wheel, or just be extremely vigilant about keeping it away from Jason!)

It was also Valentines Day and Jilly's class was having a party where all the kids were asked to bring Valentines. It certainly would have been easy to buy a pack and send them that way, but I was feeling crafty, so I decided to make her valentines. It ended up being very easy because I already had everything I needed, pink cardstock, heart foam stickers, and a sharpie! Each one was a little different and had every kid's name on it. I thought they turned out pretty cute, so I hope they pleased all the 3 & 4 year olds. :-)

Here is a close up of a couple of them.

We also made a trip to Costco and found a few things for Ducky. This cute ensemble has butterflies on it. One of the great things about having another girl is that we get to re-use a lot of Jilly's baby clothes, which let's face it, were super insanely cute. However, Jilly was a winter baby, so while onesies and pants work at any time of year, fleece sleepers and long sleeve velvet & corduroy dresses are not going to work for a summer baby. So we need to get Ducky a few things.

We just couldn't pass up the sweet outfit with the sleeper, onesie, pants and hat. When even Steve thinks something is cute, you know it is. :-) I honestly don't hold out much hope that Ducky will ever wear the hat. My kids just have giant heads (thanks a lot Steve), so newborns hats don't fit very long, if at all. But the clothes are soft cotton and will be great for a lukewarm June, not too hot, not too cool.

We found this adorable dress too! It's sooooo cute! Ducky's gotta have something to wear to church, so this will be fantastic on a hot August Sunday. I was initially worried that she wouldn't fit into the 3 months size before summer was over, but then Steve reminded me that summer doesn't start until July and lasts through, at least, the first part of September. So she'll be 3 months old by the time summer is wrapping up. Most likely she'll have plenty of opportunity to wear it, unless she really really takes after me and stays very small and petite! Even then, she'll probably get to wear it. :-)

In order to get a good idea of what we needed for Ducky, I had to pull out all the baby clothes to see what would work. It may seem a little premature to get them all out four months prior to the due date, but I had to at least get a handle on what we had. I found we had a lot more than I thought. Definitely only one or two dresses, but more sleepers than I thought. And there were a lot of Spring outfits that I'd bought for Jilly when she was about 3 months old, that I probably put on her too soon. So they will work great as summer fades into fall. That was nice. I also decided to pull out any clothes for the older kids that they would likely fit into soon and reorganized their closet a bit too.

While I was doing that, Jilly decided to put together her own outfit. Quite the look, I must say! She's wearing an Easter dress of mine from when I was 6 (or it might have been my sister's, but since I think my mom made them the same size, we can't be sure), a fleece infant hat that isn't even close to fitting Jason, and her fairy wings.

She danced around the apartment like that for the rest of the night. It was stinkin' hilarious! At the end of February, we made a trip to Houston for Steve's sister's wedding. But that was such a big trip, it deserves it's own post, so stay tuned!

Catch up - January

2011-03-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

January was a month of laying low and getting better from colds. We've all been sick a bunch this winter and it freaking sucks! One Sunday, Jason was still sick so I stayed home from church with him and decided to assemble his Christmas present from Granny Sam & Grampa Paul while he was napping. It was....not easy. But once I got it all snapped together (finally) and got all the stickers on it, I think it looked awesome! Of course, I set it all up with his many cars and had to take pictures before I could think about letting him near it. It was pretty obvious that this was the best it would ever look. Once you let an 18-month-old loose on the thin plastic, you can't expect it to stay the same. Plus, you know, us parents may have needed a spin or two with the cars first. ;-) But Jason loved it!

There was more photo taking fun. Lately Jason has really started looking like Steve with his expressions. See?

