Thanksgiving/Christmas Catch-Up

How is it possible that I just now realized that I haven't done a family update in a while?! Since Halloween... Sheesh... I'm on the ball! AND I haven't posted about Thanksgiving OR Christmas yet! Yep! I'm a slacker! I've posted small updates, but nothing big. SOOOOOO, family update time!

We spent the first half of November soaking up what was left of the fall weather before it started getting colder. There were so many gorgeous days! The girls and I were invited to the park by their friend Claire. It was just warm enough for jackets for the older girls and a sleeper and hat for Vivian!

The same day, later on in the evening, Vivian started walking for the first time! We had been trying and trying to get her to walk on her own, but she just wouldn't budge! She'd push around toys and hold our hands, but she would never just do it. That day, she decided it was time! And the best part, Charles was home for it!

A few days later, after Vivian's weight was finally enough, she moved up from her backwards-facing car seat to a toddler seat! I don't know who was more excited about it! All three girls giggled like crazy when we were driving around!

This brings us into early December! The church hosted a Primary Activity and Caitlin was invited to attend! They had all the kids make a gingerbread man or woman ornament, sing Christmas carols, and then finished with a HUGE Gingerbread house kit! It was so hard for Caitlin to be patient enough for the frosting to set up, but she did so fantastic! She was super meticulous about the decorations! She pointed to where she wanted me to put the frosting, and she applied the candy! Caitlin got mad if I tried to help! When I brought the gingerbread house home, Charles asked me if she decorated it on her own because it looked like something that I would do! I took it as a compliment!

The cookies in the above photo are some of the cookies that the girls and I made during a snow day! Rosalie and Caitlin had SO much fun using the cookie cutters, watching me put them in the oven and taking them out, and then decorating them! It was a fun mess! And the girls got sprinkle happy!

For Christmas Eve, I wanted to start a tradition of watching Christmas movies and drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows, followed by opening one present early! Of all the movies we own, the girls decided on watching Mickey's Christmas! I prepared their hot warm chocolate with marshmallows, but gave Vivian a cup full of M&M's mixed with marshmallows!

Charles and I enjoyed our HUGE mugs of hot chocolate on the couch! Half-way through the movie, the girls came over and cuddled with us on the couch! All five of us were snuggled together in a Christmas-Eve cocoon! The girls opened one present afterwards, which was a baby doll for each girl! They took their babies to bed, and soon after, Santa set out all the presents and the girls' stockings!

Each girl technically didn't get a stocking, but I want to make them ones for next year! Santa decided to set out some goodies for the girls on the coffee table! Caitlin got a Barbie cup, a horse shirt, a Strawberry Shortcake figurine, a package of four Ring Pops, and a snowman baggie full of Hershey's kisses! Rosalie got a Cars cup, a striped dress, a My Little Pony figurine, a package of four Ring Pops, and a Santa bag full of Hershey's kisses! Vivian got a Beauty and the Beast cup, a flower shirt, a My Little Pony figurine, four dum-dum suckers, and a snowman baggie full of Hershey's kisses!

It was the first thing the girls noticed on Christmas morning!

Vivian was the last one to wake up, so as soon as she rummaged through her goodies, we sat the girls down to take a picture and let them rip into their presents!

It was hard to keep up with each girl opening presents! Caitlin and Rosalie went SO fast while Vivian took her time! There were squeals of excitement and shouts for joy as the girls opened their presents!

After all the craziness was over, we picked up all the wrapping paper and assembled the bigger toys! Then our house was silent for a few hours while the girls played with their new toys!

I want to take a moment to thank the generous family that adopted our family and gave our girls a Christmas this year! We were nominated and chosen. It was wonderful news for Charles and I. We don't like talking about our financial issues publicly, but there were some people who knew that our entire Christmas fund was spent fixing our family car after Thanksgiving. It had died on me twice while driving, and then stopped working all together. We spent every single penny of our Christmas fund and then some. It had both Charles and I in a non-Christmas mood. We had no idea what we were going to do... we know that Christmas isn't about the presents, but we didn't even have enough to buy the girls any presents. It was hard on us.

