Where the heck have I been???

Pricing, Pricing and Pricing!!!  My sister and I got a crazy idea to have a garage sale, so - I can't even believe what the two of us have accumulated over the past 5 years (this is just one side of the garage).  Anyway, I hope we have a lot of shoppers because I don't want to pack it back up.  

Olivia's current play list

When the boys were little babies, I spent a lot of hours singing along with the Christmas music channel trying to get them to go sleep.  So you know what songs Olivia has been hearing….

(go ahead, sing along…..)

They're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky

They're all together ooky, the Addams Family

Their house is a museum, when people come to see-em

They really are a scre-um the Addams Family

(spoken: Neat, sweet, petit!)

So get a witch's shawl on, a broomstick you can crawl on

We're going to make a call on the Addams Family

AND

O we will fight, fight, fight for Iowa State, 
And may her colors ever fly.
Yes, we will fight with might for Iowa State,
With a will to do or die,
Rah! Rah! Rah!
Loyal sons forever true,
And we will fight the battle through.
And when we hit that line we'll hit it hard ev'ry yard for I. S. U.

She is so funny with the Addam’s family song, she actually laughs! 

wordless wednesday

 

Wordless Wednesday

Thanks for taking one for the team dad!

Beautiful picture, huh!!!

That's what I thought too.  Last Saturday Keith was gone so I went to Baxter for a while.  That night we went to Ankeny for dinner and Mom, Dad and Dylan were following me. I was completely engaged with this beautiful sunset.  When I reached the stop sign I noticed they weren't behind me anymore, but kept going. 

When I got to Ankeny I saw I had a text from my mom.  Dad got pulled over and was getting a ticket!!!    So if any of you know my dad, you might know he usually drives right around the speed limit and probably hasn't had a ticket since the 80's.  Well, he was keeping up with me -who was in a daze going about 70.  He was clocked at 68 and to be honest, I'm surprised the guy didn't let him off.  Anyway - sorry dad, but probably better you than me, you have a cleaner record!  But I do feel bad, totally my fault.  

Let's talk baby schedules

I thought I would do a post on this since it tends to be a hot topic and I have gone both directions! 

With Carter and Dylan, we were hardcore about the schedule!  From some recommendations, we followed the Baby Wise schedule (not down to every detail, but followed the structure).  Play.  Eat.  Sleep.  That was our 3 hour cycle for months.  With twins it was something I felt like we needed to do because otherwise we would constantly be feeding if we didn’t have them eating at the same time.  They seemed to always be hungry about the same time, but we would wake the other one up to eat if it was feeding time.  All I knew was the book told me they would sleep through the night by X weeks (can’t even remember now) if you followed the schedule, so I remember thinking back to that so many times looking for that light at the end of the tunnel – if we stick to it, we will soon sleep againJ  Seriously, there were moments I was just holding on to those words to get through the day.

With Olivia – ABSOLUTELY NO SCHEDULE!!!  This really was not my intent.  At first I just fed on demand, when she was hungry, she ate and when she was tired, she slept.  I kept thinking after a few weeks I would put her on a more consistent schedule but, it just didn’t happen.  Then I went back to work and with different people watching her, I didn’t really see a need to put her on a schedule.  Of course, in the back of my mind was always thinking – did the schedule get the boys through the night???  We might be in trouble!   

So here we are at 11 weeks and at this point, the pros and cons in my mind! 

Right now, my opinion is NO schedule is so much LESS stressful.  One thing I always remember back to with the boys is always feeling stressed trying to get both of them to sleep when they were both supposed to sleep.  Then they were asleep and it was time to eat again.  And we start all overL  So because of this, I think the schedule added a bit of stress. 

With Olivia, it’s been AWESOME not having a schedule.  I make sure she is eating about every 3 hours.  At times she’s fed sooner and other times it’s a bit later.  She usually seems to be hungry right on that 3 hour mark. Sometimes she plays most the time, other times she sleeps almost the entire time between feedings.  She’ll take a good 2 hour nap.  Of course, I never know when it will happen, nor can I bank on it happening.  She’s does like her sleep (must be like her mom), so she is pretty easy to get to sleep, but usually will fall asleep on her own.  Now for a while I was starting to wonder if we should get her on a schedule as I thought she would never sleep through the night.  But this week (10 wks), she has been pretty consistent sleeping through the night (11ish – 5:30 ish) –I think the boys hit this at 9 wks. 

One thing nice about the schedule, you could plan your day a bit more around it- but I haven’t had a ton of issues with Olivia and this.  However, Keith did say that he liked the schedule because he feels like he never knows what she is supposed to be doing, where with the boys we always knew!  As she gets into daycare and a bit older, I would like to work towards somewhat of a schedule for a morning and afternoon nap and be more consistent at bedtime once we can start putting her down earlier.  Maybe Olivia will be one of those kids who takes a 2+ hour nap in the afternoon!!!!! 

I would be curious to hear from all of you, what your opinion is??? What worked, what didn’t?  Any recommendations?

 

TODAY

TODAY
My friend wrote a post like this, so I thought it might be fun.

Today Olivia woke up around 3:00, guess she forgot she was sleeping through the night now:(

Today was Olivia's first day at daycare  Drop-off did not go near as well as I had hoped so I've been a little down all day.  I'm hopefull things will get better.

Today I'm thinking about winning the lottery.

