4 Years Old

The last couple of weeks have been kind of crazy. With going to California and Averi being so sick, Asher turned four, and Piper still has something going on with her stomach. Then I have decided that we are sitting down and all having dinner together every night!

Averi is finally better, her ears have almost stopped draining, her top molars have popped through and she's thinking about walking. She'll take a step here and there but doesn't want to commit to walking. So I'm thinking it'll happen soon.

Asher turned 4! He's been talking about turning 4 for so long that I thought it might never come. Matt and I took him to IHOP on Saturday morning and gave him a few presents. I think he liked the attention of both of us with just him. It was fun for us too.

When we got in the car to go to breakfast with him we asked him what special place he wanted to go eat. He said Carrabba's. We kind of pushed IHOP then he thought that would be fine. Our bill was actually quite a bit more expensive than if we had eaten at Carrabba's.

And of course Piper. I don't know what to do! When she's feeling good she's my easiest baby and she sleeps the best and is just cute and fun. But lately she hasn't been doing any better. She cried all evening and night and woke up with her ears draining this morning. So even with tubes they're still getting a ton of infections. I've been reading a lot and I have kind of decided that milk is the problem. So I went to Good Earth and talked to the owner for a while and we decided that I'd pick rice, coconut, Almond, or Goats milk and put in a few other things to make it more healthy.

So I went and spent quite a bit of money buying different things to add to the milk but would make it really healthy. I made a days worth of bottles, gave them to the girls and put them down for naps. Both girls couldn't sleep very well because they kept waking up screaming acting like their stomach was crampy or something.

I went this morning and bought goats milk, which is $11 per gallon. So I gave it to just Piper and we'll see how she does. If she likes it and does well with it I will start adding one thing at a time and a little slowly. I've been wanting to get chickens, but maybe we'll add a goat too!

So while I was in California I just was thinking that we really needed to sit down and eat dinner each night as a family and that would take care of a lot of the issues I have with the kids. Asher won't eat what I make then won't go to sleep because he's hungry and wants something to eat. Also he wouldn't have unhealthy snacks all the time because he'll be full on the food that I make for him.

Day 1: The kids snacked and went to bed without the dinner I made. Once the kids were in bed Matt and I dished up our food. We decided that just that night we'd eat dinner in front of the TV and be better the next night. I ate in front of the TV, he ate at the counter.

Day 2: Asher didn't eat one bite of his food, but the girls ate some and Matt and I ate it.

Day 3: Asher ate most of his food but complained the whole time. Everyone else ate it well.

Day 4: Everyone ate their food. Asher still complained so I just bribed him.

Day 5: Everyone ate their food and said it was good, even a neighbor girl ate all hers.

Day 6: Everyone ate their food. Still complained, still bribed.

Day 7: I'm out of things to make!

This is a picture of Piper right after a nap. She had thrown up and I was in the middle of making dinner so I just threw her in the sink with all the dishes so I could do what I needed to do. She really liked having so many things to play with.


I told Asher this morning that it was finally the day of his birthday party. He left for a couple of minutes and came back fully dressed for the day. It will sometimes take him an hour to get dressed and he complains and fights me the whole time because he wants me to get him dressed.
These are my gardens that I planted on Saturday after IHOP. I love having a garden! I wish I had a big enough garden to grow a year supply of vegetables and freeze or can them and use them up throughout the year.

We picked up the kids and headed to Thanksgiving point for a "bugs n fairies" party. They must've forgotten about the fairies because there were only bugs, but it was still fun. They got little bug catchers and did a little plastic bug hunt. They loved it.
Asher just doesn't know what to do with his face when it's time for a picture! I think I've just confused him.

They kind of did a little musical chairs game with the presents and passed the presents in a circle while we sang a song, then when the song was over whatever present was on his lap he'd open. He was cute because the songs he chose were I am a child of God and I love to see the temple. But the kids didn't really sing, just Matt, me and the lady that works there.

After the party was over the kids started running around and found all this new cool stuff that they must have put up this year. They had a ton to do there in the Gardens. I think we'll go back for Family Home Evening tonight. I wish Averi were walking so she could walk around. Instead she just crawls on the cement and gets holes in all her pants.

All the kids had fun and now Asher's confused. He knows he turned 4 on his birthday on Saturday, but now he thinks he's 5 because he had another birthday today. I'll have to explain it a little better to him.