hot hot hot

I LOVE summer. Love it. I have no problem being hot. Sunshine does wonders for me!

It is pretty hot here now (and super dry) so we have been swimming, hitting the splash pads and eating lots of popsicles.

We also do a "carwash" about once a month where we wash the 5 million strollers I have (don't get me started on strollers....) and all of the bikes, scooters, etc.

It's fun, it gets our stuff squeaky clean and we stay cool.

Then, we eat popsicles.

blog

a friend of from back home (in AZ) has a blog about losing her sweet little boy to SIDS.

it is such an amazing blog, heart warming and gut wrenching, all in one.

she writes so incredibly well and i enjoy reading it so much. you can find her blog here.

as hard as it is to read this blog, i feel like it teaches me to have greater compassion for people and their trials.

in this situation, this blog makes me want to be a better friend and mom and to always remember to be thankful for what i have right now. today.

it's so easy to get all caught up in having a clean house, having perfectly healthy meals on the table for every meal, finding time to workout or just finding a moment of "me" time, period.

cousins

these three little girls are leaving us and moving far, far away! we already thought they lived far away!

this weekend will be so sad for us because these kids are THE best of friends.

they truly do love and adore each other.

i am so so sad that the boy's won't have cousins "near-by" anymore.

{griff and addie look less than thrilled to be in this pic but i swear they had this exact face on in every picture, both of them!} HA.

eleven months

seems like i only post about magz these days and it's mostly always about her turning another month older.

i have got to get with the program with blogging!

one more month and my little chick will be one!!

it blows my mind that this is usually when we start chatting about the next baby....

{scary thought}

about maggie kate lately:

-she did amazing on the plane to and from AZ, thank goodness.

-she loves her brother's, griffin more than nolan still

-her chances of being a tomboy are high. i am not the girliest of girls and she has no sisters to follow.

-when she plays cars with them she makes a car vrooming sound

-she also makes a cute shooting noise when we play guns.

-she picks up the wii remote and shakes it all around while we play.

-she crawls pretty fast now and is starting to cruise furniture and walls, etc.

-it's so weird having an 11 month old who doesn't walk but i honestly think she's close. she's just a nervous little nelly!

-i have caught her several times at the VERY top of the boy's bunkbed ladder. it gives me nightmares just thinking about it.

-she just started popping teeth out about a week ago and they are coming fast!

-her first tooth was her top right front tooth. as of now she has her two top teeth halfway in and one little bottom tooth. they feel awesome when she nurses. eeek.

-she is an okay sleeper at night, not great but not nearly as bad as Nolan was. her ears have finally cleared up so her sleeping has greatly improved, yay!

-looking forward to not nursing her anymore (i'm over it) and maybe that will stop her silly night waking. but really, i will let her nurse as long as she wants. i am all about self-weaning, whether it's early on or late in the game.

-no matter what kind of night she has, good, bad or horrible, she wakes up at the CRACK (anywhere between 5 and 6:30am) and is ready to start her day. it's awful.

-she also books it to her brothers' room (FIRST thing) every morning (at the crack) to try and wake them up.

-she either crawls in their room and claps and screams and if the door is closed she will kneel and pound on the door and scream.

-i have to keep her locked up in a room with me or strapped in her high chair so that she won't wake them. i have heard people talk about having early risers and i now have one for myself, ugh.

-maggie screams and squeals and has a cow when she see's any type of animal.

-when we get in the car and i tell her we are going to mema's she barks and squeals the whole way there. she loves their dog, BEAR.

-she is a terrible eater and literally eats one jar or one pouch of baby food a day. the other night i fed her chicken off my plate and she gobbled a ton of it up. i think she is ready for actual people food.

-she snacks a little throughout the day and still nurses fairly often.

maggie really is a TON of fun!!

she is very much a girl in a lot of ways. she loves singing, dances to any music she hears (even sacrament hymns at church) and when ever she finds clothes on the floor she tries over and over again to put them on.

she is sweet and sassy and so, so loving. she gives the tightest hugs and the sweetest kisses.

we love having her in our family and we are having so much fun seeing the differences between boy's and girl's

trying to plan maggie's first birthday and i am so excited!

this chick

okay, so magz is super sweet and loving

always giving hugs and kisses and squeezing stuffed animals while saying "awwww" and looking SUPER sweet

BUT, girlfriend is a massive fit thrower

i have never had a fit thrower!

sure her brother's have thrown a few fits but not on an everyday basis like magz!

i usually just put her down and let her throw them and i leave the room. sometimes she stops the fit to see where i am at. oh myyyyyy

i am supposed to fly on a plane with her next week and i am crazy nervous

she threw a fit at the grocery store as she sat in the cart the other day. it was intense and people were giving me that "yikes" look.

i have NEVER been the mom that people stare at in public because their kid is LOUD and/or throwing a fit

honestly, her fits and the way she throws them is laughable

number one, i have NO idea what to do in the midst of her crazy tantrums and number two, she looks so funny and outrageous while she does it

i almost like it because it's something new and like i said, it's HILARIOUS to watch

but it will NOT be funny on a plane!! i am freaking the funk out.