Today Keith just shared the funniest thing with me - he changed numbers about a year ago. It appears some friends did not get the message and have continuted to text that number.  Today he shared a not so nice voicemail his friend received asking to not text that ****, *** phone anymore.  It was pretty funny.  Another one of his friends recently got a funny response from a text as well - ask me and I will share.  Maybe we should all do a text bomb to the number.  Do you kow what that is, I just recently learned about text bomb when a friend of mine was threatened with one.

Today my house is a tornado because I have tubs of 3 years worth of boys clothes scattered in about every room.

Today I was so excited to see Olivia I played with her before changing out of my work clothes.  And today, my black shirt is now covered in spit-up.  Probably an ounce right down the front of my shirt.

Today the boys hunted for frogs with the neighbors. Tonight I'm happy to report that there are no frogs in the house.

Today the weather was beautiful.

Today I worked on a spreadsheet for about 4 hours and was constantly reminded how frustrating v-lookups can be.  Today 1 point excel, tomorrow I will win that battle!

Today Olivia is sitting in my lap watching me blog:)

Today was a very frustrating night with our boys.  Both were out of control throwing fits, crying about everything and constantly complaining. FInally we sent both to bed and I imagine every person on our block heard them screaming and crying.  Not really what I wanted to deal with tonight.

Today is one of those days that you are just out of food!  I wasn't loving our dinner, so I had a fried egg, which expried today.  Right along with two slices of toast made from the last couple pieces of our about dried up bread.  I'm still hungry and now the options are really limited. I had hoped for a bowl of cereal and NO MILK!  Tomorrow I will be making a Target stop on my lunch break.

Today Keith is out doing a jog because we signed one of us up to do the Color Run and neither of us can probably run longer than 2 minutes at this point.

Today I should mention that we have another year of bragging rights after another ISU / Iowa battle.  On that note, we have been thinking about getting ISU license plates - any fun ideas???

Here's to put this case of the Monday's to bed!

 

 

 

 

Cardiologist update

If you recall a while back I mentioned Olivia had a heart murmur and our pediatrician wanted the cardiologist to listen.  So we finally had our appointment a couple weeks ago. I thought it was just going to be a quick listen and we would be off, but it was a bit more intense than that.  First they stripped her down for a x-ray and a EKG.  Then we met with the doctor and he listened to her for a while.  He then had us do an ultrasound.  Our only experience with that has been looking at the baby in my tummy – never to look inside our baby.  She took several images, for probably 30 minutes.  So at that point we were starting to get a bit nervous.  After all the tests, we met again and he said her blood vessels going from her heart to her lungs are a little bit smaller than they should be at this time; however, the great news is they will keep developing within the next year and the murmur will go away on its own.  He was not concerned at all and we don’t even need to do a follow-up appointment.

 

 

Paddy Stone

The boys have been singing this song lately.   I couldn't ever quit get all the words but assumed it was something they learned at school.  Keith and I finally figured out that it's NOT a song from school, they made it up!  Which is why it makes ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE!!!  Well, he asked them and Dylan said he made it up and taught Carter.  We got most of it on video, they got a bit distracted in the end.  ENJOY!

The snot sucker...

Yep, you read that right!  There are quite a few new baby products on the market since being back into the baby business.  This is one that I saw and said no way.  A friend said it was awesome and Keith said he would do it.  So we bought one and sure enough it works GREAT!  I’ve yet to do it, but Keith has done it about 5 times now and you would be shocked at what comes out.  I guess it’s worth it if it makes your baby feel a zillion times better! 

Anyone else have any really cool baby products that have recently come out?

I'll take two of these

 

I know what you are thinking

But this time, they are not peeing:)  

Arrrgh

Yep - we are those people who dressed their baby like a priate.  I think she makes a pretty good one! 

 

Keith's parent's good friend Joe had another one of his great parties.  Pirate theme!  The boys had a blast in the jump house and riding the pony.  We enjoyed lots of good food and the props too!

 

 

 

 

A busy weekend

I think everyone would agree that all weekends should be 3 days!!!

It seems like we were busy most of the weekends…

FRIDAY
Friday night we went to the North Polk football game with our neighbors.  The boys had a blast - they didn't watch a minute of football.  They spent the entire night either chowing down food from the concession stand or climbing a tree!

SATURDAY
We really wanted to go to the ISU game, but we weren't sure about Olivia so we had a nice afternoon at home.  Olivia slept in her stroller for a while and the boys played with the neighbors so we worked in the garage a bit.  Then we went to the for a while - it was CRAZY busy for some reason.  We were at Sheels for a while, that was madness.  Olivia needed to eat.  So we got a bottle, Keith took all three kids to the play area while I paid and then he planned to feed Olivia.  Just as I was walking out, Keith was gathering everyone up as he was trying to feed her - they decided to clean the place!  Good thing I was walking out right when he was moving everyone.
After the mall, we went to my sister's house.  The boys had a blast playing with Cade and we ate pizza.

SUNDAY
We played outside - the boys did slip and slide and sprinklers.  Dylan and I made a Target trip for groceries.  Later that night we went to Ryan and Nicole's for a fun BBQ with lots of ISU friends.  It was a party for pregnant ladies, three of the girls were pregnant!  FUN:)

MONDAY
Mom and Jennifer were taking the boys to the zoo.  It was pretty hot, so Keith stayed home with Olivia and I took the boys.  As you can see by the pictures, they had a great time!  They loved the train and feeding the animals.  They were really good, but I was a little tired by the time we got home - pushing 70 pounds on an include tires this girl out!


Hope all of you enjoyed your extra time home.