We also got new bedding! Back in December some friends of ours had upgraded their bed and were giving away their old one. It was a king size and immediately I offered to take it off their hands. Steve and I have been sleeping on a double bed since we got married, almost 6 years, including 2 full pregnancies and co-sleeping with Jason for 4 months! Needless to say, it went past cozy. So since we had this new big, super comfortable bed (yay memory foam pad!), we needed new bedding. We used some money we'd been given for Christmas to get beautiful new bedding. It's so pretty! We got the same sheets we'd previously had (jersey cotton from Target) but in the bigger size and new color. So we're rocking red sheets and grey & black pillows and comforter. It's like we're grown ups or something!

Jilly has been very into dress up lately and one day grabbed my boots off the floor. She put them on and started walking around in them. The juxtaposition of the (on her) thigh high hooker boots and Dora shirt are just too funny. :-D

The end of January brought a big birthday party. My step-dad Paul turned 50 and my cousin Bailey turned 25! We had a big shindig at Mom & Paul's house to celebrate and I got to make the cake. It was so much fun to hang out with everyone.

I made the cake and it turned out really good! Paul specifically requested yellow cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting. Score! I decided to make it a 4 layer cake with LOTS of frosting. It was simple, but looked really cool when we cut into it.

This was the highest cake I ever made and the layers turned out much better than I had ever done before.

Bailey got to cuddle her favorite boy lots, especially while wearing the birthday hat. It's gotten use on quite a few birthdays now. ;-)

And it wouldn't be a family gathering, if we didn't all sit around and watch the kids do funny things, especially while taking pictures of it. ;-)

Jilly has also developed new getting-into-stuff skills. She not only learned how to undo the child locks on the drawers, but also got strong enough to open the bottom drawer of their dresser. That meant she now had access to a lot of little toys and books we had put away months/years ago. This is what we found one evening after she went into her room to play.

She, of course, wanted others to join in with her and it was too silly and fun not to.

January also saw some big moments for us! Jilly got her first haircut and we also found out that our Ducky is going to be a a little girl! So while we laid kinda low, we had some very fun moments as well.

Catch up - December

2011-03-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

December was a nice but busy month. I was feeling a bit better, though still sick a lot, and we got to see a lot of family and friends with the holidays. My sister Katie came home from Texas for the first time in a year, and we were all terribly excited to see her. It was awesome. Regan, my best friend, was home from Hawaii too and we got to hang with her lots. We were busy with choir and church activities, as well as Christmas with our family. Throw in some snow and we had quite the interesting month!

I can't help but take pictures of my kiddos when they fall asleep outside their beds. Jilly passed out on the couch one evening and it was so adorable, I couldn't resist! Look at those cheeks! They're just screaming to be kissed, right?

Jason has definitely developed a love for remote controls, computers and cell phones. In particular, my cell phone. He will often sneak over and grab it off the chair before I notice. Before we put the child locks on the desk, he would also get in the drawer and pull out the camera, sometimes playing with it by himself, sometimes bringing it to us to take pictures with. So I'd snap some pics of him, which he obviously enjoyed.

Christmas was one of the best days. Christmas Eve we did our traditional mexican food feast with my family. We have enchiladas and tortilla soup and yummy desserts. We all just hang out, eating good food and enjoying company. This year, after most of the family had left, Bailey and Elise read Luke 2 with us and then we sat around the piano while Bailey played Christmas songs and we sang along. It was beautiful. Jilly even sang Angels We Have Heard On High with us, which was beautiful. :-)

Christmas morning we opened stocking at home with just us. The kids got stuff like toothbrushes and some other little things, then everyone got lots of candy. Jason learned how to say "candy" during the holidays, which is pretty darn cute to hear him yell "CA-EEE!!"

We don't do Christmas jammies, but still wanted the kids matching, so their Halloween skeleton jammies it was! Made me laugh to see my two little skeletons opening their Christmas stockings.

Jason knew what was up and immediately busted into his candy. Yum!!

We also opened the presents from Steve's family. The kids were given books and a CD from the Ziegenhorns. It was each of their cousin's favorite book and then the cousin reading it aloud on the CD. Very fun!! A couple of them became INSTANT classics in the Hall house. Punk Farm has been an especially big hit. :-)

And of course, some good wrestling time too.