I ended up crying about it in Walmart. I sucked up my feelings and continued my grocery shopping when I ran into a friend while shopping. She asked me what was wrong, and I passed on telling her exactly what was up. But she knew I wasn't being 100% honest. I finally broke down to her... later that night, she surprised me with gifts for the girls. I was overwhelmed by her kindness!

And then when the gifts from the adopt a family were dropped off, it was unexpected and completely overwhelming, once again. Our prayers were answered! I cried a lot. And when I told Charles, he cried, too. It was a wonderful Christmas blessing. We will pay it forward one day to another family in need!

We went to Charles' parent's house Christmas afternoon to open more presents and eat Christmas lunch! I forgot my camera (Yep... I'm awesome!) so I don't have any photos of the girls opening those presents, but they got lots of new toys and clothes!

This brings us to New Year's! *Happy New Years!* We stayed home that night and invited a friend over to toast some sparkling grape juice to the new year! I ended up falling asleep a few different times before midnight, but Charles made sure to wake me up for my toast!

I took some photos of the girls to celebrate the New Year!

Charles turned 29 on the 8th! We had made a Darth Vader rice-krispie cake for the family birthday party, but on the day of his birthday, I had the girls help me make a cake for their Daddy! They did so good helping me mix everything together and then decorate the baked cake! They even did a fantastic job of devouring the cake!

The girls are now playing more together now that Vivian is a little older! This is a wonderful thing, until they all start crying and fighting! But for those moments when they all play together nicely, I am such a proud Mama! I always end up crying... in a good way!

We had a great visit from our new Parent Educator in January. I was hoping the girls would do well with the new woman. She brought A LOT of play food with a chef set and a shopping cart. She had the girls won over in a matter of seconds! The girls played for the entire hour and shared the chef's clothes!

One of the gifts that Charles got for Christmas from our friends Mike and Karmen is a Darth Vader throw blanket. I cannot even tell you how many blankets are in my house! But the one that the girls want to play with and cover up with, is the Darth Vader blanket! (Caitlin calls it the "Darth Mater" blanket! Love her!) I noticed that they started playing with it immediately, but I thought it would get old fast... I was wrong! They have used it as a magic carpet, a fort, a superhero cape, and more! I have had to wash it numerous times already because the girls spill their snacks and juice on it almost daily! They are their Father's daughters!

This brings us to Valentine's Day and now! The girls enjoyed their 14 days of healthy Valentines! Very much, even! They keep asking for the same snacks each day now! Which makes me SO happy!

The rest of this month is going to be spent planning Caitlin's fourth birthday party! She has decided on a Tinkerbell party! Or rather, a Disney Fairies party! It is her latest obsession! She's liked the movies for a while, but as of lately, I have to wash her Tinkerbell jammies daily so that she can wear them to bed each night! She cracks me up!

I love my life!

Happy Valentine's Day 2013

I woke up this morning at 6 with Miss Vivian, and was soon joined by both Miss Caitlin and Miss Rosalie! Not really how I wanted things to happen, but I went with it anyway!

I had originally planned to wake up early and make breakfast before anyone woke up! Obviously, that did not happen! So I started breakfast late, but Charles had time to eat before he woke up, thankfully!

I had to work on his Valentine this morning, which was hard to do with the girls wanting to cuddle/write on his card! But I finished it fast and placed it outside in the Jeep along with a big bag of Peanut M&M's!

I started the bacon hearts next! I will be using thicker bacon next time since most of the hearts didn't turn out very well. But I had four perfect hearts!

I fried up the rest of the bacon, made peppered country gravy, and pink heart-shaped pancakes. When you put them all together, it makes a wonderful breakfast! It's something my husband's family introduced me to our first year of marriage. It's a southern thing, but seriously, good stuff! Try it some time! This is what it looked like:

The photo doesn't do it justice...
I had to use my lame camera on my phone because I couldn't find my normal camera right away.
Oh well... it was delicious!

