Happy Birthday Callie & second grade

After all our traveling and surgery we only had a week left at home and that week turned out to be rainy.  We filled it with friends and play dates.  Kenna found out she got the teacher she had been hoping for all summer, Mrs. Brown and instantly became excited about school.  She was very nice at back to school night and Kenna was happy to find out she likes to give hugs.  She had two friends at her desk with her and wasn't even nervous for school on Monday morning.  For the first time ever she told me she was excited to go to school.  She got her outfit all picked out the night before, got up and ready bright and early and didn't even miss me when I said goodbye to her at her classroom.  She said she had a great day and came home happy.

Little Miss Callie had her fourth birthday.  She told me she wanted a party exactly like Kenna had, so we planned a great outside, water themed birthday.  Thanks to the weather we ended up changing it at the last minute and it turned out to be one big giant play date but the kids had a great time.  All the girls painted a canvas and a wooden letter of their first name.  We had pizza and cake, but the highlight of the party was definitely the human piñata.  We glued a bunch of candy on an old shirt and Kenna ran around the house while a bunch of 4 year old chased her and tried to rip the candy off.  Kenna was pretty quick and lasted for a lot of laps around the house before she ran out of batteries. 

I can't believe Callie is 4.  I saw some pictures of her when she was a little tiny baby in the NICU and it seems like a lifetime ago.  We had a family dinner at Torchy's and sent her to bed a year older and with only one year left before she starts Kindergarten.  It's crazy how time flies.

Mmmbob and NuhNuhnette

Caleb and Nannette decided to tie the knot this summer, to add to our summer of traveling we packed up the car and road tripped to SLC.  We did this while Callie was still recovering from having her tonsils out, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  Luckily we had a hot spot and two devices so both the big girls were happily entertained.  Vivi was happy to have her two favorite people giving her constant attention, so the entire trip went surprisingly well.  Vivi did blow out of her diaper three times while sitting in her car seat, but when you put a baby in the car for 12 hours a day what do you expect?

We got up super early Friday morning and Nate got a few hours driving in while everyone else went back to sleep.  When we woke up we were still in Texas.  This is a big state.  We did 12 hours that day and only made 3 stops before we finally made it to Denver.  The kids were overjoyed to see Jarom, Lixi and crew.  The kids didn't know we were coming so they were very surprised when we showed up at Chipotle to eat with them.  We got to go see their new house and then spend a lovely evening sitting on the grass at the park.  It was the coldest day Denver had had all summer and it was perfect.  We had breakfast and did some more park time Saturday before heading to Utah.  The girls were unbelievably good again and we pulled in right about dinner time.  Callie was still recovering and was a good 5 lbs under weight and looking a little yellow when we got there, though I'm happy to say she looked back to her normal self by the time we left.

We spent three days hanging out with Matt and Sierra and their kiddos.  The weather was nice and cool in the mornings and running with Nate each morning and a kid free lunch at Cafe Rio each afternoon was definitely the best part of the trip!  We hit up This is the Place Park and played water games in the backyard.  Wednesday morning we celebrated Callie's birthday a little early with a trip to Chuck E Cheese.  Kenna's favorite thing there has always been the rides.  Callie was all about the tickets.  She found one video game she loved where your joystick is a giant ball and you roll it around to move a mouse through a maze.  I think she played it 40 times.  We were the only people there for most of the time and it was fun to let the kids run crazy.  Anna and Andrew made the trip up and we met up with Will and Cristen.  Back at home we did presents and cupcakes followed up by naps.  Poor Callie was not 100% for the trip and needed a nap every day.

Thursday we went to an awesome Bridal shower where I got to ditch my kids and get a pedicure.  We met up for a double family dinner and then headed to a hotel closer to the wedding.  Friday morning before the wedding we got to have a quick breakfast with our Baileysitter who is now out in Provo for college.  The girls were happy to see her even if it was really quick.

The Provo City Center tempel was gorgeous and it was a nice wedding.  The girls looked super cute and we followed the wedding up with lunch at Rodezios.  Poor Vivi was a trooper through the whole week but I took her back for a nap after lunch while Nate, Brigham and the girls went to the dinosaur museum before the reception.

The reception was cute and fun and we got some good hang out time with Brigham, Anna, Andrew, Will and Cristen.  The little girls went wild taking selfies on Cristen's phone and she probably had 100 on there by the end of the night.  They also made friends with one of the bridesmaids and she was nice enough to entertain them the whole night.

After the reception everyone crashed early so we could get an early start on driving the next day.  We slept while Nate drove again and stopped in Albuquerque  for lunch with Tyler and Amy.  We didn't make it all the way home but decided to stop in a hotel.  I don't know if it was being in the car all day or if it was just a great hotel but it was the best night of sleep I had the whole vacation.  The last day was definitely the longest in the car but we made it home in time to run, take the girls to the park and go the the grocery store.  Boy was I tired after that day but it was great to be home!

It was a very busy summer but the girls were happy and we had a good time.

6 months

The little Miss is 6 months old today.  Time has flown by these last few month and that baby is such a happy addition to our family.  She is almost never sad and all you have to do it look at her and smile to get a huge open mouthed smile back.

She adores her sisters.  She gets excited when she sees them and strains to look at them and smile at them.  Kenna loves her so much it borders on smothering.  She will always sit with Vivi and talk to her, snap in her face and 'rawr' at her to get a reaction.  Sometimes I think she's torturing the poor baby but Vivi always smiles back.  Callie loves to sing to the baby and will sing her every song she knows.  She always talks to her in a sweet, calm voice and has a sweet smile for her.

Vivi is sitting like a champ.  She will sit and play with her toys on the floor for an hour without fussing at all.  Her favorite toy is sofie the giraffe.  It's a squeaky chew toy and sometimes if she drops it she gets frustrated and screams.  She really loves it.

She can get her toes into her mouth really well.  Sometimes she forgets her toes and hands are there and she finds them and stares at them for a really long time, watching them move.  It's really cute.

She is a little rolly polly baby.  She's almost too big for her infant carseat and is getting really heavy to carry around.  She weigh 18.9 lbs (90 percentile) and is 27.75 in (98 percentile).  She's definitely the biggest baby we've ever had and she is wearing clothes Kenna wore when she was walking.  Ironically, she's not a big fan of the baby oatmeal.  There has been one time that she really sucked it down, but that was it.  She mostly just tolerates it.  We're going to start trying actual food soon so we will see how that goes.

She still hates tummy time and is no closer to rolling than she was when she was 2 months old.  Maybe its because she's so rolly.  It takes a lot of muscle to move all that cute chunk around.

Lastly, she love to be held.  I still hold her to get her drowsy and she can be wide awake and talking in her crib but as soon as I pick her up she closes her eyes and goes to sleep.  She's my little snuggle bug.