We headed to my family's house mid-day to open more presents. Jason got comfy in the rocking chair right away. That rocking chair is over 25 years old, it was given to me for my 1st birthday. It's seen a lot of kids and it's always fun for me to see my little ones play in it.

Jilly also got a belated birthday present from Katie- a beautiful Princess dress up set! I only let her put on the dress because I didn't want to lose all the little pieces (earrings, wand, bracelet, etc).

After we opened all the presents, we headed back to our house. The afternoon was spent cooking and napping. Then we went over to our friends' house for dinner, eating with them and the 4 missionaries from our ward. The food was excellent and the company a lot of fun. It was a super fun day getting to spend it with so many people we love and such yummy food too. We got home with very exhausted but happy kiddos.

We got a lot of snow this November and December. It was so pretty, coating everything, that Steve had to take some pictures. These are all from our balcony, looking at the trees and other apartment buildings.

And last but not least, our cute little Christmas tree. It was the first year we actually got a tree. This little guy was small enough to fit on our table (necessary) but big enough to get most (though not all) of our ornaments on it. Between the tree lights and the lights we hung around the living room and balcony, our house was very festive and very pretty.

Catch up- November!

2011-03-05T14:39:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I'm really trying to play catch-up this time. I've got about 5 posts in the works, so they should be appearing over the next few days. The easiest way to categorize them was by month, so there you go. We'll start with November.

November was a crazy month, weather-wise. Crazy weather makes for rough days at work and therefore a cranky and tired Mama when I get home. Add in that I was in the throes of morning sickness and working three 12-hour shifts a week, and I was one exhausted lady. Later in the month, I started feeling a bit better so we got to do some fun things. It snowed the week of Thanksgiving a couple times and was bitterly cold in between. Jilly LOVES the snow and was begging to go out and play in it. We live on the 3rd floor, so going to play in the snow is a bit of a production, especially since Jason had barely started walking (end of October). But we did it one day, which was a lot of fun.

The snow on the side of the apartment office is closest and usually untouched, so we headed over there to make a snowman.

I love the way Jason is looking up at his big sister here. Awwwww!

Jilly got hit with a snowball from Daddy. ;-) Unfortunately, the snow wasn't very pack-able, so it didn't make for good snowballs.

Jason was.....not a fan of the snow. He didn't want to walk around or really even stand in the snow, but I made him stand there so I could at least get a picture. Soon enough though (like 5-10 minutes), both he and I got cold and tired and headed back to the warm apartment. Jilly and Daddy stayed outside to work on their snowman.

Jilly also wanted to make a "Snow Jilly" (snow angel), but basically needed us to lay her down and move her arms and legs. ;-) She was pretty proud of it though.

Thanks to the Jillian Jiggs books, Jilly insisted on a "Snow Martian" and Daddy obliged. Turned out pretty cute, if you ask me!

Jilly and her Snow Martian. ;-)

That weekend also brought us a very exciting event. Our little Birdie Girl turned 4!!! We had a birthday party for her with our family the night before her birthday. It was especially fun because my Auntie Terry & Uncle Kevin were in town from Connecticut, so they joined us as well! YAY family!

This is the official Birthday Hat now. My mom got it a few months ago and now each of us wears it at our party. :-) It looked great on Jilly.

Granny Same and Jason hanging out, rocking away.

Auntie Terry, Bailey and Elise visiting with everyone. Can you tell Bailey & Terry are related? ;-) I don't think we got a picture of Uncle Kevin, but he was there too.

Andy and Grampa couldn't miss the festivities either!

Now, the fun part: opening presents!! This was from Auntie Terry & Uncle Kevin.

Ooooh!! Disney movies! Now we have more for our (formerly meager) collection.

This was from Auntie Karen; the book Princess Me.

As well as a Princess puppet and headband.