The girls ate two pancakes each with a banana! Hungry, hungry girls! Charles had three pancakes with the works! I had two small pancakes with the equivalent of two pieces of bacon and 1/4 cup of the gravy. (Hooray for counting calories!)

Charles then left for work. I ran over to the window to watch his reaction from the Valentine I left him in the jeep. As he was getting back out of the Jeep to come inside, I ran back into the kitchen and acted like I had been sitting there the whole time! Haha! He had tears in his eyes! (My Valentine was kinda mushy, but I do love that man like crazy!) We hugged and cried a bit, then he was off to work!

I got the girls ready for the day in their Valentine clothes and snapped some photos of them!

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day! I have some fun stuff planned for the girls, mostly craft stuff, we're having red beans and rice with andouille sausage for supper (another southern dish), and then I'm going to work out and attend an event for 1 Billion Rising!

February Lovin'

February has been great to us so far! We've got a lot accomplished! We started the "Member Missionary 21-Day Promise" on the first and have kept to saying our morning and evening prayers each day praying for the people listed on our list and reading the suggested scriptures for each day. We have already begun to have opportunities to share the gospel with some other friends not on our list and we've had a few opportunities to set righteous examples outside of our home! It is amazing to me just how the Lord works through Charles and I sometimes! We have found so much happiness, peace, and understanding with the Lord's gospel, and we want others to share in our happiness, too! (If you wanna know more about our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, check this site out!)

The girls have been awesome so far this month! They are doing a lot better now that Charles and I have been working on not yelling so much and disciplining with love and patience. The result was almost instant with the girls! They are a lot calmer, they don't yell as much, and they have learned how to be quiet! We have read and feed time which allows them to eat a snack while I read them a book or four! Usually an hour before nap time. Although our nighttime routine is becoming our nap routine! Charles and I sing "I am a child of God" to each girl when we put them to bed. Caitlin is now helping us when we sing to Rosalie. This is her singing to Rosie a few days ago right before nap:

I love my Caity! She's so sweet with her little sisters! :) She is always giving them kisses, hugs, and loving on them! She always wants to hold Vivian! As you can see here:

So sweet! Vivian is officially 4 months old, which seems crazy to me! It's gone by so, so fast! With each child, the first 6 weeks are the longest and shortest of my life. Time seems to be going all crazy and I'm sleep deprived, so I lose all track of it. So to say that 4 months ago I gave birth is kinda crazy! It feels like she's always been here and yet she's so new! She is talking, cooing, rolling over, and doing fantastic!

Rosalie has a new thing going on. She will dig into her diaper whenever she poops. When Caity was around 2, we stopped putting her in onesies. We had a few that would fit her, but there was no need. So when Rosalie got a bit older, we started putting her into t-shirts and pants. We were sitting on the couch watching a movie when I smelled a dirty diaper. I looked over at Rosalie and she had poo all over her hands. I jumped up off the couch and ran her into the bathroom to give her a bath. It. Was. Everywhere. All over her hands, clothes, legs, and all over our coffee table. She was so quiet during the movie that we didn't watch her that closely. After her bath, I put a clean diaper on her. Within seconds, she was putting her hands down the back. I went into her room and pulled out all the onesies I could find in her size and bigger.

Wearing those worked for a week. Then it happened again. Caity, Rosie, Vivi, and I were all on the couch watching Caillou when I smelled a dirty diaper. I looked over to Rosalie first and she had poo all over her hands AGAIN. Round two. Rosalie had gotten into her diaper from the side. I laughed out of anger, disbelief, and because she's so darn clever. I gave her a bath, put a diaper on her, then I had a stroke of genius! I decided to grab a pair of tights and put them on over her diaper. Then I snapped her onesie on over the tights!

So far, so good! She tries and tries to dig into her diaper when she's dirty, but now she just gets frustrated and starts to cry. This is the look she's styling these days:

Whenever we go out to the store, to church, to the library, etc, we just put a pair of jeans on over the tights and onesie! She was digging into the side of her onesie right before I snapped the photo above! I was hoping to catch her in action, but no such luck! Hopefully she grows out of the phase soon. I don't like poop.

