Welcome Summer 2012!

Summer 2012 is officially here and we have been feeling the heat! We have been keeping cool in the air conditioning, we do not take it for granted! I keep it off until the girls start telling me that it's hot. They usually say, "Mommy... It's time for a freezy-pop now!"

I have been going outside with the girls in the morning before it gets too hot! We don't have a lot of yard toys, so it's always a little boring for the girls to just swing and have nothing else to do outside besides run around. I had mentioned it to our Parent Educator, so the next time she stopped by, she brought the girls some yard toys! They have had a blast with them inside as well as outside!

All three girls in the crawl-through tube!

Miss Vivian crawling through the tube! And not on her belly!

Our Parent Educator also brought by some lawn mowers for the older girls to push around the yard! They are great outside... not so much for the inside! They are LOUD!

And while the older girls are playing with the toys, Vivian and chilled on a blanket in the yard together! It was nice to get some sweet baby cuddles from my girlfriend!

We are trying to beat the heat, but it gets hot fast! It's hard to get Caitlin and Rosalie to wear clothes right now! They keep telling me, "It too hot!" So generally, they are running around in cloth diapers or undies! Or completely in the buff (Caitlin).

I wanted to give you all an update on Charles' weight loss! He has extremely cut back on his pop intake! And the scale has shown that it's working! He's down 10 lbs! I am a proud wife to that man! He's been getting a workout from going disc golfing. He really, really enjoys it! He's talked me into going out with him for a round... but we'll see! I've never been good at throwing anything! Baseballs, footballs, a Frisbee... yep... I suck! It'll probably be a laugh fest when we go!

You can see a difference in him. He's happier, more confident, and his clothes are starting to fit again! It's a truly wonderful thing! I had no idea how much stress we were both under with our appearances. I think guys won't admit it out loud, but mine will. He was uncomfortable and wanted to make a change! I am proud of him!

We are excited for July! A lot will be happening! We have to buy another memory card for our camera because the one we had is FULL. So I haven't been taking too many photos. But have no fear! There will be more fun photos of our family to come! Enjoy the rest of June!

March Wrap-Up!

March was a great month for our family! We had a few weeks of gorgeous weather! We decided to clean up the yard when the weather was first starting to be nice! The girls were more than willing to help us out!

Playing in the front yard with sticks!

Vivian watching her big sisters!

Caity and Rosie walking along the planter stones!

Vivian and I relaxing!

We decided to reward the girls afterwards with a dilly bar from DQ! (I know that rewarding with snacks is somewhat controversial, but Caitlin asked for some ice cream when we went back inside for the day. I felt she deserved it! And so did Rosalie!) The girls really enjoyed their treats!

On the 10th, Vivian hit another milestone! She ate rice cereal for the first time ever! She did very, very well with it! I started noticing her cluster-feeding and not being content after nursing. I decided it was time to start feeding her rice cereal!

I had my first trial run with Caitlin's birthday cake. She wants a Belle party and with that comes a princess cake! I looked online for different ways to make a dress cake without having to buy a cake mold, but I didn't have the appropriate bowls and cake pans to do so. I broke down and bought a Wilton Dress Cake Pan and it's glorious! The recipe called for only one cake mix in a box, but I'll need two in order to fill the entire pan. I made the yellow gown and it was a lot easier than it looks! I think it turned out fantastic! It was a little disproportional, but Caitlin just LOVED it!

We took the girls out to to park for a picnic and they had a BLAST! Aside from the occasional screaming and throwing sand at each other, they had a fantastic time!

Photo taken through the branches of a pine tree!

On St. Patrick's Day, I made the girls green pancakes with eggs and bacon. They got impatient when it came to the bacon and eggs, so they ate their green pancakes first!

I made Corned Beef and Cabbage for supper. The girls didn't really like it, but that's alright! They ate the potatoes!

For the next few days, we enjoyed the nice weather and took the girls to the park every evening. Caitlin is getting stronger and braver! She can climb a latter all by herself now! Before, she'd need me to stand by her and hold her sides, but it finally clicked! She's getting so big!