From Granny & Grampa, a super fun Puppet Stage and a couple sets of finger puppets! Jilly was in LOVE.

And lastly, the present from Mama & Daddy: a Dora bed tent and flashlight!!! She was soooo excited, so of course we had to set it up right away.

Jason was slightly more helpful than Jilly, but neither of them were all that helpful. ;-)

Set up! And the two kids jumped in immediately. It's made for a twin bed, so we mostly use it to play on the floor. Now, time for cake!

Because of Jilly's love/obsession with ducks, we thought it was most appropriate to have a duck cake. After hours of scouring the internet to find a good idea that a) looked neat and b) I could pull off, I found this cute idea to use mini-marshmallows as bubbles and blue frosting for water, so it looks like the duck is taking a bath. Steve found this awesome birthday rubber duck at the store and voila! A duck cake!!

Four star candles looked awesome and Jilly just loved it.

This was the first year Jilly was able to blow out her own candles (she figured it out right after her birthday last year).

Mmm.....blue frosting. :-D Eating cake is serious business! It was a really fun evening with everyone, we were so glad to have so many people there to celebrate our little girl. It's still surprising that I've been a mother for over 4 years, but Jilly is definitely soooooo 4 years old! She's such an adorable girl.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET JILLIAN!!!!

Aaaaaaand this is why we don't let the bed tent hang out on her toddler bed. She doesn't sleep, just knocks down her tent.

Big Moment for Jilly!

2011-02-03T14:22:00.000-08:00

Last week was all about our little girls. We had the ultrasound with Ducky and got to see our new little girl. Our big little girl also had a momentous occasion. Her first haircut!! Yes, my daughter is over 4 years old and I have never, ever had her hair cut. It had gotten pretty long too!

You can see that it wasn't very even at all. It kind of came to a point in the back, and the length of it was also pulling out her beautiful curls. So we decided it needed to be cut. It was just too long and starting to not look at good, so with Aunt Erin's wedding coming up, it was the perfect reason to get it clipped!

On Thursday, Jilly came with me to my midwife appointment. She helped listen to the baby's heartbeat and take my blood pressure. After, she didn't want to leave, so I offered to go get a treat with her. We made a date out of the afternoon. We got some "Twizzlers" (I got her Red Vines since Twizzlers taste like wax) and headed over to Great Clips to get her hair cut. The stylist was very nice and seemed flattered he got to cut her hair for the first time. We decided to cut off almost four inches from the longest part! Jilly sat mostly still while he cut and the result was very nice.

It definitely is much shorter now! Look at the difference! But also look at how even it is across the back. Much nicer than the straggles that were there before. She definitely still has the wave there and I bet with a little more length on it, the curls will come back just the same. For now, she mostly has a little flip at the bottom, which is very cute.

This picture isn't as great, but you can kind of see how much better the front matches the back now. He barely cut anything in the front (a couple little trims). But the lengths blend so much better. It's really quite cute on the little lass. I probably will choose to keep it an inch or two longer than it is right now, once it's more evened out. But I feel pretty confident that we cut the right amount off. It makes her look a little older too, which is bittersweet for me, but mostly sweet. Now, we just need to get everyone else's hair cut (Mama, Daddy and Jason) and we'll be all ready for Aunt Erin's wedding in a few weeks!

Ducky makes it's film debut!

2011-01-29T09:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Steve, Granny and myself went downtown for our big ultrasound. It was the first (and hopefully only) time we got to sneak a peak at the little one inside. Right away we found Ducky was head up, with it's head on my left side and feet down. One hand was up at it's face (though we couldn't tell if it was sucking it's thumb or not). We checked out everything, head, abdomen, heart (we could see all four chambers pumping and beating), arms, legs, kidneys (both are there!), spine, hands, everything! The baby is growing well and looking healthy. It was funny too because as soon as the scan started, the baby totally started kicking at the probe. This baby does NOT appreciate any pressure against my stomach. If I am leaning on my stomach, against a counter or too much on my tummy in bed, the baby will kick to make me move back. So the baby was not a fan of the probe, pushing down on it. When we were told Ducky was head up, it made a lot of sense because most of the movement I've been feeling is pretty low and usually in the middle.