Winter finally decided to show up! The girls were thrilled to wake up and see a lot of snow on the ground! Caity kept asking me to go outside and play in the snow! I told her that we'd all go outside after Daddy got home from work. So as soon as he walked in the door, Caity came up to me with her boots and mittens! Gotta love snow suits!

All ready to go outside!

Caitlin climbing over the pile of snow that Charles scooped out of our driveway!

Rosalie trying to walk in the snow! She needed Daddy's help!

Making and throwing snow balls!

Caity picking up snow and dropping it!

Rosie doing the same thing!

My girls just playing in the snow!

They had a blast! They came inside and I had a warm bowl of soup ready for them! Caity kept asking to go back outside, but the sun had gone down. I am glad they got a good snow to play in! We haven't really had a good snow this year! But it's here now!

We took Vivian in for her 4 month appointment and weren't surprised when she came out in the 95th percentile for height and weight! The girl is HUGE! She weighed 15 lbs 13 oz and was 25 1/2 inches long! Although I'm positive she's hit 16 lbs since then! She's doing so well with everything! She's right on track developmentally and she crazy strong! She's my Chubbers!

Getting some quality Tummy time!

I thought this was a cool picture!

After a major diaper explosion, she's changed and having a staring contest with Elmo.
Vivian won. She always wins...

Along with the no yelling rule, our girls have found that it's easy to get along! Teamwork is now seen around our house! Just the other day Caity was helping Rosie color a picture! It was the first time my girls have ever colored the same picture without any yelling, screaming, or fighting. I'm still shocked! I knew they could do it!

We have watched Beauty and the Beast about 8 times a day since the 5th. I don't mind it so much, because it makes the girls happy. They sing along with the songs (which is SUPER cute) and they don't fight. I do leave it on when we read or play games, because when I turn it off, the girls start crying and wanting to watch "Beauty/Beast". So for the most part, it's just background noise until a song comes on. Then the girls will watch and sing along!

We had a "bed party" the other morning! Vivian woke up and was still kinda sleepy, so I decided to feed her while lying in bed. Caity and Rosie joined us and watched Vivi eat. When she was done and burped, I put her back on the bed to change her diaper (on a portable changing mat!). After she was clean, Caity laid next to her and covered up. Then Rosie copied. Then the all started snoring and being silly! I captured some of the cuteness!

For about an hour or so, we all just lounged on my bed and played peek-a-boo, giggled, and I let the girls bounce! It was a lot of fun, especially since we don't usually let them on our bed! Every now and again is fine by me!

One of the 14 days of Valentine's gifts that Charles got was some Oreos. It was a large package, so I couldn't hid it from the girls right away. Caity saw them that morning and kept asking me all day for a some cookies. I gave her 2 cookies after lunch and this is how she came to me to ask for some more:

She had chocolate all over her face, hands, shirt, and pants! It was hilarious! I gave her one more cookie! Because I'm awesome!

On Saturday the 11th, we were getting ready to go to a birthday party for a friend's little girl. I told Caity and Rosie that we were going to go to Walmart to get a card for the little girl. Caity proceeded to draw on her magnadoodle and told me "this is what I want on the card!" What do you think?

Not gonna lie, but that picture makes me proud! She drew those little people all by herself! She even gave them belly buttons! AHH! I love her! She is getting so crafty and talented! I wonder who she inherited that from.... ;)

So when we bought the card, this is how she signed it:

The girls had a blast at the party! It had a bounce house! Of all the chaos that happened, Caity was the one to get hurt! She was bouncing and when she was coming down from a high bounce, she smacked heads with another little girl. It sounded awful. Caity cried for a little while, but she soon calmed down and got back into the bounce house. She was a trooper! Rosie kept sliding down the front on her belly and scratching up her chin on the carpet, but she'd just giggle, and go do it again! She was making everyone laugh!