It rained a few days, and with the warmer and rainy weather, it means more bugs inside our house. Mainly, spiders. Our house is older and the basement is scary. It was once an outside basement and so there are a ton of bugs and critters (sometimes). Killing spiders has become a regular routine in our home. Let me make one thing clear. I. Hate. Spiders. Absolutely hate them. One morning I was getting ready for a shower when I looked into the tub and found a huge spider trying to climb out. After about 5 minutes of me being completely grossed out, I decided to put it in a jar to show the girls. I wanted them to know what they look like and that if they see one, they need to get Mommy or Daddy to get it. They all had a fun time counting the legs and even naming the thing! Itsy Bitsy!

He met his death when the girls went down for nap. The rule for spiders and other insects in my home is simple. If you're inside my house, game over. They can run, but I tell them, "May the odds be ever in your favor!"... but inside, I'm lying. I don't want them inside my house at all. Ever.

I snapped some cute pictures of Miss Vivian while my other girls were off playing with the spider in the mason jar! Aside from the weird eye reflection in one eye and not in the other, this photo is well captioned! See:

Do you have tickets to the gun show?! I'm all muscle!

Her arms made me laugh! She's so healthy and happy! To be 18 lbs at 5 months is quite an accomplishment! She's just huge! We call her Chubbers! She's rolling all over the floor and kicking herself across the floor! Caity and Rosie get a kick out of her rolling around! They will all lay on the floor and giggle!

Caitlin turned three on March 24th!

We had a fantastic day! I'm dedicating a blog post to her and her party, so I'll leave the details out for now! But I did snap a photo of her after the party! Her and I sat on the porch and she decided to catch our cat Leo!

We're still working on getting her potty trained. We've tried about everything we can think of, but still no progress. One of the perks of potty training her is that we bought her some undies. I can't tell you how hard I laughed when they were being used for the first time...

At least they are being worn! Rosalie just cracks me up! Caity will wear them (the correct way) but only if they are over her diaper. Hopefully she will want to train soon, but that's one of the perks of having the cloth diapers! I don't have to worry about constantly buying diapers! WIN!

I don't really have a reason for this next picture, except that my baby is the cutest baby EVER!

I just love her!

Every 6 months, my church has a world-wide broadcast of General Conference. Since Charles and I have been married, we've watched it at his parent's house. We have never had cable or internet. Since we purchased internet a few months ago, this General Conference was different! We were able to enjoy it in the comfort of our own home with our children! We watched it on the computer! The girls did very well! They started off sitting in their chairs, but after about 45 minutes, they wanted to color! It was a wonderful conference!

Now we are welcoming April 2012 and I'm very excited for Easter! I have some fun stuff planned for the holiday and can't wait to share it with you all!

Happy March 2012!

A lot has happened since I last posted about the start of cloth diapering our girls. I've been going through a lot and it's been hard to put my feelings and emotions into words, let alone update our blog, my Facebook, my craft blog... But I needed to take some time to figure some things out. Before I start in on that, I want to wish my baby girl a Happy 5 Months! Vivian Rane has been with us 5 whole months! Seems crazy! Time has flown by! Here are her 5 month shots!

Caitlin had a hearing test on February 15th, and she failed both tests on both sides. I'm incredibly frustrated with the entire ordeal... Caity has failed every hearing test since she was over a year old. Generally it was because of an ear infection, but when the lady looked inside her ears this time, she said they were really red but clear of wax. I got Caity an appointment on the 17th and took her to see Dr. T. He looked inside her ears and said that they were completely full of wax. (can you see why I was so frustrated?!) Needless to say, he prescribed her some ear drops and we picked up her prescription on the way home.

She did very well when I put the drops in her ears! She stayed still for the drops and the draining!

Rosalie even pretended that she was getting drops! She's so funny!

We are taking Caitlin back in for another hearing test in a week or so. Hopefully she passes...