Near the end, the tech asked us if we were interested in knowing the gender. Yes, yes we are!! She moved around to get a view of Ducky's goods. That's when she announced we will be welcoming another.......GIRL!! A new little daughter is coming to our family! We were all pretty darn excited. I have to be honest, I had been hoping for a girl, because I love all the frilly things that girls get to have, headbands, pink, bows, dresses, etc, and was really hoping to get to use a lot of Jilly's things again. Now, we get to! After we left the ultrasound, I sent out a big text to all our family about Ducky, and then called my step-dad. I told him "We just wanted to let you know that your new grandbaby is going to be a Princess Duck! Ducky is a girl!!" Hehehe, it was fun.

A super big thanks to Tawnya (and Jaxson and Lucy) for watching our kids so we were able to really enjoy the appt and pay close attention (Jilly had such a good time, she whined and cried the whole way home because she only wanted to stay and play with Jaxson!). When we picked them up, I asked Jilly (for the 1,178,942nd time) if the baby was a boy or girl. She replied (for the 1,178,937th time) "girl" and I told her she was right! The baby is a baby sister! I told Jason he was going to have a little sister, and dude, was that a weird concept for my brain to wrap itself around. My teeny little baby guy is going to be a big brother and have a baby sister to take care of! Crazy!

So everything is right on track for Ducky to make her debut in mid-June. We'll see who this little girl takes after: her sister (born at 40 weeks) or her brother (born at just 38 weeks 5 days). If I get my way (HA!) she'll be born at the beginning of Memorial Day weekend. I'm shooting for May 27th, so I can keep all my kids' birthdays on the 27ths of each month. That'd put us at just about 38 weeks. Two weeks early sounds nice, doesn't it? ;-) We'll see how much that works out. We decided to plan for another out-of-hospital birth, but this time we'll be going to a nice birth center in Kirkland. I'm excited to tour it soon! It looks awesome. And then I'll have experienced three different kinds of birth settings: hospital, home and birth center! Granted, the home birth wasn't my own home, but it was close enough. We're getting more excited all the time! Now that we know Ducky is a girl, we can really get to planning all the logistics. Next on the list: figuring out car seat configurations for the car, sleeping arrangements, bedding and definitely some new clothes! Because Ducky will be a summer baby and Jilly was a winter baby, not everything will work. Those thick fleece sleepers won't work as well for July as they did for December. ;-) Excellent! I love shopping!!!

Long time, no post

2011-01-22T10:57:00.000-08:00

Oh dear. Once again, it's been a very long time since I have blogged anything of significance. Well, I guess announcing Baby #3 was rather significant. Regardless, my long-neglected blog is going to get a little love today. Alas, since I am on the laptop, there won't be any pictures. You'll have to come back for those. :-)

Jason is almost 19 months now, and dude! The kid has grown up!! He started walking at 16 months (right around Halloween- nice timing ;-)) and hasn't looked back. He definitely prefers being upright and wandering around. It's really fun to watch him toddle about, with his baby belly hanging out, even though he's a fairly lean little guy. He's also really started talking in the last month or so. Let's see if I can remember all (or even most) of his words: Daddy, Mama, Ji-yee (Jilly), Gehn-goo (Thank you), Peas (Please), Joo (juice- used for any drink, milk or juice), Ea (eat), Ball, Ow-sigh (Outside), Byebye, Yeah, No, Cah (Catch). There are more, but I'll have to have Steve fill them in later. Most of his words, he says spontaneously and he has a couple signs too (eat, drink, more). Jason is really trying hard to communicate with us and often he gets his point across. I love this stage, when you can really start to communicate with the little one and finally understand what's going on in their head. He's also starting to mimic us when we count, he says either two or three after we start counting.