Our friend Jessica came and brought her little boy so that we could FINALLY meet him! Carson is way cute and looks just like his daddy! Vivian was in LOVE from the first time she saw him. She was talking to him, trying to grab him, and she kept getting excited and giggling! It was way cute!

Charles and I got to hold him! He felt so light compared to Vivian! Caitlin and Rosalie wanted to give him some loving!

Jessica brought a small seat for him to sit in, but she let Vivi have a turn! I want one of these seats! Vivian just loved it! She didn't fuss until right before she wanted out! Her legs were a bit too chubby for it though!

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day! The girls got up early to find their Twizzler hearts I made them! Rosie ate hers right away so I didn't get a picture, but I got one of Caity!

I made treats for the family during the day, and treated the girls with some Conversation Heart cake bites! I put the girls in the shirts I made using a heart doily and snapped a quick picture before they ate the hearts!

When Charles got home from work, he surprised me with a bouquet of flowers! They aren't roses, and I'm glad! The flowers he got were much more "Carie" he said! I think he did wonderful!

 

I made ribs in the slow cooker and served them with a side salad and Hawaiian rolls. We invited the Missionaries over for supper and they enjoyed the meal! We left afterwards to drop off Valentine treats and head over to Jenny's house for a small Valentine get-together. It was a lot of fun! The girls had a blast and I ate way more chocolate than I should've!

I know we're a day late, but we want to wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day! We love you much!

Happy February 2012!

I am happy to say that the first day of my 14 Days of Valentines has gone over very well with my husband! He was totally shocked this morning when I had the Zebra cakes in the car waiting for him when he left for work!

 When he came inside for lunch, he gave me a huge grin and asked, "When did you put these in the car?!" YES! Haha! I told him I snuck them outside at 5:30 this morning and put them on the steering wheel. To which he responded, "I didn't even feel you get out of bed... that worries me!" HA! I wouldn't dream of sneaking out! But it gave us a good laugh! I am very excited for the next 13 days!

I have been looking for an idea for a Valentine to send to my parents, my in-laws, and my grandparents. I found a cute idea for these Thumbprint Valentines and made it my own! Here is what I came up with!

The girls just LOVED to stamp their thumbs! It got a little messy, but I'm glad I found washable stamp pads for cheap cheap at the dollar store! Caity now wants to stamp her thumb print on everything! I think I've unleashed a monster!

I have some more fun ideas for the Valentine gifts for my nephews and niece. I am way excited! The girls have been super good helpers when it comes to coloring cards and pictures for birthdays and holidays! Rosalie loves coloring so much that she colored her Dora table! The whole thing. After I cleaned it up, I was upset because I should have snapped a picture. But I'm positive this will happen again someday! Ha! God bless whoever came up with washable crayons.

Vivian has officially started teething. I really don't miss this part of having babies, but she is handling it well, all things considered. We had some trouble with her last night, but we were finally able to get her to calm down. I am so thankful that I have a husband and that he is willing to calm a screaming baby. Vivian had me in tears by the time he came and took her from me so that we could both calm down. It's hard when babies can't tell you what's wrong... but I think I'd be creeped out if my baby came out of the womb talking to me. I'll take the crying for now! She's right on track though. Caitlin and Rosalie also started teething around 4 months and their first tooth appeared around 7 to 8 months. 3 months of cranky teething before a tooth even comes in! Being a baby is tough stuff. Good thing Vivian has an awesome Mom! ;)

Caitlin and Rosalie are going through a screaming phase... all the yelling around the house is probably to blame. But now that the damage is done, Charles and I are working super hard on reversing the habit and teaching the girls that if something is wrong, you come to Mommy or Daddy and not scream. I guess I didn't realize just how much our kids pick up around us. I've been watching what I say around Caity. We'll say stuff like, "This song is stupid" or "I don't give a crap" and I don't want Caity and Rosie picking those words up. So we are doing a whole lot of editing and spelling out words.

All in all, parenting is fun! I keeps us on our toes!