Christmas 2011

Here is my baby and I right before Christmas. I was thinking that I didn't have very many pictures of me with the kids, and when they get older I want them to see that I was here with them the whole time they were little. This is what we do. Preston wakes up and we just play with him. He's so sweet! He's 7 months old and he got his first haircut yesterday. He looks so handsome! He loves all his siblings. He gets excited and his little fists start hitting his legs when any of them talk to him or play with him. This Christmas both sides of our family's celebrated Christmas with us earlier in the month, and when Christmas rolled around it was just our little family. That was a first for us. Since the girls are potty trained I was ready for 2 piece pajamas that they could pull up and down themselves. They were so excited to open up Dora pajamas on Christmas eve. I love when they hug, it's so sweet. It reminds me that they really love each other.

All 3 in their new pajamas.

Since Christmas was on Sunday this year and our church was at 9 we tried to do what we thought would be the best. So when everyone got up they did their stockings. Then after church we opened presents. If I were to do it again we would've just done it all in the morning before church and not worried too much about baths and things. It kind of broke up the momentum and it just felt kind of weird coming back and opening presents. Plus I don't think that it helped that I didn't take very good inventory of the presents I got the kids. I didn't really get the girls a very many toys. I got them dress ups and clothes and a few toys, but I don't think I'll do clothes for Christmas until they get older and want them. So, I'll do better next year!

Here's Preston at 6 months. He sucks on his hands a lot and his face is really rashy. All the kids have really sensitive skin except Piper. So I think I've finally found the stuff that works the best. I think it's just colloidal silver.

Preston started sleeping through the night at 3 months, and then at 4 or 5 months he got croup then started waking up at 5 or 6 every morning, and that was just an awkward time because if I fed him he wouldn't always go back to sleep, he'd stay up and talk for an hour, or he'd poop a lot. I don't know, but I decided a few weeks ago that I wasn't going in there until 7 every morning, and I think he's finally starting to sleep through the night. He's gotten 4 teeth in the last 2 weeks, so sometimes I can tell he's in pain, but when he's not he's been sleeping through the night. I'm so exhausted because I can't go back to sleep once he wakes up, so I've been waking up between 5 and 6 for months now.

My little Piper. I've had kind of a hard time with her lately. And I've been getting so frustrated with her. She's constantly making huge messes, teasing, and screaming/crying. I mean this is what she does from the second she wakes up to the second she goes to bed. There's no break unless she's watching TV, but she'll still think of things she needs to cry or scream about then too. Well, I was telling Matt about how I felt and he suggested that I do something with just her tomorrow. I told him that I did that a few weeks ago, I brought her to the store and she just ran away and pulled everything off of the shelves, and it just confirmed my frustrations. Well, I took her out anyway. She was having a good day and so I thought it would be fun. And it was! She was cuter than she's ever been, she just laughed and giggled and talked the entire time. She was just being so silly, and it was so fun. And it's helped today too. She's not as emotional and she's rational when I talk to her. So I'll have to do that more often.

Asher started Jr. Jazz basketball. I thought it would be more like T-ball where they just lay around and don't grasp the game. But it wasn't! He did awesome. He made a bunch of baskets, I was really impressed. He was one of the best ones! Tonight is his second game and Matt's out of town, so I will be taking all the kids by myself to the game tonight!

I just have to laugh at some of the things the kids say and argue about. Every time the kids all want something one will say, "I want it." The next one will say, "Me too." Then it's usually Averi who chimes in with, "Me three!" Then there's the same argument that happens every time afterwards. Someone yells, " I want to be me three." Then, "You can't! Averi's me three."...Then Piper usually gets mad because she's only 2 years old and Averi has miraculously changed herself to be three years old.

Last night Piper was talking to my dad on the phone and he asked, "How are you Piper?" She of course answered, "2" she paused for a second then got a sad look on her face and goes, "but Averi's older than me, she's 3."

Asher likes to talk about nick names, it was just me and the kids home last time we were talking about it. And he went through the whole family, like he's Ash, Piper's Pipes, and Averi is Ave. But as soon as he said that Piper wanted to be Ave. That made Averi mad because that's hers, and Averi does not and cannot share ANYTHING! So all day Piper walked around saying her nick name was Ave. And these are the important issues that I have to sort out with the kids everyday. Emotions run high around here, everybody just feels so much about everything!

Well, everyone except Preston. He only feels sleepy or hungry. That's why he's so sweet! He just eats, sleeps, and shoves everything in his mouth.

This is a proud boy. When we were filling the stockings on Christmas Eve Matt reached in because he felt something, and Asher had written notes to Santa on behalf of all the kids. There were quite a few pieces of paper that just said, "Go Diego Go!" But he wrote what everyone wanted then put it in their stockings. We saved them because it was too cute. He's just learning how to spell and you can see what he was thinking when he wrote each word. His paper did say rumot cuntrol car on it.

Averi loves Dora! Thank goodness Matt bought a few presents this year!

If I haven't mentioned it before, Averi hoards stuff! She always has her hands full, every toy in the house is hers, and she doesn't understand the concept of cleaning, because once you get a toy in your hand why would you ever want to put it down again. Someone might walk up right behind you and take it.

So this is her crib. There are about 10 blankets. 5-6 stuffed animals/pillows, a baby or 2, a few sippy cups, and a bunch of little toys. There's probably food in a ziploc bag in there too. This is how she sleeps every night. But it's different blankets, toys, stuffed animals and pillows. I'm scared to see what her house will look like when she's an adult!

Averi sporting her new robe. All clean, just out of the tub. I love Averi, she's so fun. She lives in a fantasy land most of the time. She's pretending most of the day. Usually she's a baby animal and Piper is the Mommy. I love when they pretend because they can't hurt each other, they only help each other. Averi has been a pig or cow pretty much this whole week, so she's ALWAYS stuck in the mud and needs "Mommy Piper" to rescue her. Piper calls Averi Baby when they pretend, Piper will say Baby about 5-10 times per minute while they pretend. I need to get them on video. I love how they play together. They play so well. They are just completely in tune with each other. I don't realize how well they communicate with each other until there's another 2 year old. They just look at Piper and Averi like they just don't get it.

My tall girls!

The other day the girls we playing and they were carrying something big around together, and Piper, who had her pants on her head, goes, "Averi, you should pull your pants down and put them on your head". Then Averi does this thing when she talks, she relaxes her mouth and talks in a monotone voice. It's hard to picture unless you've seen her do it. Anyway, in her monotone voice, she goes, "Ok, that will be silly. Mom, can I put my pants on my head, it'll be silly?" I say yes, and she puts her pants on her head, then they just go back to what they were doing as if none of that happened.

One more quick story. Piper was downstairs with me for a while the other day, and Averi was playing in her room. So they hadn't talked to each other for a while, and this was their conversation.

Averi: Piper! I have a booger for you.
Piper: No, I want a sandwich.

Averi: Oh. (walks in her room, then turns around and walks back out) Here Piper I have a sandwich for you.

I know better than to fall for that old trick. She's always feeding me pretend food, a lot of strawberries, and cookies. One day she was feeding me fruit from the pages of the book she was reading, then she fed me an egg. I about gagged! She put old egg yolk that was stuck to her face in my mouth. So gross! The other day I was kissing Preston and he spit up SO much right onto my mouth! It was gross and warm and it stunk! It gets pretty real up in here!