Jason is still in love with his Monster lovey and his monkey Jimmy and often will sleep with his head on Jimmy like a pillow and his other arm over Monster. We've noticed that Goo will move around so that he can sleep with his face on his flannel blanket or his monkey, so we put a pillow in his crib and plan on getting a flannel pillowcase, so the boy has a soft, warm and fuzzy place to rest at night. Our guy is quite the tenacious little sucker too! He is really really strong and certainly gives his (much bigger) sister a run for her money. If she is sitting next to one of us, and he decides he wants to cuddle with us too, he will climb right on and over her to get to us, often kicking her and shoving her out of the way. Same with if she has a sippy cup or something else he wants, he will grab hold and just not. let. go. until she gives it up to him. She certainly dishes it back out, but they are an even match. He started Nursery a couple weeks ago, and true to form, was rather nervous at first, so I spent that day in there with him. Sure enough, he overwhelmed with the newness of it all (the room, the leaders, the kids, the toys, everything) but warmed right up to everything by the end, and the next week he went right in and had a ball.

Jilly turned 4 at the end of November and is very much a 4 year old. She can be quite the drama queen, but is also incredibly sweet and loving. Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds all the time. Just yesterday she fell down and as she was getting back up, she said, "Oh no, I fell down! I crushed myself!" Hahaha! She was not crushed at all, but she put together exactly what happened and verbalized it right away. She has some funny quirks; when she's upset about something and crying, she'll often start talking about her boo-boos. It doesn't seem to make a difference if she got physically hurt or got her feelings hurt, she'll come over to me, holding out her hand, "My boo-boos! My boo-boos hurt! Kiss them!" Steve jokes around that she has stigmata. ;-) She has very strong opinions on certain things. Two examples: First, she will not let me call myself Mommy. I am MAMA, NOT MOMMY!! Second, she is adamant that Steve has black hair, not brown (his hair is close to black, but is really dark brown with a little bit of red, so it's easy to confuse). If you try to dissuade her of either of these ideas, it will eventually lead to tears and change no one's mind. My strong-willed little lady. :-)

Her favorite color is PURPLE. She prefers purple anything, her purple bowl, her purple spoon, her purple shirt, whatever. If purple is an option, you can bet she will choose it. Another prediction Steve made before she was born that has come true. ;-) She is loving every second of school; still going 4 days a week in the afternoons. Her teacher and helpers are fantastic with her. We are still working on potty training, though being completely honest, it's mostly an issue about her parents taking her to the potty. If we keep on her and take her every hour or so, we can get her to pee in the potty most of the day. She definitely gets pull-ups when we go out or she's at school or at night, but if she asks to go potty while we're out we'll take her (I often take her at church before Primary) and I've been trying to keep her in panties at home. It's just a matter of making it so routine to go in the toilet that she gets out of the habit of going in her undies/pull-up. And considering she hates wearing half of her pull-ups ("I hate Woody with orange! I want Woody and Buzz!"), it's time for her to be done with them.

Together, the kids mostly get along really well. Their personalities are very well suited to one another, so I wonder how Baby Ducky will change/fit into their dynamic. They both love reading books, together with Mama or Daddy, and on their own. Jason's favorites are Hop On Pop ("Pah! Pah!) and Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? Jilly is currently obsessed with Punk Farm and Curious George (both Christmas gifts). One of the awesome things is that we can usually read the book once and then hand it back to the kid, and they will read it to themselves several more times. They are both working on their throwing skills, sometimes to my detriment (getting hit in the face with a book or Hot Wheels car- not on my list of favorite things), but I think Jason has better skills than Jilly. That girl is not going to be the softball player in the family. Soccer perhaps, but not throwing anything, so basketball might be out too. ;-)

Steve started an MBA program with City University this past fall and has completed his first of 8 quarters. At the end of Summer 2012, he will have an MBA! He is working hard in his online classes and enjoying having something else to do besides just take care of the family. It's nice to have an intellectual endeavor. He is still out of work (about 15 months now), despite many many applications. We're hoping being an MBA candidate will make his resume more attractive and things will turn around, employment wise, soon. In the meantime, I gotta say, he is a much better housewife than I am! He has a great routine down with the kids, makes awesome food and cleans the house mostly single-handedly. I do love having him around so much. I just kinda like him. ;-) We're all ready for him to get back to work, but until that happens, we're doing all right the way we are.