AND it will NOT be funny forever, i know that

i had no clue that 10 month old babies threw fits

i like that she has sass and knows what she wants but honestly, woah

side note: she went a whole week not eating a SPECK of baby food. just nursed a lot and ate little baby snacks.

she lost a pound in that week so i decided i would try just feeding her those pricey baby foods in the pouch (which i buy for traveling or day's when we are out and about) instead of forcing a spoon in her mouth and making her mad. now that is all she will eat, as far as baby food goes.

um, those things aren't cheap and now she slugs them down several times a day. ugh.

spoiled? possibly.

TEN months

cannot believe this child will be one in a few short months....

she just got tubes in her ears after several ear infections

the dr said her ears were HORRIBLE and there was no way around the tubes

now i know why i had a good, peaceful feeling about the tubes with hardly any researching/reading up on my part

the surgery went well and she is already improving in the fussiness and sleep department yayy

she weighs 20.5 lbs and she is 27 inches

she has ZERO teeth and it really doesn't seem like she has any planning on coming in, weird

both boy's started getting teeth at nine months

she has straight up given up on baby food. i have had to get really creative with food because of her teeth situation

she talks and jabbers all day long. she also sings "Paddy Cake" and it is hilarious!! she claps her hands and rocks back and forth and sings"daddy, daddy, daddy"

She must think were saying Daddy Cake??

she pulls herself up onto everything but she is still a bit wobbly

she crawls slowly all over my whole house

she loves to kiss and hug and is just the sweetest little thing

she still LOVES animals and when we ask what dog's say, she does a loud scream/bark

she say's a small handful of words and we get such a kick out of it!

i am obsessed with this girl but if she doesn't start sleeping better, i might flip

she gets her ears re-checked on friday and if they are bueno, we are going to have to do some kind of sleep training

she has gotten used to waking up (from her ear pain) and i think she is little spoiled now with all of the nighttime babying she has recieved

we adore this girl. she is sweet and fun and we just LOVE her!

P.S she still gets called a boy almost every single day. sometimes i just say, "thanks! Yep, he's pretty cute!" and go on my merry little way. lol.

just some updates

maggie has had constant ear infections for quite some time now. i think i have given her about 5 bottles of infant tylenol (and motrin) in the past few months. awful! i have also put her on antibiotics (which i am not a HUGE fan of, but not opposed to) about 3 times. and guess what? they don't work for her! ugh! so basically, i am desperate. i want her to feel better so darn bad. i am exhausted and out of ideas. i decided to (kind of) jump the gun and go ahead and get tubes in her ears. i have done little to NO research on them and for some reason, i feel okay about it. i am ready for her to feel better and sleep better and let's face it...i'm crazy exhausted. in fact, i feel like i am having somewhat of a mental breakdown. no good. this feels like nolan all over again but this time i have one extra child and not much help or relief from the day to day.

she really is a sweetheart though and tons of fun. she has a really slow way about her, unlike the boy's. she moves carefully around my house and just does every little thing at her own pace. i doubt she will be walking at 10 months and a few weeks like the boy's were. she can barely pull herself up to a standing posistion and when she does, she is very wobbly!

she is starting to say little words and it's been so fun for us! hopefully she will end up being even more fun when her ears get some relief.

griffin is awesome lately. getting so smart and so helpful. he is full of questions about life and church stuff and i love answering his questions and teaching him things. i LOVE this age so much! he is funny and fun and my constant buddy. he does fight with nolan a bit and we are working on that. he is also getting scared a lot at night of monsters and other things. we are going to dedicate our house this weekend and make a big to-do about it. he is really excited! the other night he told me that his brain gets "all halloweeny" at night and it scares him. oh dear! he just learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels and we couldn't be more excited! it literally took him a couple of minutes. i guess he was ready!

nolan is a sweetheart. he is testing his boundaries for sure so he has been a bit of a handful lately. he's all about doing things you tell him not to do. there's this driving force in him that makes him do it, i swear. it's very interesting to watch! a few weeks ago while we were playing outside, i noticed a dog had pooped in our yard. i said don't touch or step in the poop you guy's, watch out for it. nolan went right up to the pile, squatted down and said "i'm touching it". and he did. he is still very loving and tender. he still loves fondling hair and it's hilarious. he is so gentle and soft about it and I LOVE IT. it feels so dang good. i laid down with him a few weeks ago and he said "mom, hair" and that means i have to flip all my hair toward him so he can go to town. he then said "mom, all of it" (because sometimes it's in a pony or caught up under my head) and i said "nolan, you do have all of it." to which he said "you not have a bunch, mom? you not have a bunch?" oh nolan, no. i not have a bunch. i have always hated having fine hair :) so this made me laugh!

so happy to get to celebrate mother's day tomorrow. got both mom's in my life the new book by stephanie neilson (nieniedialogues.com) i may need to borrow it back from one of them because i am dying to read it! i haven't had an ounce of time to read it but i have stared at it a few times. it is such a pretty book!

motherhood is so hard. like HARD hard. but so fulfilling and rewarding all in one little package (or several little packages, really!) i am sure after reading this book it will seem MUCH less hard to me. had to sit down and watch some sweet mormon messages today about motherhood and i feel a tad bit more rejuvenated now. hopefully tomorrow will be a great day!