On February 20th I went to see my doctor for what Charles and I thought was postpartum depression. Turns out, that is exactly what was going on. I have postpartum depression. That was hard pill to swallow, so to speak. I think that in our day and age, people look down on women who have postpartum depression as a sign of weakness or wanting attention. It was hard for me to understand because I am so happy with my life. I have a wonderful husband, three gorgeous daughters, and wonderful support system... nothing is really "wrong" in my life. Why would I be so depressed?! Well, the one answer I got was: It's all chemical. Dr. T put me on an antidepressant/anti anxiety pill that is safe to take while I'm breastfeeding Vivian. I came home from my appointment in a better mood and with a better outlook.

I'm owning it. I have postpartum depression. It sucks. But I'm getting through it.

The little things in life that make me fell better are these things:

Caitlin's drawing of a spider with a belly button!

Vivian trying to eat her feet!

Rosalie's smile and laugh!

My wonderful, handsome hubby!

I have been trying to look on the positive side of things and find things to do that keep me happy. It's been tough... I'm not gonna lie. Some mornings I don't even want to get out of bed. But I know I will be greeting smiling little girls yelling, "Good morning MOMMY!" and that helps me! I think God knows that they keep me going and has allowed me to recognize the blessing in their little smiles!

On February 28th, Caitlin and I had a brand new experience together! She got her hair cut for the first time EVER in her life! I think I was more nervous than she was! As we were getting ready to go, I wanted a picture of her "before" hair and she was upset because she just wanted to go! As you can see here:

Once we got to Smart Style in our Walmart, she did very well while waiting for her turn! She was very excited to get into the chair and wear the "cape"!

Then things got started! She listened very carefully and did everything Nicole asked her to do!

She got about 1 1/2 inches cut! Before Nicole cut her bangs (which I REALLY wasn't too sure of... I HATE bangs), I got a picture! Here's her "Before" and "After" shots!

Before

After

She did so good that we decided to celebrate by taking her out to eat at A&G's Steakhouse! She got the chicken strip kids plate! She enjoyed it! So did Rosalie!

That brings us into MARCH! I've really got to get better about posting this stuff as it happens! Maybe someday I'll be better about it!

Vivian is rolling over! Although I haven't gotten a good picture of it! Her pictures are of her getting fussy after she rolls over! Like these:

The other good side to March finally being here is that our local Dairy Queen reopened after it's winter break! We celebrated that by taking the girls to get a cone! They really, really enjoyed it! Rosie dove right in while Caity took her time with a spoon!

March 2nd was a big day for Rosalie! It was the day she ran out of her disposable diapers and got to wear cloth for the first time! She LOVES the diapers!

Speaking of cloth diapers, I'll give you an update! Things are going really well! I've gotten into a rythm about it and it's working out very well! I wash the diapers right after the girls go down for the night and hang them up to dry before I go to bed. They are ready to go in the morning! We have to order 14 more diapers to keep up with all three girls needing them. 24 was barely working. We were able to get the "lovelace" design that we wanted with the first round of diapers, but cottonbabies.com was sold out of. We ordered them yesterday and they should be here by Thursday!

Caity is close to being potty trained, but we're still working on it.

Rosalie is now letting me do her hair! Up until now, she'd pull anything I put into her hair out. It was frustrating! But she's leaving her hair alone and I'm LOVING IT!

I went to the rerun shop on Saturday and found some great deals on Easter dresses for the girls! I bought a bunch of clothes for under $10! So I decided to put the girls in one of their Easter dresses for Church this past Sunday! Rosalie looked like a cute bubblegum machine and Caitlin looked like Alice in Wonderland!

Vivian is playing more and becoming more mobile! It's a lot of fun to watch her! But it's even cuter when she tuckers out on us!

I've been on my antidepressant for 2 weeks and I'm already feeling much better. Everyday is hit or miss, though. Some days are really good! And some are really bad. But I'm glad I have a wonderful husband to help me through it all. My family and friends have been wonderful to me and I couldn't thank them enough!

As of now, I'm planning Caitlin's 3rd birthday party! Beauty and the Beast theme! I'm pretty excited!