I am still working, about 30-35 hours a week, usually 3 or 4 days. The early mornings are hard, as are 12 hour days, but my schedule will change in February, which should be easier on me. It's winter so it vacillates between being really quiet and quite busy. Choir is going better for me. After our Christmas program was over, I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. Preparing three songs, with little experience, for two separate performances, and a surprise pregnancy on top of that, really overwhelmed me. Now, I feel like I've gotten my footing at least a little bit, and we'll just be doing one song a month, which is much easier to handle (::knocking furiously on wood::). I am so grateful for everyone that comes and shares their talents with us; you guys rock! And those of you who haven't come yet, please do! Now that Jason has started Nursery, I'm getting to enjoy Sunday School and Relief Society totally on my own for the first time in about 4 years. I was in Primary for three years, so I didn't get to go then, and then when I got released, I often had Jason with me. So now, I plan on enjoying the next four months of stillness, before I am back to juggling a baby. ;-)

As for Baby Ducky, the morning sickness is mostly gone, but I am still taking my medication first thing in the morning, to get over that hump, enabling me to eat, which then helps me feel good the rest of the day. I've been feeling Baby Ducky growing a ton this past week. I can feel the baby's movements getting stronger and in more places, as well as the stretching and general discomfort of the expanding uterus. My belly just keeps getting bigger. You'd think this being my third pregnancy, I would be expecting it, but it still surprises me when I see my reflection in a window or mirror. We have our ultrasound on Friday, Jan 28th, and we are planning on finding out the sex of the baby. I think we're each hoping for a different sex. I would love a girl because I love dresses and bows and all the frilly little girl things, plus I just understand girls better and would love to see Jilly with a little sister. But every time she throws a fit, Steve will say, "And you want more girls?! Imagine once they all hit puberty! I hope Ducky is a boy!" Hahaha. He would probably relish two little boys, just under two years apart, while the thought of that scares me (thanks to Triscuit and AM for all the stories of their crazy boys!).

We have one upcoming adventure that should be a ton of fun. Steve's sister Erin is getting married next month in Houston, so we will be traveling down there for that. We'll be flying standby again, but it's free, so we'll take it! Now that we've done the big trip to Connecticut, I'm much calmer about this trip. Travel time will be about the same, but the kids are 8 months older and much better equipped to handle it. And luckily Steve's sister Becky is letting us borrow car seats once we get down there, so we don't have to lug them through the airport. Hallelujah!!! Erin decided not to have traditional bridesmaids and groomsmen, but instead have all the nieces and nephews wear matching outfits and be 'the attendants'. There are 10 in total! Seven on the Hall side and 3 on her fiance's side. The five girls have these beautiful red dresses and the five boys are all wearing tuxedos. Let me tell you, we tried the outfits on the kids the other night and dude, they are going to be the cutest wedding party EVER! I can't wait to see all of them together! This will also be the first time in FIVE YEARS that all of Steve's siblings will be together!! That means one of his brothers has never met either of our kids, and a couple of his sisters haven't met Jason. All seven cousins have never been altogether either. It is going to be awesome to get to see everyone!!!

Alrighty folks, you have the low down on what us Halls are up to these days. I need to get pictures up soon, but I am making no promises. I will update next week after the ultrasound though, so if you're not friends with us on Facebook (it will be up there right away, I'm sure), then check back here Friday evening.